Heh, banned myself from table games because that shit be my kryptonite. I'm not mega degen but I know I was on the path to the dark side. Banned myself for 90 days and not going dabble in black jack/ pai gow until summer. I would sometimes go to pai gow or black jack after a losing session from my live pokers and be like in fuck it mode, probably resulted in an increase loss of a couple thousand or a tad more. I just want to make sure I don't mix too much play at where I "work" for my monies.
Not going, not gonna figure out how to fix the logistics. However, gonna try to catch it on TV. Here's my early picks:
UFC Sweden picks
Gus vs Johnson
Gus wins easy if Johnson shows up anything less then 100%, if Johnson is in shape and mentally all there I think Gus still is the favorite, but not that big of one. Johnson looked scary against Nog but he has had a shit six months with legal trouble and looking overweight at various times. Johnson by early KO or Gus by finish. I think Gus win early if Johnson is out of shape and late if he is, I also feel that Johnson is drawing very slim if the fight goes past the half way mark.
Gun to my head I go by Gus by TKO.
Old man Hendo vs Mousasi
Mousasi should win. Will probably be a bit careful since he really can't lose this if he wants to still be in the top of the division. Probably more or less unbettable odds so if I were to bet I would probably just go for the over if there's any decent odds on that. Or Mousasi by sub, hit that against Munoz and Mousasis sub line seems to be farily decent in most fights.
Davis vs Bader
I'm with sherdog here, Bader seems like he's better standing and should be able to keep it on his feet. Davis tends to get wins he shouldn't really get though, I'd go with whoever is a decent sized dog. Slightly favor Bader I think.
Akira vs Sicilia
Akiras last fights:
Got KO'd by Holloway in a fight he looked better then expected in for 3 min before he got hit with a decent punch and just straight lost.
Got TKO'd by Poirier who's a fairly legit top fighter 42 seconds into the 2nd round. Looked as good as you can look while getting finished that fast.
Got a DQ win against Maximo “Brainfart” Blanco 25 seconds into the first round. I have not seen the fight, but it sure didn't take him long to get in a position to get stopped by an illegal knee.
Took a boring ass decision against Robbie Peralta, thereby losing me money and ~20 minutes of my life that I'm never getting back. Peralta looked like absolute horse shit even for a part time fighter and nothing close to his regular self.
Won a split decision against Andy Ogle who then went on to lose 3 out of his next 4 only winning against Josh “0-3 in his last fights leading up to the fight” Grispi in a fight I for one can't recollect. I think someone thought it was a robbery but I really can't recall it.
Before that he was doing decently fighting and less so as a TV personality on a season of TUF from which he'll be remembered as a poor man's Julian “Just let me bang” Lane talking about how he came from the streets of Gothenburg, a city most famous for it's horrible word jokes and the fact that most of the population (including girls) are named “Glenn”. Before the TUF stint he came straight from getting KO'd by Paul Reed, a journeyman with a 21-12 record who at the time came from a KO-loss against some Polish guy I've never heard of and went on to lose against Martin Svensson, probably the tallest fucking featherweight in the world who did not make it either on the TUF trial (mostly because no one thought he'd be able to cut the weight) or the Swedish Masterchef.
Now, you might think that I do not rate Akira very highly and that might even be true, but on the other hand he's a though SOB and I think most of his KO's comes from his nose being bust. At least it looks that way. He also has some nice footwork and hits harder then his record of just one KO suggests. As long as he's up against people who let's him bang he makes it a fight until he breaks the nose and he's fairly decent at getting decisions due to good output.
Sam Sicilia is a decent fighter who tends to lose against real good fighters (Rony Jason) and win against lower level guys. Most of his wins comes by KO.
I'd go with Sicilia by KO if he happens to connect or Akira by dec if he can keep from getting hit in the face too much. As far as I can tell they have a combined one decision loss so even though I have a sneaky feeling that Akira might squeeze past him my brain really feels like Sicilia will win by KO.
Musoke vs Tumenov
My pick for fight of the night. Tumenov is real good standing and Musoke is fairly good with a hell of a chin and good pace. Not sure about the outcome or what the odds might be but I'd probably lean Musoke if he still was with Allstars but as it stands I wouldn't bet on this unless either fighter is a fairly decent dog.
Robertson vs Aliev
No idea
Ogle vs Amirkhani
No idea, no idea why Ogle is still in the promotion for that matter. Seems like a nice guy but is more or less a poor man's Akira
Taisumov vs Christodoulou
No idea, go with the Russian I guess?
