Today is Day 21.

I want to give you a heads-up about something I’m doing right now. I tweeted about it a week ago and I am hungry to write about it, but I need to finish what I’ve started first… because I’m in the middle of it.

Actually, I’m literally two-thirds of the way through it. “It” is NOBNOM. NOBNOM is an acronym for “NO Booze and NO Masturbation.” It’s a 30-day challenge issued by author Timothy Ferris to readers of his blog and others in his extended network of acolytes.

I have considered myself one of Tim’s loyal followers ever since reading his seminal opus on body hacking, “The 4-Hour Body” (4HB). Within those pages was the Slow-Carb Diet (SCD) which transformed my personal way of eating and helped me shed 40 pounds. That nutritional approach has been part of my everyday diet for almost five years now. Tim made an impression.

But I am, at my core, a skeptic. I may acknowledge methods and results and even evangelize about one thing or another, but I’m a huge fan of the Scientific Method, and always ready to have my ideas about what works shattered by real evidence showing a better way.

The Challenge is simple: No alcohol, no masturbation and no porn for 30 days, but “Sex is okay.”

That last part about “sex” was, I knew, going to be an interesting point since I understand that we all interpret that word differently, for many different reasons. What we define as “sex” helps us form parameters for just what kind of sex we will be able to have, or what specific controls to place on our lives. It’s one of those many little facts of life that we desperately want to be simple, but is just not simple.

Moving on… For the purpose of the NOBNOM challenge, I defined “sex” as “any sexual play with direct physical contact with other individuals” and I defined “masturbation” (another word that does not have a single, clear definition) as solosex. To add interest to my sex play, I also elected to abstain from stroking my own cock while having sex with others. In other words, the only stimulation and orgasms I would allow myself for 30 days would involve the touch of others. I could not get myself off or even show off for another.

So. Absolutely no stroking my own dick for 30 days, and no porn to stimulate my mojo for that same period. Any flavor of sex with others is acceptable.

I have seen porn, but I have spent no time with it. I liken it to sitting in a restaurant while on a specific diet, simply abstaining from indulgence even in the presence of the objects of indulgence. So while I go to my web sites to moderate user content, and to my blog and Twitter pages to post updates, I am not looking at the erotic images more than in passing. I do what I came to do and I move on.

Booze is a non-issue for me. I’ve been sober for over 25 years. This would be all about NOM for me.

Today is Day 21. I have successfully abstained from stroking my dick and looking at porn for 20 days in a row. It has been interesting in the least.

And I have a lot to wrote about already, but I am holding off until day 31. Ten days from today. My plan is to do this: Complete the 30 day challenge, then write about it, THEN to spend some quality time with my very, very horny penis, and to bring myself to orgasm at least once.

Then I will write about it again. I will publish my next blog post on day 31, September 19.

I hope you will read, follow and comment. Thanks for your patience.