Day 27 - Whole Wheat Toast

Friday

Weigh-In:  -9.8 pounds.  Maintaining and lingering.  Don't be impressed.  I was here on day 10.  BUT it's been almost a month and I have not completely fallen off the wagon.  What pisses me off is that I could be down 15-17 by now if I stuck to the plan better.  

Breakfast - Went for a breakfast sandwich today again at Goldbergs.  They are 3 for 3 this week. The big question from Mom?  Yes.  I did.  Sorry.  I'm trying . . . . . . definitely a bad week in that regard.  

Lunch - went to Wally's with dad.  Got a grilled chicken sandwich on whole wheat toast and had about 3/4 of a piece of crumb cake.  I am so pissed at myself for the crumb cake.  That was just me not thinking.  Could have been an amazing lunch.  INstead - killed it with crumbs.  HAd a Diet orange soda

Dinner - I had a Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger on whole wheat toast with a little ketchup.  I forgot how much I like these!  and a quick 1 minute in the microwave is all it took!

Snack - I had some of my favorite ice cream tonight.  Not a ton.  Just an average amount.  

Saturday

Weigh-In: -11.2 pounds.  This was a breakthrough.  I cracked a very important number.  I'm not disclosing that number yet.  I want to lose 10 more before I admit the starting number, but I was pumped to crack through this barrier.  Of course, it was a late weigh-in - about 3 hours later than usual since I slept until after 9am, but I'll take it!   I'm feeling motivated because of this.   Let's see how it goes. 

Breakfast - Had 2 eggs with turkey sausage today.  Popped it on some whole wheat toast.  Why am I not doing this every day?  Cheaper, healthier and NO RED BULL!    Why don't I do it every day?  Bad habits.  Here's to breaking bad habits. 

Lunch - For lunch, I had a slice of Elio's pizza and a Blue Bunny Ice Cream Sandwich.  yup - I caved in and bought them at full price.  Still only about $0.55 each, so that's still better than going to 7-11 and getting taquitos and stuff - for health and for the wallet.  And the Elio's - again - this cost me about $1.33.  As opposed to grabbing 2 slices and a soda at the pizzeria for $8.  Victories all around. 

Halloween - Halloween with all that candy - - - - - not easy - - - - - I only had 2 regular sized Reese's.  Not bad!  BUT I sort of went overboard snacking on chips, doritos and white cheddar popcorn prior to dinner.  

Dinner -  2 slices of BBQ chicken pizza from Cousin's.  I went to have a 3rd slice and I heard my mom whispering to Kristyn.  I called her out on her whispering and it turned out it was about why I was having a 3rd slice.  So i took a bite and through the rest out.  Literally threw it in the garbage from where I was standing. 

Snack - Had another Blue Bunny Ice Cream Sandwich.   Not a great 2nd half of the day, but again - believe it or not, it was a very contained day for me, for Halloween. 

Days 22-26 - Getting It Back Together

Hey everyone,  

Here is a multi day post.  I have been keeping track but not being creative with my writing, so I have not posted.  I'm maintaining, which is ok-ish.  Having my ups and downs, but overall, staying the course for the most part, meaning I'm not falling off the rails.  Sometimes maintaining is as good as losing, because it means I am developing better habits for the most part.  Breakfast has become a problem in some ways, but at least it's the earliest part of the day giving me the whole day to work it off.  No photos, sadly because my computer is not syncing with my phone for some reason and it's annoying me.  BUT I can either post with no pictures or wait another few days.  Not waiting.  Here we go. 

Sunday:

Breakfast - omelet made at home with Spicy Sausage and 2 eggs.  This remains awesome! I've just been too lazy to make it every day.  But at least on Sunday I did it!  

Lunch - So it was a football Sunday but this time, Peter brought his son, Christian for the hang.  Ciolf was here too.  It was already past 1pm and none of us had eaten yet, so the most likely option with 3 kids 3 and under is to grab a pizza.  We order from Cousins in Norwood.  To be honest, I don't LOVE their pizza in person but their delivery is always really fresh and hot.  So I really like their delivery.  I had 2 slices.  

By the way, cool set up - we brought one of our streaming TVs outside and set it up so the kids can play and the adults can watch adults play.  Through on the REd Zone channel and off we go!  This worked especially well since the GIants were already done for the week, so we did not need the 2 tv set up that I have in the basement.  Great times.   

So at 2:30pm, I get a call that our shed is coming tomorrow!  BUT I had to dig out a couple of large bush roots, which I would need my sawzall (spelling?) for.  And of course, while I'm doing that (completely leaving my guests on their own like a bad host,) it starts to rain. Not only that, but someone else came by who was going to help me with my wifi issues.  BUt that's another story for later on.  So I get 2 of the roots out and the rest will have to wait for tomorrow.  Back to the day. 

Dinner - We headed inside due to the rain and cold and hit up the basement to continue watching the foosball on TV.  Caleb came over like a college kid who hasn't eaten in a week, and lucky for us, Kristyn had thrown some turkey chili into the instant pot this afternoon.  So we had some delicious hot chili and tortilla chips from Costco for dinner.  This was a really healthy chili - bean, beans and more beans, with ground turkey, tomatos and that's really it.  The chips are not the healthiest, but who's eating chili without something to dip in it?

Snack - SO I'm not really positive what I did for snack this night.  I forgot to write it down, but knowing me, it was likely an italian ice or something small and frozen like that.  Kept it light since i had the pizza for lunch. 

Water - I drank about 1/2 a gallon today.  I had 1 beer and that was it.  

Now let's talk about my wifi situation.  So teaching from home was a complete trainwreck on Thursday, since all the kids actually show up to class now on Zoom (far cry from last Spring.)  And my school issued laptop could not handle the Zoom call or any of the things I was trying to do.  So as you know, I grabbed a new computer last THursday night.  Hooked it up and it did not pick up my wifi.  I was livid, but kept it cool.  So Caleb came over to help me get the wifi figured out.  He was going to run me a hard wire to my ethernet and we'd be all good to go.  So he sits down at my desk to look at the new computer and sees these 2 sticks sitting there.  At least to me, they were 2 sticks.  He says, ya know, Joe - you need to plug these in.  I said what are they?  He said THE WIFI ANTENNA!  I went instantly from having like 2-3 mbps speeds to having 180/140 in a split second.  There was no need to really even think about dealing with the ethernet now.  I mean, I still want to run the cable because it will be even better, but I'm good for now and the computer runs like a champ.  Bottom line - I'm an idiot!

Monday:  

Breakfast - So like I said, breakfast is becoming a little bit of a problem.  I am in a habit of going out.  To be honest, I'm not sure I'm too sad about it.  The schedule I'm on at work because of the remote learning lends itself to me getting to the computer early to teach but then grabbing a bit to eat after my period 1 lesson.  And I kinda like it.  I'd like to eat home a little more, but I'm doing well with that for my other meals. I will try to get better at this, I really will.  Spoiler alert - the rest of the week was not better with breakfast!  I had a bagel and a Red Bull.  (I know, Mom . . . . . )

Lunch - Leftover chili and chips makes an awesome lunch!  In fact, one of my favorite leftovers!  I really enjoyed this one.  Lunch is happening between 1-2pm these days.  Kinda weird, but I teach until 12:42 and then we have lunch before the pm sessions.  Often I end up doing work for a half hour before I even think about coming up for lunch.  

