Call them wacky or smart; you have to hand it to these people who lived their lives in the most usual way possible. While some like the children without internet access could be a good thing, others hoped to achieve some form of personal satisfaction in leading their lives in contrast to the modern world. These little self styled experiments have also gone on to inspire others to do the same although not all are recommended to do so. Here are 10 people who abided by unusual life experiments that changed their lifestyle completely.
And she wore it for 3 years continuously. But before you go ughh, did she wash it? It wasn’t the same piece of clothes but the same outfit much like a uniform which she chose for herself. Matilda kahl purchased several white shirts and pairs of black trousers which she wore every day to work. In this way, she solved her daily routine of deciding what to wear.
She only kept the fancy stuff for socializing and on weekends when she went for a night out. For Matilda, there is no time wasted in the morning pouring over a wardrobe, the experiment helped her save a lot of time and energy to focus on other things like a healthier breakfast or meet with the family.
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Andrew Taylor became a potato guy eating nothing but potatoes for a year. He went on to show the world what happens when your diet consists of nothing but potatoes. Taylor from Victoria Australia told reporters that it was his desire to lose weight that made him go on the extreme diet. He actually lost 50 kgs in 12 months. Previous to starting the diet, Andrew weighed 151 kg and ate a lot of junk food including ice cream and pizzas. Once he started the potato diet, he would take his own potatoes to parties, ordered only potatoes in restaurants and also microwaved potatoes in hotel rooms.
Although no doctor will recommend such an extreme diet and will always advocate a healthy balance of carbs, protein, and fats, some experts feel it wasn’t all that bad. Taylor ate 3-4 kgs of potatoes every day. Although potatoes are a rich source of vitamin C, carbohydrate, protein and amino acids to fight disease, they also contain a carbohydrate that causes spikes and drips in blood sugar levels creating a strain on insulin and inviting a risk of diabetes.
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And neither was any child exposed to gadgets 50 years back and everyone turned out just fine but take away a teen’s mobile today and all hell may break loose. In the most unusual experiments, photographer Niki Boon a mom of four lives with her family on a 10-acre farm in New Zealand. Niki decided to remove all gadgets like Televisions and cell phones from her home where they were inaccessible to her kids. Instead, she raised them to find leisure and playtime outdoors so that they could be more in tune with nature and enjoy the outdoors rather than be couch potatoes watching TV or texting.
The family has been living gadget free but here comes the shocker, her children are unschooled but yet she chose such a step to allow her children to grow up in natural surroundings. She also documents the experiment as part of an ongoing photography project titled “Children in the raw” where she photographs them in their daily activities on the farm. Well!! Although a gadget-free childhood is commendable where children can derive pleasure from physical activity and books, would it be good or bad for a child to remain uneducated, you decide!
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Heidemarie Schwermer was a psychotherapist in Germany where she lived with her children and grandchildren. In 1994 at the age of 52, she established the “give and take” central which was Germany’s first exchange circle. She then decided to live without money where she gave away all her belongings in order to start the experiment of living without money.
Shermer has been living without money ever since having stepped out of the daily lifestyle that requires money to survive. She is worry free of possessions, never uses public transport and always carried necessary items in a small bag. She has also published the book Das Sterntaler experiment – mein Leben ohne Geld (“The sterntaler experiment – my life without money”).
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When Sarah Christmann was gifted a corset by her husband on her 29th birthday, she felt it changed her life. The old-fashioned garment was an inspiration behind an experiment where she soon began to dress exclusively with costumes from the Victorian age. Her husband soon joined her in her newfound passion and since then the couple has been living their lifestyle according to the Victorian age but within the constraints of the modern day.
Sarah actually washes with a pitcher and basin everyday and even stitches all her own garments made from natural fiber. She doesn’t use a car and her home is lit by oil lamps where they live in a Victorian styled home in Port Townsend in WA. Sarah uses a book of 19th-century recipes to cook her food. She uses a refrigerator to store food although she is hoping to changeover to an icebox soon. Sarah has also penned a book on Victorian living.
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Bea Johnson made a decision to lead a life without trash which included al her family too. She stopped purchasing goods that could not be recycled such as disposable packaging, chemicals that come in plastic bottles and loads of useless stuff that people tend to pick up in supermarkets. Her home now known as the zero waste home all over the internet is one of the finest examples of how people can help the environment.
Bea put across the challenge to her family and began to live a simpler lifestyle that was more eco-friendly. She educated herself on environmental issues and began to use glass bottles for storage instead of plastic. In 1 year her family produces only 1 kg of trash every year compared to the national statistic that an average American generates 4 pounds of trash daily amounting to 1.5 tons of solid waste in a year. Bea is the author of the bestselling book, Zero Waste Home.
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How many of us can really do without the internet? That’s a real challenge but Journalist Paul Miller decided to accept the move that was initiated by a magazine so that he could document his experience. In his own words, this is how he started “At 11:59 PM on April 30th, 2012, I unplugged my Ethernet cable, shut off my Wi-Fi, and swapped my Smartphone for a dumb one. It felt really good. I felt free”.
Paul went completely offline and that included email too. There was no social app, social networking, he was totally offline. Paul documented his experience where he says at one point.
“And everything started out great, let me tell you. I did stop and smell the flowers. My life was full of serendipitous events: real life meetings, frisbee, bike rides, and Greek literature.” I lost 15 pounds without really trying. I bought some new clothes. People kept telling me how good I looked, how happy I seemed. In one session, my therapist literally patted himself on the back.
Today Paul is an enlightened person who browses the internet more consciously but he is thankful for the awesome experience but coming to think of it, what seems something so unique today was very much a way of life for people just 20 or30 years ago where the internet officially started in 1990 with the conception of the world wide web. But! It took a while to be affordable so that everyone was connected.
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This is truly an unusual experiment. Canadian Blair McMillan a father of two and his girlfriend Morgan 27 live their lives as if it was always 1986. They started doing it because their kids Trey 5 and Denton were too hooked onto their iPhones and would not even look up when spoken to let alone play in the yard.
The family now has no electronic devices that connect to the internet no fancy coffee machines or even cable TV. They are totally tech-free and parenting their kids as how a parent in 1986 would. The couple even does their banking by going to the bank and if you ask Blair something that requires a reference, he will take out his vintage encyclopedia instead.
They take photographs using the old film roll and developing a method and when traveling resort to paper maps instead of GPS.
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