The Tao of Jerry

Playing For Money

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:19:00 +0000

I have not updated this blog in a long time… I did go play on Friday 1/13, I played for 4.5 hours at Downstream Casino and won $462.00 I did not update this blog mainly because I there was nothing really exciting that happened. I played pretty well and at my table there was the usual mix of players…. One pretty good one (we avoided each other), 3 bad ones in varying degrees and 4 really tight ones (a little higher than the normal mix) and me. I played straight forward ABC poker and other then one miss played hand it was pretty ho hum.

I am back to being single so I am able to play poker on the weekends I do not have my kids and even take a poker trip or two. I am planning a summer trip to Vegas never been there during the WSOP.

I am going to chronicle as I try to re-grow my live poker bankroll and get to a better place in my life from a financial point of view. Poker is not my main source of income. I have a good job that pays pretty well. I just have had some financial setbacks as well as alimony and child support. I have no intentions of quitting my job for a life as a full time grinder, but I do plan to treat playing cards as serious as I treat my job.

I will be able to play 4 times a month (Friday and Saturday every other week). I am not interested in dating so my weekends are free anyway.

My goal is to try to average winning $1000 per month… It is a lofty goal for the amount I get to play. I want to get a bankroll of $3000 and have the money to play $2 $5.

About 6 months ago I was playing and ran into a kid that made is living playing cards. He was young and had just gotten out of the military and had a hard time getting a real job. His strategy was simple, he kept a $4000 bankroll, he played 6 days a week, he played 12 hours a day or until he won $300. In 4 months he had 4 losing days. I watched him play, he played boring poker. I watched him play for 5 hours. He played tight and straight forward and was paid almost every time he had a hand.

This is where I got my inspiration…. I cannot play 12 hours on Fridays (my day job takes too much out of me) but I can play 4 to 6 hours…. And then come back on Saturdays…. I am going track my play very closely…

The keys for me…

· No drinking at the tables

· Take breaks every 3 or 4 hours for 20 to 30 minutes.

· Exercise I think better when I exercise and eat right.

· Learn not to push it, when I feel it slipping away get up from the table… No shame in coming back another day.

After all I am in this to make money.

More Poker

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:44:00 +0000

I miss poker. I miss playing poker and I miss writing about poker. On this the first day of 2012 I resolve to play more poker.

More to follow….

Please Keep WSOP Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:15:00 +0000

I had my second World Series event I was glued to the TV for Sunday and Tuesday. I think it was awesome the coverage and the action. The only I did not like was hearing what a 3bet was 900 times. I found the coverage absolutely mesmerizing.

I find it hard to believe that anyone watching the show would not become a fan, it really showed how poker was and what it was all about and most importantly it had little to do with luck.

Poker Night

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:24:00 +0000

I went to play poker on Friday night in Roland, OK. This is a little casino just across the state line from Fort Smith, AR. The casino is not the flag ship of the Cherokee Casinos, Tulsa and Siloam Springs are both considerably nicer. It did offer poker and did serve up the usual bad players.

Since my personal funds have grown a little tight I have to be particularly careful I had one bullet. I was afraid of being a little rusty because I have not played much lately. I had to play tight and did so for about an hour or so.

Hand 1:

33 this is my lucky hand from last year won $600 on one hand when I flopped a set verses a flopped 2 pair and a flush draw. I started the hand with about $150. EP raised to $10 one caller to me, I call. Flop 778 two clubs EP bets $20 and a call. The EP was a younger kid that was pretty new to the table and the caller was an older Asian gentleman I decided to call on the fairly dry board, I probably should have raised since I thought the player was Cbetting and probably missed the flop and the Asian person could have with a straight or a flush draw. Turn was a non-club 3 EP bets $60 Asian called and I called if a club came I would have thrown up, but I wanted to effectively triple up. River was a non-club King and EP shoves (He started the hand with about $120) Asian calls, and I shove over the top and get called. EP had QQ, Asian had only a pair of 8’s. I had a net win of $270.

Hand 2:

In BB limped to me with K 4, flop was A44 to hearts. The Asian Gentleman from the last hand, bets $30 I call everyone else folds. Turn is a blank and he bets $50 I call. River is the third Heart and he bets $100. I was tempted to go over the top all in but due to needing the money and not wanting to risk it I called. He said good call and turned over 66. I was up about $410.

