Plato's 30-Day Journal of Change

[Plato]

Hey guys. I've decided to knuckle down and make a whole load of changes in my life, that I've been putting off for far too long. I'm going to record my progress here both for everyone's interst as well as to give myself an added incentive to stick with it.

It's going to be a classic Pavlinian 30 days of enforced change and it's going to be the toughest challenge to my self-discipline I've ever experienced.

My intentions:

1) Three hours a day undistracted pro-active study towards my philosophy degree. That means taking notes/writing essays. Idle reading does not count. Lectures do not count.

2) Weight lifting four days a week. Monday- chest + triceps, Tuesday- shoulders + biceps, Thursday- back, Saturday- legs. Every session abs.

3) 30 minutes pilates/yoga session at the start AND end of every day.

4) Zero meat diet. I will allow myself dairy products for now. Everything else that goes into my system will be non-animal and preferrably raw.

5) Zero alcohol. My binge drinking has got out of control. Every time I wake up the next day I swear I'll stop. I think I've finally reached a point where I actually have no attraction to drinking any more so this shouldn't be a problem but I'll include it anyway.

6) No more than 9 hours in bed per day.

Ambitious (for me!) but I feel so ready to give up my unhealthy lifestyle I know I can do this. The tough ones will be not eating meat, and getting out of bed in the morning. Once I get going I'm fine. Hopefully the yoga/pilates will become an incentive to get out of bed and will help me sleep better by practicing it before bed. Gym work I've done before comfortably but fallen out of the habit of going. I shall resume it.

By the end of this 30 day challenge I hope to be feeling stronger, more energetic, have higher self esteem, have made significant improvements in my studying habits which will be invaluable with exams in June and will hopefully have gained about 2/3 kg in weight.

My greatest obstacles will be,

1-My flatmates who will encourage me to join them for meals which we cook together, and drink alcohol.
2-My other buddies who will definately want me to drink alcohol with them.
3-Ladyfolk. To be frank about it (we're all friends here !) I'm concerned about clashes with yoga/pilates sessions... I'll have to see this as a further challenge to show dedication to follow through on my plans. Not being a drunken idiot will assist.
4-Money. Cooking for one is going to be expensive and my cash flow situation is very poor. Not drinking should compensate (I hope).


If I achieve all these my next step will be to incorporate the development of a small business into my lifestyle while maintaining all the changes made here. And squeezing out the dairy foods from my diet!
However, eyes on the task at hand for now.

Wish me luck !

[Plato]

Background to challenge and why I need to change.

Though I've been making progress over the past 5 months it's time to step it up a gear. To put things in context, this time last year: I had quit university, went out every night, drunk about 5 pints (minimum), got to bed at 5am and was pleased with myself if I got up before 4pm. My days consisted of trips to Subway followed by the gym (I had to be ripped for the girls) before repeating the process. I spent £7000 on alcohol and going out in 8 months. I hooked up with girls I didn't like much beyond their looks. Being nocturnal had made me so pale you'd think I had emerged from a coffin.

Around May I realised I love philosophy and applied to restart uni. I was accepted and having started that course in October began to get myself in order. The time in between that I squandered; mostly sleeping in late and working in a busy night club for some pocket money. Seeing alcohol abuse from the barman's perspective I began to detest it and what it does to people. Starting this academic year my best friends of last year were gone. I made new new friends but I'm not so close with them. My housemates are friends from last year but I'd drifted away from them after we'd agreed to live together. We get along well but I miss my old friends a bit. Still, less distractions. My degree was proving to be a positive influence on me but I was depressed. Couldn't get out of bed. Some days I slept 12 hours. Others I stayed up for 36 hours at a stretch. I managed to pull myself out of that slump which was good.

My progress was seriously halted when I became obsessed with online poker. I won $3000 in two weeks and thought I could make a living from it. I lost $3000 and resolved to try harder. I read Doyle Brunson's Super System. I spent 6 hours a day at it for 3/4 months. Outcome- I broke even and had a few adrenaline rushes along the way, but I had stopped going to the gym so by this time I was a skinny vampire. I had lost all interest in girls which confused me and made me depressed. I was going out less but drinking more on the occassions I did.

Now: I am eating a lot more healthily than last year, everything about alcohol disgusts me (I've learned the hard way) and I'm spending a lot of time reading philosophy books but not very proactively. My grades are very good so far and I'm very hopeful that at the end of the three years I'll receive a 1st.

I've known the changes I've wanted to make for a while now but everything has culminated at this point of finally making it happen.

First day of being vegetarian I've been soundly abused (in a fun way) but it was cool. I didn't feel any temptation to eat meat and resisted free champagne.

[Plato]

Two days in and I'm definately feeling different. I ate an essentially raw diet today and generally stuffed myself! Total food for the day:

6 bananas
2 apples
1 mango
3 carrots
3 oranges
one large bowl of muesli
2 sticks of celery
2 tomatos
lots of lettuce + cucumber
One jacket potato
One bowl of vegetable soup + 2 slices of brown bread.
And.. a protein shake after my leg workout.

The weird thing is I didn't ever feel truly full, and was light and energetic immediately after my meals.

