Psychology
Not as easy as I thought!
We all say that we are going to do certain things that many of us know we are never going to get around to. In fact, I was the embodiment of the ‘I’ll start next week’ mindset. Fortunately, I’ve realised, the lifestyle I was living was so far past unhealthy it’s unreal! I would eat fast food/ pizza delivery almost every night, whether I cooked dinner or not. I’d force down up to 15 cups of sugary tea in any given day, and drink at the very least 2 litres of Coca-Cola. All of this must mean that my caffeine and sugar levels are actually damaging to myself. My own thoughts, emotions, feelings and all that can’t even get a look in as I’m so pumped up on caffeine 24/7. I didn’t even realise quite how bad I was until I started the challenge yesterday. It’s hard to spot your own misdoings, especially when health, nutrition and exercise is somewhat of an expertise of mine. So here is a quick update.
Click to read about “The Discipline Challenge“
Run Through of Day 1
I’ve officially been on this discipline experiment for 24 hours, and I have to say, I’m actually enjoying it! I did have a couple of deviations and I will explain them further down, but all in all it was a good day and, in all honesty, could not be further away from my ordinary lifestyle. This is concerning, in that three healthy meals a day should be a staple for anybody, and I struggle so much to get it down. I had to force down my breakfast (muesli) which i wouldn’t ordinarily eat at all, and then when I would usually go through almost half a loaf of bread (and whatever goes in between) at lunch time, I instead had a small bowl of rice and vegetables- Which was surprisingly pleasant, by the way. Dinner was fajitas, so probably some unwanted carbs in there but hey, I’m only human!
I started to lapse around 2.30pm, when I started to suffer possibly the worst headache of my life. It was not dehydration because I had drunk so much during the day, and it wasn’t that my sodium levels had dropped as I popped a bit of salt in my lunch to make sure. So it was down to either lack of caffeine, or lack of sugar. At around 5.30 I finally caved and had a can of coke, hoping that it would just give my body what it needed so it could finally shut the hell up and let me go on with my experiment. In the end it only helped for about half an hour, so all in all was a pointless deviation from the plan. This is to be expected. I am usually filled to the brim with sugar and caffeine, so a few withdrawals are to be expected. Like I’ve said to every body, if my head starts to hurt like that, I will have a can of coke in an attempt to top up my fallen caffeine levels, but hey, it’s no big deal if I have to slowly ween off the bad stuff. I think I’ve decided to maintain as much of this lifestyle as possible.
Thing’s I’ve Realised So Far
- I was hugely unhealthy before all of this began! That is most definitely my biggest realisation so far. And without wanting to dim the very mundane results of this experiment, a few random and very good things have started to happen to me already. Perhaps a positive outlook really does bring good things towards you?
- Caffiene and sugar are dangerous! Seriously, if something hurts you physically when you cut it out of your life, it’s probably no good for you. Besides, we all know how caffeine sends your emotions up and down, messes with your thought process and unsteadies the breathing, so I needn’t give you a science lesson.
- Healthy meals feel different while you’re eating them. Vegetables taste okay overall, if you’re prepared to force feed yourself, but during and after your meal you don’t feel anything like as stuffed, lethargic, or slow as the ordinary meals that I’m used to.
- Water tastes okay.
- Herbal tea tastes gross.
So that’s all folks! Have a great day.
Gary Vs Discipline
Firstly, welcome all to the new WitchesMIX blog! It’s taken us well too long to get to this point but there you go, sometimes the simplest things are also the hardest! Please take some time to have a look around and don’t forget to subscribe! Now on to the content!
What’s This All About?
If you look to the religions of the world, you’ll see certain disciplines that it’s members hold itself to. Some catholics remain celibate, or don’t use any swear words, Buddhists may meditate daily, Monks may exercise religiously, eat clean diets, and refrain from all ‘distractions’ of humanity, all in order to reach their individual spiritual goals. What this post is about is how much of our spirituality is reliant on a code of discipline. Does what we eat have anything to do with our spiritual progress? Does our indulgent behaviour impact our meditations? A lot of people would say yes, many people would also say no. The whole message of WitchesMIX is to find out for yourself, and so that is exactly what we are doing!
I (Gary) am going to spend two weeks following a strict routine in an attempt to discover how these efforts will affect my spirituality. I will be posting here, releasing videos, and using our social media accounts to document my thoughts, feelings and various little tidbits such as recipes and workouts, all in order to satisfy my own curiosity about the power of discipline. I’ll run through exactly what I will be doing below, but what I’d really like to happen is to see members of the community try this, or something similar, with me. We could talk through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube videos and comments about our own findings, and encourage each other to keep up the hard work.
What I Think Will Happen
I believe that my physical and mental health will improve greatly, such a thing goes without saying, but alongside that, I believe that my ability to understand my own feelings and emotions will heighten. I also think that critical thinking and sudden glimpses of wisdom will improve somewhat. I’m not sure to what extent any of this actually will happen due to my small time-frame of two weeks, but if I feel good at the end of it, I will be carrying on the lifestyle. I like to think that at the very least, the fact that I’ve come away from caffeine and sugar, means that my moods, emotions and so on will regulate themselves to an extent that I’ve not yet experienced. I’m very excited and have high hopes for the results. As always however, I will remain as unbiased as possible when reporting my findings and posting my updates.
The Promises
- Absolutely no processed foods. This includes packeted spice mixes and sauces. I will prepare and cook from fresh all breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
- Limit my caffeine and refined sugar to a realistic amount. No more Coca-Cola, or fizzy drinks. One cup of tea with one sugar in the morning. That’s it! The rest of the day will be water, and if I fancy something hot, a herbal tea without milk or sugar.
- Bed at 10.00PM, wakeup at 6.00AM. No naps in-between.
- Meditate for twenty minutes daily.
- Cigarettes will be cut to one an hour at the earliest.
- A workout will be completed every single day, without fail. Typical ‘rest’ days will be filled in with stretch routines.
- I’m married with a child, sexual over indulgence is not on my list of things to worry about… But without being too personal, the ability to leave myself alone could be refined a little.
- Do not act out of any typically ‘negative’ emotions. Compose myself in times of anger, ignorance, or depression. If something has genuinely angered me, or triggered my depressive nature, I will stay calm and talk about the situation.
- I will not swear. If one slips out, I must perform 10 push-ups, on my knuckles, without fail. (This is a tough one for me, hence the punishment to force myself to remember.)
- I will read, every single day, fact or fiction, for twenty minutes. Keep the brain sharp!
What if nothing changes?
After all of the above for two whole weeks, no changes must be impossible. But supposing I don’t have any notable changes at all I will report as such. There will be nothing but honesty in my updates, and so if I notice that my spirituality has not changed in anyway, I will unfortunately have to report that discipline does not effect MY spirituality. This does not talk for everyone else in the world, of course.
So, I hope some of you get involved with this, and genuinely, I’m feeling quite excited and pretty hopeful. I’m expecting some pretty great changes in myself be they spiritual or otherwise, and I look forward to telling you all about it! Oh, and welcome to WitchesMIX HQ!
Thanks for reading, Gary signing off.
witchesmix 