February 7, 2021 - SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

 Good morning everyone!

I'm happy to report that after my strange weekend of eating, I woke up (albeit very late) today and was back to my Friday morning number on the scale.  Today, I expect to have a little more than usual on the later end of the day, so I'm taking it REALLY slow on the intake the rest of the day. 

Early Day: Woke up pretty late - Kristyn and I have a nice system where I typically wake up with the kids on Saturdays and she does on Sundays.  We both get 1 late morning.  It's kinda nice.  We don't really speak of it, we just basically end up doing it that way.  So I got up at around 10:30am today.   Did not feel the need to eat immediately, so the first food I ended up having was an omelet I made at 12pm.  It was 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg with 3 turkey sausage links and a piece of cut up cold cut ham with salt, pepper, Franks Red Hot and "everything bagel" topping mixed in.  It looks really burnt in the photo, but it actually came out really great!  It did not taste burnt as it looks.  I basically could not find the spatula to turn it, and finally found both of them in the sink, dirty - so I had to clean it and by that time, the outer edges looks a little overdone.  But it was great!  I also had 1 slice of Yellow American cheese.

Mid-Day: well, as I update this at 3:20pm, I have had 4 potato chips since my omelet. Pause . . . . . . . 

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Ok, I'm back.  I just had a Reese's egg.  Soooo good!  I mean, they were a birthday present.  I have to eat them, right?  I have 1 left.  (Thanks, Julie & Wes!)

Super Bowl Night: Ok, so I saved all my love for the game.  We had a decent spread, in spite of there were only 3 of us watching the game and 4 of us in the house.   So here's the run-down.  I'll try to remember it all, if I can. 

1 - Kristyn made pulled buffalo chicken, so i had that.  2 sliders on Kings Hawaiian rolls and a little more over basmati rice. 

2 - We had a leftover pizza from yesterday's party, so I made that.  Had 2 slices, but didn't get all the way down to the crust on either one, since it was a little too crispy for my liking (not really a leftover pizza guy, but I had to give it a shot.)

3 - A few handfuls of Doritos and Sour Cream & Onion chips

4 - 2 mini chocolate donuts

5 - 2 little chocolate covered cookie dough bites

6 - 2 Bud Lites

7 - 2 glasses of scotch

8 - 2 Red Bull and Vodkas (this was 1 can of Red Bull)  Now remember - I stated in the original rules that i could have Red Bull ONLY if it was a part of a liquor intake situation, so I decided to live dangerously tonight.  It was Super Bowl Sunday - an occasion to sin.  

9 - 1 sugar cookie

So that was it.  Sounds like a lot, when it's listed in bullet style and numbered, but actually - I'd say quite good for Super Bowl Sunday.  I definitely showed restraint in the chip and dessert area.  That would normally be my downfall here. 

Was a different experience to have such a small get together for the Super Bowl - obviously, the right thing to do these days.  Last year's Super Bowl party was one of the last social gatherings prior to quarantine, so that puts us at almost 1 year.  Crazy. Anyway, had a great time - watching the game, pretty calmly - not running around too much - just keeping track of my boxes and prop bet pools.  Good times.  And in the end - I ended up on the correct end of my early morning weigh in Monday! (Sorry for the spoiler, but I could not help myself.  I know this weekend sounded bad overall, but I think my plan of how I handled the timing and amount of my eating Saturday and Sunday to contradict the difficult eating events worked out well and assisted me in maintaining the weight loss I had achieved leading into the Friday night debacle. 

All is well at this point and I'm now hoping to have a strong week ahead of many better choices, and of course - some pizza on National Pizza Day (Tuesday, 2/9)

February 6, 2021 - Joey's Birthday - All my food in 6 hours.

 Weigh In Update:  As I said in  yesterday's post, I was up 3 pounds due to Friday's binge.  Saturday proved to be an interesting day, but i sort of had a plan that should limit the damage. 

Keep in mind that there are 2 goals here.  1) Health  2) Weight Loss.  Today, being the day it was, had to be a day about weight loss over health.  Since it was Joey's birthday, there would be limited options and strange timing on the way the whole food thing would go down. So, knowing what I knew about the day, I turned to timing over quality for the day.  Let me explain:

Morning: So after last night, I was really not in the mood for food in the morning, and I also did not really feel hungry at all.  Stomach was not loving me in the morning since I have not really eaten like that in awhile, so I woke up with the kids at around 7am and did not end up eating anything until 1pm and that was just a peanut butter sandwich on lite wheat bread. 

Early Afternoon: So my in-laws came over for Joey's birthday.  Since my birthday was last week, they came with some stuff for me too!  It was pretty great - they brought me a bag of things I banned prior to my birthday- a frozen pizza, a red bull, a donut and some Reeses (not banned, but defiitely avoided!)  All the packaged good could wait for another day but the donut - that had to be done immediately, so the 2nd thing I ate today was a chocolate frosted donut at 2pm.  I think I had a small Reese's bunny too at some point.

Late Afternoon: Pizza was not only "on the menu" for today, but it s WAS the menu.  We ordered from Cousin's in Norwood.  They are ok in person but their delivery is always AWESOME.  The pizza comes extremely hot and fresh.  We love their toppings.  We ordered plain, meatballs w/ricotta and bbq chicken.  I had one of each.  This was basically lunch and dinner and I knew that going in, so it was  basically the plan.  I saved up all my belly for this meal.  As expected, the two toppings were great.  The plain was meh.  I mean, it was fine, but it was just ok, as usual.  BUT even delivered and as my 3rd slice, it was still very warm and that's a major victory. 

    

Evening: Birthday cake was also on the menu so I of course had a little bit of cake.  Was it 2 small slices or 1 big slice?  Semantics. :-)  But it was delicious.  

   

Drinks for the day: I had 2 beers, a couple glasses of scotch and a few glasses of water.  Mixed it up a bit.  I actually planned to have a Red Bull and Vodka - considering that is "legal" since it's Red Bull as part of an alcohol drink, not as it's own breakfast entity, but as the day went on, I just never really got around to it.  This is good because I think it shows my lack of "need" for the Red Bull.  I think I have broken the habit.. .. . . . again. . . . . .. The real tell will be whether I can have it once in awhile without going back to every day. 

Wrap-Up:  So after all is said and done, my entire food situation today was made of "meh" choices BUT I did all of my eating between 1pm and 7pm.  So for those who are into the "intermittent fasting" this was a day in that life.  With Sunday being my day to sleep in, I also anticipated that the next meal would be lunch on Sunday, and I was right . So thanks to no breakfast and a late weigh-in, I am officially back to where I was Friday morning before all the Friday failure took place.  I just need to try to watch myself today, Super Bowl Sunday, which should be easy because we obviously not having our usual big shindig.

February 5, 2021 - Embarrassed Myself today

 Weigh-In Update: So while I am not disclosing the actual weight at this point, I will say that this morning was the lowest I have been in quite awhile.  I cracked past a certain key number this morning and that is a total is 12 pounds down from my max, 7.5 down since New Year's Day.   I'll take that!

Breakfast: So today, I got up a little earlier and somehow, I still ended up in a rush to get out!  So I stopped at Griddle This for my buttered bagel.  That being said, Ryan Krewer yelled at my on Facebook yesterday for drinking soda for breakfast.  So I promised him I would not have a soda for breakfast at least for the next 3 days.  SOOOOOOOOOO, this morning, I had a black cherry seltzer with my bagel.  Thanks, Krewer!  That one's for you. 

Lunch:  Stuck around work for a little bit into the afternoon and got home for PM stuff around 1:30pm to work there for the rest of the day.  Had my choice of leftovers to choose from.  I chose the General Tso's Cauliflower with chicken and baby corn.  This reheated very nicely!  What a nice lunch.  Of course, I also grabbed a small handful of mini M&Ms.  

Things were going seemingly quite well today.   But then, things took a real turn for the worse.  And I'm really quite embarrassed about my report for the rest of the night, so I don't actually need anyone to yell at me for this.  Trust me, I've been beating myself up about this all day today - the day after - as I've avoided writing this post. 

