WIAW and Relearning to Run

Date: October 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! I’m dead tired and I’m staying up to write this post, but I simply couldn’t miss WIAW. I just finished marathon Chem and Physics problem sets so let’s hope this post is at least kind of coherent. Thanks Jenn!

This WIAW is a collection of a ton of random shots I took of my food. I think it pretty accurately describes my eating right now. #dormlife

Before I get into that, I wanted to talk about this morning’s workout. I took a 45 minute spin class, and then went our for a 4 mile training run. I had some…technical difficulties. It’s never good when your shoes don’t finish in the same state they began.

I got new inserts to in theory help with my foot problems. Do they help? Maybe? At least on shorter runs? My feet still stunk on my 12 miler. Well, there’s one little problem. Well, 2. A) I don’t own enough anti-blister socks so I need to save them for the longest runs and B) these inserts rub like crazy. After 2 miles, I couldn’t stand the intense burning on one foot, so I stopped and ran the rest of the way with the insert in my hand. The blister pain went away, but I had kind of a strange experience. I really concentrated on running correctly. I’ve done a ton of agility/sprinting training, so I know how to run. And my sprinting run is not at all like my distance run in terms of how I strike with my feet. I was being really careful to strike with my foot in a better position (just one foot…baby steps), and guess what? No foot pain. The motion was a lot different though, and my heel was burning like crazy by the end of the run. I think the only way to solve my foot issues is by relearning to run. After my race, I’m going to really work on it, which will involve a lot of barefoot running.

Aaand onto the food from the past few days.

An Asian pear with the morning view.

Leftover salad and foccacia. The salad is from the Cheesecake Factory-my friend invited me to dinner there with her grandparents Sunday night. I actually really liked this salad! Perfect leftover.

I was craving pumpkin (no surprise there) so I threw a bunch of things in the microwave in hopes of something similar to the amazing pumpkin microwave cake we made. It didn’t really come out at all like that, but it tasted just like pumpkin pie so I’m not complaining.

My newest obsession-apple chips. And yesterday/today I was pretty much out of food so it was apple chips for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I kid. Sort of…

A solid dining hall dinner post-Crossfit. The dill salmon was actually really good-normally dining hall salmon is pretty gross.

You know I’m out of food when…I break into my freezer supply of quick bread. This is zucchini bread-a study snack.

Post workout drink with a side of college life-that mess on my desk is what I have to deal with constantly. There is zero space in my room, if you’re wondering why a lot of pictures are of me holding food, not on a table or desk. And FYI-it’s not a good habit to get into to just plop your food down on TOP of everything…laptop included…

I was about to just grab a bar for breakfast, but I decided I should have something at least a little more real. The last of my cinnamon apple blueberry bread from who knows when in the freezer! Yum!

It’s all about balance my friends. And by that-of course I mean the balance of chocolate and vanilla. Kidding. But I’ll talk about the actual balance I’m referring to at the end.

Strange but good-harboiled egg and pesto. Add in some dried fruit, and you’ve got yourself a pre-workout snack.

Pre-workout dates. Yum.

Since I was crazy low on food and I saw some posts about all the amazing pumpkin things at Trader Joe’s, I HAD TO GO NOW. Despite the crazy amount of work I had today. Study fuel…right??

Dinner was some veggie soup from the freezer, plus some new purchases. Edamame crackers topped with pumpkin cream cheese!

GUYS. This pumpkin cream cheese is BOMB. It’s not too sweet either-that surprised me! It’s not going to last until the weekend. There’s no way.

I also got these because, I mean, come on, how cool is this? Honestly though, I wasn’t a fan. They were a bit dry and sweet for my taste. Better topped with pumpkin cream cheese. Sensing a theme here?

Today was also the night of our guac party. It was honestly a much needed brain break. Yesterday held hours of work, including late night work and an early morning.

And avocados make everything better, right?

Speaking on study snacks…apple chips+pumpkin cream cheese? YUM. If that doesn’t say fall, what does? Are you sensing WHY this cream cheese won’t be around much longer?

And onto the whole balance thing…I feel like my eating habits are starting to slip. Mostly I’m just not feeling as great. Late nights are not helping when I have a snack because I’m up late working. I’m making a 30 day challenge for myself-only eat pumpkin. Not literally-only eat sweets if they involve pumpkin. That way, I won’t eat something that will make me feel bad unless it’s seasonal and really worth it. That’s a balance I can live with. And hopefully some sleep, coffee, and fresh groceries can get me right back on track.

