(Galloway & Hwy. 80)
2002 S. Galloway #J
Mesquite, TX. 75149
(972) 288-7992
www.pizzapatron.com
Hours: Monday thru Thursday and Sunday from 11:00am till 10:00pm

Friday and Saturday from 11:00am till 12:00pm

My wife and I were trying to think about where to go for dinner the other day. Two of our boys had been given a coupon for a free pizza at Pizza Patron after they completed a week of Vacation Bible School. My wife was in the mood for a burger, though, and she wasn’t very sure that Pizza Patron very good. We thought we would just go get the boys pizzas and then go somewhere else and get something for ourselves.

When we took the Galloway exit we ended up turning the wrong direction because I had misread the address of Pizza Patron as 2200 instead of 2002 S. Galloway. But after a minor correction we found it quite easily. The boys’ coupons said that you could only redeem one of the coupons per visit so we were not sure if they would allow us to get both pizzas at once. It turned out that the guy at the cash register was really cool about the whole thing. He didn’t even hesitate about accepting both coupons at once. I later found out that he is also the main manager of this particular Pizza Patron. I also thought it was really cool that the coupons were for a free medium size pizza. Most places will only give you a coupon for a personal pizza. So we ordered two medium pizzas and waited for them to be made. While I was ordering, my wife noticed that you could order a medium pizza with two or three toppings for five dollars. Anyway, my wife decided she really wasn’t that hungry for a burger and ordered a medium pizza with mushroom, pepperoni, and extra cheese. I wanted her to get some chorizo instead of pepperoni but she was in a hurry to place the order. Chorizo is a kind of Mexican sausage. My boys and I had seen a cooking show which featured chorizo as the main ingredient and we had been wanting to try it ever since. I thought it was cool that you could order it at Pizza Patron. You definitely won’t be able to find it at Pizza Hut or Dominoes.

The Mesquite Pizza Patron is carry-out and delivery only. There are no tables available for dining. So we sat down on a bench to wait for our pizzas. The pizza wasn’t the only thing baking at Pizza Patron that day. We felt like we were also cooking inside one of the ovens. It was so hot! It probably only took about fifteen minutes for all of our pizzas to be made but it felt a lot longer because of the heat. Finally, though, we got them and were ready to leave when my wife noticed some coupons on top of our pizzas. One was for a free Churro which is Pizza Patron’s dessert option. A Churro is shaped like a bread stick. It is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Pizza Patron fills theirs with caramel and the outside is covered in a mix of cinnamon and sugar. My wife asked if we could use the coupon right now. They said sure, and handed us a Churro. I was pretty impressed with their customer service.

Well, we finally got back home and sat down to eat our pizza. My wife and I were pleasantly surprised. The pizza was actually very good. The extra cheese my wife ordered on the third pizza was especially good. The simple medium pepperoni pizzas that my boys got with their coupons were also good. One of my boys said it was the best pizza he ever had. Another one of our boys kept saying, “It’s so good, so good!” The crust was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. I think it was the hand-tossed style. The pizza itself was quite tasty. I also thought the prices at Pizza Patron were pretty good, particularly their specials.
I usually cannot stand the desserts at pizza places. Especially at places like CiCi’s. They look and taste cheap. But the Churro from Pizza Patron was very good. We split it up between the five of us so that we could all have a taste. Everyone loved it except my middle child who does not have much of a sweet tooth anyway. We still have another coupon for a free Churro and I intend on cashing it in pretty soon.

At Pizza Patron you can either order a pizza just the way you want it or you can get one of their specialty pizzas (Pizzas Especiales). You can get an Amigo (twelve inch pizza) or an x-large pizza (fifteen inches). Choices of toppings for your pizza include: pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, ham, chorizo, mushrooms, black olives, onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, and pineapple. Your pizza already comes with sauce and cheese, of course, but you can also order extra sauce and extra cheese as a topping. My wife and I are big cheese lovers so we like to get extra cheese on our pizza. At some pizza restaurants, though, you can’t tell the difference when you order extra cheese. But I could tell the difference at Pizza Patron. I thought they did a good job.