Everything up to this post was typed Friday afternoon around 2pm.  The rest is written on Saturday night:

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The rest of the day:  So around 3:30, I went to pick up the kids.  Giuliana is in Bergenfield, so I drove down Washington Ave.  This is where I came across Burger King. So I had a craving for an original chicken sandwich.  I went and ordered it.  I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the sandwich was $5.00.  As I was coming around the side, also out of the corner of my eye, I saw "2 for $5"  And I asked the cashier - is there some sort of 2 for $5 deal?  He said yes.  I said "So you mean I could get a 2nd sandwich and it would be free?"  And they said yes.  So I went for it.  This was a very bad idea.  1 was bad enough, but not ridiculous.  Just a bad choice.  2 - that was just plain stupid.  I threw them both down the ol' belly in about 5 minutes flat.  It didn't even feel good around the halfway point of the 2nd sandwich.  At that point, I was just finishing it to finish it.  These are the moments where I truly feel like I have some issue with food because I knew I should not do it, but instead of stopping, I just binge it as fast as possible.  I kinda could not stop myself.  Luckily, I'm able to control these urges most of the time, but this time - I just went for it, and I felt the wrath of it.  

Now, it did not stop there.  I don't feel bad about the rest of the night.  I would be just fine with the next part, had the 3:30 issue not occurred.  I had plans with my long time friend from all the way back in little league to meet at the Cornerstone and watch the Nets game.  Now I have not been out for good authentic greasy bar food in a really long time, so I knew what  I was getting myself into and I was intending on enjoying myself a little bit. 

I started off with an Ommegang IPA and it was terrible.  I'm pretty sure it was old and from the bottom of the keg.  I was really disappointed.  I know I like this beer - I've had it before, but I guess it was just bad luck for the night.  Ended up with a Bud Lite bottle later in the night and that was it on the drink front.  I ordered some wings for an app and chicken fingers and waffle fries for dinner.  The wings were pretty decent.  They were quite small, actually, in my opinion.  Then the chicken fingers came.  They were HUGE.  And they gave a massive serving of waffle fries.  After 1 chicken finger and 4-5 fries, I was hurting.  I ended up forcing 1 more chicken finger down and another fry or 2, but that was it.  Those chicken sandwiches were doing their damage now.  The good news - I didn't finish the bar food.  The bad news - I could have just skipped the damn sandwiches at 3:30 and enjoyed my night out more.  

So in the end - I was on my way to a great day.  Something snapped at 3:30 and turned it into one of my worst days in a long time.  I'm ashamed of the BK move.  I'm not ashamed of the Cornerstone.  that only was terrible because I failed at the pre-Cornerstone situation.  The day could have just been a good day with a planned dinner indulgence.  Instead, it was the biggest food-induced stomach ache I've had in a long time.  I will try not to beat myself up about this much longer.  Hard to handle as the start to a weekend that includes my son's 4th birthday and the Super Bowl.  

Spoiler alert - Joey's birthday party (Saturday) is already over as I write up the rest of Friday's post.  It was not exactly a great day of eating, BUT it was not a disaster.  More on that in my next post.  

Not posting pics today. Not in the mood.  I feel like putting the pics is something I do to make this a little more fun.  I'm not in a fun mood about this post, so instead, I'm just leaving it as a confession post. 

Oh by the way, I was up 3 pounds Saturday morning when I woke up.

February 4, 2021 - 2 Meal Thursday

 Hey Howdy!  Welcome to Thursday, and Day 4 of the J-DOC Mini-Mono-Blog.  Really not much to report today.  I did not have all that much time for food, so it's gonna be a short report.  Kinda felt like an actual Thursday again. . . . . . will explain as we go. 

