Days 25-26-27 - I HAVE FOUND PIZZA HEAVEN!!

Here is a 3-day chunk. I will try to remember everything, but some is blurry.  There were some poor choices, but there was also some good, and some VERY realistic reasons to cheat, and sometimes cheat big!  Most importantly, I have continued to maintain weight, and not go backwards really, so I'm good with this.

Day 25 - Saturday, January 25, 2014
Breakfast - I'm pretty sure I did not eat breakfast.  I was too excited about the event I was about to witness.

Lunch - POMPTON LAKES BAND - PIZZA SHOWDOWN!.  This was like no event I have ever been to, and let me start by saying that I will, oh yes, I WILL be recreating this event at my school.  It was like a dream come true.  I did not really know what to expect when I got there, but i was not disappointed.

I arrived 10 minutes into the event.  The line was out the door, and indoor was PACKED.  Nowhere to sit, barely even anywhere to walk.  Almost all of the 11 pizzerias (YES - COUNT 'EM, ELEVEN!) were already out of pizza.  Pizza delivery men were coming in and out with 3, 5, 8 pies so they can serve the hundreds of people their half slice size "samples."  There was sweet pizza, garlicky  pizza, brick oven pizza, extra cheesy pizza, short on the sauce pizza, thin pizza, doughier pizza, crispy pizza, margherita pizza, you name it . . . . . . . it was great!  Yes, I tried all 11, and yes, outside of a bit that Kristyn took out of the last 5 of mine once she was full, i ate the entire half slice of each.  Sorry erveryone, even if you don't agree with this meal choice, there is NO DIET in the world that would have stopped me from doing what I did! :-)  They also supplied drinks and it looked like there were light desserts, but I can not believe that anyone would bypass another slice of doughy delight to have dessert at that point.  When we left, I got to the lot and told Kristyn to "give me a second, I need to calm down from this!"  Stay tuned for Cresskill Band's remake of this event!

Anyway, fast forward to the evening - My Birthday party!  Yes, I'm almost 33 years old, and I will continue to have a birthday party every year.  WHy?  Because we like to have fun, we have awesome friends, and its an excuse to have people over.  I had my fair share of drinks.  As far as my food intake - was not too bad:

4 sausage in a blanket
4 pig in blanket
2 buffalo chicken totino's bites
1 slice of oreo ice cream cake

I skipped the chicken fingers and pierogis later on and avoided most of the chips.  I alsoforgot to have a cupcake, but don't worry, those will come later in the 3 day run :-)

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Day 26 - January 26, 2014
Starting weight - a VERY dehydrated 217.6
Weight Loss to date - an inflated 12.5 LBS

Breakfast - I had 1 mini peanut butter cupcake that Beth brought last night.  It was AMAZING
Lunch - actually didn't have any.  This was another day of getting autographs and forgetting that There was not going to be food there.  Its ok, I wasn't that hungry anyway, but i got to meet:
Reggie Jackson, Tony LaRussa, Tony Kubek, and my boyhood favorite - JOSE CANSECO.  I know, he is the "godfather of steroids" and everything, but back in the day, he was my favorite.  Why?  Because when i was 8, on Christmas Eve, Mike got the Don Mattingly Baseball card book, and I got the Jose Canseco book.  My collection grew to 132 different Jose Canseco cards (not including doubles) and the Bash Brothers were my fun team to like for a few years, as I struggled as a child with the fact that my real favorite team, the Yankees, Sucked.  So yeah, there you have it, I was a yo-yo fan who liked other teams throughout my time while I waited for the Yankees to be good.  I was a young child.  What do you want from me?

Anyway, so I got my Jose Canseco Bat, and its AWESOME! I also forgot to smile for the camera when I met Reggie!

Snack - came home and ate something, and I cna't remember what it was, but I'm pretty sure i had a couple spoons of Rainbow Sherbet. 

Dinner - Went to dinner for Heather's birthday at outback.  Had a 9oz sirloin with 4 pieces of shrimp and mashed potatoes.  Also had a few pieces of bread and butter.  Avoided appetizers and fried foods, and also only had 2 small bites of the community dessert.  Pretty good for me at a place like that!  Drank lots of water!

Snack - ended up having the rest of the rainbow sherbet later while watching the Sopranos

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Day 27 - January 27, 2014
Starting weight - 220.4
Weight loss to date - 9.7 LBS


Today was a flashback day to my old ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . got to get back on track tomorrow.

Breakfast - 1 donut (my first Dunkin Donut of the year) + a toasted bagel with butter and a red bull. 

Lunch - forgot to pack anything.  had 5 chicken fingers, and a few tater tots + Diet Soda

Snack - Wheat Thins

Dinner - Pork.  THat is it, I had some pork.  Probably about 200 calories worth

Snack - 1 ferrero rochet + 1 Lindt Chocolate.  Didn't eat a lot, but didn't eat well.  At least, I didn't eat a lot!

Day 24 - January 24, 2014 - YO ELEVEN!

Its Casino Night at Cresskill High School!  Gonna be a fun one . . . . but lets start from the morning . . .

Starting weight - 219.1
Weight Loss to Date - 11.1 LBS

Breakfast - had a home made breakfast sangwich - Taylor ham + Egg whites on Light Wheat Bread with Orange Juice - Trop 50

Lunch - 1/2 sandwich at Denaros - turkey, pepperoni, Yellow American.  NO FRIES!
Snack - Turkey Chili - around 5pm.  Needed to hold me over.

Dinner - ok, so here is where I actually kind of impressed myself.  Behaved fairly well at the dinner buffet that was served.  First - I would like to point out that these were little bread dishes that we were using, so realize that when i say "PLATE."

First plate had 2 dumplings, a little rice, and some chicken.
2nd plate had straight up penne vodka
3rd plate had 2 small potatoes and some steak and a little more penne vodka with cheese.
also had 2 rolls w/butter.  THis part was a little unnecessary. 

I think had i not been trying, I would have had about DOUBLE that amount, easily.

Also had some drinks during the evening, and also at Miller's Ale House afterwards with the teacher crew.  Great times, and we closed the place out!  Not bad for a bunch of teachers on a Friday night.

Side Note - no one at our table won anything at Casino Night.  ARGH! But People at Kristyn's table of teachers from her school won, including Kristyn, who won a bunch of passes to Museum of Natural History and Bodies Exhibit.  Had a great time though, playing craps with lot of fake money that meant nothing really!  Good times!

See you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 23 - January 23, 2014 - LEFT-OVERS!!!! WAHOO!!!!!

Starting weight - 220.4 LBS
Weight Loss to date - 9.8 LBS

Lesson of the day - Sometimes weighing yourself every day is bad and frustrating.  Its not normal to lose weight every day and eventually it will slow down, and sometimes you will do well, but still gain a little - water weight, etc.  Just keep doing the best you can and it will go in the right direction.

