Progression Race Food/Health Planning
by Nodozz on Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:55 pm

This has been something I have been wanting to address for a while now, and as i'll be doing my shopping shortly, now seems oppurtune.

First I want to say that alot of people are really handling this poorly, and their poor planning and overall lack of flexibility in their diet during progression has cost us alot of time, and with shitka finishing just an hour or so behind us last tier its important to minimize time wasted.

Rule #1
It cant take more than ~5mins to cook.

Way too many people were requesting 30-45 min breaks during SHA progression to prepare meals to eat. You people are hurting the guild, straight up. We should be aiming at 15-20min TOPS breaks during progression once every 3-4 hours. So 5 mins to prepare food, 5 to cook it, eat, restroom, and back ON TIME. On time = a couple minutes early.

Rule #2
Stay Hydrated. Drink Water, not soda. Caffeine is fine, massive amounts of sugar found in soda and most energy drinks is not, your only building yourself up to crash even harder.


I honestly feel like last tier I had more energy than ever before but I need to be better, 12 bosses is far more than we ever faced in 1 stretch last tier, its something that is going to require ALOT of hours. You have to plan. Last tier I did coffee, black, and 99.9% fruit outside of that. Bananas, apples, grapes, peaches, pineapple. I ate an ounce or so every 2 hours, and felt great the entire time. When I started feeling a crash in my alertness late at night typically close to midnight I would sip on a SUGAR FREE red bull and felt great shortly after.

Another thing I did last tier which helped alot was power nap (this isnt an option for everyone). There will be some fights where some people arent used for whatever reason, use this time effectively, if we do a comp change we are going to commit to it for at least a few pulls. During this time a 15 minute power nap does WONDERs, there are thousands of studies that speak to the benefits to alertness that a 15 minute nap can give you, its something I picked up in the Army, and I fee like alot fo gamers just dont get it. EVEN if you arent sitting, if you are planning your eating properly you can use our 15-20 min breaks to take a quick nap, set an alarm, and come back rested and rejuvenated ready to continue at a high level.

Among our other adversaries we are facing an opponent with a roster 50% bigger than ours. They have the potential to pull rediculous amounts of hours each day, and with fresh bodies cycled in. We need to improve how efficiently we take care of buisness, and this is one of our weakest areas by far. If you want to be the best, it takes hard work and sacrifices, some of you will have to fore go your 5 course meals when we are staring at the last boss of the tier.

Fix your sleep schedules now. Dont sleep over 8 hrs a night, be prepared for 6 or so hours of sleep a night, dont have your body use to getting 10-14 hrs of sleep like most gamers do.


Nodozz

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Re: Progression Race Food/Health Planning
by Acrol on Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:28 pm

Your body naturally reacts to sunlight, go outside for a few minutes on breaks.


Spoonkins

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Re: Progression Race Food/Health Planning
by Camcorder on Sat Mar 09, 2013 2:20 pm

Having a tasty/healthy/filling dish ready to go for breaks is awesome. I used to make 2-3 items before a tier began and stash them in the fridge for quick breaks.

- Lasagna refrigerates well, easy to serve, microwave and eat. Balanced nutrition, filling.
- Dirty rice (dont overcook the rice!) or your favorite chili hold up nicely as well: http://www.coconutandlime.com/2011/06/dirty-rice.html
- You can make a fully dressed salad that will last a day in the fridge: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012 ... mesan.html

As Chris says, use fresh fruit for sugar cravings.

If you want to drink more water and are used to caffeinated soda you could try making carbonated water with a Sodastream.


Camcorder

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Re: Progression Race Food/Health Planning
by Shinafae on Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:59 pm

It might not seem too important, intuitively, but everything that Chris said in his post is accurate and extremely important to take account of. It makes a very big impact on overall levels of alertness and stamina.

A few things to add :

*Chris mentioned that he consumed small quantities of food frequently. I want to bring this up again as it's extremely important ; small bits throughout the day is the single best way to maintain stable energy levels. Please avoid large meals as the body needs to devote a lot of resources to digesting large amounts of food, and the result is lethargy.

*To maintain even energy and avoid "peaks" and "crashes," stick with lean protein and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates such as those in soft drinks, refined flour, and and candies are very rapidly metabolised to glucose, which is used immediately by the body as a source of energy. This is responsible for the sensation of "sugar rush" and subsequent "crash." Complex carbohydrates, such as those found in whole wheat bread, oats, and starchy vegetables such as potatoes are metabolised much more slowly than their simple counterparts, resulting in even energy over a prolonged period of time. TL;DR Go for the wheat and whole grain bread over white bread and refined flour products, brown rice over white rice, etc.

*Keep water around at all times. Drink before you're thirsty and eat as soon as you feel a bit peckish. Dehydration can lead to headaches and fatigue, and if you're very thirsty, you're already likely dehydrated. Remember that caffeine is a diuretic, meaning that your red bulls, tea, coffee, No-Doz, etc will actually [i]dehydrate]i] you when you drink them. So, for every glass of caffeinated beverage that you consume, please drink an additional glass of water.

*I don't think this was mentioned, but the natural day-night cycle stimulates melatonin production in the brain, which is essentially the cause of the "sleepy" feeling we get at night. If you're worried about getting sleepy and typically like to play in the dark (like I do), turn on the lights, and keep them on. This will retard melatonin production and help to keep you alert when you need to be.

*If you plan on taking Adderall or some sort of amphetamine or amphetamine-derivative at any point, you need to make an extra effort to stay hydrated and properly fed. CNS stimulants of this sort speed metabolism and suppress appetite, which means that the tendancy is to "burn" more energy and take in less. Dehydration is also common as amphetamines are a strong diuretic. Additionally, I'm not sure if this would be relevant for low dosage and/or short term usage, but amphetamines commonly cause dry eyes and dry mouth. Keep moisturising eye-drops on hand, as eye dryness will result in fuzzy vision when staring at a computer screen over a long period of time, leading to headaches and fatigue.



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Re: Progression Race Food/Health Planning
by Ahdehl on Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:07 pm

If only Adderall existed around here....