Healthy Gaming: Gamer Lifestyle

Like many gamers, I have experienced the slight weight fluctuations during raid seasons. Many of us gamers play for hours on end, not eating actual meals, but munching on Cheetos and sipping Red Bull all day. This is obviously not a healthy lifestyle and can cause your real life and raid life to become stressful. I became very tired all the time and noticed I was putting on a few extra pounds. I also seemed to have headaches and was just always in a “bleh” state of mind. I took a little break from raiding to see if perhaps I was just spending way too much time in game. As it turns out, I was, but I also discovered that I started feeling better and loosing the extra weight without doing anything special. Whilst trying to determine why the sudden change was occurring, I discovered that what we eat has a huge effect on our mood as well as how much energy we have. Eating the wrong foods and not getting enough exercise can cause our hormones to go nuts! This, along with the stress of raiding and real life can bring, can be absolute torture to your body. My little break from gaming had caused me to stop snacking as much and I actually got back to cooking “real” meals.

When Cataclysm hit, I was called back to my healing position within my raid group, I knew I needed to go about it a little differently this time. I wanted to be able to raid and enjoy it, as well as maintain a healthy lifestyle. Instead of buying energy drinks, chips, sodas, etc., I began buying roasted nuts, dried fruits, and just drinking water. I’ve also started exercising a few hours before raid time, so I maintain a consistent level of energy throughout the day.

Just these little changes have helped me in a profound way. I’m no longer grumpy all the time, although my boyfriend might beg to differ. I don’t randomly lash out at the tanks and dps, except for the ones who like to stand in the fire… I also have lost the few extra pounds I had gained and feel much better. I by no means eat perfectly, nor am I near the weight I’d like to be, but overall I am much happier with where I’m at now with my body and gaming style.

My current healthy food addictions are: Roasted Almonds, Banana Chips, Prunes, Dried Papaya, and Green Tea. Not everyone may like these particular things, but you can always find healthier solutions to junk food. Perhaps you cannot stand the taste of water; there are many solutions to combat this. Crystal Light makes many different kinds of flavor packets you can add to water to make it taste like Fruit Punch, Orange Juice, Lemonade, etc. Also, you can always try Gatorade or fruit juices to wean yourself off of energy drinks. However, I do recommend not consuming much Gatorade or juice, as these have a lot of added sugar that can pose an issue for weight loss. Remember, this is all about baby steps, don’t push yourself beyond what’s healthy for you.