Soccer Season Begins

Date: April 17, 2018

Author: astottler

Happy Tuesday! My day sort of felt like a weekend since i only had class 9-12…Today was metabolism which is one of my favorite things too!

I started my morning with Crossfit. My back is still fairly still today. It tightened up a lot between last night and today and I think that happens when surrounding muscles are tight. Pre-CF I had the usual Cheerios.

Breakfast:

A lemon poppyseed protein muffin with the most amazing giant blackberries.

Lunch:

A salad with grilled chicken, pear, and creamy goat cheese. Pirate’s Booty on the side.

Snack 1:

Snack 2:

Since I was going to be having dinner on the later side, I had a second snack of more amazing blackberries, plus some of thoe TJ’s Churro bites. So addicting.

Today I started intramural soccer and it went well! We have a pretty big team which means lots of subs! I actually felt more coordinated than I was expected, and it felt better than softball because I can run without any pains/feeling super slow…I definitely feel like my soccer improved over the course of the fall season. It’s so nice to be playing sports again! I actually even scored a goal. On a penalty kick, but I’ll take it. Literally the only thing I’m good at is shooting, so hey, if you place it right in front of me in front of the goal…

Dinner:

Something different! I had leftover stir fried veggies from the other night, so I made a scramble with a whole egg, egg whites, the last of my spinach, and manchego (the best scramble cheese in my opinion). Side of avocado toast!

Dessert:

A sunbutter cup and a mint chocolate.

And then I had a handful of peach Cheerios later on!

Thankfully, by this time in the evening, my back is feeling much better! Hopefully this trend continues!

Green Juice?

Date: April 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday! My morning today started off differently than usual…No morning workout for me! I had soccer practice/tryouts this afternoon, and given I’m not in my tip-top shape, I shouldn’t push it. I woke up an hour before my alarm. It’s interesting, it is so much easier to go to bed later and get up later, while sleeping the same amount. For example, I went to bed at about 1, and set my alarm for 9. But I woke up before 8. Hey, I’m not complaining!

For breakfast, I tried vanilla Chobani for the first time.

Expiration date on my birthday! Most of the yogurts in my fridge have that date too. 🙂

To be honest, I was not impressed. It wasn’t bad, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t get all the hype about Chobani. It didn’t seem any different than any other yogurt.

This is probably my favorite, but it hasn’t been stocked at the last few stores that I went too. I also like the Icelandic yogurt. Yesterday, I also bought some goat milk yogurt, so that should be interesting to try.

I was planning on eating my yogurt plain, but I ended up topping it with banana and sunflower butter.

See that on the side? That green juice? I don’t know why I was under the impression that I would like it. It tastes very…green. I got like 3 different types (although one is way fruitier, thank goodness). Yeah. I poured myself like half a cup an had to chug it, shivering the whole time. And that one was supposed to be “sweet.” I should have gotten a different type that had ginger and like 20 grams more sugar. I was debating between the two. *Shudder* I don’t think I will be able to finish it. Are you guys green juice fans? Any tips?

Between classes, I ventured down into a basement of one of the buildings to try a new to me cafe. I’ve always seen signs but never checked it out. I will definitely go back. There were lots of good sounding sandwiches, although I was lazy and just picked up a prepackaged one.

I haven’t had egg salad in forever! And it was good. 🙂 I avoided about half the bread. More on that in a minute…

They also had the most amazing selection of baked goods. But not just baked goods, my favorite type of baked goods: quick breads/cakes. Marble cake. Pumpkin Bread. Banana bread. Everything! I ended up settling on an oat carrot-some type of veggie-bread. It was delicious, and not too sweet!