Breakfast - New omelet - 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg, peppers, eggs, taylor ham

Snack - Granola bar - got really hungry after 4 periods of teaching, and then starting the 5th in a row.

Lunch - had some chicken and turkey chili leftovers.  YUM!!!!

Snack - NOTHING!

Dinner - TUrkey Chili - Still - YUM!

WOW I wanted to stop at the 7-11 on the way home - instead I grabbed a diet pepsi and it fooled me into not needing to stop!!!!!

Snack - when I got home, I needed a little something, so i had a little bit of Rainbow Sherbet and 1 Lindt Chocolate.


By the way, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some photos of our cooking from yesterday!  forgot to put them up yesterday.

 This is the turkey chili - had lean ground turkey, kidney beans, black beans, Low sodium tomato soup, and lots of spices.

 This is Kristyn's cilantro lime chicken, which was made in a salsa.  SO GOOD!

And - My dinner from yesterday.  By the way, i forgot, I had about 16 ounces of low calorie gatorade with dinner - forgot to write that.  Low cal gatorade is a great alternative when you need some taste. The entire thing - 32 oz, is only like 75 calories.  SOO, if you drink it over 3 servings, its not so bad!

Day 22 - January 22, 2014 - NO - SCHOOL - TIL THURSDAY!!!!!!

Starting weight - 218.9  (Thank you late morning weigh-in due to school closing!
Weight loss to date - 11.3 LBS

Breakfast -Eggs + Apple Juice

Lunch -  crap - what did I eat . . . . . . . . hmmmmm, we went grocery shopping, came back and i had . . . . . . OH YEAH!  Salad + 2 small pieces of chicken - grilled, and tossed in buffalo sauce with a seltzer.

Exercise - Racquetball with pete - played over 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Worked my butt off.  Lot of good exercise.  Really enjoyed it.  Plus did a little bit of shoveling

Now . . . . . . . as I said, we went to the grocery store because we decided it was time to learn how to use the crock pot.  We wanted to get a few ingredients so we can work on a few new recipes.  Over $100 later, we have really good food options for a week!  WAHOO!

Dinner - Let's talk about this crock pot situation.  They are amazing!  Kristyn tried her hand at the Cilantro Lime Chicken with salsa.  This was DELICIOUS.  I, on the other hand, made a turkey chili and it was GLORIOUS!  Leftovers for a few days are coming!   SOOO, for dinner, i had a bit of both and some seltzer.  One of the best meals we have had in awhile!

Snacks - i should have probably laid off a little, but we just bought so much stuff - had about a serving and a half of rainbow sherbet and 2 Lindt Chocolates.

For the record, I was so happy about these darn crock pot recipes, I can't wait to eat lunch and dinner tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Can't wait to come up with some more concoctions.

See you next time!

Day 21 - Januar 21, 2014 - broke 10 pounds!!!

Starting weight - 219.9
Weight Loss to Date - 10.3 LBS

Breakfast - Egg white/turkey sausage flatbread + seltzer
Lunch - 4 oz of steak with a little quinoa and mixed veggies + water
Snack - 1 buffalo chicken taquito and a red bull
Dinner - Black Bean Burger (no roll) + mixed veggies + 4 veggie chicken dumplings + Seltzer.  THe whole dinner was 340 calories!

Snack - about 2 servings of goldfish
Late night drinks!!  Had 2 of my famous Long Island Iced Tea concoctions to celebrate no school tomorrow and being trapped in the house :-)

Snack - 1 reese's big cup!  WAHOO!!!!!

No real exercise except round 1 of shoveling when I got home from work. 

So, I hit 10 LBS a little earlier than expected.  WAHOO!  I may have snacked a little bit much today, but I still didn't do too bad compared to the past.  I needed that 7-11 run to get through my 2 hour ride home from work in the snow!  and my meals were really good yesterday, so it all evened out. 

Day 20 - January 20, 2014 - A very good day!

Starting weight - 223.4
Weight loss to date - 6.8 LBS

Breakfast - 1 whole egg + 2.5 Egg whites + apple juice and 2 slices of whole wheat toast with country crock margarine

Lunch - was eating a healthy choice meal - Beef Merlot - it was TERRIBLE.  Just horrible.  I like almost every one of those meals I've ever had.  This one was Horrendous.  I threw half of it out, drank my seltzer and had 1.5 servings of goldfish.  Wow, it was disgusting and disappointing!

Snack - 2 LINDT Chocolates - I'm getting to work on my Christmas Gift Candy - very slowly.  Just a little bit at a time.  (I found a big cup that Kristyn got me.  Saving that for a good day!!) :-)

Dinner - Salad with just lettuce, chick peas and shredded cheddar, 5 oz steak, mixed veggies + Water.  This was a good meal!  Really enjoyed it.  Kristyn rocks for cooking it!

Exercise - I got a new racquetball partner today - in my attempt to do more cardio but not be bored as sin while doing it, I ran into an old neighbor last week at the gym, and we decided to play some racquetball.  He is 10 years younger than me, and has a ton of energy.  I played really well, but wow did he wear me out!   Some of the best running around I've done in awhile!  Played for about an hour, so let's estimate that at 900 calories burned.  I'll take it!

Very excited because I am Pretty sure that I will have wiped out the whole bad weekend in 1 day.  In addition, My 1st goal is 10 LBS, which is 220.2 - If I play my cards right, I could hit that by Thursday, which will be day 23.  Sign me up for that!

Days 17-18-19 - January 17-19, 2014 - Let's see how the old man's memory is

I will do my best to remember the last 3 days.  I have not taken care of keeping track here . . . .

Friday
Starting weight - 221.0
WEight loss to date - 9.2 LBS

Breakfast - Turkey sausage, egg white flatbread, Red Bull
Lunch - half sandwich at Denaro's
Snack - Zelizo's 'baby shower' at work - had half a piece of cinnamon swirl cake, and a handful of pita chips.  THe cake was made be Debbie - a co-worker, and it was GLORIOUS!  It was very tough to not eat a piece of every cake there - they have a crumb cake too . . . . . . . . . argh! I wanted it!

Dinner - late dinner at ski slope - Chicken Fingers and Fries with a coke zero.  Argh, they were not as good this week, was a waste - especially since i had 1 extra chicken finger that Sebastian Loh didn't finish!

EXERCISE:  Went skiing at Mountain creek.  Conditions were not really that great this time, but still had a good time!

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Saturday
Starting WEight - 224.0
WEight loss to date - 6.2 LBS
Breakfast - Flatbread sandwich again, seltzer
Lunch - went to diner with Tim - had grilled chicken on whole wheat toast and some fries.  Asked for a baked potato but they don't make them on Saturday afternoons . . . . . . . weird.  + water

Dinner - at Dad's place - he had a great black bean soup and salad.  The salad had grilled chicken, cheese, and some other salad-ish things.  Also had 2 pieces of italian bread and 8 ritz crackers with the soup.  Over done a little bit, but it was soup and salad.

