Happy Mother’s Day!

Date: May 8, 2016

Author: astottler

Hi friends! I wanted to take a quick study break from studying to wish a fantastic Mother’s Day to all the fantastic moms out there!

2012

2013

2009(?)

Especially my fantastic mom! Thank you for all you do for me!

For Mother’s Day, my sister and I went home for a surprise brunch!

(My puppy was sheared!)

I brought some flowers and was in charge of eggs.

My sister made blueberry chai scones and made aero press coffee. It’s some fancy technique that I don’t entirely understand but the sip I tried was amazing!

For the eggs, I threw in tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella.

Scones served with the clotted cream that came with my fruit and cheese of the month box! I thawed GF biscuit from the freezer to eat with it.

Currently, I’m taking a study break from biochem. I have a final tomorrow! My brain is officially burning. Is that a thing? That’s another way of saying I apologize for any lack of coherency!

In terms of exercise, by the end of this stress fracture I better have abs of steel because I can’t do much else! That, and have killer strict pull ups. I’ve been playing around with some Blogilates videos, and this is the one I did last week. It was a good one!

I went to the gym in my Cherry Blossom shirt, only fitting because that is likely what contributed to this injury! Super cute.

Also, super random: does anyone have the new iPhone? I just got an SE for my birthday (my old phone was from freshman year! Needless to say it had been through a lot.) and apparently there’s a live photo feature which is extremely creepy, in my opinion. I sent my mom a picture and she told me “press and hold and it moves.” I couldn’t comprehend what that could possibly mean! Turns out the pictures move! Like it shows you setting up for the picture. Crazy.

This dinner picture from Cinco de Mayo was moving on my phone! Whatt?

And on that riveting note, back to studying!

Mother’s Day Fun and Fun-Fun

Date: May 12, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I know I’m a day late on the whole Mother’s Day recap-but of course thanks to my amazing mother for being, well, amazing!

On Mother’s Day, I didn’t actually see my mom until dinner. I did have a super fun morning though! My home Crossfit has been organizing Sunday runs, and when they go to one of my favorite places to run, I really can’t pass it up. I’ve never been to this trail before, but it was awesome. It’s paved, with beautiful views. It’s also long enough for me-6 miles each way! And it would be impossible to make a wrong turn…

It was also really fun to run with people-something I hardly ever do! We chatted the whole time, and I probably went a bit faster than I would have otherwise, although it was still a comfortable pace. I did 5 miles.

I haven’t done much (read: any) distance running, and I’m doing Bay to Breakers next weekend, which is 7-8 miles. Bay to Breakers is going to be crazy. If you aren’t familiar with this race…well, I’ll take lots of pictures. Although I doubt they will all be appropriate for the Internet…To give you a sense-the race packet instructions for the bib said “Place bib on your shirt. If you are not wearing a shirt, place it on the from of your shorts.” Yeahhh.

After my run, I returned to campus for brunch, in the form of a veggie panini, eggs, and fruit. The panini was a bit plain/sparsely filled, so I ended up putting the eggs inside and eating it as a breakfast sandwich-so good!

I spent the afternoon doing things not worth mentioning-although I did order new Crossfit shoes, which I’m excited about! The soles of my old ones are getting pretty bare!

That evening, I drove to my hometown (that’s 3 trips this weekend, if you’re keeping track) for dinner at a nice restaurant. Being the total foodie that I am, and totally failing blogger, I of course have food pictures, but no people pictures, or any of the picture frames (with pictures) I gave my mom. Typical.

For my meal, I had red snapper over garlic mashed potatoes and spinach. I realized that although I’ve had this dish many times in the past, I’ve never actually had it at the restaurant-we’ve done take out from there mostly recently! I also had a side of brussels sprouts.

It was a fun night!

I have more excitement to share with you guys today. I played softball! And IT WAS AWESOME. And I again have meaning in my life. I haven’t actually touched a ball since the end of summer season, but at this point in my life it’s instinct. I only got a couple of hits, and my timing is still a bit off at the plate (instinct is fast pitch and this is slow pitch!), but it was just fabulous. Another thing that surprised me was how strong I was. I was not expecting to feel like that. I mean, I was in the worst shape of my life at the beginning of last summer (thanks mono), but it was incredible! Even more shocking, I felt very quick and fast. I had so much energy and was just bouncing around. It was great. I need to study super hard for my Bio midterm next Monday because the test is 7-9 and the game is at 8:50…clearly, priorities! Now, I’m super motivated to find a softball league this summer in DC. Plus, it’s a great way to meet people.

