Monthly Archives: July 2013

My New Favorite Smoothie

Date: July 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Let’s start this post off with a recipe, shall we? I FINALLY went out and got myself some Designer Whey protein powder, and I’M IN LOVE (note-I was not compensated for this and had to buy the protein powder myself. All opinions are my own). I’ve never had a decent-tasting protein powder before. In my protein shakes, I’d use MAYBE half a scoop because I was afraid I’d be able to taste this. For my first test, I wanted a fairly basic chocolate smoothie. Here it is!

Chocolate Protein Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 T cocoa powder

1/2 frozen banana

1 c unsweetened almond milk

1 pinch xantham gum

1/2 vanilla kefir (you can sub yogurt here)

1 handful spinach

1 large handful ice

Directions:

1. Blend almond milk and spinach together with the half banana first so the spinach can get extra well combined.

2. Add all ingredients but ice and blend.

3. Add ice last, and as necessary for consistency.

This made 2 glasses for me, and the total is about 300 calories.

And it was just as delicious the second time!

So now on to my life. Yesterday I went to Target to look at summer clothes, and things besides workout clothes to wear in Hawaii. Speaking of which, it’s still kind of a ways out, but I’m looking for guest posters! Email me at astottler @ gmail.com.

I took the evening off to rest my calf. More on that in a moment. Here’s yesterday’s food!

Lunch was polenta mixed with onion and chive cream cheese and topped with leftover broccoli.

My mom got polenta from Costco, so there’s kind of a ton of that.

Dinner was vegetarian chili, plus a cilantro lime salad. I love homemade salad dressing-it’s amazing how fresh it tastes! It makes a world of difference in flavor.

Also, at Target yesterday, I picked up this:

This has freeze-dried yogurt! It was actually really good-the mix had freeze dried cranberries and blueberries as well, and made the perfect snack.

I’ve talked about it the last couple of days, but my calf has really been bothering me lately. It started about 7 miles in to my long run, but it wasn’t very intense so I figured it was nothing and kept going. It wasn’t really bothering me at the time, but it tightened WAY up afterwards. Yesterday morning I ran a little at Crossfit and it was bothering me a bit by the end. I’m extremely frustrated that this is happened given my race is in less than 2 weeks! I haven’t had any problems this whole time (besides my weird foot thing), and of course this would come up right before my race. I skipped today’s run. If it continues to feel better tomorrow, I might test it a little with a baby run (I’m talking like a mile here) as long as there is no pain. I’m confidant that it will feel better in time for the race (or at least good enough), but I don’t want to take any chances. I went to my dad’s physical therapist today who has been known to work wonders, and I’m going back tomorrow. I’m not really sure what’s going on or how serious it is (as in how much my brain is simply just freaking out on me). I really don’t like the idea of having a problem with the muscle. For some reason pulled muscles give me the heebie jeebies. Joint problems? I’ll take it. But NOT muscle tears/strains. Ugh.

But here’s the good news. I was able to cross train this morning. I took a morning spin class where I was very conservative. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to stand on the bike (extremely carefully of course). I also did some front squats and abs. I was going to use the rowing machine but it stretched my calf a little more than I’m comfortable with. So that’s that. Lots of spinning until I’m good to run again. And ab work, which I so desperately need. I’ve been seriously slacking there.

I refueled from my workout with a new-to-me yogurt, apple cinnamon. I’m a fan! I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was good. Plus half a piece of frozen zucchini bread.

I hope you all are having a great week! Send lots of healing vibes my way!

Have you ever been injured right before a race or big event? What did you do?

Almost There

Date: July 22, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! Thanks for much for your responses to my last post. I was a little bit concerned-I didn’t want to come off like I was dissing anyone’s way of eating!

I’ve had a lot of excitement going on lately.

First, blog related excitement. Since I finally bought my own domain, it was time for some shirts. I figure it’s not THAT egotistical since “Fitness is Sweet” is a reasonable saying to have on a shirt…right? Well, I ordered the shirts last week and they came within a few days!

Yeah, I’m pretty pumped. I think I’m going to iron-on print my website on the back of the first one-I think it would be a good race shirt, and hey, a little publicity doesn’t hurt either, right? 😉

Saturday morning I went to a Spin class at my gym that was a little bit different. I had to pay, but there was a live DJ, and the proceeds benefited the Challenged Athlete Foundation. The class was a ton of fun-my teacher is so full of energy! And this one was particularly hard! Afterwards, they even gave us swag bags.

