Birthday Treats in My InBox

Birthdays are always fun, especially if you have signed up to get newsletters and special deals from various restaurants you frequent.

I have a birthday coming up next week, and already the special deals are starting to arrive by e-mail.

So far I really like the one from Perkins that offers me a fabulous breakfast of two eggs, any way I like them, a stack of  three pancakes, and my choice of two strips of bacon or two sausage. The best part is that it says to come in anytime, and it doesn't seem to require an additional  purchase of any kind.  I'll be going for this deal for sure.

East Side Mario's sent along a coupon worth $10 off if the bill comes to $30.  Since we usually choose from the $12 pasta dishes, with the all you can eat bread and salad, I'm pretty sure, even with a beverage, that we would be a few cents short to take advantage of that offer. But it might be a good opportunity to try something different without the bill actually adding up to more.


Buds on the Bay, a restaurant in Brockville that is not part of a chain, offers me a free entree, up to $19.99 in value, and will even supply the cake.  I am, however, required to make a reservation and bring three friends with me in order to take advantage of that.

Montana's, on the other hand, offers me a free dessert, as long as I get it within the week before or after my birthday.  It doesn't actually say I need to buy anything else, but I do like their food, and have not been there recently.

Boston Pizza used to treat me to a gourmet pasta each year, but now they just offer free dessert. That's rather disappointing as I never missed a chance to pig out and save $16 in the process.

Swiss Chalet also offers me a free dessert.  I could gain weight just collecting on all the sweets, but I'll likely just choose one or two of the offers over the next couple of weeks.

Kelsey's gets a little more specific and offers me a Brownie Pop.  I think I'll pass.

No birthday would be complete without ice cream, so Dairy Queen has sent a buy one get one free offer for a Blizzard as long as the one you buy is a medium.  My favorites are Chocolate Cherry Love and Salted Carmel Truffle, or perhaps I'll try the new Royal Rocky Road Brownie Blizzard.  I do intend to collect on this freebie.  Dairy Queen actually sends me a few such BoGo deals throughout the year, just for agreeing to receive their e-mails.

That's just today's offers, so there may be more to come.  If you know of any other good birthday deals that I might be missing out on, I'd love to hear about them.

One year I had a very special birthday offer from Lone Star, and really enjoyed it.  I have not seen anything since, however. I just looked at the site, and found that if you sign up to be a "Lone Star VIP" now they will give you $10 in Texas Bucks for your next visit.  This year they seem more interested in celebrating their own 30th birthday, or anniversary, than helping me celebrate mine.  There are deals to be had, but you have to go during the week, and I like to eat out on weekends.

So, if you have never signed up for any of the available deals that can come your way, not just on your birthday, but sometimes throughout the year, I'm wondering what's stopping you.  Some people tell me they don't like all that "junk mail".  My answer to that is to create a junk mail account someplace like Yahoo, Hotmail, G-mail or Mail.com.  Then you can enter contests, ask for newsletters, and sign up for your birthday deals, and other specials, or coupons, without ever having any of that stuff land in your personal e-mail box.  You can just go look for the bargains when you feel like it.

I'll not only be older next time I talk to you, I'll likely weigh more, but hey, birthdays only come around once a year, and at my age, they are definitely meant to be celebrated.

Moving On While Holding Steady

I am more than two weeks into my 17 Day Diet. In fact, I have started the second cycle a couple of days early. I lost a total of six pounds on cycle one, which is what they call the first 17 days. I lost seven pounds the first week, but gained back three when I ate at Wendy’s, even though I did just have one of their small salad bowls. I lost just two of those pounds last week, but I lost several more cm from around my hips and waist, which is more important to me than any number I see on the scale. I actually fit into something now that I couldn’t button up two weeks ago, so I know I’m making progress.

The two other meals I’ve had at restaurants in the past couple of weeks have not affected me at all. That’s truly amazing when you consider what I ate on Saturday. For lunch we went to East Side Mario’s and I ate a large quarter chicken (white meat) and a salad that was dressed in far more oil than vinegar (even after I got the vinegar bottle from the waitress and tried to drown it). For supper I had steak and peas and a caesar salad. I really did expect to see the scale jump the next morning as this was the first red meat and non cleansing vegetable I’ve had in the past two weeks. And usually there is something magical about restaurant food that instantly puts three pounds on me overnight, no matter where we go, or what I choose from the menu. Yet it simply didn’t happen. My weight held at the same level as the day before.

So now, under the second cycle, I can eat other sea foods and various cuts of beef and pork as well as oatmeal, rice, potatoes, corn, beans and a lot of other things that were not included in the first cycle. At least, I can do that every second day. The idea is to keep my metabolism from getting used to what I’ve been putting into my body lately. I’m now trying to shake it up a little. It will be interesting to see what happens now. I’m still entitled to liberal portions, and I have never felt hungry during this experiment. I am happy that I can switch things up a bit now though.

Stay tuned.