Saturday Mornings With Chocolate Chip French Toast Muffins

After a restful 8 hours of sleep it was time to get up do a little email checking and tweeting on twitter, then on to making a fun and filling breakfast this morning. Today's breakfast was a new one for us, I call it Chocolate Chip French Toast Muffins. I had this massive craving for French Toast all week, and yesterday at work I received a bag of muffins that were extras that otherwise would have sadly found there way to the garbage as the restaurant is closed on weekends. So I figured I have all these muffins, and I want French Toast so why not try and combine the two?


For Ashley and I, I used two Chocolate Chip Muffins from my muffin loot bag, cut in half.


Next I made a simple French Toast batter with two whole eggs, and 1.5tsp ground cinnamon and whisked the batter.


Dipping the half muffins in the French Toast batter just enough to lightly coat the outside of the muffin halves


mmmmm...Chocolate Chip French Toast Muffins


We had our Chocolate Chip French Toast Muffins with a side of Cantaloupe, and a mug of black coffee from our bag of ground coffee from M&M Meat Shops each.

After breakfast we sat down and chatted about the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver & Whistler which holy cow, are only 13 days away! We chatted about the hype surrounding both the U.S. and Canadian men's Ice Hockey teams, the lack of snow in the Vancouver/Whistler areas right now, and which sports we're looking forward to. Ashley's not really too stoked for any of the Winter Olympic events, for me the big ones are: skiing, and Canadian, and U.S. hockey, both men's and women's.
Now while I'm writing this entry Ashley's working it on the Wii Fit, then I'll do a little Wii Fitting, and hopefully we make it out for a run today before the snow comes.

Hope you all have a Happy and Healthy Saturday!

-Ben-

TGIF

Oh how nice it is/was to know today was Friday. Now first of all let we say that yes today was a rather lazy day for me physically with the exception of a half hour walk this evening which I'll get to later in this post.


I started my Friday morning off with a bowl of Puffins Cinnamon Cereal, half of a Florida Navel Orange, and a cup of black coffee.
Then after breakfast it was off to work, where things were incredibly slow, but quiet as I was the only one working in my catering/banquet kitchen this morning for the first just over two hours. This allowed me to be able to get lots of extra prep work done and allowed me the freedom to listen to whatever kind of music I chose and be able to play the stereo as loud as I choose.

For lunch today I had

a veggie quesadilla filed with smoky BBQ sauce, franks red hot sauce, and eggplant zucchini, asparagus, red and green peppers, red onions, sliced mushrooms, and black olives. And a spinach salad with a rice wine vinegar dressing. On my salad I put: red and green peppers, black olives, Mandarin oranges, and sun dried tomatoes.

After work this afternoon I ran a few errands then met up with Ashley (the girlfriend/my girlfriend) once she was done her work day. We then had a quick dinner at her office of her leftover vegetarian chili, with whole wheat rice I made for the chili last night, and another half Navel Orange.
After we finished eating our dinner on the go, Ashley and I went for a 30 minute walk to the Pengrowth Saddledome for our hockey game between the Calgary Hitmen and Brandon Wheat Kings. We both were cheering for the Wheat Kings as Ashley is from Brandon Manitoba Canada.


The hockey game between Calgary Hitmen and Brandon Wheat Kings


Our snack at the hockey game: 1 pack of Sharkies Organic Energy Fruit Chews



Ashley and I at the Calgary Hitmen and Brandon Wheat Kings game here in Calgary.


Final score in the game was 6-3 for Brandon much to both Ashley and my delights.

After the game we took the LRT (Calgary's answer to a subway system) back into downtown, followed by a bus from downtown back to where we parked the car this morning. Back at home we decided we were gonna watch "Dick Tracy"

and we made a bowl of popcorn with little butter and a pot of Earl Grey Tea to enjoy with our movie. As soon as the movie's over it'll be time for beddy-bye.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to being another very healthy, and physically active day, just less lazy than today. Talk to you all Saturday morning.

NIGHT!

-Ben-

And I'm Back In The Runnnnnnnnnning!!!!!!!!