DInner - I was dropping off the kids at my mom's, so we went to Brunos and I had my standard 2 square slices, (1 with meatballs,) and a Birch Beer, which is the ONLY acceptable drink to have with square slices at Brunos. I also picked at 1/2 a chicken finger and some fries off my mom's plate.  Really and truly, not a ton of fries.  I would normally have polished off the whole plate.  But I just picked slowly at probably 1/4 of the fries on the plate.  

Snack - Grabbed my nightly italian ice.  :-)

Shed Delivery - so today was a day we have been waiting for . . . . . going on 4-5 months now?  We ordered a shed from "the Amish" and it finally came!  Of course, they had to drive a huge truck across my front lawn in the rain, so the lawn looks like a pile of trash now, but the landscapers said they'll fix it next week.  Anyway, the bring the thing in "Vertically" but had to turn is horizontally, but not until after the took it off the truck. I have to be honest, these guys are very talented at what they do!  I could not believe that they were able to do what they did.  2 dudes turned a fully built 8x12 shed 90 degrees with their hands a piece of wood and two PVC pipes.   AWESOME!  Now we have somewhere to put all the crap that is in the way in the garage to make our garage functional again!  WAHOO!!!!!

Water - no effort today on the water front.  I actually do better with that when I'm at school. 

Tuesday:

Breakfast - so I went to the deli but this time I got a breakfast sandwich. Taylor ham and scrambled eggs on a toasted plain bagel.  Would you believe it - they got it right! 

 I guess after giving them the business last week about screwing it up every time, they finally realized that they were out of chances.  1 more screw up and I'm OUT.  (Also had the craptastic Red Bull)

Lunch - 3 wings - yup, that's it.  3 wings!  Kristyn had bought some wings at Shoprite for Sunday but I forgot to offer them to everyone.  SO I had to make my way through them, slowly but surely.  

Snack - Italian Ice, 1 oreo - Did I mention that I LOVE oreo cookies?  So good!  And they are double stuff in my house.  In fact, if you bring anything less than double stuff around here, don't bother coming! :-)

Dinner - Dinnertime brought on a pretty healthy meal - baked Pork loin, baby Carrots and Egg Noodles.  I know egg noodles are not the best, but they go so well with this meal!

Snack - A little ice cream and a handful of pretzels.  The ice cream is my favorite - Turkey Hill chocolate/Peanut Butter.  So creamy.  So frozen.  So delicous!  ANd the pretzels - don't be fooled.  I say a handful but I assure you, I have a big-ass hand and I grabbed as many pretzels as I could possibly fit into that hand!

Water - 2/3 of the gallon today.

Remote teaching - day 1, went well!  The new computer makes all the difference in the world.  By the way - thank goodness I decided to do the computer purchase.  My whole demeanor and feel of teaching has changed now that I have that computer. Life is so much easier when you have equipment that works!  So happy with that purchase and also for Caleb saving me on Sunday by twisting a stick into the computer.  God, I'm in idiot!

Wednesday: 

Breakfast - Went to Wally's Bagel Nosh in Norwood.  New place that's part of a chain.  And here we go again - another store that does not know how to listen.  Is it hard?  Plain bagel toasted with extra butter.  NOT HARD!  What did they do wrong?  They didn't toast the bagel.  Why is this such a problem?  Well - extra butter on a toasted bagel what melts and falls off and is basically in liquid form is much better than slopping a tub of butter on a cold bagel as if it's cream cheese and then having to wipe it off in my car with a napkin and still having WAY too much butter.  So they get 1 strike.  Bagel was very good, though.  I actually would not mind a bagel not being toasted if I could guarantee the perfect amount of butter.  But with the reality that everyone butters differently, I just can't take the risk.

Lunch - This was a nice surprise - I had lunch with Kristyn!  She came home for the afternoon sessions and we both ended up having lunch at the same time.  We had an actual conversation and ate a meal together!  It was nice since we are usually having our time taken up by our kids screaming when we try to eat.  I had more leftover chili and chips.  

Snack - 1 oreo. That's about all I have to say about that. 

Dinner - Well, we had to go to Lowes to grab some stuff, so the only logical option was to grab Pizza at Cassies which is across the street.  This is a nice brick oven place that makes a really nice pie.  Their bread is really good too, so you can imagine I overdid it on the pizza and bread/butter.  Also had a sprite.  The good news is that the pie was not all that big and the crust is very thin.  So the number of slices I ate was not as big a deal as if it was a regular place.    

SNack- 1 oreo.  That's about all I have to say about that, again!

Thursday:

Breakfast - Breakfast Sandwich at Goldbergs.  They got it right again - 2x in a row.  I actually see the fear on this guy's face when I come in.  He gives it to the cook - NO CHEESE  and SCRAMBLE THE EGGS!!!  I did not have the Red Bull this morning. :-)

Lunch - Ate the last of the wings (4) and the last of the chili (about half as much as the day before) with some chips.  Good meal!

Dinner - Leftover pork, carrots and egg noodles on whole wheat toast.  I needed to put the pork on the toast this time.  Really didn't love the flavoring on this pork that we went with, so making it a sandwich was helpful.  

Snack - 3 spoonfuls of chocolate peanut butter ice cream (Turkey Hill)  with a Diet Sprite.   Now these were not big spoonfuls.  They were just to wet the whistle.  I impressed myself with my ability to just eat a little and put it away. 

Days 18-21 - Hanging On By a Thread

Starting weight- Fluctuating

Overall Weight - by Sunday morning, the start of week 4, I am down 8.5 pounds.  I was down as many as 11 about a week ago. 

General Thoughts:  I am slipping.  I really did not do a good job this week.  I mean, I had good moments, but I'm way off what I should be doing if I want this to actually work.  I all but stopped the water intake, which is killing me.  I did I think 1 day where I did the full water and that was Wednesday.  I have had a few moments where I had a cheat day and didn't gain, so I got lazy and started pushing it and it's putting me backwards.  I should be sitting around13 pounds down after 3 weeks and instead, i'm at 8.5.  That's annoying.  I'm wasting time.  I thought no one was really paying attention, but on Friday night, it turns out that a few people mentioned that they were waiting for my update about Wednesday because on Tuesday I teased that Wednesday would be bad, and then I never updated anyone!  Knowing people are watching really helps me. 

At one point a few years ago, I was getting hundreds of views per day, unless the website was lying.  This time around, I'm getting 30-40 per day.  I feed off the torture of knowing that people are looking.  My mom has been good - she literally tries to stop me from eating when I should not.  She even reminded me of a couple chicken fingers I ate during Kristyn's birthday that I forgot to notate in my blog.  I ate 1 chicken finger off Giuliana's plate and one off my mom's.  I added it in last night, but wanted to admit to it here.  I just forgot to write it.  That happens sometimes. 

So you want the stories from the last few days?  Ok, I'll give them.  I'm not going to list every thing I ate.  I just don't remember.  But I will admit to my failures, talk about any positives (if I can find them) and bring you through the overall last few days.  Here we go:

Wednesday:  This was going to be a weird day from the beginning.  So I had scheduled to go out with a couple of friends and let's just say the meal was going to be comped.  I was told, and I quote: "Go f***ing crazy."  Now this . . . . . . . . .this is a recipe for disaster for me and eating.  On top of that, at the last minute, my sister decided to do a dinner with our parents for her birthday.  She did not expect me to come since it was a weeknight and she lives an hour away, but I wanted to try to work it out.  

