I feel slightly ashamed that I am doing this on week 23 and that it was not earlier in the year or that it even needs to be a goal of mine at all. My blog is set to automatically post to Facebook when I publish an entry but I will no longer be signing on. I believe that giving these things up will impact me mentally as much as some of my diet changes have impacted me physically. A quick Google search for the effects that social media has on people brings up a slew of articles about the negatives and positives. All of these aside, I am not going to write much about this topic because I believe that Gary Turk sums it up better than I ever could. It all comes down to living life to its fullest and not through our phones or computers. I'd like to challenge everyone this week to watch this video every time before you sign on to a social media site and then see where you end up instead and post it in the comments.
End of Week 23 Update
The first two days after stopping using facebook I twice found myself sitting at my computer typing in the url http://www.face . . wait . . what am i doing? One time I had even gotten all the way through my password and was signing in before I realized what I was doing and shut off my computer. It scared me a little bit. How can my brain get in the habit of doing something so much that it essentially becomes an unvoluntary unconscious decision regardless of whether it is healthy or unhealthy. My brain was programmed up until this week that when I sit at my computer, I sign on to facebook. I'm happy to say that this will no longer be the case.
I think it is important to sit down once in a while and evaluate where we spend our time. One of my college English professors Dr. Mike always had his freshman classes do a multi day project where they had to write down everything they did and the amount of time they spent with each task. I find this a great self improvement tool and even tend to think about it on a daily basis now. Just ten minutes at the end of the day saying, "WHAT did I do today?"
So after giving up facebook and twitter my roommate Jordan pointed out that I was probably spending an equal amount of time on the computer still. Most of it was spent looking around on Strava, a social/GPS website that I upload my running GPS data to. It is a much healthier option than facebook but my real objective was to spend less time on the computer thus leading me into my week 24 goal . . .
End of Week 23 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 82.27 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 280 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $411.89
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 112
Pushups - 1140 Crunches - 1040
Days Flossed - 97 (missed one day)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 12
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 210
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, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a
bed of mint,
Letters written - 8
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation,
Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche,
Miles ran - 86.4
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
The first two days after stopping using facebook I twice found myself sitting at my computer typing in the url http://www.face . . wait . . what am i doing? One time I had even gotten all the way through my password and was signing in before I realized what I was doing and shut off my computer. It scared me a little bit. How can my brain get in the habit of doing something so much that it essentially becomes an unvoluntary unconscious decision regardless of whether it is healthy or unhealthy. My brain was programmed up until this week that when I sit at my computer, I sign on to facebook. I'm happy to say that this will no longer be the case.
I think it is important to sit down once in a while and evaluate where we spend our time. One of my college English professors Dr. Mike always had his freshman classes do a multi day project where they had to write down everything they did and the amount of time they spent with each task. I find this a great self improvement tool and even tend to think about it on a daily basis now. Just ten minutes at the end of the day saying, "WHAT did I do today?"
So after giving up facebook and twitter my roommate Jordan pointed out that I was probably spending an equal amount of time on the computer still. Most of it was spent looking around on Strava, a social/GPS website that I upload my running GPS data to. It is a much healthier option than facebook but my real objective was to spend less time on the computer thus leading me into my week 24 goal . . .
End of Week 23 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 82.27 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 280 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $411.89
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 112
Pushups - 1140 Crunches - 1040
Days Flossed - 97 (missed one day)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 12
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 210
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, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a
bed of mint,
Letters written - 8
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation,
Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche,
Miles ran - 86.4
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes