The Week That Was! - Binge Watching!

Streaming
Binge Watching
Last week was a lazy one. I binge watched a show on Amazon Prime. It was about women farmers in the bush in Australia which I had started the week before. I got a little too involved. While US shows have 15 episodes in a season this show had close to 30 episodes. My binge watching was starting to get on the nerves of everyone in the house. By DD2's calculation I had watched about 90 hours of TV in about a week. Quite shameful really. I am glad after 3 seasons they killed off the main character and my binge watching was quickly coming to a close.

From Allfinweb - Illustration Of A Funny

Why did I binge watch this particular show? Curiosity about what happened to one of the main characters in the show (time on my hands and postponing everything else that needed to be done) and unfortunately this was not the character they killed off in the show. Once I had finally found out what happened to the character my interest in the show died a natural death. I normally watch shows where the story starts and finishes in one episode. There is really no motivation to binge watch these shows. But when I start watching drama shows and my impatience to know the story line gets me into binge watching. Online availability means I carry my device to whichever place no matter what I am doing.

Normally with a season lasting less than a dozen episodes it wasn't a huge problem. Couple of shows a day and I was done but this one being 30 per season and all seasons being available right there was too much of a temptation.

Binge watching like binge eating comes with its own set of problems. My normal schedule got affected. I am used to getting very early in the morning but late night binge watching made me tired the whole day and I was postponing things that had to be done to the next day. Hmmm! Not very cool at all. What would I have done if either DD or DD2 got into binge watching something?

Anyway I wondered what will be the effects of someone sitting that long in front of the TV set. What are the adverse health effects? Besides neck and back pain from sitting in front of the TV for that long, I was starting to not be able to concentrate on any particular thing for too long but waiting for that moment when I can resume the show. Pretty Pathetic! I know!

I also deluded myself into thinking that I can control addiction. While this might not be as bad as some of the addictions, came pretty close and clearly revealed the dangers of being addicted to anything. While binge watching shows have a natural end point how about those habits that do not have a natural end point?

When I started searching about the health effects of binge watching, most seem to suggest that watching shows at night and sleep deprivation were bad and to binge watch starting earlier in the day. I mostly did it during the day and I don't think it is any better than doing it at night. Feeling guilt and a bit ashamed and slowly starting to feel depressed were all soon to follow. Luckily for me I snapped out of it.

If you are even an occasional binge watcher it is important to keep in mind what can happen. Read this link The Effects of Binge Watching.

Amid all the binge watching I occasionally glanced at a few articles.

Online Newspaper
A Diet to Save the World
If you follow a predominantly vegetarian diet or a flexitarian diet hold on to it. It might be the key to saving the planet. Cutting down on red meat and increasing the intake of pulses and lentils might save your health and the planet.

1. New plant-focused diet would ‘transform’ planet’s future, say scientists
2. Change your diet to combat climate change in 2019
3. Link to the study in Lancet - www.thelancet.comJanuary, 2019. A Commission by The Lancet “Food in the Anthropocene represents one of the greatest health and environmental challenges of the 21st century.” Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT –Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems
   

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