Day 23 - Back To Work, but still kinda eating light . . . .

Starting Weight - 223.3 (Down exactly 20 since New Year's Day)

Breakfast - So after a day home and eating really really light, I then proceeded to forget to grab breakfast and run late to work!  Got through the first period lesson and then I was just starved.  Needed something on the heavy side so I grabbed a bagel from the caf with some butter and a diet coke.  It was absolutely GLORIOUS!  From what I'm reading, Bagel is around 270 for this size and the butter is likely around 150 so let's go with 425.  Lucky for me - no calories for the soda.  JUst a waste of $1.65!

Lunch - I had a can of Chicken Soup from Progresso today.  Learned something interesting.  The soup  usually eat is 320 calories - the macaroni & bean.  THis soup - only 140 calories!   Good to know!  And it was decent.  Not nearly as filling as the other one, but definitely a good soup. It was quite a trick getting to actually eat this darn can of soup.  I kept getting caught up with other stuff and downright forgetting about it!  And it was already 7th period.  That's crazy!  I'm so different than I was in December that I actually forget to eat!!!!! 

    

Snacks - oh boy - so it's 1pm the next day and I really can't remember much about what I ate for snacks yesterday.  throughout the day and night, what do I remember - I definitely had goldfish (140) and I think 2 sour patch kid ice pops (40+40)  and a piece of cheese (80)  I would be surprised if I did not have a Rice Krispie Treat, so I'll just add that in too (90)  Total snacking estimate - 390.  This includes between lunch and dinner as well as after dinner. 

Dinner - Kristyn cried uncle tonight!  She was like "I really don't want to cook tonight!"  I said then I'll cook.  It won't be the fancy recipe you intended, but I'll make some chicken.  So I cut up a couple pounds of chicken, eggs + breadcrumbs and threw them in the air fryer.  She had some gluten free pasta with it but I didn't want to waste calories on pasta when there was pretty awesome chicken sitting in front of me!  I did my best calculation and came up with about 600 calories for the chicken I ate.  By the way - highly recommend the air fryer.  Makes solid fried-like foods without the oil!   Very good stuff for sure!

Calories For Today - 1,555 - Actually impressed.  That was higher than I thought it would be, but I guess the bagel was a little much for breakfast.  :-)

Stories for today . . . . . . . hmmmmmmmm . . . . . . . I don't feel like anything extra special happened today that's worth sharing.  I will tell you that I decided to do live playing tests with my HS band on their holiday concert music.  I realized that I had not done a LIVE music test in over 2 years!  I've been doing recording tests, but I have been slow to grade them so I decided to do it live this time.  Also, I think it's really important to get a good idea of exactly how they play.  Recording tests are great when you are trying to get students to practice more, but this is POST concert.  I want to know how they prepared, not how well they prepare to make the recording.  The problem is that I thought it would be more efficient to do them all 3 songs at once. It's taking FOREVER!!!!!  And HS lunch period has been filled with MS lessons the past 2 weeks, so I could not even do it then.  After school is pit orchestra, so I can't do it then.  So now, it's just taking up lots of class time, which SUCKS!!!  We do some playing, they get some personal practice time - we are making good use of our time and all, but I just want these tests to be over already!  

One more thing - only 4 more days of lunch duty and then my school years gets a TON better!!!!!!!!!!

Day 22 - Very Little Food Today

Weigh-In - 224.8 (Down 18.5 from New Year's Day)

Breakfast - TOtally slept through breakfast.  Decided to stay home sick today.  Woke up with a fever close to 100, which and it ended up climbing to 101 during the day.  Thought I was ok when I went to bed last night, but I was wrong.  So I called in sick and went back to bed.  Woke up at noon!!!

Lunch - Didn't really eat lunch either.  I really was just not interested in food.  Didn't have a stomach ache, but was not hungry and didn't want to eat.  I eventually had a pack of cheese crackers and a frozen lemonade (270)

Snack - Fiber One Cinnamon Swirl Cake (90)

Dinner - For dinner, I had a slice of cheese, a meatball and a can of progresso macaroni & bean soup.  Also down a large gatorade.  All this for a total of 575 calories.

That was it for the day.  Like I said, just wasn't really hungry.  I had ups and downs.  Around 5pm, I got the chills so bad that my teeth were chattering so I took another nap, which helped a ton.  Pretty run down all day.  Was not up to drinking the gallon, although I did put a dent in it, but not too much. 

I did step out for a few minutes to deal with the fraud stuff.  Opened a new bank account elsewhere and made more moves toward being able to shut down my other account completely.  Still a few steps to go, but this weekend they were successful in stealing another $200 from a different account connected to the one that they stole $5,000 from last week.  unreal.  Lady at TD in Clifton was very helpful and didn't even try to convince me to stay with TD.  In fact, one of the ladies made fun of me for being here AGAIN for fraud.  She was blown away by my luck.

On another note, my big band solidified a guest artist for the February 10 gig - Adam Niewood.  This is a cool one.  I went to grad school with him and Tim actually brought him up as someone we should have.  He's been doing some great stuff out there in the music/jazz world and it will be a treat to be able to feature one of the people from back in the MSM days.  Looking forward to working with him.  We also have 6 students signed up to sit in already!!  This is shaping up to be a great night.  Looking forward to it.  Hope you can all come - 2/10/19 @6:30pm - Trumpets Jazz Club.  See you there!

