It just got real!

It's 4:34 in the afternoon and I am sitting in my living room listening to Joni Mitchell counting the minutes until I can turn on the TV!

Today has been a particularly hard day on the TV diet. I woke up this morning to a cloudy gray day. Which to me equals cozy TV weather! I managed to fight the urge to stay in bed and watch morning daytime TV. Instead I got up got dressed and headed to the gym then a quick stop at the post office. By the time I got home I was feeling better, more energized and my need to turn on the tube had subsided.

Not watching tv has given me more time to work on my relationships. Today for example I had great conversations with not one but two of my roommates from college. My conversation with one them did consist of our thoughts on the new seasons of RHOOC and RHONJ and other Bravo programing we watch. The conversation wasn't all housewives and reality television. We did manage to have a very amusing conversation about breastfeeding, it was amusing because neither of us have ever breastfed anyone nor do we have any children. It was really great to catch up and to have a good laugh with a dear friend. I would say that conversation was the highlight of my day.

So by noon I was feeling pretty good, and my TV withdraw ls were not nearly as bad as they were when I got out of bed. Next up I had an appointment to get my hair done which would take a up a nice chunk of my afternoon. On my drive home I could hear the siren call of the television. It was like my DVR was calling out to me. Kimberly... Dance Moms is waiting for you... you still have two episodes of the view to watch... Seriously all I wanted to do was come home put on my sweats and zone out to the TV.

I started to play the who cares if you turn it on a couple of hours early, you made it most of the day its okay, rationalization game. I was so close to saying screw this, I am watching TV. Then I thought you have less than 2 hours before you can turn on the TV. Surely you can amuse yourself for two hours? Look around, there are dishes that need to be washed, clothes to iron and laundry to put away. If I turn on the TV now, I know I will start the slow decline of turning it on earlier and earlier everyday.

I worked on the laundry, folding, putting it away and ironing. Thinking, that this will surely take up the last hour before I can turn on the television, I was wrong. Surprisingly I am pretty fast at getting chores done and ironing takes half the time when I am not distracted by the television. So here I am the in home  the stretch of the hardest day yet of my diet and I think I am going to make it.

I am actually pretty proud of myself of not giving into to temptation and allowing myself to be comfortable being uncomfortable.  I also noticed having too much time with ones thoughts isn't always a good thing. That's a different post for a different day.

Until next time...