Spin Kills My Pants

Date: December 21, 2014

Author: astottler

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Have you all finished your holiday shopping? I think I’m mostly done!

Today’s post will be quick-a little food, a little fitness, a little fun. Speaking of fun-today is the last day to enter my giveaway!

Workouts:

Spin. Friday morning EARLY I went to a spin class! My legs were still a bit burned out from the night before, so I didn’t go too crazy with the resistance!

Saturday-nothing.

Sunday morning-more spin with one of my favorite instructors back home! The bad news? My pants busted open in the middle of class right on the inside of my leg…I’ve had major issues with my favorite workout pants a lot-they keep busting open after being stitched up-but I can’t find them in stores anymore so I keep trying. HOWEVER these were not said workout pants-these were some of my newest ones, so this was totally unexpected! Spin kills my workout pants. This is not the first time this has happened in a spin class! Meh.

Food+Fun

After Friday morning’s workout, I refueled with an eggnog protein shake. I remembered making one last year, so I looked up the post and used the same ingredients! The perks of having a blog.

It’s green because I figured I wouldn’t get many greens later in the day! I used about a quarter cup of light eggnog, and then eyeballed vanilla protein powder, frozen banana, milk, spinach, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ice.

It was pretty good but got old by the end-I think I like my chocolate protein powder way more than the vanilla.

Friday post breakfast and work, I shadowed at what I was thinking I wanted to be my future profession and this affirmed for me what I do want to be, which is good!

Lunch was at a little French cafe. I got a quiche, and my family shared truffle oil fries-SO good!

Then, I met up with my high school friends at their college across the bay for a big reunion!

We went to Cheeseboard, a well known and gourmet pizza place in downtown Berkeley. They make one pizza a day, and today’s was margarita!

We also stopped for gelato-half chocolate, half dulce de leche. So good!

We had a fun night! The next morning called for coffee and pancakes. Somehow we actually got to the breakfast place before it opened?

That’s all the food I have pictures of. I went to my sister’s holiday party last night and she had some pretty gourmet food, but no pictures were taken. She went all out-latkes, bruscetta, baked brie, stuffed mushrooms, eggnog cupcakes, and chocolate mint cupcakes with real mint.

I need to go now-have a great day!

Tips for New Group Exercise Instructors

Date: November 9, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I taught another spin class yesterday, and it was AWESOME. The members of the gym are the best. I can also definitely tell I’m improving my teaching style with each class, so I thought I might share some things I’ve learned.

1. Ask for feedback, and incorporate that feedback. Both from your boss and the students. Ever instructor should have their own style, but you need to be willing to work with the students and give them what THEY want, given they are the ones coming back time after time.

2. You don’t have to be talking the entire time. This is one I struggled with at first-I felt like I needed to constantly be saying something, and then I would feel like I had nothing left to say. A little time without your voice isn’t bad-a good playlist will work with you! Plus, given I’m doing the workout with them, I need time to breathe!

3. Microphones take some getting used to. And even with a mic you may still have to yell. It’s a content struggle for me between being heard through the mic and not adding too much extra bass when the mic picks up my breathing. What is working best for me right now is having the mic a ways away from my mouth, and then yelling.

4. Prepare! Be ready to put the work in, and it will show in your class. Right now, I think my classes take a minimum of 4 hours to prep for. I’m sure this is something I won’t need to spend as much time on in the future, but it’s worth it for me. It’s an hour to make the playlist, and then there’s practicing the playlist-I did it 3x by myself this time. And then more adjusting of the playlist after testing it out. I think it’s really worth it to know the songs well and know when to give the cues. Plus, it’s still a workout for me!

5. There will be nerves, but they will fade. Especially for that first class, put a smile on and put it all out there. You won’t always get nervous before classes once you have a few under your belt!

6. All the hard work, anxiety, and time is so, so worth it. Teaching group exercise is so incredibly rewarding. I got the best compliment after class, and it totally made my week. It’s awesome.

And onto the food.

Weekends tend to mean a lot of breakfast foods, which is fine.

Before teaching, I ate a banana with sunflower seed butter. Afterwards, I went to brunch back on campus.

A yogurt bowl, french toast, roasted carrots, and some random things that were meh.

A little bit later, I was hungry again so I had more carrots and pancakes.

Last night, I went downtown to get some new boots. While I was there, I stopped at Starbucks for dinner. I got a kale caesar salad, which I was impressed with. I loved the addition of sundried tomatoes for some extra flavor!

Plus an iced green tea on the side because it’s been so hot here!

Any tips for new GroupX instructors?

MIMM-Chocolate and Friends

Date: February 16, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday. Who has the day off? My weekend has certainly been marvelous so far!

Marvelous is..

Oatmeal! x2. Banana oats topped with strawberries, sun butter, and a dollop of plain yogurt.

Marvelous is…

An iced chai! I had every intention of spending the day working at a coffeeshop so I got a big chai tea! The only problem was that I for somer reason woke up much too early that morning and could barely keep my eyes open so I left for a nap…whoops. There went my productivity!

Marvelous is…

Trying a different dining hall for lunch! It was actually really good! They had about 9 types of cream cheese, which looked homemade. I tried the cinnamon raisin, triple berry, basil and olive, and chive and onion.

Marvelous is…

A dessert party! My sorority had a Valentine’s themed party on Saturday, so I got to dress up and eat delicious things. Fun fact-there are 3 girls in my sorority who seriously want to go to culinary school-let’s just say that we eat well!

