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30-Day Challenge


Big Adam

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Hello Everyone.  My name is Adam. I'm 32 years old and from Pennsylvania.  I have played games most of my life. At times I've played too much, other times it's been just another hobby.

When the Coronavirus hit in the US, I (along with everyone else) spent a lot more time alone. During the first few months, I played way more games than I usually do.  I figured it was no problem since the whole world was temporarily on pause and things should go back to normal soon.  Well, it's been several months and things still haven't gone totally back to normal.  People are gathering more often but some of my preferred social activities are still on pause.

All that is to say that lately my gaming consumption has not been healthy.  I've noticed an alarming pattern where I'll play a game for a while, then find myself getting restless.  Rather than switch to doing something else entirely, I'll get a craving to eat junk food while continuing to play games.  This sucks because not only does it throw off my fitness goals, it also messes with my sleep.  I'm going to try a 30-day break from games to see if it helps me stay away from any junk food.  I'll be tracking my compliance for both games and food in this topic.  I'm also planning to go through the Respawn program to set up new habits and give myself fulfilling pursuits while I take a break from games.  Perhaps when I'm done I'll decide to extend it even further. We'll see.

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Day 1:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk food: ✔️

It was pretty easy to not play games today. I had Jiu-Jitsu after work, so the only time in which I was tempted to play was after dinner and before bed. Instead I did some woodcarving and listened to a podcast.  Tomorrow will be a more difficult test because I have nothing social scheduled after work. I will need to find things to occupy my time.

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Day 2:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food:✔️

Another relatively easy day.  Work was busy today, so I went to the gym right after work, then came back home and worked some more until around 10.  Almost time for bed, so no temptation to play games.  I also didn't get stressed enough to activate junk food cravings.

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Hey Adam, good on you for choosing to ditch video-games and junk food. I remember when I did a 30-day no sugar challenge in January 2017. Landed me in the hospital as a result of too much gastro-intestinal acid. Turns out eating raw buckwheat every day wasn't good for me. Ha!

What is your definition of junk food?

I know you've mentioned sugary stuff, but, in order for this habit to stick, you've got to be specific. Otherwise, your brain will rationalize its way into a midnight binge.

A banana can be sweeter than a candy bar. Are bananas junk food? Is peanut butter junk food? What about a banana dipped in peanut butter?

What about 100% unsweetened baker's chocolate? It has no sugar.

As you are in the process of breaking two habits, I advise allowing fruits in your diet. Even if those fruits are way too sweet from eons of artificial selection

Edited by Bird By Bird
grammar
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Hey Bird by Bird.  Good questions.  For the purposes of this challenge, junk food is anything that's not Fruit, Vegetable, Meat, Egg, Protein powder, almond milk, or plain greek yogurt. So no Nuts, Chips, Crackers, Candy, Ice Cream, Smoothies, Pastries, Fried Foods.

 

Thanks for the encouragement and advice! I am allowing fruit right now.

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Day 3:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food:✔️

I haven't been sleeping well this week and was tired yesterday, so I didn't go to Jiu-Jitsu after work. That left me with a few spare hours. I spent them looking for new furniture for my apartment.  I've changed apartments frequently and never stayed in one place for more than a year since moving out from my parent's house, so I never invested in good furniture and always purchased cheap temporary items.  But I know that my environment affects the way that I feel.  Having a few nice pieces would make my apartment feel more like "My Place" rather than just a place I'm staying for now.  No temptation to play games. Some temptation to eat sweets. I just had some fruit and that was enough.

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Day 4:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food:✔️

Another solid day. I was productive at work, then went to jiu-jitsu from 6-8, then ate dinner while watching an episode of The Boys on Amazon.  Good stuff.  Also ordered some nice furniture for my apartment.

I want to research what it takes to buy a duplex.  I have a lot of savings and it would be nice to have a permanent place to make my own.  And I like the idea of renting out half the duplex to get some rental income.  It's still just the germ of an idea.  I'll need to do some reading and cost/benefit analysis before I actually buy anything.

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Day 7:

No Games: 

No Junk Food: 

I messed up yesterday. Not too badly, but enough to break the streak.  I was tired throughout the day and in the evening I didn't feel like doing anything productive.  Didn't want to read, didn't want to woodcarve, didn't want to write.  I probably should have gone for a walk, but I decided to play some games.  I played Hades for about 4 hours.  As for junk food: thankfully I didn't go overboard. I bought some low-calorie ice cream and ate a pint and a half.  That's a lot of ice cream, but it was only about 500 calories total since it was low-cal.  I also went to bed on time, so the relapse didn't do too much damage.

