peelout

What is the name of the show?

Day 12 of NOS starting. Feeling much more comfortable in the mornings now. Of course the thought occurs that I want a cigarette. But then I move on. What I'm trying to work on now is changing from one activity to another quickly. In the past, whenever I finished one activity, I would want a cigarette before I started another. Now, its a little difficult for me as my routine has always been to smoke before starting the new activity. Things are kind of inefficient right now as I tend to fill that changeover w/ time wasted at the computer b4 starting the new activity. Yesterday I got to use the awesome power of my KH3 - no road rage. I spent about 6hrs driving and did not get upset once nor engage in any unsafe retaliatory traffic maneuvers. I did come up on one jerk driving in the passing lane which required all other traffic to pass from the slower right lane. Before starting KH3, I would definitely cut in close to his front bumper as I passed him, which was my way of saying "hey idiot, get in the slow lane". However, I simply passed and did not allow my mind to get all upset. I also managed to not speed by more than 5mph over the speed limit. I'm already thinking about my next KH which will probably be related to creating a daily activity planning routine. I think 5min spent planning out the days major events would be a worthwhile investment. However, NOS is going to remain my focus for a good 2 months. One of the difficulties w/ Duhiggs process is you have to think long term and can't be changing focus just because its a new month. Some habits (especially addictions) will take longer to embed than others. I'd rather spend 2-3 months embedding a new KH and ensuring it sticks than to keep starting new KH's just because the month changed. The point of Duhiggs process is - focus on one thing at a time and get it right. Powerful stuff.

I like this. I see a lot of different groups whose focus is on specific issues but all the goup does is talk or blog. This group promotes well being through an activity. Great job. Curious where the name Taddea Zhaan comes from. I googled it and all I came up with were your NF postings. Oh, and great job on another killer w/o.

Thanks. I'm feeling good about this.

Mar 18 Wt 174.0 Week 0 day 7 I drove for about 6hrs today and I'm tired. Day 11 of NOS completed. Kept all KH's. Walked 3mi. My son is marching 26mi tomorrow w/ a 45lb backpack. Part of an ROTC challenge he volunteered for. Proud of him, but what a nut.

Curious if anyone ever uses skin fold calipers. I never see any one mention those stats.

My flow chart controlled mind comes to this site and instantly locks up. lol The world would be a boring place if everyone thought the same way as me though. Too predictable. OK, I tried to join in w/ a cute cat gif. This was the best I could do.

Thanks, its one day at a time. Day 11 of NOS. Past the milestone of 10days, next milestone is the "2 week" milestone. I don't dwell on these dates, by the way, I've just found it somewhat amusing at all the milestone dates we come up w/ based on arbitrary numbers. They do help focus on the short term though rather than "Oh my gosh, I have to do this the rest of my life" thinking. Automaticity is when something occurs w/o thinking or planning for it. Woke up this morning and instantly thought of smoking. For smokers, just waking up is a cue. On the plus side, I also noticed an example of how daily exercise is strengthening as a habit. When I first started developing the KH of daily exercise, I used a cue card to remind my brain that exercise had to be done on a daily basis. I stopped using the cue card after about a month. What I've found is that planning for exercise is now a part of my daily morning grooming routine (take thyroid med, shower, weigh myself, dress, brush teeth, shave, drink protein shake). At some point every morning, how and when I can fit exercise into my day automatically pops into my brain. Today I have to travel 30min, pick up son from train station (which will be late and I'll wind of sitting for some time), then drive 2.5hrs to his college, then drive 3hrs home (plus lunch w/ him). Going to be a tight day timewise. Since all this starts around 10:30am, my brain automatically planned for an early morning hike at the trail. I wasn't shaving and thinking "what do I need to do today". Exercise just automatically popped into the brain. Thats what is great about habits.

I looked for a good shaking ones head in disbelief meme but could not find anything that adequately represented my disbelief in your success on this. Are you running for public office? lol Perhaps this sandwich would help w/ your protein macros. Where are you getting too many carbs from? Crap foods or fruits and vegys? Can I ask where the name Scarlet Pimpernel came from?