A while ago I talked about how I think I might have some type of problem with gluten. Or blood sugar. Which in theory is why I’m attempting to avoid grains. I’m not sure if I’ve been avoiding them better lately, or if I just haven’t had to sit through class after eating them, so I kind of just figured it would be fine. Well…About an hour after lunch, I was sitting in class and all of a sudden I could not keep my eyes open! I wasn’t tired at all that day until that moment. And my mind kept blending the chemistry in lecture with various parts of my life and it was very confusing, and I was struggling so hard to keep my eyes open. This went on for about half an hour, and then it passed. This is the same experience I’ve had in the past; all of the sudden I CANNOT keep my eyes open, but eventually it passes and is ok near the end of class. This is definitely not right. I should probably go get that checked out so I know what the actual cause is, not just my theories. And while I’m at it, and can get my “nut allergies” checked out as well…I feel like I have been a hot mess lately with food, because these issues have appeared out of nowhere in the past year.

After classes were done for the day, I snacked on a mango and a raw chocolate quinoa bar, which was surprisingly delicious. I will definitely be getting that again. Here’s a last-minute decision picture. Sorry!

After sitting around my dorm and chatting a bit, I headed off to practice with the club soccer team. All of the girls were so nice and welcoming! It was pretty tiring, but no undoable. I doubt I’ll be asked back though, because they play at a much higher level than me, which I knew going in (especially since I haven’t played in 4 years…whoops).

It was a lot of fun though. Afterwards I realized I have a nice little blister going on my foot. I guess you don’t notice those things when you’re going hard!

Dinner was boring. Why, oh why does my dining hall insist on steaming plain steamed cauliflower so often? Chicken, rice, greens, cauliflower, and FRUIT. So thirsty!

Not the best meal but it got the job done. For a little treat I mixed up some soft serve with milk for a makeshift milkshake, which was refreshing. Some cocoa puffs may also have been involved. 🙂

I’m considering tagging along with the running club, which is basically a ton of runners meeting up and running different trails. Once again, given my current shape, I’m probably way out of my league, but I guess I seem to be getting in over my head a lot lately. We shall see.

Overall, not a bad day. Super windy though. I absolutely hate the wind, it is so annoying! Spin classes start tomorrow!

So, tell me: Green juice. Love it or hate it?

Real Athletes Wear Black Socks

Date: April 5, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I like how my blogger break lasted all of one day. Heh. I just have too much to say to you guys! Yesterday’s workout consisted mainly of cleans. Is it weird that I like hang cleans way more than full cleans, and I can probably lift more with hang cleans? I have trouble getting into the proper position on full cleans. I wanted to lift yesterday and not have my legs too sore today, because today was a timed mile! Here’s the workout, although I ran out of time to finish everything. Yes, I finally faced the erg for the first time again. I felt so uncoordinated but I guess that’s what happens. I don’t have that many pictures for you but here’s what I do have:The deliciousness that is a yogurt bowl. Vanilla greek yogurt, cinnamon apple bread, and sunflower butter. Plus more sunflower butter. SO addicted. But hey, my face is clearing wayyy up so that’s fine by me!Adorable mug.Chocolate Soy Bomb smoothie from Calafia. More on that in a minute!My dorm has make your own pizza every night. I tried it for the first time yesterday. It was pretty good for pizza, nice and hot. But I’m always surprised by the fact that I don’t rally like pizza…And I had to blot a ton of grease of the top of the cheese, although the pizza wasn’t super greasy overall.A TON of spinach in a microwave egg scramble with Garlic and Herb Laughing Cow cheese (this stuff is awesome).Regular (non-frozen) fresh yogurt with strawberry rhubarb puree and mango from Fraiche, plus a spice muffin. The yogurt was awesome! I was worried it would be too plain but the puree really makes it. And it’s not very sweet. The muffin was a bit too spice-y for my taste though. I need to get yogurt more often…I briefly considered how awesome it would be for me to make my own yogurt. And then realized I don’t trust myself to deal with all that bacteria…I would probably end up getting really sick.

So yesterday, I had a 9 am class and was done with my classes for the day by 10:15. I cannot begin to describe this kind of freedom. It was sooo nice. I love not having such a crazy tight schedule. Of course, I have work, but I have some hope of getting it all done now!

