This book was great. It was a slower read because there was just so much wonderful information.
Whether you homeschool or not this is a great read to get you reclaiming your kids’ childhood. It was so great in reminding me that kids are only kids for a short time, and they (and you) deserve to enjoy every minute of it.
Sunday – 7000 steps minimum
Monday – run 2 miles
Tuesday – 7000 steps minimum
Wednesday – abs
Thursday – 7000 steps minimum
Friday – short walk/hike with the kids and friends
Saturday- morning hike /nature walk with the kids
Sunday – 4 hours of deep cleaning the house
It’s been a good week but I am wiped out tonight! My youngest has had some crazy sleep patterns this week.
Sunday – 1.5 miles run . 1 mile time 13:28, 2 sprints in the half mile.
Monday – 7000 steps
Tuesday – leg workout and 7000 steps
Wednesday – 7000 steps
Thursday – 7000 steps
Friday – 7000 steps
Saturday – 7000 steps
Well instead of going up in workouts I went down hahahaha. My husband was traveling for work this week and even though my mom was here to help me I was exhausted most days.
Here’s to next week!
Getting back to school and routine after the holiday chaos
This was our first full week back.
Monday
Tuesday
We did a pond study
Thursday – we studied spiderwebs
Friday
There was also gymnastics, a trip to the library, letter recognition, a little math and so much more thrown in.
The week went much smoother than I thought it would. We did have normal young kid tantrums and issues like that but the school part went great!
We are all still hacking and coughing over here though we are on the mend.
I did some small workouts
Monday – run 1 mile without stopping
Wednesday – run 1.5 miles ( 1 mile without stopping then run/walk)
Friday – walked 1 mile at a level 3 incline
Saturday – walked 1 mile at a level 3 incline
Hopefully we continue to improve and I can add more in.
This book had some very interesting parts! I’m glad I read it but it had a lot of dry parts. Like really dry. There were absolutely some parts I skipped and jumped over.
I do recommend all parents take a peak at this book to really see how important reading to your kids is. And spread the word to any parents you know.
And somehow another year is coming to an end. So many great memories:
I ran 351.6 miles this year, my highest mileage ever. I am very proud of that. Marathon/half Marathon training was a BIG contributor to that so as much as I would love to say I want to strive for even more in 2024 I don’t know that that is realistic. We shall see. We will call that a thought to keep in my head rather than a goal.
Unfortunately with all that running I did not lose a single pound. I will take a saying from a podcast I have been listening to called ‘Homeschool Together’ when they talked about their fitness and weight loss journey is “you cannot outrun your fork” And I literally did not outrun my fork.
I have two major problems that are probably tied for first place. 1) portion size 2) eating out.
My biggest not resolution or even necessarily goal, but lifestyle change for 2024 and onward is to really tackle those two issues. My portion control and to stop eating out, especially fast food.
My 3-year-old has discovered he loves fried rice from Panda Express and both my kids like most children love nuggets and fries from McDonald’s. So they are constantly asking for this. Well, my three-year-old is constantly asking for this. I say no a lot but even once a week adds up very fast. There is hardly a week where we don’t drive through someplace at least once.
My two big tools to help with these changes are my daily step goal and calorie tracking.
It is amazing how many days I don’t get over three or four thousand steps a day even chasing after two kids. So it’s time for me to start being really intentional with my steps and my movement. I started this about a week ago and I missed one day which was yesterday when I felt like death. Because yes we are all sick AGAIN. And both kids have ear infections AGAIN!
I’m not sure anybody enjoys calorie counting. It can be tedious, but honestly calories in calories out is how you lose weight especially in the beginning. As my weight goes down, I may focus a little more on macros and the amount of protein I take in and things like that, but it’s time to just put on my big girl panties and countless calories. I’m not going to be incredibly tedious about counting my calories. Like every single bite that goes in my mouth will probably not be tracked perfectly. But big picture tracking is what I’m going for so that it’s sustainable and honest.
I do have fitness goals like most people. It’s not so much about the new year’s resolution, it’s just the next phase in my life. Currently I have Beachbody on demand. I’m going to be canceling that before it renews I think in April because it’s just not working for me right now. 30 minute workout videos are difficult for me to get through with the kids. They are running around jumping on me which is fun and funny but makes it difficult to get a true workout in and 30 minutes is a long time to ask them to let me be at this age unless I get up before them. But at least one of my kids is usually up by 6:30 in the morning so getting a workout in and showering before they get up is probably not sustainable. I am going to try and look for like a 15 minute weight workout that I can do. I think that’s a much more realistic time frame for me. And I’m going to continue running with kids and without them. My current goal is going to be to get my mile time down and then increase the amount of miles that I can do at that time frame.
Because my running has been so stop and start since the half marathon between coming home and resting a little bit and ALL the sickness that we have had my current mile time with the double stroller, because I’m doing run walk intervals, is 17 minutes and without the double stroller the last time I clocked a mile I think I was around 12:40. I would love to get down to at least a 10 minute mile and be able to sustain that for about 3 miles and then eventually continue to decrease that. If I can get down to like a 9 minute mile that would be freaking amazing but I have to be realistic with myself too and see how it goes.
I will NOT be staying up until midnight tonight to watch the ball drop so HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
It has taken some time and reflection to realize how selfish it was for me to sign up for a marathon at this point in my life without fully thinking through the repercussions for my family.
I am not saying running races is selfish, or being a wife and running marathons is selfish or even being a mom and running marathons is selfish. Simply that for me, at this time in my life, it was.
I didn’t really discuss it with my husband before I signed up….oops, I’ve been married for 5 years and sometimes still forget I’m in a partnership now.
Running a marathon is a HUGE time commitment and can be a large financial one as well. Both of these were/are true for me. Currently I am a slow runner so my long runs took a LONG time. Meaning, we lost most of our Saturdays (during my training) to my long run, especially when you add in that my youngest (and sometimes my oldest) still needs to nap. This means we had no opportunities to camp or do any overnight trips this last summer.
Financially it was a big commitment as well since I chose a marathon in another state (my home state). I did use this as an opportunity/excuse to spend time with my family there but this meant plane tickets, days of extra food costs, and all those miscellaneous costs that come with traveling.
I am not saying I regret doing it. My husband was pretty gracious about it all. My kids got to see family and we as a family got to do an awesome Disneyland trip and make lots of memories.
Also, doing something for me is not selfish (that is not what I am saying) but doing something that impacted my whole family for a big part of the year…….was pretty selfish…..in MY case.
I love to run and will keep running, I love doing races too, but this isn’t my time for racing. That time will come again. For me and my family, this is the time for healthy fitness for me…..and lots of family fun together.
This coming year I look forward to lots of family camping and fun family weekend trips.
What are you looking forward to in 2024?
Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!!
The best laid plans..as they say.
I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and walked an additional 1.5 while the kids napped.
I was hoping to keep increasing my workouts and getting back to normal and guess what? Now I have an ear infection. It took 2 weeks of off and on pain getting worse for me to make a Dr appt. With 2 littles I just don’t have time to make superfluous Dr appointments, you know?
But when I couldn’t ignore the pain anymore I caved and yep! There’s an infection in my ear. So now after the colds we all had a few weeks ago, 3 out of the 4 in my little family have gotten ear infections, tell me they are not contagious again? Actually I am thinking whatever strain that cold was must really open you up to an ear infection. I’ve been on antibiotics for 48 hours and am just now starting to feel a reduction in ear pain. We will see how I feel come Monday for workouts. I’m also super tired though, don’t know if it’s the infection or the antibiotics or both.
Here’s to next week!!
How have your workouts been?
Trailing the blonde 