This will be a general life update since I haven't posted one in awhile.

Last year I got off track a bit after a huge downswing which made me pretty much stop grinding, and a long, never ending binge of degeneracy ensued since I had nothing else going on. At one point I weighed myself and was 126 pounds (I'm 5 ft 10). I couldn't eat a full meal without feeling like shit I was in such awful shape and constantly dehydrated. I've always been thin but this was beyond awful. This year I have been hitting the gym consistently and going pretty hard most days for a few months now. I weighed in at 144 pounds the other day (was 130ish when I started training). People are starting to come up to me and tell me they are seeing results which is a pretty cool. Never worked out long enough in the past with consistency to actually get recognized for it so that is motivating to keep it up the habit. I have improved my diet tenfold as well (this goes hand in hand with gym gains). I eat frequently throughout the day now, never skip meals, don't drink a lot, and have eliminated all 'other' substances that were doing horrors to my health.

I recommend anyone who doesn't workout regularly to just do it and not make excuses. Give it time and all areas of your life will improve alongside. There's gotta be something you do that is really just a waste (i.e. watching tv, drinking, whatever) that gives you short term gain but has no real value which you can cut back on to give yourself the time to take care of yourself. Set some goals then do your research and build a routine that will help you achieve those goals, whether it be weight loss, weight gain, running a mile in a certain time - through experience failing at exercise in the past, I think the trick is to set some sort of attainable target, and then follow through in reaching it. Then once you become addicted to the exercise routine it no longer feels like its 'work', it just happens. Personally my routine has been set up for building lean muscle, but everyone has different goals. Maybe yours is lose a bunch of weight rather than gain, maybe you just want to get out more and go for a run to enjoy the outdoors. Whatever it is, do it even if you don't feel like it, because after you'll be thankful you did.

I now feel less tired, sleep better, am more focused at poker, I don't have the urge to do drugs/alcohol come mid afternoon (or even at all, though usually I have a beer or glass of wine with my biggest meal of the day). I also cut out all fast food (I don't even have a 'cheat day' although on select weekends out I'll eat whatever the venue offers), eat a lot more eggs and veges, while minimizing carbs and sodium - steps I've done to this are switch from the standard quaker oatmeal in those packets to a bag of whole oats (sodium free). I will eat subway if I'm out and need food fast, but I don't get bread: I order a meatball salad. Fuck that shitty processed carb factory. It's been almost 3 weeks since my last slice of pizza

If you play poker for a living, balance is so god damn important. If you don't have balance in your life and all you care about is grinding for monies as soon as shit hits the fan with that, you won't have anything positive to fall back on - therefore after experiencing this myself I advise all pros/aspiring pros to have things they work hard at other than poker, and when poker doesn't go your way, spend some more time doing your other thing until you feel ready to get back to it. I am pretty thankful to have people in my life who are crushing to help me out with their good advice and guidance. Sadly, some people don't have anyone there to influence them to make + decisions/changes, so they end up falling into a deep pit of degeneracy. This statement alone means you should do what you can to keep up a good positive social network and be mindful of when you feel like it is deteriorating. Friends are important yo.

Paging jyms or other diet experts: For vitamins I am taking a multi, D3, and Nutrasea fish oil. Are there any others I should consider adding? I eat about 6 eggs a day, a few servings of meat (ground beef, chicken, or fish - steak maybe 2x a week), couple servings of veges (still not getting enough of these), whole oats, and a whey protein shakes w/ milk (on gym days I have 2 but one is with water). I drink a lot of apple juice, and sometimes grape. Tons of water on days I workout, probably not enough on off days. 1-2 cups of coffee daily, and recently been having 1 cup of green tea with a banana (yep I take them together ). Open to suggestions for tweaking diet.