Month: June 2017

Question and answer

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training

Howdy!!!

Yesterday morning I went to a Bikram Yoga class with my roommate for the first time in…..idk probably 3ish years. OMG was it brutal!!!!!!!!! I remember going when I was in good shape and loved it and thought it was not easy but I didn’t usually feel like I was going to die. I had to sit down several times and felt nauseous through the entire second half of the class, but I will get better!!!

I went home and ate everything in site, took a shower then laid down and ended up napping for about 20 minutes before getting ready for work.

I love the concept of taking a nap but I always wake up feeling groggy and with a slight headache and it takes me FOREVER to fully wake up. But other people swear by mid-day naps, this got me thinking about the things people swear by and thought I would do a little question and answer session. I am going to answer some question and ask that you comment your answers as well!

Here we go:

Naps: for or against?

I am for them but not sure they are for me

Coffee or tea?

Oddly both. I will generally take coffee over tea most days but as I get older my stomach doesn’t always handle coffee as well.

Starbucks or independent?

Both but I heavily favor Starbucks. Because they are corporate they are very consistent, I know what I am going to get every time. I like some independent coffee places but most of the time they are not strong enough for me and therefore not worth the calories of the frothy drinks I get.

Your favorite color?

Some people have their favorite color play a HUGE part in their life, mine plays a moderate part in my life, its is green, pretty much all shades found in nature.

Running: people tend to either love it or hate it

Of course I love it, I just hate having to get back in shape.

Books: take em or leave em?

TAKE EM! 100% take up for me, I am a total book lover. As I get older though I am now going to book binge periods, like I wont read for 4-5 months then I will devour 5 books in 3 days. Though I am trying to fix that by making a book club with my friends on Facebook. We are reading 1 book a month. I have 3 days to finish June’s book and I am on chapter 2. But I can do it! hahaha.

What is your phobia?

Arachnophobia for sure, I hate spiders, they skeeve me out, but I am much better than I used to be. If push comes to shove I am usually kill one if there is no one else to do it and if it is small enough and on the other side of the room I will generally just leave it alone.

I also have trypophobia, which is a fear of holes, sounds super weird but Google trypophobia and tell me some of those pictures don’t make your skin crawl, also this phobia is not recognized as a true phobia in the scientific community. This is one I am definitely working on because in the medical field I am going to see all kinds of gross things and I cannot run away from them.

Favorite food?

Pizza hands down,  very close second is Mexican food.

Hot or cold weather?

Generally I would take cold over hot because I can always put more layers on, you can only take so much off when it is hot. I do get to a point though where I have been in the cold too long and am sick of it.

Ideal vacation?

Truthfully my ideal vacation is a little cottage on the beach, like an East coast, Oregon/Washington coast kind of beach, sweater weather. Going for walks/runs in the misty morning air, and lounging in the house the rest of the day with books and movies and a fire going. Having pizza and floor picnics, afternoon naps. Just super relaxing. For a whole week.

Hilariously, though this is my ideal vacation, it is also the vacation I have never taken. My vacations tend to be go, go, go. The closest I got was 2 days at my bf’s family beach house last November.

I can’t wait to read your answers!!! And if you have any other questions feel free to ask!

 

Monday Motivation** June 26, 2017

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

ANNNND it’s back to school I go!! One little week of relaxation and it’s back to the grind.

 

(Image from google)

Also enjoy this week because June is almost over!!! and we are now more than halfway through the year!!!! anybody remember their resolutions/goals, if so how are they doing?

My workout goal this week is 3 workouts!

Tidbits for the week

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, school/studying, training

 

Its been a pretty boring week for me, still getting over being sick.

I managed a 2 mile walk Thursday morning

 


and got together with my friend from my last job Thursday evening.

Did a mountain of laundry on Friday, and still have more to do.

Today I am back and work and this evening is my BF’s sister’s wedding. I am meeting the family!

Wish me luck!!!!

Monday my new class starts, medical terminology, I am pretty stoked for it, I have cases to read and try and diagnose and everything!!!!! It is online which will be nice. No more rushing from class to work.

I am also excited to get back to a normal schedule in my life this coming week as well. The first weekend of June my BF was out of town for a bachelor party, then next weekend I was in Cali, then I got sick. Now I am finally recovering. I am excited to get back to running and hiking and seeing my BF for more than 12 hours lol.

