While there are some gamers that keep their health a priority next to their gaming habit, most of us are lazy and just don’t put nearly enough effort into maintaining our body. There’s a simple reason for that – keeping yourself fit and healthy is a very boring process, and boredom is not the best way to attract a gamer to do something.
Still, only kids would not be worried about the state their bodies are in. Since getting advice from doctors is a pain, since you have to schedule an exam and to deal with a generation of people who didn’t actually grown up next to an interactive window to the whole world and don’t really get just why are we leading a lifestyle that we are, here are some health tips you can turn to if you want to expand some time of your day to keeping yourself fit.
You should realize that it’s not just our waistlines that are under assault, it’s just the most noticeable deterioration of our health.
Eyesight issues
Remember how parents often told you to sit farther away from the TV or PC screen so your eyesight does not deteriorate? Remember how you always thought it was a big load of ****? Well, turns out it WAS a big load of rubbish as the studies have eventually shown that being too close or too far of a screen does not have effect on your eyesight quality unless your sight is already damaged, in which case you should be wearing glasses already.
Anyway, there is a downside to staring at a screen for hours at a time, and it’s a downside that us, gamers, rarely notice or even think about. Blinking. It may sound silly, but blinking actually has a purpose besides providing mechanical protection for the eyes. The purpose of blinking is also to moisturize the surface of the eyes, preventing them from getting dry, sensitive and much more vulnerable to injury even by something as simple as dust. So, force yourself to blink from time to time, or even set yourself a timer of a sorts when you’ll just park your character or pause the game for a moment and blink for a few times. Splashing water on your face is also recommended, if you can get yourself to get off of your ass and do it.
If you also work in front of a computer and spend hours at the time gaming, there are more advanced tricks you can use. Look away from the PC screen every two hours or so – get up to the window and look at something in the distance, allowing your eye to refocus for a few minutes before you get back to gaming. Take a few minutes doing so – this will maintain the strength of muscles controlling your eyes, which can deteriorate if you really neglect them and spend way too much time in front of the PC. You can also use used tea bags – just place them in a refrigerator and place them back on your eyes hours later, when you feel the strain. It soothes them and reduces puffiness.
Waistline issues
While it may be kind of stereotypical, we gamers to usually suffer from having a few pounds too much. There are a few role models we can turn to and see how it’s done, one of the most popular one at the moment being Dyrus from Team Solo Mid – a professional League of Legends player who also works out and keeps himself not just fit, but buff as well.
First thing to do when you are trying to work on your waistline is – change your diet. It may sound like a pain in the ***, and it sometimes is, but you have to change your eating habits as well as your drinking habits if you want to see an improvement.
Let’s be clear here – I’m not talking about spending tons and tons of time on working out (although that can certainly help you if you’re trying to lose weight), but you can at the very least stop making things worse. Kick the soft drinks out as quick as you can – too much sugar is not good for you at all. Start drinking water – in fact, keep the water bottle next to you while you game. If you really want to drink a juice, get a juice squeezer and make yourself some orange or lemon juice. Even with that, drink water because drinking water is NOT drinking liquids, and your body needs pure water to maintain metabolism. If you really want to work on your health, try to get some homemade apple vinegar and dilute a spoonful of it in a cup of water – that will help you melt fat, strengthen your nails and hear and help you out in all kinds of ways.
If you want to diet, you can also try some of the tested and tried dieting programs, but they take much more effort that us gamers are not likely to put in (even if that would be in our best interest).
These are some of the problems and issues us gamers have as well as some basic things to try to alleviate them. I plan on making several more articles on the topic, so stand by for additional information.
Ivan Dimitrijevic is a blogger with strong roots in SEO industry and with keen interests in gaming and healthy lifestyle. He has had many articles on health related topics posted and he continues to expand his knowledge on the field.