I have been so busy tweaking (multi-tweaking, in fact) that I have not had the time to come in and update you all. And I still don’t — this is just a quickie, for Wrick, the Tweaker working on writing more.
Lifehack recommends writers keep a “treadmill journal” — a simple journal the sole purpose of which is to track your “writing workouts.” Funny enough, I have been doing this for years, but did not have a term for it.
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Tweak five went okay. I ate as many fruits and vegetables as I could manage.
Continuing some earlier tweaks, I also ate beans almost every day, until Friday.
When I got a bad case of food poisoning!
That kind of did away with the fruits and veg and beans for a few days. Once I started eating again, I am afraid I could only stomach simple carbs and bananas. I actually ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches on white bread.
White bread!
And I don’t mean a nice artisan bread, but soft Arnold white bread.
(I sent someone to buy the white bread, because it is not something I have around.)
But it’s fine. I am almost back to normal, eating some fruits and veg and even tuna.
This week, tweak seven, will be most appropriate for someone who was at an advanced state of dehydration over the weekend: I am going to drink 64 oz. of water per day, every day. More if I do more than a little exercise.
And I am going to count refills of my Sigg bottle, so there’s no question whether I did it or not.
I figure this one is both do-able (for a week when I am not quite 100%) and essential. I have always been a water drinker, but I don’t always have the recommended eight 8-oz. glasses. Seems like a good time to start.
How are you, readers?
How’s your tweaking going?
Is anyone out there?!?!?!?!?!
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Well, Tweak Four went alright.
Tweak four part A: I did walk as much as I could, and more than any of the previous four weeks. The back was totally better and the exercise felt great.
Tweak four part B: I also journaled everything I ate for about 5 days in the week. Not perfect, but I am fine with that. 
Just journaling what I ate did indeed get me to pay more attention and take more care in what I ate.
I continue to eat beans almost every day.
The bad news is I am not feeling well–I am on antibiotics (for what appears to be a lingering bacterial infection) and they have me a bit pooped out. So I am not promising any acrobatics this week.
Instead, tweak five is to eat as many fruits and vegetables as I can manage (in as close to their natural state as I can bear). I kind of have been doing this the last few weeks too, but there is always room for growth. I figure this tweak will help me recuperate as well as be part of my larger goal, and won’t take too much mental or physical energy away from getting better.
No doubt any of the previous tweaks would also help, should I be moved to repeat them. I will see.
How are you doing?!?
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Tweak three–not a huge success. The truth is, my lower back was in a state. I sat in a small plastic chair that was too low to the ground for five hours on the weekend–in retrospect, not such a brilliant idea. It felt okay at the time, but the next day, I knew exactly why I was in pain.
The lower back pain lasted most of the week, so “walking as much as I could” did not amount to much, until Thursday or so.
Tweak four will have two components:
1/ I will track everything I eat in a food journal. (Just to assess things, but I suspect it will lead to more circumspect choices). This is my new tweak. Going to weight watchers is one of my larger goals, but going and following their plan perfectly and tracking everything all at once is too much for one week (small steps, you know). So this is a first step.
2/ I will “walk as much as I can.” This is one I want another shot at.
Two tweaks this week is no small order, but I think they are manageable.
Oh, and let’s not forget, the third tweak for the week–
3/ I am never, ever going to sit in that particular chair again. (I am pretty sure this one will be easy even though, as you know, I normally eschew “forever” promises.)
I am happy to report that tweak two (eat beans) is thriving. I had beans six days this week, without trying. I think it’s safe to say this one is a keeper.
So how are you doing?
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That’s my theory.
Things went fine last week: I had beans every day but two. Friday was a vegetable curry which had few beans, but some kind of lima presence. Saturday I had some black beans. The rest of the week is detailed here. I call it a success, and I will continue to eat more beans than before.
For those keeping track, I learned in tweak 1 not to ban foods, since it made them more interesting (even if I did avoid them).
I learned in tweak 2 not to promise to do something every day, but that 5x a week might be a manageable addition. Especially for a food item. Ahem, especially for a high fiber food item like beans.
I was not sure what to do this week, but noted that due to various reasons, I have not been walking as much as I’d like to, lately, nor as much as I am used to. So Tweak 3 is to walk as much as I am able, and certainly every day.