As a result, in the afternoon I biked over to Trader Joe’s with an empty backpack and big dreams. Haha. Really though, all I wanted were vegetables. I realized a lot of the time when I’m snacking a lot, all I really want is veggies but I didn’t have any in my dorm. That all changed. Although I used like half a bag of spinach in this morning’s breakfast. Here’s the haul:Special notice for the carrot juice and green juice. I tried the carrot juice this morning. It’s pretty good, surprisingly sweet, although there is no added sugar. I think I like it, but I think I’ll like it even more when I’m more used to it. Tonight’s dinner is shown as well: the curry chicken salad. I picked that up at Calafia, which happens to be next to Trader Joe’s.

This morning I ran my timed mile. It felt way better than I was expecting. 8:20. Not bad. I’m happy with that as a starting point, and I think I’ll be able to see significant improvement fairly quickly. I also did 3/4 of a mile of sprint 100 m/ walk 100 m. I would usually do this with a jog instead of a walk, but I’m still building up my stamina. I topped that off with an ab series:

Has anyone ever said something to you that just kind of stuck with you? One of my softball trainers told me “Real athletes wear black socks.” I don’t know why, but that kind of stuck with me. So I wore black socks for my timed mile. I’ll take all the help I can get. I definitely did that for my 6k tests too while rowing. I miss being an athlete, and rowing really wasn’t my sport because it didn’t really involve playing. Soooo…when a soccer player posted on facebook that the Stanford Club soccer team was looking for players, I jumped at the chance. But here’s the thing. I really miss soccer. I started playing when I was 5. However, I have not played in ohhh 4 years? And I’m horribly out of shape (thanks mono). Aaaand I’m practicing with them on Monday. Yes. I realize I am in waaaay over my head. But what’s the harm, right? It’s unlikely that they’ll take me but that’s ok. I have this weekend to get ready. Have I told you guys that After practicing soccer last week (I was practicing for Intramurals), the top of my foot and entire from on my shin was so sore that walking was super difficult. Well I went back out there today. And I’ll go again tomorrow, if I can walk. But guess what? I ordered Pro Compression socks (at a discount, thanks Julie!) and they came yesterday! My dad brought them when we went out to practice. So I’m wearing them now in hopes that they will prevent soreness. I got them for my half marathon in August, but hopefully they work for soccer soreness as well!

I was going to post about a more serious topic in this post as well, but it’s already pretty long so I’ll save it for tomorrow. 🙂

Have a nice night!

YOGURT and This Week in Photos

Date: March 31, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m a bit behind on my postings, but here’s the gist of my week: I’m completely and totally obsessed with yogurt. And sunflower seed butter. And yogurt WITH sunflower seed butter. But seriously though, I’ve been having yogurt like 3x a day. And I just stocked up for school!

Ok, so since I’m a bit behind, let’s do a picture post for the week!

Wednesday night dinner: turkey burgers, salad, green beans, and seasoned butternut squash.

Yes, I had 2 consecutive yogurt meals. This is topped with a 2 ingredient pancake, from Tina‘s blog.

Bubble milk tea with the high school friends. Mango green tea.

Read to go out/shopping. Since you never see pictures of me! Great selfie, I know.

Japanese dinner with the friends, chicken teriyaki. Followed by a movie…Spring Breakers. It was…strange. I wish I had seen a preview/knew what it was about before seeing it. Anybody seen it? Obviously that’s what my spring break is like.

I topped my yogurt with leftover sweet potato and leftover pancake.

The San Mateo Bridge on a beautiful day. I visited one of my friends who is home for break, and we went for a walk along the bay. Supposedly there are feral cats living around there, but we didn’t see any. 🙁 However, I’ve been dying to run on the trail here, so I will definitely be coming back when I’m training for my half marathon. The path apparently connects up to another nice trail to run on, which I’ve run on before, and it is all along the bay. Perfect for a hot summer day! After our walk, we went to her house so her mom could make me some home cooked Indian food. It was delicious! Sorry, no pictures! I got sunburned on the walk though. It was supposed to rain that day, so I was not prepared for the sun!

