Day 66 - 20 pounds down! Big Milestone

Weigh-In - 228.2 (-1.1 from yesterday) Total Down - 20.1 pounds!!!

So I have hit the 20 pound mark!  This is amazing!  An exciting milestone that I've been looking forward to.  It sounds like a big number and pumps me up to keep going.  This also means that I'm about ready to unveil "Stage Two" of my plan.  The vacation delayed this a little and also clouded some of the plan because I have already started on parts of it.  When I have time, I will detail the added rules of stage two so you can see how I want to progress from here.  Just a few guidelines I want to give myself.  Not rules, not restrictions - just guidelines that will help me avoid flatlining my progress.

Breakfast - I meant to grab a protein bar but I forgot!  All the sudden, I was on the way to work and had forgotten to eat breakfast.  Luckily, it was getting late so I worked through the temptation to stop somewhere and I got to work unscathed.  I didn't eat breakfast (not on purpose) but it is what it is.

Lunch - Before I knew it, 12:30 had come - section leader meeting and then rehearsal at 1.  It was 1:30 before I got to try to shovel lunch down, but I had some delicious pecan crusted chicken that Kristyn had made for dinner the night before.  That with a small baked potato and broccoli was my hearty lunch.  I just grabbed a bite here and there when I could during rehearsal until I was done.

Dinner - For dinner, I took the staff to Dante's for a staff meal.  I had some things to take care of at work, so they went ahead of me and ordered real food.  I took the opportunity to just grab a couple slices a pizza.  1 plain slice and 1 thin square vodka sauce slice.  Just what the doctor ordered.

I also got my exercise in today, in a strange form.  The band field was partially flooded and I wanted to try to help it a little for tonight and also try to spread out the puddles for quicker drying before tomorrow.  I was able to get a squeegee thingy from the custodians and I went to work pushing water around the field.  It didn't exactly SOLVE the problem for tonight but I had a good feeling about tomorrow.  Believe it or not, the photo below was an IMPROVEMENT!

So at 8pm, we went back inside to finish up the day with some music.  We no sooner started playing and all the sudden, DOWNPOUR!!!!  Now I had left something up at the field so I had to go back.  By the time I got there, the field was literally a swamp.  All the moving around of water I did - worthless!  I can't see  a situation where we would be able to use this field again tomorrow.  Maybe I'll find out I'm wrong when I get in, but eek!  I've never actually seen the field DURING the storm.  I always see it the day after.  Maybe it will drain.  Otherwise, there will be a LOT of music rehearsal tomorrow. Will keep you posted.    Day 2 was a great success and Julie and I came in 3rd place in the water balloon toss.

Next morning weigh-in - 227.4 (down .8 from today's start)

Day 65 - BAND CAMP UNDERWAY!

Weigh-In - 229.3 - Total lost - 19 pounds.  (-2.9 from yesterday)
I know this seems extreme, but coming off of vacation where I kind of "artificially' gained some weight, coming back to a much better diet for a few days, that weight just melts away.  So My prediction of getting back here by Friday was wrong!  I'm there!  Onward and downward. . . . . .

Breakfast - I told the people at Dunkin that I would come there once a month for an "old school breakfast" of mine.  I know on vacation I went to Dunkin a few times, but I'm not counting that.  Since I missed my 2 month J-DOC anniversary on 8/18, I went today and saw my old buddies.  I got my chocolate Frosted donut, toasted bagel with extra butter and Red Bull.  Ya know what's crazy about the whole Red Bull thing?  I really like the taste.  But I was drinking so many of them (every day) and I was not feeling great that I really didn't necessarily feel good when I drank them.  Now that I rarely drink them, I like them even more again when I do!  Is that what they say . . . . "absence makes the heart grow fonder?"  By the way, this is also the best buttered bagel I've had a Dunkin in forever.  Also grabbed a selfie with my Red Bull Guy.  He busts my chops every time he sees me.  Been trying to get me to stop drinking that stuff for months. 

Lunch - Since breakfast was pretty big and at like 10:30 or so, I ended up forgetting and/or not needing to eat lunch.

Dinner - Last of the leftover cilantro lime stuff Kristyn made.  This one had chicken again.  I like it more every time I eat it!  :-)   Also made a peanut butter pie for the marching band staff.  Figured I needed to feed them a little bit more this year.  Was a good addition to the day.  I had 1 piece.

Snacking - On the way home after a long day of work, I earned myself a Slurpee.  This was not a stress eat, a lack of willpower or senseless eating.  This was a reward because I've been working almost around the clock the past 48 hours to get band camp ready.  The kids were making fun of me for all the notifications they got on Google Classroom the past couple days and also the fact that some of them come at like 2am!  So if I want a Slurpee when I leave work at 9:15pm, I'm entitled to a Slurpee.  I have to make sure I don't slip back into the daily slurpee routine, but 1-2 a week will not kill me.  1-2 a day - that may eventually kill me. 

Morning Weigh-In - Came in at 228.2 for the next morning weigh-in!  WAHOO! 

Side Notes About Band Camp - So today marked the start of my 14th year as band director at Cresskill High School and 16th year overall (2 as assistant director to Tom Vernaleken.)  The band is about half the size that it was when I took over which makes me sad at times but I will say that it is much easier to manage this way!  AND the kids are improving every year.  Yesterday was a very successful first day of camp and it actually went by very fast.  We are doing a show including 3 songs with "BIRD" in the title, the only way you may find Maynard, the Beatles and Stravinsky in the same marching show!  Birdland, Blackbird and Firebird.  That means I get to hear Birdland every day for the next 2 months.  I'm cool with this!   (Tom White - I told the kids about our epic night with One More Trip To Birdland and ALF back in high school.  They REALLY think I'm weird now.  (As if they did not already!)