Then, after putting on a dry shirt, it was off to the 1 year anniversary of my Crossfit box. There was a WOD that morning, so I figured showing up sweaty wouldn’t really matter. I brought deviled eggs.

My parents came with me, and it was a lot of fun. I got to introduce them to the whole Crossfit environment and show them the box. Plus, there was lots of good food!

Someone also brought cake pops. How ridiculously cute are these??

The rest of the afternoon was pretty low key. We finally broke down and got some doughnuts, after wanting them for a super long time. And being too lazy to make them…hah…

And of course, Sunday was my long run. It’s amazing how short 9 miles feels after running 12!

Overall, the run felt really good. On my last run I felt like I could have pushed the pace a little more, but died at the end because I just ran out of fuel. Well, this time, I was right on my ultimate goal pace! Plus, my foot problem didn’t bother me a ton, despite the fact that I have yet to get the insoles that the foot doctor recommended.
That all sounds just dandy, right? Well, here’s the problem. Around mile 6, my toes started to bother me. I walked a few steps here or there to shake it out which helps, but I also change my step a little bit. I run a little more on the outside of my foot, and point my toes inwards a little. Around mile 7, my right calf started hurting. It wasn’t sharp, just sore. It wasn’t terrible so I kept going. I was fully prepared to stop if it got too bad. Well here’s the problem. It tightened up pretty badly after my run. I’ve been stretching and rolling it out a ton. It felt a lot better this morning but I went to Crossfit, and unlike normal sore muscles, it started hurting more after a little running instead of less. I’m a little concerned about it. I just finished icing it with my trusty bag of frozen peas. I guess my calves may have been sore like this after long runs before, so maybe it’s not a big deal. It just worries me more since it’s only one leg. The current plan is to skip running tomorrow and cross train (I think I’ll use the rowing machine+spin). From there, I’ll see how it feels. I’m hoping to be able to do more or less my normal schedule; I was pumped for the length of these runs-3,4, and 3. But I’m so close to race day that it just isn’t worth getting injured.
Speaking of Race Day, I’m just under 2 weeks out! Last night I made my Race Day playlist-not sure how that’s going to be since I haven’t done any runs longer than 8ish miles without an audiobook…But I’m getting exciting! After yesterday’s run and last week’s 12 miles, I feel pretty confident going in. ALthough I’ll feel better when my calf pain is gone…
Also, I’m going to San Luis Obispo this weekend. Any suggestions for things to do/see/eat there? I have an 8 mile run, and I found a reasonable flat but pretty bike trail. Plus, we’re going to do a hike and see Hearst castle. Other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
And lastly, here are some other fun eats from this weekend!

That’s actually not scrambled eggs-it’s polenta with garlic and herb laughing cow. I would recommend this combo!

Runners-any advice on my calf? What’s going on?
What’s the best thing you ate this weekend?

Trying Too Hard

Date: July 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’ve been meaning to post this since Wednesday, but I never got around to it/didn’t want to make a different post super long.

First, I want to start out by saying I’m kind of uncomfortable talking about my dietary guidelines. I can’t exactly explain it. Maybe I feel really vulnerable. Mostly I feel kind of silly. I feel like I have a lot of “WOW I just figured out this amazing style of eating and it’s going to be awesome and I’m going to do it and it’s going to solve all my problems, abolish world hunger, and bring world peace…” Also, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can’t stick to anything. At least in terms of my eating habits. I’ve had a few no-sugar challenges that were successful, but I never completed them. I only really stick to my weekly goals for a few days. Remember Operation: Get Healthy? Yeah, that fizzled out. What I’m saying is, I feel stupid for having all these failed a-ha moments, only to restart on something new. I’m a food and fitness blogger, aren’t I supposed to have everything together?

Well, now I’m done. I’m done trying to fit other’s eating habits into my own life. I seem to love giving myself food restrictions-Paleo, no sugar, gluten free. I guess in some ways it just makes things easier. And maybe it’s an excuse to eat as much as I want- I’m Paleo, so if I eat 3 tons of wild buffalo I’ll be healthy, right?

I never had these types of restrictions in the past, and I was a lot healthier. I guess when you’re looking for a quick fix, it’s easier to say “Ok, I just won’t eat this and everything will work out.” I’ll be 100% honest. College destroyed my eating habits. Rowing didn’t exactly help, because I was burning so much I could literally eat anything and not gain weight (never mind the fact that I felt awful).

