I'm back with another 30 day challenge. This one will start on Wednesday, November 12th and end on Tuesday, December 9th. For this challenge, I will:

1. Not drink soda at all.
2. Stay off the internet until a certain time of day, except when using it for work.

For the first day, I will stay off the internet until 12 PM. For each day after that, I will stay off the internet for 10 more minutes than before. I've made a list of things I could do otherwise, but feel free to make suggestions. Again, I'm holding myself accountable on this board and another, so the same things apply as before.

Dude, i've tried the first. It doesn't work. You'll break. The internet one sounds doable though.

We'll see what happens. If I fail, I'll just figure out what I did wrong and try it again.

Its doable. I've done it before.

It's possible. I don't drink soda at all, so yeah~

Well, I think it's a sacrifice we all can make. :V

Yes, but were you ever truly addicted?

Yeah. Up until 2004 soda was my favorite thing to drink and almost everything I drank was soda.

Now I don't even touch it.

DAY ONE

-Soda: There's not really much I can say about this part of the challenge at the moment. I did have a craving for one, but I plan to indulge myself in water quite a bit to meet it when something like that comes up. I predict I'll still be eating junk food to cope, but that's something I'm going to try and get rid of another day.

-Internet: Things got off to a smashing start when I realized that it was only 10:35 when I finished my important tasks for the day (and I wrote 1,303 words beforehand in one long rush to get an idea down). I was a bit shocked-I was ignoring the clock in an attempt to trigger flow in my work, and I thought my tasks were running longer. Maybe they were just too short to begin with. To fill time, I decide to work on another side project, which went okay. Still, I think I'm going to have to take on a few more projects or get creative with what I can do with my free time to fill the coming void, and that makes me a bit concerned. We'll see what comes up.

The soda challenge seems harder than it looks, since it requires you to stay off of it for the whole 30 days, instead of just until a certain time of day, but doable still. The internet challenge seems like it will only get harder and harder, especially near the end.

However, as you said in the other thread, this 30-day challenge is a method advised to use when trying to introduce a new habit. Are you trying to make a habit out of this, or is this more as a mental challenge? (The other challenge seemed like it could set a new habit for you, rather than purely a challenge, though this seems different from that.)

Edited by Morphman on November 12, 2008 at 21:05:28.

I want both of these to be habits, to just go on autopilot without thinking about it.

DAY TWO

Limit Goal: 12:10 PM

-Soda: Not only am I seeing soda everywhere I go (a bunch in the fridge, at school, at the Burger King I went to this morning), I'm having tremendous headaches due to withdrawal. The worst part of this is easily the withdrawal, and having a sprained ankle doesn't help matters. Once it decides to clear up in a few days, it should be a lot easier, but until then, I feel like crud.

-Internet: I went to the mall with my sister this morning so she could pick up Wrath of the Lich King and I could get a free breakfast out of it. When I got home, I read the new issue of EGM we got in the mail (wonder when the free subscription's gonna run out?) and by then it was 12:10. As mentioned beforehand, I felt like crud and not really up to doing much. I hope this clears up soon for my sake, as well as the sake of this challenge.

DAY THREE

Limit Goal: 12:20 PM

-Soda: The headaches have definitely calmed down. I'm getting used to drinking water, and there's nothing as refreshing as icy water when you're really thirsty. I think I'm in good shape for the rest of this challenge.

-Internet: One of my big concerns is finding important projects with long-term payoff to fill my time in these coming weeks, so I definitely need to brainstorm some ideas. I plan on learning some programming on the side, but I want a decent variety of things to do, so it'll take some thought.

I personally think you should have gone with a

"Drink 2 cans maximum"

"1 can maximum"

"No soda"

And continue the challenge of no soda from there. Stopping cold turkey is HORRIBLE when it comes to stuff like this.

Hmmmm. I'm not exactly sure how this is gonna play out, but if I do crash and burn, I will fall back to that strategy. People with developed willpower can pull cold turkey, and for some things, like smoking, it's a wiser course. Fortunately, soda isn't that bad compared to smoking, but that doesn't decrease my respect for people trying to quit these kinds of things.

DAY FOUR

Limit Goal: 12:30 PM

-Soda: It's strange to eat fast food and not get a soda. Not only did I have Wendy's last night, I had some McDonald's this morning, and it was weird balancing that out with some cold water. My real concern is how I'm going to cut that out of my diet eventually :V

-Internet: Just because I'm going to have a lot of free time doesn't mean I want to blow it on unimportant things, so while I'm doing this, I'm going to focus on adding things to do that are important to me, with long-term benefits. Of course, I'll also need room to experiment, but I don't want to squander my time. Today and yesterday I filled time by working on a project that isn't that important in the long run, and I aim to change that.

