Morgan Spurlock is a Pussy

In Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days.  It had drastic effects on his health and well-being.  I say he’s a pussy.  I’m pretty sure I went way longer than that.  It wasn’t just McDonalds, but an array of every fast food restaurant and delivery spot in my area.  Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner… 6-7 days a week.

Today I went back to the doctor.  I knew I had lost weight, but hadn’t actually weighed until the day before yesterday.  When I saw the number, I thought my scales were broke.  So I really didn’t know what to expect when I went to see the Doc today.  When I stepped on the scales, the number read 3 more pounds than what my scaled showed… But I was fully hydrated and fully clothed.  Total weight lost in 15 days: 49 lbs.

SUCK IT JILLIAN MICHAELS!

Good news from the Doc

The news of high potassium really had me worried.  I googled about it and saw nothing good at all.  Basically it had to do with my heart.  Too much is deadly.  Plain and simple.  I used my “I thought Potassium was a good thing” joke on the lab work lady and she took me to school a little bit as well.  Too much and you die, too little and you die.  There was also some talk about electrolytes and kidneys.  She looked at my results from my first test and said “So your potassium was a little… well yours was ugly”.

So I’m waiting all day yesterday on the results of my redone lab work.  I’m on pins and needles really.  Every time I moved, I expected to kill over.  I felt like Fred. G. Sanford.  I’m coming to see ya Elizabeth!

Finally I got fed up and called the doctors office.  Best I could do was get them to send a message to the doctor to call me back.  I understood, the doc is busy.  I don’t want to piss her off or she might stick her finger up my ass on the next visit.  On the other hand, she is pretty hot, so a little finger to ass play might not be so bad. 

After another couple hours with no call, I broke out the big guns.  I called my Mommy.  My Mother was perfect for this task.  She can go into Bitch Beast Mode in a hurry.  She called and at least got them to put her on hold.  But then, they left her on hold….for about a half hour.  Then cut her off and closed up the office without even giving her the courtesy of telling them they were closing and not able to get the information she needed.  So I guess she unleashed the fury on the this morning. 

So Mom’s in Beast Mode, I’m about to kill over and die at any second because I ate one too many bananas, and these assholes at the free clinic are dicking me around.  By the way, our health system is fucked. When all was said and done, my potassium was normal.  The results from the first test were inaccurate.  I wasn’t going to kill over at any second…. at least not from that.

X Whore Size

One thing is for sure; Gone are my days of being the “active” fat kid.  I used to play soccer, baseball, ride my bike countless miles, walk all over the place and explore new things.  I was a ball of energy.  That was a LONG TIME AGO!

So I’ve been trying to incorporate some exercise into my healthy eating plan.  Really all I can do is walk right now.  And I’m doing about 100% better than I was 2 weeks ago.  But I’m still in the worst shape of my life.

Yesterday, I decided that instead of walking, I’d mow the lawn for my Mother.  She has a small, relatively flat yard.  I couldn’t get it done.  Maybe half way through, my hip felt like it was out of the joint and my legs were cramping.  I was breathing heavy, but I can handle that.  What I couldn’t handle was the pain in my legs and trying to push the mower any further.  I felt awful as I watched my mother, who is 30 years older than me, finish the job.

Today was somewhat better.  I decided to stick to regular walking.  Now, even though my Mom’s yard is relatively flat, the road leading to and beyond her house is straight uphill.  Now I could have opted for going to the park and walking on flat ground around the circle, but instead I decided to keep testing myself.  I wanted to see how far up the hill I could make it before I gave out. 

I stuck the dog on the leash and away we went.  I was out of breath before I even reached the mailbox (FML).  But I pressed on..past one house, then another house, then another, then BAM, cramp!  At this point, I was completely out of breath and had to take a rest.  I just hoped none of the neighbor folks were watching (unless I dropped dead, then come out and help my fat ass!).  The good news is that it was all downhill from there going back.

It appears that the easy part for me will be getting my breathing back.  I don’t smoke, so I’m sure that makes all the difference in the world.  However, my muscles are just not used to moving.  I think it will take longer to keep them in shape.  The cramps are a little demoralizing because I think I could go further if not for them.  I’m keeping myself well hydrated, drinking anywhere from 3/4 – 1 gallon of water a day.

