Brain Food

This may not be a very exciting entry. My eyelids are heavy and they are battling me for sleep versus staying awake and finishing my blog. It was a full day today with a work out, 3 private lessons and backgammon club on the agenda.

 

My day began at 7:19 am with new vigor and purpose in getting healthy. Not much poker played the last few days, which the break gives me just enough space to start on my health kick. 

By the way, those of you who are interested in getting fit and losing weight shoot me an email and you can join me on this journey. It’s going to be tough, but for 30 days I’m going to put my best effort in and see what happens. I want to create more stamina, health and overall energy in my body. I’m going to build mental strength through physical conditioning. 

I started this morning very simple, knowing from experience that overdoing things too early can lead to giving up. So I started with stretching and a 20 min. brisk walk. Eating wise I did well, reducing my portions and eating much healthier throughout the day.

I didn’t want to do these things, but decided to do them in order to begin confronting and handling poor eating habits and lack of fitness. It’s time, especially now that I’m 50, to make a concerted effort to change. I think a lot of the younger players in today’s game are more health conscious then ever and I certainly can’t give up that edge as well as the other things we start to lose, as we get older.

An important thing to remember is that getting older doesn’t necessarily mean you have to get weaker. Skill is not just derived from the agility of youth and knowledge, but also and probably more so, from experience. I was saying in yesterday’s blog that Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Add in learned experience and you have skill.

To be skilled at something means of course, that you can do it well. It’s hard to do something well if you just play and don’t practice. Poker is one of the easiest games to just show up and play and not put enough effort into practicing for game time situations. I remember I use to fall asleep at night dreaming of varying poker hands and situations and how I would play them. Thinking about the game and what you would do in certain situations is vital if you want to continue to grow as a poker player. Being in the situation ahead of time breed’s confidence and experience of how to deal with it.

I’m not sure how I’m going to respond to this weight loss and fitness challenge I’ve put on myself. But one thing is for sure, until I put myself in the situation to begin with, I never would really know. I could end up quitting half way through and just give up, or I could attack it with the same consistency as I’ve tackled this blog and finish the month reaching my goal. I hope you’ll join me and let’s hope it’s the latter.

Enjoy the Journey,

Kenna