Total Calories Today - 935

Day 21 - Forced To Eat Out . . . . .

Weigh-In - 225.3 (down 18 from New Year's Day)

Breakfast - Started off the day with 2 cups of cheerios and about 7/8 a cup of 2% milk.  (315 calories)

Today is Martin Luther King Day and that means that we have an in-service day.   That being said, i'm the secretary of the state Jazz Education board, and one of our 3 annual meetings is this day so I headed down there for that instead.  Due to the impending freeze-over, school had a delayed opening and so did the meeting.  I woke up sick.  left over from last night, I was not feeling well.  Fever up to 101.5  I emailed the meeting and told them I was not coming.  Was gonna call into school to let them know that i was not out on "school business" but instead out "sick."  But then around 10:00, I felt pretty good.  The meeting had been pushed back to 11am down in east Brunswick, so I took the drive and I'm glad I did.  I thought i had beaten this sickness quickly and I was able to attend the meeting with success.

Lunch - so the meeting is at a diner.  This particular one has sort of a meeting room in the back where we have our meetings.  Since it was through lunch, it meant that I had to eat.  I got myself a grilled chicken sandwich on a bagel, yes a real bagel.  Really should have done wheat bread, but I really wanted the bagel, so i splurged.  Asked for rice, but they gave me fries, which was annoying.  I also had a cup of chicken rice soup.  Asked for chicken noodle, but got chicken rice.  Good thing, since I didn't get the regular rice I had ordered!  Much to my surprise, I really didn't enjoy the fries and I barely ate any of them!  below is a photo of the initial plate and then one of the fries I left behind!   Also drank the entire pitcher of water myself.  Calorie Count - not really sure.  Let's say 350 for the bagel, 300 for the chicken, 225 for the fries I ate and 100 for the soup.  total - 975.

Snack on the way home - Not sure what came over me but I just had to stop off for a snack on the way home.  I had 2 Reese's ( the regular ones, not big cups) and a Red Bull.  (200 + 110)  Not one of my better moments, but not so bad, considering it was my first Reese's of the new year!  At one point in the fall, i was eating 2 big cups every day on my way home from work with my Slurpee.

I also had an orange, half an orange actually. It was quite refreshing! (25)

Dinner - On the menu for tonight is edamame spaghetti and home made instant pot turkey meatballs.  The Edamame spaghetti is ok.  Not my favorite thing in the world but so much more healthy than regular spaghetti, so I'm happy to have it.  Also cooks really fast!  The meatballs - first time in the instant pot.  They were good!  I think i put too much milk and would probably put more breadcrumbs next time. they came out a little soft, but very tasty, that's for sure!  This meal came out to 600 calories.

Total Calories - 2,225.  This is much more than I have been eating on a daily basis BUT still in the weight loss category.  Remember, 2650 maintain, 2150 lose, 1650 lose fast.  I think it's time to recalculate since I am down 18 pounds since I did this initial check of how much I should take in.

Day 20 - NFL Games and Getting Sick

Weigh-In - 226.2 (Down 17.1 from New Year's Day)

Breakfast - Made some breakfast sandwiches for everyone.  Dad was here for breakfast too. Turkey sausage, eggs (2 whites, 1 whole) and a bagel thin with Trop 50 OJ - (350)

Lunch - Late lunch was the leftovers from pulled buffalo chicken and a bagel thin (375)

Dinner - Instant Pot cauliflower mac & cheese.  It was ok. . . . . I used the wrong pasta and I think I'd use more cheddar next time.  Either way, it was pretty good though.  Problem is that I was getting sick and so now I think of that meal and I immediately have the sick feeling, even though it had nothing to do with the meal.  (500)

Snack - Frozen Lemonade (70)

Water - didn't even come close on the water.  I just didn't want to drink that much water today.  Was not feeling it.  I usually enjoy the water but I was definitely not enjoying it today.  AND I got confused and I think was drinking out of 2 different gallons.

Sorry for boring post.  Just kinda beat up and don't feel like typing.  Will be back on tomorrow hopefully in better spirits. 

Total Calories - 1,295

Day 19 - All-State Band Auditions - Bagels, Donuts, Subs, Pizza and Cookies . . . .

Weigh-In - 227.0 - maintaining once again.  I'll take it.  I always say that after losing a good amount of weight, there's a good holding point where your body needs to reshape and adjust.  I really just made that up, but it seems logical.  Ever notice that you can lose the weight and then not lose for a few weeks, but actually look better anyway?    The speed losing is over.  Now is the hard part.

Breakfast - protein bar in the car.  I had to bring my dad to the doctor for 7AM this morning.  From there, I went down to All-State Band auditions in Edison at JP Stevens High School - otherwise known as 1/3 of the All-State Band school. :-)  Great program they have there.  Anyway, I had the protein bar because I had to leave the house at 6:20 and I was not waking up any earlier than I needed to. (190)

Snack - 1/2 bagel with "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter"  (135 bagel, 60 butter) This was tough because I show up to the All-State Band auditions and they had a spread of donuts and bagels soooooo big.  It was everything Im' trying to stay away from.  In my mind, pretty amazing that I made out with just 1/2 a bagel in the end.  Proof that I really am working hard at this!