I have also been keeping a journal of my daily food intake, water intake, exercise, and which meds I’m taking.  I’ll keep this mostly for my own sake, but will also bring it with me to the doctor in case I stumble a bit on the weight loss front and let her make some corrections in my diet.  This ain’t my first rodeo, so I think I have a lot of knowledge about my food intake.

I have a short term goal in mind for 2 weeks from now as far as weight goes.  I’ve also set a long term goal of being able to go out and enjoy myself on a couple fishing trips.  Yes I’m damn near too fat to fish (FML).  My problem is either walking to the fishing destination or maybe climbing in/out of a boat.  Hell, I could even capsize a small boat.  In the Fall, since I’m missing my summer river trip this  year due to health reasons, I’ll be heading down to Coastal Carolina and do some Redfish fishing with my brother (he’s a charter fishing boat captain).  Also this winter, I want to go with my buddy Scott and see about catching some monster catfish.  His quote “We don’t even take pictures of 40 lb’ers anymore..too small”.  I hope he lives up to his word.  The pic above is my Dad on one of the redfishing trips.

Another round. Yay!

So I’m sitting here grinding my ass off yesterday when I get a call from the “Free Clinic”.  It was my hot doctor lady telling me that my lab work was back.  It was a good news/bad news sort of thing.  Good news: I’m not diabetic.  I felt like Phil Hellmuth and thought to myself “I can dodge bullets baby!”.  Bad news: My potassium levels are insanely high.  WTF, isn’t potassium good for me? I have eaten my share of bananas in the past month or so.  Anyway, they had me come back immediately for more blood work so they can recheck the number.  Twice in 2 days at the free clinic with a 3rd most likely coming so I can get whatever treatment it is to rectify the problem.  I Googled the treatments and there was a list of things (including one of the pills I’m already taking or insulin shots).  I asked the blood work lady about treatment for high potassium and she told me it would most likely be a drink I take that pushes it out my bowels.  So I got that to look forward to.

While I was at the clinic, I saw the dumbest looking boyfriend/girlfriend combo ever.  The boyfriend wore white shorts with red checker pattern on it, black socks  pulled up to his knees, white K-Swiss tennis shoes, and a wife beater.  Both arms were sleeved up with tattoos.  His hat was turned sideways. He had these huge J-LO-esque sunglasses.  Plus he had piercings everywhere.  His girlfriend, I would do though.  But she was still a piece of work.  She had on the shortest shorts possible with just a bit of ass cheeks hanging out the back when she walked.  She too had a wife beater and multiple piercings.  Oh yeah, and she had the back of her hair clipped real short while the front hung down well past her eyes.  Both had cell phones attached to their ear.  He never seemed to be talking to anyone though.  She, on the other hand, was talking all kinds of shit..literally. F-bombs a plenty.  Now, I belong to the “Classy chicks who say ‘fuck’ a lot” Facebook group, so I was cool with it.  But I’m sure at least one of the mother’s that owned the 85 ankle biting parasites running around the waiting room took offense.  I was just happy to be entertained and hoped they were there for some sort of sterilization process.  10 to 1 she was pregnant though and we are all doomed!

Luckily, my stint at the doc’s office was fairly brief and I was still able to grind out a bunch of poker.  What a turd the last few days have been.  Up, down, Up, down down, Up, down down down.

Not all was bad yesterday though.  During commercials of Minute to Win It (I’m a fan!), I was browsing through old classmates on Facebook when I came across a girl that used to be smokin’ hot back in the day.  I really hated the bitch though because of one drunken night.  Several of my circle of friends were at a party.  I drove because I had the truck that would carry the most.  Not because I was the designated driver (I didn’t say we were smart when we were 17).  When the party was over, our crew stumbled back to my truck and I was heading back to the pool hall to drop them off at their vehicles so we could have an entire fleet of drunk drivers on the road.  About half way there, I noticed my gas needle on the truck start bouncing back and forth real quick.  I joked about it because the truck had 220,000 miles on it.  Just another cool feature I thought, until I hit the gas to pull out at the red light.  Sputter sputter clink clank, the truck died.  Awesome.  We managed to get the truck off to the side of the road before any cops came (police station was about 1/4 mile down that road). 

