This is It, This is the End

Date: June 9, 2016

Author: astottler

Well guys, I made it. (Assuming I didn’t fail my final class that I’m still waiting for a grade in!)

All the work of my undergraduate career, is over, and now all that’s left to do is walk the stage (NOT in a boot!)

My weekend was full of studying. I spent all day Friday working on a take home test, and then devoted Saturday and Sunday to studying for my Human Behavior final.

I took a break on Saturday for a spin class and an acai bowl. This was my first time trying hemp seeds, and I liked them in this context a lot but can’t imagine any other way I’d eat them.

Sunday, my advisor had all the senior pre-vets at her house for a goodbye lunch. Every year, she has her seniors paint her a tile. Guess which is mine? (The sheep.)

Monday I took my final exam of undergrad. Then finished my take home test that night.

Tuesday morning, I did a workout of bench presses, pull ups, and rows, and then I went to physical therapy for my foot for the first time. Honestly, it was a little rough after.

And from there, I went and turned in my take home final. And thus ends my Stanford career.

Lunch on Tuesday was super delicious: salmon lettuce wraps. Our chef makes the BEST salmon.

After lunch, I drove to my home-area to run some errands. First up, I picked up cupcakes for the end of the year party I was throwing that night.

From my FAVORITE cupcake place ever. These are GF, and I customized the flavors a bit by swapping the icing on the dulce de leche and chocolate cupcakes. BEST decision. Chocolate cake with dulce de leche icing, and vice versa.

After that, I made the mistake of heading to the mall to look for a dress for some of the week’s festivities. That was far more walking/standing time than my foot was ready for, and I was dying and grumpy by the time I left the mall. I don’t know if it’s stress fracture pain, weakness pain, or not walking in a month pain, but it was rough.

That evening, I went to a spin class (and took it easy of course), before heading back to the house to prepare for the party.

The part was really low key. I mostly wanted an excuse to eat cupcakes and see all of my favorite people one last time! I tried to get a picture with everyone, but ended up failing in that respect.

Check it out: no boot!

It was great to chat with my favorite people!

Later that night, there was a Stanford tradition that I’ve never done before. Apparently a giant group of people move around campus on the last day of finals. My foot wasn’t loving me, so I wasn’t sure how making it across campus was going to work, but my friends are legitimately the best. And the strongest. They literally took turns carrying my crippled butt most of the way across campus. Love them!

We met up with the group near the main quad, right as it was heading to the final stop, a big fountain. I have never seen anything like i in my life.

There was a giant boat that someone made and was carrying, with music. #stanford

I was so glad to be bootless and able to hang out in the fountain for a bit, taking it all in.

It was one of those days/nights that make me so grateful for my school, and all the amazing friends I’ve met. I really want to try and keep up to date on blogging this week, because I know I want to be able to look back on it, and I also want to share some of the Stanford traditions.

More fun/food/fitness to come soon!

2 Weeks

Date: August 12, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

GUYS. I apologize completely for totally leaving you! It’s been a week! I’ve been busy/haven’t had the energy so what do you say we do food pictures today and notes on workouts tomorrow? So this isn’t too insanely long.

Lunch-giant melty chicken pita with hummus:

Dinner out with a friend. We went to a tapas place, and it was phenomenal. Not to mention the adorable baby tortillas on the tacos!

Brussels sprouts with coconut/chipotle?

Guacamole (of course).

Mushroom tacos with fried plantains.

GUYS. The highlight of my life was on Friday. I went to the AVOCADO CAFE. That’s basically a dream come true. It was amazing. I think every item had avocado.

I went with a veggie wrap, and it was warm and delicious and came with roasted sweet potatoes (not crispy enough to be called fries).

I then went to Haagen Dazs and had a really delicious ice cream cone-midnight cookies n cream! I like it way better than Ben and Jerry’s..that’s just too much more me.

I then walked down to the waterfront and pondered how I’m leaving soon. 2 weeks…

Saturday, I went to a place called The Protein Bar. I saw someone tweet something delicious from there, and then I remembered I had seen one nearby! SO I had a guacamole type of salad and a chocolate protein shake. Delicious.

Sunday, post run I had a delicious unpictured meal (sorry, didn’t run with a camera) followed by a post run requirement-giant cupcake from Baked and Wired. It was called unicorn something-vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting. I really like their vanilla-I’m normally a chocolate person but this is very vanilla-y. And the cream cheese frosting tasted just like buttercream. Yum! I’ve liked Baked and Wired more than the first time I was there-the cake this time was very moist.

I went over to a friend’s house for a movie night, and “helped” with some of her leftover peach-gingersnap crisp. It was amazing-the crisp part was made with gingersnaps! It may or may not have also been breakfast because I’ve been too lazy to make my planned breakfast for the week (oops).