Pesta vs Erokhin
Pesta might be a killer in some time, he looks real good, but Erokhin is a bad MF and I think it's too early. Erokin wins.
Bektic vs Omer
Bektic is a good prospect, unsure about Omer.
Seery vs Beal
Really impressed by Seery as a part time fighter. Beal not so much, although he seems more gifted as an athlete.
Poker
Everything went well until today, which was a utter shit session. Gonna see if I can 4tbl 1/2 zoom for a while and actually pay attention. Annoyed in general I guess, poker doesn't seem like it's in the mood to give me a break. It's probably just that I suck though, so it's fine. Gonna get better.
Life Update - Canada/USAby Ryan Neilly, January 15
Hey guys,
A couple weeks ago, I moved back from Vancouver. It was alright up there, I did 1 month not staked and won like 7k that month, didn't do much else, hung out with lostaccount (Johnnylaydownboy) a lot, Vancouver's one helluva city, was a great time. Won 4.2 in another and a bunch of 1ks, the prize pools are 50% now, it sucks playing for 1/2 of what your used to.
So I got back home, got myself a nice place and am just gonna grind the casino here and ACR for now, prolly add bodog in a couple weeks.
Game selection has been 100% cashgames since November with the exception of that 215 5m gntd and 1-2 other mtt's.
Starting to want to play them again a little bit, I'll play em when I desire them again a lil bit, never for a living again though.
Plan is NL25 + NL200 + Homegames for making a living in the states, stack cash off 25 til June, then most to nl50 very overrolled and just crush out 40-80 hours a week w/ the beast.
Things have been going ok so far, I took december off for the most part and the first week of this month just hangin with mah girl
I played a lil cash games in Canada, but mostly just MTTs and relaxed a lot, John spent tons of time teaching me a new perspective, I see the game totally different now business wise and hourly wise, it was definitely one of the most enlightening poker trips of my life, although one of the toughest, the games were also a lil tough, I just didn't care to grind on stars, I should have left after about 2.5 months I had no passion to play up there anymore, its just not worth it for me leaving the country, loved ones and friends to play poker.
I had like $109.55 in my account when I got home.
No reason to redeposit a penny, I had to pay for a place, all that kinda stuff. Got expensive fast.
Restarted at NL10.
Here is last years cashgame play - im a BR nit now u guys have no idea, ask john, i wont play some shit with tons of bi's... my only degen moves now are re jamming rivers.
oh some screen shots for records and yah im gonna devote this year to cashgames, NL25 (nl50 by June hopefully) - 6-9 hours a day, look to make top of beast a few times and just grind out the hourly. I tend to do very well in the NL10/NL25 games so far, I'm very confident I should be beating 50 now after the Canada trip, my game has come a long way, as it always does on a poker trip. Its like a hyperbolic time chamber. Fastest 4 months of my life.
John was awesome as a host, he helped me with rides like everywhere, was very cool caring and there when I was in a city where you can't trust anyone. He had my back, let me play on my own for a while, then i won a nice mtt and he rebacked me so I could pay him off and put away $ for when I needed to go home.
Now I'm back on my own again lol
John and I worked together like 5 years, If I ever wanted to MTT again, like had he passion to care to do it, we would work together, theres just 0% passion for MTT's after so many years of not making it to the 10k scene etc, struggling past the 162s online, and having my biggest scores being 20ks etc, so many chances at so many big scores, mtts just fucking suck. lol. stupid that i got off track with them so long, but they kept me afloat long enough to learn to actually play, so its all +ev I guess.
Did a few live sessions in Vancouver, pretty much just crushed every session, although I didn't play many sessions. John sat with me one day, he just said I was to determined, pretty much unbeatable lol. i don't care the stakes. we had some fun bluffs that day. hes one silent ninja. i talk non stop and keep ppl off there game with my mouth edge + hands played in career etc, usually know my flop turn riv actions ahead where they have to think, its a good weapon if u use it right... I'm still learning to use it right though. So much shit you can do to people and exploit later with the power of words. My table presence is at an all time high. That always feels good.
The real reason I just love grinding CG's is every hour I put in online, The local 1/2-2/5 games (hopefully be in these soon), where you can make roughly 5 bills a day at 1/2 just sittin grinding around 9 hours. Its a very good game, I'm lucky to have the poker room so close to my house.
No rush with the online BR, but def wanna get to 1k asap so I can move up to 25.
Still be doing the big mtts like the $500 1m gntd etc, not gonna miss stuff like that, just insanely tired of all the years of 15 hours a day, not worth trading my life for anymore lol I'll load one up when I' really want to take one down I imagine as well.
