GYM CHRISTMAS Days 6 and 7: No pain, no gain, and Taking Out the (Mental) Trash

I neglected to post a second time yesterday so today I'm covering two days worth of Gym Christmas activities.

Day 6: Turn Commercial Breaks into Fitness Breaks. Since we don't have cable, I just made a point of stretching and foam rolling during our ongoing marathon of Game of Thrones.

This Christmas, give yourself the gift of injury prevention. I highly recommend the foam rollers by Trigger Point. It hurts like you wouldn't believe, but it pays off. Day 6: check.

This morning, John and I went to the Christmas Pageant at my church because it is easily one of the most entertaining things I see all year. Little kids reading lines, pretending to be Mary and Joseph, carrying around a big stick with a donkey's head on it (to represent the donkey, duh), a kid dressed as one of the three kings holding a bar that said "GOLD" on it, just to make sure you know he's rich. It's non-stop laughs. Then the new rector invited the costumed children to stand all around him while he did communion and explained each part as he went. Note the kid running past the alter. He was dressed up like a horse and wandered around aimlessly during the entire pageant.

Today for Gym Christmas Day 7 I did Hazardous Waste Removal. For me that meant emptying all the trash in the house and cleaning up a bit because we're having people over for beer and board games tonight. I also decided to bake some Christmas cookies and chose a recipe for sandwich cookies. There's ganache in those cookies! Delicious. Also on the menu: French Onion Toasts from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (not shown).

For the more holistic aspect of hazardous waste, I focused on my dissertation. I have a great advisor and I was recently paired with a great mentor through the SMT abstract mentoring program. She and I will work together for a month or two while I prepare my SMT abstract that's due in January. She pointed out a few things that will dramatically change my project for the better. When something like that happens, it's easy to feel like the whole thing is going to unravel. But with a good advisor, it changes into something much more awesome. It also means I have more work to do. I spent some time today honing my outlines and creating a to-do list for the next two weeks that includes everything I have to do to write the fourth chapter, with new info in hand. Very exciting. It's nice to have an empowering day with my dissertation. Day 7: check.

Here is my GYM CHRISTMAS list now:

Go for a Pre- or Post-Dinner Walk.

Yuletide Cheer

Make a Game of Household Chores

Crank Up the Music and Boogie Down

Hazardous Waste Removal

Regular Water Consumption

Investigate and Share

Sneak a Work Out into Another Activity

Turn TV Commercials into Fitness Breaks

Muscle-Building/Strength Training

Animal Time

Seven-Minute Work-Out.