Author: Ryan

One week down of a new trial and I’m feeling pretty good. It’s been a long day, hence why I’m not publishing this post til nearly 10 PM, but I am really looking forward to hopping in the shower to get a blast of that ice cold water. I’m still working on measuring the benefits of taking showers but I have at least one thing in mind now. Regardless, even after just a week, I am feeling pretty good about it.

Usually, the place that most of us get some good thinking done is in the shower. While I might not be coming up with the next idea for r/showerthoughts, I’m focusing on the task at hand, to get clean and move on with my day (in my case usually my night). I figure I probably cut the time it takes to get in and out of the shower and on to the next task at hand in half, at least. I would say an average shower before would take me about 6 mins. I don’t have a stopwatch on it or anything, but by listening to music while I shower, an old habit of mine, I’d typically be out in about a song and a half to two songs. I haven’t started clocking my showers now, but I do want to start. I do fear that knowing I’m being timed will lead to me rushing more than I have been, though it’s not like I can start this as a blind study.

I would’ve liked to see the possible impact that cold showers had on utility bills but the new apartment I moved into only charges for electric. The night of the move led to possibly one of the best showers of my life. After hauling all the crap I have up to the fourth floor, by elevator luckily, dropping off the moving truck and then parking my car a half mile down the street to avoid the parking meters nearby, it was just shy of 5 AM on Saturday. ON a side note shout out to my brother Brandon for driving with me all the way up from TX and helping me throughout the whole move. I didn’t want to get my freshly washed sheets covered in my nasty sweat, so I hopped in the shower. Even though it was ice cold and so early in the morning, it felt amazing. Most days thus far have felt nice. The initial drop of water is a bit jarring, but once settled, it feels good. Whenever I start to get uncomfortable, a line from the song Laugh Til I Cry by The Front Bottoms pops in my head…”And I will take cold showers from now on cause once you’ve fucked with fire all that’s left to do is burn baby burn baby burn.” That line gets me thru it every time.

I am definitely enjoying this more than I thought. The showers themselves and the trial in of itself. It’s much simpler than ones I’ve done in the past. It takes next to no willpower to get myself to do it. Similarly to biking every day, it felt like just a part of the day, not something I had to actively think about what I was doing about it that day. On that note, I’m grabbing my watch and gonna cool off before heading to bed. Let me know in the comments what you’ve been trying out lately!

As the weeks have gone on keeping on a vegetarian diet has definitely gotten easier. I have a definite fall back meal on days I’m feeling too lazy to be creative and just need to cook for sustenance which back in the day might be a frozen pizza or something similarly simple. Lentils and rice are a fast and easy meal to put together with little cleanup needed afterward. I still have some frozen vegetables that I tossed in to add some additional nutrients and flavor.

Last week, I think I was a bit too far on the opposite side of the spectrum from my first post, that I feel my words were a bit exaggerated. I was particularly over zealous in my statement that I would not need to go shopping for the next couple weeks. There was no way in hell that was actually going to become a reality. That lasted all of about three days. The trip was only for a refill of some bananas and some canned tomatoes, but shopping none the less. I’ll probably make another less than ten dollar stop before the week is done. We shall see. In general, I’ve been either busy with other things or distracted and haven’t really made anything that complex for a few days. I’ve just been sort of rehashing what’s in the fridge and pantry to make a meal that will keep me alive.

On the subject of shopping, I wish I had set myself up with better measurements for the diet. Weight loss, money spent, other examples. It would be nice to be able to give some concrete results based on real data rather than arbitrary feelings or estimates. I did end up buying a new scale on Amazon. There was a sale on a smart scale by Eufy, nonaffiliate link for anyone interested in the model. I suppose some people would say starting this late would be better than never, there’s that joyous optimism creeping its way back. I went with the scale because it was reasonably priced and offered some interesting options. A major selling point that got me was that the app is supposed to have body fat percent measurement, not sure how accurate it would be, but I was hoping to at least use it to track a gain/loss trend. So far I’ve been unable to create an account for the companion app and each time I’ve tried to sign up, the service is oh so conveniently unavailable. All in all, I’ve seen mixed reviews for it online, mostly due to the app involved, and I can see why.

