NYC

Date: August 26, 2015

Author: astottler

Well, it’s been a hot minute since I last blogged, hasn’t it? Between my trip and my crazy work schedule since the trip, I haven’t had the time or energy to even open up my laptop! That being said, I only have 2 more days of my summer job, so expect all kinds of posts coming up!

When I caught you last, I was hanging out on my friend’s couch in New York City!

Now, it’s time to update you on our adventures since! It was a whirlwind 1.5 days-I think I got a taste of pretty much the whole city! It was disgusting weather-HOT and humid-super muggy. The air was thick. We had a very busy couple of days, full of walking. We probably walked 10-15 miles on Monday alone. One thing I will say is that being on my feet 8 hours a day at work has seriously conditioned my feet and legs. My feet didn’t bother me at all, and my legs didn’t feel tired! I’ll take it! (I also owe you guys a post about my summer job.)

Stop 1-laying eyes on the Statue of Liberty!

We walked from the Subway to Battery Park.

From there, we walked to Ground Zero. It was very moving, and taking a picture for me felt disrespectful.

Our next stop was lunch-I wanted to get some NY pizza! We found a place with gluten free crust and stopped there. There was a deal for 2 to split a small pizza and a salad, so that’s what we did!

The salad was excellent-chicken, cheese, truffle, pear, and a balsamic dressing. Our pizza of choice was margarita.

Although the crunchy crust of the pizza was not the typical New York crust, everything was delicious.

After lunch, we hightailed it to our reserved time slot at a cat cafe (in Chinatown). I was SO pumped for this. We were cutting it a bit close on time, and my friend kept laughing at my power-walking pace. I wasn’t going to miss those cats!

The kitties were very mellow and spent most of the time sleeping. Near the end of our timeslot, they released 3 black kittens! I think I need to open a cat cafe later in life. I need an outlet for all the kittens that are sure to find me working at a vet.

After our time with the kitties, we stopped at a gluten free bakery, where we split a banana-chocolate-caramel cupcake and a frosted donut. Both were excellent!

On our way to finding pizza, we spotted the following sign outside of an interesting looking coffeeshop:

If they have cappuccinos on their sign, they must be good! I was sold. After some further research, we learned this little place was on the list of top coffee in NYC! My friend has been on the search for the best coffee this summer in NY, so we had to go.

The verdict? Yes. Just yes. Milk foam quality was high-nice and smooth. The espresso had no bitter aftertaste either. I didn’t even care that the outside temperatures were brain meltingly high!

After that busy day in the sun, I needed a nap and air conditioning to rally before heading out again. We convinced my friend’s sister to come with us to a gluten free Italian restaurant. Upon getting off the subway, we found the Friends’ fountain! Definitely a highlight of the trip.

We also found the cafe the Central Perk was based off of (according to Google).

For dinner, I had a delicious dish of grilled chicken, roasted veggies, and garlic mashed potatoes.

Then, we headed off for a truly New York experience-a rooftop bar in Times Square. I should mention-I’ve never been to NYC before so this was quite the experience!

We each had a glass of champagne before calling it a night!

The next morning, we set out fairly early to fit in as much as possible before I had to leave for the airport at 1pm. It was a busy morning! We started with authentic NY bagels. I had an everything bagel with herb cream cheese, and we split an egg bagel. Yes, NY bagels are as good as everyone says. They were amazingly chewy, and perfectly toasted. Plus, there was an abundant selection of cream cheeses. There must have been 15 choices!

Our next stop was the Chelsea Highline, an elevated platform to walk on.

By the end of the walk, I was sweating buckets and could not resist an iced latte when we found a Blue Bottle Coffee. I know Blue Bottle is an SF thing, but can one really complain about excellent coffee?

We then went to Chelsea Market (similar to the Ferry building in SF)-an indoor market with little stores that sell high end food. I came away with truffle salt, garlic infused olive oil, and peach balsamic.

For my final meal in New York, I knew I had to try the avocado smash. Apparently NY has quite a few Australian cafes, which have 1. really good coffee and 2. avocado smashes.

I couldn’t pass up iced latte #2 of the day (but don’t worry-they were decaf!). Fantastic.

