Road to BKK: chasing peak footy form for March amateur tourney

On to more important things. Uruguaya vs thai vs Argentinian vs Brazilian for a wife?

I would vote Argentinian but they kind of rude. I never went to Brazil so maybe that's where it's at. Never went to Thailand either but they look too small and skinny.

Good job getting back in shape. 145kg to 95kg is impressive.

I am with a Brazilian now and it is vvg, albeit she has high expectations around integrity, levels of attention etc. NB at high end of realistic/fair...no ridiculous hoops to jump through, but way way higher than Aussie and BRit chicks

I would guess Thai are the lowest of those 4..

I guess it depends on what kind of relationship you want.

I see a lot of farang-thai couples that look super happy (I was in a relationship myself for about 5 years and was quite happy for most of it). If you like a traditional relationship ie: guy works and provides and girl stays at home with the kids/taking care of the house, then this is your best option. Don't expect much depth or intelectual stimulation as thai people in general are quite shallow and are happy to spend countless hours on social media or 'hanging out' with friends ie: getting together and consuming social media while sitting at the same table. I can see why relationships with thai girls succeed though, as it's a good refuge after a hard day of work when you get home and just want to to switch off your brain, relax and watch netflix. In Thailand they have this thing of 'happy wife, happy life' and it's quite true.
After years living there though, that shallowness got to me and that's why I left, and now I'd never date (nevertheless marry) a thai woman. Oh, and if you want a thai wife then be ready to live in Thailand: success stories of couples moving out of Thailand and being happy are very few, thai people are very tied to their culture and don't do well when adapting to different countries/culture/food/weather, etc.

Then latinas they're all great. I don't know many non-Rio girls, but cariocas are very fun and easygoing, love being outdoors, doing social activities, etc. If you want a more traditional relationship you can surely find a family oriented catholic girl, or you can just go for a more open minded no-mono short hair tatooed and tanned free spirit, and then you have everything between those two extremes to pick from. A nice thing about brazilians is they come in all shapes and forms, so you have blondes with blue eyes, black girls, asians, redheads, etc.

Argies are my favorite but I can see how their sasiness and go-getter mentality can be an issue when looking for a wife, but great in my case when all I'm looking for are fun dates and situationships. Also maybe I like them a lot because is the closest to an uruguayan you can get, but way more diverse as well and abundant, unlike Uruguay where I probably already met all the girls my age (kinda exagerating, but not that much lol). I can see argentinians being less loyal than thai girls for example, and less willing to marry (for sure less accepting of a traditional relationship, feminism is strong down there) but this could very well be an stereotype and like everything ymmv.

Uruguayans, well, they doesn't even count, it's basically a big village and in order to find a girl from there you probably have to go there, and why would you do that? lol. We're only 3.5M total so chances of meeting a potential wife are slim to none anywhere else in the world. If you do happen to meet one I'd say it'll be a good partner though as uruguayans are known to be educated and well mannered.

Currently on a virtual queue to get a ticket for the 2nd leg of [U]Peñarol-Racing for Copa Libertadores ..., in case I get the ticket I'll be flying to BSAS for the game on the 18th and coming back to Rio on the 20th.

Had a long day yesterday of coaching and stable meetings + was meeting a [U]poker friend[/U], so only had time for a quick shoulder workout (3 exercises/2 sets per exercise) and some lower body stretching. That left me with 2 available days this week (fri-sat) to tackle down the rest of the body. I'm currently doing PPL + 1 upper + 1 lower day, did the upper and lower days already so decided to do a push and a pull day but throw legs in each day, same as I was doing back in Thai when in fully footy mode. Gonna go back to PPL and stick to that while in Rio (until Oct 15th), and fully go for something like push-pull-upper-lower or just a double push and double pull one more upper oriented and one more lower oriented when in BSAS until pre season start Jan 1st (still haven't decided how to handle weight training while doing the pre season, will think about that closer to the date).

Today looked like this:

Trap bar DL - 3 x 10/8/8
Lat pulldown - 3 x 15/10/10
Pull up - 1 x 4
Landmine Row - 2 x 10
Hip Thrust - 2 x 10
Seated Row Machine - 3 x 15
Bayesian Curls - 2 x 15
Inclined DB curls - 2 x 10

Might go to futvolei training if I'm not too tired or too excited to play poker when I wake up from my nap in a few hours, let's see.

Was planning on doing squats after a while (been doing less taxing variations for the past 3-4 months ie: hack, smith machine, split, etc) but woke up a little bit wonky (even tho I slept 8hs) and was not feeling it. But when I was wrapping up with calf raises saw the smith machines and they were all taken and the squat rack was empty and meters away from me, so I didnt resist it and went for it. Just did a couple sets tho. Nothing beats a good heavy back squat!. I underestimated how much they take out from me until recently, maybe it's age or who knows what, but I used to start most of my leg or push days with squats and be ok until last year or so when squats first = shitty workout after.

