Monthly Archives: May 2013

How I Gave Up Desserts

Date: May 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Hey guys! I’m not going to go into today’s eats much today…maybe tomorrow. Plus today included a ton of snacking (which is always a bad sign for me). I woke up this morning for Spin, but barely. I seriously wanted to crawl back into bed. But I went. And I’m glad I did. And it was raining! What the heck? This is California, darn it! On another note, my bike is causing me great annoyance, which is a problem considering campus is HUGE and I definitely need to bike everywhere. First, my brakes started jamming. The front brake will brake just fine, but when I stop pressing on the brake, it won’t go off. Awesome. So I have to reach down to the wheel and pull the little spring-type things apart manually.

(That thing.)

The good news? Upon further examination, I think this problem can be solved with a few pieces of well placed duct tape. Please tell me I’m not the only one who used to think duct tape was tape with pictures of ducks on it?

Also noteworthy: I tried Overnight Oats for the first time! I actually broke into them last night for a snack. I didn’t expect them to be so thick! Also, a note to first timer OOers, remember before you taste your first bite that the oats contain an entire container of rather tart yogurt.

I just had it with some sunflower seed butter. I had the other half today with some thawed blueberries and sunflower seed butter. I just opened a new crunchy sunflower seed butter, and it’s my new favorite!

Overall, I’m not a HUGE fan of overnight oats, but I would probably make them again. I’m thinking they have some serious staying power!

This afternoon was spent snacking (GAH I blame you again nap!) and looking into becoming a Spin instructor. The general requirements for group fitness at my local gym require a group fitness certification as well as 1 year of experience….but I have no experience, so I’m going to look into tons of other things.

And now onto the topic of this post. Some of you may recall that the night before my birthday, I declared I’d give up desserts for the rest of the school year. Now, it’s been almost 2 weeks! (My record is 3 weeks, for anyone that cares.) And to be honest? I don’t miss desserts at all. To be fair, I am still having some sweet things, but these healthier alternatives are still cutting my sugar intake and keeping me sane. In my previous sugar challenges, these are items I probably would have done without. But those have all failed. So this time, I decided to take a more low-key approach and allow some things. Like this deliciousness:

And I’ve had some granola with chocolate chips. And who needs oreos when you could have this beautiful combo? (Flax snacks with the sesame seed butter.)

Ok, I admit, this one kind of pushes the boundaries, as both items are sweet. But they’re almost gone. 😉

Another thing I noticed, a few days in to my challenge: a lot of things just tasted sweet. I had my yogurt+sunflower seed butter+pumpkin bread combo, and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been before. The point is, my taste buds have adapted and I don’t miss everything all that much. Ok, I know I’m painting this up to be all daisies and sunshine; there have been some very difficult things to pass up. Like in Yosemite when all my friends were eating Oreos and M&Ms. Or on my Mom’s birthday when the table ordered a ton of specialty desserts. But I’m glad I did choose to pass up. In the long run, I know this is better for me, and I’ve reached the point where it is mostly smooth sailing. That being said, maybe a few less ThinkThin Divine bars wouldn’t hurt. (Yeah. I had 3 today. But now they’re gone so that’s that.)

The point is, once your taste buds readjust, there is no turning back! I love healthier alternatives. Last quarter I had many bananas mashed with cocoa powder.There’s seriously one picture every day from the beginning of last quarter. (Try this one guys! I haven’t had it lately because my bananas haven’t stuck around long enough and because it was awesome with peanut butter. Which makes my face blow up. Just microwave a banana, and mash it up with cocoa powder!)

There are tons of healthy alternatives out there (and I will most likely spend my summer finding them). I’m still deciding what I want to do when my so-called “challenge” is over. I think I might continue. I wish I was one of those people who could have a bite of chocolate and be good to go. I’m definitely an all or nothing personality type. And eating sweets is a VERY slippery slope for me. Although you guys don’t see it on the blog, previous to teh challenge I was eating a ton of sugar. It just doesn’t usually stick around long enough to be photographed!

On another note, I’m considering trying Paleo again now that my yogurt phase has more or less come to an end. Every time I’ve tried Paleo for a few days, I’ve loved how I’ve felt. ANd to be honest, yogurt was a BIG reason why I didn’t want to try it again. Plus I’ve been feeling so-so with my food choices as of late. Thoughts?

Would you ever or have you ever given up desserts? What was it like?

Leg Demolisher and An Award

Date: May 16, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I swear one of these days I’ll do a WIAW…but let’s just do a normal post, shall we? I lifted weights this morning. Since yesterday‘s workout included a bit of everything, especially arms (I’m looking at you snatches), I wanted to focus on legs. So, I figured, why not demolish my legs? Here’s a picture of what was on tap for my day, although the sprints and abs were in the afternoon:

I started with squats to a fairly heavy weight, and then settled into 135# for my typical back squat workout of 2 squats every 30 seconds for 8 minutes. I followed that up with the workout on the card, the Metcon Honky Tonky. Yeah. My legs were pretty much done. SO naturally the logical step was to move on to RDLs and calf raises. Go hard or go home, right? I finished with a few sets of single leg squats and hamstring rolls. Can you say JELLO? Legs=demolished.

Breakfast:Plain greek yogurt topped with granola and frozen blueberries. Plus a biscuit. I LOVE BISCUITS!

Aaaand here’s lunch: salad with a hard boiled egg and garlic hummus.After lunch, I had the pleasure of taking my Ochem midterm. It seemed difficult, but crossing my fingers, I think I pulled it off.

After class, this was waiting for me in my room:It’s Big-Little week! My big is awesome, I can already tell. I got more mangos today, and here’s what I got last night:She knows me too well! Mangos and avocados?? I’m soo spoiled!

After a quick snack of freeze dried edamame and a mango, I went outside to do some sprints and abs (see workouts above). The sprint workout was from my old agility/conditioning coach I used to train with my sophomore and junior year of high school. Is it weird that I get nostalgic about workouts? And then I started to really miss softball. I miss everything about it, pitching, hitting, running after balls. And yes, I did love softball conditioning. Sigh.

Before dinner, I whipped up some Overnight Oats. I’ve never had them before, but given I’m on a yogurt kick, and my last yogurt expires tomorrow, I figured I’d give it a try. I seem to have lost my almond milk…so I used sunflower seed milk. It’s not my favorite, but that’s ok. I also discovered after dinner when I was eating a banana with sunflower seed butter, that I have a nearly empty jar! So that’s going to happen. I swear, either a) my room eats things or b) I’m going to find a ton of random things when I move out (in three weeks!!!). Also missing: a bowl (I only had 2 so this is bad…), 2 knives, and now my almond milk.

Dinner was very unsatisfying (which explains why it was followed by the banana and a Thinkthin Divine bar). I had some avocados in the fridge which I thought went bad a while ago, so I brought those to dinner. The avocados were fine, but even they could not save a sub-par dinner. Our dining hall is so bad that NO ONE goes there anymore. It was pretty empty. How can a salad with chicken be so unsatisfying?Plus parsnips. Those were good, I’ll give them that. I eat so much more at the dining hall when the food is bad, ironically. So I made a vow to never eat there for dinner again for the rest of the year. I brought some spinach back to my room so I can make an omelet for dinner tomorrow, now that I know I have some decent avocados.

Also, I haven’t forgotten about this Miranda! Thanks for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger award!

The Rules:

1) Add The Versatile Blogger award photo on a blog post
2) Thank the person (or animal) who presented you with the award and link back to him or her in your post
3) Share seven things about yourself
4) Pass the award along to 15 favorite bloggers. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

7 Things You Don’t Know About Me

1. I have a Youtube video with over 38,000 hits. Find it here. But here’s the thing. It’s a softball skills video I made to show to college coaches. It should have less than 1000 views. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why it has so many. If anyone knows, please clue me in.

2. I wanted to play softball in college, and got some good offers, but ultimately I turned it down in favor of the academics at the school I am at now. And I miss it like crazy.

3. When Lilly was a kitten, she loved sitting on shoulders. And heads. (Ok, this isn’t really me, but let’s go with it.)(Ignore the gross face and focus on the cat).

4. I drive a Prius (at least last year. Now My sister has priority access).

5. I’ve gone all over the country to play softball. Vegas, Southern California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida. And of course all the armpits of CA: Hemet, Stockton, Fresno (sorry if any of you guys live there…but would you really disagree?).

One year in Vegas we played in 117 degree heat. Soo much fun. GAH I can’t believe I won’t be traveling everywhere this year!

6. I don’t think I’m a very patient person…

7. The one Midnight premier I’ve gone to is the Hunger Games, with all my friends in Senior year. The next morning was one of the first times I’d attempted coffee…and naturally I tried to drink it black. It didn’t work.

Ok, 15 bloggers! I’m not sure who has gotten what already, but here are some! SOrry if I missed you or if you’ve already been nominated!

1. Health Love and Chocolate

2. Spoonful of Sunshine

3. Road to RD

4. Modern Girl Nutrition

Hmmm pretty sure a lot of you other guys have been nominated! Have a great day!

FAIL

Date: May 15, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m a bit more behind than I realized…

For Mother’s Day, my sister and her boyfriend, and I surprised my mom at lunch. Here are some pictures from the day:Yogurt. No kidding.

Salad at lunch. Unfortunately it had bacon (which I don’t eat) so I picked it off. My dad enjoyed the picked off bacon with his meal though!

I made dinner! This meal was inspired by a Korean restaurant I went to a while ago. Herbed quinoa and brown rice, spinach and mushrooms sauteed in teriyaki, and topped with an egg over easy. So simple and delicious! There are tons of different flavors going on!

“Dessert”-cereal and blueberry pomegranate kefir with sunflower seed butter.

Obligatory cat pictures.This little guy woke me up at 4:30 am Monday because he wanted to cuddle and be petted. And I can’t exactly be mad for that…

Monday morning I went to abs class (so hard!) and then thus began my juice cleanse. I always seem to overestimate my love for veggie juice. This would have gone a lot better if I actually, you know, could tolerate it.

Breakfast was a mix of the beet-y juice and the pineapple cucumber. It was chugged very quickly. Classy, I know.The pineapple cucumber would have been super good if I didn’t despise cucumbers! Isn’t that a strange vegetable to hate?

On a side note- my kitty Lilly is in the habit of chewing up tissues in the box, so my mom put the box upside down. Did that help? You tell me.

Lunch was a blend of 2 green juices.

Well at least it was a beautiful day!
When I returned to my dorm, I found a gift from my Big awaiting me! I love her already!
Mangos

And a friend for my avocado plant!

I had been saving the Cashew juice for “dinner” but I was kind of fed up with the whole juice thing at this point. I didn’t drink much juice since I didn’t really like it, so I didn’t have a lot in my system. Then I had some of these freeze dried edamame:
Then I had a banana with sunflower seed butter. I figured, hey, it’s still produce (sort of) so TECHNICALLY I’m still doing this thing. And then this happened.
And delicious it was. Plus a protein bar…so I ended up kind of stuffed.
Overall, the whole juice cleanse didn’t really work for me. Partly because I hate veggie juice (and am never buying it again) and partly because I don’t exactly believe in it, simply because the juices have so much sugar. If I were to do a cleanse, I’d do a fruit and veggie cleanse, and eat the whole veggie. Why are vegetables so much better not in juice form??
Other highlight of yesterday: I went to my PO Box on campus. For the first time. Yes, I realize that is bad and pitiful and I’m a terrible human being. Especially since my friends from high school sent these months ago:

I was coming back from a sorority meeting in an are I was unfamiliar with, and somehow ran into the back of the post office.
Since this post is super long, here are some shots from today:

Literally the perfect apple. I love Harry and David!

Workout

Have a great day everyone!
Would you ever do a juice cleanse?

Arts and Crafts

Date: May 12, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I actually writing this post Saturday night, but I’ll delay it until tomorrow. That way I’ll be all caught up in case things begin to get busy (they should get busy- busy studying).

