A New Hydration Tip and Is Chocolate Milk the Best?

Date: January 26, 2016

Author: astottler

Hello! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far! Crossing my fingers, the worse of my flare up is over and hopefully I am back to feeling (mostly) normal!

Tomorrow, I’m going to do a day in the life post, since I try to do one every few months, but today I want to catch up on the past few days as well as share some things I learned in one of my classes!

I’m taking a sex and gender in physiology class this quarter, and yesterday we had a guest lecturer come in and talk about gender differences in relation to sports performance. Here’s something interesting: there are very few studies that look at women specifically. Most of the sports performance studies are on men, or do not differentiate. Given the hormonal differences and differences in organ size (women have smaller hearts and lower lung capacity), this is significant. From the lecture, I had a few take aways for practical applications I wanted to tell you guys.

Women suffer from Hyponatremia more frequently. Hyponatremia is a condition that occurs when blood sodium levels are too low. This may occur during a long, hot endurance event where a person drinks lots of water, without electrolytes, and loses lots of electrolytes in sweat. This is a serious condition, and actually kills more people in long distance endurance events than dehydration. Women are more susceptible to this because estrogen lowers the body’s “set point,” or level of electrolyte that it decides is acceptable before it must conserve water. As a result, the body starts conserving water when more electrolytes have already been lost. Because women have more estrogen than men, especially during the luteal phase of their cycle, they are more likely to have this issue of loss of too many electrolytes. So what’s the solution? Easy—consume electrolytes! Add 1/16 of a teaspoon of salt per 20 oz of water to prevent excess electrolytes loss and to improve actual water absoprtion into the bloodstream.
Post-workout, women need more protein, specifically lysine and leucine (amino acids), for muscle recovery. Women have higher levels of progesterone, and progesterone increases the breakdown of protein and leads to less protein synthesis (building of muscles). Because of this, the magic protein to carb ratio in chocolate milk is likely not sufficient protein for women (but it’s great for men!). For women, something life plain low fat Greek yogurt is recommended because it has a higher protein to carb ratio.
Women should not go super low carb or exercise fasted (see my previous post on fasted cardio—similar concept) because while women have a greater capacity for turning fat as fuel than men, exercising without carbohydrates leads to cortisol (the stress hormone) production, which reduces estrogen, leading to lethargy and fat gain. So carb up!

Hopefully you might have gotten something interesting out of that! I haven’t tried salting my water yet, but I definitely will soon. I feel like I’m constantly thirsty and constantly drinking!

So what have I been up to? Last week my friends and I had a little fruit and cheese party. One of m Christmas presents was a fruit and cheese club, and this month’s cheese was gouda, and the fruit was pears. I also sliced up some goat cheddar to enjoy with crackers.

Also noteworthy: my parents got me some fancy chocolates from Napa, and not only are they beautiful, but they’re delicious! And coincidentally, now they’re all gone.

Over the weekend, I visited my high school friend at Berkeley. Friday was her birthday, so I stopped by to ~~see her cats~~ celebrate!

Seriously though, her cats are adorable. I took pictures with both cats but not with her…They are now 8 months old, and I watched them grow up!

It was a pretty low key night—I got there in time to go to Trader Joe’s and then make dinner. We snacked on some hummus (with GF crackers for me) and then made a salad with avocado, tomatoes, goat cheese, and hard boiled eggs.

We actually used WikiHow for the egg method, and they came out perfectly and easy to peel. I’ve had some fails with eggs in the past, but it’s been years since I’ve made hard boiled eggs. For what it’s worth, just bring a pot of water with some salt to a boil WITH the eggs in it. Once it boils, turn off the heat and leave the eggs for 3-20 minutes, depending on your egg told preferences. We split the difference and went with 10, and they were perfect, with fully cooked yolks.

We watched a movie (Ex Machina—interesting!) and had a great time in each other’s company. I love friends like that!

