tackling the next habit

[urbansix]

I am into the 3rd week of Shovelglove, well on the way to the 21 day benchmark. It segways nicely into my morning run, so even easier to make a part of the routine. Now I'm starting to reflect on what to tackle next, the Month Two resolution. I run, fairly consistently, so that's my close approximation of (sub)urban rangering. What I really need to do is Glass Ceiling. In the past I had developed my own "system" for dealing with it, when I felt I needed to re-assess my priorities. Usually around Lent. In the Everyday Systems tradition of clever naming conventions, I have dubbed it Freetotalling - teetotalling unless it's free. (exceptions: Date with wife. Bringing drink as gift to party or dinner.) I have the good fortune of a boss who insists on picking up beers for the office every Friday. I calculated the total amount of $ saved by not buying alcohol for 40 days ( i.e. Lent), and it was ... embarassingly substantial. Part of the exercise was to buy myself something nice as a reward and incentive. (I guess the whole "true meaning of Lent" was lost with that...) In reality, I would have bought said expensive gadget anyway, and life's too short not to drink the good stuff, etc. So now everything is back to as it was. Glass Ceiling has its appeal in its moderation.

In that vein I recently sat down and figured out how much I spend on 1) store bought coffee, 2) bagel sandwich on the morning drive, and 3) lunch out. 5 days a week it comes to something like $250/month (and I know I am being cheap, compared to average office dwellers). That's a sizeable percentage of a car payment, and I need a car . This week I bought sandwich fixins, apples, teabags instead of diet coke, to keep at the office. The bill is around $3/day, or $65/month, if I have a bowl of cereal at home and forgo the bagel sandwich. The No$.

[reinhard]

"Freetotalling" sounds great -- clever, cute, and clear. And I think it would solve the economic component of the problem nicely.

Unfortunately that's not really the part I'm most worried about... if I were freetotalling, every once in a while you'd find me drunk off my rocker babbling in the back of a police car about how much money I'd saved. It's the binging, the alcohol as alcohol that gets me. My glass ceiling of two drinks maximum a day has totally solved this problem for me -- and probably saved me some money in the bargain, without sacrificing the real, legitimate pleasure and health benefits of moderate

Still, you're not me, so maybe the money part really is the big issue -- just be careful.

Don't get me wrong -- I am a cheapskate. And booze, even in moderate amounts, is expensive. To keep this expense in line I write down the cost of any alcohol I buy on the back of my daily punch card. This sort of shames me into not spending to much. I could theoretically add it all up at some point, but I've been too lazy, and the shame seems to be sufficiently effective as is. I've also developed a taste for Trader Joe's "two buck chuck" (three bucks out here on the east coast). I'll splurge on an 8-10 dollar bottle of wine on special occasions (Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon is my favorite in this price range, although it seems to be creeping out of this price range).

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Reinhard

[urbansix]

The freetotalling was what I used the last time I tried something like this. It was a short term exercise, and worked fine, but I like Glass Ceiling's approach as a habit-forming lifestyle change. Occasional binging is not a problem for me. The money's no problem either, really. Just a convenient measure and motivator. I too am a total cheapskate, but not when it comes to drink, especially beer. And scotch. But because it does add up, the high total makes for a decent incentive, and to quantify my efforts. My desire to moderate is probably rooted in my puritanical religious upbringing, in which any joy derived from "pleasures of the flesh" is inherently wrong or at least suspect, even without the evils of excess. Anyway, I do like the "extreme moderation" approach in GC, rather than my all-or-none, and will give GC a try, methinks. As we head into the holiday gauntlet.

PS I hit 21 days on Shovelglove yesterday. On the down side I haven't done an early morning SG or run yet this week.