Day 79: Brings A Tear To My Eye...

Update: 219.8 lbs, 38.4 lbs so far, Goal Reached Day 74. - 11.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Well, yesterday was a big day. I've had a lot of big days in my life -- days that hold a special place in my heart. I'll never forget the day I first met my wife, our first date, the day I asked her to marry me, or the way she looked walking down the isle to me. I won't forget holding any of our newborn babies, or the way their little heads smelled with all the newborn goodness while they were still tiny. And although yesterday will probably not rank as high in the recall-o-meter years down the road, it was a pretty darn good day.

For the past 80 days or better, I've not had one of my most favorite foods in the world, a Paddingtons Humdinger. I won't go on and on about it's crisp, crunchy crust, or the perfect blend of pepperoni, sausage, olives and canned mushrooms. I won't drag out all the details like how the only thing its lacking for true pizza perfection is a drizzle of taco sauce, but you can get that from the old guy at the bar. I won't even make you listen to the story about how the manager (now co-owner, I believe) told me it was my fault her employee wrote down the wrong pizza, and insisted I'd have to pay twice to get the pizza I actually ordered, so I lfeft the one I paid for on the counter and walked away. I won't make you sit through all that. I'll just say, the pizza is dang good.

Take a look at it, it's beautiful. I'm not even embarrassed to carry my camera into Paddingtons and take pictures of pizza. Is anyone embarrased to snap photos at the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, The Washington Monument, or the Largest Ball of Yarn in The World? No. Objects of beauty and attraction, so it's normal. So it is with the Humdinger. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw at least two other cameras, and one video camera recording their orders as well.

But I digress...yesterday was the first day in a long time to actually sit down and enjoy one of these little slices of heaven. I passed up the option to have it on my birthday to save it for my celebratory meal after hitting my 38 lb goal. K-biz, asked me earlier if I was going to 'wuss out' and get some plain cheese pizza, or maybe just a salad, but I see no real point in going to Paddingtons if you're not going to order the Holy Grail. In fact, I had already thought about just doing 'halfsies' (as she so accurately put it) before heading down, so as not to completely jump off the wagon. (I may not have wussed out at the pizza parlor, but saying halfsies right there may have dropped me down the manly man scale a few.)

And so, that's what I did. Ordered the Humdinger and a salad. Started with the salad and honey mustard dressing first, then had at the Humdinger. I actually was kind of nervous...I made the comment earlier that I felt like an alcoholic with a bottle of Jim Beam placed in front of me. Drinking only half would be tough, but at the halfway mark, I pushed the pan away. Now, I did go back once more and had this one little, not quite a full, sliver of a slice before we left, so it was halfsies, plus a half a slice when all was said and done. And as best as I can figure out, really not too terrible on the calorie count. Probably somewhere in the 800-1000 calories for half the pizza and a salad. (And if you look at the picture, you can see they made me a diet version, with a scrunched crust.) With a nice walk/job in the evening, and some nice light chicken basil sausage for dinner, was able to stay under the count for the day, and didn't even have to feel guilty about it. Much love to the Withers for being there on one of the special days of the year.

When I hit 50 lbs, maybe I'll eat the whole thing!

Hasta!