You Gave Up What for a Month?

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“I’m giving up TV for a month,” I said.

“You have fun with that,” was my husband’s first reaction.

That upcoming weekend was Labor Day weekend, so as I visited with my family I told them the same news. My mother had a couple of questions like “What all does that entail? No movie theaters?”

I simply replied, “Yes.”

She joked, “Well that doesn’t mean the rest of us couldn’t watch TV.”

I agreed with her as I had found a way around watching TV, conversation. I asked my mom about what she was up to and followed up with questions to those answers. We eventually left the living room all together and had one of the best conversations I have ever had with her. I believe that night took our relationship to another level that I am truly thankful for.

That night was the moment that I realized I wasn’t completely nuts for going cold turkey with TV. Now trust me when I say I had my doubts on if I could do this because I haven’t been able to complete anything on a personal level for a couple of months. I kept setting goals and wouldn’t come close to reaching them.

That first week of this challenge was a test of how much of a horrible habit I had developed and what it was going to take to break it. I decided to knit a pair of socks and my family laughed and joked about me turning into a cat lady. No offense to the cat ladies out there, I’m just a dog lover.

I even had a hysteria moment where my client had sent out an email talking about how much he loved applesauce. I literally laughed for a good 30 minutes. I skim emails and for some reason, my mind went directly to that line about him loving applesauce. To help you picture why I was hysterical imagine a big bodybuilder tell you he loves applesauce. It’s just unexpected. I joked with him about it after I read it and he laughed as well.

It was a random bonding moment. I told my family about this and they said I had already lost it and need to get TV back in life pronto. For someone whose mind runs a mile a minute, I really had to find other things to focus on. For me, TV is something that I could get lost in when I didn’t want to deal with my own life or thoughts running wild. It was also something I fell asleep to which was a habit I picked up from my father when I was a child. I would hang with him when he got home from work and fall asleep to the sound of the TV as he watched on.

Now you’re asking yourself why did I decide to do this in the first place if TV has been such a big part of my life. Well, the truth is I got tired of being stuck in the same place in my business and with my personal goals. I kept saying I was going to change how I ate and exercise and would fall short so I decided that I would start with my fitness. I needed to turn off distractions that would keep me away from the gym. And it worked! I managed to stay active for the month. It’s the most activity my Apple Watch has seen ever.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy to keep up with my fitness on my own, so I found a group of like-minded women who wanted to stop making excuses and put their health first. I found Black Girls Run. As you can see from the photo it is not an exclusive group, but the objective is for black women who are more prone to chronic disease to get up and get active and fight obesity. Well, I got ambitious my first time out and walked 5.75 miles with the ladies. I had only just started jogging on my mini-elliptical and was a little too confident. I even wore the wrong shoes, which stopped me from going out the next week because of the blisters and runners toe. Look it up it’s a thing I swear.

As you can see even with those challenges I used that as motivation to keep going. The reason why is because I feared I would lose the momentum and then have to start all over in my exercise regimen. I decided not this time and found exercises to do that didn’t involve my feet. Pilates and core workouts were my friends until my feet healed and I found Zumba.

In all honesty, I became addicted to hearing my Apple Watch say I met another goal. It became all the validation I needed to know that the only thing holding me back from getting to where I want to be is me. My husband would be in the background cheering me on and we even had a friendly competition going. I even got him to do Zumba, which he liked! This goal became more than me just getting active it became a way for me to motivate those who saw me get moving and I love that I could be that push.

Outside of exercise, I completed 2 sewing projects which has been my goal since the beginning of the year. Complete 2-3 projects a month. Without TV, I had to find something else to do with all my time and managed to fill it up pretty quickly. Make sure to stay tuned for pattern reviews for the projects I completed in September.

What’s something you would be willing to give up for a month? I’d love to hear it.

Until next time…