25 day update - My face went from round to oval!

1/26/25 Update

Weigh In -   Down 17 pounds since January 1 (25 days)

**Check out the difference in the face.  The first photo is from 1 month ago at the Devils game.  2nd photo is from this morning: 

How have we gotten here, you ask?  Very simple.  I have, for the most part, followed the rules I gave myself.  Let's get to it:

BREAKFAST:  My old breakfast included Taylor Ham and 2 scrambled eggs with a hash brown on a plain toasted bagel with salt & pepper and a Red Bull.  I banned Bagels and Red Bull from January 1-29 (rules go away for my birthday on 1/30).  So, my typical breakfast over at Griddle This includes Taylor Ham and 2 egg whites on whole wheat toast with salt & pepper with a can of diet orange soda. 

Weight Watchers points-wise, that cuts about 23 points out of my breakfast 7 for the red bull, 7 for the fried hash brown and approximately 9 for the switch from bagel to wheat bread).  Now, I'm not doing weight watchers, but it's good to refer to it.  I was allowed about 40 points a day, so cutting out more than half of my allowance for the day before  8am is a huge upgrade.  I have also had other breakfasts, here and there. 

• Waffle - sometimes when I make waffles for the kids, there is an extra one for me
• Sausage, Pepper and potato omelet (no cheese)
• Turkey Sausage and 2 eggs on a 647 roll (home made)
• Grilled Chicken with Buffalo sauce and 3 scrambled eggs
• I also make my own fries/potatoes/etc fairly often if I eat at home.

       

That being said, I probably eat the sandwich on toast 5 of 7 days.  

*I am happy to report that I have been 100% successful with the Bagel and Red Bull Ban, as I have broken that rule exactly ZERO times so far. 

LUNCH:  For lunch, due to the fact that we have been cooking more, I have had lots more leftovers to bring with me.  So often, I have leftovers.  The leftovers are not always the healthiest thing, but they are always portion controlled and home made, so it's good.  There are a number of precautions I have taken to make sure I always have stuff at school in case I forget my lunch.  

Back in early January, I hit up the CAN CAN SALE at Shoprite and absolutely made that sale my b*tch!  :-)   The Progresso soups were 12 for $15, so let's just say I know have over 40 cans of Progresso soup.  Half at school and half at home.  Also, the SmartOnes were 4 for $4, so I grabbed a bunch of those.  To add to that, I grabbed an incredible amount of Zero Calorie Gatorades, 12-packs of Seltzer and Coke product cans (4 twelve-packs for $17 - which is NUTS) for some diet sodas.  I have them at school and at home - always have 2-3 in the fridge.  There was more, but I can't remember it all. 

In my effort to avoid school lunches, I have all of those things available at school. BUT it's not enough.  Soup every day would be quite boring.  The leftovers are great, but it's nto every day.   So on occasion, I still go out to Griddle This for lunch.  I'll often have grilled buffalo chicken.  Occasionally, I'll add fried.  Once, I actually got Chicken fingers and fried.  I had a hot turkey sandwich once. . . . mix it up.  But what I'm not doing is having pizza 6 times a week or eating the trash in the school caf.  

**I am happy to report that I have been 100% successful with the SCHOOL LUNCH Ban, as I have broken that rule exactly ZERO times so far.   I have not even gone in there for a cookie or a pretzel.  

***I was ALMOST perfect with the pizza ban.  In spite of being presented with pizza in my face many many times, I staved it off until Friday, 1/24/25 when I ordered pizza for the ski club.  There were a couple extra tiny slices and I threw them down before getting on the bus.  It was a moment of weakness, but I'm ok with it.  The pizza was decent, but it was really just a grab of convenience.  Wish  I hadn't done it, but I am good.  I had to go into a pizza shop 4 times to get pizza for my kids.  I had to watch everyone else eat pizza at the upstairs restaurant at Mountain Creek 3 times on the school ski trips.  I went to pizzerias and ate something else 2 or 3 times.  I was asked to have pizza 4 additional times in which I had to turn it down.  I really worked hard on this one.  My wife even ordered a delivery pizza for dinner and I skipped it. 

DINNER:  This has been nice.  Been cooking more often.  Not always because it's the #1 healthiest thing in the world.  Just portion control, choosing what I 'm putting in, and of course, sometimes I certainly make it healthier.  Have made a number of chicken things, turkey meatballs, taco night with ground turkey, SmartOnes, VERY FEW times did I eat out.  Nothing too memorable, but I will say the retraining of myself to eat at home has been great.  The rules served their purpose.

Below, you can see a few dinners: 

1 - Drunken Chicken Parm & Spaghetti with Vodka Sauce (home Made)

2 - Chicken Sandwich and chips from Mountain Creek

3 - Chili - Home Made (Kristyn made it)

4 - The steak at the Writers Dinner in NYC on 1/25/25

       

        

LATE NIGHT:  The one rule I consistently sort of screwed up was the no eating after 10pm.  I screwed that one up 5 times in 25 days so far. I guess that's not "Consistently" screwing up, but it is the rule I had the least luck with.  Usually it was within a half hour of 10pm, but I sort of binge when I'm really hungry.  I will say that the days where I lost the most were the days where I stopped eating before 7.  The days I ate after 10 - always maintained or gained.   Never lost on a late night bender night.  I hit up Griddle This twice after a ski trip for an empanada - SO GOOD!  I also went to Grants twice after the ski trip and had a few beers.  The other issues were just little candy and/or ritz bitz late night binges.  Overall, MUCH better.  Not allowing the ice cream made  a HUGE difference.  I didn't break that rule even once.  I mean, I had 1/2 of a fork full of ice cream cake the day my mom brought it over.  but that was IT.  And so I give myself a full win on that.  I also stayed true to the no donuts rule.  Didn't have a single donut yet. 

Another rule I crushed was everything in regards to 7-11.  No Slurpees and No "Heat Lamp of Death."  The Key to this is that this is what I would be getting at 4pm - sort of a pre-dinner snack that is bigger than most people's dinners  2 jamaican beef patties (or buff chix taquitos), a slurpee and a glazed donut.  No need for that at 4pm just because I'm passing by.  This was huge.  I miss my slurpees, but what a change.

Sooooo, add it all up - and we are looking at 17 pounds.  I must say, I'm pretty please with myself.  The next 3 days I have to stay on track and then after my birthday binge, I have to come up with a new set of adjusted rules to keep my own attention. I have to change it up if I want to keep it going.  I have smoe thoughts.  Will unveil them on February 1.  The bottom line is that It's been a good start.  Retrained the brain. now I have to stay with it.  That's the hard part.   17 pounds down, but I had gained 10 pounds last year, so only  7 pounds down from what I was in January 2024.  Ideally, I'd like to hit the 30 pound mark by March 1 . That would put me where I was on Feb 1, 2024 after I had a good month to start last year.  I was feeling REALLY good at that point, then I just gave up.  

TO RECAP:  I had 9 rules.  I was 100% on 7 of them.  Ate pizza once.  Ate after 10 five times.  NOT BAD AT ALL, if you ask me. :-)

CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL THURSDAY.  I have it all set.  Bagel sandwich and Red Bull for breakfast.  Pizza dinner and ice cream dessert with family at night.  Gonne be a SOLID birthday.  :-)  Until then - let's see how close I can get to 20lb before 1/30. 

Day 4 & 5 - Retirements, lots of chicken, and Phil Simms!!!!!

 Hello friends!  I hope all is great today.  Let's see if I can remember what I did yesterday . It's now Sunday night and it's been a nice and memorable weekend.  Let's see what I can recall.  

SATURDAY - Morning Weigh-In - (-6.6 lbs from start) *.5 pounds down from yesterday

Breakfast - I made waffles for the kids.  The "recipe" on the box combined with the little waffle makers we use makes 7 waffles.  Joe and Giuliana usually eat 2 or 3 each.  In this case, they each ate 2.  So I had 3, which is probably equivalent to 2 regular sized pancakes.  I put chocolate chips in my waffles.  Waffles = awesome choice?  NO.  Waffles = Fine because I'm not addicted to them and I did not overeat?  YES.  I was planning to have a healthy breakfast at Griddle This, but since there was extra wafflage, I went for it.  And saved myself $9.05.

Lunch - On Friday night, I used 2 chicken breasts to make the concoction I had for dinner last night. (I only ate half of it, btw).  I took the other 2, cut them up and marinaded them in some Sweet & Spicy BBQ sauce overnight.  Breaded them with Italian bread crumbs this morning and air fried them.  It actually created a very crispy coating around the flavored chicken.  It was REALLY good.  Also made a set of thin french fries out of a potato using just some Cajun spices.  I ate about 1/3 of a medium sized potato. 

Dinner - For dinner, I ate the 2nd half of that chicken from last night. 

Snacks - To be honest, I don't remember a whole ton.  Oh wait - I had an orange at 10:30pm.  I know, it was after 10pm.  But as I mentioned to a good friend of mine who commented on my initial rules post - if I'm eating an orange at 10:30pm and I'm happy about it, I'm taking the win.  I think I had 1 Ferrero Rochet and 2 cherry sugar chewies at some point after dinner.  Also, grabbed a couple 12 packs of black cherry seltzer, so that's back in the mix.  That's a GREAT crisp drink when I need a break from the water.  I feel like I snacked more during the day, but I can't really remember what I did. 

SUNDAY - Morning Weigh-In - (-7.6 lbs from start)  *1 pound down from  yesterday)

So . . .. . I dropped half a pound Saturday.  I'll take that!  consistent half pound days would be 15 pounds for the month, which is the goal for January.  The first month always goes faster. 

Breakfast - Today, I treated myself to "Griddle This" for breakfast.  First time of the new year.  I had what those "in the biz" would call a "ZERO POINT BREAKFAST".  Of course, this is referring to Weight Watchers.  I had Grilled chicken (0 points) tossed in buffalo sauce (0 points) with 3 scrambled eggs on the side (0 points) and a diet orange soda (0 points).  Solid meal, if you ask me - And GUILT FREE!

