living with shitty old man habits - a blatant thread rip-off

[hoopsguy]

Because that dynasty seems to have been abandoned, and we are all poorer for it.

I'm not going to make an immediate effort to actually follow this self-improvement list. I'm just not wired in a way that allows for that much change in that short a period of time. But I'll try to keep up with this thread on the stuff that I am doing that falls under "shitty habits" and see if I can use it to nudge myself slowly towards a couple of course corrections.

I also don't use quite the same kind of colorful language to describe my self-loathing, so this is clearly going to be a very pale imitation of the original thread. But maybe it will make some readers feel better about their own efforts when they see someone screwing up a dozen habits in a single day and then hit double-digits again the following day. Guess it is a good thing I won't have a whole list of 30 to work against.

OK, here is the last update from Subby. So 25 rules.

1. No soda.
2. No Starbucks.
3. No Convenience Stores.
4. No ice cream. (unless out with family, then only small)
5. No eating after 8pm.
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend)
7. No cookies.
8. No buying breakfast.
9. No candy bars.
10. No gorging pizza (2 pieces max)
11. No food from work kitchen.
12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am).
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.)
14. No sports drinks (unless after exercise)
15. No more caffeine abuse (2 drinks per day max)
16. No eating in the car.
17. No neglecting oral hygiene.
18. No burgers AND fries.
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend).
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week).
21. No seconds.
22. No restaurant desserts.
23. No donuts.
24. No popcorn.
25. No buying lunch.

[hoopsguy]

9/7 running list

1.) No soda - had one around 10AM this morning. I'm usually good for two a day.
8.) No buying breakfast - overslept this morning, had to get daughter off to school, so we did Dunkin Donuts drive thru. I had a bagel and an OJ. Not expensive, but something I try not to do more than once/week.
12.) Slept until 8:30 this morning - oops! Normally out of bed by 6AM, today was complete anomaly.
19.) This rule is going to be broken every single day by me.

So, four rules violated by lunch time. Pretty par for the course.

25.) No buying lunch - in my defense, it was the first time I did it this week when I'm usually good for 3-4 times eating lunch out. I normally work from home 3x per week and go into the office 2x and I don't think I've ever packed my own lunch in my life ... so this one will be a struggle, to say the least.

20.) Stayed up to watch Braveheart on cable. That was longer than 3 hours. Oops.

6.) Braveheart started at 10:30 PM. So going to bed on time was out the window.

13.) Exercise - on the road with family, did not happen yesterday.

17.) Fell asleep on sofa, did not brush teeth before bed.

9 "bad habits" on my first day of tracking. This is where Subby would go on his "creatively swearing at himself" bender.

On a related note, I signed up for myfitnessapp.com to see what the calorie count is for some of my more regular foods. Chicken caesar salad at Portillo's, which I thought was me making at least a decent food choice, represents 75% of my allowed calories for the day for my weight. Yeesh. I mean ... yeesh. I'm a little frigtened to see what some of the other meals check in at after that result.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

9/7 running list

1.) No soda - had one around 10AM this morning. I'm usually good for two a day.
8.) No buying breakfast - overslept this morning, had to get daughter off to school, so we did Dunkin Donuts drive thru. I had a bagel and an OJ. Not expensive, but something I try not to do more than once/week.
12.) Slept until 8:30 this morning - oops! Normally out of bed by 6AM, today was complete anomaly.
19.) This rule is going to be broken every single day by me.

So, four rules violated by lunch time. Pretty par for the course.

Cool, I will be reading along. This can be an official self-loathing thread.

I am also out on #1, and as a result, I am also out on #15. I can guarantee I will also violate #25, because I did not bring a lunch with me.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Cool, I will be reading along. This can be an official self-loathing thread.

I am also out on #1, and as a result, I am also out on #15. I can guarantee I will also violate #25, because I did not bring a lunch with me.

It is pretty rare for me to have more than two cans of Coke in a day, so #15 won't be an issue too often.

Time to go update the earlier post with lunchtime bad habits ...