Breakfast: Ok, so I'm slipping back into my morning bagel situation.  I really hope I get this under control.  It's hard.  I REALLY like the bagel in the morning.  I have certainly cut out the Red Bull.  I think I'm truly cured of that, which is a HUGE weight off my shoulders, for now.  But I have to do better with the bagel situation.  Maybe limit it to twice a week or something . .. . . The problem is that I just need to wake up a little earlier.  While it does not take me any more or less time to eat at home, it's hard to eat at home while getting the kids ready and trying to push them out of the house.  So I end up stopping for a quick bagel on the way to work.  I could just try to wake up 10 minutes earlier.  That would likely do the trick.  BUT the other thing is that I love the bagel.  It really fills me up and my teaching schedule gets me lunch at 12:45 the earliest - usually much later. . . . . . . . 

Lunch: So as I said, 12:45 the earliest.  So at 12:45, I could either go home for the PM stuff or stay at school. I had a meeting with a few kids on Zoom and then a ton of stuff to do to prepare for jazz band.  Long story short, I did not leave work  until 3:15, so I had not eaten lunch yet.  I was gonna go pick up the kids, so I had to grab some pizza.  I figured at this point, I would eat a decent meal and that would be it, because I had to leave the house at 5:30 for sax quartet and jazz band.  So I went to Ray's in Cresskill for a buffalo chicken slice and a penne vodka slice.  Now I'm not all about Ray's plain slice, but their toppings are great.  The Buffalo chicken  is just COVERED in Buffalo chicken.  And the vodka sauce on that slice is so creamy and delicious.  I Tried to get a diet sprite, but it was flat.  So i asked for a diet stewarts and they stopped selling them.  So I ended up with a diet coke. 

So let's back up to one of the reasons I had to stay at work instead of going home for the afternoon.  I have a fridge in my office.  It comes in very handy.  I have not really used it much in a long time since we were out of school from March to June, then could not really go in the summer and then had lots of in and out from September to now.  So The other day, I put a drink in the fridge.  I then went to drink it hours later and it was still warm.  So it turns out that the fridge and freezer stopped working at some point, since March.  Now . . . .. . in the freezer, i had 10 ice pops, 4 italian ices and 4 Lean Cuisine dinners.  So there was a crap ton of mixed liquid on the bottom and also a science experiment of mold. Like a huge moldy mold piece.  So today, I had to clean that out because it got so nasty.  I was scooping liquid out with a dixie cup into a pitcher, which by the way was filled up 3/4 of the way with nastiness.  OMG.  So gross.  Sanitized, wiped down, etc. . . . . . . and at least it's not disgusting anymore.  BUT that was nasty and time consuming.  EEK!  I'd show you a photo, but I don't want to make you puke.  Text me if you want to see it.  I'll send it to you. . . . . . . . . 

So I came got the kids, came home and watched everyone have some pasta dinner about 2 hours after I had my lunch, and off to work.  

Jazz band was great this week!  The whole rhythm section decided it was safe to come after last week.  (Last week, the bass and piano player tuned in via Zoom.)  So I was able to work with them.  The sax and brass sections rehearsed themselves in sectionals in other rooms and I was so much more organized this week.  It really was great.  Plus the sax quartet decided to start rehearsing before jazz band rehearsal and they sounded fantastic, so that was great too. 

When I got home, it was 9:00, which is my deadline to eat.  So I tried not to.  We watched Mr. Mayor which is just a goofy and delightful show.  It's a complete "shit show" at times - with some really crazy moments and an actor who I have never seen before who could be the 2nd coming of Zack Galifinakis.  (Spelling?) and the Connors.   After the Connors, I could not take it anymore. I had a handful of mini M&Ms and 3 pretzel rods.  Sue me.  I had dinner at 330pm.  Come on!  :-)

So that's it.  It was a good and busy day.  Because we live nearby, I was able to go home between school and jazz band, which was awesome.  And because I live so close, I'm able to come back early enough for our sax quartet to rehearse at 6pm, which will be a GREAT group.  Very pumped about this group. 

Anyway, I'm out for now.  Hope you are all doing well!  See you next time. 

Verderese - OUT!

February 3, 2021 - Back to Dante's!

