July 03, 2012
30 days.
Ok, first off, obligatory apologies. It's been a long time - been busy with training and working on DC and haven't had as much time to blog.
Secondly - the main point of this post. I'm trying out the Whole 30 day challenge right now. It's basically Paleo, more strict on some things (no alcohol), less strict on others (some green legumes, like pea pods, are fine to consume). The goal is to perform a clean-slate experiment on my health - to see how my body and mind respond to a reasonable yet austere diet. The tl;dr version of the challenge is that I'm basically eating all whole foods with no processed foods allowed. Lots of grass-fed beef, chicken, fish, sweet potatoes & vegetables, some fruit, and tons of water. Coffee is allowed in moderation (thank god!) but none after 12PM, so my sleep habits are quickly getting back in check. I'm feeling better, though I won't pretend the first couple of days have been easy.
The reason I'm blogging about this? Partly for accountability, but also partly because I think there's not enough focus placed on personal health and poker habits. Our mental health and our physical health are inexorably linked, and while I think a lot of better poker players understand this now, it's something that is still neglected by the majority of poker players. So here we are. Will be posting regular updates (going to be running one marathon in the midst of the challenge, so that will be an interesting change-up).
As a whole, poker players are great when it comes to experimenting with different lines, different approaches to preflop and postflop play. Experimentation is considered a hallmark of great poker players. And yet, when it comes to our health, we do very little experimentation to see what works for us. Maybe it's time to expand our horizons, and see what kind of impact it has on our lives, our mental health, and our poker games.
10 Comments:
KasinoKrime posted on July 03, 2012 at 21:20 PM
Great post, thanks for sharing. I'm familiar with the tenets of the paleo diet from doing Crossfit, but I was only able to follow it strictly for a week before I began to cave. To be fair, most of it was because I was traveling all the time and eating out. Overall though, the people who stick to the diet seem to have high praise for it, so I'm anxious to hear your feedback.
PS - I saw Bart last night at Rio. DC bowlament on Thursday I hear??
KRANTZ posted on July 04, 2012 at 21:40 PM
KANGAROOOOOOOOOOO
delcrossb posted on July 05, 2012 at 17:10 PM
I would love to try more self experimentation, but I always have trouble setting up a control group.
n0whereman posted on July 07, 2012 at 14:46 PM
Excited to hear your progress on this!
Kevin - control groups are more or less impossible on yourself, especially with something like diet (a billion confounding variables). That said, trying something like this and adding things back in is about as close as you can get. If you take, for example, gluten, away from your diet for a month, feel great, and then feel bad/worse as soon as you add it back in, you might be onto something.
delcrossb posted on July 07, 2012 at 22:16 PM
Jason,
It was supposed to be a joke.
Love, Kevin
n0whereman posted on July 10, 2012 at 22:32 PM
sarcasm detector is busted - i'm giving it to my (soon to be) kid :)
Entity posted on July 10, 2012 at 22:35 PM
Yeah, I'm sure he's just going to LOVE that.
delcrossb posted on July 27, 2012 at 19:48 PM
I am curious how this worked out for you. Any chance of a follow up?
Entity posted on July 27, 2012 at 20:56 PM
Yeah, I'm planning on a full follow up on August 1st. As it stands today I'm going to continue eating this way for a long, long time with few changes. It's been an amazing change to my quality of life.
lwikel posted on October 08, 2012 at 14:48 PM
Can you provide input in regard to your nutrition plan for your marathon that you ran during your challenge? I am in base building with a half in two weeks, but also am on day 6 of my challenge. I understand endurance nutrition, having run 6 marathons including Boston this year. I am very interested in your point of view. I would prefer to resist gels, not sure a Lara bar will be easily chewed. I can run a half without nutrition, but would like to PR.
FWIW, your comment about mental health is spot on. My patience and thinking is so much clearer since I started this challenge. I have energy all day and I showed great patience, resisted tilt and profited greatly in my last (and only) cash game since my start.
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