royal panda

Hey, welcome to the forums! Good job on finishing homework. That's one of those things my mom always said "if it's small and you can do it, then do it." I have had plenty of experiences in the past where i would stress out because i didn't do easy things like homework until the last minute. Also it's good that you planned out your week. Despite not getting in any habits today, it sounds like you are making good progress

Day 38 Not much to post about for today besides watching a concert. It was livestreamed cause of COVID, but other than that not much today. Still not playing any games yet

Day 34 -37 So these were the days I didn't post. As I mentioned before it's cause I am actually enjoying life, I feel like I am actually in control now and, even when days aren't good or I think negative thoughts or whatever, i just take it minute by minute and I try not to stress. Even though i have stressed more than taking it slow, I'm working towards it. Besides exercising really I haven't established any other habits. Due to this I have noticed some holes. I'm most likely going to fill those holes with re starting German practice and reading, as well as asking my dad or my mom for what instrument i should practice. These are good base activities I find anyone can do to fill holes, so why not do them myself. Anyway sorry for not updating, I'm just actually enjoying life but yeah, I will try to commit to the respond to 3 posts a day. bye!

Sorry haven't been updating, or active, actually been busy enjoying life. Will update on my past few days tonight

Hello everyone, even though I am not on a junk food detox anymore I am still trying to cut sugar out of my diet, though I'm not against junk food. You'd think this would be easy, but let me tell you why it isn't. There is one main reason why it's hard. My mom. While i do love my mom she is such an oblivious and annoying jackass when it comes to this. I have even tried teaching her why a particular item isn't healthy like a lot of people think, and she just goes back on her word "oh it has nuts in it." It's so annoying and completely stopping me from mostly avoiding sugar. For example today she gave me waffles, not my first choice but that's fine, but the issue is she put FUCKING NUTELLA ON IT. And for my lunch she put damn Oreos in it. I was running late so I wasn't able to make my breakfast or lunch today so yeah. Her logic was that both the amount of nutella on my waffles and my oreos were small so less sugar. But that's not what it fucking means, and when i tried to explain that, that's not the case and that both WERE unhealthy, she said "you had a soda the other day." Which i did, but it was the first soda in a while and not only completely unrelated but also I FUCKING GAVE UP SODA FOR LENT THIS YEAR. Also she said Nutella was better than soda which it is but not much better. Anyway her logic just sucks she also believes that if it has nuts or something healthy like that in it then it's healthy. Again I have tried educating her but she is so caught up in her own bad eating habits that she just ignores what I'm trying to do and tries to add her eating habits to my less sugar diet. I really don't wanna hate her but her petty arguments and ignorance for my teachings make this so more complex, how should i go about handling this?

Day 33 My phone got the best of me today, however I did get a lot more on my to do list done than I thought I did so that's nice. I'm going to finish up the night by finishing up some homework, writing more of my novel, working out and reading, which is a lot but I know I can do it. Besides using my phone for the past few days a lot more than I'd like to, I am noticing a shift in my happiness and behavior. So that's good. I go into school tomorrow so I wanna get up early. In fact speaking of school, first quarter grades come out this week. Pretty much I know what my grades are so I'm pretty excited but still just that's something. No games like usual, and something I noticed is that even though I do stuff on my phone, I'm the one who lets that keep happening for hours, and I can resist it the same amount of time to, I control everything I do. Other than that not much has happened, anyway see you all tomorrow

Day 32 Today was half and half. First part was very productive, then i finished my homework and went straight to my phone. However compared to my slump i mentioned before, this was way better. I'll have to wake up tomorrow to make up a math quiz I missed, which means I will probably go to bed early to be able to wake up at 6 AM so I can have one hour for wellness and one hour for my dream, which instead of focusing on fiction just all writing. I'll probably listen to a podcast or watch a video on the history of writing. Today no games, however after my studies I spent a while on social media while I could have spent it reading or doing college work, but even so, I feel like today, i received an equal amount of dopamines both passive and active. In the future I'm looking for more of the active dopamine. Ended my day out with listening to music, I decided to switch it up from Set it Off (super underrated band, i recommend them) and listen to something else, I picked electronic music and I have to say it's pretty good. I mean this is coming from a person who likes all music so... Tomorrow, I'm planning on buckling down on studies again, to help with not wanting to let my parents or myself down, I am going to start working on an assignment when they first assign it. I have still a bit of work to catch up on so I will probably do that when I wake up at 6 so goodnight everyone.

