It’s Another Edition Of….

Date: February 27, 2014

Author: astottler

Heyy! Happy Thursday/Friday/weekend depending on when you’re reading this! I really love Thursday evenings. It’s basically Friday for me so I had a really low key afternoon. ANYWAYS, that means it’s time for another edition of BLOGGING FROM THE LAUNDRY ROOM. Which really isn’t different from normal blogging so we’re gonna go with it.

Notable about Wednesday is that I ran in the rain. And I ate this little creation:

Under all that deliciousness is cottage cheese. Kind of a random combo, but easy to throw together! Also notable was my evening workout-I normally never go to the gym late at night, but I’ve gone a few times in the past couple of weeks. I’m proud of myself for actually sticking to it and going! I had wanted to go to Crossfit, but the workout was either movements I don’t like, or movements that might irritate my shoulder. It feels fine, but I did heavy lifts using it the day before and I didn’t want to push it! Instead, I did my own little workout. I worked on pull ups and the following:

30 sit ups, 21 kb swings and box jumps

30 sit ups, 18 kb swings and box jumps

etc. 15, 12, 9, 6, 3

I REALLY like this one! I actually did it once before, right when I was recovering from mono! Yeah, a little bit easier this time through! My abs are feeling it today too!

Last night I finished my Nutrition paper, and despite numerous distractions, I got a reasonable amount of sleep. I also got a reasonable amount of sugar in the form of doughnuts at our hall meeting, so I woke up drenched in sweat (TMI?) and very sluggish. Spin definitely perked me up!

Plus coffee and a delicious breakfast of egg and pesto gouda, plus a grapefruit.

(Here’s my beautiful title page. I blurred out the title because if I ever write a book, I’m totally using this! Kind of kidding…)

And yes, I did put chemical structures on there.

Lunch was kind of random. I have some butternut squash soup, and I spruced it up a bit by adding a sundried tomato chicken sausage and creme fraiche. To be honest, the flavors didn’t meld but it was still tasty! Maybe if I cooked the sausage in with the soup.

Also-I’m officially done with Chem lab! Like, forever! Today was my last lab section, and we even got out a bit early. I hightailed it to the campus market to try and use up some meal plan dollars and got some awesome things! I’ve been wanting cereal to spice up my morning yogurt, and I found some that is puffed grain, with no sugar or weird ingredients! Plus some 85% chocolate, and lots of plasticware. Whatever meal plan dollars I have at the end of the quarter are going towards plasticware. In bulk.

I spent a little time decompressing from a crazy week with Netflix, and some new purchases. Grape kombucha and white cheddar black truffle popcorn.

Then I proceeded to begin the process of the grand room cleaning. So far I’m through my desk and am currently working on laundry. Hence why you will notice my dinner was eaten on a paper towel-I didn’t want to get food on my newly cleaned surface!

I was planning on going to a yoga class today, but apparently it was cancelled. I decided to not let that deter me-I need to be ready for race day on Saturday! So I grabbed my mat and headed outside in the dark. And don’t worry-I was just outside my window in our courtyard!

It. Was. Awesome. It hasn’t rained all day, and it’s been fairly warm lately. It was a bit windy, and very peaceful. I turned on my “Quick Yoga” playlist, and when that ran out, I turned on the “relaxing” Pandora station. I loved having my own practice. I felt strong and could do whatever I wanted! I actually made some decent progress on crow and didn’t fall flat on my face, thank goodness! I left feeling grounded and loose. When the weather warms up, this may need to be a nightly thing. Spring here is so nice, and a little nightly yoga sounds heavenly.

Since I was expecting my yoga class to end after the dining halls closed, I had already bought myself a Mexican salad for dinner. This had some sparse beans and rice, and a cilantro dressing.

And more popcorn!

In other food news, I’m attempting to plan my meals for next week so I can go grocery shopping tomorrow. I’m thinking of something similar to my California Chop Salad, partly because I already have olives! I don’t think I’m getting enough veggies in the early parts of the day, so I’m planning on making a whole bunch of the salad minus dressing and pack it into ziplock bags for the week. Then, I can pour it into a bowl. Because my salads will not fit in tupperware!

