Busy Satruday

Hi All -

Yesterday was a super busy day, so I was really pleased with myself for getting to the gym for a little over an hour. While I was at the gym I did my walk, jog, run warm up for 15 minutes to get started. Then I moved on to weights for 30 minutes (arms and legs) and then did another warm down on the treadmill for 15 minutes after. It definitely felt like a quick work out - but I was glad that I got it done with such a busy day ahead of me.

My mom came up to visit and to see Ben's parents! We all hung out a bit in our house before we started out on our afternoon of adventures.

During this time I had lunch, and I was definitely hungry after the workout at the gym. I had one piece of pizza that was left over from dinner last night with a glass of soy milk. I heated up the pizza in the oven instead of the microwave and it made the pizza super crispy and more enjoyable!

Before the pizza was ready I had a snack of some Rold Gold honey wheat pretzel sticks. They are super good, and not bad for you. The last time I was at the grocery store, I wanted to get one of my old favorites Rold Gold Cheddar Tiny Twists... but I looked at the ingredients before I put the bag into the cart. I found partially hydrogenated soybean oil on the list! Ugh. So, I went with the Honey Wheat pretzels and they are healthier, and a great snack.

Ben made his fall snack mix of candy corn and peanuts. I had a handful of those as well! Normally I do not like candy corn because they are soooo sweet - but the mixture with the peanuts really cuts down the sugary taste of the candy. It is quite a fun mix.

After we were all done snacking, we piled into Ben's car and started out on our afternoon outing. Our first stop was at L.L.Bean in Burlington, Ma. I had been so excited to get to L.L.Bean to get a new fleece jacket. I was disappointed that they did not have the fleece I wanted - but I just found it online. The one thing I was thrilled about was a new selection of athletic clothes I found at L.L.Bean! I bought two pairs of yoga / running pants and a couple of other things. Right now L.L.Bean is having a special, that if you buy $50 you get a $10 gift certificate! I will use my g.c. for my new fleece.

Our second stop was our all time favorite place Wilson Farms. We all had such a great time exploring the farm stand, the pumpkins, and so on. We ended up getting a few pumpkins, an egg plant, a few bell peppers, hot loaf of french bread, a cucumber, scallions, spices, cider donuts, and chocolate milk. Here is a picture of the cider donuts my mom enjoyed. I had the smallest nibble of Ben's donut, but didn't have one of my own.

Once we got home we fixed up some of the snacks that we bought from Wilson Farms. Everyone else enjoyed some Havarti cheese with dill, and horseradish with some of the fresh french bread (both things from WF). For myself, I cut up some of the green bell pepper, roasted red pepper hummus, cucumber along with some of the french bread. Here is what my plate looked like (after I had taken a few bites!)

Even with all of our awesome snacks, we decided to go out to dinner. I convinced the gang to go to Needham for dinner at Sweet Basil. This place is amazing. They make everything fresh - including their pasta! For some reason, even though I had my camera with me, I forgot to take photos of our dinner! Ben ordered an amazing risotto as an appetizer to share... For dinner I had chicken piccata and it was wonderful. Thankfully it came with a side of their freshly made pasta. If you ever go to Sweet Basil, we highly recommend the veggie lasagna, the handmade ravioli, chicken parmasana, and just about anything else - oh and make sure to try their fresh pesto - it is amazing!

Ok, that is my super long Saturday! Sorry for all of the reading. I will be back later to update you on Sunday! Until then, Go Patriots!

Monday - post work

So, after leaving work around 445 I got home at 515 or so....
For some reason, I was starving! Perhaps it was that I only had tomato soup and crackers for lunch (a slight lack of protein in that meal!)

Anyhow - I knew that if I was going to get to the gym I'd have to make myself a quick snack. Here's what I settled on:

Yeah, I know. The picture doesn't look too appetizing. But it was great - and it got me through my Monday gym workout. It was a wrap with fat free string cheese melted, half a roma tomato sliced up and some roasted red pepper hummus on top. I'm glad I had it around 5:30 this afternoon, because Ben and I didn't end up eating until 8:30 tonight.

So, like I said - I did manage to get to the gym today. I don't know about you, but I usually take it easy at the gym on Mondays. It's almost like rewarding myself for getting to the gym on the first day of the work week - because that is super hard for me to do.

I did a combo on the treadmill tonight by walking, jogging and running 2.2 miles in 28 minutes. Combined with my high energy walk this afternoon, that added up to nearly an hour of cardio. On days like that when I don't get quite as much of a work out in, I always remind myself that I take the stairs at work instead of using the elevator ☺

After the treadmill I did a really quick weight work out. I did 2 sets (15 reps each) on the calf rotary machine - it was a killer today for some reason! And then I did my arm weights (biceps) with 12 pounds each arm, 2 sets at 20 reps each. The weights went by quickly, and before I knew it I was done with my Monday gym workout and it was the best feeling ever!

I got home around 7:30 and started my tofu delight dinner! I've mentioned it before on the blog, and I can't take any credit for it because I saw it on http://eatliverun.com but it is my favorite tofu recipe and I make it every other week now, sometimes more often!

Tonight I also made broccoli and brown rice to go with the tofu. Even Ben ate it, and I'm not sure he would normally eat tofu for dinner.... bravo Ben!

Here is what my plate looked like before I started chowing on dinner...














Ok, well it's been sort of a long day. It's 10:30 PM and I'm going to head for bed to do some reading and hopefully fall asleep soon!
See you all tomorrow.

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.

Productive Monday

Well, for once I got everything accomplished on a Monday that I had set out to do. Work was a super productive day, which is always a good thing. The more exciting part of my day is that after work I went to the gym for 45 minutes, then went to the market and then went home and made Turkey Chili for dinner! (*Thanks to my friend Katherine for the recipe*) After all of that we also did one load of laundry. I love doing laundry during the week and keeping up with everything around the house. That way when the weekend comes you're not faced with having to do a ton of laundry and house cleaning - you can actually use the weekend to relax and do fun things!

Of course Ben and I didn't start eating until 8:45 last night, but still - I got it all done and the best part is that we have dinner already set for tonight and maybe tomorrow.

My goal for the week: to get to the gym on a regular basis. I don't know about you, but for me summer is the time that I tend to slack off on my "regular" work outs. Who wants to go to the gym when it's super nice summer weather?! I probably went to the gym about once a week during the summer. Of course I took really nice walks during lunch, played tennis with Ben after work and did a fair amount of bike riding.... taking the subway to work also helps. Have you ever realized how much extra walking you do when you take public transportation? It is a great thing!

So, yesterday on top of taking the subway to work and getting those extra steps in, I also took a 25 minute walk at lunchtime, and then went to the gym. At Boston Sports Club I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes and lifted weights for ten minutes. Of course, I could have done more cardio and more weights, but for a Monday I figured that was good enough. I'll be going back tonight and hopefully I'll be able to get a longer work out in. At least tonight I won't have to go to the store and won't have to worry about making dinner for myself.

I hope everyone is having a productive start to their weeks, too. I'll have more updates to come later today!

Cheers!