It seems like you're making big progress on your goals, keep it up! I'm glad you can be happy about improvement and not fully getting there right away. I have seen with some of my friends and even myself, get frustrated we don't get the outcome we want despite all our efforts. I now think it's really important to look for the smallest bit of improvement in whatever you're doing no matter what it is. Glad you're doing that good luck on your journey

Glad the meeting went well for you, it's always nice when we know that we are not alone in something. Good luck on your journey

I wish you luck on this journey kingy. I want you to remember that even if it gets tough Don't give up

Welcome, Kombat I wish you the best of luck on your journey to quit. You're doing a good thing so far by avoiding giving in to playing again. That feeling will be apparent in the first few days of your non gaming life. Keep it up

Day 31 I think I'm starting to follow through with habits finally. I exercised both today and yesterday, but i shouldn't be so sure yet with how I have been in the past but this is a good sign. I thought of something to make sure i stay active here. I'm probably going to do one in the morning an hour after i wake up, one eating lunch, and one 2 hours before I go to bed. I mean responding of course, while this seems like a lot to remember, I have full confidence in myself to do it. Anyway no games today. Something I have been debating on is whether use social media in moderation or stop using it. Social media like instagram and Facebook aren't healthy things to use all the time but they do help me see what news is happening in the world, of course i can read the newspaper, but for my town thats more local news. Also i like seeing what my friends are up to besides text or call. However as aforementioned they can make you extremely unproductive, and they are easy to get sucked into, so let me know what you think. I also have a new motivation, which is, not having my parents be disappointed in me. This is not a fear of mine, but if they're upset or disappointed in me then i become sad, i mean they've worked so hard to raise me right, so it's only right i show them they did their job, that's one. Another one is my own personal things, like my dream car. I know that a car is not something that defines a person and im not looking to accomplish my dream for money or a car or a fancy house, it's just you know it's something that's out there and i wanna give it a shot. Also not letting myself down is a big factor. I haven't learned to trust myself because i have let myself down so many times. But if i do the things i say i do, then i will trust myself more. Speaking of i saw this great youtube comment which said, "If you have lost control, know that there is a cycle: thoughts feelings and actions. Change one of them persistently, and all will be changed." (User: Sina A) I liked this as thoughts feelings and actions are a cycle. For me my thoughts and feelings have really have conflicted with working towards goals, and instead of taking the hard road taking the easy road, it's not until i actually move myself that they come along. So for me i find if i keep forcing myself to do things my brain will automatically want to do them after a while. So yeah that's why i really liked that comment. Anyway i hope you all have a great day

Day 30 I just wanna apologize for not being so active in this community recently. Been busy with college stuff. I'm surprised I made it to my 30th day! Something I noticed though is that even if I'm not playing games, the things that I don't wanna be doing, the things that aren't making my dreams a reality, cause brain fog and make me so lost and confused. Yet when I listen to music, it's always happy even though I'm just dreaming my dreams. I don't know why that is. Anyway haven't gamed for 30 days which I'm glad about. I have definitely wondered about going back but something reinstated that I stay away. That was money, besides Nintendo the other big thing I played were free mobile games. And I told you my story about how I wasted all my money on games. Well that's the ugly shit about free mobile games, especially gacha ones. You play it you want more, oh looks like you don't have enough in game coins to unlock this, you need more, how do you get more in real life money!! It's completely fucked up, they literally suck you in then steal your hard earned cash while they don't do anything. I hate it, especially gacha apps, where you always run out of diamonds or whatever and then you have to buy more to keep playing. I hate it, and this is the thing that kept me away. Anyway yeah today was productive! Fell in a slump a bit but working myself up, something i realized in my slump is i really do like the slow minute by minute life better. Yeah going to try to be more active here, hopefully i am done with college process soon.

Day 24 I had a good day today, went and helped at Church again, I helped set up and take down sound equipment. It was a bit cold but wasn't too bad. The other thing I got done was washing my sheets and re-making my bed as well as working on my application. I have a little bit more to do, I just have to re-vise my essay and have it proof read again. Then i need to have the scholarship questions reviewed. I noticed that I have been thinking "oh it's not good enough, i won't get in..." considering this school is my dream school, I can see why I'd think that. However, I don't hear back until December 15th and since I had a great interview, my interviewer loved me, I had a good High school visit with them and because of my extra-curricular's being things that the school values, I see I have a good chance. Even if my essay isn't that good, it's only one part of the application they look at. Furthermore, since I am applying early decision, I have a greater chance of being accepted. So yeah. Also in terms of life in general, I am definitely getting better with being more productive Anyway, I have a big day tomorrow, so goodnight.