[hoopsguy]

9/9 update -
1. Had one soda - fought urge for second one this evening, trying to make cut-down from 2 to 1 per day (again).
6. See time posting. Will probably break every good Sunday night football game. But stayed up after that to get some work done that didn't get completed during football earlier this afternoon.
7. Had one thin mint while at in-laws this morning. Damn. We don't keep those in house so I don't expect this to appear very often.
10. Had 3 pieces of thin crust pizza for lunch. I need a ruling on this one - three slices of pizza depends a great deal on the size of the pizza, whether it is deep dish, etc. I don't feel like I "gorged" but 3 > 2.
12. Slept in until 8:30, although I feel like I was doing a public service since I was sleeping in same bed as daughter at in-laws. Unleashing her before 6AM on the family would have been an act of hostility on my part.
13. No exercise at all today. This won't appear again tomorrow ... need to get some exercise in ASAP.
19/20 - TV + PC exceeded usage with Sunday football. Will happen every Sunday for the remainder of NFL season.

So eight more rules broken, on a day where I felt like I had reasonable discipline. Sigh ... how would someone go from zero to doing this stuff all in one month? Certifiably nuts, and no wonder it did not go the full 30 days.

[hoopsguy]

9/10 failures:
1. Soda - held out until 6PM for my first/only soda of the day. Going 30 hours between is good progress for me, and I'm hopeful of ditching this habit in the next couple of days. I've been tapering down for a couple of weeks, basically holding out until the caffeine headaches kick in.

6. Going to be up past 10PM tonight, although not sure how late.

12. Slept in until 6:30 today - ideally, I should be up a few minutes earlier than this even on days where I'm working from home.

19. Computer at home - 100% failure rate, from now until end of time. Putting some realistic limits on this would be better gauge of progress.

25. Had Chipotle today - didn't need to do that on a day where I'm working from home. Worst offense of my day, in my ind.

So five misses today - based on everything I've done so far that would qualify as a good day.

[CrimsonFox]

I ought to do this too. I bet I suck more than you. Mind if I jump in here?

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I ought to do this too. I bet I suck more than you. Mind if I jump in here?

By all means - I'm pretty sure I don't have these habits on lockdown

[hoopsguy]

In all seriousness, I'm likely going to track against these for a couple of weeks and then start doing some tweaking based on a list that is better aligned with my own improvement. For example, giving up cookies or convenience stores isn't a big issue for me and doesn't constitute self-improvement for me in the same way it did for Subby. But if I could stop biting fingernails, that would be a pretty meaningful change.

But, for now, I'll see how I can measure up against this list and see if I emerge a little bit better than when I started the thread.

[CrimsonFox]

9/10

Failures
1. No soda. - Had 3 Diet Cherry Cokes
5. No eating after 8pm. - Ate at 9:30
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend) - Stayed up until Midnight
7. No cookies. - Had 3 oreos
10. No gorging pizza (2 pieces max) - Made a thin frozen pizza. Ate whole thing. To be fair I made a salad before and dumped it on the floor . Then I dumped said pizza on the floor.
12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am). - I am NOT going to get up that early.
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.) - Feirce walking between busses.
15. No more caffeine abuse (2 drinks per day max) - 3 cans soda and several drinks of ice tea
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend). - 2 hours online
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week). - Watched Walking Dead
24. No popcorn. - Why? popcorn is fairly healthy as long as you don't put crap on it.
25. No buying lunch. - Brought lunch.

Successes
2. No Starbucks. - hate coffee
3. No Convenience Stores. - hate these things. Too cheap to buy anything from them.
4. No ice cream. (unless out with family, then only small) - This will frequently be here, but since I"m out. Not today.
8. No buying breakfast. - ate something bad from the fridge.
9. No candy bars. - None today . But frequently eat them
11. No food from work kitchen. - I don't even know what this means. A sweat shop room with chinese children chained to a serving line?
12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am). - Will change to 7 am and then will talk
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.) - okay I'll do it.
14. No sports drinks (unless after exercise) - none
16. No eating in the car. - I take the bus so i don't know how this applies.
17. No neglecting oral hygiene. - Brushed teeth twice
18. No burgers AND fries. - Ate neither.
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week). - I am a tvholic but so far only watched one thing so far. I will watch a movie now too and that will be it.
21. No seconds. - failed this
22. No restaurant desserts. - done.
23. No donuts. - i am not a fan but sometimes succomb
24. No popcorn. - had none
25. No buying lunch. - Did not buy lunch. Brought it

[Subby]

AWESOME.

