It begins for real.............................

Visit With My Doctor

Earlier this week I visited with my Dr. about the swelling in my legs and as always talk came around to my weight.  After much discussion about things like the four letter word diet and even bariatric surgery, it was decided that at this time surgery is not the answer for me.  Instead I have to start with another visit with Tyler this week, with my food journal in hand.  Then visits will be once a month. He wants to look at my journal and see what and how much I am eating, along with steps take and how much exercising I am doing.  So the journal starts in earnest tomorrow.  He also wants to check my blog once in a while to see what I am posting.  I know he will be looking at both my recipe blog and this one.  I do have a number of healthy recipes I want to try and if they are good they will be posted here.  I told him I will never quit cooking because it is in y genes and I have been cooking since I was about 12 years old.  And that was a long time ago.  I also told Tyler my 40th wedding anniversary is coming up and the entry for that day will probably be I ate to much and nothing else.

I will probably post recipes in the middle of the week and Sunday night will be a wrap up of the progress I made that week along with cartoons about weight loss.  The reason for this is I have a number of other blogs that need my attention and once a week or so is all I will be posting on those sites.

Hopefully in mid April I will be off the Warfrin and I can go back to my green smoothies every morning.  I wasn't doing them when I first started the Warfrin and so it would have screwed my numbers up to badly I didn't want to try and adjust them, I just wanted to get through this little adventure.  I have been told first blot clot is 6 months on Warfrin and the second one will mean Warfrin for life.  If that becomes the case I will make the necessary adjustments because I miss the green smoothies.  They gave me energy and I usually wasn't hungry.  I have been saving a lot of recipes that I want to try.  So mid April please hurry and get here.

With that being said, I think I will close tonight.

The Journey Starts Again.................

If you looked at my other page it now says that I am going back to my individual blog pages.  That page was not going to turn out like I wanted so we are back to individual pages.  I hope you will follow me on this journey and if needed hold me feet to the fire.

A couple of years ago I spent a lot of money to work with Dr. Scott.  He taught me a lot and I taught myself a lot during that journey.  I have talked with Dr. Scott a couple of times since than and his comment as to why I succeeded then was because of where I was at that point in my life.  He said I am at a better place now and thus it is hard for me to get my head in the weight control game.  I have gained back a little over half the weight I lost then.  That being said I am going to work at doing what I know and prove to myself that I can do as my sister says anything I put my mind too.

My friend Blake and I attended an informational presentation put on by St. Mark's Hospital for Bariatric Surgery last week.  Blake is seriously considering it but I don't get a warm fuzzy about it.  I guess that is because I know what to do and just need to get my head back in the game and do it. Having looked at a lot of options I think I will be following the plan put out by the Mayo Clinic.  It ranks number three on Web MD's list of top 15 Diets.  It doesn't  count calories but concentrates on portions.  My goal is to lose between 1-2 pounds a week.  I a a membership to a local athletic club with a pool.  I love to swim so I need to make use of my membership.  Dr. Hardman wants me working less and spending more time in the gym.  I go to see her in April and I want my weight down and my gym time up.  I will probably add walking into this exercise plan.  Part of my goal is to show myself I can lose the weight without the surgery.  

I will have at least 3 people I report to on a daily basis, 1. My good wife, Vickie, 2. my friend Blake and 3. my boss, Carri.  Carri is very concerned and wants me to succeed as do all of these people plus a bunch that are not on this list.  I may add my my daughter and sister to my reporting list as they are both nurses and aware of what this fat guy should be doing for a healthy lifestyle.

The journey begins tomorrow, January 12th.  I will be adding healthy recipes to this blog as well as regular recipes to my Favorite recipe blog.  I will also be adding healthy information to this site. These blogs are therapeutic for me even if no one reads them.

I will be posting a before picture in the next couple of days and hope to post to this blog at least three to four times a week.  With all that being said, I am signing off for the night. And the journey begins.....................

Eggs Baked in Avocado

                                                                                                                                   

This recipe comes from fitsugar.com  I am fond of eggs and avocado. The two togther are really good.  I don't eggs often, mostly egg whites. The thing I like is the recipe has a lot of protein and for two eggs and a whole avocado the calorie count is pretty good.      

