#60 Learn to Live without Something You Love for a Week

I didn't like the sound of this one much. One of the perks of being an adult is that, by and large, you can get away with indulging yourself in the things you enjoy. Kids tend to need permission to do almost anything they actually want to do, as it's probably something inappropriate for kids.

So, I confess, when I started considering this I tried to think of things that I like but wouldn't really miss that much. So, chocolate was out. I did give up chocolate for Lent one year when I was a teenager. I didn't enjoy that much, but by God, I've never had a better Easter. Proper gorged myself.

What else do I like then? Well, I like sleeping and generally lounging around in my jimjams, but I didn't think it would be that sensible to live without sleep for a whole week and it's too cold to go without the jammies. So, the search went on.

I also like playing on the internet and since our broadband at home went down for 5 days this week, that almost ticked the box, but I can access the web at work so got my fix there. I also tend to need to use the internet at work so going without it for a week may have caused problems.

The book suggests going without TV. Impossible. We've got a serious amount of dvd box sets to get through. Computer games and junk food are also things the book proposes I give up - I'm not really fussed about either of them so that wouldn't have worked.

Then it came to me. Text messaging. I'm really bad for sending a quick text in place of calling and actually speaking to people. One of my New Year's resolutions was to be more sociable and see more of and talk more to my friends. So, I decided to give up sending text messages for a week and call people instead. And it worked! In fact, as the days went by I barely missed the old text message and I'm definitely going to continue avoiding sending them wherever possible.

And, now I'm thinking about it I went without decent chocolate AND tv AND lounging in bed in my jammies for 3 months when I was travelling through Central America so I'd already more than satisfied the criteria for this one - what a shame I can't give myself 2 blue stars for this one!