Days 18 and 19: I got nothing

Great weekend. I got some much needed rest. Watched some movies with the family, swam in grandma's pool. Went to church. Read a lot. Consumerism is losing it's appeal.

I got some needed quiet time and worked on my Scyfy book a little.

Accomplished a few other things, but mostly just enjoyed rejuvenating from a crazy couple of weeks. Back at it tomorrow.

Days 16 and 17: Be Still, My Kick Drum Heart

Counting minnows and wading in the river with my daughter. Now that's real "bucket list" kind of stuff, my friends.

First, yesterday I got home too late to bother writing a blog. Was in surgery from about 7:15 am until 8:30 pm. With an hour drive, shower and desperate need for food, I didn't get to bed until 10:30 and was pretty wiped out, but in a good way. The kind of tired where you feel like you earned your sleep at night.

Today was no exception, except that my third case of the day got cancelled and I got to come home an hour early after covering the OR First Line Sup for about an hour while she was in a meeting.

So today, Elizabeth went out with a friend for dinner, the boys went with a friend to concert in the park which left Maeve and I foot loose and fancy free. I've been promising her a date for a while but work has kept me from getting to take her out.

So I asked what she wanted to do. Her answer, "Taco Bell and go to the river."

I had just the spot. It's a gorgeous park that apparently no one knows about because no one is ever there. It was a warm night with a light up-river breeze. So we counted minnows, skipped rocks, walked barefoot through the aquatic flora, followed deer tracks into the woods, collected feathers and except for snapping a completely adorable picture of my little adventurer, the phone was off for the duration of my evening.

We got in the car on the way home and she asked to listen to Avett Brothers song "Kick Drum Heart" because we both know all the words and like to sing it really loud in the car with the windows rolled down. So yeah, my night was perfect.

Fill your time with stuff that actually matters, live in the moment and consumerism somehow just loses it's grip on your life.

Days 16 and 17: Be Still, My Kick Drum Heart

Counting minnows and wading in the river with my daughter. Now that's real "bucket list" kind of stuff, my friends.

First, yesterday I got home too late to bother writing a blog. Was in surgery from about 7:15 am until 8:30 pm. With an hour drive, shower and desperate need for food, I didn't get to bed until 10:30 and was pretty wiped out, but in a good way. The kind of tired where you feel like you earned your sleep at night.

Today was no exception, except that my third case of the day got cancelled and I got to come home an hour early after covering the OR First Line Sup for about an hour while she was in a meeting.

So today, Elizabeth went out with a friend for dinner, the boys went with a friend to concert in the park which left Maeve and I foot loose and fancy free. I've been promising her a date for a while but work has kept me from getting to take her out.

So I asked what she wanted to do. Her answer, "Taco Bell and go to the river."

I had just the spot. It's a gorgeous park that apparently no one knows about because no one is ever there. It was a warm night with a light up-river breeze. So we counted minnows, skipped rocks, walked barefoot through the aquatic fauna, followed deer tracks into the woods, collected feathers and except for snapping a completely adorable picture of my little adventurer, the phone was off for the duration of my evening.

We got in the car on the way home and she asked to listen to Avett Brothers song "Kick Drum Heart" because we both know all the words and like to sing it really loud in the car with the windows rolled down. So yeah, my night was perfect.

Fill your time with stuff that actually matters, live in the moment and consumerism somehow just loses it's grip on your life.

Day 15: That Moment When You Realize You're In 'The Matrix'

I lost my wedding band about a month ago. I had accidentally worn it to work and had to scrub in for an emergency surgery. You can't scrub in wearing a ring because that 5 minute-long harsh chemical hand scrubbing and two layers of surgical gloves are still no match for wedding-band germs that are way more resilient than hand germs, and may result in spontaneous combustion of you're patient or something. So I had to remove the band in a hurry. I placed it in the shirt pocket of my scrubs where I can protect the defenselessly anesthetized patient from the vicious gold-dwelling microbes... aaaaand, I forgot to take it out at the end of the day.

Who knows where the ring ended up after going to hospital laundry. My biggest fear is that those germs are in the drains somewhere raising up a subterranean super army of unstoppable bacterial soldiers of death.

