So out of curiosity, in your case, was this overworked + crappy diet + lack of physical activity, or was this overworked + healthy/balanced/junk-free diet + some modicum of regular physical activity?
It started as a spiral of being overworked and not sleeping enough. As I slept less, my coffee consumption skyrocketed and my diet grew worse and worse. I tried to exercise three times a week, but between being tired, mild stomach problems from too much coffee and unhealthy food, and energy spikes, my intensity in the gym slipped and I eventually started skipping more workouts.
It all spiralled because all of those things made me less effective. So, I not only made more mistakes but those mistakes kept me up later and later at night...
This is a problem I've ran into in the past but on fairly severe scales. I was drinking at least 2 pots (~24 cups) of coffee per day and ended up in the hospital a few time due to stomach problems. I've sense limited my consumption of coffee and switched to pure caffeine pills (mixed with water) and my quality of life has improved quite dramatically. Gone are the constant bathroom trips and stomach issues! Obviously reducing the overall caffeine intake is extremely helpful as well but coffee as the method of ingestion is just not good on the body.
I completely agree with you. It used to be nothing for me to drink 12 - 15 large cups of coffee a day. Nowadays, I might drink 3 - 4 cups a day and the difference in my quality of life has been astounding. Caffeine is a great performance enhancing drug, but coffee is a particular bad delivery method!
Burnout doesn't really have anything to do with diet or exercise. I suffered from it with a good diet and exercise. It's basically just your brain shutting down your stress system due to excessive long-term stress and/or negative outlook.
Burnout can absolutely lead to a poorer diet and a lack of exercise due to a lack of general motivation to eat well or stay active.
At minimum it would be correlated with poorer diet, in that if you're overworked, finding time to take care of yourself becomes increasingly difficult.
