Monthly Archives: March 2014

WIAW-Lately

Date: March 11, 2014

Author: astottler

Hey guys! It’s Wednesday and I’ve officially on that dead week grind. I have an infinite amount of studying to do before Monday, but a collection of delicious things from the past few days is a great way to break it up! Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting!

To be perfectly honest, I have not been super inspired with my blogging lately. I may be having a mid-life blog crisis. What is the purpose really of my blog? Should I make my writing voice more formal? Is this really a “healthy living blog”? What does that even mean? What valuable content can I contribute to the vastness that is the Internet? I’m also starting to think about myself and how to be a better person. I think that’s something we can all work on! It’s interesting because I have a post from sometime around this time last year talking about a similar thing. Although of course it sounds silly looking back on it now just in the way I worded everything!

I suppose my current contribution to the Internet is my food as a college student. Which means easy and microwave friendly, more often than not! And many times lazy-I am not ashamed of ziplock bag pictures! (Ok, maybe I am.)

This is an easy breakfast that never gets old. An orange and scrambled eggs with interesting cheese. Microwave scrambled eggs are SO easy, and are indistinguishable from stove scrambled eggs. And a quality cheese completely makes the dish.

Brunch of a whole wheat waffle and a little bit of yogurt+fruit.

Dining hall dinner-Indian food! I admit, I ate virtually zero vegetables this day, and normally I would have a bed of spinach in there, but some days I’m just really not feeling it.

A ziplock bag lunch which is always a winner, and so, so easy. Simply microwave (or bake if you’re fancier than I am and have an oven) a sweet potato, season, and top with salsa! I have little guacamole packets which I put on at lunch time. I also packed some hardboiled eggs for protein. To season, I used this amazing salt blend:

This is SO GOOD. It has a very smoky flavor, and reminds me a bit of barbecue sauce.

This dining hall dinner was a complete WIN. I seriously lucked out. Salsa baked chicken, cilantro brown rice, salad, and the star of the show-roasted cauliflower and carrots! I don’t know why the dining hall always insists on steaming cauliflower, so this was quite the treat! I definitely brought back some to pack in my lunch for the next day.

My yogurt mess really is quite the mess in this picture because it rode around with me all day. It is reduced berries with sunflower seed butter and plain yogurt-my favorite!

If you haven’t tried dried persimmons, this should be a priority in your life. We all know I was a tad obsessed with fresh persimmons this fall, and while these definitely aren’t the same, they seem to disappear quite quickly!

In other things that you should go out and buy: this. Now. Run. It’s delicious! Everything I could have hoped for and more. Creamy goat cheese, sweet and fruity blueberries. Amazing.

An unexpected treat-dinner in the form of a care package from home! Vegetable soup and a corn and cheese cake. There was another cake as well but it seemed to disappear before the picture was taken! Yum!

I guess one contribution I have to the healthy living world right now is my attempt at a microwave St. Patrick’s Day cookie. Which may actually be made in the oven if I can get the microwave version to turn out first (it’s lower commitment!)

I did make one major mistake though. Check out the results:

Pre-“baking.” (Wouldn’t it be awesome to have an Easy Bake Oven in a dorm room??)

Post-“baking.”

These don’t really look like St. Patrick’s Day cookies, do they? Let me explain.

We already know about the Mystery Bread I’m obsessed with. (Which is now solved, by the way!)

See the green things? Those are sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds react to turn green under certain baking conditions. I wanted to make green sunflower seed butter cookies. I SWEAR I thought it was baking powder that caused the reaction, but I failed to check before producing marvelously un-green cookies. It’s actually baking soda. So attempt #2 will come soon! The good news is, they tasted great!

On the fitness front, today I did one of the “girls” at Crossfit-Helen. This is 3 rounds of a 400m run, 21 kettle bell swings, and 12 pull ups. This one is harder than it sounds! I’m happy to report that I beat my last time by about 20 seconds, but I used much less assistance (a thinner band) on the pull ups!

Tomorrow, I’m supposed to run 6 miles but I’m considering cutting it to 5. Today is my heaviest week of running on my training plan (4,6,4,12 miles), and despite following the training plan twice already, I’ve never actually fit in all the runs for the heaviest week! My calves are feeling a bit tight so I might cut it to 5 and then play it by ear. Lots of rolling out will be happening tonight between studying though!

Have a great week!

Any fun St. Patrick’s Day Traditions?

A(urora)-Z

Date: March 10, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey! Since I have nothing super groundbreaking to say-I’ve either eaten my meals out of ziplock bags or I haven’t taken pictures, I’m going to go ahead and post one of my prepared posts I made over the summer for when things got busy! So-this survey was going around forever ago and maybe made more sense at the time, but let’s go with it! It’s funny though-I swear my writing voice/I have matured since writing this!

Hey guys! I’ve seen this in the blog world a lot, and since I know you guys would just love to learn about me, I thought it would be a good post to have in reserve for when the days get busier. So, here we go!

A. Attached or Single?

Single. Attached to my cat-which is no secret.