Lunch - For lunch, we went over to Tommy's Tap & Tavern in Clifton because the Giants Pregame show was broadcasting there with Phil Simms!   I wanted to bring the kids for a free autograph opportunity.  **Shout out to Andrew Van Dorn, my new autographing buddy for tipping me off to this one**  So first off - the food.  I was a pretty good boy, considering where I was.  I just ordered the crock of chili.  It came with some tostitos and a piece of corn bread.   A pretty light lunch. I  also ate about 1/3 of GIuliana's kids meal Mac & Cheese.  Only ordered water for myself - no beer or soda.  We'll get ot the Phil Simms stuff later.

Dinner - Tonight was the Cresskill Athletic Director's retirement party at the Ridgewood Country Club.  Walked into a massive cocktail-hour-like spread.  This type of setting is usually rough for me, but I was pretty good.  Let's see if I can add up what I had:

• about 6-7 large cocktail shrimp
• 7-8 cucumber slices
• 6 cheddar cheese square slices, 4 of them on little beefsteak-like breads
• 2 pieces of sausage bread (not large pieces)
• 1 Goose Island IPA
• 1 large Brownie

All things considered - this was a VERY good day for me at a party like this.  Typically, I go ham on a spread like this.  The Shrimp helped - Shrimp is another ZERO POINT food, so loading up on solid shrimp was helpful.   Good chance I will be even or up 1/2 a pound or a pound from today.  But that's ok.  I did GREAT today compared to what I would normally do on a day like that.  

_________________________________________________________________________________

Now for the bonus info:  Meet & Greet with Phil Simms:

I'll start off by saying that Phil Simms might just be the NICEST and MOST GENEROUS famous athlete I've ever met.  So here's how it went.  

The radio show started at 11am, but Joey & Giuliana had CCD until 11:30am. So we didn't get there until about 12:15.  Only problem - Phil Simms was done on the radio by 11:53am.  BUT then he sat down and signed autographs for everyone who waited in line.  Me, knowing my kids, I sat down with the 3 of them and my mom to order some lunch.  While I was waiting for the food, I went to find out if they were planning to shut down the line at any point.  I then found out that the line was ALREADY SHUT DOWN!  They would not make an exception for me and my little dudes.  In the mean time, we arrived, ordered, ate, paid, and there were still like 40 more people on line.  They sent someone over with a "giveaway pack" for the kids - a couple of XL t-shirts and 2 adult sized hats . . . . . . ugh.  I was not totally pleased at this point because  was trying to make it work for my family, but it did not work out.  If the plan was to show up with 3 kids and just stand on line for 90 minutes to meet this dude, I would not have done it.  My kids are NOT into it like that.  They would not wait like that to meet Moana herself, so they would not do it for any athlete - short of maybe Aaron Judge. 

Anyway, so at that point, there was not reason to stay.  We packed up and left.  But as any experienced grapher would, I took a drive - 2 laps - around the building to decide if I was REALLY done or not.  During my first lap, I spotted 2 guys who were waiting for Phil to come out of the restaurant.  I did another lap and when I came back, the perfect parking spot had opened up.  I prepped the kids with their photos and sharpies and I got my newspaper ready.  I wasn't there 2 minutes and he came right out the door.  All Systems Go!

Phil took his time walking over to his car.  By the time we got there, 4-5 other people were there.  He took his time signing for them all, AGAIN.  My kids were being shy, but I told them "Get on up there!"  And the other adults were all supporting them - "Yes!  Let the kids in!"  So I made sure Phil knew that the kids were not just getting extra ones for me.  "Don't worry Phil - the kids photos are for them!  Not me!"  He said "It's no problem.  Don't worry about it!'  

He took Joey's photo, which was pretty dark.  I had a blue sharpie.  He said "Let me figure out where I'm gonna sign this . . . . .Wait, I got something better. . . . . Oh Shoot, I don't have my silver sharpie."  Another adult shared a silver sharpie.  As he was signing it, it wasn't coming out as clearly as he had hoped and he said something like "I should have just used your blue one!"

Then he took Giuliana's.  He used the blue sharpie on that because there was a really good spot for it with a light background. I told him that this was Giuliana's first autograph.  Not bad - Super Bowl MVP for her first one!  I didn't want to ask too much from him, so I told the kids to turn around so I can take a photo of them with him while he was signing. And he was like "Just wait a second.  I'll finish up and then I can pose with them."  He finished signing his name, along with Super Bowl XXI MVP" on her photo.  Then walked up to them and crouched down to their level for a fantastic photo. 