Lunch - 1 slice of cold pizza and a chocolate cookie from Costco.  Pizza was VERY small and I didn't eat the crust.  (250)   Cookie - (210)

So I get to lunch and they have a WALL of subs.  Had to be 75 feet of subs. Tuna, Roast Beef, Italian, Tuna, Turkey, you name it.  NOw I'm not really into that because I hate tomato and mayo and not really a fan of the shredded lettuce. I just like the meat and the bread.  But I reluctantly take a turkey sandwich because it was my only real option.  I figured I'd at least peel off some meat and eat it.  So I get to the end of the sandwich gauntlet and there is 1 pizza box.  I stop and ask "Is there pizza in that box?"  They say yes.  It was like the heavens opened up.  "So you mean I can trade in this sandwich for 1 slice of that pizza?"  they tried to give me the pizza AND the sandwich, AND macaroni salad and lots and lots of food.  Luckily for me, I didn't like any of it anyway, so I just took the small slice of pizza.  Turns out it was ice cold and hard.  I still ate it.  I didn't eat the crust at all, no need.  It was like a bad cracker.  But in the end, I needed lunch and it was MUCH better than the sandwich for my mind.  Don't like 'dem samiches.  I had a cookie for good measure.  Needed something to fill the ol' belly.  :-)

Snack - I can't remember.  Thought I had something . . . . . . . Maybe I didn't.  I did drink a lot of water, so maybe that was it.

Dinner - Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Quinoa (180 + 160) Quinoa + Shrimp - another good home cooked healthy meal.  This one is legitimately healthy. Not just "better than other stuff."  It was healthy healthy healthy.  Also had a few shredded carrots in there and a little diet orange soda.

Snacks - Snacked a lot tonight.  It was a little hard to stay away.  I was basically home from 3pm until we went to bed at 1:15am, so it you look at it that way, it doesn't sound as bad.  Healthy Choice organic fudge bar (110) + Frozen Grapes (50) + 1 cracker/peanut butter (35) + Cheddar Rice Cakes (140)

We finished season 17 of Law & Order: SVU.  Getting soooo close to being caught up.  It has only taken us 21 months so far!  Can we get it done in 2 years?  20 seasons in 2 years?  Challenge Accepted.

Total Calories - 1,520

Day 17 - OMG, I FORGOT ALL MY FOOD!!!!!

Starting Weight - 227.8 (up 0.8 from yesterday)

So today was exactly what I had prepared for when we bought a whole bunch of "emergency" food at the supermarket at the beginning of January.  I woke up, ran late, forgot to make the crock pot dinner meal before going to bed and forgot my leftovers. How did it turn out?  Let's see . . . . . . . . . . .

Breakfast - Lean Pocket.  This is an "emergency" breakfast.  Something different, keep me away from Dunkin and very quick.  "Healthy?" no.  BUT - Convenient? Yes.  Better than DUnkin?  YES.  (250 calories)

Snack - cheese crackers (200 calories)

Lunch - Forgot my leftover Sloppy Joe today because I was so mad I forgot to cook last night's crock pot meal for today.  Next on the emergency food list is my 10 for $10 progresso soups.  I had the Macaroni & Bean (Pasta E Fagioli) which was 320 calories.  I really like this soup.  Easy in the microwave and the whole can fits perfectly into the bowl I brought to school with me.  It's also very heavy feeling so it fills me up and I'm satisfied by it.

Snack - Fiber One Double CHocolate Cookie Bites - (130 calories)  Just the usual snack during pit orchestra.

Dinner - Tonight was supposed to be crock pot buffalo pulled chicken.  I forgot to make it last night and I had to stay late tonight for jazz band sooooooo . . . .  ..  . .round 3 of emergency foods - Lean Cuisine Santa Fe Rice and Beans.  I really like this meal.  Only problem is that this one tasted weird and bad for some reason.  I'm not sure what the deal is with that, but I didn't not eat it all.  (225 calories)  How disappointing.  I mean, I ate most of it because it was my dinner, but I did not enjoy it at all.

Snack - Handi-snacks cheese and crackers - so nasty but so good! (100 calories)

Late Night Snack - Goldfish (140 calories)  I ate them slowly and enjoyed them.  Ate them one at a time.  Of course, it was rapid fire one at a time, but I usually eat like 6 at a time.

Total Calories Today - 1,365.  Not bad for an emergency day!  This day in the past would have been Dunkin breakfast - Buttered bagel, chocolate frosted donut and Red Bull
Pizza Lunch - 2 slices of specialty pizza - likely BBQ chicken and a white slice + a soda
Chinese Dinner - Chicken & Broccoli and White Rice w/Wonton Soup.

Not only unhealthy, but $23.  INstead, I spent $4.50 on my 3 meals.  I can get behind that if this is going to be my "unhealthy" day, and unhealthy means no homecooked meals.

Day 18 - FRIDAY!!!!! FRIDAY!!!!!! FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Weigh-In - 227.0 - maintaining once again.  I'll take it.  I always say that after losing a good amount of weight, there's a good holding point where your body needs to reshape and adjust.  I really just made that up, but it seems logical.  Ever notice that you can lose the weight and then not lose for a few weeks, but actually look better anyway?    The speed losing is over.  Now is the hard part.

