Drum Roll...

Introduction

Starting on Monday, this blog will chronicle the fifty days leading up to my 40th birthday. It's intention is to motivate me to stay disciplined with regards to my planned diet and work-out schedule (and poker schedule) in order to look good in my G-string. My goal is to reach age 40 at under 210lbs (15 stone in real money.)

A Brief Background

I've been playing poker professionally for four years. Last year I played over 2.5 million hands online (24 tables at a time) and I reached Supernova Elite on Stars for the third year in a row. I played a similar amount of hands in each of 2008 & 2009, and sometime this year I'll play my 10,000,000th hand. There are just a handful of players in the world that put in as high a volume as this. Sitting on your arse for eight hours a day, every day, is about as sedentary a lifestyle as you can get. I do burn about 5 calories each time I stand up and go for a piss though, which is fairly impressive when compared to other grinders out there who choose to remain at their desks and fill up Gatorade bottles.

As far as fitness goes, I've always been healthy and active away from the computer screen, although I've also had prolonged spells where my workload has restricted me from doing as much working-out as I should. I was a semi-pro footballer for 12 years before moving to the States in 2000. I still play football each week, as well as working out and boxing. It is common for me to miss days though; sometimes several in a row. The main reason for this is that I work through the night, often until as early as 8am, causing me to spend the remainder of the day sleeping.

My Planned Schedule

Click Image to Enlarge

Boxing (Green) = Five 3-minute rounds of bag work at home.

Boxing (Red) = Six 3-minute rounds of pad work at the boxing gym.

Gym (Blue) = 60 minutes of working out at the gym.

Football (Purple) = Either 6-a-side matches or training.

Food (Yellow) = Scheduled meals.

Poker (Pink) = Poker sessions

Wanking = Not shown

Above is my provisional schedule for the first week. I'll be using the schedule as a guide, and I'll be making adjustments to it as I go along. The main problem will be when my poker sessions go on longer than planned, followed by my mind remaining extremely active and preventing me from falling asleep.

Sleep

I'll be sleeping for at least eight hours a day. Ideally I'd like to fall asleep at around 4-5am each day, but there are a few factors influencing this: As mentioned above, it's usually really hard to fall asleep as soon as I've finished playing as my mind won't "switch off." I did get some sleeping pills from the doctor a few weeks ago, but I try not to take them unless it's particularly important that I'm up by a certain time. Another problem with getting to sleep at a set time is that often I'll be losing at the tables for that particular session, and in those cases I prefer to keep playing until I'm back in profit. (And that can even result in a 24-hour non-stop session.)

Exercise

My planned exercise routine is as laid out above. I may decide to take Sunday off, as ideally your body needs some time to recover. However, as this is only a 7-week program, I'm going to plan to go each day and see how I feel.

On the Pads at the Boxing Gym

I have boxing equipment set up at home in the garage, and I'll be starting most days with a cardio session on the heavy bag. My afternoon boxing sessions will be on the pads with my coach at the boxing gym.

Diet

I'll be eating 4-5 times a day, and my emphasis will be on small, healthy portions. A typical day should consist of something similar to:

Oatmeal with Raspberries/Blackberries.
Banana/Apple,
Protein Shake,
Grilled Chicken, Sweet Potato and Vegetables,
Yoghurt

 A banana

Obviously I'll be avoiding the likes of pizza, pasta, chips, chocolate, sweets, etc. Even though it's fine to have a slice of wholewheat bread and peanut butter, I'm going to completely avoid bread. That will probably be the single hardest part of the whole regime.

I'm going to allow myself a total of two days over the next seven weeks to drink alcohol, but most likely I'll refrain completely.

Poker

My goal is to play 50,000 hands a week. I'll take Sunday afternoon off if I'm on pace.

Here is a girl I met last week at church. Just look at how shocked she was when I told her how many hands I played.

Daily Diary

I'll be updating my progress each day, from Monday (Jan 31st) until my birthday (Mar 23rd.) for a total of 50 days (well, it's a 51-day program to be precise but there didn't seem much point in waiting until Tuesday to start.) Currently I weigh around 220 llbs, but I'll be drinking and eating more than I should over this week-end, so it may be higher come Monday.

 The Classic "Before" Pic.