Some good news and rambles

I made a new recreation today, and will be posting the recipe shortly! But first I need to ramble a bit :)

First off, I was very disappointed I didn't get to post WIAW this week. I had taken all my pictures and was ready to go post it...and our internet wasn't working -_- WTF cox cable >=| And then I was going to do it on Thursday instead. On Thursday it really wasn't working. But as of this morning, it just might be permanently fixed. For the past 3-4 months our internet has been on the shitty side. It would cut out randomly and then come back. Cox sent out technicians. The first one had no idea what was wrong so they sent out a more experienced one (I guess) who kind of figured out what was going wrong, but could not figure why or how to fix it. He did manage to figure out that if you went and wriggled this one wire outside, it would at least temporarily fix it. So that is what my love has been doing at least once a day. Until last week when it stopped fixing it. So this time Cox sent out a new contracted technician who isn't actually employed by Cox. Apparently he knew what he was doing and it looks like this good man has figured it out. So far today our internet hasn't cut out at all. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it continues this way.

Anyways, enough with that ramble. And on to this one, which includes very good news for me! So it's 2 weeks into the 6 week recovery period for which my Dr told me no weight lifting, and I kind of mentioned to my mom (who is a nurse) how I was sad I couldn't lift weights. She asked me why and I reminded her of what my Dr said. She responded with "What?! No way. You're definitely healed by now. There's no reason you can't lift weights". I sat there with my jaw dropped, staring at her. Really?!? Are you sure???! She told me that it probably took me a week to heal and there's no reason I shouldn't be able to go back to my regular gym stuff. At that point I had the hugest smile on my face. And as much as I love my mom and value her opinion, I couldn't just take her word on it. So I googled it. According to an article I found written by a Doc, she recommended taking it easy (nothing strenuous) for the first week, but after that you can start slowly working in your normal activities. At this point I was just beyond ecstatic and a little annoyed that my Dr was so off in what he told me. It makes sense that he was wrong though, because when I asked him how long I had to wait before doing weights and what not, he looked like he was searching for an answer and just kind of landed on 6 weeks. But I was mostly just happy! I could start actually working out again! I'm sorry but cardio/yoga/pilates just doesn't feel the same as going into the weight room. I definitely enjoy yoga and pilates, but I also definitely crave something more intense. So today my love and I went for a nice chest/tri session. It was wonderful :)

Also, I ran! For 2 miles! I used to run almost every day, 3 miles minimum. And then my knees started bothering me. At first braces helped. And then they didn't. So, much to my dismay, I stopped running. Which is a shame because I really do enjoy it. Every time I've tried it since I stopped sometime last year, my knees start hurting by the time I hit the 1 mile mark. Today I got to 2 miles and had to stop due to knee pain. I really enjoyed those 2 miles and was really sad I had to stop, but I'm just glad I got those 2 miles in. It was a reminder of how much I miss it though. I'm thinking about trying a different type of knee brace. I think the kind I have isn't really meant for my knee pain and I'd really like it if I could continue to run :)

On another note, I started school this week. So far so good, but the first week is always the easiest so that doesn't really mean anything. Ha! This semester I'm taking Molecular Genetics and Nutrition. Genetics is a required course and I'm really excited for it. I find DNA and genetics fascinating, but admittedly I don't know much about it. I'm sure it will be a challenging class, but I'm really excited to learn and I think it will be really interesting (plus it will definitely be useful for my job). Nutrition is not at all a required course, but I needed another class to maintain my part-time status and I've always been interested in nutrition. It should be pretty cool to learn about nutrition from a more scientific stand point. So I'm expecting to be a busy little Tuffy this semester, but I will just have to manage my time properly ;)

How upsetting

At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to post this on here...I usually tend to not share personal things very openly. It's not that I don't want people to know about things...I don't know I'm just not necessarily one to go out of my way to share it. But since this will be a pretty big challenge for me, I decided that I wanted to put it up here. 

This week I had to accept a pretty big (mandatory) temporary change to my workouts. I'm just glad it's only temporary. So I went for a short doctor's appointment on Monday before I had a minor out-patient surgery on Wednesday. At my appointment my doctor mentions to me, "oh yeah, by the way you can't do any strenuous or high impact activities or workouts for a while". My first question was "W-w-w-what?! Well what exactly can't I do? And for how long can't I do it?!". So he tells me that you know, I can't do stuff like lifting weights...or just anything that would be too strenuous on the body and proceeds to ask exactly what I do at the gym. When I tell him I usually lift weights and do the spin bike he says "oh yeah, I used to spin. You definitely can't do that". Well great. The only thing my workout is is high-impact and strenuous. And I can't do those things. What the hell am I supposed to do then?! He then tells me that I can do the elliptical and things like that and as long as it isn't strenuous he doesn't care. And when I ask how long? He says "oh, I don't know. At least 6 weeks". Well isn't that just wonderful -_-

Initially I was pretty upset. For the past month or so I've really started to get back into the gym and lifting weights consistently. I was just getting my routine down and really excited about it. And boom. For a month and a half I can't do any of it. The thing is, I know that this is the best thing for my health. There is no question I had to go through with the surgery and I know that I have to give my body time to recover from it. It's just annoying and aggravating (plus, there was one other restriction that was bad enough as it was...but then to add this whole wok-out thing just made it more annoying). 

At least I don't have to give up the gym all together. So, after being upset for a few days I decided that I would take this as an opportunity to do other things. I figured I'd stick to the elliptical, walking, or the stair master (this part I was never too upset about...it's the no lifting weights part that killed me). But I don't want to just do cardio for the next 6 weeks, so I figured I'd supplement it with a lot of pilates, yoga, and any other classes along those lines that aren't too strenuous. Luckily I actually do enjoy yoga and pilates...I would usually try to do yoga or pilates once a week before, but if I ever had to chose between yoga/pilates and weights I would definitely chose weights. So it'll be interesting to take on fitness from a very different perspective. 

I'm definitely excited to see any changes that might occur with 6 weeks of yoga and pilates...with my body, mind...anything at all.  They say that your diet is more important than the type strength training you do (or something like that), so I'm excited to test that theory out! With 2 yoga classes and 1 pilates class behind me I'm definitely enjoying it so far...I just hope I don't get bored of it.

With love,

Tuffy