Happy New Year everyone! It's been a little while since we've met up and I decided that due to popular demand and terrible personal habits, it's time to come back! This time may be a little different though. Yes, I will be tracking my food intake in various different ways, but I may also focus on other things - stories about life, music, sports, family, teaching . . . . . whatever comes to mind really. I'll still be primarily focused on the food/weight loss type of stuff, but i also want to just take an opportunity to be positive and spread stories that make me happy, maybe overshare a little bit and if we're lucky, keep some of you entertained.
I can start with what's gone on in the past couple of months since we last met up. I faltered from this weight loss blog in early September and tried to come back in October to no avail. I just had lost interest in writing and also in trying! You see, sometime in mid-August, I started to slip with the food and I had lost about 21 pounds at that point. After a week or 2 of not doing great, i still had not gained any weight back. This gave me the typical false sense of security and I started pushing the envelope again.
I did ok during band camp and even the beginning of the school year. Then I said, Ooh, i should hit up Dunkin for breakfast today - see the old crew there. That turned into 2-3 times a week and eventually back to every day. By mid-November, i was bad on the daily 7-Eleven slurpee and heat lamp of death routine on the way home from work, no matter what time it was.
September was a month for getting back into the swing of things at work (of course, while Kristyn stayed home with the babies.) Also the beginning of 3 fantasy football seasons for me and also some hope for the Yankees and Giants. Well, One league started with me forgetting about the draft because of band camp. I ended up with with the worst autodraft in the history of mankind. (Non football people - time to skip down a little bit!) I had the #11 pick (of 12) in a 12 team PPR through CBS. Now I know you may say that i should have set my autodraft stuff ahead of time and that's true. BUT even still, there is no way on God's Green Earth that this team should have been assembled and CBS truly owes me my money back for this one. . . . . . . . .
- (11) Julio Jones - Obviously, I'm fine with this one
- (14) Lesean McCoy - Personally, can't stand him for fantay. Have had him twice and never worked out for me. Knowing me, I would have probably taken Keenan Allen or Mike Evans instead. MAYBE Melvin Gordon but to be honest, I'm never really high on him . . . . possibly more on him later)
- (35) Jordy Nelson - A little early for a guy like this, but I'm guilty of thinking he would be big with David Carr. Although, My loyalty would have likely taken me to Larry Fitzgerald OR i would have done Tyreek Hill at this point.
- (38) Demarco Murray. WHAT??????? HE'S F***ING RETIRED!!!!!! How does CBS give him to me with my 4th round pick?
- (59) Tom Brady - ok, so, I may be oversharing and hurting myself if anyone in my leagues reads this, but I do not take QBs that early. i usually wait until round 8-9 for QB. That being said, I got Tom brady and on paper, that should be good. He was a disappointment for me this year, but it is what it is. If the rest of my draft didn't SUCK, I'd be ok with this.
- (62) Dez Bryant. Here we go with the "former Cowboys without a team" club. This guy was a free agent that NO ONE WANTED. How did he get Auto'd for me in the 6th round? Unreal
- (83) Greg Olsen - Totally cool with this. I would have likely done this.
- (86) Matt Ryan - ok, so I'd be GREAT with this in the 8th round, but I already took at QB 3 rounds too early. Now I have 2 in the first 8 rounds, while also having to players who will never see the light of day this year.
- (107) Isaiah Crowell - Eh. This may sound like a "me" pick. Although, Hindsight being 20/20, I am not sure if I would have taken Marlon Mack instead, but I could have.
- (131) - Ameer Abdullah - I Can't Even!
- (134) - Mike Gillislee - once again, I can't even!!!!!
- (155) Cardinals Defense - ok, whatever. It's fine.
- (158) Matt Bryant - good for me.
Once again, my fault for getting autodrafted, but I would LOVE to meet the "pros" who created the system with which THIS team gets drafted. I did my best, but my best was still piss poor. I had a terrible season here.
In my 2nd league at school, I was mediocre at best. And my 3rd league - friends and family - i actually had the 1st pick. Took my chances with Le'Veon Bell and got screwed. Ended up with the Points championship anyway and blowing it in the semis due to stupidity on my part and being pre-occupied with a concert on Thursday night. Ended up leaving Melvin Gordon in for a big phat ZERO while I had the KC running back on the bench. Oh well.
