Tag: four weeks

Thirtydays no social media

1/19/24

It’s been three weeks and how do I feel? Well, not seeing updates from friends and family is hard. Not that I am a super social person but I guess Facebook and Instagram are like social outings for me. A get together online with friends with no actual physical contact. You get to see what is going on with friends and family that live out of town/state. Which could be construed as lurking lol but it makes me feel somewhat connected.

I have replaced doom scrolling with reading my Kindle, some crocheting of potholders and a little bit of room organization. I’m not normally a big television fan but I did get sucked into a few series like Izombie and The 100.

When my thirtydays are up what will I do? Jump right back into the thick of social media or continue to take a step back? Maybe with a few ground rules?

I feel like I have been sleeping better. Probably due to the lack of blue light. Even though my iPad changed to night mode in the evening I don’t think my mind stopped when I would try to fall asleep.

Welp, only one more week to go🤞🏽

Thirtydays 2021 recap

Well, and just like that. 2021 is one and done. I guess that should have been my new year’s resolution. Blog for a whole year. I’m actually kind of proud of myself for sticking to it. I think I’m going to print it out so I can read it beginning to end.

So, recap. I’m a little late with this. I quit the gym for a couple of months and I found that was when I blogged the most. So, back at the gym and back to the blog. How do I blog and workout at the same time? Well, my favorite machine is the ARC trainer. It’s just like an elliptical but no arms so that leaves my hands free to type on my phone. Lol helps with my balance too!

Twelve 30 day goals.

1. No online shopping

2. No candy/chocolate

3. Shop small

4. The Purge

5. Green drinks

6. No snooze

7. 64oz water

8. Trash less

9. Trash less 2.0

10. No social media

11. Anti-inflammatory diet

12. Bullet journal

Favorite thirtydays?

It would have to be trash less. I learned a lot about my garbage habits and how I look at packaging of the stuff I purchase. I am still using the un-paper towels and handkerchiefs. I rarely use paper plates and disposable silverware. I bring my reusable shopping and produce bags when shopping. I still use the composter for food garbage.

I cringe with every piece of garbage I put in the trashcan. I wrack my brain on how I can reuse it. I know, by keeping it kind of goes against my second favorite thirtydays.

The Purge. It was very freeing donating bags of stuff that I knew I would never use. I didn’t do the Marie Kondo method, holding it while asking myself if it brought me joy🙄. Nope, I held it up and asked myself how much would it cost me to replace it. Pretty much all of it was minimal dollars except the stuff that had sentimental value. I’m still going through the house now. Someday it will be cleaned out.

Hardest thirtydays?

Has to be the no social media. I don’t really consider myself a social person but social media makes it easy to be social while not in person. You can connect with people near or far with a post, message or a like on their page. Covid kind of cut off the in person meet ups so I think for some it was a needed interaction. I gravitated more towards Instagram because of no politics, just fun stuff. Reddit is my second favorite. Just a forum you can talk to others with similar interests. There is some political stuff but not as much as Facebook and Twitter. They have really gotten more about politics and advertisements which I find annoying but some of my friends only use those venues so I can’t dump them. Tiktok is probably the worst. Laying in bed, swiping through video after video while not realizing an hour or three has passed. I did learn some stuff about plants and iPhone tips but was it really worth it?

Easiest thirtydays?

Had to be the 64 Oz of water per day. I found I drink twice that a day. I love water. Room temperature, not cold or with ice. Just gulpable, sitting out on the counter, water lol.

Which thirtydays have I kicked to the curb?

No snooze. That one was impossible. I am not going to lie. I’m not a morning person. My alarm is set for 6am and most days I make it out of bed by 7am if I’m lucky. Maybe I need to go back east for a month so when I get back I’m used to getting up at 3am 😂

The bullet journal was tough. I live a pretty boring life so the daily bullets were hard to find something interesting to write about. I still keep a bullet journal but it’s just a recap of the month or if something exciting happens.

I am sad that this blog is over but I think a foxpartyofone trip may be in my future. Stay tuned😊

Thirtydays

Anti inflammatory diet

No social media- done. I woke up this morning and contemplated what apps to re-load.

1. Instagram yes. No politics.

2. Facebook yes. There are a couple of my friends not on Instagram and I like to see what they are up to plus I am an admin for my Lions Club page.

3. Reddit yes. I feel like that is more about discussion threads. You can choose to talk politics or not.

4. YouTube yes. The how to videos are needed lol.

5. Tiktok no. It was too easy to scroll through video after video and have two hours disappear.

6. Pinterest yes. More about getting ideas and info on things I am interested in.

It only took about 45 minutes to download the apps and catch up on what everybody was up to. I think I will limit myself to checking them once a day and max of an hour or maybe just weekends. I just don’t want to fall back into any old habits.

