REVIEW: A MONTH WITHOUT JUNKS!!!

Hey guys,

Happy new month. This is a late post by the way. I had some internet issues publishing it on the 31st of march which was its due date so please ignore the present date. Nigeria now welcomes her new president. Happy or nah? How do you guys feel about Sai Buhari's victory? I'd love to know please. :D

So earlier this year, I noted down a list of things I wanted to conduct a personal experiment on, monthly. I called it my 2015 monthly challenge. The aim of this was to learn more about myself, test the boundaries of my needs, discover my strengths and weaknesses, develop my will power and make room for new things.

For my first month, I gave up coffee. You can read about it here. I thought it was going to be really though, but it turned out otherwise. All I had to do was find a replacement drink 'Tea', and I was good to go.

Next on the list was Junk food. I had to give up junks for a month. Now as you might have expected, this was actually THOUGH considering the fact that in this age, pretty much everything seems like junk. My challenge began on the 20th of February till the 20th of march. Did I fare well? Nope I dint! Can I get some boooo?

Before I decided to embark on this quest, I was blissfully unaware of my dependency on junk foods. I started off by making the 'no junk food rules' my screen saver, then I made sure I woke up early everyday to prepare some food to take to work so I don't have any reason to order or go have lunch at a fast food. This went on fine for the first 5 days but the 6th day into the challenge, I dreamed of waffles and I had two other food-related nightmares after that. These involved a pizza in one, and different flavors of ice-cream in the other. They were hunting me even in my sleep. To make matters worse, on day 9, I was invited out to dinner with my friends. I tried to bring up excuses as to why I dint want to go but none was taking. I literally felt my body trembling at the sight of hot steaming pepperoni and suya pizza. A couple of times, I said through gritted teeth, "I MUST RESIST." But the next thing I knew, 3 slices were gone and I was placing another order for chicken and chips. I knew I was breaking the rules but I felt there was no need holding back anymore since I had already downed 3 slices of pizza. I thought to have a redo of the challenge but I felt that would be an act of self deceit and not being true to myself. I went ahead with the challenge, determined to stick to the rules this time, and on day 22, it happened again. But this time, condition made crayfish bend. I hadn't eaten all day and it was meant to be half day at work so I dint bother making anything from home since the plan was to come back home for lunch. It happened that somehow, plans changed at the office and we were required to work full day and even overtime. The company had already ordered us dinner but I was trying so hard to stick to the rules since I had already flopped once and wasn't ready to flop again.  I had no breakfast, no lunch and was willing to have no dinner till I got home, when a strong headache from hell struck me deeply.  I figured I needed to eat something in other to save my self a trip to the hospital from a major pass out and junk was my only rescue.  I had loads of Soda, rice and snacks.

My experience with the 'no junk food' challenge taught me a lesson.

Sometimes, we trust in our strengths so much that we forget that no man is above temptation, for even Christ himself was tempted trice. We feel like we have a certain power over our weaknesses, hence, we place ourselves in tempting situations in hopes that we can overcome just by saying 'NO'.

A famous poster of the comic strip character, Charlie Brown, says, "I can resist everything except temptation."

The truth is, we all have weaknesses. It could be women, drinking, porn, drugs, men and all sorts. But its been said: "Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Romans 13:14 NKJV).

I knew I had a weakness (Food). I mean, I love food and hardly can you find me turning down garri not to talk of pizza, chips or chicken. I knew that accepting to go to dinner with my friends was going to lead to me breaking the rules but I decided to test my faith, I decided to rely on my own strength in hopes that I would just 'simply' say NO to any offer that arises but the reverse was the case. The thing about temptation is that you have to 'walk into it' it doesn't 'walk into you'. You either voluntarily take yourself into it, or you involuntarily find yourself in it.  Regardless of which, there is always a way out. You already know your own weakness, so If you often give into a certain thing when you are in a certain place, don't go near that place. If you regularly buy something that is destroying you, shop at a different store. If something in your home tempts you beyond your ability to resist, get rid of it. Never rely on your own strength except the 'thing' in question isn't one of your weaknesses.

Overall, giving up junks for a month wasn't as easy as I thought it'll be but I'm glad that I'm learning as I go along. Next on the list would be Movies.

Enjoy the rest of the week. :)