I vehemently despise the popular image of developers as borderline autistic savants living on junk food and working 24 hour days!

You see, I bought into that vision and became that person. When I first started working as a developer, I would work crazy long hours, eating junk food while neglecting my health and personal life. This behavior was encouraged by my boss and co-workers, and became expected, with the sales people boasting about it to the clients, like is somehow proved I was a better developer.
It's no big surprise that this kind of life comes at a cost and can not be sustained. I burnt out, my life fell to pieces and my body fucked out on me.
It's taken me years to repair the damage and I am still doing so.
I now work at a company that understands the importance of a healthy work/life balance, and I take full advantage of that.
Perhaps if I had a wise mentor when I first started, I could have worked smarter instead of harder and respected the needs of my mind and body.
I am that mentor now.

Developers are smart people, we should stop glamorising a stupid lifestyle.

I’ve battled depressed I failed to realized I had for many years. I didn’t love myself, I forgot what it felt like to love myself, and then one day my life turned around out of the blue. I believe my turning point was when I realized that I wasn’t alone and that people did care about me. I just wasn’t motivated especially after almost losing my cousin to suicide 3-4 months back. It changed my DNA, my personality, everything about me changed until I told myself that I had enough.

Today marks the 4th month where I last had a cup of coffee, soda, or junk food in general because in all honesty it was just making my depression worse. Today also marks the 4th month I’ve been going to the gym without fail and I’ve now noticed how far I’ve come. I love myself more than ever now and I am VERY goal oriented as well. I have one more year left until I get my bachelors degree in Software Development and soon after I’ll go in for my Masters and who knows what I’ll do after that.

It’s all uphill from here and by sticking to my new routines I am feeling a lot better as the days and months pass.

Attached is my progress thus far, left is from when I felt at my lowest and right is the progress I’ve made so far with improving myself and where I am at now.

I love myself, I love those that love me, and I LOVE feeing AMAZING like I do now when I wake up every morning waiting to see what the day has in store for me 😄❤️

My Perfect Day : Assumption

Woke up at 6. Went for morning walk or do yoga or some sort of stuff.

Came back at 7. Went for daily routine, like bathing and all.

Went to prepare breakfast at 7:45. Prepared some eggs and bread and coffee.

It is 8:15 now. Reading news papers or watching tv and doing breakfast.

At 9 check mails and prepare some stuff.

At 9: 30 went for office. Reached office 5 minute before 10, safe and sound.

Came back at 7 by evening. Did some rest. Prepare dine till 9. Take a bath. Complete the dine.

At 10:30 ready to sleep.

Actual Scenario :

Woke up at 8:30. No time for yoga or morning walk. No time for preparing breakfast as well. Went straight to bathroom. Came back in 20 minutes. Made a cup of coffee. No time for newspaper or tv.

Feeling lazy and tired already. At 9:10 went for office. Before reaching office stopped at fast food joints. buy some junk food. Eat them. Got traffic jam and reached office late.

Started working but feeling lazy. Boss asked twice about the project status and i am unable to think a single line of code.

However, days passed. Boss scolded me. I promised him to finish the work after reaching home.

Reached home at 7:30. Late for no reason. Went straight to bed. Sleeps a hour. But took 20 minutes to leave bed.

Started working on projects i did not complete in the office.

Time fly and it is already 1 in morning. No dinner. Tired as fuck but hungry as well. So made some eggs and eat. Wrapped the task but it is 3:30 in morning and i jumped to bed for sleep.

Loop.

Am I the only one who likes to cook home-made food instead of getting junk pizzas and/or other awful stuff?

Is the dev community inherently kitchen-averse?

Idk why but when I act like a fucking loser and watch YouTube and not exercise and eat junk food all day, I do better as a developer. Why?!?!

this old bitch on my team keeps on taking my food like an elementary school bully and self proclaims herself as my work mom. it's come to a point where she just takes my food off my tray without asking lols
My petty ass has been bringing chocolate and other junk foods because I know she has thyroid problems
she also talks shit to other people when I go on vacation or call in sick so I don't even give a f

Back in my classic asp days, I used to average 12 hour work days with a few 16 hour days as the deadline drew near. No pills, just caffeine, junk food and cigarettes.

I'm sure the way I behaved in my 20's has cost me a decade of my life.

The worst was an 19 hour stretch, but I started getting confused and puking so I slept for 3 hours before finishing and then presenting.

I'm just glad those days are behind me.
I think I'm way more productive and healthy now at just 8 hours a day.

What’s your bad habit during coding?

Me :
Ordering too much junk food to pull an all nighters

all they want is to lure you to a feed and let you scroll through it forever. TikTok will even scroll for you. Your right hand is for holding a phone, your left hand is for cramming junk food into yourself, your head is for feeling acute guilt. After junk food is no more, you make yourself puke, wipe your eyes and go on a compulsive shopping spree to fix your self-esteem. All paid for with your credit card, of course. As if you were able to afford the whole ordeal in the first place. Then, go to your local bar and get wasted.

Never explore yourself. Never stay with yourself one on one, without an algorithm taking the pain away through the screen, all at the expense of making it stronger in the long run, because that’s how addiction works. Never talk to yourself, never ask where did certain feelings come from.

Without pain, there is no motivation to change. And you shouldn’t change. You. Must. Drive. The. Economy. Die early, of heart attack because of junk food, or by suicide because all that mental strain and misery. Never retire. We shouldn’t pay you a penny back.

Now switch back from devRant to Instagram. Now.

Vitruvian man of the modern age:
- Right hand: iPhone 15 Pro Max with TikTok autoscrolling feed
- Left hand: cramming junk food into mouth
- Heart area: acute guilt
- Belly area: dangerous amount of visceral fat
- Wallet: zero dollars zero cents, plus seven maxed out credit cards
- Wardrobe: come on, who am I kidding. Let’s try again:
- A pile of clothes near the bed: overpriced fast fashion bought to compensate the guilt
- Lifespan: dying right before retirement, so they don’t have to pay you a penny back.
They got everything figured out. Every aspect of your life is profitable to someone. The system is perfect and very beneficial to everyone but yourself.

How do I resolve this conflict of interest?

TLDR: I want to go out for exercise/health. But I also need an immediate goal. So when I go out, I will always end up buying some junk food.

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It's such a nice day today. Let's go for a walk, get out the house and some exercise because I also love deals.

Hmm… where should I go? (Need a motivation)

I know let's go shopping! (Only reason to leave the house)

Takes a walk to Duane Reade (supermarket) 10 mins away.

It’s so hot/I want a reward!  I'm out already why not get a treat… let's see I can get a large Iced Coffee for $1 (or some other deal) at McDonalds (which is pretty much next door now that I'm here).

I mean isn't that a great deal! I could make coffee myself but only the KCup and well they wouldn't be cold. I want it cold now, not in an hour… (i probably won't when want it then). So that dollar is just for the coldness mostly and i guess the service cost.

Also since I'm here already, i save the food delivery fees (this also applies whenever I order for pickup: I save so much on the delivery costs and I get exercise too!)

Healthwise and financially, this negates any benefit of going out and probably would've been better had I not gone out and just ate the plain salad at home.

How do you eat a proper meal when the caffeine is suppression your appetite? I'm gonna starve. My diet is only composed of coffee, milk, and chocolate. Sometimes junk food.

So my stomach got fucked up after a mix of junk food, drinks and shit. Even after vomiting continued to burn and hurt. Googled and found out banana's are usually good for acidic and fucked up stomachs.
Now I'm filling my face with bananas
In hopes I'm not one of the one percent of people that acidic refluxes worsen with banana.