Breakfast - protein bar in the car.  Grabbed this one quick.  Being a little lazy, but it's ok.  I'm into it. (190)

Lunch - sloppy joe w/baked potato - leftovers.  This makes really good leftovers.  Becoming a favorite meal of mine.   (625)

Snack - granola bar (100) a diet pepsi from the snack cart - The students came around with the snack cart today while I was giving saxophone playing tests.  I was in desperate need of a snack.  Not that I could not just get up and get one from my box of snacks, but I don't think to do that while I'm teaching.  BUT when the snack cart comes around, I totally have an excuse to eat during class.  This time, I got a diet pepsi also.  I was getting waters but then I realized that I'm drinking a gallon of water every day and it is ridiculous to get a bottle of water.

Dinner  - Buffalo chicken. Broccoli,  corn,  1 slice cheese, 4 crackers.  This was supposed to be YESTERDAY's dinner.  But in the moment, I'm kinda glad I forgot yesterday because it was very good!  Enjoyed the broccoli and carrot combo with it although I totally overcooked the broccoli.  The good news is that I didn't need to chew it at all.  mwahahahahaha (570)

Snack - Frozen Lemonade - Haven't had one of these in a bit.  Been on the Sour Patch Kid ice pop train.  This was a good change back. (70)

Snack - Baked Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar Ridgies - I bought a bag of these.  Wanted to see how many servings I could get out of that to see if it was better financially than getting the box of bags at costco.  Will keep you posted. (150 calories)

Total Calories - 1,705

Day 16 - I HAD PIZZA!!!!!!!!

Starting Weight - 227.0 (Down 16.3 from New Year's Day)

Today was an interesting day.  I actually did a couple things I have not done in awhile, and I feel TOTALLY GOOD about it.   Here we go:

Breakfast - Actually, all I had was a Red Bull.  Now before you go getting crazy on me - this was a calculated decision that was not based on habit or addiction.  I really just wanted a Red Bull today.  Haven't had one in quite awhile and I felt like I deserved it.  So I stopped at my usual Dunkin on the way to work and grabbed me a Red Bull. The guy there was SHOCKED to see me, since he had not seen me yet in 2019.  I told him what was going on and he was happy to see me and that I was cutting out the crap.  (110 calories)

Now, i had not intended for that to be my whole breakfast, but it honestly filled me up and made me forget about the protein bar I had in my pocket that i was supposed to eat on the way.  I got to school and really didn't need it, so I decided to hold off on it until my morning snack time.  I had it at that point - around 9:15. (190 calories.)

Lunch - so I had my leftovers from last night - the pork, peppers and carrots.  Great meal.  was looking forward to eating during lunch duty.  But then i looked and saw that someone swiped $5,000 from my checking account!  I asked my boss if I can head to the bank to fix it and so that delayed my lunch even more.  Didn't get to my lunch until about 1pm.  It was worth the wait!  I ate it while blasting the HBO Saturday night movie introduction from the 80s (THIS ONE) and then "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" - Elton John Live at the Royal Opera House. (CLICK HERE)  These get me PUMPED UP!  How can the HBO thing not get you going?  And this video of DLTSGDOM is AMAZING!  A bunch of years ago, we did a huge project where we recreated it with our HS rock band, orchestra, vocal soloists and choir.  It was awesome!!!!!  CLICK HERE to check out the project. It includes a video directed, shot and edited by 2 awesome students (both of which were part of the team the did the video for my wedding) and the live music recording done at our spring concert - synced together to the transcription I wrote off the original recording.

Anyway . . . . . . (175 calories)

Snack - definitely had a rice krispie treat before pit.  (90 calories)

PIZZA!   The best part of my day . . . . . well, at least with food. Nothing beats getting home and seeing Kristyn and the kids.  But this was the best part of my food day.  My first "real" pizza of 2019.  And it wasn't even REAL pizza because i don't really like take out, but when you have not had actual pizzeria pizza in 2.5 weeks and you are ME, then delivery is awesome!  I stuck to only 1 slice.  I was a good boy.  It was hard, but i did it.  and I was SOOOOO low on calories by this point that it was a perfect day for the pizza.  Let's call it 300 calories.  I found my best guesstimate.  Even grabbed a tape measure to check out the pizza size and get the better estimate.  It was a 16 inch pizza, if you care.   (300 calories)

Dinner - Got home and Kristyn had already made our Sloppy Joes with baked potato.  I love this meal.  threw a little Frank's Red Hot on that.  Not because it needed it, just because I love it and "I put that SH** on everything!  She even snuck some peppers and onions in there to get the veggies going for us.  Great meal, Kristyn - and thanks for cooking!  (625 calories we'll call it)

Snack - i blame joey, but I had 2/3 of a Rice Krispie Treat.  Why is it his fault?  It was almost time for bed.  he comes to me with a bag of cheetos, but his hands would get all orange, and I didn't want to wash them.  Realizing i was NOT going to go for the Cheetos, he went back to the well and grabbed a RCT.  I didn't want him to have the sugar either, but I had to pick my battles.  I did what every good, self-respecting dad would do.  opened it up, ate 2/3 of it and let him  have a little bit.  I tell you - i was a hero!  Needed to change his diaper - he laid right down and put his legs up in the air.  i could do no wrong after I gave him that RCT.  Victory is . . . . . . both of ours!  (60 calories)

3 Hershey kisses (65 calories)

TOTAL CALORIES - 1,615

FRAUD - ok, I have to talk about the bank fraud.  I was going to give a detailed play by play, but I don't want to anymore.  Here's the short story.

