by “dellie”
For some time now I’ve been having trouble with my running count. Well, the actual counting of the cards is not what I’m having trouble with. It’s the extreme mental stress I’m putting on my brain in between rounds. I’ll be good for the first one or two shoes but after that, I start to get severe Brain Fog.
At first, I thought it was just a part of who I was and it was a obstacle in my life that I would just have to face. After discussing my concern about this to my friend, she told me to go see my doctor. I wasn’t too thrilled with this idea considering the first thought I had was ‘“They are going to put me on ADHD medication.” but to be honest, I was willing to try anything.
Fast forwarding to my doctor’s visit. When my doctor came in, he sat down and we started talking about my concerns with my lack of concentration. He asked me how my diet was and what I ate in a typical 24-hour period. I’m not going to list my daily eating habits in this post but let’s just say I’m overweight and out of shape for a reason.
My doctor told me that eating clean and exercising helps brain function dramatically. He wrote down a list of foods he wanted me to incorporate into my daily diet routine and I made a agreement with him to workout for at least 15 minutes a day and not eat large amounts of processed foods.
Afterwards, I was walking out of my doctor’s office to my car and thinking to myself “I just paid $108 for somebody to tell me to eat more vegetables”. Later that night when I was counting down shoes, it was happening again. I was dropping the count and I was struggling to keep my brain fog at bay. So I looked over on my desk and saw the list my doctor wrote out for me and thought “Yeah this could be complete BS but I won’t know until I do it.”
The next day I went grocery shopping and got a gym membership at my local gym. So far, I’ve been on the clean and narrow for 5 weeks now. 4 out of those 5 weeks I recorded data when I countdown shoes at home.
Week 1: 35 6D Shoes Errors: BS 6 / RC 27
Week 2: 35 6D Shoes Errors: BS 2 / RC 12
Week 3: 35 6D Shoes Errors: BS 0 / RC 1
Week 4: 35 6D Shoes Errors: BS 0 / RC 3
This new lifestyle that I’ve adopted isn’t just affecting my blackjack game. Obviously. I noticed when I’m at work, the day doesn’t drag on. When I’m reading a book, I retain everything that I read and don’t get lost in between sentences. When I’m talking to friends or family member, I’m not mentally checked out. I actually can paying attention to what they’re telling me. It’s just a super awesome feeling that I really can’t put into words.
So, I wrote this post for two reasons. The first reason is because I am totally bragging right now and I’m super excited to what my future holds because I’m the freaking man! The second reason is I am sure without a doubt in my mind that there is other people like me suffering with this obstacle and they might even be a member of this site. I’m not a professional card counter (Yet!) but I’m sure being on the road all the time forces you to not eat the healthiest of meals. I know this is not a subject we talked about often in this community but it is definitely important.
Bottom line, if you are having trouble concentrating, take a look at your eating habits. It took me 32 years to figure this out. I’m just giving you a shortcut. ;-).
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