Monthly Archives: February 2013

Big Changes

Date: February 16, 2013

Author: astottler

Let’s be honest. Most of yesterday’s post was me complaining about my poor eating habits. So last night, I decided to stop whining and do something. I wanted to do a complete overhaul of my diet. I wanted to start eating clean. When I visualized the places I wanted to make changes, and the ways I wanted to eat, I realized that what I was basically coming up with was a Paleo diet. For those of you that don’t know, the Paleo style of eating is based on the philosophy that our caveman ancestors were really healthy, and therefore we should eat like them. It is based on (more or less) lots of meat and veggies. The basic rules are no dairy, grains, sugar, or peanuts. I tried this once, a couple of years ago. I lasted 3 days. What got me was a Costco pack of fresh granola bars. Especially since I had a slight granola bar obsession at that time…

That is the Paleo diet as I am choosing to interpret it. Some are stricter, some less strict. When I tried it before, I did it hardcore, which also meant no salt, i.e. no flavor. So yeah. Not doing that. Before I get into this, let me just say I hate the word “diet.” I am not dieting. I am seeking a healthy lifestyle. And for the record, I don’t exactly buy the argument that we should eat this way because this is how cavemen eat. I think we have definitely made some improvements. However, I view this as a really healthy, whole food, nutrient dense way of living. My original plan was to try this for a week. So how was day 1?

I ate a banana before weights. Afterwards, I made a smoothie, and had a side of eggs and potatoes.

I went for half egg whites, and half whole eggs. My smoothie included banana, strawberry, watermelon (I don’t know what it is about these 3 fruits together that reminds me of cotton candy…), soymilk, blackberries, and some of my weird veggie mix chocolate protein powder.

(This is an old picture ignore the cocoa powder and peanut butter.)

This meal was….great. This is the first time in who know when that I didn’t finish my smoothie when I got full. I always seem to get super full and power through it, but today I just stopped and was done. No struggle.

Another note on the Paleo way of eating: in the book I read (2 years ago), it was The Paleo Diet for Athletes, and didn’t allow potatoes except for right after exercise. And since breakfast usually has potatoes, and I always have morning workouts, I’m good!

So here’s the big question. How did I feel? To be honest, after my first class this morning, I had completely changed my view on life and everything I’ve ever put into my mouth. I have never been so awake and alert in a 10am class in my life. For as long as I can remember, I always struggle to stay awake around this time. This year, I always attributed this to sleep deprivation. But here’s the thing. I didn’t get any more sleep last night. I got just over 6 hours. But I felt AMAZING. I could tell I was still tired, but I was clear-headed, as opposed to my usual foggy-head, struggling to keep my eyes open. I’ve always suspected that something was going on with my crash, because even on days (like Wednesday) where I got plenty of sleep, I still felt this way.

This means one of two things (or a number of others that I’m totally unaware of.)

1. I’ve been majorly spiking and then crashing my blood sugar.

2. Possible gluten intolerance? My roommate is gluten intolerant and talks about when she ate gluten she would be foggy-headed. Check.

Honestly, I have no idea why this worked. But I definitely want to stick with it. This seriously changed my life. I don’t want this to be a week long thing to clean up my diet. I want this to be a lifestyle. Also, think about how many more nutrients come from these Paleo-friendly foods? Let’s be honest; bread doesn’t do a ton for you, and it digests fairly quickly, especially in comparison to beans. I’ll be honest. These changes are not easy, and I’m definitely not perfect (more on that in a bit…) This is going to be one of the hardest things mentally that I will ever do, maybe in my life. Yes, harder mentally than a 6k test. But I truly believe that this will make a huge difference in my life and my body. To be honest, I have some pressure to clean myself up. I have another 6k in a month, and I need to get myself together and PR. And fun fact, I find it easier to push myself on the erg when I’m used to eating well and resisting junk.

By the way, I’m not sure I’m exactly buying theory 1, because by the time i got out of class at lunchtime, I was hungry enough to eat a buffalo, but I didn’t feel tired or groggy. So here’s Paleo meal #2!

