Carry Me Back To Old Virginee!

Zach: Liz and I managed to go back to Ol'Virginee this past Cheat Day (4/5)…which of course turned into a giant Cheat Weekend as we were in VA from Thursday night to Monday night. First of all…fucking WAWA subs! If you aren't from the east coast and don't know what a WaWa is well than friggin' figure it out because they are off the hook. Do you know what a Sheetz is? Well it is like that but with more quality and less nonsense, no offense Sheetz. I got a Chicken Salad sub, toasted, with bacon, extra pepperjack cheese, lettuce, pickles, jalapenos, oregano, and grated parmesan! It was a real heart stopper. Now I KNOW most of you are probably all like, "why waste your order on a Chicken Salad sandwich?!" WELL GO TO HELL! Their chicken salad is the best chicken salad EVER! I would also recommend getting the chicken tender sandwich and do it up any style you want…buffalo, parmesan,…well that's pretty much it. I later went back to a WaWa and just got a cheddar cheese stuffed pretzel, also great, but Chicago does pretzels and they do them well. Moving ON…

The next morning Liz, My Family, and I went to Taco Bell for BREAKFAST! That is right we all went to day two of Taco Bell Breakfast. We get there at like 10:45 which is NUTS I know because most fast food joints will cut breakfast off at like 10 or 10:30. Not the Bell. They keep it running all the way until 11. Not only that but between the hours of 9am and 11am you've got your pick of the menu. That's right order a fucking waffle taco and a chili cheese burrito for the same meal if that is your fancy. OR order an AM Crunchwrap (delicious by the way) and a regular Crunchwrap. Do WHATEVER YOU WANT!!!!

AM Crunchwrap with what looks like bacon (businessinsider.com)

I had a breakfast burrito, a breakfast grilled taco, and an AM Crunchwrap with bacon.  The AM Crunchwrap wins. Get it. Try the waffle taco, its fine but the AM Crunchwrap is filled with egg, choice of sausage, steak, or bacon, and a hash-brown. They also top those suckers with the sauce that until now only came on the quesadillas. You Bell fans will know how awesome that is. We also got an order of Cinnabon-bites and those were awesome as well for you dessert lovers. Honestly, Taco Bell breakfast was not bad at all. As far as fast food breakfast goes I would say it is up there in the top two, either tied or just behind Hardee's (Carl's Jr. for you Westerners).

Bonfire

Later that day my mama made me one of my favorite concoctions she'd always make back in the day which she found on the back of a box, her world famous Taco Pie. And before you ask NO we didn't eat ONLY "Mexican" food this random Cheat Weekend that we went on! Yeesh. Anyway, to make a taco pie you get a couple of burrito sized tortillas and slap your first down on a pan. You top that tortilla with refried beans, taco meat, and things like jalapenos, salsa or whatever else extra you want in there to spice it up. You repeat this step a time or two and then on the third or fourth tortilla you put that freakin' queso dip cheese sauce and shredded cheese and you pop that bad boy in the oven for like 15 minutes. Boom, heart attack number 2!

That night there were brownies and a bonfire. All my great friends and cousins came to hang with us. It was exactly what Liz and I had been looking for. We drank a shit ton of beer and got real hammered, outdoors! Liz fell out of her chair in the middle of my yard, but she did it in the midst of insulting me so everyone around the camp fire stopped, pointed, and laughed uproariously at her.

The next morning came my mom's famous breakfast casserole. This is a delectable concoction of eggs, sausage, cheese, and some kind of breading to hold this together. Take all of that, stick it in a casserole dish and pop it in the oven. It really is outstanding.

Later that day Liz, the family, and I took off for Liz's Aunt and Uncle's Farm House near Goochland, VA. It was a beautiful house modeled after an old style farmhouse. It was as though I was eating dinner at a re-enactment. There was wine and cheese and crackers and bread. For dinner we had Mr. Chidester's homemade ravioli! It was superb and the meat sauce to cover it pared perfectly.

View From Liz's Folk's Back Porch!

My folks and I stayed with the Chidester's that evening and for Breakfast Mr. Chidester made delicious thick cut maple bacon and the scrambled eggs he made were seasoned to perfection. We also had oatmeal raisin toast. That is RIGHT MoFo's, still runnin' on Cheat Day.

After some hangin'-out, some song playin', and some walkin' my parents and I left to get back to Stafford so I could spend time with my Brother and my main man Mike Dunn. We stopped at Sheetz and I did have a spicy chicken sandwich and jalapeno poppers...sweet sweet cheat day. When I got home I wasn't too hungry so I didn't really eat anything else. This diet will do that to you.

In the final morning, Monday, we went for round two of Taco Bell breakfast and it still held up. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we got to run around outside for a while and toss the frisbee around. A day like Monday really hammered home how shitty Chicago weather is. Before Liz and I went to the airport my ma ordered us a pizza and we made jalapeno poppers and fried dill pickle chips.

Then we got to the plane where we each got two Fat Tires, for $5 each! Fly Southwest Airlines, I'm telling you. You will not regret it. We started out mini-vacation with beer AND ended it with beer. SUPER CHEAT DAY WEEKEND!

Now, I have seemed to have lost focus as to why I do this blog. It very quickly became just a retelling of all the shitty food I eat. Well I eat all this shitty food for a reason, to lose weight. But, the point is I try to limit my shitty food in-take to one day a week, CHEAT DAY. So, if anyone out there still reads this they probably want to know. What is my status and why am I still Cheat Daying.

Well after the 2013 holidays, I found it very hard to diet as everyday from everybody I'd be offered something I wasn't allowing myself to eat. Eventually I cracked and started accepting offerings so I would have to stop answering the question, "why not? what's wrong with you?"

So at the start of 2014 I ended up weighing as much as 228lbs, after weighing only 210lbs. Remember my original weight was 239lbs. Well, I weighed myself last Saturday and I was back down to 219.4lbs. My goal always has been to get to 200lbs. This year has been very discouraging. I have lost my way with this diet I believe. Perhaps I cheat too hard. But to have only lost 9 or so pounds in 3 months is not great.

I have picked up an exercise regiment and I do believe that the habit that this diet has instilled in me of eating healthier and watching portions has me in a good place. Also, this diet has been particularly frustrating for Liz. Cheat Day is great. But if it isn't working for you...change your ways. Yet another beautiful way Cheat Day is a metaphor for LIFE!

I am going to Italy next week. I will tell you how awesomely cheat-tacular the food is there. After that Liz and I are going to be reevaluating our need for Cheat Day. See you cheaters later!