WIAW-Back to Normal

Date: September 10, 2014

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! Today I’m linking up for our weekly food celebration with Jenn.

After my trip and race, I’m back to what I suppose is my normal routine for the next week and a half, so here’s what I ate!

For breakfast, I had leftover cheesy mushroom quinoa (with excessive kale) and some cherries.

In terms of my workout, as promised, I have a lot of cross training in front of me while my plantar fasciitis stops flaring so I went to the gym and did a spin workout on my own. It was a good workout, but not my best playlist ever. After my workout, I met my mom and sister on campus for lunch at my local cafe.

I started with a cappuccino (decaf).

And then my mom and I shared a couple of dishes.The first was called Beverly Hills Chopped Salad, and was mixed greens, olives, avocado, gouda, chicken, and asparagus tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette.

The second was an arepa filled with gouda cheese.

Before dinner, I went to my favorite yoga class and stretched out my tight muscles from the race. I think going to yoga more should help my plantar fasciitis-the stretching felt good and the one legged poses really made it apparent how weak the little muscles in my ankles and achilles are.

For dinner, we made a barbecue chicken salad. My dad grilled chicken with some of the new BBQ sauce we got in Napa, and we served it over a salad with corn, red pepper, tomato, onion, and avocado in a simple lime juice and olive oil dressing.

Plus some tortilla chips on the side!

For something sweet, I had the last of a container of caramel ice cream with caramel sauce from Napa. I didn’t get a picture, but I want to take this moment to share with you the best ice cream ever (although this wasn’t the kind I had last night because it was long gone).

This stuff is AMAZING but I’m pretty sure you can only get it in CA since Straus is a local dairy. Their dairy is the most amazing, creamiest, smoothest ever-the yogurt is amazing-and my favorite ice cream place uses their dairy. So it’s no surprise that this ice cream is ridiculous. SALTED toffee pieces. This is by far my favorite store bought ice cream.

And that’s what I ate!

What’s your favorite store bought ice cream?

Sights On a Long Run

Date: August 17, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Sunday! I guess I still have some energy to blog! Today was my longest run of half marathon training, so I’m OFFICIALLY in taper mode! Yay!

Breakfast was plain greek yogurt+sunbutter+banana mashed with cocoa powder.

As for fueling on the run, I spiked my water bottle with coconut water. Worst. Decision. Ever. First worst decision though was buying plain coconut water instead of pineapple. I actually like pineapple-can’t stand plain. I thought plain would blend better with my water (that I wouldn’t taste it as much) but boy was I wrong. I think I gagged every time I took a drink. Blech.

I actually brought my phone (in case I passed out or died midway-never know!) so I got some pictures of today’s scenic route.

I also made myself choke down some water every mile or so. It was hot and humid today so that was a priority.

At the halfway point, I ate my Cliff chocolate goo. I think this is the only brand and flavor I could ever race with. Every other type I’ve tried (even other Cliff flavors) give me coughing fits. Which is fine on a training run (well, fine-ish), attempting to choke it down without losing a lung would be difficult. I think it is because this flavor is a bit thicker and less sickly sweet. I really wanted salted caramel for this run (because electrolytes) but I didn’t make it to the store on time.

I didn’t have any expectations on this run, other than to try and finish. From the very start, my legs fell into a faster pace. My calves felt tighter running slower so that was that.

Even though I got a new audiobook last night, I ran to music because I wanted to start with something to pump me up a bit. I didn’t plan to have music the whole way, but it was working for me. Plus, my route was pretty interesting and varied. From Georgetown to the river, past Jefferson, over the river to the Mt. Vernon trail, past the airport, back, and then from Lincoln through the National Mall.

I hit Lincoln around mile 10, and it was SO awesome because those were the first working drinking fountains on my run. I only had a bit of water left, and it was the nasty coconut mix so having fresh water was heaven.

Also-funny story. At mile 11, I totally wiped out in from of the Washington Monument. Luckily the ground was smooth stone so I kind of just slid, with just a bit of a scrape and bruise on my knee. Another reason to run in pants!

I finished perfectly at my lunch location of choice.

And out of nowhere, I had just completed my best ever 12 mile training run.

I never really felt like death, and my legs just locked into a rhythm. Hopefully this bodes well for PRing my race! I finished feeling good. And hungry. Definitely an improvement from last week when I just felt kind of gross.

I finished at The Protein Bar, and got a chocolate protein shake and a BBQ chicken “bar-rito” with avocado.

It has quinoa, not rice! So delicious. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it. Or maybe that’s because I ran 12 miles? I honestly think the 11 mile run the week prior in my training plan is one of the worst-or at least it typically has been in my training! I get locked in a bit more by the time I hit the 12 miler. Also-totally random but on the way back I ran into a friend from school on the street who lives in DC!