My emotions feel incredibly calm and mellow, in a way I can't remember feeling before for such prolonged periods of time. I'm wondering if any withdrawal symptoms are going to hit me any time soon. I may already be going through some actually but it's difficult to tell because for the last year my body has felt perpetually off colour anyway.

Getting up to do the yoga/pilates sessions is a real struggle but I think I'll grow to love it. I get a feeling of gentle, calm euphoria after each session and it's a great way to begin the day. I'm really inflexible and uncoordinated compared to how I was when I did yoga/pilates aged 15, though that's not surprising I suppose.

I could have worked a lot harder today on the essay I'm doing. For some reason I convinced myself I need to read more to understand it better, though I've spent about 40 hours reading around this particular topic already. It's a beast of an essay because to understand it thoroughly requires getting to grips with the moral philosophies of basically every significant philosopher ever- from Sophocles to Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, G.E.Moore and the political and sociological works of Max Weber.... to name just a few. A little tough considering I've been studying this shiz for less than a year! Anyway, it's time to stop worrying that I've missed something important and just write the damn thing.

I hope Tiger wins the golf tomorrow. I freaking love Tiger. Or Paul Casey because an english winner would be badass.

[Swede]

What can I say? I congratulate you for aiming at a new and improved life! You have nothing to loose, go for it!

[Plato]

Thanks Swede.

Day 3 and I have terrible breath all of a sudden and my intestines are doing somersaults. I take this as a good sign that my body is detoxing.

[dinc]

We are kindred spirits my friend!!
Nitroviper

I wish you good luck. I know you can do this, just give it your all!

[Plato]

dinc, I've only read the first few days of your blog so far but that's a hell of a lot you took on.

Day 4,

The diet is doing weird things to me. I have no desire for meat at all but I'm getting some serious cravings for chocolate cake (I don't even eat cake very often). I've lost 1.5kg so far, all in fat I assume. I expected this, and hopefully I'll gain about 4-5kg in muscle as the month goes on now that I've started weight lifting again.

My work ethic absolutely sucks. I can't concentrate for more than 15 minutes at a time, and I constantly feel an urge to go on msn or on the internet. I have to will myself away.

Onwards

[dinc]

Working is a really big problem for me too cause I've built up a resistance to it. I hadn't done any real work for so long that even thinking about only one hour of work was hell. IT GETS EASIER. I think about day 15 the thought of work becomes bearable, and around day 20-25 it becomes normal. This is only for me though, and people are different. You could adjust much sooner.

[bowman]

A good link for vegetarian/vegan bodybuilding is: Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness. It contains quite a few nutrional programs for gaining muscle etc.

[Plato]

Thanks for the link Bowman. I need all the help I can get... I've lost almsot 50lbs on my benchpress since I stopped going to the gym 6 months ago.

Dinc- I think I've got a block to doing work as well. It's such a struggle doing it any time other than the night before a deadline!

Yoga/pilates is going well. I'm becoming more flexible already and I'm beginning to notice when my posture is poor in daily life so I can correct it. The diet is depressing. Want sugar. Want fat. I still don't miss meat though... My skin is becoming dry and flaky in some places which apparently happens when you change diet like this. The Pav himself got that when he was doing the raw food trial I notice.

[Plato]

So what day is this? 9 I think.

I feel like poop yet fine at the same time. It's a paradoxical feeling. I have a mild headache, feel dizzy at times and thinking about food makes me nauseous... but I feel really mellow and calm too. Oh and I have to pee about a million times a day.

Workwise I've had a massive breakthrough. I've got past a sticking point that's been bugging me for ages and now that it's figured out actually doing the work feels a lot easier.

[Plato]

Day 12... I'm getting really skinny...which means I may have a six pack soon but, I want to bulk up muscle-wise quite a bit. Still no alcohol, despite being very tempted to get some when I ate at a pub yesterday. It was a close call.

I'm not doing enough work at all right now, so I could say I've failed in that respect. It would seem I was too ambitious to attempt 3 hours. Perhaps one hour per day for the rest of the trial will be reasonable... I'm still reading 4-5 hours a day but that's not as productive as taking notes or getting down to writing essays that I should be getting on with. :/

The diet is turning out to be really expensive- fruit aint cheap!

Once I'm free to do as I please after the 30 days I'm not sure which parts are going to stick of this regime...

[AndyK]

Good luck to you Plato.

I was pretty good with my drinking up until this month, where I seem to have every excuse to relax a bit, even though I have things to do and plans made to do them.

Things can get a little tough sometimes, for everyone. But the important thing is acceptance. If that be the rules you set for yourself or the perceived failures along the way.

I took a little bit of comfort in your honesty with us and you helped me just as much from hearing your experiences.

[Plato]

Day 17

So more than half way and this has been an interesting experience. What I've learned so far:

1- setting appropriate goals is vital. Too easy or too difficult = failure.
2- when you build a habit of doing something you begin to like it.

My physical flexibility and strength are improving rapidly. My mind is becoming more and more clear and relaxed. Work is becoming easier and easier. Very positive overall but I've got a long long way to go in getting to the stage I want to be at. This challenge is just the beginning.