Very pumped about this season.  We have lots of great new faces, very happy about all the returning ones and a great work ethic to start.  Staff was happy, leadership was happy - and for the first time ever, we put drill on the field at the first rehearsal, thanks to all the great work the section leaders did with their kids over the summer at their weekly sectionals.  Looking forward to what's to come with the 2018 Cresskill High School Marching Band!

Day 64 - Light Eating Today - Big Difference

Weigh-In 232.2  - down 16.1 total (-1.2 from yesterday)

Breakfast - Just a protein bar.  Lots to do today!  That's gonna be the next 4 days.  Lots of work to do, strange schedule, not a lot of time for overeating.  Band Camp is a diet's dream come true!

Lunch - Leftover cilantro lime chicken from yesterday.  Yes - Chicken.  Ran out of shrimp so real quick cooked up some chicken last night to throw in here.  I did it as a bowl.  No bread at all!  Yes sir!

Snacking - Stress eat time.  So let me set the scene.  Picture it.  Sicily - 1922.

Orrrrr, Cresskill - 2018.  I arrive back from a nice vacation to my band room. I know that the floors had been waxed and that means that EVERYTHING was taken out, put back in and likely unplugged.  For some reason though, I'm still surprised every year by this.  This year, I had a good excuse.  I was on vacation.  Out of sight, out of mind.  But wait, there's more.  Once I realized that I can't print, use the smartboard or even the computer in the band room, I headed to my office to use the laptop and saw that the printer in there was plugged in.  EUREKA!!!!! - but alas - I had brought that computer home to write music over the summer and forgot it in my dining room. So Now I have to figure this out.  How am I going to print stuff.  I can go to C-4- the teachers hangout room with the computers hooked up to the copy machine.  I'll print direct.  But no, that machine prints out smudges at random which makes printing drill and music pretty impossible.  So how about the library?  They have computers and a copy machine.  Ok - - - - - OH WAIT: can't go that way - they are waxing the floor.  I literally have to walk ALL THE WAY AROUND THE SCHOOL to go 30 feet.  Ok, so I get to the library and the 3 computers by the copy machine - well, they are GONE!  Luckily, there are a million more computers which happen to be hooked up to a printer.  But the printer was blocked by like 15 laptop carts.  I squeezed my fat ass back there to find out that there was no paper.  No problem, there is plenty of paper across the room.  Finally get this all set up, jump on Google Drive, start printing and i'm on my way.  Now somewhere in the middle of this whole thing, I was in my office, opened up the freezer and saw that there was an ice cream cookie sandwich in there that I had forgotten about.  Alice Apice made it and somehow I ended up with it in my freezer.  I guess I had grabbed my lunch and eaten it in my office and never got to this delight.  So anyway, I was like "EFF THIS!  I'M EATING A COOKIE ICE CREAM SANDWICH!  THAT WILL SHOW THESE PRINTERS WHO'S BOSS!"  Well, I don't know what that solved, but it really did calm me down.  Side note - I now love working in the library.  Printer AND copy machine within spitting distance?  And with google drive/docs/etc, other than writing music, I can do everything I need from any computer I want.  I dig.  Love the library!  And for those of you who don't know,  that is stay its like getting things done at school in the summer :) 

On a side note,  huge props to the custodial staff for knocking off a HUGE to do list every summer and getting the school up and running every September by day 1.

And by the way, if you were wondering who, in fact, is the boss?  It's Angela.

Dinner - I was supposed to eat another cilantro lime chicken, but instead I had 2 slices of pizza.  Why?  Because it was our section leader meeting the night before band camp and I decided to feed the kids.  They have worked hard this summer, so what's a few pies?  I can't just let them eat it!  Normally, this is a killer for me - at least 4 slices!  But I held back and did good.

And that's it for today.  Kept it light and easy.   Weigh in tomorrow: 229.3. Officially dropped the vacation weight and the pre-vacation weight in 2 days :)  now another big push coming, I can feel it.

Day 63 - Back to Reality

Weigh-In - 233.5 (down 15.8 total)

Today is a start to trying to get back to normalcy, whatever that is!  I was 2 for 3 today, so let's check it out!

Breakfast - Just a dark chocolate, Peanut Butter Protein bar.  Pictured below in case any of you forgot what I was talking about.  These are quite filling believe it or not.

  

Lunch - So I went to a sports collector's show in White Plains from about 11:30am to 3:00pm.  I had a chance to meet Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers and Juan Marichal, should be Hall of Famer Luis Tiant, '69 Mets Champs Ed Kranepool and Ron Swoboda, and freebies Greg Luzinski and Ralph Garr.  The problem with this is the time frame.  I had my protein bar on the way up to White Plains but by 2pm, I was STARVING!  The only thing they had there was Nathan's and I knew I would not be passing anywhere on my way home either, so This was my only choice.  I had a chicken sandwich, fries and just a few sips of a very nasty flat orange soda.

Snacking - just a piece of my peanut butter pie that was left over from before vacation.  :-)  Also a piece of cheese.