As you can tell, I’m enjoying myself. I swear I’m eating more than sweets, but vegetables only look so interesting after a while-I’m pretty sure I’ve shown the same green bean salad 50 times by now.

Also, you may notice I’m not linking up for WIAW. To be honest, it’s just not practical for me right now to try and deal with that while I’m at work, so it’s just not going to get done, so it’s just a regular Wednesday!

Wiped Out

Date: July 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Whew guys. Sorry for lack of posting-this weekend just wiped me out! In addition to spending hours outside in the hot sun exploring DC, I still slept an insane amount, thanks to drowsy-inducing alley medicine. I got eaten alive by mosquitos the other day-and I do not react well to East Coast mosquitos. None of the normal tricks were working, so it was necessary. And then Sunday I accidentally had a bite of something with a nut in it, so I’m hoping that with allergy medicine I can prevent the reaction from coming on, although I probably won’t know if it worked for a few days!

Friday evening started with bench pressing at Crossfit and sweet potato nachos.

After staying up later than I should have, Saturday morning my friends and I met up again to visit Mount Vernon. I am seriously falling in love with the Virginia countryside. It was beautiful. And all the history was so cool! I forgot how much I love American history!

Afterwards we got froyo and it was fantastic.

On the running front, I want to give a little plantar fasciitis update. For some reason, I woke up for my 5 miler on Friday morning and I couldn’t walk it was so bad. I immediately took Advil, and hobbled along for a mile or so until it warmed up, and then had a good run. The other day though, I bought some sleeves for my feet that give me extra arch support and they are lifesaving. I’ve been on my feet all weekend, and my feet are fine. It’s amazing.

On Sunday, I had my long run in the morning. I had a great route. 3 memorials, 1 river, Mt Vernon trail, an airport….and most importantly, ending in cupcakes. The plan was to run to cupcakes, and then metro back. I saw the Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR memorials. The FDR was on accident. I made a turn looking for a bathroom and there it was.

It ended up being a good run, although I felt like I was slugging along. I always forget how hard these first long runs are. Somehow I managed to hit a pace that was around where I should be though, which was nice.

Most importantly though, I have finally found the best cupcakes in the DC area! I had a good feeling about this place. I heard about it from my coworkers. It’s called Lavendar Moon, in Alexandria. I even ordered a cupcake that wasn’t my favorite flavor, and I’m still saying that. FINALLY a perfectly moist cupcake. I had a s’mores cupcake.

Look at that beauty. Can every run end here?

After returning home and cleaning myself up, I headed out to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was really cool-I mostly wanted to see one of the IMAX movies, and it did not disappoint. I only got the the air part, not really the space part, before I got incredibly tired and had to call it a day. I got some books though that I’m excited to read!

And that was my weekend. The only thing I’ll add-I went to spin today without my spinning shoes. It was awful. My arches don’t like me right now. It’s amazing the difference they make!

Have you ever been to a Smithsonian? Which should I go to next?

Yoga Wednesday

Date: July 22, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

This title is a bit deceptive, seeing as the yoga actually happened on Monday and Tuesday, but we’ll get there!

Monday and Tuesday mornings both started out with the same breakfast-banana custard with blueberries!

I used the recipe for Boston Cream Pie filling, and subbed bananas in for the sugar. This was good but would have been better if I had modified it with low fat or fat free milk because it’s pretty rich! Good, but not great.

Lunches were also the same. Cumin roasted cauliflower and a green bean salad.

The green bean salad had a balsamic dressing with sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.

Plus some yogurt because otherwise this would hold me over for about 2 seconds. The thing about plain, full fat Greek yogurt is that it’s so thick. My experience eating it was a combination of really liking it and trying to choke it down. Beautiful.

On the workout front, Monday night I went to Crossfit and PRed my front squat! Not a huge PR, but I don’t have my lifting shoes with me this summer which help a ton, so I know if I had them I could have lifted more! Also, I love that we have a PR gong at this Crossfit. I’m going to need to take that idea back home to my Crossfit box there!

The WOD was a quick one:

21-15-9-15-21

Heavy kettle bell swings (I used 53#) and wall ball sit ups (throw the ball against the wall while doing a sit up). I finished in 7:42. After class, I did a couple of sets of single leg RDLs in an effort to strengthen my hamstrings-NOT a night before running! Plus, it was the perfect time killer before a much needed yoga class. This class was great-it was subbed by a girl in my Crossfit classes, and it was the best class I’ve been to in a long time. I left feeling awesome, and my calves were noticeably looser today, hence the need to do yoga.

Tuesday morning, I did a quick Nike Training Club app workout. Unfortunately, the end was kind of disjointed because my WiFi cut me off and it cut out.

Tuesday evening was a highlight if the week for me. I wanted to do something explorer-y, and after much deliberation, I decided to try out a yoga class in Alexandria, mostly so I could spend some time wandering the streets there.

