Zakaex

Thanks bro, diggin' you too as always #nohomo

Day 53 (March 5, 2016) Had a pretty calm and regular day today, managed to stay off video games, did some reading and recovered at home from some strenuous workouts this week. My DOMS a.k.a. Delayed onset muscle soreness as indicated by my personal trainer have been kicking in as a result of "unaccustomed exercise", I guess this is where the cliche phrase "no pain, no gain" comes from, luckily, I was already prepared for something like this to happen. Despite the upcoming weeks of incoming terrible pain, there is hopefully a light shining at the end of the tunnel.

Day 52 (March 4, 2016) While reading over "How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships" by Leil Lowndes today I encountered a fascinating method to attract more people towards your social circle, she named this process the "Scrabble Therapy". Scrabble Therapy is the idea in which you set out to do something different every four weeks or so, that way you slowly collect unique experiences not only for your sake of living out a full life. By doing something out of the ordinary also gives you the necessary tools to become a 'modern day Renaissance man.' and sometimes in life, that one time where you went out to mountain climbing may just be the key to connecting and building a long-term relationship with your dream girl. Just food for thought for the day for me. Although the whole idea seems uncomfortable, just like going on this video game detox, the rewards do seem rather infinite.

Day 51 (March 3, 2016) Was reading today the audio book version of "On The Shortness Of Life" by Seneca, a great stoic philosopher. One quote that stuck with me was when he said (translated) “You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”. That hit me on a deeper level because when you think about it: during life-threatening situations (i.e. while crossing a road without heeding pedestrian lights) we would only then heightened all our focus and energy in the now and avoid it at all costs. When it comes to what we want in the long term, we tend to sit back and leave it to 'tomorrow-land'. That made me realize the saying that says the hardest part of doing anything is to start it (or somewhere amongst those lines), perhaps we are always so sold on to the media nowadays where through the movies and news everyone gets what they want within mere days or weeks. When in reality, Bill Gates worked from age twenty to thirty, claiming that he never took a day off, and Arnold Schwarzenegger started his bodybuilding since he was only around seven. Perhaps we have already been too biased about these people, blaming only our externals and forgetting that most of them deserved it because they have put in the hours. After coming back home from class listening to that chapter from Seneca, I immediately began to jump onto whatever it is I needed to do. How foolish it was for us all to not realize we are entitled to create anything back, anything except for time.

Day 50 (March 2, 2016) Not a ravishing day today (mood-wise) relapsed with everything from procrastinating to junk food and almost spent half the day on Netflix. Luckily I am already on a roll for no video games, but there are still plenty of outlets for me to go for right now when I am bored. I figured that maybe I really should go through Respawn again for the second time not to the video games right now but for the other bad habits that I am trying to get rid out of my life. I also realized that as an INTP, I am prone to "reject logical reasoning even in situations that require it, asserting the supremacy of their internal viewpoint." This characteristic when combined with "gift" of "Long-range vision" and "Curious and creative" would be rather self-defeating at times. I plan on going on Udemy.com tomorrow to sharpen my logical and critical thinking skills to maneuver around this world with more ease.

Day 49 (March 1, 2016) One full month of non-gaming! Very proud of my accomplishments, but still plenty of days till I get there. So far, the biggest challenge I discovered that we all have to face after leaving this dangerous addiction behind is not getting fearing that we are tempted back to relapse, but fearing what life has to offer us beyond gaming. I figured that wasting my life all these years on a computer/TV screen has placed me away far from all my old high school colleagues who are now already submitting their cover letters when I am still trying to figure out what to do in the future. Though the fear of being left out sucks a lot, through the assimilation of knowledge throughout the detox has taught me to use instead fear as a motivating drive to push me forwards. Which, the longer I think about, the better I feel about my current situation. No good will come out by knowing I am already behind and worrying about it too, but only by injecting hard work and gritting my teeth to grind it out harder than the rest of them will I finally be able to compete with not only them but hopefully the successful athletes/businessmen in the world.

Day 48 (February 29, 2016) Went to meet with my new training consultant today, real nice guy, also studies in the same campus as I do. One of the things that got us talking was obviously the popular hobby of gaming that all we boys enjoyed since very young, that in the combination of our hobbies for athletics established a real quick friendship (and a customer for him too). Tonight, I even felt rather nostalgic and decided to look up on some YouTube videos on League Of Legends, and although subtle, I started to get cravings from the looks of it. Despite how tempting it seemed, luck would have it that my housemates were watching Netflix in the living room (hogging most of the internet) and installing games was immediately off from the list of (want)to-do's. Understanding that these cravings (nostalgia) will always come one way or the other throughout the detox, it is important that I start preparing for the next thunderstorm. A temporary solution so far is to delete the video search and viewed history from my YouTube account, that way no gaming related videos will ever show up in my "Watch again" or "You might like..." sections.