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Sunday
Starting Weight - unknown - stayed at dad's
Weight loss to date - unknown

Breakfast - 4 inch cold cut sandwich at WAWA!
Lunch + dinner - large amount of food at Pete's Engagement party - i mean, actually not THAT bad now that I am thinking it through. Here goes:

• 2 pieces of chicken parm
• cold cut sandwich on half long roll
• 6 BBQ kielbasa cubes - like little sliced pieces
• many diet sodas
• picked at chips for awhile - was a chex mix
• 2 pieces of pumpernickle bread with country crock margarine

Dinner - NOTHING - stuffed from lunch.

AVOIDED THE CAKE LIKE THE PLAGUE :-)

ok - back to normal schedule tomorrow with school - and cooking food at home.  Still happy with where I am, but I didn't do the gym once this week.  I need to get back to the exercise no matter what. Need to run at least 1x, and if i don't play racquetball, i need to run at least 2x.

Day 16 - January 16, 2014 - 14 hour work day . . . .

Starting weight - 222.2
Weight Loss to Date - 8 LBS

Thursday is the ultimate long day for me during this season - start at 7:35am  - regular school day, then pit orchestra after school until 5:15.  Little paperwork/dinner break, followed by Jazz combo at 6:45 and then jazz band from 7:30 to 9:00pm.  Am I complaining or whining?  no.  I love all of these groups, really enjoy teaching them, and am very happy to have the opportunity to teach them!  Anyway, sometimes these days are good, because you are so busy, you don't have much time to think about eating bad foods!

Breakfast - Sausage, Pepper, Egg omelet - (2 egg white, 1 whole egg) + small glass of Trop 50 OJ

Lunch - had a Healthy Choice Meal - some kind of chicken thing

Snack - about 2 servings of goldfish

Snack - Cold Cut Sandwich on light wheat bread

Dinner? After Jazz Band (9:30pm) - made my triumphant return to 7-11.  Had 1 taquito (I know Ryan, I know) and 1 chicken finger, along with a slurpee.  Again, I'm doing really well, so a little something isn't going to kill me.

AND NOW - - - - - - An insight to my usual trips to 7-11 before J-DOC 2014:

• Large Slurpee
• Buffalo Chicken Taquito
• 1 chicken finger
• 1 jamaican Beef Patty
• Reese's Big Cup or a Brownie or a donut

So cutting 2 of those out, and this being the first time in over 2 weeks - not too bad for me!  I am on track to lose 1/3 to 1/2 pound tomorrow based on tonight's numbers, so hey, I am happy!

My eating schedule ended up weird today because i forgot to eat my salad for dinner before jazz band.  I'll have it as a snack tomorrow during the day.

Doing well!  And I'm looking forward to the weekend.  All signs lead to this being a decent weekend for weight loss, the way it looks to be shaping up.

See ya kiddies!

Day 15 - January 15, 2014 - Ridin' Dirty in the "Stang"

Starting weight - 222.7
Weight loss to date - 7.5LBS

So here we are at the halfway point of January and I have dropped 7.5 pounds. Thinking about this pace, I would be down 15lb a month, and 45 in 3 months.  No, I do not expect that pace to actually happen, BUT if I can make sure to spend more time in the gym, I can keep moving in the right direction.  I haven't made it in this week yet, but I will!  Its been busy week.  My first goal to hit is 10 pounds . That one will mean a lot to me, because I'm doing it the right way - not with any type of food gimmick of unrealistic eating patterns.  Still eating the things I like at times, just not as often, and much more home made food.  And I feel great!

Breakfast - treated myself to a Egg White, Turkey Sausage Flatbread at DD.  They have new flatbread bread, and its very good!  Supplemented with a red bull to treat my tiredness.  Not bad, considering its only my 2nd of the year, and I had been drinking one every morning before the new year.

Lunch - Home-Made chef salad, as usual.

Snack - munched on about a serving and a half of goldfish throughout the afternoon

Dinner - well, I went over to see Pirate Mom since she had her cataract surgery.  Much to my delight, Marie, Jenn, and Zoe were there!  But where was Karen?????  Well, she was at BRUNO'S Picking up dinner for everyone. It was a great opportunity to get my ONE slice of pizza, so I got a Square Slice and drank a Sprite Zero with it.  Thanks delivery girl, Karen!

And here comes the part where someone actually stopped me from eating something for the first time on this J-DOC run.  I was going to have a small piece of pound cake for dessert.  Karen was not sure what to do - - - - she asked if this is where she was supposed stop me from eating and I said, well that depends if you think i should not be eating it!  So, short story shorter, I didn't have the pound cake. 

I was going to play racquetball tonight, but my partner got a last minute call for work, so instead, its Sopranos time!!!!!

One a side note - my car, which was wrecked in an accident December 9 when i pulled out of my driveway and some idiot decided that they didn't want to slow down, is finally in the shop.  Got my rental car this week and its a blast from the past!  I'm back in a black Mustang - 2014 with all leather interior, power seats, and lots of nice features.  Not bad for $5 a day!  Thank you Plymouth ROck Teacher's Insurance.  

See you tomorrow.

Day 14 - January 14, 2014 - Return To Bruno's!

Starting weight - 224.7 LBS
Weight Loss to Date - 5.5 LBS

Breakfast - sausage, peppers, eggs omelet + small glass of Trop 50 OJ
Lunch - piece of leftover thin steak with egg noodles
Snacks - spread across the next 6 hours: 1 serving of cheddar popcorn, 1/2 serving of goldfish

• Dinner - oh glorious dinner - i went to BRUNO'S for the first time of the new year.  I was a good boy and stuck to my rules.  I had ONE SLICE of square pie, and it was awesome!  The waitress was about to heat me up a slice and then Richie stepped in and grabbed that piece from her and gave me a fresh, piping hot, just out of the oven slice off the new pie.  It was perfection on a plate.  I wanted 2 more slices, or a stromboli, or a personal pan deep dish buffalo chicken pie, but i was good.  ended up sitting there an extra 10 minutes just relaxing, and still held my cool!  Had a bottle of water with the pizza instead of my usual birch beer.   

Snack - 1 serving of ranch rice cakes when I got home from CCB.

Conscious decisions today to do better:

• Obviously, the pizza/birch beer deal
• After CCB, some of the guys asked if I wanted to go to Grande Saloon, but I declined because I knew nothing good could come out of that - At best, I would have had 2 beers OR an appetizer with a few glasses of water.  There was no need, since it was after 10pm already and I was not really hungry.  Sure I could have gone and just drank water and eaten nothing, but I was not feeling up to forcing the willpower, so I declined.
• Another day of skipping my daily Dunkin' Donuts run or my usual 711 after school/pre-dinner hit.  I'm doing well with that!  I think I'll go for a flat bread egg white sandwich tomorrow.  :-)

See you next time!