On to my anti inflammatory diet. For those of you who don’t know me and what I typically eat during the day. Here is the short list.

Breakfast :

Green drink. Power greens, orange juice, flax, chia, hemp hearts and blueberries.

That’s good but it’s all downhill from there.

Lunch:

I am the queen of easy. If I just have to open a package of anything, I’m good. So, pepperoni, cheese, lunch meat, hard salami, crackers, peanut butter and bananas. Those are all my fast foods lol. The peanut butter and bananas are the only healthy items.

Dinner:

Precooked hamburgers and a can of green beans. A bowl of cereal/granola. A cup of instant mashed potatoes. Mac n cheese. Chips and cheese.

Baby steps. There is no way I can change everything. The list is way too long. I will start with a few things at a time.

Stay tuned for the list and me luck 🤞🏽

Thirtydays

No social media

This has definitely been one of the longest and most difficult thirtydays of 2021. You don’t realize how much you look at social media until you can’t. I did replace some of that time wasted with the television lol but not a lot.

In addition to no social media I also quit my smart watch. It may have been all in my head but every time I wore it my wrist hurt. The last straw was when I got back from a week of camping and not wearing it. I put it on for work Monday and by ten o’clock my wrist was throbbing and it had worn off three small round dots of my suntan where the watch sensors were sitting. When you think about it, is it really good to have the equivalent of a cell phone sitting on your arm? I did miss the voice to text feature and the find cell phone beeper but I’m sure there is a work around for that lol.

The after effects of no social media. Call me crazy but I feel like my mind is a little sharper. I am always misplacing something and last night I lost my phone somewhere in the house and I actually remembered where I set it down! That never happens lol.

So, the next thirtydays? I will be following an anti-inflammatory diet. That entails more vegetables and less processed foods. I. May. Die. Lol. Wish me luck 🤞🏽

Thirtydays

no social media

I seem to be finding a lot to do without social media. Cleaning, organizing, getting hooked on “Survivor” again, driving 75 miles to drop off my dog for a sleepover with my grandson lol.

Coincidently, Facebook was down. One of my coworker was silently going insane not knowing if she forgot her password or something was wrong with her phone. She later found out about the outage.

I’m finding there are times that social media is useful. YouTube. I was looking up how to reseat a toilet on the internet and most of the videos direct you to YouTube. I finally found one that was just on a website.

I watched my grandson get his next belt in karate. I took pictures but since this thirtydays is still going on I couldn’t post anything. Same with the Aftershock trip. I think that’s what social media is for me. A timeline of what has gone on in my life. Before, there was film cameras or my memory. Both of those lacking lol. Film, you took a picture and then when you remembered you take it in to get developed. Fingers crossed that the photos came out in focus and it wasn’t a roll from two years ago. My memory, lol, most things are written down on calendars but unless I keep them forever they are gone.

Only seven more days lol. At this point I don’t know what I will re-install. 🤞🏽

Thirtydays

No social media

Day one. I woke up and reached for my phone. Usually I lay in bed, thumbing through social media pages, watching videos and seeing everyone’s updates. I will admit an hour will go by after the alarm goes off but not this morning. I go through my phone and my tablet and delete all the social apps. Hmm. Well I might as well get out of bed lol. So right off the bat I am way more productive than yesterday 😁

It’s interesting how many times I reached for my phone today only to put it back down. Social media is like a drug. I’m not really feeling any withdrawal symptoms at this point. I just have noticed how much I am connected to it.

Day two. Same morning as yesterday. I got out of bed. Ate breakfast while reading…..wait for it…a magazine lol. Consumer reports has an article about how to quit plastic. It makes me cringe even more thinking how much plastic I have thrown out in the past. Oh well got to start somewhere.

Day three. I got several emails from Facebook. Telling me that one of my friends posted a picture or a video. Weird coincidence, big brother or? And this didn’t happen just one time either. Four so far. I had deleted all of the apps so I don’t know how or why I am being tracked but it just started doing it this month. Creepy.

So, don’t judge me but I calculated out how much time I spent on social media and it came out to around four hours a day. That’s a low number. That is 120 hours per month. Five days worth. All wasted doing nothing. I am totally disgusted with myself. I think about how quickly time passes and I wasted hours when I could be doing something productive? I don’t want to wake up, old, and say, “where did the time go”. That scares me.

I feel like this can of worms is not getting closed up at the end of the month.

Wish me luck🤞🏽

Thirtydays

Trash less cont…

Well, that’s a wrap on thirtydays trash less. I’ m confident I can stick to this one. How do I know? When shopping I take into consideration the packaging, I cringe with every piece of trash I put into the garbage can, I am excited to fill up my compost bin and I have learned different ways to reuse items I thought were useless.