Day 47 (February 28, 2016) Studied a self-help video from Tai Lopez today on "8 Ways To Not Waste Time And Procrastinate", a book filled with sagacious advice from Seneca, the philosopher. The book "On The Shortness Of Life" actually spoke to me in a sense that I have fallen prey to a mis-weighting bias in life, spending so much time on diversions such as gaming, and not enough on the things that matter in life. When it also comes to choosing which new game to buy, I become extravagant in my decisions. While remaining frugal at the time I spend staring at the computer screen day after day. With that said, having only book knowledge is useless, the important thing about learning is to implement this wisdom in my daily life so that I can avoid making the same mistakes over again. Despite spending almost half of my life in games, I hope it is not too late to start doubling down myself now - keeping up with the daily reading (and slowly increasing the amount every week), working out and keeping my body in shape and meditating to keep my mind sharper.

Day 46 (February 27, 2016) Feeling accomplished yet another day. However, I have come to realize one of the biggest problems I am experiencing that is causing most of us to procrastinate: The Parkinson's Law. By definition, it means "a reference to the self-satisfying uncontrolled growth of the bureaucratic apparatus in an organization." An example for this will be if we are were given ten worksheets to complete by the end of the day, we would be stretching out the hours and divide our day, completing one worksheet every two hours or so. But if we are assigned to finish ten sheets to complete within two hours, we will find the energy and time to do so. This might be the root cause of why I could never free up more time for myself to do more than I should - consistently procrastinating and stretching out the hours so that just the right amount of work can be done by the end of the day and nothing more. By recognizing this 'reference,' I will be more aware of what I am doing in between tasks and check to see if these "breaks" I am taking a really appropriate for the limited amount of time we each only have so much.

Day 45 (February 26, 2016) Successfully rolled on a three-day streak to eating more healthily: today was especially hard being a rest day, and that all I had to keep me going was two small meals with a few fruits in between the day. When tempted to 'relapse' by checking out the pizza delivery sites, I just went and watched a few YouTube videos of motivating athletes and use that to aid my visualization of who I aspire to be, needless to say, that helped and got me through another day.

Thanks, man! I would for sure recommend the Headspace meditating app if that's the case! I figured that a big part of all the lessons I have been going through was to train ourselves to become more aware of both internals and externals around us.

Day 44 (February 25, 2016) Funny enough, lost last night is still haunting me throughout the day at times. I even decided to start hiring a personal trainer to increase my overall athleticism starting next week; I was that frustrated at myself. Though basketball is a team game and that everybody should have played a role in it, I cannot help but replay in my mind the same scenarios where I missed a shot and could have possibly turned the loss into a win instead. Despite being just an intramurals game, knowing that you could have trained more actually fueled my determination to get better at basketball. Decided to hit the gym again in the afternoon today, specifically looking for more pickup games. Chatting up with a few ballers for an open spot has become more of second nature to me now, so I would say that regarding to upping my social game - this is a small achievement that I am very proud of indeed.

Day 43 (February 24, 2016) Failed to withhold me from eating junk food today and relapsed on watching TV shows. But I guess this was all a part of an experiment here, as Tony Robbins once tweeted: "When people succeed they tend to party but when they fail they tend to ponder." If the first solution to solving any problem is to understand why it is, then tomorrow may just be a beginning of another set of detox for me in addition to video games. In the book "Managing Oneself" by Peter F. Drucker he says: "It is equally essential to remedy your bad habits the things you do or fail to do that inhibit your effectiveness and performance. Such habits will quickly show up in the feedback [analysis]. Other than video games, I am still trying to get rid of procrastination, Netflix and junk/fast food. If I have already relapsed before week two for all of those except for video games, then perhaps I can use the same visualization approach I did for continuing the beastly streak so far: Before ordering pizza, visualize or YouTube the star athletes right now in the NBA. Admiring and understanding that I am getting one step closer to getting the ideal body. For getting rid of constant Netflix and procrastinating with it, I will keep on picturing the end goal in mind for what I want in the future and not now.

INFP. Felt rather shocked when the trained professional told me that the world was more ESTJ built, which explains why I always seemed to be in ESL classes in middle school. I also recalled the consultant telling me to sign my name on a piece of paper, then do the same again with my other hand, needless to say, one was significantly easier and faster while the other was messy and choppy. It was to illustrate one of the 'natural' affinities that we are born with.

Day 42 (February 23, 2016) A very, very bittersweet end to an amazing day. Finally got to see a Myers-Briggs consultant and figured out my personality type, another step further to building my ideal career. All in all, this is just one stop in the long run in this journey of the old cliche 'finding myself', but as I have written once in the last journal entries, life will be a series of experiments if we are to succeed. The day ended with me and my intramurals team losing a clutch game by one point, it felt very upset that I also did not contribute to the team other than getting some good rebounds. All those hours spent in the gym didn't seem to translate into the game at all, but it could just be that there aren't enough hours logged into my game just yet. Either way, after shaking hands and high-fiving out from the gym, in the midst of my sorrow I felt rather happy. Knowing that real life is more exciting and rewarding than any video game out there, and that I would much rather practice more on my favourite sport from now on than to waste time staring at a computer at home.