DAY FIVE

Limit Goal: 12:40 PM

-Soda: I've been having an on-and-off headache, but I'm not sure it's from the withdrawal. It's nowhere near as bad as it was a few days ago. Also, we loaded back up on fruit, so now I've got something to satisfy my sweet tooth with during this challenge.

-Internet: Well, I've managed to find a good hands-on programming tutorial, so tomorrow I'm going to delve into that. I think I can afford to add more stuff slowly since I'm slowly gaining more free time, so we'll mess around with it a bit as we go.

DAY SIX

Limit Goal: 12:50 PM

-Soda: There's not really much to say here besides the usual cravings for the stuff, but the fruit has been helping. I had a selection of grapes this morning and I was caught wondering why I didn't eat them more often.

-Internet: Spent most of my time trying to finish an important project, so I didn't really get into that programming tutorial. Even so. my day needs to focus on accomplishing the most important tasks first, so an experiment like programming is purely a side activity for now.

DAY SEVEN

Limit Goal: 1:00 PM

-Soda: Besides the usual occasional cravings there really isn't much to report on here.

-Internet: I originally planned to have some of my writing take up a chunk of my free time, but today I wasn't really feeling up to the task. Was it one of those natural down days, or something else? Ever since I've heard about cyclical motivation, I'm starting to think it applies more and more. Since it'd be wise to fill up some of my time with reading, I think I'll also see if there's any books at the library about recharging energy and focus so I can keep a consistent work session.

Me too! :]
I stopped drinking it for health benefit, and will only take a sip of someone's if I'm super thirsty and there is nothing else around.
Now, to me, it tastes gross. I'll stick with my purified water and organic chocolate soy milk, and occasionally the cup of apple cider. [:


As for internet, I only really go on it to check my mail, maybe to sign onto AIM (but I wont just sit here and talk, I do stuff around the area while typing), or watch Cardcaptor Sakura/any other anime, or other videos. (I lost my second CCS boxset, it's a terrible day. :[)
Or sometimes I'll just go on to illegal download some music, or watch Japanese television (don't need to go on the internet internet, but you need the connection to pick up the signal).

It's actually really easy to avoid the internet though, I'm at my boyfriend's house half the time anyways, so I wouldn't have a problem with this challenge. [:

DAY EIGHT

Limit Goal: 1:10 PM

-Soda: Without soda to fill up on, I've been taking greater notice in what I eat, which is a lot of junk I think I can do without. I plan to fix my diet as well, but this kind of effort to eliminate soda has brought greater attention to the kind of health I want.

-Internet: Again I didn't get a lot done, but that was because I was jaunting back and forth a bit today. I hope this doesn't become a trend-I'd really prefer to keep the habit I worked a month to set :V Tomorrow I need to do some cleaning, though, so that'll be a nice change of pace. I've also checked out "The Power of Full Engagement" from the library, which another blogger mentioned reading, to see if there's anything besides my physical health I can improve to increase my energy and focus. (Strangely, they had three copies of this book, but almost no Nabokov. Go figure.)

DAY NINE

Limit Goal: 1:20 PM

-Soda: Nowadays drinking water feels out of pure neccessity rather than for flavor, and I'm not that comfortable with that. Of course, I've been seeking to replace that flavor with fruits and the like, but I'm not sure yet if that'll be enough. (It doesn't help that I can't really go out and buy fruit anytime I want.) I need to keep an eye on this.

-Internet: Spent the morning cleaning my room in preparation for future guests and reading "The Power of Full Engagement". It mostly confirmed things I already learned about from other sources, but the major impact I've been left with so far is a greater sense to define the path I want to take with my life, and how exactly I want to get there. It's left me asking a few questions about myself and reconfirming things I already know. As such, I may have to change my projects around to really better connect with what I'm striving for.

DAY TEN

Limit Goal: 1:30 PM

-Soda: I've had noticiable concern in what I eat lately. Beforehand, I used soda to get a rush of flavor and give myself something to do while surfing the net passively. Now I'm using fruit to replace that need, but I seem to go for something to eat a lot more often. It's clearly more due to a need for food as filler as opposed to actual hunger, so I guess the trick here is to stifle that need with more water, but I'm still concerned, and might have yet another reason to change my diet.

-Internet: Spent a chunk of my morning hashing out what my purpose in life was. I stumbled on something that took me aback, but I'm not entirely confident in it yet, so this will require more work. However, the closer I get, the more I'm thinking that some tasks may become even less important to me if I'm really trying to live a purpose-driven life. In short, things are a bit confusing right now, but it'd better that I looked at it seriously as opposed to not looking at it at all, I think.