• 10:30pm last night - i see a strange charge on my checking acct and call TD Fraud dept.  They tell me that my account is flagged and they cna't help me over the phone.  I have to go to a branch
• 10:40pm - i start moving much of my money OUT of that account because I'm positive someone's gonna steal my money - happened in november and January already
• 11:55am - Talking to a friend about this and said, i better check to see that nothing weird has happened yet.  BAM - $5,000 gone!  I have a negative balance of over -$3,000!!!!!
• 12:10pm - I'm at the bank trying to get it worked out.  Lady tells me that It's only "Pending" and so until it is actually "posted" we can't create a fraud dispute.  So i needed to get this straight and I asked her: "So you are telling me that the money has not actually been stolen yet and I came here . . . TOO SOON . . . . because we need to wait until the money is ACTUALLY STOLEN?" I mean that is just silly.  I am here telling her that the charge is not legit. it is PENDING which means that TD should be "checking into it" and then they will obviously decline the charge, since 1- I don't have that money to spend and 2 - I am there, telling them it's not real!  Anyway, this lady was having nothing of it.  She insisted that there was nothing she could do and told me that I had to come back, once the charge was approved by these MORONS, start the dispute process and wait up to 90 days to get my money back! (also totally incorrect)
• 12:25 - I finally get through to her and she makes a phone call to the fraud people.  At this point she is told "The great news is that he got there right away while the charge was still pending.  We can stop this payment and the money will be credited to the account tomorrow"  at that point, account will be frozen for outgoing payments except the companies I just approved for my bills, until I close the account and take my money back.

Now can i ask you what in the hell that woman at the bank was thinking?   Thank god I'm a fighter.  I don't like to be confrontational.  I probably argue about stupid stuff more now than I used to because i think that is just how people are now.  Everything is a debate these days.  BUT when someone is being illogical, stupid, moronic, and simply is giving me the WRONG answer due to inadequacy at their job - - - - and it's costing me my ability to pay my bills and also stealing $5,000 from me. . . . . You are going to get a mouthful and a half.  I was not going to walk out that door with the answer she gave me.  There was no way that a functional banking institution would handle it that way and guess what . . . . i was right!   Glad I stuck up for what I knew was right. 

oh my - rant over.  And yes, that was the short version!

ok, so anyway, it was a great day outside of that little fraud issue.  Had some great teaching moments, kids made some great progress in class and I had pizza and a red bull while staying WAY under my calorie count.  WOO HOO!

Day 15 - Very Colorful Dinner

Starting Weight - 228.4 (Down 14.9 from New Year's Day)

Breakfast - Grabbed a protein bar again. Got caught behind schedule.  ARGH.   Still ok though (190 calories)

Snack - had a fiber one brownie - (100 calories.)  This was good, but really small.

Lunch - leftover Balsamic chicken over edamame spaghetti (400 calories)

Snacks - I definitely had a pack of the peanut butter crackers (200 calories) and I know I had something else, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was.  I know it was one of my small snacks, so let's call it (100 calories)

Pre-Dinner - Ferrero Rochet!  These are like crack when I eat them.  I like all this healthy food but when I get to eat something awesome like this . . . . .. . soooooo good!  Also had this little butter cookie.  They were sitting on the counter so I went for it.  and lastly, I had a piece of cheese because I realized it had been a week or so since I had a piece of cheese.  :-)   (200 calories total)

Dinner - cracked pepper pork loin - 5oz with grilled peppers and boiled baby carrots.  (230 calories)  Probably one of my lowest calorie dinners ever.  These pre-seasoned porks are great.  Pretty high in sodium, so if that's a problem, this won't work.  BUT with all the water I'm drinking and healthy foods, I think I can withstand a little sodium here and there. Popped some sriracha on the peppers and treated myself to diet orange soda since the gallon was almost done.

Snacks - goldfish - 1 serving, and a Rice Krispie Treat (230 calories.)  Took these down during a stressful part of the night. I have just gotten my bank account back after being frauded for $3,100.  Had no access to account for awhile, had to hold off on bills, created an overdraft issue on that account and another account, bounced checks, etc.  WOrking on resolving like $150 in fees and tried to finally pay my bills last night.  Went in and saw a potential ADDITIONAL fraud issue.  Once again, called and they said my phone account was locked due to an issue recently and I have to wait until tomorrow.  OMG what a pain!  I spent forever transferring my money to other accounts so I can pay my bills before someone steals the money and/or I go to TD bank tomorrow and they lock my account for use until the fraud is resolved.  This is really getting ridiculous.  I just want to close this account and get out of TD already.  They are really starting to piss me off at this point, but I didn't even have enough time to close my account and get my money this time! 

Pit Orchestra Update - these kids sound GREAT!  We started a 2nd time at the beginning of the book and we worked on the first 4 songs yesterday.  SOme of it sounds as good it our performances sound some years.  I told them to take this opportunity not to relax because we are doing great, but to exceed our past expectations.  They seemed excited.  Great group of kids - and somewhat easier music than usual - Fiddler On the Roof.  Although the clarinets have a rough go of it, they'll be fine.  They are solid players.

Tomorrow weigh-in preview - 227.0!!!  Back in the loss column - unlike sports, the loss column is a GOOD thing!

Day 14 - Forgot To Eat Breakfast? Who Am I?

Weigh-In - 229.2 (down 14.1 from New Year's Day)  Stabilized for a few days.  I'm cool with that.

