I Love Short Weeks!!!

This morning started off a bit rushed but good none the less. I slept in this morning until 35 minutes before I needed to leave for work and had to get all ready for another day of work. After a very quiet drive into work this morning I started my day off at 6:30am and just hit the ground running with breakfast meeting catering orders galore at work.

Fruit Trays were huge this morning. I ended up sending a fruit tray with every single breakfast catering this morning.

Finally midway through the morning about 8:00am I was finally able to eat my breakfast which today ended up being just a carrot muffin and a few slices of pineapple, which hit the spot bang on!


After my breakfast it was time to start on lunch caterings which included lots of desert trays and also making up the dessert trays for tomorrow.


Lunch today at the restaurant was very slow and even somewhat boring, but the highlight of lunch was when Ashley and two other friends of ours stopped by the restaurant and surprised me by staying for lunch, it was a real treat for me to have them stay, cause I got to make all three of there lunch dishes. Ashley and Jordan each had a "Butter Chicken Pizza" which was my special of the week, and Emily had our "Asian Chicken Salad", and they all enjoyed there lunch.
For lunch today I had a side of Cheese-less Greek Salad (I hate Cheese) and a bowl of Mushroom soup.


After work this afternoon I stopped off at Ashley's work and had a "Chocolate Raspberry" coffee and a slice of "Apple Cranberry Loaf" with her and stuck around for about 30 minutes to have a little visit with her before I headed home for the afternoon and evening, and she went back to work, and then off to her soccer game.


This afternoon after commuting home on the bus, I went for a 25 minute walk to finish the journey home, and to also get some cardio in for the day, and just as a way to enjoy the lovely spring day we had here in Calgary despite all the wind.
This evening for dinner I had the remainder of my "Butter Chicken Pizza" from my lunch at work yesterday along with some Brussels Sprouts and a Diet Coke.



The remainder of my evening will probably just be spent with me trying to fix my BlackBerry which got slight water damage last Thursday, and then just relaxing, perhaps a workout, perhaps a DVD, perhaps both perhaps neither. Either way it'll be a good night in Ben-ville!

Hope you all had a great happy and healthy Tuesday March 30/2010, I know I did!

Nighty Night!

-Ben-

Great Food, Great People, Great Weather..... Great Day

So yesterday/Day 1 of my "Going Back To The Basics" went reasonably well. I started yesterday morning off with a 30 minute yoga workout, followed by a hearty and filling breakfast of:

Banana Oats with a huge mug of coffee.
The Oats were made by: (per person)
1/3 cup fat free milk
1/3 cup water brought to a boil with the milk
1/3 cup quick oats (added to the boiling liquid
1/2 large banana
3/4 tsp flax seeds (all above ingredients mixed together until desired consistency is reached
1 tsp brown sugar on top of final oats mixture

After breakfast Ashley had to run off to the dentist so while she was there I took the opportunity to swing by a branch of the "Calgary Public Library", and let me tell you I found so much stuff there.


Notice with the books a large amount of tattoo books? I am getting my next piece done on my lower right arm within the next month or two at least I'm hoping....Yay 2009 Income Tax Return! I figured I would find a few books with designs, and celeb tattoos to entertain me until I get mine done.

After the library and Ashley's dentist appointment we went to Subway sandwich shop for some lunch. Un-fortunately I don't have any pics of my lunch but what I had was a:
-Foot long Chipotle Steak sub all the fixens, on wheat bread and of course no cheese
-2 M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Medium Diet Coke
-Medium Seattle's Best Coffee (it was 100% FREE!!!!!)

After lunch Ashley and I went and spent some time with her mom and went shopping, followed by taking her mom's dog for a 30 minute walk outside in the beautiful +15 degree weather.


Diesel is such a cute dog and so fun to take for walks, but he tires very very very quickly and really likes to think he's a big bad junkyard dog but truly his bark is way worse than his bite and that's if he even has any bite.

After our afternoon of shopping and dog walking we were off to pick up my Mom from my uncles and drive her home luckily both my mom and my uncle live only a short drive from Ashley's moms house. The reason though why we had to pick up my Mom is cause she broke her ankle and sprained her knee and has a cast on her ankle so she is not able to drive until she gets the cast removed, and my step dad is away on business trip, and my sister was working (really we were just asked cause of a serious lack of options).
However out of picking my mom up and driving her around we got a free Angel-Food cake, and 18 Angle-Food cupcakes, which went along with my cup of Kicking Horse "Kick-Ass blend coffee" just perfectly for my afternoon snack-eroo but only one cupcake of course.


