Monthly Archives: April 2014

Calm Down Year-Ago-Aurora

Date: April 22, 2014

Author: astottler

Yesterday, when I was finding a link for the post, I found myself reading some posts from this time last year.

WHEW.

It was an interesting experience. And it’s amazing how much I’ve changed since then-in terms of who am I am, why I do, my writing style, and what I talk about. (Here’s a random post from a year ago.)

Year-Ago-Aurora? You’re freaking crazy. Calm down! I guess that’s part of being a freshman, and the freedom I felt last spring with very few obligations after rowing ended. The first few weeks of spring quarter last year were insane. I had just been stuck at home for months with mono, and all of the sudden I had a ton of free time and catching up with friends to do. I got into some bizarre and unhealthy habits-like not sleeping and eating insane amounts of yogurt. I mean, I love yogurt still-and the old pictures made me crave some of those awesome yogurt bowls-but I was definitely not in the healthiest place. My hormones were all crazy from being sick, and the late nights led to this crazy night time snacking problem-I mean, the snacks were mostly yogurt bowls, but en masse. I think I gained the Freshman 15 in like 3 weeks? From yogurt alone?

What really makes me cringe is all the “food revelations.” No Aurora, you do not have a grain sensitivity. You feel like awful because you’re eating junk and not sleeping…I mean, a lot of those posts are so embarrassing to look back on. But I’ve definitely come so far as a person-in healthy habits, in ways of thinking, in the things I chose to publish on the great Internet.

I also don’t know how I had so much freaking time then! Now I feel like I’m always busy! I guess there was the whole ‘not sleeping’ thing that added several hours to the day…and the fact that classes are so much more work sophomore year!

I also made a lot of broad proclamations, which I’m not really comfortable doing anymore. Like “I won’t eat grains anymore,” or “I’m going Paleo.” Now, I guess I feel silly saying those things. Because I think I got to the point where it was something different each day. I think I was desperately looking for a solution to my out of control eating habits. (Past-Aurora: sleep probably would have helped.)

I feel so much more secure in myself now. I’m not a freshman-I don’t have to worry about having friends and what people think of me in the same way. I have amazing friends-and maybe because I surround myself with the right people, I don’t really have to worry what anyone thinks of me. (Or is this just laziness? TBD…) I have zero problems sitting in my room by myself on a Friday night watching Netflix. Not that I spend my life with Netflix, but I don’t feel like I need to try to be social when all I want to do is relax and sleep. I remember fall of my freshman year, I went to bed pretty early (comparatively to the rest of the freshman in my dorm), and I would always hear people talking and partying, and I was stressed that I was missing out on meeting people. Now, I know that I don’t have to worry about that. I guess this is what maturity does to you, huh?

What’s crazy to me is that I felt so grown up at the time, and while I was writing those posts. And like I said, I look back on them and cringe. Calm down Aurora! You’re crazy!

Do you ever go back and read your old posts? What do you think?

Egg Diaries Day 1

Date: April 21, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Marathon Monday! Of course I had to start my morning with a run-not 26.2 miles unfortunately! I did an easy 3 first thing in the morning, which felt surprisingly good given the sugar coma I had all weekend! Run fuel? Maybe?

Did anyone watch the Boston Marathon this year? I didn’t but I had fun following the various tweets about it! My first real experience with marathons came a few summers ago when I somehow got hooked on the marathon running. Which is an unfortunate event to be hooked on, given how long the race is! Everyone thought I was crazy for being so enthralled-who knew that now I’d have run 3 half marathons?

I also love the outpouring of support for Boston. I’ve seen a few Boston Strong t-shirts here on my super isolated campus. I remember last year being sort of upset by the fact that no one here seemed to care-I wrote a rather heated blog post about it at the time!

I also remember wishing I could run 10 miles on my birthday that year….but knowing that wouldn’t be possible. But guess what? My birthday is in 2 weeks-this year, I could run 10 miles on my birthday if I wanted to. I probably won’t, but it wouldn’t be that big of a deal anymore. It’s amazing how much can change in a year!

Today, in terms of food, I began my journey to eat the Easter eggs. I can’t believe my mother sent me home with 18 hard boiled eggs…and that I didn’t realize it! So…expect a lot of eggs for a while. I may need to pick up an avocado for avocado egg salad.

Egg #1-totally necessary to match my eggs to my clothing. Clearly.

And eggs #2,3, and 4.

This is the before.

And the after-egg salad with spinach and tortilla chips. What do you guys put in your egg salad? I usually do mayo, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I didn’t have any lemons so I improvised with an old orange that was too sour to eat anyways! My family likes relish in it but…blech. It’s not for me!

So, Mission Eat 18 Eggs Day 1 has ended. I am 4 eggs in. Stay tuned.

What’s your favorite use of leftover eggs?

Easter 2014-Mind Blowing Revelations in Bread Pudding

Date: April 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone had a Marvelous Easter!