I had to get a new ring. No more expensive gold rings for me. No way Jose! I'm going for titanium rings now. Why? Well 1. because they are cheaper, 2. the store clerk said that they are virtually indestructible, and 3. they were on sale (I think I got it like 99.9% off. I'm not entirely positive, but the clerk had to get out a calculator to figure out the thirteen different discounts I was getting for stuff like wearing a blue shirt, sneezing twice while trying rings on, and having already set up a super special titanium account - unbeknownst to me - with the department store and whatnot.

After talking about all the different options like Tungsten (which is so durable that someday we will make time machines out of it), gold (which was like 800 times more expensive than the other two options) and titanium (which is tough, scratch resistant and REALLY on sale). I went with the obvious choice.

As I'm checking out, she offers to sell me some "peace of mind".

"Say what?" I didn't realize that I was in such a Holy place capable of delivering on such lofty promises.

"Insurance."

"Aw. Okay. Why?" I was pretty sure already that I wasn't going to buy the insurance for my ring, but I wanted to give her a chance.

"In case something happens to it." She smiled at me with a slight hint of sorrow for the poor uneducated young man making his first big boy purchase ever.

"In case I lose it again?" I asked.

"No it won't cover that," She shot back abruptly. "In case it breaks or scuffs."

"I thought this titanium stuff was super durable."

"Well, you never know. Just in case."

See what she did there? First, she sells me on the durability and inexpensiveness of the ring, so that I don't have to freak out if I lose it and I can feel confident that it will stand up to the rigors of Elizabeth's jewelry box (which is where it will live during the week when I'm working). Then, in order to tempt me to spend more money, she creates a sort of uneasiness about it actually lasting until I once again do something stupid like drop it into an alligator infested swamp, which would never happen because swamps are hot and stinky and alligators terrify me.

This is the subtle ploy of consumerism. This is how marketing works. The goal is to entice the customer with a promise of satisfaction, but never let the satisfaction last for long enough that the customer doesn't come back and spend more money. Check it out for yourself sometime, go experiment by fake car shopping (be very careful that you don't actually get talked into buying the car). You've probably, like me and everyone else, been suckered into making regretful purchases in the past.

But realizing the subtle messages, the psychological scams being played on you, the empty promises, the calming joyful music, bright lights, engaging and labyrinth-like layout; it's all there to trap you. When you start looking for it, it's like Neo realizing that the Matrix is a lie, a false experience designed to satisfy just enough, but it isn't real. That my friends is consumerism.

Sweet dreams.

Day 14: Consumerism is a voracious monster...

Elizabeth petting a dog in Haiti. She's so cute in scrubs. (I'm probably going to get in trouble for this).

I started the audio book today on my way to work, "Consumer Detox". It was written by a British guy from a UK perspective which is, well, it's identical to the US perspective on consumerism. We aren't alone folks.

Big issues the book has covered so far: 1. dissatisfaction with our stuff even though we have way more stuff than we need. 2. we are all constantly bombarded with a multi-billion dollar marketing machine and are pretty much helpless to defend ourselves against it.

Okay, so not a happy start. I'll update you when the news is good.

In other news, I've had no sugar, tons of coffee and maintained social media silence since arriving home from work! Yay! Freedom!

I'm going for a walk. Peace!

Day 13: I'm a hack!

Best lawns in the county!

First of all, I'm a hack. There is a book out that I just was alerted to called, wait for it... "Consumer Detox: Less Stuff. More Life." It's by Mark Powley.

I obviously used an Audible credit to get it. I'll start listening to it tomorrow. It seems I'm not the only one thinking about this.

There are some important points to this that I have been discovering as time goes by. First, it is really hard to isolate yourself from a consumerist lifestyle in the country. I'm not just talking about the stuff that you have to consume like food and clothes and energy. The wealth that we experience in this country makes virtually everything accessible. Second, the way that we prioritize how we spend our wealth has a lot to do with how much money we make and how hard we have to work for that money. Finally, just because we prioritize the right things doesn't mean we aren't susceptible to the traps that our multimillion dollar marketing industry sets for us to spend unnecessarily.

