Tag: update

Long time no post

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, homeschooling, kids, life, mini-farm

Hello! Happy May.

It has been about 2 years since I have posted. I currently have a 4 year old and a 5.5 year old. Both very active and very smart. Life is busy. I am home full time with the kids and we are homeschooling.

Recently we moved to a smaller town about 30 minutes from where we were living and are even outside that small town. We have just over 2 beautiful acres that feels like paradise…..the house, not so much. But you can’t have everything can you?

This is my view while I type.

I am hoping to start blogging regularly again. I will still be mostly a lifestyle blog. I will still talk about health and fitness; especially my fitness journey (nothing new there). After having 2 children less than 18 months apart the weight never really came back off. Currently, I am, deep breath, 185 lbs. and I am only 5’4″. I got really sick during my pregnancies, so it was always more just about eating than worrying about weight gain. Though I did gain weight. Since then it has been survival mode. Since having kids I have run 2 half marathons but have never managed to outrun my diet hahahaha. I am working on that. I did do a chest and triceps workout this morning and even resting my arms on the table to type this is starting to hurt.

Part 2 of the blog will be our life and anything that may encompass; travel, gardening, what I am reading, mom encouragement, and who knows what else.

Last, but by no means least, our homeschool journey! We just finished out first year with Classical Conversations and I love it. I will do a whole blog talking all about it. I will also talk about the homeschool philosophies I sort of adhere too and anything homeschool under the sun. We are done with our co-op for the summer but in the fall I will post about our weeks each week. I am working on a summer rhythm for us right now and once I have that nailed down I will tell you all about it.

If you are still here from before I hope this continuing and new content interests you; and if you stumble upon this blog now HI!

My daughters birthday party this past weekend. We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods and that is the theme she chose.

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!!!!

Life Changes and So Must We

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

Hi!!!!! I originally set this blog up to chronicle my journey hiking the PCT, AT and CDT but plans changed. While that is still a goal for me one day, my foreseeable plans have changed so I thought the blog needed a bit of an updated look.

My life is now about becoming a nurse, getting back into shape and turning our quarter acre plot of land into a little farm, or at least as much of a farm as he will let me hahahahaha!!!!

There will still be hiking, running and food posts plus so much more! I hope you will continue this journey with me!