My friend and I split an avocado smash on gluten free bread, with 2 poached eggs on top.

This ended up being perfect-a full smash probably had over an entire avocado on it, and one smash had 2 slices of bread.

(Can you guess which picture is mine, and which is my artsy friend’s?)

This was delicious, and will definitely need to be recreated!

I know I mentioned a lot of gluten free products on this trip. This is partly because my friend has a gluten sensitivity, and partly because my stomach isn’t 100% and I think going gluten free, especially when my stomach is sort of flaring up, tends to help. I felt a little sick on this trip, and really had to watch what/how much I was eating to manage it. However, this definitely didn’t hold me back, and I had an amazing first experience in NYC!

What it your favorite thing to do in NY?

Elimination Diet Eats

Date: April 8, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s been over a week now that I’ve avoided dairy/gluten/all nuts including coconut. So what have I been eating? I’m sort of obsessed with rice cakes, which is really a good thing given I have about 4 things of them right now (oops). Also-mangoes are officially in season! As are blueberries-YAY! So here’s a few snapshots of the past week.

BBQ chicken salad-BBQ chicken from Trader Joe’s, avocado, corn, tomato, tortilla chips, red pepper, and a simple lime/olive oil dressing

Chicken with ketchup, roasted broccoli. Super basic.

Chicken, roasted broccoli, and a sweet potato with non-dairy butter (Earth Balance).

Papaya+ Sunbutter&J rice cake.

Salad, chicken, microwave brown rice and quinoa.

Guacamole salad with chicken.

My pre-long run meal, which has kind of evolved and morphed in the best few years. In theory, it is banana+egg pancakes. But it has to be microwave friendly. And I always used to add cocoa powder but chocolate hasn’t been treating my stomach well (I’m a hot mess clearly). And then I started throwing in oats for more carbs!

First meal back at the dining hall-turkey burger, salad, steamed veggies. This was pretty much the only stuff friendly to my super restrictive diet…

Hummus salad with chicken, plus a fruit bar. I like finishing on something sweet!

Breakfast-an egg+veggies, a pear with sun butter.

I really liked this fruit bar from Trader Joe’s! It was chia and flax seeds for a little texture and staying power!

Hummus salad with egg.

Dining hall meal-roasted cauliflower, quinoa and yams, lentils, and chicken curry over rice.

Easter egg+mango. Classic.

Typical dining hall meal.

More eggs, shockingly. This time in the form of egg salad! FYI-egg salad over plain lettuce is super boring. To create this, I got to be the super cool person who brought back a big bowl of mayo and mustard from the dining hall. Yum?

Any favorite gluten/dairy/nut free foods I should try?

Easter+Everything

Date: April 7, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Wow, things have been crazy here lately. I’m in a sorority, and this week is our big formal recruitment!

I think I owe you all some food pictures, especially with my fantastically limited diet. As for how that’s going-I’m not ready to start adding things back yet, and I’m feeling ok. I sometimes feel bad, but it’s pretty good and lately hasn’t been a problem. So I’m feeling PRETTY good.

So-the weekend! I worked on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday because I had a recruitment workshop. I had to pick up my employee key tag from the gym I’m going to start subbing at (which looks exactly like my membership key tag from when I was a member).

And the gym was right across from Whole Foods, so I grabbed dinner there.

Turkey meatloaf, quinoa salads, and normal salad. The real highlight though was raiding the dairy free/gluten free bakery area. I picked up this AMAZING brownie which I think was made with garbanzo beans?

Saturday’s meal schedule was really strange since I had my workshop, but I had a super early dinner of sushi-type of things, which I dipped in vinaigrette. Yeah…

Then, my sister and I got full body massages! I had never had one before, and it was so nice! Although the next day I felt a little bruised. Afterwards, we went out for Pho, because rice noodles are one of the few things I can eat!

Then, I went home for Easter! Yes, we are in our 20s and still do egg hunts.

Also-know what is gluten and dairy free? Jelly beans. YUM. I had so many! Because Easter is one of the times where candy mid-morning is 100% acceptable.

After the hunt-we ended up not finding anywhere near all of them, although we found one with a giant hole far from where it started so maybe animals played a hand-we met up with my grandma and uncle for brunch at a fancy hotel.

