Monthly Archives: December 2013

On the 11th Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me… (GIVEAWAY)

Date: December 8, 2013

Author: astottler

11 of My Favorite Things…For YOU!

This was supposed to be the Grand Finale of 12 Days, but my 11th day fell through and I have something else for the last day, so here it is!

And it will arrive looking something like this:

NOTE: I am not affiliated with any of these companies-I just wanted to do something fun for you guys for my blogiversary!

Note #2-I realized that most of these are chocolate-related…oh well? Hey, it’s non-perishiable and travels well, what can I say?

1. Sunflower seed butter. Because I’m obsessed.

2. Dried mango. This should be a no brainer.

3. Guacamole mix-I love having this on hand-it’s basically just spices that you add to avocado for instant guac. Perfect for an easy snack!

4. Crunchamame-green onion and chive.

5. Green and Black 85% chocolate. I love dark chocolate, and this is by far my favorite. The texture is so much smoother than other brands!

6. Blackberry chia squeeze-fruit and chia seeds.

7. Square bar-chocolate coconut. I recently discovered these, and they’re delicious! It’s hard finding bars that aren’t full of nuts, and these fit the bill.

8. ThinkThin Divine bars. Chocolate coconut. What more could you ask?

9. See’s chocolate Santa. See’s is one of my favorite chocolates. I realize that not everyone has these in different places in the country, which is part of why I included it.

10. See’s chocolate toffee bar-this is straight out of my childhood. We used to sell See’s bars for band, and this was my favorite!

11. Peanut butter oat bar. This brand is AMAZING. The peanut butter is my favorite (which I tried before I knew I had a peanut sensitivity), but the other flavors are just as addictive.

So how do you win this??

Simply comment below with one of your favorite things!

For additional entries (each is one entry):

Follow me on Twitter (@fitnessissweet) and leave a comment saying you have done so.

Tweet about the giveaway (something like this- “I’m entering @fitnessissweet ‘s 12 days of Christmas giveaway!) with a link, and then comment saying you have done so.

Instragram this picture and let me know you have done so 🙂

Since this is 12 days of Christmas, let’s give you all 12 days for this! The winner will be randomly chosen on the night of December 12! Good luck!

(Sadly, this is only open to US and Canada residents)

Good luck!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: December 6, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

The 10 best things I ate in the last year.

This post is proving to be one of the hardest, and one of my most favorites, simply because it’s so hard to choose! After much soul searching, this is what I came up with! (In no particular order)

1. Wildberry frozen yogurt. Specifically the salted caramel pretzel flavor…AMAZING. I got this an embarrassing number of times while I had mono because my throat hurt something fierce, I could barely eat, and it was on the way back home from school.

2. Yogurt bowls-specifically with vanilla greek yogurt, pumpkin bread, and sunflower seed butter. This combo is amazing. I ate a crazy amount of this last spring. Try it and thank me later.

3. Boston Cream Pie. Made 100% from scratch. For those who don’t know, Boston Cream Pie is sponge cake, custard, and chocolate glaze. I made this once before for my mom as a surprise, but this time around it was a spring break activity that we did together.

4. Tina‘s recipe for Cheesy Brussels Sprouts. They’re super simple and delicious, and a great go-to anytime. But maybe I just really love Brussels Sprouts.

5. Homemade iced chai. After having an amazing iced chai at Philz Coffee, I decided to try my hand at it. The trick? Brew it with a mint leaf, for some extra refreshing power. Plus, I’m totally in love with my Chai tea.

6. Blueberry crisp. This one is a no-brainer. It’s one of my favorite desserts ever, and pretty much only happens when blueberries hit that brief but golden period of perfect ripeness in the summer. The recipe we use is pretty healthy-not a ton of sugar! And not a ton is needed with amazing blueberries! Bonus-no nuts 🙂

7. Blueberry bread. Yes, the kind from a mix with added blueberries. I absolutely LOVE this. And I think it probably helped the cause that this was made right after my first ever 12 mile run. I may have been ravenous and I may have eaten most of the loaf in one day. No shame. #runnerproblems

8. Smitten ice cream. Smitten is a little place in San Francisco that makes Nitrogen ice cream. It. Is. Amazing. I ordered the salted caramel, but I loved even more the chocolate. It was by far, hands down the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. Ever. Insanely smooth-the nitrogen freezing process won’t create ice crystals-, rich, decadent, chocolate-y with almost a hint of sea salt. OMG. The best part? A Smitten is coming INSIDE my closest Whole Foods at school! SO. PUMPED.

9. These brussels sprouts from my latest trip to Napa. No words. Possibly the #1 best thing I ate all year (yes, I realize how weird it makes me seem if the best thing I ate all year was brussels sprouts-but they were amazing!)

10. Butternut squash soup with cream fraiche and citrus cranberry relish. This was too perfect. Even though I missed out on amazing butternut squash soup in Napa this year, this was just as good. I had this at least 5 times as leftovers.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: December 5, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

9 kittens!

As a lot of you may know, I volunteered in the kitten nursery at the local humane society over the summer. It was a seriously amazing experience, and I do think it influenced me a lot. That being said, of course I have a ton of kitten photos. I think it is fitting that 12 days of Christmas is exposing my (not so) inner cat lady, between this and yesterday’s post!

So without further ado…9 kittens!

Confession: this was my favorite litter. It was so amazing to watch them grow up!

This little guy was probably my favorite kitten.

Any other crazy cat ladies out there?

On the Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: December 4, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

8 holiday traditions!