B. Best Friend?

I have a few best friends, but given only one of those people might actually read this, I’m going to go with my friend Jessica, who I’m known since 6th grade 🙂

We’re such babies here! We were also plaid obsessed, if you can’t tell by the cookies…
C. Cake or pie?

Cake. One hundred percent. This is my favorite dessert.

D. Day of choice?

I’m going to have to go with Friday. I like having a routine, but it’s also a day to relax and not do homework,
E. Essential Item?

My phone. I admit, I can’t go anywhere without it. And if it ever dies, I feel lost. It’s kind of sad.
F. Favorite color?

Blue.
G. Gummy bears or worms?

I’m not a huge gummy bear fan, with the exception of my vitamins. So worms.

H. Home town?

Just south of SF 🙂
I. Favorite Indulgence?

Probably cake.
J. January or July?

July. January is always sort of depressing because the fun of winter has worn off and the holidays are over.
K. Kids?

Just my kitties 🙂

L. Life isn’t complete without?

Ok if I say cats, will I be crossing into crazy cat lady territory? Let’s go with friends and family instead (but technically cats are family too soo…)

M. Mountain or Beach?

Hmm not sure. Probably mountain? I’m not much of a beach person I suppose.

N. Number of brothers/sisters?

1 sister.

O. Oranges or Apples?

My first instinct would be apples, but I haven’t had great apples lately, and I’ve had some pretty darn good oranges. I used to hate oranges though so let’s go with apples.
P. Phobias?

Anyone fairly close to me knows my list, and its order.

1. Puke

2. Drowning

3. Scorpions

4. Hair
Q. Quotes?

“I am Ted F-ing Williams and not even Jesus Christ himself can get me out.” My hitting coach told me to tell this to myself at the plate-power of positive thinking! Fun fact: I began a college essay with this quote. And got in. And now go to said school.
R. Reasons to smile?

I’m healthy and my body can carry me 12 miles.

I have a loving and supportive family.

I get to help raise adorable kittens and give them a second chance at the local shelter.

S. Season of choice?

At this point I may have to go with fall. I love spring, but fall is more interesting.

T. Trip for the Future

Hawaii! I’m going at the beginning of September. So this might be posted during that time.

U. Unknown fact about me?

Before I started blogging, all the photos in my phone consisted of cats or injuries. I’ll spare you pictures, but let’s just say that I had a lot of softball shaped bruises. And of course the gashes in my shin from box jumps…and the frostbite on my foot…Yeah I’m pretty cool.
V. Vegetable?

Hmm maybe brussels sprouts? Lettuce is an easy go-to though too.

W. Worst habit?

Running my hands through my hair and pulling out loose hairs. I hate hairs, and obsessively pick them off myself.

Or just running my hands through my hair when I’m nervous.
X. Xray or Ultrasound?

Xray? Weird question…
Y. Your favorite food?

I’m a food blogger. I can’t possibly have just one favorite food. Hmm how about favorite meal? Cheese souffles, mushrooms with thyme, and herb salad.

Z. Zodiac sign?

Taurus. But I don’t really know anything about this kind of thing.

Well, hope you enjoyed a peek into my life! I loved looking at old pictures…any photos with my family are pretty old because any newer photos are on my parent’s computer!

Have a great day!

Quest Bar Giveaway Winner Announced!

Date: March 9, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Thank you all so much for your entries to my Quest Bar Giveaway!

So…without further ado, thanks to a random number generator, our winner is:

Sarah! Please email me with your address at astottler @ gmail.com and I’ll get them sent off ASAP!

I Ran a Lot and Lifted Some Heavy Stuff

Date: March 8, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Saturday! It’s such an incredibly beautiful day here! Which will likely hold lots and lots of studying for me! I’m sorry I’m back up on comments-it gets a little bit confusing with all the Quest giveaway entries! (You still have until tomorrow night to enter!) I’m so glad I’m doing the giveaway-I am constantly tempted to eat them but now I know I can’t! And thankfully my skin is returning back to normal!

I have a few random pictures that pretty much tell my story from the past couple of days.

New haircut.

New favorite breakfast-whole wheat pancakes with plain Greek yogurt and pineapple. I had to carb load up-I did my long run for the week on Friday afternoon, and I wanted to have a very light lunch before!

I drove to the same park where last week’s 5k was held. It was farther than I expected! But the weather was slightly nicer.

Last week:

This week:

For some reason, lately when I’ve been doing long runs, the goo I take makes me cough like crazy. I decided to try something new.

I taste tested these beforehand so I’d know what to expect. The verdict? They TASTE good but I have no idea how people eat these while running! They’re SUPER chewy, and I had some difficulty not even on the run! Since this wasn’t a race, I decided to use them anyways and just take a lot more time to stop and chew them which was a bit difficult…plus since a serving isn’t just a pouch, you need a way to actually carry them, which was a pain.

I used this little handheld water. I’ve used it before without problem, but for some reason every time I turned it upside down, it leaked. Which was unfortunate given it was more comfortable to carry with my watch hand…All in all, it was a good run! But…11 miles is far! It felt really far!