So, after school on Wednesday, I drove to Basking Ridge, gallon of water in tow.  I was staying until about 6:30 then had to go.  at 5:30, they/we hit the diner.  I actually sat there and ate nothing.  I just drank from my gallon of water and watched everyone else eat.  That was victory #1.  I was pretty impressed with my willpower. 

Fast forward - now I make the drive to Paramus to meet up with my friends at Miller's Ale House.  So it comes time to order.  My heart is screaming GET THE WINGS!!!!!!  But they ordered nachos. Instead of getting my own wings, I just picked at the nachos. 

Then it came time to order.  This was tricky.  It's a bar/pub.  It's not exactly a place that makes it easy to "diet."  I went back and forth, back and forth . . . . . . . I landed on the most unlikely of bar foods for me:  VEGGIE BLACK BEAN BURGER!  Yup I chose the veggie black bean burger over all the other options!  I also had fries.   Let me tell you, that burger was amazing!  So much so that when I go there again, I intend to get it again.  It was really tasty and a healthy choice!

In addition to the meals, we had a couple buckets of bud lites, so I had 4 beers over the course of the night - we were there for a good 3+ hours.  So as you can see, this was a far from perfect night but I have to say, this went about as well as it possibly could have.  I can not imagine a situation where I would have expected to do any better than this.  I'm proud of myself for it and this night was in no way deemed a failure in my eyes. 

Thursday: So on Wednesday night, at almost 9pm, we got word that we had to work from home the next 2 days as they worked on some contact tracing for a person in our school district who tested positive for Covid-19.  Everything was handled perfectly and we are back in on Monday with a number of people being asked to stay home for 2 weeks and work/teach remotely.  That being said, Thursday became a very different day than expected.  

Last year, when teaching remotely, there was a completely different situation. NO ONE was showing up to Zoom calls, leading me to create long winded assignments and tutorials and posting them on Google Classroom.  That was working fine.  This time, everyone is required to show up to class at the same time.  It's going great.  BUT at home, my combination of wifi and school issued laptop are not cutting the mustard.  In fact, the laptop is not really cutting it at school either for hosting zoom calls with 30 kids - so I use the desktop there.  So anyway, after this complete trainwreck of a day, I decided it was time for a new computer.  I went out to Microcenter and purchased a brand new computer - money I was not really ready to spend, but knowing that more remote days are likely to come - it was time. 

So I don't really remember much about the day of eating, but I do remember coming home to my mom's delicious breaded and fried chicken cutlets and macaroni.  It was 8pm by the time I got to eat and i was starving.  (Plus, I have not had my mom's chicken cutlets in awhile!)  I should have probably eaten a few less pieces than I did.  Not the WORST meal ever, but certainly not the best.  Portion control could have been better, for sure. 

After reviewing some photos, I realized I had a veggie filled home made chicken pad thai leftover for lunch.  

Friday:  Ok, so this is where the wheels completely fell off.  I was pretty much ok during the day.  Did not overdo anything in the morning or afternoon.  For dinner, we were running around, ultimately landing in Clifton with some extra time on our hands.  I had the bright idea of going to Hot Grill.  This was going to be a guaranteed cheat meal, and I was ok with that.   So I got my Hot Dog with gravy, plain burger and fries with chili on the side with a root beer.  Bad, but standard for me.  If we just went home, I could have made it through that day unscathed.  BUT we ordered chicken nuggets and fries for both kids.  They came out about 10 minutes late, as they must not keep nuggets prepared, as it's not even on the menu!  Now, you'd think they would have told us that there were 10 nuggets in each order!  So here we are with 20 chicken nuggets and 2 fresh sets of fries with a 2 and 3 year old.  I don't know how YOU would have handled this, but I was on tilt with food, so I just went to town.  I mean, I had to "Help" my kids finish their meal!  I likely had 8-9 chicken nuggets.  Here's a bunch of photos from Hot Grill with the family!

Ok, again, if this was it, and I stopped eating for the night, the world would not end.  But this was a stop on the way to Julie & Wes's house for a little October birthday hang with Wes, Kristen H and me wifey, who's birthdays were all the prior week.  We had initially intended to go to the Clifton Stadium for the marching band event, but it was canceled at the last minute, so the Krygs decided to go to this pie place and get crazy ridiculous pies.  They got 2 small mac & cheese pies, a pulled pork pie and a frozen peanut butter ice cream pie.  On top of that, Kristen brought a massive and delicious multi layer cake.  So i had a piece of all 4 delicious treats.  I mean, I had to be polite, didn't I?  

Julie actually complimented me on my ability to not go all crazy eating.  I certainly, from the naked eye, could have eaten a ton more.  But the truth is that after that hot grill, only an hour earlier, I literally could not even fit another bite of that cake.  I ate my piece of everything, but left a little of the cake because I really just ran out of space.  This is the first time I ate myself into oblivion since I started this whole thing.  I drank 2 Bud Lites.

Saturday:  Saturday . . . . oh Saturday . . . . . . I actually don't think this was a real bad day.  I made an egg and spicy sausage omelet for breakfast.  Skipped lunch and had a burrito from Chipotle for dinner. The burrito was because the Music Boosters at my school had a fundraiser, so being the band director, I had to make sure to take part in something that was put together to help my own program!  

When picking up my kids from my mom's house, there were 2 bowls of leftover mac & cheese that the kids didn't finish.  I went to eat the leftovers.  Took 3 child spoon sized bites and got yelled at by my mom.   I put the spoon down and moved on.  :-)  came home and didn't eat anything.  So the day was eggs and a burrito. 

Sunday morning weigh in - down 8.5 total.  This is a 2 pound gain since over 4 days.  All things considered, it could have been worse.  That being said, I NEED to get back on track immediately.  I started off this morning with my eggs/sausage.  We are making chili today and maybe will have a slice of pizza if we order that.  Thinking pizza since Pete and Ciolf are coming by for football and the kids (Joey, Giuliana & Christian) will enjoy the pizza.  We'll see.  I plan on finishing the whole gallon today to slow my food intake down.  We shall see how it all goes and I am looking forward to having a GREAT week this week.  We shall see!! 

Thanks for reading!

Day 17 - Nothing Special Today

 Starting Weight:  -10.7 lbs

Breakfast: Grabbed a buttered bagel and a Red Bull for breakfast.  Great start, right?   I know . . . . . . . Not gonna lie, likely to do it again tomorrow.  I'll try not to have the Bull though.  Maybe bagel and water?

Lunch: Leftovers from last night's dinner.  Lemon chicken w/Broccoli.  This was delicious.  And keeping the broccoli in the same container overnight made the broccoli have the lemon taste, which made it even better.  THat was a good combination that I would not really have considered before. 

Snack: I had an oreo and a blue bunny small ice cream cone.  140 calories in these things.  Nice little something to have that will stop me from gorging on a bowl of ice cream.

