Tag: training

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?   

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!

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?

Tidbits from the week

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

Hello from California!!!!! I love when I get to come down and visit my friends and family! My goal is generally to come down at least once a year.

Here is my food from the week:

Remember I am on vacation so cut me a little slack lol. 

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Frozen mashed potatoes, restaurant cheeseburger w/fries, Starbucks tall non-fat, no-whip extra shot caramel frappachino, and for dinner a shot of vodka and a buffalo chicken salad. 

Thursday

Turkey burger at TGIFridays with a side salad after my friends graduation. 

Friday

Starbucks tall non-fat, no-whip extra shot caramel frappachino and an egg white, cheese and turkey bacon breakfast sandwich. 

2 cheese enchiladas w/rice and beans, chips and salsa, and 2 mimosas!

1.5 strawberry margaritas, half a TGIFridays chicken quesadilla and half of their pretzel and cheese 

Today was bad day lol. 

In non-food news:

Went for a little 3 mile run walk with the roommate Sunday night.

 I finished my first ever bottle of red wine and LOVED it! I didn’t open the bottle on Sunday though lol I had a glass each night with dinner for a few nights. But more about wine later…….

Monday was my last full school day of this quarter!!!! So excited!!!!!

Tuesday I went for a short treadmill run

I wanted to run longer but my back was killing me. 

Wednesday we had a cleaner come which I am so happy about!!! And i flew to California!!!

Thursday was my best friend Nicole graduation! I am so proud of her!

After graduation we all went out to dinner. 

Friday morning I met my oldest friend for coffee before she had to go to work. We have known each other since we were 2!

After that I went to lunch and hung out with my friend Chanelle

This morning I slept in a bit and this afternoon/evening I have a banquet for my graduate friend!!

Monday Motivation**June 5, 2017

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

Good morning!!!!!!!!

 

(Image from google)

Holy cow it is already the last week of classes in my spring quarter!! That went fast, probably because I was super busy but I was happy so that is all that matters.

Workout goals-3-4 workouts. I am going to have to work to fit it all in. I have my last day of classes and need to start cramming for finals as well as a trip this week so its going to be busy, busy, busy. But if I am smart about it and keep the amount of crap I eat on the trip to a minimum I should be able to pull it all off. Wish me luck and I’ll keep you posted!

What are your plans this week?

Tidbits from the week

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

Last week!!! Let the finals cramming begin!!!!!

Food for the week

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

What’s been going on this week:

Sunday was the BF’s birthday. My roommate gave me gift cards to take him out so we went to claim jumpers. It was nice to go out and really nice to not have to let him pay. I got to treat him and that was awesome so big shout out to my roommate who made that happen.

Since I’m low on money I made the BF coupons he can use in the relationship for his gift hahahaha.

We ended May,

22 miles, that is nothing in the running world but I’m happy my mileage is slowly increasing.

Tuesday I got a nice run in on the treadmill

Thursday the BF came over after work and we got in a little evening run together

It was super fun. Then I made us a super simple Bolognese sauce over fettuchini with some wine.

And we watched Bridget Jones Baby. It was a really fun and relaxed night.

The BF is out of town this weekend on a bachelor party camping trip so I gloriously did nothing on Friday. I went to my last lab, picked up the puppy, we ran some errands and picked up lunch then I sat on the couch with them and binge watched TV. It was pretty great hahaha.

Summer Hiking Series 2017: Silver Falls State Park

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training

Hola!!!!

Another hike down this summer! The boyfriend and I went to the very popular Silver Falls State Park. This is a state park that is a little over 9,000 acres. The two most popular trails are the Rim Trail and the Canyon trail, also known as the trail of ten falls. The canyon trail is super popular because you go by and even behind some of the 10 waterfalls.  I would like to do that trail at some point but it is SUPER busy because its not a difficult hike and all the waterfalls, but also dogs are not allowed and the last two weekend adventures had not included Artemis, so she was coming on this one, so we chose a different trail.


Never trust the bf to take a picture, it will always be of your backside. 

We did the Rim trail to the perimeter trail to the rackett ridge trail to a road walk for about a mile.

None of these were the trail we had planned on doing haha. We had gone there with the intention of doing the Buck mountain loop but parked in the main parking area (as I said it is busy and parking is limited. And didn’t know where the trailhead was from there. So we pieced together a route from the map.

We started on the rim trail where we saw maybe 20 people in 2.4 miles, not too bad.


Then we turned onto the perimeter trail where, after we made the turn onto the trail, we saw no one for the 3.2 miles. It was wonderful and I was able to let Artemis off her leash.

We got to the junction of the perimeter and the rackett ridge trail, from here the perimeter trail was closed due to winter storm damage so we turned on the rackett ridge which is also a horse trail for 2.2 miles. at about this point it crosses a side road and weaves back and forth through the forest and over the road. We chose to just take the road at this point and walk the just over a mile straight back to the parking lot because my feet were killing me!!! I had done a good mile increase this week and my feet had just had enough. This was also more than double the distance of our recent hikes so I was tired. Even Artemis was dragging behind us.

