Dopamine detox: the journey

about 1 month ago

My dopamine detox period is over. It started September 8th and ended September 11th.
While it did not go according to plan, I consider it a decent success anyway.

This article will serve as a walkthrough of the days.

Day 1

My expectations for day one can be found here

Progression of day 1

My journey started Monday around 1pm my time (11am UTC).
Full of excitement and somewhat nervous about the days to come I kicked off strong doing... well, basically nothing for 2 hours time.
It felt pretty great not being tied to a screen, which I would have been under normal circumstances.

About two and a half hour in to my journey, one of my friends was knocking on my door.
As he couldn't get a hold of me, he decided to drop by and had brought a few beers along with him.
How typical is that?!

We had a few beers (just 3 each) and we talked a bit before we called it a day.

Not quite sure if I should have tackled the situation better. I probably should, but a quick decision in the moment was, let's have them beers. Obviously.
I also took the decision of turning on my phone, in case someone needed to contact me.

I used my time playing solitaire and heads-up poker. Now, since I wasn't playing with anyone, I dealt cards and then guessed which one I though would win. Both with and without knowing the cards on hand.
It's actually more difficult than you think to guess the outcome 🤣

Around 5-6 pm my body started screaming for food. As I was doing the challenge, I ignored it and around 9pm I was feeling sick.
Dizziness, nauseous, hands shaking.
At 10pm I couldn't handle it anymore and I ate 2 toast about 30 minutes before I then went to bed, still not feeling very well.

This was when I took the decision to not go through with not eating.

Day 2

My expectations for day two can be found here

Progression of day 2

Tuesday was weird. It started with me waking up at 4:44 am.
What the fugg?!

Getting up, going for a glass of water(!) - yay me! - and then going back to lay in bed.
Way too early to be getting up for real. I slept on/off for almost two hours, up to almost 7am. Must have been tired.

It was also itching in my fingers to check InLeo.
Obviously I knew my expectations post for day 1 had been released and it was sooo difficult not to check up on how it was received.
I resisted the temptation. That was not to be the reason why I failed the challenge. I felt like the screen time was the most important part not to do, after I decided to still be eating, so I wouldn't feel that sick again.

At 7:50 I crashed.
Not in a car, bike or anything like that - I simply just fell asleep and slept until 9:20.

Couldn't tell you why, but after that extra nap, I felt TIRED!
Like "Give me coffee now!!"-tired.
So I went to the kitchen and started arguing myself. Of course coffee is a good idea.
Let's put the kettle on for some instant coffee.

Water boiling, cup is ready for this delicious cup of coffee..
But wait. I stopped myself!
If I started drinking coffee, what would stop me from going for a beer after my walk?
Maybe my post-it note was working, even though it wasn't as big as the AI made it look in my expectation post 🤣

At 10:00 I started playing solitaire and my "guessing poker" again.
I mixed it up with also trying a few card tricks to see if I could remember them.
That was with a mixed success rate 🤣 I still remember a few tricks, but others I can't remember at all.
I should polish those skills, watch a video to remember them....

NO! What was I thinking. No videos.

Around noon (Oh, time is moving slow!!), I decided to walk out and meet my friends for our walk.
I opted to walk to take my mind off things. Enjoying the nature on my way there.

They showed up 15 minutes after I was there and we started walking. Great times! Always fun to see those two guys.

As we were talking, I told them that I'm doing this dopamine detox period. They found it interesting and we all decided to postpone going for a beer. That was great, and we decided to go for it Thursday instead, as I'd be done with the challenge by then.

I got back home around 16:30 and took a nap around 17:10. That walk had me knackered, so my intended 30-40 minutes rest lasted for 90 minutes 🤣🤣

When I woke up I started practicing my card skills again.
No chance that I will ever be able to cheat in card games, that's for sure 😆

At 21:00 I was starting to feel the sickness sneaking up on me again and I decided to make a toast, once again. Nearly 24 hours without food is about the maximum I can handle, apparently.