Marvelous is…

A kick butt run! There’s no question I’ve gotten in better shape and faster in the last few months. I did the same run I’ve done a couple of times before-it’s one of my absolutely favorite places to run because it’s SO pretty! There’s a fairly big hill in the middle-the last time I was proud I kept my pace until 11:00 for the hill. I ended up powering up the hill around a 9:00 pace! And it wasn’t death!

Marvelous is…

A reunion with my best friends from high school! We actually went the same place the same weekend last year! (Sadly, it was the last day before I was sick for 2 months…)

Last year:

This year:

(Excuse my sweaty-just ran self)

But more importantly-the delicious food! We couldn’t decide between sweet or salty, so we got pancakes for the table to share.

Marvelous is…

Relaxing at home! I spent the day lounging around with these guys and watching the Olympics.

Things are going to get crazy starting tomorrow because I have loads of studying to do and a crazy amount of stuff to do this week!

Marvelous is..

Homemade chocolate for my family! And heyyy I finally took down the recipe for those interested!

Ingredients:

2 T coconut oil

2.5 T maple syrup

1 t vanilla extract

2 T half and half

1/2 c cocoa powder or cacao powder

1. Melt the coconut oil and maple syrup in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds and blend well. Then stir in vanilla.

2. Stir in cocoa powder and half and half (if the half and half is very cold, you may need to heat the mix up a bit).

3. Chill in the fridge on wax paper, or grab a spoon and enjoy!

Marvelous is…

Visiting my home Crossfit tomorrow morning! Yay!

What did you do this weekend?

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?

I’m Back!

Date: March 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m finally ready to re-enter the blogging world! These past 2 weeks have been pretty rough, so I’ll give you an update on what is going on with me. I have Mono…and according to my blood tests,a pretty bad case of it. Since my spleen and liver are swollen, my stomach is super puffed up and I secretly believe an alien is growing inside of me. The thing is, it’s not just Mono. I tested positive for Strep throat a week ago, but that should be over now with antibiotics. But then somehow I managed to pick up a cold too. Which turned into an ear and sinus infection, which is why after 2 weeks I wasn’t feeling any better. I am convinced that I picked up the strep and cold at the ER. It was disgustingly unsanitary. I am finally on different antibiotics for the ear and sinus infections, and I am starting to feel better, although I am still partially deaf in my left ear. The biggest problem now is I have had a killer sore throat for the past week. Fortunately, I finally got prescribed with a steroid yesterday that brings the swelling in my body in general and my throat down, and I think the pain is improving.

I have basically been in bed for 2 weeks straight, though the last couple of days have been better. I have to take Advil and Tylenol around the clock because otherwise I feel like I am being strangled…and my temperature goes up. The good news is with my new antibiotic, I feel way stronger. I recently realized that I have been taking 28 pills a day. Although that was before the steroid (though I am trying to cut the Advil and Tylenol some). That is crazy. 2 years ago, I couldn’t swallow any pills at all. Embarrassing, I know! It was a huge problem, and I had the hugest fear. Well guess that is gone now, especially since my new antibiotics are giant!

I have been living at home these past 2 weeks as well. For a long time I literally could not get out of bed in the morning, and I doubt my roommate would have wanted to do EVERYTHING for me! Luckily I’m local to school. I had to drop half of my classes though, and will have to retake them next quarter. It is all I can do to keep up with my couple of classes now! My days consist mostly of watching Friends!

I haven’t blogged because my food choices haven’t been too interesting. With a swollen stomach comes a small appetite. And for a while no food at all appealed to me, so I couldn’t even think about food. Exciting news though! We got a new blender! A Vitamix. It’s amazing. And smoothies have been a top choice lately given my throat and my earlier lack of appetite. For a while nothing sweet appealed to me. Yeah I seem to have gotten over that. Frozen yogurt has been a big part of my life lately (yesterday I tried salted caramel pretzel….BEST. THING. EVER.). One night my dad ran out and got me a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. SO GOOD. Sweets do tend to send me into coughing fits though… Eh. One thing that didn’t appeal to me that I haven’t forcibly reintroduced is nuts/nut butter. And guess what? My skin is better than ever! Silver lining right?? I don’t have any food pictures. Well, except this sequence.

That was my turkey and avocado sandwich. Charlie is crazy about meat. And, oddly, bread. I stood no chance.

This morning for breakfast, I was feeling much better and wanted to go out for pancakes. I ordered Blueberry wheat germ, which were pretty good but the wheat germ was a little bitter. My pea sized stomach stood no chance for the giant stack though! Now that I am eating more though, I think I need to go back to worrying about my sugar intake. Especially if I plan on developing a frozen yogurt habit (hey, there are still HOW MANY nearby places I still have to try??). I’m thinking I need to limit my sweets to frozen yogurt…I guess part of the problem is that fruit is a little hard on my throat (it is pretty acidic). Ah well. I guess I just need more smoothies! Now while I don’t have a lot in the way of food pictures, I do have cat pictures (benefit #1 of being home).

Just look at that face!

DEFINITELY not about to fall off or anything!

Who really needs to fold laundry? Or have non-furry towels?

I’m so glad to be back blogging! Unfortunately it will be a while on the workouts…I think the first things I’ll be allowed to do are spinning and running. No weights, and probably no erging, until my spleen has no possibility of rupturing….but hey, now I know where my spleen is! Going back to crew is going to be so difficult…Seeing the erg workouts they are doing just seems impossible. I guess I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it!

How’s everyone doing?