Time to Unplug (at least a little!)

I watch way too much TV. I know this. I do it anyway. It’s so hard to resist! After reading two awesome posts about how cutting out TV can improve your life, I cannot ignore what my conscience has been telling me.

JD at Get Rich Slowly wrote The Never Ending War Against Advertising, in which he points to TV as something that exposes us to a LOT of advertising. So true! I’d LIKE to think that knowing about the wily ways of marketing makes me savvier than most. But it doesn’t. I still get hungry when I see a Pizza Hut commercial. I just DO. It’s human nature.

Earlier this week Sally at Aprovechar talkrd about the 6 unconventional elements of her weight loss. #1? Cutting out TV. Just by NOT watching TV, it’s inevitable that we find something more fulfilling to do. And we’re less tempted to eat or buy things we don’t need.

But the idea of cutting out or even down on my TV watching scares me, though. This is strange because I remember back to before Cute Man and I got together. I didn’t have cable. I didn’t miss it or even want it. But now that I have it, it’s like a compulsion. I walk in the door and on goes that box. I obsessively DVR favorite shows (at least I miss a lot of commercials that way) and watch Law and Order re-runs like there will be a test on them later. I eat in front of the tube. This is bad. I know this. I do it anyway and secretly love it. But it’s bad for me.

So I’m going to try to cut down on the tube. I may substitute listening to NPR on the radio while cooking and see how that goes. But something’s got to change. I will give it a shot!