Day in the Life with GOODONYA
I’m Ruth, and I am a stay-at-home-mom and blogger. My husband Tyler and I live here in San Diego (is there anywhere else to live?) with our two daughters, Charlotte and Emmie. I write about travel, books, beauty, wellness, and motherhood on my blog.
I am SO excited to partner with GOODONYA this spring! GOODONYA is one of our favorite places to grab lunch when we are out and about in Encinitas, and I am *obsessed* with their mineral wellness products.
I’ll be guest posting here on GOODONYA'S blog, sharing some ways I incorporate mineral wellness into our busy routines.
One thing I’ve learned is that we don’t really get a lot of control in this world, especially as parents. I’ve found it empowering and life-giving to model a healthy lifestyle for my kids in a way that focuses on nourishment, adding things that make me stronger (as opposed to any kind of restrictive mindset).
In today’s post, I am going to walk through a “day in the life” as a mom of two.
OUR MORNING
5:30am: One of my big goals this year was to start waking up before my kids to get my life and mind in order. I am anything but a morning person, so this was tough to get used to at first–and that’s putting it lightly.
After about a month, though, my body finally adjusted to the new wake-up time. Now I genuinely look forward to it, that hour-or-so of peace and quiet while the girls are still fast asleep.
First thing’s first, I chug a bunch of water and ice roll my face. Then, I usually read, journal (I practice the “morning pages” strategy by Julie Cameron), and spend a few minutes going over my to-do list for the day.
6:30am: The girls wake up between 6:30 and 7am and crawl in bed with us for a while. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day. Now that we wake up before them, we have time to cuddle and chat with them before we all start our busy days–an unforeseen but wonderful benefit of waking up early.
7:00am: Tyler handles breakfast with the girls while I get ready to workout. Tyler and I switch off working out in our garage in the mornings. Our kids get a two-course breakfast (LOL): first scrambled eggs, and then oatmeal. In the oatmeal, Tyler mixes in flax seed, cinnamon, almond butter, and a scoop of GOODONYA'S Grass Fed Collagen. The girls LOVE it.
7:15am: Meanwhile outside, I always start my workout with a brisk mom-walk type lap around the neighborhood. This takes about 8 minutes, just the amount of time I need to summon the courage to begin my workout. According to every person I respect in the health community, your circadian clock craves early morning sunlight. And far be it from me to withhold my body’s natural rhythm!
7:30am: I try to fit in a balance of resistance training and cardio throughout the course of the week. On the days I resistance train, I follow strength workouts on the Peloton app. I love just “pressing play” and not having to worry about programming a workout that will be challenging enough–trust me, all of these workouts are challenging. I measure my progress by the weights I’m using and try to challenge myself to level up when it makes sense.
I try to end my workout with a stretching session every day.
I am actually training for a half marathon right now, so recovery is very important. I foam roll at least once a week and try to listen to my body as much as possible.
9:00am: My husband and I try to wrap up both our workouts by 9am when he starts his work day.
At this point, the girls are ready to get out of the house. They go to preschool a few mornings a week, so on the days they don’t they are always clamoring to go out and explore with me.
I’ll pack everyone up in the stroller and head to our neighborhood park, or–if I’m feeling ambitious–we’ll drive over the coast in La Jolla to say hi to the seals before hitting the La Jolla rec center playground (a GEM of a park, if you ask me).
Some days we hit the zoo, explore the botanical garden, or burn off energy on the walkway between Encinitas and Cardiff. The best part about living in San Diego is the fact that we can be outside every day of the year, and I try to never take that for granted.
At some point during the morning, I’ll fuel up with a green smoothie. I loosely follow an intermittent fasting approach to eating, and I always “break my fast” with a protein-filled green smoothie. Tyler and the girls drink these too. I LOVE the GOODONYA Collagen in these. I always give my kids a little bit of this smoothie in their glass/silicone straw cups. They love it too. Maybe I’ll share the recipe in next month’s blog post!
OUR AFTERNOON
12:00pm: At this point, we are back home for lunch. For lunch, I’ll load up the girls’ plates with fresh fruits, veggies, chopped up leftover meats, really whatever we have in the fridge. I’m a big believer that exposure is the most important thing in developing healthy eating habits. It’s my job to put a variety of whole foods in front of my kids for every meal; it’s my kids’ jobs to decide what they are going to eat from that plate. I have had to work really hard at surrendering here, but I'm starting to see each of their palettes expanding as they get more comfortable trying new things.
1:00pm: It’s naptime! Emmie is still napping consistently for at least 2 hours in the afternoon, and Charlotte does a little “quiet time” during this time. She reads, colors, and finds things to do around the house.
I use naptime to get some writing done, answer emails if I need to, or post on Instagram if I have something I want to post that day.
After Charlotte has run out of ways to occupy herself (I usually try to “ignore” her for 60-90 minutes), I let her help me with chores around the house while we wait for Emmie to wake up. We’ll prep dinner, water the plants, fold laundry, etc.
3:00pm: Once Emmie’s awake, it’s snack time: usually cheese and crackers or apples and yogurt dip.
3:30pm: If we don’t have anything to do in the afternoon and if Tyler can wrap up with work, we’ll head out of the house together.
We try to hit the sauna at our YMCA in La Jolla a few times a week. Our YMCA has an incredible childwatch program, so we’ll drop the girls off at “kids’ club” for 30 minutes while we go get a quick sweat session in.
On days we sauna, I LOVE to mix up some GOODONYA HYDRATE with my water before I head in. I love the formula and find it helps me recover so much quicker.
I always make sure to have the Hydrate powder on long run days too. I love to drink this in the afternoon as a midday pick-me-up.
OUR EVENING
5:00pm: Tyler and the girls play together while I make dinner once we’re home. They LOVE this time with him and basically kick me out of the room so they can get on with their play, lol!
I try to cook a healthy, protein-forward meal every night (at least during the week). We eat generally pretty clean: lots of clean meats, veggies, and healthy fats like olive oil and avocado. I don’t count calories or track my macros, but I do try to be really mindful of what I’m eating (unless it’s a pizza and Juneshine night in which case all bets are off, of course! Balance, right!?).
6:30pm: *Cue bathtime chaos.* We love bath and bedtime. It’s such a special time, even when the girls have gone absolutely bonkers.
Every night it’s the same: lotion, jammies, teeth, hair. Then, stories, prayer, affirmations, and songs. Bedtime is our chance to reset as a family, to remind ourselves and the girls how special they are and how blessed we are to have our family. We remind them who they are and how much we love them with every bit of our hearts.
7:30pm: After the usual rounds of negotiating, nth hour potty trips, and sing-song yelling a few preschool songs, they settle in for the night.
Tyler and I will sink into the couch, eat our dinner, and watch an episode of a show together–our ultra important “veg” time.
8:30pm: We try to cut ourselves off no later than 8:30pm. This gives us time to clean up the kitchen and wind down for the night.
I heard once that every successful morning routine begins with an evening routine. That always stuck with me.
We both LOVE to read, so we’ll read for an hour or so before we go to sleep. We always have tea with magnesium powder while we read. It’s the little things, right?
10:00pm: Lights out, unless I’m really hooked onto a novel (ha!).