Tonight I went for a run and......Completely blew my mind with how strong and fast of a run I ran, not too mention how smart I ran. First off I was able to for the first time in a long time maintain a good consistent pace of running from start to finish. What I ran was this loop around my neighbourhood twice (The same loop I've been running all month). Now back on Tuesday when I had previously run that loop twice I had done the first loop in 10min 2sec, and the entire 2 loops in 23min 23sec. Today I ran loop 1 in 9min 58sec, and the entire two loop course in 22min 10sec knocking 1min and 13sec off my overall time.

After my amazing run it was time to begin making the girlfriends lunch for tomorrow as well as the dinner that we will split tomorrow evening after she's done work, before we head to our Calgary Hitmen hockey game tomorrow evening. For lunch I packed her two leftover slices of pizza (one vegetarian, one pepperoni) and a container full of veggies (celery, zucchini, and mushrooms). And for dinner tomorrow we are having continued leftovers of Ashley's Vegetarian Slow Cooker Chili from two weeks ago, with some fresh rice I made this evening, and an orange cut into 8 wedges.

After making the foods for tomorrow my dad showed up at our condo with two Little Caesars pizzas, and a cold six pack of beer. My pizza was a vegetarian pizza of which I ate 4 of the eight slices all with Louisiana Hot Sauce drizzled on top.


and a can and a half of ice cold "Fernie Brewing Company Beer"


My dad and I then sat around watching TV, and caught up on our weeks for a couple hours. After my dad left it was then time for me to set up the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, to sweat off some of that veggie pizza and cold beer.

Hope you all had a productive and active day, and that you all have a very happy and healthy Friday.

Night Night
-Ben-

Where does time go?????

Holy! Has it really been two days without blogging? My answer is yes. Well let me quickly bring you all up to speed on my last 2.5 days.

Today is my third straight day this week eating completely vegetarian, and tomorrow I will make it 4 straight, not too sure if I'll keep it going during the weekend or not, but for sure tomorrow absolutely will. Over these past few days I have been big on drinking smoothies, eating salads, and eating fruits.

Also I have really been enjoying eating Kashi GO Lean Crunch each morning for breakfast, and this morning for breakfast I finished the box off.

But the best thing I've had all week has to have been our Kirkland Signature Garden Burger Veggie Burger Patties last night for dinner with mixed vegetables, and baked potatoes with margarine and salsa. The Kirkland Signature Garden Burger Veggie Burger patties are available at Costco Wholesale.



Physically I've been trying hard to stay active by walking home from the bus both Tuesday and today after work. Tuesday it took 21 minutes, and today 25 but today I was also carrying about an extra 7-8 lbs of food in my bag.


Tuesday I also went for a 23 minute run, and will be going again right after this blog post. Yesterday I honestly didn't do any physical fitness. I just decided to have a quiet afternoon after work, and a quiet and relaxing Wednesday night at home with the girlfriend, as we just caught up on our work lives, and sat down and watched "Frost Nixon" excellent movie by the way, and had a little snack of popcorn with lite margarine.
Tonight after my run my dad is coming over for a guys night in and we're gonna have some pizza, him I'm sure something meaty and me vegetarian of course haha. After that I'll probably have a strength workout and see the Girlfriend once she's home from her moms tonight.

Just a quick update on my weight loss, this morning I checked in at 187 only 2lbs away from my goal of 185 by Feb 14.

-Ben-

There's always time for a good workout

So here I am, second straight night I'm blogging from the comfort of our bed watching TV, and listening to the hum of our space heater heat our bedroom.
Today was such an amazingly wonderful fantastic day. Starting with a great breakfast this morning.

Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal, and a Green Velveteen Smoothie

For Lunch it was

A vegetarian croissant cheese free of course filled with lettuce, tomatoes, red and green peppers, sprouts, lite mayo, cucumbers, and black olives. And a mixed greens salad with Balsamic Vinegar dressing, and pepper strips, tomatoes, mushroom slices, black olives, and an avocado slice.

After work I went to the Dr's which normally I hate doing because I rarely get really good news, but today I found out that my blood pressure levels are down and in a good range, so that just added to my kick ass day.

After the Dr's it was back home to start preparing dinner.