Hello friends! Here we are - day 3 of this edition of the J-DOC Monoblogs and I should say, it was not one of my best days in terms of choices, but it was quite good by way of portion control.  I mean, I didn't break any of my rules or anything, so that's good.  Remember, this time around is not about perfection.  It's about improvement.  Slow and steady will win this race, so I put a couple of rules in that should help me even should I fall into a couple of imperfect days of habits.  

Breakfast: Well, it was my first day back to in person school since the bagel ban  has been lifted, so I HAD to go back to Griddle This in Dumont and get myself a plain bagel toasted with extra butter.  Now normally, this would be accompanied by a Red Bull, but I replaced that with a diet coke can, which feels just as good as a Red bull, but with less long term danger attached to it.  

Lunch: I told the people at Dante's I'd be back in February, and I did not disappoint!  First day back at school and I kept good on my promise.  Grabbed a slice of plain pizza and a white slice with a side of marinara.  Add a diet sprite and I'm on my way.  I will say that this meal really filled me up, which surprised me.  In all reality, I should be trying to have only 1 slice of pizza when I go out.  I am going to TRY to do that more often if possible in a situation like this - where i am just going to get myself  a meal by myself.  Of course, if I am trying a new pizza place for the first time, 1 slice is NOT going to do it,  but for a quick stop like this, 1 slice SHOULD suffice.  :-)

Dinner: Kristyn was at it again!  Organic Grass Fed beef and broccoli with Basmati Rice.  DELICIOUS!!!  This came out really well.  And I was good about it too - I took 1 serving and just topped it off a little bit.  We split 1 bag of the rice, which is about 200 calories.  Normally we'd make another bag and go to town with it, leaving a little bit of leftovers, but we (I) controlled our (my) urges and kept it to 1 bag of rice.  This is big, I'd say.   I also had 1 slice of yellow american cheese because Joey asked for one and I was jealous, so I got one too. 

Snacking - Definitely grabbed a handful or 2 of mini M&Ms because they were screaming my name. Other than that, I don't think I had anything else as a snack.  I was pretty full from lunch and dinner.  The late night food ban has really helped me overcome the early part of the day failures I've been having (Basically, the bagel) and the occasional sweets, such as a handful of M&Ms that I have been tending to grab.  Of course, my snacking is significantly improved  these days.  It had become a problem in January, so I'm trying to get that under control this month - the 9pm rule is really helping with that. 

Thanks for reading everyone!  See you again tomorrow!

February 2, 2021 - Back Breaking Snow

 Weigh-In Info: I am back to my pre-weekend binge weight, as expected.  So now the February losing starts!

Actual Footage of Today in Norwood  :-)

I have to say, I feel really good after not eating late last night.  It was hard to do, just another habit to break, but totally makes a difference. 

Breakfast - 2 cinnamon toast waffles with a little syrup.  The picture shows ONE (it's actually one, cut in half.)  I had to of what you see.  These are delicious, quick, easy, cheap and much better in terms of portion control than my usual deli stop. 

Lunch - For lunch, I had some leftover pulled buffalo chicken over basmati rice.  This is a meal that can really never get old.  I'd prefer to have them on Kings Hawaiian rolls, but the rice is really a better choice.  THis particular type of rice is basically white rice but apparently has much better nutrition facts.  Also, it comes in a bag that can just be microwaved for 90 seconds and it's ready, so it's pretty much AWESOME. 

By the way - get an instant pot!  The buffalo chicken recipe:

1) Dump frozen or thawed chicken in

2) dump in half a bottle of Frank's Red Hot

3) Turn on

4) take 2 forms and shred once cooked

5) Eat

Snack - I threw down the last 2 of the home made cookies from yesterday.  I could not resist.  This is why we can't have cookies in the house.  :-)

Dinner - Kristyn was at it again!  TOnight's new concoction was General Tso's cauliflower with baby corn and chicken.  I threw a little more rice on top of it just to add a little gearth to it all. I actually thought this came out pretty nicely.  Could have used a little more of the sauce.  Basically, it was General Tso's cauliflower from Costco.  She added the baby corn and seasoned chicken.  I think if there was a little more sauce and it was on the chicken, it would have sealed the deal for me.  THat being said, I have never enjoyed cauliflower as much as I did last night, and that's saying a lot, because really, cauliflower is a pretty neutral and tasteless situation with a yukko texture.  So for it to be not only better than neutral in taste, but also softened up to perfection - what a victory!

