Fitness, Health, and Gaming: My Story

[daanji]

Like many of you, I'm a hardcore computer nerd that enjoys a inordinate amount of gaming. My professional life is that of a Electrical Engineer and my work place was ~1 hour from my house. That meant spending almost 2 hours a day in the car on a good day. I had sedentary hobbies including coding, gaming, and just about anything web related.
Needless to say, my lifestyle left little time for exercise. My diet included a large amount of soda, fast food, salt, meat, and potatoes (never been a sweets/dessert guy). As a result, I got fat. Walking upstairs left me winded and going on a 15 minutes walk in the park made me sweat with my calves cramping and my knees, ankles, and feet hurting. Never mind the occasional hike I'd do with my wife - those left my incredibly sore. I was in bad shape, I had no one to blame but myself. Sure, I could blame WoW, my commute time, my career. But no, I take full personal responsibility for my physical health. I neglected my health. At the age of 30, I was 5' 8" 240 lbs and my cholesterol was well over 300.

So I decided to change and this is my story.

Being fed up with my job, stress, commute, and health I knew I needed a change - a drastic one.
I quit my job, short sold my house, moved back into the city, and got a new job. I now live 8 minutes from work.
Since I no longer spent 2 hours per day in the car, I decided I would use that extra time on fitness and health.

So I committed myself to fitness. I made a few rules


I could not game until I went to the Gym
No gym == No Games
I would take 2 walks per day
Gym time must be at least 30 minutes

As for my diet, I changed it completely. This is what I've done for the last 7 months.


Casein Protein Shake for Breakfast (I was never a breakfast eater)
No Soda - quit the stuff
Drank Water and Tea and sometimes coffee.
15 minute walk at 9 AM
Frozen Grapes (100 calories worth) after walk
Lunch Mainly Consisted of Salmon, Chicke, Broccoli, Brown Rice and Quinoa.
Another Walk at 2:30
Frozen Grapes at 3 PM
Leave Work at 5 PM
Eat Dinner, usually something healthy such as skinless chicken
Do the Gym for an Hour
Eat another Casein Protein Shake
Spend Time with Wife and Do Chores
Game until bed time (As a result of this, my game time was drastically reduced of course)

My daily calorie intake was around 1600-1800 calories. For my exercise routine, I did the following


MWF - Strength Training (hit all muscle groups each day)
I also did Elliptical for Cardio for 30 minutes every day
Sometimes I'd do a short swim or walk my dog for an hour
On the weekends, I'd do hike or some other light physical activity.

As a result of all of this, I am the best physical shape my life. In 7 months, I have lost 70 lbs.
I started at 240 and now weight 169 lbs. I actually have muscle definition in my arms, chest, and legs. My stomach is flat and I am seeing a hint of abs.

All physical activities that were once hard are now easy. It is such a life changing feeling to know that you can do a tough hike and not even feel it.
I've run a race and finished it with a decent time and wasn't sore and dead for the next week. I feel great and am no longer depressed.
I am more out going, social, and am doing a variety of hikes and outdoor activities that were once closed to me.

So if you are like me, a multi-boxing nerd that need some balance, know that you can do it.
You can still keep gaming and having fun, but do no neglect your health.

[smalltanker]

Dang it I wondered where you went. But I feel your pain. I work in an office, generally on shifts for several months at a time and my running has tapered off. I have opted to drink more water, diet soda's (still unhealthy unfortunately... see the work shift comment!). I was and am doing much like you with the fresh fruit (Bannana's, grapes, green apples and celery in my case). Glad you are feeling better and looking better. I think I need to get a bike as I would like lower impact and riding just seems more enjoyable than running used to.

As a result of simple diet I was able to much like you drop pounds. My weight was only 170+ and I was able to chop it down to the mid 160's but I have a naturally slender build due to metabolism, used to be 140-145 when I was in the army for 20 years and running 20+ miles a week. People don't understand you stop working out for 4-5 years and diet + sedentary lifestyle = instant 20-30 pound weight gain. Hard to keep it off and stay in shape.

[HPAVC]

I am not too into fitness, but I try and run more miles than hours I play in wow and sleep more hours as well.

I use the parental controls with no limits, the report it sends is a pretty sobering at times.

[Pazgaz]

That's really great to hear. I especially liked the way you took full responsibility and completely changed your life.
I recommend you give crossfit a shot if you feel like taking fitness to the next level ;)

[daanji]

Yeah, I was thinking about doing Cross Fit. There is a Cross Fit gym nearby as well. Currently I am doing P90x, 28 days in. So far I have lost 10 lbs just P90x alone.
My original goal was to get down to 160 lbs (just another 10 lbs to go!). I think I might push it to get down to 150 - then focus on building muscle.

[Khatovar]

Good for you! It's hard to break bad habits, especially with a sedentary lifestyle. I keep trying, but it seems every time I start to get somewhere my depression spikes and it all goes to hell, heh. But, small changes seem to stick for me.

Even though my husband and I both overweight and wholly sedentary, we're both in rather good health. We've both had blood panels done in the past few months and our cholesterol, sugar, triglycerides, all that junk is great, which kind of surprised us and our doctors. That's one of the boons of a 3rd-shift life - nothing is open when we're up, so we don't eat out. I'm vegetarian, making my husband one by default, so our diet has always been pretty decent overall. But it means there's not much to cut out. Pasta, pizza, breads, all those quick meals have already been pretty much weeded out already in favor of stuff I can spend time making.

I'm a sucker for sweets, though, so I've taken to making my own desserts and making substitutions anyplace I can. Like subbing the whole milk with NF and swapping the sugar for Splenda or Stevia in a chocolate pudding recipe drops it from 300 calories per serving to 100. I can drop it even lower by using dark chocolate so I can reduce how much I add and skipping the butter.

I cut out my habit of 2-3 uber lattes a day @ 250 calories each and replaced it with 1 mini latte {nf milk and stevia} @ a tiny 25 calories. After that, it's just water and Mio or Zen tea if I still need caffeine.

Stuff like that has helped and I've maintained a 20lbs weight loss since July even through the holidays and 2 rounds of depression-induced "Screw this" mode where I haven't been eating as well as I could and haven't been working out at all.

Not being sedentary is the hardest part for us. Night shift is brutal for having any sort of life. I barely leave the house at all so the only activity I get is housework and the treadmill, both of which I have to be quiet about because I live in an apartment and share walls with people who are trying to sleep. :mad: But knowing that I've maintained my weight loss despite my depression's best attempts to sabotage it has gotten me motivated to back on a workout routine. I'm thinking our tax refund is probably going to go toward getting a bike to go with our treadmill so I can do that on days where I can't get motivated to run or I'm too sore to run.

[Jafula]

I'm impressed! Thank you for sharing. It gives me inspiration to continue doing what I am doing! I've been exercising regularly and it has made such a difference to my overall health. My next goal is to cut out the bad food, which hasn't been the easiest, but something I like to call a work in progress. Good on you for doing that complete change and lifestyle overhaul, it's pretty hard at times, but so worth it.

[MiRai]

Very nice.


I am doing P90x
That's what I've been doing off and on for 2 years now. Usually the colder time of the year is the less motivational time of the year for me and right now I'm just doing the bare minimum to maintain. :)

[daanji]

I know exactly how you feel Khat. For the longest time, I have been depressed. During tough episodes, I'd have really dark thoughts that were unhealthy. I beat myself up and berated myself for all sorts of random things.
Honestly, I'd say that I have always had a depressive personality. I'm fun to be around and I am a funny guy, but I just never got excited or energetic about anything. I was always calm, even, and reserved.

I knew for my fitness and diet to work, I'd have to get my depression under control. Of course I am proud to go to a doctor to get diagnosed and get a prescription. So as an Engineer I did the next logical step, I looked how to solve my depression the natural way. First, I did some research on foods, herbs, and exercises that can boost mood. I started taking these supplements

1. SAMe
2. St. John's Wort
3. Vitamin B Complex
4. Ginkgo biloba
5. Echinacea
6. Folic Acid
7. Multi-Vitamin

I did not take these every day. Instead, I rotated them, once per day - I did not want to overload my system. Plus, it gave me a chance to figure out what actually worked. From my experiments, I found that a combination of SAMe and St. John's Wort worked the best.

I also made a point to avoid Gluten and tried to get plenty of iron (I ate a lot of spinach salads), iodine, Omega-3s, almonds, cashews, and drank detox teas (dandelion).
In addition to the food, the 2x walks I did every day ensured I got a minimum Sunlight and Vitamin D.

For me, this worked wonders. I have never been as social, happy, and energetic as I am now.

