Gym Membership & Acorn Squash

Monday night I decided I would re-join my gym.  We live pretty close to where I went to grad school, and as an alumnus I can use the gym there (for a fee, of course). It's by semester, and if you join mid-semester they pro-rate the cost.  So I paid $32 to use the gym, including classes, from Monday night through the end of December. 

I tried to hold off as long as possible, with just running outside, but it seems winter is getting close.  While we had crazy 60s temps yesterday, it quickly got cold last night, and now the forecast appears to be a high around 40 and lows at night in the mid 20s.  While I don't love running on the treadmill, I could use a little exercise-excitement in the way of group classes.

After renewing, I went to a one hour spinning class (maybe only about 50 minutes of actual spinning though).  It was my first time spinning since about mid-August, when my last round of gym membership expired.  I was able to keep up alright despite not riding a bike in the last 3 or so weeks either.  Luckily, my legs survived, and they weren't even a little bit sore the next day!


Monday night we finally used up the Acorn Squash that had been sitting on our counter for the last couple weeks.  When I bought it, it was mostly green with a little orange...now it was the other way around.

I preheated the oven to 350.  

Then I halved the squash with a giant knife.

And I scooped out the seeds.  

I put the squash face down on a baking sheet covered in foil (easy clean up).

I left the squash face down for about 30 min, then I carefully flipped them over to see how they were coming along.  The squash "meat" was still too hard when I poked it with a fork.  So it went back in for another 10-15 minutes face up.  I put a tiny bit of water in them so they didn't get too crispy.

When they were fork-tender, I took them out - put in a dollop of cottage cheese, and a handful of almonds (I couldn't decide between the slivered and the whole, so I used some of both).  Voila.

While the squash was in the oven for the half-hour period of time I tried some Yoga On-Demand.  I started off with some 21 Day Yoga Routine ("two dynamic yoga fitness workouts"), and tried to keep up, but stopped it half way through the 21 minute video.  The voice was describing the moves in a low and quiet voice, but speaking very quickly!  That's not good when you're re-introducing yourself to yoga and you can't SEE what's going on because you're looking at the ground.

It reminds me of how the Old Spice guy talks in commercials:

"Look down, back up, where are you? you're on a boat"  Yeah, that's how the first yoga video was, but a softer voice: "Now look down, put your hands on the mat, lift your left leg, look at the ground, bring your leg down, and bring your foot between your hands." Couldn't follow!

I instead found "Yoga for Beginners and Beyond, a 16-minute with a "basic flow sequence" and a "deeper lunar practice." The music was a little funky, but I was able to keep up much easier.

Then when the yoga was over, I tended to my squash, then ate it.