mrmmartin

Day 26 Had a great day out with friends that I haven't seen in awhile.

Day 24/25 Saw my sister and nephews for the first time in 4 months. Really happy to see them. Finally packed away my gaming computer, will list it over the next few days to make some extra money.

Day 23 Had a nice relaxing day, spending time with family.

Totally understandable, the social aspect of gaming is what draws a lot of us in. Your friends may realise that they need to do something about their gaming as well and connect to you socially in other ways. I was in a similar dilemma and it makes you realise that some relationships are superficially built around an addiction rather than true friendship. As you delve into other hobbies I am sure you will discover lasting friendships elsewhere. All the best, looking forward to seeing your progress @Get Lucky.

Day 22 House appraised, may be looking to sell and move for a fresh start. House is extremely clean now, hopefully we can keep it that way. My marriage anniversary tomorrow, I haven't really planned anything which I feel bad about seeing as we've just came out of lockdown. I will look up some stuff tonight that is kid friendly. Looking forward to the next few days.

Day 20/Day 21 Great days, doing well. Putting a lot of time into some DIY projects around the house. Have a real estate agent arriving tomorrow to appraise the value of the house. Lots to do.

Day 19 Final assessment done for the trimester! Feels like a weight is lifted off my shoulders, now I can get into some DIY around the house I have been putting off. My next trimester starts in two weeks, so I really want to get on top of everything so I can start the trimester hassle free. I have a major exam in November and a teacher accreditation interview coming up so I will start preparing myself for those as well. On the 22nd of October I start my career as a casual teacher, all that hard work has finally paid off. By July next year I will be fully graduated, cannot wait! @ChewyChickenBones Thanks Chewy. Glad to know that others are in the same boat.

Day 18 Struggled a bit today, diet hasn't been the greatest the last few days and I haven't had energy to go out and exercise. Need to get back into a routine.

Day 16/17 Been slowly grinding the days out. I managed to sell one of my consoles finally only my ps4 and gaming computer left I will list them after I finish this last assignment. I've been doing online training for my job this week and they sent a pretty awesome resource called 'Smiling mind'. It focuses on mindfulness and how to achieve mindfulness through meditation. They have a number of free modules for anyone who is interested. A bit behind on my assignment again because I have been procrastinating. Before I could get away with procrastinating before starting an assignment but now that I have a baby if I don't start the assignment in the window that I've allocated it falls through the cracks. Definitely something that I need to work on. Hope everyone had a great day.

Day 15 Another great day. Spent some time cleaning out some old draws found a lot of stuff that I don't actually use anymore and was able to upload a lot of it to Ebay for sale. Already sold 2 items really quickly, my goal is to sell all my consoles and gaming pc eventually. My wife and I have put a long term goal in place, we are just about to pay off debt that has been with us since we were around 18 years old, we want to have a house deposit in 2 years. Working out the finances it is definitely doable. Hoping to write down some more goals to help us to keep progressing. I managed to get in a 5km run today, I haven't ran in a long time, I had some moments were I slowed and walked but overall I ran the majority. Really want to get that level of fitness I used to have back. I didn't get as much study done as I would have hoped, I still have 2 days till my last assignment is due so I will aimed to get a lot done tomorrow. Good luck everyone will tomorrow.

Day 14 Had a great day, completed all set tasks and got started on my next assignment due on the 8th of Oct. Feeling really positive. Hope everyone had a good day.

@Fortune Hi Fortune, The anxiety will eventually subside, I suggest working through the first chapters of Respawn - 90 Day program which will give you some really helpful tips on how to combat those urges to play again. The biggest takeaways that I had are: Make gaming as hard a possible to interact with - Get rid of gaming accounts, gaming consoles. Replace gaming with meaningful hobbies - Finding hobbies that make you happy and forget the urges to play gaming https://gamequitters.com/hobby-ideas/. Self care - Whether that be in the form of eating healthy, exercise, self education or hygiene. Daily Journal - I have never been someone to Journal my thoughts but it honestly helps. The road ahead is challenging, you will have your ups and downs but I promise you life does get better. You can do it!

Day 13 Had a really productive day. Some tasks I completed: Mowed and edged the lawn Meal prepped 7 days worth of meals Cleaned up around the house Finished my Spanish lesson Cooked dinner Played a game of Chess Went for a 5km walk with wife and son. And the days not over yet, might try finally selling some unused objects around the house. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Day 12 Assessment done, its not the best but I am sitting on a credit for the unit so it should be all good, hopefully. Onto the next one. Hope everyone had a good day.