I made 1 bad call and folded to a bluff (sad thing was I felt he was bluffing) and left up $246.

Due to the size of this casino the game did not draw a ton of players and the table became short-handed. I should have left an hour before I did but did not want to end the game. I was at a table with all short stacks for the last hour. Hell I had $460 ish and one player had $140 and the rest were well under $100. The only good thing was they did not play like online short-stackers they played weak tight.

It was great fun and I am ready to get back into playing a lot more often.

Year of Change

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:45:00 +0000

I am starting a new blog, one for the changes I going to have this next year. I will update this blog about poker whenever I play.

jtsyear.blogspot.com

I Guess I am a Quitter

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There once was the drunk that refused to get help to stop drinking even though it was killing him. He told his friends the reason why he was not getting help was because he was not a quitter.

I have made the decision to stop drinking for the time being. Not because I have problems with it, but because there is no need to drink, it works against my desire to lose weight and is an unneeded expense.

I come from a long line of big drinkers on both sides of my family, I am sure some of them were functioning alcoholics. The one challenge I have is I am one of the bigger members of my family. I want to stop here and state my size because I am thick more than anything else. I am 5’9” I wear 40” waist and have a 50 – 52” chest. I am fat but it’s virtually all upper body. Having weight in my upper body helps explain why swimming laps has a quick impact on me. I can actually feel the difference when I get dressed after swimming.

I stopped the Slow-Carb Diet I may go back to it later. Right now I think I need more diversity in my diet and am going to count calories. I do not plan to cheat on the diet until Thanksgiving (I will have a few beers then too). I am debating between using myfitnesspal and livestrong I like both aps / website.

The plan is to reduce calories and eat smart along with exercise. I know seems like rocket science I know. This is day 3 and going well so far.

Also note: while I have been going up and down in weight I am still 10lbs lighter then my heaviest recorded weight (this go around).

158 days till half-marathon

My Opinion – Full Tilt

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:41:00 +0000

I have been quiet about Full Tilt. I wrote a few posts about them in past and my friends can attest that I had concerns about them… not that I thought it would be as bad as it has been just that things did not add up or came too easy…

Rakeback I signed up for an account (loser64) without any rack back or any other incentive, so after finding out about rack back I tried to get it and was told no. After frustration I gave up for a while. A year or two later I read on 2+2 how to get rackback I quickly did what was needed and received rakeback, which that account still has today.

When I got the letter from Full Tilt where they told me they directed my account name to their preferred rakeback provider, it was a company owned by Full Tilt, without much of a delay I got rakeback. So Full Tilt paid itself rakeback and then a portion of that was filtered to the players I cannot be the only one that sees this as an issue? This all seemed just too easy and convenient.

It reminded me of a time when I was a 19 and working room service for a hotel in St. Louis, one night a group of guests were out by the pool, let’s just say they were not the standard type of guest at the hotel, the 6 of them (3 couples) ordered up about $600 worth of food and alcohol, they were charging it to their room. These guests were more than generous they were almost my 15% tip that was automatic. I assume it was to keep me happy and quiet.

I stopped by the front desk 4 times that night verifying that is was ok to keep serving them… and I was told yes by the front desk manager. So I continued to serve them and at the end of the night I cashed out and wend home with a lot of money. As it turned out the guests were criminals using stolen credit cards and cash. The hotel manager had not checked anything when I asked and he lost his job. I kept my tips. Something stunk and it all seemed too easy.

The whole rakeback and other things that went on did bug me, I did play on Full Tilt for a year getting rakeback, I eventually pulled my money and put some on Poker Stars and the rest I took out in cash to play live. I did not have a penny on Full Tilt in Black Friday and I did get my money off of Stars quickly.

Like most things in life if it seems too good to be true it usually is.

Getting my 13 years Back

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:52:00 +0000

This is the very last post about me bitching about me not taking care of myself seems stupid if I cannot save me from me than I have no right to complain. I did some reading and I got my mojo back.

I was doing some research and discovered that the average American’s life expectancy is 80.6 years. I was also reading that being morbidly obese (BMI over 40) you lose 13 years. This means that my life expectancy is about 67 years. On November 3^rd I turn 47 this means on average I have 20 years left as we all know the last few years of someone’s life things start to head south that being the case I have only about 15 to 18 good years left. Well THAT IS NOT ENOUGH!