Dinner: Surprise dinner alone while Kristyn was picking up the kids at Aya's house.  I went out and grabbed some pizza.  Had 2 slices.  Sat outside at Three Boys and relaxed.  Followed that by making a few trade offers in Fantasy Football and setting up my waiver claims for the week. 

Snack: 2 handfuls of mini pretzels.  

Not a very exciting day today of food, but I have been delinquent on the blogging and wanted to try to get back on the horse, so even though I don't have much here and it's not very entertaining, I wanted to try to start holding myself accountable again on here.  I'll try to make tomorrow's more fun. 

Spoiler Alert For Tomorrow: Tomorrow's gonna be rough at night.  Will explain tomorrow.  I'm expecting failure, so I'll have to be EXTRA good tomorrow during the day. 

Days 11-15 - Confessions of a Delinquent Blogger

Forgive me, followers, for I have sinned.  It has been 5 days since I last updated you. 

This week was a little busy and I got a bit behind on the blogging.  BUT I decided to not let it stress me out.  In the past, if I missed days, I would just quit.  This time around, I'm just going to live with the fact that I may miss some days.  

Was I perfect from Wednesday through Sunday, not by a long shot.  That being said, I woke up down a total of 10.3 pounds from the start.  That basically means that I maintained my weight this week.  I'll take that.  It was not a great week by any stretch in terms of eating, but it was still much better than I had been doing prior to starting this thing 15 days ago. 

The worst night was probably Friday.  We had Zack & Zoe over with my mom.  We ordered pizza, made cupcakes and then I made pancakes Saturday morning.   By the way, my mom tried to stop me from the 2nd cupcake but I was in a moment where I completely forgot I was even trying to eat better, so I did not pic up on what she was trying to say until I already started.  I appreciated her effort. I wish I had just slowed down and realized.  I really had no idea for a moment why she was trying to stop me.  

The best thing that probably happened was not having time for lunch on Saturday, so I worked the pancakes off at marching band.  Of course, I promptly countered that by eating 2 Blue Bunny Ice Cream sandwiches at night.  whoops!

All in All - last week, I made breakfast 4 times and went for a bagel 3 times.  2 of those 3 times, I had a Red Bull.  I got off the water train a little bit, which is what I believe is the biggest downfall for me.  I stopped with the water because I had bought 3 gallons and was planning to drink a gallon, then refill it once before moving on to the next gallon.  Kristyn mentioned that she thought our ice from the ice maker smelled bad.  That got in my head and I was all scared of the ice and I've always been creeped out by any water that comes out of any sort of spout without ice.  I got over it after a few days.  I have had a few glasses of ice water, it tasted fine and I will order a new filter for the fridge since it's about that time anyway.  I bought 4 gallons for this week.

I've really fallen in love with the spicy sausage and eggs in the morning, so I will stick with that this coming week. 

We successfully finished ALL of the leftovers in the fridge this week, so that was good.  Today's lunch was the last one - the rest of the turkey taco bowls from the other night.  Kristyn came home from ShopRite to an empty fridge, since i finished the last of the leftovers AND the ice cream sandwiches in the freezer. 

I decided that I will not pre-make my lunches this week.  I have some lean cuisines ready and some soups that I have been delaying on eating, so I can do that if I don't have leftovers on any given day.  Time to start getting through the food that has been sitting in the house for awhile. 

I was VERY upset to see that there was no buffalo style chicken Lean cuisines at the store this week.  I was seriously gonna buy about 8-10 of them and just stuff my school freezer with them.  Hopefully they were just out of stock and wil be back next week. 

I made the biggest mistake ever last week at the supermarket.  I bought those Blue Bunny Ice Cream sandwiches.  THey were seriously the best ice cream sandwiches I have ever had.  I can not imagine ever having a better one.  It has chocolate ice cream and also some syrup infused in the ice cream.  They were on sale for $1.99/box.  I should have grabbed like 5-6 boxes of these.  I did not and just assumed they'd be there next week.  What an idiot!  They are back up to $4.99.  I won't pay $5 for them.  I'm too cheap. I coulda filled my freezer with them and blew it.  :-(

So anyway, I'm gonna take the rest of the night off from Blogging and try to get back on it tomorrow with the real deal.  I'll probably have a beer or 2 today.  I have not had a beer in about 3 weeks, so I think I'm entitled to one or 2.   I think we are having Buffalo Grilled Chicken over Jasmine rice today for dinner.  Gotta love Frank's Red Hot.  May be high as hell in sodium, but no calories!  (Can't win 'em all!)  Although, since this week will be a few soups and frozen dinners, I'll have to try to avoid the sodium elsewhere. 

Day 10 - Kristyn's Birthday Challenge

 Weigh-In:  -9.5 pounds.  (Up 1 pound from yesterday)

Breakfast: Made my spicy sausage and scrambled eggs today.  With this sausage, no bagel thin and only making it for myself, I just used 2 whole eggs today.  270 calories. 

Snack: Had my first at school snack today.  I have a hidden snack box that most people don't know about.  You would never know the box was full of snacks.  It's a very well kept secret.  A few select people know where it is and have stolen a snack here and there from it.  If YOU know, feel free to brag that you know where it is, but don 't give up my secrets.  In that, I have a mix of snacks for when I'm in need.  This morning, I had a Fiber One cinnamon swirl cake.  70 calories and hit the spot!

Lunch: Went for one of the breaded chicken containers with ketchup for lunch today. 

Snack: WHen I got home, I had an italian ice and a small handful of mini M&Ms

Dinner:  Here was the challenge.  We went out to eat for Kristyn's Birthday.  We went to Biddy O'Malley's in Northvale.  Solid place and good food.  This is my first time "eating out" since I started this whole thing and eating out is tough for me.  I got the fish & chips.  One large fried piece of fish and some fries.  This was not the healthiest choice.  I later saw a really good grilled chicken meal that came out and regretted not getting it.  Next time.  But anyway, I was really tempted to grab some wings as an appetizer.  Normally would not even blink at doing that, but I held off.  So that was a victory.  I usually would get beer and Sprite on a night like that. I stuck to my gallon of water.  So that was a victory.  I usually would get my own dessert, but I just had 3 bites of Kristyn's birthday cheesecake.  That was a 1/2 victory.  The other victory was that we were done eating by 6:15 and I was done for the night, so in spite of the imperfect meal, I was done eating about 3 hours earlier than normal because I committed to not having any snacks later in the night, since i had the cheesecake and fish & chips.  So all in all, not the best choices, but certainly better than my usual.  On a birthday dinner night, I'll take it.  Hopefully, we won't be going out to eat all that often, so I won't face this problem again for awhile. 

Totally missed that instole 2 chicken fingers from Lala and aya's plates.    Oops. 

Later that night, we (meaning Kristyn) carved a pumpkin and the kids decorated some little pumpkins with stickers. It was cute.  And we sang happy birthday to Kristyn and the new pumpkin, "Stickers."  That is what Joey named him.  I have no idea if he had any idea what I meant when I said, "What's his name?" but he said stickers, so I went with it.

Day 9 - Spicy Meat Juices

 Weigh-In:  -10.6 pounds

Breakfast: I got a real bagel with butter, but drank a diet sprite, so no Red Bull.  I needed this.  I was STARVING from the night before and I had to drop off GIuliana at the babysitter.  I was already 8am and I had an 830 meeting, so time was of the essence. I will tell you this, it was delicious!  