Day 13 - January 13, 2014

starting weight - 225.7
weight loss to date - 4.5 LBS

Breakfast - I don't think I ate breakfast today, now that I think of it . . . . . . . .

Lunch - 1 slice of pizza at Pizza

Snack - 1 thin piece of cheese

Dinner - 1 piece of chicken with some egg noodles and a piece of cheese, cucumbers and chick peas

snack - 10 pieces of popcorn


I really didn't eat much today.  Was not really hungry.  Drank a lot of water, I don't have much to say today.  Sorry for the boring blog.   I am still annoyed about the weekend's food intake, so I'm not in the mood to write much today.

Day 11-12 - 2014, January 11-12, 2014 - If only night time didn't exist . . .

Starting weight - 224.6
Weight Loss to Date - 5.6 LBS

SATURDAY - JANUARY 11, 2014
So since i did poorly yesterday and went down .6 pounds, I will be very motivated today to take that gift and keep the weight off.  I used to take that gift and say, "OK, That means I can eat like that and lose weight."  I know this is not the case.  Today I will make better choices.

Breakfast - woke up pretty late, so didn't have breakfast

Lunch - Black Bean Burger  (110 calories) in whole wheat wrap (140 Calories) + 4 pot stickers (140 calories) and a tall glass of Trop 50 (75 calories - ish)   THis was a nice lunch, and a little different than what we have been having.

Exercise - Played some racquetball with Pete.  I had a great game today.  For some reason, pretty much every shot I hit went where I wanted it to.  I had a few swings and misses, and a short run of bad shots, but for the most part, I was on.  Hopefully this is because i have played 4 times in the past few weeks and I'm just getting better.  We'll see next time if I keep it up, or if i play crappy like last time!
***Side note - looked up racquetball calories burned - it says:

• Casual - 700 calories/hour
• competitive - 1100 calories/hour.  

I'd say we are in the middle, because we are not as good as the great players, but we do run around a lot and work hard, so I will consider is 900 calories and hour, and we played for an hour and 5 minutes (with short breaks)  That being said, I am at a negative 435 calories for the day so far! :-)  Wahoo!  I'm going to go have an italian ice!

Snack - Italian Ice (90 calories)

Dinner -Its amazing what a difference 12 hours can make, because wow, I changed my tune from the top of this blog until now!  We went up to Pauling, NY for Kristyn's Aunt's birthday.  It was a great time.  Lots of karaoke made for a very interesting evening!  I am stalling though - THey had a buffet of finger foods, which is dangerous for me!  All things considered, for me, I did really well.  Here's the list of what I snacked on for the night - which was about 6 hours . ..

• 6 wings (way down from my usual 15-20)  :-)
• 1 potato skin
• 1 slider
• 1 something else i can't remember, but i know there was something else I had one of
• 5 little (they were really not full size) chicken fingers
• 1 small plate of pasta.

I know this doesn't sound very good, but trust me, that showed quite a good deal of restraint to not have a ton more than that.

The other part of the night is the liquor.  I will not disclose the actual drinks that I have on this blog all the time.  With the realization that this is not a hidden/private blog, I do not think I should be bearing those dirty details when they come up, unless its a beer here, a glass of wine there, etc.  SOOOO, You don't get that info, but it was a birthday party and I had a good time.

SUNDAY - JANUARY 12, 2014
Breakfast - woke up in NY state and had to come right home, didn't have a choice really.  Had a bagel with butter and an apple juice

Lunch - Well, if you are reading this blog, then you are obviously a facebook junkie and you know that we spent the day meeting the 1986 Mets.  It was a great time.  The one thing that we did not have planned correctly was LUNCH.  We had 2 options.  1) get a sit down meal upstairs and miss out on Darryl Strawberry and 2 other autographs.  2) Get food from the "Vending area."  We took choice 2, but the only things they had that were not unhealthy were Hummus, which I do not eat, and a salad that had blue cheese crumbles all over it.  So for lunch, I had a 3 Musketeers bar and a diet soda.

Dinner - After the Mets hang, I went to the COunty Band concert, followed by the annual MEBCI Music Teachers dinner - a buffet at the SEasons.  WOW, I look forward to this every year, and it once again did not disappoint.  I did, although, disappoint all of you.  I ate a lot.  I did not really stop myself.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I probably could have eaten another plate of food, but that would have made 4, so I cut myself off there, mostly because I was starting to feel full.  This was a disappointing meal.  My worst one of the new year.  I apologize for blowing it tonight.  I will take care of business tomorrow for sure.  All of this being said, DINNER WAS SOOOOO GOOD!

Day 10 - January 10, 2014 - Hitting the slopes

Starting weight - 225.2 - guess those pretzels really were a bad idea!
Weight loss to date - 5 LBS

Breakfast - Smoothie - home made, Red Bull and Donut - ARGH - my first donut of 2014.  ALso my first 7-11 trip of 2014.  I had a craving and did not handle it.  I was also very tired.  Not happy about it, but it happened.

Lunch - Went to Cresskill Pizza . . .. .this could have gone poorly, but i got a LARGE CHEF SALAD!  + diet pepsi

SKI TRIP #1 WITH CRESSKILL MIDDLE SCHOOL/HIGH SCHOOL SKI CLUB!

Dinner at ski slopes - could not resist the chicken fingers and fries, but at least it was not a HUGE serving, like at Six Brothers where they give you a HUGE basket with like 9 chicken fingers and 50,000 steak fries.  THis was a normal amount of fries and 4 average sized chicken fingers.  Had a diet coke.

So 2 our of three of my meals were not really good, BUT I did not snack at all today.  Not the way I Want to do it, but If the meals are going to be bad, then avoiding the snacking helps.

Oh wait - it is 15 minutes later than my initial blog write-up, and i realized that I had the ultimate crap snack today!  ON my way home, i made my 2nd stop at 7-11 of the day.  I got a donut and a coke Slurpee.  I don't know what got in to me - - - - - - well, I was mad about something - - - - - - - Maybe I will share later what I was mad about, but not now.  Its something that was my fault + someone who is either a really bad person or a moron who is indirectly and unknowingly paying me back for something dumb I did in 8th grade . .. . . . . . stay tuned.  When it is all resolved, I will let you know what happened.

EXERCISE was nice - getting to the slopes for the first time this year.  Looking forward to 2nd trip next Friday.  If anyone wants to meet at Mountain Creek, we will be there around 5:15 and staying until 9:30 next Friday.

preview of tomorrow - Believe it or not, I will be checking in down half a pound :-) 

Day 9 - January 9, 2014 - Those balls were made of . . . . . . MEAT!