Workout looked like this:

Leg extensions - 3 x 15
Calf raises - 3 x 15/15/12
Squat - 2 x 10/6
Inclined DB press - 3 x 10/8/6
Dips - 3x 15/15/12
Pushdowns - 3 x 15
Single arm pushwodns - 2 x 15

Like I said I been cutting down on calories a bit, aiming to hit 86-87 by January. It feels like a 'waste' to do a super taxing workout and eat 'only' 350-400g of chicken lol. Haven't been on an intentional cut in a while and forgot this feeling. Guess it won't be that bad because I started early and won't have to do any excessive restrictions, just cut calories now a little bit and maybe a tiny bit more around october-november and we are there. I weighted myself today and was 1kg lighter than last week but could be just variance.

Also, I'm super obsessed with futvolei, what a mega fun side-side-quest (main side quest is just football). I started going 1x/week and now I'm at 3x/week. Whenever you start something new, it's so easy to see progress at first so I'm riding that wave of constant improvement from now. I'm mad at myself for not doing this last time I was in Rio last year: what better activity than exercise in the beach surrounded by brazilian natural beauty?
Have no particular goals for this side-side quest but it'd be nice to be able to partake in a tourney or even just get a few 'real' games and not just training before I leave Rio in October, let's see.

Been wanting to do an update with a pic dump of all the meals I eat at these 'self-service' brazilian places... but I keep forgetting to take pics before eating lol. Will try to compile a few and drop them here in a few days.

Training going well, futvolei going great as well and boxing too, both fun side quests. Going to BSAS from monday to wednesday next week to watch the Copa Libertadores game, body could use a couple days break.

Last march I went to Costa Rica with some of my best friends for 3 weeks, and after 4-5 days I was done and mentally out of there, counting the days to go back to my routine. Last year did a whole month in Europe and same, I checked how many days I have left until going back to active mode and when I saw it was 21 I almost die. So I don't really wanna do long holidays no more, but 2-4 day breaks here and there (no poker, light or no working out) are mandatory to stay sane long term (my therapist call this 'invisible training').

Wednesdays in Thailand were the highlight of my week. It was the not playing poker day, so I would wake up a couple hours later than if I played, around 5-6am, and study poker all morning. After lunch and running some errands it was another long study session or some coaching sessions as it was already morning in Europe, and around 4pm I'd break to chill for a bit before heading to football 'training'.

This was the weekly 'training' session with the Farangutans and it was loads of fun. We called it training but it was just a (intense) pick up game among ourselves. Best days were when we had three teams of 7-8 people, and we would play 10 min games. Winning team stays on the pitch for up to 3 consecutive games, and the team that just gets to the pitch can stay with just a draw.
Some nights we only had enough people for 2 teams, so we would play 7 a side with subs, and some other nights (the worst ones!), if we had a bunch of guys, we would make 4 teams, and games were only 8 min long with both teams going out in case of a draw, only way to keep the pitch was to win, and you could play max 2 games in a row, not 3.

After training (7 to 9pm), some of us would stay for beers, and this was a very nice opportunity to sit down with a nice collection of characters from all generatios and from all over the world, all living in Thailand for years. Mostly teachers, or in the education industry, but some other profiles as well. After Thailand legalized cannabis, I switched beers for joints and gatorade.

To wrap up the day, I'd have my cheat meal at some of the many thai places in my neighborhood. My go-to was usually pad kra pao gai, kai dao song (stir fried basil chicken with double fried egg) or some variation of that. Searching for an example on my camera roll, found this one of what appears to be kai pat met mamuang kai jiaw (stir fried cashew nuts chicken, topped with omelet):

After leaving Thailand, I didn't have a designated 'fun' day of the week, until I got to Brazil this time a couple months ago, and wednesdays went back to being the highlight of the week.

Also a non-playing poker day, I wake up now kinda late, as I'm playing 4-5pm onwards so I finish after midnight and set my alarm 8hs after I get to bed. I wake up and either do luch directly + studying, or breakfast + studying and then lunch and some more studying, depending on what time I wake up. After that I get on the subway and head towards Babilonia favela where [U]Copaleme Praia Clube[/U] is located, and where I'm taking private boxing classes with a trainer for the first time ever. I knew this guy as he's also an uruguayan living here, and after a lifelong avoidance of martial arts, decided to go on a small side quest to learn the basics of boxing. I have no further pretetions on this side quest than learning the most basic stuff and having a first contact with martial arts, that I may or may not furtherly develop in the future.

After that, I stop by on the way to the metro station for a half liter açaí (usually topped with granola, honey, whey protein and banana) for an 'intra-workout', cuz after that I'd go home and rest about one hour before heading to futvolei training.

After futvolei, I go back home, take a cold shower (not that I choose to, is that this ****ing heater doesn't heat!! and it's quite cold for Rio standards right now), smoke an illegal joint on the window, and then head to this fancy 'self-service' called [U]Catete Sushi and Grill[/U] very close to my place for my weekly cheat meal. Is not so much a cheat meal nutrition wise, but more financial wise, as a plate like the one below is around 25 USD. There are many self-services in the area where I usually have lunch, where you get a nutritious 500-800g meal for 8-11 USD, but this one I go to on wednesdays is next level. Main feature is that they have a grill on all the time, and you can request anything grilled for you (I usually go for picanha and salmon, and the salmon is top notch quality). Also you have a sushi bar, even tho I haven't tried it yet (same way I don't usually eat picanha stake in Asia, I prefer to eat other stuff than sushi in LatAm) and a big dessert table (that I haven't tried yet either because each time I'm so full with main that I have no room left for dessert lol). But in general the quality of the ingredients in the salad bar and the other food options is top notch, 5-star hotel level I'd say.