While writing my paper on how sugar is toxic and eating doughnuts last night, I realized I’m totally addicted to sugar. I started tracking my adding sugar, and it’s a bit frightening. (Speaking of which-has anyone seen the proposed new Nutrition labels? I’m a fan! It’s time they added added sugar!) I think instead of going cold turkey, I’m going to try to schedule a bit into my day, likely in the form of a mid afternoon snack, since that’s when I always seem to want it! Thanks to herring about them on the blog world, I really want to try the new KIND grain bars! I love how KIND bars are low sugar, but thanks to my nut allergy, I can’t eat any of the normal bars! The new grain bars look delicious, and 4/5 of the flavors are nut free! Plus, they all have less than 10g of sugar, which is my general criteria for a bar. Now I just need to get my hands on some…

What’s your favorite type of granola/protein bar?

WIAW-“If She’s Laughing it Can’t Be Good”

Date: February 4, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Happy Wednesday! I’m actually especially happy this Wednesday because by some miracle, I don’t have the 2 problem sets I normally have this week, OR a lab report. Which means my week basically ended after today’s midterm. In terms of the midterm-it didn’t make me physically ill, so I’ll take that as at least a decent sign! And as always, I’m linking up for What I Ate Wednesday!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting this weekly party!

Guys. I just want to say, I’m doing something crazy right now. Laundry. Go me! I had to push it until midterms were over, so now I have no excuses. And no underwear. Needless to say, it’s time! I’m just doing a single load though because that’s all I can force myself to fold in one night. Who needs darks, am I right??

But let’s talk about some food. And fitness.

Yesterday morning I did a track workout-10x400m repeats. Nothing crazy. I may have eaten a bit too much the day before and felt kind of sick during them, so I didn’t push them like crazy.

Breakfast was amazing, and a new favorite. Full fat, super high quality Greek yogurt, sunflower seed butter, and berry compote (frozen berries reduced down on the stove). Amazing. Just like PB&J!

I’m going to run through the food from the last couple of days in no particular order-I had some snack days, and not everything was captured or necessarily a full meal!

Brussels sprouts with butter and parmesan, and an apple. Yeah, doing tupperware dishes is on my post-midterm to-do list as well…

Cheese and crackers, and a blood orange. We got fancy cheese at our marathon Whole Foods expedition, and they certainly have not disappointed. These two are manchego and goat gouda. And crackers never tasted so good-for the last 2 weeks, the only snacks I had very sweet things, like fruit, yogurt, and nut butter!

More brussels, more parmesan. Eaten cold. In retrospect, they probably would have been better hot…

But the microwave was in use-I’ve been dying to try making oat pancakes for the longest time! And all I have is a microwave…

It’s kind of hard to evaluate how they turned out. They might have been really awesome on a griddle. Or with the oats actually ground up. The flavor was fine-lots of vanilla and slightly sweet! Oooo I bet they would have been awesome in a waffle maker…

In the microwave, they just didn’t quite solidify. The recipe was half a cup of extra thick rolled oats, half a cup of unsweetened apple sauce, an egg, vanilla, and a pinch of baking powder. I’ll have to try these again at home sometime! (Or sneak my batter into the dining hall…hmm).

I roasted some blueberries in the microwave for topping, plus some whipped butter.

Because sometimes you just want pancakes for dinner! I also bet these would have been even better with maple syrup-the butter kind of got to me for some reason! Mmmm or nut butter…moral of the story-microwave pancakes are hard to do!

Last night, I ended up going to the gym pretty late-as in, 10:30pm. I did an hour long spin workout-instead of a set playlist, I plugged in an hour long race playlist and just rode whatever felt right. As a spinner, I think these types of rides are especially important-figuring out what works with what, and just enjoying riding on my own an kicking my own butt. The only late night workouts I’ve done have been spin, and I actually really like it-I feel like I get extra adrenaline!