The group of us put our soused minds together to figure out what to do.  Now remember, this was back before everyone had cell phones.  We contemplated on which direction would be best to find a pay phone so we would call for a ride back to the pool hall.  Before we even started our journey, The girl I’ve been speaking of drove by.  She saw us and stopped.  We were saved!  She offered to give us a ride to the pool hall and even though her driving record was shit because she drove 2 speeds: Fast or stop, we had a way to get home! She had a Chevy Cavalier.  That was the first year they came out with the new body style that they use now (assuming they still make the Cavalier).  Anyway, there was like 7 of us and 3 (her and her 2 friends).  No way everyone was fitting into that car.  We contemplated who was making the trip.  No way in hell I wanted anything to do with riding with that bitch.  I didn’t want to die.  I just bit my lip and let the other dudes battle it out over who went.  The plan became to stuff as many of us into that little car as possible and then one of our crew come back and save the rest.  Before everyone started piling in, I heard her big mouth say “You know Wes’s fat ass ain’t fitting in there” followed by a smoker’s chuckle.  Little did she know that my friends were as ruthless as any and I am immune to fat jokes.  I know I’m fat.  I used to have self esteem issues about it, but that was back when I was small.  I got over those issues around age 10.

Anywho, I was checking out this chick’s Facebook page last night.  It has been around 15 years since I’ve seen her.  I wanted to see if she was still as smoking hot these days as she was back then.  I hoped for some nice bikini pics and such.  Then I saw that the cunt is now pushing 300 lbs easy.  I just grinned.  Enjoy that karma bitch slap you twat!  Sometimes the World just throws you a bone.

Wow

If you think a lot of poker blogs are cluttered with bitching and moaning, try subbing to a few weight loss blogs.

*Sigh* Legit Beat

I’m trying to get the feel for Rush Poker.  I really love the fact that you can blaze through hands.  I hate the fact that it’s full of shortstackers.  However, the offset is that it’s full of TAGFish and rakeback whores that help my red line go thru the roof.  Now if I could just figure out how to win a showdown:

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 814525
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $58.79
Hero (MP): $25.10
CO: $13.04
BTN: $25.00
SB: $48.30
BB: $13.61

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP with 7 7
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, 1 fold, BTN raises to $2, 1 fold, BB calls $1.75, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($6.10) T K 7 (3 players)
BB bets $11.61 all in, Hero raises to $23.10 all in, BTN folds

Turn: ($29.32) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($29.32) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $29.32
Hero shows 7 7 (a full house, Sevens full of Aces)
BB shows A K (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
BB wins $27.86
(Rake: $1.46)

For those of you following along at home, that’s a 96.5% favorite when the money went in…going down in flames.  I ran 6 buyins below EV today just playing $25NL.  Good thing I wasn’t playing my normal stakes I suppose.

I also went to the doctor today.  Apparently I’m depressed.  The doctor prescribed some sort of anti-depressant for me to take.  I thought about offering them at a discount to Dr. Pauly.  He might be able to use them as party favors.  But since my doctor is kinda hot, I figure I’ll throw her a bone and try them.  It might help with tilt issues after all.  But seriously, the only depression I feel is that I let myself get so god damned fat and I can’t do things I would normally want to do.  But I’m doing pretty damned well on the diet front and I’m going to start a more structured exercise regime in the morning.  It won’t be long before I’m back down to fighting weight.

My blood pressure is still on the high side as well.  Oh, and I have a vitamin D deficiency.  Pills Pills Pills.  Pharmaceutical Companies 4, Predator314 0.

In other news, I’m stuck in a rut on the internet.  I turn on the computer and pretty much hit the same 3-4 websites and I’m done.  I’ll check my Gmail and if there’s an interesting headline on my Google start page, I might check the news.  Then Facebook.  Then my Fantasy Baseball Scores.  Then 2+2.  Done.  I need to expand my internet horizons a bit more.

Long time no post

*Tap Tap Tap* Is this thing on?  Long time no see everyone!  I found out that blogging is something I do when I’m miserable.  At least that’s the way it was.  I’m not miserable right now, but still decided it’s time to revive this site.

What’s going on in my world? Not a whole lot actually.  I’m dedicating myself to clean living these days.  Not that I really have much choice.  I let myself go so bad, that I’ve actually been sick.