Nice thing is that usually around this time on wednesdays, there's some live footy game on TV, so I watch Brasileirao or Copa Libertadores games while eating.

(Salmon, picanha, baked potatoes, salad and fruits)

So I'll be looking forward to wednesdays from now on until I go back to BSAS to the no-designated fun day routine. Then I'll probably start looking forward to when I'm back in Thai in march and I can have the old Chiang Mai wednesdays back. But of course, I'll enjoy BSAS in the meantime, as there's plenty of good stuff over there for me too, just not allocated to one specific day of the week.

What poker do you play that is not infested by bots? Or is everyone is playing on one computer and the other computer on different IP looking up GTO.

It makes zero sense to me that online poker still exists. I mean would you play chess for money against some random guy online? Hell no, both games are solved.

Online poker is alive and well, especially MTTs which is the hardest format to solve with all the asymmetric stacks, ICM considerations, and more recently, all this wave of PKO and Mystery Bounty events, which add complexity to the game tree.

I had chances in the past of switching to other formats (there was a time when in Chiang Mai there was a big crew of spaniard TOP TOP spin & go players and I was struggling with MTTs and they all offered me mentoring and help to transition) and I always favored MTTs, not only cuz I like the format the most (yea, very masochistic ik) but because I knew long term it was going to be the healthier format to play online for a living.

I think the 'shadiest' site I play on is WPN, where I'm sure there are a few accounts using RTA, and well, Bodog/Ignition, where who knows what the **** goes on with all the anonymous players, max late regging cartels and whatnot, but the vast majority of fishes that still want to play a $33 5k GTD after work while drinking a beer, or 'poker club' heroes that because they break even at their home game think they can make money playing vs guys that study heaps, outwheights the EV you might lose vs bots or RTA users (who, once again, might still be playing quite bad in a format like a PKO where it's virtually impossible to solve real time with all the variables in play in one hand).

But I do get this feeling from many folks that don't play online regularly and think it's a massive bot fest everywhere when in reality yes, there are probably more bots/RTA now than ever, but is not nearly as bad as a problem as it might feel it is from the outside because most sites care about protecting the environment and there's still plenty of recs and bad regs that study less (worse) than you, and that's who you profit from (maybe if I was a cash game reg, my take on this would be different)

One thing is for sure tho, and is that you can't make it online nowadays, in any format or variant, unless you study A LOT. I've seen many old school regs that came from the days when you could read a couple strategy articles and ask a few questions on 2+2 strat forums and crush, that had a very hard time adapting to the AI PIO GTOW Monker era, and realized that now you actually gotta grind outside the tables too to make it, and phased out, went for a different career, moved into becoming agents/reps for sites, etc.

The way I see it is: Moneymaker era (anyone can make it, even this guy who was an amateur playing from his house!) ended when Martin Jacobson (young swedish pro that eats healthy and meditates) won the WSOP ME in 2014, and that started the new 'AI/PIO/Monker/GTOW' era, when poker became more of a mental sport, and in order to make money playing it, you need to treat it as such, or at least way more serious than most guys used to back in 2004-2014.

I was 'lucky' enough to start playing around 2011-12, so I knew from the very beggining that in order to make it in this world I had to grind my ass off both on and off the tables so I knew what I was getting myself into from the get go. Even more so: I liked the idea of being a 'pro-athlete' (no, poker is not a sport, but for lack of a better term...) at something, after failing to do so in footy, so this was my way to redeem myself in a way for never playing pro in the sport I loved the most, but being able to do something similar in a way.

And after this message, written right after my 45' morning study shift, I'll go hit legs, eat my healthy lunch and take a nap, before battling at the tables later tonight 🚀

Nice post, love it.

I crushed online poker 2006 to whenever black Friday hit. Then I came back for COVID since everything shut down and picked up 40k grinding 200 to 600 NL in 6 weeks.

But I am a cash game player. And it just doesn't feel right to play online. I am a dinosaur.

But I get your drift, multitabling complex online tourneys still has $$$$$$.

Oh wait I did cheat in 2020 because I bought hand histories and manually labeled the fish and then had software tell me when they sat down.

I guess I would look into this again if the player pool in Usa kept adding more states. But I just don't see how online poker survives.

Just got back from a 3 day trip to BSAS to watch the game above. It was pain all over, first trying to get into the tiny space Racing allocated for away fans, that was WAY oversold. Was barely able to watch 1st half because I was too far behind on one of the stairs accessing the stand (couldn't even make it to where the seats were) and after 1st half ended people pushed, pushed and pushed and was able to watch the whole 2nd half somewhat decently.

At some point before the start of the gamer when people were pushing and shoving and screaming trying to get in, I thought it all had a lot of potential to end up being a Hillsboroug Disaster 2.0, especially when some girls were trying to escape back to the stairs and people kept on pushing, but thankfully nothing too bad happened, only a bunch of fans ended up watching the game on their cellphones on the access to the stands, after being unable to make it far enough to see the pitch live.

