Over the past 18 months, I’ve done ten 30-day habit trials to see what life would be like with less sugar, more exercise, and fewer digital distractions, among other things. A typical trial will involve picking an area to focus on, setting rules, and preparing any supporting materials I’ll need throughout the month.
One of the most compelling parts of the trials is the sense of daring. Can I really go without sugar for a month? The difference between difficult and implausible is the difference between a chore and a challenge.
Recently, what surprised me is that the trials as a whole have stopped scaring me. To get the thrill back, I’m upping the stakes. I’ll be taking on three challenges this November, each focusing on a different aspect of physical health:
Sleep
I’ll be following Steve Pavlina’s guide to learn how to fall asleep in 30 seconds. The rules are:
- Set your alarm for a fixed time every day, seven days a week. When your alarm goes off each morning, get up immediately. I will be getting up at 5 am, but the method would work fine with any time
- Seek to go to bed at a time that will require you to be sleeping the whole time you’re in bed in order to feel well rested in the morning. For me, this is about 7 hours.
- You can go to bed earlier if you’re tired, but if you can’t sleep, get up and do something else for an hour.
- You can take a 20 minute nap whenever, but you have to get up and out of bed after exactly 20 minutes.
- You have to wait at least an hour between naps.
- No naps in the hour before bedtime.
- Try to practice one nap per day.
I prepared for the sleep practice by trying the method with more relaxed rules for two-ish weeks. I held myself to 7 hours of sleep without being strict about wake up time or bedtime. I did indeed fall asleep much faster and felt fairly well rested for most of the day. I was resistant to the naps initially, but they made a huge difference in the afternoon.
One of the pitfalls was that I tend to get even more distractible in the evening than usual, which made it hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour. To fix this, I added a supporting rule to turn off my computer at the end of the work day. With my early wake up time, I have plenty of time for my projects before the work day. I intend to fill my evening with exercise, reading nonfiction, talking with friends, and cooking, which are easier to step away from.
Exercise
I’m attempting to do every physical activity I could imagine wanting to do in a day, which amounts to running (daily), yoga (daily), weightlifting (every other day), and martial arts (every other day). Saturday will be a rest day. The exercise routines are:
- Running: Run a 5K. This seemed like a happy medium for “not too much time” and “enough of a run to be a challenge”
- Daily yoga: Do a session on the Down Dog app. It was one of the most consistently recommended apps among “Best Yoga Apps of 2020” articles and I like the option to customize the voice of the teacher.
- Strength Training: Follow the Starting Strength app and focusing on the big three exercises (deadlifts, bench presses, and squats). The app was recommended by two separate friends.
- Martial Arts: Practice Tai Chi, since it’s a martial art that works acceptably without a partner. “Tai Chi” is so popular that I initially had trouble finding a set of videos I trusted. I wound up looking at specific branches of Tai Chi and found a nice series through the Yang Tai Chi organization.
Aside from deciding on routines, most of my preparation focused on building up stamina for the running. Starting in early October, I ran every other day, adding half a mile to each day that I ran. After building up to 5.5 miles 5 days before November, I transitioned to running every day for shorter distances (a mile or two). The shorter, more frequent runs helped me practice for the every day running of November and also gave me a bit of a break. I started strength training a week before November as well, to get my body used to it again.
Diet
Go Vegan! I’ve had my eye on going vegan for a while, and the month seemed like a good place to try it out. My energy levels have been feeling much more consistent since I started eating mostly whole plants: veggies, beans and lentils, grains like rice. I think being fully vegan might improve my energy levels further, and I’ll need energy for all the exercise.
I haven’t done anything explicit to prepare for the vegan diet. In a way, I’ve been building up to it for years. Being vegetarian and practicing cooking has given me the confidence to pick up vegan recipes and make tasty food. I plan on drawing recipes from The Minimalist Baker and Oh, She Glows. I have a vegan housemate who I hope to cook with as well.
The Pragmatic Philosopher 