I'm definitely no expert, everything below comes from what I've read and what I've learned works for me based on my experiences. I would say it comes down to semantics. We generally classify good routines as habits and bad ones as addictions. So in general, that would be part of where they differ. For strong addictions, the reward is the surge in dopamine in the brain which gives us that "ahhhh" feeling. This dopamine surge is so powerful that the brain craves whatever we are addicted to and relentlessly tries to get us to use whatever we are addicted to. A smoker without cigarettes can have a terrible flu and will still drive to a store in the middle of a snow storm to get them. On the other hand, most habits do not rise to the level of a "craving". Brushing my teeth is a strong daily habit for me and is at the level of complete automaticity. I never plan for it or decide whether to do it, but it always gets done, and pretty much in the same order with several other grooming habits every day. But I never crave that next tooth brushing time, like I do a cigarette. Habits and addictions are the same in that they both follow the cue/routine/reward loop. For brushing my teeth, the cue is that I woke up or am getting ready for bed. For addictions such as smoking, the cue can be many things such as time since last smoke (due to nicotene level in the blood dropping), stress, socialization, getting in the car (thats a big one for me since I have never smoked at home or in front of my children), boredom, etc. Cues can take many forms, some of them very subtle. I've been exercising every day for almost three months and my brain starts thinking about when I will be fitting exercise into my day during my morning wake up routine. They both have a reward, which again can be subtle or obvious. For addictions, the craving the brain has for dopamine is the reward (if you read up on dopamine, the dopemine levels from addictions like drugs, porn, M, smoking, etc exceed even the levels derived from sex). For a lot of habits such as exercise or eating a salad 5 days/wk, the reward might just be a general good feeling that I did something that was good for me. I don't crave that next salad, I just eat about 5/wk cause I think they are good for me. As for which is harder, making or breaking a habit, I would say breaking a habit. Addictions that we want to stop are things that are bad for us and we don't want to do them. The cravings for addictions are so powerful that we've been doing them even though we hate them and know they are bad for us. It takes a pretty strong craving to know cigarettes will kill us, taste terrible, make us stink, and cost a fortune, and yet we continue. On the other hand, good habits can be difficult to create, but at least it is something we know is good for us and really want to do them.

Mar 17 Wt 174.0 Week 0 day 6 Was my day a success? Yes. I did not smoke. This marks 10 days of not smoking. Ate salad, did strength w/o and walked trail twice. Primary Focus - KH4 - NOS (7 days of no smoking) 6/7 Secondary - KH3 - No RR (7 days of No Road Rage) 6/7 Secondary - KH2 No M (7 days of no M) 6/7 Secondary - KH2 Exercise (7*/wk) 6/7 Secondary - Night time crap (No goal, just monitor how many nights w/o crap) 0/7 Secondary - Salads (No goal, just monitor how many) 1/7 Secondary - VBA (No goal, just monitor how many days at least 5min) 1/7 Diet Breakfast - protein shake Lunch - salad Dinner - toasted cheese sand, chips Snacks 1 soda, popcorn + 1/2 soda Exercise Warmup Child pose into up dog into down dog 1x5 Core Crunches 1x12 Kneeup 1x10 Hanging leg raise knees bent 1x10 Back/bicep Bent over dumbbell lat row 2x10x35, 1x10x40 Close grip chins 1x4 Chest/tricep Regular pushups w/ wt on back 2x10x10 Diamond pushups on knees, feet off ground 1x7 Legs Bulgarian split squats 1x10 Overall body 2 arm swing 1x15x35 Cardio 3mi trail

Anything but cats. This is a cat free zone. With some exceptions. (Sorry for being a sexist pig)

lol! I love Newhart. Has the ability to endlessly crack people up without ever cussing. Too me, thats real talent. If only it was as easy as Newharts advice.

Completely agree. I did start a new habit about 2 wks ago that is feeling fairly automatic, but it was very simple. I read that razors will last longer if you dry them after use. I tried this and go through a little drying process that takes about 30s now every time I shave (daily). I've already doubled the time I've used the same razor, and I'm still using it. The cue is finishing shaving. The routine is the drying. The reward is not only the money I'm saving, but the "kick" I'm getting out of how much longer my blade is using. It's been very easy for me to follow this routine daily. But I wouldn't feel comfortable calling something of anything but a very simple habit a fully automated habit for at least 3months. If I do it that long w/ out missing a day, it's probably a habit. But even then, it's a new habit. Much easier to fall out of a new habit than an old, established habit. So even once you start defining something as a habit and it feels automated, new habits still require some monitoring or you can slip out of the habit. There is also a word for how easy it is for a habit to be "lost" but I have forgotten it yet again (the most loathed knows the word). Like smoking has a very low likelihood that once it is a habit, it will ever stop being a habit on its own. Contrast that with someone not eating sugar for 3 months. This has a high likelihood that the person will slip up a few times and then start eating sugar again.

