I was quite amused by recent articles popping up, noting the scientific research in how video games can be good for you. While this may be true in theory, I must admit that due to the addictive nature of gaming, the cons actually outweigh the pros, where gaming is actually unhealthy in my case.
The greatest challenge of gaming to me is to adopt a healthy lifestyle while still enjoying video games. Too often, my alarm to get ready for bed (at 9:30 PM to give me 1 hour to get to a stopping point), as well as my friend calling/texting me with reminders, falls completely flat. One of us, or both of us, would invariably "forget" to call/text thanks to video games and the internet (yes! There are people who stay up until 3 AM watching cat YouTube videos).
Often, I would get to the save point well before 11 PM (my goal is to be in bed no later than 11 PM), but then excuses come up, such as: I'm only a few points away from leveling up so let's get to the next level, and the most deadly excuse, I want to find what's going to happen next, and then it becomes 3 AM.
The other major excuse is when I don't have to work the next day. There are only so many hours of free time, so to maximize the free time, I cut down on sleep.
However, there are times when I resolve to be healthy, but only successful for about 1 week and then bad habits creep in, except for one time. That was when I wanted to accomplish the Dark Souls 2 no death run (I want that ring!), and quickly found out that I really have to be on point, especially against our dearest Freja, who made me almost give up.
With sleep deprivation and bad lifestyle habits, I kept failing despite DaimonDante coaching and encouraging me. DaimonDante is one of the reasons why the Dark Souls community (in general) is known to be so supportive. Please subscribe to his channel, he's an angel and took it upon himself to encourage me to not quit, and pushed me through.
Because of Freja, I decided I was going to get 8 hours of sleep, exercise, eat tons of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grain, and exercise. It was very successful and I did so well with this for one month, but once I beat the no death run, the bad habits resume, then improving, in an endless cycle.
What triggered my now resolve to be healthy was due to delinquentMuse during one of her Twitch sessions. Muse is a hardcore, exceptional gamer, who does ridiculous no death and SL1 runs in the Dark Souls series in her sleep. It was around 8 PM and she gave us a warning that she'll end her session after finishing a mission coop with one of her chat members, because "it's getting late".
I wrote that it's only 8 PM, and she said that she needs to get ready for sleep. I was very impressed that she said that, as we gamers are known to lead unhealthy lifestyles. However, deep in the back of my mind, I had a feeling that she might continue gaming.
This was put to the test, because for some reason, the rather sweet chat member wanted to do a level 40 mission, but the party level was only 18, which I remarked that this is beyond the pale, but he simply wrote, "Muse will carry" which is true.
Muse's party could easily beat the enemies, but the issue is that there's time constraint as you have to kill the enemies before they destroy your forts. So the team failed the mission, but Muse, true to her word, said her good byes and went to bed! (Also do subscribe to delinquentMuse's channel as she is incredibly nice, and the chat party room is very welcoming, fun, comforting and supportive).
In this situation of a failed mission, I would've been even more determined to beat the mission, with the excuse, "okay just one more time" which then becomes 2, 3 and so forth. Seeing someone with the discipline to quit the game, I feel that I can do the same, and just take it one day at a time.
I don't want to overwhelm myself and do a "crash course" complete 180 lifestyle change as it tends to make people quit (even though I was successful doing this in the no death run challenge but that was out of desperation), so I'll work on going to bed before 11 PM.
It's easy to incorporate fruits and vegetables since my best friend makes these insanely delicious and healthy vegetable (with smattering of fruit) smoothies for me. Then once it doesn't seem onerous, I'll then add gentle exercise.
I hope all gamers will adopt healthy lifestyles, as our health is the most important, especially in the light of recent news of a few young men dying due to gaming for straight days in a row.
As this is a struggle for me, do you also find that it's difficult to be healthy? If you're successful, what techniques do you use to keep on track?
Often, I would get to the save point well before 11 PM (my goal is to be in bed no later than 11 PM), but then excuses come up, such as: I'm only a few points away from leveling up so let's get to the next level, and the most deadly excuse, I want to find what's going to happen next, and then it becomes 3 AM.
The other major excuse is when I don't have to work the next day. There are only so many hours of free time, so to maximize the free time, I cut down on sleep.
However, there are times when I resolve to be healthy, but only successful for about 1 week and then bad habits creep in, except for one time. That was when I wanted to accomplish the Dark Souls 2 no death run (I want that ring!), and quickly found out that I really have to be on point, especially against our dearest Freja, who made me almost give up.
With sleep deprivation and bad lifestyle habits, I kept failing despite DaimonDante coaching and encouraging me. DaimonDante is one of the reasons why the Dark Souls community (in general) is known to be so supportive. Please subscribe to his channel, he's an angel and took it upon himself to encourage me to not quit, and pushed me through.
Because of Freja, I decided I was going to get 8 hours of sleep, exercise, eat tons of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grain, and exercise. It was very successful and I did so well with this for one month, but once I beat the no death run, the bad habits resume, then improving, in an endless cycle.
What triggered my now resolve to be healthy was due to delinquentMuse during one of her Twitch sessions. Muse is a hardcore, exceptional gamer, who does ridiculous no death and SL1 runs in the Dark Souls series in her sleep. It was around 8 PM and she gave us a warning that she'll end her session after finishing a mission coop with one of her chat members, because "it's getting late".
I wrote that it's only 8 PM, and she said that she needs to get ready for sleep. I was very impressed that she said that, as we gamers are known to lead unhealthy lifestyles. However, deep in the back of my mind, I had a feeling that she might continue gaming.