Lunch:  I was looking through the refrigerator and had an idea . . .. . . . . so I went for it.  I didn't have my typical egg breakfast, so I was kinda in the mood for eggs.  And I saw some spicy Italian sausages in the fridge.  So I cooked up 2 sausages, cut 'em up all small, and then mixed them in with 3 eggs and 2 egg whites all scrambled up.  So my take was 1 piece of sausage (140 calories) and 1.5 eggs + 1 egg white (130ish calories.)  It was awesome and I think that I will do this for breakfast the rest of the week to try to stay away from the bagel thins during breakfast and switch things up a little bit.  It was so good!

(I thought i took a photo of this, but I did not so instead I'll tell you about part of the experience.  I was cooking up the sausages and there was lots of spicy meat juice in the pan.  I decided to just dump the eggs in with it, getting all the spicy meat juices mixed in with the eggs, making it a little spicier all around.  I was telling Kristyn just before we were gonna eat that I was excited because of the inclusion of the spicy meat juices.  Kristyn thought it was the funniest thing - apparently, I said Spicy Meat Juices like 5 times.  I dunno.  But I will say this - after she took her first bite and looked at the eggs with a tint of red, she told me that she could taste and see the spicy meat juices. 

Dinner: It was like 6:15 and we had no idea what we were going to do for dinner, but we both knew one thing.  We didn't feel like having the pork loin.  Neither one of us.  So I decided that I'd make chicken stir-fry.  We had steamable brown rice, chicken breast, broccoli and shredded carrots.  So I'm cooking, cooking, cooking, and testing the broccoli to see if it's ready.  It's not until then that I think about the sauce.  I look in the fridge, expecting to see something I can use and there is really nothing!  So I jump in the car and drive to ShopRite to get teriyaki sauce.  Wow - that made all the difference.  Pretty high in sodium, but i have to say, compared to past diets I've  . . . . . . sorry . . . . . "lifestyle changes" I've been on, I feel like the sodium intake is much lower.  Not as many canned soups, frozen dinners, etc.  Much more fresh food, so the teriyaki sodium was tolerable.  PLUS, when I was choosing the sauce, the one I took had 310mg sodium in the nutrition facts.  The one I ALMOST grabbed had 3,100mg of Sodium!  So I definitely made a good choice, comparatively.  :-)

Snack: While at the store, my mom asked me to get her "Blue Bunny" ice cream cones.  They are usually a pretty expensive item.  $5-6 for a box of 6.  They were on sale for $1.99.  I was like WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!  And I saw Blue Bunny Ice Cream sandwiches with chocolate ice cream and syrup inside.  I had to!  So I had one of these as a snack.  While it sounds like it must be a terrible choice, they are only 180 calories and I'll tell you what, it tasted like it should have been 800 calories.  It was large, tasty and filling.  I am VERY happy that I have this new tasty treat up my sleeve.  

In addition, I was cooking this week's lunch for the week - breaded and baked chicken cutlets.  In checking that they were cooked, I ended up eating 1 piece of chicken.  No big deal, but needed to make sure to list it.

So for the week, I have 1 leftover of Teriyaki chicken (and 1 for Kristyn) and 3 containers of breaded chicken cutlets that I made.  That'll get me through the whole week of lunch!  

Water Intake: I finished the gallon today around 8:15pm.  It's actually been very easy this time around.  I switched water jugs.  I used to get the cheap ones - the ones that look like milk jugs.  But they always felt/tasted old and junky and I felt like they were smelly.  this time, I got the nice clear poland spring gallons.  Not only does it taste fresher, but the opening is much wider, making it easier to drink much quicker.  I end up taking in the water easier through that bottle.  I've been using it one day and refilling it 1 time from the fridge's water/ice maker thing.  Good stuff.  I've finished the gallon all 8 times I tried.  And there was 1 day that I did not even start a gallon - i think that was Saturday - because I was going to be at school with no  bathroom in sight from 11-4:30 and didn't want to need the porta-potty!  :-)

Story of the Day:  We had a professional day today.  They let us work from home.  The last professional day had the same opportunity, but I went in to work because I didn't feel like I would be as productive from home.  Today, I tried to do it from home.  It was a failure.  I really had a hard time focusing.  I mean, it was nice to be home, but I was probably not as productive as I wanted to be.  I did get an SGO done, both my PDPs, hosted a meeting, had a dept meeting, went to a union meeting and dealt with lots of email.  So it was not a wasted day, but I def was distracted.  How have you all done with that?  I have to say - I really don't want to work from home.  I hope that even if the kids eventually have to stop coming in, I can still go in.  It's so much easier to be productive from my office at school than my basement at home. 

Day 8 - Football Sunday

 Weigh-In: -8.6 pounds.  

This is up about a pound from yesterday.  I kinda expected it after I looked at the nutrition facts on the pizza dough from last night.  But I am not worried about that.  I'll just have to make some sacrifices today.  No beers, light on the chip intake and if everyone else orders out, I'll eat in.   I'm also going to skip breakfast today.  I know that in general, skipping meals is not the answer, but so many people are into that "intermittent fasting" thing.  I'm not into it as a long term solution.  I would NEVER survive on basically doing all of my eating between 12 and 8 pm or something like that, but what I have learned is that skipping a meal here or there is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, as long as good choices are being made a majority of the time.   So on a day like today, after eating a late and calorie filled dinner, I can jumpstart my day with skipping the breakfast. It's already 11:10am and I'm feeling good.  So I'll hold off a light lunch as long as I can and fill up on the ol' Poland Spring until then. 

Random Eating:  in the 11am hour, I ended up eating the food that my kids did not eat which I made for them.  That included 3 tiny pancakes and 4 chicken nuggets.  I am assuming that will be lunch?  But I may consider that late morning snacking.   We'll see how the day plays out because I have to be honest, I don't feel like I really ate anything.  :-)

Lunch: Had Scott and Pete over to watch some NFL Red Zone action.  I was determined to do a good job today.  So I let Scott order some food without me.  It was hard.  But I ended up just having a Lean Cuisine.  It was Buffalo Chicken and Mashed Potatoes.  It was actually amazingly good, for what it was.  In fact, I will likely buy about 5-6 of these and throw them in the school freezer because it was definitely worth the $2.  :-)  Victory. 

Snacking: I did not have any snacks during the games!  How amazing is that?  I had lots of water to drink, so that held me over. Later, I did end up having 1/4 of Joey's peanut butter sandwich. Does that count? Oh, and I had a double stuffed oreo.  

Dinner: Scott and Pete ordered from one of my favorite Pizza/Italian places, Three Brothers from Italy.  I still ordered nothing.  I actually watched them eat and I was so into the GIants game that I forgot to eat.  Dinner led to Cigars, and we ended up outside before I bothered to eat anything.  

Drinks:  We had some Laphroaig Scotch while we had a cigar and watched the late game.  I had more than I probably should have, BUT Scotch is pretty good for a diet.  So I'm glad I realized this.  I had worked so hard to stay away from beer all day that I almost forgot that Scotch is much less bad for you than beer!  So that was fun. 

