It’s fall…. even though where I live it doesn’t feel like it! I cannot complain though because its absolutely perfect weather, especially in the evenings. I love taking walks at night when its warm out! And I am not looking forward to freezing my butt off soon…. but it is what it is.

Cooler weather allows us to cook up some warm, yummy stuff! We can use the oven and not have to worry about heating up the whole house – in fact we like that part of it! Or you can use a handy Toaster Oven! Which will save on energy. One of my cooking obsessions this past week has been roasting vegetables!!! WOW! Are they tasty, and so easy!

Here’s how you do it:

2 cups Vegetables, my favorite are: eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes, sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini and onion.

1 TBSP olive oil

Garlic powder, black pepper and salt 

1. Cut up veggies into small pieces. 
2. Mix veggies with olive oil and spices – feel free to add whatever veggies or spices you’d prefer! Make it your own mix!
3. Put mixture onto a baking pan.
4. Bake in the oven (I use my Toaster Oven) at 400 F for about 20 minutes (depending on how small you chop your veggies.) 
5. Eat by themselves, with hummus, with tofu or whatever meat you desire. Enjoy with any kind of grain you’d like also such as brown rice, quinoa, couscous, millet or even pasta! I have even just served them over some fresh spinach, and it was great! 

This dish is pretty low in calories and fat by itself. Plus its super healthy and definitely full of nutrients.

One other downfall of cooler weather is the non-desire to get outside in the cold and work out! UGH! Who wants to step outside in the cold weather for any reason!? Well, I have great news for you! Working out indoors, in the comfort of your home is super easy and I promise you’ll work up a sweat! I am a big fan of Circuit Training and do it probably about 2-3 times a week in my home… the other days I go out on a hike or run/walk in my neighborhood. I live in a pretty hilly area – so its nice to be able to have varying levels of incline in my workout, works my butt and legs real good! But for my circuit training I am working on my strength and that is great too! It also feels like cardio because it gets your heart pumping and makes you sweat like crazy, as long as you’re pushing yourself to your limits. I don’t really have any equipment, but if you do, feel free to use some of them in your circuits and mix up circuits as you please.

A great example of a circuit I do regularly is as follows. (work 50 sec, rest 10 seconds – Use any sort of interval timer – such as the Gymboss miniMAX Interval Timer.
Repeat this set of 6 exercises (cycles) 3 times (tabatas) in a row.)

1. Forward lunges (or walking lunges)
2. Plank 10 sec, mountain climbers x10, pushup x3, REPEAT
3. Leg lift scissor kicks
4. 4 pulse squats, 4 Full squats, REPEAT
5. Jack Touchdowns
6. Using the seat of a chair: 6 pushups, 6 tricep dips, REPEAT

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the above exercises. See, there are no excuses to not get exercise, no matter what the weather is outside. One cool thing about circuit training is you can do this with friends (like pictured above) and exercise together. Or you can even go outside to a park and do these exercises if the weather is nice! I know you can do it, and remember, have fun while you’re at it!!!