Breakfast - So we woke up a little late today and I decided it would be a protein bar day.  I'll just eat on the way to work.  Well, all the sudden it was 9am, I'm in the middle of 2nd period teaching a lesson and I realized that I never had it!  So I chowed down real quick on it during my lesson.  The kids thought it was funny.  btw, had a glass of Trop 50 OJ in the morning (240 calories)

Snack - had a bag of Baked Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream.  (140 Calories)  Needed that during period 5 which would normally be lunch (11am)

Lunch - Zelizo won the leftovers so 7th period, I headed over there for my leftover Chicken Tika Masala.  I think it may have even been better the 2nd day - the sauce had thickened up a little bit. Probably helped having the rice there to soak it up.  really good stuff!  (625 calories)

Snack - 1 Lindt Lindor (red wrapper) - 70 calories.  Haven't had one of those in awhile!

Dinner - Last night, we put together a Crock Pot Balsamic chicken meal and cooked it over night (and by WE, I mean that I trimmed the chicken and Kristyn did the rest.)  When I got home from work, I made the edamame spaghetti and this was a great meal!  The edamame pasta is not much of a difference in calories but has lots more protein, less carbs, so actually BETTER FOR YOU!  Sucks that the calories are not better, but it's ok.  9oz of chicken seems to calculate to 300 calories + 100 calories of edamame spaghetti = 400 calorie dinner!

Snacks - So I was supposed to go to the Devils game with Zelizo and Boita.  But plans fell through as the free ticket offer suddenly disappeared.  In the meantime, Scott texted this morning and offered me freebie to the Devils game!  So I ended up going after all!  I typically would go for an ice cream and a pretzel in the 1st and 2nd intermission.  Instead, I brought myself a granola bar (100 calories) and a Rice Krispie Treat (90 calories)  and that got me through the night.  Finished my water on the way home and threw down another Lindt chocolate while typing up this blog (70 calories) - in fact it was just 3 minutes ago and it was glorious!

Total Calories for the day:  1,735   Not bad overall.  I think I'm gonna lose tomorrow.  :-)   WAHOO!!!!

Day 13 - Very New Recipe Today - Chicken Tika Masala!

Weigh-In - 229.4 (up .2 from yesterday - 2nd day in a row up .2.)  Not a big deal.  The honeymoon had to end.  No one loses a pound every day.  I have to settle in to the new weight and add some exercise to the routine.

Breakfast - Everything Bagel thin with butter and a cup of Trop 50 OJ.  (275 calories)

Lunch - I made . . . . . . a salad!  yup - for lunch - I made a salad.  This salad had iceberg lettuce, a cucumber, shredded cheddar cheese, sunflower seeds and red wine vinegar.  I also put about 4.5 ounces of chicken on there.  Come to think about it, I forgot the chick peas!  I may replace the sunflower seeds with Chick peas next time - or maybe half and half.  Gotta check the calories there, but I feel like the chick peas will be more useful calories than the seeds.  (450 calories.)  450???  That seems like a lot for a salad.  Makes me feel better about my 600 calorie dinners.  It's not much worse than a salad.

Snacking - 1/2 a rice krispie treat (45 calories)  I may be losing it, but I think that's really all I snacked on today.

Dinner - Really went out on a limb today and made CHicken Tika Masala in the Instant Pot.  Had a lot of weird things that I have never bought, tried, considered and would certainly never think to put together - things like Coconut Milk and plain Greek Yogurt and certain spices that I never heard of.  It was AWESOME!!!!!  Can't wait to make it again.  (625 Calories)

As far as cooking it, I won't lie.  It was not a simple throw it all in the Instant Pot and let it cook for 20 minutes.  It was work.  BUT worth it and in the end, it all just ended up in the same place - 1 pot - easy clean up.  :-)

Here's the recipe I used:   https://www.wellplated.com/instant-pot-chicken-tikka-masala/

Enjoy!!!

Water Note - Today, I totally forgot to drink water.  I was talking about how I waited too long yesterday to start and I had to work at it. Then I realized it was 2:30 and I didn't start!  hahaha.  Also  barely drank any more until about 5:30.  Oops!!!!!  I chugg-a-lugged prior to and after dinner and then used it the rest of the night to fend off the snacking.

1395 calories!! how about that?  :-)

Day 12 - I Had Cauliflower Crust Pizza Today . . . . .

Weigh In - 229.2 - Late weigh-on (after 8am) and this is the first time I have come in not DOWN on a day I did well since New Year's Day.  Up 0.2 pounds, but also a 2 hour late weight in.  The weigh in at 6am was higher.  I know I can't lose every day, but I was on a good ride there!  Time to probably slow down on the snacks OR replace some of the packaged snacks with more fresh fruit/veggie snacks.  Also, a little exercise would not be terrible . . . . . we'll see about that.

Breakfast - Turkey sausage, 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg on an everything bagel thin with a cup of Trop 50 OJ.  (325 Calories Total)  Love me a good breakfast sandwich, especially when it doesn't cost me $4.99!!!  Although, as good as my sandwiches are home made, there is still nothing like a good breakfast sandwich at a deli.  Maybe in February . . . . . . . . . .