I finally got my blood work back. It seems unlikely that I have a gluten sensitivity, so it’s likely I’m suffering more from portion control than anything else. (Also-my allergy test came up negative for nut allergies, but I was expecting that. Given nuts just give me SUPER bad acne, it didn’t exactly seem like an allergy thing. Maybe it’s something hormonal-I’m still going to avoid them.)

It’s likely that I just crash my blood sugar my eating too many carbs. I’ll do another post on this soon-I just want to refresh myself on the science of it and look over my old nutrition notes first. In short, everyone has a different point at which a certain amount of carbs will crash their blood sugar, mine might be low.

So instead trying some food group restrictive eating pattern that leaves me desperately craving pancakes (I swear my love for pancakes only came about in the past year), I’m just going to eat food. I’m not going to avoid gluten, I’m not going to be Paleo. I’m still going to try a Whole30 for a week when school starts (just because I’m curious and I won’t immediately get in the habit of eating pancakes every day). Lately, I’ve just been working on incorporating lower amounts of carbohydrates into my diet.

When I try a particular, restrictive style of eating, I end up either going crazy with the foods I can eat, or completely giving up and gorging on what I’ve missed. The problem with this is somehow that style of eating and kind of fizzled out my passion for nutrition. Now, I’m trying to eat more like I did in high school, and already this past week my passion for nutrition is returning. I haven’t cut out food groups. But I’m eating more moderately in terms of portions as well. And I feel awesome. I find myself craving healthier foods. I feel like I’m eating more like I have in the past, and that makes me happy. The only food I might ever consider cutting out is sugar, in the form of a no-sugar challenge. However, I see no need to do that now. I’m not struggling with my sugar intake. I find myself wanting a square of super dark chocolate as my sweet, and I’m ok with that.

I love nutrition-it’s something I want to spend my life working on. It’s part of why I started this blog. Yet I haven’t talked nearly enough about it as I would like. I intend on doing some more research-I love the metabolism aspect of everything, and how our bodies process food. Plus, I really should have found some papers for one of my professors on sugar….I want to spend some time doing some research on my own. Maybe I’ll come up with a new style of eating-who knows. But it won’t prevent me from eating my pancakes.

My first topic to figure out is how many carbs I should eat (i.e. how many pancakes I should eat) to fuel my workouts but not crash. I don’t want to talk too much about my fitness goals right now, but I’ll give you a hint-I need to be able to do an actual pull-up.

Just to summarize, I feel silly trying out all these new styles of eating, only to ultimately fail. I feel like as a health and fitness blogger, I should have my life more together, but in reality I really don’t, and for now that’s ok with me. Saying no to pancakes is not an eating style that is going to work for me in the long run, but maybe I can succeed by eating one pancake instead of five. To be, healthy eating is all about balance. So, no more broad proclamations of my new greatest thing. The new theme here is moderation, and eating to fuel my athletic performance. After all, sports are how I got interested in nutrition. I don’t need to try so hard. I just need to put my passion into use.

How do you feel about “diets”? Do you avoid any foods? What works for you?

Hug a Cat

Date: July 19, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I haven’t exactly checked in in a little while. Not with a more normal, day in the life type of post at least. I don’t exactly have an excuse-sure Wednesday and Thursday were fairly busy, but I kind of decided to watch TV at night instead of post. I felt bad yesterday so I threw up a post I had been saving. I had a specific topic to write about but I’ll save that for another post so this isn’t crazy long.

Wednesday morning, on the way out to 5:45am spin, I was greeted by this:

Silly cat.

My spin teachers are in the habit of talking about doughnuts. Meh. After spin, I headed off to run, only to be met by a dead Garmin. It died about 5 minutes in to my 5 mile run. I thought it would have given some type of warning to charge it BEFORE it died?? Then again, maybe I left it on again….Luckily I had done that same distance at the same place so it was fine. And I took a super easy pace.

Since I had woken up at 5:10 that morning, caffeine was in order, especially with the day’s midterm (and studying for midterm…). My mom has been meaning to use her espresso maker more so we made a cappuccino!

It was really good! Cappuccinos are about the only coffee drink I’ll have. I’m kind of obsessed with milk foam. And extra bonus-I can add as much as I want (read: a lot)! So this was even milkier than what I would order. Would they look at me funny at the coffee shop if I order extra milk foam?

