WIAW-Last Wednesday at Home

Date: September 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Aaaand here we are already at Wednesday! I swear this week is flying by. This could have something to do with the fact that it’s the last week before school starts. And I’ve managed to save any and all errands until now. Other problem-I ordered a bunch of things online recently that probably won’t get here until school starts. Whoops.

BUT before life get’s crazy again, let’s celebrate the party that Jenn hosts every week!

Monday for lunch I made a “throw everything in a bowl” kind of salad. The flavors worked pretty well, but not sure I would do it again.

It’s basically a Greek salad-except I used Thai Coconut Curry hummus, which was just a little too strange for this mix. I had the idea that it would make really awesome fried rice though!

While at the grocery store the other day, I passed by the pastry counter (because who doesn’t?) and saw this guy. My mom and I decided I should have one last celebration before I go back, so this was it! Since I’m starting a Mini Whole30 (just 7 days) on Friday, this was the right time. Carrot cake it was!

Ok, I know I keep going on about how everything I own is the same color so I’m ALWAYS matching, but I just had to document the evidence YET AGAIN.

I wore this to Spin the other night. Some exciting news-I talked to my Spin teacher after class the other night about becoming a Spin teacher. She directed me to the certification she used, as well as recommended some gyms to interview at. I’m excited about this-now that I’ve talked to her, I’m really gonna do it and get certified. My goal is to be certified (and hopefully teaching!) by the end of the year, although I’m going to wait until after my half marathon in October.

Guess what Monday was?

NATIONAL GUACAMOLE DAY! You better believe I was all over that.

The best part? I planned this meal before even realizing that it was that particular National holiday. #guacaddict

I celebrated in the form of a taco salad. I love this particular salad-the dressing is simply a mix of salt, pepper, olive oil, lime, and tomatoes. The meat on top (turkey) gives it plenty of flavor. I also subbed in chopped celery for the beans the recipe called for.

Tuesday morning I was up bright and early for a treadmill run. Which I really should never do; treadmill+early+tired=lazy run. I only made it 3 of the 4 miles slowly before giving up. I think I’ll add in some hill sprints tomorrow (which I’ve been meaning to do) to make up for it.

After my run, I was pretty tired during yoga, so I grabbed a cappuccino from Peet’s, who makes one of my favorite cappuccinos.

Check out the milk foam on that baby! The sad part? I haven’t had coffee much at all this summer, plus I’m sensitive as it is, so I couldn’t drink much of this before feeling like it would be too much. I hate wasting good coffee!

I then headed to Whole Foods to stock up for the school year, as well as prepare for my baby Whole30. I decided soup will be a staple for me this fall-although I could only find 2 soups (yes, in all of the store) that were totally Whole30 friendly.

After drooling over the scones in the pastry case, I compromised and got some of their delicious vanilla granola over fruit, along with chinese chicken salad and a vegan taquito for lunch.

After lunch I went to buy a water belt for running. Has anyone else thought that running belts are basically glorified fanny packs? Haha. I’m not thrilled with the one I got, since it holds just a large water bottle-I’m worried it will be too heavy. The ones with smaller bottles kind of interfered with my arms though…

I also saw this mug at Marshall’s and had to have it!

I also stopped at a craft store for some fall decorations for my dorm…and was met with an onslaught of Christmas. Really?? It’s September! But I’m not going to complain about all the fall stuff being 50% off!

Speaking of fall, try this recipe for microwave friendly Baby Pumpkin Pie! I just posted it yesterday!

And here’s an afternoon snack.

Ok, I’m going to get some outrage for what I’m about to say, but I’m officially done with Quest bars. For a while, I couldn’t decide if I really liked them or really disliked them-probably because the flavors are good but I just don’t like the taste of stevia. But they have kind of a lot of nuts, so my face breaks out. And they mess up my stomach. I had a piece of one today and my stomach immediately cramped up. It might be because of the sugar alternatives (like sugar alcohols)? Obviously everyone is different,t and most people love them, which is great but they just don’t work for me!

Aaand back to what I actually ate. A REAL Greek salad (as in, no weird hummus, just red pepper).

And a dessert of figs and a granola bar. I love that these bars now come in non-peanut butter, because then I don’t have to worry about my skin. Did I ever mention what happened in Hawaii when I ate a ton of Macadamia nuts? Yikes-I got weird lumps all over the back of my legs.

That’s all I have on the food front for you guys today, but I have to share with you what I worded on today. I have the Nike Women’s half coming up in October, so I wanted a special shirt to wear for the occasion. I made a Fitness is Sweet tank earlier this summer, but it’s just going to be too cold for that.

