Thanksgiving and Workout Recap

I’m over here shaking my head in disbelief that we’re in December, the last month of the year – wow!

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful holiday.  It’s one of my favorites, not only because of the incredible and usually unhealthy food, but because I get to enjoy time with loved ones and remember how much I have to be grateful for.

Today I’m linking up at Wild Workout Wednesday with Annmarie at The Fit Foodie Mama, Angelena Marie at Angelena Marie: Happy, Healthy & Balanced, Michelle at Fruition Fitness, and Nicole at Fitful Focus!   Check out their blogs for some great workouts!

[bctt tweet=”Getting back to fit after Thanksgiving! #wildworkoutwednesday”]

Thanksgiving In Buffalo

I had a wonderful time back in my hometown of Buffalo with my family for Thanksgiving.  My brother lives in Virginia and my sister lives in Maryland, so we decided to carpool from the DMV up to Philly where they picked me up, then we drove through Pennsylvania and New York to get to Buffalo.  The entire trip with breaks was about 11 hours.  Oh, and my 5-year-old twin nephews were in the back!

My family is always excited when we visit, and we get the hero’s welcome.  My grandmother has been pretty sick this year, so it was really important for us to make it home so that we can spend a little time with her.  Thankfully, she was feeling okay during our visit.

Thanksgiving morning was the YMCA Turkey Trot that I mentioned last week  sold out before I could register…it was all for the best since the horrible cough I had would not have been suitable for running!  My sister and I stayed in a hotel our first night in downtown Buffalo, and we were just a short walk from the end of the course.  We snapped a few pics of people with great costumes.  I definitely need to do a turkey trot next year!

Thanksgiving was great!  The food was amazing, and once you see this menu, you’ll know why I have always loved this holiday:

• Turkey
• Baby back ribs
• Sweet and sour ribs
• Collard greens
• Macaroni and cheese
• Dressing (aka stuffing)
• Potato salad
• Corn on the cob
• Lasagna
• Cranberry Sauce
• 7-Up Cake
• Sweet Potato Pie
• German chocolate cake
• Pineapple upside-down cake
• Cupcakes
• Veggie/relish tray
• Philly cheese steak dip

Oh, and I have NO guilt about stuffing my face!

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After dinner, we played the Family Feud board game…so much fun!  You know, it’s a lot harder than it looks on TV!  The twins would get sad when they would get an answer wrong and we had a few tantrums, but we worked it out, lol.

On Black Friday, we didn’t do any shopping.  A few years ago we did the midnight at Walmart, which was fun, but crazy!  At night, we did get out of the house and hang out at Dave & Buster’s.  The kids played games, and I had a couple of cocktails with the grown ups…half price!

And being from Buffalo, I had to go back to my roots – my brother ordered pizza and wings our last night in town:  Pizza from Leonardi’s and wings from Mr. Pizza.  They were amazing!  No one believes me when I say that Buffalo makes the best wings in the world – and not just the hot (aka Buffalo) wings!  And I love the dough, sauce, and perfectly cooked pepperoni pizza in Buffalo…nothing in Philly touches it!

Overall it was a great holiday with more fun memories.  My brother, sister and I don’t spend as much time together as we like, so these moments are special to us.  I think we got some new inside jokes after our latest road trip!

Workouts the Past 2 Weeks:

Unfortunately, things have been pretty inactive on the fitness front since completing the Annapolis Half Marathon, and having an endless cold doesn’t help.  The good news though is that I’m finally starting to pick things back up.  I’m hoping to have a really strong December to close out the year!

Thursday 11/19 – Friday 11/20: Rest leading up to the race.  I started to feel sick Friday morning with a pounding headache and sore throat.

Saturday 11/21:  Annapolis Classic Half Marathon…you know how that went!

Sunday 11/22:  A COMPLETE day of rest.

Monday 11/23:  I forgot my stuff for Boot Camp Class, but it was for the best because I was still sore from the weekend.

Tuesday 11/24:  I really started to feel my cold come on, so there was no way I was working out.

Wednesday 11/25:  On the road heading to Buffalo!  I packed my running clothes just in case I’d be able to run a few miles over the holiday break.

Thursday 11/26:  Thanksgiving!  No Turkey Trot, but we did walk a little over a mile in downtown Buffalo, watching the race and getting nostalgic.  No running, and it was such a beautiful day!

Friday 11/27- Saturday 11/28:  Does walking around Dave & Buster’s count as exercise?!  That was my Friday.  On Saturday, we were on the road all day and once I got home, I didn’t do a thing!

Sunday 11/29:  Again, nothing but lots of sleep!  My cough was really bad at this point.

Monday 11/30:  Boot Camp Class!  It was my first time with this instructor – he’s really good.  We did a LOT in an hour, and I was a few minutes late!

• 2 sets of squat holds for 30 seconds (holding a large medicine ball)
• 2 sets of heavy ropes for 30 seconds
• 2 sets of 15 and one set of 7 squat lifts (on each side)
• 3 sets of 15 leg raises on each side (which KILLED me!)
• 5 sets of 8 presses (with 8-lb dumbbells)
• 5 sets of 8 flys (with 8-lb dumbbells)
• 2 sets of 15 rows (with 8-lb dumbbells)
• 2 sets of 15 one-armed dumbbell rows (on each side)
• 3 sets of 45 seconds of reverse crunches
• 3 sets of 45 seconds of sit-ups

Tuesday 12/1:  Core Fusion Class at lunchtime with Elga.   We focused on our obliques and upper abs for most of the class, which were already sore from Boot Camp! I also decided to do the 30 Day Abs and Squats challenge with Diatta from Femme Fitale Fit Club.  The first day called for 10 sit ups, 10 crunches, and 25 squats.  Phew!

How was your Thanksgiving, if you celebrate?  Did you catch any good deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?