Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Clockwork people

Don't you hate those clockwork people? You know the ones.
  • The ones that wake up suddenly one day and whoops! discover they're overweight, and so they just change their diet and drop off the pounds steadily week after week and get to their goal weight and stay there.
  • The ones that get up at 4AM every day without complaint or even a second thought and go do their workouts and by the time most of us start our days they've swum two miles and run a dozen and are acting all chipper and happy.
  • The ones that never miss a workout no matter what. They just do it, whatever is on the schedule.
  • The ones that eat the same thing day after day (like this), healthful foods in moderate amounts, and love it and never get tired of it.
  • The ones that look forward to getting to work every day and arrive early, acting all cheerful.
  • The ones that decide to write a book or learn a language and sit down for an hour a day without fail to do it and get the job done in six months.
  • The ones that do their training every day and never seem to need a day off or vacation, because, well, it doesn't even occur to them.

I'm NOT NOT NOT one of those people. I like to sleep late in the morning and go to sleep early at night. Or stay up on a whim because I've found something interesting to do. Enjoy my food in variety and quantity. Find a million "good reasons" to curtail or skip my workout. Love to do something different and new and interesting every day, and hate getting stuck in the same old boring routine.

Discipline is a foreign and slightly distasteful concept to me. Something maybe good for nuns and Marines, but not for me.

But I can sure see how those traits might be useful . . . . if I were to somehow acquire them. Practice, practice, practice, I guess.

11 comments:

Sixteen Chickens said...

Oh dear... Nancy I think I am one of those people... the clockwork type. There must be a happy medium between the two though, right? :) Sometimes I get wild and reckless-- after a bottle of wine it is really hard to run 6 miles. :)

Spandex King said...

I,m with you. My training partner is one of these people. 4 am is not workout time in my world. My partner loves it!! What's wrong with these people?

William said...

I might be mostly one of those people. I wake at 4:30 AM even on days I don't have to, just to keep the rhythm going.

It's like the duck on the water, they look so still and calm, but under the water, their feet are going a mile a minute.

Steven said...

If I'm one of "those people" does that mean I can't read your blog anymore? Of course not, it's part of my routine!

Holly said...

I'll probably never be a clockwork person either Nancy!

Nancy Toby said...

Yeah, if you all are in the habit of reading my blog (thank you!) then I wouldn't dream of disrupting your routine!!! :-)

Flo said...

I wish I could be like those people, but alas I'm not. I force myself every single step of the way. I enjoy variety and have raised procrastination to an art form. Oh well, something to work towards.

Backofpack said...

Thank goodness I'm not one of THOSE people. I only hit five out of seven, so I'm not, right? Plus, I don't get up till 5 am, so that's even better. It does seem like since I'm awfully close to being a clockwork type, I should get the two additional bennies I missed - learning a second language and losing weight easy. I lost 34 pounds a couple of years ago, fairly rapidly. Unfortunately, I can't claim hard work, it was from being sick. Now I have to watch it like a hawk to keep it from creeping back on (I let about 10 of them sneak back on. Dang!)

Chris said...

Nancy hates me! :(

Nah... some of those describe me, but not all of them. I, too, enjoy many of the things in life that probably aren't the best for me. I think it's mostly the fear of what happens if I give into those temptations too long that scares me into doing what's "right".

Practice does make perfect! But sadly just a weekend off makes us realize how easily it is to slip back into the old routine. :(

Hang in there! You've got a bunch of folks around you who understand where you're coming from and that you can lean on for support!

jeanne said...

are there really people like that?? like HUMAN people?? I think you're reading about robots!

Lynne said...

Shattered... I thought YOU WERE one of those people!!! As you can tell from my blog I am ...NOT. My running coach for TNT gets up at 3 a.m. so he can do his long run - 20+ miles before he goes to work - PSYCHO!!