WIAW #3

Hello there! Whew, it's been a busy few weeks, between work and school...hence why I've failed at posting lately. I'm working on it though! It's still pretty busy, so this will be a quick one. Real quickly though, I want to just say that I really like the idea behind this WIAW banner. Especially because I'm continually striving to make good choices while stressing out from school and studying and what not. So here it goes!
Lunch:

Fruit, yogurt, and hot sauce!

 Bottom is just mixed fruit. For the first time this week I made a big bowl of fruit so that we can just take some as we want it. I really like this idea because fruit is always there when we want it with no work involved. On top is my plain greek yogurt. Within this past week I've decided to make the transition back to plain yogurt. Until I compared the stats on plain yogurt to fruit filled yogurt last week I never realized how much sugar is in the fruity ones! It's nuts! I'd rather just get plain and then have all sorts of options on how to flavor it myself. So today I added 1 tablespoon chocolate PB2 and 1 TBSP ground flax (+ 1/2 packet of Pure Via for a little sweetness). Yum! Plus my hot sauce for the concoction below :)

Butternut squash, green beans, and a veggie burger

The green beans and squash were left overs from last night. Just grilled up a veggie burger this morning while getting ready and topped it with some fat free cheese. Topped it with hot sauce at work...perfect :)
Snacks while studying:

Vanilla maple almonds <3

 I got these in my monthly package from bestowed. If you don't know about bestowed, check them out. They are an awesome company and I was really happy with my box this month. Hopefully I'll be doing reviews of everything later this month once I've used it all. Anyways, these almonds were awesome. There was only 4g of sugar, which seems really good for almonds that are coated with stuff. They were really tasty though.

Lentil chips

I also got these cool chips from bestowed. These were equally as awesome. They were kind of airy and had a delicious garlic Parmesan flavor. I'd love to be able to buy larger quantities of these.

Also, not pictured was about 30 grapes...but I think everyone knows what those look like ;)

Dinner:

Cucumber feta turkey burger, veggies, salad

I made these turkey burgers on a whim from a suggestion from my love. Shredded some cucumber, added 1 egg white, some feta crumbles, and seasonings. They were pretty good but I definitely plan on improving this recipe. On the side was just a veggie saute (cauliflower, sugar snap peas, bell peppers, onion, garlic, artichoke hearts, feta, and seasonings), delicious as usual. And just a typical salad.

Well, that's my quick WIAW for today. I hope you all had a great Wednesday <3

With love,

Tuffy

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 ;)