Starting weight - 224.1
Total weight loss to date- - 6.1 LBS

Breakfast - sausage/pepper omelette (no cheese) and a small glass of "trop 50" OJ

Lunch - a little annoyed.  I rushed through a supermarket run last night and grabbed a box of mini turkey meatballs.  I love those things.  Shadybrook Farms.  They are awesome.  So I go to put some aside for lunch this morning and realize that they beef meatballs, and not turkey meatballs.  The box looks exactly the same.  ARGH.  So they were not as healthy as i wanted them to be, but still, this lunch is not bad at all:
3 mini beef meatballs (250 calories) + non-fat turkey gravy on a whole wheat wrap + Seltzer

Snack - soooooo, i had these mini pretzels and thought it would be a good snack to keep in the office. They were great - had al ittle taste of cheddar cheese sprinkled on them.  Well, I could not stop picking at them.  Ended up eating more than I wanted to.  I solved the problem though.  After snacking on 1/2 a serving at a time (probably 4 times during the day) I realized that this was going to be bad, so i left the bag out and told the pit orchestra to eat the rest of them.  I needed those pretzels out of my life before i ate them all!  So the little monsters finished them for me and I am safe now!

Dinner - 1/2 cold cut sandwich on wheat bread + Seltzer

Snack - Diet Orange Soda, 2 slices of ham and a granola bar after jazz band.

I think that my pretzel binge won't have too bad of an effect since it was over by late afternoon and i didn't have a big dinner. 

See ya!

Day 8 - January 8, 2014

Starting weight - 224.4
Total Weight Loss to date - 5.8 LB

Beginning of week 2.  Let's Go!

Breakfast - 2 bowls of CHeerios with 2% milk

Originally forgot to mention - I had a red bull on the way to work. I really was tired on the way in.  NEEDED to stop, but I walked in and made a left to the Red Bull, completely ignoring what was on the right (DUnkin Donuts)  :-)

Lunch - lost a bet with Big "Z" a few weeks ago - over break actually, so I had to buy lunch at Denaro's.  Had a half sandwich (6 inch) of turkey, pepperoni and Yellow american cheese.  We split fries and I had a diet root beer.  Could have done with out the fries, but it was part of the bet, and as the loser of the bet, I could not delete the fries!  Plus, i am doing great, so those were my first fries of the new year I think!

Snack - a student baked cupcakes for the pit orchestra, and I have trouble saying no to students when they cook!  SOOOO, I did good with this one.  I took it and had 1 bite at 3:30, 1 bite at 4:30, and 2 bites at 5:30.  I got 3 snacks out of one cupcake!  I think that is the best scenario for eating a cupcake.

Dinner - My typical salad, but delete all the cold cuts/meat, and add carrots!  I had 5.5 ounces of chicken with a little BBQ flavoring on it too and a seltzer.

Overall, it was not my best day of the year, but it is 100% better than any day of October, November or December 2013.  So I will take that.  

EXERCISE - Going to gym tonight to get my first racquetball game of 2014 in.  Meeting Cousin Pete at 9:30 to play.  Curious to see if the running helps my stamina in the game, because I usually play real hard and then get tired and winded quickly.  Will see how this goes . .  . . . .. . . .

Well, i got my ass handed to me in racquetball.  but got some good exercise in. PLayed 4 games - 1 hour and 10 minutes.  I won the last game only.  Wore me out though, and thats the real reason to play, so I can handle getting beaten.  Stamina definitely better.  Usually I win early, and get tired then lose.  THis time, I only won late!

Off to bed.

Day 7 - January 7, 2014 - These fish are made of "GOOOLLLDDD"

Starting weight - unknown
Total weight loss to date - unknown

Breakfast - Homemade omelet - sausage, peppers, 1 egg, egg white + small glass of apple juice

Lunch - home made chef salad - just like yesterday's.

Snack - a slightly too large serving of GOLDFISH.  Soooo good, but i think i already ate the bulk of them prior to today. I should have taken them out and portioned them out, but i was really starving.

Dinner - garlic and pepper chicken (made by Kristyn!) with 1/2 serving of cous cous, broccoli and carrots.

Had 5-6 bottles of water and a seltzer today.

Snack - 100 calories worth of mini rice cakes - Ranch flavor

WORKOUT!  Ran a treadmill 5k - beat my last time - knocked a minute and change off of my time - did it in under 34 minutes.  WAHOO!

Bought batteries for scale!  Back to the daily weigh-ins - - - - - - - for now.

WEEK 1 WRAP UP:
Tonight, i went back and read my blogs from "back in the day."  Its interesting, because I basically SUCKED almost every day during that.  I had excuses for everything, but somehow, on the first one, I ended up losing 28 pounds (13 of which i lost before blog started)  But its interesting, because NO ONE REALLY READ IT, according to the records!  People did not want to hear about my excuses!

So far, this time around, I am succeeding and not making many excuses.  I'm down about 5LB for the first week, feeling good, and got back to the gym a few times.  I am hoping to keep this up.  Its helpful knowing that so many people are reading.  There have been over 350 views in the first week.  It seems that maybe people are more interested when they know that its not going to be the same old crap - excuses about why I couldn't eat well!  Some people are giving me positive reinforcement, a few have motivated me to hit the gym, and a select few have busted my chops about an eating choice, helping me to make a better one the next day. THe majority of  people who bring it up basically are just busting my chops for doing it this way.  You all know me, I'm not the most conventional of people all the time.  But this time, I have a 50 pound goal, from the start.  Its a LOT.  It will bring me back to where i was in college.  37 will bring me back to where I was when i had to lose weight to fit in my tux for Wes and Julie's wedding.

I definitely feel good, but I can't lie - after a day of eating veggies and fruits, i can't say that my stomach feels satisfied.  THat is why its important to let myself have a slice of pizza, here and there, or maybe stop and grab a burger at Wendy's.  But overall - gotta keep getting up on time and making breakfast at home.  Kristyn has been cooking a lot at night and leftovers are great for lunch.

Thanks for the support and motivation.  I'm  a little bit of a child and in this circumstance, it happens to help me knowing that there are people reading!  I need to get healthy now if i want to remain healthy when I get older!  Hoping for an equally successful week 2!

Day 6 - Jan 6, 2014 - Pizzeria "UNO"

Starting weight - 225.7
Total Weight Loss to date - 4.7 lbs.  (got a little juice out of the ol' scale this morning somehow!)

Breakfast - 7am - Made a fruit smoothie - OJ, half a banana and frozen strawberries.  Only ended up drinking half of it.

LUnch - 11:45am - had one of my best salads to date!  Added a little bit of pepperoni to it, and the grilled chicken that Kristyn made.  Had a seltzer with it

Snacks:
1pm - half cold cut sandwich (these are like cold cut sliders - on wheat bread.  Low sodium turkey, pepperoni and yellow american)
3pm - half cold cut sandwich

Dinner - HERE IS THE BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT YET - I had one slice of pizza.  ANd it was a SMALL slice.  Dan, Nick, Andre, Evan, and James were there to witness it.  And the pizza was free, and it was hot, and it was good.  Eating one slice made me talk more though.  I had to do something to kill the time in between really small bites.  This was very hard to do, but I did it.  Trying to follow my rules.  How sad does this tiny slice look?

