So I Guess I Should Blog…

Date: November 18, 2015

Author: astottler

Ugh, I am so ready for Thanksgiving. We get a whole week off, which is basically the best thing ever. I’m still teaching my Monday spin class that week, and you better believe it’s going to be Thanksgiving themed! I spent my entire run this morning brainstorming and I think I have a solid idea! I’ll be sure to share it next week!

Speaking of sharing…I haven’t blogged much lately. I’ll almost certainly blog more over the holidays, but I honestly feel like not that much has happened, or at least not much Internet worthy. Just typical college stuff.

My high school friend visited, which was super fun! We both wanted to go shopping, so that was enough of a reason! Over the course of 2 days, I basically bought every long sleeved shirt in existence. I <3 long sleeves. The goal of shopping was actually to find lion colored clothes-more on that soon.

We also went to my friend’s Wind Ensemble Concert:

My friend is also crazy enough to want to track down a spotlight with me. There had been a HUGE spotlight in the air all week, and it was driving me crazy not knowing where it was coming from! We took to the streets and tracked it down. Success.

The course? HP. Typical. Gotta love Silicon Valley. We then proceeded to videochat our other high school friend for 3 hours…much needed!

I was met that weekend with quite the delivery-my roommate went home and brought persimmons! The obsession continues.

The following night consisted of dinner with my parents, an awesome prank, and a friend’s birthday party.

I brought a giant cake.

I feel pretty confident that none of the prankees will ever find my blog, so I’ll go ahead and fess up to it here. We got a walkie talkie (they’re pretty cheap off of Amazon these days) and hid it in our friends’ room. The next morning, after 2 hours of sleep I sat outside in 40 something degree weather blasting various things through it-notably the music from both Jaws and Psycho. Nailed. It. More pranks to come.

Other college things. The reason for lion colored clothing?

We had a big themed dinner/party at my dorm. The theme was “Who Run the World? Girls!” So vaguely Beyonce, vaguely vague. Since I sure as heck cannot pull off Beyonce, I was planning on dressing up as the lion from the music video. It actually didn’t end up working out due to a failed effort at coordinating another costume, so I ended up vaguely Beyonce, meaning I wore the one sparkly thing I own, paired with a pencil skirt and heels. Well, briefly heels. I think it’s actually been a year since I’ve worn heels so they definitely did not last the whole night. I think there’s a full outfit picture of me floating around on someone’s phone, but here’s a selfie.

Also noteworthy-hiking the Dish trail with my mom. It was the perfect day for it!

And a visit from the (kind of) pups.

I also went to a football game, which was a crazy and frustrating one ending in a close loss. Unfortunately, I only stayed for half the game because I had a retreat for my sorority.

So that’s college. I realize that is not remotely food/fitness related, so stay tuned for lots of talk of that. Spoiler: I did my final trial for my class project of improving on a fitness endeavor!

Who’s excited for Thanksgiving?

My Puppy is 51 Lbs

Date: November 4, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How crazy is that? She’s gotten so big! Over 6x the weight she was when we got her!

Let’s compare:

What the heck?? How did that happen??

This morning I went for my first run longer than 2.5 miles since my half. It was uneventful. I’ve been embracing the shorter runs lately, especially with midterms and other life craziness! Plus I’m in love with my 2.5 mile route. It feels like fall! I broke out my santa run shirt-after Halloween means that’s officially acceptable. My spin classes are going to love me when I start busting out the holiday tunes! For the sake of my own dignity I will wait until after Thanksgiving for that. I’m a firm believer that the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving is the magical period when it is acceptable to start celebrating Christmas but also to still eat all the pumpkin.

The weather here has been gorgeous as well, minus a rainstorm earlier this week. It’s quite brisk in the mornings, but warm enough during the day that long sleeves/cardigans and scarves are tolerable.

I spent my Sunday doing reading from our hammock!