You got this, keep going!

Day 18 Haven't played games yet. One thing I will note though is that while phones have positives, the negatives outweigh the positives and for me, the addiction is still there and it gives me the brain fog I experienced before I quit games. I can literally feel it. The only way I am gonna get over this is if I use it for calls and texts only, and mail. My school is doing this stupid thing where you now have to show them your health screen for a particular day. The thing is though, you can just show them the same picture from the first time as it doesnt show a day and pass through. So they are fucking forcing us to bring our damn phones when it serves no damn purpose. For that even though its shitty, I will show them the thing then put my phone in my bag and only take it when my teacher says so. Other than that I won't use it. As for me, despite the positives, it's the spawn of the devil.

Day 14 Yes I haven't been journaling but I am planning on journaling when I feel like it, I don't wanna force myself to journal every day if I think I have nothing interesting to say or I am busy. The past few days have been busy, doing schoolwork, planning for colleges etc. So far I have not gamed. One thing I remembered is that in a madden game I used to play, there was this connected career mode and I remember being so embarrassed about missing the ball because i thought that meant the coach of whatever team would take me out. So this remembrance furthers my determination to end games so yeah. Today I got my work done and took a walk, so yeah. Today was more of a relaxation day compared to the others. I think I might do some relaxation tomorrow as well as I don't really want to be super productive and stress myself out to do things during this stressful time in the States (election) so yeah. Also @Bird By Bird and @BryanJaz thank you both for your comments, and both of you are right I shouldn't force myself to do it, I realized that even though its the start I have been raising my bar too high expecting I will instantly start doing so many things and being so productive but that's not reality, I should focus on one thing I really wanna do and do it and then add other things. For one like Bryan said, I should do it because I WANT to not because I am expecting myself to do it and forcing it. So thanks. I also think I need to train my brain on one thing first to get off the gaming dopamine fix thing. It's all a process

Welcome to the forums. I wish the best of luck to you too Commissar!

Day 11 Missed 3 days of Journaling simply because I was up late and I was tired. While I didn't play any games these last few days have been awful. No games but I have been in a lazy slump. These things happen but I just don't know why my mind thinks that being productive is awful. Like my mind thinks of all these amazing things I could be doing and enjoying but then when it actually comes to doing them it doesn't happen. Sigh. Well those 3 days were those three days. From now on, even if my brain and body don't want to I will do what I know is right even when I am thinking wrong. To help me I found this podcast called Happier, by Gretchen Rubin, so far it's been good, and I am going to make it part of my daily routine. Anyway, sorry about missing 3 days. Now I am going to take a quick nap, finish removing my summer clothes from my dresser, clean out my lunch box and do my homework. So I have a lot to do to make up from just watching football all day. Bye

Day 8 I don't know my opinion about this day. It was medium. It was dreary weather but I did accomplish my one thing outside my comfort zone, and that was I talked to a student who I didn't know much about at school. I don't talk to a lot of students at school not because of social anxiety but because honestly a lot of students at my school are not nice people so it's not worth it. The person who I talked to was nice though. Today was no game playing, while I spent a lot on my phone I did more German and I drew and worked on my puzzle so I am happy for that. What I am also happy about is tomorrow might be a snow day. I don't think so because despite living in a snowy state, where I live is closer to the ocean so we don't really get that bad of snow. Usually it's a coating. But anyway that snow day will enable me to catch up on work and maybe play outside a bit. Anyway I will see y'all tomorrow. Stay strong during these times. Gratefulness: Friends, mom, Teachers Positive: Drawing, puzzle, seeing my scout friends, Duolingo What to improve tomorrow: less phone, start other hobbies

Glad the new physiotherapist is working out for you. I am also glad that your car is doing better, hope life continues to be good for you. Also good luck for day 8

Day 7 Didnt game at all today so today was a success! One thing I noticed though was I stayed a lot on my phone. Some of it was meaningless things but most of the day it was Duolingo, I started learning German. While Duolingo is helpful doing it all the time is not only not an unhealthy lifestyle but it's still your phone/ a screen so you should limit your time on those things. I did learn a lot of German though. Besides that I was able to do the one thing outside my comfort zone and that was I called my brother or I facetimed him. In general I don't use facetime and normally I don't initiate to face call a family member and today I did it, it was nice to see him again. What I said about my math was false, turns out those lessons on IXL were for everyone, so it just made me ahead in the sense that I already completed the levels. Other positives of the day were I went on a walk which was beautiful and I started meditating tonight, I am hoping it becomes a permanent habit of my lifestyle, hopefully yoga too! Anyway, shorter entry tonight as I am tired and I want to wake up for school early tomorrow and start waking up earlier in general. Bye Gratefulness: My brother, my ability to walk Positives: Helped with dinner, learned German, walk, meditation What to improve tomorrow: early rise and again less screens.