By getting to a healthier place I can go from a 15ish good years to 28 good years left.

On a side note my son saw an article that showed a 100 year old man running a marathon well if he can do it I can do a half marathon!

So as I write this October 22^st 2011 I am fat and out of shape. I have about 6 months to get my fat ass in shape. Oh yes and the brownie I just ate is GREAT. Starting today I will train and watch what I eat. I do not have a weight goal but a body fat goal of 15% and a BMI under 25.

I have an ambitious goal of ~~running~~ finishing 2 half marathons in 3 weeks 3/31/12 locally here in Bentonville, AR and 4/15/12 in my home town of St. Louis, MO. I made the “mistake” of mentioning that I was going to run a half-marathon with a co-worker that lives outside of Chicago, and he decided to train for the race too. Now I have to do it.

If anyone uses Run Keeper link me as apart of your Street Team!

I will be updating my progress, 162 days!

Oh yeah one more thing… more poker in my future and more posts about actually playing in the near future!

Can’t Describe it

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:32:00 +0000

At almost 47 I guess it’s about time I start to feel grown up. For years I had this feeling of a kid trying to deny something. If I ignore it, it will go away. It does not go away and in fact it gets worse (often more expensive too).

I think the best way to describe it is I feel free. I can do what I want try what I want when I want. Having said that I am a fairly conservative person I take raising my kids very seriously. I would rather hang with them than almost anyone. I am more personally conservative but more socially liberal. Is it any skin off my nose if two men want to marry? I don’t think so, or we should figure a way to help the less fortunate.

I still need to fight my own demons… the main demon for me is laziness. I am working on not putting off until tomorrow what should be done today. Since I moved back into my house I have been successful in keeping the house clean. I have my stuff put away. Once I start to let that slide it goes downhill quickly.

I still see I have so many little things to do around the house while maintaining the big things, it really is a battle. I have made the decision to move away from my natural sloppiness and live a grown up life in a clean home, a great yard and a neat wardrobe. So it requires a little more work from me, but in the end it is worth it.

The only thing stopping me from achieving what I want is me. I have stopped me long enough.

I am keeping this blog so I can talk about things I want. Goals, dreams and fun…

Pokering

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 22:37:00 +0000

On Saturday I had my first poker session on about 3 months. I was pleased with how I played as a whole. I really only made a few small mistakes so that cannot be all bad.

I sat a new table and on the 2^nd hand flopped 2 pair and won $55 against Top Top, few hands later I flopped a straight and got paid on 2 streets by a flush draw.

Then I caught AA vs QQ, the table had very few limps unlike other $1 $2 games, I was in seat 3 and UTG made it $7, I called, expecting there to be raise, and there was to $17 and four callers to me, I do not want to play against 4 other people that called a $17 3bet. I make it $75 I get 1 caller and everyone folds. I know this is transparent play but if I took the pot pre I was ok with a nice profit and no risk. Flop comes T high I shove and get insta-called… My AA help and I was up $293.

I won a decent pot with AK on a I 3 bet pre to $20 and was called 3 times flop was QQ6 rainbow and I bet $40 and everyone folded.

I hovered around +$300 most of the night.

QQ vs T9, a really bad player called a $25 pre flop raise and hit the a T called every street and rivered a 9 lost $100 on that hand.

QQ again I made a raise to $12 pre and get 5 callers, flop was an A I was in EP and cbet $15 got a call, a raise and a re-raise. I mucked… (I probably should not have bet the $15 on the flop, but felt I needed to cbet in retrospect there was zero chance of one of the other players not having an A.

After the second loss in a short amount of time, I called it quits +$122 I averaged a little over $22 an hour.

I am back!

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:07:00 +0000

I am officially moved back in my house. I moved back in on 9/10 but it has taken me a while to feel adjusted and to get the house into order.

My concern is how I pay for all that I need to do. I am a little strapped for cash due to child support, alimony and other financial obligations that I have had forced upon me.

I had all but lost interest in poker over the last 3 or 4 months. Played only 1 time and did not play well at all. Slowly the desire has come back to me. I am ready to play, not as a pro but play 2 to 4 times a month and get some extra income so I can do what I want to do.