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe avocados
4 fresh eggs
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon chopped chives

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Slice avocados in half, and take out the pit.  Scoop out about two Tablespoons of flesh from the center of the avocado, just enough so the egg will fit in the center.   Place the avocados in a small baking dis, making sure they fit tightly.  Crack an egg into each avocado half. Try to crack the yolk in first.   Place in the oven and bake 15-20 minutes.  Time will depend on the size of the avocados and eggs.  Make sure the egg whites have enough time to set.  Remove from the oven, season with pepper, chives and garnish of your choice.  Makes two servings.

449 calories, 38.2 g fat, 137 mg sodium, 2 g sugars, 13.6 g fiber and 15.2 g protein.                  

Nature's Skittles

Random Thoughts

Just in case you couldn't tell this post is about the Golden Arches or Mickey D's or McDonald's or anything it may be known as.  I have several friends that can't stand the Golden Arches but personally I love the place.  I could eat there three times a day and not get tired of the place but I would end up looking like the guy in Super Size Me  http://www.hulu.com/watch/63283  So to that end and the cost, I don't eat there.

But along the same vane I read an article the first of the year that science teacher, John Cisna, lost 37 pounds in three months eating nothing but McDonald's.  His students planned his menus using daily recommended daily allowances of calories, etc. http://usat.ly/19aMyAW  But just as quick an article ran stating it is a bad idea to eat at McDonald's everyday  http://read.bi/1eKSUoC  I don't know to many people that would actually eat at Mickey D's everyday but I guess there are some who would.

There was another article on why the fountain Diet Coke tastes better at McDonald's.  http://bit.ly/1dgQk7S  I am not a Diet Coke drinker but I do enjoy the other fountain beverages and I always thought they tasted better at the Golden Arches and now I know they do and why.

I know with the fact that I am  trying to change my lifestyle as far as what I eat goes my trips to McDonald's will be severely cut back but that is okay because actually I would rather go to Burger Bar.  Burger Bar was even on the Food Network Show: Diners, Drive-ins and Dives   http://bit.ly/1cJgFLf

No matter where you where you get your burger, enjoy it.

Mediterranean Carrot Salad

This recipe comes from Spry Living.  It is very good and quick, too.  It is called  Mediterranean Carrot Salad.


INGREDIENTS:

1/2 pound carrots, peeled
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:

With a box grater, coarsely grate carrots.  Combine with remaining ingredients and toss to caot.  Serve chilled or at room temp.  Enjoy.  Makes four servings.

Each serving contains 90 calories, 7 g of fat, 2 g of fiber, 3 g of sugar and 150 mg of sodium.

Random Thoughts

I am working this year at continuing my weight loss.  I am part of a 28 day challenge through the encouragement of a good friend of mine.  She is concerned about peoples health and the company she works for (Medi-Fast) has organized a 28 day challenge.  At first I thought about getting back as radical as i was earlier last year to lose a bunch of weight and win a $1000.  But then common sense kicked in and I decided I need to do something that is sustainable for the rest of my life.  I am thankful to Sheila for helping me get back on track and get back to eating healthy and smart.  My goal is to lose between 1 1/2 - 3 pounds a week.  I eating smarter by watching portions, walking more, drinking more water and trying to get more sleep.  When I do these things I feel better and maybe this old dog can be taught some new tricks.

Another part of what I am doing to help me with eating smarter is being part of a weight management class offered through my employer.  I figure you can never have enough help as long as you stay focused and your help is teaching basically the same thing.  Last week I lost 4 lbs and hope to go at least another 3 or so this week.  The weigh in on Wednesday will tell.

Even though I am being a little more sensible this time I am still very thankful for Dr. Scott and the program I went through with him because He gave me my life back and going through his program showed me how much better I feel when I eat right and lose weight.

I will admit it is hard to be good when I stopped at 7-11 this morning to get a newspaper and they are selling their chocolate donuts 2 for $1.50 and the chocolate donuts from 7-11 are out of this world.  They are from Dunford Bakeries.  I am tempting myself right now and I am sitting at my computer.  Better reach for my water bottle and some celery.  Okay, not as good as a donut but it will due. LOL. Off to do other things for awhile.