To make a long story short, I lived the past several months locked up playing poker and eating fast food.  After a while that becomes habit.  Then after that, it got so that when I went to the grocery story, I was out of breath.  So to save myself from that nuisance, I continued to live off fast food.  That way you don’t have to get out of the truck.

It’s a sickening and embarrassing story really.  But that’s my life.  No more.  I’ve made drastic changes to prevent this from happening again.  How so? I’ve moved back in with my parents.  That’s right….32 fuckin’ years old and I’m back in the same bedroom where I used to sport Star Wars sheets on my bunk bed.

I really had no choice.  My Mother is great and she agreed to help me get back on my feet health wise.  We’ve changed our diets to eating lean proteins, whole grains, veggies, lots of fruits, and tons of fish.  This arrangement has been going on for about 2 weeks and I already feel 100% better.  However, I have a long road to go.

Meanwhile, I still have my own house on the other side of town just sitting there and not doing anything.  I don’t plan on being here long enough to go clean it out and rent it to someone else, so I still gotta pay the bills.  And I’m still doing that with poker.

Poker has gone much better the past few months.  However, back last fall thru part of the Winter was rough.  I basically got lazy last summer and didn’t put in the required hours and it caught up to me.  I’m grinding overtime these days to make up for that.  The bankroll is thin after the bills are paid, but at least I still have one.

One new thing I’ve been doing is incorporating tournament poker into my game.  I’ve been selling 75% of myself for the Sunday Million each week.  I’ve done this the past 2 weeks and let me tell you one thing…that tournament is rigged.  Last week was a train wreck.  I was completely card dead for 2 hours.  I’m talking not even a medium pocket pair.  This week was just cruel.  I ran good the first hour and a half building up a monster stack.  Then lost 3 coinflips in a row against short stacks.  Then was on the ass end of a set over set situation.  Finally put out of my misery by losing, yep, another coinflip.  FUUUUUU POKERSTARS!

Anyway, expect more frequent posting from me.  Posts might be food/health related, poker related, or anything else.  Hey it’s my blog.  IF you don’t like it , go get your own!

I love eggs

I woke up this morning after an awesome night's sleep (9 hours FTMFW!) and decided to eat healthy today. 3 egg whites + 1 yolk with a touch of Frank's hot sauce. Damn they are good! I love eggs and I don't know why I don't eat them every morning. It literally takes 5 minutes to cook them too. DId I mention these eggs were straight out of the chicken's butt? My uncle has some chickens and has been my egg connection for about a year now. I just had to get over the fact that not all eggs are white, yet they are all the same in the middle. I had a green one and 2 brown ones this morning.

There's also nothing but water to drink in this house. I'm cheap. After I finish a bottle, I refill it from the water dispenser in the refrigerator and then re-use the bottles.

The rest of the day is laid out food-wise. Mom is making chicken & rice. I'll probably have some more of that chicken for dinner. And I have several various kinds of apples laying around the house. There is ZERO Halloween candy. Nothing to tempt me.

I even feel like exercising today. Go me :)

Yard-ersize

I had a weekend filled with food. I almost feel hungover today because of all the food I had this weekend. It was all good too, but the gluttony ends today. I'm going to grind out a healthy week this week. No fast food, healthy food only for me please. This week, I also want to incorporate at least a little exercise into my program.

I get my new camera tomorrow and there are tons of subjects I want to take pictures of. I'd like to take some photos of the yard, the house, and just the beautiful scenery around me as Spring tries to kick into full gear. One thing I plan on doing with my new camera is taking some hikes into the countryside and just taking pics of the beautiful community I live and work in. The walks/hikes will be good exercise and the photography will make it fun.

Also on my agenda will be landscaping. Saturday evening, I did break out the weedeater and went over the yard with a semi-fine-tooth comb. I used an entire tank of fuel in the weedeater and even hit some spots so thick with weeds, that the trimmer bogged down. When I was done, my tennis elbow had kicked back in and I could barely move my arm. My Mom came by to show me some pictures and when I held a picture, my hands shook like a dope fiend looking for a fix.

Now that the weeds are cleared, the next step is the prep work. I've decided to start with the flower bed that I already have built. It's beside the house and right now, it has a couple of little bushes, some stumps, and a bunch of dandelions that pop up on a daily basis. I want to take a little time each day this week to work on the flower bed. I think this evening I'll work on tilling up some dirt. I have no tools to do this, so I'll have to go shopping in my Dad's utility shed :)

I figure all this yard work is good exercise since it all involves shoveling, picking, raking, etc. I know every time I get into heavy yard work, I'm sore as hell the next day. It's not hard to make a fat man sore though.