Dinner - Well, the honeymoon is over.  Band camp is on the horizon and my streak of being the cook of the house is coming to a close.  I'm not in any way saying that I will not help, cook or anything else.  What I am saying is that there are going to be days where I can have nothing to do with cooking because I'm not home at all. Kristyn knew this was coming and started wrapping her head around getting herself back on the cooking train and she started off with a bang.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp Tacos

• So the shrimp was from a frozen bag - which was great!  Was about $5/pound and for $15, we got through 3 good meals with it!  Defrost and de-vein.  Then marinate in a sauce that Kristyn put together - I know it had cilantro, lime, cumin and likely a few other things.  Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes.
• Quinoa - just follow directions on the box
• Black Beans - from a can - just open and rinse
• Shredded Carrots - no prep
• Cilantro - cut small
• Avocado slices (I did not have this)
• And a lime to squeeze on top
• Your choice of making this as a bowl, on a lettuce wrap or a regular wrap.  

I chose to make 2 whole wheat wraps.  Not ready for the lettuce wrap thing yet.  But this was so good that I will likely just put it in a bowl next time and forfeit the wraps completely.

I'm pretty sure that was it for the day.  Wanted to make sure that lunch didn't screw me for the day.  Oh wait - I had some grapes!  Forgot about that.   

Next Day Weigh-In - 232.3 (-1.2 from today!)  Good start back.

Days 58-62 - The 2nd Half of Vacation

Hello all,

My apologies for disappearing for a few days.  I was not hiding anything from you, I was just enjoying vacation and didn't pull out my computer all that much. Was able to check my email, Facebook, Google Classroom, etc from my phone so the only reason I would really take out my computer was to blog (and a 4 hour school work binge one night from 10pm-2am, but we won't talk about that.)

I'm going to try to recap at least the meals at this point from the past bunch of days.  There is no way I can really give you a play by play of the snacking that went on for 2 reasons.

1 - it is 5 days I have to remember.
2 - I really was picking at stuff all the way through the day, every day!  There were 9 of us in that house.  There was a lot of food there!

Ok, let's see what I can remember.  Here goes nothing:

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Day 58 - Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Breakfast - Today I experimented with making my own home-made "McGriddle."  It was only for me because we had settled into a routine of breakfast being every man for themselves.  Since Joey wakes up early, sleeping in was not a thing for me, so I cooked myself a nice meal.  So as a bun, I made 2 syrup infused pancakes.  (next time I have to put in more syrup!)  Then I made 2 turkey sausage links and 2 egg whites/1 whole egg - scrambled.  This is the result!  Pretty awesome sandwich.  And I maintain that although it sounds like a nightmare for a diet, it's SO MUCH BETTER than getting it at McDonald's!

Lunch - I made some leftovers before we went out for the afternoon.  There were 3 small pieces of chicken and some egg noodles that I grabbed to hold me over.  BUT then I went and got gas.  What's the big deal you say?  Well, the gas station happened to be at a ROYAL FARMS!!  So I did the only logical thing.  I ordered 1 single chicken finger.  It was glorious in all it's saltiness!  BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!  Kristyn ended up going in and getting herself a 3-piece snack and it was too much for her so I had a 2nd chicken tender.  Ok, I guess things could be worse, right?

Dinner-ish - We had an amazing time out with the family on a catamaran/pontoon/whatever it was called boat.  Uncle Bill and Aunt JoAnn set it all up  - the ride, the food, the drinks - soup to nuts.  It was beautiful!  An awesome event for us.  It was my family, Karen's Family, Peter's family, Michael Mom, Aunt Arlene, and of course, UB and AJ.  While on this trip, I was going to keep it light the best I could, but I ended up having 1 brownie, 2 cookies, a few chips a bud lite and an Angry Orchard.  To my recollection, that was it.   Not bad for the kiddie's first time on a boat!  Check out this motley crew!

Late Night Stuff - Everyone was going to the boardwalk, but the bewitching hour was upon us with Joey, so we stayed back.   I'm sure I had a mini-ice cream cone or something, but that was probably it.  I feel asleep kinda early on the couch and got back to the next day.
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Day 59 - Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Breakfast - For the life of me, I can not remember what I ate for breakfast this morning.  I know that I went to the supermarket bright and early and that's all I remember. . . .. Maybe it will come to me later.

Lunch - For lunch, we went to Grotto's for our one and only stop there this week.  It was my only pizza all week.  The problem is that I made the most of it, and by that I mean I made the WORST of it!  Pictured below you see a pizza pie.  Mike Draney had 2 slices, Kristyn had 2 slices and I had the rest!   Yup, I popped off half a pie for lunch. I have no regrets . . . . oh wait, yes I do!  That's RIDICULOUS!  Normal humans don't do that!  I will say that Grotto's pizza gets considerably worse as it cools off. Tastes so much better when it's hot and dangerous!

Dinner - This dinner tasted like 143 Ploch Rd in Clifton.  Mom made macaroni.  We had rigatoni with meatballs and sweet sausage.  It tasted like old times, that's for sure.  Pictured below is my first plate.  The 2nd plate was considerably less, but still no needed.  You'll learn about me that if I'm sitting at a table with people for an extended period of time, I have a real problem stopping the intake!  If I'm alone, I finish and get back to my work.  When I'm with a group, I can't watch people eat.  Ask my mom - I've been like this since I was a baby.  At the restaurants, they always had to give me cheerios when I saw the other tables getting their food.  :-)  From the looks of the photo, it would seem that I also had a Blue Point Toasted Lager.