Since avocados are kind of the theme of my blog, I wanted to do something similar, but maybe a little more running related. I tried to find pictures of avocados running on the Internet, but luck. Who wouldn’t want to look at pictures of avocados running? I mean, come on! I found some pictures of other vegetables/objects running, so I decided to try my own hand at it. I started by tracing the legs and face.

I then drew an avocado to fit the arms and face. I decided the eyebrows looked to much like antennae, therefore making my avocado look like a colorful green beetle, so I scrapped those.

I then spent time designing the perfect shirt, only to find out at checkout that I could only have 2 colors on the shirt. I looked at a few other sites, but I had already fallen in love with the font. SO. After a ton of fooling around, here’s the end product, which I just ordered! It says “fitnessissweet.com” on the back.

I’m so excited!

What is your favorite fall produce? Have you ever made a shirt?

Aloha!

Date: September 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Aloha from Maui! I wanted to pop in really quickly today-I have a few minutes before my 6 mile training run!

Yesterday was a looong day thanks to a 4:30am wakeup and a 3 hour time change. Our flight left at 7am, so we were at the airport at 6.

Starbucks for breakfast-I actually didn’t want any caffeine since I wanted to sleep on the 5 hour flight as much as possible. A chocolate smoothie did the trick-plus it is one of the less sweet options at Starbucks.

As expected the flight felt long. And the plane was FREEZING-and I was wearing pants and a sweatshirt. Sleeping didn’t happen much, but what are you gonna do? And get this-you had to PAY to even watch a movie. Whattttt. So I did not do that!

Upon landing, our first stop was a local swap meet (crafts plus farmer’s market). We had a couple of hours before my sister’s boyfriend’s flight landed so this was perfect. I loved looking at all the exotic fruits. And look at the size of those avocados!

I’ve never seen non-CA avocados! I can’t wait to try them! Another highlight was freshly pressed green juice. Soooo good.

The perfect start to a tropical vacation!

Once we picked up my sister’s boyfriend, we headed out for some traditional Hawaiian food for lunch-one of my dad’s all time favorite things.

My mom and I split a giant papaya seed salad and teriyaki chicken.

We then visited our hotel and shopped around at a very touristy but awesome Hawaiian store-Hilo Hattie. Fact: my dad owns 10000 Hawaiian shirts.

Want to know what’s sad? When my family has come to Hawaii in the past, it’s usually in the winter or spring. It’s HOT in the summer. And….my weather at home is nicer. Like a lot nicer. Not hot or humid-it’s been in the 90s here and humid, and THIS California girl is drowning in her own sweat. #spoiledCAgirlproblems

This evening, we attended a Luau. More pictures on that for another post! My Internet is slow so uploading takes a little while, and I only have about 3 minutes until I have to run. It was tons of fun-and I was SO ready for bed at 9pm. What’s weird is that my ankle swelled up kind of a lot yesterday-and I don’t usually swell much. It’s the one I sprained a couple of months ago that is still kind of stiff. I guess a lot of being on my feet plus flying contributed to that…weird.

Hope you all are having a fabulous long weekend!

Kitten Updates

Date: July 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I haven’t posted in a couple of nights so let’s go through a 2-day recap! Wednesday morning started with a kefir/granola/sunflower seed butter cup, with a side of a plum.

Note to self-this is not the best pre-run fuel. I was getting a little tired of my pre-run breakfast, so I went with something different and it was not a great idea. I had a stomachache before the run even started but it ended up not being too much of an issue.

I pushed the pace a little bit more than I have lately, but here are some scenes WHILE running, since I ran with my phone for music.

This was my attempt to catch a picture of the bunnies I saw. You can sort of see them in the distance!

After my run, I had to go down to school to work in the lab, and then go to class. I drove half an hour down there, only to realize I forgot both my key card to get in the building and my key to get in the door. Awesome. I had to go all the way back home, losing an hour. That was a pain.

After class, I had a slowpitch softball game. The difference? I was pitching. Yikes. For those of you that don’t know, I was a fastpitch pitcher for…well basically forever. Our normal pitcher was gone, so that left me to give it a try. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Fastpitch and slowpitch are slightly similar, but very different, which basically made it a mess. Let’s just say that pitching fastpitch does NOT translate to slowpitch. Plus, in slowpitch there are these weird rules that females bat with an eleven inch ball, while males bat with a twelve inch ball. As a pitcher in the past, I was super sensitive about different BRANDS of balls (I could name the brand and model of the balls with my eyes closed). So you can imagine what different SIZES of balls did to me. Needless to say I drowned my sorrows in froyo.

YUM. This is my favorite froyo place. I got salted caramel pretzel and chocolate with heath bar on one side, and tart mango and tart with fruit on the other side. Since my goal this week was no gluten, I had to make the sacrifice of choosing heath instead of brownie. I know, I have a hard life. I was going to blog last night but then I made the smart decision to actually go to bed at a reasonable time!

This morning, I was up early for the kitten nursery. There aren’t a ton of litters right now, so that all was fairly quick. A lot of the kittens are sick-nothing serious, just eye injections and colds, but it was spreading at an alarming rate. When we deal with kittens and clean their cages, we bleach EVERYTHING. Everything is bleached between litters, including the scale we weigh them on. Well, it turns out someone replaced all the bleach bottles with water, which is why things were spreading. Anyways, I did get some pictures of the youngest litter. They were even smaller last week!

The kittens are very vocal, especially when they’re hungry!

We actually had a little issue with this litter. As in, one kitten went to the bathroom right on top of ALL the kittens paperwork, which included where we record their weights and eating habits 3x a day, for al long as they’ve been here. So that was an issue.

This is from the litter that we bottle fed a few weeks ago. How on earth did they get so BIG? It’s crazy!

Here’s the steps going up from the kitten nursery to the cat shelter. I love this.

After finishing up at the shelter, I had to hurry down to school to meet with my research professor, only to get there and find out the meeting was cancelled. That wasn’t a huge deal because I had to be down there anyways to do research.
After lunch, I headed out to the bay to run. I wanted to see how far north the trail I’ve been running on goes-I had previously thought I was at the end but then I discovered another path. Before my run, I made the decision to take it at a super easy pace. I pushed the pace yesterday, and this is my heaviest week of my training plan, so I want to just get through it. It turned into a no music run because it was too windy to hear anything. I actually enjoyed the run, although it seemed to take forever. And as it turns out, a slower pace is way harder on my calves. Which have been sore ever since I didn’t wear compression socks after my long run. Smart.
For some pre-Crossfit fuel, I whipped up a smoothie with the dark chocolate almond milk in danger of expiring, a handful of spinach, half a frozen banana, a pinch of xantham gum, and a handful of ice.

This came out a lot better than I was expecting-I could only taste a hint of spinach, which just made it all the more refreshing. Oh how I love my Vitamix.
My afternoon was spent hanging out with my cat, wearing compression socks, and catching up on blogs.

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I love that guy.
While doing the WOD at Crossfit today, it occurred to me that I should probably consider the running I do in Crossfit. I mean, I ran a mile in Crossfit today, which pushes my mileage to 5 for the day. I might stick to 3 tomorrow instead of 4 because it’s likely I’ll run more at Crossfit tomorrow. Thoughts?
Dinner tonight was a good one.
Guacamole for the vegetables: the before and after.

Plus turkey burgers (my current favorite thing) and zucchini fries.

My dad also grilled up some pineapple, which I ended up adding to a little vanilla frozen yogurt.

Overall, it was a good day! And, now I have brand spanking new tires so I can nail those hairpin turns going 60. I kid. Have a great week everyone!
Do you have any funny pet stories?
Hmm maybe mine is the time my GIANT black cat chased the pet sitter around the house? The pet sitter refused to come back!

Study Break: Future Plans and Free Weights

Date: June 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Seeing as I have finals coming up, I’ve just spent 4 hours at the library, and thought that blogging would be a great study break! It took me a long time to realize how much more efficient I am in the library than in my room. Plus, today was really hot and our fan is not working (expert tip-if you kick fans, they may not continue to work), and the library is air-conditioned.

Let me back up. I’m sure all you guys care about is my morning- or rather, kitten pictures! I am sooo excited to be volunteering to care for kittens this summer. Most of them are under 4 weeks old! I will be going once a week, on the 7am shift. But enough of that, here are some pictures! They are all sleeping, so the pictures kind of look like lumps of fur.

These pictures really don’t capture how tiny they are! Lilly was definitely a lot older when we got her. I think towards the end of the season, I’ll pick up more shifts. I go back to school a lot later than most, so towards the end of the season, they will probably be short of hands. SO EXCITED.

Less exciting is my last (good) brunch of the year!But then, when is avocado ever boring?

And then my pre-study necessity:

An iced latte was soo perfect. I was really drowsy from a nap, and hot because my room is not air conditioned!

Last night, I did my 4 mile training run. While running, I realized that I really need to make running my priority this summer. By that, I mean, it has to take priority over my other workouts. Last summer when I trained for my 10k, I just tacked the running on to the rest of my other workouts. Most of my training runs were not with fresh legs. However, I can’t really do that this time around, because the mileage is much higher. Running has to be what I do first thing in the morning. If I want a Spin class or yoga recovery, then that’s great. But running needs to come first. The reasons for these thoughts? My legs were pretty much shot on my run. I also decided after the Nike Women’s marathon in October, I want to start training for a 5k PR. To be fair, I’ve only run one actual 5k, and I have run faster than I did that day, but I think it would be a good change of pace.

5k last year- Santa Run! My time was 25 something….

Also, I have a question for you runners- I love strength training, and am going to continue that through my half training. Do you prefer running the day after lifting while sore, or the day of while tired?

I bring this up because I am quite sore. I really love free weights-almost everything I do, I use the bar for. It is more of a total body workout. For example, I hadn’t done deadlifts much lately, and during those yesterday, my core was definitely getting a workout! And despite doing doing but squats and deadlifts yesterday, my shoulders are SUPER sore. That really is a mystery to me. Maybe from holding up the bar on front squats? Hmm.

Ok, back to studying for me!

Do you cross train? What do you do? What is your schedule like?

Social Networking

Date: May 24, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

TOMORROW IS FRIDAYYY. I swear, this week dragged by. And, it is a 3-day weekend 🙂

Right now I am listening to my 25 most played songs on iTunes. A good portion of them are Spanish…heehee. Here’s one of my favorites! SUPER CATCHY.

Check it out.

Before I get into today’s post, I want to share with you guys some of my search terms. “what would peacocks and pigs look like if there were combined”

Awesome.

“cocoa powder gets everywhere”

Yes, yes it sure does!

“ate jar of sunflower butter”

At once?? Yes, I can relate. Kidding. Kind of.

And I’m glad that my blog is the very first thing that comes up if you google “puffed out stomach mono.” The VERY first. Really??

As usual, my day began with a Spin class. I REALLY REALLY want Spin shoes. Like now. Unfortunately, I have no means of getting Spin shoes. However, I do have a $120 credit at REI, which is where I plan to get them, so I guess it is worth the wait.

Breakfast after spin was plain Greek yogurt, sliced melon/pineapple, and a mix of granola and unsweetened muesli. They didn’t have the better kind of granola, but the mixture actually really worked well! Plus a buckwheat pancake. Don’t worry, it was not very sweet. Believe me.

Class, blah blah blah, then LUNCH. I had an amazing salad from Coupa. Those toasted walnuts were just…there are no words. They were salty, sweet, and had a perfect crunch.

I was still a little hungry afterwards, and I decided kettle corn was just about right. It was kind of embarrassing to go to the same cashier and buy more food….

I had a lot of meetings/psych study/section this afternoon. I also had a snack of some type of cinnamon-y bread from a different cafe.

It had apple and oats…that’s all I know! I love this little cafe- they have the best quickbreads! And they’re not very sweet, either, which as we know, is right up my alley. These snacks got me thinking, how do I define the “no sweets” thing I am doing? It’s funny, it is hard for me to articulate my philosophy and reasoning on what is ok for me to eat or not, but in my mind it is very well defined. No cookies, cake, ice cream. Cinnamon bread is ok. Pancakes without syrup are ok (in moderation). Muffins…borderline. I guess the best way to describe my definition is no desserts. When I get home and have more freedom in the kitchen, I will probably slash sugar a bit more.

And back to the normally scheduled programming…more food!

I had half a frozen microwave english muffin from 4 months or so ago, so I topped that with Garlic and Herb Laughing cow, and half of my last avocado from my Big. I swear, those avocados are magic! It was super soft so I was worried that it had gone bad, but when I broke it open, it was nice and green! I also had a mango and some more pumpkin bread. I have a class on evolution this quarter. Thing 1: My professor had a cold, and he was drinking Evolution brand grapefruit juice. Too great. Thing 2: I have to do…gasp, an art project! I am not a very artistic person, and I have to do something expressive about the evolution of carnivorous plants. I went to the bookstore today to buy paper and oil pastels. I accidentally bought pastels instead of oil pastels. The difference? Oil. Pastels are really dry and dusty. However, I had already opened them when I discovered this. Oh well. I decided to test them out, and naturally, what did I do?I was considering doing a blue ombre background but I kind of liked it as is (minus the smudges). Thoughts?

Messy hands!Dinner was super boring…I hate eating meat off of the bones! Only a few more weeks! Overall though, today included some pretty good eats! My face is going to hate me though…I had nuts 3x today, including some peanut butter I had with cereal after dinner….oh well. YOLO.

Now, I want to talk about Social Networking with you guys. Do you guys tell people outside of the blog world about your blogs? I generally don’t because I feel like if one is unfamiliar with the food and fitness blog genre, they’d think I was crazy for taking pictures of all my food and posting about it. Do you post about your blog on your personal facebook? I’m deciding whether or not I should try that, but I’m leaning towards not. This summer I want to spend some serious time on the blog, and I’m trying to decide if that is a way I want to spread the word or not. I’d love to hear what you guys do!

Do you tell friends/family/acquaintances about your blog?