LOL

The following is a post from a Facebook post by a friend of mine by the name of Dave Taylor and the more I think about it, the more I may have to join his fitness regime.

"I am starting a new fitness regime called FitCross.  In a nutshell, iy utilizes muscle confusion by requiring a large variety of hydrogenated corn syrup distribution methods and nuanced cheese-based fondues.  This focuses greatly on the importance of social and emotional health through diet instead of exercise.  This is the best program out there, because we all know that exercise is highly over-rated and likely only to procrastinate your departure from this war prison work camp euphemistically referred to as "life".

Day Two of the New Beginning

It has been quite a day.  I cut my calories a lot.  In fact by the time I got home I figured I had only eaten between 450-600 calories.  I even bypassed the fresh rolls at the school today.  And that was hard.  I have also pretty much given up sugar. The following post gives some great tips for giving up sugar:  http://bit.ly/1d3S0qu.  I think that is going to be one of the harder things I will be doing, especially during the next 21 days.  I came home with a head ache today and I am not sure if it was from the lack of calories or the lack of sugar.  Though after eating two rice cakes with egg whites I did feel better.  At the school I work at they have installed a soda machine for the faculty and staff.  It is free and one of the drinks is a Sobe Life Water.  It is a berry pomegranate flavor.  It is sweet and I have drank a lot of it before the Christmas break.  I have decided to give it up even though it is supposed to be zero calories.  The label says it contains 32.5 grams of sugar, which is equivalent to drinking plain water and eating a Snickers bar.  I don't think it is worth it and I don't want the artificial sweeteners and other things it contains.  I even was enjoying the taste and I usually wont drink diet drinks, besides I would rather have the Snickers Bar.  I guess the best thing is to go back to drinking lots of plain old water and that I do enjoy.

Here are a couple of more links to articles about quitting sugar:  http://thedailylove.com/the-lowdown-on-quitting-sugar/ ,  http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10492/how-to-quit-sugar-in-5-days.html ,  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-james/quitting-sugar_b_4116814.html

2014 - A New Beginning

They say "That confession is good for the soul", I know that is only part of the quote but that is the most quoted part and it fits for me at this point.  I do have a confession to make and it is hard but I need to say I have fallen of the wagon for weight loss.  I know that is very obvious because my posts have been very sporadic to non existent.  I have fallen to the point that I have not only quit losing but I have gained about 20 pounds back and that makes me very unhappy. I know I have no one to blame but myself and that I accept.
I had a meeting with Dr. Scott a couple of weeks ago and we talked about what is going on in my life and leaving out all the boring details he told me not to beat myself up but to start again with the first of the year. HE wants me back around the middle of February and he wants me to be down about 15-20 lbs by then. My goal is to exceed that number by at least 5 to 10 lbs at the minimum.  As I mentioned in an early post Dr. Scott told me I was doing well and could follow the 90/10 rule which is be good 90% of the time and go off the grid only 10% of the time.  I was excited but in going to the new program I went way off the grid and knew better.  I quit keeping my food journal and was probably only on the grid less than 5% of time. Combine those two things and that was the recipe for my total implosion.  Even when I knew I was failing and failing big time, I did not get back on track, but that is going to change starting Jan 2nd(tomorrow) morning.

I am going back to eating like I know I should and keeping my food journal.  Since I have picked up a steady job in the schools I need to watch what I eat while I am working.  The school I am in, a large portion of the food we serve is cooked from scratch not like the other district I was in where everything was heat and serve, I still need to watch what I eat.  If I eat what we serve the students, their portions, I will have eaten about 750 calories for lunch but my goal is to eat more fruits and veggies than anything.  I need to lay off the American cheese and fresh rolls.  Those rolls are good when they come out of the oven and I have justified eating them because they are 51% wheat.  Occasionally we make sweet treats and one of them was killer chocolate cupcakes with cranberry sauce in the mix.  Sounds weird but boy are they moist and I ate more than I care to admit.  The same with the cookies we bake.  In the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas I bake several hundred cookies and ate more than I should have but those things are in the past.  It is time to look ahead and move forward.