Summertime

Summertime is rapidly approaching and my schedule is rapidly filling up. I don't want this summer to pass me by without enjoying it. The way things are shaping up right now, that's looking like what could happen if I'm not careful. I need to set up some summertime goals. Something to work and look forward to.

- First of all I would like to lose 30 lbs or more by Fall. I need to lose more than that, but I think that's a sensible goal for the amount of time. I've been eating out less, but still I'm eating out and that kills any progress I make. My main reason for eating out is convenience though. When I run out of food in the house, it's more time effective to run to McDonalds than to the grocery store and then cook something when I get back. I think Saturday mornings will be my weekly store trip and if I can keep to that schedule, then I should be able to do OK in the weight loss department.

- Play 20 rounds of golf (at least). I love golf and haven't played much at all the past few years. I've had some physical problems that have prevented me in the past. Mostly it was back pain, but that has since subsided and rarely do I feel "down in my back". I've also struggled with elbow tendonitis this past year, but I don't think that will affect my golf game. And of course, there are my terrible knees. Goal #1 will help with this problem, but I do need at least one knee replaced if not both. Years of supporting my big ass has taken a toll on them. But I can cope right now because I'm only 30 years old, but in 10 years who knows. Since I can cope, I've never let my knees be an excuse for not playing golf and the exercise will be good for me anyway. There used to be a time when I played 20 rounds a month.

- Have the best looking yard in the neighborhood. Right now it's the worst looking yard. But that's just because every day I've been home with time to mow and trim, it has rained. But I'm going to work a lot on the landscaping around the yard and then with the hugeness of the yard, it will look awesome.

- Be tan. I spend so much time inside these days, I feel like a hermit. When I'm at work, I'm couped up at a desk with only a window to see the outside world and all its activities. When I get home, I usually prop up in front of the computer with MLB.tv and watch a ball game. I have an awesome place to entertain friends. I have a grill, a huge patio/deck/porch thingy, plenty of parking, just outside of town limits, and only a handful of houses within noise pollution range of my house. It's an awesome place to hang out. Now that it's all semi-fixed up, I have no problem with my friends coming over and hanging out. I plan on having some cookouts, some chillouts, maybe a bonfire or something. I just need to be outside more. These outdoor activities along with the yard work and the golf should make me a nice crispy brown by July/August.

- Attend many many baseball/softball games. I will be buying Princeton Rays season tix this summer and attending most home games. I love baseball and I didn't get to catch many games last year. My friends also play a fair amount of softball tournaments. Although not as good as baseball, it's fun to watch. I really would love to play, but I'm in no physical condition at this point to do that. I used to play baseball from the time I was 5 until I was 16. I made the all-star team from age 9 through age 16 every year. I was good. Then I became a teenager and gave it all up. I haven't hit a baseball since. Now that I'm old, I see what a mistake that was and really regret that decision. This year, I will just watch, but who knows? Maybe next year I can play again.

I guess overall I just want to do what people are supposed to do during summer...enjoy it.

New 30 Day Challenge

The no caffeine/water kick has been going so good that I thought I'd try another 30 day challenge. This time, the challenge is to not eat out for my lunches or breakfasts for 30 days. At the beginning of the month, I started tracking my expenses and it took no time to realize that a good percentage of my money was being wasted on eating out, especially at lunch time. Not too long after my realization, Ciff @ Chez Cliff (Formerly Changing my Direction) wrote an article detailing just my problem.

So, the 30 day challenge starts tomorrow and will run throughout the duration of March and hopefully/mostly through life. I went to the grocery store today and spent about $80 on groceries. I was completely empty, so I figure I'll spend about $20-$25 a week to keep things stocked up from that point forth.

I've already packed my lunches for the week with the exceptions of making my sandwiches. I figure making a ham sandwich wouldn't be so great after sitting in the fridge for 5 straight days, so I'll make them on a daily basis. However, I already have my chips divided up and put into individual bags. I also have the grapes cleaned and pre-bagged as well as some cheese.