Going forward, I hope to A) quickly recognize moments of blind optimism. Looking at the bright side of things is good so long as you don’t get blinded by some very obvious flaws in the mindset. B) set my self up for better measurement and tracking of particular benefits or losses of trials. Each post has been a building on the last here and I hope to keep finding out ways I can try to make this blog better. On a similar note, sign up for my newsletter, aka that annoying pop-up box you close every time you visit the site, though I wonder if it’s blocked by an ad blocker. Regardless, I plan on sending a short email to subscribers to the newsletter some bonus thoughts and recent reads, videos, etc. that caught my attention. And as always, let me know what you think I should try next!

Wow! What a difference a week can make. It could partially be due to just having a better grasp of my meals or just feeling better overall, but I’ve found this past week way easier than the previous.

A major factor might simply be hitting new recipes this week. This being those recommended on the Plant Based on a Budget site. The meals from last week were good, but pretty straight forward. A pasta salad one day, soup the next. The food tasted good, but it also left me with so much in leftovers that I was eating the same stuff two or three days in a row.

Another thing that I believe has helped me a lot is simply eating more. Last week, I think a major factor in A) the amount of aforementioned left overs and B) the fatigue I was feeling some days was the quantity I was eating. I’ve never been a calorie counter or anything so maybe I was getting more or less, but based on how I felt last week, I needed to bump up the amount of food I was eating throughout the day. I now have guilt free snacks like the smoothie I’m drinking as I type this (banana, strawberries, broccoli, kale, almond milk, and some protein powder).

Now, I’m planning on veering off of the plan provided by the people at Plant Based on a Budget, and will more so look to their site for recipes and guidelines. I believe I have enough groceries for the rest of my trial run, all in all totaling about $65 for the month. Though I do see myself running to the store to grab some more fresh fruit. I’m really looking forward to the next couple weeks, and not simply to struggle thru it all to finish at the end as I was last week.

On a different note, my cousin jokingly asked if he could do a guest post here about not having a phone for four weeks after he was pushed into our pool and lost his. Guest posts from friends or family have been something I’ve considered for some time. Let me know what you think, would you like to hear from somebody other than me from time to time?

This has been a rough but interesting week. I’m enjoying the meals I’m eating and man does every dollar go a long way, I still haven’t even cooked with all the food I got for last week. Now you might be asking, how can that be rough, that sounds great? My pallet misses the delicious taste of animals. I caught myself just watching one of my favorite YouTube channels, Binging With Babish, and watching him make delicious burgers, steaks, wings, ribs and so forth.

While I do miss some fantastic food while trying a vegetarian diet, one habit that has gotten much better over the past week has been my breakfast. Previously, I’d grab a Clif bar and hop on my bike. This past week, however, I’m eating a good hearty bowl of oatmeal. Unfortunately, right now the only thing I’m adding to it is some brown sugar and cinnamon, but only because I couldn’t find reasonably priced dried fruit at the store.

I’m curious to see the impact abstaining from meat for a few more weeks will have. I hope this desire for food from a standard diet doesn’t make it seem that the food is gross by any means. I’ve made two soups this past week that were amazing.  I also made this chickpea curry dish served over rice that was really good. All in all, I’m enjoying the new dishes that I’m making. There are just some times that I really wish there was even just a small serving of some chicken or pork or something to compliment the dish as is. In the end, whether I add this to my life beyond this test run or not, I’ll have some different recipe ideas, cooking techniques and grocery budgeting strategies for the long run.

Eight weeks have passed since I started writing this blog. Some days the posts have essentially written themselves, other days it takes some effort. Today is somewhere in between. I feel I have a bit to write about to wrap up trying out a daily journal, but at the same time, there isn’t too much to say. Compared to my final post on my biking habits, which had math break downs and multi sectioned benefits, the trial of the past four weeks has been difficult to measure.