This morning, I was up bright and early to train quidditch. I always forget how much I enjoy it! And torturing them. We did a new conditioning today-and when I was explaining it, someone remarked “If she’s this happy, this can’t be good!” It was great-we really took it to the next level today with a tabata of thrusters and push ups. It’s amazing how fast these exercises get difficult when doing tabatas! My sister’s boyfriend was evening failing on the push ups by the end-and he regularly does push ups with her sitting on his back! Major success in my book 🙂 I think I’m going to do their leg workout myself this weekend. I haven’t actually done the full sequence, and I’m craving more intense workouts right now.

This pretty much sums up my morning-coffee and chemistry.

Lots of yogurt. Lots of sunflower seed butter. Lots of berries. Perfection.

Semi-homemade guacamole with carrots and the following crackers. For the guac, I just mashed an avocado with some fresh salsa.

Dinner after Crossfit tonight was a different one. We finally put some of our Whole Foods goods to use.

Roasted carrots.

And the crowning achievement-sushi bowls! My roommate suggested we try making sushi, and I suggested we just be lazy and throw it all into a bowl.

We threw some short grain brown rice in the rice cooker, and then mixed it with some rice vinegar for that sushi rice flavor. Plus some Nori (seaweed), toasted sesame seeds, steamed kale, avocado, cabbage, coconut amines, and tuna. The tuna was really good-we got some in a jar marinated with herbs and olive oil. I’m no usually a tuna person (I’ve lived with cats way too long to not associate it with cat food) but this was flavorful in all the right ways! Major win in my books! Plus-leftovers!

Also-I’m starting to really fall in love with running. Which is fabulous. My race was great. Aside from the result, it actually was fairly enjoyable. I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up until the last .5 miles, which was a huge improvement from my previous 5k where I felt really sick pretty much as soon as I took off…

But the biggest reason? I’m starting to feel fast again. I’m starting to feel like myself again. I’m freaking excited for tomorrow morning’s tempo run. I’m doing hill sprints later in the afternoon-can’t wait for those. I want to do sprints. I want to be fast.

These last few months of running (aka my whole “official” running career) have been sort of tough-I’ve improved so much, and definitely done distance I never imagined before, but the few extra pounds from my freshman year put a HUGE dent on my speed. Plus, my feet kind of hated me. To be honest, I credit my project for helping me find my love of running again-due to some miracle, my feet are cooperating and I cannot wait for my next long run. And to be honest, losing some weight is definitely helping. Heck, maybe that’s even why my feet are improving. But I have the desire to run-as an athlete, as a racer. I also think that with these continued diet changes, I could make leaps and bounds with my speed, which is exciting. Post-project, I’m not really sure what is going to happen. But for now, I’m going to roll with it.

(I really like this picture but I couldn’t come up with an excuse to include it…so here?)

What is your favorite pancake topping?

A Chill Day

Date: October 5, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Are you guys all having a good weekend? I definitely am! And Sunday marks the official 2 week out point for my race! I’m starting to get excited!

I haven’t really posted in a few days (besides my scheduled post) so I have a kind of random selection of pictures from the last couple of days.

Thursday morning started with Crossfit-lots of deadlifts! I refueled appropriately:

Nothing too crazy happened during the day- I got a veggie wrap for lunch with hummus. I didn’t actually bring money with me, and it was the only real food I could afford with the few dollars in my backpack.

And my pumpkin butter obsession continues (more on that in a minute!). One thing about dorm life-I have the tendency to buy something and eat nothing but that item until it is gone, which is really quickly. And then I buy something else and the cycle repeats. I guess this is what happens when grocery trips are infrequent…Well, the pumpkin butter is certainly disappearing quickly! I made “paleo oatmeal”-I wasn’t trying to make paleo or oatmeal, but I threw a ton of things in a bowl and that was what I got! This was applesauce, egg whites, chia seeds, coconut, and almond milk. Topped with pumpkin butter! It really was just a medium for pumpkin butter. I wanted pumpkin oatmeal, but I don’t have any oats….so there’s that.

That evening at flag football, the soreness from a full week of heavy lifting began to set in, and my hamstrings began a war on me that would last another day. I also did the spin class I wrote for myself that evening-it turned out to be pretty good! I definitely have a tendency to do a lot more in the saddle than out…talk about a quad burner! I really don’t like the spin bikes at school-they feel really plastic-y, and I don’t really get the feel of the road. It’s more like moving your legs with resistance that spinning-but the quad burn can definitely sneak up on you!