Last night Ashley and I and her mom went to "Yuk Yuk's International Stand-up Comedy" with some of her moms friends from work as well as for drinks before. However before any of that took place Ashley and I came home for a quick supper for which I had:

a bowl of "Cream of Mushroom Soup" along with roasted broccoli, and mushrooms.

After Yuk Yuk's on our way home Ashley and I stopped by our neighbourhood "Tim Horton's" for a small Bacon Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. You gotta love those 1am food cravings.


Hope you all had a wonderful Happy and Healthy Saturday filled with Great Food, Great People, and Great Weather!

-Ben-

Going Back To The Basics

Has it really been 20 days since my last blog post? apparently it has... Well lets see in the past 20 days I've definitely had my good days and bad days fitness, food, and healthy living wise, but overall I'd say I've just managed to more or less balance the good and the bad out.
As we are moving into April next week and the first full month of spring I have decided that now is a great time for me to "Get Back To The Basics". Some of the "Basics" I want to get back to are: eating less, and eating smarter more balanced and vegetable and fruit based meals. Another basic I am going to go back to is working out in some physical form everyday when and where possible, and as much as possible doing some form of physical fitness outdoors such as walking, running, or biking. The third basic I want to get back to is cutting back on my un-nutritious drinking such as boozing it up and drinking lots of pop, and or high sugar fruit juices, and get back to primarily water, and fat free milks. Finally the fourth basic I want to get back to is just an all round positive attitude, and outlook on life and cutting back and hopefully cutting out stresses in my day to day life that make me feel compelled to become either lazy, or binge eat.
Now over these past twenty days I am proud to say that I have managed to keep my weight in my target range of 182-188lbs but I also know that with minimal work it is only a matter of time before that number begins to rise again and take me back to the shape I was in when I started this all back in November 2009. Also I feel in my goal to inspire people and help them achieve their fitness, and healthy living goals I need to do a better job with me and my goals.
I look forward to sharing with all of you again on a daily basis or at least to as close to one as possible from here on in.

Have a Happy And Healthy Saturday everybody!

-Ben-

Weekend Of Firsts!!!!

Firsts are always memorable experiences. This weekend Ashley and I had a weekend filled with firsts, which are all gonna go down as memorable experiences.

Our first first came yesterday at breakfast, we went to a dutch restaurant called "Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus" this was a first time visit for both of us but absolutely not a last time visit.

We each had a starter cup of their homemade cream of mushroom soup.

For my main breakfast item I had an apple and cinnamon pannenkoek with a side of cream cheese icing and a glass of chocolate milk.

Next on our list of firsts was our river walk with Ashley's mom. This was our first river walk with her mom after weeks of trying to but it just not working out before.


When it's plus 9 outside how could you not get outside and love going for a stroll?

Last night we added to the list of firsts by going skating outside at Olympic Plaza here in Calgary, which was a first for Ashley.



What a romantic night it was......

After skating we went to visit our friend Jordan working at the golf dome to hit golf balls at their driving range. Going to a golf dome was a first time experience for Ashley, and I got to experience a first too by getting to drive the range golf ball picker upper cart, it was soooooo fun. (sorry no picture from this though)

Then finally this morning we went for Sunday morning brunch with Ashley's family. The first in this experience was my first time going for a 100% vegetarian brunch buffet. I loved the selection of fruits, and veggie options.

I hope you all take time this week to experience some firsts in your life!

-Ben-

Fabulous Food Friday!

Yesterday started off with a healthy but HUGE bowl of banana oats!


For lunch I had a plate of Kale Chips

Kale, Olive Oil drizzled over top of the kale pieces, Salt and Pepper and grated Parm Cheese, baked at 450 degrees for 5 min. Mmmmmmmm.....

also had a bowl of mushroom soup with the Kale Chips for lunch.


Afternoon snack: Mars Bar Chocolate Bar

Supper was:

M&M Meat Shops Thin Crust Margherita Pizza with banana peppers placed on top.

Dessert was:

slice of carrot cake, and a glass of milk.

-Ben-

The Joy Of Getting Rid Of Old Clothes

Today Ashley and I got to have breakfast together at her office as we usually do Thursday mornings.

Today I had "Natures Path Organic Flax Plus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch" cereal with fat free milk, and my "$0.93 Banana" that I had to purchase from the cafeteria at Ashley's office building cause I forgot my banana from home at home while I was rushing to get out of the house this morning.
Ashley and I had a really nice Thursday morning visit, and talked about somethings we'd like to do this upcoming weekend, including a couple of breakfasts/brunches out, and some daytime activities too.
After breakfast and visiting time with Ashley I headed off to work for my 8am start at work.