I pretty much took the same menu as Clifford. 2 Sandwiches, fruit and cheese. My menu consists of 2 ham/cheese sandwiches, some pringles, grapes, and a banana. I figure this will be a fairly health meal, much healthier than double cheeseburgers from McDonald's $1 menu. Also, much cheaper in the long run.

I'm expecting to gain in the health department and in the wallet as well. I figure instead of lunch costing nearly $6 a day plus another $5 for breakfast, I'll be down to about $1 day for breakfast and maybe $3 a day for lunch. A savings of about 64% ($7/day). That adds up to about $210 month. Not a huge amount, but a definite cut.

Conservatively, if I take $80 for the 1st week and $25/week thereafter, I'm spending $155 for lunch in a given month as opposed to $330 by eating out.... so that's a savings of $175/month or $2100/year. That's conservatively speaking. I'm expecting the savings to be closer to $200/month or $2400/year.

And of course all of this is just gravy compared to the health benefits of this challenge (especially when coupled with my water challenge). I'll be munching on bananas and grapes instead of french fries. I'll be munching on honey ham instead of grease burgers with cheese. I'm going to weigh in the morning just to check so I can check my progress as the challenge progresses.

I love this 30 day challenge thing. You can use it in so many aspects of life and 30 days is not a huge number. I'm sure some things might not stick forever (like the caffeine thing... I'm sure I'll be drinking caffeine again when the challenge is over), but they allow you to see what it's like living a certain lifestyle. I can see the benefits of cutting caffeine, so I'll continue to do so even after the challenge is over....just not completely. The same with fast food. I can't tell you that I'll never go through a McD's drive-thru again in my life because that would probably be a lie. However, I bet this challenge shows enough tremendous benefits that I will stick with it 95% of the time even after the 30 day challenge is over.

Follow up on some posts

I wanted to follow up on some posts I made earlier in the month.

30 Day Water/No Caffeine Challenge

I'm pretty sure I'm on day 11 of this challenge. Things are going decent. I did have one major slip up when I accidently drank a sweet tea with my dinner the other evening. I didn't even realize what I was doing until I was 3/4 finished with my meal. I have had to switch up water with some other non-caffeinated forms of drink on occasion. I've had a Gatorade, A Sierra Mist (Yuck!), and that accidental sweet tea.

I'm feeling better as far as not feeling the effects of the caffeine withdrawl. Those effects only lasted a day or 2. After that I was able to sleep again! I was hoping this would be a good side effect of the no caffeine thing, but much to my dismay, it doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I'm back to my non-sleeping ways. On Friday, I tried getting to bed early, but it was closer to 4:00 a.m. before actually falling asleep and I was up again before 9:00 a.m. I blame this for my sub-par performance in the City Bowling tournament. On Saturday night, more of the same.... finally sleep at 4:00 a.m.... back up before 9:00 a.m. And then the rest of the week has been me trying to catch up. Nothing doing. I suck @ sleeping.

Following the money

I also made a promise to track my expenses this month to see where it all goes. I did this for the first half of the month. It wasn't hard to see where I'm wasting the majority....food! I'm always eating out and it gets expensive... especially when sometimes you eat out 3 times a day. This is bad for my health and my checkbook.

There are other places where I'm leaking money, but this is the most obvious. This month, I'm going to try to challenge myself not to eat out for the entire month. I figure for $50 at the grocery store one week and then an additional $15-20 per week after that to restock on lunch/dinner supplies, I can keep the kitchen stocked up with plenty of stuffs to eat. I love to cook, I just hate grocery shopping.

Another obvious place where I'm leaking money is with snuff. I've never been able to kick this habit. It costs me about $4/day (~$1500/year). I'm going to hold off on this one as it's a difficult habit to kick. To kick this habit will probably require me making some huge prop bet with a friend. Something that will really sting. 1.) I don't have enough cash on hand at this point to make such a bet and 2.) I'm not sure any of my nicotine abusing friends would be willing to make such a wager. I guess I could try hypnosis or a patch or something. I just don't have faith in any of those remedies. Willpower and determination. 2 qualities of which I lack.

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So here's to March being greater than February! I expect it to be a good month financially as I trim expenses in real life and take the first steps to moving my poker game to that next level!

Day 4: Holy poop!