Actual Dinner?  It's almost midnight and I'm starving.  So I made the last 4 chicken nuggets in the freezer for myself so I would not be in pain all night.  I did a pre-sleep weigh-in to see if I was right in thinking that this would not be a bad idea.  I was right and the weight was way down, so tomorrow should be a good weigh-in, in spite of my late night chicken nuggets!

Late Snack: After I had those chicken nuggets, I had 2 double stuffed oreos.  Sorry, not sorry!  Good night!

Day 7 - 1 Week In the Books!

Well Hello there!  It's day 7 which means that at the end of today, we will be 1 full week into this version of the J-DOC Monoblogs.  Btw - I really need a logo for this thing.  Anyone have skills in that area?   I like black, silver and red, for what it's worth.  :-)  

Today's morning weigh in:  -9.5 pounds.  Now, considering I did sort of an unintented intermittent fasting yesterday through dinner, I can't really tell if this is legit or not, but I'm kinda hoping it is!  Even still - I'm in a really good place after 6 days and I feel like I could be in this for the long haul.  (long - not sure what long means, but it means that I am not stopping now!)

   

So now it's Saturday.  Marching Band Saturday.  Let's see how this all plays out!

Breakfast: Got back to my favorite home made breakfast sandwich today - 1 whole egg, 1 egg white scrambled with turkey sausage on an everything bagel thin.  Grabbed a Diet Sprite this this.  Whatever keeps me away from the Red Bull, right?  

While we are at it, let's talk about this Red Bull thing.  I don't actually usually drink it for the energy. I drink it because I flat out like it.  I really enjoy the strange-ass taste of Red Bull.  That being said, I only had 1 this week - on cheat day - Fun Food Friday.  It was glorious, but I don't feel like I am needing another one.  So that's good.  Typically, Saturday morning would be a prime time to head over to Goldbergs, Wally's Bagel Nosh or any other bagel shop in the area.  I'd get my standard breakfast sandwich - taylor ham and scrambled egg on a plain toasted bagel with just salt.  Then it would come out wrong and I'd get to my car, open it up and find cheese, or non-scrambled eggs, or whatever.  Cheese was the most common mistake they made.  I used to say "Taylor ham and scrambled egg, no cheese."  Then they blamed me saying that since I said the word "Cheese," that cheese was on their mind.  So they told me not to even bring up cheese.  So I stopped saying "no cheese."  I swear, the first 5 times I ordered the sandwich, they immediately asked me "no cheese?"  :-)  oh by the way, the past 6 months, I started adding a hash brown to this sandwich. AMAZING but certainly didn't help my girlish figure. 

Lunch: Well, I kinda skipped lunch.  I had to be at work by 11:15am and had eaten breakfast at 8:30.  So I skipped lunch.  I was fine until about 3:30.  Then I started to really feel it.  I kinda felt like I could not stop talking about food.  

Then I got the glorious text from Kristyn:  "I have to go to the supermarket.  Do you want to make pizza tonight?"  

And THIS was the easiest question of the week to answer.  BIG.  PHAT.  YES!  But we'll get to that . . . .

Snack: So with no lunch, I had to eat something when I got home. I had an italian ice.  I then had something else, and I can't for the life of me remember what it was.  Nothing big.  Just another small snack - under 100 calories - but I can't remember what it was.  Oh well. 

Dinnertime!  We made some home made pizza.  Now, by home made, I simply mean that we did not buy it from a pizzeria.  We bought the dough, used a jar sauce and shredded cheese from a bag.  But even still, we added turkey sausage and buffalo sauce and we were off and running.  Gotta love some home made pizza.  Joey and Giuliana were so excited but they ended up not eating any of it.  #maybenotmykids?  :-)  Just kidding.  But you better believe I'll be grilling the mailman next time I see him - - - - - - - - just in case.  I mean seriously - who turns down pizza?

This pizza was really good.  But I'll tell you what - the stats are pretty rough.  (Kristyn - if you are reading, do not read this paragraph unless you want to know about the calories in the dough!)  So the dough alone - and we used 2 of them, was 1200 calories per dough.  So Kristyn and I each ate about 3/4 of 1 dough.  I think that for future, if we use these, I will need to just make the dough thinner and that will help.  But that's my least favorite part of making the dough - rolling it out and making it thinner, so I get a little lazy about it.  

Here's your chance to share recipes and strategies for a variety of home made doughs that are A) Easy to Make and B) healthier options.  I want to make more pizza at home, but I don't want to use the crappy bought doughs that are completely unhealthy.  Let me know what you got!  Share either as a comment on this post or on Facebook.   Either way is fine.  WOuld love to step up my pizza making game. 

Now - a story of the pizza making - I cranked the stove up to about 500 for this project and I guess it's time to clean the oven because the smoke alarms went off 5 times while cooking!  Even with the sliding doors open, windows open and stove fan on!  Oops!  The kids were scared and hiding under the table.  It was cute.  The kids pizzas (1st ones) came out perfect.  The first round of pizza for Kristyn and I came out burnt - mostly because I was preoccupied by the smoke alarm and crying kids.  I forgot to put the cheese on the pizza before I put it in the oven!  Then had to add it, blah blah blah, etc.  The buffalo sausage pie that came out last - that was perfect!  Was really happy with that one.  Can't wait to get a real pizza oven. 

Recommendation #2 - anyone have a solid pizza oven to recommend that they own, use and love?   Been slow on picking up this item because I don't want to end up with a crappy one. 

Snacks: I had a handful of salted peanuts and that was it.  I had a bad feeling about the amount of calories in the pizza I made, so I tried to stay away from anything else all night.  (spoiler alert - it's a good thing I did that.)

Thanks for reading!  I hope all of you are doing well.  Tomorrow starts Week 2!    That week went fast.  I'm hoping that I can turn around in 6 months, down about 30-40 pounds and say "that half a year went fast!"  :-)

Day 6 - Cheat Day - Fun Food Friday!

Weigh-In:  -8.5 pounds

So today is a scheduled cheat day.  By "Scheduled," I mean that I decided I'm going to do a few things I have not done this week and be ok with it.  :-)  I'm not going to overdo anything.  Just going to have a few things I want to have and try to limit it and not restart bad habits.   Here's the deal

Breakfast: So all week, I've been making my own breakfast sandwiches and they are delicious! BUT I do miss my regular buttered bagel.  So today, I went to the bagel shop and grab myself a plain toasted bagel with extra butter.  And yes, I accompanied it with a Red Bull.  It was my first and only Red Bull in a week.  Interestingly enough, I actually like them a lot more when I don't drink them every day!  I guess, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.  :-)    That being said, as much as I enjoyed the bagel and bull, it did not reopen my bad habit of doing that every day. I'm totally committed go getting back to home made breakfast tomorrow, so don't worry.  I'm not off the wagon.  This was planned. 

Lunch:  For lunch, I am out of leftovers at home and anyway, like I said - it's Fun Food Friday.  So I planned myself to go to Dante's and get some pizza.  Now here's the thing - I brought my water and I only had 1 slice of plain pizza.  So not only did I only spend $2.50, but I only had 1 slice!  Usually I get a ziti slice and a BBQ chicken slice with a diet sprite or root beer.    So this is a big upgrade.  AND it did the trick.  All I really needed was 1 slice.  I just ate a little more slowly (mostly because the slice was REALLY hot) but by the time I was done, I was satisfied. 