Roasted chicken drumstick, roasted potatoes, and half of a roasted garlic head, and mixed veggies.

After dinner the girlfriend (Ashley) and I talked about our days at work a bit and decided on what physical workout we wanted to do tonight. We in the end decided upon staying in and just pulling a hard-core physical workout on our Nintendo Wii Fit Plus. Tonight I ran 20 minutes on the Wii Fit Plus, as well as doing strength training, and yoga, as well as some balance activities.

Just to keep you all up to date on further weight loss activity, this morning I weighed in at 188.5 lbs leaving only 3.5 more lbs to lose in the next 20 days.

Time to turn in for the night

Sleep tight everybody!

-Ben-

191 and Counting.....

Here I am 9 weeks into my 12 week weight loss quest to lose 22 lbs going from 207-185 lbs by Sunday February 14 2010 at 191 lbs. With 6 lbs left to lose in the next 3 weeks, I'm finding my self turning up the intensity even more. Today I completed my third straight day of eating completely vegetarian, and upping my cardio and fitness activities.
After breakfast this morning Ashley and I went for a 28 minute and 45 second run which took us on two laps around our neighbourhood through snow and ice and in minus 8 Celsius temperature. We decided to start upping our run distance as both of us are now registered for the 5km run portion of the Sportchek Mothers Day Run/Walk here in Calgary on Sunday May 9th 2010, and Ashley is registered in the 5km and I the 10km portions of the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon on Sunday May 30th 2010. The running training is going quite well for both of us and with 3.5 months until the Mothers Day Run we're both very optimistic about our training and up coming runs.

After our run we made a hearty lunch of which I had 2/3 of a can of Bush's Best Vegetarian Baked Beans, along with 1 slice of Dempsters Whole Grain 12 Grain bread, and on the slice of toast I had 1tsp of Presidents Choice Reduced Calorie Margarine.
After lunch Ashley had to jet off to her indoor soccer game, and I spent the afternoon and early part of the evening at home watching the Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets followed by the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings football games. Thankfully both the teams I was cheering for (Colts and Saints) won this afternoon, and both are now off to the Superbowl on Sunday February 7 in Miami Florida.

For dinner tonight I made a vegetarian lasagna from M&M Meat Shops. It was so delicious and filled with lots of yummy and hearty vegetables, and topped with just the right amount of cheese.

Along with the vegetarian lasagna we had mixed vegetables from Presidents Choice, and we also split a bottle of Big Rock Brewery's Winter Spice Beer.
After dinner we sat down to watch the overtime quarter in the New Orleans football game, followed by an episode of Weeds season 1 on DVD.
Now I'm just winding down in bed and doing my evening blog for today, and feeling that I really need to be getting to sleep as I have to be into work for 8am tomorrow morning and looking next to me at my clock that reads 10:55pm.
Talk to you all tomorrow.

Goodnight everyone!

-Ben-

Early Bird get the Eggs

I firmly believe that the most important meal of any day is breakfast. Eating a filling and healthy well balanced breakfast can and will set the tone for the rest of your day food wise anyway. Now yes sometimes for some of us it is easier said than done to have this sort of breakfast especially on mornings when we have to get up and head into work, but it is important that we still do our best on those days, and capitalize on mornings where we have the time to eat a healthy filling well balanced breakfast. That is why Saturday and Sunday mornings around our house Ashley and I are always trying to eat these breakfasts, not too mention it's a great excuse for us to sit at the table and chat, and plan our day ahead.

This morning for breakfast I had a 2 egg omelette with diced green peppers, sliced mushrooms, diced Roma tomatoes, 4 banana pepper rings sauteed in 2tsp extra virgin olive oil.
Along with the two egg omelette I had 1 kiwi fruit peeled and cut into 4 slices, and two cups of Mountain Blend Coffee from M&M meat shops (a very close taste to Tim Horton's Coffee at only a fraction the price ;) )


Now it's off to have another fun fitness and relaxation filled weekend.
Hope you all had a great Sunday morning breakfast/brunch filled with filling but nutritious, and well balanced items. If not, why not? and try to always allow yourself this sort of breakfast as often as possible.

