The No-TV experiment Diary

Last week my fiancée and I set out to do a no-TV week, and here are my quick thoughts on how it went!

Day 1: Not terrible. The worst withdrawal symptoms were right after work, when we would normally flop down on the couch until it was time to hit the gym and be tortured by the personal trainer. Instead, we cleaned the kitchen. And we ate dinner at the table, instead of on the couch (shocking) and were extremely productive! So far the biggest issue is that we may need to get a helmet for the dog. He keeps trying to sit near us, but he has poor depth perception and continually bangs his head on the kitchen table as he ducks beneath it. He seems to be voting for the couch, as there’s less chance of blunt trauma. So far he’s been outvoted, but it’s only Monday.

Day 2: Temptation to catch up on “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” is strong. We had to leave the house before the TV turned on of its own accord. By the time dinner and grocery shopping was over, it was time to sit and work for a few minutes, then head off to bed. Again, the dog banged his head on the kitchen table. You’d think an evening of blunt head trauma last night would have taught him the height of the table. You’d be underestimating Labrador stubbornness.

Day 3: Had a meeting for work, so there was no chance for me to be tempted. My poor fiancée was left to resist temptation alone. Victory! I’m also not counting as cheating the 5 minutes I spent watching CNBC at work. It was on in the background, I swear!

Day 4: Turnabout is fair play. I’m on my own for dinner, which usually leads to me hanging out in front of the TV with something frozen. Instead, I walked the dog, then went for a run, then made a multiple-component dinner so I wouldn’t be tempted to crash out on the couch. The catch in all this was forgetting that I had to make dinner post-run…I came close to breaking down, but I managed to settle down with my computer and away from the television.

Day 5: We gave in, made delicious cocktails, and caught up on TV. There was WIPEOUT on the Tivo…we’re not robots!

Even though the no-TV week was a bit of a short week, it was good for us to detox from the glowy-box. We were very productive on wedding stuff, we spent more time talking to each other, we cooked more, and most importantly we had to focus on each other instead of an intermediary entertainment device. I’m hoping to incorporate no-TV time into our everyday life, and I think it will be fairly easy. We learned there’s not much must-see TV for us. There’s entertaining stuff, but we could live without it pretty easily. And not vegging out in front of the TV meant more time to clean the house, cook, and generally get stuff done.

My dog still hated it, though…and he never did get the hang of ducking under the table. Anyone know where we can get a dog helmet for the poor little guy?