I definitely had a fabulous day. First thing in the morning, I prettied myself up and drove home for an Easter Brunch with my family.

After a few obligatory pictures, we were off to a fancy hotel for a snazzy Easter feast! I really tried to pace myself this year. My family takes buffets really seriously, and I think I committed a foul by filling up on cookies the previous day and having reduced stomach space today. And yes, we even had a conversation about how you can “win” a buffet. Ohh my crazy family.

First course-I guess I’ll call it the appetizers? Blueberry bread, fancy cheeses, watermelon, a cauliflower salad, and the star-a cheese blintz.

Course 2: real food. Mahi mahi, jasmine rice, a whole wheat roll, and bread pudding part 1. It was a sampler, ya know?

Course 3 was real dessert. My mom and I got some things to share (although you better believe that the bread pudding was all for me.) Super rich chocolate cake, berry rhubarb pie, baby chocolate eclair, a petit 4, and of course, bread pudding. My family certainly has a thing for bread pudding. We have an amazing family recipe (which I should totally post if we make it again. I could even try a healthier version?), and normally I don’t go for other types. But this, my friends, was amazing. It was made with croissants. CROISSANTS! What a revolutionary idea! Seriously, SO good. So buttery and custardy, with a deliciously creamy custard sauce. This definitely stole the show today! After waddling away from brunch, it was time to search for Easter baskets and then embark on the annual Easter egg hunt!

We found them all this year! Nothing like finding little plastic eggs in July…

After some Easter candy and a subsequent food coma, I headed over to my neighbors house for a conversation in Spanish. I had to record it for a class, but it was a lot of fun! Sadly, my understanding of Spanish is far superior to my speaking ability-but that’s just something to work on! Another Easter tradition happened as well-dying of eggs! We didn’t do anything too crazy this year, but I think they turned out quite well!

So now I basically have a million colorful eggs to eat! There are certainly worse problems to have! Somehow I ended up taking them ALL back with me. So expect nothing but eggs on here for the next week. But actually… I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday! What are your Easter traditions?

Lack of Motivation and Cupcake Art

Date: April 19, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’ve seriously been neglecting blogging lately. I’m sort of lacking blogging motivation: I feel like there hasn’t been that much to say, and I’ve been busy! But here I am back! I do have some new things to share-such as what continent I’ll be on this summer! Seriously-SO relived to finally have that all figured out.

Where to even start? How about Thursday. I woke up early for a run-I did 3 miles with a mile at tempo speed. It felt pretty good. I was going to do 4 miles but since I haven’t run much since my half, I wanted to keep it easy. I was sore after Tuesday’s 4 mile run! I don’t have any halts planned for a while, so right now I’m keeping it chill on the running front. Eventually, I’ll move back over to speed work, but I haven’t felt a lot of running motivation lately so I’m going to wait until I feel ready. I always feel a bit burned out after training for halfs!

Breakfast was a classic-plain Greek yogurt, sun butter, and berry compote. Such a good combo.

And then…I FINALLY decided/found out where I’ll be this summer! I have an internship in Washington DC-so if anyone is going to be there this summer (or in the area) let me know and we should hang out! In my Internship I’m going to be working on Child Nutrition things, and I literally could not imagine a job I would rather be doing. An added bonus? My friend is in DC this summer as well so we’re trying to find a place to live together! SO excited!

Thursday I also got my second sound wave treatment. It was MUCH more painful than the first-I think the guy found the tender spots a lithe bit better. Hopefully this all works!

This week has also sort of been the week of sugar for me-we’ve had a lot of informal recruitment events for my sorority, and my roommate has been doing a lot of baking for it. The events are basically us getting together and eating good food.

Check out these cupcakes! One of my other friends did the frosting-she busted out some amazing cupcake decorating skills out of nowhere! So beautiful! And the cupcakes were of course, delicious. Especially the vanilla, which was a surprise for me given I’m normally chocolate all the way!

I don’t have a lot to show for food pictures. Things have been pretty basic around here lately, so let’s talk a bit about workouts! Friday morning I did Spin on my own. I’ve been loving HIIT on the spin bike lately, so I did my HIIT class I wrote, and just subbed in a different playlist to mix it up! I had to modify and cut it a bit short though because I couldn’t really stand on the bike after the sound wave treatment. I’m not supposed to use my Achilles for 24 hours after the treatment, and this time it was definitely sore and inflamed afterwards. I ended up icing it Thursday night because it was sore and hot!

This morning, I went to Crossfit. It was hard. Which was great. We did Kelly, which I’ve done once before. I think it’s definitely one of the harder Crossfit workouts I’ve done, partly because it’s a long one.

Kelly:

5 rounds:

400m run

30 box jumps

30 wall balls

It just adds up super fast! 150 box jumps is a lot! I didn’t beat my previous time, unfortunately, but it was certainly a good one!