One of my poker downfalls was forgetting who I am. I am a cash game player that grinds, I play $1 $2 NL which means… do not bluff (often), believe the bad players when they bet, and basically play straight forward poker. Throughout the last few months I was playing regularly I tried to play differently than I do, I tried to be too fancy and I got beat and I did not have much fun.

I guess the desire to play came at the right time. I can make it on what I make but to do the things I need to do, I need to make more money and this is the best way for me to do it.

I’ll be tweeting how it goes… @gwtjr

Creature of Routine Updating Stuff:

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:40:00 +0000

It has been a while since I updated I have been very busy and not taken the time to sit and write a post. I have a new dwelling / old which has required work I have been out of my routine which has caused a lot of other issues from a diet and exercise standpoint.

The Move:

I was able to get into the house starting 9/10. The house however needed some work to it in order to move in. On Saturday we started cleaning about noon with the exception of 3 hours going to my daughters Sweet 16 party we cleaned until 1:30 am.

To say the house needed some cleaning was an understatement. I took 8 trips to dump trash, one trip to a local charity and there were another 4 trips (including me loading a u-haul and dropping the stuff in my ex’s garage). Carpet cleaners came in Tuesday and did a remarkable job of eliminating the pet odors.

My week was all about preparing for the carpet cleaners and getting the house clean. I would estimate that between myself and others helping me, we spent 70 hours over the last week just on the inside of the house and getting the crap out of the garage, so my car could fit in it.

My Routine:

Due to the challenges mentioned above I took the easy way out. I neglected my diet all together, I exercised only once in the last week. I basically slipped back into old routines. (Hell it was easier). I have paid a price! The easy way caused me to feel awful, I feel tired, sluggish and bloated.

I am quickly determining that not eating correctly is not worth it.

My routine was changed due to the volume of work and the lack of meal planning I have done.

I am back on it…. Effective today, I will swim after work and eat properly. I think I am over thinking this diet. In looking at it again, I am just trying too hard to make it difficult. I am going back to the basics. Less eating out, more eating properly.

Since the move and my parent’s donations, I have a gas grill, a charcoal grill and an electric smoker. I plan to give all three a work out.

My Plans:

One of the things I have not been very good at is updating my work out log. The one thing I remember about losing weight and getting fit was the need to track all my activity. I think I made my spread sheet a little complicated, I am going to stream line this process and make it easier, this way I can log what I do from my phone. I will link the Google Docs sheet to this blog if anyone wants to see.

I have not weighed myself since my move, since the scale is in a different spot and the fact I went from linoleum to tile I expect there to be a slight difference, but 99% of any weight difference is due to me and my poor eating habits. I will go back to updating what I weigh and the current and correct number will appear on the side bar of this blog.

I am going to back to tracking what I eat, however none of these sites incorporate a low carb diet so my numbers look off.

This last week scared me, it was amazing how easy it was for me to slip back into old self destructive routines.

My goal: I will weigh in on Tuesday I want to lose 40 lbs by the end of the year. 14 weeks so I need to average almost 3 lbs a week. In reality I do have some bloat in me from the last week of not worrying about it.

This Weeks Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:17:00 +0000

In most low-carb diet drinking beer is one of the worst things you can drink. It can have a huge impact on weight and fat loss. There are a lot of carbs in beer all carb reduced diets recommend eliminating it from your diet. The Slow Carb diet also recommends it on non-cheat days. (you can have as much of it as you like on cheat days, and I have taken advantage of this). BTW I LOVE beer I prefer it over most types of alcohol. I like whiskey and red wine as well.

On Sunday morning I gain between 5 to 7 lbs, I have drunk beer every cheat day since the diet started. It takes me 3 to 4 days to get the bloat off and then I lose between 2 to 3 lbs on average per week, and then I start back over.

I am going to see if I substitute wine or whiskey for beer what effect will it have. I am not changing anything else at this time. I tend to drink only 1 day a week, I want to see what the residual effect on my weight loss will be.

In case you were curious here is the carb breakdown.

Alcohol Item (serving size)	Carbs (g)
Beer, regular (12 fl oz)	13g
Beer, light (12 fl oz)	4.5g
Wine, red (3.5 fl oz)	1.75g
Wine, rose (3.5 fl oz)	1.5
Wine, white (3.5 fl oz)	1g
Cider, dry (1 pint)	15g
Gin, Rum, Vodka, Whisky (1 fl oz)	0g
Sherry (2 fl oz)	3g
Port (2 fl oz)	6g
Guinness (1/2 pint)	4g

I beer I drink is a wheat beer that has about 15g of carbs per serving. 6 of those babies and you have done some damage.