For some reason, I haven’t been feeling sunflower seed butter at breakfasts and have been doing greek yogurt with jam.

I know this looks like a spoonful but the bowls+spoons are huge!

The food situation has been better as well. I think our new chef is adapting to the tastes and needs of my house. More vegetables, less oil, the return of grilled chicken to the salad bar, and sufficient food for leftovers.

One day for lunch, it was all salads, which was awesome. Asian with shrimp, chicken caesar, and butternut squash with parmesan and brussels sprouts.

Dinner of chicken, kale+veggie+tomatoes, and parmesan polenta.

Make your own tacos in salad form-Mexican rice, black beans, chicken, tomato vinaigrette. There has also been homemade salad dressings lately which have been awesome!

A dinner of leftovers because I was gone late at Crossfit-chicken, more polenta, leftover salad, roasted sage sweet potatoes.

Salad+chicken with roasted cruciferous veggies (my fave) and rice pilaf.

I made my own little concoction today as well-cinnamon apples heated up in the microwave on top of oats, sun butter, and a touch of honey. I heated this up in the microwave as well and the oats actually got toasty! The things you learn.

In other life news-check out this photo of my little guy!

And finally-I’ve been loving time hop. Today’s memory from 3 years ago was great. The context is it was my first regatta for crew.

My father, everyone!

The Saga Continues

Date: September 21, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I’m blogging from my dorm room back at school. I’m a senior-Eek!

I wanted to give you guys a little bit of an update on what has been going on with me lately. The good news lately is that I’ve been doing physical therapy for my shoulder, and it’s SO much better. I’ve been getting sound wave and electric stim, and now and doing strengthening exercises. Right now it’s mostly a dull pain, so while I may not be lifting heavy things soon (among other reasons-I’ll explain in a moment), it’s not interfering too much with day to day life.

Moving in to my dorm was a process-we took the first load on Thursday and I got to pick a bed.

Friday I took my bike a few other things, and Saturday night I moved in all the way. I’m going to miss my pets!

Last time I chatted with you all, I mentioned my stomach was flaring up. It got really bad on Wednesday, but I was hoping I was over the hump. Since this has been going on for so many months and I thought it had been mostly gone, I decided to make an appointment with a specialist, and we were lucky and were able to get an appointment for Friday. After talking to the doctor, I ended up scheduling an endoscopy for Saturday morning to see if we could tell what’s going on/rule things out. I honestly wanted to get it over with ASAP! For those that aren’t familiar, an endoscopy is when you get sedated and the doctor sticks a camera down your throat into your esophagus and stomach. For me, he also took some biopsies. On Friday, I was still feeling off but thought the flare was nearly gone.

One of the things we biopsied was testing for Celiac’s. Since I’ve been mostly avoiding gluten, a false negative is definitely a possibility, although I hadn’t cut out every single thing. That evening I ate a few crackers to try and at least have something in my system. Later that night, I felt terrible. I don’t know if it was the crackers or just another flare up over something else. It was the worst I’ve felt in a very long time-plus, I had to fast for the procedure which I was worried would bother my stomach even more, and couldn’t have any liquids from 6am on. (I woke up at 5:50 to chug water and some apple juice).

For the procedure, I had an IV and was given pain meds and sedation. I was definitely not all the way asleep the whole time, and it was not very comfortable, to say the least. It also left me with a sore throat all the way through my esophagus!

The doctor didn’t find anything abnormal-no ulcers or anything. So at this point, I’m just waiting for the results of the biopsy. The last few days have been rough, and I’ve been feeling bad off and on, and I haven’t been able to eat very much at all. My diet has consisted of Luna bars and crackers, although I was able to eat a real lunch today and am feeling so much better than this morning, which is really good considering I’m teaching my first official spin class on campus tonight!

I’m living in a big house this year, so we have an open kitchen and a chef. I was happy to see a really good salad bar, plus amazing avocado salad!