^ Doc I chew gum a whole lot too. If I'm ever feeling hungry I always go get some gum. It gives some flavor and it keeps you going till the next time you eat.

I dunno everyone's eating habits on here but I don't eat three huge meals, I eat little meals every few hours. I've heard it's healthier and I don't feel as hungry. But if I'm ever slipping one day (sometimes hormones makes a teen very hungry), I just grab some gum. (:

Day 8:
Soda -> I gave up soda years ago with the intention of losing weight. It does work, pop is pretty much liquid candy. So remember how much you used to drink? Every can is like having candy.

Internet -> And I think it's good you decided to read instead of going online. I have a problem with reading though, I don't like many books. I often find them boring, I don't know why. Very few books will interest me, I guess my imagination feels it can do a better job then the stories I've read, tehe.

Day 9:
Soda -> Why does it bother you that you feel necessity by drinking water? And if you do want flavor from a drink, try drinking flavored water (I can't STAND that stuff), fruit juice (the healthy kind, not the ones loaded with sugar), milk/soy milk (I am in love with chocolate soy milk, I drink it for dinner for calcium), or tea (again something I can't stand).

Internet -> Cleaning is a good way to spend time (and burn some calories). I've been working on my room for months (yes it's that bad), but I'm hardcore cleaning it. I'm going to make it PERFECT! You could also clean part of your house, and maybe help your mother out a little. You could clean the basement, garage, bathroom, living room, etc. I'm sure it'd be a nice little thing to do for her.

Day 10:
Soda -> Water can fill you up, but not as much as people say it does. Drinking 8-10 cups a day is pure hogwash. I could defiantly not do that. Also, you may not be getting all essentials vitamins you need. (Though to get all those, you need to overeat, I don't know what the heck scientists are trying to tell us these days). I like eating some fruit and them I give a little piece to my goldfish. They LOVE the stuff. Don't just stick to fruit, try some veggies. I myself HATE vegetables, but I eat them and after a while you stop noticing how much you hate them and you don't feel as hungry. Try some celery (good chose with a little reduced fat Jiff peanut-butter, yum). That's a little snack. (: Also, what do you eat for lunch/snack? Do you just make something from the freezer or a sandwich? Stuff for lunch these days are packed with preservatives up the wall.
Try to be a little adventurous. Look up a recipe, or make some noodles. I've started doing that recently, and it's pretty fun. I love making Japanese ones especially.
All this helps you feel less hungry and gives you more to taste.

Internet -> It's always to think about these kind of things. I always wondered what I wanted to do with my life. You could also look into trying new things. Right now I am learning basic japanese (teaching myself), learning some basic martial arts (it's really fun and great self defense), new recipes, etc.
These types of things can open new doors for you in finding stuff you like and stuff you don't.


Whoa I went crazy with this! ^^;; My apologies for totally ranting on about stuff. Just maybe giving some new ideas to help you out.

Edited by Sakura on November 22, 2008 at 14:04:28.

Hey, I'm grateful for the input, Sakura. To answer some of your questions, I was just taken a bit aback by how much I used to rely on soda for flavor as opposed to just nourishment. Don't get me wrong-cold, clear water tastes mighty fine, but I'm still adjusting. I would prefer to get used to water as opposed to relying on crutches like juice or flavored water, at least for the duration of this challenge.

As for experimenting with different food, that's definitely planned for the future, but I wanted to focus on replacing one thing at a time. I think water's a good appetite-killer for the time being. And, to be honest? I can't stand celery :V

And trust me, if I had some cash (which I'm working to remedy), I'd take some martial arts, too. I used to take taekwondo in middle school as part of my curriculum and I miss it a lot. In any case, thanks for the feedback!

Note: Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will be unable to update this log at length, because I discovered I'm spending the night at an aunt's house on short notice. Tomorrow I'll give you a full report as usual.

I used to drink a lot of the soda Cassis, and wouldn't touch any kind of other soda, though I drank milk always during meals (save for dinner). Then I went on a trip to family abroad where they didn't have Cassis, so I was forced to drink other stuff (that, and the milk they had there tasted horrible, too), so I started to drink more coke and apple juice and water. After the trip, my first desire was a can of cassis.

It tasted horrible.

I suppose its tougher to do this kind of thing if you still have access to that which you want to keep yourself from, thus making it an actual challenge and more disciplinizing (if that verb even exists), but not having access to it at all might in the end flush whatever desire you might have for it down the toilet.

Getting rid of any triggers to bad habits, whereever possible, is always a good idea when making a habit change, such as removing your television when you want to stop watching TV. However, I'm not in really much position to eliminate what's in my fridge right now, so I'm chugging along on willpower. It's not that hard because I planned ahead of time and I have a goal I want to achieve, but it's always good to have the extra edge whereever possible.