Let It Rain, Stretch It Out And Then Meet Up!

That's right. Bring it on I say! I'm at work and would rather get the rain out of the way today than have it rain over the weekend. If you're new to the blog, you might not know that my boyfriend is an avid birdwatcher. He's been trying to spot a certain owl for a couple of weeks now and keeps missing the bird. He checks the bird blogs and the owl always appears at this particular location either before or after he leaves. I want him to see his precious bird this weekend and I doubt Mr. Owl will come out to play if it's raining. It hadn't begun raining when I woke up this morning so I set out on my run like normal. I was happy not to have to wear a jacket! I planned on only running 4 miles, but I felt great and wanted to go for 5. Well, a few feet after I passed the point where I would need to turn around to run 4 miles, it started raining...heavy. I took that as a sign to be satisfied with 4 and head home. I ran a little over 4 miles in 40 minutes. I'm happy the rain came because not only did it cool me off, but it gave me a little extra time to stretch before I hit the showers. Stretching is VERY important.

Stretching improves muscle balance around joints and helps increase your range of motion. Stretching before exercise warms your muscles up and prevents injury. Stretching after exercise helps relax and elongate your muscles. It only takes a few extra minutes to add a few stretches like toe touches and lunges. Do your body a favor and streeeeeetch it out!

After stretching and showering, I made a bowl of pumpkin, raisin oats.

I mixed 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese, 1/4 cup pumpkin, raisins, and cinnamon. Pumpkin raisin oats has become a favorite of mine. I think I'm going to stock up on cans of pumpkin before they're out of the stores. That way I'll have pumpkin oats well into the spring!
I've got quite the busy day here at work and have to stay late. My post may be a bit later than usual tonight so I apologize in advance. Have a great day!
What is your favorite stretch?

*December Meetup! For those that are interested, there's going to be a healthy living meetup on December December 19th at 7pm. We'll be meeting at the statue in front of Fanuiel Hall across the street from the stairs to the Government Center T stop. The plan is to look at Christmas decorations and find somewhere to get our eat on! Hope to see you there! Feel free to email me with any questions.