As I write this I'm sitting in a beautiful custom soccer field watching my son play for an elite soccer club. He is learning absolutely amazing skills and strategy that I would have never had access to when I was a kid. This is partly because of how expensive this program is. Now I'm not trying to brag about him, the cost or the great wealth of coaching talent we have in California. If anything, I have this small shred of gilt over the fact that I'm spending this kind of money on this. It's actually not as expensive as other regional programs, so we really are getting a good bang for our buck, but there are also cheaper programs with pretty good professional coaching.

This is absolutely a luxury. From the very beginning I've thought about how his learning to play soccer at this level so young may be useful in the future for him and also how he might use this skill to glorify Jesus in his life. I'm not taking about Tom Tebow-like religious athleticism, I'm thinking about how he might someday use his talent and training to coach other kids positively and mentor them in a Christ honoring way.

Is this really a necessity? No.

But should I take him out of this and spend the money on something else? That's a harder question to answer.

This is the kind of mindfulness about my consumerism that has been inspired by my trips to Haiti and personal exploration into what drives my spending.

I'll pass on any good tidbits I get from the Consumer Detox book. Thanks for following along with me in this experiment.

Day 12: Still flailing

I got called in for surgeries today at 0900. I went in immediately after church and didn't get home until 2230.

I've now worked the last 7 out of 7 days, and I don't even want to count the hours. I'm going to bed, and I'm watching a Seinfeld re-run, doggone it!

Days 10 and 11: Help! I'm losing altitutde!

This is my quiet place. I arrive to work early, eat breakfast and read my daily bible app here. I love this place. It's a little courtyard just outside the hospital cafeteria.

I've been listening to the audio book version of "The Martian" so I currently think of almost everything in space survival terms. This will last until I'm done with the audio book at which time I will start listening to another audio book and will then begin using terms and phrasing that are completely relevant to that story, but no one else will have any context whatsoever and will thereby find me either pleasantly quirky or hopelessly annoying and confusing.

But I really do need help. The last two days have been abject failures. Amazon is tempting me with all that good stuff, you know like Scifi-movie memorabilia campaign patches, Blue Ray DVD's, science fiction novels and obscure musical instruments.

It really is like a drug. I'm mostly keeping my distance, but the draw is terrible. I can white-knuckle through it, but I have moments of weakness. I'm weak people! I'm weak!

And I ate a snickerdoodle (thanks honey for making SUCH RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS UNHEALTHY DESSERTS!). Bad.

I was able to stave off multiple offers for alcoholic drinks, though. Good.

I was able to remain physical-ish. Definitely not active enough. Okay, I've been a bum after I get home from work ever since Thursday. Bad.

Shoot, I'm tired though. Seriously, I've done 24 surgeries just this week. I haven't worked less than a 10 hour day since Monday and I had to go in for another surgery this morning. THAT didn't go so well. But I'm home now and I'm trying to recuperate.

I mostly just lounged, did a a few 'round-the-house chores, but mostly just lounged and did the unthinkable after I got back from my very early morning surger: I spent time on Facebook. Quite a bit of time on Facebook actually. Very bad.

It was never my intention, but it was mindless activity and there are so many great new viral videos out. I watched this one where a cat is attacking it's reflection in a mirror, then in one final attempt to END the cat in the mirror's life gets a running start and looks like it might have kind of knocked itself out for a second! HAHA! Furry little idiot! What adorable, stupid animals they are!

Oh and you need to watch Cincinnati Police Departments Running Man Challenge video. These guys KILLED IT!

Anyway, as I said before, the last two days have been an abject failure in consumerism detox. I'm also noticing that if one domino starts to fall, they all come tumbling down. It's starting to feel like it's all connected. My desire for sugar, buying stuff online, social media, being lazy... It all started because of mental exhaustion, not that I think that's a viable excuse, but I realize that being tired is my trigger. I had actually thought at one time that my trigger was just the beer that I had after work everyday, and it seemed to be a reasonable hypothesis, and may still be, but I'm working hard to identify my other blind spots.

