Thanksgiving Workout

Well, we are officially running off for the holidays! I am so excited about Thanksgiving FINALLY being here, I simply cannot wait. This year, my Mom will be staying with us and her room is just about ready for her. We had the guest bedroom all finished, but then, around 1:00 AM on Monday evening I decided to completely redesign it and move all the furniture around. Two days later and we have some really cute mirrors, floating shelfs, a new nightstand, new bedding, a simple and gorgeous pendant light the hubs installed (my hero), and we are down a dresser that there really was not enough room for anyway. I also found this awesome bed from Target and am waiting for Black Friday/Cyber Monday to order it. For now, Mom will make due on the bed she has :) 

Oh, and pictures will be on the blog when it is all done, promise!

Aaand, back to Thanksgiving, the rest of our family will be arriving today as well, but we will probably not see them until tomorrow. As for what we are cooking, I am doing this vegetarian stuffing, a quick and easy bread bowl of artichoke dip, Brussels sprouts, and a breakfast crustless quiche for our house in the morning! Ahh, it will be so fun! 

Of course, with all this massive, massive eating comes a workout or two. Yesterday I did a 1.5-mile uphill run-a-thon followed by a bum workout and today I am thinking P90X Plyometrics. The little workout guide above was on the Elf 4 Health Facebook page and I thought you would enjoy it as much as I did. Goodness, we could make a pretty fantastic workout with just following what we eat. Mine would include about 30 push-ups, 150 jumping jacks, a whole ton of squats (maybe mix in some Sumo and jumping ones), and more burpees and mountain climbers than I can comprehend. And that is just the first set. Seconds and thirds would be a sure thing. 

Happy Thanksgiving! What would your Thanksgiving workout look like? 

A Squatastic Wake-Up Challenge

Good morning! I hope your day has started off right! If you are still feeling a bit sluggish or the idea of conquering your pillow sounds between than conquering that to-do list, this morning challenge should help. I have been doing this challenge every morning for over a week now and LOVE IT. It is simple, quick, and let me tell you, it is effective. As you may have figured from the title above, this weeks challenge is all about the squat. For this challenge, you will be doing 99 squats in 3 different varieties.

Of course, this challenge can be done at any time during the day, but I find mornings to be best. The squats get your blood pumping and your morning started without feeling like you just ran 5-miles. Plus, doing this simple exercise in the morning will make it more likely for you to workout again later on in the day. And, for all you over-achievers out there, I recommend doing this more than once. That's right, try fitting in some squats throughout your day and see how it helps your energy and your bum. I did this a lot while we were traveling and it seriously helped me not feel so achy during and after flights.

July Squat Challenge

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Goodness, can you believe the month of July is almost upon us?! I have decided to make July my get my bum in shape month. How, you ask? Well, with squats, of course! In the month of June I did my fair share of squats and have already started noticing a change in those upper thighs and the bum area. There are tons of different types of squats to do and each work a different muscle. Most every squat will work the glutes, hamstrings, quads, inner thighs, and even our calf muscles! Working all these areas instead of the bum alone is how so many people achieve that gravity defying, bikini loving bum!

For July's squat challenge, I decided to go with one of the Fit Sugar squat workouts. This one os pretty incredible since it combines five different types of squats for an all-around workout and some serious boredom fighting. This one also has break days and gets us up to 200 squats by the last day!

Some of the before and after photos from squat challenges are simply incredible. Those alone, without even adding in the strength component give me reason enough to get those squats going! 

Tomorrow will be the first day of the squat challenge since it is the first of July and July 30th will be the last. I am so excited to start this challenge and complete it all with you! Happy squatting :D