What does your week look like?

My 30 days of no fast food

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training

As you know I did 30 days of no fast food and it went great!……until day 30 hahahaha. I did really good the whole time, I felt great, I was working out more, making healthier choices. Then I went down to Southern California for my friends graduation and visited people. I did good and stayed away from fast food until 1:15am on day 30. We had gone to the awards banquet for my friends program and drank too much lol. Then we decided to go to a bar after the banquet ended any by 12:30am we were in desperate need for food and the nearest open thing was In ‘N’ Out.

I also made healthy food choices on this trip, even when eating in restaurants, for the first half of the trip, then the drinking started and the food starting getting worse and worse. When I got back I was past my 30 days so I had the fast food I had been craving during my 30 day abstinent stint. So I feel like a cow again, add in that I have been sick and eating gallons of soup sodium filled canned soup, I am bloated to high heaven.

I am meeting a friend for happy hour tomorrow to catch up, no I am not drinking, just a diet coke and a happy hour half priced burger for me haha. After that I am hoping back on the bandwagon and I am taking it a step further. I am not going out to eat unless someone has invited me for a social situation, in which case I am only allowed to order a salad, and/or a broth based soup (no chowders or creams!) Otherwise only homemade items are on the menu for me until I leave for the cruise mid-September. And no more soda! *Unless I am sick and its ginger ale.  (but knock on wood I wont be sick with all the healthy eating I am going to do!)

Special occasions are the exception, for example I am running a half marathon August 5th then heading to work and you can bet I am picking up a pizza on the way to work after that race hahahaha. My 1 year anniversary with the BF, I plan on us going out to dinner. Big things like that are the exceptions. (Mostly I am trying to turn this into a long term habit because I jump to the conclusion of eating out way to often).

I am going to try and do pics of my food again/still, but I am blonde and sometimes forget, also sometimes I am super hungry and just dive into my food and after I have finished go “oh yea I was supposed to take a pic of that…….would an empty plate work?” So bare with me. And as always keep me honest! If you see something that looks like a non-homemade meal and I didn’t explain it……CALL ME OUT!

Anybody want to join me on this or do their own challenge?   

Monday Motivation** June 19, 2017

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Woohoo classes are over!!! At least for a little while, now I can relax.

 

(Image from google)

Workout goal: 3 workouts.

I am still battling off whatever sickness this is. It has moved from my throat to my nose, sinus pressure and plugged ears. I still have a cough and my throat still hurts but not like it did. I have been taking nighttime Theraflu tea to help knock me out because I know the more I can rest the faster I will fight this off.

I am hoping to get in 3 workouts this week. at this rate I am thinking it will be 2 walks and hopefully 1 run. If I can get back on my feet this week the BF and I are going to run a half marathon on August 5th. I will keep you posted.

What are your goals this week?

Tidbits from the week

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, school/studying, training

WHEW! It is over! Finals for this quarter are done! Time to rest and relax!

And of course I am now sick. I don’t know if its a cold or what but my throat is on fire however my nose isn’t stuffed up so who knows. I spent the majority of Thursday and Friday laying in bed watching movies and sleeping and now I am back at work trying to talk as little as possible and taking lots of sips of water to sooth my throat. I need to pick up more throat lozenges but I can only have so many of those before they start to kill my mouth, too much menthol maybe, I don’t know.

That is pretty much what my week has been, work, study, finals, and sickness. Wish me luck that I recover quickly. I hope the rest of you have a great weekend!

I want to be a wino

by Ariana Peters, posted in food

Hi everyone!!!!!! 

Generally the only wine I have ever like was sweet wine, like the sweet stuff that males normal wine drinkers gag, total dessert wines. I probably get this from my mom because that is all she drinks. I’ve done a few wine tastings but without real guidance or good food pairings I’ve never found anything else I liked. 

A few weeks ago I saw a post by Monica on her blog RER about Weekly Tasting. I was intreged and I checked it out. I liked the premise of it and signed up. I really liked that I don’t have to slip anything or worry about forgetting to opt out, I have to deliberately go on the website or app and choose to buy that week. 

With your weekly tasting purchase you get your 750ml bottles of wine, a recipe card for a food pairing for each wine as well as a 10 min video by the sommelier who picked the wine and their pairings. And of course you get the expertise of the sommelier who is picking the wines and their pairings. 

