Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Day 1 of the No Diet Diet

Today has been tough. The first day of the No Diet Diet and already I feel like screaming or throwing something! Today the task is to forsake television for the whole day and I think because I am conscious of not watching TV today it has made it the one thing that I have really wanted to do. Its strange how if you consciously deny yourself something the more you crave it! Where's the logic in that!

However, it has been made worse by the fact that I have been up since 7am this morning, which is a lot earlier than I would normally be up because an engineer was supposed to be coming to fit some parts to my boiler. The boiler has been partly out of action (intermittently no hot water) since before Xmas and finally I was hoping the job would be done today. I was faithfully promised that the engineer would be here between 8am and 1pm but they didn't turn up so when I called back this afternoon, I was told he would be with me late afternoon. Still no sign of said engineer so I guess I am going to have to be back on the 'phone again tomorrow finding out what's going on.

With that and the fact that the weather has been so awful has meant that I have not been able to get out today, which I think would have eased some of my tensions about not being able to watch TV. Going out for a walk would have done wonders.

It hasn't all been bad though as I can see what a bad habit the TV has become for me. I often remark on how little TV I watch and mostly that is true. However, what I have become conscious of today is what a rigid timetable I live around the TV, planning meals for example around when something good is on and how I will often resort to spending half-hour or so here and there just flicking channels and wasting time.

What struck me today was how much time I had to myself from cutting out TV altogether. I listened to the radio for a bit this morning and I found that quite relaxing and enjoyable. Plus I did some reading, which I never seem to find time for during the day and I've also started writing a story that I long promised I would do. I had a good few hours this afternoon researching for that on the Internet. Plus I caught up with some e-mails and spent a few hours looking for jobs on-line this morning.

Although the sum total of what I have done today isn't very much, I feel like I have been in control of it and not dictated too by something I feel I 'must' watch on the TV. I guess it has been liberating in some ways and if I hadn't had to be in all day, it would have been an even more worthwhile day. Not sure that it has helped me loose any weight though!

Tomorrow, the task is to write something for 15 minutes. I will no doubt carry on with my story but I want to try writing something else and I am not including updating the blog in that. I am planning to go out for a walk tomorrow, so maybe I will write about that or something else. I am not sure yet.

4 comments:

Morandia said...

great work! I don't know if I could make it if I were home all day waiting for workmen of any type. That would make me crazy.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had a challenging day. At least you were indoors and not in the wet! I think slogging in the rain all day is what's given me this stupid cold. I came home from work early today because of it.

By the way, I had coffee this morning! Oops!

Derek said...

Well done so far! Did you do yoga?

We watched some more "Battlestar" tonight. That's the first 8 episodes of series 2 watched!

jamie said...

write about trains,or something...
politics and battlestar galactica?