She passed out hard core as soon as we got to the car.

She was snoring in minutes. 

I was so tired too

Overall:

The rim trail; you overlook a waterfall or two with plenty of streams and waterfall runoff around you. Busy but not too horrible depending on when you go, hardly any elevation gain, small rolling hills, very pleasant.

The perimeter trail; sparsely populated, 1000 ft elevation gain, slightly challenging at times for me, piece of cake for the bf. In the beautiful forest, because almost no people you will walk into a lot of spider webs crossing the trail, spiderwebs: 1000 spiders: 0. There are enough small streams crisscrossing the 3.2 miles of trail that we did that Artemis had enough natural water, I probably didn’t even need to carry a water bottle for her.

Rackett ridge trail: we did 2.2 miles of this and most of it was down. This trail is much wider because it accommodates horses as well, it also wasn’t as smooth as the others because there were less people and more horses who used it.

Silver falls state park is well marked and it is easy to piece together a hike here with almost any amount of mileage you could want.

All in all I enjoyed this hike very much, though I was dying a bit by the end, and would recommend silver falls state park as a great place to hike. You can choose how difficult or easy and how populated or sparse you want your hike to be.

 Here are some fun stats curtosy of my Garmin vivoactive

Until next time, have fun trailing the blonde…………

Have you even been to Silver Falls state park? If so, did you like it?

Tidbits from the week

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

Holy crap only 2 more weeks!!!! I am so excited for this quarter to be over, I feel like I am going to be swimming in oceans of time. Next quarter (summer) I am taking medical terminology online so I am going to have so much more time.

Food from the week:

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

The bf and I also walked to baskin robins and got ice cream. 

Friday

 

Last Saturday my great friend was in town for the quickest of visits, she was here for a funeral, my boyfriend and I met up with her and her friend after work Saturday afternoon. When your friend is in pain and drinking it away and asks you to drink with her, you do. So I did. I don’t drink much and when I do its usually a glass of wine or something (though I will be trying more wine soon but more on that later) but I try in general to limit myself to 1 glass of whatever it is. I wasn’t the best with my limits in college and I don’t ever need to go back to that. Anyways, I ended up drinking 4 cans of Mike’s black cherry hard lemonade, this is how much of a lightweight I am now, I got drunk off 4 cans basically fruity beer hahahaha. We were at a golf course and ended up just staying there so I ate a hot dog. Thankfully I was in bed by 10pm because I had to be up at 5am for work. But those 4 cans were too much for me, I woke up sick at 2:30am and needed to get something in my stomach, I ate a pop tart. I was hung-over the next day, hence the Mexican food on Sunday and Monday. I cannot believe how long it takes to recover from a hangover now!!!! Like the whole week to feel 100% again. Anyways that was my weekend lol.

Monday I relaxed in between classes but Tuesday I got my butt out for a walk and a run. The roommate and I did 1.3 miles walking then I did another 4 miles on the treadmill.

Wednesday the pup and I got out for about 1.5 miles walking in between classes

Thursday I went out for a run and got 3 miles in. This run was quite tumultuous and will do a whole post on it in a few days. Beware for TMI hahaha.

Friday the BF, the pup and I went for a little hike. 9.4 miles. I will do a more in depth review on the hike next week.

This was a pretty big jump in miles for me this week and I am feeling it in my legs and feet. But I am excited, this is how to get back in shape and lose weight!   19.2 miles total for the week between walking, running and hiking.

Can’t wait to see what next week brings!

How was your week?

Did you get any miles in?

What is the best meal you had this week?

Runner Safety tip #3-Summer running

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training

Hi!!!!! It is starting to heat up here in Portland! The last 2 days have been in the 90s and we still show sun for a few more days (its a miracle!!!!)! With that it brings me to summer running. Each season presents its own pros and cons for running……except fall when its pretty much perfect all the time hahahaha, I am a little biased though as it is my favorite season.

Pros to summer running:

You don’t have to wear 15 layers that you want to start peeling off 10 minutes after you start.

Water fountains are actually turned on when you stop for a drink

Vitamin D

Natural tan

Cons:

You cannot take enough close off to cool yourself down

Feel like you sweat 15X more

Sunburns!

That is just a few for fun there are a million more, comment your favorite and least favorite things about summer running!

So, for the safety stuff.

Sunscreen is a must! I know we all want that beautiful golden tan, ok not everyone I know I don’t mind alabaster skin if it means no skin cancer. But when you are outside as much as we runners, hikers, swimmers, bikers and everything else are you need to take care of your skin. There are 3 major skin cancer types from sun exposure and the chances of getting them increase with sunburn so take care of yourself.

Hydration is key. When it is hotter we sweat a lot more. We lose water and lots of salt. If you don’t want to carry a water bottle plan your run near places that have water fountains or place you know you can run into and get water. Also remember if you are going to be out there for more than an hour you need more than just water, you need to replenish your electrolytes, mainly sodium and chloride. Take a gel or chew with you or mix a sports drink into your water bottle. For an hour or less I like 1/4 Gatorade to 3/4 water. The longer I am out the higher the Gatorade concentration gets and the more I bring gels. When hiking I love Cliff Blocks, tropical punch is my favorite flavor. Don’t let your salts get out of balance or you can literally drown yourself from the inside out.