Snack: Had a frozen whole fruit pop.  Have I mentioned these are awesome?  Also grabbed a handful of salted peanuts. 

Dinner:  I had my pizza a little after 1pm and had to be back at school by 4, so dinner did not really happen as normal, so I'm gonna skip this for now.  

Actual Dinner: Well, nothing happened in between, so we will skip ahead to actual dinner.  I got home from the football game a little before 10pm and while I was not starving, I was definitely hungry.  I grabbed one of those single serving Kraft Mac & Cheese containers that we usually feed the kids and made that.  It was small enough to not be a problem that I ate so late but big enough to make me feel content.  

Snack: For a snack after my mac & cheese, I had a blue raspberry italian ice.

And with that, Fun Food Friday is complete.  That was all I ate. A bagel, a slice of pizza, a child size serving of mac & cheese, some peanuts, an ice pop and an italian ice.   Crazy enough, while I feel like I barely ate anything, I was content all day, even through the 9 hour break and skipping dinner.  Goes to show you - if I'm busy, I can get through the day without going crazy with food. 

**Side Story: First public performance since March!**

So tonight was our first home football game of the school year.  It was really a crazy night.  So much was different - considering all of the policies, plans and procedures that I have put together in the past 15 years had to be changed.  Every. Single. One. Of. Them.   Uniform, meeting place, ticket distribution, meeting plan, where we sit, bringing music stands for stands music since we only played our stands music as a group 1 time and that was in August, no use of the band room, adding timpani to the pit, no drum major . . . . . the list goes on and on.  The last 2 - those were self created in a way, but the rest - obviously covid protocol related. 

The stands were pretty empty - I mean, I 'm sure we had the number of people we were allowed to have.  Everyone was pretty well behaved.  Masks, social distancing, etc . . . . . . everything that needs to be under control so that the kids can continue their season, hopefully.   But you could hear a pin drop in that place.  You could hear the players on the field.  The coaches on the press box were easy to hear.  And everyone in the stadium knew what song we were gonna play in the stands as soon as I told the kids.  Hell - the kids on the football field probably knew what song we were gonna play. 

With all that was different - it was absolutely amazing to be back performing in public.  I mean, I was not even the performer.  Figure that one. . . . . . . . my students got to perform in public again before I do!  I'm jealous, but not really, because as a teacher, their performance is my performance.  Creating that opportunity for them is in many ways as awesome as having the opportunity for yourself. 

The show was imperfect.  The first song tore at one point for about 10 seconds worse than maybe any song in 15 years on the field.  (they got back on though.)  The sound was decent, but not necessarily balanced.  It was a decent 1st show of the year.  But to think of how they got there - with only half a band camp, no daily 9th period, and only seeing each other once a week on Saturdays - we basically had 6 rehearsals and half of band camp.  Other than that, we've been finding ways to practice together, on Zoom, for the past 5 weeks.  I have come up with ways to get them reviewing their materials, but they were muted, so I have no real idea of what the product is until I see them on Saturdays.  

With everything being what it is and how crazy this year has been, everything the kids, staff, families, have been through since we were pulled out of school in March, that "Decent" 1st show felt like I was leading the New York Philharmonic combined with the Blue Devils.  

There were things about the night that we had to change that I actually really like and will consider instituting as my new normal once this is all over.  Some really cool things we have stumbled upon by necessity that are worth becoming new protocols even when they are not required.  The bottom line is that we took what we were given, did the best we could, and it felt GREAT.  I hope the kids felt the same way. 

I'm now off to my Saturday 12-4pm rehearsal with marching band.  My one shot at a normal rehearsal each week.  We have 3 more of them and I'll enjoy them all. 

Day 5 - The Honeymoon's Over

 Day 5 - The Honeymoon's Over

Starting Weight: -8.1lbs

So today was when the honeymoon ended.  Today is when the weight literally melting off my body would stop.  That's ok, a little jumpstart and now into reality.  That works for me.  Now for the real work, I guess. 

Breakfast: The Yoozh . .. . . My home made breakfast sandwich.  Delicious as always.  I may start to consider alternating days where I have the bagel thin every other day to start cutting more of the carbs out. 

Lunch: Leftovers #1 - The chicken stir fry from a couple days ago.  This reheated quite well and it was good to actually eat lunch in between the morning and afternoon sessions on a day where I had 2 PM remote sessions to teach. 

Snacks: I had a handful of mini M&Ms and a big bowl of pretzels when I came home from work.  Amazing how pretzels can taste like a feast when you are not eating a lot of crap all day.

Fun Times: Got to play with the kids on the new swingset today.  They really love that thing!  So glad that it finally came!!!  And thanks to Grandpa for partially financing that purchase for/with us.  This thing's gonna get a TON of use.  Already has!!

Dinner: Leftovers #2 - The Chicken sausage and spaghetti squash.  This also reheated REALLY well.  I'm starting to really enjoy spaghetti squash, which is good because it's good for you but bad because it's not exactly cheap. 

Snacks: I had a whole fruit ice pop for a snack.  These really are good.  Have I said that before?

Water Update: Finished the whole thing and definitely spread it out through the whole day.  Finished it in the 8th inning of the Yankee game.  It's good to keep it going all day instead of a race to finish it early.  Gave me something to eat/drink on the way home from Back to School Night and during the Yankee game.  The late night snacking is my enemy and one of the toughest things to crack, so having the water should help a lot. 

I had no liquids today other than water. 

Yankee Update: THey got back in it today.  In spite of my loyalty to Gary Sanchez, who I personally will give 1 more season to, if it's my choice, Kyle Higashioka basically saved the season last night blocking all of those pitches from Montgomery with men on 2nd and 3rd.  So I'm really glad he was behind the plate for this game yesterday.  

Thanks for reading everyone!  I'll see you tomorrow.

Day 4 - Movin' Right Along

 Day 4 - Movin' Right Along

Weigh-In:  x-8.1 pounds - this is going to slow down pretty darn soon, but I certainly would love to keep up the 2 pounds per day progress for a few weeks!  :-)

Breakfast:  The Joey V Special Breakfast Sandwich - as usual - Turkey Sausage, 1 whole egg & 1 egg white scrambled on an everything bagel thin.  By the way, one unspoken thing about this sandwich is that I cut up the sausage and cook it with the eggs, so it's all 1 piece.  Sort of like an omelet on a sandwich, but without the cheese.  LOVING that addition of the pepper.  Such an added flavor!

Snack: Mid-morning Whole Fruit ice pop (Strawberry)  Again - I think this was today . . . . . . I figure I may as well just write it anyway, just in case. 

Lunch: Had my last of the 3 chicken, potato and corn plates I made.  THis one was BBQ chicken.  All out of those for the week.  But we have leftovers for the next few days, so I'll be good.

Snack: Before my "PM Remote Sessions" for school, I had a healthy choice fudge bar.  I think they are like 90 calories or something.  

Snack #2: When I got home, I had 6-7 pretzels and a small handful of mini M&Ms.   Just a little something to hold me over.   Unlike many people, I am actually capable of just a teaser - a tiny bit of food to please the craving - without going overboard.  It only works though when I'm on a roll like I am right now. 