Snacking - I had the bright idea to make fresh chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches with Breyer's Chocolate ice cream.  But while I was at it, I just made an entire tub of Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies.  In the end, I only ate half of one because they were HUGE and since we had more company, we didn't have enough to go around anyway, so everyone kinda cut them in half and dug in.  I can't believe I don't have a photo of this.  Thanks to Alice Apice for the inspiration to make these!!!!!  I also ate a cookie or 2 while I was "Checking to make sure they were cooked thoroughly."  :-)
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Day 60 - Thursday, August 16, 2018
Breakfast - Ahhhhhh, my wife shamed me and went out for a walk while I sat on my ass and did nothing.  But when she came back, she brought the best present you can ever bring:  A dozen donuts from the Fractured Prune.  This is a specialty donut shop that makes awesome concoctions with their donuts - fresh on premises.  They were still warm when she got home with them!  I think all in all, I had 1.5 or 2 donuts.  Reese's Peanut butter donuts, Smores donuts, I can't even remember all the options, but it's the type of donut that you cut a half or a quarter of the donut and taste test them all.  Oh, I think another was called "Death by chocolate!"  It was great!  What a nice surprise!

                                    

Lunch - For lunch, we had a BBQ and Uncle Bill and Aunt JoAnn's place.  Always the great host and hostess, we had a relaxing day at the pool with some good food and drinks.  (Well, as relaxing as it can get with an 18-month old running around by the pool, up and down steps and a ramp, and even playing his own little game of chicken by leaning into or trying to climb down the stairs into the pool!)  So it started with some tostitos and some pretzel nuggets from Philadelphia Pretzel Factory (at least, I figure they were from there!)  Then for actual lunch, I had a hamburger and a sausage sandwich.  Really should have just stuck to one, but again - social and long term eating situations - I have trouble with them!  I had a couple diet sprites today.  Stayed away from the beer.  What a good boy.  :-)  But then . . . . dun dun duuuunnnnn!!!  Came my worst moment of the week.  THE BINGE!  I must have popped 15-20 of those pretzel nuggets while waiting to head out.  They were just sitting there, on a tray.  And you know how big those trays are - you can eat 10 and it doesn't even look like you are making a dent in it.  I  just kept eating them.  15-20 may even be a low estimate.  I really have no idea.  I just kept going.  It was one of my worst moments of the past 60 days.  Oh well, worse things in life, right?

Dinner - I guess at this point, the pretzels were my dinner, but this was our night to go out without the kids. The Grandma's were babysitting so Kristyn & I, Karen & Eric and Peter & Laura all went out.  We headed out to the Rusty Rudder to see the band "Love Seed Mama Jump" which was a recommendation 2 years ago by Kristyn's old principal.  But upon arrival, we found out that they had stopped serving food!  We went across the street and ate at some place that I don't remember the name of.  I didn't want to overeat, being 10pm at this point, so I got an order of buffalo wings and called it a day.  Not the healthiest choice, but 8 small wings - not bad for me in that situation.  I also had a Bud Lite.  

Late Night - Back to the Rusty Rudder and I was feeling like a gambling man - so I decided to drink a lot and pray that Joey slept in so I can sleep it off.  :-)  All told, I had 3 long island iced teas, 2 beers and a jello shot.  But my LIT's were a new concoction I made up called the "Bull-Shit Iced Tea."  This was an LIT but instead of coke, RED BULL and instead of tequila, WHISKEY!  So the total is Vodka, Gin, Rum, Whiskey, Triple Sec, Sour Mix and Red Bull.  I gotta tell you, this was AWESOME!  And it definitely did the trick.  :-)  We had a great time and closed out the place with a well-needed night out without the kids.  And Karen had her first ever trip in an Uber!!!   This photo is all you are getting from this night.  Sorry!    

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Day 61 - Friday, August 17, 2018
Breakfast - Yes, the morning after.  How did I feel for this one?  Surprisingly not bad.  :-) Believe it or not, we were up and at 'em bright and early and left for the beach around 8:30am.  But it was abundantly clear that a Dunkin Donuts run was in us.  I went old school with a chocolate frosted donut and a plain toasted bagel with butter.  I didn't want a Red Bull though so I ended up with a Red Gatorade.

Lunch - We stopped at this place on the boardwalk and I got a BBQ chicken Sandwich and another Gatorade.  Red of course.

Dinner - I needed to get back to eating home made food (and spending less money) so our last night on vacation was Turkey Breast with Broccoli Mac & Cheese, 1/2 a baked potato (although everyone else had sweet potato,) Brown Rice and Broccoli.  Good meal!

After dinner, we hit up the boardwalk and I stayed away from it all!  But when we got home, I had 2 scoops of peanut butter chocolate ice cream.  And I had also bought a fresh peanut butter PB Cup at one of those awesome candy stores.  So I told Kristyn that if she didn't remind me that I wanted to eat it tonight, I'd be very upset.  Unfortunately, she reminded me right after my ice cream.  So, double dessert time!  

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Day 62 - Friday, August 17, 2018
Breakfast - We had to pack and be gone by 10am, so all the food was packed, the dishes were washed, and that meant we didn't eat until after we left.  Dunkin again.  Donut, Bagel, blah blah blah.  NO Red Bull.  Just a water.  :-)

Lunch - Hit Burger King on the way home. Unlike the drive in, I just ate.  I hate a chicken sandwich and fries (medium) with Fanta Orange Zero.  Again, I've done much worse.  Usually, I get the largest size, a sprite and a burger or chicken nuggets on the side.