Snakes!!!!!! I think this is dependent on where you are but snakes like to come out on roads and trails to sun themselves so be on the lookout and know what kind of snakes are in your area, especially the poisonous ones.

Allergies/allergic reactions if you have allergies keep a Benadryl or some other allergy medicine in your pocket (just 1-2 doses in a plastic bag) for emergencies. Also if you are allergic to bees or things like that plan accordingly when running, whether that means carting along an epi-pen or whatever. Just be prepared.

Heat stroke, this is a big one. If your core temperature gets above 104 degrees F or 40 degrees C. This requires immediate emergency treatment, not getting treated can cause brain, kidney, heart and muscles damage that may be irreversible and can even cause death. If you get too hot pour water over your head and sit in the shade. It is better to cut your run short or take a break in the middle than never be able to run again.

With all that, be safe and have fun out there!!!!!!

Tidbits from the week

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

7 Weeks down, 3 to go!! The end is NEAR!!

As I mentioned on Wednesday I have challenged myself to 30 days of no fast food.

Here is my food for the week:

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Smoothie, 2 corns on the cobb, half a homemade quesadilla, Lo Mein, homemade frittata on toast

Friday

I forgot pictures: Smoothie, a few bites of leftover Lo Mein, coffee and 3/4 of a biscotti, teriyaki burger and fries, a shared hard cider with the BF and pizza oh and a coke.

On Monday Artemis and I went for a little 1.5 mile walk in between 1st class and 2nd. I made pasta for dinner for Monday night and actually looked up what a serving size is and how to measure it. Normally I just pour the pasta in the boiling water until it looks like enough. Turns out a 2oz serving of dry pasta is 3/4 cup (I couldn’t find the 3/4 cup so I used 1/2 and 1/4 hahaha) and this is what I got………holy cow, I normally pour about 3x that.

Apparently I really need to start looking at my serving sizes.

Tuesday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill and walked about a mile with the roommate outside before rain and hail then random bits of sunshine shone through.

Thursday I got out for a very short run, I felt a little funky so I cut the run short.

Friday the BF and I went to a place called tree2tree adventure park where they have all rope courses and zip lines and stuff you can play on. I took a few pre pictures but cameras/phones weren’t encouraged when actually up the trees in case you dropped them. The courses ranged from 5 feet in the air up to 35 feet in the air!!!! We took a little road trip on the way there to make a day of it after I got out of lab.



I really thought I was going to enjoy this adventure but wowza. I like the little ‘training camp’ area they  had to practice on, mostly the practice was on clipping and unclipping your harness when going from obstacle to obstacle and I was scared but enjoyed the easy levels which were anywhere from 5-10ish feet off of the ground. It was nerve wracking but pretty fun…….they we went to the intermediate one which started at about 5-10ft off the ground and went up to 35ft and started getting a lot more wobbly and difficult. The first intermediate one was 8 obstacles and 2-3 zip lines. About half way through the panic really set in and some hyperventilating like breathing started. By the 2nd to last obstacle I was holding back tears and talking to myself, the world drilled down to a pinprick in front of me and all I was aware of was me saying: you can do it, you can do it, one more step, one more obstacle, you got this, its ok, you are ok , you are ok, you are ok, don’t panic, don’t panic, its fine. I got to the end of that last zip line with my feet planted on the ground and could not get unhooked fast enough. I put my head between my legs and just breathed. The BF was sweet to me, we bought me a coke because I was shaking and I sat down for 20-30minutes.



After about a 20 minute break we went to do the other intermediate course, I didn’t really want to but we had paid $50 each to do this and I knew the BF was having fun so I tried to suck it up for him and get 1 more course done. This course stayed a little lower than the other intermediate one but was more difficult in that there were more unstable shaky obstacles. And unlike the others which all started on the ground this one you had to climb a ladder to get to it. I started climbing that ladder and said NOPE! I need a few more minutes, I was still shaky.

After a little longer I steeled my resolve and said, ok there are 10 things total, just get through them and you don’t have to get back up there. I rocketed through that course and didn’t talk to anyone but myself, didn’t hear anyone, the BF said he fell and made faces at me to show me it was ok, I didn’t see anything, I was so focused on the next step and getting the hell off there. Once again I was almost crying by the end but I did it. Then I convinced the BF to do the 1st of 2 advanced courses by himself while I watched and walked the course with him. So glad I didn’t go that one, it was half zip lines which made it a little easier but the obstacles it did have looked intense and I was mini panicking just watching him do it. All and all I am glad I did it, and it got us out of the house and I know that if I am ever on the amazing race I can force myself to do the insane tasks but I apparently scared of heights. Which is funny cause sky diving didn’t bother me at all except getting nauseous because I had an empty stomach, but I loved skydiving. Weird the things that affect us.