Afterwards, it was pretty late so I refueled with hot chocolate. Kind of. Another #dormlife problem-no milk. And as much as I love almond milk, it has almost no protein. I mixed (not very well based on all the powder floating around) chocolate protein powder, brown rice syrup, a little honey, cocoa powder, and almond milk and heated it up. Perfect. Kind of.

After my workout, a little socializing while drinking this concoction, and doing a pre-lab, I was beat. I woke up yesterday morning still really tired. I debated skipping my 5 mile hilly run, but I knew I’d never be able to fall back asleep because I had already gotten up. The run went pretty well-these are some intense hills. It took a while for my legs to loosen up, but I’m glad I got some hill work in. There was just one glitch-my shoe inserts. I think they do help prevent foot pain, but they give me the worst blisters-it’s only one foot for some reason, but I took them both out halfway through the run (so I’d be even). My foot hurt a little by the end of the run-so I’m not really sure what I should do at this point.

Here are some random eats from Friday:

My roommate and one of my other friends baked banana bread-you better believe I was all over that!

After my run, my legs kind of tightened up and all the soreness from the week hit. My hamstrings felt like death-I can’t even remember the last time they were that sore! After a 2 hour Chem lab (we finished 2 hours early!), my legs felt 100x better. Which was good given I had flag football practice. I swear, I’m so bruised up right now! I may or may not have bar shaped bruises going up my legs…at Crossfit, I got a big bruise on the front of my leg because I kept dragging the bar against my leg doing cleans. Smart one Aurora.

(Finally fading)

Plus, I’m getting a little beat up playing football. I guess that’s just what happens in sports-I used to be pretty bruised up from softball regularly.

Back to food. GUYS. I had the best idea. Pumpkin butter. Cottage cheese. I really liked how the pumpkin cream cheese was creamy and a little savory-but it’s too rich to eat with a spoon (or is it?). I found out that a little market on campus now uses meal plan dollars (part of our dining plan-I NEVER use them) and they actually sell really good, useful stuff. It’s basically a mini grocery. And meal plan dollars are like free money.

I immediately dug into the cottage cheese.

YUM. But for my next snack, I kicked it up another notch.

Cottage cheese. Sunflower seed butter. Pumpkin butter. Apple chips. That’s gourmet my friends. Or at least college gourmet. SUCH a good combo. Too bad I’m out of cottage cheese…and apple chips…and almost pumpkin butter.

This morning I managed to sleep in until 9-which is a pretty big accomplishment for me! I hit the gym first thing-but I wanted to give my legs a complete rest day after this past week, and before tomorrow’s 9 miles. I did something I’ve never done before-arms and abs day. I NEVER do arm workouts-I usually do full body workouts, and occasionally leg days. But I didn’t want to do anything that put any stress on my legs at all. My workout ended up consisting of mostly pull ups and planks. I’m so close to being able to do a full pull up-only 25 pounds of assistance, which is such a huge improvement. My goal is to get it by Thanksgiving! And with the quantity I did today, I should be able to get there!

After my workout, I was starving and more than ready for brunch. I was really hoping to get a smoothie, but the line was insane, as was the waffle line. I still haven’t gotten a waffle yet this year!

But then again, I’m never going to complain about copious amounts of guacamole.

Giant Mexican salad. I also had a biscuit and this frozen fruit.

I spent the day doing nothing too crazy. I realized that Netflix streams season 8 of How I Met Your Mother. I was considering going to the football game today, but I decided to just hang out. Dinner with How I Met Your Mother? That sounds just right to me.

I made a scramble with the last of my spinach, plus laughing cow garlic and herb and pesto. I finally peeled myself away from the screen to do laundry, which is where I am right now. I discovered that blogging is the perfect thing to do while doing laundry!

And with that, I’ll leave you all to your weekends! I’m going back to the trail by the bay to run, so I’m visiting my cats and grabbing lunch with a high school friend also home this weekend.

What are your favorite TV shows? What other things should I put pumpkin butter on? What amazing pumpkin products should I try? Can you tell I’m obsessed with all things fall?