Dinner - After a long drive home and a supermarket run to come, all I wanted was some pizza.  BUT Kristyn was a good influence on me so instead, I had a small bowl of gluten free pasta and a little turkey and broccoli mac & cheese leftovers. Thanks K-Mart!
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Vacation Round Up - well, that's it!  I had a hell of a vacation.  If you read this and were disappointed in all my failures, I prefer to point you to all the times where I succeeded while on vacation.  Every successful meal was one less failure and on Vacation that's all you can ask for.  I think I did more than my fair share to try to stay on track.  You can't completely be great on vacation, no matter how hard you try.  I'm not making excuses at all, but I am not going to call this trip a disaster because I had some bad meals or days.  Could have been better, could have been worse, but I tried at least half of the time and that's pretty good.

Also remember, there was lots of snacking in here that I did not account for.  Usually it was a mini-ice cream cone, a small cinnamon or white powdered donut or a few frozen grapes.  Nothing huge, but I can't remember when/where/how much.  It was just a long week to remember.  

It was Giuliana's first time on a trip and on the beach.  It was the first time that Joey and Giuliana got to spend a whole week with their cousins - and with young kids always around.  My first family vacation with Mom and Karen (and my dad was even around for parts of it) since Myrtle Beach in High School when our car broke down at like 11pm in the middle of Virginia and we had to sleep in the parking lot of a car dealership because there were no hotels available!!!

It was great to have UB and AJ take such good care of us and it was very nice to see the Livera/Draney/Verderese/Sassano crew here and there during our trip.

Huge thanks to Mom for taking us on her trip and congrats to her on her retirement from the public schools where she was a secretary forever - between Montclair State, Wood-Ridge, Clifton and whatever the list of things she did before we were born.  Well deserved retirement and what a great way to kick it off.
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Weigh-In at home - so I'm gonna spill the beans and if you made it all the way through this blog post, you deserve to know where it all went.  I weighed in Sunday morning at 233.5 pounds which means I gained a total of 3 pounds on vacation and I'm currently down 14.8 pounds.  My low point was day 52 when I came in at 19.2 down, so I have gained a total of 4.4 back.  I was TERRIFIED to get on the scale because I have the ability to gain 10 pounds in a week and I was scared that I had done that.  3 pounds on an 8 day vacation?  I'm pretty happy with this, but need to get back on track.  Band camp is coming up this week so I have to get through Sunday and Monday.  Then the big work comes in and I usually eat pretty light during band camp.  I predict I'll be back down by Friday to where I was at day 52, and if I'm right - I'd call it a successful run.  Wish me luck!

Day 57 - Crazy Dinner Shenanigans

Weigh-In - Unknown

Breakfast - I made chocolate chip pancakes and regular pancakes for everyone this morning.  I made 1 huge CC pancake for myself which was awesome. :-)  Should have taken photos.

Lunch - We went to the Green Turtle for lunch today.  Had a really good sandwich - Turkey with bacon and a little BBQ sauce.  Came with fries and I had 1 of mom's chicken fingers.  Water was the drink.  I'm doing well with not getting soda too often when I eat out.

Snacking - mini ice cream cone at the house

Dinner - Oh my goodness, dinner.  now THIS was an adventure, that's for sure!  We intended to go to Dogfish Head Restaurant/Brewery.  I called and they said that they do not take reservations and so we just planned to get there around 5:30 or so.   We got there and there was a 1:45 wait for a large table (since we needed 6 adults, 2 high chairs and a booster seat.)  So we left.  Then it turned out that basically EVERYWHERE has a wait that long, but luckily we found a place within walking distance that told us there was no wait at all, which should have been a hint right there, but when you are desperate just to find a place to sit down and eat, the standards go way down.  :-)

The place we ended up at was called "Catchers."  It started off with us going in and trying to get the hostess to seat us.  Joey was screaming bloody murder and all we wanted to do was get our table so we can sit down and give him a snack, but the hostess basically just kept staring at us and standing there doing nothing for what felt like an eternity.  In reality, it may have just been 5 seconds, but I will stick with the story that she was slow and lame.

Ok, so we get seated and they take our drink orders.  Among the various orders, Eric and I ordered beers.  All the drinks came out except the draft beers and the waitress said the drafts would be out soon.  Now when my beer came, the glass was quite cold so I was pretty pumped for a nice cold beer.  WRONG-O!  The beer was pretty warm.  As I'm getting my way down the beer, I actually get a piece of ice.  So now I realized that the reason they made us wait is because their beer is always warm and they put ice in it and into a frozen glass to try to fool us into not having a warm beer.  Unfortunately, even with all the work they did, the beer was still warm.  I wanted to ask the waitress for "more ice for my beer" to cool it off and subsequently, get a little dig in while I made her know that I'm on to them, but Eric thought that may lead to some spit in our food and he's probably right, so I just stuck to my warm beer and didn't order another one.

                                                 

Now on to appetizers - Kristyn and I got fried Mac & Cheese balls.  These were actually quite good, we thought.  They were not huge.  But Kristyn and I each had 2.