I will say there is no way I can or would order the wine pack every week. Firstly it is a little rich for my blood and secondly I could never drink 4 bottles of wine in a week. I am not doing this to get drunk, I want to get better at some pairing so I would have at most 1 glass with a meal. Therefore it will take me about 2 months to get through each 4 pack hahahaha. I will tell you guys about 1 wine at a time probably every other week. 

This is the 1st wine I tried:

Let me tell you I have never said yum about a red wine in my life. 

I listened to the part of the video about this wine while I did my initial tasting.

I poured 1-2 is for a taste test as well as made a piece of sourdough with a little bit of pasta sauce on it because this pairs well with red sauces . 

I smelled it and sniffed for what the video talked about

I could smell most of it, but not everything, need to refine my nose more. It was very fruity actually, not sweet fruity just pleasant. 

Next I looked at the wine and the color (I did these two out of order)

I have no idea what I’m looking for hahahaha, maybe I will figure this part out as I continue 

Then came the taste!

I could actually taste most of what they said in the video and…….i like it!!!! I was pretty surprised that i liked this red wine even to the point of enjoying just sipping on it. 

After tasting it by itself I tried it with the pasta sauce on bread and it was good. 

That is my initial tasting! Now for the pairings. 

I made a spaghetti Bolognese with beef and bell peppers 

Delicious!!!

Stone fires pizza and salad.

It had the red sauce and the char that the sommelier talked about. Once again super delicious! Totally had this for lunch on a Friday. Day drinking!!!!! Hahahaha

TMI running post

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training

Fair warning: this contains bathroom content.

I thought about not posting about this being that it’s bathroom stuff, but then I thought: everybody excreats their waste and I’m gonna be a nurse so this shouldn’t be the taboo subject it is. Also I feel like runners will relate……and it’s funny in a horrible way.

I went out for a run a few days ago, I’ve been slowing upping my mileage but have been staying pretty close to home so I can cut the run short if I am not feeling it that day. This day I decided to go farther from home so I couldn’t cut it short.

At 1.5 miles I took the turn away from home instead of toward it…….a few minutes later I felt a twinge in my stomach. I slowed down and it went away. After it had gone away I picked up my pace again and by about 1.8 miles…..wham!!!! I doubled over my gits wrenching, it felt like my intestines were being squeezed.

(This is my uncomfortable face)

This was one of those times where it wasn’t if I was going to need a bathroom but when and how long I could hold it. I barely kept walking until the cramps went away then I walked a little more. At this rate I would never make it home in time, so I set interval timers on my watch to run 30 seconds then walk 30 seconds and so on.

Sometimes I had to walk longer than 30 seconds while cramps overtook me.

When I was about .4 miles from home the cramps hit worse than ever and I seriously questioned if I could make it home in time. I danced around at the intersection waiting for the light to turn praying to not have an accident.

I got to my street and kept the 30/30 interval going until I could see my house. I figured worse case scenario I could let my dog off the leash and race her home, even if I couldn’t make it I’d be pretty much home…..then I got closer to home and saw the long line of cars and all the people…..school has just let out, I couldn’t make a break for it because there were kids and cars everywhere……

I was about .2 miles from home when the worst wave of cramps hit

I actually had to knee down to the ground under the pretense of petting my dog to try and not die right there. It passed, I got up and made it in the house by about 2 seconds, I have never run for the bathroom so fast.

I think at some point all runners go through this at least once, though I would bet more than that in their life.

I am so thankful I made it home and didn’t go the way of Charlotte and Poughkeepsie in my pants, in front of like 200 people none the less.

Has this ever happened to you?

Credit cards shouldn’t be allowed until you are 30

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle

Warning: this is going to be a long, wordy post.

 

Hi!!! I have mentioned on several occasions how broke I am and one of the main reasons for that is…….my stunning credit card debt. I will go into more detail in a minute but here are some staggering things I have been realizing lately……I have not had a zero balance on a credit card since I first got one at 18. That is 11 years!!! I have been in debt for more than a decade!!!!!!!!!! I also pay $500/month in credit card bills!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did I not realize it was that much? If I didn’t have credit card bills I would be rolling in it.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????