I actually managed pretty well to avoid gluten/dairy/nuts.

I brought my own soy sauce in my purse that was gluten free. Cute. Sushi, smoked salmon, salad, chicken.

Corn taco with beans, guac, rice, and salsa. Plus more sushi and jasmine rice.

I also had some dessert. I had a few bites of gluten/dairy containing things, but I think it was ok, especially since I’m doing a full other week of total elimination. My favorite was peach crisp!

After brunch, we did some egg dying!

Which is what I will be eating for the next week straight. These are all for me:

In other news, I did my last major long run of half training yesterday. It was 9 miles, and it was a mix of great and really, really sucky. Saturday-Monday I was dealing with really bad allergies (that always occur the week of formal recruitment), so my lungs felt disgusting. My stomach was kind of off so I felt gross. And my new shoes are definitely not ready to be raced in. HOWEVER. My legs felt fantastic! They weren’t even tired, so I’m taking that as a good sign! That being said, I still have no expectations for race day. It will definitely depend on how I feel!

What did you do for Easter?

WIAW- Elimination Diet

Date: March 31, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! I’m not technically linking up to WIAW because it got kind of complicated, and I honestly don’t know where I’m supposed to link up, but why not have a full day of food anyways?

Now that I’m on an elimination diet, things are a bit different around here. It may be a prolonged elimination diet because I don’t particularly want to add something back in that I suspect will make me sick right before my race, so we shall see.

So-what have I been eating? A lot of rice cakes. Somehow I never realized how delicious they were?? Also a lot of weird things because as it turns out, the dining hall isn’t necessarily too weird-restrictive diet friendly. Out of 8 salad dressings, all but ONE had wheat.

Here are Monday’s eats. I am happy to report that today mid-morning was the first time I felt totally normal after my flare up, so I didn’t have to be as careful today about how much I ate without my stomach hating me which is a good place to be! Things were mostly better Monday but a little wonky.

Breakfast:

1.5 brown rice cakes with sun butter, plus the world’s largest blueberries and a few pieces of dried persimmon.

Lunch:

Tupperware meal! Chicken, green beans, and mashed sweet potatoes, made with Earth Balance instead of butter.

Snack #1:

Dried persimmon+1 gluten free jo-jo.

Snack #2:

I’m so glad these are gluten free because I love these things!

Dinner:

This is the part where I’m glad snack #2 included protein, because every-freaking-thing has wheat in it in the dining hall!

Salad with grilled zucchini, mushrooms, and balsamic vinaigrette+garlic swiss chard+quinoa with sundried tomatoes and yams.

This is where I’m a weirdo and made an interesting dessert concoction. One of the special desserts that night was chocolate coconut rice pudding, which was almost ok for me to eat, but I’m cutting out coconut because it’s a tree nut 🙁 So i mixed together some brown rice, chocolate soy milk, raisins, and sun butter.

Totally normal.

On the running front, I got my 12 miler in on Sunday! I was really worried about how it would go-I was basically sick all week, and I was worried the run itself would send me into a tailspin because my 11 mile run sort of started my last flare up. I made the decision to slow it WAY down and not let my heart rate get too high. I walked some hills, and I took some nice salty crackers to calm my stomach and give me some electrolytes (it was pretty warm!). It worked like a charm! I felt like I had a long run hangover after my 11 miler, and felt much better (but of course tired) after 12. I wasn’t worried about pace because I had shown myself during the 11 that I was capable of a faster pace, and I just wanted to get the miles in. I ran on one of my favorite trails, and actually reached the end for the first time! Unfortunately, the last mile that I had never run before was, as I suspected, straight uphill. My achilles tendons were so sore the next day. WHEW.

Have you ever been on a specific diet for anything? Any tips?

Trying Too Hard

Date: July 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’ve been meaning to post this since Wednesday, but I never got around to it/didn’t want to make a different post super long.

First, I want to start out by saying I’m kind of uncomfortable talking about my dietary guidelines. I can’t exactly explain it. Maybe I feel really vulnerable. Mostly I feel kind of silly. I feel like I have a lot of “WOW I just figured out this amazing style of eating and it’s going to be awesome and I’m going to do it and it’s going to solve all my problems, abolish world hunger, and bring world peace…” Also, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can’t stick to anything. At least in terms of my eating habits. I’ve had a few no-sugar challenges that were successful, but I never completed them. I only really stick to my weekly goals for a few days. Remember Operation: Get Healthy? Yeah, that fizzled out. What I’m saying is, I feel stupid for having all these failed a-ha moments, only to restart on something new. I’m a food and fitness blogger, aren’t I supposed to have everything together?

Well, now I’m done. I’m done trying to fit other’s eating habits into my own life. I seem to love giving myself food restrictions-Paleo, no sugar, gluten free. I guess in some ways it just makes things easier. And maybe it’s an excuse to eat as much as I want- I’m Paleo, so if I eat 3 tons of wild buffalo I’ll be healthy, right?

I never had these types of restrictions in the past, and I was a lot healthier. I guess when you’re looking for a quick fix, it’s easier to say “Ok, I just won’t eat this and everything will work out.” I’ll be 100% honest. College destroyed my eating habits. Rowing didn’t exactly help, because I was burning so much I could literally eat anything and not gain weight (never mind the fact that I felt awful).

I finally got my blood work back. It seems unlikely that I have a gluten sensitivity, so it’s likely I’m suffering more from portion control than anything else. (Also-my allergy test came up negative for nut allergies, but I was expecting that. Given nuts just give me SUPER bad acne, it didn’t exactly seem like an allergy thing. Maybe it’s something hormonal-I’m still going to avoid them.)

It’s likely that I just crash my blood sugar my eating too many carbs. I’ll do another post on this soon-I just want to refresh myself on the science of it and look over my old nutrition notes first. In short, everyone has a different point at which a certain amount of carbs will crash their blood sugar, mine might be low.

So instead trying some food group restrictive eating pattern that leaves me desperately craving pancakes (I swear my love for pancakes only came about in the past year), I’m just going to eat food. I’m not going to avoid gluten, I’m not going to be Paleo. I’m still going to try a Whole30 for a week when school starts (just because I’m curious and I won’t immediately get in the habit of eating pancakes every day). Lately, I’ve just been working on incorporating lower amounts of carbohydrates into my diet.

When I try a particular, restrictive style of eating, I end up either going crazy with the foods I can eat, or completely giving up and gorging on what I’ve missed. The problem with this is somehow that style of eating and kind of fizzled out my passion for nutrition. Now, I’m trying to eat more like I did in high school, and already this past week my passion for nutrition is returning. I haven’t cut out food groups. But I’m eating more moderately in terms of portions as well. And I feel awesome. I find myself craving healthier foods. I feel like I’m eating more like I have in the past, and that makes me happy. The only food I might ever consider cutting out is sugar, in the form of a no-sugar challenge. However, I see no need to do that now. I’m not struggling with my sugar intake. I find myself wanting a square of super dark chocolate as my sweet, and I’m ok with that.

I love nutrition-it’s something I want to spend my life working on. It’s part of why I started this blog. Yet I haven’t talked nearly enough about it as I would like. I intend on doing some more research-I love the metabolism aspect of everything, and how our bodies process food. Plus, I really should have found some papers for one of my professors on sugar….I want to spend some time doing some research on my own. Maybe I’ll come up with a new style of eating-who knows. But it won’t prevent me from eating my pancakes.

My first topic to figure out is how many carbs I should eat (i.e. how many pancakes I should eat) to fuel my workouts but not crash. I don’t want to talk too much about my fitness goals right now, but I’ll give you a hint-I need to be able to do an actual pull-up.

Just to summarize, I feel silly trying out all these new styles of eating, only to ultimately fail. I feel like as a health and fitness blogger, I should have my life more together, but in reality I really don’t, and for now that’s ok with me. Saying no to pancakes is not an eating style that is going to work for me in the long run, but maybe I can succeed by eating one pancake instead of five. To be, healthy eating is all about balance. So, no more broad proclamations of my new greatest thing. The new theme here is moderation, and eating to fuel my athletic performance. After all, sports are how I got interested in nutrition. I don’t need to try so hard. I just need to put my passion into use.

How do you feel about “diets”? Do you avoid any foods? What works for you?