In terms of health, I am happy to report that my stomach flare up seems to have ended (KNOCK ON WOOD). It’s been ending the past few days, but I actually felt normal today (!). Yesterday I was feeling not flared but that my body was having to work really hard to digest anything, until the magical dinner I had at home on the way to an off campus class. Sweet potato chicken soup and cornbread is apparently the ideal thing for my stomach. Needless to say I had leftovers for lunch today and plan to have the same thing for lunch tomorrow!

On the food front, I had a sunflower seed butter+jam sandwich (on GF bread) for a pre workout snack today and I was way too excited for it. I think I hate pb&j every day for lunch for about 4 years in middle/high school, so when I acquired good GF bread I was all over that!

It’s funny—with my stomach condition I feel like I have to take a very scientific approach to how I eat. Everything must be planned and considered—there’s no emotion associated. As a scientist, I actually like this. The point is, I’m trying really hard to eat foods other than straight carbs—more whole foods. While there are some vegetables I’m staying away from right now, I’m trying to work in more actual foods (like this sandwich in place of a bar). I packed an orange for snack today which was exciting because I have definitely not been getting my fruit in!

In fitness news, I did the best pull up of my life yesterday. To put in perspective how crazy that is, 2 weeks ago I couldn’t hang from the bar without shoulder pain. My shoulder is not 100%, but it still amazes me the changes that occur every weeks and the progress I make. I’m super proud of the pull up because I literally built that up from nothing. At the end of September, I couldn’t lift up my arm. Now, I did a pull up without a band. Sort of kipping, but still, closest to non-kipping I’ve done (and before I only sort of could do 1 kipping sometimes). I’m incredibly proud of this, and am hoping 2016 will be the year of the pull up!

Now, I have to go make a spin playlist for tomorrow! I’m loving my spin classes this quarter—they’ve been full! I taught tonight, and can already see that tomorrow’s class has filled up!

How do you stay hydrated? Do you feel hydrated?

Calories In, Calories Out

Date: January 20, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Today’s topic is a little bit different. I want to talk a little bit about the importance of getting sufficient calories.

I’m still navigating my new style of eating, and overall it’s going really well. One interesting change is that I don’t seem to get crazy sugar cravings anymore. I also have to be really vigilant about not overeating all at once, or my stomach will revolt. Due to both these factors, for the first time I’m having to worry about eating ENOUGH calories. I’ve had a few days where I simply didn’t get enough in, and the next day felt it a lot. I’m a very active person, and I definitely need fuel to teach my spin classes! Yesterday I felt like I didn’t have enough fuel in my body when I was teaching spin, and definitely was feeling it at the end of class. I taught spin again today, and really tried to plan my day to build in more calories.

To complicate matters, my stomach has been flaring a bit this week, so it’s actually difficult to eat enough! With all these moving parts, I also have to balance my attempt to get calories, the foods that my stomach tolerates, and appropriate nutrition (AKA vegetables). Vegetables actually have been a bit of a struggle for me lately. When I’m eaten half meals, I usually have to do a half portion of veggies, and vegetables are difficult for me to do as snacks/second meals.

I have instated a minimum calorie amount that I absolutely have to hit, otherwise I’ll feel awful/starving the next day, and today I just about got there but it took some work and a lot of planning. And a lot of crackers. I’m going to go through the little things I did today to try and get the calories in!

First thing this morning, I had about a half serving of crackers prior to a short track workout. I woke up not feeling great (flare+hunger) but the food helped! After my little run, I had a moderately portioned yogurt bowl. 1 tablespoon sunbutter+banana+plain yogurt.

And another couple of crackers.

Mid morning, half an hour before my first class I was hungry (thankfully) and was able to eat a few more crackers. GF crackers=my life currently.

For lunch, I has some quinoa salad with feta and craisins+a small portion of broccoli salad. For the afternoon, I packed about half a serving of crackers with the goal of eating them before I had to teach to meet my calorie goal, so I had a couple at lunch.