GO GO GO!

[CrimsonFox]

I think I want to specify/add some things for myself

26. Eat fruits and vegetables
27. Read one chapter from any book.

Corollaries/exceptions to #19:
28. Learn one lesson from any online course
29. Research one company to send a resume to.
30. Do a job search for half hour.
31. Write for a half hour on a story/gaming accessory/game being developed.
32. Research one place to live.
33. Do not stare blankly at email and facebook. Log off when finished. Half hour limit on FOFC.

34. Clean one area.

[hoopsguy]

I expect Subby would approve of the personal rules modifications. But I've got a couple of more weeks with the current list before I'm ready to make that jump.

1. Soda - had one with lunch today after short sleep last night. Down from 2/day to 1/day over last week, suspect it is a matter of time before I nut up and get this off my daily reports.

6. Staying up late - finishing a Wire marathon for season 4 tonight. Will look to shore this one up during week tomorrow, although it will be short-lived with evening work scheduled for Thursday/Friday nights.

8. Buy breakfast - taking my daughter to Dunkin Donuts helps get her up early if I haven't got a ton of time on my hands. It is a crutch I use about once per week and today was that day. I'm probably not going to cut it off cold turkey, but ideally I wean her off. There were no munchkins today.

18. Burger and fries - forgot about this rule until I was looking at both on my plate. Only ate about 2/3 of the fries, but nonetheless NOM NOM NOM

20. TV addiction - Wire marathon, although technically I'm watching it on my laptop. I'm putting it under TV today.

21. Had 2 PBJ sandwiches for dinner tonight with the wife away. Since I didn't prepare them together, I think it qualifies as seconds.

25. Bought the burgers/fries, so dinged 2x on that selection.

7 bad habits today - not completely the usual suspects. I'll go lower tomorrow.

[CrimsonFox]

1. No soda. - 2 Cherry cokes today. That's a very good start.
5. No eating after 8pm. - Ate after 8 because I get home late. I'll make it 10 for me.
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend). It will be midnight for me.
7. No cookies. - 5 today but oreos
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend). GOing to have major failures with this one. I think it's why my life sucks so much.



12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am). - I got up at 7, no snooze! yay!
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.) - no organized stuff but a LOT of running and fastwalking today
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week). If I limit it to 3 wow that's a great mark. I can pick and choose what I watch easier. Plus I have no cable but have netflix now. Tonight: Episode 3 of Walking Dead. Will probably throw in some Futurama and other light stuff.
26. Ate a peach for lunch and some carrots as a snack. Ate a Salad for dinner (didn't drop it on the floor like I did last night)
30. Called back three people that contacted me about job opportunities.
33. Probably in the process of failing this. I really need to break this one.

[CrimsonFox]

Successes:
1. No soda. -- I took one soda to work instead of two. Had none in the evening. WOW!
4. No ice cream. (unless out with family, then only small) - Craved a milkshake all day. Too lazy to go get it. Yay
8. No buying breakfast. - This morning I was going to buy a chonga bagel from starbucks. I resisted. Maybe I'll celebrate tomorrow with a bagel and a shake!
9. No candy bars. - None
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.) - Did extreme bus-catching and hill walking. Also added in a jog home.
26. Eat fruits and vegetables --Peach and tomatoes and carrots
27. Read one chapter from any book. -- Read Chapter two of Alien Art by Gordon R Dickson
28. Learn one lesson from any online course --Started a Java course by downloading materials and software
30. Do a job search for half hour. - Talked to a guy about a job. Seems promising


Fail:
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend) -- Looking at 1 AM
5. No eating after 8pm. --Cereal at about 10.
7. No cookies. - 6 today
12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am). - Hit the snooze button 7 times.
17. No neglecting oral hygiene. --Forgot to brush teeth in the morning. Did so Twice this evening.
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend). - ummm....
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week). - Watched STTNG and Lost pilots and another Walking Dead episode + Futurama. That breaks the cap.
25. No buying lunch. --Took another yummy sandwich and ate on the docks.

[CrimsonFox]

It was indulgence day...

