Tuff Athletics Pants Review

I'm so tired of buying new workout gear and it's not comfortable or don't work well or whatever. So I will now be writing about the clothes I buy and try to maybe help a sistah out? I lift weights, do yoga, cardio and run around with my two kids. I'd like to find clothes I can do all the above in. 

My first review, the Tuff Athletics pants from Costco. 

First and foremost, I must say I adore they are made in Canada. I love to support or local economy as much as I can, and a company that can offer a competitive price for workout pants and be made in Canada, good on ya. 

The fit. While I'm usually a size small on the bottom, These seemed okay at first, but within minutes of working out they seemed a little big. I'm 5'2" and MAYBE could have stretched these more to be pants, but I personally prefer crops, so that's how I wear them. 

The material is really nice. I love the funky print on these (mainly the reason I bought them). I saw black and straight grey too, if you're looking for something a little more basic. I couldn't see sweat marks on the outside. Yeah we all know what I'm talking about. So that's a pretty big bonus. There is a cute scrunching detail on the back too that's flattering.

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The drawstring is irritating. You either have to fold over the pant to use the string or have a bit of a lump from tying it up behind it. This is where I'm not super happy with these pants. When you fold them over, like many other styles of workout/yoga pants they sit way to low. And if you have a bit of extra's in that area that you'd like "tucked" in during your workout, this won't cut it. I'm going to take the string out, which is easier said then done. That sucker is in there. 

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Overall, not bad for the $16.99 I paid for them, if I can get that drawstring out. I would recommend if you are maybe in between sizes, go with the smaller size. 

Banana Cream Pie French Toast

I love breakfast. I love chocolate, bananas and french toast. So I made them into this amazingness.

Macros: 368 Calories, Fat - 9g, Carbohydrate - 47, Protein - 28g

Ingredients:

• Thin bun or Arnold bun. I use the Bakerstone brand from Costco at 20g carb per bun.
• 1/2 cup egg white. Equivilant is 4 egg whites. 
• Half of a 3/4 cup serving. So 6 tablespoons/62.5g. Whatever you use to measure.
• Half a banana. This recipe is 80g.
• 1/4 tbsp cinnamon
• Stevia. I use a chocolate flavored stevia i get from my health food store.
• 1/2 tbsp of Enjoy Life chocolate chips
• 1 tsp coconut oil for frying.

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1. Put the egg whites and cinnamon into a bowl.
2. Let the bun halves soak in the egg whites.
3. Heat pan on medium and put in oil. 
4. Cook buns on either side.
5. Soak the buns again in the egg and fry again. I like the texture this makes,
6. Mix greek yogurt and stevia in a seperate small dish. 
7. Slice banana onto the cooked buns, top with greek yogurt and chcolate chips
8. Enjoy every last bite!

*There will likely be some egg white left over in the bowl. I quickly just scrambled them up in pan and ate them to fill my macros.

It's a Lifestyle, Not A Diet

I used to be so sick of hearing this. It's a lifestyle, not a diet. Blah blah blah. But you know what? It's true. Although it doesn't mean it changes overnight either. I had a great conversation with a dear old friend today. It was about her wanting to eat better, take better care of herself. For health, for esthetic, for trying to have a baby. She's struggled with eating well and exercsing. Motivation and execution. She told me "eating better" and getting healthy just seemed like such an overwhelming task. Too much to learn and know. Wished it could be as easy for her as it's been for me.

It never was just easy. Still isn't. I never learned overnight how to eat well and exercise and so on. It started with learning a little bit at a time, research, some trial and error and finding what I like and don't like.

But I get it. That feeling like no matter where you look there is advice and then just as fast someone telling you another way is the right way. Eat breakfast, don't eat breakfast. Run a lot; don't do cardio. Eat less, eat more, eat clean, eat whatever fits! No wonder so many of us give up before we start.

I'm no expert, but it's also no secret I love nutrition and exercise. I even plan to start schooling to become a Holistic Nutritionist next year. So here is the advice I shared with her.

We took her hardest hurdle. Breakfast. She never eats it. Now I will side with suggesting it should be eaten. So I told her to spend the next week focusing on breakfast. Pre-make smoothie packs and put in the freezer, then pop them out, blend with milk in the morning and go. Gave her a vague recipe to follow and told her to play with until she liked the taste. But to include carbs (fruit), protein (powder we bought together) and healthy fat (flaxseed). And a bit of spinach for micronutrients.

I know she has struggled so hard, but I know she will do this. Because we took away the perfection of it. I said, eat what you normally would each week. Burgers after ball practice, beers on Friday night, hangover pizza the next day. Whatever. Just focus on the smoothies for breakfast.

Why not give her a meal plan to follow and say "eat only this"? Because thats not changing her own opinion on foods, not helping her know the "why?". Removing the daunting task of changing her entire life. Thats just it. Changing your life overnight won't make it stick. Bit by bit, day by day, meal by meal is how you change how you view food.

Something she told me she struggled with was feeling guilty after eating a food. My response? "It's just food! You ate it, so what. Forgive yourself and move on. Doesn't mean the rest of your day, week, month is ruined and may as well restarting the diet on the proverbial Monday. Get right back on the horse the next meal, if not, the next one after that.

Pushing through a diet or new plan isn't the way to change how you are with food. Gradually learning things and applying them that suits your needs is. It's not a diet, it literally is a lifestyle.

Best Ever Pasta Sauce

I had a nostalgic morning this morning. The babe was playing on the floor, singing away, the toddler dancing to a movies music, laundry everywhere, fog in the air crockpot out and pasta sauce cooking on the stove. Like being a housewife of times past. Actually made me think of my mother. She always wanted to be a stay at home mom. Cook, bake, sew and care for her four children. I feel lucky. Lucky that I get to experience this. That I kind of sort of get to live in my moms dream. Anyways...... on to my newest adventure of domestication. Homemade pasta sauce. I don't think I can buy jarred stuff again. This tasted so fresh and yummy. I got a recipe from Pinterest and it sent me to this lovely blog's recipe.  I shall be watching for more of her stuff I think. I basically followed her ingredients but I never completely follow a recipe to the dot, so here is what I did in modification (which isnt too much)

SAuce

Ingredients:

• 1 large yellow onion. Chopped roughly or in one of those cool pull string choppers from Tupperware and let your toddler do it. (Seriously her favorite thing to do in the kitchen.)
• 2 heaping tablespoons of pre crushed garlic (like from the GIANT jar you get at Costco)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 big can of italian tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 2-3 cups of vegetable stock (yay veggie friendly!)
• 1 bay leaf
• salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and sage

Preparations:

1. Soften the onions in the garlic and coconut oil inside the pot.
2. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf and salt and pepper. Let simmer. Her recipes says 2 hours, I did 1.5 hours, with adding more stock at like 45 minutes. (hence the odd ingredient amount) It was seeming very thick already so I added more and pulled it off earlier then her recipe.
3. Add the seasonings to your taste. I was tempted to add chili powder but figured I would try a traditional version first.

I ate a bowl of whole grain spaghetti with some sauteed red kidney beans and spinach with this sauce for lunch. So delicious. And toddler approved. AND vegan/vegetarian.

Once relatively cooled I put the leftovers in freezer bags for future use. Next time I will make 2 or 3 times as much for larger batches that will last a long time.

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