Favorite pumpkin product so far?

Trail Fail and Microwave Cake

Date: September 29, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello guys! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I have to admit, my first weekend back at school was pretty awesome. Yesterday, I had guacamole TWICE. That alone makes this a great weekend.

I also began the whole “random dorm food snack thing” yesterday when I mixed up a random bowl of chocolatey goodness.

Dried coconut, chia seeds, tons of cocoa powder, sweetener. In the microwave with almond milk, and you get a delicious snack!

Oh, and raisins! I’m starting to realize I really love dried fruit because it’s not as sweet as other desserts. My friends are awesome-they went to Costco and got me a giant bag of apple chips, which I’m ridiculously excited about.

Being the party person that I am, I had a pretty wild Saturday night before my 12 miler. As in, I stayed in my room all night making pumpkin cake in the microwave. Like the party animal that I am. Last year, my roommate and I made pumpkin cake in the microwave, and I think this is the same recipe that we used.

We made a few adjustments since we’re cool people and my roommate has a gluten intolerance. Personally, I think our modifications made it even better (and probably healthier). Also, I almost royally screwed this recipe up. It calls for you to divide out half the mixture. Well, I started to do that without realizing I had forgotten to add sugar. So I almost forgot the sugar in this cake. I kind of messed up the cinnamon too but not as badly!

Here’s our version of the recipe-I apologize ahead of time for the poor photo quality because my dorm has horrible lighting at night.

Microwave Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients:

1/3 c butter

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 c coconut sugar

1/2 c applesauce

1.25 gluten free flour mix or regular flour (my roommate mixed together a ton of flours, along with xantham gum)

3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 c plain yogurt

1/2 pumpkin

1 egg

Instructions:

In large microwave safe bowl, melt 1/3 c butter for 30-45 seconds; stir in sugars and applesauce. Min in flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt. (This will likely be kind of soft, unlike what the original recipe called for; I think this made it even better though). Remove half of the mixture and set half aside. Stir in cinnamon to one half. Then, add in other ingredients to the cinnamon half and mix. Top the bigger half with the smaller half (the one with fewer ingredients) and microwave for 8 minutes, rotating halfway through. Then, microwave for about 3 minutes, or as needed, checking every 1:30.

Pre-microwave

Ready to be eaten!

SO GOOD. Seriously guys, if you make anything, make this. Plus, it’s quick and one bowl! This is gooey, pumpkin-y and perfect for fall. The apple sauce gives the topping a touch of flavor, in the best way possible. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday night- friends and pumpkin baked goods.

I didn’t go to bed as early as I probably should have before my run, but I woke up and ate breakfast. Here’s a really unattractive picture.

I’m reconsidering my pre-run breakfast. It used to be a Thinkthin bar and fruit, but I’m liking this 2 ingredient pancake (with cocoa powder) with fruit. It’s easier on my stomach, but I feel like it’s not as hefty. I think if I do this, I need to eat closer to running, which is probably better since my race is at 6:30am-that way I won’t have to wake up as early.

After eating, I mapped out my run. I wanted to give trail running a try, as well as get some hill training in. I found a route that would accommodate my 12 miles and wrote it out. I also actually carried my phone since I was running alone in the wilderness, so here are a couple of pictures.

This trail was really nice at the beginning. I was thinking how much fun trail runs are. The first few minutes were all downhill. The 12 mile route I had planned out had 1000 feet elevation change, to put this in perspective. It took me all of 5 minutes to get horribly lost. About a mile in, I somehow ended up on a random road with no trails in sight. Some nice other runners pointed me in the correct direction, but I ended up on the street again. I don’t think I ever made it to any of the trails I had planned out, and I just ran on the smaller trails. The hills were really intense-my legs were shot a mile in. I decided that this was not going to work for 12 miles. Plus, the trail running was actually worse for my feet. At 4.5 miles, I found my car and drove down the mountain to flat road to finish the run. Well, relatively flat.