Megafailures
1. No soda. - 3 sodas and tea
4. No ice cream. (unless out with family, then only small) - a big malted crunch shake
5. No eating after 8pm. The Shake from #4 and burger fries and tacos from #18
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend) - GOing on 1 AM but that's cause i have no work tomorrow. I'm very tired tho.
8. No buying breakfast. - I bought the chonga bagel from starbucks as I needed something. Creamcheese too.
12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am). - snoozed til 7:30
15. No more caffeine abuse (2 drinks per day max) - 3 cokes and tea
18. No burgers AND fries. - Burgers and Curly fries!....AND tacos!
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend). - Some staring at fofc and email yeah.
24. No popcorn. - I had popcorn. So what!

success
7. No cookies. - None.
9. No candy bars. - none
10. No gorging pizza (2 pieces max) - NOne
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.) - Did a little bike riding before the handlebars started falling off
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week). - Only 1 1/2 hrs tonight. Fell asleep during walking dead. Altho I think it's just because it's starting to suck.
25. No buying lunch. - I brought lunch but bought dinner

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

21. Had 2 PBJ sandwiches for dinner tonight with the wife away. Since I didn't prepare them together, I think it qualifies as seconds.

seriously hoops do you seriously not know how to cook?

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

seriously hoops do you seriously not know how to cook?

Nope, can't cook a thing. Frozen food is about the extent of what I prepare for myself.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Nope, can't cook a thing. Frozen food is about the extent of what I prepare for myself.

That should be your next dynasty then. Have your wife teach you to cook. That's like Living 101 really. And it's really quite easy.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

That should be your next dynasty then. Have your wife teach you to cook. That's like Living 101 really. And it's really quite easy.

Better yet, have some hot chef teach you.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Autumn

Better yet, have some hot chef teach you.

Whoa! Autumn just insulted hoops' wife! SNAP!

[hoopsguy]

Nah, my wife is a good cook but I wouldn't drop the "chef" handle on her and I doubt she would either.

Guessing yesterday was a pretty bad day. Let see.
1. Soda - had one again, haven't yet broken through with zero. Hope springs eternal for this weekend.
4. Ice cream - was out with family, but had a medium
6. Up late - will happen every Friday night for work (e-mail migrations), was up until about 1AM
10. gorging pizza - daughter did not finish hers last night, would have been a waste to throw it away, right? Daddy = rationalizing fatass
19. computer addiction - less likely to go away than soda
21. seconds - see #10 above

Six bad habits yesterday. Just felt like worse because the habits (ice cream, 2nds) are ones that show up on the scale, I guess.

[RendeR]

Did Hoops just say his wife was NOT hot by proxy?

[CrimsonFox]

Yesterday

Fails:
1. No soda. - x3 - bought more tea. But there's nothing like the burn in the throat of a fresh soda
4. No ice cream. (unless out with family, then only small) - Mounds ice cream bar. They are small at least. Um actually I had 2 of them. Superfail.
5. No eating after 8pm. See above.
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend) - Yes.
7. No cookies. - Yes
10. No gorging pizza (2 pieces max) - Had a frozen.
12. No sleeping in (out of bed at 6am). - Slept in but didn't work.
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.) I didn't get a lot in.
15. No more caffeine abuse (2 drinks per day max). Yes
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend).
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week). Walking dead STTNG Futurama 70s show Redwall. Yeah I"m over.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by RendeR

Did Hoops just say his wife was NOT hot by proxy?

Usually I need a game of werewolf for people to try and put words in my mouth like this

[Autumn]

Well, nobody's playing werewolf, so we're spreading out.

[britrock88]

Of course, if hoops got in on your WW game, we'd be 2 away from starting.

[CrimsonFox]

I really suck at this game hoops. I need someone yelling at me or something.

[CrimsonFox]

Fails:
1. No soda.
5. No eating after 8pm.
6. No staying up late. (10p week/11p weekend) - Yes.
7. No cookies.
10. No gorging pizza (2 pieces max)
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.)
15. No more caffeine abuse (2 drinks per day max).
19. No computer addiction (no computer at home, 1 hour on weekend).
20. No television addiction (3 hours per night, 15 per week).
26. Ate some carrots every day. Probably not enough tho.
27. Made it through chapter 3 in 3 days. It was a longer chapter but that's not a good excuse to take that long. I'm somewhere into chapter 4.
28 up - failfailfail

[hoopsguy]

Planning on today being the "no soda" day - we'll see if I hold to that.
Beyond that, already failed the "out of bed by 6AM" (on a weekend, seriously?) and am a stone cold lock to miss TV on an NFL Sunday. But I could fail all 24 other items on the list this one time and consider it a success if soda stops today.

