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?

For the past few days I have been interstate for work. I don’t mind travelling for work – it’s something that I’m prepared to do while I am young, but something that I know I’m not interested in doing once we have kids.

It’s easy to see how people can enjoy travelling for work. Let me set the scene…

Sunday afternoon my chauffeured car arrived to drive me to the airport. At the airport I meet my workmates, we check in, and then head to the Virgin Lounge for some pre-flight drinks and something to eat, all complimentary of course. Just before the flight boards, we drop through Travelex to withdraw our meal allowance in cash, then board our flight. It’s only a short flight – around an hour, and after we arrive we continue to drink at the casino, grab some dinner, then head to another pub to finish off the drinking.

Monday morning rolls around, and we all meet for breakfast at the cafe across the road. Normally the three of us avoid buying food for breakfast or lunch, but when you have a large allowance for food, it’s a lot easier to justify spending the money. The day is a fun day of catch-ups with team members from interstate, a few activities, and before we know it we are eating an expensive meal at a Greek restaurant – drinks included, and we don’t have to pay a cent for it. While half of the team go home, the other half hang around and go somewhere else to drink. Before we know it, it’s bed time at 2am and we’ve all clearly had enough for one night.

Tuesday is a very slow day, half of us are hungover, and it’s all a bit of a joke. The boss doesn’t mind – after all, most workplaces are a bit of a boys club, and realistically, alcohol does make you some friends in the workplace. When the day is over, we jump in a car and head back to the airport, hang around in the lounge for a few hours, and then fly home.

All in all it’s been three days of fun, free everything, and you can’t complain. Or can you?

While I’m mindful of only looking on the negative side of the trip (I’m not – I did enjoy the trip), I wasn’t at home to support my fiancee while she could have done with the support (her work is very busy at the moment). In addition to this, my diet suffered big time during the trip, as well as my exercise and my sleeping pattern.

I suppose I am always conscious of falling into the trap that so many others fall into – thinking that their life is great, just because of the luxuries that they have. Climbing the corporate ladder, going to free dinners and travelling around the world has some obvious attractions, but I believe it’s important for people to think about what they might be sacrificing by living that life. If they can truly justify it, great, but if they can’t maybe they need to consider their options a bit more before making the decision to climb the corporate ladder, rather than enjoy other aspects of their life.

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!