Yesterday was supposed to be an 11 mile run. I didn’t think that would happen after Saturday’s procedure, so I was shooting for 8 and ended up with 4 before my stomach called it quits. In terms of my race, I’m not worried as long as I’m ok for this weekend’s run! But we shall see.

In happier news, I went to my senior welcome on Sunday afternoon. We got champagne flutes with our class year on them, and it was so great catching up with people, especially those who I haven’t seen in a long time.

Also-my puppy visited me today back at my dorm! I may or may not have forgotten a few things to pack..

That’s for me right now-I hope everyone is doing well!

Puppy Day

Date: September 5, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Have I mentioned I’m obsessed with my cat? I think maybe once or twice.

Today is my first day on full time puppy duty. My parents are out of town, so we’ve spent all day together. Thankfully, she’s been an angel.

Luckily this morning, she was plenty sleepy and let me eat my breakfast while she slept in her crate. Breakfast was a handful of berries and sweet potato bread with soy milk. Sweet potato bread recipe to come!

Our only bump in the morning came when she ate a few bites of breakfast and then threw it all up. I gave her something to calm her stomach, and waited a bit before giving her her food in small increments-she was hungry! Also big news this morning-for the past week or two she’s had all her adult teeth with the exception of the canines. For the past few days, the canines have started to grow in, but the sharp baby teeth are still there so she’s had a double set of canines that are about the same height! This morning, one of the baby canines was gone! Yay! I’m ready to say good riddance to those needle-like puppy teeth.

I put her in her crate, and then went to Crossfit. We did bench presses, and then the following WOD:

10 minute AMRAP of 5 squat cleans and 5 dips. I didm the cleans at 95# and the dips assisted. I got through nearly 7 rounds, slowing a bit because I’ve spent all summer working on my cleans and I have no intention to reinforce bad technique because I am tired!

After Crossfit, I made myself an early lunch because I knew I’d never make it through a puppy walk without fuel, and I wanted to get our walk in before it got too hot. Lunch was a wrap, the same as lunch yesterday.

A veggie wrap, turkey, monterey jack, spinach, avocado, and garlic sauce. (Love that stuff, and love the ingredient list!)

Eaten with a side of puppy, as it should be.

I was trying to figure out what to do for our special day together, but in the end I decided to settle for a nice long walk for her and tanning time (LOL) for me, plus a trip to Petsmart. It was her first ride in my car, and she was really good!

Our walk was by the bay. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too warm, and I wanted a trail with minimal leaves. My puppy likes to put EVERYTHING in her mouth-leaves, acorns, rocks, and it’s a toss up what she’ll actually eat. Even still, there was a fair amount of dragging her from nature’s sweet bounty (aka rocks).

Overall, she was pretty good. I had planned to go for about an hour, but it was warm and she was starting to drag a bit so the walk only ended up being about 50 minutes. We stopped a few times for water, and during our break she laid down in the shade with no indication that she wanted to leave.

(I know everyone thinks they have the cutest dog ever but I actually do ;))

She was more than ready to get into the air conditioned car, and I got drooled all over in the process. With a puppy plus my job at the vet this summer, I’ve given in to the fact that I’m going to constantly be covered in some form of animal bodily fluids. We took some selfies while enjoying the air conditioning.

We then headed to Petsmart, and got 4 Halloween themed toys. Hey-it was buy 2 get 1 free-I couldn’t pass that up! With the edge taken off her from our walk, she was pretty good in the store, and enjoyed a treat from the woman who checked us out.

The aftermath?

