March Spending Diet!

Well, it is Leap Day, which means that my Operation Consumption Liberation (OCL) month of Snack Control is coming to an end.  If you read my last OCL post, you'll know that I was struggling a bit with the "No Eating after 8:30 p.m." part of my February challenge. Despite my resolve to get back on the wagon and stay on the wagon, I've been falling off this particular wagon left and right. 

Why can I go a month without meat or sugar without caving into my cravings, but can't make it through a shorter 29-day month without a 10 p.m. Snack Attack every few days?  I think it boils down to this: I can handle staying clear of certain kinds of foods, but I have very little willpower when it comes to not eating when I want to eat. This is probably linked to how much I dislike the feeling of denying myself that comes hand in hand with dieting. Not eating when I want to eat feels ten times more like dieting than not eating what I want to eat.  I snack pretty healthy, after all; I eat rice crackers, fruit, and low-fat string cheese, not French fries, chocolate bars, and milkshakes. 

On this note, it is clearly time for me to take a break from food-related challenges, but not from diets in the broader sense.  That's because my March monthly challenge is Curb Your Frivolous Spending Redux--a.k.a. the Spending Diet. Last year, May was my month of being a tight wad, during which I gave myself a budget of $132 to spend on unnecessary things like dining out, lattes, mascara, iTunes, haircuts, movie fares, and so on. And that was a good challenge.  This year, I'm trimming that amount by $30, for a monthly budget of $102 dollars. (That extra $2 makes all the difference.)

My homemade pizza beats Pizza Hut's any day.

Snacky Crazy!

Overdue, overdue!

This is my long-delayed Operation Consumption Liberation (OCL) update about how my month without sugar (January) went and what February's OCL challenge is all about. But it is February 16th.  I can hardly remember January, I think it might have snowed a bunch.   But the rest of it...big fat blur.

Snowy in Seattle: Ravenna Park

But I did survive No Added Sugar January redux.  Like before, it was challenging at times.  Let's reflect on what I wrote at the end of No Added Sugar January last year:

The 2012 All-Consuming Agenda

I've been meaning to post my 2012 Operation Consumption Liberation schedule for a few days, in addition to a post about how I'm doing during my second-annual January without added sugar. And now here we are, January 31.  How does this happen?  

Time, why do I lose track of you so?

Anyway, I promise a post about my sugar-free month later, as well as my weekly post for my other Operation this year (Fear Liberation--OFL, yo!).  But for now, without further ado, here are the habits, things, and tendencies that I'll be trying to consume less or none of--or trying to let consume less of me--for the remaining eleven months of 2012:

• FEBRUARY: Snacking
• MARCH: Frivolous Spending
• APRIL: Gluten 
• MAY: Gasoline
• JUNE: Mindless Time Suck Activities (Facebook, web browsing, TV, etc.)
• JULY: Caffeine
• AUGUST: Needless Beauty Products
• SEPTEMBER: Dairy and Meat
• OCTOBER: Smartphone and texting
• NOVEMBER: Alcohol
• DECEMBER: Anxiety

As you can see, there are a few challenges from 2011 that I'm revisiting (Alcohol, Gasoline, and Caffeine--plus this month's Sugar challenge), and there are also a few old challenges that I've merged with another to make it a little more interesting and challenging: Superfluous Web-Browsing and TV/Netflix/Hulu are lumped together in "Mindless Time Suck Activities" in June; I'll be going without meat AND dairy for a Vegan September; and I've combined my two months dedicated to curbing my Frivolous Spending into one.  

And I'm taking up a few new challenges this year (Snacking, Gluten, Needless Beauty Products, Smartphone & texting, and Anxiety). The last is a little different, in that I will be working with my own behavior to try to prevent anxiety from becoming all-consuming in a very anxiety-provoking time (the holidays).  Also, I am not sure if my October challenge is possible.  This is 2012, not 2007.  A lot has changed...  But I'm willing to aim high, for now anyway.

 So there you have it.  And now I need to go cook some substantial meals, so that, come February 1 tomorrow, I might be less inclined to snack late at night due to eating a popcorn dinner (or a chocolate cake, given the cessation of my sugar fast...)


Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space: "Birthday" from Dyna Moe on Vimeo.

My 2012 BAGs

I like big ass goals (BAGs).

For the last two years, I have challenged myself with quite a few BAGs.  These BAGs were clearly defined, with timelines and other parameters in place to give the BAGs structure and to hold me accountable.  In 2010, I committed to do, and did, at least 30 minutes of yoga for 360 straightdays.  In 2011, I challenged myself monthly to reduce my consumption of a different practice or item that I believe is unhealthy when over-consumed.  By and large, I succeeded at those challenges too. 

Challenges of years past: on my way to 360 days via half moon pose...

There was a time not so very long ago when achieving any of my BAGs felt unlikely.  I’d set a bunch of BAGs at once and feel pumped up about them for a few weeks, but then I would inevitably get overwhelmed by the first sign of difficulty or derailed by one of life’s endless distractions.  So I would cut myself a little slack.  As time passed, I’d push my BAGs further and further back on the shelf until I had all but forgotten them.  I had achieved nothing.

Deep down, I knew that dropping my BAGs every time the going got rough was no way to live.  If Eminem is right about how “you only get one shot,” then I was squandering my shot.  Instead of living my life to the fullest, I was loitering in a place of fear, self-doubt, and passivity.  I was particularly wary of change; I went to great lengths to avoid it at all costs.  But change is unstoppable; it has its way with all of us sooner or later.  In 2009, change caught up with me and knocked me on my ass.  When I managed to get back up, I decided it was long past time for me to start accomplishing some of those things I’d always wanted to do.