If you like specialty pizzas, Pizza Patron has five different kinds for you to choose from. Their Pizzas Especiales include: La Patrona (pepperoni, ground beef, ham, sausage, black olives, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers), La Mexicana (chorizo, ground beef, onions, bell peppers, and jalapenos), La Hawaiana (extra ham, extra pineapple, and extra cheese), La Vegetariana (mushrooms, bell peppers, black olives, and onions), and La de Carnes (pepperoni, ground beef, ham, and sausage). La Patrona sounds good to me. It is pretty loaded with ingredients. La Hawaiana also sounds tasty. I love the fact that every topping on the pizza is listed as extra.

Pizza Patron also has a few of the traditional pizza sides if you are into that. They have three kinds of wing flavors available: Lime-n-Pepper, Garlic-con-Queso, and Buffalo. I was seriously interested in ordering a batch of Lime-n-Pepper wings because they looked really good in the picture. Also, I tried some lemon pepper wings at a Super Bowl party one time and they were delicious. In the end, though, I passed on the wings. Besides the wings, there are two kinds of bread sticks available – breadstix (original) and quesostix.

Then, for dessert you can get yourself a Churro. I highly recommend them.

There are some deals going on right now at Pizza. You can get a one-topping medium pizza for four dollars, a two or three topping medium pizza (like the one my wife ordered) for five dollars, or a four plus topping medium pizza for six dollars. And for two dollars more you can turn any of those medium size pizzas into an x-large size pizza. You can also get five breadstix with marinara dipping sauce for two dollars, five quesostix with marinara sauce for three dollars, and eight Fiesta wings (garlic-con-queso, lime-n-pepper, buffalo) for five dollars or fifteen wings for nine dollars. Through the end of September you can get a free twelve inch Amigo pizza with pepperoni when you buy any x-large specialty pizza the regular price. For fifteen dollars you can get the Three Amigos deal, which includes three one-topping medium pizzas with a five piece order of breadstix, and a two-liter Pepsi drink. And finally you can get one topping, x-large size pizzas for five dollars when you buy three or more.

We had never eaten at Pizza Patron prior to this and didn’t know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprise though. It was very good pizza. The Churro was also great. And I really appreciated the customer service at this particular Pizza Patron. I think most of the prices and deals are pretty good too. I will definitely take my family back to this Pizza Patron again. Especially since my boys liked it so much. I recommend it to you if you live in the area and want a reliable pizza place with tasty food.

I kept them on their toes by switching around from a medium coffee to a small Café Americano. Every once in a while I would order one of their specialty drinks like a Café Mocha Trio or a frozen coffee drink. Borders serves Seattle’s Best Coffee. If you like Starbucks you should enjoy this. If you don’t, well then shame on you, you coffee snob. I love the Café Americano because it is not as expensive as a lot of other drinks on the menu and because I’m just a fool for espresso.

I like the Café Mocha Trio because besides all the chocolate syrup and whip cream, they give you a stick of chocolate which you can either devour immediately or melt and stir into your drink to make it even richer.

One of the downsides of doing my schoolwork at Borders is that they only have one or two outlets to plug a computer into. So many times I arrived and all the electrical outlets had already been claimed and I had to use up my computer’s battery power. Borders offers free WiFi to their customers, so you’d think they might also provide outlets.

But maybe their WiFi service is just some clever twisted conspiracy hatched by an evil corporation to lure unsuspecting customers in. Once they’re in, they discover to their horror that they have nowhere to plug in their computer. Yeah, it all makes sense now.

I recently took my kids to Borders on Father’s Day. We had a really fun time roaming around the kids’ book section. My boys would ooh and ah over various items and make sure that I came over to take a look. Borders has a really good selection of children’s books.

Borders also has lots of interesting toys and knick-knacks. One of the things I thought was really neat was their hand puppets. They had some really cool and cute ones like a bat, a hedgehog, a turtle etc. My kids had lots of fun playing with them.

