WIAW-My Shoulder is Cranky

Date: August 9, 2016

Author: astottler

Guess who is back for WIAW? I’m trying really hard to blog more old-school HLB style these days since I have more time. (Or am I just procrastinating vet school apps? We will never know.)

Thanks to Jenn for starting this party all those years ago!

WIAWbutton

Before I get into my full day of eating, I wanted to share some things from Monday night.

We made a rosemary chicken, bacon, and avocado salad, although I left the bacon off of my portion!

I usually try to build my meals my having a protein, a carb, a vegetable/fruit, and sometimes a fat. Thus, I added a slice of gluten free toast on the side. My biggest health tip is to use fresh herbs generously. They really boost the flavor of the dish and add nutritional value, without extra calories/sodium.

We had some extra ripe bananas (I am NOT a spotted banana eater), so I tossed them in a pan with Earth Balance butter substitute (I like the flavor more than butter, actually), a spoonful of brown sugar, and cinnamon.

They sautéed up perfectly, and tasted decadent. The fruit naturally caramelizes, so it doesn’t take much sugar/butter for these to caramelize right up. I enjoyed my portion with some vanilla frozen yogurt. I like having the cold stuff in a separate bowl, otherwise I feel pressure to eat quickly before the ice cream all melts!

Now, finally, onto the full day of eating!

My morning began with my gummy vitamins and 2 gluten free crackers before Crossfit. Only 2 crackers because I wasn’t super hungry, and I was running late, but I like to have some sort of carbs in my belly before lifting heavy things.

At Crossfit, we worked on reverse hypers and pistols (onto a box for me). Reverse hypers are basically back extensions on the GHD. Fun fact: 3 years into Crossfit later, last week I finally learned what GHD stands for: gluts-hamstring developers. Who knew.

The WOD:

12 AMRAP:

5 deadlifts 155#

5 handstand push ups

The scale for handstand push up was strict press, and I of course took that option. I used 55# for the presses.After yesterday’s pull ups, my shoulders were pretty sore. My upper back actually got pretty tired from the deadlifts, something that doesn’t normally happen. I got through 10 rounds.

My shoulder is cranky though. I partially dislocated it a year ago, and while I can do everything now, it gets tight and painful if I use it a lot.

I wasn’t feeling yogurt for breakfast, so I decided to take advantage of my access to a Vitamix and make a smoothie. It was super simple, but super delicious: 1 frozen banana, cocoa powder, nonfat milk. I topped it with some raspberry KIND granola.

Because #nutrition, I do want to note that in my food choices, I do make an effort to stay pretty low fat. This has absolutely nothing to do with what I think the health merits of fat are—I think whole foods are extremely nutritious, including whole milk and olive oil, and in the past I’ve eaten a lot more fat and felt great. However, a lingering effect of my illness last year (I seriously need to do an update soon on that) is that I can’t handle much fat without feeling sick. So I choose the lower fat options as much as possible to stay feeling good.

I spent the morning doing vet school apps—I’m slowly but surely getting there!—before breaking for lunch.

On Sunday night, we grilled up a TON of chicken, so it’s been featured in pretty much every meal lately. I heated some up (and dipped it in catch up), and served it with a caprese salad. We were gifted homegrown tomatoes, so I chopped one up with fresh basil and fresh mozzarella, which I topped with salt and pepper. This is another example of choosing lower fat options—in the past, I might have topped this with olive oil, but I enjoyed it plenty without!

I also ate some gluten free crackers on the side, plus a couple of squares of mint dark chocolate.

I sent some emails and then went to the grocery to buy granola bars and things for dinner. An exciting new find was KIND dark chocolate granola, which I can envision on top of a chocolate banana smoothie bowl! I’m a big fan of KIND granola—the nutrition facts really can’t be beat. Also, a little goes a long way! It’s part of a great breakfast when paired with protein, such as yogurt!

Of course, I had to try some as part of my snack.

On the side was a farmer’s market plum and a NuGo bar. At this point, I basically eat exclusively Luna bars, but got a different brand to mix it up today. It was delicious, but honestly a little too much dark chocolate for me—I felt a little jittery!