Before lunch, I found myself craving real food. Vegetables, beans, meat. And I had an odd craving for watermelon. Who knew?

After lunch was when things started to get difficult. Of course I wanted a sweet treat, so I grabbed a banana with peanut and almond butter, which did the trick. Yes, I know that peanuts aren’t actually Paleo-friendly, but it’s a transition period! And yes, I definitely shouldn’t be eating them….

After browsing some Paleo blogs (gotta love the Internet), I realized there was a softball game going on, and one of the visiting teams had a girl who I played with on it, so I rushed to the field to catch the end of the game. I honestly was not prepared for the realization of how much I missed it. It was a little hard to watch, and I couldn’t help but wish I was out there. Softball is so much more my sport than rowing will ever be (sorry crew).

Unfortunately, I came back to my dorm craving sweet carbs (this seems to be a thing with me…) Enter banana number 4. To be fair, they were very small bananas! Well, actually I made some guacamole and ate that with celery first, then moved to the banana, which I heated up with cocoa powder, and ate with almond butter (Paleo friendly!). I guess it wasn’t exactly sweets I was craving as much as the texture of bread, This was a major issue for me the first time I tried Paleo as well. I then mixed up some cocoa powder, coconut oil, a little honey, and coconut for a delicious treat. My skin is going to hate me. It’s actually bad, I’ve made several banana mixtures that I’ve eaten with nut butter and coconut, and thought “How many things that Aurora is allergic to can I fit into this tiny cup?” I later had a giant Fugi apple with peanut butter (gosh this stuff is so good) and whipped up a little more coconut mix. Unfortunately, this was right before Spin, but it didn’t haunt me too much. One thing I did notice though. I hate snacks, because they usually give me a stomach ache (but I eat them anyways). No stomach ache this time, just fullness. Awesome!

After Spin, I headed out to dinner, even though I wasn’t terribly. hungry. I figured some veggies could do me good!

Baked tilapia, whipped sweet potatoes (SO GOOD), and roasted veggies.

I’m not going to lie, I had a major Paleo hiccup post dinner. But I’m not going to go into that, so I can move on and focus on tomorrow!

Overall, I’m viewing today as a transition day. I ended up eating quite a bit overall, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get used to something new. I need my crutches! My goal for tomorrow is to offer my skin some mercy and avoid coconut and other nuts. I think it’s doable; I’ve got some awesome meals to look forward to, which always helps! And guess what else I get to do?

I get to visit this guy! That’s right, I’m going home over the long weekend! I have a feeling that more appetizing foods/more fruits than just bananas will make my whole Paleo transition a little easier. Have a great weekend everyone! Happy eating!

Happy Valentine’s Day everybody! Is anybody doing anything special? I have a dinner with “39 of my sisters” as my coach likes to say. Instead of our usual on the water afternoon practice, we’re heading out to the beach for a run and then a team dinner. It’s always nice to get a break from the routine!

Long time no post though, right? I have tons of food to catch you guys up on, so I’ll just go over some highlights here in a minute. But first. Why haven’t I been posting? SO much work this week! Why does it feel like every week is such a hard week? Oh, that’s right, ROWING. Also, I haven’t exactly felt like posting because, well, I haven’t really been eating too well. And then this wouldn’t be a “healthy living blog,” it would just be a food blog, or, a junk food blog. To be perfectly honest, I’ve had a lot of difficulty eating well since the holidays. It’s been really hard for me to get back on track! And lack of sleep definitely isn’t helping matters…Does anyone have any tips for getting back on track? I’ve currently ditched all sweet items in my dorm room, as well as (most) nuts.

So how are my allergies? My skin was clearing way up…but here’s the weird thing. I replaced the nuts in my diet for a ton of coconut (yeah, I know, not the best strategy…) and my skin went downhill again. So what am I allergic to? This is really odd. I broke down yesterday and had a granola bar as well, so that probably doesn’t help matters….

Being the awesome person that I am, I wanted to do a little test for my allergies that I was pretty sure wouldn’t work (it didn’t). I put a little coconut butter on one side of my face, and a little peanut butter on the other side. I wanted to see if it would cause a breakout. It didn’t. But it was only on for like an hour (yes, I walked around with pb on my face for an hour…I’m pretty cool) and I didn’t really expect to see many results.