When I shop at Borders, it’s usually in the bargain books section. They have a lot of great deals. You just have to keep your eyes open for what you like and eventually they’ll probably have it at a really great price. I’ve gotten my kids some really great books there. And I’ve found great art books for very reasonable prices. On a couple of occasions I got some audio books for a fraction of their usual ludicrous price. For instance on Father’s Day I found an audio book for $5.99 which originally retailed for $44.95.

If you get a Borders card, they email you coupons once or twice a week. These usually range from twenty five percent to forty percent and, every once and awhile, even more. And you can use these coupons on the bargain books (just not items in the store which are on sale), so you could find a great book that’s already been bargain-priced and then get an additional thirty or forty percent off. One time I found a Stephen King audio book (I needed a break from Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy) for $9.99.

That was already a good deal. But then I got to use a forty percent off coupon on it. Not bad. Most of the time I prefer to do my book and media shopping at Half Price Books, but sometimes Borders just has some really good deals. On a couple of occasions I’ve seen the same item cost significantly more at Half-Price Books than it did at Borders. Another great deal I’ve discovered (for you bargain hunters out there) is Borders’ calendars and day planners.

Everybody buys them as Christmas gifts. But if you just wait till about the end of January the prices plummet. Calendars usually sell for $1.00 at that point. That includes those fat little desk calendars where you peel tear off a sheet every day to see the new picture or cartoon etc. And they always seem to have a really good selection even at the end when calendars are going for just a buck. I was also able to get a great day planner (without which I could not make it through graduate school) for $3.99. It was originally priced $25.99.

If you’ve got money to burn then you don’t need my advice. If you’re a little short on cash and you love books etc., it’s nice to know that everything at a chain bookstore isn’t always hopelessly overpriced (even when it’s on sale). Good luck and happy shopping!

We had no trouble using our coupon, and our food was ready pretty quickly. For some reason, though, they thought one of us ordered French fries. But they soon replaced the fries with onion rings. The big fat onion rings smelled and looked delicious. Some of them also tasted delicious, but most of them were too tough or not sweet enough. My friend ate only a couple of hers.

And the burgers were burgers. Not very big, not very juicy; just burgers. I had ordered cheese with mine and was surprised to see a generous mound of thickly shredded cheddar cheese on top. I appreciated the fact that the cheese was real, but not even half of it had melted. That, along with the other condiments, had cooled my burger down to an unappetizing temperature.

The fries (they let us keep them)were thick cut and they were good. My friend’s son certainly enjoyed his. But he barely touched his chicken tenders, which looked rather dry, as if they had sat in the fryer too long. “Tender” was not an accurate description. Although for some reason I don’t think “Chicken Toughs” would sell as well.

If you’re looking for “just a notch above MacDonald’s,” then Goff’s is the place for you. Otherwise, I’d try my luck elsewhere (like Bell’s Better Burgers on the other side of town).

That is a difference of 112 lbs. Later I gained about forty-five of those pounds back. Then I woke up again and brought my weight back into the 190’s. But after finishing grad school I suffered a lot of major personal set backs. All the stress and emotional turmoil got to me and a little over a year later I had ballooned back up to 280 lbs. Currently I weigh 260 lbs and am rapidly burning up the blubber. I believe I will get back to former low weight over the next several months. But as I’ve said, the real challenge will be keeping it off. Some people will look at my story as a failure, or just another example of Yo-Yo dieting. I don’t see it that way. As I’ve said, weight loss is a journey. I have the confidence and the know how to lose the weight and I am working on identifying and overcoming the triggers and pitfalls in my life that cause me to fall off the wagon. I want to share with you how I lost over 100lbs, how I will again, and how you can too (even in Dallas). There are no miracle pills, surgeries, fad diets or one simple rule to follow. These are just practical, realistic things for real people. They worked for me and may work for you as well.