   

He then took my 1987 Super Bowl newspaper, exclaimed "McConkey!", the player featured on the cover.  He said "Did you know everyone was calling me lucky on that play?  I was like 'I HIT BAVARO IN THE HELMET!  I WASN'T LUCKY!'"  (For that play, check out this Youtube video around 1:28)

So, all of this interaction came after he spent 1 hour on the radio and then almost 2 hours signing autographs for people who did not pay for it.  People getting him and then getting back on line multiple times, people who have probably met him a number of times. . . . . I have to say, one of the most friendly interactions I have ever had during "the chase".  He could have easily said "Ya know what, guys, I have been signing for almost 2 hours.  I'm tired and I wanna get home."  And he would have been right.  But he stayed and chatted and took care of us all, kids or adults.    Just wanted to share that positive story.  And for those who say "Well, that's what he SHOULD do."  I mean, I guess you can say that, but I never feel like we are entitled to their time.  I always feel grateful when someone takes the time to support my hobby - especially when I don't pay for their time.  Phil Simms is now way up high on my list as a great dude.  

Day 3 - January 3, 2025 - Starbucks, Air Fryers and Anti-Social Joe

 I did not expect to write again so quickly, but there was so much great feedback from the first post, I figured I'd do it again.  So I won't bury the lead - Day 2's Salad efforts netted me a loss of lots more weight!  After 2 days, I am down 6.1 pounds. To be fair, I did not drink a lot of water after 5pm and I basically didn't eat anything after 5 either, so I'm  definitely running on empty by the time I weighed in at 6am, but I'll take it.  I have low expectations for more loss on day 3. 

Breakfast:  I made my breakfast sandwich.  3 days in a row.  I miss bagels.  I really do.  I don't completely miss Red bull because I have not entered any of my Red Bull triggering establishments - Griddle This, Adam's Bagels & Deli, Lowe's, 7-Eleven, etc.  So I've been fine without that. In addition to this sandwich, I had about 1.5 slices of Land o Lakes Yellow American cheese.  I had to make some cheese shapes for Joey's lunch, so I munch on the left overs PLUS I love me a good thick slice of that crapass cheese.  BUT it has to be Land 'O Lakes.  What yellow american cheese do you like?  I also had some of that simply light lemonade. 

Lunch - Went for another of my becoming infamous salads.  This time, it had the chick peas in it, so it was a little more filling.  I also had a can of diet coke, along with lots of water.  Now - let's get this straight - I had to turn down 2 offers to go out to lunch in order to get to this salad.  I have a friend who is dying to have me try this fried chicken sandwich in Closter - and I really want to - but I didn't want to do it on day 3.   It's not against the rules.  I just wanted to eat the salad that i prepared.  It would just be flying against making any effort at all if I brought a salad, liked the salad, remembered to bring the salad, and then just skipped the salad.  No need to spend the cash or waste the calories.  BUT I expect to get that chicken sandwich at some point between now and about 2 weeks from now.  A second colleague came to me and asked if I wanted to go to Griddle This for lunch.  I again had to decline.  I felt so anti-social to turn down 2 lunch opportunities.  BUT in the end, all of those people ended up in the teachers caf with their lunches brought back with them anyway, so it all worked out.  

Snack - I had to go to Target to pick up something I ordered.  While I was there, I did something I never ever do.  I got a Starbucks Double Chocolatey Chip Frappucino with skim milk and no whipped creme.  I am NOT a Starbucks guy, but I've learned about this drink because one year, I pulled in $250 in gift cards to Starbucks and had to figure out how to use at least some of it for myself!  So I found this drink.  I also got the cinnamon swirl cake slice.  This was a weak moment and it was definitely a replacement for my heat lamp of death and slurpee issue at 7-eleven. Why is is ok?  Well, I know I'll pretty much never be at Target at that time again.  Also, I've been to that target probably 40 times.  And this is the first time I ever stopped at the Starbucks inside of it.  so this is fine.  Not an issue moving forward. 

Dinner - Well, Kristyn ordered a pizza.  And brought it home basically the minute I arrived home.  So I did what every self respecting person would do.  Crawled up on the couch under a blanket and took a nap while I waited for my trombone student to come.  :-)

After the lesson, I took Giuliana to the grocery store to grab a few thigns.  When I got home, I cooked myself some chicken and potatoes.  

 - The Chicken - I cut up a chicken breast and seasoned it with a premade concoction of stuff that I made probably 2 months ago.  Includes garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, pepper, I don't remember what else - but I just tossed the chicken in this concoction and popped it in the air fryer.  

 - The Potatoes - I cut up 1 potato into strips/wedges and seasoned it with Salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and Franks Red Hot.  Tossed it around and threw it in the air fryer.

  

This was DELICIOUS!  Highly recommend the air fryer and just mix and match seasoning for chicken.  And making your own fries - whether they are thin crispy fries, home fries, wedges, round pieces, cajun, salt & pepper, spicy, garlic parmesan - it's so easy to take 1 potato and make something awesome out of it.

Snack - I did not end up having a snack because dinner was a 9pm, so that was it for the day.  Probably a good thing.  Today I ate more, and I failed a little with the Target thing and the later dinner, but I still stopped before 10pm and ate all 3 of my meals home made.  Saved $$ and definitely healthier.  