Snack - i earned a treat.  I had ONE of the little, small Reese's peanut butter cups.  Not the cups you buy in the store.  The little ones that you put in a snack bowl and are individually wrapped.  (usually, i'd grab 2 big cups on the way home if i was craving the peanut butter goodness, but I was good!)  I will probably have something else small before I go to bed. 

I had a slice of cheese and pepperoni and a granola bar.

Onward and upward - i mean, onward and downward actually. 

Day 5 - Jan 5, 2013 - Back to the gym!

Starting weight - unknown
total weight loss to date - unknown (scale battery dead)

Breakfast (a late breakfast) - home-made omelet - 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg with 2 small sausage patties and peppers with a bottle of water

Snack - 3 little mini rice cakes - this amounts to 25 calories

Lunch - i had a late breakfast, so didn't have lunch.

WENT TO THE GYM!!!!!  WAHOO!!!!!  Was not going to because I wanted to watch football, BUT i brought the headphones and watched the game while on the treadmill.  Was a great move!  did a 5k+.1 miles- a.k.a. 3.2 miles, it took 35 minutes and 45 seconds and i burned 516 calories!  Then went and did 12 sets of upper body lifting and 200 abs (on machines.)  I know that the machines don't work the abs as much as doing them on the floor, but it was either use the machines or take a full out break.  I was exhausted and it took all my energy to do the machine ab workout.

Dinner - Sirloin Steak - approx 6 oz, 1/2 serving of egg noodles, cooked carrots + broccoli, steam fresh mixed veggies, and a small salad with Cucumbers, lettuce, shredded cheese, chick peas and red wine vinegar.  I am FULL! (of good stuff!)  Had a seltzer with this meal.

THe fun part is that I definitely made meals for the next few days while I was at it.  Made 2 chef salads, 2 cold cut sandwiches (which are cut in half for snacks - like cold cut sliders) and made a steak left over meal with all the veggies from today.  Looking forward to eating it all and having NO EXCUSE to get food from the cafeteria or 7-11.  Kristyn got bananas today so we can make morning smoothies tomorrow.  WAHOO!

I really hope this keeps up.  I'm enjoying it.  Thanks to some of my friends who have been encouraging me.  It helps.  But boy is it time-consuming trying to be healthy, between cooking and working out - - - - - - - I may need to quit work!

So far, the only thing I could say i may have done differently is eaten twice as much steak and more egg noodles, with less veggies.  I probably would have snacked on some peanut butter cups too.  Kristyn's parents gave me a bag of like 150 of them.  THe mini ones - - -  THey stare me in the face every day.  So far, I have only had 2.  I forgot to blog that last night - before I went to dinner, I grabbed two and snuck them in and forgot about it since i went right to bed afterwards!

Snack - In the event that I actually am in the mood for what I am expecting to do, tonight, i will have another 3-4 mini rice cakes (whatever is left in the bag) and an italian ice.  If I stick to that for the night, then I won't have to log on here again until tomorrow night.  Lets go with that!  If i don't, then I will come back and change it.

Ok, I also had a piece of cheese and a piece of pepperoni.  Thats it. :-)

Day 4 - January 4, 2014 - a trip to Broadway

Starting weight - unknown - scale is officially dead.  ARGH.  Gotta get some batteries, although it may be nice not weighing in EVERY DAY.
Total weight loss - unknown

Breakfast/lunch - Leftover grilled chicken (no sauce) with carrots, broccoli and a little cous cous.

Now let's talk about the rest of the day . . . . . . . For Christmas, Kristyn got us tickets to see Newsies on Broadway (which was awesome by the way) and some restaurant.com coupons for dinner and drinks.  The issue with these is that you HAVE to spend a certain amount of money to use them.  Please keep this in mind.  It was a gift, and we had to spend a certain amount of money in order to use the coupons.

Playwright Celtic Pub - had 1 drink - Captain and Diet Coke.

Dinner - Traffic Bar and Grill - 48th and 9th - NYC

• Appetizer - we SPLIT Fried Mac & Cheese.  
• Meal -  got the only thing outside of a salad that was even functional. A Grilled Chicken Sandwich with bacon and BBQ sauce.  Got fries with it.  Here's the thing. . . . . . . . . . I know its easy to say "have a salad."  I am not against getting a salad.  I get salad at cresskill Pizza often when I'm eating healthier.  I make salads at home and bring them for lunch.  The issue is that i do not like the lettuce in most salads at restaurants.  I like the tasteless, healthless iceberg lettuce, crispy, light in color, thick, etc.  I do not like the other lettuce, at all.  And salads at restaurants have NOTHING that i like in it, so I am not spending $15 on a special shrimp salad just so i can pick out the shrimp to eat and leave everything else on the plate.  I will eat house salad as a pre-dinner thing, sure, with the right dressing - red wine vinegar or French dressing.  So, unfortunately, the healthiest option was the grilled chicken, which came with fries or mashed potatoes.
• Dessert - we split the hot fudge brownie and fried oreos.  (the only other option was cheesecake.)
• Drinks - 2 bud lites and a fair amount of water.

Ok, go ahead - destroy me if you want.  We had to spend $75 and go figure, this was a fairly priced restaurant in the heart of NYC.  We could have had our 2 meals with a drink each and then we would have only spent $40.  We had to spend the other $35, so we got an extra round of drinks, and app, and the dessert.  What would you have done?  Really?

Here is the good part of the rest of the night:

• Turned down a candy and soda snack at intermission of the show
• decided against going to the bar after show for unnecessary drinks.  I was still kind of full from dinner and felt like I would just be drinking for the sake of drinking.  
• Came home and avoided all food for rest of the night.

So far, on this 4 days of living with my new "rules," i can not say that I have made every right choice.  I can't say that I have done everything right.  I can say that I certainly have cut out a LOT of extra food and drink, driven past Dunkin Donuts multiple times and avoided it like the plague, turned down McDonalds, had salad, eaten 7 nice healthy meals at home (including homecooked breakfast every day,) and avoided red bull/soda/other unnecessary liquids. Remember, I am trying to do something I can keep up for the long-run.  I'm not looking to "diet" in an unrealistic way that will just make me blow up again in weight when i falter.  That is what i am constantly guilty of, the YO-YO Diet. . . . . lose 10, gain 9.  Lose 15, Gain 18.  Lose 5, Gain 6.  etc.  I usually lose 8-10 pounds the first week, and then gain it all back, because i don't last more than a week.  This time, I am going to take it slow and steady.  Realistic.  Successful.

Verderese - OUT

Day 3 - January 3, 2013 - Om-e-let you read this one for yourself. . . .

Starting Weight - 228.5
Total Loss so far - 1.7 lbs.