The yoga studio was a 15 minute walk from the Metro, and I had some time to kill before class. When I saw a cupcake shop, I had to try it. You know, “research.”

It was definitely a good cupcake. A solid effort, but not the best ever. I did appreciate the dark chocolate cake part though. The good news is I happened across another cupcake place that I think is supposed to be THE ONE. But I was already a cupcake in at that point!

I had just enough time to make it down to the water.

Alexandria is an adorable town, and I think it would be just perfect in the fall. I’m really disappointed that I am missing fall in DC!

Finally, it was yoga time!

The class was called “Core and Stretch.” I didn’t love the class-it wasn’t a bad class, but like I’ve said before, I’m much more of a power yoga person. Still though, it was a good experience. I loved the studio.

Afterwards, on the way back to the Metro, I grabbed dinner. It ended up being my first sit down dinner by myself! Granted, the restaurant was a bakery type of place and I didn’t realize it was the type of place where you get seated, but it was fine. And I had a delicious turkey and avocado tartine (basically a fancy open faced sandwich.)

And I’ll leave you with that beautiful image!

I Don’t Understand the Cupcake Craze

Date: July 12, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello everyone!

This morning, I went to another OutRun!

I fueled up beforehand with some banana-oatmeal balls and blueberries.

The workout was fun-it was in a different place this time, and included plenty of hills, including trail running. I generally hate trail running-although to be fair I now have a good excuse for hating it. I have foot issues that are worse on trails-and the foot doctor even confirmed it. Not sure if I ever talked about this specifically but all the pain and numbness I talk about in my feet on long runs is apparently something called a neuroma, which is scar tissue build up on/around the nerve. This is probably from years of bruised feet when I played softball and had the cleats stick up through the shoe into my foot. Anyways-the foot thing isn’t an issue on shorter runs anyways!

I only wiped out on the trail once! By some miracle I landed perfectly, without a scratch. This OutRun was-I guess I would say-an easier workout than the last one. It was a larger group, so there was more pace differential so I didn’t feel like I was pushing the pace much. However, I’ve logged a lot of miles this week-kind of out of nowhere-so my legs were dragging a bit. I was especially worried about my calves. They were super tight, and my left one wasn’t feeling that great, so I kept a close eye on it. Not sure if my “long run” (5 miles) is going to happen tomorrow though, just as a precaution. I’ll play it by ear, but it is definitely not worth it to push myself and get hurt 2 weeks into training. I’m currently wearing compression socks, hoping they work their magic!

My running for the week was as follows:

Mon-off

Tues-3 mile training run

Weds-November Project+running there and back, so ~3 miles?

Thurs-Run Club. Between 3-4?

Friday-4 mile training run+maybe a mile or so at Crossfit?

Saturday-OutRun, about 4 miles

Sunday- (5 miles)

While the mileage isn’t that high, it’s much more than I’ve been running lately. The thing is, I don’t know what to cut out! It’s definitely something to figure out, especially as the long runs get longer.

After the workout, I decided to try my luck at Georgetown Cupcake. The line is always INSANE there, so I was hoping that before 11am, it would be reasonable! It was better, but it was still a wait, and I ran out of water so I was SO thirsty! I bought 2 bottles of water there. Worth every penny.

I had a lava fudge cupcake.

It was a chocolate base with cream cheese frosting and fudge sauce on top.

It was good, and the fudge on top was definitely a nice touch. I don’t get the gourmet cupcake trend though, now that I’ve had a few of the “best” places. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I could make the same thing, or better, myself at home! Sure, it wouldn’t look as nice, but that’s really not the important part! I’m much more on-board the gourmet ice cream trend that seems to be sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. How am I going to make liquid nitrogen ice cream at home?? (Wait-new life goal!)

So while this famous cupcake was good, I won’t wait in line for another!

Since I ate a pre-lunch cupcake, I decided I should get some veggies in my system. I happened to pass a SweetGreens-they’re seriously everywhere! I got the seasonal salad, which has peaches, goat cheese, basil, and balsamic. I added chicken.

I really liked the basil in this. It was such a nice touch that gave the salad a whole summer-y feel.

After lunch, I walked around Georgetown a bit, and then walked home.

My afternoon has been really low key. I decided to save the exciting things for tomorrow. I’m meeting up with some people to watch the game, and depending on if I’m running or not, I might hit up a Smithsonian.

For snack, I had some leftover brussels sprouts. They were a little firmer than I would have liked, so I heated them up in the microwave liberally to cook them a bit more. I then topped them with smoked gouda. Delicious.

Since I ate plenty of veggies in my snack (that bowl x2 or 3), I opted for a simple dinner of an egg and some very egg heavy chocolate chip pancakes.

They came out super dense, and not the most amazing things ever, but it got the job done!

Have a fantastic rest of your weekend!