First you need to understand that everybody is different. What works for some people will not work as well for others. But here are some weight loss nuggets I’ve picked up. Read through them, take what you think will prove helpful to you, and ignore the rest. Second, it is important when your are trying to lose weight that you don’t view it as a diet. Diets are short term fixes. You need to find a plan that you can commit to for the rest of your life. So as the weight loss gurus are fond of saying -it’s not a diet; it’s a lifestyle change. And it’s true. If you start eating and exercising in a way that makes you miserable, there is no way that you will be able to keep it up indefinitely. You will fail eventually. I say it’s better to be miserable with a big piece of cheesecake than miserable munching celery sticks and fat-free cottage cheese. So think about the weight loss tips I’m suggesting and let it inspire you to come up with your own workable, misery-free plan.

Read more Part 2

I found the teaching of Zig Ziglar to be very helpful to me in understanding how to reach my goal. Not only is Zig a successful business man but he also won his own personal battle of the bulge years ago. He lost a little over forty pounds and has kept it off. The first thing you need to do is take a look at the damage. How is your body holding up, what is your current energy level, how is your health, and of course how much do you weigh? A good way to do this is by getting a physical from your doctor.

After I found out how much I weighed (a terrifying 300 lbs) I thought about how much I would like to lose. Something that helped me with this was doing a little online research. You can go to several online sights and see about how much you should weigh for your height. Usually there’s a range based on your small, medium or large framed. As you know, all fat people are big-boned. Just kidding. Once you have found out how much you weigh now and how much you want to weigh at your ideal weight you need to try and set a date for when you reach your goal weight. Think about how much weight you might realistically expect to lose each week.

Then use that as a guide to figure out how long it will take you at that rate to lose the weight. When you’re finished, circle that date on the calendar and think about how good you will look and feel on that day. Because I had so much excess weight, I figured a reasonable goal for me would be to try to lose two to two and ½ lbs a week. As it turned out I ended up burning through an average of five pounds a week. But the important thing was that I set small, realistic goals for myself. I didn’t think about how I needed to lose over one hundred pounds. I just thought about losing my two pounds that week and was very pleased whenever I exceeded that goal.

Read more – Part 3

The next thing to do is to think about what kinds of food you are eating and how much of those foods you are eating. Like the vast majority of people, I was overeating and I was feasting on the wrong kinds of food – junk food, fast food, fried food, sodas, candy etc. I had to identify which of the things I was eating were going to keep me from my goal. Then I had to purge my house of chips, candy, ice cream, soda etc and replace them with things which I knew were good for me. There will be a period of adjustment for most people when they give up their favorite naughty treats.

But it’s not as long or as painful as you might think if you do it right. Look at this as a fun time to explore and experiment. You may find all sorts of new healthy foods that you actually enjoy. You might even discover (once you wean yourself from the junk food) that vegetables and fruits are not your enemies. I did. My wife was very supportive of me and my wife discovered lots of healthy low-fat recipes which I love. Simple things can make a difference. Replace white bread with whole wheat bread.

Find low-sugar, low-fat substitutes of foods and condiments that you enjoy. Eat less meat. Eat more chicken and turkey and less beef and pork. Eat more brown rice and vegetables. Find tasty fruits and snacks. I used to skip breakfast, but to start the day off right I would usually eat a bowl of oatmeal topped with unsweetened berries, or have one of those healthy Quaker instant kinds (not the ones loaded with sugar). Throughout the day, drink lots of water. This was hard for me at first. Then I discovered the product True Lime. It’s real powdered lime in a packet. You just add it to your water and it gives it a lot of extra zip.

Read more about Dallas weight loss – Part 4

That extra flavor and kick really helped me drink a lot more water. There are also other flavors available like True Lemon. And Crystal Light has several zero or very low calorie powders that you can add to water for a very tasty beverage. They have a whole bunch of great flavors. There are some great stores in Dallas such as Central Market and Whole Foods which really cater to people trying to live a healthier lifestyle. Newflower Market is another fun one. You’ll have fun looking through the huge selections of health food products at these stores.

It is important that you stop overeating. Easier said than done, right? It took me a while to retrain my mind and body to eating less. Doctors say that it takes about twenty minutes for you mind to receive signals from your body that your stomach has had enough to eat. So eat slow. Try not to rush through you meals. Chew your bites longer. Talk to people around you. Start with smaller portions and add on as needed. Something that helped me was to use a small plate. It fills up quicker.

