Month: March 2018

March goal check-in

by Ariana Peters, posted in books, food, healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life, school/studying, training

PROPERLY train for and run a half, full and ultra marathon. Need at least 95 miles, Actual Milage: hahahahahaha less than 10 miles

Revamp my diet and STICK TO IT!!!!

Breakfast-juice and muffin or toast and coffee

I have been having awesome juice 4 mornings out of the week and am feeling great! My energy is increasing!

Midmorning snack- Slimfast or smoothie

Lunch- Soup or salad

Dinner- Anything I want as long as it is make at home

After dinner- tea or hot chocolate

I have been varying a little from the rest of this but I am eating small portions more frequently and I can feel a difference, it takes less food to get me full which is great so I am eating less overall I think.  

 

Get A’s in all my classes this year. Final Grade: I got a C, but I already addressed that.

Drop two clothing sizes, go from a 10 to a 6. Clothing size: pretty much the same but I am finally starting to feel better so I am on the right track.

Stop overspending!!!! Continue to not keep money on you, send $15/month to both accounts and put at least $50 in savings. Amount saved: $0 moving is expensive.

Take a few minutes every day to sit in quiet reflection, meditate, and do something spiritual. Continue last month’s 5 minutes a day and add in celebrating the new and full moon. Out of 31 days I did: about 5 min total unless you count 2 counseling sessions this month but that isn’t really quite or spiritual.

When move into the house, plant at least 3 plants each week. Number of plants planted: like 75 seeds started! and 8 actual plants planted!

Continue to work on and grow my relationship with Brandon. Continue to plan something every weekend and add in 1 night of cooking a meal TOGETHER every week.

4 weekend outings:

  1. We did a 2 mile run together 1 weekend which I count as a date because I LOVE running with him.
  2. Our date box night! which I reviewed a few days ago

4 meals cooked together: I pretty much did all the cooking this month since he is still slaving away in the bathroom.

Read 1 non-school book a month.

Books read this month: I have actually been reading a lot more this month and I love it. I have read the Tracy Crosswhite series on Kindle as well as a few others. I will try and get some reviews posted soon.

Date Night! Box

by Ariana Peters, posted in House/dating/life

I put on a dress for the occasion, nothing fancy, tonight was all about a comfortable night in. He wore pajamas hahahahaha.

Date Box is a monthly subscription box where (almost) everything you need is delivered to you in a box for a fun date night in (or out if they have arrangements in your city and you choose that option).

The inside of the box.

Kettle corn was one of the snacks provided in the box. I had a lot of fun popping the corn, though once it started popping it was really hard to get the sugar and salt in there without losing a bunch of corn popping out of the pan! I ended up only putting in like 3 of the 7 sugar packets which worked out well anyways, Brandon prefers salty to sweet.

Apple cider for a drink (we also shared a coke zero)

Caramel apples were a bust, probably because I have no patience to cook the sauce correctly and it is difficult to keep a specific temperature on an electric stove, so I did a little improvising and made a caramel sauce to dip some apple slices in, though I ended up not really liking it but Brandon dipped his popcorn in it to make it caramel corn hahahaha.

The completed (kettle)popcorn

Our final food spread, we added the corn dogs, they seemed to fit with the theme.

After bring up the playlist for the night (more on that below) there are a few “conversation starters” they were totally corny but I actually really liked them. They made us think about what we liked in the other person, what about with each other made us better, what we like about having each other as support. I think even though its corny it is good for couples to take a few minutes and think about that kind of stuff, even if you end of laughing at the answers.

We laughed and joked and had a good time. He even sort of posed for the picture!

Overall we laughed and had fun and talked a little bit so I think it was a total success, but to be objective……the caramel apple sauce was pretty crappy and I read other reviews where people had issues with it too.

The escape room game was fun and cheesy but way easier than a real in person escape room (we did one about 2 months ago). Brandon didn’t like how easy it was, I will say I liked that they had a website to go with it that kept you honest about the hour time limit to the game and gave some hints as the time went on. We might not have figured out the first clue without the hints lol.