After my next class, I had my main snack for the afternoon, a Raaw Macaw bar. This was is slightly denser than my other because it has a sun butter base.

I had another couple of crackers, bringing me closer to my cracker goal.

My final class let out about an hour before I had to teach, so I finished my last several crackers.

Days like today are frustrating because I had a stomachache after eating each time, and could definitely not have eaten more at once, but by the time I finished my spin class, I was STARVING. But there’s nothing much I could have done to ameliorated the issue. I did take it easier in spin today given I wasn’t feeling 100% though. I tend to go especially hard when I’m teaching because I feel no pain, and then step off the bike and wonder what I did to myself!

Upon arriving at my dorm I had another 2 crackers, and then a basic dinner of chicken+veggies.

I could only have about 2/3 a serving of the chicken. About an hour later, I had another half piece of chicken (trying to eat something other than just carbs) and a big rice crispy treat. These past 2 days, this giant rice crispy treat pan has been great for sneaking in some extra food!

Dealing with my stomach condition has definitely been a learning experience, and is definitely frustrating on days like today when I did everything right, but the calories that I absolutely need to eat leave me with a stomachache.

Do you ever have days where you’re so active you need extra food?

Life Lately, Healthy Living, and My Thoughts on Whole30

Date: January 16, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s a 3 day weekend! Yay! I’m currently enjoying a lazy day. Thus far it has consisted of Netflix, studying, and a 4 mile tempo run (maybe not so lazy on that one). I’m officially in 5k training mode. I feel both unprepared and optimistic for this racing season. I’m getting faster overall on my runs, but I’m not necessarily where I’d want to be on my max effort pushes. Almost all of the speed work I’ve done is speeding up my casual runs and some track workouts consisting of much shorter distances. At one point I did a more regimented track workout training program, but 1000m repeats are disgusting. This week I eased back into it with 5x400m repeats and then 2×200. I neglected speed somewhat over the holidays so this left me sore!

Back to my tempo run. I did 4 miles, with the inner 2 miles at roughly a 8:00 pace. My 5k time clocked in at just over 26:00, which is a good sign because it included my non-tempo portion! But I do the tempo part on a slight downhill. Overall, I felt good though! My next 5k is February 7 and while I may not be gunning for a PR, I’m hoping to place! I won my age group 2 years ago and I missed placing by a few seconds last year (it’s a quite small race).

I have some fun food to share, so I’ll scatter that throughout my thoughts on the aforementioned topic of today’s post—the Whole30.

I actually have fairly strong feelings about the Whole30. This year, it feels like everyone is embarking on the new year with the Whole30. As a disclaimer, I’ve never done the Whole30. I vaguely tried at one point, but lasted 3 days. So if you want to take my contemplations with a grain of salt, feel free to.

One of my favorite ways to eat Mexican food is in salad form. I love the fresh veggies+guacamole!

Disclaimer #2: I could never actually do the Whole30 or Paleo in general with my eating restrictions. I don’t eat red meat, and I’m allergic to nuts and coconut. That severely limits my options, especially for healthy fats!

If I’ve learned anything about health over the past years, it is that health is a journey. Different knowledge and experiences have drastically shaped my view of what is healthy. I think longtime readers will probably see this shift. I think my views have been to the moon and back since I started this blog.

If you read my early posts, it’s clear I was passionate and knowledgable about nutrition, but maybe not in a practical sense. I viewed sugar as the devil and always felt like I was poisoning my body by eating it. I did several no sugar challenges. A year into my blog, I did a real food challenge.

Pizza made on GF bread.

Then last winter I got sick. I no longer viewed food in terms of what was healthy, but rather in terms of what wouldn’t make me ill.

And now, I finally have a diagnosis, which brought even more changes. And guess what? My view of healthy changed again.