First off- HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the mother’s out there, especially my own, who has put up with me through a lot.

Also, to all mother’s out there: make sure you’re not the only on taking pictures! Many years from now your daughter may be writing a blog post for which she will have trouble finding pictures of the two of you together.

Although she does not know it at the time I am writing this post, my sister and I are surprising her my coming back for lunch! I’ll let you know how that is tomorrow!

There are a few things I want to touch on about Saturday. First. It was very unproductive. And I skipped some events because I wanted to get things done. But that wasn’t great. It’s ok though, it was only Saturday. Some R&R is necessary.

Brunch. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The food is really good, but it completely messes up my entire eating schedule for the day. This may be why I struggle with eating well on the weekends. I went with half of a whole wheat bagel, toasted with cream cheese and eggs, plus a salad with guacamole. Half of a waffle was also consumed, although it went unphotographed.

Brunch always leads me to snacking. Which causes problems. I had a big grand workout planned, but I kept eating and then having to digest. Here are some snacks:

Greek yogurt, cranberry orange quinoa, and cocoa sesame seed butter. Citrus+chocolate works, right??

Blueberry-pomegranite kefir, zucchini bread (from the freezer), and sunflower seed butter.

Numerous other snacks included bananas with sunflower seed butter, and granola with a protein bar. Dinner was just meh but here it is:

Well guys, this is it. It is the ending of an era. That’s right, I’m finally getting over my sunflower seed butter and my yogurt obsession. Since ditching some of the sugar in my diet, I don’t find these items as enjoyable. Or maybe consuming 10,000 jars of sunflower seed butter in a quarter is too much. I’m not sure. But I’m feeling ready to move on. It’s not that I dislike these things, but they don’t hold quite the same level of joy for me as they did in the past. :'(

I may try plain yogurt and see if that is more appealing. But as it is, I only have a bit of yogurt remaining anyways. I guess I’ve been more into produce lately: fruits and veggies. Produce kind of shaped how well my week went last week; I focused more on eating fruit and veggies, and it helped me eat more healthfully overall. Which takes us to the next topic of conversation.

As any normal American, I don’t eat as nutritiously on the weekends as on the other days of the week. For me, starting Monday on a positive note is crucial, and sets the tone for the week. Last Monday, I really focused on clean eating, and ate mostly fruit and veggies (minus the pizza that may have slipped its way in). As a result, I felt great the whole week, and had no difficulty eating well. Which is why I want to try something different this Monday. Before I say anything. let me first iterate that it is not necessarily something I believe in, but just want to give a try. A juice cleanse! I was inspired when last Monday I tried Trader Joe’s Green Juice and actually enjoyed it. It is a bit sugary (from the fruit) so the plan is to mix it with a more unpalatable and veggie heavy drink. I wasn’t sure whether to blog about this, but since it’s only a day, it’s not really going to change anything anyways. And the idea has always intrigued me.

But on to the title of the post! Lately, I’ve been finding workouts online and writing them on Post-its. I regularly take these post its to the gym with me when I work out, but they get really rumply and crinkly and gross. So I decided to laminate them with tape!

Most of them are WODs, and I thought it would be easier to have them in one medium, together. The ultimate plan is to make some type of pretty poster to put on my wall that I can stick all of them to for easy access when I want to pick one for a workout. I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’m satisfied with the finished cards!Most of them came with names, but I gave names to most of the ones that didn’t for ease of reference. For example, the one I did the other day that featured pull-ups, push ups, and squats I titled “Popeye” because it killed by arms for several days after. And Popeye has huge arm muscles, right?

I’m slightly obsessed with Crossfit. Yet I’ve never even tried it. Sad. This summer though I want to try it!

Aaaand to tie this post together again: Happy Mother’s Day!

Tell me something awesome about your mother.

You’re Jamaican Me Crazy

Date: May 12, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

You know what is crazy? I only have a month left of school. That means that my freshman year of college is almost over! How did that happen??