I liked that a spotify playlist came with the box to “set the mood” creating a playlist would have taken a lot of time and if I did it on my free Pandora there would have been ads. The playlist was also nice and long, it consisted of 42 songs, more than enough to fill the entire night with music.

You do need a few things for the box so be sure to flip through the directions and recipes before you sit down to do it. Since we just moved in and haven’t fully stoked our pantry Brandon had to hit the store on his way home from work for the few last minute things we needed (like the correct oil to pop the popcorn in).

Overall for the price, around $34 for the box, I think it was worth it. Going out would have probably added up to a lot more than that and this was snacks and an activity alonf with some bonding stuff. It was a little cheesy for Brandon but I think he had fun too. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next month. (I bought a 3 month subscription) At the end of the 3 months I will evaluate if I want to do another 3 months.

If you would like to try DateBox here is a link for $10 off your first box.

*This is not an ad, I paid for the DateBox subscription myself and am not getting paid for this post.

Play Nice on the Trail

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Had to reblog this, I love all the right of way rules and the information in this post!

ultrarunningmom

Trails can be crowded, especially, in the spring and if there happens to be a waterfall somewhere along the route. Everyone likes to see waterfalls. There are dogs, runners, bikes, children, and hikers out there. And we’re all out there wanting the same thing, to enjoy the outdoors, breath some fresh air, and climb some mountains.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own enjoyment, that we forget to play nice and share the trails with others. I’ve been known to complain about mountain bikers and I’m sure they have complained about me. The weather is warming up where I live and the snow is melting, which means everyone is aching to get into the mountains and those first few sunny weekends will be busy with very excited mountain goers.

We can have mixed feelings about other people on the trail because we want everyone to enjoy them so…

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Monday Motivation**March 26, 2018

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

Image result for marathon motivation(image from Google)

Homemade mac and cheese, not the healthiest but we are finally starting to cook more meals at home then buy from a drive through so major progress!!!! I am using meal kits to meal prep while we are slowly building our pantry and still getting settled in.

I bought this and I am super stoked about it, it is protein powder, veggies and greens, vitamins and minerals, fiber, omega-3, antioxidants AND probiotics all rolled into one.

I am pretty stoked to start juicing again and add this to it!

At my healthiest I would juice once a week and make enough for 4-5 days, I would add a scoop of vegan protein powder and it would either be my breakfast or a mid-morning snack and I am so excited to get back to that!!!!

In the picture you can also see my girl scout cookies! I allowed myself one box of thin mints and one box of the peanut butter patties, though I may have to double that next year not that I am living with Brandon; apparently he likes cookies hahaha.

I am also super excited to try out these date boxes!!! Tonight Brandon and I have scheduled a date night, no working on the house or cleaning or anything, just couple time and I am really excited about it. For almost 2 straight months all our time together has focused on the house and I really miss couple time! Tonight we are going to do the bottom marbled box. I will do a review soon!

I will also do a review in a few weeks on all the meal kits we have been ordering for a little compare and contrast.

Oh and we got a 2 mile run in on Saturday around our new neighborhood!!!!

School+update

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life, school/studying

School is done and I couldn’t be happier. I ended with a C meaning I will have to retake the class to get at least a B which is what I need for nursing but I am ok with this. The last month of class I was sick and stressed and moving and so I let myself off the hook. I also have to remember that it hasn’t even been 3 full months since my brother died, my emotions are all out of wack. I am taking next quarter off school and feel great about it. This last quarter just exhausted me, I should have taken it off after my brother died but I didn’t and I know for sure that my health and well-being suffered for it. So I am putting me first and taking next quarter off. It will give me time to settle into the new house, which is currently still a mess, and settle into a new routine living with someone and commuting and all that. So that is that for school and here are more house and life updates:

The bathroom is finally starting to really come together! we have about 1/3 of the walls tiled now and even managed a bath yesterday which was AMAZING!! We couldn’t adjust the temp of the water because the spigot isn’t on yet so it was luke warm water coming out which we combined with boiled water hahahahaha, but it worked and being clean felt amazing!

We went for a short walk around the block on Friday morning, Artemis was very happy to get out of the house, though she is starting to settle in and spend longer amounts of time exploring the back yard.

