UPAY, weight can be many things: water, muscle, food in the gut, fat. This is why I personally don´t care about kilos but body fat. 
Notifications
Clear all
Your Poker Blogs
685
Posts
43
Users
405
Reactions
92.2 K
Views
The holiday was great - we will definitely go back to Greece and likely to the same hotel.
We were in Rhodes, and luckily we selected the correct week, considering the wildfires currently engulfing the island.
Had we gone the week later we may have been stuck there for longer.
Anyways, a great time was had by all and I'm only up 3 lbs at 11st 12 - was 11st 9 on the morning we left so very happy about that.
I've had some wonderful vacations in Greece. Nice country, chill people, good food, good music.
I don't think anyone would mind if you plugged the hotel here real quick.
Hotel Sun Palace, Faliraki.
It's mainly for kids as it has an on-site waterpark we frequented almost daily.
Main reasons for wanting to return
- Friendly staff
- Clean, large rooms
- Amazing evening entertainment
- Animation team (doing evening and poolside entertainment)
- The bar staff were patient and friendly
The food was OK, typical all-inclusive fair with a good selection and nobody went hungry.
The weather was HOT, very HOT, 39 degrees at its peak, with lows of 28-30 at night.
We Irish are not used to that, (since arriving home peak temperature has been 17 degrees) we were well prepared with sun-screen but had to take frequent sun breaks or else we'd have melted!
The only downside is the flight time (arrived at the hotel at 10 pm local), missing dinner (snack bar food was available to us)
The flight home wasn't much better, left at 10 pm local time, arriving in Dublin at 01:30 and the drive home from there is 2.5 hours.
Not enough of a downer for us to not do it again - except we will do it in early June when it's still hot (high 20s to low 30s)
Another reason for going back is to do some more exploring - we did visit Lindos via boat with the intention of visiting the Acropolis. That plan had to be canned though, due to the heat and the unwillingness of the kids to scale that height by foot. (I may have gone on my own but probably would have been exhausted halfway up!)
All-in-all, very happy, value for money and very likely to return in 2024.
Progress photos:
So I don't really do photos and the before picture is from some time ago (would definitely have been heavier than in this shot)
Before (October 2021)
Spoiler
After (July 2023)
Spoiler
When August comes around I will start to get back on the exercise train with a final push towards the end goal.
Thanks all 
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Wow, you´re SLIM!The biggest challenge comes NOW: keeping the weight off!
Absolutely it is, but that would only happen if I allow it or press the self-destruct button (which I fully intend not to do!)
Almost a month now without exercise and I'm pretty constantly at 163-165 lbs if we discount the extra few gained during the holidays.
I should be back at my pre-holiday weight in the few days.
Before holiday: 163 lbs
After holiday: 168.5 lbs
Today: 164.5 lbs
That's not even to much. increase after the holidays. It looks like you almost back on the right track
Happy Monday all!
It's time to get back on the bike (literally) and finish the challenge!!!
Current weight: 165 lbs / 11st 11 / 74.84kg
Goal weight: 154 lbs / 11st / 69.85kg
Goal date: 30th September 2023
Schedule:
Bike 30km every other day starting today
1,500 calories intake daily
Why?
Why not! 11st would get me into the correct BMI category and 20% body fat.
I completed 30km today and not gonna lie after nearly a month off it was tough. Not tough to the point where I felt like giving up though!
Rest day tomorrow and back in action on Wednesday.
Poker updates:
Played live poker with my colleagues last week and ended up in 2nd. Fun to play again, fun to play live too but no chance of a comeback to the online felts in the near future.
Hope you are all well and see you soon!
Weekly update:
1 week down and 3 lbs down, weighing in today at 11st 8 lbs.
Pretty happy with week one, we stayed on script for most of it. The only off script moment was an extra 5km on the bike on Wednesday which I was happy to do on my day off!
Today was a Bank Holiday in Ireland so I was off and decided to reset the week again instead of waiting until tomorrow. Again, I will cycle on alternate days (Mon, Wed, Fri and Sunday)
I downloaded a food tracking app (Nutracheck) and it's been a lifesaver! No longer manually logging food, most items are scannable or searchable in the database and that's saved me so much time and headaches!
It's also more precise in tracking burned calories with cycling - turns out I was grossly underestimating this (I always had that feeling) based on how quick I was able to lose weight from the beginning.
In short, a 30km cycle which takes me 45 minutes is worth 713 calories whereas I was allowing 450. I hadn't been giving it much merit as I was concentrating more on cals in than those burned.
Things are going to plan, I expect to lose 1-1.5lbs each week, my tracking app has me at the goal by mid 20s in September.