Wow, 4 days without caffeine and I'm feeling fine. The #1 result from this challenge is sleep! Can it be that all these years the one thing I haven't tried to help my sleep schedule could have been the most obvious? Or is this an anomaly? Fuct if I care! I'm getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night!

Last night wasn't filled with all the grinding I had intended. I just wasn't in the mood after my dismal showing in the $13.5K guarantee. I also didn't play a single cash game.

I did however play several $11 SnGs. The results were bad at those too. I played 8 SnG's. I had a 2nd, a 3rd, and the rest were out of the money. I won zero coinflips. The only 60/40 I won was 1 time when I was on the 40 side. It was just one of those nights.

I had some fun grinding out the SnGs and really wanted to do another set of them, but decided against it since it was getting to be bedtime and I was already yawning. I might do a couple sets tonight or play some cash games or maybe a tournament. That's what great about poker these days. I can play what I want!

I'm going to start running a bunch of token races in the next few days because I'd really like to be part of the upcoming BBT3. It sounds like fun and I have found a lot of the bloggers participating in this tourney to be weak/tight and most of the time, easily exploitable. I'm not putting down their play by any means nor will I point out any specific people. There are also a few bloggers out there that I hate to see at the table. Again, I won't mention any names.

Tonight's agenda includes bowling. In fact, it's position week. By my calculations we are in 2nd place, merely 2 points behind the 1st place team. It's kind of hard to say because we are due 8 points that aren't showing on the standings because another team never made up their games. I'm not exactly sure what other teams they didn't make their games up against either. However, if everything is indeed the way I had it worked out on Saturday, then we will be playing the #1 team tonight. If we beat them, then we win the 4th quarter. We have yet to win a quarter this year which sucks. Hopefully tonight is the night. I'm ready!

After bowling, I'm going to wind down with a nice dinner and some online poker.

Day 3, feeling better

I never actually realized how much caffeine keeps a person awake. Here I am bitching and moaning all these years because I can't sleep for shit. I then take 2 days off from caffeine and I'm sleeping like a baby. Again last night, I felt no desire to stay up late and watch TV or anything. When it was my normal bedtime, I was ready for bed. Once I got in bed, I fell asleep. Nice!

So, after a good night's rest, I'm feeling much better this morning. I still hit the snooze one time this morning, but never really went back to sleep. I felt chipper too. I caught myself whistling in the shower. What the fuck is wrong with me? I've even come into work and not called any customer a Cuntrag.

It's official.... I must be sick.

In all honesty, I feel pretty damn good. I think a week with a sleep pattern like I have now and I'll be feeling awesome.

Water Challenge: Day 2

So far, so good. Nothing but water. I survived my first early morning with no Diet Dr. Pepper to clean my pallet. I was hating life this morning. I was fighting the feel to hurl back down into my guts. It took some will, but everything stayed inside.

Now that we're half way through the day, I am feeling a bit better. My tummy has settled anyway. I still have some lingering effects of my early morning headache though. I'm also sleepy, even though I went to bed early enough to get a good night's rest. My head and belly didn't want to cooperate though and I figure that's why I'm so sleepy. Of course, it could be the fibromyalgia. :P

I don't think I'll have any problem completing this challenge. It's pretty easy. I don't have a thing in my house to drink other than water (and a little bit of milk that is past the expiration date). So, the only thing I really have to worry about is forgetting to get water instead of soda or tea when I eat out. Again, I don't think that will be a problem either.

I hope day 3 will leave me feeling a little bit better. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to pee again.

Day 1: Isn't this supposed to make me feel better?

Day 1 of my water only kick has been completed. I really thought this was supposed to make me feel better, but I'm sick today! It all started last night. I was watching Weeds on my computer and just all of the sudden felt very tired. It was only 9:30 or so, but I was ready for bed. I managed to last until 10:15 before finally giving in to the drowsiness.

Once I got in bed, I instantly fell asleep. However, around 12:00, I woke up with a horrible headache. I was having cold sweats. Plus, I felt like if I moved abrubtly in any way, I was going to hurl. I managed not to hurl and finally fell back asleep around 12:30. A couple hours later, the same thing. Then again, 2 more hours later. This recoccured all through the night.

I did manage to get out of bed this morning and make it to work, but I ain't happy about it. I still have that headache and a sour stomach. So far, everything has stayed down, but I skipped out on breakfast this morning just to be on the safe side.

