Margit’s Note: So How’d Those 30 Days Go?

By Margit Detweiler

We eliminated sugar. We gave up takeout. We even stopped wearing pants.

For 30 days, six of us challenged ourselves to stop or start one thing. So what did we discover? You’ll have to read this week’s stories to find out, but there were some curious, common threads. Most of us did splendidly for the first week or so. Then something else kicked in — a bit of boredom, peer pressure, cockiness, maybe. For whatever reason, a few of us took a slight detour or backslide. Most of us got back on track, though some of us decided cookies and “sorrys” were back on the menu. No judgement.

Some of us had unexpected outcomes, others stark, existential realizations. Yeah, whoa.

Ultimately, the exercise reminded us that we are in control (if we want it to be), so we forgave ourselves and struck some sort of balance.

It’s the best we can do.

Our trials, errors and wins:

• Calling her mom every day, Lauren Oster learned what happens after the small talk stops.
• Tamar Anitai attempted to ditch the sweets. Nutella cookies notwithstanding.
• Amy Choi learned more than she bargained for when she stopped ordering takeout.
• Lauren Young stopped blaming other people — on a farm.
• Jenna Briand shares five critical insights from her pants-free month.
• And I learned that saying “Sorry” “Cool” and “Totally” wasn’t really the issue. Huh.

Finally, we have another 22 Seconds with TueNight video series where you can easily share your own resolutions and whether you did or didn’t succeed. Or whether you detest resolutions.

Thanks for playing along,

Margit