If my attempts at challenges have taught me anything, it’s how unfit I am for them. Excruciating laziness and extreme lack of discipline play a fairly significant part in this, but the amount of stress that immediately converges over my head is also a pretty big detraction. If there is one thing that I have wanted to avoid lately, it’s been stress, and no amount of trying to “better” my life is worth it if ultimately all I feel is endless tension and anxiety. Which is what tends to happen when I make drastic changes to my lifestyle.
So, here are quick summaries of how I failed in each part of my challenge:
The paleo diet lasted maybe twenty-three hours. I started off by telling myself that I wouldn’t be too strict with it, anyway, and so was at the outset quite lenient with what I actually allowed myself. It didn’t take long for the leniency to go completely awry, and for my eating patterns to revert back to the eastern European, flour-based ones I’d maintained most of my life. So I cannot comment on the benefits (or otherwise) of the paleo diet this time.
The no-technology challenge lasted a little longer. I want to say five days, but I’m afraid I’d be lying. I started off by using Google (and not the library’s array of Encyclopaedias) to search up information on certain topics that were important to me at given points in time. Then I spent a few minutes on Youtube to waste time before being picked up by a friend, because I was too lazy to open a book. And then I felt an inexplicable pull toward StumbleUpon (to which I am fairly certain I am addicted), and so before long, I’d completely violated the no-technology rules. I succeeded in not sending any text messages well over a week, though, before extenuating circumstances (read: an immature prick who is virtually incapable of communicating in any way other than through typing out grammatically incorrect, thoughtless, senseless messages) made that difficult to maintain. But, even so, I actually haven’t been texting as much as usual, which is better than no change at all.
The not-spending-money thing lasted longer than anything else, and only collapsed when a friend of mine found herself in distress. I treated her to lunch (it was the least I could do). Afterward, I found myself in situations where I was foodless but hungry, and not spending money would have meant exposing the general public to my crankiness (always a risk). So I capitulated. And then I once again started throwing my money away on the daily trivialities that I had been trying so desperately to avoid, namely Second Cup coffee, magazines, and (of course) food.
To be perfectly frank, I stopped trying to go along with my “Super-Challenge July” less than two weeks into July. I’ve just been too lazy (and slightly embarrassed) to actually tell you about it. I’m thinking that, from now on, whatever lifestyle changes I make will be subtle, and I won’t write about them anymore (since you don’t really get anything out of it). I need to rethink the theme of this blog. I recently paid the annual site fee, and I’m starting to question the justification that I’d had at the time for doing so.
Anyway, hope your July was more productive and interesting than my own. Hopefully I will post something again soon (and hopefully it will be interesting). Stay tuned.