As for the rest of the trip it was pretty cool, crashed at a poker friend's couch and did nothing but smoke weed and chill, weather was terrible and the game was close to being called of due to a very unusual cyclone in the region, so we could barely go outside (still managed to go for a couple drinks to a rooftop in Recoleta on monday).

Even tho it was 2 nights, so about 3-4 meals (+ 4-5 drinks first night), I feel like I gained weight and see myself all fluffy on the mirror. This could very well be my former fat self that still lingers in the back of my mind and punishes me everytime I go off track, even if it's a couple day detour (and not a terrible one). And it was not even the worst diet, except those six argie 'medialunas' (croissants) I had for breakfast on the 2nd day lol, BSAS 'medialunas' are NUTSSSS 🤤

I guess this feeling of being a fat **** and seeing myself 10kg fatter when I'm probably still at the same weight I was before the trip will go away after a couple workouts and a couple days of clean eating (not 'i guess', it's more a 'i know, been here before many times).

Same way I try to do the 'if you were going to write a bio about yourself 50 years down the line, how much paper would you allocate to the problem you're currently dealing wiht?' line of thiking when facing problems, I'll implement for this detour (or future small ones): 'how much will these 72hs of a detour matter when you're in BKK last week of march playing the BKK invitational in your prime footy shape?'.

manorexia's a thing, bro!

those huge weekends definitely do leave you fleshy. A lot of it is water though. Best thing to ease your mind is to go completely complex carb free for a few days and you'll piss out most/all of the excess water

Holy ****, I didn't know that word existed but yes, I do suffer from that! Thanks for sharing.

I thought it was just an obsession developed after years of obesity that stopped me from enjoying days off diet and holidays, out of (irrational) fear of going back to that state, but now knowing it has a name and everything I might be able to tackle it, albeit it won't be easy nor fast: I suffer from this post shitty eating 'guilt' pretty much since I can recall.

Nah that's not manorexia, that's reality slapping you in the face. At 27 bmi (6'1 95kg), most humans are gonna have a potbelly.

So completely normal to feel like a fatty after gorging 6 medialunas. It's healthy trauma from being a former 145kg morbidly obese fatty.

Shiet I am 23 bmi and i have some excess stomach fat. I would be healthier and look better at 22 bmi. Is that manorexia? No, that's reality.

Get back on that horse is all we can do.

Besides this particular case of going off track 2-3 days and seeing the results in the mirror, I'm on the manorexia spectrum for sure. I don't remember the last time I had pizza or a burger and didn't feel guilty afterwards, and everytime I go off track even if it's for a couple days, I'll feel like a fat **** for a while afterwards.

That said, I always identified this obsession as something somewhat-positive, as it helps me stay on track and healthy. Yes, the motivation is not the best psychologically but at least makes me do what I gotta do in order to stay healthy and fit. I see so many people that try over and over and over to lose weight or get fit and fail over and over, well, that's not a problem for me nor it ever will.

Gotta look at the upside of being a fat **** for so long early in life! it was a nightmare with all the bullying and shame back when I was 5-16 years old, but escaping that version of myself is what keeps me on track decades after ��

Everyone uses BMI. Even guys like Alan Aragon and Lyle Mcdonald say it's pretty good.

This notion that people can be too muscular is nonsense. Genetic freaks are too small percentage of population.

If you natty, 99% chance BMI works for you. And in this case our hero has 27 bmi. While he does look good in that soccer pic, 27bmi is indicative of a growing pot belly.

I mean I am 23 bmi, train consistently and could lose a couple of pounds. Do i suffer from manorexia? No, I can feel the beginning of a spare tire if I gain any weight about 23 BMI. In other words, the realities of natty training.

guess I need to cut down on my magnificent quads. currently 24.9, just squeezing into the 'ok' range

tbh I could happily drop 2kg and get to 81.5 but that gets me to super lean territory

Ah yea, that pic is back from 2023 iirc, I was around 87-88kg (target weight for Jan 1st).

Anyways, I found a hack to avoid that bloated feeling and looking fluffy in the mirror: getting so sick you can't eat anything!!

Saturday I woke up feeling light headed and a little bit hot, needed 2 coffees to be ready to go to the gym and dragged myself through a 6.5-7/10 pull workout. Woke up from nap feeling feverish and when I sat down to grind I felt drops of sweat falling down my back which is not a good sign.

Woke up on sunday feeling quite feverish and with a sore throat. Still, sundays are the highest EV days for MTT grinders so I was not going to miss it. Walked to the nearest self-service open on sundays to have lunch and buy a to-go meal for the night and stopped on the pharmacy on the way back to get a full stack of meds. Finished the session alright albeit slightly earlier and went to bed.

Silly me was hoping to maybe rest first half of monday and be good to go for 4.30pm futvolei class + night grind, but I spent the whole day sleeping, falling back and forth fever dreams and waking up for a few minutes just with enough energy to drag myselft to the toilet, take some meds, and at some point late at night, eat a greek yogurth and a few pieces of pineapple (only food I had on the fridge). I was coughing my lungs out and had to leave a coffee mug by the bed just to spit that greenish ugly looking stuff I kept accumulating.

Tuesday was not much different, but around dawn managed to walk 50m to a soup stall they set up at night near my place and buy a big chicken and veggies soup which was the only food I ingested in the whole day. Bought some more cough syrup and went back to bed to sleep again until wednesday morning.