For some reason when I use a larger plate I always feel obligated to put more food on it. While it’s very important to reduce the amount of calories you’re taking in, it is equally important that you do not starve yourself. Perpetual hunger is the quickest way to get you back to your old unhealthy ways of eating. When I took the time to slow down and listen to my body I began to get a better idea of when my stomach was satisfied, when I was eating too little, and when I was crossing the line and eating too much. The less I ate the more my stretched out stomach shrunk and got used to less food at my meal times.

But as I ate less I also discovered that I got hungry during the long stretches in between meals. To combat this I carried around healthy snacks with me and just ate them whenever I got hungry. My snacks really helped me feel satisfied and stay on track and they were things I enjoyed eating and looked forward to. I would snack on things like a piece of fruit, a container of yogurt, a little baggie of Cheerios (or Honey Nut Cheerios), a ¼ cup or ½ cup of pistachio nuts, a granola bar etc. My snacks made it a lot easier for me to not binge or overeat at meals. I also made a rule for myself that I would not eat anything after 7:00pm unless it was a special occasion.

Sometimes I felt hungry and it was hard and sometimes I felt fine. But I knew that that time of night was peak binge time for me. I would sit around watching TV and mindlessly devouring junk. This rule really helped me keep on track and develop better habits.

Read more about Dallas TX weight loss – Part 5

After thinking about how you will change your eating, you need to think about putting together an exercise routine. First of all think about what kind of sports or exercise (if any) which you enjoy or are able to do. I really like playing basketball but I found it was not an activity which I could commit myself to doing everyday. Because I was so big I decided I would just start out walking. It’s simple, you can do it anywhere, and it’s good for you. This brings me to another important point. Start small.

Don’t try to run a marathon on your first day. I remember watching a race between a class of third graders once. They just had to run around a soccer field two or three times and the first one to cross the finish line would win. Well a couple of the kids just took off sprinting. They were in first place for awhile but after the first lap those kids were dead. They actually came in last place. In the same way, I’ve seen people get all gung-ho about exercising and losing weight drop off after the first week (sometimes after the first day or two) because they were totally out of shape and they tried to push themselves too hard.

The result is torture and no one wants to torture themselves on a daily basis. So find something that’s not torture for you. Start slow and build yourself up. When I first started exercising I was walking ten or twelve laps around a soccer field. By the time I reached my lowest weight I was jogging forty laps around that field. But I built up to it over time. Sometimes I would add a new lap each week. Sometimes I would jog one or two laps and walk the rest. Eventually I got to where I could do a lot more laps and jog more than walk. I was exercising five or six days a week for over an hour each time. Make a commitment to your exercise.

Once a week isn’t going to cut it. Try to get out there at least three or four times a week. Some other little helpful tips are to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park farther away from stores etc. and walk the extra distance. Every little thing that moves you further away from a sedentary lifestyle and closer to an active lifestyle is a real step in the right direction.

Read more about Dallas weight loss strategies – Part 6

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There are a lot of great places where you can exercise in Dallas. I prefer to work out in the fresh air and to be able to see some nature. There are many great parks in Dallas for walking or jogging. Try to find one for you that has a good trail. White Rock Lake is a paradise for people who like to ride their bike. It has a ten mile loop around the lake. I like to go for a walk at Valley Creek Park in Mesquite. It has a small, beautiful man-made lake with a 1.14 mile concrete trail around it. You can also try one of the many fitness clubs in Dallas such as 24 Hour Fitness, L.A. Fitness etc. These places have lots of great amenities such as pools, stationary bikes, racket-ball, weight sets etc. Many time you can get coupons for these places which give you a free trial period to see if you like it and want to get a membership.

I would suggest that you work-out in the early morning or in the evening as these are the times when the oxygen is the freshest and the level of car emissions in the air is the lowest. Also it’s not near as hot during these times of the day. Too much heat sucks the life out of me and makes me lethargic. Nobody wants to work out when they feel like that.

