Food - It's a sick but tasty habit

Matt here ...

As John mentioned in his last post, we are incredibly excited to share with you all things food related. How it impacts our every move and why it's in our every thought. Well maybe not every thought, but every other thought. Food is the main ingredient in our "Bromance". Allow us to now take you into our culinary world where we will reveal all of our deep, dark secrets and bizarre habits we both share around one of life's greatest pleasures ... food.

The opening line to one of my favorite movies is "As far back as I could remember I always wanted to be a gangster". Don't know the movie? You're no friend of mine. Google it and get back to me.

Anyway, I can relate to that line since my life is kinda similar in that "As far back as I could remember I was always fat". Not big boned or husky or stocky, just plain fat. Plain and simple. No sugar coating allowed. I feel the need to keep it real or keep it to myself (I think I just made that line up).

Back in the summer of 2012 I lost 55 lbs. Big accomplishment. I was on top of the world. I did everything by the book and swore I would never go back to old habits.

WRONG.

1 year and 55 new "friends" later, all at about a pound each, and I was back to square one. Ugh, watta waste.

I "met" my 55 new friends due to some weird eating habits:
- Eating too many potato chips because the bag said "100% Whole Grain".
- Eating too many Edy's Ice Pops because they were "sugar free".
- Eating too much ice cream because it was "1/2 the fat".
- Eating too much dark chocolate covered Acai berries - dark chocolate and Acai is good for you, right?
- Eating one too many bowls of cereal because it had "Flax Seed"
- Drinking too much diet soda. Hey, it's diet right?
- Spending 30 minutes peeling a Pomegranate and following it up an hour later with a Ham and Cheese on Italian Bread (Hey it's OK, I had the Pomegranate earlier).

Now do you see the sick mentality I have?

On a positive note, today is day 13 on Weight Watchers for me and I am down 5 lbs so far. I'm back to logging points and weekly weigh-ins. It's tough, but so is pushing past XXL.

The one thing I would say will never end, is the obsession I have with needing food for the long ride home from work. I pack it religiously every day as it is my security blanket. For example, today was an apple and Chobani Yogurt with of course ... wait for it ... wait for it ... POMEGRANATES!

I'll continue to monitor my successes and failures here and even share some of my absolutely amazing tips. 

Let's do this.



Matt

A road trip of terror leads to new blog direction

John here ...

We have tried to update this blog on a semi-regular basis and if you look back over the last year or so, you will see that we have failed miserably.

Well, here we are yet again, ready to announce a new direction.

Actually, let me rephrase that. Our original "new direction" lasted all of one day before we realized what our true direction should be.

Allow me to explain.

For years now, I've been fascinated by "the most terrifying road in the U.S", Clinton Road in West Milford, New Jersey. If you read the Wikipedia page dedicated to this horror-filled road here, you'll see it has quite the interesting history. I have vowed to visit this road at night to witness the paranormal activity in person, but never found the time to do it, until one day at work when I decided Matt was going to be my passenger. I knew Matt was scared of his own shadow (I can't even say the word "exorcist" in his presence) and thought it would be hilarious entertaining to bring him along. I convinced him it would be a great bonding experience to attempt the ten mile trek back and forth and see if we could stay alive doing so. He reluctantly was coerced agreed and we formally set a date.

That date was last Monday night.

I secretly hoped for some sort of "incident"; a zombie attack or a hybrid freaky animal attack or even the car breaking down unexpectedly. I get a rush from that stuff, especially after consuming The Walking Dead and American Horror Story over the past few years. 

Matt, on the other hand, prayed for nothingness.

After work last Monday night, Matt followed me in his car as we headed towards Clinton Road and our impending doom. The plan was to find somewhere to eat dinner along the way and then leave my car in the parking lot there so we could drive and experience the fear together. We eventually settled on an Italian restaurant in a strip mall (not too many of those in NJ ... right) where we had a lousy dinner (more on that later).

After eating, I grabbed my camera, a zombie survival kit and a copy of my last will and testament and hopped in Matt's car. Off we went ready to document our experience.

I won't divulge what happened on our drive, but will tell you it was relatively free of terror yet pretty damn intense. The highlight was one lonely creature that sent Matt into a tailspin ... but let me stop there. I'll let the video below (more audio than video) tell the story.

As you can now tell, Matt was excitable and damn entertaining. We had a ton of fun and enjoyed the experience immensely.

So now back to the "new direction" of this blog.

Together, we had discussed taking more trips like the aforementioned Clinton Road adventure and filming them all. It seemed like an interesting and potentially funny new angle ...

Until we realized that all we wanted to talk about after that drive of horror was our unsatisfying dinner.

We were consumed with the fact that the sandwiches we ordered in this nice establishment did not come with any chips or even a pickle on the side. Not even a single parsley garnish.

I was appalled that my Chicken Milanese sandwich had crappy iceberg lettuce and only a drop of balsamic vinegar.

Matt was critical of the weak attempt at fresh mozz on his sandwich.

As we rehashed our crappy dinner, we came to the realization that an easily forgotten dinner can trump the most terrifying road in the U.S. FOOD is our everything. Hell this blog started because we were so consumed with our daily lunches.

So as we now move forward with this blog, it will focus on food and the role that it plays in both of our daily lives. We'll investigate Matt's obsession with Chobani and pomegranates. I'll teach you the appropriate way to eat an apple while driving. We'll take a tour of local eateries and show you how to shop at Wegmans in 15 minutes or less. Matt will share his tips on following the Weight Watchers diet (already down 5 lbs in week one, big props to him!) and oh so much more.

Stick with us this time, we promise to deliver.


TGAL