I had a coaching session on wednesday and woke up ready to do it, just to find out that I was so weak from the lack of food that I could barely make it from bed to the PC. Also my stomach was all messed up from swallowing phlegm and snot that even tho I haven't had anything solid in a while, I had to throw up a couple times a greenish looking watery substance. I don't know how, but managed to go through a mediocre coaching session and went back to bed. Woke up around dawn again and this time I was already feeling better: no fever, a different (better) kind of cough and most importantly, hungry! so I walked again the 50m to the cafe nearby and had a chicken-cheese-salad sandwich, a multi fruit juice and bought an acai with banana and honey to go for later. This was the first time I went back to bed and didnt fall asleep immediatley which was a good sign. Still was in no shape to do anything productive so just read a bit on my kindle before eating the acai and falling back asleep until this morning, when I woke up in pretty good shape, had my usual eggs-avocado-toast breakfast and am preparing for a group coaching session a couple hours from now.

I don't remember being this sick since June 1998. Yes, I remember the exact date because it was during France World Cup and it was thanks to a similar virus to this one that my passion for football started, as I was bed ridden for a couple weeks and had nothing else to do but watch all the games on TV.

Not sure what virus I got but I'm surprised it got me this ****ing hard. As you can see I'm a healthy individual: eat quite clean, workout a lot (maybe too much?) and yet it kept me in bed for almost 3 days. No **** when covid came around it wiped out a bunch of older folks, if a normal virus had me struggling like this, I can only think what it would do to someone in his/her late 70s-80s or a very unhealthy individual with bunch of co-morbidities (and no, I still don't agree with how governments handled the pandemic with all the silly measures and restrictions-nor really wanna start a debate about it- but it surely helped me see why a 'small flu' like brazilian ex president named it, wiped out a big % of the older population).

Now yes, hope to have a pretty normal day today and -fingers crossed- be able to at least do an upper/lower workout on fri/sat and go to futvolei class tomorrow, so it's not a completely wasted week.

Well, that ****ing virus surely helped with the cut lol.

At 91kg should be on track to hit those 87 by Jan 1st. Is just 1kg/month. If I can go even lower it'd be great, as a pre season like the one I'll go through will need plenty of calories to just maintain, so it'd be nice to get there with room to eat a lot and not struggle more than neccesary with super hard exercise + restrictive (or semi restrictive) eating.

Today was my official comeback to physical activity after one week off. Went to the gym on saturday but just to be there really lol, did some stretches and exercises with no weight or almost no weight and that was that. Today did a very mediocre upper body day just to get back on the groove. No more fever, no more fatigue, just a lot of coughing and a sore throat. But the coughing part is the most annoying, especially at night as I wake up EVERY SINGLE NIGHT due to a severe cough attack. The worst is when it happens around 6-7am cuz usually I can't go back to sleep afterwards. Hope this goes away within 3-4 days cuz it's really getting annoying. At least the worst part is done.

After gym ate something, read a bit on my kindle and went for futvolei lesson, knowing very well I was gonna be rusty after one week not touching the ball. It was me and 4-5 brazilian girls in the class, is amazing the girl:boy ratio in this school. Even tho I don't interact beyond the usual class stuff with my partners (you don't **** where you eat), I love to be immersed in this kind of environment, learning something new, playing ball with a bunch of brazilian hotties in Flamengo beach, yea, life doesn't get much better than that.

Monthly fee for the futvolei academy is 150 BRL (27.57 USD) for 3 classes/week. I been keeping track of my payments and I'm sure I was up to date with them, but today talking to 'someone' (not sure who runs the whatsapp account I talk to), they told me I owed one month. I went back to check message by message and asked them kindly to go back and do the same themselves so they can see I'm right, but nop, they were not having it and told me I owe one month. I think the GTO play here is super easy, and anyone doing something different is wrong: I transferred them 150 BRL more and told them something like: 'After reviewing our chat twice, I'm 100000% sure I'm correct, but here's another 150 BRL so we are both on the same page as I like to train at your academy and I want no problem'. They offer me to go talk to them in person to clarify everything but no, I'm ok with this solution and I wish all problems in life could be solved with 25.57 USD. Is only fair because I genuinely think they never took the trouble to check the whole convo and see what I'm saying, I don't think there's ill intent, and because is a one-off thing, but yea, arguing back and forth or wasting X amount of minutes to solve this issue when I can just throw the EV of 2/3 MTTs at it and be done with it, it's clearly the play imo.

To celebrate my comeback to activity, went to my favorite fancy self-service, even tho it was not wednesday (I guess I'm owed two anyways: one from last week when I was too sick to eat anything decent and one from the week before when I was in BSAS watching footy). Plate doesn't look too good I admit it, but grilled salmon was amazing as usual:

Gonna use this break from training to go back to a more functional/footy oriented workout. Nothing too crazy just yet but slowly replace cable flies for example for dips, basically cut down on machine volume a bit and go for more compound movements. Sometime during november-december I'll transition to strictly push/pull training (all body that is), and still gotta figure out how to integrate weight training with pre season during january-february, might ask chatgpt coach or the real coach that will run the pre-season and see what he recommends (he's an eminance of football conditioning, having worked with many professional teams and top athletes 1on1 so who better to answer these kind of questions than him).