Depression can be hard to combat and can easily be the root cause of unhealthy lifestyle and choices. For me, I had tried to fill the void with food, gaming, and computers, which just lead to an endless spiral.

So, I encourage you to take your depression by the balls and tell it to get lost one way or the other. Once that is solved, everything else will fall into place :)


As for WoW related news, even though I started dieting and exercising I stilled played WoW a LOT. When MoP came out, I was playing 2-4 hours per day and even more on the weekend. I'm such an addict :)
I got my 10-box team to Level 90 and got their professions and gear maxed out. Even got all 10 Exalted with the Tillers. However, due to the "Recent Account Actions" I ended up getting temporary suspensions 4 times in a row. Once during Thanksgiving and another during Christmas when I had plenty of time to play. As a result, I ended up finding something else to do and got bored of WoW. I canceled all 10 subscriptions in January.

I will eventually be back - the 5.2 changes making it tempting. Considering I haven't taken a break from WoW in almost four years, I think perhaps it is time to take a long break.

For now, I am training to run 5K with the hope of actually doing a 1/2 marathon someday.

[JohnGabriel]

I switched to organic and dropped from 215 in my engineering days to my doctor recommended ideal weight of 170 now. I avoid all those supplements though, I feel its more healthy to get your vitamins from vegetables instead.

[livetolift]

Nice job man! Lot of people get motivated and start their physical training which last maybe a week or two then they just give up. The hard part is to maintain that routine and stick with it. You did an awesome job! I was in the same boat. My weight was 190lbs 20% body fat. Took me a year to get to 145lbs and now i weight 168 lbs with 6% body fat. The only thing i can suggest for you is that replace the casein in the day with either some salmon or chicken, you can also do whey. Do casein before bed. Other then that you are on the right track brother! Keep it up!

[JohnGabriel]

20% body fat is good, average, depending on your age you'll be somewhere around there. 6% is outrageous, like 25 year old professional athlete good.

[livetolift]

Ya 6% is kind of pain to get to. I was stuck at 10% for a long time. I stopped running and started doing stairs. That did the trick for me. And helped my lower abs to show.

[Multibocks]

What happened to my reply?


edit: nm there are two threads on this same post.

[daanji]

What happened to my reply?


edit: nm there are two threads on this same post.

Indeed! It appears I made the front page news. Good times.

[pinotnoir]

I think all the boxers will now have free time to exercise. :(

[Mickthathick]

Great post, you'vev encouraged me to do more walking on top of what I am doing now (seeing a trainer 3 times a week, walking on the days I don't train.)

I'm into week 12 now and have lost 15kgs (umm 30 pounds?) since the start of the year from the exercise and being on the Weight Watchers 'Points' program.

I Still have a long way to go but the trainer helps enormously with my motivation as I know I 'have' to the do the session- he charges me whether I show up or not! Plus he's a great cheerleader, and it really helps when I smash out many reps of an exercise that almost killed me in January.

Doing exercise regularly is something I have always struggled to maintain, I hit a bit of a wall a few weeks ago but I got over it and have been really keen this week (started walking to work now it's cooling down in Oz)

It's like when I quit smoking, after a month I swore that I would never smoke again as I didn't ever want to go through the pain of quitting again, no way am I letting myself go again as i know how much it is hurting to get fit now!

[Stephanie Ingram]

Thanks for this Post! I have been exercising regularly and it has made such a difference to my health and my body shape.

[MadMilitia]

A big factor for us 20-30 something gamers is hyperacidity:

http://digestion.ygoy.com/2010/05/10/hyper-acidity-symptoms-and-causes-of-hyperacidity/



Basically if you consume too many acidifying foods your blood becomes acidic and hyperacidity sets in. Blood doesn't flow near as well and this means cells die due to not getting the right amount of oxygen. Then your body needs more sleep to repair. How many of us have been on binges where we needed 10 hours of sleep and more afterward? That's your body telling you its time to change.

Worse, when your body has to readjust to slightly alkaline status (your body normally works to find slightly alkaline status), it leeches your bones for calcium and other mineral deposits to reach alkaline status.

It doesn't mean you can't eat the acidic foods. You just need to do a lot of alkaline with that acidic food.


Here is a spot on the subject of foods an their status on the PH chart:

http://alkaline-alkaline.com/ph_food_chart.html