I went to a spin class with one of my favorite instructors that evening. It’s a class with lots of choreography and push ups on the bike, but I really love her playlists!

Dinner made use of some of the food we had on hand.

Watermelon salad with mint and feta. Literally mint, watermelon, and feta.

Also, roasted garlic-parmesan zucchini and tomatoes. We topped them with basil, and this dish was incredibly delicious. The parmesan got brown and bubbly, and the vegetables were bursting with flavor.

All with BBQ chicken!

For dessert, I tried a Blueberry Yasso frozen yogurt bar. I had Yasso bars most nights in Tennessee. I LOVE the salted caramel, and like the mint chocolate chip a lot as well. The blueberry was good too, but the salted caramel still holds the main place in my heart.

(Check out the puppy in the background! She’s always there—she’s at my feet right now as I type this up!)

My family and I started watching The Gilmore Girls tonight. We finished our show last night (The Good Wife), and couldn’t find anything else we were in the middle of on Netflix, so we decided to give it a try. I like it well enough so far, and it’s quite a blast from the past (2000).

I was a little hungry, so I snacked on a little bit of KIND Dark Chocolate granola, and a few freeze dried grapes (they’re really fun—they were on sale at CVS!)

And now I’m planted in front of the Olympics. So far I’ve seen a couple of swimming finals, both of which I already knew the results of. It does make it less stressful though!

What is your favorite granola/protein bar?

Long Runs and Yogurt

Date: July 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, it’s Monday. After blogging, I’m going to drive down to school to put in some hours in the lab, and then go to the library to catch up on reading for my Psych class. For that class, we also have an assignment where we choose a health behavior to change. I chose sleep-Im trying to get 8 hours a night. Guess how that’s working out? Yeah.

So let’s talk running. Sunday was my 11 mile run. I have a whole routine down now. Wake up at 6:45, eat breakfast, and leave at 8:30 for a 9:00 run. Since I run by the bay, I have to run early to beat the wind. I had my typical pre-run breakfast.

I felt much more confident going into this run than last week’s 10 mile run. For some reason, 10 miles seems like so much, and anything beyond that basically seems the same. If I could do 10, I could do 11 right? I wanted to pick up the pace a little bit from last week too.

I started off having no trouble with my “goal” pace. I say that in quotes because it’s my ideal pace but not what I was expected to maintain (spoiler-I didn’t maintain it). Immediately, I was feeling better than last week. This could be for a number of reasons. 1. I had logged more miles the week leading up to this run than last weeks. I skipped a longish run last week. 2. I had already done a long run and probably most important-3. I didn’t do a killer leg workout 2 days before, so my legs weren’t sore at all (my arms though were a different story). Moral of the story? Do heavy leg days early in the week. Anyways, the run.

I swear the longest part of the run is the mile or two leading up to the turnaround. And the miles right after the turnaround…I did stop to walk a few steps every few miles to get try and get some feeling back in my toes. Gosh I love my feet. I really shouldn’t complain-my feet behaved much better than expected and much better than last week. I think I was landing with a slightly different part of my foot, so for a good part of the run my big toe was numb, but it didn’t hurt because I wasn’t striking on the nerve I usually hit it on.

I took my goo at the halfway point. It was really disappointing. I tried the Power Bar brand of chocolate and it didn’t taste good. The Cliff bar kind from last week was better, and had a better list of ingredients. I just never got a chance to make it back to the store to pick up another one. Here’s a question for you runners-for a half marathon, do you fuel once or twice? Before training, I was thinking I’d do it at miles 5 and 10, but at this point I feel like by mile 10 I just want to power through until the end.

Here’s the crazy part about this run- my slowest miles were definitely the middle miles, but my fastest was the 11th mile. What?? Like, it was probably a minute faster. Ok…I obviously need to start running the rest faster! It’s funny-I’ve been listening to an audiobook on my long runs, and beforehand, I discovered that only if I hit my “goal” pace would I finish my run before my audiobook ran out. Hey, it’s extra motivation! I ended up running out at the VERY end of my run. Nothing too terrible. So that was that!