Don’t get me wrong this whole situation is my fault and I understand that and am not making excuses. But I think there are some things inherently wrong with the way our society handles credit cards and what is ingrained into us at a very young age.

Not only do we have society telling me that we NEED all these different things, I grew up with a dad who bought what he wanted when he wanted and tried to buy some of our affection with things. Don’t get me wrong I love my dad and he was a great dad but no one is perfect and this was one of his faults.

I never knew that you couldn’t just go out and buy whatever you want, my mom was great and didn’t want us kids to worry about things so I never knew we were in debt or lived paycheck to paycheck or that my mom never bought things for herself because my dad was always overspending. I am kind of torn on whether I think that was 100% the correct approach or not, on the one hand I never worried about money and had a carefree childhood as children should but maybe it wouldn’t have taken me over a decade of digging myself a hole if I had been a little more aware of dads spending problems. IDK. Either way my mom is awesome so I lucked out there.

Society tells us from day one we need credit; want to rent an apartment? you need credit. want to buy a car? you need credit. want to buy a house? you need credit. It seems for everything in todays world you need credit, and what is the easiest way to get that, open a credit card the day you turn 18. And that is just about what I did, I turned 18 in April and by September I had my first shiny credit card with a $500 limit.

I kept my spending relatively in check and paid my minimum payment on time and after a little while that credit limit jumped up to $750. Woohoo!!!!! Still I couldn’t get into too much trouble with that amount, even maxed out the minimum monthly payment was $25.

Then the trouble started, my bank sent me a credit card with a $2,500 limit…….that is a little easier to get into trouble. It didn’t take me long to get both cards up near their limits, but I always paid the minimum amount required so all was well in the credit world. Apparently if you continually pay your bills on time they up your credit limit!!! Suddenly I look at my statement and I have a 4,900 credit limit! Sadly all I see is oh I have 2k available to me…….oooh that is a cute top I need that, oh I need Starbucks every day, oh Christmas presents for everyone! I feel like getting a massage and a facial, I am bummed out while living in the dorm and decide to go to 3 movies in a row and buy soda and food for each one to escape for the day. I’m gonna order a pizza and on and on and on it went. Both of those card have hovered within about 5% of their limit since a few months after I got each one.

Even that wasn’t too bad, between the two my minimum monthly payment totaled about $150.

Than about a year and a half ago I got beyond stupid. I had discovered my love for travel and thought I need a card with miles so I can get free airline tickets and use points for anything to do with travel, so I opened a 3rd credit card and the limit they gave me was stupid. And they had the “if you spend 3k in 3 months you get 60,000 bonus miles”, so I spent on anything and everything to hit that 3k and get those miles, and they did come in handy but I just kept spending and suddenly that card is maxed out and the monthly minimum payment is $300!!!!

I am in quite a bit of debt now and it is completely my own doing but I do think that maybe we should make people wait until they are older to get a credit card, until they are more responsible, or maybe limit the number of cards they can have until a certain time and definitely limit the amount of credit.

I also whole-heartedly think we need to teach kids budgeting and real life money management in high school. It has taken me over a decade to realize that I have a problem and need to change my thinking, but I am doing it and one day I will be out of debt.

About 2 months ago I cut up my first credit card!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be paid off by the end of this year, big smiles!!!!!! Obviously it is that small one but every dollar counts! Cutting up that card felt wonderful and horrible all at the same time, I felt like cutting it up was wrong, like I would get in trouble for doing it. It was weird but I am so glad that I did, because as the balance goes down I cannot recharge on it and that is so important.

I am not perfect and I still have days where I want things I don’t need and days when I buy something I don’t need to or don’t have the money for. I am a work in progress but I am quite happy to say that progress is being made!!! And I am keeping an eagle’s eye watch on my credit score and the credit I have available on that card because seeing the progress helps.

I am so lucky to have a wonderful support system (MOM) who has helped me start taking these steps and start learning that I can still have things but it needs to be responsibly and in moderation.

If you have gotten yourself into the mess I have or feel like you might not have control over your spending, talk to someone. Don’t let it ruin your life.

Debtors Anonymous | Official Website

http://www.spenders.org/about.html

Check out the movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic” they overdramatize it but I can definitely relate to a few things in that movie. Plus it is adorable.

Thanks for reading my crazy long post.