Greetings one and all. Hope this finds you in great spirits. The weather is turning nicer by the day and hopefully it will bring a great end to winter and better spring than last year.
It came to my attention this week, I have not blogged since before xmas, Yikes!! The challenge of blogging begins comes two fold. One, developing the discipline to blog every week and two, thinking that you are interested in my thoughts. Then as, my friend and boss, John Himpe reminded me...I'm the only one at the station that talks UFC and Mixed Martial Arts and that I should blog more. So here we are.
I thought I would bring you up to date on my continued weight loss with Herbal Magic. A recap, if you are reading this for the first time. I started the Herbal Magic weight loss program back in June of last year. I started at 210 pounds. Since then I have lost as much as 30 pounds and 30 inches. But I recently faced the first real challenge in my attempts to lose weight.....a two week vacation in Las Vegas. When my wife and I left for our trip, I weighed in at 182 pounds and the caution was not to fall into bad habits while I was gone. These were the same bad habits that led to a serious weight gain over the past few years. Maybe you know them...eating fatty foods, drinking lots of booze, no exercise, etc! The first day of the trip was spent on the road. 18 hours straight from Regina to Salt Lake City, Utah. Great drive and wonderful scenery. Food choices weren't terrible, not great, but not terrible. As the vacation wore on and my defenses weakened, the choices became worse and worse. Tasty and delicious but worse. Posted is an example of one choice.
This is a monstrosity known as the Woody Allen. Two pounds of pastrami and corned beef. It can be found at a deli inside the Mirage hotel. I would not recommend you challenge it, unless you are prepared for the consequences that follow....they are many and need not be talked about any further. Well, I tried it and only got through half. Why did I try this when I knew this what not apart of any sensible weight loss program? Because I'm weak and I was on holiday. I was tempted, when I returned to Herbal Magic for a weigh in to use the "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" line but sadly, nothing I ate stayed in Vegas. Oh and there was this also....
For the record, this is not all mine. What you see above is the last remaining Miller Lite from me, my wife and our friend Gareth as we made our way back to Canada. No way I was paying that much duty at the border. But as you can see from these two examples, you can guess how the two weeks in the states played out. But after coming home and getting back to a routine before my regular visits to Herbal Magic continued, I was able to lose a few Vegas pounds. My first weigh in at Herbal Magic was 187 pounds. So I gained five pounds. I have now begun the task of losing them and getting to my goal weight. In fact, I have almost got back to my pre-Vegas weight and with some luck, be back to it before you know it. As I begin to get back into the blogging experience, more updates will come as I continue to lose the weight!
Now onto some random things...
- What a week it was on the future of a stadium...er...an events centre in Regina. It started with the feasibility study from the government, then came word of a second proposal. Chief Rick Gamble then appeared on John Gormley Live with news of that proposal. A 1.2 billion dollar project with partnership from the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The Seminole Tribe own the Hard Rock Cafe and the plan would be to build a Las Vegas style Hard Rock hotel/casino and turn the current Casino Regina into high end shops. All contingent on the sale of Casino Regina and Moose Jaw. But one little problem....the Government made it pretty clear the Casinos are not for sale. Another interesting tidbit from the Chief was the City of Regina being very excited about the deal and committing, in kind infrastructure money to the tune of 30 million. Again, another problem because the Mayor said that was not in fact the case. So what was true and what wasn't?
Then came word of the Seminole Tribe issuing a statement they had no involvement in any project in Saskatchewan. So end of story, right? Wrong. If you head to the main page of our website, you will see the Seminole Tribe is apparently involved, having a Memorandum of Understanding to join the proposed project. What??? Look, I don't know what is or what isn't going on here. All I know is this....whatever is decide for that spot at the CP rail yards is too big and too important for the future of our city and province to mess around with. For the record, I am for a new entertainment or events centre for Regina. Not just because I live here but because it would be great for the future of the city and province. The off shoots of what can be done far out weigh the possibility of staying with the status quo. The debate will continue on both sides over this idea or ideas or how to get it done, but in the end, in my opinion, it must get done. A wise and highly successful business man once told me that to make money, you have to spend money. By the way, this business man did very well for himself and his family. No doubt we will talk more about this next week.
- One more stadium...er...events centre thought. For those who say "why would I want my tax dollars going into a stadium that I would never use"...your not wrong in holding that opinion but am I to assume then, if you don't want your tax dollars used, you will never, ever attend a Rider game, concert,convention, Grey Cup or any other event at a future events centre, right? Come on!!
- I've never watched dancing with the stars but have producers set the bar too low for defining what a star is? Pamela Anderson? It's not 1995-99 anymore. How much of a star is she thses days. They didn't even use her in any of the Olympic ads selling Vancouver...and they used just about everybody. Kate Gosselin? The Bachelor?? Didn't this guy just finish a reality show? How about taking a break from reality shows for a minute guy. If "A" list or even "B" or "C" list celebs don't want free airtime on one of the most popular show, shouldn't that tell us anything? These "stars" make Kathy Griffin look like she has good sense on where to draw the line...and she appears on everything (and she was great on Law and Order: SVU this past week).
- I admit it. I bit hook, line and sinker to the Feds "toying" with idea to look into changing the line "in all our sons command" in the national anthem. I bit, even though I knew it was nothing but a distraction. How many times over the last number of years have you heard anyone, just one person say the anthem is to gender specific? How many? Of all the things to throw out as a diversion. The culture has changed in the last 30 years. The politically correct police have developed into a firm bunch since 1980 and given the fact any interest group can mobilize in seconds, are we really ready to debate the merits of that line without opening a Pandora's box over religion and it's place in the anthem? Thankfully the Government came to their senses and changed their tune...not to say they were really going to do it.
- Don't forget to check out WEC 47 Saturday night on the Score. Some great action from the lighter guys in the world of MMA.
- Brace yourself for a busy next few weeks in MMA if you are a fan of the UFC. Before the end of the month, three UFC events are coming including UFC 111: GSP vs Dan Hardy. Looking forward to seeing GSP back in action. Also on that card is a fight between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin. The winner gets a returning Brock Lesnar later this summer. Not to say that the mad genius, Dana White, is pulling for someone but my guess is he won't be mad if Mir wins. That would set up what could be the biggest money maker in the short period of the ZUFFA era of the UFC. Mir vs Lesnar 3 could easily surpass the 1.5 million ppv buys last year. One more thing about Frank Mir and another fighter by the name of Marcus Davis. The kind of comments they recently made about other fighters dying was out of bounds. It's one thing to hype a fight by talking trash but to say things they did makes this sport look bad and gives those who think it's neanderthal and bogus, more ammunition.
That's it for me. Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend!!
The Afternoon News with Cory Kolt and Alex Docking airs 3-6 on Newstalk 980 CJME and don't forget that you can join me on Twitter. Follow me by going to http://twitter.com/corykolt
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