Actually like ACR MTT's since the fields are so small.
They haven't been hitting overlays, I've looked, just haven't cared to play one yet.
Poll: Orange vs. Red
(Vote): Orange
(Vote): Red
(Vote): Hope you die in a car wreck on the way home and during the autopsy they discover your lungs are fill
(Vote): ed with ash proving you were still alive and breathing while you burned to death fully aware of the
(Vote): pain and knowledge you were burning alive
guys i need to grind coffee beansby bigredhoss, January 13
i went to the store and bought a bag of coffee, but when i got home i realized FUCK they're whole beans, not ground, and i don't have a coffee grinder.
so i tried crushing them with a heavy hardcover book, didn't work very well. then i tried stomping on them with a thin cloth wrapped around the bag, still didn't work. then i tried going outside and backing over them with my car, still didn't work.
starbucks and carribou coffee are closed here at this hour, i have no other options...what can i do
Well graphs are always fun, it's been a good start to 2015. I'm still just trying as hard as I can to make sure I take the time to study as much as I play. Despite what Lemon wrote in his blog, I think it's an important aspect of the game . I guess the difference between us is that I'm not constantly trying to re-write the rules of the game as he might describe it. One thing I've noticed over my time playing is that it can be very difficult to find out if any one particular thing you are doing is working. Sample size is challenging and variance is huge. The best you can hope for is to correctly apply concepts you know to be theoretically correct and then wait for a couple 100k hands to go by to see if it turned out how you thought, but heck, that's actually pretty fun to do.
In terms of other stuff I'm doing I've gained a little bit lately from work/thesis/poker and not being quite as active as I want so I'm stepping up my gym routine to take off those 20 pounds and get back to normal. If anyone hasn't done it I find Hot Yoga to be absolutely phenomenal. A great thing to add into your standard routine of lifting/HIIT cardio sprints. I'm trying to find the optimal balance but my life is very time limited so we'll see!
Ok guys. I believe this is it. The golden pill. The Nirvana. The one breakthrough I needed to finally crack all of this and fly to the stars.
And the realization is that there is not golden pill, no nirvana, no one breakthrough to finally do anything.
The events of last few months - the challenge where I pushed myself, gym, personal life events, Drone's post made me realize a very recurring pattern throughout my life.
And that pattern is - no fucking surprise to any of you: I way over complicate and over think things and put pressure on myself. In all aspects of my life.
When I look back at my life, this pattern is so overwhelming and lead to huge pressure on myself but ultimate stagnation in things that were important to me
1) floorball
I was not talented, yet I made it to the Highest Czech division and national junior team at age 16. I was working harder than anyone else, thinking harder than anyone else, always re-inventing my style, looking to improve and change it, even when really small setbacks occurred.
Then the very same thing that got me to the top lead to my ultimate downfall (along with injuries) - I never had MY style. Even at the top when I was fucking awesome, I would continue to change my game, and so was very inconsistent, and the sport was immense pressure for me that I couldn't sustain. So when coach unjustly dropped me for 4 games (no big deal at all in sport rly) and instead of week long school trip I decided to be the only person in class to stay back to train my gear got stolen, I lost my confidence.
And I had no style to fall back on, that'd keep my confidence up and that I could fall back on. Sure, there was no goalie coaching, no mentoring, but my personality trait was a big reason for my downfall - the need to always put pressure on myself, and to always change everything and look for different ways to do things, even when the way I do things now is very very good as it was in my floorball career.
2) University and college
At university, this was a blessing and a curse. Course work was easy for me. I am a very smart guy, not gonna lie, I see patterns very fast and have strong imagination. Case studies, reading tens of sources and then connecting all the bits in them in one quick paper vomit that makes sense of them all - I had all that. I passed classed without studying, just reading around casually. I have written Masters essays in subjects I never studied for money for rich Chinese students, even wrote pretty much the whole postgraduate thesis for my ex-girlfriend.
When I'm so good at it, It all should have been so easy, stress free right? Wrong. At college in Scotland, in a class with divorced mums going back to re-educate themselves, and really cool but not so smart 17y olds I didn't even have to study and I'd pass everything. Yet I was super stressed out, put pressure on myself, and even cheated in a piss easy exam that I had to resit and got 90% with very little study. Same at University - I was good at it, yet I was always super stressed, was late to start exams and was always looking for that extra resource that'd put me above the pack, that extra thing I could learn even when I could simply learn what was in the lectures and get the same grade.
