A 2012 study from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in London showed that some children born that year will have watched a full year of television by the time they turn seven. It also pointed out that on average children were spending more time watching television than time they were in school. It is hard to imagine the effects that could have on a developing brain. While many studies about television focus on children I think it is just as important for us to remember as adults that there are better ways to spend our time.
I put this on my list of goals as a two step process. The first being cutting out movies and the second step will be not using televisions anymore. I chose this goal because for the rest of 2014 I want to create my own vision rather than spend my time sitting in a chair watching someone else's. I want to spend my time using my brain to expand my knowledge, create a beautiful environment and share what I see along the way. Afterall every two hour movie could have been a hike, or maybe a book read, or a letter written.
There are a few ways I plan to accomplish this goal. The first is to expand my knowledge by reading. It is something I don't do nearly enough but very soon I will have goals set around this as well. Second I want to create a beautiful environment by spending more time outside and in the garden and helping to teach people about it. Lastly I want to share my experiences. I was recently swayed into purchasing a new camera by my good friend Brandon and I will use it for the rest of the year to share what I see and love about this part of the country. Here is the first of them.
I put this on my list of goals as a two step process. The first being cutting out movies and the second step will be not using televisions anymore. I chose this goal because for the rest of 2014 I want to create my own vision rather than spend my time sitting in a chair watching someone else's. I want to spend my time using my brain to expand my knowledge, create a beautiful environment and share what I see along the way. Afterall every two hour movie could have been a hike, or maybe a book read, or a letter written.
There are a few ways I plan to accomplish this goal. The first is to expand my knowledge by reading. It is something I don't do nearly enough but very soon I will have goals set around this as well. Second I want to create a beautiful environment by spending more time outside and in the garden and helping to teach people about it. Lastly I want to share my experiences. I was recently swayed into purchasing a new camera by my good friend Brandon and I will use it for the rest of the year to share what I see and love about this part of the country. Here is the first of them.
End of Week 19 Update
Originally I saw giving up movies as being one of my easier goals but it has turned out hard not to get sucked into a movie on the couch when I have just had a long day of work. The thing I really like about this goal is that it puts 2 hours into a whole new perspective. I like to think think about how much I can learn in just 2 hours. Recently I read through a 22 page manual on how to play a complicated board game rather than watching a television show. Or why don't I just go to bed earlier rather than staying up for 2 hours when I am already tired? Then maybe I can get up 2 hours earlier the next day and spend some time outside or go for a run.
Along with the big changes I've been making, its fun to watch some of the smaller ones that I didn't foresee taking place. I've started using cut up solo cups as seedling labels rather than for alcohol. When I first roll over and wake up in the morning I look at the time and it is no longer 10:30, it is 7 or 8:30. My trash cleanup items no longer go in the dump, rather I have begun a collection of scrap metal pieces to weld a garden sculpture from. I'm starting to accomplish things that used to be just ideas on lists lying on my bedroom floor. My bedroom floor is clean . . well, almost. Of course there are the times that I miss having a beer with my friends, or eating a brat at a cookout, or having a cup of soda and french fries but then I turn around and see the wide open road that I have been barreling down for the last 5 months and am reminded yet again about how good these changes have made me feel and I step into another week . . .
End of Week 19 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 67.51 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 224 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $333.39
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 84
Pushups - 1000 Crunches - 940
Days Flossed - 69 (missed one day)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 8
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 150
Items planted - 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's,
Letters written - 4
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip,
Movies watched - 0
Originally I saw giving up movies as being one of my easier goals but it has turned out hard not to get sucked into a movie on the couch when I have just had a long day of work. The thing I really like about this goal is that it puts 2 hours into a whole new perspective. I like to think think about how much I can learn in just 2 hours. Recently I read through a 22 page manual on how to play a complicated board game rather than watching a television show. Or why don't I just go to bed earlier rather than staying up for 2 hours when I am already tired? Then maybe I can get up 2 hours earlier the next day and spend some time outside or go for a run.
Along with the big changes I've been making, its fun to watch some of the smaller ones that I didn't foresee taking place. I've started using cut up solo cups as seedling labels rather than for alcohol. When I first roll over and wake up in the morning I look at the time and it is no longer 10:30, it is 7 or 8:30. My trash cleanup items no longer go in the dump, rather I have begun a collection of scrap metal pieces to weld a garden sculpture from. I'm starting to accomplish things that used to be just ideas on lists lying on my bedroom floor. My bedroom floor is clean . . well, almost. Of course there are the times that I miss having a beer with my friends, or eating a brat at a cookout, or having a cup of soda and french fries but then I turn around and see the wide open road that I have been barreling down for the last 5 months and am reminded yet again about how good these changes have made me feel and I step into another week . . .
End of Week 19 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 67.51 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 224 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $333.39
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 84
Pushups - 1000 Crunches - 940
Days Flossed - 69 (missed one day)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 8
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 150
Items planted - 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's,
Letters written - 4
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip,
Movies watched - 0