30 days of excercise and quitting bad habits

[TooTicki]

I´ve decided to try to change my life in some areas. This is something I´ve wanted to do for years but never got very far with it. This time i thought I´d try putting some pressure on myself by using the 30-day trial concept and posting an update here every day. Not that I think this is very interesting to people but whatever.

So here´s the plan,
For thirty days i will avoid:
Caffeine and Nicotine - I have been drinking coffee or tea for at least ten years and never been able to give it up more than a short period.

Pointless webbrowsing and computer games- no reading blogs, checking out stupid videos on youtube, playing starcraft. It´s such a waste of time and it annoys me that i do it. Only exception will be writing here.

Long, hot showers - This may be a bit of an odd or unusual one, but I take very long and hot showers and they make me way too tired, it´s no good.

what I will do:
Exercise: I don´t have any big ideas here. Running three times each week will be the goal.

Draw: I will finally learn how to draw properly. Something I´ve been wanting to do for a long time. So I will draw something each day.

Okay that´s it. Tomorrow is the first day so I will return for a post.

I welcome any advice/opinions/comments.

[Subscreet]

I'm actually planning a very similar trial sans drawing and nicotine plus I'm going to stop ingesting marijuana. I don't want to hijack your thread or anything, but if you update I'll read it so good luck and godspeed.

[Lupe]

u don't need to take showers. use a wet towel.

[TooTicki]

Day 1

Beautiful day here today. One of the first days of spring. The sky was cloud-free. A good day to start the trial. The caffeine part has gone well. The hardest time was after lunch. I almost always follow up a meal with coffee. Especially when i have eaten too much. Today I ate way too much, I almost fell asleep. But still I managed to will myself from drinking coffee.

The other temptation was going to a coffeeshop. But I found some Rooibos(red) tea and all was fine.

No exercise and no drawing today. Which is a shame, but I haven´t been home at all, which also made the "no browsing stupid stuff"-thing easy. All in all a decent start for this: I have stayed away from the no-no´s but not done what I should have done instead.

[michaelandrews]

Have you tried cold showers/washing with cold water? They are invigorating with many supposed effects to do with blood flow and forcing toxins to move around your body. I know of several regimes, both occult and Eastern, where they form a part of a daily regime.

Rooibos tea is good too.

Best of luck with the plan,
Michael

[bonzaiaphrodite]

Are you a smoker? Are you actually quitting smoking?

[ivo]

I think you may have tried to make a few too many changes at once. I've done this time and again working on multiple problems all at the same time and as soon as i went wrong somewhere I was back to square one and feeling sorry for myself. What I'm trying to say is that changing multiple habist can quickly become overwhelming. Just don't be dishartened and keep in mind that f you manage to hold on to even one or two of these things it would still be a success overall.

Currently I'm also quitting all forms of caffeine and also artificial sweeteners like aspartame and hopefully also corn syrup/refined sugar. I believe I'm already seeing some results after a couple of days - slightly improved energy and mood although if you've been a coffee junkie for a long time you're more likely to experience a loss of energy and maybe headaches/low blood pressure while your body is adjusting to the sudden lack of stimulants its gotten used to.

[TooTicki]

Another beautiful, cold, clear blue spring day. However, my enthusiasm for this is not as high as it could be because today I have been very tired and yawning all day long. I even had to take a one hour nap in the afternoon even though I had nine hours of night time sleep. Not good, but I´m hoping it´s just an adjustment period that won´t last too long. I wouldn´t wanna go around yawning the rest of my life.
No unnecessary computer time or hot showers so I´m still good there. However, tomorrow morning I´ll have to take a shower, but keep it brief and lukewarm. That´ll be the most difficult thing yet in this I think.

I just came back from running my usual, rather short way. And I did it even though I was very tired when I started so that felt good. I´ve drawn today but not very seriously. I blame the tiredness for that.

Ivo: The thing is I think all three things are a part of the same problem of doing things that may feel good but are ultimately unsatisfying and unproductive. If I do one of them the others would probably follow. So that´s why I went cold turkey. Like I already wrote I hope that the pressure of writing here will help keep me straight. Also I don´t think I will be able to stick to this for the rest of my life, but I hope that abstaining for a while will help me get a better relation to these habits so that I can induldge in them on occasion without it again becoming a habit.

Bonzaiaphrodite: No I haven´t smoked for years. My preferred way of nicotine-intake was snus.

Michaelandrews: I can believe it would be invigorating! However I don´t think I could force myself to do that. Also that "toxin" thing(what toxin? Why do these toxin-removing people never mention that?) doesn´t sound believable at all. I´ll believe that when I see some proper science on it. I mean no offense of course.