FAST FORWARD:  Saturday 1/4/25 Weigh-In - Lost another .5 pounds.  So the total is now 6.6 pounds in the first 3 days.  Already feeling better in general.  I am working to try to sleep a little more.  I am trying to get in bed by midnight (Which believe it or not, is sort of early for me) whenever I can.  REally would like to try to log at least 6 hours a night on the C-PAP if possible.  This will help a lot if I can get consistent.  (Of course, the baby will have a lot to say about this. . . . . . )

Thanks for reading, everyone!  See you again soon!!!!

New Year - New Rules! January 1-2, 2025

 Hello everyone!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - and all the other holidays, too!

Don't get too excited - I'm not planning on doing this every day.  I just happen to be sitting at the computer and feeling like I had a pretty good couple of days, so let's chat! 

I got on the scale last month and it screamed at me: "WOULD ONE OF YOU PLEASE GET OFF?"  And I decided that I'd ride it out until 1/1/25 and then see if I can make something happen.  I am at my highest weight ever.  Pretty much sucks.  Can't stop eating - oh wait, maybe I can!

I put myself on a set of rules starting upon waking up on 1/1/25.  Here is what I posted publicly to Facebook:

 - No pizza (unless it's homemade and I 'm making it for my kids dinner.  Then I'll have a very samll amount, but I'll try to stay away from doin this. 

 - No bagels

 - No Red Bull

 - No Donuts

 - No ice cream

 - no food after 10pm (except maybe fruit or something)

 - No slurpees

 - No "Heat Lamp of Death" 

 - No School lunch

These rules rae in effect until my birthday (1/30/25.)  The goal is to retrain my brain and lose 15-20 pbs based on these rules alone.  And then we will reevaluate the rules.  Id' like to say I'll exercise more, but let's not get crazy. 

Wish Me Luck - the pizza and Red Bull will be the hardest. 

Lots of recommendations from people - how to do it better. Not really looking for recommendations. Just support. Positive vibes. That type of rah rah garbage. I know what i have to do. That's not the issue. The issue is DOING IT and STAYING WITH IT!

So these are my January rules. These rules will make me cut out some of the really bad habits I have created for myself. The worst of which is eating LATE at night - just grabbing a 1/2 gallon of ice cream and a spoon and stopping 3 bites after I decide I'm done. Daily bagel breakfast with Red Bull - Can improve on this. BUT I love going to Griddle This every morning. I'll be back. Just need to get out of the habit. Make myself breakfast more often. Getting in the habit of preparing my own food is just a good habit. But I'll be back plenty to the ol' Grid to see Eric, Mac, Troy, Judy, Joe, Joe, Joe. . . Joe, and Joe - yes, there are about 5 Joe's I see when I go there at any given time. It's my favorite place to just hang and eat these days. Just gotta get into better habits before I go back more often again.

In February, I have some ideas of how to punch it up a notch, but this stuff alone will kick me off in a good way.

I am also unofficially HOPING to find my way to 10,000 steps a day. My watch set a goal of 6,000 when I got it. I moved it up to 7,000 but boy there are days where I don't even crack 3,000 - if it's not a work day. I'm hoping I can force a little bit of work on the treadmill or just a little more activity in my day to get that up a little.

SOOOOO - Here's what happened the past 2 days:

DAY 1 - 1/1/25 - New Year's Day - a tough day to actually start things up because we always hang out with family, and I have no willpower. So we went to Karen/Eric's house. But first - there was breakfast!

I had a breakfast sandwich - BUT it was better than usual because it was on a 347 Italian roll instead of a bagel (3 WW points instead of 12-15) and I had Turkey sausage instead of Taylor Ham (2-3 points instead of 7-10) plus it was home made. Was pretty good! (But I still prefer my usual sandwich of Taylor Ham and 2 scrambled eggs with a hash brown on a plain toasted bagel with salt and pepper (and then dip in ketchup). But no - - - - gotta lay off of that for now.

So - off to the Seiz abode. They asked if we wanted pizza or burgers. I told them I'm trying to stay off the pizza for a month, so burgers it is. While waiting, I had some ritz bitz with cheese and a few pierogis. I had my burger and a couple of cookies. When I got home, I had 2 of those sugar fruit chew things. This was NOT a perfect, or even good day for that matter, but it's SO MUCH BETTER than what i had been doing, that it dropped me 1.5 pounds for the day upon my weigh-in on 1/2/25. The next day will HAVE to be better, or this is going nowhere, but that shows you how bad I have been doing.

DAY 2 - 1/2/25 - First day back to work. Got up nice and early and made myself the breakfast sandwich again. Had a cup of simply lite lemonade, which has almost no points - from when I was counting WW points. Made 4 salads for later use. Took one for lunch. This salad included: Iceberg Lettuce, Cucumbers, shredded cheddar and rolled up low sodium ham & turkey. Red Wine vinegar to top it off when lunch time times, and all is good! (Also had a diet soda - which I have NOT given up. Diet soda is like my "cheat code" when I'm trying to make better habits. I drink a TON of water. But I also will have 1-2 cans of diet soda a day. It's better than regular soda and red bull.

Now - the tough part was that it was someone's birthday for birthday club, which means there are tons of yummy goodies in the teachers caf. I had 2 cookies. Not my best moment, but all good. I'm SOOOO far ahead of where I usually am on a day like this.

I had a quick dinner in between my lesson and jazz band - so I ate another one of my salads. 2 salads today! It was awesome! I realized I forgot to add the chick peas, so I added chick peas to the remaining 2 - 1 for me and 1 for Kristyn for tomorrow's lunch.

Later one, I also munched on 2 Ferrero Rochet and 2 cherry sugar fruit chewy thingies. Gotta stop with those, but I used to eat 8 chews and/or 4-6 Ferreros after 10pm, so having 2 of each before 6pm - much better. I'll stop with those once they are all gone. :-)

I can feel my belly eating itself right now, so i need to go up and grab a bottle of water or something if I want to make it through the night. Good news - I did not get a 1 days of diet headache! So that's good. We'll see how it goes. I'll try to check in periodically.

Hope you are all going great!

Day 33 - August 3, 2023

 Breakfast:  This breakfast is not getting old. I enjoy it every single day.  (Except the days where I get a little lazy)  In case it's your first time reading, it's 2 scrambled eggs, 3 pieces of Banquet Turkey Sausage and half a potato turned into home made fries using olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne pepper. 

                                                

Snack:  Couldn't help myself but grab a couple little spoonfuls of low carb Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream.  I did well with this because I didn't end up eating half the container like I often do in these situations.  I truly just had a couple quick spoonfuls and moved on. 

Lunch:  For lunch, I had leftovers from the night before.  Kristyn made this Chimichurri Beef with Jasmine Rice while I was at marching band. I think the beef came from Costco.  It was really good!  If I had to do it again, I'd make it with broccoli.  And I would have eaten maybe 2/3 of what's here.  I heated it up before I put it on the plate, so I didn't realize how much was gonna be there.  But by then, I thought it would be bad to reheat it a 3rd time tomorrow, so it was my household duty to not waste food, so I ate the whole thing.  :-)

Fun with Joey: Today, we went to the tennis courts for the first time.  He did great!  I had my old ball hopper from middle school when I used to take tennis lessons at Saw Creek, with the tennis pro, "H."  And it's filled with the tennis balls I used to play home run derby in my backyard on Ploch Rd in middle school with Jay Brock and some other characters here and there.  So that makes these tennis balls about 30 years old, and they bounce like it!  They are pretty rough, but they got the job done for the day.  

                                                              

We hit 2 hoppers full of balls (about 40 balls per hopper) up against the fence to get the hang of it.  He was really proud that he got one stuck in the fence.  

   

Then we moved on to the court and he did 7 more rounds of balls!  All in all, he hit probably around 360 balls today!  He did so great for the first day.  And he really loved it.  We had a good system of picking up the balls and he just kept saying "One more round!"  So that was a ton of fun. 

OK - Back to the food now!

Snack:  Just a handful of peanut butter Ritz Bitz sandwich minis.  They are about 10 calories per and I had about 15 of them.  Just a little something to pick on.  I worked up an appetite with the tennis.  Got an extra 3,500 steps in just hitting joey the balls and going to pick them up!

Dinner:  This was an interesting dinner.  I had some chicken that needed to be cooked and wanted to try something new, BUT I wanted to make sure that if it came out bad, we'd still have something to eat.  So part 1:  Marinated some chicken in a bag for about 4 hours with Guy Fieri's Sriracha BBQ sauce and pan cooked them on the stove.  That's in the plastic container.   Part 2:  Sweet Potato Fries.  These didn't come out as great as the regular potato fries.  I think I need to peel the skin off because the skin was kinda tough.  The potato part was good, but the skin didn't go well in the air fryer.   Part 3 - the real winner.  Air Fryer chicken with the seasoning I usually use on the morning potatoes.  First I coated the chicken with olive oil.  Then a little corn starch and then the combination from the potatoes.  This is the plate on the top of the picture below.  This was AWESOME!  A little crispy on the outside, but not breaded.  And it was JUICY on the inside and really flavorful.  This worked out better than I expected it to.  REALLY liked it and will definitely make chicken this way again.  

And that's it for the night. I sort of overdid it on the dinner by eating a ton of chicken.  I mean, it was not necessarily unhealthy but I ate a TON of it, and too much of almost anything can be problematic.  

WEIGHT LOSS UPDATE: Now, I just looked back at my phone to see what I documented as my weight for the morning of 8/4/23.  Looks like I was up 0.9 from the day before.  It makes me thing that it is very possible that this was the night that I overdid the snacks at night.  I don't remember what I did, but there was def a night that I ended up having 2-3 snacks and was not shy about them.  This must have been it.   Soooo, up 0.9 for the day but still down 11.3 in total.  