In general, I really enjoy keeping the journal, and I think the method I used the past week has been my favorite. Having a dedicated five minutes of writing really allows me to pour my mind onto the page. As for the benefits of doing a journal at all, sleep is the number one on that list for me. In the past twenty-eight days, I can think of two instances in which I was having a tough time falling asleep, and both of those two involved dogs being obnoxious. Perhaps, going forward I’ll cut out the morning journal, as I’m not sure I’m getting too much of a benefit in the morning. Will need to provide an update if I do so.

As I said there isn’t too much to update you with on this trial, so I’ll get on with what I’m planning for the next few weeks. I plan on trying a diet plan my brother shared with me he thought about giving a try. I’ll have to get a hold of him, maybe we can both try it out at the same time…You can read about it here: http://plantbasedonabudget.com/plant-based-on-a-budget-challenge-1-person-week-1/

Hope your summer has been well, and those of you who’ve returned to school enjoy it! As always, thanks for reading.

Another week down and that means it’s time to give you an update on how things are going. I’ve been journaling each day for the past three weeks, but if I want to continue this long term I really need to get a better schedule down for myself.

I’ve been struggling, especially the past few days to wake up on time to get to work as early as I’d like, or on time at all. Adding to the fire that is my terrible sleep habits of late, has been going to bed late. Because of these two things, I haven’t been able to really get the full benefit from journaling. I’ve just been writing as a chore. I haven’t been treating it as a way to focus in the morning or to wind down at night. All in all, it’s the self-awareness I’m writing here that I hope to strive to be better about my habits in the next week.

I’ve been pretty bad with my other habits as well, I’ve only committed to my daily reading goal once in the past five days.  I plan on trying to better schedule my evenings to have time for things like playing games, watching videos or movies, and spending time with other people, but I still want to give myself the time to effectively accomplish standards I set for myself.

A large problem I’ve had in the past has been commitment. Many of my close friends have known me to gain interest in something, to just as quickly lose that interest. A big part of me starting this blog was because of that problem with commitment. To give something at least a few weeks to settle in, then decide to drop it or not. To make my decision to stop something feel more like an actual decision and not simply distraction by the next big thing.

I know this post has been a bit different in that I’ve hardly discussed the current trial, but the commitment to doing more than a “chore” is something I need to remind myself of here. I have enjoyed journaling thus far, but the past few days I really haven’t given it enough thought to have much to say.For the next week, I will be trying out one last journal technique. Next, I will take parts of each and create a journal of my own.

For the next week, I will be trying out one last journal technique. Next, I will take parts of each I’ve done thus far and create a journal of my own. For both the morning and evening, I will set a timer for five minutes, and for that five minutes, I need to be focused on the journal, nothing else. I can write more if needed, but ten minutes a day seems reasonable, and of course, the amount time can be experimented with. In the morning, I plan on setting a daily goal or focus, something at least partially unique to the day ahead of me. From there I will spend the rest of my time writing whatever is on my mind. Maybe it’s something I’ve been stressed about for the past few days, something coming up later that day, or maybe the weird dream I just had and want to remember. At night, I want to write something that happened that day I am thankful for. Whether it is something I had done or wasn’t even involved in, just something that made the day better. Then, I want to write down one thing I could have done to make the day better than it was. For the remaining time, as with the morning, I would simply write whatever was on my mind and keep writing, either until the timer went off or I ran out of things to write.

That’s all I have for this week. I need to hop off the computer now and get to reading before it gets too late. Let me know in the comments below what I should think about doing next!

As the week has gone on, doing a journal each morning and night has become nearly automatic. Trying out the five-minute journal has been nice. I really enjoy trying to think of things that I am grateful for and things that I think will make the day great right off the bat in the morning. Then, at night, reflecting on the day and thinking about what actually made the day awesome, and comparing it to my earlier “predictions.”

While I do enjoy the method I’m using, I sometimes struggle to just put something on paper. I’m the type of person to overthink things, and often I find myself digging too deep to try and fulfill the sections of the five-minute journal.But regardless of how long it may take me to jot down a few things from my head, I always get it done.

