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!
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