Overall, it was a weird run. But it was good to get some hill work in in a long run. And trails. I had never run trails before my last half, so the 2 miles or so of trails I was cursing the whole time. I was pretty done by the end of this run though. I stopped for water at mile 11, and I had to really give myself a pep talk to get going-although I guess it worked since my last mile was by far the fastest! Another thing-my new shoe inserts didn’t really help much. Which means for now I’m pretty much screwed. After my race, I’m going to try some barefoot running/minimalist shoes and see if that might help. Plus, I have no halfs scheduled yet for the future-just shorter races.

On the way back to campus, I happened to run into a small farmer’s market. One of the stands was a gluten free bakery, and of course I had to stop there since my roommate is gluten free. I got some delicious foccacia and a pumpkin bar. SO good. I think better than any gluten-filled foccacia I’ve had!

This was also a life saver. I was sooo hungry at this point-it was already around 1:30. My run was probably the longest time I’ve run, since my pace was so slow on the trails.

After my run, I prettied myself up-with one problem. I had a tea party to go to that I needed to dress up for, and I didn’t pack my maxi skirt. And I knew if I didn’t wear compression socks, I would really regret it tomorrow. I was actually thinking back to my last training-one time I didn’t wear my socks after a run, and my calves were really sore all week. And I’m pretty sure that was the week I hurt my calf. So I was not going to neglect to wear those socks-it was the same point in my training last time that I got hurt!

New fashion trend? Yes? I was going to go out like that when I had a genius idea-boots! Here’s a picture where you can kind of see.

Here I am at the tea party with my friends.

There was lots of delicious food. Pumpkin cookies, maple cookies, sandwich cookies. And grapes. Lots and lots of grapes (they were in front of me and I ran 12 miles this morning so…). It was bring your own mug, so I brought my classy piggy mug.

Yum.

I’m a big fan of tea parties-I need to make those a regular thing. Also, my roommate and I have an abundance of ripe avocados, so a guac party may be in our near future.

Do you like trails? Any good microwave recipes?

The Great Microwave Scare and Something New

Date: May 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello everyone! I am loving reading everybody’s posts about BLEND. I am determined to go next year, even if it means doing a ton of random Psych studies for the money! Experiments with my brain? BRING IT ON.

So last night after I posted, I was sitting on my bed attempting to do homework. I had a lot on my mind, and could not sit still. I decided, gym at 9 pm? Why not? Ok, now looking back on it, this doesn’t really seem too late, but I’m definitely an early morning workout kind of girl. But honestly, nothing sounded better than spinning my heart out. I hoped on a bike, shuffled my Now That’s What I Call Music 45 album, and just had such a great time. It was on shuffle, but all the songs came up perfectly for my profile. I was there for about 45 minutes.

While this was something I really needed, I regretted my decision just a tad when my alarm went off at 7 to go lift weights….but I’m glad I got up! I did this tried and true workout:While I love it, I think it is time to start upping the weight on those squats.

And being the good blogger that I am, I ate semi-more interesting things today, and photographed a majority of them!Plain Greek yogurt, frozen blackberries, and granola with added raisins. It was a different type of granola at the dining hall, and I’m not a fan. It was too sweet. Granted, the other type probably has too much sugar for me as well, but whatever. For lunch, I bought a super expensive salad in an effort to begin to use up my outrageous amount of meal plan dollars. I had half for lunch, with the plan of having the other half for dinner. (That didn’t happen, as you shall see.)

I had plans to run with my friend after class, but she was feeling sick and I wanted a nap. And a mango. In lieu of running today, we made new plans to run tomorrow evening. That’s my fruit knife, which I love. I seriously only use it for fruit though, not that I’m complaining!

My snack ended up being larger than planned, and included some bites of my now-soggy salad, banana bread, and another mango (the above mango is tiny, but you can’t tell from the picture). Oh, and some yogurt!Frozen banana bread. Since the school year is ending, I’m trying to eat up my freezer!

Enter microwave woes. For some reason, our microwave wasn’t working, so I went downstairs to use the dorm one-which, by the way, is super janky. And kind of gross. But it got the job done!

When my roommate got back, we looked a bit closer into the microwave problem. It appeared that the plug it was attached to was dead, because when we connected my lamp to it, it would not turn on. After further investigation, we finally discovered the root of the problem. The whole octopus the fridge and microwave were connected to was unplugged. Yayyy smart college students. I’m just glad we realized this when we did! The fridge is fullll.