-Ben-

Weekends are for fun and fitness, and relaxation!

Today has been a day filled with lots of fun, fitness, and relaxation, and great eats. I got my fitness in particular cardio in the forms of a strong and energetic Wii Fit Plus workout followed by Ashley and I going for a 58 minute walk to our local supermarket to pick up prescriptions and back home. Unfortunately we had to postpone today's run until tomorrow due to the fresh snow and howling wind today which made for slippery and snow drift filled sidewalks and roads.
After our 58 minute walk Ashley prepared us a lunch of:

-1 can of Amy's Organic Lentil soup (split half can for each of us)
-1 slice Dempsters Whole Grain 12 Grain bread, with 1tsp Presidents Choice Reduced Calorie Margarine
-1 Cup Presidents Choice Green Tea

After lunch we decided to watch "My Sisters Keeper" on of our two movies we have rented currently form zip.ca the other being "Frost/Nixon" which we'll watch either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. "My Sisters Keeper" was a really good but really sad movie, but it did exceed my expectations so I was quite pleased with it.



During the movie we had afternoon snacks. Ashley had celery sticks with peanut butter, and I being allergic to nuts had just plain celery sticks. I have to say that celery sticks are one of my favorite snack foods, I think a big part of it has to be the crunch of the celery.


After our movie it was time to start dinner. Tonight's dinner consisted of:
-Roasted Green Pepper
-Roasted mushrooms
-Roasted head of garlic


Homemade pasta sauce made from:
-1/2 can of diced tomatoes
-1 chopped clove of garlic
-1 tsp oregano
-1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Place above ingredients in a food processor and bled until liquefied, then heat in a small sauce pan until sauce is warm throughout.
Finally we had whole wheat spaghetti

Note the Vancouver Canucks beer pint glass filled with Big Rock Brewery's Winter Spice Beer!
After dinner it was time to sit down and watch the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Black Hawks hockey game on CBC Hockey Night in Canada. For those of you who don't know me well, I'm a true blue die hard Vancouver Canucks hockey fan. After 2 periods it is 3-0 Canucks so my night is amazing so far. Anyway I'm off to watch the remainder of the game, and then probably off to bed especially since Ashley is lying beside me on the love seat in our family room sleeping away, she looks sooooo cute btw!

Hope you all had a fun and relaxing Saturday filled with fitness too.

Night :)

-Ben-

Green Velveteen Smoothie and Banana Oats, with Starbucks Coffee.

Oh how my stomach feels so much better after a solid 9.5hr sleep, writing a blog, and most notably a yummy healthy filling breakfast. Today for breakfast I present you with my green velveteen smoothie, and a bowl of banana oats with a cup of Starbucks Cafe Verona Coffee.

Banana Oats:
Bring 3/4 cup of water to a simmer in a small skillet or pot
Add 3/4 cup of quick oats and stir until all oats are moist
Cut or crumble 1 banana into oats
Allow to cook until oats and banana are both soft and clumpy.
Serve in bowl (makes approx 2 cups of hot oatmeal cereal)

The Green Velveteen Smoothie I made today was made the exact same way I made last weeks but here again are the directions, the only difference is today I used fat free peach yogurt instead of plain due to the fact that we are out of plain yogurt.
-1 kiwi without skin cut into 6 pieces
-1 large navel orange cut into 8 smaller pieces
-2/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
-11/2 cup low fat soy milk
-11/2 cup fresh spinach
-1/3 cup fat free peach yogurt (or if you have it use plain yogurt)
-1 cup ice cubes
Blend all above ingredients in a blender until mixture begins to thicken, and serve. makes 2 pint glasses worth.


You will notice in this picture I chose to sprinkle some brown sugar on top of my oats just to add a bit of extra flavour. You can top your oats with whatever topping you so choose.

Now to get on with the remainder of my Saturday which includes a Nintendo Wii Fit Plus workout, walk, run and some laundry probably, as well as more healthy eats.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Saturday January 23 2010.
Stay Happy and Healthy, and remember you're all beautiful!

