December

It is a new month! Soon it will be 2009! I love pie!

That was a random burst of enthusiasm. I have so many things on my mind today, and so little concentration with which to type them. I love the beginning of a new month almost as much as I love the holiday season. Have I mentioned that Christmas is my favorite holiday of all time? I am already almost done with my Christmas shopping, have ordered hilarious Christmas photo cards, and am really looking forward to my long vacation later this month.

I forgot to mention yesterday that besides the family nonsense my Thanksgiving went splendidly. I ate some pie. It was delicious. Today my coworker and I weighed in for our holiday weight maintenance challenge at work and somehow I actually lost a pound and a half last week… I attribute this to working out hardcore pre-Thanksgiving, mostly. Also, clearly I did not eat as much pie as I should have. That 75-pound mark is so freaking close!

In other news, Shawna and I have started doing another fitness challenge through Elastic Waist. This one is called the 30-Minute Fitness Challenge: Holiday Edition! I didn’t really know what it was called, so I just looked that up. Again we are trying to do 30 minutes of activity for 30 days out of the next 36, with six days of 60 minutes of activity or more. This time I paid attention to the fact that I get six days off, and also I have already discovered that I am far more active than I think I am. I meant to go running while I was at my parents’ house this past weekend, but due to my horrendous cold (which is still sticking around) I didn’t go even once. However, I did do some hardcore cleaning for a couple hours one day, lugged boxes up and down the stairs for at least 30 minutes another day, etc. There was some activity while I chased children around and threw my tiny cousin in the air multiple times that I didn’t count. I thought I actually had one day without activity until my sister pointed out all the walking we did while shopping and I realized I could count that. Basically, that is cool. The sister also suggested I count my “high kick” demonstration, but I chose not to. According to her, watching me kick my legs in the air is hilarious because they are so short. It led to many demonstrations. Some while helping to assemble the white trash Christmas display in my parents’ yard—and yes, it does include an inflatable snowman and ice skating penguins. Hey, I should have counted that for my activity as well.

Also, due to the fact that I bought the 30 Day Shred DVD and have only used it a couple times, I am declaring that December will be my 30 Day Shred month o’ fun. I am going to see if I can do it every day for the next 30 days (paired with some other cardio like running or my elliptical or high kicking). I know I said I was saving it until I could successfully complete 100 pushups and was done with that challenge, but I really am satisfied with 76. It’s a much more unique number. How many people do you know that can say, "Oh yeah, I can do 76 pushups." In random running-related items, I ran the quickest 4.5 miles ever yesterday! I averaged just about a 10-minute mile even on all 4.5. It was sunny and moderately warm and apparently my body enjoyed the little break I gave it.

Bring it on, December!