No TV for a week - Jared Gustafson

No TV for a Week

                      For this past week, I made a promise to myself to not watch any television for an entire week. This is difficult for me because I tend to watch it whenever I have down time during my day. Television is a very important part of my day, so I decided to challenge myself and see if I could do it for a whole week. This challenge scared me, but I was also excited because it was a change that needed to happen. I was also very curious as to if my habits would change after this week, or at least limit the endless hours that I have spent in front of a TV. Another reason I decided this was because when I am just watching TV without doing anything, I tend to eat anything in sight because I am just bored. This has impacted me negatively in a variety of different ways. First, the obvious changed, that being my physical health. I have never been the strongest person, but after the first half of my first semester of college, my lifting ability has decreased dramatically. This isn’t the only negative effect of this television addiction, as my running ability has taken a massive hit as well. I used to be able to run long distances with no problem and no concerns about my health, but when I started this experiment, I was barely able to walk, swiftly, to class without being out of breath. This bothered me quite a bit, so I figured this assignment was a good time for a change.

            It was tough to get started, as I have built up a terrible habit. I sat around with nothing to do, bored out of my mind. So, I decided to do my homework after class. My classes on Monday were over at 12, so I was basically planning on doing homework from 12-9 at night with a couple breaks for lunch and dinner. As you could probably guess, this didn’t end like I had initially planned. I quickly lost motivation and resorted to playing games on my phone. This wasn’t much better than watching TV, as an IPhone is basically a portable TV in most aspects. My first day of the experiment was a failure, I knew I had some changes to make already.

            For the next day, I had some changes to make and had to get creative with it. As my initial reasons to quit TV was to get in shape, I decided to make a couple trips to the Rec when I wasn’t busy with school or work. Shockingly for me, this ended very well and I made two trips to the Rec Center, one for lifting weights and one to play basketball. They both didn’t last very long because I had lost all of my athletic ability and endurance. I could hardly make it down and back on a dead sprint while playing basketball. I was still happy with this because it was an improvement of Monday’s horrible efforts.

            Wednesday came around and I had virtually the same schedule of classes as Monday. I did not want to have a repeat of that day though. So, my changes had to be made and stuck with. I also did not want to have the same Rec schedule as I did on Tuesday. So, I decided to go on a long distance run and build up my endurance. This turned out even better than my exercise time the previous day, as I pushed myself to keep going until I could not go any longer. In addition to exercise, I also tried to limit my unhealthy snacks that I would eat just because I was bored. I never really got bored, but when I did I tried to eat more healthy snacks, like a granola bar or an apple.

            On Thursday, I had an extremely rough day, as I was sore from my athletic activities the two nights before. I could tell my body wasn’t used to this and all I wanted to do was sit in my room and watch TV. On the other hand, I knew I couldn’t because I had my mind set on this experiment. I had to keep going and finish strong and only could if I kept telling myself that there is only two days left and it would be soft for me to stop now. However, my body couldn’t take another day, so I decided to make this day my day to break from working out and just grind out my homework while spending quality time with my friends.

            When Friday came around, I was ready for the experiment to be over, but I also knew I had to finish strong and couldn’t quit now. I had come too far to just end it one day short. So, I decided to have the same schedule as Tuesday, except lift and play basketball longer. I did exactly that because over the week I had not become weaker, but I built up my strength and endurance and could.

            Overall, this week was a success and I bettered myself, while not being in front of the television. I was proud of myself and felt very good about it. I am not entirely sure if I am going to be able to keep doing this every week, but I will try to keep this up. Obviously, I will watch a little bit of TV, but I will try to limit this and increase my workouts. It made me feel better about myself and better in general. At the beginning, I was very hesitant with how it was going to go, but eventually I found a routine and stuck to it to the best of my ability.