In academia, it lead to me "beating" it and I have no doubt I could study anything successfully, but at the cost of totally unnecessary stress and pressure.
3)Starcraft
I was a decent player, put in a lot of hours, C level PGT. I quickly at start learned the game I read all the guides out there (hello BigBalls :D) and was thinking about the game like many did - theory crafting, always trying to find the strat that makes me unstoppable, always trying gay stuff, and most of all, artificially increasing my apm for the hell of it, again so I can put pressure on myself. 300 APM toss. With 120EAPM wtf :D
Starcraft was very stressful, and yet I put in little hours actually playing compared to time spent with it, and never made it past mediocre teams. I was dodging playing good people quite a bit, when I reached a higher good rank I stopped playing went back to theory crafting etc. Just like in floorball I had fast start then kept changing things and peaked at one level
4)Sales
After uni I decided to work on the one thing I was lacking - social skills. So I jumped into the most uncomfortable thing ever for a nerd gamer
My first sales job was in media monitoring - phone sales to directors etc.
Now what I did was I jumped into reading books, trying to find this new pattern that will finally make me break through, always tried to get systems in. And my manager told me this - I way overthink stuff. It's not about systems, it's about being yourself. You are a great person, that's why we hired you (like 2% ppl got hired for that company) and you put so much pressure on yourself. Well, no shit - notice a pattern? I was super stressed on the job, doing challenges like morning gym, heavy reading into sales on top of the very stressful cold calling, a petrifying thing for someone not used to talking to people at all. So ultimately, I failed.
My second sales job, the pattern re-emerged. My manager was one of the best people I have met, and he influenced me greatly. Nothing would phase him. His motto was positive attitude, he always had a smile on his face. He'd work hard, at his own pace, was literally, would not allow negative people to come to his life, and even when people he managed came in with excuses, whiny he'd just walk away and tell them to come back when they regained their attitude.
The whole year was an amazing experience for me. I was one of the guys who was the most motivated, had the best education and was the only one always reading books on sales, and listening to tapes for countless hours, tried to change my methods over and over again. This worked very well at start again. But I never settled on just agreeing with "fuck, I am good enough, I enjoy being good enough" and reduce stress, do what I do and just be myself. Bo (my manager) told me this - again that I am a great person, just be that person you learned shitloads there is no reason for me to change, and he wished I could see that too.
Again I quickly in weeks rose to above average in the company, but stayed there as I was putting pressure on myself, changing stuff and never made it to the top 5% in this field where the rewards increase exponentially with success and reaching targets. And the guys that learned a system and just accepted it and worked on making it better without changing it rose above me, even with lower intellect and work ethic.
5) Relationships
My last one and the end of it really is a big part that made me connect the dots today. Again it was great at start - I got back to dating besides one night stuff after a looong break I was reading books on female psychology, even read a Romantic fantasy novel(those things are like emotional porn for girls :D) and even looked at some dating coaches . Now looking back the very same pattern that has emerged in sales, I kept doing what I always do - always having theories, thinking about what the other person is thinking, challenges, trying new things even 6 months into it I was never really okay with being myself, her being her, never opened up, hardly ever just was "there" without over thinking about stuff that was no issue at all. I put enormous pressure on myself, and especially in the last few months I wasn't really there for her, never really could just hang out and have fun without any thought, write stuff just because. Wanting her more and caring lead to what I have done with so many things and eventually drove her away.
There was no way this could work, or even know if it COULD work as what I was doing never allowed for opening us to each other, especially with the added pressure I put on myself with . . .
Poker
Fuck, where can I start? Drone made me really thinking (as I always do :D). It will come as no surprise to any of you who follow me over the years, even without seeing this blog.
In poker, I went from NL2 to NL50 and supernova with UK promotion in 6 months. Just read my blog. I was learning religiously, always trying to find new theories, have seen every video out there, and spent a lot of time theory crafting. Hell - look at my freaking post count :D
Just like in floorball, poker, dating, starcraft the pressure I put on myself and the quest for new theories put me quickly at the above average level, and the very same thing also made sure I stay there, with immense pressure added.
I guess I needed a slap in the face to realize this. But I play micros. I cash out a lot. I think more and work harder off and on the tables than any regular at my stakes, and I'd be surprised if that wasn't true. Because the others that try this hard...don't keep playing the stakes I do. Poker is stressful for me because I make it that way as I did with other things. I always try to find new ways to play, change my game even during sessions, watch all videos out there and I think all of you that spoke to me know that my theoretical knowledge is way WAY above what you'd expect from a player playing my stakes. I am able to balance this with focus on mindset, excercise, positive stuff off the tables but again my desire to challenge myself, put pressure on myself, to find that golden pill "if I find this new thing I'll break through" are always there. This leads to procrastination, stress, more tilt, and lower happiness really.