My midterm went well. I suffered from the fact that I haven’t actually written anything on paper for the last few months. There were essay questions, and my hand was dying. But at least I got to write about the obesity epidemic, one of my favorite health topics!

I had a softball game Wednesday night, and my sister and her boyfriend decided to come home for dinner when they realized we’d be having waffles. I’ve been dying for waffles or pancakes lately, so when I saw a whole grain mix in our pantry, I knew it was time.

I topped mine with butter and hot blueberries-just the way I like it! On the side (because obviously the waffles are the main dish), I had a frittata with spinach, goat cheese, and caramelized onions. And some frozen cherries! Yummm. By the way, that’s not the only waffle that was consumed that night. Just the only one that would fit on the plate.

Thursday morning was a rough one at the kitten nursery. One of the kittens has scabies, which is a skin disease that can be transferred pretty easily to other kittens and to humans. Everything was basically on quarantine, and we had to wear gowns the whole time. The poor kitten was feeling just fine, but we weren’t allowed to play with her at all. However, this wasn’t the worst part of the morning.

One litter of kittens was not doing well. They were new 2 weeks ago, and I remember them all being super active and playful. This week however, they were much mellower and clearly not feeling well. They had pretty loose stools, and some were loosing too much weight. One little kitten was just not doing well at all. She had lost a lot of weight and wasn’t eating much, so we were supposed to bottle feed her, but she resisted that as well. The only positive is she did purr when I picked her up. Last night, they sent out an email that they had to euthanize her because she was suffering and wasn’t going to make it. That’s the hard part of this job-these kittens are so tiny (she was .27 lbs today) and who knows what has happened to them before they come in. As volunteers, we do as much as possible to keep them healthy, but sometimes there really isn’t anything we can control. When I got home, all I wanted to do was give my kitties a big hug. I’m so grateful they’re healthy, happy, and loving. I have to be thankful for the cats that I can save-we rescued Charlie from Stockton. This is Charlie the day we found him.

He was wandering around the hotel we were staying at (for softball) calling out to us. Stockton is not a nice place-it has some of the highest crime rates in the country. At one of the softball fields we played at, you could hear gunshots from the field. The hotel was adjacent to the highway, and it was clear he had been dumped. We saw him that morning meowing at us before the game, and between games we returned to search for him. We bought some cat food at the store, but couldn’t even find any boxes-we ended up finding some cardboard (like a box, but no top or bottom) that kind of held him in. It was 90 degrees though, and he was an escape artist. He ended up in the engine of two different cars. On the 2 hour drive home, he sat on my lap in the box and cried if I didn’t constantly have my hand in the box.

If we hadn’t taken him home, the hotel would have called Animal Control-my dad was looking into nearby shelters, but they were full. When he talked to the hotel front desk, they told him to call animal control. Animal control would have euthanized him.

I can’t even imagine how someone could have dumped him. He’s one of the sweetest cats I’ve ever met-I’ve never once seen him angry. He’s never clawed anyone. And the only time he bites is if he gets a little too frisky. He’s such a softie-I can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t have wanted him.

I guess what I’m saying is appreciate your pets. Give them a hug and be thankful for them, and feel happy you saved them. Not all animals are so lucky.

iPhoto Dump

Date: July 18, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Lately, I’ve been writing up some posts to save for a rainy day, and I’ve come across a ton of pictures from the past few years in my iPhoto that are kind of odd, or describe me a little too well. So enjoy! And maybe learn a little more about how crazy I am!

Neon frosting. I think we added a little too much food coloring…

This could have come out a lot better…

Somehow our gingerbread house turned into a murder scene…

This was a major fail-I’m technologically challenged. I was looking through the wrong part. Which shouldn’t be possible…Let’s just say I’m not the one that takes pictures when my friends get together.

I can’t explain why I have an egg in a piece of cardboard…

Hamster ball fun.

Sworn Enemies.

How is that possibly comfortable??

Why is this significant? This was 2009. That guy is still in my freezer. When baking him, the leg broke off so I made him a little frosting cast. Naturally, as a result, my sister became attached to him, and wouldn’t let anyone eat him or throw him away. He’s still there because my mom is worried it will upset my sister too much if she gets rid of him. My sister is 21….

Well, that’s all for today! I’ll possibly do another photo dump at some point in the future!

What weird or funny pictures do you have?