Tomorrow, I’m going home for Easter. We’re going out to a nice Brunch, and then doing an Easter egg hunt, as always. I love how some traditions never change! One year, we had a squirrel hijack our Easter egg hunt-he took a couple of plastic eggs high up into the trees and chewed holes in them!

That’s all I have for today! Have a fabulous Easter!

Back to Life (WIAW)

Date: April 15, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

WHEW. What an absolutely insane couple of days! My schedule was insane and I’m still running around a bit like a crazy person but it’s whatever. Since I haven’t posted food in forever, this will double as WIAW!

Things didn’t get too super crazy until Friday. Thursday I got sound wave treatment on my Achilles. It was kind of strange, kind of painful, and extremely short. I have to go back 2 more times. I think it helped? I’ve been on my feet ALL weekend which normally KILLS my achilles, and I have been able to walk so I’m taking that as a good sign! Here’s some Thursday food:

So, the dining hall has been stepping up breakfast lately. Bread pudding? Of course I’m going to try that! I’m kind of in love with the blueberry bread pudding. SO good. But really sweet for breakfast! Next time I might bring some back for later! They also had sticky buns.

Lunch-carrots and meatballs. With a side of finally declaring my major! Bio all the way!

I love the shirt, haha!

Super simple dinner-chicken caesar salad and a warm, buttery roll. Sometimes the simplest things are the best. This was followed by a treat thought-the dining hall had a big fat of HOT brownie!

Umm YUM. Friday morning I did a weight lifting work out that didn’t use my achilles so it could rest after the treatment. I did front squats, good mornings, back squats, and RDLs, and then finished with abs.

Breakfast was actually in the dining hall! I tried a weird mixture of steel cut oats, cottage cheese, golden raisins, and later banana, and really wasn’t feeling it. Also pictured is blueberry bread pudding. 🙂

Hey, you can’t win them all! So, the craziness REALLY got underway. Friday I met with a girl in my sorority for dinner….at 3:45….to talk about her experience abroad in Chile. We had to meet to start prepping everything at 4:30. Last weekend was formal recruitment for my sorority. The way my school handles this is that every girl has to go to these little “parties” with every chapter. So Friday we were there 4:30-12:30, and I didn’t get in bed until 3. My entire Saturday consisted of sleeping ish in, Crossfit, a quick trip to Whole Foods, a nap, and then returning for night 2 of recruitment. I went to Whole Foods for one reason: it’s the absolute best time of year.

MANGO SEASON. When they start going on sale is when they really start being great. I bought 8 mangoes. Which I will admit is a far cry from the 29 I had last year… I also picked up a quick lunch. Brunch? Dinner?

A green smoothie and a blueberry muffin. My meal schedule was so weird. I had very few actual meals. Saturday, we were there from 5pm-2am, when we were physically kicked out of the building. Sunday, unless you count the pb&j (ish) tortilla at 2, my dinner consisted of animal crackers. So there’s that. I was really dreading rush, I must admit, but it ended up being pretty fun. I met and talked to some pretty cool people, and had a shockingly good time performing a ridiculous dance for all our potential new members. There is a video, but I’m pretty sure the Internet does not need to see that. I also developed some bizarre allergy thing on Friday, AKA right as all this craziness started. I must be allergic to something that was blooming, because it’s a lot better now. However, my weird allergy thing plus talking to people for 7 hours a night, plus screaming and singing insanely, my voice has been GONE since Saturday. By the end of the night, I could barely make a sound. The last girl I talked to was legitimately concerned for me! The craziness continued after rush for me-I got out at midnight on Sunday night, and had the pleasure of going home to write and prepare an oral presentation for the next day, as well as write a Spanish paper. Monday was filled with class and meetings, and a bid day party for our new members. We didn’t get as many as we would have liked, especially given all the time and energy we put into the process, but it is what it is.

Me plus my giraffe, and a baby giraffe for a new member. The craziness continued through this morning. We hosted a breakfast for new members…in my dorm room at 7am. So my room needed to be clean, and I needed to be awake. I didn’t get a chance for a workout at all yesterday, and the day before all I had time for was 20 minutes of HIIT on the Spin bike! Craziness!

Breakfast was matzah eggs and fruit, since it’s Passover and we’re a historically Jewish sorority. And before class, I made sure to grab coffee. I actually went with my sister! My real sister who despite the fact that she goes to the same school as me, you never see her pop up on here because I never see her!

Big sis and little sis coffee. I will never understand how she can handle so much more caffeine than I can! Ok-WHEW. We’re almost caught up. On the workout front, I decided to run TO Crossfit today. It’s just over 2 miles each way, so it made for a good first run post-half marathon. It was definitely more difficult on the way back though! And LASTLY (I promise, I know this has been a marathon post), dinner tonight: a beautiful avocado atop sweet potato, turkey meatball, and salsa.

And now, I’m off to get a start on the million and one things I need to do today!

Catch me up on your lives-what’s new?