Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Guest Post

This week I was thrilled when Victoria offered me the opportunity to guest contribute to the Minus Thirty Three blog. Ever since she asked me (yesterday) my mind has been spinning with different ideas, potential themes, and I realized I was clearly getting a little ahead of myself.  I figured I should just keep it simple, and give everyone a glimpse inside a day in the life of me, without any embellishment.  Who knows, she might invite me back in the future for another one? We’ll have to see!

About me
I am one of Vic’s best friends, and have known her virtually all of my life. I’m from the same town, we went to the same schools and hang out with the same friends.  I currently work in marketing at a local software company, and balance a lifestyle of work, being active, and enjoying a solid social life. My goals aren’t quite as rigid as Vic’s (perhaps they should be?)….essentially I try to be active enough to be healthy and to keep the gick (ie gunt) at bay! I believe in moderation, that treating yourself from time to time will not be the end of the world, or the end of your fitness goals and that working out is a part of an overall lifestyle choice, and not a diet or fad. It needs to be enjoyable for you, while still sacrificing something in the attempt to lead a healthy life.

In this post I will walk you through a random day (Monday, July 22), and my attempt at providing the best snapshot of a regular day as possible (ie…not deliberately going out of my way to do things to add to this article). Here goes….
 
Monday morning

So I had all intents and purpose to go to Moksha hot yoga Monday morning with my usual yoga partner Daniel, but myself and Vic did a class (or practiced) on Sunday, and I think I may have overdid it! I really didn't prepare like I usually do (drink gallons of water beforehand) and I felt quite ill afterwards on Sunday, so I opted to skip, sleep in a little and better prepared for each morning yoga on Wednesday.

 
I “woke up to love” (mine and Vic’s saying by the way) Monday morning with a bowl of Greek yogurt (great source of calcium, protein), strawberries (vitamin C) and homemade (made by yours truly on Saturday) granola….recipe in which I stole from a previous Minus Thirty Three blog post. I made it to work, and started off the day with my usual Ice Americano (water, espresso, and ice).. which I had throughout the day to keep me going. Pretty much my summer obsession.

 
Mid-morning snack
So I’m clearly new to the blog scene, seeing how my slice of Nutella toast was almost gone before I realized I needed to take a pic!

 
Lunch

My co-worker, Jen, invited me over for lunch Monday to show off her new house, and treat me to a feed. We had homemade pulled pork sandwiches (pulled pork on ciabatta bun and cheese), "pregnancy soup" which Jen's husband makes for her which is pureed tomatoes, broccoli, celery, peppers, with herbs and spices, and garden salad with balsamic. I also had a chance to meet her dog, Abby, whom I fell in love with!

 
 
Mid-afternoon snacks

In the afternoon, I had an orange, apple and banana. I brought 2 hermit cookies, but gave one to Jen, and a yogurt (not shown), along with another Ice Americano I'm sure and water in between.

 
Supper

I had intended to get to the gym after work, but I honestly wasn't feeling it today, and even the looming blog article wasn't motivating me, so I opted not to....whatever! Skipping a day won't hurt...but a week, probably so! Back at it tomorrow! Anyway, I headed home for a meal with the parents as mom was cooking fish stew (classic NL dish). I couldn't resist it as it brings back memories of being a kid running around a campground with my cousins. Fish stew is comprised of fresh cod, potato, onion, pork fatback (not good but needed apparently), and savory/spices. It was delish, I even resisted the fresh rolls mom brought home to accompany....OK maybe I had half of one. I could probably plow through a full loaf of bread and tub of butter if I wanted to, but know better....I feel Vic can provide commentary on that with her new read Wheat Belly, in posts to come.

 
Evening

I needed SOME kind of activity today, so Monday evening I headed to Signal Hill trail. Was a great night to be out as it was warm and not too many people on the trail. After the hike, and conquering the stairs, which never seem to get easier...I had a strawberry smoothie with skin milk, vanilla whey protein powder, bananas and strawberries. Great source of protein, calcium, magnesium maybe...and other things I'm not sure of right off hand.


So that was my day, and that was also my first blog post ever....the rest of my week is looking pretty full, tomorrow is definitely going to be a gym day, as will Wednesday, and yoga again on Wednesday morning and maybe Friday....hoping to get a run in down at the lake. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, as they would be much appreciated.
                                                                                                                                                                                        -A

2 comments:

  1. Great first blog post Al! I died at the mid-morning snack picture.

    I also want to get into drinking smoothies more often. The strawberry smoothie sounds delish! I'm going to use your ingredients to begin a smoothie routine I think!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Allan, great post! Thank you x 1,000,000 for writing it! I've honestly never made a strawberry smoothie so I too, will be jumping on that train!

    I also wanna get another hot yoga class in this week. Hot yoga is gonna become a P1 when Sunday is over. Yippeeee Ps. Lunch at Jen's house looked amazing :)

    Ps. I don't believe you gave away one of those cookies .. ;)

    ReplyDelete