Sloth

I've been so tired this week and feel like I'm seriously lacking in the motivation department. Is it the time change? I'd be surprised if one hour could really make that big of a difference...but I don't have anything else to blame it on. I'm sleeping more than I normally do, eating my fruits and vegetables, and haven't had a sprinkle of sugar all week! But still so tired...

It all started on Monday afternoon when I got home from work. The plan was to go home, change, and go to the gym. I got home nice and early so I should have had time for a long workout and then was planning on doing some other really fun stuff (laundry, dishes, etc.). Well something happened when I walked in the door - I no longer wanted to go to the gym, in fact, I was exhausted, starving, and freezing. I had a handful of cashews and told myself that I could relax for a little while and then go to the gym (I still had the whole afternoon and evening, after all). So I put on my gym clothes (to ensure I'd have the motivation to go later), got some snacks, and piled myself high with blankets on the couch as I began to flip through channels on the TV. I ended up watching HGTV - there was a marathon of Property Virgins on and I've always loved watching people buy their first homes (maybe one day I'll be on the show!?). As I lay there munching on more cashews and some popcorn I kept setting time limits for myself. 

I'll go at the end of this show.

Okay at 5:30 I will leave for the gym.

No matter what, I am getting up at 6:00.

Needless to say, none of my time limits stuck. I stayed on the couch for several hours - I watched a few episodes of Property Virgins, then an episode of Friends, and finally it was late enough to catch E! News. What was wrong with me? I had a lot of stuff to do, but no will to do it. Pat called me from work to see what I was up to and I reported the news: I'd turned into a sloth.

Sloths are very strange looking animals (I most closely associate them with Chewy from Star Wars).

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Some (most?) are really ugly!

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But a few can be cute...

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Sloths are known as very slowly moving animals - some stay in the same tree for years at a time! I was tired, slow-moving, and I didn't really want to do anything but stay on the couch and eat my snacks. I was a sloth. I managed to tear myself off the couch when Pat got home and we went to the gym together. My sloth-like qualities did not improve much once off the couch - I started running on the treadmill but my whole body felt like lead (maybe it was all the cashews and popcorn?) so instead I walked at a 5.5 incline for 15 minutes. Then I did back strength training (since I did biceps on Sunday) and called it a night. 

Things didn't get much better on Tuesday. On my schedule was an easy 3 mile run at a 9:17 pace. I brought my running clothes to work and ran outside. I did the 3 miles at an 8:41 pace, but I didn't feel good. My body still felt like lead and I was huffing and puffing the whole way.

Today should be my speedwork day, but you can bet that I couldn't drag myself out of bed this morning to do it before work (on the contrary, I overslept by an hour!). Tonight I'm having dinner at my boss' house, so it won't get done tonight either. I'll chalk today up as another sloth rest day and hope that a good night sleep will give me energy tomorrow and motivation to take on my speed workout!

Have you ever felt like a sloth? How do you snap yourself out of it (aside from eating cashews and popcorn, because that only seemed to increase my slothiness!)?