Seed starts!!!! I am so excited about these!!! And I will probably have about 3-4 more trays before I am done! If even half of these survive we will have a GREAT garden and a good amount of food. I can’t wait to see how it all grows.

That is just a quickie update since I didn’t post on Friday. More to come tomorrow on Monday Motivation!!!!

House catch-up

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life

Here is a lovely picture of me from when I was in the emergency room with the flu. They take this stuff seriously now!

Moving this past weekend! Shout out to the mama! She has helped me with every move. She is pretty much a life saver.

Managed to get some meal prep in! Mojito Pork Chops from a Home Chef meal box.

Just ordered this since currently our mail gets left to the side of the front door or on the counter and days later we realize one of them is a bill. Time to organize!

The coffee bar is slowly coming along! and check out the pretty flowers from my backyard!

We planted our first tree! Yep that large twig is a tree, a pear tree to be exact. Hopefully in about 2-3 years it will start producing many pears for us.

We also got 1 fig plant planted as well as 5-6 raspberry plants.

I have biodegradable seed pot starting things arriving tonight so I can get my seed starts done and just plant the whole thing in the ground in a month instead of having to take them out of the starts for transplanting.

I can’t wait to see how my garden grows!

Monday Motivation**March 19, 2018

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

Image result for marathon motivation(image from Google)

Good morning!!!!!

This weekend I moved into the house!!!!!! I have mostly gotten over my flu and now life is all about settling into the house and getting into a routine……….oh and finishing the bathroom hahahahaha, that is extremely important.

My goal tonight is to get some more meals prepped. I had a Home Chef meal kit delivered last week (since I was sick I am just now getting it all cooked) and have a Sun Basket meal kit delivering today.

I also want to get some laundry done. We bought a used washer and dryer from the habitat for humanity restore. The washer works great but the dryer sounds like it has some screws loose when it is going…….though what did we expect for $60 so we will see how that goes.

Today is my first weekday making the trek, the morning commute wasn’t bad at all, I get to work early enough, we will see what this afternoon is like though.

Things are coming along with the house and I can’t wait to show you guys pictures!!!!!

Things that HAVE to be completed before next Monday:

I had 2 trees and a bush delivered and those need to get in the ground, some seed starts need to happen, as well as at least 2 runs! We are registered for a 10k this weekend but I don’t know if Brandon will want to take the time away from finishing the bathroom. We shall see.

Sometime tonight we are going to go over to his brother and sister in law’s place and take a shower! I haven’t showered since Friday, Tomorrow is my A&P final I will talk about that soon), Wednesday he has a dentist apt after work and Thursday we are having a date night! I ordered us one of those date night in boxes, I can’t wait to try it!

What are your goals for the week?

 

Moving update

by Ariana Peters, posted in House/dating/life

Last Friday I had a Uhaul all reserved and ready to go, I had friends lined up to help me move and then BAM the flu hit. Instead of spending my Friday moving I spent it in the ER with a 102 degree temp then I spent the rest of it in bed feeling miserable. I didn’t get back out of bed until Tuesday when I finally made it back to work.

So now the Uhaul is re-booked for this Friday, the only plus side about having to wait a week is that my mom is going to come down and help me.

Look for some fun moving shenanigan stories to come next week! For now I am going to finish work, get my head shrunk and go home and go to sleep. Well I do need to change me sheets tonight so my mom doesn’t haven’t to sleep in my fever sweat stained sheets.

Shout out to my mom who has helped me move EVERY SINGLE time I have moved! I think she has helped each of her kids move every time. My mom is awesome! For that and so many other reasons.

Monday Motivation**March 12, 2018

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

Image result for marathon motivation

(image from Google)

Wow what a week. I ran 2 miles on Monday and it felt really good!

Tuesday night I left class early not feeling good and had the chills. Thursday I left lab early feeling really bad and by Friday I was in the ER with a temp of 102 and a racing heart. I officially got the flu for the first time in probably a decade. I’ve been in bed since. I got a prescription for antibiotics which seem to be working.

It’s back to real life tomorrow though I’ll still be taking it easy.

Fingers crossed I recover quickly.

Check-in

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized
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