I need to get new batteries for my scale because it takes me about 90 seconds to get it to not say "LO" when i try to use it.  And I am Certainly sure that "LO" is not talking about my weight.

Breakfast - Home made omelet with 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, peppers, and sausage.  Also had a large glass of orange juice.

 Lunch - Had a Chef salad (made at home)- Iceberg Lettuce, Chick Peas, Cucumbers, a few sunflower seeds, Shredded cheddar cheese, low sodium ham, and low sodium turkey with red wine vinegar.  Its all the things i like in salad, except maybe grilled chicken and bacon. :-)  Had a bottle of water with it.  I'm full!  I hope the fullness lasts more than 20 minutes :-)

Did some exercise today - it was sort of forced - shoveled show for about 45 minutes.  I am ready to get back to the exercising though, for real.  Problem was that I threw out my back playing racquetball last week.  I think its ok now, so maybe this weekend i'll get back to the gym.

Snacking - Went to Bob's place today to do some snow tubing.  Was a great time.  Did a little bit of snacking while there, but nothing crazy.  Had 1 Heineken, a few sips of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey, some homemade soup made of sweet potatoes, black beans, and some other schtuff, and some chips.  Not a lot of them, just some.  Also had a few rice cakes before leaving home, but this was hours ago

Dinner - Went to BIVIO.  This is a great brick-oven pizza restaurant in Little Falls that a buddy of mine, Tom Colao has had for 2+ years.  The pizzas are amazing, and they are a good size for one person to eat. (well, maybe, just maybe, i should have eaten 3/4 of the pie instead of the whole thing, but really, it is not huge. Perfect size for a meal, if you ask me)  Anyway, had 1 meatball as an appetizer.  

If you haven't been to Bivio, you need to go there and try it.  Tom works his butt off at the oven making each and every pie.  We had the Margherita Pie and a specialty pie they were doing with sausage and sundried peppers.  All I can say is "WOW!!!"  I had been there when they first opened, and regret that I had not been back until tonight.  I need to make sure to get back there more often.  And for the record, the meatballs were great too.  I'm generally 50/50 on whether i like meatballs at places, but these were made to perfection and came with a scoop of Ricotta Cheese with it, a great touch that pushed those meatballs over the edge for me!  Good texture, nice taste, nice flavorful gravy.  Drank a ton of water with this meal.

WHAT I DIDN"T EAT TODAY:

Can't say that much actually.  I loved my breakfast and lunch.  ate whenever i needed to.  There was an extra slice of pizza on Kristyn's plate that i probably would have destroyed normally, but instead i told Tim to take it home for leftovers.  I would have probably had 3-4 beers normally at Bob's house, but i remembered my rule of not drinking "just for the sake of having a beer."  So i laid off and actually asked Sue for a SELTZER instead!   so in the end, today all i cut out was really a small slice of pizza and 3 beers.  Unless you count the fact that I really want to eat something right now, and I'm not because i said no snacking this late!

Day 2 - January 2, 2014 - NO DUNKIN!!!!

Starting Weight - 228.5
Total Loss to Date - 1.7 lbs

Not a bad start - down 1.7 lbs including new years eve and new years day, notoriously rough days, but i could probably have done better yesterday, as Bruce said in his comment.  Let's be real, it was VERY good for me on New Year's Day, but still i can do better.  And I will.

Breakfast - 1.5 egg whites + 1 whole egg + 2 small sausage patties. (These things are REALLY small) and a seltzer.

***IMPORTANT NOTE:  USUALLY, THIS IS THE MEAL THAT I STOP FOR A DONUT, A BUTTERED BAGEL, AND A RED BULL AT DUNKIN DONUTS.  IF I CAN KEEP AWAY FROM THAT ALONE, IT WILL DRASTICALLY CHANGE MY DAILY WEIGH-INS.

Lunch - Healthy Choice frozen dinner - Classic Chicken and Noodles + a seltzer

Time for the frequent small meals:

Snacks - 1pm - half sandwich - reduced fat peanut butter and light wheat bread.
               2pm - some goldfish
               4:30 - some more goldfish (probably a few too many)
               7:30 - a handful of peanuts
               8:15 - a slice of pepperoni

Dinner - Grilled Chicken (george foreman grilled) + steamed carrots and broccoli + Bottle of spring water.  Also a small portion of cous cous (about 1/2 a "serving" as listed on the box.)  used a little bbq sauce and a little hot sauce on the chicken but nothing like my old school heaping helpings of ketchup that would feel the entire brady bunch.  This meal looks HUGE, but notice the veggies pushing everything else off the plate.  :-)

Also drinking more water.  ONly had 2-3 bottles today at school, plus 2 seltzers, and i'll have another water or 2 tonight.  I'll need my water later on when i want to pick at the snacks!

Big props to Kristyn for braving the supermarket today and picking up some good stuff for us for the next few day.  Tomorrow should be a nice day of salads, steaks, veggies, and likely the same breakfast as today.  I'm worried about Saturday - we are going to NYC for a broadway show, dinner and drinks.  This will be my first time going "OUT" for dinner.  Need to remember to eat well and not feel like i have to "get something awesome" because its costing money!

Time for the daily "WHAT WOULD JOE HAVE DONE" session

• Once again, i did not stop at Dunkin for breakfast.  THat is a huge thing for me.
• For lunch, when i don't bring a lunch to school, i generally get 3-4 chicken finger + either a slice of pizza or big cup of mac & cheese.  I'll follow that up with 2-3 chocolate chip cookies. (C'mon now, we ALL know that school cafeteria always KILL on the chocolate chip cookies!)
• On the way home, i wanted to stop at 7-11 and grab a snack and slurpee, but i did not.  I know this sounds like a lot, but its really legit stuff i would do almost daily at times.  I had been good in December with the 7-11 runs, but a typical 7-11 run would include a medium slurpee and 3-4 food items (Varying between taquitos, Jamaican Beef Patties, BIg Cups, horrible pizza slices when they were fresh, chicken tenders, brownie, glazed donuts)   And this was my "pre-dinner snack" usually.  SOOOO, once again, a good eating day. 

**Since dinner is late tonight (about 8:40,) I will not be snacking afterwards.  This will be it for me today.  Looking forward to weigh-in tomorrow!  Good night!

FYI - Karen - I did weigh my chicken :-)

Time to watch the Sopranos!

Day 1 - January 1, 2014 - getting back on track

Last recorded weight of 2013 = 230.2 lbs.  This was last night before going to New Year's Eve Party.

This morning's starting weight - 228.5
Total loss to date: 1.7 lbs

Breakfast - NOTHING.  Recovering from last night.  Not hungry at all.  Thinking about food makes me unhappy right now :-)

Lunch - an Italian Ice.  All i can really stomach at the moment.  No, I'm not starving myself so I can lose weight.  I just don't think my stomach would like me right now if i eat anything significant.