Here are my thoughts now. I still think sugar is the devil. I think overconsumption of sugar and processed foods leads to many of the health problems were are dealing with today. I think that eating 100% unprocessed food is probably pretty healthy. But here’s the thing. It’s not necessarily sustainable. When I cut out all processed foods, I felt fantastic. I looked fantastic. I was glowing. But I was also CRAZY. I felt so restricted. I couldn’t eat anything, and therefore I craved everything. I would eat large quantities of healthy food to try and stave off the cravings. And when it was over? OF COURSE I went back to the sweet stuff. So much.

I actually slept in until 8:30 this morning which I considered a victory. I rewarded myself with chocolate chip cranberry orange bread—the last piece. Plus some amazing turkey. I ended up not eating the broccoli—too early for spicy!

While my project wasn’t nearly as restrictive as the Whole30, it still made me crazy. And honestly? I like sweets. I don’t want to deny myself of them forever. And in the society we live in today? Honestly it’s not practical.

I got a 6 month fruit and cheese club for Christmas and this was part of shipment #1! Yay!

In the past couple of years, I started getting a better idea of what moderation is. And overall I was probably at least a little bit healthier. And now with my new style of eating, I really am understanding and practicing it. I honestly feel like I’m a different person now, and I can almost sense myself transforming. Maybe it’s because I was ill for so long and now feel so much healthier. Part of me wonders if gastroparesis is something I’ve always had a little bit before it flared up really badly and now I’m finally dealing with it. This is sort of unrelated to the subject of healthy living in general, but one of the symptoms of gastroparesis is blood sugar issues and I’m wondering if now that I’m eating in a way that seems to keep flare ups at bay, this is going away too. When I’m respecting my stomach, I’m not craving things like I did before, and I WANT to eat more healthy foods.

Flourless chocolate cake. Amazing.

I think that was a convoluted way of saying that unprocessed food is fantastic, and should make up most of a healthy diet, but we should also include some fun foods because life without flour less chocolate cake is just not a life I would want to lead. When we allow ourselves to eat “unhealthy” foods, we regain some of our sanity, in my opinion. When no food is off limits, it’s easier to build a healthy relationship. For me, this permission has allowed me to see my diet as a whole, and not just one food in isolation. This has made it easier for me to balance my diet. Am I always perfect with moderation? Definitely not. I’ve never been consistent with it but I honestly feel that with the way my stomach is forcing me to eat, I’m going to be much more successful.

Eating in moderation is one of the most cliche saying out there right now, and it’s more complicated than it sounds. It’s not just a practice. It’s a mindset. On the other hand, eating in moderation doesn’t mean eating lots of junk food in moderation. It means stacking your diet with the good stuff and allowing room for more decadent cuisine. And as I stated early, health is a journey. You will have lots of successes and lots of failures, and it’s messy, and there’s no “perfect diet.”

But right now I’m happy, so I’ll go ahead and call it good enough.

Have you tried the Whole30? What are your thoughts?

Healing and Moving Forward

Date: January 8, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

On Wednesday night, I took a yoga class.My first in over 3 months. My first since hurting my shoulder.

When the teacher asked us to set an intention for the class, I decided on “healing and moving forward.” That was cause for some reflection. There I was, standing on my mat. My shoulder was strong, my stomach was calm.

2015 was a difficult year health wise for me. Just to be clear, overall I actually really loved 2015.

But 2016 will be the year of healing. Healing and moving on from the issues that plagued me throughout the past year. It’s time to look forward with optimism.

Another thing that’s bringing on this post is how much better my stomach has been lately since making some changes. It’s definitely not perfect, and I have to be very vigilant, but I feel like a new person. Now, it’s easy to fall into bad habits that might harm my stomach (aka overeating) so this is a precarious balance, but I’m hoping that knowledge is power and I’ll continue on as I am.

