How to Reduce the Intake of Sugary Treats while Gaming?
This is the third article in our series on snacking whilst gaming. We have spoken here about foods to avoid during a gaming session and about the best snack foods to enjoy during a session. One of the subjects that requires a more lengthy discussion is how to reduce or eliminate entirely the tendency of gamers, and here we mean especially online gamers, to over-indulge in sugary foods while gaming.
After all, how does a red blooded gamer celebrate a big slot machine jackpot win here at Jackpot Capital online casino other than to have a giant slice of gooey, chocolatey cake?
Sugar Sugar Everywhere
Well, sugar is the bane of many a dieter! We all know how hard it is to go in the candy or chocolate treats aisle at the supermarket and not take at least one item off the shelf even if it isn’t on our shopping list! When we are enjoying online casino games we want to indulge. Sugary treats, as differentiated from dried fruit, fruit bars, and other fruity treats, are the main source of feel good eating or the snacking that almost everyone does.
So, how do we cut down on our sugar consumption? Can we eliminate sugary treats entirely from our diet? It is interesting that some of the best strategies for gaming can also help us in our desire to reduce our sugary treats intake.
Set a Budget
One of the most important pieces of advice we give all of our gamers is to set two budgets. On is the obvious monetary budget while the other is the far less obvious time budget. Setting a budget of money or time will help you regulate your gaming.
We have found that even though many gamers cam qualify as high rollers, it is the rare gamer indeed who never has to set a financial budget for herself or himself. However, everyone games best when they set a time budget as well.
As far as sugar consumption goes, you can also set a sugary treat budget for a gaming session. This doesn’t mean that setting a sugar budget for the hour or so you’ll be gaming is all you need to do to reduce or eliminate sugar consumption. It simply means that you can start the road toward sugar freedom by budgeting it for your gaming sessions.
Stick to the Budget
This one is pretty obvious as well but we find that some gamers have a hard time sticking to the budget “on the margins”. This term usually refers to economic or political activity. Here it refers to a hypothetical gamer who is having a great winning streak, or is nearing the end of their bankroll, or is nearing the end of the session in terms of time, and simply wants to play on.
We always say, end the session and get involved in one of the (possibly) hundreds of other things you either like to do or have to do. Even if what you have to do now is fold the laundry, you have to do it, so do it (to the tune of Lonesome Valley)!
You’ve got to fold your own laundry,
You’ve got to fold it by yourself.
Ain’t no one gonna fold it for ya,
You’ve got to fold it by yourself.
In terms of sugar eating, if you set a budget and stick to it while you’re gaming, you can also, next time, set a sugar budget for while you’re watching television, at the game, at a party and so on. Setting a budget and sticking to it is an important first step in reducing sugar in your diet.
Everything in Moderation
This is a favorite mantra of many doctors who would like their patients to eliminate certain foods but know that it is much easier to get their patients to go from over-indulgence to moderation.
The term “in moderation” often gets revised as people get used to less of anything they want to reduce. Moderation in beer consumption might go from several every night to one every might to one every other night to twice a week. To go from several every night to twice a week at the start might be unreasonably difficult but to go from several every night to slowly get to twice a week over a period of time has been shown to be much easier for many people.
The same applies to candy, chocolate, and other sugary “foods”.
Use Your Imagination
We tell gamers, especially slots players, to enjoy the games vicariously. That means that if you are playing a game set in ancient Greece, imagine that you are in ancient Greece.
In terms of sugar use, you can enjoy sugary treats vicariously without actually eating them. This is a lot harder as we are living in the here and now but it has worked for millions of people so it can also work for you! We suggest using your imagination to visualize yourself playing casino games at a time before chocolate.
Take Breaks to Stretch
This is important advice whether you are playing online casino games, flying a long distance on a commercial flight, watching television, or just reading a good book or surfing the internet. Get up often—at least every half an hour—and stretch your legs.
Getting up to stretch is a good way to remind yourself that you are watching your overall health while you play as much as that you are enjoying playing. We have said it many times but it bears being said again: one of the biggest advantages of online casino gaming is that you can play all of our games without giving up your seat!
That means that you can easily get up to stretch without worrying that the game you are playing will be in someone else’s hands when you get back! This fear motivates many land based casino players to stay put. This is a very unhealthy way to play!
When you play at Jackpot Capital, not only can you stand often to stretch, we, the casino, urge you to stand often to stretch!
Enjoy Alternatives
We have finally, arrived at the crux of the matter for most people. That is, there are no happy alternatives for many people to sweet drinks and sweet treats.
First of all, everyone budgets their sweets consumption in some way. The person who loves cake does not eat a cake every day! They eat some cake every day or almost every day but not an entire cake. A person might eat one or two scoops of ice cream every day but not an entire box of ice cream!
We all know that if we ate and drank the sweet stuff without any boundaries, we would soon be enormously overweight! No one wants to be enormously overweight.
The solution then is more than just enjoying alternatives to sweet foods. The solution is to find which foods you enjoy enough to make them the alternative to sweet foods and to eat or drink them instead of large quantities of sweet stuff.
As we said earlier, we learn from experience and what is hard to do the first week becomes easier to do as we continue.
Your Happiness Includes Your Continued Good health
We at Jackpot Capital hope that all of our gamers live long and happy lives. We know that online gaming is one of many activities that can bring joy into people’s lives. So, our advice is to indulge in every fun activity in moderation. This includes gaming and eating or drinking sugary stuff as well!