Going back to BSAS on Oct 15th. This month and a half should have a lot of poker. Coachings are suspended in the stable due to the series so no much to do but grind. I personally don't go super crazy over the series, I just stick to my nigthly schedule and avoid big variance events with huge fields, except on sundays. I never liked the unbalanced approach some folks take during SCOOP/WCOOP, and I realized the few times in my life when I was not feeling great or when bad **** happened (lost a lot of money, felt too lost/too sad/too depressed, felt out of place, disaligned with my values, etc) was when I went long periods being super unbalanced towards too much grind or too much leisure time. So I'd rather have a steady productivity output throughout the year where I always play poker/study poker/go gym/play footy/do some kind of social stuff with friends, than go mega super hard during series and then chill more the rest of the year, cuz I don't want to give up gym/footy during series and I don't want NOT play poker during low season lol.

So, I think I can confirm that what I had was COVID. I was 85-90% ok on friday of the 2nd week (1st week was pretty much in bed all the time) and on saturday-sunday I went back to 60-65% with cough getting even worse than before (waking me up in the middle of the night), fatigue and whatnot. Maybe I pushed too much too early but yea, it was an annoying setback.

Now I'm 99% good again and training, eating and living as usual. I'd say I didn't lose much in those 3 weeks or so except 1 week of workouts and 4-5 grind sessions.

The 1 week break from training + finding this 'Daru Strong' youtube channel, made it that when I got back in the gym I started including more 'athletic' training days on my split. My plan was to keep these for BSAS and stick to a more 'bodybuilder' PPL split for the time being, but yea, now I'm slowly transitioning to workouts like this one:

TBH I never go full 'hybrid athlete' mode, with sled pushes, plyo jumps, med ball throws and all that, most of the gyms that have that kind of setup are crossfit places and I don't dig those much, so basically the switch has been from a more slow paced, high rep, machine heavy, ~1h long workouts, to more lower rep, explosive, superset/contrast heavy training sessions.

I plan to incorporate more and more explosive movements and fully transition to a full body push/pull split when I get to BSAS the 15th of next month. I got an Airbnb [U]close to a gym where I used to workou..., that is one of the nicest places I ever worked out in, and much more suiting for these kind of workouts compared to the one I go to now in Rio, which is ok-ish, but full of machines, kinda small, and pretty crowded at the time I usually workout (11am-1pm).

Still collecting pics from different meals I eat at these self-service places in RJ, will post them all in a week or so. I'll miss the amount of options you have here of these places, they're so ****ing convenient, how is this not a thing everywhere? You get a plate, serve yourself from as many of the dozens of available options and weight it, boom, good to go, can make it as healthy or as trashy as you wish. And is not expensive, now that I'm cutting, depending on the place I go to, I rarely pay more than 50 BRL (9 USD or so) for a full meal, including a drink, and free coffee.
In this area I'm staying at in Rio (Catete) there must be 5 or 6 of these restaurant in a 1km radius, whereas in BSAS there are 2 in the area where I stay and only one is as good as the ones available here. And worst thing is that here they operate Mon-Sat from 11am to 5pm and in BSAS is Mon-Fri from 11am to 2pm, a pretty tight window that ****s my schedule up sometimes.

Upside of BSAS is that with meat so cheap and so good, I always have the option of throwing a couple of loin ball stakes on the pan and (it never costs more than 10 USD or so). I just do salt, no sides no nothing, not ideal for heavy workout days for the lack of carbs but a good high protein option.

All those year living in Thailand spoiled me and I never really learned how to cook. But even if I could learn, I still think it's EV+ to outsource your diet and save that time for doing other things. Much easier in a place like Rio with all these 'self-service' options than in Uruguay, where there's like 2 restaurants in the whole country and they all have the same menu: pizza, pasta, schintzel.

I see food like a problem to be solved more than a pleasureable activity and I can't wait for the day when you can buy a pill with all your macros and eat those 4x a day and be gtg. I probably would do 3x/day and keep one real food meal to not go full android mode. With the way things look in 2025, we're closer to feeding our avatar with online purchased credits while we're plugged to a machine and fed through a tube than from the magic macro pill (hope I'm wrong tho!).

Weight drop has stalled a little bit as of the last couple weeks. I need to be more hungry!! Is just that sometimes it feels like such a waste to workout super hard and then eat only a little bit, feels like I'm wasting potential gains. Need to fully switch from 'powerbuilding' mentaility to footy mentality. Note to self: stop watching Nick Walker/Sam Sulek vids and watch more Daru Strong/Fitness Culture.

Back when I was on 86-87kg I was doing intermitent fasting. I would wake up super early to grind MTTs in Thailand and I was just not hungry 4-5am so I'd wait, just drink [U]mate[/U] or coffee and go 12-14hs fasted. Also kcals in Thailand were way less. Less balanced and healthy tho, pretty much [U]Salad Concept[/U] Egg white 'salad' + chicken breast or tuna and fruit for every meal.

Think I'll end up dropping the last 2-3kg when in BSAS already, doing just plain beef for lunch and/or dinner and cutting carbs completely on some days. Not the healthiest but it'll do the trick for sure.