I'm already feeling the changes man, thanks for all the hard work you're putting into the GQ community!

Day 41 (February 22, 2016) Woke up an extra hour early excited to start the day off, little do I know that by not having adequate sleep I got put off entirely to work after breakfast. If it is true that very most young adults have 'optimal' sleep with seven to eight hours, then I would fall into that category for sure. Also started a goal to lose ten pounds within five weeks, living abroad trapped within the cold weather is just too tempting now (with technology especially) to order food with just a click of a button. With video games and TV shows out of the way for now, this is going to be a new battle.

Day 40 (February 21, 2016) Started today by experimenting a new healthy habit approach - to perform HIIT workouts every other day instead of resting after two days in a row. I have also decided to see what time of the day do I work best and the most productively. This method is rather easy by analyzing and reviewing over my daily routines figured out that I am always procrastinating and waiting until the last minute of the day to rush my work and tasks (including the regular reading for a minimum of 20 minutes). Causes for these continuous inconveniences also became apparent of why it is so - By waking up late during the day, I would feel sluggish and have a big brunch first thing, causing me to feel lazy and start browsing some YouTube before going straight to one of my tasks. Therefore, a possible solution to this problem could be to begin by sleeping as early as possible, adapt a new early rise and shine schedule and wake up before any of my housemates. I will then have a quiet environment to start off my meditation first thing followed by a light breakfast. This method will ensure that I begin the day off strong, and I can quickly build momentum off of it. Though this hypothesis will bear testing, tomorrow is a fresh new week and brand new day so through this process journal I will keep my observations documented.

Very insightful, will definitely check out the book by Greg Habstritt, thanks for sharing!

Day 39 (February 20, 2016) Interesting insight I would like to share today from all the extra reading and studying I have done in my spare time instead of playing video games: I have always heard and read about how successful people all like to experiment their lives (Even for those who aren't renowned scientists); people like Thomas Edison claims that he has done over a thousand or so experiments to come up with the invention of the lightbulb, revolutionalizing the world. Yet, in many ways society started to confuse "experimentation" with "failure" (Arguably, due to the fail/pass school system that we have nowadays). Michael Jordan says "I've failed over and over again, and that is why I succeed." In my opinion, every time you fail, a locked door is presented in front of you. If you choose to learn from your mistakes (That means taking all the precautions not to do the same thing again to achieve the same undesired result), you will be given the key to unlocking and going through that door. And by going through that door, you become a stronger person both mentally and physically. I find this method of living rather profound, and that I should also start drifting away from awful habits with practical action steps. To whom it may concern, by being in the Game Quitters community and taking a step to quitting gaming (because it is somehow consuming your life), you are already implementing the same mindset as the great achievers.

Day 38 (February 19, 2016) Had fun again today at the gym, housemates are also moving back in, and the house has been getting livelier now than ever. I have noticed that I was able to converse better with them despite my new intentions of abstaining from gaming; perhaps I just do enjoy talking to people in general. I've always thought of myself an introvert because I would prefer gaming over night clubs, parties and other weird social gatherings. But now with gaming out of the picture, I would feel all the more energized by surrounding myself with people with similar interests.

Thanks for the tip, Cam. That is precisely what the research has shown me thus far; I've always thought that the vast amount of cardio I do can somehow outweigh the amount of junk I put into my body because of metabolism myths.

Day 37 (February 18, 2016) Got up late today and started breakfast off by devouring a nice cheeseburger with fries (Still getting the best of me). Once I got back home, however, I immediately found an excellent fitness tracking app called MyFitnessPal. I was never much into health and paid attention to all these fat, salt, sugar I am consuming from all my meals, so this app is going to take some time for me to tweak around to find out what works here. Reading on other health articles (from sound sources such as web.md), I can finally see how I was overtraining all along. "If you want to lose weight, shoot for at least 200 minutes (more than three hours) a week of moderate intensity exercise with everything else consistent, says Church." Hell, I was forcing myself to do 450 minutes every week with the program I am using! Perhaps getting an actual training consultant will be very beneficial in my case here!

Very true, all the more to keep up the grind! Thanks Cam!

Day 36 (February 17, 2016) Had tons of fun with another group of colleagues in the gym today for some pickup basketball, we even opened up some interesting conversations about sports league things which I had only recently started getting into. Also, I even started to submit part-time job applications around: I have decided to not only become financially independent from my parents but also to collect more working experiences to learn more about my strengths. One thing I also started noticing is that despite living without video games, I am excited to wake up; results are accumulating from me building on all these positive habits from the past thirty days which gives me an enormous sense of accomplishment - and the need for more! One thing I am still struggling with, however, is my unfortunate habit of just eating everything in sight - this is especially hard when my metabolism has been increasing after some high intensity exercising almost each day and am on a meal plan for the campus. Tomorrow, I will make it my mission to figure out a solution/cure for this.