People have asked if I will be posting to this blog as often as before and will be including recipes and the answer is yes.  I have picked up a lot of information in the things I have been reading about health and fitness and I have several recipes that people have asked me to share.  And I have several recipes that don't fit on this blog and I have been asked if I will be adding to my regular recipe blog (ricksfavortiterecipes.blogspot.com).  One of the recipes I will be posting on that blog is for the crock pot peanut clusters I made over Christmas.  I made them  three different times and some of the people I gave them to have asked for the recipe.  And again I ate more of them than I should have.  But that's another fall off the wagon.  I got to the point I didn't even try to get back on the wagon.

I also have an appointment with my Pulmonologist, Dr. Hardman, in a couple of weeks and she is not going to be happy with me and I will hear about it.  I need to be back on track and in a losing mode and I will be.

I am also going back to the gym.  I have been making it about twice a month except for the month of Dec and I don't remember if I even made it once.  I told my good wife I would go everyday after work because it will be on the way home and it would be easy.  If I go then I will not have to try and work it in some other time.  All of this start tomorrow and it is getting late so I better get some sleep because there are no more excuses for not doing what I know I need to do.  I have two friends that are also going to lose weight following a couple of other ways, on is going to do Medi-Fast and the other is going to do nothing but drink juice for 90 days.  So we are going to see where we are all at in 90 days and if we are all still following our diets.  I should say change of life not diet because diet is a four letter word.  I will check in tomorrow night.

Rest Stop - Quinoa and Garbonzo Beans

I am adding a couple of more recipes to this site.  One is Cranberry Orange Quinoa.  It has about 200 calories per 1/2 cup serving.  I am beginning to use more Quinoa.  My wife, daughter and granddaughters really like the stuff.  This recipe comes from the web site: My Food Diary. 

     http://myfooddiary.com/blog/cranberry-orange-quinoa-recipe

Cranberry Orange Quinoa

Ingredients

2 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

1 orange, peeled and chopped

1 tsp orange zest

juice of one orange 

juice of one lemon

1 1/2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Place the cooked quinoa in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.

Put the cranberries in a small food processor and pulse until all the berries are chopped.  Add the cranberries to the quinoa.  Next add the chopped orange, and stir the fruit together with the quinoa.

In a small dish, whisk together the orange zest, orange juice, lemon juice, and honey.  Pour this dressing over the quinoa.  Add walnuts, if desired.

I have already posted a recipe for honey glazed chickpeas and someone asked if I had one for a savory one.  I found this on the Big Red Kitchen Blog:  http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2009/02/roasted-chickpeas/  I like the chickpeas either honey glazed or savory because they have a great nutty flavor.  I haven't brought myself to eating them as a bean yet, but that will come.

Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients

2 cans chickpeas(garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed, and dried a little

1 Tbsp olive oil

cinnamon

cumin

smoked paprika

smokey seasoned salt

chipotle powder

(no measurements, just to taste)

Directions

On a jelly roll pan lined with foil, place peas in a single layer and sprinkle with oil and spices.  Toss well and bake in 450 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes depending on doneness you like.  Place in an air tight container.

Rest Stop - Frighteningly Fattening Fall Foods Slideshow

The Web MD web site has a great slideshow on foods to avoid this fall.  The sad thing is that several of them are comfort foods to me, like the chicken pot pie and ribs.  I just got smoker, but to tell the truth I will continue to use it.  Just sparingly.  View the slideshow at:  http://bit.ly/1eCLDL1

Rest Stop - Santa Fe Style Quinoa Salad

This Quinoa Salad Recipe comes from the web site Once A Month Meals.   http://bit.ly/18tpBnC   I made this for dinner tonight and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Vick is trying to eat better also and is trying to hold her calorie count to 1000.  I am having a hard time convincing her that is not smart and she should eat at least 1200 calories a day.  Any way back to the recipe:

Santa Fe Style Quinoa Salad

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup picante sauce

1 cup quinoa, well rinsed

1/2 tsp ground cummin

1/4 tsp salt

ground black pepper, to taste

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/5 cup fresh or frozen corn, cooked, drained and cooled

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

2 medium scallions, thinly sliced

1 small jalapeno chili, seeded and finely chopped

In a medium saucepan, stir together water, picante sauce, quinoa, cumin, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Uncover pan and toss quinoa with a fork.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl and let cool slightly.  While still warm, add the remaining ingredients to the quinoa mixture tossing well to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve slightly warm or let cool to room temperature.  