Then it was on to trying their "Special" the Beer Infused pizza with crab topping.  Now I have a theory about pizza and how it's basically good even if it's bad and it would have to be absolutely terrible to leave any on the plate.   So I took one bite of this thing and my god was it bad.  I actually put it right back on the original plate and left it there.  It was mushy and gooey, I'm not even sure I ever found the crust.  The cheese was just a blob of crap and I am actually kinda sorry I even took that one bite.  I have never in my life actually stopped after 1 bite. There has been bad pizza before, but I would at least get through 3-4 bites to give it a shot.  I never even considered a 2nd bite on this one.  I can not tolerate wasting even 1 calorie on something as bad as this pizza.  I should have known, BUT how do you ignore a menu item called "beer infused pizza" especially when it's the special and it comes with seafood in a seafood town?  Big Mistake.  Please, for the love of God, if you ever end up at this place, DO NOT GET THE PIZZA!

I am going to go out on a limb and deem this pie the "WORST PIZZA I'VE EVER EATEN!"

                                                           

OK, on to the meal.  I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich with french fries.  It was a GRILLED buffalo chicken sandwich and believe it or not, buffalo sauce is not the end of the world calorie or fat wise.  Sure, lots of sodium which I'll need to watch come "Stage 2" but you can't be perfect.  The sandwich was quite good, I really enjoyed it.   So I order my sandwich and here is the conversation:

• JV -  I'll have the buffalo chicken sandwich.  I just need the chicken, buffalo sauce and bread. Please make sure there is no lettuce, tomato or anything else.  
• Waitress - (while giving me a dirty look) - well, they'll probably just put it on anyway
• JV - Well, can you tell them not to?  I don't like tomato juice soaking into my bread
• Waitress - (Dirty look and move on to next person)

BUT the french fries - now my mom is picky with her fries.  Likes them crispy, piping hot, etc.  I asked her for a fry for Joey because my meal had not come yet.  She proceeded to put ALL of her fries on my plate and pass them over for Joey.  This was a bad sign, but I don't take it too seriously since my mom is quite picky.  BUT he kept taking 1 bite and then putting it off to the side, hoping the next one would be better.  Eventually, as you see in this video, he decided to "Just Say No" to these fries.

Bonus info:  Besides all the confusion, Joey clearly decided that the floor was the best place to keep his snacks.  Goldfish, pinwheels, pretzels, you name it, it went on the floor!

So now it is time for the bill.  The waitress comes to us and says - and I quote - "Would you like to split the bill or keep it all on one check?"  Now I know that they don't necessarily WANT to do the work of splitting the bill, but DON'T ASK IF YOU AREN'T SMART ENOUGH TO DO IT!!!!  I asked her to put me, Kristyn and my mom on one bill and the others on a 2nd bill.  She looked at me like I was nuts. I told her if that was too much trouble, just put it on 1 bill.  Whatever.  Regardless, she split it for us, which was nice.

I get my bill and pay but did not realize (And this is totally my bad) that they added the tip on to the bill.  I'm usually really on top of things like this but somehow I missed it.  I figured I was out the money, but it was $17 and everyone told me I was not a bad person to let her know I goofed.  So I figured when they came back to get Eric's bill, I'd tell her.  Well, before she ever came back to the table, Everyone besides Eric and I had left.  We successfully packed up 4 kids, 2 grandparents and 2 mothers and they were all gone, still no sign of the waitress.  She eventually came back and then I told her.  She just said "OK."  Then the manager comes past, making his rounds and asks me if I needed change or something.  I figured he was just doing his due diligence since my entire table had left already and I told him that I just spoke to the waitress and she was taking care of it.  Turns out that he was actually there to give me the change.  I kinda blew that one, so I had to go back to her and tell her that I still needed to deal with this tip issue.

I wait by the bar and eventually take care of it.  Now I turn to leave, not in a rushed or angry manner, just the way any normal human would walk.  BUT I had been standing long enough that my flip flop was literally sticking to the dirty nasty floor.  I almost busted my ass as my entire body was going in 1 direction and my left foot was stuck in one spot in my flip flop.  I turn to the guy next to me and have this conversation with a strange man who is just sitting there, motionless with a deadpan look on his face.

• JV - wow, my flip flop was literally stuck to the floor!
• Man - there's still some money in there
• JV - yes, I left some cash there for the waitress
• Man - you seem to have tweaked your ankle
• JV - Why are you telling me this?
• Man - because I'm worried about you

That's it, aside from the usual Joey running around the sidewalk and practically trying to sprint into traffic, then screaming when I don't let him, trying to get family pictures while the bewitching hour has begun, etc.  It was an interesting evening - and for the most part, it had NOTHING to do with the fact that there were 4 tiny humans with us!  Overall, they were pretty good!

Late Night Snacking - this evening calls for some beers.  I had 3-4 beers and a mini-ice-cream-cone at home.  

I think we'll eat in tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . 

Day 56 - 3 meals at home on vacation? Unheard of!

Weigh-In - unknown - not weighing in here for a few reasons.

1. I'm not sure if there is even a scale here. 
2. I'm not weighing in on a different scale because it may work differently

Breakfast - I made omelets for everyone.  I had a sausage pepper and onion omelet and 2 mini white powdered donuts.  Had some grapes also. 

Lunch - Made a cold cut sandwich to bring to the pool with us.  Turkey, Pepperoni, Yellow American on whole wheat bread. 

Snacking - Throughout the day, I snacked on some grapes, 6 pretzels and had 2 more mini white powder donuts.  Those need to go.  They will be the death of my diet.  hahahaha. 

Dinner - Cooking in tonight - made BBQ chicken, baked breaded chicken and fried breaded chicken.  Also made egg noodles and corn.  I had an assortment of all of this.  Did my best to not overdo it.  May have had a little too much, but I don't think so.  :-)

More Snacking - after dinner, had  one of mom's little mini ice cream cone things.  Gotta love those!