Supermarket Time - so we went to Shoprite and Costco today to refresh on the stuff we need for the week.  Spent $110 on stuff for us.  (more on stuff for the kids, but I'm trying to calculate the money spent on OUR food as opposed to going out to eat.  Tack on the Shoprite bill for the first 12 days which was $208 + $40 that KRistyn did at Costco last week, that takes us to a total of:

$358.00

This will get us through January 18.  That's just under $10/day per person.  Again, at my calculations, $5 breakfast, $8 lunch, $13 dinner, $5 7-Eleven run (on school days) and at least 1 diet coke from vending machine $1.65 (on school days) would put me at $550 in 18 days, leaving out 7-eleven and sodas on the weekends and NOT accounting for what it costs to have a meal out that is bigger than pizza or Chipotle.  And that is just for ME!!!!  Let's put Kristyn in at 1 $15 lunch a week, $3 dunkin every school day and a $13 dinner - play it conservative and say she brings lunch and eats breakfast at home - THat adds another $268 + groceries for her food - say $40/week, so that's another 100.  If we ate like that for the same 18 days, we'd be talking about over $900!!!!!  That comes in at $25/day per person.   So my calculations say that eating home will cost us approximately 40% of what it costs to eat out at this point - and that still includes a whole ton of stock left over in the cabinets of non-perishables we grabbed the first shopping trip.  I like my math.  It makes me feel better.  Credit Card - GO AWAY!

Lunch - Leftover Chili Lime Shrimp bowl with brown rice (575 calories)

Snacks - 11 goldfish (30 calories)  I am trying to keep track, every little bit counts!
1/3 of a bagel (100 calories)  We got this for Joey and it was just sitting there and I kept picking at it, so I have to log it.

Dinner - Cauliflower Pizza from Costco. 2 slices = 500 calories  Also had a salad which included iceberg lettuce, 1/2 a cucumber, some shredded cheddar, sunflower seeds and red wine vinegar.  (180 calories.)

Now let's talk about this cauliflower pizza because you each fit into one of 4 categories.

• You've tried it before (and may or may not like it)
• You've heard of it and are looking forward to trying it
• You've heard of it and have absolutely no interest in trying it
• You are hearing about it for the first time and are basically thinking "WTF?"

I was somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd option.  I had heard of it and was told by some that they were scared to tell me they tried it because I would not look positively on them.  I told them that I have no problem with the concept, but I was not really sure I'd be into it.  Intrigued but not running out the door to try it. 

So we picked up a box at Costco today.  It was $12.99 and had 2 pizzas in it.  They are not huge.  Each pizza was a total of 1,000 calories.  You are going to need to eat at least half of it to consider that you had an actual meal.  (may want to add some toppings or have a salad with it to bulk it up)

The verdict:  It was actually quite good!  In fact, I'm looking forward to having it again.  The texture was not weird.  The way they create the crust makes it really feel like a normal crust.  It had good taste and I did not in any way feel like I was eating cauliflower.  I mean, it tasted like a frozen pizza would normally taste, so if you are not into that at all, then you likely won't like this.  But if you are cool with cooking a frozen pizza, then I highly recommend trying it. 

Now I have to do to the math and find out if it's really a big victory in terms of health/calories/etc.  I have yet to find a real accurate measure of the nutrition facts in a regular slice of pizza from a typical north jersey pizzeria, but I'd consider half of this pie as equivalent in size to 1 to 1.5 slices of regular pizza.  Not all that much in the end.  I am assuming that the fact that the crust is supposed to be made significantly out of cauliflower makes it so that there are some nutritional values that are better than a regular pizza.  I also have no idea what it REALLY means to have a cauliflower crust.  I'm sure that there is much more to it than that, but hey if I can get some veggies in by eating a pizza, I'm cool with that.

I took the liberty of looking up regular Costco pizza as a point of reference and here's what I found:

Costco Regular Pizza vs Cauliflower Pizza

• Serving Size - 107 grams vs. 126 grams (therefore, the regular slice is about 17% smaller than the cauliflower slice.)  From here on out, I will multiply all of the regular pizza by 1.17 to come up with equal serving size nutrition facts.  
• Calories - 330 vs 230  (30% less)
• Fat - 11.7g vs. 8g (31% less)
• Cholesterol is up from 21 mg to 25mg (16% less)
• Sodium - 750 mg vs. 570mg (24% less)
• Carbs - 42g vs 27g (36% less)

Nutritionally it seems like it is an improvement from the same exact item without the cauliflower crust.  But at least this gives you an idea.  I don't know if I did math right in coming up with the percentages, but I think it did.  But the numbers seem to tell a good story.  I still have no basis of estimate against real pizza from a real restaurant that is not frozen. 

Snacks - Peanut butter crackers + a sour patch kids ice pop (240 calories)  I think I had a slice of cheese at one point today too, so let's put that here.  (80 calories)

Water Intake - didn't start until almost noon AND I didn't bring it with me to the stores.  Had to work hard on it today to get it done.  BUT I DID IT!


Total Calories - 2,030 calories

Day 11 - Sheet. Pan. Chili. Lime. Shrimp. Fajita. Bowl.

Starting Weight - 229.0 (down 14.3 from New Year's Day)

Breakfast - Cheerios with 2% milk - (300 calories)  Ya know what I realized - Outside of maybe Jan 2-3, I have not had the same breakfast 2 days in a row.  That REALLY helps.  The overshopping we did last week has really helped the variety and keep me from getting bored. And I have not even touched a lot of the stuff we bought yet (non-breakfast stuff, anyway.)