END OF FANTASY FOOTBALL TALK. OTHERS - REJOIN NOW!
Marching band season went great. I had a great band who really stepped it up. We did a show about "Birds." All songs with "Bird" in it. Birdland, Blackbird and Firebird. We learned the drill in record time and spent more time cleaning than ever. Did well as our competition, went to Rutgers for HS Band day and were honored to be the Finale Band at the north Jersey Band Festival. Sadly, our team had a rough year so we didn't advance much in the playoffs and the season ended early. Best of luck to the team next year!
October, I got to meet Tiffany Amber Thiessen!!!!! WAHOO! Definitely awesome. She was so nice and the 2nd main character from Saved By the Bell that I met (Screech in 2001)
The rest of October was really just continuation of stuff from above. Plus Kristyn's birthday firepit and Karen's birthday where I bought her a lifetime supply of straws. :-)
November brought the end of marching band and the beginning of One More Once season. good to be back with the band. We did a show with the students from Montclair State University. Went GREAT!!!! We also did a holiday show in December with Eric Alexander, Freddie Hendrix and the students of Cresskill High School. This was a very special night and a great show!
Teacher's Convention and Thanksgiving gave the teachers some nice short weeks to recharge and then off to December! We also had a pizza buffet for Giuliana's christening, which was certainly a treat for all!
December was filled with Santa-type of stuff, concerts, shopping and lots of eating out. It was a lot of fun and a great month. It was awesome to see joey start to understand Santa Claus and Christmas trees and presents and stuff. It was also great to have both of our kiddies for their first Christmas together. Great times with lots of friends and family. And the concerts - all around were great! If you are bored and want to check out our HS holiday concert, you can CLICK HERE!
Finished out 2018 with a couple of friends on New Year's Eve by making a variety of pizzas, watching the NYE specials and playnig Cards Against Humanity. Nice, low key and fun end to the year.
SOOOOOO, now let's get to business. Kristyn and I are looking to aggressively try to get back to cooking lots at home, trying to get some exercise in, avoiding Dunkin and things like that, snacking less at home during our Law & Order marathons and using our new INSTANT POT!!!!! Really, this is just a convenient day to hit the reset button. I was really much more energetic when i was doing better with the food. Fit in my clothes better, had energy, was not constantly tired and felt really good about myself. I'd like to ease my way into it. I think a complete cold turkey thing would be tough. I am not trying to give myself excuses to do poorly, I'm just trying to be realistic. whenever I start a crazy change of direction diet, i spend the first 2 days with a headache. I don't want to deal with that.
What do i need to do to succeed?
- Breakfast at home - eggs, bulgar wheat, turkey sausage, cheerios, bagel THINS, omelets (w/o cheese) and even if I'm in trouble - a lean pocket. I know that sounds terrible to you, but a Lean pocket is SOOOOO much better than a bagel, donut and red bull, don't you agree?
- Remember to bring my leftovers with me to work for lunch. This will save weight and money!
- Have more soups/lean cuisine dinners when I'm at work late instead of defaulting to going out for food. (I know, sodium, yadda yadda yadda, but once again - not everything can be perfect. i need moderation, simplicity and sometimes just easy/quick.
- Help cook dinner as often as possible to help Kristyn and not have it all lie on her
- No pre-dinner 7-Eleven stops. (I have gotten into a daily slurpee routine again)
- Less snacking late night. I have developed a habit of going to the kitchen during every commercial break! I need so get (and eat) more healthy snack options and just not snack as often.
If i do this, not only will my health improve, but my credit card bill will go down. I have 1 New Year's Resolution. To eliminate my credit card bill as much as possible. I will not tell you how much it is, but I will say that it has to go!!! I learned this summer that the food bill basically gets cut in half (or better) when you eat home. I will work on this so i can try to be CC debt free in "Two thousand Twen-tee."
Wish me luck! As always, comment with your thoughts, encouragement and even some good recipes! (Especially instant pot ones.) Links are helpful for recipes if possible. I hope to keep this up for more than a few days. We'll see! (There will be more photos next time. I don't have my external hard drive set up right now which has all my photos.) :-)
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