This was put to the test, because for some reason, the rather sweet chat member wanted to do a level 40 mission, but the party level was only 18, which I remarked that this is beyond the pale, but he simply wrote, "Muse will carry" which is true.
Muse's party could easily beat the enemies, but the issue is that there's time constraint as you have to kill the enemies before they destroy your forts. So the team failed the mission, but Muse, true to her word, said her good byes and went to bed! (Also do subscribe to delinquentMuse's channel as she is incredibly nice, and the chat party room is very welcoming, fun, comforting and supportive).
In this situation of a failed mission, I would've been even more determined to beat the mission, with the excuse, "okay just one more time" which then becomes 2, 3 and so forth. Seeing someone with the discipline to quit the game, I feel that I can do the same, and just take it one day at a time.
I don't want to overwhelm myself and do a "crash course" complete 180 lifestyle change as it tends to make people quit (even though I was successful doing this in the no death run challenge but that was out of desperation), so I'll work on going to bed before 11 PM.
It's easy to incorporate fruits and vegetables since my best friend makes these insanely delicious and healthy vegetable (with smattering of fruit) smoothies for me. Then once it doesn't seem onerous, I'll then add gentle exercise.
I hope all gamers will adopt healthy lifestyles, as our health is the most important, especially in the light of recent news of a few young men dying due to gaming for straight days in a row.
As this is a struggle for me, do you also find that it's difficult to be healthy? If you're successful, what techniques do you use to keep on track?
The How of Happiness Review
I think gamers not looking after themselves, is a case more correlation than causation to be honest. I don't exactly lead a healthy lifestyle, however that is because of a lot of things, and whilst it's fair to say if I spent my video game time at the gym or jogging I would be in a lot better shape, I wouldn't say it's because of gaming that I'm a little worse for wear.
ReplyDeleteThere's a few things I'd like to be better at regarding looking after myself, Eating healthier, and getting to bed at a more reasonable time.
Regarding my diet, I simply can't afford to buy too many fruits and vegetables. I gotta consider my budget when I got shopping, and unfortunately that means most of the time I gotta live off egg and chips for a week. If £4 for a weeks meals is all I can cover, so be it.
As for my sleeping pattern, this is almost something of a side effect of working nightshifts. It was a few years ago now, but that sleeping pattern was something that stuck with me, I made a lot of friends oversea's during that time, from chatrooms and message boards, some who I still talk to today. Previously I would wake up at 1800, spend a little time with friends or family, play some games, light breakfast. It's actually quite funny sitting down when everyone's having a family meal, Mashed potatoes, meat and gravy, while I'm sat there with a bowl of cereal and bed hair. Then it's off to work around 2100, 2200 start. I worked in a warehouse under amazon, moving boxes and organising stores, making sure the drivers have all their product to take to people, stuff like that, did that 6-8 hours depending on shifts, finishing around 0400 or 0600. Then I'd head home, stretch my muscles (that one's important), and reheat whatever mum food mum made earlier and chill until the rest of the world woke up. Say good morning to everyone right as I was getting ready for bed around 1000, rinse and repeat. I still keep the same sleeping pattern I kept then, more or less. I could've broken it by now for sure, however I made so many friends overseas who I just wouldn't be able to talk to with a normal daytime sleeping pattern. I can wake up super early when I need to, if I wanted to catch doctor's appointments or what have you I had to learn how to just get up regardless.
Besides those, I do exercise regularly. I am a little overweight, but that's just my build, I'm a big guy. 100kg (about 225lb), though a good chunk of that is muscle too. Don't do muscle training, just genetics. Usually my exercise regime consist's of walking everywhere, mile or 2 every day, and some simple workouts at home. Sit ups, push ups, and the like, just to keep my muscles in shape. When I quite my warehouse job, a few months passed without that work and my muscle's felt it like a truck when it happened. My dad was working on his car, asked me to give him a hand with some heavy stuff, usually I would have no trouble what so ever with it, but I just couldn't do it. My little brother had to help me (boy did he tease me for it.) My muscles were weaker than I'd ever remembered, from then on I vowed to never let my body get to that state again.
I'm sorry to hear about that, and keep forgetting that unfortunately fruits and vegetables are expensive, even more so than in the UK. I think that's why obesity is such a problem in the US, b/c it's more cost-effective to live off unhealthy foods. I really think that the US and UK should subsidize fruits and vegetables, i.e., consumers pay considerably less for produce (becomes cheaper than fatty foods), and the government gives produce farmers the difference? This will save the government considerably more money as medical bills will be reduced. One day of hospitalization, after all, costs at least $2000/day, so you can see how this type of program will reduce expenses for everyone, in a win-win situation.
Deletebut off my soapbox, I'm not virtuous like you, I can eat fruits and vegetables, but they're just not tasty like fatty foods, lol!
I think your sleep patterns make sense because you're still getting the 8 hours and going to bed at the same time, and getting up at the same time! The problem is with people like me who get 3 to 6 hours due to video gaming.
The interesting thing, Cheesus, is that you're doing better than most people who actually go to the gym, because the rage now is to use your own body as weights, being safer on joints than lugging around dumb and barbells. So, doing pushups, pull-ups, sit ups, etc are just as effective. Further, walking and housecleaning are effective as well, and you don't have to do anything special. A lot of people who have gym memberships don't go b/c it's a drag to get there, whereas, it takes no effort to walk outside, or even in the house (I just go up and down my stairs when I'm not lazy).