Ok, I will go through all the food in a bit (I don’t have my connector cable with me now, I’m between classes), but first let’s talk about this morning. I had a 6k test! For those of you who do not know, this is the most painful thing in rowing. It is basically 6000 meters on the rowing machine at an all out effort. This was only my 3rd 6k test, and I was really expecting to see a lot of improvement in my time and PR. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, which I was pretty disappointed about, Given the fact that I’m fairly new to rowing, I really should be PRing more. My fastest 6k was my first one! At least this was faster than my last one, but still, it’s frustrating. This does make me wonder though; if I had better nutrition, would I have been able to PR? To be perfectly honest, I put on some weight since my first 6k test, and I’m thinking this could be seriously slowing me down. So now I have a new motivation to eat well! And I have a new plan. I have the tendency to reward myself with sweets: for doing something well, for a hard workout, for a good grade. So my new idea is to reward myself with peanut butter. That way, I will get to enjoy a reasonable amount of peanut butter and still feel like I’ve gotten that little reward. So instead of waffles, I can have a scoop of peanut butter on my oatmeal! This morning after my 6k? I made my favorite ever smoothie! Peanut butter and banana! Sidenote: I know that you’re supposed to remove the banana peel before freezing bananas. I just never thought about why. I was planning on this smoothie post workout so I popped a banana in the freezer last night so it would be really awesome. But I was in a hurry and just tossed the whole thing in. Yeahh that was not the best idea. In case anyone is curious, the reason it is bad is because it is impossible to peel (you probably figured this out). However, I was very determined. I wanted my smoothie, dang it! So I persevered. Here’s the recipe, it’s super simple!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana

1/2 c skim milk (or more if your blender is not powerful enough to blend)

1-2 T peanut butter to taste

Add to a blender (break up the banana as much as possible for easier blending).
Blend. Enjoy

So simple! The longer you blend it, the fluffier it gets! I don’t think I’d ever had one of these smoothies with a freshly frozen banana before, so it was extra frosty!

Well, this is a great transition into the food portion! Before my erg test, I had a slice of Banana Bread and a little milk.

After, to go along with my smoothie, I had half a whole wheat english muffin with cream cheese and egg scramble/egg whites. Plus like 1/3 of a pancake with syrup. I didn’t take a picture of this because my plate didn’t look very good. After my banana massacre…

But I did get some pictures of lunch! I ate an early lunch (around 11) because I was getting a little hungry, and my legs were starting to burn from this morning. Plus, who can sit in a cafe and work with food that close?

I decided on a chicken pesto sandwich, plus a bran muffin. I figured the bran muffin was a little treat, but definitely a step up nutritionally from last week’s giant apple fritter. Plus, it would not make me feel gross, especially on a 60 minute run!

No picture from dinner though! The beach run with my team was fun (well, as fun as running on sand can be…), but I ended up getting my feet and therefore running shoes soaked and sandy! So much for a Friday run! Our coaches brought us chocolate and apple cider for a toast post-workout at the beach before we headed out to dinner.

Dinner was a fun experience but the restaurant was frustrating. It was a seafood place, and they were out of every fish except for maybe one kind, as well as steak, and garlic bread. Plus, they ended up messing up our order, such that my table got our food at least half an hour after the other table. Luckily, I had nothing to rush back to do! I enjoyed a chicken casaer salad.

Back at my dorm, I went to Late-Night Dining with my friend to get a warm, gooey giant cookie. We have meal plan dollars that come with our weekly meal plan, which let you buy things from other places, like late night. I almost never go to late night, which is where most people use them up (yeahhh morning practice!). The quarter is already more than half over, and only a small portion of the meal plan dollars carry over. I realized I could buy 97 more giant cookies this quarter! That’s over 3 a night! Yesss. Haha, don’t worry, I won’t do that! But finally, let’s play catch-up on food!

