In September, we had the opportunity to travel to Europe with my dad, and we enjoyed two weeks driving across Germany, into Austria, through Liechtenstein, and lastly to Switzerland. It took us about two days to acclimate to the time difference, but we were soon in the German swing of things. For exercise, we walked a bunch and even squeezed in a good five-mile run in Wiesbaden. But other than that, we didn't really do much else. So I was banking on coming home and working my schnitzel off.

Here's just a small fraction of the food and beverages we enjoyed . . .

 

 

When we got home, I knew we were going to have to face some added fluff, and I was itching to hit the gym and beast that elliptical (judge all you want; it's my fave). I also knew we'd have to endure some jet lag for the first few days—I just hadn't anticipated it working in our favor.

We arrived stateside on a Sunday and were set to go back to work on Monday. Germany is six hours ahead of Buffalo, so when we got ready for bed Sunday night, it was much earlier than usual at around eight o'clock because, to us, it felt like it was two in the morning. We woke up on Monday raring to go and wide awake . . . but it was only four o'clock. Forcing ourselves to doze/lay in bed until around six, we up, took the dog on a nice walk, and even stopped for coffee. (What? Who even are we?) At work, I felt more awake and energized, and I didn't hit the afternoon slump that I'm so used to running into face-first at around two thirty. I felt like my days had more potential, like I could work out, take care of the dog, and eat breakfast all before some people had even hit the snooze button. It was great!

Sadly, we managed to keep this up for a grand total of two days. Womp, womp. Soon enough, we settled back into our usual routine of not going to bed early enough and then sleeping in too long. And honestly, I've missed the jet lag ever since. But our old habits won out: Jon went back to playing late-night WoW with his buddies, and I binge-watched some show or another until I heard him log out of the game. Then we'd settle in for the night, setting our alarms for 5:45, 6:10, 6:43 (why not?), and finally 7:20, which is the one we actually wake up to . . . after a few snoozes. Do we at least get an A+ for effort? Answer: no.

So here we are, months after our trip set us up for success without us even realizing it, and we still can't crack this early-riser thing. We know it's good for us and a better lifestyle in general, but apparently we're pretty stubborn and/or lazy. I'm not sure what it'll take; maybe we just need to suck it up. Or maybe, to quote DNews, "more research is needed" so we can find something that will work for us. I've read about people setting their alarms for just a few minutes earlier at a time so they gradually get used to it, but so far, I've snoozed those alarms. Obviously the best option we're considering is going back to Europe just so we can be jet-lagged again, then we'll do it correctly when we get home. Easy peasy. At least we found this sign in Zürich to remind us of why we had taken the trip in the first place.