Here’s the view of SFO from after my run:

I actually felt better after this run than after the last one, in terms of ability to move. I was stupid though and didn’t wear my compression socks, and my calves were sore already yesterday afternoon. Whoops.
What’s the best thing to do after a run? Go yogurt shopping obviously!

Heaven right there my friends. It’s been too long!
By the time I got home, the post-run-crazy-hunger began setting in. I was sooo salty from my run and my body was craving salt like crazy. After a few handfuls of cheddar popcorn from the Farmer’s Market yesterday, I was ready to break open some yogurt. I tried pineapple Chobani, which I’ve never tried before.

Topped with some gluten free granola from the Farmer’s Market, blackberries, and sunflower seed butter. Perfect!

I spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy. And desperately trying to keep up with the 1000 incoming text messages I was receiving. Bloggers sure are a talkative bunch (but I love them for it). Saturday night I went to dinner with my friend, and when I got back I had 148 texts. I felt so popular-I’ve never gotten that many before! Haha.
Dinner last night was leftovers, plus corn on the cob. At the Farmer’s Market, there was a huge line for a corn vendor. I mean, the line was going around the corner, and no other vendors ever had any type of line. Plus, they weren’t the only ones selling corn. Naturally, the long line made my mom WANT this corn. We ended up walking away with 10 ears. It was really good-but enough to cause a giant line? I don’t know.

On the side was leftover chicken sauteed with white wine, mushrooms, and zucchini. Kettle corn was also consumed. Farmer’s Market seriously have the best kettle corn.

I also was dying for some fro-yo, so I made a little fro-yo sundae.

I topped vanilla frozen yogurt with chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream. YUM.

And staying true to the title of this post, here’s this morning’s breakfast-another yogurt bowl.

Stoneyfield vanilla greek yogurt, gluten free granola, a chopped up nectarine from the Farmer’s Market, and a scoop of sunflower seed butter. I really like Stoneyfield-it’s smooth and not super sweet. My biggest issue with the Chobani that I’ve tried is lack of tang, at least for the key lime and pineapple flavors. I feel like those should be at least a little tangy. Maybe the new key lime? I’ve only tried the one in the flip.
Also, I love this new granola. It’s only sweetened with maple syrup, but it’s still not that sweet. It was a great maple-y flavor because of this. Technically, it’ Coconut, Cranberry and Cocoa Nib, although I don’t taste the cocoa as much. No complaints here though! I need to go get ready for the day-have a great Monday!

What is your favorite flavor of yogurt?

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?

Ski Trip Today!

Date: January 25, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everyone! I’m leaving for my ski trip today, so since it’s unlikely I’ll have internet, there probably won’t be a lot in the way of posting this weekend!

This morning before weights I ate a piece of oatmeal bread.

Weights today didn’t wipe me out as much as last week. I think it’s partly because it was a shorter week, and partly because I couldn’t go as hard on my longer ergs because I couldn’t breathe…ohh allergies. Breakfast after weights was a good one! To all of you out there who love oats in a jar (oatmeal poured into a nearly empty peanut butter/nut butter jar), boy do I have a gem for you.

Smoothie in a jar! I love topping my smoothies with peanut butter, so this worked out perfectly! Although I did feel a bit odd eating a smoothie out of a peanut butter jar at the dining hall…

My smoothie included a banana, milk, plain yogurt, and frozen blackberries, raspberries, and peaches. On the side?

Half a waffle, topped with butter and heated up frozen blueberries! Yum!

After breakfast, I actually had time to shower! I waited outside an empty shower for a good 5 minutes…whoops. I planned on packing this morning, but I just laid out a few things. I technically should be packing right now seeing as I leave in an hour. I have no idea how to fit all my snow clothes into my duffel bag so this should be interesting!

Lunch was very eh. I was expecting better. But I ate while keeping in mind that this may be my last vegetables in 3 days…

There was some yellow curry tofu that tasted like nothing…some greens, some black beans (which at least were good), some type of slaw, and peanuts and egg. Today was certainly lacking. Dessert was a bowl with granola, berries, milk, and peanut butter, plus a ThinkThin bar.

Have a great weekend everyone! Wish me luck in my quest for veggies!

Do you like skiing?<