Snacks - Fiber One Cinnamon Swirl!  yum!!!!!  (90 Calories)  I forgot we had these!!!!

Lunch - Chili leftover from yesterday.  I think i called this 500 calories, and was kinda assuming a little higher than it really would be, but why not!)   Just as good the 2nd time around.  Although we had to use tomato paste this time and it was a little creamier than I like it.

Snacks - I have to think about this . . . . . I know I had a Rice Krispie Treat (90 calories) and a Ferrero Rochet (80 calories) and I had about a serving of Goldfish (140 Calories)  I will say that I effectively turned down a cookie today during lunch duty, the cookies that I eating at least 2 a day of during that same time.  Instead, I just drank more water. . . . . . .

Dinner - Kristyn made another new recipe.  Sheet Pan Chili Lime Shrimp Fajita Bowl!   OMG this was really good!  I would have paid for this meal at a restaurant for sure.  You should all try making this.

 https://pin.it/g6yqshc5zicj37 

It was so tasty.  I grabbed the "Jumbo" shrimp frozen bag at Shop Rite.  It was 2 pounds for 12.99.  I had to peel and devein myself, no big deal though, much better price that way.  We used half of the shrimp for this meal, so really didnt cost much more than chicken would have. I served it over 1/2 cup of Brown Rice - we used the instant pot as a rice cooker for that.  Best brown rice I've ever made.  She used Quinoa instead.  I like rice better and the calories are actually not much more in the brown rice.  I'm calling this 575 calories.

Snacks - After dinner, I threw down a pack of the Ritz Cheese crackers and some grapes - (250 calories total)  Froze them there grapes because I like them better that way.  :-)

2,025 calories total + 1 gallon of water. 

Day 10 - Melting the pounds away

Weigh-In - 230.2 (down 13.1 from New Year's Day)

Breakfast - Had a smoothie today.  Was tasty!  I can get used to it!  The best part about breakfast is that i've been doing something different each day.  That's definitely helping me stay on it.  (200 calories)

Snack - Wheat Thins - I made some portioned off bags of wheat thins.  Almost forgot about them. YUM YUM YUM.  (200 calories)

Lunch - Leftover chicken pad thai from last night.  Threw that down during lunch duty.  Would have liked to enjoy it a little, but I still liked it.  (570 calories)

Snacks - during 9th period, the snack cart came by and I got my peanut butter chocolate butter granola bar.  I really needed it too!   (110 calories)

Dinner - turkey chili from the crock pot.  We made it last night overnight so that tonight I could have a homecooked meal for dinner while I sit at school between pit orchestra and jazz band rehearsal.   (not sure of calorie count.  Lets just say 600 for fun, even though I think I'm overestimating a little bit.)

Snack - Rice Krispie Treat (90 Calories) at school and then when I came home, I had cheese crackers and an ice pop (240 calories)

Another great day if you ask me!  Finished the gallon of water too. That's actually been really easy, believe it or not.


2,010 calories

Day 9 - PAD THAI NIGHT! :-)

Weigh In - 231.1 (Down 12.2 from New Year's Day)  I can't believe it keeps coming off!  usually after a week, the weight loss slows down.  This is awesome!

Breakfast - Everything Bagel thin with some kinda special butter + 1 cup of Trop 50 OJ (275 calories)   This was good - it kinda felt like i went to Dunkin, but I didn't!  :-)  Still going strong!

Snack - Rice Krispie Treat (90 calories)  The mid-morning snack is HUGE.  When i forget to have it, I really get starving, even with all the water intake.

Lunch - leftover Garlic Butter steak bites in zucchini noodles + a bag of Baked lays sour cream and cheddar ridgies (500 calories + 140 calories)  I think I'm estimating UP for the meat, but better then underestimating.   I will say that Steak is kinda heavy and I don't think it could really possibly be that heavy.  Do you weight the meat before it's cooked or after it's cooked?  I have a feeling it weighs less after it's cooked . . . . . . . Any official help on this?

Snacks - cheese and crackers (100 calories) during the afternoon sometime.
Grapes  50 calories (during pit orchestra)  Finally froze some grapes.  I LOVE frozen grapes.  have you tried freezing grapes before?  Very refreshing AND takes awhile to eat because they are cold as hell. The kids thought I was weird, so I offered to let them try them out. About 5-6 kids took one and then had mixed reactions, but a few really loved it.

Dinner - YUM!!!!!!  Pad thai (570 calories)  This was awesome.  A little extra spicy today.  Kristyn made it and it was an amazing meal.  Can't wait until tomorrow's leftovers!

Night Snacks - Cheese and Cracker pack - 200 calories  and I think i had something else, but I really just can't remember what it was.  I'll call it a 100 calorie snack.  Still working on cutting down on the night snacks.  It's hard to do, but at least the snacks are portioned.  My biggest issue is when I sit down with a bag of chips or goldfish or a 1/2 gallon of ice cream - that I have no filter stopping me from binging.  So the portion controlled snacks helps me at least count how many snacks I had and i will eventually stop.  It's working well.  as I said, if the pounds keep coming off, then I'm not going to be picky about an extra hundred calorie pack here and there.  :-)

2025 calories total.  Sorry if this post is not too entertaining and no photos, but I want to get it up!  Need to write the next one.  :-)