The Modern Forager has a great post on those nasty energy drinks and sugary foods that sedentary Americans can't seem to do without. I am always amused by sit-at-a-desk-all-day folks who think that, somehow, eating donuts, cookies, assorted bagged chips, and drinking sugar-caffeine-loaded garbage will somehow get them through the day. Scott Kustes explains why this is a pathetic and dangerous addiction.

...There’s a general lack of fitness that results in an overall state of fatigue. Whether you’re overweight or just generally out-of-shape (yes, you can be at your “optimal” weight and still be out-of-shape), you probably come home from your exhausting day too tired to exercise. This kick-starts the vicious cycle of being too tired to workout and conversely, too tired because you don’t exercise. That’s the Catch-22 there. You have to exercise to have the energy to exercise. So you just don’t do anything.

Finally, there’s a poor diet that has many people reaching for the caffeine. How many people do you know that need a “fix” after having their healthful lunch of a sandwich with some baked potato chips and a Diet Coke? That fatigue is the same that you feel after gorging on every type of pie available at Thanksgiving. Then there are the people riding sugar wave after sugar wave to get through their days. I love when I have day long meetings or training classes and they provide pastries in the morning, then a carbalicious lunch, then cookies in the afternoon for a little “pick me up”. Amazingly, I avoid all of that stuff and don’t need a pick me up. Without the sugar rush, there’s no sugar crash and no Jonesing for another hit to stave off the end of that wave.