How to Wean Yourself Off Television

Many of us are aware that we watch entirely too much television, but it is so addicting how can you get rid of it? The trick is to scale back slowly so you don't go through withdrawals.

The benefits of weaning yourself off television are numerous. You will have more free time to get other things done. Your energy levels will go up quickly and you will be more motivated to do things. To top it all off, you will probably even lose weight because you won't be sitting for so many hours in front of the television, eating junk food!

So, how do you get rid of the TV slowly? First, you need to take a look at your viewing habits. Are you mindlessly flicking through channel after channel, stopping for a few minutes to watch something vaguely interesting? Or do you have specific shows that you like to watch?

True TV addicts will admit that they channel surf more than they actually watch specific shows. So now you need to write down the shows that you enjoy watching and their time slots. Any TV outside of that schedule is banned. Just drop it. You aren't learning or even entertaining yourself if you are just flipping.

Once you have eliminated wasted TV time, just turn on the television when your shows are on. Turn it off when they are over and get up and go do something else. This is the first step.

Next, you will need to start scaling down the shows that you watch. This shouldn't start until you have been successful at avoiding channel surfing times for at least a week. This ensures that you won't be tempted.

Choose one show a week to take out. Chances are you have just two or three really great shows that you watch and the rest are frivolous. Those can all go, but do them one at a time, or you will find yourself hungry for more flickering pixels! This could take a few weeks or even months, but eventually you will be down to a precious few.

Now you have a decision to make. Do you want to quit television completely or do you want to just cut back? If you answered cut back, you are finished! If you want to get rid of your TV completely, continue with the above process until you have just one show left. Then toss the television set. Or get rid of your cable!

The idea is to stop wasting time in front of the TV, so no substituting DVDs. Get out and do something that you need to do. Take the kids to the zoo, take up tennis, learn to horseback ride, just get away from the boob tube! By doing it slowly, you can be successful.