Pretty nasty downswing online since I last posted.
Taking a week break to just chill, exercise and eat better. Also get a new mouse in and probably a new chair. Make sure the grind setup is in tip top shape. Suffer from using excuses to blame bad nights playing. I think online my biggest problem is playing while feeling groggy and then getting a little wasteful with certain plays.
I am 6 stone overweight, eat complete crap and don't exercise too often. So go figure on the general grogginess I am feeling. This doesn't affect me at all really live, (well, It must, but I think I do well regardless) just if your hitting 12+ tables for 12 hour + spells online, I think you really need to be in great shape to give yourself the most comfortable shot at it.
So I am going to get my gym grind on and only start playing poker again when I am buzzing, which hopefully should be by the end of the week. Obv I can't look to get all the weight off immediately, but what I need is the endorphin rush and just to get fitter. Being fit and fat to start off with will be fine
Want to setup a routine I continue for the rest of the year and not fall back into my old ways. Gym for an hour a day, eating less and better gets that done. Really does make a difference to morale to get the exercise going, so need that.
23 years old now, never been fit in my life, have been very slim only for like a 6 months spell when I was 18, and obv keep that image up as my Hendon mob pic, lol. I really want to have a 10 years spell of playing footie up front or in midfield for a Sunday pub side (at a push unpaid semi pro) as i guess its tougher when you are 35+. So that is my inspiration to lose the weight, I just really want to beat people for a turn of pace
. A man has got to dream. September may be a realistic shout for me to be Sunday league match fit, if I gym for 5 days a week for an hour.
Then though I have a back problem which has been persistently bothering me and is a major reason for the weight increase, as I sort of thought I could never really play at a level I would like If I was always going to be in pain and constantly fucking up my back, so I went the other way and gave up a little. Got the bad news with it at 18 when I was slim and I sort of went downhill with it from there. But I have been pretty ignorant about the condition I have and apparently I would first need to lose all of the weight, see how the back feels then after 5 years since the diagnosis, if it flares up too much in pain after exercise, all the time, then I would have to get surgery.
I wasn't clearly told by the doc about the condition properly. Instead he asked me was the pain bearable which I replied yes, and he said come back to me when it is not and we will have a surgery. Which would be a spinal fusion. Soon as he said those two words I sort of shit myself and imagined right then if I get that surgery I won't be able to do any real aggressive physical activity again. I am actually quite unsure what I would and would not be allowed to do after the surgery. So I need to lose the weight, go back to the doc get a MRI scan to see the current state of the back and then he can tell me what I would be able to do after surgery. Which he actually said I would 'definitely need' by the time I was 24, probs sooner. I have a high pain threshold though, and this has lessened my morale generally and unfortunately may be making the condition worse for myself. So i am going to crack on with it.
Ideal situation would be I get to him, fit, and he tells me, take the surgery and afterwards you will have virtually full freedom of movement, if all goes to plan and I can continue playing football. Its the thought that he will tell me I would need to slow it down which would hurt. However, the place where I need the fusion is in my lower back where there is hardly any movement between vertebrae L5-S1, so a fusion there may mean that I would have little infringement and I would just have no pain and would be better for it. 90% is the success rate for the surgery.
The surgery itself is pretty brutal in the length of time for recovery and pain afterwards. This would entail a week in hospital in postcare, real small babysteps in physio for the first couple of weeks as I will find it hard to walk, then step it up and up until a full half year when I can finally resume normal activity. So the time it will take me to get fit, say 6-8 months, the time for me going to the GP for the referral to when the surgery is done will probably be up to 4 months, and then up to 6 months after that. I would be maybe 25 and hopefully, no future back problems. As I have read those with the similar complaint, who had the surgery were fine into sort of much older age. So hopefully all goes well here. But I am sort of in the dark about it and will need to refer back to the specialist.
All I do know with the pain I have at the moment there is no way I can enjoy, fully, much physical exertion. The gymwork actually is going to be pretty brutal to lose the weight, but the crosstrainer helps a lot here.
The specialist did say that doing exercise in spite of the pain was ok if any of you were worried about that, as building the muscles around my core is massively important. So maybe with those developed further down the line I may not need surgery after all. But we'll see.
The doc being so sure about me needing surgery was worrying to me back then but he did say that it could be avoided if I could deal with the pain. So all boils down to how I feel when fit.
Thought I would share the reason, I have been repeating myself about why I should keep on going to the gym and exercise more for the last two years on this blog and didn't really get started with it. But I have sort of had enough with it now and I really hope I run good and have full mobility with no pain by the time I am 25 or better still the pain to be gone after I have some rock hard abs and lower back muscles, by 6 months.
So I am chilling this week, exercising slowly and concentrating on limiting calories and hopefully I will see progress as the weeks go by.
So the diary is going to be split between how much weight I am losing, how I am feeling with it all, if I am sticking to eating right, how my back is feeling etc etc. And the most important part of it will be how I am getting on, on the virtual felt. Not quite sure how I am going to report that. If I am going to do it Mondatoo style and give you the numbers and a report or just sort of freestyle it. We will see.
I don't mind any q's btw, probs make me think better about the spot I am in generally. Ah forgot to mention it was probably a quad bike accident that kicked this off when I was 18, snapped my collar bone, but could have messed up my back as well but as it hurt less at the time it went unnoticed.
Altogether though I would have to say I am feeling pretty good. I have had a great December in live results, my BR is in good shape and I am enjoying my poker and think I am just hitting a rough patch with variance. So hopefully I am not passing off as completely miserable, because I am pretty elated. Especially as I will be getting more clarity on the major issue relatively soon.
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