Are you taking care of yourself?

[the_JinX]

COFFEE !!

(check out my nice cafeine avatar !!)

I drink hella lots of coffee, I even get "cranky" if I don't..

I just recently stopt smoking. Wich I am finding realy hard..
But I'm sticking in there..

Also I have started working out again (part of reason for stopping smoking), couse I gained 20 kilo's in 3 years time..
I'm not realy obese right now, but I am overweight and working on it...

So now my only two health sins are coffee and alcohol.. (the cafeine avatar was cooler then the ethanol one..)

[roswell1329]

Wow. Lots of coffee drinkers. I'm surprised I don't see more Mt. Dew or Jolt drinkers!

[the_JinX]

They don't sell Jolt here..
I'll have to import it from Germany or england...

And Mountain Dew is just too expencive, it has to be imported to...

[mohaughn]

There are a lot of confirmed facts about caffeine.


CAFFEINE
Caffeine causes increased levels of adrenaline to be released into your blood stream, which in turn raises your blood pressure and makes your heart beat faster. Additionally, excess caffeine stresses your kidneys and washes minerals from the kidneys that are essential to their healthy functioning -- selenium, manganese, zinc, calcium, magnesium and others.


Taking in excess amounts of caffeine is just as bad as taking in cocaine or other stimulants. It does a lot of wear and tear to the heart and kidneys...

Of course.. I can't say anything as I probably drink alchohol to much.. no caffeine though as stimulants of any kind have a major effect on me and I can't sit still if I drink coffee or pop.


also.. about the eye strain... you can do some really simple things to stop that..

1) Take short eye breaks where you basically look at something that is off at a distance.. This way your eye goes into the natural relaxed position which is focusing to infinity. Or simply close them. You should do this for a couple of minutes every hour.

2) don't sit real close to your monitor. I sit at arms length to my keyboard, and try to keep my monitor 6-12 inches from that. Sometimes this is kind of hard with a laptop as the monitor is right up against the keyboard, so maintain that arms length distance.

I've been using computers heavily for the last 16 years, the last 8 years as a professional with usage being anywhere from 8-18 hours a day. I already had bad eye sight as a child, but my vision has not decreased much in the last 10 years, nor have I ever had any repetitive stress problems.

[mathgirl32]

Taking in excess amounts of caffeine is just as bad as taking in cocaine or other stimulants.

Ok, ok.....I'm going to have to call you on this one!!

[Midridth]

Thanks for this. I just realized that I have all of those listed ailments and a lot more. And I'm only 15. :-\ Not good.
I also love my coffee, diet coke, and jolt (stupid ordering online) with a passion.

*sigh* oh well. I guess I'll just have to get active again ;-)

[M/S Vin]

Originally posted here by roswell1329


How many of you spend some time each week keeping yourself fit or just taking care of your body? Guessing from the typical AO member, you probably spend 8 or more hours a day in front of a screen. Working with computers is wonderful, but it is also the source of many emerging aliments researchers have found.

Poor nutrition can also be the result of a heavy computer schedule, and may even aggravate some of the ailments listed above. More and more time online means taking less time to select foods that are more nutritious. I'm sure many of us have opted for a quick vending machine snack when working late rather than spending 10 minutes in the kitchen building a healthier snack. And how many of us think that two of the four basic food groups are pizza, and caffeine? How many of us remember the other two?

The most workout I've done lately is just walking and running once in a while. I try to sneak in exercise in between my daily routine, such as doing jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups when I'm waiting for something to download or when Im just watching TV and waiting for the commercials to be over. With exercise consistency is the key and I try not to make it too long . Since spending too much aerobic exercise would lessen the results, my body would end up burning muscle instead of fat. Which isn't good since muscles are a fat burning furnace. So when I find the time to run or jog I limit it to 30-35 minutes. Or I would go to the mall and window shop, just walk around for about an hour. The gym is also great, not to mention a good place to meet new friends.

Now the diet is really challenging, since there's too many fast food joints and not have much time to prepare it as Roswell stated. I find that I can still eat fast food and still eat healthy. What I would do is just order the regular grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo or dressing on it, and perhaps a side salad and just plain Iced tea no sugar, and avoid cheese.

[roswell1329]

Originally posted here by M/S Vin


The most workout I've done lately is just walking and running once in a while. I try to sneak in exercise in between my daily routine, such as doing jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups when I'm waiting for something to download or when Im just watching TV and waiting for the commercials to be over. With exercise consistency is the key and I try not to make it too long . Since spending too much aerobic exercise would lessen the results, my body would end up burning muscle instead of fat. Which isn't good since muscles are a fat burning furnace. So when I find the time to run or jog I limit it to 30-35 minutes. Or I would go to the mall and window shop, just walk around for about an hour. The gym is also great, not to mention a good place to meet new friends.

I've heard that about your body burning muscle if you don't have enough ready-made energy to burn (ie sugars, carbohydrates, etc), but my doctor told me that anything less than 20 minutes of sustained aerobic exercise with an elevated heart rate won't help your heart really at all. You may be helping your muscles a bit, but your heart is a muscle, too, and heart disease is one of the top killers among men in the US. Don't forget to take care of your heart!
It would seem to me that you could combat the burning of muscle by finding a happy medium of calories eaten and calories burned. You may even need to start consuming more healthy calories to prepare for the extra calories being burned. You could probably also help your muscles by increase your daily intake of protein. The Body For Life program recommends this. They also recommend consuming 6 smaller meals per day rather than the usual 3 large ones.

[mohaughn]

Originally posted here by mathgirl32


Ok, ok.....I'm going to have to call you on this one!!

Care to explain why you don't believe me? Cocaine and other amphetamines are stimulants.. What is caffeine? A stimulant, no? So do you not think that taking in excess amounts on one stimulant will have the same effect as taking in other kinds of stimulants?? They all cause the same effects, hypertension, high blood pressure, etc....

It is true that coke and other forms of meth are much stronger, thus requiring less of a dose to be effective, however, drinking 12 cups of coffee in a short time span, is going to be very much the shame as blowing a couple of lines of coke.

Why do you think it is that if you just do a generic search on side effects of stimulants, the stimulants you see listed are coke, meth, caffeine, and the other assorted forms of speed.

[mathgirl32]

Firstly, I never said caffiene was not a stimulant. I never even alluded to to that.

however, drinking 12 cups of coffee in a short time span, is going to be very much the shame as blowing a couple of lines of coke.

That you could even say this makes me wonder if you've just "blown" a few lines yourself.