Challenges

Hey,
I once found a thread here where people tracked their progress in other challenges they took up (like exchanging habits - losing one habit, gaining another).

But I couldn't find it anymore.

So I hope it's okay if I start tracking my progress here. If anyone knows the thread I'm talking about, I can just continue there and delete this thread.

Besides NoFap sept, I'm going to go for ways to avoid procrastinating on the reaaally procrastinaty pages on the internet. For me, they're imgur and Cracked. And Facebook - not as a messaging and communication tool, but as a newsfeed oogling procrastination tool.

So, here's for:

NoFap - 0/30
NoProc - 0/30

I'm aware that "losing a habit, gaining a habit" includes, you know, gaining habits. So maybe I should add something.

So I'm gonna add:
25 pages of any book (with no "I did 50, so I won't tomorrow"-mentality)

Reading 25 pages - 0/30.

 

NoFap - 1/30
NoProcrast - 1/30 (this is iffy - I did at some points go to Facebook to check my messages and scrolled a bit. But held off each time, so...)
25 pages - 1/30 (actually 24 - started too late and got to 24th, but the missus put the lights off and didn't feel like the last page warranted a "I'm going to go to the other room to read"-situation)

Yesterday, I noticed I'd unknowingly also decided to add one.
NoSugar - 1/30

As in I was in the mall and felt like avoiding too sugary stuff should also come with the nofap-and-trying-to-be-a-better-man-package. As in stuff that has bundles of sugar - soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolate bars, cakes, cookies, ice cream. I've a "never decided not to"-situation with that as well, but what the hell, let's do a month of that.
I've never been much of a soft drink consumer either way - but I do eat more candy than would be good for me. I sometimes go to the store to specifically buy a small bucket of ice cream (500 ml, nothing too big) and a packet of cookies. I then use the cookies as a spoon for the ice cream. Even now, as I write, I have mixed feelings - it seems kind of disgustingly self-indulgent and at the same time my mouth is watering. So yeah, I'm just going to avoid stuff like that for a month.
(Though the sugar one isn't a "do-not-or-die"-issue for me. If I relapse on that, for instance because of my anniversary with my fiancee (5th year this sept) and she buys me cake or sth, or some other similar situation, I'm not going to feel like it's all futile anyway.)

So basically, I'm just trying to avoid the overly self-indulgent endorphin sources. I'll probably not add smoking to the list - it's not a hindrance to productivity like the others seem to me.

 

I've not written, but no matter.

NoFap - 7/30 (this is getting harder. The "ah, why not just... take a peek at some porn?"-impulse is sometimes strong.)
NoProcrast - 7/30 (still iffy - I should've made this harsher, not just doing a ban on Cracked and Imgur. But still)
NoSugar - 7/30 (GF made a big deal out of it. I've always been a sweet tooth, which means being at my future-mother-in-law's place and not eating the most cake among the family was quite noticeable.)

25pages/day - I'm just lost on this. The 800 page book I'm reading ("Book of Memories" by Peter Nadas) is quite a chore, with every page being a kind of an uphill battle - until you really get in the mood. But it's a bit of work to get there. So I took a Haruki Murakami book as a sidedish. He's good, but never really challenging. So, 250 pages in a few days, not reading Nadas. But I do feel like I cheated. I'm think I'm going to start again.
So, 25 pages of Nadas - 1/20 (500 pages to go).

Among these, NoFap and NoSugar have been the hardest. Weirdly, NoSugar has been even more noticeable - I work at a store, so having a few bagel rolls to keep yourself going has been a habit. Bananas and apples aren't quite the same. I've gone to hot dogs.

Noticing an impact: When I was in school, I had a quick temper. This is back. I get annoyed quicker. I wonder if it's something that'll mellow out in time or I just have to work with it.

 

Hey,
it's me again, barging here with my lonesome thread. Or reporting on my progress. It's not really a part of any discussion, but I'll just continue doing these for my own sake.

NoSugar -12/30
My throat is sore, so I'm eating honey, but that's for medicinal reasons. It was mainly about not indulging in random sweets. Though I did a snack that's quite off-limits - a rice cake (no sugar) with peanut butter and honey mixed on top of it. In this case the honey was not medicinal. After a few of these I felt like this isn't really... kosher. Not a processed sugar, but too sweet a snack anyways. So I stopped eating those.)

NoFap - 12/30
The urge isn't all-encompassing, it's more like a silent lurker. Like a "hey, it won't matter either way, so why not" or sth. I'm noticing my sex drive going down. I'm becoming a less sexual being. Which is probably a good thing - no need for the constant obsession of sex.

The thing about more energy is true. There's also much more motivation. As most people have already written before: is this what life could've been like all these years? I'm quite annoyed at myself for not taking this challenge before. I feel like a much better person.

Some people'd written that your voice gets lower when you stop PMO. I haven't noticed that yet, but I'll give it time. My throat has been quite iffy for a week or so - I'd considered the possibility that it's because of my voice becoming lower. I'm not sure, but I'll be able to tell when my throat is in full health.

NoProcrastination - 12/30 (so this still only means no Cracked.com and no imgur for me. But I should make it much harsher. I sometimes scroll facebook for a bit, but compared to the hours spent on imgur that's nothing. But it might've been that the hours on imgur were because of the tiredness after masturbating and feeling no motivation to do anything else anyway.)

25 pages/day - 3/30 (once I get to 25, it's easy to just keep going. I'm going for 70 pages today (2 chapters). It's a good way to practice concentration - with sentences that fill a few pages etc.)
I dunno what book I'm gonna take on next. It's said that habits take a month to take root.