And I am doing great positive things and think positively and work on my well being, but instead of them helping me skyrocket they just are a must to balance the pressure I put on myself.
So yeah, there you have it. Many of you have told me this over the years, but I have never listened. Because it's such a big part of who I am, and always was - the need to put pressure on myself, to always get better leads to me paradoxically learning very fast at start then stagnate and be stressed from thereon after where the theories start clashing, I keep changing who I am what I do and am never satisfied with myself or spend time to just be okay with who I am and focus on making it better and developing it instead of changing it.
I beat micros at 6bb/100. I am good at it, I don't need to learn new things, I am a great person and I don't need to worry about anything or change my game whatsoever besides thinking about the hands in progress and do a database and own range+ hh correction once in a while, realize what my game actually is and then develop it slowly without adding new theories, and trying to overhaul it.... Even after a downswing, I feel down yet all I need is to do what I do, put in the hours and... just play...solid, just focus on my game, just be me.
All I need to do is be myself, and believe that that's just great and enough, and for once focus on becoming my best self without trying to change it, to challenge it,to over think it or try to find the new golden pill.
Can I do it? Only time can tell. I guess realization is the first step.
2014 small review and 2015 goalsby Forrest Gump, January 07
I want to post some short facts about last year
1. Learnt some different games, but I only play 2-7 TD FL right now. I lost too much at LO8, lost some at HU NLHE, break even at Razz and Badugi. Probabbly lost some at the mixed games too.
2. I was 12K up in 2014 for 2-7 TD. Learnt to play against any number of players including HU and im table selecting less (edited last word) than ever. I even played oogee and zugwat HU at 10/20 and they were scary.
And for next year goals:
1. Finish some books first: "supertraining" (edited last word) from Yuri Verkhoshansky and "The black Swan" from Thaleb
2. Become Supernova before October playing only 2-7 TD FL finishing with at least 1K/m after rakeback.
~~Read half before commenting pls <3 ~~ unless its off topic
Incoming TL;DR comments. It's been a while since I used this blog. But this is a topic I think a decent amount of people would be curious about so I figure I'll throw it out there for whoever it might help. I'll include some video recommendations at the end also from two of IMO the most reliable content creators on youtube. Hope someone gets something out of this. I'll try and answer any questions I can from the comments and if I don't feel confident enough answering them off the top of my head I'll try and point you in the right direction.
Guide to dieting.
Well... it's the beginning of January again. And everyone and their mother is going to get on a crash diet. One with parameters that shaolin monks wouldn't have the willpower to operate under. No carb diets. Palio. Juice diets. All sorts of BS I can't even keep up with to make fun of effectively. . To sift through the BS. Its important to look at the basics of whats going on. I'm going to try and summarize the basics of how a diet affects your body. Cliff notes edition of course. And then outline some decent dieting parameters to follow and adjust to compliment the goals you might have. Keep in mind I am not a dietitian nor have I got any degrees in nutrition. That said you wont need to be to follow any of this or get the results you are interested in.
Let's get on to the good stuff. For the purposes of this example. I'm going to use a cutting diet. Or weight loss diet as an example in all of this. The biggest and most important part of your diet is going to be planning your calorie intake. A calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Your body needs calories to fuel itself. What it doesn't use it will store until it needs it. This eventually becomes fat. Luckily, even a sedentary person burns a decent amount of calories. Though granted not as much as someone who exercises. When you exercise, your body needs to expend additional calories to power your body through whatever activity you may be engaged in. Now I need to divert a second and explain something. Your body has minimal functions and upkeep it has to do everyday to stay alive. Think of it like a business and your body needs to pay its employees. In calories. Your organs do work and need to get paid. Your muscles need to be up kept. Pretty much everything your body does requires a salary to be paid day to day. Living expenses, in the most literal sense.