Back to normal today. I threw out the rest of the ice cream so it is not in my freezer.  I have work throughout the day and plans for the evening, so I likely won't be tempted today.  The difficult times are nights when I have lots of free time and nothing planned.  I'll need to have some sort of plan for those nights.  And sort out my sleep so that I'm not tired and my willpower isn't low.  I was tired on Sunday because my restless leg syndrome flared up the night before. Might need to switch up my medication or my diet or something so that doesn't happen as often.

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The great thing about this experience is that you learned how to recognise some new triggers and how to manage them (lack of sleep).

Don't beat yourself up too much about relapsing. If you have learned something from it, then it's a great tool to help you progress.

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Days 7 and 8:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

I got sick this week (and still am sick).  On Monday, I used that as an excuse to play some games.  Yesterday, I did not. Even though I'm stuck inside for the moment, I still have things I can do besides gaming.  I have books I'd like to read and a woodcarving project to finish.  I also want o learn video editing. Gaming is just an easy go-to because it takes no mental energy and it's an entrenched habit.  Tonight I won't play.

I think I just have a basic cold, not COVID.  I haven't been coughing, I just have a very runny nose and my eyes are watering as if there's too much pollen in the air. Hopefully I recover quickly.

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7 hours ago, Big Adam said:

I think I just have a basic cold, not COVID.  I haven't been coughing, I just have a very runny nose and my eyes are watering as if there's too much pollen in the air. Hopefully I recover quickly.

Yeah, that's what I've been having, I have been having a runny nose and cough. There is lots of pollen going about right now. I just saw a bunch blowing in the breeze today. Usually taking a Claritin daily has been helping. I am pretty sure you can get it at a local CVS or local Pharmacy. I hope you feel better.

Also video editing sounds fun you should learn it!

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Day 9:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food:✔️

Yesterday was good. Still sick, but not as bad as Tuesday night.  I had a date scheduled for Thursday night, but cancelled it since I'm sick.   Bummer, but it was just an online date. There will be plenty more opportunities after I recover.

I spent the evening woodcarving and reading.  Had the urge to play games in the last hour before bed, but decided to just watch two episodes of Community instead.

I'm still sleeping poorly because of Restless Leg Flareups.  I'm not sure what's causing it to be worse than usual lately.  It seems to come and go randomly.  

Edited by Big Adam
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Today is Day 1 again. I relapsed big time yesterday.  Played games, stayed up till 2AM, ate enough junk food to make my stomach hurt.  Felt like crap when I went to bed.  Clearly, I haven't been taking this seriously enough.  To be honest, I came into this more concerned about the junk food than anything else.  Abstaining from games was just a way to disrupt the habits that often lead to me eating junk.  So I was a bit lackadaisical about avoiding games.  Well, no more. I'm committing to this 30-day challenge.  I'm going to drop my PS4 off at my parent's house today and it'll stay there until October 26th.  I've uninstalled Steam from my computer, cleared my Youtube history to get rid of let's plays and other gaming content showing up in my recommended feed.  I'm getting rid of my spare controller too, so the only option I'll have to play games is re-installing Steam and using mouse + keyboard. And I don't really like using mouse and keyboard.

I was thinking last night that I don't have much to show for this year.  I haven't tried anything new, gotten outside my comfort zone, or made progress losing weight.  Part of that is my same old habits. There's nothing morally wrong with playing games, but gaming is a comfortable, easy habit that keeps me from making changes to my life. If I was totally happy with my life, than there would be no reason for me to stop gaming. It doesn't disrupt my work, nor do I choose it over social events when those are available.  It doesn't destroy my life, it just keeps it from changing.  It's a dream-delayer.

Main areas where I want to make changes:

  • Weight: I'm in better shape than most guys my age, but still carry more body fat than I'd like. Diet is what keeps me from progressing there. I do Jiu-Jitsu three times a week and lift regularly, so my exercise is fine.  It's Diet and sleep that need to be on point.  Hence the need to cut our junk food and to not stay up late gaming.
  • Supplemental Income: I make good money from my job and it's stable, but I don't want to do it forever.  I'd like to make money outside of my job. Hence the interest in Real Estate. I'm going to read a book or two on that over the course of this 30 days.
  • Dating: I've been single since COVID hit and would like to meet someone.  Now that businesses in my area are opening up again, it's a good time to get back into dating.  My usual social events still aren't back, so I'll need to rely mostly on dating apps like Hinge.  I'd also like to get more comfortable starting conversations with women I meet at coffee shops or elsewhere when I'm out in public. Not trying to "pick them up", but just starting a conversation and getting a number if it's going well.

