The last few days I've managed to claw out of the hole I spoke about in the previous post. I'm not going to set goals for the month but instead use shorter-term goal periods of no longer than a week. I think that makes sense for me right now.


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Goals for Monday 1st May to Sunday 7th May

RiD = Record in Diary


Poker

[ ] 36hrs+ total grind + RiD
[ ] RiD all poker activity (Grind, Study, Coaching, Notetaking, HUD work, etc)


Mental

[ ] 10mins meditation every day + RiD


Nutrition

[ ] RiD all food consumed and estimate carbs
[ ] less than 200g Total Carbs (TC) on at least 6/7 days


Fitness

[ ] workout on at least 5/7 days + RiD (Squash, Weights, Running)


Creativity

[ ] 30mins+ learning keyboard on at least 5/7 days + RiD


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Vamos!

The higher stakes graph I posted was missing a bunch of games. This one is more accurate though I purged two games because I got disconnected. I actually ran aids in the tiny sample, really got brutalised.

Looks like my graphs when I try to move up, anyway it's all part of the game, if it were easy everyone would be a poker player. Keep up the grind, keep playing more games and it will even out in the end.

200g is a lot, I aim for 100g< per day.

Oh absolutely, I mean over such a small sample that graph really says very little but I did recognise a general toughening of the games. The fish were way more reluctant to part with their chips and the regs just seemed to have way less mistakes, but that is to be expected!

200g is a fair amount but at the same time, if it comes from eating basically lots of veg, seeds, nuts, good meats and very little bread/grains then it seems a good starting point!

To be honest when I'm calculating carbs in meals I tend to overestimate so I'm assuming my actual intake is lower than my reported. For the time being my plan is to just try to have a significant stretch of clean-eating where I don't go off the rails for a week and abuse myself with takeaways. Once I have acquired the discipline to do that, maybe I'll start being a bit more intense and start weighing my food to get really accurate measurements.

I've also read a lot about intermittent fasting being a good way to enter a state of ketosis, and the reasons advocates give do make a whole lot of sense. This three square meals a day with snacks is very much a modern invention.

@Harvie What's your reasoning for cutting carbs to 100g? Are you insulin sensitive? Do you experience crashes? Because, if that's not the case I don't really see a difference between 200g and anything above effective 30g of carbs assuming the food quality is the same (i.e. the added carbs don't come from soda and cookies) and you keep the calories in check. In other words, if you're taking steps to get your carbs very low (and yes 100g is very low for the vast majority of the population) why not shoot for 30g effective adjusted for fiber intake and try to achieve ketosis? I'm just curious because I eat a lot of carbs, I don't feel the negative effects of eating them and I'm not planning on changing that anytime soon.

As for intermittent fasting, there's nothing magical about it. I've been doing it for a few months and I intend to continue for the foreseeable future. The first week or two were rough and uncomfortable (hunger, occasional headaches), then my body adjusted and now IF frees up some of my mental energy seeing as I only eat two meals per day. The studies on IF are promising, but I see it mostly as a portion control/convenience tool, it allows you to not worry about the food so much. It won't get you into ketosis on its own, and it's not some testosterone boosting black magic. That being said, it's a useful tool and I like it a lot.

Hi Matt. If you don't mind could you give me a little rundown of how you go about fasting, and maybe some more detailed thoughts on the practise? I'm not sure I'll be looking to add it in soon but maybe in the future, if I reach a point where I get really serious about getting my BF down closer to athletic levels then obv it would be an option.


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Quick mini-update, the week is going really great. I'm back into a good schedule and doing better than ever with timekeeping which is an area that I've always struggled with even when I've been doing well in general.

Running a bit ****ty and making a few mistakes but you can't have it all.

I'll update when I finish on Sunday, really desperate to smash a longer term goalset. I regularly smash my daily goals but weekly/monthly is a different beast and something I've always failed on so this is important to me!

Sure thing! Again, I'm using intermittent fasting mostly because of its convenience. Given that I'm cutting weight IF makes it a lot easier to control my appetite. I'm using the most popular scheme of 16h fast followed by 8h feeding window. I wake up around 7-8 am, and I have my first meal around noon. Going the first few hours of the day without food used to be rough, the first week or so was really unpleasant, but I got used to it. Drinking plenty of water helps a lot, I used to start the day with a cup of unsweetened black coffee which helped to suppress my appetite but nowadays I just stick with water or the occasional herbal tea. Since I'm in a caloric deficit, and I'm eating around 2.2-2.4k calories per day, I just spilt that into one big meal around noon, a late afternoon snack and last big meal around 6-7 pm.