Here is a little food for thought:  I read a short article about nixing temptation.  It is titled  "Control Your Urges with a Ride on the Mind Bus".  A very interesting read.  I will have try to try it and post about how it worked for me.  The link is:  http://bit.ly/1dKPTbE

Rest Stop - Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

The recipe for these cookies comes from the http://www.welltraveledwife.com  web site.  I know they are technically not healthy but by using coconut oil in them I felt they fit on this blog in an obscure way.  Any way they were very good and even my daughter couldn't leave them alone and she doesn't care for coconut.

coconut chocolate chip cookies

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 cup + 1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed

2 eggs(room temp)

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded coconut(optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray cookie sheet or line with a silpat.

In a mixing bowl, use a mixer to beat the coconut oil and brown sugar.  Add in the eggs and beat until fluffy.  Add in the vanilla extract.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder with whisk.  Mix the flour mixture into the coconut oil mixture a little bit at a time with a wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated.  Add in the chocolate chips + coconut and mix well.

Drop by small rounded spoons onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 8 - 9 minutes or until slightly browned around the edges.  They will be really soft and chewy, with a slightly crispy edge.  Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.

ENJOY

Here is an interesting article  http://nydn.us/15rGCMQ   about the Mars Candy Company asking a small fish shop to post a disclaimer that deep-frying the Mars bar is not in line with company's supposed commitment to "healthy active lifestyle" and that Mars Inc does not endorse the deep frying of their candy bars. As if Mars bars are part of a healthy life style.  Who are they kidding?

Now the answer to the trivia question I asked in my last post.  To find the answer good to the Rest Stop - LOL from Aug 18th.  I posted the answer on that post because if I put it here you would read the answer before you rear the question.

Rest Stop - Healthy Banana Cookies

I made these cookies yesterday.  And actually, they tasted pretty good.  I will be taking them and sharing them with the staff at Dr. Scott's office tomorrow and then I will see if they pass the test of a keeper.  So far his staff has been very happy with the treats I take them, but there is always a first time.

Healthy Banana Cookies

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup dates or raisins
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup oil (i used coconut oil)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 15 min.  Drop by spoonfull on greased cookie sheets.  Bale at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

As you can see it is a very easy recipe.  With the cookie scoop I used I got about 3 dozen cookies and each one is about 65 calories.

Rest Stop - Sugar..Soda.................

As you can see by my last couple of posts, I am on an anti sugar and soda kick.  This is mostly due to my own experiences and the amount of sugar and soda I used to consume.  I have been known to keep a bowl of candy next to my computer.  I still have a bowl of Dum Dum suckers there but they are for my grand kids. I also have a gumball machine by my computer.  It was made by the husband of a good friend of mine and my grandson loves getting gum from it and I know in the near future as my granddaughters get a little older they will think it a neat thing also.  So those things will not be going away any time soon.  One of things I have learned through this journey is just how addictive sugar is and how much I was consuming on a daily basis.  For some reason, I think Sunday was my worst day.  I keep candy in the pockets of suit coats for the kids at church and I usually helped myself to more than my share of it.  In the last five months I have had less than 44 ounces of soda and my candy consumption is down by probably 90%.  Not bad for a sugar addict.

Now for a couple of infographics:

He is a link to a good story on "What Happens When You Drink Soda": http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1010&sid=24552939

Rest Stop - Cathi, This One Is For You..........

It is also for the girls at Dr. Scott's office. We have been having an on going discussion about caffeine and its effects.

Here is a link to an article in Web MD dealing with the facts and myths of caffeine:  http://www.webmd.com/balance/caffeine-myths-and-facts  My concern for you guys comes from experience.  When I was in high school I was addicted to caffeine.  My daily consupmtion added up to usually a pot of coffee in the morning while I was doing floors at a local grocery store, up to a half a box of no-doz through out he day and up to a gallon of Coca-Cola everyday.  When I finally crashed it was not a pretty thing.  I did not start out taking in that much caffeine daily, it grew to that because I needed more to stay awake.  One more article about caffeine addiction:  http://www.caffeineawareness.org/caffeineawarness4page.pdf

One last infograph for you Soda addicts and you know who your are.