Last night was a senior night. On senior nights, my school buses the seniors to and from downtown. I wasn’t actually able to make any last quarter due to scheduling conflicts, but I remember wanting really badly to go to the one the first week of class last quarter but being too sick to go.

Last night, I was able to go. And I was so grateful. Grateful for my health. Grateful to be able to have fun like a normal personal without the intense worry about how my stomach would behave. It was such a stark contrast to how I was that time last quarter.

Right now, I’m grateful for my health and all that I can do, because it is not something to ever take for granted!

This is How I Eat

Date: January 4, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I had my first day of Winter Quarter classes! My schedule is weird this quarter in that I don’t have any classes before noon…

Today I wanted to talk a little about how my eating habits have and will continue to change as a result of my newly diagnosed stomach condition (delayed stomach emptying). My treatment is to eat half meals, instead of full meals. The easiest thing for me to eat is soup, which is why we made a TON of soup over break! I scoured the internet for Crockpot recipes and made my mom a Crockpot cookbook for Christmas, which included lots of soup! The first 2 recipes we made were winners. Tuscan chicken vegetable stew and tomato soup.

This had a bit of tomato paste, but also had fresh rosemary, fennel seeds, and balsamic vinegar. Served with gluten free parmesan toast.

The tomato soup was not ordinary tomato soup! It was full of shred carrots and zucchini, and had parmesan and skim milk stirred in at the end. I topped it with some shaved parmesan, but that wasn’t really necessary.

Today was my first day eating in this new manner at school, so I was a little nervous. Breakfast for me didn’t really change because I always eat something before and after working out.

Preworkout I had a slice of cranberry orange bread. I made this recipe at home over the weekend. I made quite a few substitutions because of my nut and coconut allergies, but it turned out well! I added milk chocolate chips to half and dried cranberries to the other half. Surprisingly, I actually liked the dried cranberry half better! To split the halves, I placed a spatula in the pan while I poured in each side, and then pulled it out. I marked the line with chocolate chips but you can actually see the half mark!

Anyways, before Crossfit I had a piece with dried cranberries. Even though I don’t have class until late, I want to maintain my early schedule and have a productive morning.

Crossfit was tough. Front squats for strength and then this WOD:

EMOM 8 minutes: 5 burpees, 10 Russian kb swings

2 min rest

10 minutes to complete: 30-20-10-30 wall balls, 30 double unders, 15 sit ups

I was cut off in the last set of double unders. Also—side note: I got my Crossfit sweatshirt! It’s actually the coziest thing ever and I’m pumped.

After Crossfit, I had some Fage 2% plain yogurt with cranberry sauce made from leftover cranberries from the bread.

For lunch, we had another new chef and so far I really like him! Since lunch was wraps, he made me a special one on gluten free bread. It was filled with chicken and grilled veggies, topped with hummus. On the side I had apple fennel slaw. I was a little unsure about how much to eat and the size of it. I ended up ditching the gluten free bread (all GF bread is not created equal) and think it may have been a bit more food than I should have had on that day at that time (so complicated). For “dessert” I had 2 slices of dried persimmon.

I had a perfect 40 minute break between classes for a snack so I packed a Raaw Macaw bar (custom made). SO good. My has a date and sunflower butter base, with chocolate chips!

For dinner #1, I tried my best to get a half meal and I think I did pretty well.

A bite of mashed potatoes, a few roasted veggies, maple glazed salmon, and salad with feta. For mini dessert, I had 1/4 of a peppermint bark bar (I proportioned a few desserts so it would be easier to keep track).

FYI, William Sonoma has the BEST peppermint bark.

An hour and a half later, I had dinner #2.

A persimmon with cheddar and doe honey roasted turkey slices. Plus a couple gluten free chocolate covered pretzels.

Overall, I’m proud of how well I did today given the new circumstances. To be honest, I’m a little anxious about sticking to this style of eating. Half meals are very much not the norm for me, so it requires a ton of control. All I can do is focus on the present and take it one (mini) meal at a time!