This may be very little, today, since my lower back is troubling me. (I spent five hours in a meeting in an uncomfortable chair– I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but the chair seems fine at the time, and the next day, you realize it wasn’t.) But I read that you should move around as much as you can with lower back pain, so I will.
Hopefully later in the week, I will walk more enthusiastically. With vim and vigour.
This seems like a manageable tweak; the onus is on me to make sure I stretch myself.
How, and what, are you doing?
Over and out.
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We’re most of the way through the second tweak.
How’s it going?
If you remember, my tweak was to eat beans every day.
Well, I haven’t quite.
Sunday: cannelini beans in soup for dinner
Monday and Tuesday: no beans
Wednesday: pre-packaged Tasty Bite brand Madras Lentils (which actually appears to consist of black lentils and kidney beans) for lunch
Thursday: cuban style black beans for lunch
Monday and Tuesday it just didn’t happen. I left it for dinner time and on Monday I felt gassy, sorry to be graphic. (As I said, beans are nothing new to me, so I don’t assume they were the reason). Tuesday I just plain forgot.
No worries! Onwards. If anything, I have learned it may be best to plan to do something X number of days a week, but not seven. Too hard.
I hope it is going well for you? If not, focus on identifying a great idea for next week.
What would make life better?
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Hello Friends,
Well, this was a short tweak, New Year’s Day coinciding with a Tuesday. If you prefer to start the week on Sundays as I do, you only had to endure it for five days.
In my own case, it was not difficult at all.
Was it worthwhile? Yes, and no.
Since I’d prefer to eat less fried food and fewer simple carbohydrates, it might seem like my last tweak (giving up french fries) was a good idea. In practice, five days is not long and probably too short to notice.
I do wonder, though, that I seemed to be craving simple carbs even more during this time. So in effect, I probably ate more potatoes and white rice than I might normally in five days. Again, not an enormous amount. But it gave me pause for thought.
So here’s what I am taking away from the tweak: if I want to tweak my diet (using the word in the broader sense), it might be best if I added things, rather than subtracting them. Forbidding foods seems to make me want them more, or at least similar ones, and this seems self-defeating.
I did in fact make an additional diet “tweak” this week, though it was not planned nor “official.” I ate steel cut (Irish) oats for breakfast. I like steel cut oats. I had them the last five mornings.
For those not familiar, Irish or steel cut oats are more whole-grainy than regular American oats or “oatmeal.” They take a while to cook. Cooking them in a pan can be messy and take a while. Microwaves work. But my preferred method is to stick them in the rice cooker, with the amount of water specified on the package. I then add dried fruit, a good amount, which rehydrates using some of the water. (It’s not an exact science, but if you intend to add a lot of dried fruit, then you might need a bit of extra water.) I then run the rice cooker on the normal setting, and when it’s done, stir it.
I have done this with all kinds of dried fruits, including peaches, Trader Joe’s “just flattened bananas,” mangoes, and apricots, but my favorite right now is dried pineapple, which rehydrates and cooks nicely. I throw a few chopped nuts on top, and it keeps me going until the afternoon. I should note that normally, I have little or no use for dried fruit, which I find to be too dry and sweet. But rehydrated, it’s just cooked fruit.
Sometimes, as a special treat, I use the flattened dried bananas and a tablespoon of dark chocolate chips. With nuts. Very decadent, but not unhealthy. (Unless you’re really avoiding simple carbs, and not just dancing around them as I am.) This is a good way to get skeptical people (like picky boyfriends and children) to try steel cut oats, and then later, you can slip them the pineapple, and they’re happy. (Note: This has been tested on picky boyfriends, but not children or others; your mileage may vary.)
Anyway, I might have made this my tweak, but after five days, I might need a wee break from the oats.
So this week, in continuing with my goal of eating more whole foods, and in the spirit of adding, not banning foods, I am going to eat some beans (legumes, not green beans) every day. (”Some beans” need not be a lot.)
I like beans. I am not a vegetarian, but I eat them often. But not every day. And I think it would be a good economical thing as well as healthful thing to do so. (And would you believe, I often prefer to boil my own, in the rice cooker? Easiest thing in the world. Recipe next time if anyone is reading this and interested and has a rice cooker. That’s a lot of ifs.)