Another good tip for weight loss and exercise is to identify the people in your life who can help you reach your goal. My family was very supportive of me and helped and encouraged me in making the right decisions. They made things a lot easier for me. Some people really benefit from a kind of support group full of people who really understand where they’re coming from and can share there journey. You might want to check out some of these places in Dallas like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig’s etc. if you feel they would be helpful. I like to exercise alone. It gives me time to think and also to listen to my body and pay attention to how hard I can push myself that day. But a lot of people like to have a work-out partner. Sometimes that other person is just what you need to motivate you to keep working out. If you’ve got the money you might even want to check into a personal trainer at one of Dallas’s fitness centers.

Here is another option for you to consider in your weight loss plan. I used to not eat any food and just drink water once a week (usually Wednesdays). Of course eating less helped burn fat, but it’s also good for getting rid of toxins. Fasting is definitely not for everyone though, especially that often. I think this time around I will probably fast a couple of dinners a week rather than one whole day. Some say it is terrible to “skip meals,” but I find that it works well for me, especially if the skipped meal is the evening meal.

When I don’t eat well and exercise, I feel awful. At my heaviest weight, I would often get sick. I felt nauseous and had a horrible headache if I didn’t get my lunch on time. I think my blood-sugar was really screwed up and I may have been borderline Type II diabetic. I’m not sure. But within a week of eating right and exercising, all that was gone. I felt so much better. I had more energy (though never as much as I would like). And I felt more confident about myself. I always hated shopping for and trying on clothes in stores because they never fit good and I always had fat bulging out all over the place. But the more weight I lost the more I enjoyed shopping for clothes. Clothes now fit well and I looked good and I could pick out cool outfits which I could never dream of wearing before. There’s so many great clothing shops in Dallas. It would be a shame to spend the rest of your life shopping at the Big and Tall shop or the XXL section of Wal-Mart.

One of the most important pieces of advice I can give you is this – 1: you will screw up and 2: that’s OK. You will make mistakes along the way. You will overeat sometimes. You will binge on junk food occasionally. You will skip your exercise some days. It’s OK. Remember this is a journey. You are trying to change your whole lifestyle not just temporarily reduce your waistline. So don’t beat yourself up. Don’t get discouraged. Just get back to doing what you know is right. Start eating the right foods in the right amounts again. Start exercising again. And give yourself a treat sometimes. Maybe go out for ice cream once a week. Maybe eat a small piece or two of chocolate once in awhile. Treats aren’t bad in moderation, when you are in control of them and not the other way around.

I hope this article helps you and gives you some ideas that will work for you and provide you with some motivation. I know it’s not easy to get in shape but it definitely is worth it. That’s why I keep at it and don’t give up. I hope you will keep at it too. Remember to take plenty of before, during, and after pictures to keep track of your journey and see how far you’ve come.

First Page of article

Their coffee is marvelous, people have unique and personalized senses of taste but in my subjective opinion the coffee at Big Mikes deserves a ribbon. You can be sure that whatever barista is on duty will take extreme care in the crafting of your cup of coffee. Big Mikes coffee is also an organic retailer supplying handmade bagels as well as several varieties of delicious muffin. The shop can also make a claim to revitalizing local craftsmen and women in its support of locally made teas, as well as locally roasted coffee. Big Mikes takes care in the little things as well, serving all you can drink twice filtered water.

Among the other amenities offered is a complete two book case library full of obscure but unquestionably interesting literature. Also granted to you by the kindness of this coffee shop is a variety of board games, free Wi-fi with any purchase and a concern for the safety of the intoxicated, meaning they will help if your drunk ass needs somewhere to get sober. And Mike himself has recently announced a return of the sale of incense, bumper stickers and buttons, If you are in Denton you might have seen Mikes sticker smothered car expressing his opinion on many important issues in short witty dialogue.

Also making a comeback to the shop will be Voyagers Dream’s popular handmade shoe/boot/socks Muckalucks. This Coffee shop is a valuable commodity to thousands of students, giving the local community exactly what is needed though all night service, organic food and locally made coffee and tea. Many would have a significantly more miserable existence if this haven did not offer itself whenever needed to the students and citizens of Denton.