-Ben-

3 Day Vegetarian Eating Weekend

Yesterday (Friday) morning I decided that I was going to eat completely vegetarian all day yesterday, all day today, and all day tomorrow. This is gonna be my longest stretch without any meat since I made the decision to go 2-3 days/week eating completely vegetarian.
Yesterday started off with a quick but tasty bowl of Cheerios in a cup of fat free milk at the house before heading into work. Once at work I had a half cup of hash browns that we make at the restaurant, along with half of a chocolate chip muffin. UN-fortunately I have no pictures of my breakfast choices.

For lunch yesterday I again had a vegetarian wrap which contained: green and red pepper strips, cucumber strips, black olives, sliced mushrooms, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sprouts, and lite mayonnaise.
Along with the wrap I had a side spinach salad containing: spinach, Mandarin oranges, mushroom slices, diced tomatoes, and black olives coated lightly in a rice wine vinegar dressing.

Snacking yesterday was kind of my downfall as I did in addition to the half cup of hash browns and half muffin I had in the morning at work, I did also indulge in a couple of donuts that a couple of my co-workers brought in for everyone, but I did resist the opportunity to have a beer post work with my co-workers. I'd like to thank one of my other co-workers for catching me with the donut and the hash browns earlier and pointing out that I need to be accountable and point out even the slip ups I eat, even though I would have stated these items on my own it was good to have someone point them out.
After work I killed time until Ashley was done work, then I met her at her office and we a tasty dinner on the run since right after we ate we were off to the hockey game between the Calgary Hitmen, and Moose Jaw Warriors which Calgary won 5-0.

For dinner I had a spinach salad with zucchini, mushrooms, and guacamole. Also had a fresh kiwi fruit, and a package off Anne's bunny's Honey Graham flavour. It was just the right amount to satisfy me for a Friday night dinner.
After dinner we went for a twenty five minutes walk through downtown Calgary over to the Pengrowth Saddledome for the hockey game. Going for walks is such an awesome time, it gives us great conversation and together time.
At the hockey game the only food I consumed I'm very happy to say was half of my chocolate chip cliff bar.

The other half I gave to Ashley to help her with an evening snack.
Now I know that some of my snacking choices weren't the best choices but I also know they could have been allot worse, and I did go completely meat free.

Hope you all had a healthy Friday.

-Ben-

Healthy Choices V.S. Convenient Choices

We are all faced with the task of decision making every day. Some of the decisions we have to make involve choosing between health and convenience.
For example we can be faced with the question of what to make for dinner? Should we just pop in a frozen microwave dinner, or should we take time and cut up fresh vegetables, fruits, and make a lean and healthy protein? While in the moment it might be nice and easy to just pop in that frozen dinner into the microwave the healthy fresh foods meal that took time to prepare will undoubtably benefit us more both in the short and long terms.
Another healthy choice v.s. convenient choice can be when going somewhere that is within a realistic walking distance do you choose to walk yourself there while it'll take way longer you'll also benefit way more from that choice than you will from driving your car there.
There are many other examples here are just a couple more. Stairs v.s. elevator or escalator, walking your dog or just letting them out in your yard.
I encourage us all to everyday when and where possible choose the healthy choice, cause even though it may take longer, and hurt a bit in the moment it'll benefit us way longer than convenience will.

-Ben-

Loving the Fruits & Veggies!

So today I completed my 5th completely Vegetarian eating day out of the last 7 days. This was a very good decision on my part I feel especially since I have had a lazy day today fitness wise. In fact I was so lazy today that the the only real fitness I got today was a 15 minute walk this evening home from the bus with Ashley, but oh well I guess that's still better than no exercise. Tomorrow will just have to be an extra intense workout day I guess haha.
At least though I ate healthy today with my Vegetarian eating so that was a big plus for me.

