Deck the Halls and Arms of Jello.

Holly Jolly Wednesday to all!

Half way to the weekend already! That means just over a week until I'm home for the holidays and I couldn't be happier!

That doesn't mean I'm not having my fair share of Christmas festivities here in the nippy 70 degree weather of Montgomery! The weekend was spent making salt dough and cinnamon ornaments with the roomie gang. It was quite the adventure with a spill full of cinnamon, peanut butter blossoms and a riveting game of clue! These artsy shots are curitsy of the lovely Ms. Herring.

 

 Peanut Butter Blossoms!

 

To get in the spirit, I decided to make a (of course) pinterest inspired craft to decorate me bedroom wall. With an abundance of yarn at my hands, I decided on crafting my own Christmas tree decked out in cards and homemade paper ornaments. Despite the fact that it is some string hung on a wall with paint swatch ornaments I think it's rather cute!

Crafty Christmas Tree (and no, those aren't nips on the floor!)

This weekend includes more festivities with "A Very Roomie Christmas" including the Polar Express, pizza, s'mores, and cocoa! Hooray for Holidays!

Now I know much like everyone else, the holidays can be a bit taxing on the waistline. But who can really pass up a glass of 'nog and gingerbread?!...Anyone?...Bueller?

In preparation, I've been trying to be good with the PA (physical activity) department, and sticking to my morning runs (first one this week tomorrow. Tuesday was a brutal 40 degrees out! = D ). I'm also doing upper, lower, and ab workouts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday respectively. Well let me tell you, today's upper body workout was killer. I took Monday off to go to a holiday dinner so I'm making it up of course! If you're ready to sweat and get a killer upper body take this one for a spin. All you need is a set of 5 # dumbbells, or if you don't have any use some heavy cans, or anything that is roughly five pounds. Like maybe a newborn, or a Yorkshire terrier. Can't say what may come of using these items, but to each his own...

Arms of Jello Upper Body Circuit.
perform each exercise for 1 minute, resting minimally between each one. Complete the entire circuit 3x through, resting 30 seconds between sets. for a total of 27 minutes of brutal arm work!

Wall Squat Bicep Curls
Side Push-up (30 sec. each arm)
Burpees
V Y's *
Shoulder Press
Mountain Climbers
Front Raises
Wide Rows
Plank Jacks

*I couldn't find a good video on this, so I will work on making one, but in the mean time you can perform Lateral Raises

I used an online interval timer to make it easy to know when to switch exercises, and added 2 minutes of jumping jacks and 1 minute of pushups for a total of 30 minutes since I'm an even number freak.
Let me tell you I had to rest multiple times throughout this workout which tells me it's effective! The addition of the cardio exercises get your heart rate pumping while working in strength at the same time. Double whammy!

Have a great rest of the week!





What's your favorite holiday splurge?