Day 32 - 8/2/23 - Another Marching Band Night

 Breakfast: The usual for breakfast.   3 turkey sausage, 2 scrambled eggs, and a half of a potato turned to fries!  Now, if you didn't already, sing that with the melody for the 12 Days of Christmas and chuckle a little to yourself.  

Lunch: For lunch, it was very quick and simple.  I made a spicy chicken breast patty in the air fryer  Delightful $1 lunch!  Can't beat that, huh?  Kristyn was taking the kids to the pool with some friends, so I had some time to get work done. Didn't want to waste time making or eating food, so I just did a real quick one.  That being said, it's a REALLY good piece of processed chicken, so I never regret eating it.

After getting some work done, I taught a trombone lesson.  It feels good to get back into teaching private trombone lessons.  I had taken a break from it while I lived in Nutley because it was just too hard to schedule with the limited time I was home, and I wanted to see the kids.  But now that I 'm in Norwood, the commute is great and I don't ever really need to go a day without seeing the family, I'd like to get back into more lessons.  So I have this one student for the summer heading into college and I'm having a blast teaching him.  

After that, it was off to Cresskill for Marching Band section leader meeting and rehearsal.  I got there and they had cleaned the floors, which means:  They moved everything out of the room and then put everything back in the room.  Just in the room.  It was sort of all over the place.  I don't blame them for this and I don't think  or expect anything else should happen.  BUT it's always just a shock to my system when it happens.  So we put the room back together when the section leaders showed up.  

Dinner: Good thing I packed an easy dinner tonight! Just a little peanut butter sandwich.  I was able to take bites in between the work I was doing.  I only go to work once a week in the summer, so I'm totally ok with it being like this.  I don't want to waste any time while I'm there. 

Dinner #2: After marching band, that peanut butter sandwich at 5pm was not cutting it.  I went to Ray's in Closter to get a slice.  I guess you can say that I'm on "Joe's Diet of Pizza" this week.  It's all good, I'm losing weight!  :-)  They have one of my favorite slices - Meatballs and Ricotta.  And they are not shy about the meatballs OR the ricotta.  It's such an amazing slice.  But they had a plain slice pie - completely fresh - sitting on the counter, so I had to get both.  Sat and ate it in the car, as they were closing up for the night.  I am so happy I got this pizza.  It was SOOOOOOOO good!  :-)

Weight Loss Update: As of 9am on 8/3/23, I am down 0.6 from yesterday and 12.4 pounds since July 2.  Moving in the right direction!    The pizza diet continues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 31 - August 1, 2023 - My Homemade Pizza Recipe is provided in here. . . . .

Breakfast: Today, I had to take Conor to the doctor and Kristyn took the kids to work with her.  I slept in and was a little lazier today since I didn't have to deal with all 3 of the little crazies.  So when it came time to leave, I just needed to throw something together real quick.  What did I go for?  A simple peanut butter sandwich.  This is the meal that never gets old, unless of course, the bread is moldy, in which case I do not make this meal. 

Lunch:  After the doctor visit was over, it was too late to bring the kids to swimming lessons, so we decided we would skip the pool altogether today. In my mind I was getting out of making lunches to bring with me and then I was getting out of paying for lunch and we'd just come home.   Here's the thing:  I had promised the kids that we would get some pizza in between swimming lessons and going back to the pool, and they held me to it.  So we went to Mario's, which is Joey's favorite place to get pizza. We got this pizza shown below (Photographed AFTER I served Joey & G their first slices.  I had 3 slices.  Then we went next door to Donut King and while I tried to stall by sending them ahead of me and staying back to pay the bill at Marios, it didn't work.  I got there and they had not paid yet, so I got an oreo donut.

   

Dinner: Since I was in Philly during Conor's 4 month birthday, we never did his 4 month photos. So inspite of already having eaten pizza for lunch, we had to make a pizza for dinner.  Can you tell how sad I was about this?  

That being said, this was a business transaction. I just wanted to make a really quick and cheap pie and throw it in the oven.  So I grabbed a dough from Mario's, used 8oz of pre-shredded mozzarella and grabbed a jar of "pizza sauce" from Shoprite.  It was the cheapest and laziest pizza I could make.  Cost me $8.  I could do it cheaper by the pie if I make a couple of pies, but usually, when I make my own sauce and use better cheese, I end up getting enough to make 4 pies, I make 2 and then have half the sauce and cheese leftover, which I never use.  In the end, it ends up costing me $17 to make 2 pies.  If I bought the 2 extra doughts, it would be $23, which is $5.75/pie, but I don't need 4 pies!  So I end up spending $17, throwing away extra supplies because I have the intention of using it, and then not using it.  AND of the 2 pies I did make, we only eat maybe 1 3/8 of it, and the leftovers also go to waste.   So 1 pie, $8 = victory.  Here' the uncooked pie.

And here it is after coming out of the oven.  Looks good, huh?

Here's the thing - it was cooked very well.  BUT since I cheaped out on the sauce and cheese, it was not really all that good!  I was excited because it looked awesome, but it was bland and not nearly as good as my usual pizza.  How do I usually make my pizza, you ask?  Here's how. 

