Dear Andrew T,

Haven't eaten any foot. To be more explicit, I'll turn the fat into energy, use the energy to turn some protein, hopefully fillet steak, into muscle.

I'll correct myself, I have eaten some foot, after drinking champagne from her slipper I sucked Millicent Thurrock's toe. I forgot this incident as it left me with a bad case of athlete's mouth that I would rather forget.

To Red Fox,

While it works for you continue - over the years I have attempted healthy eating but my gut always took charge over my brain because of sugar and carbohydrate addiction, which is rife in our society because of the amount of processed food we have all eaten.

When you get to exercise, short bursts of intensive exercise rev up your metabolism for 24 hours so little and often of more intense exorcise is the answer but take it easy to start with.

All the best   Sid

Thanks Supernova (Shaz) for your in depth reply. I hope that you turn it all around, sooner rather than later. I know how the side effects of some of these drugs etc. are so debilitating, but also realise that they are a necessary evil.

Your confidence in juicing is highly encouraging and the wise words of your cardiologist are enlightening. The only foods I have heard about that may counteract the side effects of steroids are coconut oil and avocadoes. As an anti-inflammatory I put turmeric in every batch of juice I make. Turmeric’s efficacy is increased by the addition of black pepper.

Shaz, your optimism will speed your recovery.

                                                                                        

It was suggested recently that everyone over a certain age should be on statins to lower cholesterol. This is where the pharmaceutical companies add insult to injury. It has been acknowledged that their side effects definitely cause memory loss and possibly diabetes. 
                                                       
I have seen the effects of memory loss from statins on two of my friends. They came off statins and virtually immediately stopped struggling to remember what day it was. They have kept their cholesterol levels down by simply eating natural diet which includes simple foods such as oatmeal (a plate of porridge a day) and a couple of cans of three-bean salad a week. (Check out canned food to ensure there is no sugar or salt added.)

The medical profession ranges from brilliant to downright dangerous, do they seriously believe that we have gone so far up an evolutionary dead end that everyone in the country over a certain age should take statins? Look deeply into the side effects of any prescription drug you are offered.

Anyone offered a non prescription drug, in a pub or on a street corner; look deeply into your soul. I have lately seen more poker players than usual going for a quick high. Seeing some seemingly intelligent people imposing sickness on themselves, and their families, is not pretty to watch. They suffer with the famous blind spot syndrome “I won’t become addicted, this won’t happen to me.”  Every drug addict in the world suffered with this syndrome before becoming addicted.

Enough of the rant –

Today’s weight loss is negligible, down just 2% of a stone, due to the body rebalancing itself with water retention. The autonomic nervous system regulates weight loss by retaining fluid, this is so that the balancing mechanism in the middle ear has time to adjust to weight loss, specifically so that our spatial awareness catches up with our size and we don’t fall over as we walk; not being used to a sized down body.
 
I swim three to four times a week and since losing the initial stone I am putting more effort in. Hopefully some of the fat will turn back to muscle. If I can put in enough effort I may be able to replace each 7lb of fat lost with 1lb muscle gain.

Shaz’s encouragement has been taken on board and I will update tomorrow, in a much lighter vein, hopefully with a significant weight loss.

To Supernova, thanks for following. What kind of weight loss have you had over two months and how do you feel in general?

All the best Sid.

Today I weighed in at 16 stone .84, maintaining the approx. 1 pound a day weight loss.

The answer to the loss of food cravings are micro nutrients. To extract these micro nutrients from the planet you need a juicer. In the U.K a really durable juicer costs around £100. In the U.S.A they are far cheaper. No surprise there.

The bad news is a juicer has to be cleaned thoroughly each time it is used the good news is, because of the way this diet is set up, you only need to clean it every other day.

The diet ensures that you get your five a day multiplied by ten. The diet is based on a forty-eight hour cycle. All cravings for carbohydrates and sugars are gone after the first three days.

Exercise comes into the equation – for couch potatoes it means three or four ten minute walks a week, walking as fast as you can. But it’s going to be different for each person, according to their current weight and how much exercise they are already taking.

