I’m pleased to report full success after my first 24 hours of fasting (from one breakfast to another). I slept a good night’s sleep, and wasn’t even hungry at all when I woke up; in fact, much like during the rest of my breakfast trial, I ate because I had decided to, not because I felt like it or wanted any of it. I believe I could have easily fasted for another 24 hours, if I wanted to.

Breakfast was a scrambled egg with cheese. As always, it tasted good, but it was as if my body was asking me: “why are you eating so early? I’m not hungry!”.

Exercise was, again, the usual, light stuff: Wii Fit jogging and hula hoops.

Weight: 80.1 kg, which means I lost 1.1 kg since yesterday. Not bad, not bad at all. This gives me a BMI of exactly 25.0, which is the threshold for being “overweight”; 24.9 already means “normal”. Of course (as I see some angry girls coming at me with knives), weight loss is not my goal, it’s just an easy measure of part of it; I’m still far from “athletic”. I need to find a way to exercise more, too.

I’ll be eating normally today and during the weekend, but I plan to fast again next Tuesday and Thursday. As I said last post, after hearing so many horror stories, I was surprised by how easy it was. Maybe the fact that I’ve skipped breakfast and afternoon tea for years has made my body not “panic” by the slightest sensation of hunger, like many of the “6 meals a day” people seem to do. Plus, having the equivalent of 27-hour days twice a week is nice.

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Nope. Been there, done that. In the early 2000s, while I wouldn’t call myself an addict, I averaged about 4-5 cups of coffee a day. The fact that there was a (free) coffee machine at the offices where I worked make “going for a coffee” a frequently desirable rest; besides, I enjoyed the taste (and still do).

It had its price, though. If I spent about 24 hours without any caffeine, I would have the mother of all headaches. Dizziness and nausea, too. I was addicted – not “dangerously”, like one can become to alcohol or drugs, but, still, my body was dependent on caffeine to work properly.

What changed? Honestly, I didn’t even notice when it happened, but for the last couple of jobs I’ve had, there has been no coffee machine in the office. Also, I didn’t really make any friends in either of those jobs, removing the “hey, wanna go for a coffee?” hard-to-refuse frequent invitations I used to have. So, these days I only drink coffee 1) in the morning, with soy milk, and 2) after a meal in a restaurant (not at home). My daily average, then, is currently one cup, since due to lack of money (among other things) I don’t go to restaurants as often as I did in the past. And I really don’t miss any more; unlike many, I’m not one of those “don’t talk to me now; I need a cup of coffee before my brain wakes up” people.

So, no, coffee isn’t a problem, though it’s still a small part of my life.

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Could certainly be worse, but there is a huge room for improvement.

Like many parts of my life, my habits are chaotic, though there is a kind of pattern to them. There is no scheduling, no timetable, no planning in my life; all my attempts in the past to organize my time have met with failure. I can plan my time ahead “informally” (say, work these hours, then lunch with that person at that time, then work a few more hours, then have dinner, then…), but I have never been able to plan work. I know the theory, but I have never been successful in implementing it. This probably makes me more inefficient than I imagine.

I have a huge curiosity, and love learning. Both of those traits are great, but not when I’m late for something and “I just have to read this first” (e.g. a Wikipedia article, a TVTropes page, and a link I follow from that, and…). Almost every time I’m late to meet someone is because I found something fascinating five minutes before the time I should be leaving home.

I love to drink alcohol and to be slightly “tipsy”, as I mentioned before, and this too can easily become a habit that’s hard to break. Not in the sense of “I really need a drink” alcoholism, but in the sense that, for instance, wine is associated in my mind with the concept of “a decent meal”, vodka and gin with “going out”, and even singing in Rock Band becomes easier, more natural and more fun after a few drinks. Not to mention, of course, social situations: they become so incredibly more natural with some alcohol inside of me, that I almost feel like a robot if I have to go through one completely sober. In short, “fun”, to me, is associated with, and virtually requires, the ingestion of booze. Especial the “social” kind of fun. This is, of course, not a good thing, and can even lead to something much worse: the dreaded “A” word.

I have a lot of trouble getting up early (as in before 9 AM), to the point that I don’t even attempt to do so anymore. I’m lucky (am I?) that my current job allows me to arrive in mid-morning (provided I leave later than most, of course), but this is a lack of discipline and “good habits” that should be dealt with.

I spend virtually zero time tidying up my home. If I didn’t have a housekeeper (one morning a week), you couldn’t probably even walk in there. Not only are cleaning up and tidying up among the most boring activities I can imagine, I’m also – as you probably know by now – lazy.

I have trouble not eating the whole contents of the plate when eating, even if I’m satisfied or even full already. This comes from the education I had as a child (“no getting up with food still on the plate”), which has instilled in me a dread about wasting food; this habit served me well when I was a kid, but nowadays it makes me eat too much most of the time.

I spend very little time with my pets, who certainly deserve a lot better.

One good thing: I have a better-than-average sense of hygiene. Not like an obsessive-compulsive, of course, but a little better than an average person. I really hate feeling dirty, and let’s say I have a very, very good sense of smell.

Goals:

To add some responsibility and maturity to my habits.

To become an early riser – including during the weekends. Not only does that make the days “longer”, but it’s a healthy habit that also improves self-discipline.

To reduce drinking – both in amounts, and in frequency. But, more importantly, to solve the underlying problem; that is, I need, no matter what, to be able to not only deal with social situations when perfectly sober, but also to thrive on them. This involves both dealing with my shyness, and becoming more accepting and open-minded about other people – even the ones who initially seem to be complete and utter morons. It will also involve a lot of practice, as for the last few years all of my experience in those situations was with the help of Mr. Wine. It will be, in a way, almost like a child leaving his mother’s wing, and dealing with the harsh world on his own.

My pets certainly deserve more attention; not only are they my responsibility, they’re also a part of the “family”.

And, of course, I need to do something about my home. Not all at once, of course (it would be physically impossible, anyway), but I should ensure that every week my home is more tidied up than the last. And this can’t be done without spending some time at it.

I must learn that not eating everything in front of me is not a “sin”. This will imply conscious effort, like when breaking any other bad habit.

Oh, and I need to start washing the dishes after every meal.  Really.

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