r0dman.com

This is purely just ranting from my head. No direction and no research done.

Over the last six months to a year I have changed my diet, lifestyle and general habits considerably.

• I am eating a LOT less meat, from at least 10 meals a week (often more), down to just two or three.
• I am no longer consuming milk, and have cut my general consumption of dairy products down a lot.
• I am eating more fruit and vegetables, and generally trying to stay properly hydrated at all times.
• I am exercising more, specifically weight training.
• I am drinking far less alcohol than I used to, and less regularly too.

As an example, nowadays when I drink alcohol, I really feel it the next day. I used to be able to go out and have at least 20 standard drinks in a night, often many more, and as long as I’d had a decent glass of water before bed I would feel fine the next day. Nowadays I can have a half a dozen drinks and the next day my head is killing me.

Obviously our habits, traditions and general day to day living as humans are brought on by the way our ancestors have lived their lives. Are humans, for example, only able to consume large amounts of alcohol with large amounts of meat? Is it possible that only people that drink milk are able to “handle” smoking better? If you consume predominantly fried foods, is your body able to cope with energy drinks better? Will they have the same affect on you as they do someone who has a diet made up of more fruit and vegetables?

I’m sure there are plenty of foods, drinks, activities and habits that are linked. Complimentary foods if you will.

I think the way that I feel physically is also due predominantly to the fact that I am well hydrated most of the time. It’s like I’m setting a high standard for my body. When I go and have a big night drinking, I’m very dehydrated and by body tells me this by giving me a throbbing headache the next day. After a decent mountain bike ride it will often do the same as I’m usually unable to drink enough water during that time (I can only carry 3 litres with me).

It’s interesting. Not bad, not good, not anything subjective. Just another one of those things I’ve come across and still haven’t figured out what it really means or where it’s relevancy fits in to my life.

I wrote in my first blog entry that I’m a hypocrite. It’s the easiest way of saying what I’m about to say.

I have a heap of ideals in life, but almost never meet any of them. For instance, ideally I would be a raw vegan. It is my belief that the healthiest diet to have is when eating raw plant based food. With that said, I eat way too much processed food, and still eat a lot of meat (probably once every two days). Ideally I wouldn’t drink either, would be fit enough to race mountain biking in an elite category, would spend my days outside rather than watching TV, never drive to work, and not even think about drinking coffee.

While some people call me soft for not acting on my ideals, I have learned that I tend to think about all of the options, and make my decisions slowly before actually acting on them. Right now I am in the “evaluation stage” I suppose you could say. My opinions and decisions have been made, I am just waiting to act on them.

Part of the reason why I am slow to act on these decisions is because of where we are at in life. A lot of the decisions that I want to make will impact on my fiancee’s life, and while she is happy with how it will impact her, I’m not ready to put her through it.

Next year we are heading overseas. No rules, just freedom. I don’t want to be in Italy and refuse eating a home cooked dish because it has meat in it, or not drink some grappa because it’s against my decision to stay away from alcohol. We will be in Europe, then North America – how can we not do as the locals do?! How could we not have a ultra king size burger with a two litre cup of Coke in the fattest country in the world?

Freedom is key to my short term life, and I’m fine with that. So for the next two years, take what I say with a pinch of salt. I will form my opinions like I normally do, but chances are I’m not actually going to act on them for at least another year or two.

So now that I have explained my situation, what do you think? Am I a hypocrite?

I went to a going away party last Saturday night and drank enough to have a hangover. While I had fun, I was planning on an enjoyable morning of trail-building and mountain biking on Sunday. I enjoyed both “events”, but it is obvious to me that mountain biking and digging trails is clearly more important to me than drinking myself stupid. By drinking on Saturday night, I just made the next day a much bigger challenge that it should have been, and in turn didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as I should have.

Over the last six months or so my drinking has declined more and more. Maybe I’m “growing up”, but I think my priorities have just shifted…

I have mentioned earlier that I’m not a very competitive person. I have no need to win an Elite race on my bike, but I love the idea of being fit enough to do so. Fitness is becoming more and more important to me, and I’m only really starting to learn this now.