UPDATE: Kristyn had McDonalds and i told her not to get me anything! I did eat 3 Chicken McNuggets out of her meal.

Dinner - Went to Karen and Eric's.  Despite Eric's drive to be a great host and keep offering me food, I did fairly well.  Before Dinner, I had 1 "Smart Oreo" which is some kind of not as bad cookie and 2 meatballs as an appetizer with Eric.  For dinner, I had some of Karen's whole wheat Mac & Cheese and some kind of healthy chicken thing that Karen made.  After dinner, I had 1 reduced fat chocolate chip cookie. 

Now let's play the game called "What I would have eaten!"

• My original plan for today was going to be to have an extra value meal from McDonalds and a double hamburger.  It was going to be my first McDonalds in a year.  I was very excited about it.  I was not REALLY hungry, and I had just finished writing my blog, so i only had 3 chicken nuggets.
• At Karen and Eric's, i had to fight the urge to have 4-5 cookies before dinner.  I had 2 servings of the mac & cheese and chicken.  I was not really full, so i would probably have normally had a 3rd serving, and i would have eaten at least 2 more cookies after dinner if i wasn't trying.  All in All, i didn't really eat any HEALTHY foods, but I definitely practiced good portion control
• At home, while watching the Sopranos, I wanted to go to the fridge and get food a million times, but then i realized that it was well after 9:30, so no more snacking.

Let's try it again tomorrow!

The J-Doc Monoblogs Are Back!

Well, I certainly am a man of many diets.  I have tried everything.  I suppose the problem is that it should not really be diets, they should be general lifestyle adjustments in regards to food.  Completely banning foods from my "diet" is not the way to go.  Its just about making better choices each and every time I eat.

In my 16 years of "yo-yo" dieting, there have been 2 that REALLY went well.
1 - Senior Year of College, I did weight watchers - just the counting points part.  Lost about 30 pounds while eating better and exercising a lot.  Ben and I ran every weekday morning at 5:30 and went to the gym 3-4 times a week.
2 - The original J-Doc Monoblogs a few years ago.  Lost 28 pounds - eating better and exercising, once again.

The key to both of those was the logging of all food/drink intake.  Weight Watchers was a way to keep myself honest to myself.  It gave a limit of how much to eat, but didn't tell you what to eat.  I have chosen to go back to the blog because my own personal logging wasn't helping this time.  I need the public ridicule.  Last time I did this, i was amazed at how many people actually were following it.  I can't imagine why people would waste their time looking at what I eat, but I guess I can make it a little entertaining at times.  The more people who are watching, the less opportunities I will have to screw up.

SOOO, once again, here are the rules of Joe's latest Diet of Convenience.  Enjoy and let's see how this goes!


MY JOBS:

1. STOP SUCKING AT LIFE!!! (My diet life, that is. Let's be honest, I'm AWESOME at the rest of life) :-D
2. Go to grocery store and keep stocked of good, healthy foods
3. take the time to cook instead of grabbing fast food/etc
4. Get back to the gym for lifting AND cardio
5. Stop making excuses and start making right choices
6. Follow the rules I created (below)
7. NEVER LIE to my people who are following the blog. I will not, I promise. That would defeat the purpose.

YOUR JOBS: (if you wish to take part)

1. Let me know if you are actually following this. The more who follow, the more apt I am to do well!
2. If you are out with me, do not push me to eat more than I order
3. Do not offer me your leftovers
4. If you are out with me, you are welcome to question my choices of food and remind me that I have to make better choices!
5. If we are out, and I am not drinking, deal with it and realize that I am fun as hell, regardless of whether or not I am drinking. Look at it this way, i can be the DD if I'm not drinking! This is an especially big one because in the past, I have been to many bars with many people, and have drank countless glasses of water. Although some people are cool with it, many others spend too much time making me explain myself and then try to convince me to do otherwise. We are not 17. There is no peer pressure to drink. You have your beer, and I'll have my water if i choose!
6. Yell at me if you see me making bad choices. I really don't want people to tell me I'm doing poorly, so if you do, it will motivate me to do better!!!
7. Realize that no matter what you eat or drink, there is probably SOMETHING wrong with it.  If i'm eating a "Healthy Choice" meal for lunch, I know its loaded with sodium.  But its so much better than eating 4 chicken fingers, 2 cookies, mac & cheese and some fries.  So realize that not every food will be perfect.  it just needs to be better than it WOULD have been.

SOME OF MY J-DOC LIMITATIONS:
**I do not want to "Diet" in an unrealistic way. i want to try to do something i can keep up with for an extended period of time (forever). This means that I will not be forcing myself to not eat things, I just need to limit how much i have and how often i have it.

1. Pizza: Pizza is fine. 1 slice. With or without toppings, and not more than once a day. I should not have any appetizers with that. Just the one slice.
2. Soda: Diet only, and only if necessary.  Try to do more seltzer.
3. Water: 1 gallon a day is the best.  Not always easy to remember to drink it all, but just drink lots of water.
4. Breakfast Sandwiches: 1-2 a week is ok, even with the Taylor Ham, BUT no bagels. Wheat toast please! And egg whites if possible
5. Beer: Keep it to light if possible and don't just have a beer for the sake of having a beer.  Save the beer drinking for a night out at the bar.
6. Breakfast in General: Fruit Smoothies would be the best, egg whites, Cheerios with skim milk. Breakfast should be prepared at home. No excuses. There is no need to buy breakfast, since it usually ends up being unhealthy.  Stay away from Dunkin!  But if you must go, get an egg white flatbread.
7. Evening: No late night eating. All attempts should be made to eat the last meal by 8pm and the last small snack before 9:30. TGI Fridays, Applebees, 1/2 price apps are a NO-NO. I can go, but I do not eat/drink. Stick to Water. (Maybe a salad?) I can hang out, but don't let me order my triple chocolate meltdown, boneless buffalo wings, crap like that.
8. Snacking: 100 calorie packs are good because they are small and tasty. Salads at home are awesome, fruits veggies, etc. I always have them in the house, so I need to eat them!
9. Frequency: I should be eating frequently and small portions. This will keep me from eating huge meals!
10. Vacations/parties: SOMEHOW, i need to keep it contained on vacations and at parties. Limit the ridiculousness of larger/fun events. This is currently my worst.
11. Buffets: not allowed! Under any circumstance. I will allow myself a buffet for every 10 pounds I lose, although I don't necessarily HAVE to go.
12. Fast Food: Its ok to go, but no super-sizing, only one sandwich, and try to get a bottle of water with the meal instead of a soda.  
13. Money: Get over the fact that it costs more to diet.  Also, get over the fact that a bottle of water may cost $1.50 at a restaurant when i could get a case for $4.  Deal with the $1.50 and drink the water instead of getting a soda, gatorade, or other options. 

Ok, Thats all i can think of for now. I will add to the rules if I think of any. These rules shall take effect immediately.

JOEY V