I also received my housing assignment for next year! I’m actually super happy with where we are, although it is technically not considered very good housing. We got a pretty good draw number, but we had a huge draw group (8 people). (Oh, and the housing is a draw- you rank your top choices and they draw numbers.) But the dorm we are in is solid- centrally located, pretty close to 2 decent dining halls, and most importantly, very close to the gym. Because when I’m biking to the gym to go to a Spin class, and I don’t want the extra few hundred feet. You know.

I decided to make dinner in my dorm, since we had a now fully functioning microwave. I ran into the dining hall for spinach, and left with a slice of cinnamon raisin toast as well. This stuff is seriously so good! And then I whipped up some guac from the avocados from my big, and a packet of guacamole mix. I the cooked egg whites in the microwave with a ton of spinach, and topped the eggs with guacamole. Have I ever told you guys I like avocados? No?

“Dessert” was more freezer cleaning- frozen blueberries and a Paleo Pumpkin sort-of-bread creation, x2 (because it’s half a slice!).Whooo check out the ice crystals on those blueberries!

Well, that’s about all I have for you guys. I’m currently realizing that my abs are sore….Being the weirdo that I am, I really love that feeling! So if you guys have any great sore abs workouts, send them my way!

Weekend Recap

Date: April 30, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Whew, I’m kind of behind on posting. I didn’t post at first because nothing interesting in my life was happening, and then I got busy! So let’s just go through some pictures from the weekend and I’ll talk about my weekend there. Heehee, yogurt bowl. Nothing new here. I really want spin shoes!This is the point in my week where I ran out of yogurt, so my snack was egg beaters and pesto. Hey, you could do worse. Friday evening picnic because 3 of my friends had birthdays that week. Lots of good food and veggies! Including guac…can’t complain.Such a nice evening on the “lake.” 30 years ago there was an actual lake here, but they stopped filling it so it is only full in the winter. There’s still some water though!Saturday morning breakfast finished off my egg beaters, which was more or less the last food I had left in my dorm. Saturday morning also featured a hike with an upperclassman in my sorority. She is a Biology major as well, so we had a great time chatting away. I run this trail all the time (in theory…) but never think to take pics, so here it is! After the hike, I was more than ready for Mexican food Saturday brunch, featuring guacamole!A VERY typical snack for me 🙂The point in my weekend where I stopped caring that I ran out of yogurt and started stealing my roommate’s. It’s ok, I repaid her in chocolate hazelnut butter. Yogurt in a jar definitely rivals oats in a jar. And I’m taking credit for it. What is this? A meal on a non-paper plate? That’s right! I went home yesterday to work out at my gym there and enjoy delicious food. Mashed sage yams, brussels sprouts that are actually cooked, corn on the cob, and barbecue chicken. Plus real fruit!And this guy 🙂

And of course, baking. I’m still unsure about posting the recipe because it was highly experimental. I liked it, but not sure that others would. I majorly modified my favorite pumpkin bread recipe and ended up with what I will call Gluten Free Coconut Pumpkin Pudding Bread.

Last night I lifted weights (my gym at home is SO much nicer), and this morning I went to abs class and did a spin class on my own that I wrote up for myself. SO I guess you could say I did a spin workout, but since I want to be a spin teacher, I designed it in a class format.

Breakfast was a smoothie with milk, spinach, mango, cherries, and strawberries, plus some of my baking experiment from the night before. And lunch and dinner at school consisted of leftovers from home! YUM.Now, I realize this post was really long, so yay if you made it this far! And I promise to be a better blogger and actually post as it happens so it won’t be so bad!

What is your favorite home cooked meal?