Also being away from these 'Bolo' protein bars will help lol. They're 20g of protein per serving which is quite good and SO ****ING TASTY. Those 3 flavours are my favorite (if I had to pick only one, I'd stick with Cookies & Cream)

To be fair, I'm looking much better and feeling great, those extra 3kg are just cuz the goal of this journey is PEAK FOOTY SHAPE as the title says, and in order to get there I need to be 87kg TOPS. I always check height/weight for pro footy players in my position (center back) and most guys my height are around 78-83kg. I'm ok not getting to 'pro' weight because, well, I'm an amateur 'hybrid' athlete and I like to have a somewhat muscly build, not the typical muscly-fibrous built most pro footy players have.

For a long time I had [U]Adama Traore[/U] as my goal physique until I started getting older and my knees were like 'nop, drop weight or we'll check out in a couple years'. Not even sure how someone playing at such a high level can get away with having such a CRAZY INSANE body and not being called out/disciplined by coaches, there's a reason why 99.9% of pro footy players range 75-85kg.

Flying to Buenos Aires in 5hs or so. Was planning on sleeping early and waking up 4.30am to catch a taxi to the airport but woke up around midnight and cant fall back asleep, so here we are.

First of all, as promised, a small meal collection from the last 4 months in Rio. All of these were from the self-service restaurants I love so much and that I'll miss so much now in BSAS! Like I said there are still a few in the city but not as many and as good as in Rio.

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All of the above were for lunch. For dinner it was just 2/3rds protein and 1/3rd carbs. Because I heat the tupperware on the 5' MTT synch break I don't have much time so I make life easier by just making sure everything inside the takeaway can be heaten, if I throw veggies in there like tomato or lettuce or beetroot then I need to separate, etc. Lazy I know, but wcyd.

Weighted myself last on sunday and I was at 88.3kg, only 1.3kg to target weight. Peak weight this year was Jul 14th when I was at 96.9kg so not bad at all. That COVID helped to drop a couple kg without even trying lol. Can see myself going even further down to 85ish so I can gain a couple back during preseason. Good thing is that I have margin to operate now as most of the work is done.

I took this pic earlier when packing and you can catch a glimpse of me on the mirror for a current, up to date semi-unintentional physique pic lol:

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Things I'll miss from Rio de Janeiro:
- Abundance of self-service restaurants
- FUTVOLEI!! Greatest side quest ever. I was just starting to break the barrier between 'begineer' and 'intermediate' and last few classes, teachers were already transitioning to more tactical stuff (positioning in the field, more work with another partner and not so much with another teacher, etc) and not just pure technique.
It was not something I planned when I decided to come to RJ this time but I'm so glad I did it.
Now I'm going back to my main-side quest (if that makes sense) of just footy training and the worst part is that futvolei is pretty much a sport you can only play in Brazil. I'm sure if I try hard in enough I can find a academy either in BSAS or in Thailand in the future but half of the charm of it would be gone ie: easily playing at any academy of the many available in any of the many beaches in Rio, with other brazilians and super talented local teachers.
But hey, like I said it was a nice side quest and a good activity to do these last few months here in the city, where I don't have many friends and was in full grinding mode, so having the perfect excuse to go interact with people 3x a week made the whole ultra-grind mode much more bareable
- How warm people is: everyone is nice and seems happy. Living in a city with this weather and this much natural beauty probably explains it all. People in BSAS are always in a rush, they talk **** to each other in traffic and there's this constant state of tension most of the time, especially in the area where I'll be staying (Palermo/Recoleta)

Things I won't miss about Rio de Janeiro:
- Language: even tho my portuguese is as good as it gets (especially for understanding), as soon as I speak they immediately go 'gringo' (that's how they call all foreigners here, not just 'muricans) and treat me as an outsider. And is not bad, I never felt xenophobia or discrimination, but I'll always be the 'gringo'. In BSAS because uruguayan accent is almost identical as 'porteño' (demonym for people from BSAS) I blend in like one more of them. After 8+ years living in Thailand where it's impossible to fully blend in, I was missing that a bit, and is nice just to go about my life being one more in the hive for a change.
- Lack of a numerous social circle. This is just so I can refuse more invitations to events LMAO. Nah, really, last time I was here from April to October 2024 there was a much more united group of uruguayans and we hanged out more often. This time only one of those guys was still around and another one too but he's the kind of person that if you hit him up you'll find yourself going out every single night, and I wanted to avoid that. But yea, I like having the opportunity of doing something social (asado, beers, joints, whatever) at least once a week. Even if I have more opportunities to do more than that I still stick to once a week as I love my routine and I have everything in place for max-productivity in all aspects of my life that I care about, and going out for dinner/lunch or meeting someone for a joint is already a deviation from that and messes up my whole schedule.
When I came back to LatAm after so many years in Thai, I was craving more of the social connection, but here I realized that more social connection = less productivity, and is not that I care that much about productivity as in more $$ but yes more control over the things I care about: keeping my diet in check, optimizing training, becoming a better poker player, etc.
- How shitty the dating apps are here: not ashamed to say it, in 4 months here went on 1 date which happened last week lol. And it wasn't even with a brazilian girl. Because Brazil has such a rich culture and so many activities to do that pretty much only brazilians really enjoy (samba, pagode, going to the beach to do nothing, etc), they probably dont feel the need to reach outside the well know boundaries of what they know already. And I don't blame them: if uruguayan culture was so vibrant as theirs, and there were 8M+ of us, all super happy and cheerful and full of life, and not bitter and sad and constantly complaining like we do, I would've probably never left lol.
So being a 'gringo' might be an advantage in some places (ASIA!!!) but here in Brazil is not the case, and results are there to prove it :(
Also I think brazilians are more spontaneous and face to face game is much more effective than the apps, but that means you gotta go out, drink, stay up late, be more direct and that's just not my style. After using apps for so many years I just feel more comfortable with that, and have good results pretty much anywhere but here.
- Gym: even tho the gym I went to all these months was not bad-bad, it was a commercial gym, mostly oriented to people trying to get healthier. Nothing wrong with grandma and grandpa working with their personal trainer on their free weight sit downs and stand ups, but I prefer gyms where most of the people in it are there to get stronger and pump some ****ing iron.