I have to say, I’m so happy with everything right now. I have just had a great couple of days-seeing family, Crossfit friends, running with people, SOFTBALL…so much love!

Do you like running solo or with people?

Arts and Crafts

Date: May 12, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I actually writing this post Saturday night, but I’ll delay it until tomorrow. That way I’ll be all caught up in case things begin to get busy (they should get busy- busy studying).

First off- HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the mother’s out there, especially my own, who has put up with me through a lot.

Also, to all mother’s out there: make sure you’re not the only on taking pictures! Many years from now your daughter may be writing a blog post for which she will have trouble finding pictures of the two of you together.

Although she does not know it at the time I am writing this post, my sister and I are surprising her my coming back for lunch! I’ll let you know how that is tomorrow!

There are a few things I want to touch on about Saturday. First. It was very unproductive. And I skipped some events because I wanted to get things done. But that wasn’t great. It’s ok though, it was only Saturday. Some R&R is necessary.

Brunch. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The food is really good, but it completely messes up my entire eating schedule for the day. This may be why I struggle with eating well on the weekends. I went with half of a whole wheat bagel, toasted with cream cheese and eggs, plus a salad with guacamole. Half of a waffle was also consumed, although it went unphotographed.

Brunch always leads me to snacking. Which causes problems. I had a big grand workout planned, but I kept eating and then having to digest. Here are some snacks:

Greek yogurt, cranberry orange quinoa, and cocoa sesame seed butter. Citrus+chocolate works, right??

Blueberry-pomegranite kefir, zucchini bread (from the freezer), and sunflower seed butter.

Numerous other snacks included bananas with sunflower seed butter, and granola with a protein bar. Dinner was just meh but here it is:

Well guys, this is it. It is the ending of an era. That’s right, I’m finally getting over my sunflower seed butter and my yogurt obsession. Since ditching some of the sugar in my diet, I don’t find these items as enjoyable. Or maybe consuming 10,000 jars of sunflower seed butter in a quarter is too much. I’m not sure. But I’m feeling ready to move on. It’s not that I dislike these things, but they don’t hold quite the same level of joy for me as they did in the past. :'(

I may try plain yogurt and see if that is more appealing. But as it is, I only have a bit of yogurt remaining anyways. I guess I’ve been more into produce lately: fruits and veggies. Produce kind of shaped how well my week went last week; I focused more on eating fruit and veggies, and it helped me eat more healthfully overall. Which takes us to the next topic of conversation.

As any normal American, I don’t eat as nutritiously on the weekends as on the other days of the week. For me, starting Monday on a positive note is crucial, and sets the tone for the week. Last Monday, I really focused on clean eating, and ate mostly fruit and veggies (minus the pizza that may have slipped its way in). As a result, I felt great the whole week, and had no difficulty eating well. Which is why I want to try something different this Monday. Before I say anything. let me first iterate that it is not necessarily something I believe in, but just want to give a try. A juice cleanse! I was inspired when last Monday I tried Trader Joe’s Green Juice and actually enjoyed it. It is a bit sugary (from the fruit) so the plan is to mix it with a more unpalatable and veggie heavy drink. I wasn’t sure whether to blog about this, but since it’s only a day, it’s not really going to change anything anyways. And the idea has always intrigued me.

But on to the title of the post! Lately, I’ve been finding workouts online and writing them on Post-its. I regularly take these post its to the gym with me when I work out, but they get really rumply and crinkly and gross. So I decided to laminate them with tape!

Most of them are WODs, and I thought it would be easier to have them in one medium, together. The ultimate plan is to make some type of pretty poster to put on my wall that I can stick all of them to for easy access when I want to pick one for a workout. I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’m satisfied with the finished cards!Most of them came with names, but I gave names to most of the ones that didn’t for ease of reference. For example, the one I did the other day that featured pull-ups, push ups, and squats I titled “Popeye” because it killed by arms for several days after. And Popeye has huge arm muscles, right?