Ensuring I get my journal written each day took quite a bit of thought when I was starting, but with the help of a little app called Habits, things have gotten significantly easier. I am unsure for you Apple users, and does anyone even use Windows phone, are they still a thing? But the app I am using is on Android. There are a ton of habit building apps out there, but what I love about this app is that there’s no unnecessary fluff. When installing it, I saw something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before when trying out an app. On the screen listing any required permissions for the app, i.e. Contacts, Location, Files, etc., a message popped up that said, “This app requires no additional permissions.” I knew that I would enjoy it. As of right now, I use the app to notify me and track if I’ve written my journal and accomplished a daily reading goal I’ve decided to set for myself. The evening journal is also a good notification as a sort of nudge to get ready for bed.

Overall, I’m enjoying the idea of journaling each day. Helps just add some structure to the morning and night, as well as helps at least a bit with the spiral of madness that is one’s own thoughts. As mentioned before, I want to try different journaling methods, so tonight will be my last five-minute journal. For the next week, I will be trying out a combination of two methods. In the morning I will be writing morning pages, go figure. The idea behind morning pages is to simply write what comes to mind. My evening journal will be done in what I’ve found referred to as proprioceptive writing. The concept being, to simply let the pen follow your thoughts, not only following but also taking note of what runs thru the mind.

Hope your week is going well! I know mine has been!

This has been an interesting week. In the sense that it hasn’t really been all that interesting. I guess not all things will have as clear of an impact on my day to day as biking did in my last trial run. All in all, I feel that forcing myself to journal every morning and every night has really driven me to develop an actual routine other than roll in or out of bed and start or end my day.

For anyone unsure of what I might mean by a journal, it’s not so much a diary or long form reflection of the day or anything. As of right now, I start by jotting down how I’m feeling on a scale from one to ten, my mornings are more often than not on the lower part of the scale. From there I just sort of write what’s on my mind. For those more familiar with the idea, I’ve decided to not to follow a particular form of journaling.  I want to take this opportunity to try a few different styles of getting my mind on paper.

In terms of the impact that this has made, other than my routine building already mentioned, I think it’s helped me focus in the morning and wind down at night.

Every morning, I try to jot down a couple things I’d like to get done on that day in particular. More than “go to work” but any additional goals I need to get done that day. Whether it be something that feels more like a chore, getting groceries for example. Or something that is more general, like going to the library to grab some books I want to read. Just having written something down in the morning one, reminds me to do it, and two, makes me actively think about it. It probably would have been good for me to write that I needed to write this post this morning.

At night, I think just mentally spewing out all the junk running thru my mind helps to shut off my brain when I close my eyes to sleep. This was one of the biggest things that drew me to try this over other suggestions I had gotten. I’m sure I’m not alone when I get into bed close my eyes, then suddenly a slew of topics run thru my head from the mundane such as what will I have for dinner tomorrow to cosmic ideas like life, death, etc. In the past, there was nothing to do but try and force myself to stop thinking. To quote Jerry Smith from the hit series Rick and Morty, “Have you ever tried to relax. It’s a paradox!”

Overall, I’m really enjoying journaling. It’s not having the instant impact that my last trial, but I think in the grand scheme of things, this will pay off big time. For the next week, I’m going to try using the Five Minute Journal style, though I may still just jot down some loose thoughts down as they come. This style has you quickly jot down three things in a few categories in the morning and at night. The morning categories are things I am grateful for, things that will make today great, and a third section that is not so much a list, but a daily affirmation. The affirmation is a statement about myself that I want to drive into my mind. As for the evening, the categories are amazing things that happened that day and how could I have made the day even better. I think having this preparation and reflection period at the beginning and end of a day drives productivity and self-improvement, which are essentially the foundations of me starting this blog.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, or if you have any recommendations for a journaling style I can try out!