This morning I was doing some blog reflections. I’ve noticed my writing style has changed considerably. I get the impression that it is choppier now that it was before. And a LOT more sarcastic. Am I getting TOO comfortable on the Internet? Haha. But I also get the impression that although my writing seems a bit rushed, it definitely has more energy and is overall more positive. The things sleep will do for you! It was also interesting to reflect on my food choices, especially given I’ve recently given up sweets. When I was doing crew, I ate sooo much! It’s crazy! It did make me nostalgic for crew as well. But hey, life happens. I do feel healthier now though that I am not consuming quite so much sugar. Another thing: I read some of the first posts from when I was getting sick. It’s kind of pitiful; 2 days into being sick, I wrote, “I think I’m finally getting better!” Sorry sweetie, but it’s going to be another month before you ACTUALLY get better. Hah. I had nooo clue what I was in for.

But ANYWAYS. My takeaway from this is that I want to improve my writing style. I want to be more descriptive, and I suppose in some ways more formal. I think I was beginning to write a little too much like I would write a text message. Also, I realized how many typos I have, and for that I am so incredibly sorry. I have so much trouble catching my own typos!

But let’s get back to life, shall we? My Psych midterm was pretty easy (I hope) so that was one midterm down. My super important midterm is OChem this Wednesday. After my exam, it was lunchtime! Friday was one of those days where I ate a ton, but was never super full.I started with a Southwest salad. Every time I am at the cafeteria there, I see this amazing looking pizza, but I can never rationalize getting a slice. Yesterday was no different, until I decided to just go for it, since I wasn’t full from my salad. It was described as Margarita pizza, but it wasn’t really like any Margarita pizza I’ve had before! Deep dish Margarita?This was delicious. There were globs of fresh mozzarella under the tomatoes, and the pesto complimented everything perfectly. SO worth it.

After class, I decided to go on a bike ride. I found a bike loop online that a lot of bike riders take around here. It’s not a bike trail, just 3 roads connected. It was a 15 mile bike ride. (My trusty sidekick that sometimes decides to try and kill me.)

I wasn’t too happy with the gears on my bike. The chains have fallen off a few times, and given my highly limited knowledge of bikes, I most likely did not put them back on in the correct place, so I only really had 2 gears to work with. I stopped to adjust them, and I think it helped. I really liked/really hated this ride. It took me a really long time to complete; apparently I’m the world’s slowest biker. Ah well. I’ve ridden most of the first leg of this loop before. The first leg is uphill for a long time, although for the most part it isn’t too steep. But definitely enough to feel the burn! This bike ride is interesting; I start on campus and see tons of people leaving work. Then, as I get farther out, the world transforms. I begin to see horses and ranches, and little town stores. On the second leg of the loop, I saw Vineyards and all of the sudden there were horses on the road next to me. It was as if I had traveled to a different time period. After some downhill, and more climbing, I was finally at the top. I didn’t realize I was at the top at first; I first noticed I had a feeling of unexplained happiness. There was nothing higher than I was! I was pretty tired at this point. I went down a hill, only to turn a corner and find a super steep looking hill waiting for me. I actually said “Oh shit” out loud before. I don’t normally say things like that to myself, that loud. It didn’t turn out to be as bad as I was expecting, since there was a pretty big downhill going in, and I had a ton of momentum carry me to the top.

All in all, a great ride.

As I mentioned before, friday was my Mom’s birthday. I love these pictures:

What an angel!

My mom sent me this caption: “They’re just lollipops to Lilly.”

I don’t know what it is, but my kitties love chewing flowers. Last year I had a big birthday bouquet of roses. We woke up the next morning to find the downstairs completely covered in rose petals. Oh cats.

For her birthday, we went out to a Jamaican restaurant called Coconuts.

Guac and Plantain chips? Um YES.

In case you are wondering why there are so many plates, it is because the restaurant was family-style. They weren’t all for me; I wasn’t THAT much of a bottomless pit!

The food was really good, but had this spice that took a little while to hit you. So by the end of the meal, all the spiciness had built up and my tongue was on fire! I’m kind of a wimp in that regard.

We all had a great time. I think I’ll hold off on the other things I want to share because this post is already pretty long!