How do you lose weight and gain pounds at the same time? OK…maybe I have played a little with the word pounds (except for those in the UK) but read on a little further.
I have had two problems lately. I haven’t been getting enough exercise and I haven’t been playing enough poker. It was a strange year for me. I finished 33rd in the main event at the WSOP and then only played one major tournament the rest of the year. Just when I was starting to feel good about my game I can’t find the time to play. Of course, not playing poker is one thing but slacking on the exercise is just plain lazy.
I won’t bore you with all my excuses but I had three great family vacations last summer with my three families…the result of divorced parents and a marriage. After all that family time, my wife and little boy needed our own vacation so we went off to Spain. In between all those trips I tried to keep up with my website while also working on a new book. The next thing you know its Christmas, I have played little poker, and put on over 10 pounds! Now I’m not complaining. We had some great times but the waistline had got a little out of control. Every problem has a solution and mine became the Precor Elliptical machine.
For those who don’t know what an elliptical machine is, it is basically a cross between a treadmill and a stairclimber. It slides back and forth to create a very smooth running motion. It’s great for the knees and can really get the heart pumping pretty quickly. I am a notoriously lazy exerciser during the winter so the Precor gave me the perfect solution.
I ended up placing it in my office. It just so happens that I can exercise in plain view of my monitor. Hmmm, why don’t I just play poker while I am exercising! You won’t believe how fast 45 minutes of exercise can go when you are playing poker. This morning it was just enough time for me to place 3rd in a sit-n-go…I won’t go into my bad beat on the last hand!
So I have the perfect solution…I can play poker to keep the skills sharp while losing weight at the same time. The best thing is that this costly machine is already paid for! I bought the top-of-the-line machine which runs more or less $4,000. After only 28 sessions of 45 minutes each I have recouped my money back. Right now I am averaging $1000 gained for every pound lost! I’m not sure this is good news, but I still have a lot of weight which needs to come off so I am optimistic that it will be quite profitable.
I’ll admit that I have had a couple of really good sessions which has skewed the results but just the idea that I can make money while exercising is an incredible concept to me. Now if I can only get this new voice-activated poker mouse to work I’ll be all set (www.pokermouse.com).
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