Saturday

Wow - I am so excited about this weekend! Ben and I were planning to head up to New Hampshire to go hiking and camping.... however the weather allowed us to stay home and relax for the first weekend in months! We've had a busy summer and beginning of fall, so I am actually sort of thrilled to be home and relax.

I'm so glad to report that I made it to the gym three days during the week... Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday was a successful shopping trip to the Natick Collection, where Becky found a cute suit at J. Crew.

Yesterday it was raining cats & dogs when I got home, and after walking and taking the bus and train to get to and from work, there was no way I was going outside again. Ben saved the day by going out for a bottle of Mark West (one of our favorite pinot noir wines) and making dinner. It was a great night for comfort food as the storm continued outside.

Ben made a great whole wheat pasta, roma tomato sauce and turkey meat balls. He had also surprised me by going to Whole Foods and picking up an amazing focaccia bread. We enjoyed dinner while watching the Presidential Debate between Obama and McCain....

Anyhow, today we're enjoying a day at home. It's raining yet again, perhaps due to the Tropical Storm Kyle.

I'm going to sign off for now so that I can get ready to head to the gym before the storm gets really bad. I love my Saturday and Sunday gym work outs because I'm not exhausted from a long day of commuting and working... I can spend a lot more time at the gym, and usually have a lot more energy to accomplish everything I set out to do. Today I'll be doing some cardio (running and biking perhaps?) and some weights. If you're trying to lose weight - you need to remember that weight training is absolutely essential to your workout. If you build up mussle mass, you will burn more calories when you are "resting" because muscle mass burns more calories than fat.

To better explain my point, see this brief explanation from the website: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk

1) Build Muscle

Increase the amount of muscle in your body. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.

Training with weights just 3 times a week for around 20 minutes is enough to build muscle. Not only will you be burning more calories, you’ll look better – whatever your weight.

There is my inspiration for getting to the gym this afternoon! I'm totally excited about the dinner I'll be making for myself later, too.... I'm taking Jenna's recipe again for Baked Tofu... if you haven't seen the recipe yet, check out Jenna's blog: http://eatliverun.com/

And here is a link to the baked tofu recipe: http://eatliverun.com/?p=2901

Catch you later - I'm off to exercise.