@GundhamThanks mate. Finally got it in, on to the next one. I've always wanted to improve my flexibility and have had brief looks into Yoga. I might have to have another look. In terms of warm ups I would be careful doing static stretching if you are not already warm, I think yoga stretching though isn't really static though so should be all good. I tend to do a dynamic stretch like high knees, lunges, heel-to-but just to rule out any changes of injury. Typing in dynamic stretch examples into google will give you all you need, YouTube can give you a run down how to do them. Exercise is great once you get past that initial few days of torture haha. All the best with you exercise journey.

Day 11 I played a game of chess today online, I'm not going to count it as a relapse because it is something I have wanted to learn for a long time. I will make sure that it doesnt become something that stops me from doing my work or spending time with my family. I have been procrastinating finishing my second last assessment for two days now. I spent like an hour or two on it then I just spend time with my wife and I don't put anymore effort in for the day. I am working on it currently I am hoping I can have it finished tomorrow so I can start my last assignment. Managed to get my Spanish lesson in as well as some drawing time. Will try to get back into exercising daily.

@Average_Guy I had a similar experience. I had given gaming up for around 120 days and for some reason I felt the urge to play, I gave in. At first it wasn't so bad, I gave myself strict guidelines for playing (After other tasks were completed and only for a maximum of one hour). But, each night I found myself testing those boundaries, staying on an extra 30 minutes or completing that last task on which ever game I was playing. Before I knew it I was back to full blown gaming and it consumed me once again. Now obviously I'm not saying that will be the case with you, as we know everyone is different, but just something to think about. @Pochatok I think you are spot on in saying that its not necessarily you want to play but rather your brain trying to build those pathways again and reignite that addiction. All the best mate.

Day 10 Been really struggling to get motivated to complete my last assignment. Second last one of the trimester then I get a few weeks off before uni starts back up. Really need to get motivated to complete it, having a lot more cravings to play games lately. I find myself staring of into this distance thinking about games often. Good news is that we should be coming out of lockdown very soon only a two more weeks then finally get some freedom. I am hoping that with the extra freedom I can get back to the gym and maybe get into sports again, which should hopefully help keep my mind off gaming. That's all for today, all the best for tomorrow everyone.

Day 9 I definitely am getting urges to play games. I keep thinking about New World and my friends playing it and it almost feels like I am missing out on something. I need to keep myself busy and engaged with my new hobbies to take my mind off things. I've been on a bit of a health kick with diet and exercise, which makes me feel really good but in the same instance at the start of the diet you feel miserable. Anyways I'm still going to keep moving forward and keep productive.

@Jason70 Thanks Jason, I had a look at Forest. It seems like a really cool app, I might give it a try.

Day 8 Had a pretty good day, nothing major to report. A few apps I found extremely helpful during study today: Freedom (Premium) - There are free alternatives to this app, but I found it convenient that I could link my devices and have certain apps blocked on those devices. Focus To-Do - Utilises the Pomodoro method (25 minutes of a task followed by a 5 minute break, repeated 4 times then you have a longer break of around 15 - 30 minutes). I find it really helpful to focus and have set break times. Todoist - Pretty self explanatory, set a to-do-list and systematically work through those tasks towards a daily goal. Hope someone finds these helpful, good luck tomorrow.

Day 7 Summary of day Another day down, I took a break from study and completed some tasks around the house. Detailed cleaned the oven which had been neglected for sometime. Meal prepped my entire weeks lunches, Salmon with veg and turkey with rice and veg. I eventually want to progress to meal prepping my dinners and lunches. I have scheduled Sunday as a meal prep day so I can focus on other task during the week. I was hoping to have a more relaxing day after putting some intense study sessions over the last few days but I didn't really get to relax. I am spending a lot more time with my wife and baby which feels really good, I will probably make the effort to get in contact with friends and family more often and not neglect those relationships. The baby was really restless so any free time during the day was spent looking after him. I was in the Army reserves as a rifleman for around 3 years and I am still technically in just on stand-down. I need to decide in the next few months if I am leaving for good or going back to active duty. I am torn with what to do, it will mean time away from family but I did really enjoy my time in, as difficult as it was. I will also have to put into some decent physical training and review all the skills that I have not touched in sometime. Overall a busy day but productive. Need to keep putting in those early workout sessions so that I don't have to find time during the day.

I only recently discovered TED talks as well, they are great for filling in small windows of time. Hope swimming goes well, all the best.

All the best with your new 90 day challenge! I am a week into mine and going strong. Looking forward to seeing your progress.