Stand in front of a federal govt building and take lots of pictures. Go to an airport wearing a backpack and just walk around for hours while looking shifty Go to a bank dressed in a disguise (hat, dark glasses, trench coat, fake beard or wig, and tell the teller you want to make a withdraw. All of these should provide some excitement. Now if you don't want to get arrested, try these: A spy needs an expensive sports car. Go test drive the most expensive car you can manage at a car dealership. A spy needs fancy clothes. Go to an expensive suit store and try on the most expensive suit you dare. Go to a building where you would not normally be and just walk around in it (take the stairs to each floor so it counts as exercise). For instance, hospitals, some gov't buildings like court houses, universities, whatever building you can find. Keep an eye out for people you might think are assassins.

Having trouble posting.

Oh man, can I play next time.

That was really, really a bad year for her. Day 10 of NOS. Got on the scale this morning and hit 174.0. My low 11 days ago was 166.0. Now I realize 166.0 was with a very empty stomach and 174 is with a very full stomach (ate a heavy dinner, then popcorn and 1/2soda at movie, then 2 poptarts at night) so a lot of that wt will disappear with just eating very light after 5pm. And I'm not overly upset about it cause the assistance of using crap for comfort in order to get to day 10 of NOS has been well worth the probably 3-4lbs of actual wt gain. However,it's time to stop using NOS as an excuse to eat a horrifying diet and doing wimpy workouts. Quitting smoking is a process of learning to do all the things we normally do, just w/o smoking. I've relearned how to drive a car w/o, how to be bored, how to get frustrated w/o smoking, now its time to learn to do some higher intensity w/o's and eat salads w/ cig's in my life. Goal for the day: Strength w/o At least 1 salad. If I don't get those 2 things done, I hope everyone will send me sarcastic and mean kick in the azz memes. Edit 8:30am. Just this once. It's a phrase everyone who has ever had an addiction to anything knows so well. The brain pops it into our thinking over and over as we quit. It's called junkie thinking. Unfortunately, there is another phrase that everyone who has ever given into this thought knows as well - One = All. The rule of addiction says "Administration of a drug to an addict will cause re-establishment of dependece upon the drug". This holds true for any type of addiction. People who smoke for decades fall for the "try just one to see what it was like" thought that will pop into their minds at some rare occurrence. They almost always immediately revert to their old level. OK, I've distracted myself from a craving long enough. Going to go get that w/o done now. Edit 10:30am Well, I got the strength w/o in. First strength w/o since NOS started. Had to relearn how to do my strength w/o without first having a smoke. Crazy. Mark that off my list for the day. I'll be having a salad for lunch in a little bit. Edit 11:30am Finished salad. Going to go hike now if its not raining. Edit 1:30pm 1.5mi hike finished. Do I want a cigarette? yes Do I want to be a smoker again? no 1 = All Edit 3:15pm Rotated the tires on my Outback. With just a jack. Would have cost $25 to get done at a shop. Took less than an hour so I paid myself $25/hr. Not bad money tax free.

http://jamesclear.com/new-habit On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally's study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. And notice the average was 66 days. Lallys study showed 18-254days. All depends on how tough the habit is to make/break. Great attitude.

Awesome job. I'll bet you even drank some of your weed smoothies.

Mar 16 Wt ???? Week 0 day 5 Was my day a success? Yes. I did not smoke. 9 days of being smoke free. Kept my other KH's except my w/o was a placeholder. The issue isn't that I have terrible, strong, urges. It's just a gnawing feeling that something is missing. Smoking is such a strong example of automaticity. Tonight I went to the movie. That was always 2 cigs on the way and 2 back. Instantly when getting in the car to leave, my brain automatically reminds me to smoke. Same way when I'm leaving the theater. Oh well, tomorrow is day 10, which is yet another arbitrary number we use as a milestone (because its 10 of course). I'm still eating poorly and my exercising is kind of pathetic. Been doing 1.5mi trail walks, but today I did a placeholder cause time got away from me. Still, 1.5mi trail walks are much better than prior to KH1 (daily exercise) when I was doing nothing. Not an awesome day, but I kept all KH's Primary Focus - KH4 - NOS (7 days of no smoking) 5/7 Secondary - KH3 - No RR (7 days of No Road Rage) 5/7 Secondary - KH2 No M (7 days of no M) 5/7 Secondary - KH1 Exercise (7*/wk) 5/7 Secondary - No night time crap (No goal, just monitor how many nights I go w/o crap) 0/7 Secondary - Salads (No goal, just monitor how many) 0/7 Secondary - VBA coding (No goal, just monitor how many days I spend at least 5min on it) 0/7 Secondary - No night time crap (No goal, just monitor how many nights w/o crap) 0/7 Diet Breakfast - protein shake Lunch - 2 chili dogs, chips (again) Dinner - Culvers Snacks 1 soda, popcorn and 1/2 soda, crap later Exercise placeholder

Yes to this one. Maximize quality sleep. The only reason we continue to lie in bed is because we know we can.