I don't remember when I went to bed and I didn't write it down on my notes, but I'm guessing it was around midnight, based on when I woke up on Wednesday.

Day 3

My expectations for day three can be found here

Progression of day 3

While typing this article, I realise that starting the journey around noon instead of midnight, has totally messed with the timeline.
Day 2 should begin Tuesday around noon, but instead started from the early morning.
Oh well 🤷🏼
Guess the 3rd day roundup will just cover Wednesday and some of the Thursday 😎

Waking up at 7:35, feeling fairly refreshed. Is the no-screen doing this to me? It can't be the no-food, as I was eating a little each day.

I got out of bed at 8:10, took some water and didn't even think "coffee would be good right now".
Progress!
It was also pretty easy not to check up on my phone, even though it would have been easy to check it.

I went back to my cards and played for quite a while. Both solitaire, "guessing poker" and practicing my card tricks. This time around, time flew by. Not quite sure what that was about - what happened to the time moving slow?
At 11:30-ish things started getting a little tough. Wanted to eat, have some energy drink or coffee and look at a screen.
I kept doing my cards, but this wasn't distracting me very much this time, so at 11:45 I laid down in my bed and had a nap.

Apparently I'm a good sleeper, because when I opened my eyes, it was 13:00 🤣
Got some more water and was feeling bored - so I went back to my cards, but they didn't do the trick.
Was I getting tired of the cards? I mean, I was kinda stuck on those 3 card activities.
I had forgotten to prepare properly, so I didn't have anything to read in. Only books I have to read in is:

Web design in a nutshell - 2nd edition (Jennifer Niederst, 2001)
PHP cookbook - 2nd edition (David Sklar & Adam Trachtenberg, 2006)
Build your own database driven website using PHP and MySQL - 3rd edition (Kevin Yank, 2004)

I don't really get a lot out of reading those as they are very outdated 🤣

What then?

I had a good record of getting in my steps, so I decided to go for a walk. This time alone.
When I left home it was 13:30 and I ended up getting 13k steps in on that walk.
I arrived back home around 16:10. That's nearly 3 hours of walk.
Damn, I could be proud of that!

Rest of the day was spent drawing, doing more card stuff, eating a toast and enjoying the last rays of summer, before autumn comes knocking us over with it's windy season 😎

This lead us to

Thursday

The final 12-ish hours (counting from midnight) before the challenge is complete.
It has been rough, but now it was even more so! So close to the finish line - and when I woke up around 7:45, the end was near. So close I could almost taste it.
Not quite sure how an end is tasting... sour, maybe? Depends on when one last took a shower 🤣🤣
(Sorryyyyy)

It was extra hard not to have a cup of coffee this fine Thursday morning.
Not because I was craving it, but because the end of the challenge is within reach. Could as well be having that coffee to celebrate, right?!

Wrong!!
I simply refuse to fail a challenge so close to the end.
Without hesitation, I grabbed a glass of water and went outside.
It was still just about 9:00, but I went out and took a loong, looooong walk.

Met up with my friends around 13:00 and went for another walk, before we went to downtown to grab a beer around 15:00.
I still hadn't been eating anything that day, so two big glasses of beers was enough that I could feel myself being tipsy. I don't mind, it was fantastic.

I was back home 16:45.
Just in time for the daily #cryptoshots tournament. My god how I had missed this!

Buuuut(!), with my not having eaten, been out the entire day and whatnot, my body wanted it differently.
I fell asleep and woke up around 19:00.

That's two hours of sleep, just like that.
Oops!

Time for dinner, finally!

Conclusion

As you can see, I did not complete the challenge in terms of not eating, but overall, I am satisfied with how it went down.

It has been a rough few days, and I have, according to myself, been handling it very well.
Now it's all about adapting, take the things I've learned through these last couple of days and implement them in my daily life 💯