Greek salad.

Frozen banana blended with cocoa powder topped with chocolate sauce and sunflower butter.

Not gonna lie, I had to make a 7 am yogurt run after spin for this one!

Lunch at a bakery in Half Boon Bay (beach area, but cold and foggy!) with homemade bread. We ate at tables outside the bakery where feral cats lived!

I swear this one could have been Lilly’s sister! She was really sweet and let us pet her. To say that cats are feral is a bit of an overstatement. They lived there and were fed regularly.

Chicks at a farm store in Half Moon Bay.

Ducklings and baby geese! They were adorable! I watched a little duckling fall asleep standing up and it was the cutest thing. If I had gotten a video it would have been a youtube sensation for sure!

Dinner was cheesy garlic herb brussels sprouts with sausage, courtesy of Carrots n Cake. I used chicken apple sausage from Trader Joe’s. It was delicious. On the side? A purple sweet potato! I LOVE these! My best friend brought me one when I saw her on Thursday, and I was so excited! Funny story, I got a strange reputation last year when I would roast up whole yams and eat them like bananas, skin and all, after school before softball practice. I miss that!

Giant’s preseason game! And they won! YAY! Can’t wait for the season to start!

Best ballpark for the best team!

And of course no ballpark experience is complete without a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae. We know how to celebrate baseball here in San Francisco! Seriously, these are the best.

Thai salad and cornbread.

Apple crisp! I found apple crisp topping at the grocery; it is a mixture of brown sugar, oats, etc that you cut butter into and then top apples with. Yum! Frozen yogurt on the side of course.

I had some artistic friends over tonight to help dye eggs! I think they turned out pretty well. 🙂 How cool is the tye dye one? I’ve gotten dye packs before with things like that, but I never read the directions on how it works before, and I’ve glad I did! It’s super cool! There are these plastic sleeves with the print that you put the egg in. Then, you dip the whole egg with the sleeve into boiling water, and the sleeve shrinks to fit the egg perfectly! How cool is that?? It might be hard to crack the egg open though. Do you guys eat your Easter eggs? One of my friends doesn’t and was shocked by the idea, because it had never occurred to her. On that note, any good hard boiled egg recipes?

An artsy shot, because I’m so artsy.

Aaaand Lilly watched us chat late into the night.

I also got some good workouts it, that I thought I’d discuss really quickly. Wednesday I lifted weights for the first time. It was a short and fairly light workout, but I was still sore so I’ll take it. Gotta get back slowly! Thursday was morning yoga, and a long walk with my friend. I can tell how much stronger I’ve gotten since just last week. I have to say, I had a particularly bad case of mono, but I recovered remarkably quickly, especially given all the other things I came down with as well.

Friday I got my rear end into gear quite early for a 5:45 am spin class. Yes, I willingly rise at 5 am on spring break to work out. It was one of my favorite teachers, and it’s the last opportunity of break for me to go! It was an awesome class too, Easter themed. Well, sort of. We climbed Mary See Mountain, and Recess Peanut Butter Egg hill.

And today’s workout was great. As in, I’m going to be veeery sore. I’m already pretty sore and it’s 1 am (see what I do for you guys! It’s technically Easter!). First, I did this workout from Anne, which incorporated situps, box jumps, and kettle bell swings. It took me about 20 minutes, but I wasn’t really timing. I did step ups for some of the box jumps because my jumping is not as great as it used to be. But I really loved it. My abs were definitely worn out. I seriously wish the STUPID gym at my school had kettlebells. How can they not have them? Madness I tell you. After my mini workout, I went to a new yoga class. I ended up really liking the class, although I wasn’t a fan of the teacher’s voice. Any Friends fans out there? It reminded me of a mild version of Janice’s voice. I told my mom this and her response? “Oh. My. Gawd!” Haha! But the class was probably worth it. I think it complemented my mini workout really well. And we grouped all the standing balances to the end of class, which killed my hamstrings and ankles!

