Hi there!

Hope every­one is enjoy­ing a lovely weekend!

I headed out to the gym this morn­ing after drop­ping my son off at his early morn­ing hockey prac­tice. I was con­sid­er­ing going for a run out­side but on sec­ond thought, decided instead to log the kms indoors on the tread­mill. I guess I’m kinda hes­i­tant about pound­ing the pave­ment, because I know my body (specif­i­cally, my hips) isn’t nearly as happy on the road as it is on a tread­mill. I must say though, that since I began tak­ing a yoga class once a week, my body (hips and all!) has never felt better.

I always knew about the impor­tance of incor­po­rat­ing flex­i­bil­ity train­ing into my over­all fit­ness pro­gram, but quite hon­estly, had never really given it as much focus as I should have. Thank­fully, I found a won­der­ful teacher, (Thanks Jen! Check her out at www​.neigh​bour​hoodyoga​.com ) who also hap­pens to be one of my spin stu­dents, and am lov­ing every minute of it. Every­thing feels looser, more open and prop­erly aligned. I’ve noticed it espe­cially on my long runs, when my hips and lower back would typ­i­cally start to nag at me. If you work out reg­u­larly, I highly rec­om­mend you search out a yoga class. Your body will thank you; I promise!

After my run today (nice 15k) and chest work­out, I decided to treat myself to a deli­cious post-​workout break­fast, baked pump­kin spiced oat­meal. Yum!

This recipe yields enough for 1 big serv­ing but you can eas­ily adjust it to serve as many peo­ple as you’d like.

Baked Pump­kin Spiced Oatmeal

Ingredients:

¹⁄₂ cup rolled oats

¹⁄₄ cup canned pure pumpkin

1 cup unsweet­ened almond milk (just 30 calories!)

1 Tbsp sweet­ener (your choice — honey, agave, splenda, stevia..)

¹⁄₄ tsp pure vanilla extract

¹⁄₄ tsp each cin­na­mon and ground ginger

¹⁄₈ tsp each all­spice, dried nutmeg

pinch of salt

Com­bine ingre­di­ents in an oven-​proof bowl and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 – 35 minutes.

Enjoy!!