I was lying in bed angry at myself as the alarm clock buzzed. I had strained my calves two days before with this crazy idea that I was going to do the Insanity workout program. Now, I was trapped in bed as my clock sounded off across the room.

I’m a chronic snoozer. I never wake up the first time my alarm goes off.

Blame it on the fact that I never woke myself up for school until I went to college or just plan lack of will power, but I will hit the snooze button at least three times — typically, even more than that.

Now, on an intellectual level I know that it doesn’t help. You don’t get good sleep while you’re snoozing. I tell myself that every night when I set my alarm.

I’ve tried everything in the book. Setting my alarm earlier or later, getting a full eight hours, getting less, getting more. Nothing works.

Until now, that is.

Apparently the stiffness in your body after a crazy workout can motivate you to stay awake if it means you don’t have to walk back and forth to the alarm.

I consider myself to be in decent shape; could be more fit, but also could be less fit. I’d done Insanity before, well a month of it before quitting. Mid-terms in college always proved to be the point when workout regimens get pushed aside.

I remember the pain of it then, but I felt like I was in better shape now. I can do more now. I felt like I should have been able to go about my life normally when I wasn’t working out rather than limping and wincing through my house.

What I didn’t take into account was the fact that Insanity is a program that can have varying levels of intensity. The fit test, which measures your progress throughout the program, is a series of the workouts where you’re doing as many reps as you can within designated amount of time. As you get better, you can do more reps.

But see this is the problem: I can’t pace myself. I struggle doing it when I work out, and I struggle doing it at work, with my hobbies, with my TV shows.

I can’t casually channel surf and watch TV aimlessly all day, but I did manage to watch every episode of The Newsroom in a three-day span.

I am an all-or-nothing kind of gal. And I wonder if it’s hard not to be in America. We live in a very binary culture — us versus them, Republicans versus Democrats, Baptists versus Catholic. You’re either for or against a major political issue, and there is no in between.

We have forgotten the beauty of moderation. Don’t believe me? Consider these facts: According to the National Institute of Health 68.8 percent of adults in the U.S. are considered overweight or obese. Another 14 percent of adults suffer from some kind of eating disorder. That means that just fewer than one in five people in the United States are able to healthily manage their weights.

We either gorge on pizza or are on a gluten-fast. One day, coffee causes cancer the next it helps prevent liver damage. We’re swayed by popular opinion and viral blog posts that are not always based in fact.

All of it boils down to a lack of critical thinking skills. Most curriculums don’t include the development of this skill set. Humanities classes may be the closest when they stop saying there’s a right or wrong answer and examine the nuances of history, philosophy and literature.

The flipside of this is that many people believe these “liberal” teachers and professors are indoctrinating their students. In my own experience, these men and women didn’t care what their students believed as long as they arrived at the conclusion on his or her own and could support that belief.

Scholars believe part of Einstein’s intelligence stemmed from his childlike curiosity. Maybe it’s time we all stop pretending we know everything and just ask our own questions.

Julia V. Pendley is the lifestyles editor at The Daily Leader.