This weekend if I choose to drink it will be either whiskey or red wine. I really want to see what a difference it has on my weight after the cheat weekend.

Easy Way to Lose Weight

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:12:00 +0000

Remember 1 Lb. = 3500 Calories

If you have 2- 20 oz. Cokes per day…

Regular Soda has approximately 12.5 calories per oz. = 40 oz. * 12.5= 500 Calories per day

500 Cal *7 days = 3500 Calories a week or 1 lb. of weight if you were to keep all things equal and swap regular soda for diet or better yet unsweetened tea you could lose 52 lbs. in a year, doing nothing else.

I found a new weight / fitness tracking site that is really impressive with all that it does livestrong.com it is associated with Lance Armstrong. Check it out!

Interesting Facts or Coincidence?

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:08:00 +0000

Arkansas:

· Highest Divorce Rate in US among men, (not sure how a divorce can take place without a woman).

· 8^th poorest state in the US

· 9^th highest obesity rate in the US (I am defining as over 30 lbs overweight)

· 2^nd Lowest percentage of College Graduates in the US

I really think there is a correlation among these statistics. What this tells me is “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life!”

I truly believe that obesity is a bigger threat to “our way of life” then anything else. There are those who say the lack of religion is the issue. I disagree. Religion does give us a moral place to stand but the vast majority of us live a “moral” life with or without religion.

Is it really so hard to see that people with a poorer education make less money causing poor food choices? As they gain weight the become less happy with themselves causing them to make others less happy causing more divorce?

In my Opinion and experience being overweight:

· Makes you unhappy with yourself if you are unhappy you cannot make anyone else happy.

· Makes you more sedentary, because you are uncomfortable moving so you do not do as much… this makes you less interesting.

· The combination of both the above and your body shape can make you less sexually attractive to your parther.

To turn around these issues all you have to do is start. A small amount of exercise causes you to feel better about yourself and reverses a lot of the sedentary life style causing you to be more active which then makes you more interesting. More Interesting people are more attractive to their spouses.

I have lost about 20 lbs (still recovering from my scheduled cheat day), and I can tell you by exercising and losing a few pounds I feel so much better, I feel better about me, about life I am more active and generally happier.

In short active people are happier then inactive

The Best Stress Relief

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:26:00 +0000

One of the forms of exercise I have enjoyed a lot over the years is swimming laps. Some folks may find boring, I find it all consuming. Over the years I have done many forms of exercise swimming is one of the activities I have enjoyed the most.

I got away from swimming laps because it is regarded as not the best exercise for losing fat do to the fact you do not sweat, and fat floats. There is no debate on its benefits as a cardiovascular activity. Well to hell with it… I am too old and too crotchety and I will do what I want. I am going to mix swimming into my forms of exercise.

Swimming has dramatic results on my body I swim once and you can tell, but weight loss has always been a little slower. Well I one of the things I am going to measure before going further is with swimming, how much weight loss I have and how much is fat loss. I am going to do my own experiment, I am going to get another bodpod (it is time anyway) and see what happens.

One thing for me is swimming is all consuming, I get in the water, just me no music, no podcasts and I swim, I find it like meditation, I think of swimming, breathing, my lap count all the other things that are going on in my life slip away. When I finish swimming, unlike any other exercise I am totally exhausted from top to bottom. I defy anyone to swim a mile and when they get done not feel their stress to leave.

While I am going to test my weight loss, fat loss with swimming as an activity, it will not be my only one so that should help speed things along. Tim Farris said that is better to do something that is 80% effective that you can stick with then something that is 100% effective that you cannot. I can stick with this.

Whirlwind

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:33:00 +0000

Life has become a whirlwind I cannot seem to catch my breath. I am not sure how well my kids are adapting. I have a daughter turning 16, a son that changed schools and for now has to get up 3 hours before school starts in order to make it on time, and a first grader learning to sleep in her own bed. All are getting ready to move out their existing home I am not sure how much any of them are happy about it all.