30 Day Challenge

Trish @ Building an Empire had a cool post the other day. She has decided to take a 30 day challenge and cut out TV. 30 days with no TV...cold turkey. I think she was incorporating television into her daily routine more and more and it was finally starting to take over. I had the same problem once before. Now I've been watching 2 shows a week myself, Lost and House (and sometimes Iron Chef America).

I wanted to do a 30 day challenge myself. I just wasn't sure what it was. Sure, I could say I'm going to exercise for the next 30 days, but I know that wasn't going to happen. Then this morning it hit me. I drink a ton of soda (pop for the hillbillies like myself). It's mostly diet soda, but it's a lot. I'm talking 6-8 cans a day. That can't be good on the kidneys.

So, I've decided to do a 30 day challenge where I drink nothing but water. No caffeine, no soda. Wow. I might go into some sort of shock. Today is day #1 of my challenge. So far, blah. It's morning time and this is when I need my soda the most. Water tastes like ass in the morning to me. After I've been up a few hours, I can deal with water though.

The benefits I expect to get from this challenge: better sleep (lack of caffeine), better health (I'm sure 6-8 cans of soda a day does wonders for the kidneys), and more money in my wallet. WHen you buy a 12 pack every day or a 24 pack ever other day, then that shit adds up. Hopefully all the water will flush out my system and I'll just be a happier, more healthy person.

Great, now I have Fibromyalgia

For the past few months, I have been getting these bad cramps in my sides. I'm usually leaning over or twisting around or something when they hit. And when they hit, it's like someone shoved a lightning bolt up my ass. They hurt! I thought it was a product from bowling. Then I took a while off from bowling, but the cramps kept coming.

I decided to ask Dr. Google what was wrong with me today. Dr. Google wasn't very responsive until I figured out how to word my question. Then I think I hit it on the head: Fibromyalgia. Huh? What the fuck is this curious disease?

So, I've done some research and this disorder pretty much hits the nail on the head with me. The symptoms:

• Chronic pain and cramps...check
  
• Moderate to severe fatigue...check
  
• Chronic sleep distrubances...double check
  
• Irritable bowel syndrome...pretty sure that's a check, although I had chalked this one up to eating more roughage over the past few months.
  
• Cognitive Disfunction (brain fog)...check (chalked this one up to lack of sleep)
  
• Anxiety and Depression symtpoms...check (I thought it was boredom and winter weather)
  

So I pretty much match all the symtpoms of Fibromyalgia. According to Wikipedia, the disorder is not directly life threatening. However, due to the depression symptom, I guess I could decide to have a bullet for dinner one night and end it all. That's a good ways off for right now though.

The treatments are the fun part though. I have some options:

1.) I could smoke weed.
2.) I could exercise.
3.) I could get accupuncture.
4.) I could take one or more of many other drugs listed on the page.

Since I'm not a big fan of options 3 and 4, I'm left with 2 other options. I'm a big fan of weed, but those of you that have read my old blogs know that I'm too big a fan and try to keep away from it. That leaves exercise. Bah!

So, after all this research I've done this afternoon (on the clock no less!), you're telling me that I'm fat and lazy and that's why I get the shits frequently, get depressed, and have muscle cramps? What a ripoff!

In all seriousness, I guess I should see the doctor to see if this is really what I have.

*Edit*

Well, here's some news. Evidently Fibromyalgia is the reason I hate my job too!

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Fibromyalgia can affect every aspect of a person's life. While neither degenerative nor fatal, the chronic pain associated with fibromyalgia is pervasive and persistent. FMS can severely curtail social activity and recreation, and as many as 30% of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia are unable to maintain full-time employment.[citation needed] Like others with disabilities, individuals with FMS often need accommodations to fully participate in their education or remain active in their careers.

In the United States, those who are unable to maintain a full-time job due to the condition may apply for Social Security Disability benefits. Although fibromyalgia has been recognized as a genuine, severe medical condition by the government, applicants are often denied benefits, since there are no formal diagnostic criteria or medically provable symptoms. Because of this, if an applicant does have a medically verifiable condition that would justify disability benefits in addition to fibromyalgia, it is recommended that they not list fibromyalgia in their claim. However, most are awarded benefits at the judicial level; the entire process often takes two to four years.