[CrimsonFox]

okay hoops I'll try to do the soda thing too. Maybe I'll just fast and eat nothing but vegetables. I'm already blowing off an audition so I'm in total "clean" mode today.

[CrimsonFox]

Hoops I did it.

I went the whole day yesterday without a single soda. PLUS I did not eat either meat or cheese, just veggies and fruit and grain (cereal/bread). Altho I did have an egg sandwich for the protein but put veggies on it too.

I now have to cut down on the TV and computer. It took me 3 days to get through chapter 3. Granted it was longer. Made it halfway through chapter 4. Today I started a different book as I couldn't find my other. Got through the forwards and some of chapter 1. Don't like it much so I jumped around to other chapters.

[Passacaglia]

Just popped over to dynasty...I'm in! I've been giving myself a pass on a lot of stuff, since the twins aren't sleeping through the night yet, but let's see how I can hang.

[Passacaglia]

Fails already today:

2. No Starbucks.
13. No skipping exercise (30 min per day cardio min.)
15. No more caffeine abuse (2 drinks per day max)

Well, I wasn't trying yet, so I don't think it really counts. I will fail #2 often, since the office I'm in now has a starbucks in it, and it's PSL time. 13 and 15 will probably also happen while I'm not getting enough sleep, too.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Hoops I did it.

I went the whole day yesterday without a single soda. PLUS I did not eat either meat or cheese, just veggies and fruit and grain (cereal/bread). Altho I did have an egg sandwich for the protein but put veggies on it too.

I now have to cut down on the TV and computer. It took me 3 days to get through chapter 3. Granted it was longer. Made it halfway through chapter 4. Today I started a different book as I couldn't find my other. Got through the forwards and some of chapter 1. Don't like it much so I jumped around to other chapters.

Awesome work! I made it through yesterday without soda, but had one mid-afternoon today. So that was about 40-45 hours - goal now is 2 days and see if I can take it further from there.

Also had significantly healthy meals today - went to do some shopping to make sure I had healthier snacks around the house. The thought there is getting more fruits/vegetables in my system, while reducing my urge to binge at lunch/dinner. We'll see how that works in practice but I think the theory is good ...

[CrimsonFox]

Yay Pass join the club!

[hoopsguy]

This week is a killer, and next week isn't looking any better. I'm doing email migrations just about every day right now - hope to get off this ride in another two weeks.

Bad habits:
1. Soda - I've made it between 36-48 hours twice, but late nights + early mornings + not quite having kicked this habit mentally are keeping me from a clean break. I would like to do this during the email marathon, but this might not go away until after I shed one of these projects in October.

2. Starbucks - I stopped there for a smoothie earlier this afternoon, which is what I do when I've had all the water I can stomach but don't want to drink a Coke. Only problem is that I had a Coke later, so double fail for me.

5. Working late at the office, and they had some cookies left out after our company function this evening. I snacked on two of those with my Coke this evening. By rule, FAIL.

6. Mail migration started at 9PM, I'm typing this at 1AM. Will be constant fail for next two weeks.

7. Cookies - see #5, which will show up as a triple fail in the scorecard by time we're done here.

8. Buy breakfast - took daughter to Donut shop after being up until 2 AM yesterday and needing to have her out of house by 6AM. In some respects, I'm glad I held out a week before breaking down on this one but overall I want to remove Dunkin Donuts from our dining options.

11. Work kitchen food - yep, cookies after 8PM. Subby would be proud of how colossally I failed on his list today.

13. No exercise today, although I've been following this one 3-4 times per week which is up from 0-1 I was at 3 weeks ago. Just not today.

23. Dunkin Donuts was a bagel, so I think I skate here although dinged on buying breakfast

25. Lunch @ Chipotle

So 9 of 25 habits broken today. Good thing I got up early or it would have been double digits.