Every Day for a Month
Dec. 4th, 2006 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebToday I found the blog of someone who decided to see if he could go a whole month spending just $1 per day on food: Hungry for a Month.
It's not the greatest place to get advice on eating cheaply, as he's not the greatest cook or nutritionist. However, you do get to learn what can happen to your thoughts, your appetite, your feelings, your time in the kitchen. It's a quick and amusing read, and I recommend it. For example, from the first entry: "Food is just one of those things that makes people feel comfortable and good; it's like Hugh Grant movies or silk boxers. And since it's a little assuming to hand out silk boxers at most potentially awkward business receptions, they tend to hand out food."
I especially liked how he told a bunch of people what he was doing and got all kinds of interesting reactions.
This is only the first blog he is doing (of two, so far). "My name is Evan and I like to do different things each month and then write about them on the Internet." Interesting idea, eh?
I can think of three times I've done something like this. First I spent a whole weekend living on nothing but what I had with me and what I could find. Of course I had a whole backpack of stuff, and I knew where a natural spring of good water was, but for a suburbian girl, it felt like a cool challenge.
The other two y'all have read about in excruciating detail. First nanowrimo, where I wrote a, um, piece of writing in a month. And the other was when I went without processed sugar for a couple of weeks. Oh, right, and that day when I promised to write in here every day.
This second month, Evan has decided to draw a cartoon every day. Even though he can't draw. Just as he lived on $1 per day of food even though he didn't even know what kinds of food were cheap yet. He has some guts.
What are some other things one could try for a month?
Watch me brainstorm some ideas I could imagine myself thinking of doing (although I am unlikely to actually do them).
* make the bed every day (I liked doing that over Christmas break last year for some reason.)
* wear only black (Would anyone notice? Would I start acting differently?)
* write down three good things that happened to me each day (This is supposed to help you be happy.)
* spend at least 15 minutes a day working on the garden
* write nonfiction daily
* walk 10,000+ steps a day
* mend or repair something each day (I wonder how many things around the house could use little fixes.)
* do something I have been putting off (Some days getting out of bed might count.)
* buy nothing but food, mortgage payments, utility payments, and investments (and whatever obvious thing I'm forgetting).
* read or make up a bedtime story to someone every night
* introduce myself to one new person each day (ha!)
You could do something that seems kind of like a whim like Evan seems to be doing. Where you don't really know what you're doing, so there's a very high potential for learning. Or you could pick something that has to do with your life dream like the guy writing Questionable Content did. Or maybe some combination, like when you suspect you might love something, but you just want to collect a bit more data.
It's not the greatest place to get advice on eating cheaply, as he's not the greatest cook or nutritionist. However, you do get to learn what can happen to your thoughts, your appetite, your feelings, your time in the kitchen. It's a quick and amusing read, and I recommend it. For example, from the first entry: "Food is just one of those things that makes people feel comfortable and good; it's like Hugh Grant movies or silk boxers. And since it's a little assuming to hand out silk boxers at most potentially awkward business receptions, they tend to hand out food."
I especially liked how he told a bunch of people what he was doing and got all kinds of interesting reactions.
This is only the first blog he is doing (of two, so far). "My name is Evan and I like to do different things each month and then write about them on the Internet." Interesting idea, eh?
I can think of three times I've done something like this. First I spent a whole weekend living on nothing but what I had with me and what I could find. Of course I had a whole backpack of stuff, and I knew where a natural spring of good water was, but for a suburbian girl, it felt like a cool challenge.
The other two y'all have read about in excruciating detail. First nanowrimo, where I wrote a, um, piece of writing in a month. And the other was when I went without processed sugar for a couple of weeks. Oh, right, and that day when I promised to write in here every day.
This second month, Evan has decided to draw a cartoon every day. Even though he can't draw. Just as he lived on $1 per day of food even though he didn't even know what kinds of food were cheap yet. He has some guts.
What are some other things one could try for a month?
Watch me brainstorm some ideas I could imagine myself thinking of doing (although I am unlikely to actually do them).
* make the bed every day (I liked doing that over Christmas break last year for some reason.)
* wear only black (Would anyone notice? Would I start acting differently?)
* write down three good things that happened to me each day (This is supposed to help you be happy.)
* spend at least 15 minutes a day working on the garden
* write nonfiction daily
* walk 10,000+ steps a day
* mend or repair something each day (I wonder how many things around the house could use little fixes.)
* do something I have been putting off (Some days getting out of bed might count.)
* buy nothing but food, mortgage payments, utility payments, and investments (and whatever obvious thing I'm forgetting).