Studies on IF are solid, but meal timing seems to be far less important than the foods that you're putting into your body. That being said IF is great at reducing the decision fatigue. I don't have to wonder what I'm going to eat and when I'm going to eat it because IF makes it really simple and allows me to focus on more important things.

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Graph





Relatively pleased. CEV could've been higher, I made a few dumb mistakes but also ran a bit aidsy at times but w/e, I'll take it.


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I've been given the green light to move back up in stakes now I'm back into a solid rhythm. I'm proud of the efforts of the last seven days but I know from experience that the momentum has to be utilised otherwise you undo all the hard work. I'm determined to push ahead now and take this opportunity.

Plan for tomorrow is to grind some free tickets partpoker were kind enough to give me for their powerfest series so really looking forward to that! I'll also look to put a few hours in at my normal games.



Will drop by and set some new goals tomorrow night.

Thanks for reading, Shelly.

Cheers for that Matt. For the time being I'll just focus on trying to stay on the straight and narrow and avoid slipping into periods of terrible nutrition. In the future when I've acquired the discipline to be consistent with that I'm gona research IF further. I'm aiming to get my BF close to athletic level at some point and I know there are athletes who are proponents of the practise.

Goals for Tuesday 9th May to Friday 12th May

RiD = Record in Diary


Poker

[ ] 30hrs+ total grind + RiD
[ ] RiD all poker activity (Grind, Study, Coaching, Notetaking, HUD work, etc)


Mental

[ ] 10mins meditation every day + RiD


Nutrition

[ ] RiD all food consumed and estimate carbs
[ ] less than 200g Total Carbs (TC) on 4/4 days


Fitness

[ ] workout on at least 3/4 days + RiD (Squash, Weights, Running)


Creativity

[ ] 30mins+ learning keyboard on 4/4 days + RiD


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Will review these goals and update the thread on Friday night or Saturday morning.

Yo nice blog buddy! Been fun catching up and reading all of it!

Do you feel like keeping a diary slows you down? I thought a cool way of doing this is buying like Amazon echo and recording them as voice notes. Can then play back at the end of a day/week or whatever.

Cheers Jon welcome aboard!

In a way yes writing things down is a chore and does consume time but honestly, if doing it is a sign that I'm in a productive period of life then I can only view it as a good thing because I've spent a huge chunk of the last 10 years basically being a loser and doing very little with my life and suffering the depression and self-hatred that goes with being that sort of person. Maybe in the future if I can maintain discipline and productivity with such consistency that going back to my old ways becomes unthinkable then I can start to think about phasing out certain aspects with a view to increasing timekeeping further. For now though the diaries are a godsend!

@MattVIP I just have more energy for work and feel less sluggish when I eat fewer carbs, so try to keep it below 100g per day if I can, helps keep me leaner too.

Writing things down defo has a bigger impact psychologically than recording voice notes, and who really likes to hear their own voice (apart from Jon).

Ye that's a problem for me. I have a strange voice combined with a dirty potteries accent so writing things down is def the way to go!



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Sup guys. Last day of the current goalset. Unfortunately I'm way behind on volume and need about 13hrs today to reach 30. All other goals are on course and the fitness is already locked up so I'm using today as a rest day which frees up a bunch of time for grinding. I'll push myself hard but if I get to 9 or 10hrs and my focus isn't there I won't force it.



Played a couple of squash league matches this week and have comfortably beaten guys who I've lost to in the past, including a bloke who I last played about six months ago and who I basically couldn't compete with back then. All the hard work I'm putting into fitness/nutrition/squash game is really producing results and I couldn't be prouder of myself. When you just dominate matches against people who you couldn't get close to at one point it's such a beautiful feeling, not least because of the recognition you get for your improvement.



I had a match last night which I won 3-0 and I've got a rematch tomorrow against a really tough player who I drew 2-2 with last week. Today I'm resting up and I'm really excited because I think I can edge him this time.



I'll probably drop by to review the goals tomorrow morning rather than at the end of today.




Shelly.

This isn't quite food porn because I only decided to take a picture once the meal was ready so it looks a bit of a mess. But still, this is what I had for dinner yesterday and I'm quite proud of it!





