Build Season Habits

[JoshWilson]

I personally tend to get almost no sleep, get no homework done, and constantly wonder how I'm still a twig after eating at least twice as much as I do during Cross Country and Track season.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I also have a nasty habit of cracking through Rockstar Sugarfree energy drinks during the midday at a rate that no doctor would recommend.

Let me rephrase that for you :

I also have a nasty habit of cracking through Rockstar Sugarfree energy drinks during the midday, something that no doctor would ever recommend.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by EDesbiens

Let me rephrase that for you :

I mean I'm pretty sure it only gets bad when you go over a ratio of 1/hr right?

[Chris Endres]

Aldi brand Mt. Dew, Mt. Frost. The worst caffeinated drink out there; with only being roughly $1 for 12 cans, making it very affordable for us poor high school students. This garbage has been holy water for the mechanical and CAD sub teams, as it acts as a wake-me-up and makeshift aluminum cutting juice.

[EDesbiens]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I mean I'm pretty sure it only gets bad when you go over a ratio of 1/hr right?

Wikipedia says 2/hr is the limit...

[Briansmithtown]

I tend to crack jokes so cheesy, people usually use it to make chicken parm.

[JoshWilson]

Originally Posted by Briansmithtown

I tend to crack jokes so cheesy, people usually use it to make chicken parm.

That joke would go great with my lasagna...

[sdangelo]

Here's a non-food-related one: I draw the knockout (one-color) version of the FIRST logo all over the place. And I don't just mean at our build site, I draw them on school papers, on my hand, in MS Paint on my computer. I had one on a chalkboard in the engineering room of my local high school (which does not have a FIRST team) for months on end--every time it was erased, I just put it back up.

[sawhneyjalaj]

Well, where my team works, there is a vending machine. The machine has iced tea and every build season, all I do is drink iced tea...

[CadetGizmo]

I think it's worth mentioning that I haven't gone to a single meeting without wearing a hat, usually a super warm, super stretched beanie.

[waialua359]

This is easy! Gain 15lbs in 6 weeks from all the snacks, meals, and drinks we all are required to bring in during build season.

[Abhishek R]

2AM breakfast at Denny's on certain late nights. The waiters/waitresses pretty much know who we are just on the fact that we come there almost every week during build season.

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Abhishek R

2AM breakfast at Denny's on certain late nights. The waiters/waitresses pretty much know who we are just on the fact that we come there almost every week during build season.

Oh, this reminds me of another one... yelling "robot!" as a stand-in for "excuse me" anywhere the team happens to be. Shopping, restaurant, school event...

[Shrub]

It's kind of obvious these habits are bad for both physical and mental health. Build season took a huge toll on me physically and mentally, especially my senior year of high school. I went through a nasty caffeine withdrawal and was generally depressed and irritable the rest of the summer due to competition season being so stressful for me.

I think instead of bragging about how unhealthy we eat, or how many energy drinks we drink, we should be thinking about why we normalize that, or boast about that. There's a certain kind of ableism that comes with those statements - a kind of warning to others who may not have the mental or physical energy to participate in build season that they won't be able to make it. Even apart from ableism, it shows to others when people only focus on the negative habits that build season may not be worth participating in.

My team's build season was high impact, 6 weeks 6 days a week for as long as we needed. Of course, it wasn't required to go every day, but I think it was you had to go to 60% of meetings. Reflecting on build season with a friend of mine who was chronically ill, we noticed that this was not healthy for either of us.

Not to derail, but does anyone have any healthy habits that arise from build season? I never procrastinate during build, and I really learned a lot more about self care. Build season shouldn't be a period of time to develop obsessive and unhealthy habits, much less to boast about them.

tl;dr: any good habits? or just a lot of mtn dew?

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Shrub

Not to derail, but does anyone have any healthy habits that arise from build season? I never procrastinate during build, and I really learned a lot more about self care. Build season shouldn't be a period of time to develop obsessive and unhealthy habits, much less to boast about them.

tl;dr: any good habits? or just a lot of mtn dew?

A good point. A lot of this was probably skewed perspective because the thread posters seem to be posting in jest, and a lot of it will be simply because, frankly, high school students + big projects = coffee and energy drinks and pizza.

My habit of "no repeated fast food meals" was intended as a compromise and a way to stay conscious of my food habits. I know I'm going to get junk food each build night. I know that's bad. But this forced me to think about where I'm going to go each night and what I'm going to order, rather than just mindlessly order the same junky junk over and over.

Another healthy build season habit my previous team adopted (and new team will likely do the same) - when it got really intense we asked parents to rotate around a schedule and provide meals for the team. Instead of ordering pizza for every night we had a variety of tasty home-cooked meals.