Three Weeks: The Idea

There is little that I enjoy more than a good challenge. I love experiencing new things - and challenging yourself to alter your lifestyle can ultimately be very rewarding. You gain insight into your true level of commitment, dedication, and character.

What if you had to live on minimum wage for 30 days ? Or live in prison for four weeks? Oh, wait, Morgan Spurlock already did this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437696/. Can you survive such a drastic change to your accustomed lifestyle? Those are pretty extreme changes...

What about smaller life changes, a la A.J. Jacobs, http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/my_life_as_an_experiment.asp? A.J. puts a more light-hearted spin on the concept of trying new things, expanding your horizons, and ultimately becoming a human guinea pig by taking on a number of radical lifestyle experiments. He outsources his life, devotes himself to the Radical Honesty movement, and gives up multi-tasking, among other things.

So, my idea isn't entirely novel, but...spurred on by my desire to experience new things and an admiration of Morgan Spurlock and A.J., I've decided to try my own little lifestyle experiment. For three weeks, I will adopt a change in lifestyle. I will devise a set of rules at the beginning that are to be follwed; I will attempt to foresee any challenges that might interfere with the format of my plan. I will track any variables that are directly related to the lifestyle change and see how those are ultimately impacted.

After thinking long and hard about what change I can make to my lifestyle to launch this experiment, I've decided to start with restaurants. For 21 days, I will only eat food that is procured from a restaurant. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks in between must come from a restaurant. This is challenging but not overwhelmingly so. I work Monday-Friday, approximately 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, so squeezing in runs for breakfast and lunch could prove to be a challenge. It can even sound appealing (yes, I get to eat out all the time!), but what about those days you just want to go home from work and stick a pizza in the over? Or Sunday mornings when you have no desire to go out but you need to eat breakfast at some point?

Also, will I gain weight from eating out all the time? How much more money will I be spending? Ah, these are the variables I will need to track: weight change, calorie intake, money spent.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on my lifestyle experiment? I'm set to start Phase I tomorrow on Wednesday, September 7, 2011.