Personal Experiments

[Mofo Rising]

When people talk about experimenting, they are usually referring to their college years, where they either tried some sort of illicit substance or, ahem, illicit sex.

But that seems limited to me. I find the idea of experimenting with your own life very interesting, in whatever form that may take.

In my case, I experimented with vegetarianism for a month. I say it was an experiment because I had no intention of remaining a vegetarian. I don't agree with any of the tenets enough to want to stop eating meat. No offense if you are a vegetarian, I just don't find any of the reasons compelling enough to want to switch.

However, changing my eating habits to conform to vegetarianism I found interesting. So for one solid month I gave up almost all animal based forms of food. Everything except for dairy (no meat, no eggs). My reasoning was that you can get dairy products without having to kill any animals. Close enough to the vegetarian ethos for me. Also, if I didn't eat dairy, getting enough protein from day to day would have been exponentially more difficult.

My findings! First of all, the vegetarian diet is very boring. I did try a lot of dishes I wouldn't have made otherwise. (Spinach enchiladas, delicious.) However, choosing a vegetarian entree at a restaurant when I could have had, say, a hamburger, was torture. Two, I didn't lose any weight, but that may have had more to do with the fact that I did not reduce my caloric intake and I still drank beer. Three, I got a lot more fiber in my diet, along with all that entails.

The first week of my vegetarian experiment, I did notice that I felt "lighter," for want of a better word. That went away, but it was interesting.

Final result, it was interesting. If you want to convert to vegetarianism, more power to you. I won't; as I said I don't agree with any of the arguments enough. It's certainly valid though, and very feasible.

So, have any of you embarked on any personal experiments? Given up television? Given up the internet? Or did you try something more esoteric, like only listening to classical music for a month, or solely gangsta rap if you usually listen to classical music? (I thought about trying that one.)

Like I said, I find the idea of monkeying with your life intriguing. If you have an interesting enough experiment, I may try it for myself.

[Trevor]

I have given up on ever having clean undies again. I be cool with that. 

Seriously, I've been a smoker since my high school days (started in 1984) and I gave it up in April of this year and haven't had a single craving since. NB: I quit cold turkey, no tablets, no nothing and the only change is that I've put on a little too much weight, but I can live with that ~ I can also lose it quickly too.

[Psycho Circus]

I go through phases and regimes. I'm currently on a really healthy diet (lots of fish & veg) for no reason. It's not for weight loss like people think, because if I lost anymore weight I'd probably die! I also decide to cut out alcohol for a month here or there, I started smoking Marlboro's everyday for a month, then quit. I've also freed myself from lucifer's dreambox, by not watching television anymore.

[Newt]

I am a wife and 'at home' mom.  I also have a farm business to run that can take up most of my day.  From time to time, I have experimented with *not* picking up in the house or doing the dishes and so on - just to see if anyone noticed or was moved to DO anything about it.  I think the longest I managed to stand it was ten days.  Five of us in the family and nobody else seemed to notice.  They were perfectly comfortable living with discarded clothing all over the living room, piles of damp towels in the bathroom, piles of junk mail, lost items, running out of clean dishes and cutlery, etc etc etc.  I think it is reasonable to say the experiment failed.  Although it did permit me an opportunity for a good rant.

[3mnkids]

I experimented with not cussing but said eff it after a couple of weeks. 

Seriously, I've been a smoker since my high school days (started in 1984) and I gave it up in April of this year and haven't had a single craving since. NB: I quit cold turkey, no tablets, no nothing and the only change is that I've put on a little too much weight, but I can live with that ~ I can also lose it quickly too.

Thats great. Congratulations on kicking such a nasty habit. Im still smoking but would like to quit. some day. 

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Oh yes... I did the vegan thing for a while.   Also tried some hippy-dippy purificatin drink with lemons, grapefruit, and a lot of garlic.  When I was younger I was a psych-department test case...took all kinds of tests just to see wht the results were.  I have sold myself for short-term medical experiments.  So I really get the idea.
-Ed

[Javakoala]

A couple of weeks ago, I bought some liquor and spent the weekend getting tipsy. By Monday, I was fairly used to the taste and figured "What the heck?" so I drank again. On Tuesday, I do a podcast with a couple of friends, so I figured I'd be the drunk one that week (which I have been most weeks, I guess), so I loaded up again. By that time, I figured I'd just drink for a week straight, which is something I NEVER do, not even beer. That Thursday was Thanksgiving and I got blasted. This went on until Friday. On Saturday, while doing something personal with my girlfriend, I was hit with the single most painful headache I think I have had in years.  It look a while for it to go away. I found out from research that such headaches can happen during moments such as that.  Oddly enough, a couple of days later, I decide to check my blood pressure.  Through the roof.

So it is safe to say, I ain't gonna become an alcoholic any time soon, or I won't last long if I do. And I shan't experiment with long-term drinking again.

For those who care, I'm feeling better.  But I am currently having a rather nice Canadian Fog to drink, thank you very much.