I am beginning a (3) month experiment in a few days. I got the idea after reading the last book by one of my favorite authors, A.J. Jacobs. In his most recent book, My Life As An Experiment, he has a series of small essays about experiments that he tried. From Radical Honesty (always say what is on your mind) to Unitasking (only doing one thing at a time) he recounts several, month long experiments that he tried with various levels of success. He has undertaken other, longer experiments from reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover to trying to follow the Old Testament laws of the Bible as literally as possible in this day and age (this took a whole year). He is very honest with his shortcomings and pokes fun at himself more so than at others. Anyway, I recommend reading any of his stuff. This brings me to the subject of this blog and what will likely turn into a serious of blogs keep you (dear reader) up to date on my experiment.
In one of the experiments, A.J. Jacobs outsources his life. He literally hires a few people in India to do everything for him from doing research (for his day job) to reading a bedtime story to his kid at night (using speaker phone). This experiment actually spawned the idea for the book, The 4 Hour Work Week. Another experiment involved becoming the perfect spouse. He literally does everything his wife wants, defers to her on every decision and always thinks of her first when she is not around (including a short mini experiment in always sitting down to use the toilet). His wife (as any wife would) takes a little advantage of him but that makes it all the more challenging (and fun to read about).
Since moving down here to Texas, the wife has joined a gym. She and one of her best friends go regularly and even hired a trainer to get them started. She comes home from working out pumped about the progress she is making and how much better she feels. She is improving her diet and dragging the rest of the immediate family along with her. I am happy for her but I have no interest really in changing my lifestyle. I want to want to change but I do not want to change so I am going to do what any American would do when faced with a job that we do not want to do, I need to find somebody else to do it.
Since I do not want to think about working out (or schedule how or when or what is to be done) and since I do not want to put forth the effort to think about eating more healthy, I am going to outsource this job. For (3) months I am outsourcing deciding how to care for my body to my wife. This experiment will begin on January 1 and end on March 31. I will let her decide what I eat and when I eat it. I will let her decide when I will exercise, how much I will exercise and what type of exercise that I will do. This is my Christmas present to her really and she could not be more excited. In my mind, eating and exercising was really the limit of the outsourcing of the care of my body but she has already (as any normal wife would) began testing the limits of this experiment (before it has even began). She has spoken of plucking my eyebrows and coloring my hair. She is looking at my (3) week old beard and deciding if it should stay or go. I would not be surprised if my wardrobe fell within (what she thinks is) the bounds of this experiment.
I, too, am looking forward to this. I have regained every last pound that I lost 2 years ago when I was heading toward my 40th birthday and now that I do not have any yard work to do I am not even getting what little bit of fresh air and exercise that my weekly push mowing of my 1/2 acre in Indiana gave me. I am really looking forward to seeing myself in the mirror on April 1, 2012. Mostly though, I am looking forward to making my wife happy (Happy Wife, Happy Life). I will be sure to keep you posted.
Jon
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