Rest Stop - Crazy Week Last Week - This Week is Not Much Better

I have not posted for a couple of weeks, for no other reason than I have not wanted to take the time.  I know that is no excuse because I do better with my journey when I am posting because then I become accountable.

As you can see from my Weight Tracker, last week was not a good one.  Vick's birthday was on the 9th and I just didn't watch it as close as I should have.  Dinner out on Thursday, pizza, cake and ice cream Friday, dinner at Texas Roadhouse Sat, and dinner with friends Sunday kinda(really) wiped out the good I had been doing.  Monday is my birthday and my grandson says it is not a birthday without cake and ice cream.  HELP, I am in trouble.  Also we are supposed be going to dinner with the kids tonight and I let my grandson chose were we are going and he told me it will be surprise because I am not supposed to know where we are going.  He did say something about the Pizzeria.  I better get back on my game.

Vick is worried about how I am doing and I told her there are going to be times like this and I just need to be on my game.  I feel good about how things are going and I know there are going to be bad times but as long as I do not let the bad times become the norm I will be okay.

Rest Stop - Pizza Pie Cafe

Time for a confession.  This journey started in April because Vick and I were concerned about my life and were it was going.  I call this a journey because as I said in an earlier post my Dr. had given my 6 to 8 years to live and the first three letters of Diet are "DIE" and I am not to fond of that prospect right now.  So hence the use of the therm "Journey".  I have gone off the grid a few times and that includes going to out to dinner three times.  The last time was last night.  And now for the confession.

My son-in-laws sister won dinner for ten adults at the Pizza Pie Cafe. She decided to redeem the dinner last night.  Vick and I got invited to go along and we went.  We should have had a game plan before going.  Vick is trying to lose a little weight although I don't think she needs to.

What is funny about this whole thing, is one the radio the night before last they were talking about the pizza buffet at the Pizza Pie Cafe and she asked how quick we could get to SLC and go to the buffet.  We decided that we would wait for awhile before we went but as it turned out we waited less than 24 hours.

I did have a large veggie salad before I had any pizza and I did not indulge in pasta, maybe I should have and left the pizza alone.  There were at least a dozen pizzas to chose from along with six dessert pizzas.  The pasta choices number about eight with several different sauces.  Hard to choose and be on this journey.

I don't think I did to bad but I know I could have done better.  Like I said before, I started with a large salad, which normally I probably wouldn't have in the past, but I did have Ranch Dressing instead of a vinaigrette.  Bad choice on my part.  I did limit myself to 4 slices of pizza, which was good for mew beacuse I can usually eat a whole pie without skipping a beat.  It appears they cut there pies into 16 slices which actually makes for a small slice.  I think three of them would not be to much large than one slice from Costco.  I know trying to justify what I ate.  Is it working?  I did have two slices of their dessert pizzas and after I did I wished I would have had a couple of more slices of the regular pies or maybe some pasta instead.  They were good but since I have not had much sugar on this journey, they seemed overly sweet.

I figure the pizza was in the neighborhood of about 170 calories per slice, which would be around 700 calories in pizza and with the dessert pizza weighing in at about 225 calories per slice for a total of 450 or so, bringing my pizza total to around 1200 calories ,plus salad and soda.  I forgot to mention the dinner include soda, but again I filled my 32 oz cup less than full and that was mostly ice.  But it still contained around 300 calories.  This made for a dinner of over two thousand calories.  Not good.

Vick and I have decided we will have a plan in place before we go out again.  It is hard to believe that this is only the third time we have been out to dinner when we used to go out two or three times a week.  I had to keep telling Vick we only screwed up one meal not the whole deal and we would start over being good this morning.  I told her that would be the pattern I will be following for the rest of my life.  I will occasionally go off eating clean but will always come back to it the next meal  because I have worked to hard to lose this 65 pounds and I want to lose about 100 more. Besides we have to much money invested in this journey.