Now back to exercising and getting mad jacked bro. When you do some sort of exercise where your body is expending energy, but not really forcing an adaptation of muscles. It is expending a certain amount of energy. Lets say 100 calories. And then that is all. For instance lets say you decide to take a walk after work and expend 100 calories. Those 100 calories are gone and that is the end of that story. No more accounting necessary. Now there is also exercise that will force an adaptation in your body. IE. Strength training. Which will also expend calories necessary to complete the task you set out to do. And then afterwards when your muscles repair they will grow and become larger. Thus raising the basic metabolic rate of your body a little. (More in a second) In turn this will add a residual effect where you not only burn say 100 calories in the moments of training. And from then on some additional calories in your future day to day since a larger muscle requires more upkeep. Guesstimates I have read online put a pound of muscle somewhere around 7-10 calories a day in upkeep costs. Likely around the higher end of that but I can't say for certain. Now lets move on for now and talk about TDEE.
Total daily energy expenditure. This is what we need, to figure out where to set our calorie limits at. Its very simple http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ .Just enter an honest (I would lean towards conservative) estimate of your physical activity as is. I recommend using the first setting for simplicity. I'll use myself as an example case. As a male that is 27, 5'8, 155lb and exercises 3 times a week.(using imperial because this is 'murica and its the way god intended. Metric is the devil's units of measurement). By its calculations using 3 parts math, 1 part magic, it says my TDEE is 2274 calories a day. Now I would recommend for most people to only adjust by -300. You can go as far as -500. (or more I suppose) but the more your press your deficit the more your hormones will be affected. Also the harder its going to be to stick to your diet. STICKING TO YOUR DIET IS ABOVE ALL ELSE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!1!!!ONE! A bridge that can't reach the other side is not a bridge. You need to construct the diet vehicle that will take you from point A to point B using the tools and willpower you currently possess. Stretching your willpower too much will cause you to fail eventually. Press a little but make sure its manageable. So if I were to diet right now I would aim for about 2000 calories a day. Leaving me at close to a 300 calorie deficit just from my diet. Likely I would also add in 200 calorie cardio sessions. 3 times a week to average out the difference to about 380 calorie deficit total each day. (Math is dumb I'm not going to bother calculating exact numbers. Ain't nobody got time fo dat shit.)
OK so I have to talk now about why you should do strength training. Male or female. As i talked about before your body is a business. It requires calories to operate. When your body goes into a calorie deficit. It will be a business that is in the red. And it will take precautions to make sure it doesn't go under. It will begin to get rid of any sort of muscle it doesn't need to lower your bodies basil metabolic rate. Its really the only thing it can do to downsize. It has try and get back to equilibrium so the business doesn't fail. However when you add strength training to your program. Your body is forced to keep that muscle. It is being stressed and as far as it knows it NEEDS that muscle to not get killed by the constant threat of saber tooth tigers attacking your ass. It does not require a lot of muscle mass to run, especially in the upper body. So your body will not mind one bit if it downsizes a little to be more efficient. Your body will prefer to burn muscle than fat given the chance. Your body is quite good at staying alive . Now a person attempting to diet without strength training. Will have to end up losing more weight overall to lose the same amount of fat. As your muscle base shrinks the shape of your body goes with it. Ever heard of the term skinny fat? Its a person that doesn't have a huge amount of fat on their body however their body has so little muscle that they still appear to have no real shape to them. So not only will we have to lose more weight to burn the fat we want. We will not be satisfied with what is left when we are done. Muscle gives shape to a persons body in a good way. Also retaining our muscle (or gaining) will make the process easier. Burning exclusively fat at a higher rate as we retain our muscle and continue to have it work for us burning calories. In the game of counting calories each one adds up.
After we find out what we need to aim for calorie-wise. Now we have to figure out Protein/carbs/fats.? Protein is commonly recommended to be 1gram per pound of body weight. Some people go as much as 2. however its not necessary from everything I've read. In fact I remember reading even as little as .7grams per body weight being enough for muscles to recover. but I would stick to 1gram per 1 pound of body weight. Fat should be .5 grams per pound of body weight. So for me in this example it would be somewhere around 70 grams of fat. Fat is very important to get enough of. It helps regulate hormone levels in the body and is a energy source your body is fond of. Keeping your hormones happy will also help make the process easier. For women not messing with your monthly cycle is a good thing. And with guys trying to get hard in that funky place. Good luck if you aren't getting any fat in your diet. It also helps with inflammation and lubricating joints. For reference. 1gram of protein = 4 calories. 1gram of carbs = 4 calories. And 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. Alright enough with the numbers. Although the closer the better for optimal results. Being pretty close is totally fine. In the end we need to get the job done. I would recommend hitting the minimum requirements for fat and protein every day and then filling the rest with carbs. It's ok to go above protein and fat by a little on a given day. However, you should use your carbs to regulate where your total calories end up at the end of the day. Carbs are the area where you have a lot of leeway to adjust since its mainly just an energy source. So this puts my total to aim for at about 70 grams of fat, 155 grams of protein, and 187 carbs to fill in the rest of my 2000 calorie goal.