On my way back, I decided to check one item off my DC dessert bucket list. Chocolate cream cheese muffin from a nearby coffee shop. It was kind of like marble creed/cream cheese. My weakness. So good. I actually had a chocolate muffin the night before the big run, and I think the carb loading helped.

After cleaning myself up a lot, I met up with a friend for frozen yogurt. I wasn’t exactly feeling it after the muffin, so I just got tart with fruit.

We walked around the National Mall and Capital Building a bit, and then found the Supreme Court!

Take note of the compression socks. Those things are seriously magic.

On my way home, I stopped for a salad-the same one as the other day. It was delicious-feta, watermelon, chicken, etc.

Aaand now I know I’m going to sleep well tonight. I felt so much better all day today than after my last long run! But I am certainly going to sleep well tonight…

What is your worst run of training?

WIAW on Stormy Days

Date: July 15, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! (Feel free to ignore the fact that I’m posting Tuesday night. You get the idea.) As usual, I’m celebrating WIAW with Jenn!

I have lots of good things to share, including a recipe! Yay!

Before I get to food, let’s talk about workouts. I was all set to go to Crossfit after work Monday, but I walked outside to a giant storm, and then the Metro stopped running, so I missed the class, and didn’t feel like going to the late class.

Anyways, this meant Monday was rest and today was a 3 miler! After pouring all afternoon, I decided to take a chance and go for it during a break in the rain. I did my usual 3 mile route.

Yeah. I live here.

And this is not a bad turn around point:

Yes, the Washington Monument is EXACTLY 1.5 miles away, so it should be pretty clear why this is my typical route now!

On the way back, storm clouds began to threaten. It started POURING right as I was running up my block. Talk about lucky!

The run also felt fantastic. I was running on rested and not “just woke up and it’s 6am” legs, plus I’m been working hard in my training, and it’s certainly paying off. This is week 3, and each week I’ve done this route. I’ve done it faster each week, and each week it feels better. Week 1 was super slow for me-10:18 pace. sat week was 9:48, and today was 9:29. And it wasn’t like it was an all out pace, so it’s a good start!

Now onto the part everyone actually cares about. Food.

Breakfasts have been the same old-sunflower seed butter with lots of fruit! Plus chai tea since I’m laying off the coffee.

Lunch Monday was leftovers of Cheesy Mushroom Quinoa plus some yogurt.

Lunch on Tuesday was extra special. I was on trip at work, and the food they prepared us was amazing and beautiful.

I’m not sure how much I should talk about work on here, but I will say this gives me so much hope for the future of America’s school food system!

I piled my plate high with all kinds of delicious salads. One of my favorites was a ginger root salad. This is the first context in which I’ve actually enjoyed beets!

I also got to take leftovers home with me, which made a great pre-run snack/dinner.

And finally-for the recipe!

Coconut Flour Arepas

*Edited to add: this is based on the fantastic Blogilates recipe for healthy quesadillas!

Ingredients

2 T coconut flour

1 ear of corn

2 T water

6 T egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix together coconut flour, water, egg whites, and baking powder in a small bowl.

2. Remove the corn from the cob, and add to mixture.

3. If mixture is too thin, let it sit a moment. The coconut flour may take a bit of time to absorb the water, but this will still be fairly runny. Add salt if desired.

4. In a large pan, add a touch of olive oil and heat the pan.

5. Once pan is hot, pour mixture into pan.

6. When bubbles begin to form on the surface, flip and cook through.

7. If desired, sprinkle with salt, and fill with desired fillings. I used smoked gouda.

Delicious, and comes together in minutes!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

Not for everything, but I love goat brie. If you haven’t tried it, you absolutely need to!

It’s Another Edition Of….

Date: February 27, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

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-Last Wednesday at Home

Date: September 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Aaaand here we are already at Wednesday! I swear this week is flying by. This could have something to do with the fact that it’s the last week before school starts. And I’ve managed to save any and all errands until now. Other problem-I ordered a bunch of things online recently that probably won’t get here until school starts. Whoops.

BUT before life get’s crazy again, let’s celebrate the party that Jenn hosts every week!

Monday for lunch I made a “throw everything in a bowl” kind of salad. The flavors worked pretty well, but not sure I would do it again.

It’s basically a Greek salad-except I used Thai Coconut Curry hummus, which was just a little too strange for this mix. I had the idea that it would make really awesome fried rice though!