As a part of the divorce I get the house so my son and I are moving out of the apartment we have lived for the last year. I know he is happy to get back into the home but it is still a change.

I have talked about his new school and the fact it is 30 miles from our house we have to make arrangements in order to get to and from school. Luckily the school offers a van to take him part of the way, but it is 10 miles or so from the house. I was able to get him in a car pool that will pick him up from the house and take him to the van. He is picked up at 0645, but I have to be at work at 600 so I am dropping him off at the house 0545. I plan to move on 9/11 we will move back into the house and he will get another hour of sleep. I am hoping this makes things easier on him. I know it will on me.

My daughters are getting ready to move out of the same house and into a really nice home their mother is getting. The oldest one seems to be ok with it but my youngest had to be bribed with My Little Pony stuff for her room.

I would love to say that life is exciting and fun and full of non-stop adventure, my life does have elements of those things, and I just seem to be busy to see it all. It all seems like I am always on the go and never getting anything done. I drive a lot especially considering I live in a small town.

I am so ready for things to slowdown a little and leave the adventures to the weekends.

Diet Stalled – Despite the Best of Intentions

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:59:00 +0000

I have been hovering around 18 lbs lost for a couple of weeks, without much movement up or down. I am not overtly cheating, but in thinking about my diet plan I think I have gotten into some bad habits that have affected my fat loss today it changes.

I have slipped in a couple of areas. I listened to Tim Farris on the Nerdist Podcast he was talking about how bad diet coke was for a diet while it does not have sugar it has ingredients that act like sugar. I also tried to make a quick meal choices and I have had protein bars, these bars have 30g of Protein but I have been having too many of them in a day.

I have also slowed down my fat loss because of going to St. Louis on trips, I have had a few beers on Friday night (my cheat day is Saturday)

I have been exercising regularly but I feel the extra days of beer, the over abundance of beer, protein bars I have slowed myself down. So now it is back to basics.

For me soda is addicting, if I do not pay very close attention I will have a ton of soda, I have had as many as 6 caffeine free sodas in a night. That ends right now. Same with protein bars, I am going to slow down having them, time to eat more meat and vegetables. Well beer will be reserved for cheat days.

The good news is I am not gaining weight, just not losing ant weight. Time to kick that into gear!

Getting My Son Into School

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:02:00 +0000

My son has decided he wanted to go to a charter school here in NWA, it is considered the best public school in Arkansas and one of the best in the US. It is an accelerated learning program where they really challenge kids to achieve. This is a small public school (320 total scholars spread over 5 grades). He was really excited about the possibility of going. Since they have limited space there is a wait list of kids to get in. We got on the wait list in June, on Monday 8/8 I received an email stating he did not get the lottery seat but if things were to change they would let me know. He was disappointed but understood. School started on Wed 8/10.

On Friday 8/12 I was emailed and told that he could go to the school because he met a very narrow criteria, he was in 8^th grade AND was going into Algebra 1 (Pre-Algebra was full and so was Algebra 2. The email asked how fast I could get down there to sign him up. We agreed on a time and I got my son and met my ex at the schools (25 miles from home) and we signed him up.

The adventure then began and all pieces fell into place. It was amazing.

1. Getting him to school since it is a small charter school there is not bus service to and from school

a. School is from 8 to 2:20, his mother and I both work?

i. The school does runs a van that I pay $80 a month to take him (cheaper than the 100 miles of driving a day for us to drive him.

ii. The van leaves at 7:15 am and drops the kids off at 4PM

b. How to get him to meet the van without missing too much work?

i. The school has a Google group and I posted about someone to drive him to school (I would pay)

ii. I got a note from a family that lives 2 blocks from me and they could drive him to the van (their son took the van as well). My ex and I agreed to take them home every day in exchange. Another issue resolved.

2. Dressing for School

a. The school required uniforms for all scholars (they call them scholars not students)

i. Can only get uniforms from Lands End.

ii. Fortunately the school allowed us to borrow some old uniform shirts and we were set. (Shirts ordered) I bought pants from other places.

We all feel (my son included) that this is a great opportunity for him. He has dreams of going to an Ivey League caliber university and this is an excellent opportunity for him to achieve his dreams.

Searching For Me…

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:56:00 +0000

Now that is time for me to move on and live the second half of my life, I guess it is time for me to figure out what I want the second half of my life to look like.