OK so in practice you obviously are going to have a hard time hitting these numbers exactly day to day. However as long as you hit more than a minimum of around 80%+ of your protein goals you should be ok on that front. Fat should try to be as close as possible. Over is more than acceptable too. In the end your main concern past hitting your minimums should be ending up somewhere around the calorie total you set for yourself. This takes practice and some planning. Make sure you constantly keep checking your calories for all the meals you are eating. Pretty soon you'll be able to look at anything and guesstimate pretty closely what the calorie content is.
Now before I finish this already super long-winded guide. Let me add in some extra details and tips on how to go about things. One thing a lot of people complain about when they are dieting is being hungry. This shouldn't really be the case. One of the main reasons for this is bad food selection. You want to avoid calorie dense foods. Stuff like cheese, fried foods, donuts, all sorts of foods that are super dense in calories but don't have a lot of volume to them. And usually not nutrient dense either... Because you are going to be getting less food than normal. It's important to eat nutrient dense foods. Greens are your best friend. Feel free to add as many greens such as broccoli and spinach as you want with your meals. Not only are they a good source of micro-nutrients, but they have next to no calories. Helping to keep you full for quite a long time. I would also strongly recommend a good daily multivitamin.
Your diet really doesn't need to be perfect. The closer the better, but in the end physics doesn't lie. The law of thermodynamics will take care of the fat loss as long you stay pretty consistent day to day in your diet. Honestly this subject in general is very vast. I tried to summarize it while including the things I found most relevant. But these is a lot that had to be left out. This isn't a perfect guide but its really all you should need. The rest is up to you. Do your homework. Don't buy into the bullshit. Its simple. It just takes some work.
-Omar isuf talking about nutrition. Great content provider and does well at explaining things simply. https://www.youtube.com/user/JuggernautFitnessTV - Jason Blaha's channel which is IMO one of the best on youtube for strength training and overall knowledge. The man is super fit despite what people initially might think. And he is also a competitive powerlifter. He does Q&As every monday and his channel is a great resource for anyone learning about dieting or all around lifting.
Inational Business Case Halp by Spitfiree, January 06
I'm supposed to present a case of a company entering a market they've never been on to and problems involving that and the way they solved it. I'm sure someone can suggest some interesting topic, otherwise i have to go with something stupid like Mercedes entering China or Walmart trying to enter the Far East or something dumb like that. I was thinking about marijuana suppliers in the USA - would be cool since the society i live in has a conservative socialism based view of weed, but that's a domestic market so it seems out of topic and I can't think of anything else. I guess it doesn't necessarily have to a successful case as long as I'm able to spot what went wrong and how it should've gone, but theorycrafting is easy when done in class so it should be fine
So last year was horrid from a poker point of view. Did not play or study enough and as a result I suck and play lower now. Fairly sure I actually lost money overall last year.
Gonna relearn this damn game so that I can make enough money to try out a few new things. Trying to write a book or two, and some other things.
Anyway, gonna watch a ton of poker videos, play a decent bit and post hands. Will be back in a few days with my first batch of hands trying to figure them out again.
If there are any natural French communicators out there who are willing to help me with some translation: Mostly dealing with Sartre, poetry, and french language and style please let me know here or pm.
TL;DR - I have a 100k USD/yr job but my US legal status is expiring, at the same time I am thinking about doing a startup company in China with my friend, and I need advice on which is more +EV. Thank you in advance!
Haven't been able to stably play poker for the rest of 2014 since last blog post.. Was pretty sad about that. I think I was breakeven for the most part from September to December, which doesn't sound too good lol. But this is not the purpose of this blog post. I think I am going into a turning point in my life, so I need some advice from all of you smart individuals. I would love to hear what all of you would do if you were in my shoes.
Just to give more background on the spot, I am currently working as a Software Developer at one of the biggest tech companies on the west coast of United States, making about 100k USD/year (picked up poker just for fun, but some serious fun lol). However, I am a Chinese National instead of a US citizen. And one of the biggest problems I am facing is that, I don't have a stable immigration status to stay in the US for good. I am currently on a student visa with a post-graduation training permission to work for a company until December 21, 2015 (Did undergrad here in the States from 2009 to 2013).