Ok, I need to comment on this one. This was one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Like ever. I brought back some fresh tomato salsa from Saturday’s Mexican brunch in a tubberware, and I had the genius idea to mix it with some salt, pepper, and avocado! This is seriously the best guacamole I’ve ever had. I ate it with celery sticks. I’ve made this multiple times and just cannot get over it. At home, whenever we would get fresh salsa, we would never finish it. Ohh how naive I was. This mixture is awesome, and super easy! This is my banana mix with regular cocoa powder, instead of dark cocoa powder. It is completely different! Maybe fruittier? Topped with unsweetened coconut.

These are the coconut truffles I made the other day. Yes, I was too lazy to actually make them balls. All they have in them is coconut (unsweetened), baker’s chocolate, coconut oil, and then they are rolled in cocoa powder. I actually started eating these in the morning before my workouts in hopes the caffeine in the chocolate would wake me up a little bit!The biggest reason for this photo dump is that I seriously was planning on blogging, so I took the pictures, and I don’t want them to go to waste!

Another attempt at a healthy mug cake. This one actually worked out, but for some reason it exploded from the bottom…getting mug cake ALLLL over the microwave. This had banana, liquid egg whites, vanilla protein powder, cocoa powder, whole wheat pastry flower, a bit of dextrose, and some of my crumbled up truffles as chocolate chips. Not bad! I actually made this one other time, and it was pretty good as well! It would be 1000x better with real chocolate chips.

This is me realizing I could make awesome French Toast in the microwave. European style bread soaked in egg white, vanilla, and cinnamon.

My first post-peanut butter attempt at Banana Oatmeal. I topped it with blueberries and coconut. Not too shabby!I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get this veggie sandwich for its massive amounts of avocado. This thing might have had 2 avocados on it. It was crazy, I don;t even think I was able to eat all the avocado!Mug cake number 2! Way better/less messy attempt! Although it was close to popping…there was a giant air bubble on the bottom!

And now I leave you with one more picture. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Real Food

Date: February 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

As promised, today’s post has an actual subject. That’s right, real food. But first, I’ll go through my day pretty quickly.

I drove 20 minutes to one of my home gyms for a Spin class. Before Spin, I had a piece of banana bread. I had to get to Spin early to sign up, so before class I did some ab work. I really love my Spin classes at home. They are so much better than the ones at school, which I can basically never make because I have practice during the times they are offered.

After Spin, I completed the At home chipper from Tina‘s blog. It took me about half an hour. What really held me up were the burpees. I absolutely hate them! I had to break them up quite a bit, in contrast to the squats, where I just blasted through all 100 at once.

After Spin, I ended up stopping by home briefly to visit kitties and pick up a birthday present for my sister. While home, I ate a beautiful lunch.

Corn chowder with avocado, brussels sprouts (my favorite) and buttered European style toast. Plus some random things I found raiding my parents’ cabinets.

I also had some super, super dark chocolate. My favorite! I don’t have a picture, but I made a coconut type candy (with no sugar-beware). I mixed baker’s chocolate with unsweetened coconut and coconut oil, and rolled the mixture in cocoa powder. So I have a zero sugar dessert! I wish I could say that today was a low-sugar success, but I cannot. Tonight I had a team dinner, which was pita chips and hummus, salad, and homemade pizza. Plus funfetti cupcakes and peanut butter frosted brownies. A) I’m totally stuffed. B) I think I’ve reached my trans fat quota for the rest of my life with those cupcakes. C) Halfway through the brownie I realized, I can’t eat this frosting, I’m allergic to nuts!

Which leads me to the next topic of interest: my nut allergy. I basically cut out nuts for 2 days (today is my 3rd), minus a walnut chocolate ship cookie last night. I woke up this morning, looked in the mirror, and was shocked. This is the best my skin has been in like 8 months! I definitely have a nut allergy. How crazy is that?