Day 6 Very productive day, got all of my work done. I even stayed off my phone and overall the internet (besides school) all day! So thats good. Some of my recreational activities today primarily consisted of shooting hoops with the basketball hoop we have on our driveway, I did pretty well. I also went on a short walk outside to give myself a break in between classes. I did the 5 things outside my comfort zone and for that number, I think I am going to diminish it to one goal for the day and one thing to do outside my comfort zone. That's because it just wastes your energy to focus on multiple things at once so yeah. The college interview went well, it will be interesting to see how I stand with that school now, as that school is kind of a reach. Speaking of school, I know I shouldn't worry about grades but my math teacher recommended some IXL (a math site) skills for me, and I took it as a sign of her wanting to help me because I am struggling, I am going to ask her about it on extra help and ask her if she has any tips or resources I can use to catch up. Math is my worst subject, and I really want to end that off strong instead of like with a C or a B-, B or B+, I really want to excel in that subject at least with an A-. Let me know if you have any tips for that, I am currently in Precalculus. Besides that, today was good. I didn't play games, in fact it didn't cross my mind, and I did an excellent job in fighting urges for just youtube distraction when it would come up. So yeah overall an excellent day. Gratefulness: Food, Family, My Teacher Positives: Received an A- on a Marine Bio quiz, Played Basketball, counted towards my exercise, interview went well. What to improve: Long term goal, Math Skills, Short term goals, going to bed earlier, not using phone 1 hour before bed, getting back into reading, writing, and meditating.

I wish you the best in the job and with life.

@BooksandTrees Yeah I will do that! When I was focusing on quitting a lot of things at once I didnt realize until now I was multi-tasking. When you multi-task you can do worse on whatever it is your doing since your energy is heading towards many things and is unable to perform as well. But if I focus on one thing all my energy is going towards that. So will do! Day 5 Forgot to write down 5 things to do outside my comfort zone. I really need to start doing that. A lot of time I don't get to the goals I wanna achieve because I don't want to do them. Yeah, I won't ever want to do it if it never becomes a habit of doing it. If I don't start my goals then I will always hate it or see it as worthless or boring. Which is bad on my end because then instead of starting and working on making meaningful things a habit, I resort to mindlessly binging youtube and/or spending all day on a screen. Yes, mind, I will not like waking up at first, but if I never actually commit to doing it and going against my thoughts then I will hate it and push it off for longer, which is not what I am trying to achieve. Anyway, based off that you can infer most of my day was youtube, and you'd be correct. I don't regret that my past 5 days were mostly youtube though, as it's just the beginning of a new non gaming cycle and this is what will happen, I will head towards another passive replacement for games like youtube, but through these days, I can learn of ways to fight it and then later on not have it happen. However, Forest did really help with my phone, I still used it a lot but it helped. I actually need to be aware of starting the session. I think for my phone tomorrow I am going to do my best to minimize touching it. As for years I have seen the same things, and that's what happens every time you turn on your phone, your lock screen background and the time, then your apps and your home screen background. That's all it is in my view, I haven't done much research but from what I have experienced, thats what it is. I think phones are addicting because like games, it gives you a sense of connection to the world around you, and other people, its a way to stimulate the brain, and it serves as an escape from problems. With all that though, phones can serve purposes, you can learn a new hobby through Youtube, you can learn a foreign language in Duolingo or other language apps, you can text and call your friends from the world or country and even facecall them in zoom, Google meets or Apple FaceTime. To avoid the negatives, I would need to always be conscience in the things I'm doing on my phone and why I turned my phone on. In order to help me I just thought of this question, "Is this something important? Do I really need to be doing this now?" If the answers no I will turn off my phone, if the answers yes, I will do the thing then turn off my phone. I think this will really aid me in minimizing my phone usage. Anyway, despite today I had great things, I worked more on the puzzle, I completed my homework, I walked outside and explored my stream, which was way more fun than sitting online, and I did more laundry. Tomorrow i have an interview which I am nervous for but eh, if it's not a good fit then it's for the better and honestly it's a school that has dropped in my list. Anyway bye! Gratefulness: my ability to hear and see and smell, nature, family Positive: Exploring my stream, puzzle, completing Homework, laundry What to improve tomorrow: less internet, start committing on actually making things habits.