Dinner: Kristyn made a great meal tonight.  Spaghetti squash with gravy (red sauce, for those who have clearly never eaten Italian food with me) and chicken sausages.  It's a healthy version of spaghetti and meatballs, in a sense.  This was De-Lic-Ious!  Looking forward to these leftovers for sure!  Treated myself to a diet sprite with dinner since I'm in great shape with the water. 

Water Update: at 5:55pm, I'm pretty much done with the gallon.  Have about 5-6 big gulps left. (And I'm not talking about the size of a big gulp at 7-Eleven, I mean 5-6 literal gulps of water and I'll be done.  

Snacking: So tonight was lost to random and intermittent light snacking.   handful here, a pop there, etc.  Over the course of the night from 6pm until I went to bed, I think I had 2 oreos (140 calories), a handful of salt peanuts, 1 sugar cookie (40 calories), a handful of pretzel - maybe 7-8 pretzels, a handful of mini M&Ms and a whole fruit ice pop (70 calories.)  Actually not nearly as bad as I thought, but still - I could have done better.  The problem is that I finished the water too soon and so I had nothing to fool myself with, so I just kept going for a little bit here and there.   I'll do better for sure. 

You may be laughing at me because a couple paragraphs ago, I bragged about my ability to not binge on snacks but then  had a million snacks.  Realize that the list of things above was over the course of 6 hours and none of them were binges.  Last week, I would have had 6 oreos, 1/4 tub of ice cream, 4 sugar cookies and a bowl of goldfish in that time. So I stand by my ability to not binge.  I just need to stop going to the snack cabinet when I'm bored or Mad at the Yankees.

Day 3 - Groundhogs Day

Weigh-In:   X - 6.1lbs

So lots of today just felt like yesterday, done over again.  And I was ok with that!!!  Here we go:

Breakfast - Same as yesterday!  I had my breakfast sandwich.  Turkey sausage, 1 egg white + 1 whole egg scrambled on a bagel thin.  This time though, I had apple juice instead of diet sprite

Lunch - Pretty much same as yesterday!  I had another one of my pre-made meals. This time, the sriracha chicken with baked potato & ketchup as well as some corn.  Again, I had water instead of diet sprite.  

Snack - When I got home, I had a handful of salted peanuts.  These are pretty delicious.  

Also had 2 slices of yellow american cheese.  Just for fun.  (I think this was on this day . . . . . . sometimes I have flashbacks to eating something but don't actually remember when it was!)

Dinner - I had a little personal size Kraft Mac & Cheese.  This is the size that we usually give our 2 and 3 year old kids.  Usually, i would eat a whole box myself.  This is about 1/3 of a box.  So I went for cutting down quantity this time since I was in a rush and didn't feel like doing anything difficult.  

Water intake - made it through about 80% of my water by 5pm.  Here's the thing - I had to go to marching band with only access to a porta-potty. So I stopped with the water so I would not have to keep running there all night. 

   

Snack - When I came home, I grabbed a strawberry whole fruit ice pop.  70 calories.  REALLY amazingly tasty.  These will keep me away from eating 1/4 tub of ice cream, for now.  :-)  I also had a small handful of mini M&Ms.  Just something to make my candy craving smile.  

So let's put this into perspective.  Today, I ate a breakfast sandwich, sriracha chicken, mac & cheese and M&Ms and (Spoiler alert) lost weight!  Why?  Well, my breakfast sandwich is excessively modified, the sriracha chicken was home made, grilled, and accompanied by decent sides, and my mac & cheese was a very small portion and was pretty much the last thing I ate, at 5:30pm, aside from a tiny portion of candy that I'd likely equate to maybe 1/3 of a serving.  So portion control, home made foods and not eating late at night - those are 3 major tickets to my future success.  (If I continue with the will-power to do it long term.)

Thanks for reading!  See you again tomorrow.

Day 2 . . . . . and I'm Feeeeeeeelin' . . . . . . GOOD!

 Starting Weight:  X-4lbs.  Typical first day.  I always "lose" 4-5 pounds the first day when I make the change.  The trick is keeping it up when I'm only losing 4-5 pounds a month.  That's when it gets hard.  But for now, the jump start was solid. 

Sorry no photos today - didn't get a chance to add them in yet and I didn't want to delay my post, or else it will NEVER get put up. 

Today, I felt REALLY good.  

Now I know that this is not earth-shattering news.  Eat well, feel better.  It's pretty obvious.  BUT for some reason, every time I actually try it, I am almost surprised.  You see, when I am eating poorly for awhile, it's really bad.  It gets to a point where I forget what it feels like to feel good.  So when it happens, it usually feels so different that I am pumped and motivated, at least for a little while.  So today, I had some great energy.  And to be honest, yesterday was not even a "Great" 1st day.  It was a moderately decent day.  But today:  will be even better.  HEre we go;

Breakfast: I had my breakfast sandwich.  Turkey sausage, 1 egg, 1 egg white scrambled on a toasted everything bagel thin.  (These bagel thins are only 110 calories and MUCH lower on the carbs.  Killer stuff.  I had a diet sprite with that.  (300ish calories)  

SOOOOO, I did NOT go to the deli.  I did not get a massive bagel with extra butter.  ANd most importantly, I did NOT get a Red Bull.  I had fallen in love with the new bagel shop called "Griddle This" in Dumont. Great place.  Awesome staff, great bagels and they had Diet Sprite.  I was pumped.  Then they stopped having it.  I was very sad.  BUT now it does not matter cuz I'm off the deli for awhile.  I may treat myself to a good bagel once a week, but I have not decided yet.  Let's see how far I can go without.  Adding the pepper to my breakfast sandwich actually really helps a lot.  Makes it taste more unhealthy.  

Lunch: For lunch, I had my 1st leftover container that I made yesterday.  Went for the BBQ chicken.  This was accompanied by a baked potato w/ketchup and some corn.  I was already half a gallon of water in, so I treated myself to another Diet Sprite.  Delicious lunch.

Snack: When I got home, I had a whole fruit frozen bar (Strawberry) and 2 slices of yellow American cheese.  Such an improvement from my usual taquito, Jamaican beef patty and/or orange chicken skewer from 7-11.  I almost accidentally stopped at the ol 'Sev twice on my drive today, just out of habit.  But then I realized that I was an idiot and kept driving.  Success!

Dinner: Kristyn cooked tonight.  She made chicken stir fry with peppers, onions and brown rice. Ok, as I write this, she is actually cooking.  So I'm sort of pre-blogging.  She just said it is "ready to rock" so I'm gonna go for now.  Will be back later to tell you about the amazing meal that I'm about to eat.

<insert Jeopardy Theme music>

It was amazing!!!!   Seasoned with Coconut Aminos - replacement for soy sauce or teriyaki sauce.   So good!  And I made my plate, ate it, and stopped there.  Lots of leftovers, but will save them for later!  What a great meal.  Red and orange peppers, onions, brown rice and grilled chicken.  Yum!!!!

Snack:   Had 2 of those sugar cookies from last night.  80 calories.  I'll live.  :-)

OK - it's Yankee time!  I made a bold prediction that Aaron Judge was gonna go OFF this series and the Yankees would crush the Rays.  We'll see how that goes.  

I had 2 italian ices during the game.  They were 100 calories each, and I did not eat after 9pm.  :-)