30-day trials, take 3: The results
I had two running 30-day trials that ended not so long ago.
30-day trial: No sugar
This one ended on tuesday 6:th of november. I’ve done similar trials in the past. And each time the craving for sugar had almost vanished, and each time I started eating a lot of sugar immediately after the trial ended. This time was no exception. I did like how my body felt when it wasn’t flooded with extra sugar, and I didn’t like how it felt when I had eaten almost 3/4 of a chocolate cake (which contained 500 g chocolate, 125 g butter, 3 dl cream and 250 g marzipan) in one go. But it was delicious… cake… chocolate… 
So, what have I learned from this trial? I’ve learned that I don’t have any problems staying off sugar and sugary products for prolonged periods of time, but I have a real hard time just eating a moderate amount when I do eat it! The solution seems to be to stay away from sugar forever. One that I’ve recentrly started to seriously concider.
30-day trial: Going to bed at 10 pm
This one ended on tuesday 13:th of november. This was a good one! I got much more sleep, I woke up refreshed, early and I had more energy during the day. I didn’t have any problems getting up at 6 am and going to the gym before work, something that was a gargantuan task the days I went to bed after 12 pm!
Most of my negative internal dialogue is centered around me bashing myself for not going to bed in time. This one eliminiated all the bashing! No more internal headache.
I liked to go to bed at 10 pm, but it didn’t do wonders to my social life. I chose not to go to aikido practice, and seldom felt like engaging in some kind of activity when I got home from work. It felt like I didn’t really have time for it. I had about 4 hours to socialize before I had to start getting ready for bed, which I did around 9.20 pm.
I was left with a result I liked, but with the cost of feeling like I had no time to spend after getting home from work. Damit! The hard part of this trial is to find a way to utilise the things I have learned in my everyday life. I’m still not sure how I’m going to do it.
Since monday 19 of november I’ve started a new trial. I call it Super 30-day trial. More about that later.
Jenny J wrote,
Now I’m curious about that new trial.
And while I agree that going to bed early makes it hard to stay up late and do stuff, perhaps you can do a half way thing and go to bed at 23? An hour later than 22 but still an hour earlier than midnight, which might still have the benifits but not the high cost?
November 23rd 2007 at 09:36 (9:36 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.9 on 
Windows Server 2003
Mika Perälä wrote,
That’s a very good idea! And actually part of my Super 30-day trial
You must be psychic! 
November 23rd 2007 at 17:55 (5:55 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.9 on 
Windows XP
Peter wrote,
Is it some kind of Japanese trial? The name kind of suggests it. Or perhaps it should then be called, “Super happy fun 30-day super-happy trial”.
November 24th 2007 at 11:46 (11:46 am) — Using
OmniWeb on 
MacOS X
JenEriC wrote,
You should also try to have short social events; do dinner together and call it a nigth at 21, as an example. When I and my friends were younger, we had long roleplaying sessions, starting say 18 and ending at 2 or three in the morning. Novadays we manage to have sessions lasting 2-3 hours, and still being fun and worth the time.
November 25th 2007 at 00:48 (12:48 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.9 on 
Windows XP
Mhwc wrote,
Well, Mika, all you have to do is pick friends to socialise with BEFORE work, people who get up at 0600 (or earlier!). See you at the gum at 0630?
November 25th 2007 at 21:50 (9:50 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.4 on 
Linux
Mika Perälä wrote,
Peter:
Yep! That’s the kind I’m doing! Tomorrow I’ll be wearing only diapers.
Jens: I could perhaps do them, but I’m not inclined towards short social gatherings. I feel a huge resistance just to think about transporting myself somewhere and being there just 1-2 hours and then heading back home again. It might perhaps lessen if I tried it out. But that’ll be for some other day
Mhwc:
Of course! That’s a very good solution! But I’m usually at the gym at 7-7.15 because I do a morning routine that takes a minimum of 40 minutes and I get up around 6 (the mornings I go to the gym).
November 29th 2007 at 10:51 (10:51 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.10 on 
Windows XP
MW wrote,
Oooo… Looking forward to hearing more about the trial! I’m doing the more chaotic version of your staying up trial, since I have no hard times I need to keep at all right now… Which in turn means that I’m pretty much sleeping at any and every time these days! I hope I’ll manage to keep awake until 22 today… We’ll see how it goes.
My blog is up again, by the way! I know we talked about it yesterday, but now you have the link as well. =) Unfortunately I haven’t been able to restore all my old posts yet… That might be happening eventually though. It’s harder since I’m not using wordpress anymore, I have to extract all the stuff out of the database manually, so we’ll see. Funnily enough, my fourth blog post managed to get me Django
, with like 500 visits in one day! So now my visitor stats will loke like: ___________/\____ for the next month or so. Ah, well!
December 11th 2007 at 17:55 (5:55 pm) — Using
Safari 523.10 on 
MacOS X
Mika Perälä wrote,
Hehe! I’ll be writing a post about the Super 30-day trial soon
Yay! A new blog to add to my Google reader! Wuhuu! And I have to look up Django one of these days
December 15th 2007 at 16:01 (4:01 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0.0.11 on 
Windows XP