So yea, all in all it was a nice stay in RJ but I'm also happy to go back to BSAS to face the last bit of the ROAD TO BKK quest. I already paid for the rest of the year of footy training as there was a special deal, and it was 148 USD total, for the remainder of 2025. That allows me to train Tuesday and Thursday from 7pm to 9pm. Don't think I'll go to both sessions every single week as I still want to grind a lot, after all, my main quest is poker and training footy in that time slot means no grinding that day so that would automatically make my week have 5 grinding days BUT with more friends in BSAS and hopefully the apps paying off, I'll probably have at least one other event each week so I'd rather do 1 footy training + another social thing and then 5 grinding days. Gym doesn't really count because I train in the afternoon, or sometimes in the morning, so I can do that and then grind 4.30-5pm onwards.

Will wrap this up now, prepare myself the last 4-5 eggs I have left in the fridge (hate leaving food behind!) and get an uber to the airport since I cant sleep no more, I'd rather wait for the the plane to take off drinking an iced latte and reading on my kindle than rolling in bed here anxious (in a good way tho!) for this new chapter. Until the next one!

Already 8 days in BSAS, and quite happy to be here. My 4 months in Rio were great but lacked a bit of social life, and by that I mean with friends, not just doing social things, because futvolei which was 3x week and boxing which was 1x with a uruguayan trainer counted as social activities. Here in BSAS I know many people and been catching up with some of them + many friends visit from Uruguay often for different reasons (this city is the de facto regional hub for a bunch of things and Uruguay is deeply linked with it wether we like it or not) so I feel way closer to home, which was the original idea of coming back to LatAm last year.

Like I said I planned to, been eating pretty much all days from this self-service nearby. I usually do lunch there which is about 8-10 USD with drink (bigger plate), and taking home 2 smaller protein packed meals for about 6-7 USD each. Even tho I only eat one at night I stock some for sundays when this place closes and for an emergency in case I can't make it to the restaurant when they're open or whatever.
Think I said it here before, but I can't wait until you can buy a pill with all your macros and be done with it, to me food is a problem to be solved more than anything.

As for training, I went both Tues-Thur and Tues this week to footy. Doing ok-ish form wise, think playing futvolei helped to not lose all my conditioning, but it'll take a while until I'm back 100% with my feet and in proper footy shape. The other day we played a small game of 20' at the end of the session and I struggled a lot. Keep in mind these guys all train 2x week with the group + 95% or more of them play weekend leagues so the average level is quite high, but still, can/should/will do better, think it'll take me 3-4 weeks of proper training, but don't have to forget the peaking moment has to be the last week of March in BKK, gotta be patient and respect the process!!

I paid 3 months of gym up front and it was 170k ARS which at today's rate is 112 USD for one of the best gym's ever. Sadly (or gladly for us foreigners), USD rate is going bananas again, albeit prices not as low as before, still quite decent, similar to Rio or even lower.

After going back and forth with ChatGPT and thinking it through a lot, decided that my split now will look something like this:

MON - Upper (strenght focus)
TUES - FOOTY
WED - Lower (less heavy, more technical/explosive/mobility/prehab)
THUR - FOOTY
FRI - Upper (hypertrophy/explosive? focus)
SAT - Lower (strenght focus)
SUN - Rest (just because gym is closed, otherwise I'd do 30' of cardio or so and some stretching)

Think it's time to accept that gains are going to be mostly football specific from now on, and besides MON and SAT, rest of the week is going to be mobility/flexibility work (which is my main leak and what I should be focusing on if the goal is 'peak footy shape by march' anyways) with some explosive strenght sprinkled here and there.

Guess wednesday is the most challenging day, tucked in between two footy trainings, but yesterday went for a big hip mobility and stretching session with some explosive single leg movements and it was not thaaat bad. In my mind I was doing some split squats or heavier SL RDLs to superset with the explosive movements but it didn't feel too smart to push that hard, especially on my first week back, maybe sometime down the road (but before Jan 1st pre season) I can do some 'real' lifting on WED.

Also bought myself a foam roller, a yoga mat and an office chair (I usually grind on whatever chair the airbnb has but this one was impossible) as an investment on posture which is basically an investment on health. Last few months been finishing poker sessions all cramped up and with more back/neck pain than usual so I thought I shouldn't risk it and throw 150 USD or so in a semi-decent chair and the other two things.