If the past few posts haven’t been clear, I AM LOVING BIKING TO WORK. I, unfortunately, haven’t really left the house enough the past four weeks to really go anywhere else. All in all, I’ve listed a handful of benefits for biking when it’s a feasible option. I’m gonna dig into some detail on three major categories of benefits.

Health:

Clearly, the exercise from biking is more than a person will get sitting in a car, but what has really blown me away is the benefits for my mental health. Just earlier this week, I had a rough day at work. While I wasn’t exactly thrilled to do much when I got home, I thought about it later. If I had driven home, dealt with rush hour traffic, and didn’t have the endorphins blasting in my brain from the ride, I would have been in a far worse mood. I’m also the opposite of a morning person. Not exactly “nocturnal,” but definitely in the sense that I probably can’t form a coherent thought for the first 30 minutes of being awake. I put my morning routine on auto pilot and prep as much as I can the night before, so I can be up and out the door without much thought. Previously, I would get to work and keep myself busy until my brain kicked on and then would start doing actual work. Now, I have about an hour where I have to be attentive to my surroundings and am getting my heart pumping before I even turn on my work computer. This has helped me focus on getting tasks done fast and on to the next one earlier and throughout the entire work day.

Financial

I bought my bike a little under a year ago for $30 from the Dubuque Mission Thrift Store and got a tune up, replacement tire and handlebar tape for about $120. In the time between then and now, I have spent maybe $10 on replacement tubes. And before you ask, I got my helmet for free from a friend. Safety first. All in all, I spent about $160. One thing I’m excited to learn, and will probably look into it this coming weekend, is how to tune up a bike. Insourcing this job will save me a ton of cash in the long run, as well as give me a solid skill as someone who is becoming more and more interested in cycling.

To take a page from Mr. Money Mustache’s blog, I’m gonna get into some numbers. The most recent number I could find for the cost per mile in the US is from this AAA post from April 2016, but let me know if you can find an updated number. Each mile driven costs about 57 cents on average. I used to drive a Hyundai Santa Fe, which according to the AAA post is more expensive, for obvious reasons, at about 68 cents. My commute was about 10 miles. Just to have the privilege to go to work, I was spending over $13 a day. Last month, I spent about $50 on gas alone. I may not have had any other major costs last month, but in the past year, my maintenance bill has been in the thousands of dollars.

Societal:

There may be a handful of people that are “negatively” impacted by my riding, but I think it’s more so a situation of not knowing how to deal with sharing the street with bikes. For the most part, I am out of the way and cars just drive on past. Though from time to time, there is a car that sits behind me with a confused looking driver behind the wheel. I can’t blame them, they probably don’t want to ruin their day (and my life) by making a small mistake with some dire consequences. But hey! I thought this was supposed to be about the benefits of biking! For every driver I leave confused and unsure, I get out of the way for dozens of drivers per day. One car may not seem like much, but I think about the impact a single car can on traffic have during rush hour.

Another major benefit that I am actually quite proud of is the environmental impact. I may not be some crazy tree hugger or anything, but I thought of a good counter argument to people who don’t think driving affects the environment. Just the other day, my brother and I were having a conversation about sustainability and some documentaries he’d watched recently. I thought, “Anyone who doesn’t think driving is bad should just sit behind their car, and just breathe in the exhaust. If it’s not that bad you’ll be fine right?” I don’t want this to come off as political or anything, just something I’ve figured out I actually care about quite a bit.

Overall, I hope every new practice leaves me this excited to continue it! I can’t suggest this enough to anyone who is capable. Maybe settling into it is the best route for you, one day a week or drive halfway there and bike the rest of the way. Or maybe you’re better off diving in full force and committing to it every day to minimize the willpower it takes to do each day. However you go about it, I hope you give it a shot and let me know if you do and how it goes.

For the moment of truth! What will I be doing for the next four weeks? I got a lot of good suggestions and had a laundry list to pick from. My next personal “challenge” is to start a daily journal. I’ve thought about starting this for some time, but have always had excuses to stop. Not this time! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below, and as always, if there’s anything you’re trying out before buying in!