Finally, as I said the other day, I keep getting weird urges to do other things on my long list of possible future tweaks. I cleaned my desk, and started on the steel cut oats, both probably a bigger achievement than my “official” tweak this week. And now I have the urge to exercise more vigorously. I will be continuing to give in to these whims, as they arise, and not wait to make them “official” tweaks. I do hope they continue.
How about you?
Did your tweak suit you? Or not? Did you do it, or abandon it? Will it continue next week?
Remember, no pressure, no guilt. What you are doing is fine. You’re still here, right? It wasn’t a New Year’s Reoslution, just a tweak.
And since it’s all about where we are right now, and what we’ll do next,
What are you tweaking this week?
Please comment below and let us know!
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I want to give a shout out to those who we haven’t heard from.
Maybe things are going well and you’re getting on with it.
In case they’re not–remember, this is not a New Year’s resolution.
This is a realistic step in the direction of change–and if it does not work, that’s okay. No guilt! Onwards.
I just wanted to get that out there, since so far, my own updates may sound rather Pollyanna-ish.
Yes, my tweak is going fine (it isn’t all that challenging, you will remember).
I am still musing on why I seem to be making other unintended changes, effortlessly, this week.
And I think the reason is this: I told myself just to make the one change.
The difference from this time last month is that when my goal was to do X number of things, I could do none.
Having told myself to do one simple, small thing, I find myself motivated to go further.
Let’s see if it holds up.
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I find myself musing on this experience. Renee’s comment, where she declared her first tweak was a task, which she promptly did:
My first tweak was going to be to tackle a long-delayed task every week. I have a number of them, small ones many of them, so I thought I would just pick one at random and see if I could get it done. And I did, today. Which makes me think that is not the kind of tweak that is in the spirit of this endeavor. Or is it? Should I be doing (or resisting!) something every day?
As you know, the spirit of 52tweaks is that it’s not about rules or overhauling your entire life in one day. Which–it occurs to me–were exactly the kinds of resolutions I’d make in the past. Before New Year’s Eve. And they’d be discarded usually even before New Year’s Day, when I would wake up on a day off feeling slothful, and thinking, “maybe tomorrow.” When you have to do something for a year, or forever, why not try and get another day before starting?
My own answer to Renee is that yes– a manageable task planned and completed: what could be better?
Remember, this is supposed to be easy and do-able, in the way past resolutions were not (at least for me).
But do what you need to do. If your tweak was too manageable, or not manageable enough, then tweak it. No need to wait.
I am finding my tweak manageable too, as I expected. But this whole experience is making me mindful of other changes. I feel like just having made a list of possible future tweaks, I may be unconsciously implementing some of them without planning to. As I mentioned in the comments yesterday, I was led to clean my desk: no promise necessary.
I wonder if others will experience that too.
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If you’re new, you might want to first read what this site is about.
I also added some static pages which might help you determine your first “tweak:” the method, rules (don’t let the term fool you), and benefits sections.
What are my goals?
I may not go into too much detail, but I have a pretty concrete idea where I want to go.
It’s pretty scary saying I want to make changes in so many areas, but it won’t happen overnight.
I am willing to accept that small changes, small victories, will add up to bigger ones.
My goals fall under these categories:
(Note: I know how much weight I want to lose, and just how disorganized my desk is, but I am not going to go into too much detail at this time.)
What goal am I working on this week?
My first tweak falls under (for want of a better word) “diet.” I am not using the word in the narrow sense of restricting calories, nor in the shortsighted sense of “eating a certain way for a period of time and then giving it up.” I mean it more holistically.
My diet is not terrible. I eat lots of vegetables, fruits, and a good amount of wholefoods like legumes. It could be better.
I don’t eat fried foods every day, but I admit a weekness for french fries. If the sandwich comes with fries, I am all over them. I’ve been known to order fries and a salad. Not the worst thing in the world, but I could do with a bit less of them.
My first tweak is not to have any this week. I’m starting at midnight, New Year’s Day.
I know, it is not a very big tweak, but it makes sense to me. It’s a five-day week from 1/1 to the Sunday when my next tweak begins.
We’ll see if I decide then to keep this one up too.
No pressure. That’s the idea.
What are your goals?
What’s your first tweak?
Say as much or as little as you like, but let me know you’re out there, tweaking.
Remember, one small change, one week five days.
We can do this, eh?
Next week, we’ll re-assess and see where to go next.
Onwards!
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