Ok, back to the topic of the post. In Dr. Robert Lustig’s book, Fat Chance, he really talks about the importance of eating real food in terms of our health, especially in relation to the obesity epidemic. He defines real food similar to Michael Pollan, in that it is “food your grandmother would recognize.” He believes that one of the biggest reasons for our nation’s health problems is the removal of fiber and the addition of sugar in all our foods. He describes fiber as nature’s “antidote” to sugar. This book really made me think about my own eating habits. Let’s be honest. My eating definitely hasn’t been as healthy since coming to college. Maybe it is because there aren’t great options, or maybe it’s because I just get so bored with everything. Navigating healthy eating can be super difficult. I know I really shouldn’t complain about our dining halls because they’re way better than most, but I just don’t like the food here. Which makes it really hard for any meal to be satisfying. To eat a healthy meal in my local dining hall, I have basically one option. Grilled chicken. Greens. Oil/vinegar. Brown rice or beans/lentil. Every. Single. Meal. I feel like I’m definitely not getting enough variety in my vegetables and fruits (melon and bananas…yayyy) especially in terms of nutrients. And I do love my smoothies, but they don’t keep me satisfied for as long as something solid, and the insoluble fiber in the fruit is broken up in the blender.

That was not intended to be a rant. What I’m trying to get at is the importance of real, whole foods in maintaining health. Waffles are not a whole food. And I’ve been loving my waffles lately….

This isn’t simply intended to be me complaining about my eating habits. I want to encourage everyone to think about this as well! Not only in terms of themselves, but in terms of others who may be suffering as a result of the typical American diet. I know a lot of you other healthy living bloggers out there know about the importance of real food, but we have to take some responsibility for those who don’t and are the victim of the Supermarket diet. As a blogger, I feel it is part of my duty to try and help anyone I can! All this is just something I feel so passionately about!

Have a great week everyone! I can’t wait to roll myself into weights tomorrow for weigh-ins. Whoops.

What do you feel is a blogger’s duty?

To Row or Not to Row

Date: February 10, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy weekend! Hopefully everyone has been having a good weekend so far. I missed posting yesterday, I had another paper to write last night that was due at noon today, and I had practice all morning so I had to do it last night. Seriously, who assigns a paper to be due at noon on a Saturday? Well, let’s go over 2 days then!

Friday morning began with weights. There are 2 options for times for weights, 6:30 and 8:30. I have class at 10, so I usually go to the 6:30 so I have enough time to completely finish my workout, eat, and shower. As you may know, I haven’t gotten much sleep lately, so Friday morning when I woke up I just was not feeling it. I got ready to go, and was running pretty late so I decided to just go back to bed and go to 8:30 weights. Since it was Friday, I could move around my schedule a bit and go to a 12:15 lecture instead of my normal 10 am lecture, so I didn’t start class until math at 11.

Weights absolutely smoked my hamstrings. We do 2 workouts for 3 weeks. Last Friday’s workout left my hamstrings completely sore up until yesterday. Ohh RDLs how I love you. Yesterday, I did more and heavier RDLs, so this week should be interesting. In theory, I should be getting more used to it, so we’ll see. I’m pretty sore right now, but it’s nothing terrible.

After weights, I made myself a Chocolate Post-workout Recovery Drink.

I didn’t exactly mix in the cocoa powder completely…It’s amazing what 8 little ounces of fluid can do for muscle recovery. I instantly felt 1000x better.

I also enjoyed some frozen cherries.

After my first class, I decided to get a little caffeine, because Chem definitely has a tendency to make me sleepy, and I have been behind on sleep for a while.

I found a little cafe that I had never been to before, and ordered the only coffee drink I recognized (I’m obviously such an expert), and went with an iced latte. Even though it was freezing out.

For those of you that don’t know, my campus is mainly a biking campus. When I got here, I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was maybe 8. Soo the first month was interesting. But now I’ve gotten proficient enough that I can carry a fancy coffee drink while biking! Score! That is definitely the sign of a true college student.

I’m not a big fan of the taste of coffee, but I’m getting more used to it. I also don’t need a lot of caffeine to wake me up, and even though I didn’t finish this drink, I was a little jittery. But here’s the weird thing. I’ve noticed that at some point when I’m drinking a coffee drink, it starts to taste more bitter than normal. And I have the impression that this is the point of my caffeine tolerance. Like if I keep drinking it after it starts to taste more bitter, it will be too much caffeine for me. I’ve noticed this before. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a real thing? Am I a freak of nature?

