Healthy Gamer Discussion

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Originally Posted by Sinshroud

I had a braai last night too. Actually usually ends up being one of the easiest healthy meals to have without feeling "deprived" or like you are eating healthily.

Lots of meat, some sweet potatoes, salady stuff, and some wine. We skip all the pre-braai snacks and don't do braaibroodtjies anymore (*gasp*).

Overall my weekend was average. At pretty well and went to gym on Saturday. Sunday I spent the whole day at Tygervalley shopping center because my girlfriend was taking part in a competition there. I ate some crap, but at least I walked a TON a doing shopping and keeping myself occupied from 9am until 2pm.

Today started off well so far. Some left-over braai meat, a handful of nuts, and black coffee for breakfast. About to head to gym in the next hour or so too.

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I tried eating healthy in the past but got frustrated when my weight didn't change after half a year,my weight has been between 110kg and 113kg for more then 4 years now.I have some exercise equipment but they only see some use during load-shedding.

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Originally Posted by Mash

hahaha you should chill thats too much ...whats for desert though?"whistling:

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Rarely make desserts but once a month or so i would make malva pudding or chocolate oats cookies when i feel like it.I might buy flam, chocolate mousse,canned peaches and custard if i have extra left on my grocery shopping budget.

Ive done the healthy eating to lower my cholesterol, which i shouldn't have to do(im a vege so it shouldn't be a problem). I find exercise really easy once my mind is set. I tend to try stretch and exercise my muscles while im at my PC or i will end up not being able to concentrate, i don't know if many of you do this as well.
That and i gain weight very easily, like lets say if i eat junk i will gain up to 5kgs i a week (gained two while still exercising on holiday:D)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbf4mBKq-o

lol [MENTION=2399]czc[/MENTION] now thats what i call excercise.

Haha that was good. It's true though, you would be amazed at the extent to which athletes (or anyone good at doing something) go to be good at it.

Even before I got into health and fitness, I used to be pretty serious about top-end World of Warcraft raid attempts and getting world/server firsts, etc. Even though my diet and lifestyle was crap, as soon as I knew an extended gaming session was coming up (like the release of a new expansion or raid) I would immediately sory my life out for that time period for best performance.

I would sleep a lot more than normal, leading up to the event. Junk food went out the window. Cut coffee completely until the event came in order to re-sensitize myself. Took frequent mini-breaks and did various stretches, etc.

For example here is a guide a wrote back in 2010 called Pushing the Limits: Tip on Attaining Server First Level 85 for the launch of Cataclysm. It mostly focused on in-game support, real-life support, beta testing prep, in-game pep, general good practices, macros, etc. But it also briefly included some tips on food, drink, and exercise at the bottom - looking back now with what I know, those tips made sense but could have been so much be.

I will perhaps approach MyGaming to see if I can write an article for them about gamer nutrition and vitality.

Anyways in the mean time, getting back to exercises. Sitting for extended periods of time (especially in a bad poisition is absolutely TERRIBLE for us. It does a HUGE amount of damage that if not mitigated or dealt with as it happens, it WILL cause lasting and irreversable problems.

This is a nice article from The Art of Manliness on 7 Simple Exercises That Undo the Damage of Sitting.

Apart from sitting properly (check out Kelly Starrett's Bracing Sequence), the best exercises recommended in that Art of Manliness post are definitely the Pigeon Couch Stretch and Pigeon Pose. If you can, you should be getting into the deep squat position a few times a day, every day, and then using the glute bridge (not even with a barbell) to train glute activation as we pretty much lose that completely when sitting so much.

Also I find that the cat pose to cow pose yoga routine is excellent for alleviating a bit of short-term back pain (if you want to get rid of back pain though, you need to fix the original problem such as sitting too much and not moving around enough, combined with some more effective long-lasting exercises)

[MENTION=3831]Sinshroud[/MENTION] thanks for posting in the thread. Quite a few interesting posts.

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Originally Posted by czc

[MENTION=3831]Sinshroud[/MENTION] thanks for posting in the thread. Quite a few interesting posts.

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It's a pleasure, there is SO much useful information out there that it can almost become overwhelming for many.

What I want to do is help people find the right tools and resources by putting it into the right context for them and their lifestyle habits.

Good news, I was listening to one of Tim Ferris' podcasts where he was interviewing Jane McGonigal who happens to be a big fan of having a "gameful" mindset and looks for how games can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle.

One of the things she dropped during the podcast was that playing ‘Tetris’ reduces the strength, frequency and vividness of naturally occurring cravings

To explain a bit more:

"Elaborated Intrusion Theory (EI) postulates that imagery is central to craving, therefore a visually based task should decrease craving and craving imagery. This study provides the first laboratory test of this hypothesis in naturally occurring, rather than artificially induced, cravings. Participants reported if they were experiencing a craving and rated the strength, vividness and intrusiveness of their craving. They then either played ‘Tetris’ or they waited for a computer program to load (they were told it would load, but it was designed not to). Before task completion, craving scores between conditions did not differ; after, however, participants who had played ‘Tetris’ had significantly lower craving and less vivid craving imagery. The findings support EI theory, showing that a visuospatial working memory load reduces naturally occurring cravings, and that Tetris might be a useful task for tackling cravings outside the laboratory. Methodologically, the findings show that craving can be studied in the laboratory without using craving induction procedures."

This could be translated into many other games too, provided they are very visual, vivid, and increase working memory load.

Jane McGonigal also explains that while playing games is beneficial, studies show that one should keep it to a maximum of 21 hours a week (or 3 hours a day) otherwise the benefits of gaming start to decline and the negative impact on our lives start to become more dominant.

She also has a TED talk on Gaming can make a better world ("Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.")

Anyone still following?! How's it going?

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Originally Posted by Sinshroud

Anyone still following?! How's it going?

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I eat bread for lunch every day, it's free and provided to me by the work. I mostly eat bread for supper too.