Yep, being tired is a blind spot. Need to think about this and find a way to address it to prevent future falls from the wagon.

I think tomorrow after church I'm going to get to work on the novel I've been writing. It's fun. A space western. Not very good, but my kids sure enjoy the periodic installments I write for it.

Also, I had deleted Pokemon Go from my phone the day after I downloaded it (you remember, to go on a Pokemon hunt with the kids) because I thought that it was sort of un-masculine or something. Then I thought about it some more and "Well, that ship sailed years ago. Come on kids, lets go find some cute cartoon animals with menacing scowls hiding in the neighbor's hedges!"

Any suggestions to help me when I hit that mental exhaustion wall? I need a means to combat this. Thanks!

Day 9: Old folks play Pokemon, Young folks eat french fries and milkshakes for dinner

I managed to take a photo with all three of my kids making weird faces... yep, that's why they love to be in photos. This was, despite all appearances, in the midst a happy moment right after Owen did a Ukulele performance with his cousin and the rest of his ukulele class in front of a restaurant filled with joyous adoring fans (their parents).

This was just highlite number two of my evening. First I saw an elderly couple walking down the sidewalk in 105 degree heat and then suddenly, iPhones in hand, make a b-line to the other side of the street then furiously flick their phone screens for a solid 2 minutes each. I really wished I had recorded the incident, because the moment was so perfect that it seemed staged. I guess there is no age limit on who can enjoy Pokemon Go.

COnfession time: I took a spoon of each of my kids's (and wife's) milkshakes. I did. I feel shame. Not the healthiest of eating days today in general, actually.

Who am I kidding, I did horrible on diet today. I didn't do social media (was too busy doing life... and having actual fun). I did go for a good walk and even jammed out on my ukulele a little.

I can't wait to tell you about some of the changes I've been noticing with these lifestyle modifications though! It'll have to wait for the weekend. Another early day tomorrow (and then I have 1 early surgery on Saturday morning but should be home before lunch that day.)

If you still don't understand what the heck I'm doing here with this blog or what the consumerism detox is, please leave me a post in the comment section below. I am not sure if I've explained this well since I've had so many people texting me and emailing me about what the heck I'm doing here.


For bonus points, who can tell me what movie the above meme was taken from?

Day 8: El Dorado and a good sittin' chair.

Really don't feel like writing right now. I'm watching an old John Wayne western, "El Dorado" with my boys.

No updates today. No rule breaking today.

I need to have a more interesting day or at least time to think. Insanely busy and long days at work lately. Looking like more of the same tomorrow.

It sure is nice to get home from work and feel like you earned the right to sit down though.

I leave you with some amazing music from the Avett Brothers to calm your mind and heart before bed.

May God bless your night with peaceful rest and refreshment for your day to come.

Day 7: Pokemon Gangs and a new reason to walk around the neighborhood

Captured! In an empty field by my house! Who knew a pink jumpy snake-kind-of thing was just chillaxing there?! I mean little garden snakes? of course! Rattlesnakes? Possibly! But that pokemon... snake... dude... thing?! Wow! What a world we live in!

Owen and I took to an adventure walk in the neighborhood today, and we are lockin' it down, folks!

As we were walking we ran across a dad and his daughter seeking out one of these hidden Pokemon right in front of the Insurance company across from our house! Across from our house folks! Hanging out in the parking lot at an insurance company! Who knew about this hidden world? We didn't!

So we have already captured a bunch of these cute little guys. I'm a little too old to have enjoyed Pokemon as a kid, so please forgive my naivety, I have no idea why I am capturing these little guys, but in about an hour I think we captured 8 or 9. 

As we are walking toward the grocery store a block away from our house a subcompact car filled with boys obviously in their teens yells out the window, "Pokemon Go, Fool! That's what's up!" 

I look straight up at them and they are totally talking to Owen and me. I smiled and showed how many I had found at that point by holding up four fingers. They were clearly unimpressed, rolled their eyes and rolled their windows back up. 