After class, I took a brief nap. (pshh what coffee?) When I woke up, I enjoyed a piece of banana bread and an apple heated in the microwave with cinnamon.

Banana bread? Where did that come from? I thought my freezer was empty?

Delivery!

My mom brought me some bread to freeze! She had class here, so she brought me this, and my new toy:

A hand vacuum! My dorm has a vacuum, but a) it’s from the 1980s and b) I live in a college freshman dorm. I recently saw what someone used it to clean up. Never again. So now I have this little guy, which works great! I’m going to vacuum way more now!

Anyway, back to the banana bread. My mom used my favorite recipe, which can be found here.

Practice went well. It was interesting because we were short a coxswain (the little person that yells at us and steers the boat) so we had an injured rower cox us. She was actually really good, but I felt really bad for her because she’s really tall and the places where the coxswains sit is tiny! I was definitely cracking up some of the time because she kept forgetting she had a microphone on, and was being projected by speakers in the boat. Especially when she was complaining about some sailors docking their boats on our dock!

After practice, I came back and made one of my favorite meals ever, that conveniently can be made in my dorm room.

Yes, you can make scrambled eggs on a paper plate in the microwave. Saving dishes baby! I cannot fully describe how awesome this meal is. Egg beaters (liquid egg whites), spinach, mozzarella, pesto, and avocado. So delicious.

Followed by cocoa powder and banana! This time without peanut butter though. So sad. More on that later. I ran into the dining hall to grab some veggies for later, and a piece of whole wheat toast. I ended up heating up the veggies with some coconut oil and salt, which was tasty.

Plus some more frozen cherries! After dinner, I cranked out my paper. My paper is on the causes of obesity in the United States, which is a topic that is super interesting to me. I actually found myself getting too excited as I was doing research. So when I write my final research paper on sugar, things are going to get interesting…After cranking out my paper, I went out to find some friends.

This was an incredibly difficult week for me, both emotionally and academically. I began to realize how much time rowing takes up, and I became concerned that I would not be able to keep my grades up if I kept rowing. I finally decided I needed to quit. This was Wednesday night, when it was 12:30, I was doing a hard problem set, and I had an early 2x6k the next morning. Making that decision was really tough emotionally. BUT. I changed my mind. The 2x6k, combined with afternoon off gave me the motivation and energy I needed to keep going, so as of now I plan to continue.

Being the intelligent person that I am, I ended up staying up way later than planned. 4 hours of sleep? Ick. This week was kind of a pyramid for me of sleep, minus Thursday. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 hours of sleep. Yay. But a 2 hour nap after practice certainly did the trick!

For practice today, I rowed with the lightweights because they needed a few extra people to fill out their boats. Unfortunately, the other open weight girl who was supposed to come as well didn’t get the memo…so we still had a bad number of people. That meant that instead of rowing in a 4, I switched off in a pair. Which gave me 30 minutes on the spin bike to wake up before I had to be on the water, which was fabulous. <I rowed in a pair for the first time, which is 2 rowers, each with one oar. We had buoys to make it more stable, thank goodness. We also had a 30 minute erg piece. I never realized how weird it would feel to go from rowing on the water, straight to stationary rowing. I also realized that if our ergs were later in the day, they would be so much easier for me. That or I'm getting in much better shape, which is possible. Last week, I finally got my heart rate as low as it is supposed to be for our long ergs for the first time!

One nice thing about rowing with the lightweights, is that I was back 2 hours sooner. Our Saturday rows are super inefficient. We got back just as brunch was starting!

mexican salad with loads of avocado, and frozen fruit. Plus this:

x2 with thawed blueberries on top! So good!

After brunch, I took a very nice and much needed nap. This day has been really low key for me. I was planning on lifting today, but I just didn’t feel up to it. I spent most of the afternoon reading. Tonight will be low key as well, I plan on getting some work done. I want to re-watch Sugar: The Bitter Truth for my paper, so maybe I’ll do that tonight. Since I finished my paper already, I feel like I’m really ahead on the weekend!

