Tag: lifestyle

Goodbye 2023, Hello 2024

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, Holidays, kids, life, running, training, Uncategorized

And somehow another year is coming to an end. So many great memories:

My little girl turned 1
Lots of training runs with my babies
Fun beach trip
First half Marathon since marriage and babies
Disneyland!

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!!!!

I was a selfish idiot

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, kids, life, running, training

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?

Book review: Balanced and Barefoot

by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, books, healthy lifestyle, kids, life

I skipped through a lot of this book. Just sort of reading some of the section headings and a few sentences here and there. I thought it was pretty dry. But that could be because a lot of the information I feel like I already read in “There’s no such thing as bad weather”.

But there was a lot of good information and some very interesting things. I found it really interesting where they talked about how many teachers now have to tell kids no to so many things on the playground that they can’t do anything during recess. There was a teacher in New Zealand who decided to get rid of all the rules for recess and just let the kids go wild like they used to and they saw a bullying go down, concentration go up, etc

Another thing that was really interesting and I saw translated to our real life is talking about how kids used to play in the early 1900s and even late 90s and how strong the kids were because they weren’t restricted to what they could do on playgrounds or at recess and they were climbing on top of things, around things, swinging, and going crazy. I actually had a mom in my son’s gymnastics class, be somewhat amazed at how strong my son is. And how his gross motor skills are so well developed for a two and a half year old. And I think that’s because we don’t restrict his play. We let him climb on things we let him run around. We let him be crazy. We try and do it as safely as possible but we do not restrict or overly helicopter parent.

I do see how in America we have become more and more restrictive on what we deem safe for our children. And as a mom, I absolutely understand that it’s a balance between raining in my own fear and keeping them safe. We’ve also become a very litigious society which makes it so difficult for caregivers to give children that freedom to be children and run around and climb and jump and bounce and be crazy.

It’s overall I found it to be a very dry book and I skipped and jumped through a lot of it. But I think it’s definitely worth parents taking a peek at it and maybe doing the same kind of skipping, jumping, and stopping and reading where you are interested and skipping the parts that you find boring or redundant.

Weekly Workouts

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training

Sunday OFF

Monday- dirty 30 (21 day fix beachbody workout) and 2 miles

Tuesday- Yoga and extra stretching

Wednesday – upper body workout and stretching

Thursday – Pilates and 2 miles

Friday – lower body strength workout

Saturday – 1.75 mile walk ‘hike’ with the kids. Our first of many, hopefully, this season. This is mostly to get the kids used to it again. My toddler walked about half of it and my baby walked about 1/3

Total miles – 5.75 miles

Homeschooling

by Ariana Peters, posted in kids, school/studying, Uncategorized

My children are not school aged so I am not doing any formal schooling yet. But I am trying to foster a love for learning and put as many learning opportunities in our lives as possible.

We love to read

I bought a nature study curriculum called exploring nature with children that I am currently dipping in and out of for inspiration. When we are playing in our yard or taking walks I mention the seasons and ask about flower colors and flower bulbs and on and on.

The other curriculum I was introduced to by my friend Stephanie is by a company called Timberdoodle. So far I love, love, love it. They have curriculum for kids from 0 years old to a senior in high school. I don’t know how long I will homschool for but the state of public education in this country is scaring me more and more.

Farmland math
Working dates, seasons and weather

I picked and chose what I liked and wanted to start with. We don’t touch on everything every week but i try and hit 1-2 things a day m-f. The weekends are just bonuses if we manage anything because our schedule is different.

Threading is great for dexterity and motor skills
He LOVES these smart workbooks
Puzzles are still a work in progress hahaha
These 2 are more advanced and not quite as ‘fun’ as the smart workbooks so he’s less into them right now.
Bunny boo. He is supposed to recreate the example on the card. Eventually he gets it but currently needs a lot of prompting.
We also count chicken eggs and fruits and vegetables when they are growing. My 2 yr old helps me in the kitchen sometimes. I’m basically just trying for a wellrounded introduction to life and education hahaha.

I just love when they understand something, when they learn something new, and when he tells me something I taught him 5 min ago, 5 hours ago or 5 days ago. I love when she actually communicates something to me bub pointing or bringing something to me.

Come on this crazy journey with me!

4 weeks until the wedding!! odds and ends

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

Hi!!! School started this week but i will post more on that on Friday. Here is a little look on how the week has been going so far:

Someone gave me a donut filled with coffee creme and a rum shot hahahaha

Coffee is a must and energy drinks are making an appearance again, the first few weeks of a new quarter are always rough for me to get a new school, work, and study schedule worked out.

I am in love with those prepackaged salads right now!! This one is called sunflower crunch!

Brandon was out of town for work, thankfully he is back now, while he was gone she cuddled with me a lot.

working on a few wedding hairstyle ideas.

Fall is here!!!!…………Some days………. last week was low 70s and mid 60s this week is mid 80s!!

More snuggles

Morning Shakology!!!! i mix it with my coffee for the perfect breakfast….though it takes me some time to wake up!

Go a quickie run in Monday night after class

Followed by this awesome dinner!! Brandon and I shared the Cornish game hen. They are adorable but not that much meat on them, probably why it was only $3 and grocery outlet, still tasted delicious though!

AHHHHHHH! we hit the 1 month mark!!!

My sad sad attempt at taking a picture through the microscope of skeletal muscle.

Tune in Friday for more talk about school!!! WARNING: I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!

Transformation

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

It’s always scary to post these:

But it’s worth it cause I am changing my life!!

For the past 3ish years I have been steadily gaining weight again. If you have see the beginning of my blog I have struggled with weight for about 10 years. Originally I went vegan and hit the elliptical hard for 1-2 hours a day then went to Costa Rica and Peru and hiked the Andes.

That is so not sustainable.

Then I continued on, found a great workout partner and friend and trained for and ran my first half marathon and did some obstacle races. Everything was going great and I felt great so I decided to hike the PCT, I intentionally put on some fat thinking i was going to lose a bunch of weight while hiking for 6 months, which would have happened…….if I finished the hike. After a week on the trail I realised hiking alone for 6 months wasn’t for me. (One day I will complete the trail with a partner).

Again..not sustainable. And since then my weight has crept back up. For the last 3 years it has been steadily climbing, I might have pushed it down a pound or two here and there or stopped the uptake but I never made really sustainable changes.

Until now, I have found Beachbody and an awesome coach and I am making a lifestyle change!

A shake everyday, 30-60min workout each day and an increase in healthy food in my diet.

The weight is falling off and it doesn’t even feel like I’m doing much! I love it!!

I feel amazing! My energy is increasing! My outlook is getting more upbeat!

I absolutely want to get back to running eventually but thisbis key first, to get a good sustainable routine going.

Life is good!!!!

If you want more details let me know! I am always looking for workout partners to join my Beachbody accountability group!