Wednesday, August 15th, 2007...9:50 am

Losing Weight Is Like Playing Poker

There are 2 kinds of poker players* - those who focus on the results of their actions and those who focus on the decisions taken to get them there, regardless of the result.  This quote from World Champion Greg Raymer, from an interview by Wil Wheaton, says it well:

I guess I’d have to say Greg Raymer. He was the first person to say to me, “This is a game of decisions. If you’re results oriented you’ll be miserable. If you can concentrate on your decisions, you’ll feel good about your play no matter what.”

A poker player focusing on results will berate themselves (or more likely their opponent) when they lose a big pot with AA to a player who overplayed A5.  They will question how they played the hand and second guess themselves.  A decision focused player understands that even a perfectly played AA against a poorly played A5 still has about a 1 in 10 chance of losing, and if they happen to lose they are OK because they know they made the best decision they could, and luck was not on their side.

In the battle of the bulge, as in poker, focusing on results can be a losing proposition.  Results are important, of course, and one measurement of your success in losing weight, but weight loss alone should not be the focus.  Take pride in good decisions you make on your journey, like if you normally eat two of something bad and you change your habit to start only eating one.  Or if you eat perfect all week and exercise to plan and you still don’t lose any weight.  

 Focus on the good decisions you made because in the end those good decisions will tip the scale in your favor.

(* this reminds me of my favorite joke - “There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don’t”)

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8 Comments

  • MyAvatars 0.2 The Pound Slayer
    August 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am
    What a great analogy!

    And as for binary geeks, I’m looking forward to the day when my weight in binary is only 8 digits instead of 9!

  • MyAvatars 0.2 dietgirl
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
    I’m a big fan of analogies and this was a goodun… you are wise grasshopper ;)
  • MyAvatars 0.2 kathyj333
    August 18th, 2007 at 8:16 am
    You’re right. Losing weight is about the decisions we make to get us to our goal. Life is all about choices. Every person has choices to make everyday. Taking the time to make the right choice is one of the best decisions you can make.
  • MyAvatars 0.2 Weekly Update - 8/19/07 : John Is Fit
    August 19th, 2007 at 9:39 am
    [...] gaining 2 pounds in a week is a big disappointment to me.  However, as I have written recently I am trying to focus on my decisions and not worry about the short term variance that is going to [...]
  • MyAvatars 0.2 Confession Time : John Is Fit
    August 20th, 2007 at 7:10 am
    [...] I was really disappointed when I stepped on the scale on Sunday morning, despite what I wrote in my poker analogy about not being results oriented.  I just installed a graph of my weight in my sidebar and now it [...]
  • MyAvatars 0.2 Weekly Update - 9/9/07
    September 9th, 2007 at 6:44 am
    [...] I backed up my 4 pound loss for last week with a 3 pound loss for this week and it feels great.  It is such a terrific feeling to be rewarded for the hard work I am putting in.  I know there will be weeks where I do everything right and stay stable or even gain weight, so it’s important for me to remember how good this feels and to not get too down on myself when the results don’t get there.  It’s all about making good decisions! [...]
  • MyAvatars 0.2 Building New Habits
    September 27th, 2007 at 11:43 am
    [...] wrote a post yesterday called Losing Weight Is Like Playing Poker that I fancied to be a pretty good analogy.  That is, until I read The Pound Slayer’s [...]
  • MyAvatars 0.2 kaxxina
    February 12th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
    Another great post! I’ll try to remember this as I set up my blog! Focus on the decisions, not the results… very good.

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