Snack - For my birthday Zoom hang, Kristyn had gotten me a bag of Doritos, but I never actually ate them.  The bag was opened though . . . . . so I hand picked some doritos from the bag.  Not too many - I'd imagine about 3/4 of a regular "Serving size" but about 25% of my usual intake in a dorito binge. 

I'm on the wrong computer right now, so I can't add the photos that are in my OneDrive, so sorry kiddies - no more photos today.  I'll try to get this done at night in the future so I can include the photos.  

Exercise - Did a bunch of more shoveling today, and also played in the snow with the kids for a little bit. I will say, I was soooo lucky that one of my neighbors did a surprise snowblowing of the back half of my driveway and the apron, which was freshly plowed into over night with the last bit of snowfall.  Likely saved a good hour of work and a lot of pain.  My goodness and I a lucky dude to have a great neighbor.  

But even luckier, thanks to some amazing people in my life, I'll be getting a snowblower soon, so the days of back breaking shoveling will come to an end as soon as they come back in stock and I can find the one I want.  WAHOO!!!  

Feb 1, 2021 - Here We Go Again!

Hello friends!  Welcome back.  It's good to be back.  Now let's see how this goes . . . . . . . This is going to have a little different feel than the usual.  I'm not going to be perfect.  I'm just going to be a lot better than I was in 2020.  So there will be imperfect choices.  The biggest thing this time around is going to be portion control and no late night eating, along with the other rules I posted yesterday.  Here's today's breakdown!

Breakfast - I did not actually end up having breakfast.  Just didn't get around to it.  I thought about it a couple times, but time just got away from me.  I think it's cuz I didn't really want to be awake, so I tried to sort of make believe I was not awake and just laid on the couch like a potato while the kids played.

Lunch - well, by the time I was ready to eat, it was about 11am.  SOOOO, I went to the garage refrigerator and grabbed some more leftover Bruno's.  I had 2 square slices.  These came out really good in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.  Thanks again, Krewer!!!  Had some water with this.

Snacking - Kristyn and the kids made M&M Cookies - they were fresh and soft.  Joey came all the way to the basement to tell me the cookies were ready.  I told him I'd be right up, but he had 3 cookies on a plate for me and was delivering them.  What do you think I was gonna do?   So yes, I ate them.  And I'm not upset about it.  I did it for the kids.  

Dinner - Kristyn has been on a roll with some new recipes lately, so today she tried something again brand new.  It was a spaghetti squash Taco bake.  Spaghetti squash, black beans, corn ground turkey, tomato paste and some buffalo sauce.  I added a little bit of pulled buffalo chicken to it.  It was quite good! 

Snacking - Yummy Minute Maid Frozen Lemonade.  These are so good and good portion control.  Totally saves me from eating an unsafe amount of ice cream!  :-)

So here's a story.  It's not a great story, but it's a success story, that I'm really trying.  So I have the rule for the month of not eating after 9pm.  I was talking to Kristyn and was feeling hungry.  I say "What time is it?"  She said "9:09."  And I was like "DAMN IT!" She asks why . . . . . . . but you all know. . . .  It was too late for a snack!  :-(  So I went without.  And guess what, I SURVIVED!   And I'll be thankful tomorrow.  :-)

I also spent a few hours shoveling a ton of snow, like all of you probably did too.  It was crazy, so I actually got some exercise today!!!!   My legs are SHOT!

See you all tomorrow.  

Back for a Limited Run - 28 days Only!

 AAAANNNNDDD . . . . . . GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYBODY!!!!!!  HOW ARE YOU TODAY!?!?!?!?!?!?