This afternoon, I decided to check out The Market, which is a mini grocery store on campus that I had not gone to before. It was actually really nice, they had tons of stuff. I got 2 beautiful and huge Fugi apples. In addition, I got several other non-nut containing snack items. And naturally I had to break into them right away.

I actually really liked these! They could definitely be eaten as a healthy alternative to potato chips.

There may or may not be any left…

I wanted to find a low-sugar bar that didn’t have nuts. This one was pretty good, I will most likely use these in the future when I need something on the go. It has 0g of sugar, but it has sugar alcohols. I’m not exactly sure what their metabolism is like, but I think it’s a step up from other artificial sweeteners, and it tastes less weird.

I was feeling adventurous for dinner today, and I wanted to do something different, especially since I really don’t like Saturday nights at my close dining hall. But then I realized I didn’t have a ton of time before my dance rehearsal, so I just ran in quickly and had a super carb heavy, and no terribly satisfying meal (which is especially unfortunate because right after I ate, my sister texted me about going out to dinner with my parents to what was probably a much better place, but I had dance rehearsal plus I already ate).

The pesto pasta today was whole wheat, and so was the garlic bread! I definitely went back for more garlic bread, plus watermelon and some con pops. Also, I actually had to get a new salad because I topped this one with tons of salsa, which turned out to be SUPER spicy, and I couldn’t even eat it!

So what is this dance rehearsal for? Did I suddenly decide to become a dancer? Hah. No. For crew, the freshman have to do a performance in front of basically every athlete as my school, and it’s a fundraiser. I have to do a line dance, and the Hoedown Throw Down from the Hannah Montana movie. I am no dancer. This is so difficult! I have absolutely no grace or coordination! And the performance is in just over a week!

Ok, so today was Day 2 with no nuts. And I think a few days with slightly reduced nuts. It’s so hard! I need to find new things to top oatmeal, or my banana mixture. I’m getting some unsweetened coconut, so hopefully that will do the trick! I could go for some tropical banana oats! My other idea was apple cinnamon banana oats. Or stirring blueberries into banana oats. I really like the base of banana though. Another thing I have to worry about is actually getting some healthy fats in my diet without nuts. I am hopefully getting some chia seeds soon as well. I actually really like chia seeds and the crunch they give! Especially in granola bars! So how is the whole no nuts thing going? I’m pretty sure my skin is clearing up, which is both good and bad, because it means that I am most likely allergic, and should eat significantly fewer nuts, but at the same time, my skin should be better. So we shall see. I was going to talk about another topic today, but seeing as this post is already super long, I’ll save it for tomorrow. Here is a little teaser: Real Food!

What do top your oats with? What is your favorite source of healthy fat?

Surprise, Surprise

Date: February 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So, yeahh I didn’t exactly post yesterday. I was SUPER busy. Workout starting at 6:30, then straight to class until 3, yoga at 5, meeting up with a friend at 7, dorm community building activity 8-10, math problem set, preparing a presentation…yeah that was my day yesterday! But first let us go through the eats.

First things first, after I posted the other day, one of my dorm mates came to my room and gave me this:

It’s called a “slutty brownie.” It is cookie on the bottom, brownie on top, and oreo in the middle. It was super good! He made them the other day and borrowed my tinfoil, so he brought me one the other night. He even warmed it and everything! I may need to start lending out my tinfoil more often!

Ok, Wednesday morning! I believe I ate the other half of my Apple Cinnamon Blueberry bread (last piece!) and milk pre-workout. I am in serious need of making more bread, I only have one piece of zucchini bread left, and that’s it!

After my row+spin, I headed to breakfast with a smoothie and intentions of laying off the nuts.

Fail. (By the way, that is toast with cream cheese and egg white!)

Aaaand double fail. But it was delicious! That right there is my attempt to make half a waffle…never works. Here it is with heated up frozen blueberries!

Yummmm.

And I definitely ended up eating more nuts later that day in the form of a granola bar for snack (and then one after dinner), and I think also a banana with nut butter.

I had zero time for dinner, and ended up eating it at the beginning of my dorm event. I heated up some butternut squash soup that my mom delivered to me earlier this week, along with spinach and mushrooms. Topped with avocado!