0.  Pre-heat oven to 500 with the pizza stone or pizza steel inside it.  It's important to get the stone up to temperature so the crust is not soggy.  Take the stone out, use a little olive oil on it and spread it thin and even so it has a little coating.  You could sprinkle a little semolina on it too, if you want. 

1.  Stretch the pizzeria-bought dough out to about 15-16 inches and place right onto the heated pizza stone. At this point, try to move quickly so the stone doesn't get cold.

2.  Get a 28 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes and put the in the Ninja on Puree along with 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oils, 3-4 garlic cloves cut up, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, some basil, black pepper and oregano.  This is basically the Ooni Classic Sauce Recipe, with oregano added and pureed in the ninja. (Usually enough for 4 pies)  BTW - I puree it because I take after my mother and do not want ANY chunks of tomato on my pizza.  YUCK!

3.  One pound block of Galbani Low Moisture Whole Milk mozzarella gets shredded up and mixed with a 6 ounce combination of Parmesan, Asiago and Romano which is pre-shredded and available at Shop-Rite by the cheese in the refrigerator section.  The 22 ounces combined is good for about 4 pies.

4.  If kids are not eating it, sprinkle oregano on top. (My kids don't like "the green stuff."

5.  Sprinkle some grated cheese on top

6.  Cook for 9-12 minutes, depending on how you want it cooked.  If it's in the Ooni pizza oven, cook for 2 minutes, turning every 20-30 seconds as to not char the crust too much. 

**PIZZA STONE:  It's key that you get a pizza stone to cook on and get it up to temperature.  Don't get lazy or impatient with this.  Get that stone hot!

Anyway, here are the photos from Conor's 4 month birthday photo shoot.

   

 Snack:   Cheddar and Sour Cream chips and some ice cream (Low Carb).  No story here.  I think I gave you enough with the pizza recipe for this post!  :-)

WEIGHT LOSS UPDATE: As of 9am on 8/2/23, I am down 0.7 from yesterday and a total of 11.8 pounds since July 2.  

Day 30 - July 31, 2023 - Portions, Portions and More Portions

Hello everyone!  It's Monday!  Time for a new start.  I'm writing this a couple days later and I'll give you a little preview.  We have entered the time of J-DOC where it's less about what I'm eating and it's more about how much of it I'm eating.  Because the next few days are a mixture of good choices and slightly imperfect, BUT through it all, my portion control and lack of snacking are leading to moderate losses on a daily basis.  While I would be better off eating "better" choices consistently, portion control is something I generally struggle with also, so getting that under control is helpful and important too in the times where you are just in situations that are imperfect.

Breakfast: Eggs, potatoes & Sausage - home made.  I've done a really good job of eating at home for breakfast - saving money and eating healthier.  I really hope I can get up early enough to keep this up for the school year.  I miss heading to Griddle This every morning, but my credit card and belt are very happy with me.

**Side note:  I was supposed to bring Joey to Giants Training Camp today, but my butthead brain ordered the tickets thinking that we can go since camp was over.  BUT Kristyn still has to work this week, and swim lessons start today.  So I totally blew that chance by signing up for today.  UGH.  I'm annoyed because I think Joey would have really enjoyed that.  Oh well.  I guess we'll try again next year.

Lunch:  Today was the first day of swim lessons for the kids at the Cresskill pool.  They do a group thing in the morning at 11am.  Kristyn is still at work for this week, so it's all me to get them up, fed, dressed, pack the bag with changes of clothes, milk, pool stuff, lunch, snacks, etc.  Luckily, since they are not at camp this week, I don't have to get out of the house early, so the kids sleep and so do I!  And I can take my time getting everything ready to go.  (Which means I have time to watch an episode or two of "Who's the Boss!"  Because it was the first day, we didn't pack lunch, we went to the snack bar.  Not many healthy choices at a pool snack bar, so I had a burger and fries.

Dinner: Kristyn took Giuliana to gymnastics, so I was home with Joey & Conor.  The thing is that Conor has been a terror today and is basically just screaming and crying forever.  We think he is teething, giving him great discomfort.  So my last resort was to put the 2 of them in the car and drive around.  This always helped joey sleep when he was a baby.  Conor didn't fall asleep, but he definitely calmed down.  I bribed Joey with a Happy Meal.  While we were out, I grabbed 2 slices of pizza from Broadway II.  They were good.  Could have been really good with about 30 more seconds in the oven.  

Snack: One of Joey's favorite snacks these days is the King Cone.  I don't usually touch them, but he was complaining that he didn't like the flavors that were left, so I figured I would do my part and eat one of them.  :-)   A few hours later, during our nightly 90210 episode, Kristyn broke out the sour cream and Cheddar chips.  The are "Baked Ruffles" and they are amazing.  Probably my favorite chip.  I had some.  I didn't finish the bag, so that's a victory!

Weight Loss Update:  As of 9am on 8/1, I was down 0.7 from yesterday and a total of 11.1 for the 30 days.  Good good good!