I believe that without an end goal you can never plan properly.

John Lennon wrote in a song… “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”

For me having a plan is one thing, I need to also have a little wiggle room. I want to have options as a get older. In order to have options my financial house must be in order.

Dave Ramsey Says: “Financial peace isn't the acquisition of stuff. It's learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can't win until you do this.”

If you can get to $500,000 and a house paid off which dramatically lowers your cost of living you can live on $2000 a month for almost 21 years. I am not sure I would ever retire; I think I would always want to have some sort of a part time job that could offset the money as well.

My dream retired job is to be an usher at Busch Stadium in STL. Think about you get to spend every day at the stadium, you get a little extra money and you work like 90 days a year.

Happiness

All I am looking for now is to be happy. I am only going to do things that make me or the ones I love happy.

I want to see things, go places and live life.

My Personal Journey to Permanent Weight Loss

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:09:00 +0000

-17 lbs… Bod Pod later this week to see fat loss. Weight loss seems to be a journey of peaks and valleys. More and more Americans are getting fatter every day. We all wish we were thin, but very few of us are willing to make the sacrifices needed to achieve these goes. Of those that get thin very few keep the weight off long term.

I remember my dad gaining and losing 20 or 30 lbs over time, myself having bigger swings. My sister was a little “chunky” not fat really she lost the weight and has kept it off for 15+ years… So what is the difference?

Dad eventually kept his weight off, of course having a triple bypass will motivate you to keep it off. I am really curious about the psychology of weight loss and permanent weight loss. I want to know what make some people keep the weight off while most of us do not.

Weight Loss is easy it’s a math problem, burn more calories than you take in… this can be done in many different ways. The key is not losing the weight it is keeping the weight off once you have lost it.

Is it motivation? To me motivation is a non-long term need to do something. We need a culture change. We need to make a plan we need to figure a way to stick to the plan and make this new plan a way of life. I am still searching for my plan and how to make this a permanent part of my life.

We need to have inner peace, in Buddhism to reach enlightenment you need to follow the 8 fold path… The path is doable it is not a step by step process. You actually work on all 8 steps at the same time.

I believe we all need clear and definable goals. Here are mine for weight loss.

Fitness and Health

Without this I cannot have anything else. Quality of Life is more important the quantity being unhealthy takes away both.

Fitness Goal: Body Fat Under 15% measured by using the bodpod to measure

Potential Downfalls:

· Not being prepared, I would never go to a meeting at work without being ready for it, why would I do that with my life?

o Being prepared requires personal discipline

· Taking my eye off the prize…

o Being complacent

o Thinking “this is good ENOUGH”

o Making excuses and not taking responsibility for my own actions or lack of action.

I need to have a balanced plan.

o Diet

o Exercise

o Vitamins

Becoming fit is a combination of habit and results. The more results you have the more committed you are the more committed you are the less likely you will stray from the plan. The less straying you do the more results …. And the process starts back over.

As people get closer to their goal the slow down often falling just short of the goal, why? Less results, weight loss slows down and the commitment wanes causing you to take your eye off the prize.

I asked myself how I got past this in 2003. The answer was I did not focus on reaching a specific weight, or body fat percentage. I focused on other things, I focused on doing 90 min on a Stairmaster, I focused on trying to do better the next time I worked out then I did the last time… I focused on getting in shape for a half marathon. The half marathon became consuming and once I finished it I really cut back, I lost my intensity, being so I got hurt and it all ended, and the weight game back… ALL OF IT.

My plan is to schedule two half or full marathons per year. I must run and complete and even do at least equal with I did in the previous one.

One thing I learned in 4 Hour Body is to measure and record everything.

· Work out log

· Measurements

· BodPod results recorded

I am not sure which, if any diet is the correct one for everyone, we just need to find one that works for us and stick to it.

Back….Begin

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:35:00 +0000

I am back from taking a vacation to St. Louis, I took my kids this trip and we had a great time.

The trip was a haze of activity. We were very busy at all times and the heat was draining. One of the great things about this trip was my kids were able to spend time with their cousins, my sister recently moved back to St. Louis from the East Coast and our kids have not spent a lot of time with each other over the years. They really had a good time.

I kept the kids on the run during the days…. We went to City Museum on Thursday, Magic House on Friday, visit other family on Saturday and home Sunday. Each of the evening we spent in University City with my sister and her family.