So, I got to bond with my 10 year-old for a minute, had eyes rolled at me by teenagers (I'm at an age now where this has become routine) and I captured a bunch of cute little cartoon critters that had apparently just been chillin' in my neighborhood since like 1995. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but when I found two of these cartoon bouncy boogers, obviously trying to look menacing by their scowls but clearly non-threatening in general hiding near my house (and a Pidgey literally under my desk where I am sitting right this very second), I really got into it.

So all this to say, I had a good day. I made the mistake of getting sucked into social media and am in the process of re-cleansing my brain from the trash talk.

Seriously guys? Does no one have anything positive to say anymore?

No sugar, no alcohol, healthy meals, read my Bible twice! Had a short devotional time with the kids. Maeve read me a book. Got a whole lot done at work today and the presentation went well. All in all, a pretty good day.

Have I mentioned that except for my momentary foray back into social media that those lusts for stuff like certain foods, toys, decorative stuff, upgrades, etc are just kind of melting away. It's like distancing myself from advertising is allowing me some reprieve from constantly wanting something else and just to be content with what I have already. Crazy.

Day 6: A whole lotta bovie smoke inhalation and a sunburn.

This will be a quick post. 10+ hours of surgery, poor sleep due to sunburn last night and I have to give a presentation to the surgery committee in the morning that I haven't prepared for yet. Didn't break any rules today except for the physical activity which was nil aside from doing ortho surgery (which is actually pretty physical I guess but definitely doesn't count as a work out).

More tomorrow. I'm going to go flush my nostrils to get rid of the smell of bovie smoke.

Day 5: Variety does not make happiness, but being shirtless on a beach might.

Not even a week into this already, and I'm rethinking what I'm calling it. "Consumerism Detox" or "Consumer Detox" don't seem to be sufficient titles.

The reason I named it as such had to do with some thoughts I had after reading a series of articles on the effects of things like advertising, certain aspects of social media, sugar, lack of physical activity, disconnection from community (which kind of goes hand-in-hand with social media), spirituality and lack of creative outlets have on contentment, health and happiness.

In general, our grandparents and great grandparents were vastly happier than our current generation. Which flies in the face of everything with tried to do with modernization. These are things that we, in general consider to be good things like increased number of choices on everything from car styles to types of toothpaste and coffee, easier access to certain foods (we love this in my house, because sugar!), much higher income and education levels per capita, a gazillion television stations to watch, the ability to binge on our favorite shows WITHOUT COMMERCIALS! That alone was unthinkable to me as a child. It used to be a treat to me to record Saturday morning cartoons on a VHS tape so that I could fast forward through the commercials and never lose track of the story line.

All of these modern conveniences that were supposed to improve our lives have not in any discernible way if you just consider overall well-being. Don't take my word for it, read for yourself (extra points if you know which celebrity used to say that on his PBS show--and that's a lot of hints right there). Check out this article published by the American Psychological Association on how consumerism is shaping us psychologically.

This is an older article that pre-dated modern smart phones, Netflix binge neuropsychology research, the insane variety of specialty beers in your local grocery store (unless you're from the Seattle area, then you're like "I might need you define 'insane variety', because I think we may have always had that") and the fact that Americans are now spending more money eating out than they are at grocery stores.

While our appetites for things and variety seem to have grown with the increased variety and quantity and accessibility of things, I wonder if what we thought would bring us contentment really isn't.

Now look, I'm not one of those "tiny house-living," minimalist, live off the grid with a negative carbon footprint kind of guys. I just want to figure out where the balance is. I just want to find that sweet spot where contentedness lies. I may never fully experience what it means to ruly experience need and hunger and insecurity. I have way more than I deserve just simply because of the country I was born in. Maybe contentedness might involve a little more than things, experiences and health though. I think it's something deeper that involves real connections with real people in real time and, more profoundly, there is a spiritual component to this that I want to explore.

If the research shows that consumer-available variety, quantity and quality can't lead to lasting joy, then what happens when this is eliminated?