It's February 2021 and we are back for a short, 28 day run here at the J-DOC Monoblogs.  The food thing had gotten a little out of control in 2020, so I am trying a new concept - the Monthly Fad!  I'm changing the rules every month to keep myself from getting bored. 

In January, I cut out Beer, Red Bull, Ice Cream, Donuts, Bagels and PIZZA.  6 of my main problems that were causing horrible habits, not to mention crazy spending $$!  For my birthday this past weekend, I had ALL of them.  It was a delicious weekend, and I did not do too much damage on the scale.  That being said, it's now February, and time for a whole new set of rules - rules that will NOT include anything about pizza.  God, that was a mistake!

What's going on for February?  Here is the list:

• No 7-Eleven
• No store made/bought breakfast sandwiches ( I should be making those at home in a much healthier fashion)
• Continuation of no Red Bull (Unless it is with Vodka and even this should really be limited to maybe 1 time all month.)
• More consideration to portion control
• No food after 9pm (possible rule break allowed on Super Bowl Sunday)
• And most importantly, I will blog this month.  I can keep it up for 28 days.  You'll know every single bite of food that goes into my belly in the month of February.  No cheating, no lies, no shame.  Just honest and hopefully quality healthy eating and/or better choices. 

In January, I lost 6.5 pounds in total, leading up to my binge weekend.  The crazy weekend only lead to an increase of 1 pound, technically, but we all know the daily weigh-in, while it helps me navigate how I need to deal with the upcoming day, is not the be all and end all of weighing in.  So, I'm sure if  do well today, the pound will be gone tomorrow.  So we are starting February at -6.5 (which is actually -11.5 from my max)

Before we get started, I wanted to bring you on a tour of my birthday weekend.  It was glorious in terms of fun, friends, family and food!  Of course, this type of eating is what was leading to my demise, so it was just a weekend of bliss. That being said, everyone loves a good food story, so here goes!!

Friday: Scott and Pete were planning to take me out for my 40th, so I pinpointed today as the beginning of my birthday, therefore, my plan to eat everything I was missing out on so far in 2021 was on the table.  Started with a delicious  breakfast sandwich from Petracco's Deli in Northvale.  Got it on the smallest hero roll with scrambled eggs, taylor ham and potatoes.  I am really a bagel guy for my sandwiches, but this place does not have bagels and their rolls are amazing.  Couple that with the awesome potatoes that they cook on the flat grill after pouring the scrambled eggs over them - OMG!  It was amazing.  Throw in my first Red Bull in a month to complete the breakfast.  I can't believe I did not take a photo of this breakfast - I'd LOVE for you to see this thing.  If you have never been to Petracco's, you gotta go.  They are amazing. 

I was told to be hungry for the evening, so lunch - I kept it small.  Just made a kid size Mac & Cheese around 2pm.  This is about 1/3 of a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese.  Actually plenty of food.  Not healthy or anything, but great on portion control.  That's for sure.  

Now to the evening - Started off with 2 glasses of Scotch.  First, a Macallan 12 and then Oban 14.  2 mozzarella sticks, just to hold over until dinner.  Then it was off to Capital Grille.  Talk about being treated like a king for the 40th!  This was a meal to end all meals!  

We started with a jumbo shrimp appetizer - btw, first time I ever tried Cocktail sauce.  What was I doing for 39 years and 364 days?  OMG!  And also, Nueske's Cherrywood Double Cut Smoked Bacon.  Nothing like a plate of thick-ass bacon!  

For dinner, I had the Dry Aged NY Strip au Poivre with Courvoisier Cream - 14oz.  This has a think black peppercorn sort of crust, giving it a little kick.  Shared sides of Sam's Mashed potatoes and Lobster Mac & Cheese topped it off.  

Then came the birthday dessert which included a small piece of Cheesecake with fresh strawberries and a small flourless chocolate espresso cake.  This really put me over the edge.  :-)

And of course, a couple glasses of scotch - another Macallan 12 and something else . . . . . I can't recall what I decided on for the 2nd one at the moment.   This meal - wow!  What a life it must be to eat like this on a regular basis!  I will say though, it was a very filling meal.  Filling and FULfilling.  

