The whole thing started in late May when I broke a tooth.
I am a stress consumer of snacks and - conveniently - at work there is a large container of mint Life Savers. I was stressed and not thinking and bit down; off came a part of a molar on the right side of my mouth. I did not crack the tooth (fortunately), but there was a new set of sharp edges in my mouth which created problems for my tongue. I tried to manage it for a day, then made an emergency appointment at the dentist. She ground it off and reminded me that I needed to not do that (also, that my enamel was pretty much gone there and any future repairs would be less "delightful".
I resolved this was not going to happen again.
To help manage this process, I did two things. The first was to reload the food tracking app on my phone and make myself use it to keep track of everything I ate (and hopefully shame me into not gulping Life Savers like candy). This also drove to the fact that with a hike coming up in the near future, I needed to carry less of "me" around. (Which seems to be working: I have completely stopped consuming Life Savers, reduced my overall snacking, and am down almost 10 lbs.).
The second - tracking my food as I was - is that it re-ignited more fully using my bullet journal to track my overall activities.
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I have used a bullet journal - or dot journal, or (I am sure) a host of other names - off and on for six years. In short, there are a multitude of ways to use it (which really appeals to my "Let me keep trying things until something sticks" nature); the core is using a series of "bullets" or check marks to track activities that need to be done, are not done, or need to be moved. There are as many ways to do them as there are personalities and plenty of resources to do it (Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide).
The other great thing about them is that one keeps a table of contents up front and then enters information as it happens - no matter what; thus it becomes less of a daily planner and almost more of a journal or information source. In mine, I have weekly plans, conversations with my career coach, items from a book, plans for things - all there in sequence and a table of contents entry, ready to be recalled.
A challenge of learning to use it for planning has been "what" to include in a weekly plan. Over time, I have learned that activities that I will always do as a routine need not be there - reading the Bible in the morning for example, or studying Old English. Other things - things that I might let slip or find a reason not to do - benefit greatly from being an item to check off.
It really is true: there is something indefinable about checking something off that actually creates more of an incentive to complete things.
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The system of writing things down and getting them done was working - in fits and starts to be sure, but working (one of the great challenges for me in this system is to accept that everything does not get done and sometimes an arrow pushing something to next week is okay). I felt like the needle was starting to move in parts of my life.
And then, last weekend, I took an outing.
The outing was not the issue. The fact that I spent money on the outing was not the issue (this was known up front). What was the issue was the fact that I had not planned out how much I intended to spend.
No, it was not astronomical and no banks were broken. No gambling was involved and no large sums of money were lost. But it forced me to recognize there was a gap in the system.
Planning was not just for the things I wanted to accomplish. Planning was for those things that were fun as well, if for no other reason than insuring I left with the same sense of fun I had planned for.
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It was a good lesson for me - especially after the relative success I feel I have been enjoying with the system I have cobbled together. It is really good practice for whatever not doing my main line of work will look like, whenever that day comes (I keep hoping more quickly, but we will have to see).
It is good to have some level of spontaneity. It is a better to have spontaneity with a plan.
Lifesavers claim another victim! That's why I stick to chocolate candy , much, much softer. Spontaneity with a plan, reminds me of awful good or dull roar, maybe bittersweet.....you know oxymorans........:) (ya deliberate misspelling there)
ReplyDeleteNylon12, the lesson has apparently stuck: since that time, I have had none of them. So maybe even I can be taught.
DeleteSpontaneity with a plan...maybe spontaneity with limits? You are right - a bit of an oxymoron(a)n, but sometimes those work.
Stay away from Milk Dud candies too. They are a dentist’s best friend. Can pull out a crown easier than any tool they have.
ReplyDeleteAnonJ - Sigh. Caramel based candies are another of my weaknesses as well.
DeleteOn the whole, I can see where preserving my dental work can actually help me with other things as well (like money and weight loss).
Oh well the two above beat me tooth it...
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Well played sir, well played.
DeleteFor me, the best way to cut out the stress eating at work was to cut out the stress of working. The second best method is to just not stock snacks that I would eat under stress while at home. Between the two, I don't stress eat hardly at all. The closest I come these days is just to snack on something in the car on long drives which mostly is just a way to keep my brain active and alert.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I have heard of dot journaling though I have seen other forms of it I guess with the use of those small notebooks that farmers mostly, used to keep in the front pocket of their shirts or bib overalls. I guess I do a form of dot journaling of things that need to be done by using the calendar app on my phone very religiously. I even make entries for things that need done by a certain date. I also send myself emails on occasion and for wood working projects, have a master list on a piece of paper stored in the cover of my current journal.
Ed, I completely agree with your first sentiment. I have to be honest that more and more now, I am starting to ask the question "What if I just stopped working at all, or at least working at this?" I do not know that financially we are there (yet), but I keep asking the question. It is of note that when I have days off or weekends, on the whole there is no particular urge to snack at all.
DeleteSometimes for me, I just have to find the right idea for something to "click". In this case it was the concept of dot journaling. To your point there are many different ways to accomplish the same goal (and I have tried several different methods over the years). What "stuck" for me this time seems to be the idea that I can use it as single point of collection for all information (I use my phone calendar pretty frequently now, but do like having an analog method in hand).