I took Advil beforehand for my Achilles, and it really helped and was a nonissue. My foot pain/numbness though was a different story. It started early and was pretty bad. At the halfway point I took out my heel inserts which help my Achilles, and it helped the foot pain. Even still, starting at mile 7 or so I had to stop every mile and shake out the pain in my feet. Since I’m doing longer distances now, I think I’m going to try and cut out sugar for the next week before my next long run to see if it helps!

Last night was very low-key for me because this morning I did the Crossfit Open workout 14.2! It was hard. Very hard. Harder than it looked. Like, I’ve never gotten so shaky in 6 minutes before. I used a box to reach the pull up bar, and I almost felt off a few times because my legs were shaking. The workout was this:

3 minutes of:

2 rounds of 10 overhead squats and 10 pull ups

If this is completed, in the next 3 minutes, so 2 rounds of 12 of each. If that is finished, then 3 minutes to complete 14 rounds of each. And so on.

I made it to the second round, and finished with 84 reps, 4 pull ups away from the moving on to round 3! Of course though, I did banded pull ups because I’m not that strong! One guy in my class made it all the way to the 4th round! I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sore. Yes, from 6 minutes.

I need to go study now and do a lab report! But first, I need to share this.

This dining hall parfait. Looks pretty good, right? I was expecting oreos on top, with yogurt, granola, and raspberries/raspberry jam. Umm…I was right about the Oreos and granola, but it also had cool whip and cherry jello…that was a little bit too weird for me! I’m really not a jello person, especially not cherry!

Jello-yes or no?

It’s Not Wednesday and I’m Not Wearing Pink

Date: March 6, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to make Mean Girls references given I’ve only seen the movie 2x and the only reason I know quotes is that everyone says them so often. So there’s that. Today was…interesting. Morning Spin, food, more food.

Whole wheat pancakes crumbled over plain Greek yogurt and fruit.

I guess I’ll share my lunch, but it’s not the prettiest. My morning routine is ridiculous. Lunch was thrown together in a minute on the way out of the door. I normally step out of the shower 3 minutes before I have to leave. For the record, I have yet to be late.

White sweet potato with salsa and huac, plus a tangerine.

Also-the secret to mystery bread revealed!

The ingredient I was missing was the apple…so I was pretty close in my guesses. But guess what my new Spring Break project is going to be?

This afternoon I went to get a haircut and new running shoes, which is where things kind of went downhill. The haircut was great, in and out in 5 minutes with from what I can tell is a decent cut! I definitely let my hair get too long last/beginning of this year in college. I guess it’s just not something I think of!

I went to the same place I always go for running shoes, to get the kind I always get. The only color they had left in my size was…pink. Meh.

I’m not a pink person. I can’t handle pink shoes. I own almost nothing pink. But I bought them anyways. And I really greatly dislike them.

In the car on the way back, I totally lost it. About something as silly as buying the wrong color of shoes. I hate myself for hating them. I hate myself for buying something I know I wouldn’t like, and not just ASKING them to order a different color.

But this isn’t about shoes. This is about this quarter. This is about my life. All of the sudden, it all came out. The Bio program at my college is the top in the country. I’m in classes with, living with, interacting with some of the best and most driven minds of the country. And to say the least it’s incredibly humbling, if not downright discouraging at times.

With that little pair of shoes, everything that had built up, everything I had been blocking out, numb to, came pouring into the forefront of my mind and I lost it. I’m not smart enough. Not pretty enough. Not thin enough. Not fast enough. I can’t keep up. Everyone here is too brilliant. I still haven’t figured out how to eat in college. The extra weight I still carry around seems to constant weigh on me (pun sort of intended) and I can’t seem to figure out how to make that go away. I mess up messing up. I’m not social enough. Not involved in enough.

It’s amazing what a little pair of shoes can do, huh?

I considered going to yoga instead of Crossfit tonight since we were doing heavy squats and I’m running 11 miles tomorrow. But I’m so glad I didn’t. Sometimes, you just need to lift heavy things, and I brought the emotion into my workout with vengeance. We did 3 sets of 3 squats at 87% max and 1 at 95% max. It was heavy but it felt amazing to push through. We also worked on pull up strength, and guess what?

I DID MY FIRST PULL UP. EVER!

I know a lot of people like running for therapy, but I have to say, nothing compares to lifting heavy things.

I did lose it again later though, and now I have a searing headache to show for it. As for the shoes? I’m not sure what to do. I’m considering returning them and ordering a better color. It all is so ridiculous. But I feel so bad about that and I’m sort of emotionally attached to them yet still really don’t like them. I’m not even sure what would make me happier at this point. I’m pretty sure the shoes are an analogy for my life which is why they are hitting a cord, but I haven’t totally figured that out yet.

I know I don’t usually get super personal on here, so not sure why I decided to today. Maybe to show that that’s how you get your first pull up? Hah.

I guess to show that rough days happen and that you’re never alone. And if a pair of shoes makes you sob into your new haircut, it’s probably not just the shoes.