Wednesday was not the best night….Let’s just say I had a ton of difficult work.

Thursday morning I was up bright and early (again) for my 2x6k hard erg workout. Before was zucchini bread. I ended up PRing on this workout, which was awesome! And on 5 hours of sleep too! Afterwards, I felt entitled to a treat. this feeling of entitlement is never a good thing. The plan was to add a chocolate muffin to breakfast.

Half a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and egg whites, and half a raisin bagel. Plus fruit. There were not any chocolate muffins, so I went with a cranberry orange.

Plus part of a broken up whole wheat pancake with butter. Do you ever have days when you feel like you are a bottomless pit after a tough workout? Yeah, that was me today. So add another half pancake, half muffin, and half bagel. Plus some much needed coffee.

But gahh talk about carb overload! I definitely wasn’t feeling so hot, and this probably led to worse eating later on in the day. Example A: Lunch. Let’s be honest. This was a tough week. I felt I deserved something. I went to a cafe to study after math and before my next class, and I decided that although I wasn’t super tired (yay coffee), maybe some more caffeine would be a good idea. I decided to treat myself to a chai tea latte. And one other thing. If you are a healthy eater, look away. If you have ever considered thinking about eating healthy, look away.

That’s right, giant apple fritter right there! I figured I should probably get something real as well, so I got some type of dish with lentils and meat substitute.The Med school cafes are so nice! But don’t worry, I was unable to eat the whole fritter. It wasn’t as fatty as some are sometimes. And yes, it was quite tasty. I didn’t feel quite as gross as I was expecting at that point, considering the large amount of sugar and carbs I had consumed already. Somehow, I have yet to experience the caffeine/sugar crash. After class, I went back to my dorm. And stayed there. Why? NO PRACTICE TODAY. Our coach gave us the afternoon off. Why? No clue. But apparently it hasn’t happened in 2 years. So I’m not going to question it. So, so far in this day, you may have noticed something. That’s right, no nuts! HOWEVER. As I’m sure you guys all know, eating lots of sugary carbs leads to more cravings for sugary carbs…ok so maybe that doesn’t relate directly to nuts, but I had a sweet tooth, ok?

Banana with cocoa powder and peanut butter. So naturally I had to have some nut butter and jelly crackers as well…

Let’s just say I am not proud of my eating habits today. But hey, at least I’m honest with you guys, right?

Dinner tonight was actually pretty exciting. Indian food! At my local dining hall! That never happens!

And then OF COURSE it was dessert time (are you seeing a trend here?). I opted for a taste of cheesecake. (In the dining hall? What is this?) And some vanilla frozen yogurt with crushed oreos and corn pops. Ok, here’s the thing. I REALLY like corn pops. I probably haven’t had them in 10 years. But when I used to go on family vacations when I was little, my sister and I would get to pick out “vacation cereal,” which was the one time we could get whatever sugar-laden cereal our hearts desired. I almost always chose corn pops.

Anyways, I was reminded today why I really shouldn’t eat so much sugar. I CAN’T CONCENTRATE. Which is part of why I am posting right now. Whenever I eat a lot of sugar, my ability to focus is basically nonexistent. Which is going to lead me in to No Sugar Challenge #2: The Quest to Manage My Time Better by Not Eating Sugary Foods and Therefore Have Some Capability of Focus. Let’s just say that my time is very constrained right now, so I’ll take anything I can get. But this challenge is a bit harder than last time. Why? Because I can’t eat nuts! Wahhh. :'(

I don’t know if you could tell by this post that I’m completely all over the place right now. That’s what the sweet stuff does to me! I suppose I should set a length of time for my sugar challenge. Any suggestions? Maybe 2 weeks? That’s what I lasted last time. Should I shoot for 3? 3 is my PR. Hee hee. As if this were an exercise…Ok I have obviously had too much sugar, so I am going to calm down now and report back tomorrow after a hopefully low sugar and nut free Friday! Have a great week everybody!

Do you have weird reactions to sugar? Any ideas on a timeline for my challenge #2? Any tips for replacing my beloved peanut butter?