For Breakfast I had:
1.25 cups of coconut granola
0.75 cups of fat free peach yogurt
1 Banana
1 Mug of coffee

For Lunch I had:
Vegetarian wrap, containing: cucumbers, red and green peppers, shredded lettuce, dice tomatoes and sprouts, with lite mayonnaise
Chocolate chip muffin

For Dinner we had
Kraft Delissio Flat Bread Mushroom Pizza (I just added some Bicks Banana Peppers to my half)
1 Glass chocolate milk

Tonight we had a date night and went and saw "Youth in Revolt" which by the way I highly recommend seeing especially as a date night activity ;) . But even there I was able to control my food desires, and got a combo with a medium diet coke ( which I know is full of bad stuff but at least 0 calories; that has to count for something right?. Also I had a small popcorn no butter, and a "Coffee Crisp" chocolate bar. While I ate the entire chocolate bar I ate maybe two handfuls of popcorn.
All in all I have to say eats wise today was a very successful day, now if only I workout and run tomorrow while having the same kind of day food wise I'll be golden.

Have a great Wednesday everyone, and remember to eat smart.

Stay happy and healthy!

-Ben-

Ashley's Healthy Food From Today

As promised last night I'm here with what I packed last night for Ashley's breakfast, lunch and snacks today.

For breakfast I gave Ashley:
1 cup plain Cheerios
1 cup skim milk
1 Banana
However the lid on the cup of milk I sent her I put on too tightly and she could not open it. Unfortunately all she was able to have were the Cheerios, and the Banana.

For lunch she got:
1.5 cups of mashed potatoes
1 cup of Vegetarian Slow Cooker Chili on top of the mashed potatoes
1 large navel orange cut into 4 wedges

For snacks Ashley got:
1 Kiwi fruit (cut up)
1 bag Anne's Cheddar Bunnies (available from Costco Wholesale)
2 Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges (available from Costco Wholesale)
9 Kashi honey sesame crackers

-Ben-

Off and Running.....

Today I did my second outdoor training run and second in as many days in my preparation and training for the two runs in May 2010 that I'm currently training for. On Sunday May 9 I will be running in the "Sportcheck Morthers Day run and walk", and on Sunday 30 I'll be doing the 10km portion of the "Scotiabank Calgary Marathon".
As I talked about in my blog yesterday, yesterday Ashley and I went for a run through our neighbourhood taking us 13 minutes flat. Today we ran the exact same route shaving 1 minute and 29 seconds off our time from yesterday down to 11 minutes and 31 seconds.


As you can see in the pics above evening runs in Calgary are quite chilly at this time of year, but there's just something about running in that cold winter air that makes you wanna keep going, and push yourself harder and further, two things we're both needing and wanting from our running right now. So with two training runs completed so far this week, I have only minnimum two more training runs this week to hit my goal of four training runs/week, things are looking good in week one!

Also on an upside my BMI has dropped to 23.69 and my weight to 194 lbs still down 13 lbs from my starting weight of 207 and 9 lbs away from my goal of 185 by February 14, things are looking so good for me these days, also my clothes are beginning to fit looser which is making me extremely happy and optimistic about my healthy choices and lifestyle.
Now I believe that one of the biggest and most important points in any healthy day and lifestyle is healthy eating. While today I ate meat/meat products for the first time since Friday night at dinner, I did balance it all out with lots of good fruits, vegetables, grains, and Dairy.

For Breakfast I had a blueberry bran muffin with low fat margarine, a kiwi fruit, and a large cup of coffee.
At work this morning for an AM snack I had a plain croissant, and for lunch today at work I had a fried over hard egg a slice of tomato, and 1.5 tbsp of pace thick and chunky salsa and a litre of water.
Supper tonight for a little while was kinda up in the air a bit debating between ordering a pizza from Papa John's Pizza and making open faced salmon burger sandwiches, with mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables (Onion, red and green peppers, and mushrooms) left over from Ashley's prep work yesterday morning for yesterday's vegetarian chili.


However in the end the open faced slamon burger sandwich mashed potato, and roasted vegetables option won. With it I had a tbsp of mayonnaise, and 0.5 cup of "Penny's Salsa" Pico de Gallo salsa (available at Costco Wholesale) on the sandwich, and a glass of "Lucerne" Chocolate milk on the side.
What a healthy start to the work week today was, now to keep it going for the rest of the week. Now I'm off to pack Ashley her work food for the day for tomorrow, and then to finally register for my two may races. Tomorrow I'll tell all about what I packed Ashley!

Hope you all had a happy and healthy Monday, and keep making those same choices tomorrow!

-Ben-