Will update tomorrow with a less dry post: I will leave you with a quote from my personal hero, Muhammad Ali –
“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life”

tThe feeling of not being hungry at all is starting to have some impact on my thinking. Really had no inclination to eat today and for somebody who hasn't gone a day without food cravings it's a bit of a shock. I had all the information to write this diet book eight years ago. Immediately after I published TheTruth About Food, I sent copies of the book to eight hundred medical practitioners in the London area. Their feedback was astounding and I realised that I had the basis of the book I am writing now. I could have saved myself a lot of lethargy if I had written it then and taken my own advice at the same time. It's easy telling other people what they should be doing.  Following your own advice is another matter.

I shall edit this post in the morning to enter my weight loss, this is not to bore everyone to distraction, it's so that anyone who decides to try the diet will know what kind of daily weight loss to expect. When recording a weight loss the best time to do it is first thing in the morning after ones ablutions.

Tomorrows post will explain more about the micro nutrients and how you turn your five a day into fifty a day.

*** Tuesday 6th August update 6.45 am.     Monday weighed  16 Stone.92
                                                            Tuesday weighed 16 Stone .84     Approx 1lb weight loss

My table had some of the local lads on it who were well chipped up. Love to watch their personalities change and their mood swings, as their chips rise and fall. They just love the emotional turmoil and have yet to discover equilibrium. I took a calculated guess with that hand that none of them would have called me with anything less than AA or  KK so near the final bell, they were all good enough to put down AK or AQ they wouldn't be looking for a fity fifty. If they had it, good luck to them.

Time will tone down their egos and improve their play, they are luck enough to be super fuelled by testosterone.

Lately on the rare occasions when I sit down to play I make a decision to play in the style of a particular player, it might be Albert Sappiano, Ali Malu or Gary Bush, when I play in the style of Bushy I keep getting up and walking around the tables to see relative chip stacks. This is called mixing up your game - hopefully if I live long enough I will be able to play in the style of Phil Ivey - if I can master that I will stick to playing like Ivey all the way.

My last hand yesterday played itself I went All In with a pair nines to be called by a pair of tens. First card out was a ten so it was "Thanks for coming" which is the regular Rendezvous rubdown coined by the notorious Kouresh.

Day two of posting on Blonde, fortunately (or maybe not) many who have no interest in diet will not need to read this  continuing thread of an old man's journey from 18 stone plus to 13 st 7lb.

To those who have no weight problem; you will know plenty of people that do - this country, and indeed the western world, have a life threatening problem that lieaves terrorism in the shade. If you have a friend who needs help with weight management point them in this direction, they will thank you for it. I can assure you of that.

The thing that prompted this weight loss was a television programme by Joe Cross entitled Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. This title applied to me totally. Joe has his own internet site:
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

The bonus of these micro nutrient diet is that you feel amazing - it's a Brain booster and makes you feel amazingly optimistic as all toxins disappear from your system.

The first thing anyone who recommends a diet does is tell you to visit your doctor for advice. This is never a bad idea and a good idea, while your there, if you are on medication ask for a full list of the side effects. I am a fan of the medical profession and the good they do. But the more you can avoid the need to visit them the better.

It was an esteemed member of the medical profession that prompted me to learn more and more on the subject of nutrition. I was a humble eighteen year old greengrocer then who worked in the family greengrocery business. We had a shop at 140 Praed Street, Lloyds for Fruit. One of our customers was a surgeon called David Levy who ran the Lindo Wing at St. Mary's hospital, a few hundred yards up the road.

St. Mary's was where Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin from the bacteria of a rotting pear. My father always swore that the pear had come from out shop. My greatest memory of St. Mary's was how gorgeous the nurses were and how difficult is seemed to be to get them out on a date. To quote Ronnie Corbett "I digress"

David Levy bought tons of fruit that he distributed to his staff, he always came to choose what he wanted and he always wanted it fresh off the truck as it arrived. This is back in the 1960's and he believed in five a day long before anyone else really bothered.

Every visit to the shop meant an in depth lesson in the different attributes of fruit and vegetables - he was a fascinating man and I hung on his every word. One of the things he explained to me prompted me to write - The Truth About Food.

Everybody knows the effects of scurvy, which was the scourge of sailors in the eighteenth century, well David Levy explained to me that the effects of scurvy unravelled the body in such a way that a wound that had healed three or four years before would open up for lack of vitamin C. This profound thought of the body unravelling itself without vitamins prompted me to read everything I could about nutrition. When it comes to fruit and vegetables I am a believer.