Now on to October.

So. Social media. Love to hate. Hate to love. Love to see pics and updates on friends. Hate to see all the political b.s. I don’t care who you voted for, whether you did or didn’t get the vaccine, how many people were wearing a mask at the grocery store or what news channel you subscribe to. Honestly it stresses me out. Plus I seem to waste a ton of time watching videos. I’ll admit some of them are educational and funny but I could be doing more productive things.

This month’s thirtydays is going to be no social media. None. Zero. Zip. No laying on the couch, in bed or sitting in my car mindlessly scrolling through content. Maybe I will actually get stuff done lol.

Definition of social media: internet based communication that facilitates the sharing of thoughts and interests to others.

This include: Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Tiktok, Pinterest and YouTube. Technically WordPress but I will need that for the blog.

I may die lol.

Wish me luck🤞🏽

Thirtydays

Trash less continued

It’s already the 23rd of September and I havent blogged my next thirtydays 😲 oh well, better late than never lol.

This thirtydays ended up being a continuation of last month. We went camping at Loon Lake the 6th thru the 12th and I really dedicated myself to reducing waste on that trip. No paper plates, paper towels or plastic silverware. I brought my un-paper towels. I had already purchased dishes and silverware for the camper. I pre-cooked dinners and put them into reusable containers. I used my orange juice containers and filled them with filtered water for us and the dogs. We ended up with only one small garbage can of trash at the end of the week so I think it was a success.

Twice I went to the grocery store and forgot my bags in the car. I did not allow myself the luxury of purchasing a store bag. The first one I asked the clerk to set the items at the end of her counter and I would come right back in and bag them up. Luckily there was no one in line after me. She did give me a look though 😂 the second store I didn’t purchase that many items so I did a balancing act on the way out of the store lol. It was quite a sight.

I am confident I can stick to this one.

Thirtydays

Trash less

This thirtydays is coming to an end but I wanted to share a few things I have done so far.

Shred trash. I put some around the base of my bushes, added rock on top and around the edges. I’m excited to see how this goes next spring. I’m hopeful it will keep some of the grass from poking through.

Coffee grounds and egg shells. I read on the internet that if you dry them out and then grind them up in the blender you can use it for plant food. It came out perfectly. Now to sprinkle some on my plants.

I bought some reusable produce bags. Five for $3.00. I think they are going to be much easier to open up in the store. Lol, no more licking my fingers. Just kidding. I just need to remember to bring them with me.

Orange juice. Well, I usually put this in my green drink in the morning. My daughter, Krystal, convinced me to just use oranges. There is no way I can squeeze enough oranges to equal what I normally use so I will supplement with water. I couldn’t find any regular ones at the grocery store so I settled on tangelos. They were easy to peel and the peelings went into compost. I also got lemons and I’ll put a couple of slices in with it. Those were NOT easy to peel. Lol.

Overall I think this thirtydays was a win. I was able to reduce what was going into my garbage can and I found new ways to reuse and recycle some of it too. I think it made me more conscious of what I was buying and how it was packaged.

Stay tuned for September’s thirtydays 😁

Thirtydays

Trash less

Reduce/reuse/recycle

Wow. This thirtydays is going to kill me. What started out with reducing the amount of garbage in my can has grown into me questioning everything I use. I probably should stay off the internet. Plastics, global warming, fires and covid has kinda pushed me over the edge. That said, I know I am just one person but I hope to make my footprint a tiny bit smaller.

Plastic is my enemy. From now on I will try to purchase things that are wrapped in paper. Like toilet paper. Instead of the giant pack that is double encased in plastic wrap I will opt for the individual rolls that are in a cardboard box. It may not be name brand but every little bit helps.

Plastic orange juice containers. I have a three pack left. I use it in my green drinks in the morning. (That’s one thirtydays I have been able to stick to). The next time I need to get some I will buy it in the cardboard containers. I will save them to use for water in the camp trailer. So they won’t be going into the trash lol.

Shred garbage. I found a few ways to reuse this. Fire starters for camping. Stuff into toilet paper rolls along with dryer lint. Easy way to start a campfire. You can also put it around plants/trees and mix it in with bark mulch.

I finally got the composter. It came in a million pieces so I had my son in law put it together. Thanks Randy! I also got a cute tiny compost can to put kitchen waste in. Right now the contents of the composter is mostly eggshells, lettuce, egg cartons, banana peels and onions. Hmmm, what does that say about my diet lol.

Only a few days left to this thirtydays but I think this one I will continue 👍🏽