Now I know everyone says “I’m never drinking again” after they have a big night of binge drinking – I’m not saying that. I think I’m just over the big nights. A couple of beers here and there are cool, but I don’t want to mess up my body’s hydration completely. My weekends are very important to me – the things that I live for are outside, in the hills just taking it all in. When I wake up with a hangover on a Sunday, the day is wasted and it will be another week until I get the chance to live again.

Now, avoiding the binge drinking sessions – that’s where the real challenge lies. Here goes!

I caught the bus in to work this morning. It’s an hour and ten minutes by bus, and 35 minutes by car, but I prefer the bus. Less stress for me. When I drive I am just in disbelief of how terrible people are at driving, how inattentive they are in the mornings, and really, I just feel like a sheep when I’m in that car on the way to work.

Now granted public transport isn’t much of a step up from driving. It just makes me a sheep that is either too broke to drive, or cares about the environment a bit more than the next sheep. Ideally I ride my bike, but I’ve been lazy lately. When I used to work in the city it was a 35 minute ride to and from work, and I literally rode every day of the year. It’s not so easy when your commute is an hour and a half. It probably doesn’t help that I ride a single speed though.

This morning my connecting bus left before mine got to the interchange. At first I was a bit annoyed but I realised that if I caught the train I’d only get to work 5 minutes later. No biggie. I waited for the train while it was raining lightly and it was actually enjoyable. A few minutes to myself, in the rain. Nice! When I arrived at work though, people think I’m crazy. “An hour and 15 minutes to get to work? And you’re jacket’s wet! As if you don’t just drive!”

What I can’t get over is just how people are unable to think for themselves. The majority of people that I know just follow what the TV tells them to do, or what the sheep next to them is doing. I knew if they asked them why they drove a car they wouldn’t know. You get answers like “Because that’s what you do, you drive to work in your car. Everybody does it.”

I got started with a dude the other day that was telling me how bad alcohol is, and how awesome he was because he didn’t drink alcohol. Pity he drinks three or four cups of coffee every morning, and is one of those “I can’t function without my coffee” people. So I told him…

Caffeine is the most widespread drug on the planet. It is more addictive than alcohol. Served to children at all ages, and has huge range of negative effects.

Granted, alcohol is not good for you, however, think about when caffeine is taken. Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Every day?

Think about when alcohol is taken? Once a week? Once a month?

Obviously the amounts vary per person, but caffeine is a socially accepted drug. You can chug it all morning at work and no one bats an eyelid. If anything, you’re the odd one out when you don’t drink it. Try having a scotch at 9am. I doubt it would go down well with your boss/wife/etc.

So you can be addicted, and be on a drug during work, or while living your “normal” life.

This guy is happy to be told by the newspaper (and I use the term loosely) that alcohol is so insanely bad for everyone (and don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating how good it is for you), but he’s in a little dream world that tells him that his excessive coffee drinking is fine. The same guy drinks a few litres Pepsi Max every day and refuses to believe that people can be “in shape”, and eat a diet with more than 8 carbs per week in it.

Why do people need the latest fad? You only have to read your local paper to know what I’m talking about. New diet, the latest phone, new cars, etc. They don’t know what else to need. How often are people told that they should go for a walk outside and enjoy life? Told to look up at the sky and be amazed by the clouds? Told to go for a ride on their bike with the kids? No one benefits financially from those activities (except for the Government, but they are too blind to plan for long term benefits of people being fit and healthy and are happier for the short term benefits of claiming tax from TV sales and other crap), and after all, a newspaper is just an advertising medium. The paper is just doing what they do to make money. Same with the TV station.

All I’d like to see is people thinking for themselves. Believing in what they TRUELY believe in, not what they are being told to believe in. Fat chance though. In this last year I’ve learned what it feels like to be in a minority group. Only thing is my group isn’t due to my race or hobbies or orientation, it’s because I’m happy to think for myself.

Do you think for yourself? Or do you just follow the other sheep? Once you open your mind up to the possibilities, it’s hard to become an ignorant sheep again.