As always, there is a possibility I missed something, but I think i got most of it.  :-)

See you tomorrow!

Day 55 - VACATION BEGINS . . . . NOW!!!!!!!!!

Weigh-In - after the last 2 days, I was up 1.4 pounds from the day before, putting me at 230.5.  This is 17.8 pounds down in total.

Today was a hell of a day.  I will preface it by telling you that I went to Petracco's deli, McDonald's, Wawa and Pizza Hut.  Yeah, doesn't sound like this is going to go well, does it?  Let's see how this played out:

Breakfast - Stop 1 - Petracco's Deli:
This was on the way out to Bed Bath and Beyond to grab something for our trip and I was starving!  So I grabbed a bagel.  This was my first real bagel in 55 days as opposed to a bagel thin (if I remember correctly) and I also had a Red Bull.  This was my 2nd Red Bull in that time.  To be honest, I really just craved the taste of it. Should have shown some will power, but it's really no big deal.  I'm DEFINITELY off the Red Bull habit, so I have no regrets.

Lunch - Stop 2 - McDonalds:
so I took a few photos here to tell the story.  I amazed myself on this stop.  Got lunch for Kristyn, Joey and I and it was cheaper than most times I go by myself!  Our bill was under $11 for the 3 of us and this means that there was not an overly huge amount of food!  Here's how I did.

We ordered Joey and happy meal but I knew he was not going to eat a ton, so all I ordered for myself was a plain double hamburger.  I took the small soda from Joey's Happy Meal, 4 of his chicken nuggets and the tiniest little fry container I've ever seen.  And that was it!  This is unbelievable control on my end!  Now you may say "Why did you go to McDonalds?"  There's an easy answer.  When you are on what turned out to be a 6 hour road trip due to traffic, eating and of course - little kids freaking out, you are limited in your options.  When said road trip is with my mom, the options are limited more because she's a little picky.  Combine some pickiness with the fact that when we decided to eat, there was pretty much NOTHING around, the first option that met everyone's needs (which were food, food now, and food!) was McDonalds.  I'd say that all things considered, I did great!

Receipt for Joey, Kristyn and me!!!!

My entire meal.  For those who may not understand, this is NOTHING!  My usual meal at McDonald's is a double hamburger, crispy chicken sandwich, super sized fries and supersized soda.  

     

Bonus pic of Joey and Giuliana's first vacation road trip

Bonus pic of Joey with his Happy Meal

I wanted you to have an understanding of just how small this french fry container is!  WOW!

Snacking - Stop 3 - WAWA! 
Giuliana freaked out at one point, so we had to pull over to feed her.  Naturally, the spot to stop was WAWA, so I just HAD to go in.  So what did I do with this?  I mean, I must have been starving coming off of that tiny little lunch I had.  I walked into that Wawa and walked out with one of my all-time favorites:  A Sprite Zero.  Yup, that's it!  Just something to wet my whistle!  Can you believe it? No Buffalo chicken bites, no Reese's Big Cups, no hot roast beef and gravy sandwich, no Tastycakes, no Icee, no cold cut sandwich, NOTHING BUT A SPRITE ZERO!    VICTORY!!!!!

Dinner - Stop 4: PIZZA HUT.  

By the time we settled in, it was almost 8:00pm, which is Joey's bed time, but hey it's vacation!  So we went with Uncle Bill and Aunt Joann to Pizza Hut, which I have not been to in forever!  We got a plain pie and I thought back to all the great commercials I have seen about the cheesy bite pizza and requested we try one of them.  So we got the cheesy bite pizza with sausage. I resisted the urge to say "LET'S GET BREADSTICKS!!!!" and stuck to the pizza.  Anyway, I had 3 slices.  Now I know that sounds like a lot, but what I had forgotten about Pizza hut pizza is that although thicker than usual, the slices are not that big in terms of surface area.  AND the cheesy bite pizza is NOT thick crust.  AND the cheesy bites were not really cheesy like in the commercials.  So although I could have stuck to 2 slices, I don't feel like it was really crazy.  Didn't feel like more than 2 good solid pizzeria slices in my opinion. 

   Joey's 1st Pizza Hut                 Cheesy Bite Slice                      The crew at the Hut

    

Late Night - It's vacation.  I had a beer.  Killian's Irish Red, to be exact!

So considering the opening statement - Petracco's, McDonalds, Wawa and Pizza Hut today, who would agree that I did AWESOME?!?!?!?!?!?!  My abilities to portion control are improving.  I would not expect that today was a weight LOSS day, but I am certainly content with the start of this trip.    Went to the supermarket later at night and stocked the house with food so I can make breakfast and maybe even bring some cold cuts and leftovers/etc for lunch.  I assume we'll eat out a few nights but we also plan to do some cooking at home too.  Should be a fun week.

Day 53 - 54 - Got a little behind here.

Weigh-In - 229.1 (-0.2 from yesterday, -19.2 overall)

DAY 53 (Thursday)
Breakfast - So today is day 4 of the West Milford Summer Jazz Program I'm teaching at.  Tim and I drive up together and today we were joined by our buddy, Jon DiFiore who was working with the rhythm sections today.  He was stopping at a bakery near his place on the way and offered us breakfast, so I got a chocolate chip muffin.  It was delicious!  I topped it off with 2 bottles of water.  :-)

Lunch - Since we are going on vacation in 2 days, I need to finish up any of the fresh food in the house.  So today I had a cold cut sandwich.  Finished up the cheese and one of 2 packs of turkey.  There is a little pepperoni left.  Ate this on an everything bagel thin and pressed it in the George Foreman Grill.