Update:
Another week in the books and we are inching closer to the finishing line!
Another 2.5 lbs have fallen, and the new weight is 11st 5.5 lbs.
5.5 lbs down, 5.5 lbs to go!
There were some last-minute adjustments last week, no cycling on Wednesday but I made up for it on Thursday instead.
I will be away in the UK for a football game with my brothers this weekend.
I'm not expecting to lose anything this week as I very much intend on enjoying the experience and eat/drink as I see fit (within reason)
Late flight on Friday and back Sunday afternoon means I should be able to fulfill my normal cycling routine (energy levels may be an issue on Sunday, but we shall see!)
Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
I will be away in the UK for a football game with my brothers this weekend.
What match are you going to see?
Originally posted by Harrier88
Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
I will be away in the UK for a football game with my brothers this weekend.What match are you going to see?
Liverpool v Bournemouth at Anfield.
Just booked a stadium tour as well.
Liverpool was awesome, made some good memories, met some lovely people and had a great 2 days away.
Our accommodation was a minute's walk (or less) from the ground. Sleeping arrangements could have been better but for the price we paid it was value for money. Shout out to Soccer Suite on that one!
The game itself was peculiar, 1-0 down after 52 seconds although that was ruled out (assume for a foul in the build-up) Then we really went 1-0 down after 3 minutes! By Half Time it was 2-1. The second half saw a red-card for Mac Allister which looked from the stands very innocuous and so it proved. Despite the numerical disadvantage, it was 3-1 a few minutes later and that's how it remained.
That's 3 visits to Anfield and 3 victories! Previous visits were Olympiakos (Champions League) in December 2004 (Yes I was in the Kop when Gerrard scored that late goal to get us into the Knockout Rounds) and Fulham (EPL) in 2007.
I was worried coming home on Sunday that my good work earlier in the week would have been decimated by poor food choices and alcohol. That plus I did not cycle as intended yesterday.
I weighed in this morning at 11st 4.75 lbs for a 0.75 lb loss on the week so I am delighted with that.
Back on track with the cycling today, although admittedly I struggled mightily towards the end I still completed the 45 minutes and covered my usual 30km in distance.
Rest of the week should be as follows
60 mins Wednesday (40 km)
45 mins Friday (30km)
45 mins Sunday (30km)
All going well I should reach 11st by 7th September and will then take stock.
Giving serious consideration to bulking my upper body and getting some abs for the novelty but that might change.
Considering coming out of poker retirement for some WCOOP, again though, it remains to be seen!
Had some unexpected free time this week so I've been getting in some extra exercise and my diet has been pretty clean
45 mins Monday (30km)
60 mins Wednesday (40km)
20 mins Thursday (12.5km)
45 mins Friday (30km) afternoon
45 mins Friday (30km) evening
Still to complete
45 mins Sunday (30km)
I really love the NutraCheck app, it has been a real game-changer. It's helped me to keep account of my fruit and vegetable intake and more importantly my water consumption. On top of that, I've stayed well within my calorie budget this week too.
Yesterday
https://www.nutracheck.co.uk/Diary/Share/dc9e1759-9bbe-4aee-bf66-a6366ced8796
Today
https://www.nutracheck.co.uk/Diary/Share/9430a77a-fdb1-440d-9566-3a698ebe3e2f
I'm hoping to be somewhere in the region of 11st 2 or below come Monday's weigh-in.
There was no cycling yesterday, it was not needed after the double session on Friday.
That, plus I needed rest and I didn't want to do Sunday and Monday back-to-back after the double Friday session.
In any case, I come with good news, 11st 1.75 this week for a loss of 3 lbs on the week.
The BMI goal has now been completed - I've reached the "Normal Weight" goal (albeit I am on the very high end of it) Nonetheless I am there and it is done!
Jan
Spoiler
Aug
Spoiler
That said, I am a mere 2 lbs off 5 stone loss overall and I'm going to get there and stop!
That means another week to 10 days max and I can finally think about building muscle and ironing out my abs.
At least I can stop boring you all with this as well 
Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
That said, I am a mere 2 lbs off 5 stone loss overall and I'm going to get there and stop!That means another week to 10 days max and I can finally think about building muscle and ironing out my abs.
At least I can stop boring you all with this as well ♦
Well, I liked following along on your progress, and I expect other people did too.
All of this once again demonstrates how stupid BMI really is, if it barely puts you at the high end of the "normal" category after that impressive weight loss. Ah well, you're beating it at its own game, I suppose.
What can we expect here next, except building muscle etc? Any poker, possibly? Or will you take a break from blogging altogether again?