I spent thirteen years in the family business from fourteen to twenty-seven which involved moving thousands of tons of potatoes in that time. When I started out they were in hundred weight (112lb) hessian sacks and as time wore on they were half hundred weight paper sacks, much as are used now. For the past few years I (and many like me) have been carrying the equivalent of a 56lb bag of potatoes all the time.

There is a long road ahead: as of today my weight in stones is 16.92 (using digital scales 92 is 92% of a stone) but because no food cravings are envolved it's not going to be such a difficult journey.

Some fruit machines (mainly older machines) may well be beatable, but because of the time involved, those who play fruit machines for a living do not achieve much, most of the protagonists that I have come across sleep on other peoples floors and would earn more working for McDonalds. Also "fruit machine operator" does not look that good on a CV.

Betting shop roulette machines are definitely unbeatable - the average of two grand a week profit from each machine proves that conclusively. - Anybody who has a problem with these machines should read my book - available on Kindle - How To Stop Gambling Now -

Thanks for posting the photo taken yesterday where I weigh 16st 11lb. Just over a couple of weeks ago I weighed 18st. It is because of my consistent weight loss of approx 1lb a day that I decided to write a book about it. The book will take about two months to write, in that two months I intend to lose an average of two stone a month, keeping up the 1lb a day weight loss. I intend to lose another three and a half stone at the rate of a stone a fortnight.

What I have done here is put myself all in - going out on a limb is going to motivate me. I also want to spread the good news on a daily basis - to motivate others to follow this diet because it is so easy - after three days food cravings dissapear.

I had all the information to write this diet book nine years ago after I wrote The Truth About Food - But I have no option than to write it now. The future is bleak for 68 year old men who weigh eighteen stone. All kinds of illness would be a given.

TK's Idea of a title for the book will do for now - but I do have a commercial title up my sleeve but that can weight for a couple of months when the book is published.

I will endeavour to update this thread on a daily basis listing the exact daily weight loss and what the diet entails. There are a few players that I have spoken to lately who know they have to take action before they fall ill. Hopefully this thread will motivate them - If an old guy like me can do it, you can too.

All the best Sid Harris  El Sid.

Shared a table with Sid last week, and he didn't say a word the whole time

Tend to play very quiet poker - unless I have anything of value to say. I don't believe in speech play unless somebody else starts it - then I tend to give as good as I get.

I hate criticism of other players while their sitting at the tables by mumblers at the other end of the table, and am no fan of people who criticise players after they have left the table.

Last week at the GUKPTwe had a running commentary on ever hand. on the first table I played on by a fellow wearing Grey Raymer glasses. He knew everything about everthing and fancied himself as Jesse May.

This chap was the archetype mumbler. After anyone had played a hand he decided to discuss it in muted terms with the guy sitting next to him, who invariably had no interest whatsoever and would sooner try and play the current hand, than worry about how somebody at the other end of the table had played the last hand.

This kind of player intersperses his laconic commentary to praise himself for any hand he may win, putting it down to his superior knowledge and explaining how unlucky he was when losing a pot.

I did eventually politely ask this fellow to squeak up and not just mumble his thoughts, as a direct criticism might get a reply, which would give hims somebody else's point of view, which might, in the future  help his poker. Had I been in a more flamboyant mood I would have sung him the Ronan Keating song: "I like it best of all when you say nothing at all."

 - All the best to you Celtic -

Interesting that the last word I wrote presto influenced your train of thought. This free association might make many people snicker.

Don't wast good money on green Kinboshi, go to Aldi and buy their own brand Green Tea - Stick it in a Rizla and hey presto.

Crap is light and due to the time space continuum will get lighter as time goes on. You will note that their are more floaters than there used to be as gravity slowly loses its power. Crap weighs less in the Arctic than in the Antarctic

The Germans are highly interested in crap, they like to join their wives in the Schmidthous to watch the proceedings and evaluate the outcome. The Japanese have invented a small underwater camera fixed inside the toilet base which shows each new piece of crap leaving the body and plummeting down into the water - This piece of equipment is available on E Bay and is known as Kami Carzy Anus Zoom; don't buy one secondhand.

My dad used to tell the most wonderful crap jokes the following one was my favourite as a kid: A guy is sitting on a bus and asks the fellow next to him "Have you just shit?" The fellow replies, "Yes!" - " Well why don't you get off the bus? - The fellow replied, "I haven't finished yet."

I suggest you buy a set of digital scales - they will show the difference.

Never really went away, Hope you are well Keith.