As it always seems to be the case when I am around my sister and brother in-law we drank beer, I drank much more then my fair share, and so the recovery begins.

I have 7 days until I begin formal training for the half marathon… as I write this I am not confident that I will be in good enough shape to run the whole 13 miles, but I am confident in my ability to finish the distance.

Today my exercising goes into full force, the kids are with their mother this week so I am taking advantage of it. I am beginning a 90 min a day cardio week. I am less interested in what level I am at or how many calories I burn, I want to finish the 90 minutes each day. If I achieve this I feel I will be better suited to begin my training for the race.

For the record 6.18 miles 1175 calories in 90 min.

Details Withheld….

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:58:00 +0000

We reached a financial settlement and now the divorce can be completed. Once we were able to remove a major stumbling block it went very quickly. (Funny thing is the whole process happened quickly when we are able to actually talk to each other).

I am glad that we are able to get this behind us and move on. I really think that we both have moved past each other, but with the stumbling block of the actual divorce still the way we were still a little bogged down.

The single most important thing in the whole process is our kids are happy and adjusting. A huge portion of that is due to how we were able to present a good front and remain positive. Through the whole thing we kept the kids first.

One of the keys for us was being able to talk it through. I think it was a good idea for us to decide how our marriage would end without a judge telling us. We able to both reach an agreement we could live with on our own.

Looks like I could be a single man by August 1^st.

My Needs and Wants

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:36:00 +0000

One of the things from the last post I wanted to make sure that I was clear about, focusing on my needs and my wants is not necessarily a selfish thing. Yes I want to be healthy. Yes I want to live to be old. I want to see my children have children. I want to be a part of them becoming great human beings and enjoying life.

I want to understand what they need and help them get it. This is part of why my divorce is so tough… not because I want to be with my ex-wife for the kids, but it’s the understanding that she is also an important part of their lives and I could not / would not change that… So we must get along and we will be around each other for the rest of our lives. At times we get along fine other times it’s uncomfortable (for me anyway) it’s never been particularly nasty. The only part I expect to change is the uncomfortable times. I truly feel that we will get to a place where we will have no issue being around each other.

Life Update:

I am following my lifestyle plan to the best of my ability. I am pretty much settled into the program, I have not been tempted to cheat once, if I am doing something wrong it is an accident. I can feel the difference it’s quite amazing.

I have continued my program of exercise I began as I talked about before. I am doing the Stairmaster 60 minutes a day 4 to 5 days a week. (I go 2 days off day)… One ego thing I have removed is the resistance level. In the past my competitive side would not allow me to lower the resistance once I chose my goal…. I would often struggle through the challenges and make it harder than it needed to be.

My focus is not longer on how fast or how hard it is, my focus is finishing. When the time for the half-marathon comes I am not going to win (Bold statement on my part). My goal for this first one is to finish. Once I am able to complete one then I look to improve on the time.

It Is What It Is

noreply@blogger.com (J. T.) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:34:00 +0000

I am coming up on 47, I am in the middle of a divorce after 18+ years of marriage, the last 3 years of my life have been difficult, I am not where I wanted to be in life (is anyone really?) and I have never been happier.

I am at peace with the fact so many things in my life are outside of my control. I can only make the best decisions I can based on the information placed in front of me and let the chips fall where they fall.

I have started to pay attention to life… I checked out for a while, I was going through the steps I was trying to what I thought right even if it was not always what was right for me.

I was reading about Buddha and some of his teachings are so true no matter what religion you are… (I am not claiming to be Buddhist).

Buddhism has the 4 Noble Truths

1. Suffering Exists

2. There is a cause for suffering

3. There is an end to suffering.

4. In order to end suffering you must follow the Eightfold Path

To me the easiest way for me to understand (and it’s not 100% right) is do not say, do or think anything bad about people.

So I am striving for inner peace. The decisions of the past have been made the decisions of the future have not happened all I can do is control my decisions right now.

I have begun the journey of not judging people or trying to instill my sense of right and wrong on them. I am just accepting they think different. What I strive to do is remove my emotions and sensibilities out the equation and understand what is motivating them and then react accordingly.

In doing all this I feel incredible. I am focused on what I want. I have written in the past about my needs and wants, I continue to focus on those and life becomes great.