Snacking - Peanut Butter Pie.  Yum!!!!!

Dinner - so tonight was Kristyn's final for her first class in Grad School so we had a late dinner after she finished up her work.  I think we got to eating after 9pm!  But I made a meatloaf with Corn and Broccoli Mac & Cheese.  I definitely overate this meal because my stomach was eating itself!  It was good but I kept picking at it while I was cooking - checking if it was cooked, grabbing a bite since I was hungry, etc.  And I ate too much at the table also.  Not the end of the world, but definitely too much to eat at that hour. No problem. I skipped dessert so no peanut butter pie.  :-)

DAY 54 (Friday) - Final day of the West Milford Jazz Program
Breakfast - I gotta be honest, I am not positive, since I'm writing this 2 days later but I THINK I had Cheerios and 2% milk. 

Lunch - I had the leftover meatloaf, corn and broccoli mac & cheese.  Through that down and then went out to mow the lawn, which was some good exercise because it was overgrown, so I had to work! 

Dinner - so Tim and I went out to West Milford for the culminating concert performance from the jazz program we taught at.  Neither of us remembered to grab food on the way out, so we stopped for some pizza on the way home.  Tried a new place on Route 23 South that we had not been to ever.  It was quite good!  I celebrated the week and my hunger with a plain slice, a tortellini slice, 2 garlic knots and a diet coke.  A little much, sure, but it's ok to treat myself.  Very good slices and knots.  I am very happy with what I had there and the choice of pizzerias to try out.  There were a million on rt. 23 on the way to and from this program.

Now for this post of the past 2 days, I really can't remember what I did in terms of snacking.  It's just too detailed to remember 2-3 days afterwards, BUT I do know that I had 3 pieces of my lite peanut butter pie somewhere in there.  I also had some goldfish (less than a serving.)  I don't think I really snacked all that much.  Been better with that lately so hopefully I'm turning that corner.

Now from here, I am on to vacation for a week.  I will still try to blog.  Not sure how successful I will be, but I'll do my best.  This particular post is being done from vacation on Sunday morning (even though it was about Thursday and Friday!)  I'll do my best to get EVERYTHING in here, but at the very least, I'll let you know the major parts of my day.  Wish me luck!

Day 52 - SPECIAL REPORT - My Starting Weight Revealed!!!

Weigh-In - Down 19 total (-1.2 from yesterday)  Ok, so believe it or not, we have reached the moment where I am willing to share my actual weight with you.  I had said that there was a "certain point" when I would be willing to do this.  I have reached that point.  The point was 18.4 pounds. Why you ask?  Because it put me at a nice round number and a number that I have advertised before - such as in my last installment of J-Doc.  This was more or less the weight I started at last time I tried to diet.  my current weight is 229.3 which means that 52 days ago, when I started this journey, I weight a whopping 248.3!!!!!!!  By far, my highest ever. 

Ya know, in HS, I specifically remember being on my "cucumber diet" and being DOWN to 153 my senior year.

                                    

     

In College, my senior year diet when I ran with Ben every morning before student teaching - I got DOWN to 173. 
                               

                         

  

Then my "Fat weight" was 200. I promised never to reach 200.  Whoops! 

 This was early in my teaching time.

                    

      

Then there was the time prior to my wedding, when I had pneumonia where I got DOWN to 206.

From there - 3.5 years later, I had gained 42 pounds.  42 months, 42 pounds.  That's a pound a month, for you math majors.  Think about that.  1 pound doesn't really sound like a big thing.  BUT 1 pound a month  for 3 1/2 years - and that's how you get out of control, slowly but surely.   Here's a progression:

                                                          

                                                   

                                                  

So here we are today - and I'm pretty proud of the progress so far.  I want to get under 200, so the total I'm hoping for is at least 50 pounds.  That would be put me back where I was when I started teaching and I think that's a fair expectation.  Wish me luck!  I'm 38% of the way there.

Now - on to today's food!

Breakfast - Spicy Sausage, Pepper and onion omelet (no cheese) with a glass of Trop 50 OJ.  This was good!  Should have taken a photo!

Lunch - Leftover burrito stuff - not with the zucchini though.  Just the meat, corn, black beans, etc. . . . Threw some buffalo sauce on it for good measure.

**Just a side note - I'm drinking water like a mad man today.  On my 5th bottle now.  Very refreshing, and filling!

Snacking - peanut butter pie,  a few slices of pepperoni - trying to stay away from chips, rice Krispie treats, etc. . . . . .

Dinner - Ok, so dinner was a little weird.  I had brought the leftover zucchini burritos but forgot to eat them at work, once again!  Then when I went to drive home, I could not figure out why I was so hungry.  I stopped at 7-Eleven and grabbed a slurpee.  just a slurpee.  Nothing else, I promise.  Then I realized that the rest of my food was at school.  I went back to grab it so Kristyn can have it for lunch tomorrow.  When I got home, I had a peanut butter sandwich and a slice of cheese. 

Snacking - none tonight.  Watched some Yankees (SWEEP! WAHOO!  I know it was the White Sox, but you can't put them down for not having a great record against bad teams and then not give them credit for beating the bad teams when they actually do!)  Then did some Facebook photos for the kiddies and now about to go to bed.