(Sometimes Sarah is a Perth gal with a weight loss goal of over 60 kg who’ll be sharing the good, the bad and the sometimes painful on her own weight loss and fitness journey.)
I decided to experiment with a week without TV. I watch a lot of TV series and it’s a really easy go to. Come home from work, need a zone out, flick on the latest episode.
When I have a complete series in my hands I can consume it like a junk food binge. It’s the equivalent of a packet of chips, blocks of chocolate and a tub of ice cream washed down with soft drink in a marathon which lasts hours.
So, the first step is admitting you have a problem. Hmmm…I think I might. How am I going to fix it?
The other thing which was weighing on my mind was that I had things around the house which need attending to and I can so very easily ignore them in favour of gobbling down the show du jour. Also, I wanted to achieve some other things with the hours between getting home from work and going to bed.
So I kicked off my non-watching week on a Sunday by unplugging the TV. By Wednesday I was jonesing for something on the screen. I held out ‘til Thursday before deciding to catch up on a couple of shows I like.
Over those few nights while I did feel a bit like I wanted to watch some shows, instead I read more, answered some long overdue emails, wrote more, did a couple of jobs which had been waiting patiently and ate at the dining table rather than on the couch.
On the downside, the night I hooked up with my TV again I stayed up too late. That led to me not getting up early for my morning exercise on Friday. I went to work feeling flat, missed being the recipient of those morning endorphins and made an average lunch choice because I didn’t pack anything.
This little experiment proved to me my TV consumption is something I have to keep an eye on because it can easily throw off both my exercise and eating.
Now I’m seriously thinking it’s time to leave the TV watching to the weekends and use my weeknights to be more productive on other fronts.
A note from Caitlin:
It’s a great idea to start being consciously aware of how much time you are spending in front of “the box”. An interesting article I remember reading a while ago discussed the fact that as human beings our bodies are designed to be active when our minds are active. Sitting idle is front of the TV is an example when our minds are active and being stimulated yet there is complete inactivity through the physical body. We spend more hours than ever at the desk and even with the increase popularity of standing desks to try and counter some of the effects of sitting work stations some of our clients have worn step counters and have taken a mere 200 steps in a whole day when most people should be aiming for 10000!! Stay active for at least 30 minutes a day. Avoid walking in the door from work and switching on the TV to shut down. If you do need to shut down for a while, do something good for your health, try some form of meditation. The benefits exceed 1000 fold those of mindless TV watching. Don’t forget to get outside and enjoy these longer days, take some time to pause and breath, stimulate your mind and read, write, draw, meet new people. Stay active, try and avoid the mindless body shut down at least MOST days. That is living!!