That's the basis of this plan. And I'm loving it so far. I want to expand on several points of what I'm discussing here in later posts, but my day was long and I have an early morning tomorrow. Until then, here's my picture of the day:

This picture pretty effortlessly expresses what contentedness looks like in a 10 year old kid (in this case, my son Owen)  running shirtless in the surf  after my sister's wedding in Pacific Grove.

Day 4: A day outside takes the edge off fish tacos without beer.

This is a picture of a mentor of mine, Dr. Jack Sorg, caring for a patient in our make shift clinic in Haiti a few years ago. My wife and I love this man deeply.

Good day. Too much sun, lots of quality family time. Tons of physical exertion and just playing with kids, strumming ukulele are just some of the many cathartic activities I was able to experience today.

I had to work hard to avoid some of my hardest temptations. I, at one point, ate at my favorite place to get fish tacos (which by the way were exquisite) and had serious concerns if they taste as good without beer... they did.

Lots of opportunities to cheat on the sugar. I had to kind of white knuckle my way through refusing snicker doodles. I had to white knuckle my way through the Chardonnay refusal. But I feel good. A friend of mine asked me today how this whole detox is going. I thought about what, if any changes I've experienced in the last 4 days.

You wouldn't expect much, especially with my slips and failures so far, but one thing I've noticed is that I am sleeping so much better at night. Then my wife pointed out one more change and I'll close with this, I wake up cheerful. It's noticeable to my wife whose interactions with me in the morning is basically me leaving a cup of coffee for her by her nightstand and driving her nuts with leaving lights on in her room at 5 am, but that's significant.

I want to dive into this a little more tomorrow when I blog about some ruminations so far on this half-baked scheme of mine to detox from the things competing for my attention in my day to day routine.

Day 3: Bonding over Vans and Ghost Ship Music

My new shoes. Got them on sale.

Not your typical day. Was able to sleep in a little bit because I had an all day meeting at another hospital to discuss... blah blah blah. It was work related and I don't think this is pertinent in any way to my consumerism detox.

And I consumed a lot today. I didn't break any of my rules, but I had to get some new shoes and I replaced my lost wedding band. That's wedding band number 3, for those of you who are counting (especially the lady at JC Penny who said "We'll see you again for wedding band number 4." Funny.)

Actually, I did break a rule. I did nothing physical today. That is proving to be one of the hardest parts of this. I meant to shoot hoops with Owen, but, you know, I'm lazy.

No sugar today! That was hard. Way too many opportunities to cheat on that one.

Great quality time with the family though. They went ring shopping with me. We sang along to one of my favorite bands throughout the drive to and from Modesto (Ghost Ship, go ahead, check them out). We had dinner together. Read some Bible together.

Staying away from social media is always a challenge but when you actively pursue better things like real interactions with the family, networking with new colleagues, and having lunch with good friends where you can have good deep conversations, it makes those social media connections just pale in comparison.

Will have some better photos tomorrow, although the blog post will probably come late.

I think I might go for a late walk.

Day 2: Rediscovering life before Seinfeld

A boring picture of a boring corn field on my boring drive home from work.

I discovered something last night. That might be a little over-stated. Perhaps I rediscovered something last night.

Usually Elizabeth and I slip a random disc from one of the nine seasons of Seinfeld sitcoms into the DVD player and snicker at the same jokes and one-liners that we've heard a hundred times before.

We love and hate the characters on that show, but always find that it's just kind of nice cheerful noise to fall asleep to at night. We've been doing this for years. We have so many Seinfeld-oriented inside jokes that even we think that we might have a problem.

Since I started this detox, that's one of the things that I've eliminated. And guess what happened? We talked! We had a deep and long conversation. It was wonderful! I think I might talk to her again tonight! And maybe again tomorrow night! We will see how things go.

On another front, it is ridiculously difficult to find stuff without sugar in it. I had to have caffeine at one point today after about 6 straight hours in the OR and there was no freshly brewed coffee. So I stopped in the cafeteria to find something, hoping to pick-up a sugar free solution to my mid afternoon doldrums.

Nope. Every-stinking-thing contains sugar. I chose the beverage with the lowest amount, a lite Starbucks Doubleshot that had only 5gms of sugar.

It didn't help, so what a waste.

