Due to injuries and the time commitment lawschool requires I had been an organge belt in Tae Kwon Do for almost a year.  I finally was able to test for Green Belt this past Friday. 

I have been trying to attend both Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes regularly (sometimes both in one day), only taking a day off if I am too sore or in pain to go. 

As for the Japanese style of JuJutsu I take in Staten Island, I have been going there once every two weeks to prepare to take my Green Belt Exam which I hope to take very soon.

Now with my significant drop in weight, my cardio and speed has increased tremendously which has created a very noticable improvement in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  It feels great to be in shape and working steadily towards real phsyical goals

Since the second week of June, I have cut my weight by over 15 lbs.  I did this with NO exercise.  During the first week of June I had an emergency appendectomy which prevented me from exercising for a month.  The weight loss was done on pure diet alone.  My diet consisted of:

Breakfast:

A protein shake every morning (1 cup 1% organic milk, 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil, 1 tablespoon of amino acids, 1 scoop of protein powder, and 1 serving of mixed fruit which always included blueberries)

Mid-Morning Snack:

A serving of fruit

Lunch:

A serving of protein (turkey, chicken, or lean steak), a generous amount of vegetables, and a serving of brown rice that was cooked using my own spices (this eliminated all the sodium and other junk that is in pre-flavored rice).

Mid-Afternoon Snack:

A serving of fruit and dairy (yogurt, cottage cheese, or Polly-o string cheese)

Dinner:

A serving of protein (turkey, chicken, or lean steak) and a generous serving of vegetables

So as you can see I kept away from carbs in the evening and kept a high protein diet to maintain as much lean muscle as possible while burning as much fat as possible.  The basic principle = eat less calories than I burn to create a calorie deficit and do it clean (as healthy as possible).  I did have ONE cheat day a week every Friday where I indulged whatever I wanted.  However, I do this through ordering in.  My apartment is 100% bare of any unhealthy food.

I have just recently begun exercising again but won’t be back to a definite routine until a week and a half from now after I take the New York Bar Exam.

I plan on cutting down maybe another 15 lbs or whenever I naturally stop losing weight from my current diet.  When my body fat gets low enough I will then do a clean bulk to add about 10 lbs of muscle.

Edit: By the way, I failed to mention my current weight to put things into context: 199.4

I would rather be extremely intelligent and average looking.

If I was a woman this question would be more difficult.

Women do not base attraction on physical appearance to the extent that men do.

An attractive woman can very easily be attracted to an average looking (not ugly, but average looking) man if he is charming, finds his personality appealing, and enjoys spending time with him.

A woman may be more receptive at the very beginning to an attractive man (or to use the question's term, beautiful), but after that point he is on an equal playing field with every other guy and if he is dumb, chances are he is actually at a significant disadvantage.

In regards to other aspects of life, being intelligent is a much more a valuable and durable tool to be equipped with than very good looks. 

So in the end I choose extremely intelligent and average looking over beautiful and dumb.

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

1. It takes up way too much time: If you watch a particular show, generally I will be watching it until it gets canceled or concludes which generally is between 7-10 seasons if it has a successful run.  Each show on network television (NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, WB) generally runs for 20 or so episodes and I generally watch those shows during the weeknights even though I save some time and give myself some freedom by using the DVR to pre-record them.
   
   
2. It creates unrealistic expectations: We watch television shows because it creates a fantasy world that we are captivated with.  We admire characters, wish we can have exciting lives like many of them or have the successes portrayed on the shows, which are all very much unrealistic to begin with.  I find that I live a very interesting and exciting life, but put up against many of the scenarios portrayed on television shows, my exciting life looks bland.  It is time to move on and focus on me and not the fictional portrayals of unrealistic characters.
   
   
3. It is a waste of money: Cable costs a lot.  I hardly watch anything on cable but the shows I watch, so I’m paying for a few hundred channels I don’t even look at.  Over the course of several years, the money saved from paying for cable can be used to pay for a vacation or even towards any other financial obligations I have.

It happened two Saturdays ago.  About two hours after a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) class I started feeling a horrible pain in my lower and middle back.

So, of course I ignored it and continued going to the gym and proceeded to go to a Zenbu Ryu Jujutsu (ZRJ) on Monday and both Tae Kwon Do (TKD) and BJJ on Tuesday.  By Wednesday I felt like a cripple. 

I haven’t gone to the gym or done any real physical activity since then…other than the party I threw at my place on Saturday Night – which was a blast.  I had 16 people over for a night of just insane fun.  My back hurt so much the next day though that I was basically bed ridden all of Sunday.

Today I’m picking up my inversion table – it is a table you lay on that secures your legs and then allows you to hang completely upside down – at my parent’s house tonight.  Last time I messed up my back I recovered by using the table every day for a week and doing Yoga.  Hopefully it works again.

Below is a picture of an inversion table: