WIRED

Date: July 11, 2014

Author: astottler

I hope everyone is doing well! My Friday night plans fell through, so I’m hanging out here blogging, after a super long google+ chat with my family.

This morning, after being stupid and staying up way too late finishing my book, I was up bright and early for half marathon training. 4 miles today! Since I’ve done a variety of pace/speed based runs this week, today was just comfortable pace. It was actually pretty cool out at 6am!

Now I totally get why Anne runs with her camera-there’s just so much to capture here!

Post run, I had the best breakfast ever. It’s been a year since I’ve had a combo like this. I added blueberry lemon banana bread to vanilla yogurt, and topped that with blueberries and sunflower seed butter. Seriously, so good.

Stonyfield has some of my favorite vanilla Greek yogurt because the sugar content isn’t bad. Only 12g including lactose sugars! That’s way better than most!

At work, I got coffee.

Pleas note the size of that cup. It is not big. 12oz. It is not full. But it apparently was WAY too much caffeine for me. I’m pretty sensitive, and it was bad. I felt awful the whole day. And, I have a family history of heart problems with too much caffeine (granted it was from way more than this) so it freaks me out if I get at all over caffeinated. I’m not sure if the coffee here is just extra strong, but it’s gotten to me a lot more than usual. My cappuccinos at school are even on the small side for cappuccinos I guess! The weird thing is it is sort of unpredictable when it’s going to hit me too much. I had a little less than this on Monday and was seriously dragging all day (maybe they slipped me decaf?). Anyways, it was enough for me to vow off coffee all together for at least a week. It will be just tea for a while! Ugh. Not good.

Since I got caught in the storm and didn’t cook last night, I bought lunch. I tried something slightly new-a humus sandwich! It’s just hummus and veggies on a whole wheat pita. It was good! The cafe also has other interesting varieties of hummus that I should try at some point.

Also, because I’m doing the whole full disclosure thing-I had a piece of my weakness, marble bread.

After work, I headed to Crossfit. We worked on headstands (!) (yeah, I’m not good at them) and bench presses before going outside for a running related WOD. Which is probably not the best thing for me right now, to be honest, because this week has been very running heavy. My calves were really tight. I’m doing a fair amount of running this weekend as well, so it’s something I need to watch. I’m also going to have to figure out a schedule that isn’t going to torch my calves running every day. That would be a great way to get injured, especially as the long runs get longer. I’m doing OutRun again tomorrow, and it probably will be one of my last because the mileage is adding up quickly!

After Crossfit, I snacked on some chocolate yogurt while making dinner. Definitely not as decadent as it sounds, but still good! And perfect for after a tough workout.

I roasted brussels sprouts while I chatted with my family, and had a black bean burger to go with them.

I also threw together something I’ve seen going around the blog world-2 ingredient oatmeal cookies. First of all, calling them cookies is quite the exaggeration. They are just banana and oats. I added cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins for cinnamon raisin. These will be perfect pre-run/workout for me though!

And now I’m off to finally catch up on blogs!

Happy Valentine’s Day and Some Women’s Health

Date: February 14, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Valentine’s Day everybody! I’m pretty sure this guy is my valentine:

I slept 9 hours last night, but I’m definitely still recovering from the previous night, so this was pretty awesome.

I’m pretty sure Valentine’s Day is a good excuse to eat cookies as pre-run fuel, right?

These were a Valentine’s gram-one from my roomie and the other from my favorite K-pop star. Yeah, I didn’t know I had one either.

I decided to be over the top pink today because I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually worn this sweater, and it’s just too perfect for Valentine’s day. I guess pink isn’t really my color which is why I haven’t worn it much!

For this morning’s run, I did my 50 minute treadmill workout. I took it kind of easy though-I woke up sore and tired-so I didn’t do any of it at 1.0 incline, and it actually felt fairly easy!

I also made some awesome scrambled eggs this morning. With goat gouda <3

After class (more on that in a minute) I experimented with popcorn and my new chocolate making skill-chocolate coated popcorn!

Not the biggest winner though-the popcorn wasn’t very salty on it’s own, and I made with chocolate with just maple syrup, nonfat milk, and cacao powder.

And besides Valentine’s candy, I did eat some veggies! I really liked this Trader Joe’s salad!

Now onto Valentine’s day. I know some people get sad/depressed being single on Valentine’s day but it really doesn’t bother me. I mean come on-either way, this is a chocolate holiday! Priorities, people! Last Valentine’s day, I had a 6k test (rowing) and then went to the beach with my rowing team.

In terms of Valentine’s I’ve given out, my favorite thing of the past when I was less busy/had better access to a kitchen for the holidays was M&M cookies. I used a chocolate chip cookie recipe, and then replaced the chips with holiday M&Ms of choice. They were always a big hit, and definitely one of my all time favorite cookies! Sadly, that was wayyy pre blog so I have no pictures…

AND in the spirit of Valentine’s day, I’ve decided to share a little story with you all. I don’t usually talk about this aspect of my personal life on here, but I thought you guys would get a kick out of the awkwardness of a high school relationship.

In high school, I ended up “going out” with a guy I really didn’t know much probably less than a week before Valentine’s day. So that was one of the most awkward Valentine’s days of my life. I had no idea what the proper etiquette was for something like this (I ended up making the perviously mentioned cookies). The worst part was that every year in the Spanish class I was in, the students make super cheesy, super silly valentines and plant them throughout the school. My new boyfriend was in the same spanish class, so I ended up making a ridiculous one for him. But he didn’t know enough Spanish to understand it, and when I explained it, he just flat out didn’t get it or apparently my sense of humor. “I think your socks are cute” is a lot less romantic in English….ohhh high school relationships. Let’s just say that one was destined for failure.

And since we’re on the topic of cheesy Spanish things-check out this music video. Sexy macarena and creepy lyrics? Sign me up!

You’re welcome.

Also, since today is basically about chocolate (let’s be real here), here’s a video my sister made a couple of years ago. Has anyone heard of epic mealtime? She made a vegan chocolate mountain parody. In summary, no one was strong enough to lift it…

Aaaand now I’ve started myself on listening to Spanish music. Best way to spend Valentine’s day! 🙂 I can’t wait to take Spanish again next quarter!

Speaking of academic curiosity-I freaking love Biochem. I love metabolism, but I also love the endocrine system and hormones. One thing we discussed today that I thought might be of interest to some of you was this particular process:

A testosterone hormone, androgen, needs to be converted into estrogen for a healthy reproductive system. An enzyme in fat cells does this conversion. So when the body is stressed (aka starving), fat cells are depleted, hence the loss of cycle. My professor also mentioned that in many people, running 45-50 miles a week will do this (although I can’t verify this and I’m sure it varies person to person). Another interesting thing is that this number applies to males as well-this type of mileage will actually result in lower sperm count. Who knew?

Also, another totally random and interesting fact-lactation is actually a very strong contraceptive (hormones)-and in hunter gatherer populations, it is common for women to get pregnant about every 5 years (because the children breastfeed for a very long time). Even more interesting-this timing means that a woman may only get 6-8 periods in her life. And apparently there are study linking this to lower rates of certain reproductive organ related diseases later in life. Totally random, but I thought it was interesting!

On that note-everyone go out and enjoy your Valentine’s day!

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

Date: December 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

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!