Organic spinach in balsamic vinegar, organic cucumber, organic radishes, cheddar cheese, ox tongue slices with BBQ sauce, organic white mushrooms and organic cherry tomatoes fried in organic extra virgin oliva oil and organic butter, lots of chilli+garlic salt and lots of organic black pepper. ****ing delicious!

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Graph





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Overall a solid enough week. Disappointed with my volume but it's all at higher stakes so that's a positive.

Volume would've been slightly higher but I had a super sad ending to a rough day yesterday. I finally hit one of the highest multipliers for the first time, which based on my volume since moving to this site was long overdue!

There was a fish who seized up and a reg who was abusing the situation by opening every hand. I flatted AA vs their BTN open (stack sizes allowed it, not so shallow that it was super obv) because their range was so wide I expected this to be the best way to get value, and also it meant the scared fish could squeeze a wider range. HU to flop it comes A J 5 dd. Reg doesn't cbet. Turn Qss I bet 3/4 reg flats. River 4x I have about 65% PSB but decide to bet about 45%. Reg instantly jams and I pretty much know already based on how aids the day had gone in these spots that he had the nuts. It hurt a lot.



I'll drop in tomorrow night and set some new goals for the coming week.



Shelly.

Goals for Monday 15th May to Sunday 21st May

RiD = Record in Diary


Poker

[ ] 42hrs+ total grind + RiD
[ ] RiD all poker activity (Grind, Study, Coaching, Notetaking, HUD work, etc)


Mental

[ ] 10mins meditation every day + RiD


Nutrition

[ ] RiD all food consumed and estimate carbs
[ ] less than 200g Total Carbs (TC) on 6/7 days


Fitness

[ ] workout on at least 5/7 days + RiD (Squash, Weights, Running)


Creativity

[ ] 30mins+ learning keyboard on 5/7 days + RiD


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This is a big week. Ideally I want somewhere around 800 games at the higher stakes. I'll be 2-tabling so it's imperative I hit the hourly goal to get anywhere near that number.


Shelly.

hello

wow, such a sick hours goal for grind, more than full time job. How do you handle it? Any fix amount of hours for day or its about how do you feel? (sorry if you answered same question before) thx.

Hello.

It's a lofty goal and to be honest I have a bad habit of failing my hourly goals so it's a habit I'm looking to replace with a healthier one of achievement.

In terms of structuring my days, I have a diary where I keep track of daily goals and set goals for the next day. I'll base my volume goals each day on what else I've got going on, so for example if I have a bunch of housework that needs doing or a squash match I will aim for less total grind hours than if I have a clear schedule.

Had a weird first few days of the week. I've struggled terribly for motivation and every little task has felt arduous.



I listen to a lot of The Joe Rogan's Experience. Quite a few times he's been speaking about discipline and goals, and how he always feels "resistance" before he begins a difficult task such as a workout. Whenever he talks about this resistance his guests will always be in complete agreement.



It's interesting to me because it's very easy to look at successful people and just assume they have something deeply ingrained into their psyche that means they don't ever feel that resistance to the hard graft that's needed to achieve their goals. It's very easy to trick ourselves into truly believing that these people have some sort of natural advantage and that we've been stiffed by nature/nurture or whatever it may be.



It's complete and utter bollocks though! Every single person who has ever achieved anything worthwhile has felt those negative feelings, those feelings of doubt and trepidation, those feelings of resistance to the seemingly simple act of starting an activity. The only real difference is that successful people have managed to attain a much higher level of mastery of the skill of discipline. It is most definitely a skill, and it's a skill that can be acquired by every one of us.



It's kind of liberating to realise that it's perfectly normal to feel push-back against tasks that are difficult. It makes a hell of a lot of sense when you think about it. We all have our personal struggles and setbacks, our past regrets and failures. We all have a choice whether to attempt a difficult task that betters us, or to lay around watching netflix or sit in front of a monitor with our dick in our hand etc etc. The easy option feels good in the moment but it hurts us long-term. I'm guilty of viewing all of my past regrets as some sort of disability when in actuality, that pain is a super important tool that can help us get to wherever it is we want to get to.



I've managed to grind for close to 14hrs so far and I'm still on course with all my other weekly goals. The pace isn't where I want it to be, but I'm proud of the fact that I've found just enough within myself to stay in contention. If discipline is some sort of muscle then mine has had a bloody tough workout over the last couple of days. I know only too well how easy it is to **** up completely when you become engulfed by resistance because I've done it a million times. I'm determined to improve my discipline.