This morning was a steady morning for me at work, not too busy, not too slow. I had a few catering jobs to do, along with some prepping of items for lunch in the restaurant. I did manage to squeeze in a little morning snack of chocolate chip cookie, and a handful of red seedless grapes.


For lunch today I had a veggie wrap in a sun dried tomato tortilla, with lite mayonnaise, red and green pepper strips, cucumber strips, diced tomatoes, and sprouts. With my veggie wrap I had a mixed greens salad with a balsamic dressing, and red and green peppers, red onions, mushrooms, and black olives.

Afternoon snack was a bowl of red seedless grapes, and strawberries.


After work this afternoon I met up with my dad at a bar and had a couple glasses of water (I swear it really was water) with my dad before we went back to his house for dinner and a visit, as we quite often do on Thursdays. Once we got back to my dads I went through a box of old clothes of mine from about 5 years ago when I last lived at home that were cleaned out of my old bed room at his house. Now these clothes were both out of style now, and were very very big on me now, for instance there were shirts I found that were size XXL that I wore back in the day, and now I'm a size L. Now let me tell you all this: there is no better feeling than that of knowing that not only are you purging and making space especially when and where space is needed, but also knowing that you've gone down two shirt sizes, and I'm not talking sizes in terms of length. Also I have decided that purging clothes that are now way to big on me is the best motivation tool to keep working hard at keeping the extra pounds off and keeping them off for good.


I filled two large blue bags with clothes to be dropped off for Goodwill.

For supper tonight my dad and I had beef lasagna and New England Clam Chowder, and for dessert I had an ice cream sandwich from the box of ice cream sandwiches Ashley and I took over to my dads on Sunday when we went over to watch the gold medal game of Olympic Men's Ice Hockey, along with a slice of carrot cake.



After dinner and visiting with my dad, I came home and worked out and ran. Following my workout and run I sat down to watch some more of Season 2 of "Heros" and write this blog post. Now as we are approaching 11 pm I'm winding my night down, and getting ready to go to bed.

Sleep Tight, and have a great happy and healthy Friday everybody!
-Ben-

Wild Wednesday

Today started off a wee bit earlier than most mornings lately. I had to be out of the house by 6:05am in order to be at work by 7:00am. With having to be up and out of the house earlier meant I needed a quick and easy breakfast.

For breakfast I chose to have a banana, a Kashi Soft Baked Cereal Bar, Baked Apple Spice Flavor. Along with the Kashi cereal bar and banana, I had a mug of coffee for the road, made from a pouch of Starbucks Coffee VIA instant coffee. I have to say that for instant coffees the Starbucks VIA instant coffee is quite good!

Once at work this morning I had to quickly settle into my morning and daily routine as I had a large amount of catered lunches to do today, luckily I had some help from a co-worker to help me get all the catering executed, and executed on time. During my insanely busy morning I did however find time to squeeze in a wee morning snack which today was a very yummy croissant.


After my busy busy busy morning came to an end it was time for me to have some lunch myself. Today for my lunch I chose to make myself a veggie wrap consisting of: lite mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, green and red pepper slices, cucumber slices, and sprouts, wrapped in a white tortilla as that's all we had available for my use. Along with my wrap I had a side of my weekly special at work which was a "Ginger Chicken Pasta Salad" minus the chicken.
The salad contained:
-red pepper & green pepper slices
-sliced red onion
-Mandarin orange segments
-penne pasta
-lite mayonnaise
-granulated ginger

I have to say lunch was very yummy and verry fillin all at the same time.

After work I came home and ran for an hour on the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus while I watched my first ever episode of "Heros" on DVD. The episode I watched was the season premiere form "Season 2".

Now I know you're asking "Why are you starting at season 2 instead of season 1?", well here's my answer; I went to the library the other day and saw it there but not season 1, and I really had wanted to check that show out so I just thought "what the heck?", and so I borrowed Season 2 instead. I have to say so far I'm quite impressed with "Heros" but I'll try and watch a bit more tomorrow and we'll see if that impression continues.

After working out and running on the Wii Fit Plus for a grand total of 90 minutes, it was time for me to fire up the BBQ and make Ashley and I dinner.


For dinner we each had:
-1 BBQ baked potato
-1 BBQ Kirkland Signature Garden Veggie Burger(Available at Costco)
-Cauliflower (steamed)
It was a very filling, and very high veggie supper which made it a double winner supper.

The rest of the night I believe will just be spent with Ashley and I relaxing and visiting a bit, and maybe watching a bit of TV, then it'll be off to bed to do it all over again tomorrow.

Hope you all had a happy and healthy day

-Ben-