While at the grocery store the other day, I passed by the pastry counter (because who doesn’t?) and saw this guy. My mom and I decided I should have one last celebration before I go back, so this was it! Since I’m starting a Mini Whole30 (just 7 days) on Friday, this was the right time. Carrot cake it was!

Ok, I know I keep going on about how everything I own is the same color so I’m ALWAYS matching, but I just had to document the evidence YET AGAIN.

I wore this to Spin the other night. Some exciting news-I talked to my Spin teacher after class the other night about becoming a Spin teacher. She directed me to the certification she used, as well as recommended some gyms to interview at. I’m excited about this-now that I’ve talked to her, I’m really gonna do it and get certified. My goal is to be certified (and hopefully teaching!) by the end of the year, although I’m going to wait until after my half marathon in October.

Guess what Monday was?

NATIONAL GUACAMOLE DAY! You better believe I was all over that.

The best part? I planned this meal before even realizing that it was that particular National holiday. #guacaddict

I celebrated in the form of a taco salad. I love this particular salad-the dressing is simply a mix of salt, pepper, olive oil, lime, and tomatoes. The meat on top (turkey) gives it plenty of flavor. I also subbed in chopped celery for the beans the recipe called for.

Tuesday morning I was up bright and early for a treadmill run. Which I really should never do; treadmill+early+tired=lazy run. I only made it 3 of the 4 miles slowly before giving up. I think I’ll add in some hill sprints tomorrow (which I’ve been meaning to do) to make up for it.

After my run, I was pretty tired during yoga, so I grabbed a cappuccino from Peet’s, who makes one of my favorite cappuccinos.

Check out the milk foam on that baby! The sad part? I haven’t had coffee much at all this summer, plus I’m sensitive as it is, so I couldn’t drink much of this before feeling like it would be too much. I hate wasting good coffee!

I then headed to Whole Foods to stock up for the school year, as well as prepare for my baby Whole30. I decided soup will be a staple for me this fall-although I could only find 2 soups (yes, in all of the store) that were totally Whole30 friendly.

After drooling over the scones in the pastry case, I compromised and got some of their delicious vanilla granola over fruit, along with chinese chicken salad and a vegan taquito for lunch.

After lunch I went to buy a water belt for running. Has anyone else thought that running belts are basically glorified fanny packs? Haha. I’m not thrilled with the one I got, since it holds just a large water bottle-I’m worried it will be too heavy. The ones with smaller bottles kind of interfered with my arms though…

I also saw this mug at Marshall’s and had to have it!

I also stopped at a craft store for some fall decorations for my dorm…and was met with an onslaught of Christmas. Really?? It’s September! But I’m not going to complain about all the fall stuff being 50% off!

Speaking of fall, try this recipe for microwave friendly Baby Pumpkin Pie! I just posted it yesterday!

And here’s an afternoon snack.

Ok, I’m going to get some outrage for what I’m about to say, but I’m officially done with Quest bars. For a while, I couldn’t decide if I really liked them or really disliked them-probably because the flavors are good but I just don’t like the taste of stevia. But they have kind of a lot of nuts, so my face breaks out. And they mess up my stomach. I had a piece of one today and my stomach immediately cramped up. It might be because of the sugar alternatives (like sugar alcohols)? Obviously everyone is different,t and most people love them, which is great but they just don’t work for me!

Aaand back to what I actually ate. A REAL Greek salad (as in, no weird hummus, just red pepper).

And a dessert of figs and a granola bar. I love that these bars now come in non-peanut butter, because then I don’t have to worry about my skin. Did I ever mention what happened in Hawaii when I ate a ton of Macadamia nuts? Yikes-I got weird lumps all over the back of my legs.

That’s all I have on the food front for you guys today, but I have to share with you what I worded on today. I have the Nike Women’s half coming up in October, so I wanted a special shirt to wear for the occasion. I made a Fitness is Sweet tank earlier this summer, but it’s just going to be too cold for that.

Since avocados are kind of the theme of my blog, I wanted to do something similar, but maybe a little more running related. I tried to find pictures of avocados running on the Internet, but luck. Who wouldn’t want to look at pictures of avocados running? I mean, come on! I found some pictures of other vegetables/objects running, so I decided to try my own hand at it. I started by tracing the legs and face.

I then drew an avocado to fit the arms and face. I decided the eyebrows looked to much like antennae, therefore making my avocado look like a colorful green beetle, so I scrapped those.

I then spent time designing the perfect shirt, only to find out at checkout that I could only have 2 colors on the shirt. I looked at a few other sites, but I had already fallen in love with the font. SO. After a ton of fooling around, here’s the end product, which I just ordered! It says “fitnessissweet.com” on the back.

I’m so excited!

What is your favorite fall produce? Have you ever made a shirt?