I’m a planner. I like to have a plan. A schedule. To know what’s coming up. On weekends, I’m better at rolling with the punches, but during the week, I’m all about the regimen.

Run. Blog. Work. Dinner . . . blog?

I never want to put myself in a box and say, “I have to blog twice a day!” Or even once a day for that matter.

Typically, I’ll do a morning post and an evening post. But now that I’m back in Michigan, and I have actual people to hang out with and talk to, I feel like I have less to say on the blog.

Anyway, my point is that I think I’m going to try being a “once-a-day’er” for a while. Or maybe not even every day. I enjoy blogging, and I want it to continue to be something I enjoy—a hobby, not an obligation. That’s why I’ve never put ads on my blog or switched it over from a wordpress site. It’s not that I think anyone that does that is doing something wrong; it’s just that it’s not for me.

*And if you read all that, thank you for listening while I noodled that out.

So let’s begin today with a little rewind to last night. In an effort to convert my dad family to my veggie ways,  I made Cheesy Stuffed Eggplant for dinner.

This isn’t the first appearance of this dish on the ol’ blog. When I visited family friends in Charlotte back in April, we had this for dinner.

Dare I say it was better than I remembered?

The eggplant is so meaty that you really don’t miss the meat! Even my dad who is perpetually asking, “Where’s the meat?” proclaimed that he would eat it regularly!

I think the trick is the combo of the meaty eggplant with walnuts and bulgur wheat. They come together to give the dish a lot of bulk, while fresh basil, zucchini and tomatoes keep it light. Healthy, filling and delish! Even though it’s a bit labor intensive (scooping out the eggplant, boiling it, broiling it, chopping the veggies, etc.) I’m keeping this recipe in the rotation for sure! None of the steps were hard, and it was totally worth the effort!

You might also notice that those pictures were taken outside! Yep, it was nice enough for a late September dinner on the deck! Yahoo!

We sat outside until it got dark, chatting and enjoying the outdoors while we had the chance.

After dinner, I caught Zooey Deschanel’s new show, New Girl.

Did anyone else see it???? I was LOL’ing all over the place. Seriously. Knee slapping and all that, too. Loved it! I’m glad I DVR’ed it because I’ll probably watch it again today. So freaking hilarious! Perhaps because it felt somewhat true to life for me???

This morning, I cashed in a Groupon I bought a couple of weeks ago to a gym in town. I haven’t had a gym membership in at least 2 years. It was only $10 for a 2 month membership, so it’s a steal of a deal. Why not, right?

Since SmartCoach had speedwork on the agenda today, I figured it was a good day to try out their treadmills.

I like it that the training plan just tells me what to do. Much better than having to dream it up on my own. The mile repeats? Well, they were hard. I kept telling myself—it’s only 8 minutes—but I still struggled through them. I did it, though, and that’s what counts! My workout ended up looking like this:

Good enough for me! Truth be told, I was a sweaty mess when I finally hopped off the treadmill. It was pretty much disgusting. I toweled off in the locker room, but I had that oh-so-attractive can’t stop sweating thing going on. HOT.

Yeah, might have to cut that out if I don’t want to be single forever . . .

Did you watch New Girl?

What’s your favorite meat-free meal?

Do you like following a workout training plan or would you rather just do whatever you feel up to?