[TooTicki]

Day 3
Okay the tiredness was not so bad today but I still had to nap for an hour in the afternoon. Not a habit i want to acquire. Other than that I´m doing fine. I´m starting to feel the benefits of this. I have an easier time concentrating and I feel like my mind has a better "flow". It´s easier to move between doing different things.
I did actually cheat a bit today. Drank some green tea, but I don´t think it matters much. Green tea only has a tenth or so of the caffeine content of coffee. Still, I wouldn´t have done it if it wasn´t for the social situation.
No excercise today but I have some muscle fever in my feet so I think that´s a decent excuse. The drawing is coming along better. I did some work on it today and will continue tomorrow.
I´ve put of showering. Still don´t smell too bad but tomorrow I will have to do it.

[TooTicki]

Day 4
Not much happening today but things are going decent. Showered this morning for the first time since i started this and it went ok but it could have gone better. I just find it so damn hard to deny myself that warmth. I´ll prolly have to do it step-by-step. Lower the heat slightly each shower I take.

I notice I have a much easier time getting up in the morning now, which is nice. But I still had to nap for an hour in the afternoon. These naps feel great but I don´t want sleep to be my new addiction.

[PitbullDad]

Hi,

I'm new to this site and I'm really enjoying all the thoughts and actions people are exploring and implementing.

I read your post about trying to change cetain habits and create new ones.
I applaud your effort for taking on the challenge to change. I'm curious though, why are you doing this? I mean, what's your bottom line motivation?

I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts..

[ivo]

Great to hear you're sticking to your plan!

I also have trouble getting out of the shower - my family is constantly complaining that I waste too much water. It just feels soooo goood when warm water is rushing over your body - it's like meditation.

I have noticed myself that using very hot water will quickly drain my energy and make me sleepy. I usually end my shower with a minute or so of very hot water, followed by a minute of water as cold as I can bare - this can't hurt you and is very invigorating. It's also said to have a positive effect on your skin and blood circulation.

[TooTicki]

day 5

Okay pretty much total fail today. Well it could have been worse I guess but I broke the "no idle computer time"-rule pretty badly. Was supposed to do some painting but instead I just got stuck in front of the computer and sat there for many hours. Read blogs mostly. Good writing but it´s still mostly a waste of time. The worst part is I can´t really explain it in any good way. I mean I know what I was supposed to do and I know what happened instead. But why and how I´m gonna prevent it from happening again is abit of a mystery. Guess I just took the easy way. Oh well. I´ll just have to try and bounce back tomorrow. Oh and I ate too much and slept in the afternoon again. Not good. But atleast no coffee.

Pitbulldad: My motivation is that I feel I´m wasting my time. I want to do things that give me a greater satisfaction in the end than browsing the web or playing games does. I want to be creative and change my life for the better. To get the time and peace of mind that I need for that I feel that quitting my bad habits is good place to start.

Ivo: Yeah sometimes I´ve done the cold water at the end too but I can´t always "stomach" that. Maybe I´ll try it again actually.

[TooTicki]

Day 6
Not much to say about today except all went fine. Ran and did some pushups. Now I´m just waiting for the snow to melt away so I can run in the forrest which I prefer. Painted some. Didn´t do anything on the don´t-list. So things are coming along fine I hope. Despite yesterdays little fiasco.

[TooTicki]

Day 7

Forgot to write yesterday but nothing much happened. I´m really starting to see some of the benefits of the no coffeine thing now. My mind is much more mellow and I feel like I learn more. Sometimes I feel too mellow, like I´ve become a boring person. Still have some trouble with my stomach, which used to hurt quite often when I drank coffee. I figured it would immediately get better but it still hurts sometimes. The drawing thing is coming along although it could be better.

[TooTicki]

Just came back from my usual run. I feel somewhat proud of myself because when I began running I felt I was in a lazy mood. The kind of mood that, before I started this thing, quickly would have made me say "fudge this" and go back in. But today I perservered.

I notice that I can get up much more easily in the morning now. The need for afternoon naps seems to have disappeared too.

I noticed today that my weight was at an all-time high of 83 kg (approx 185 pounds). I´m still thin but I don´t wanna gain anymore weight. One more reason for continuing doing excercise. I think I may have eaten more since I stopped drinking coffee because I need something to replace the stimulationof coffee.

The art thing isn´t coming along quite as I had hoped. Tomorrow I´m gonna try to minimize my idle time.

[SMA]

Hi, TooTicki;

I've been following along and didn't want to pop in with any un-asked for advice..instead, I just want to say congrats on taking these steps and I hope that writing in here continues to offer you the accountability you need as a piece of this puzzle.

I suspect there are many others reading along as well, who haven't piped up. Maybe that can be a push when you think of doing/not doing something.