Before I get into today’s day of Christmas, I want to talk about fitness for a moment, since I haven’t gotten much chance to since starting 12 days.

I may have mentioned this before, but my feet have been trying to murder me in a new and interesting way as of late. My arches have been KILLING-the worst was the night of the turkey trot, when I was stuck on my feet for hours Black Friday shopping, but they’ve been bad for about a month. I’m pretty sure it’s related to my Achilles tendon-I’ve had tendonitis there in the past, and I think the problems with my Achilles are pulling on whatever connects to the arch of my feet. It’s been bad-earlier this week I was limping something fierce-it hasn’t been a huge issue for my running because it feels much better in the morning than later in the day, and I can stretch and make it feel better. The good news is it’s been getting way better this week, and I finally may have a cure. I FINALLY made it out to yoga tonight-I thought that all the stretching would loosen up my Achilles and make it feel better. However, I think I discovered the real cause-all the little muscles in my ankle and lower calf/Achilles area have gotten insanely weak-when we did balances on one foot, I was shaking like crazy and my muscles were painfully exhausted. This shouldn’t be that big of a surprise I guess-we all know how many times I rolled my ankles during half training!

Anyways, this was kind of a big reminder to me-I’ve gotten kind of stuck into my routine of running, Crossfit, and spin. Which isn’t a bad mix, but I really think I need to do more agility type workouts to strengthen the little muscles-I never had any weird injury type things when I played softball and moved in so many more ways!

Also-I just have to mention how cold it’s been here (all you East Coasters-feel free to laugh) Today was a low of TWENTY EIGHT. So naturally I woke up at 6am for a dark track workout. (It actually wasn’t that bad-gloves are amazing and saved my butt).

I survived!

And that called for an upgrade-a MEDIUM cappuccino. Well, that and the 5 hours of sleep…

And for your enjoyment-this is what I wore to yoga.

ANWAYS.

8 Holiday Traditions!

1. Go to Benihuana’s on Christmas Eve. We’ve done this for YEARS now-and I love it! Believe it or not, I’m pretty sure I had a weight lifting session with my trainer the past two years on Chrsitmas EVE before Benihuana’s…

2011

2010

2009

2. Making and decorating sugar cookies with my crazy friends.

Gingerbread house turned murder scene…

3. Making Spritz cookies with my family (sensing a theme here?)

4. My dad’s company Christmas party. I think I actually enjoy this-I feel like every year either my mom or my sister gets out of this, and it’s just me and my dad-but I’ve gone every year for a LONG time nonetheless!

5. Loading into the car, dog in tow, on Christmas Eve, to see all the Christmas lights and blast Christmas music.

6. Cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer-always!

7. NEW tradition-take the train down to the city (San Francisco) on Christmas Eve and enjoy the Christmas bustle.

8. Send out Christmas cards. The following either appeared in Christmas cards, or were close seconds.

Ok-I admit that last one was just an excuse to show you all cat pictures…

What are your holiday traditions?

On the Seventh Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: December 4, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

7 embarrassing things about yours truly. Because why not have some fun at my expense?

1. I was unable to take real pills until a few years ago. I had to take chewable Advil and such during high school. I could never take the big capsules until I had Mono and everything kind of had to go out the window since I was taking 32 pills a day. I don’t recommend getting Mono, FYI.

2. This photo.

We all had that awkward stage in our lives. This was probably 7th grade. But why not show you it? This is the oldest picture I have on my computer, so you don’t get the worst of the awkwardness. A close second? Awkward stage #2-side bangs that just did not cooperate with my hair. SIgh.

3. Remember the gingerbread man from this photo?

Where did it come from? The freezer. How old is it? Ohhh maybe 4 years…

Here it is in its original non=frozen glory:

Sooo here’s what happened. This little guy’s leg fell off in the frosting process, so I made a little frosting cast for it. Well, my sister decided to pity the poor broken legged gingerbread man, and hasn’t let anyone eat or throw him away since. Did I mention she’s 21? But I figured-hey I need a gingerbread man for the picture-why not put him to work for the first time in 4 years? And don’t worry, he’s safely back in the freezer.

4. I can’t exactly swim. My dad is probably reading this and cringing. I mean, I took swimming lessons when I was little, and can doggy paddle as well as the best of them, but I never really worked out the whole breathing while swimming thing. And now I hate putting my head underwater. Which means I won’t be doing a triathlon anytime soon unless they’re snorkel legal.

That all being said-if you throw me into water, no, I won’t drown. But I may hit you.

5. I once gave myself frostbite. In April. Keep in mind I live in CA and it was about 70 degrees out and I was walking around with frostbite.

It was bad. It blistered and everything. Let’s just say I was a little overeager in icing my foot. This was a fun one to explain why I couldn’t practice, much less walk, to my softball coach…

6. This isn’t really a secret but I’m horrible about cleaning dishes-specifically tupperware. I’ve learned about all kinds of new mold species since coming to college. IN MY DEFENSE-things mold like crazy in our room. On the other hand-I think it was bad enough anyway that that didn’t make an ounce of difference. I’ve actually been really good about keeping my dishes and tupperware clean in the last few months though!

7. I have a lot of gory pictures on my phone. And bruise pictures. So I have a lot of battle scars. But apparently I feel the need to document them all?

And you’re welcome for avoiding the gory pictures (aka box jumps round 1 and 2…)

Getting hit by a softball, getting hit by a softball, wisdom teeth removal face bruise, weightlifting battle scar.

What’s something embarrassing about you? Spill!