For today, I'll get rid of the PS4 and controllers so I don't have an easy way to game.  Then start going through some of the exercises in the "Respawn" program.

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Day 1:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

I brought the PS4 and my spare controller to my parent's yesterday.  Now the 30-Day challenge begins in earnest!  In the evening, I read an intro to real estate book for about an hour and did some woodcarving.

I slept poorly again last night.  Feeling slightly sick today, so I'll need to skip Jiu-Jitsu in the evening.  Hopefully my sleep returns to normal soon. Everything is harder when I'm not well-rested.

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Day 2:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

I finally got a solid night's sleep last night.  Woke up once to pee, but other than that I slept the whole night through. I feel much better today.  I didn't do much yesterday because I was tired.  Got a little bit of reading done in the evening but mostly watched Community and farted around on the internet. No games though.  I have much more energy today so I'll hit the gym after work and then aim to do a good bit of reading and woodcarving tonight.

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Day 3:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

Slept well again last night!  A shower right before bed seems to help. I read another chapter of my real estate book last night and worked on my woodcarving projects for about an hour.  Also hit the gym and did some extra work for my job so I wouldn't be stressed today.

I had a bit of a cough yesterday, so I won't go back to Jiu-Jitsu tonight.  If I'm completely symptom-free by Friday, then I'll attend the Saturday morning class.  Whatever I have, I don't want to spread it to my teammates.

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Day 4:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

The momentum continues! Worked a normal workday, then hit the gym, read, and did some Woodcarving.  I'm almost finished with my current pieces.  One is a pair of penguins that I'll give to my Dad on his Birthday. The other is an Owl for my local coffee shop that I visit almost every day.  I'm especially pleased with the Owl. I think it's the best piece I've made since I picked up the hobby at the start of the year.

Between 9:30 and 10:30, I found myself tempted to get junk food.  I'm not sure why. Perhaps because I was bored, but not yet tired and ready to go to bed.  Instead I meditated for 5 minutes and then watched two episodes of Community.  That was enough to get me past it, then I began getting ready for bed.

Edited by Big Adam
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Day 5:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

Still going strong. In the immortal words of Barret Wallace: AIN'T NO GETTIN OFF THIS TRAIN WE"RE ON

Pleasant surprise this week: Though I've been eating plenty of fruit and not stinting on meals, I'm losing weight.  In the past I've needed to cut fruit as well as junk food to lose weight, but it seems that my current activity level is high enough that I can lose weight while still eating fruit and enjoying filling meals of meat and vegetables.  Hopefully this continues as I get closer to my ideal body fat level.

No serious temptations yesterday.  I expect Saturday and Sunday to be somewhat difficult.  I'll see if I can plan something for those nights.  Maybe invite some people over for a movie.

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On 9/14/2020 at 10:25 PM, Big Adam said:

Hello Everyone.  My name is Adam. I'm 32 years old and from Pennsylvania.  I have played games most of my life. At times I've played too much, other times it's been just another hobby.

When the Coronavirus hit in the US, I (along with everyone else) spent a lot more time alone. During the first few months, I played way more games than I usually do.  I figured it was no problem since the whole world was temporarily on pause and things should go back to normal soon.  Well, it's been several months and things still haven't gone totally back to normal.  People are gathering more often but some of my preferred social activities are still on pause.

All that is to say that lately my gaming consumption has not been healthy.  I've noticed an alarming pattern where I'll play a game for a while, then find myself getting restless.  

That's precisely what happened to me, haha. I tried playing casually because of more time at home, and games ate my life haha... So I am working on quitting again 🙂

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Day 7:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

One week complete!  No games or junk food last night either. Around 9:00, I was tempted to buy some nuts or snack mix, but chose to just get some fruit instead.

Week 1 Progress in my three areas of focus:

  • Weight: Down from 177.2 lbs last week to 176.2 today.
  • Supplemental Income: Read half of a book on Real Estate Investing.
  • Dating: No action this week due to being sick.  I felt fine yesterday and feel good today, so I'll get back into online dating this week and make an effort to have conversations with strangers when I'm outside.

Other Victories:

  • Ordered some new furniture for my apartment. 
  • Cleaned behind my stove and Refrigerator.  Nothing too gross, but clearly it hadn't been cleaned in years.
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Day 8:

No Games: ✔️

No Junk Food: ✔️

Normal day yesterday.  Annoyingly, these very minor cold symptoms are still hanging on. I feel fine, but still have a minor runny nose and the occasional cough.  It's just enough to make me worry about getting other people sick.  And I really want to get back to Jiu-Jitsu on weekday evenings.

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