SATURDAY:

"Breakfast?" - So for Saturday, I started up  pretty late.  Slept in late and had to eventually run out around 1pm for something.  So on this trip, I stopped at Dunkin for my donuts.  Had 1 chocolate frosted and 1 chocolate glazed.  Those are my 2 go to donuts - haven't have those in forever  

Lunch/Dinner - Went to Three Boys from Italy in Northvale for dinner.  Now here's the thing - we planned it for 3:30pm.  I went there ahead of time to check, and they said that typically, there is no one eating in at that time.  So we went there and had our dinner - basically a private dining experience!  I'll tell you what I had - while leaving out who was with me, yadda yadda yadda, since people are do judgy about people eating out these days. 

I have a slice of plain pizza and a slice of pizza with meatballs and ricotta on it.  That was I guess, my lunch.  For dinner, I had chicken parm with a side of penne vodka.  LOVED the chicken park.  The penne vodka was meh, but I can't judge it that way as it was in a tiny little bowl and was not really drenched in the sauce they way I'm sure the full meal is.  

Had a sprite and a diet coke with my meal.   This was a DELICIOUS meal and an amazing return to pizza after a whole month!

  

   

    

We went home and threw down some Carvel Ice Cream Cake - to check off another of my list of thing I'd banned for the month.  Had 2 pieces of that, followed by some Macallan 12 (Thanks Kristyn!) and a glass of Dalwhinnie 15 (Thanks Eric & Karen!)

   

Then it was time for the Zoom party!  Kristyn set up an awesome hang with tons of friends and family, some of which hung in until as late as I think 12:30am or so!  What a great surprise and fun time.  But here's the kicker - Just as the Zoom party was starting, Ryan Krewer shows up with a Bruno's Square pie - half with meatballs - just like I always get it!  He had the pizza heating bag and all.  What a surprise!  So I even got to have Bruno's square on my birthday!  Everyone sang happy birthday with their favorite slice of pizza, drink or dessert in hand and I feasted on some more perfect pizza.  Had myself about 4 bud lites, my first beers of the new year and I think 1 more class of scotch and called it a night.

   

SUNDAY

Sunday morning marked just a couple more things I had to cross off the list for January, so I started by heading to Goldberg's in Northvale for a Plain Bagel toasted with extra butter and also another Red Bull, since after all, I was banishing Red Bull for another month coming up - so why not throw down 1 more while I can.  :-)

   

For lunch, I jumped into the Bruno's Leftovers - the gift that keeps on giving!  Had myself 2 slices for lunch.

For dinner, we made Pulled Buffalo chicken over Basmati Rice - which is a surprisingly healthy meal.  Did it in the Instant pot - easy as hell to make and quite delicious!

Afterwards, I made myself my first ice cream Sundae.  I mean, I had ice cream Saturday, but that was ice cream cake.  I had this Friendly's Peanut butter chocolate ice cream in the freezer since New Years Eve that has been torturing me for a month, so I finally polished it off, with hot fudge, sprinkles and mini M&Ms.

AAAAANNNNNDDDDD . . . . . . . this concludes my birthday weekend binge. It was everything I hoped for, and like I said - only netted me a 1.2 pound weight gain!  

To top it all off, we are on a snow day for Monday!  Sooooooo, even better!

Starting today - new rules are in effect and you should be getting a post from my every day - hopefully.  Maybe I'll do 2 days at a time if I get behind, but I won't leave anything out.  If you are reading, let me know!  It motivates me when I know lots of people are reading.  

BTW - I would be wrong not to include a huge thank you to everyone who made this weekend special for me - whether it was family who was here to celebrate, Pete and Scott for the king's treatment Friday night, all the texts, calls and Facebook messages, everyone who joined on the Zoom call and of course, my amazing wife Kristyn who pieced it all together like a pro.  She turned what could have been a "meh" quarantine 40th birthday and made it more than I could have ever expected.  THANK YOU!!!!

Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow with today's round up!  Thanks for reading!