Turning a Corner

Date: February 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guess what? Still sick :/ But I think I’m finally getting better (knock on wood). What have I been doing the last 2 days? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Thursday night was interesting. My fever climbed above 103 so I went in to Urgent Care, who sent me to the ER because they were closing. After waiting for 3 hours, they told me it was probably the flu because I had no other symptoms. I felt dumb sitting in the waiting room. After taking Advil and Tylenol, my fever was gone and I felt perfectly normal. I felt like I was the healthiest person there! I felt rally bad for some of the parents in the waiting room dealing with their really sick little kids. That would be so difficult! After the lack-luster diagnosis, I told my mom that I wanted something delicious. We could only find one place open, and it just happens to be the one place with the best cinnamon rolls in the world, Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto. Unfortunately, a picture didn’t occur to me. But trust me when I say it was amazing! They have the most amazing looking desserts, especially the pies! I Kind of wish I had gotten something chocolatey but I’m not complaining! I live fairly close to school, so I just spent the night at home. I’m actually going to spend all weekend home. I figure if I’m lying around doing nothing, I might as well be lying around doing nothing with furry animals. Friday was back to a more strict Paleo routine. After my late-night cinnamon roll, I wasn’t that hungry so I made a green smoothie for breakfast. Cherries and spinach again! Plus some blueberries. After breakfast I went to my 2 Friday classes because I really couldn’t afford to get behind. Plus, when I’m on Advil/Tylenol I feel perfectly fine and normal.

It was parents’ weekend at school, so campus was swarming with parents. My parents went to a few events before being introduced to the wonders of dining hall food (yes, it looks all new and exciting the first time, but every meal??).

Italian salad, tilapia, and butternut squash (ok, they do step it up a little for parents’ weekend).

After lunch I was back to resting. Dinner was simple: breakfast!

A smoothie with frozen banana, mango, strawberries, cherries, and almond milk. A little potato, and a Greek salad my mom whipped up for me with leftover ingredients. Bonus: I had extra smoothie leftover!Plus chicken apple sausage!

So last night, a couple of spots near by eyes swelled up a little, but it went away with Tylenol. It was weird, one spot next to my eye, and one spot on my lower eyelid. It freaked me out a little at first! I also realized that my lymph nodes were swollen. I thought that my chin looked bigger, and I figure I had just gained a lot of weight since I haven’t been exercising, but then I figured out what it really was!

I’ve definitely been enjoying dark chocolate lately. It has so little sugar that I figure it is ok. Plus, it really is hard to eat a lot of it (especially considering I’m eating, 85, 90, 99% chocolate) and I never really want something THAT sweet. Which brings me perfectly to the next topic. What would Hunter Pence do?

As you may know, I’m a huge baseball fan. A huge Giants fan specifically. My mom recently sent me this video about one of the Giant’s players, Hunter Pence. He fairly recently adopted the Paleo diet, and feels great! One concern I always have is whether the eating style is ok for an athlete, but if he can do it, then I can! And he includes some dark chocolate. So when I’m trying to decide if something is ok, I’m going to ask myself, what would Hunter Pence do?

Also, I have a quick question for all of you. Thursday night when I was picking up Tylenol at the grocery, I bought some coconut butter. I didn’t think anything of it until my mom asked what the difference was between coconut butter and coconut oil. I was confused at first, because I guess I always just assumed they were the same, though I suppose this makes a little bit more sense in terms of some of the blog posts I’ve read…So what is the difference? Help me out here!

This morning’s breakfast was leftover smoothie, plus an egg scramble. It is based on Tina‘s Sweet Breakfast Scramble, but I added pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin instead of squash (leftover from the pumpkin bread I made last week). It was so, so good! And I didn’t even need nut butter (yes, my skin is seriously hating me right now).I also tried a new type of coconut water that a lady recommended to my mom at the store. It was actual chunks of coconut in it! It was really good! Way fresher and more coconutty!

Ok, one more meal to catch up on! Lunch was a simple salad (my patented salad). Lettuce, apple, craisins, candied pecans, rotisserie chicken, avocado, and Italian dressing. SO GOOD.

Plus some baked barbecue chips and dark chocolate!

Ok, one more topic before I go do work (yayy). My hitting coach for softball always told me: “You’re a perfectionist. Never drink alcohol or you will be an alcoholic.” I never exactly got the connection…but he was totally right (NOT that I’m saying I’m an alcoholic!). I’m definitely a sugar addict. Plain and simple. My dad finally recognized this for the first time. And see, the tough thing about this is that there is sugar around me everywhere. There are sweet/dessert options available and displayed EVERY MEAL. My dad compared me to an alcoholic who constantly is in bars. Thanks dad, that gives me tons of hope for recovery! I’ll end with that today!

Any tips for sugar addicts? What is teh difference between coconut butter and oil?