Haven't run across a single advertisement yet today. So far so good.

We are going to do dinner as a family again tonight. It will probably be pretty tame. I'm exhausted. I need some sugar...

Day 1

This morning began like most others. I hit snooze 5 or 6 times. I just can't seem to wake up early enough for anything productive prior to going to work. One of the first things I did --apparently out of habit-- was rollover, pick up my phone and check if anyone had voiced interest on Facebook about the detox. No one did... and I broke a rule already about social media. And that was just the beginning.

The work-day was unusually busy with 6 surgeries in all, 3 of which I was not previously scheduled for, so I ended up juggling two ORs and two surgeons, finally getting home tonight around 7:00 pm to a simple but delicious and hot dinner made by my one and only. No other physical activity today unless 9 hours of operating counts.

I also has sugar. I didn't even think about it. I had to grab a quick bite to eat between cases today and picked up a piece of sour dough toast from the cafeteria with raspberry jam. Not until hours later did I realize that I was on my way to completely failing at this consumerism detox. Did I bite off more than I can chew?


Side note: I was talking to a friend of mine about this detox because I talk to him about almost every half-baked scheme and flash-in-the-pan idea I come up with, and he wisely noted that I needed to add something about having some intentional interaction with community like 1 meal per day with the family or something. More about this later, but I did have dinner with my family (minus one kid who is at soccer practice).

Check back tomorrow to see if I can go 24 hours without checking any sort of social media.

And I think I'll start taking a picture of something I encounter during my daily routine to accompany the next 29 posts.

Leave a comment or send me an email at consumerdetox@yahoo.com

~Zach

The Consumer Detox

Compared with our American grandparents and parents in 1957, we have twice as many cars, eat out at least twice as much and enjoy countless commodities, things our grandparents could only dream of at our age, but the question remains; are we any happier?

The short answer was “no”

Psychologist Dr. David G. Myers, PhD of Hope College wrote an article that appeared in American Psychologist (Vo. 55, No.1) where he concludes based on published data: “Compared with their grandparents, today’s young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness and much greater risk of depression and assorted social pathology… Our becoming much better off over the last four decades has not been accompanied by one iota of increased subjective well-being.”

The American Psychological Association asked the leading question here in June 2004, (APA June 2004 Monitor on Psychology, Vol 35, No. 6, Print version: page 52.) before the ubiquitous iPhone, appleTV, social media addiction and Netflix binging becoming a concern of mental health professionals. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201404/binge-viewing-redefines-tv-watching).

I’ll be publishing a blog post with much more detail and some of my personal thoughts from a medical and spiritual standpoint. I know a lot has been said about this in recent years, but I want to do an informal social experiment and I’d love for some of you to join me.

In 24 hours I will be embarking on a consumerism fast. You may want to incorporate some or all of my personal strategies into a fast of your own. I understand that there are somethings that you just cannot do, due to work demands, family dynamics, health concerns, etc.

I intend to approach this holistically in terms of mind, body and spirit.

Here is a simple breakdown of the thirty day consumer detox that will start in the morning July 6:

1.       Media consumption (including social media and television) except for creative outlets like blogs, books (whether audio or print).

2.       Alcohol (I’ll explain why in the blog)

3.       Sugar (I’ll explain this in the blog)

4.       Leisure (this means intentional daily activity whether that’s 30 squats in the morning, walking the dog or Crossfit) which will entail some sort of physical activity every single day.

5.       Do something creative every day. (This could be writing, drawing, photography, building something with Legos, whatever is a satisfying creative outlet for you.

6.       Intentional Prayer and Bible study

7.       Online shopping (except for essentials if you get that sort of thing online)

8.       Adequate sleep (at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep)

9.       Turning digital devices like phones and iPad off in the evening. (No texts, email checking) after 5pm

If you’re on board. Let me know. Send me an email at consumerdetox@yahoo.com and I'll send updates and some extra resources to help us stay on track.

I’d love to have as much involvement from others on this as possible to help keep me accountable and to make us the healthiest, happiest community. I'll be blogging my progress as time goes by.

Best wishes,

Zach