Oh, wait, I do have one thought which might help -- Steve has a blog post somewhere about a meditation in which you meet your future self, as that future self ideally looks to you. Perhaps this meditation or something similar would help you find larger reasons to morph into the person who doesn't drink coffee or smoke, etc.. Just putting it out there for you!

Thanks for sharing with us,

SMA

[TooTicki]

Day 9
Nothing much on this subject happening today. Still keeping the no coffee/snus rule. I´ve been drinking green or red tea at social events that require it. Works well.

OT but I saw the watchmen movie today and it was really good. Of course when you´ve read the comic you see room for improvement but they did what they could considering limitations of time of the medium. A high-budget tv series might have been more appropriate, because I did feel some things were poorly explained, but I guess that will never happen now.

Originally Posted by SMA

Oh, wait, I do have one thought which might help -- Steve has a blog post somewhere about a meditation in which you meet your future self, as that future self ideally looks to you. Perhaps this meditation or something similar would help you find larger reasons to morph into the person who doesn't drink coffee or smoke, etc.. Just putting it out there for you!

Thanks for sharing with us,

SMA

That sounds pretty good. Might try it. Because even though I feel much better and I feel this has made my life go in a better direction I´m still missing the motivation, or maybe decisiveness is the word, to really make a change and get things done.

[TooTicki]

Day 10
Been ten days already? Well there you go. Time flies and all that crap. Today has been a poor day. Been feeling sick and browsing the internet way too much. And I never got out on my run because of heavy snowfall. I´ll have to make up for this tomorrow I suppose.

[ken nubo]

Good luck TooTicki!

What I like to do is work out only 1 hour per day -- that's how, at one point, I exercise 1 hour a day for 45 days straight.

(Until my body broke down from stress, LOL ... damn overtraining)

Good luck! I'll keep reading your progress
__________________
The best diet to lose weight quick

[MasterD]

1 habit at a time... Less is more. I do not mean to discourage you, but you have set yourself up to fail.

Try to replace one bad habit with a good one. Make it small. Take on a new one every month. This will be succesfull about half of the time, so you will be able to have replaced 6 bad habits with 6 good habits within a year. Sounds good?

[TooTicki]

Originally Posted by MasterD

1 habit at a time... Less is more. I do not mean to discourage you, but you have set yourself up to fail.

Try to replace one bad habit with a good one. Make it small. Take on a new one every month. This will be succesfull about half of the time, so you will be able to have replaced 6 bad habits with 6 good habits within a year. Sounds good?

You know I think you may be right. After all the only habit I´ve been able to break is the caffein/nicotine one. The other items on the list haven´t gone very well at all. Today I broke the "no hot showers" one badly and I spent a disgusting amount of time reading blogs. But I think I´m pretty satisfied anyway. I´ve only been trying for eleven days so far. One success is not so bad.

[TooTicki]

Day 13
Ok forgot to write yesterday but I´ve been doing good since last post. No ****ups. I still get a little tempted when coffee or snus is mentioned though. Actually I think I dreamt about drinking coffee tonight. Now there is one we don´t need Freud to figure out!
I´m doing the excercise the same way as when I started. One short run, 2 km or so, every other day. I´m waiting for the tracks in the forest to clear up. They´re still covered with ice. When that happens I´m gonna try running 5 km instead.
The Art thing is starting to go a little better. Getting something done most days.

[TooTicki]

Day 15
Forgot to write again but of course, as time goes, there is less to write about since it just becomes part of your everyday routine. Anyway, as I am now halfway through the 30 days I think an overview of how I´m doing is in order:

Caffeine
I´m proud to say I haven´t broken this. I´ve been drinking green tea a couple of times but there is so little caffeine in green tea, it´s not even noticeable unless you guzzle it.

Exercise
Been running about 2 km every other day and only broke it once, which I made up for. Just came back from running 5 km. I´m doing good here I think.

Hot showers
Broke this only once but I still find it difficult to deny myself once I´m in there. My solution has been to not shower very often. Hope I don´t smell too bad.

Idle computer time
This has been mosly a failure. I´m still using a computer almost every day. I´ve decided that I will instead limit myself to an hour or two a day and be happy with that for the time being.

Art
I´m doing fine here. Drawing or painting most days, but I think I could be more effective.

[TooTicki]

Day 19
The days go by and I don´t really think of this much. Things are fine most days but sometimes, like yesterday, I get emotional and then I fall off the wagon. Two times I´ve broken the shower rule and a couple of times I´ve gotten stuck at the computer for half a day or more. I don´t really know what to do about this. Sometimes an episode like that comes at a strange time also. I can feel happy but still there is something that just has to drag me down. Then I get in a downward spiral where I don´t know what to do and feel afraid to even leave the house. Sometimes I wonder what´s wrong with me.

[mysticmadness]

I have quite smoking. Occasional drinking. Also climb 20 floors 5 days a week.