She was 100% out all afternoon, so we stayed downstairs and watched Netflix. I woke her up to feed her dinner, and she scarfed it down and was suddenly reenergized. Around dusk, we headed out for walk #2. She was SO good for her walk. Very little dragging, very little attempting to eat things on the street. She surged forward like a puppy on a mission, and I had no idea where she thought she was going! On the way back, I couldn’t help but laugh at her. She was prancing ahead with purpose, with her little puppy booty swinging side to side and her ear totally inside out. I really enjoyed our time together. The puppy was so good, and despite the warm day, the night air had that bite of fall. I half expected to turn a corner and see the lighted face of a jack-o-lantern smiling back at me. We enjoyed views from above the entire Bay Area, and being out in the night also brought back memories from the summer before college, a summer to remember. It was my last time without responsibilities or worries but with freedom, and the anticipation of starting a new and exciting chapter of my life. At the same time, it felt like the victory lap of college and many nights like this one were spent with great friends doing what carefree teenagers do.

Another bonus? I avoided the mischief of a steadily reawakening puppy, and she is currently passed out by my feet. Not a bad day for the two of us!

Cherry Vanilla Bread

Date: August 31, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Update from last night: I finally got my 6 mile run in at 7pm. That’s later than I ever really run, but I got it done and get 1000x better afterwards, and that’s what matters. I’m one of those people who cannot function without exercise. I get drowsy and dopey, and I think I am sort of tightly wound, and exercise normally takes that edge off me.

Despite the late start, we had quite the delicious dinner, trying 2 new recipes of Cooking Light.

The first were cheesy cauliflower biscuits, which were filled with garlic and cheddar flavor. They almost reminded me of soufflés, because they were light and fluffy. The second recipe was the Roasted Carrot, Quinoa, and Grape bowl. I really liked this one-we cooked quinoa in chicken broth, and that was mixed with chicken, sliced grapes, and roasted carrots, all topped with a greek yogurt based dressing and served over a field of greens.

The dressing had an interesting and delicious cumin flavor. The only thing is that I think we used more quinoa than the recipe called for, so there wasn’t much dressing for the greens.

This morning, I had a dentist appointment so I made sure to not have something that would stick in my teeth for breakfast! I had a Siggi’s pomegranate passionfruit yogurt, topped with sunflower seed butter, and a side of nectarine from the Farmer’s Market. I love that Siggi’s flavored yogurts are not very sweet!

After the dentist, I went straight out to do my medium length run of the week-5 miles. My legs were dragged a tiny bit from running the night before, and my foot was a little stiff, but I knew I’d feel better if I just knocked it out early in the week because it works better with scheduling.

After my run, I headed home to get to work on some baking projects. I’m trying to avoid eating too many bars because they tend to be higher in sugar, and because I’m trying to eat fewer foods that may contain traces of nuts because my skin has been awful lately due to allergic reactions.

In the process, I threw together a quick lunch of leftovers, this time skipping the bed of lettuce.

Project 1 was just basic pumpkin banana bread.

Project 2 was sort of spur of the moment. I wanted to try something different. I’ve made cherry bread before on accident (when I realized halfway through assembling ingredients that we were out of pumpkin-whoops), so I thought making cherry vanilla bread might be fun to do for something different. It turned out great!

Interestingly, the bread doesn’t have a strong fruity flavor, but the cherry masks the banana flavor. If you want a warm, homey bread that is still wholesome, I would recommend giving this a try! It has a pretty basic flavor, and I think it could be the base for a lot of different things-I have big plans for this come winter! Feel free to jazz it up by added dried cherries or chocolate chips.

Cherry Vanilla Bread

Ingredients:

2 well ripened bananas

1.5 cups of frozen cherries, thawed and ground in a blender or food processor

1 large egg or 2 egg whites

2 tablespoons oil (I used avocado)

1/3 c milk

1/8 c honey (or more to taste, recipe actually calls for 1/3 to 1/2 c sugar)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon (can omit-this gives it a warm flavor)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1.5 c whole wheat pastry flour

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350

Mash bananas.

Add all ingredients except flour and mix well

Blend in flour, stir until moistened

Pour into 4×8 loaf pan, I recommend lining it in tinfoil

Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center is clean.

Enjoy!

And because I have to share this picture: