Build Season Habits

[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.

[InspectorGadget1073]

I usually eat crap for breakfast
...More crap for lunch...
...And a burrito for dinner...
(All during midst robotics season and hockey season, and now I'm wondering why I don't throw-up every time I do physical activity)

[cjl2625]

Speaking of food habits...
We just relocated shops, and our new shop is about a quarter mile from McDonalds, and I pass by it on my way to/from robotics. Rip my health this build season.

[arc25565]

We have a dairy queen just up the hill from our school so we eat there a ton. We also had a barbecue donated last year so we have lots of hamburgers. Not the best diet ever.

[JoshWilson]

Originally Posted by Shrub

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?

Personally, it's one of the few times when I'll actually do work without procrastinating, and it also makes me enjoy eating (mostly) healthy for the rest of the year, because I eventually get tired of junkfood.

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

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.

Even though we eat a lot of junkfood, our weekend meals are usually good homemade meals brought in by parents, which is also really nice.

And kudos to you Shrub, that was a great idea bringing up the subject of healthy habits, and encouraging us to make better ones instead of just continuing with the bad and making fun of them.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Shrub

..any good habits?

Well, before starting with FRC, I drank a lot more beer during January and February than I do now. FRC build season and carnival season pretty well line up most years; FRC kicks off on the Saturday nearest the beginning of carnival, and in 2012 and 2015 they ended on the very same stroke of midnight. I don't do nearly as much carnival as I used to. Does that count?

[Karibou]

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.

Even though I wasn't involved with a team for the past four build seasons (yay college!), I had a similarly busy schedule between coursework and half a dozen school organizations that were all in full-swing in January and February. Didn't get a lot of sleep or regular meals and drank a lot of energy drinks, but it did force me to schedule my time wisely/effectively and stick to that schedule. I'm sure there are much healthier ways to develop those habits...but at least I got SOMETHING beneficial out of it!

Is compulsively reading CD a healthy habit?

[CadetGizmo]

Originally Posted by Shrub

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

I don't use a soldering iron to melt plastic in my garage for projects anymore.

[The Ginger]

My team likes to blast star wars music on a bluetooth speaker

[Zealii]

School ends at 2:55, but robotics doesn't start until 5:30 so that all of our mentors can be there. Parents sign up to bring food for us (dinner on weekdays and lunch on Saturdays) which is really nice. I can't always say that the food is super healthy but it sure beats fast food. For Saturday dinners, everyone carpools to a local restaurant which helps us to be social Our build space is at our high school near the center of town so there are lots of food choices (healthy and not).

Personally, I am on the Track and Cross Country team so I have practice right after school before robotics. It makes for a very busy day and not a lot of time for homework. It will be interesting to see what junior year and AP Language and Composition do for this habit!

[gbear605]

We listen to Intro by The XX on repeat. It's great.

[InspectorGadget1073]

Originally Posted by gbear605

We listen to Intro by The XX on repeat. It's great.

A whole lot of Darude Sandstorm is a necessity for Team 1073 during Build Season

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by InspectorGadget1073

A whole lot of Darude Sandstorm is a necessity for Team 1073 during Build Season

What, you don't hear enough of it at the regionals?