* read or make up a bedtime story to someone every night
* introduce myself to one new person each day (ha!)
You could do something that seems kind of like a whim like Evan seems to be doing. Where you don't really know what you're doing, so there's a very high potential for learning. Or you could pick something that has to do with your life dream like the guy writing Questionable Content did. Or maybe some combination, like when you suspect you might love something, but you just want to collect a bit more data.
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no subject
on 2006-12-05 04:34 am (UTC)I like your ideas too. It would be a real struggle for me to get out of bed on time every day for a month, haha.
no subject
on 2006-12-05 05:56 pm (UTC)I cannot seem to do it when I'm at home. My home-located exercise options are limited, and the bed is so... inviting... *longing look*
But on the road... I managed it for that week I spent in San Jose. And when I go on a cruise with T, it makes me feel like I have accomplished something every day. This week, I'm trying it again. I really like finishing work and thinking "Nope, don't have to exercise. Already done."
I vote for whimsy
on 2006-12-05 08:24 pm (UTC)Enough of this virtuous getting out of bed, making the bed, and exercising stuff. Clearly, whimsy is the only way to go here. Otherwise you are just building good habits for yourself and that's no fun at all.
I have a couple of immediate ideas that appeal to my own quirks, that are entirely verbal and thus easily bloggable, cost nothing except your valuable time, and are not self-improving in any meaningful way.
(1) (Pseudo-)randomly select (you may use the method of your choice but the open the dictionary and stab is a classic approach that I like) a different word each day and take a bit of time to really learn this word, its history, its usage, its meanings, etc. Learn something new about a familiar word or be introduced to something totally irrelevant to your life and interests. (I just tested this and got the word "Latin." My god that is just so seriously Old School.) At the end of the month, write a coherent narrative piece as short as you can that uses all 30 of the words. (A faux letter, news report, short story, whatever. No free verse poetry!) (I also thought you could use one of those computer programs that put together crostics or crossword puzzles using your words, but it could just be pointlessly mean to watch your friends struggle to come up with answers like hexylresorcinol.)
(2) The stabbing of the finger in the book was so evocative that I thought of resurrecting, so to speak, that old standby of answering a question by picking out a verse from the Bible. You could have 30 different people submit questions to you, randomly select one question each day, and then attempt to answer it using a random scripture from the Good Book as your inspiration/direct pipeline [I first wrote "popeline" which isn't *quite* what I meant] from God.
no subject
on 2006-12-06 06:12 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-12-06 06:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-12-06 06:26 am (UTC)On cruises, they offer a yoga or pilate's or stretching class every morning at 8am. They claim it will be an hour, but the classes really last only 30 minutes. Given the gentle stretching nature of the classes, I often didn't bother stretching before and after, because it was included. On days with the ocean really tossing, the difficulty level went up.
Re: I vote for whimsy
on 2006-12-06 06:40 am (UTC)Hmm, finger pointing.
* Reach into the back of the freezer, and whatever you get, you have to cook something with it.
* Open a cookbook and ...
* Open the restaurant section of the phone book and ...
(Sorry, I'm sitting in the kitchen/dining room here.)
* Point at something in the closet. Or a drawer. The sock drawer perhaps. And build an outfit from that.
* Point into a photo album, and contact the person closest to your finger or, if there is no person literally in the picture, then contact a person the picture makes you think of, or the first person to pop into your head after seeing that picture. (Good luck finding that kindergarten teacher who trained you to hate ducks, one of which snuck into the edge of the picture you pointed at.)
* That old favorite of making up stories about strangers you see. Describe what you observed, and then tell the rest of the story.
* Point at something in your checkbook or credit card receipt, and think of a different way to do whatever you did with that purchase next time.
Re: I vote for whimsy
on 2006-12-06 06:41 am (UTC)Let's try one.
Question: How can I make it easier to get up in the morning?
Source: Enzymes: The Fountain of Life; Lopez, Williams, and Miehlke; p. 106; "Many people believe that the stomach is the main site of food processing, but, although very important, this is simply not true. The most thorough activities are performed in the duodenum."
Answer: Many people think the answer to getting up more easily lies in the morning, but this is simply not true. It is the night where you must focus. Prepare for the day the night before, laying out clothing, preparing lunch, and getting to bed early.
Another answer: Many people think the answer to getting up more easily lies in the bedroom, but this is simply not true. It lies in the bathroom. Make your bathroom a comfortable, welcoming place, and have a big drink of water before you go to bed. You will find yourself happy and relieved to get out of bed.
Good night.