In order to stay in the US/my current job, I do have several options. I have a chance to grab my work visa (H1-B) by getting into a government lottery system on April 1, 2015. Last year there were 180,000 people squeezing their heads into 85,000 spots (20,000 for graduate students, which I don't get). This year it will be around the same, and more towards slightly worse (more and more people try to get the visa every year). If I get the lottery, I will be able to apply for the visa and be back on stable status in the US and be back on track. Otherwise, I will still be able to work with my company and hopefully have them put me in either Vancouver, Canada/Beijing, China for 1 year and come back into the States with another type of work visa (L-1). Of course pay will be adjusted, so definitely preferring Vancouver for the $$$ over Beijing.
If the problem were this easy I don't think I would be writing this post lol. Having been working for a big company for a little over a year, I am feeling a little bit burnt out, and lost. I have always loved programming since age 11 and programming has been my biggest passion of my life, until I started working. 8 hours of work each day is slowing chewing me away and I started to hate it. Work is often times pretty dreadful, despite doing "creative work" for the most part. I don't have the motivation to get better at programming outside of work, and the technology stack we use is behind compared to, say, the startups. I really miss the days at school where I learn some cool languages and stuff outside of classes and do something fun with it, and now I need to use some ancient/company-specific stuff like Perl/Java every day and do repetitive tasks like bug fixing/pulling data from other teams and rendering into HTML, etc. I guess I am either not getting challenged, or my job has been a bit too stable.
Recently I took a 3-week vacation to come back to my hometown in China. Talked with one of my best friends who quit UC Berkeley with 1 semester left and came back to China to start up his own tech company. He has been messaging me while I was in the US, saying that he would love me to join his company, as a partner. And this time we finally get some face-to-face time and we talked about everything about the company, things that happened in 2014 and game plan for 2015. He has been doing lots of reading and researching on everything, and he really wanted me to join him and build the next big thing, mainly wearable electronics. Currently the Chinese market is booming at a ridiculous rate in terms of internet business and comsumer electronics like smartphones and wearables. He told me that I would be leading a team to research and develop that next big thing. It is definitely not easy, and it is quite a gamble, since I won't be having much income working with him during the research phase. The company will also be doing software consulting, building websites for various clients on the side. Last year the company made about 300k-400k CNY in 2014 with just 1 project and had about 200k CNY left after all the operational costs. He ensured me a spot of partnership and I will be getting around a third of the company stock (we have another good friend of ours and he is currently a co-founder, but he is still working on his PhD at Harvard so he is not doing much of the business for the company).
3 of us met in high school and we built our 1st robotics team for our high school, and we made 1st place city-wide and state-wide competitions for the first time we did it. We had the synergy to run a company, where my buddy is full of ideas, and I am very good with tech, and the PhD buddy is great on the business side of things. I really missed the time we were together as high school kids building robots. I feel like we could do something big together.
As we talked, I also learned that he was miles and miles ahead of me in terms of the cutting-edge technology that he knows. He got to use the latest Web Technology on the projects that he worked on, and he had a very deep knowledge about it as well. I suddenly felt very behind because I didn't have the extra time to look at these new things, didn't get to use them at work, and more importantly, working at a big corporate killed my drive of learning more about programming every day. Although I would love to admit that I also learned something during my time at the company, but more in terms of stability, maintainability, scalability and performance of my code. I just feel like the things that he has been doing is way more interesting and challenging to me.
One thing becomes very clear that joining him means I will be giving up my corporate job, and the current pay level, which I think I am okay without. But I feel like I do need some contingency plan - If I decide to come back to China, I will do my best to get myself promoted to Software Development Engineer II (SDE2) title before leaving the States. With that on my resume, even if business fails in a year or two, I will still be able to get back into a big company with good pay again. There are 3 big companies in China I can get into, Baidu (the Chinese Google), Alibaba (the Chinese Amazon, which is way better than amazon.cn), or Tencent (the company that bought League of Legends, also does other things), or I might even be able to come back into the States if I wish.
On the other hand, I have a girlfriend and we are together for about 7 years now. We met since high school and I think it is about time for us to seal the deal and get married soon. She is currently working at a company on the east coast, and she is on the same boat as me in terms of immigration status (needs to get the same lottery this year in order to stay in the States). I talked to her briefly about my thoughts on partnering with my friend back in China, and she didn't like that because she didn't think we are (especially I am) experienced enough to run a startup company. Also talked to my parents about coming back to China and I think they were supportive, as long as I am ready.
Alright I think I have enough background for you guys and hope you guys can give some solid advice. Will be doing a poll below so you guys don't have to necessarily comment
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