After class, guess what I did? Practiced soccer! I started soccer when I was 5, and played through my freshman year of high school. Now that I have more time, I signed up to play Intramural soccer. I’m pumped! It’s been a while though, and from being sick, I’m still terribly out of shape. My muscles are not used to kicking also, so I will most likely be sore. But regardless, I can’t wait to play again! My dad is a big soccer player; he STILL plays. So he was more than happy to help me out with some practice!

Ok, that’s enough from me today. Since it’s 1:15 am…Happy Easter!

Do you dye eggs? What do you do with your Easter eggs?

New Beginnings

Date: March 25, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Yeahh so guess who is behind posting again? Me! I swear I planned on posting Friday. And Saturday…Here’s what ends up happening. I usually like to post at night to recap my day. Makes sense, right? But see the thing is, when I am at home, my family likes to watch TV episodes at night, so we end up getting really into it and watching until late (we have the shows on DVD). And then it is late. And since I’VE BEEN ABLE TO WORKOUT (yay!) I have to wake up at a reasonable hour. So I don’t want to stay up even later…yeah let’s just say I should not try to wait until late to blog because at that point it just doesn’t happen. So since I’m a bit behind…I was really sore from yoga on Thursday! I have now found my downward dog muscles…It’s amazing what a month off can do to you! Friday I ended up decided to skip my planned run, especially since I was planning on running on Saturday. I’ve been trying to have SOME type of activity to do each day, and I ended up decided Friday would be baking day. I wanted to make something complicated, and the winner was…Boston Cream Pie! For those of you that aren’t familiar with it, it is 2 layers of sponge cake with pastry cream between the layers and a thick chocolate glaze. I just used the recipe from our America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. I’ve made the recipe once before, and it’s pretty complicated although not terribly difficult. It is just a lot of steps. And hey, it was the perfect opportunity to use the new mixer! (Note: I’ve misspelled “the” every single time in this post…) Here’s the process:Yes. It was delicious. I like how this isn’t SUPER sweet. I think I could have taken the cakes out a bit sooner though. Eek looking through my pictures, I realized I’m getting ahead of myself on meals! I had some good eats! Guess what? I had my first yogurt bowl! I know so many of you swear by them, so it was time to try it! (Sidenote: Kefir and cereal is seriously delicious as well, for all you yogurt bowl lovers.) Plus, I got some sunflower seed butter, which doesn’t seem to make my skin break out. I’m pumped. These guys, plus some pumpkin bread I found in the freezer, which I swear we didn’t have any left of, but hey, I found basically half a loaf, so I’m not complaining!Yogurt bowls? I’m a fan. I’ve been dying to recreate this since but I have had to eat really lightly because I’ve had morning workouts. Lunch was also good on Friday. Apparently we had some whole wheat tortillas hiding in the fridge. I filled it up with rotisserie chicken, jack cheese, tomato, spinach, and pesto, and then popped it into the microwave. Yum! Plus half an artichoke.

Dinner was a scramble filled with veggies, plus some oranges. I wanted to keep it light to save room for my day’s work!

Saturday morning I head over to the track for a workout (!). I did some running, mixed in with some abs and sprints. I ended up running 2.5 miles, which were broken up into miles chunks (plus the half mile). Given this was my first time running since I got so sick, and the first time in over a month, I’d say it went pretty well. I have a ways to go to build up my stamina, but I felt pretty good, and my legs didn’t really feel tired at all until the final half mile. It also occurred to me while I was running how much better running is than erging! However, I’m REALLY sore today. I’ve never been this sore from running. Even my arches are sore. So once again, I have a ways to go! After my workout, I cleaned myself up and my parents and I drove over to Berkeley to have lunch with my grandparents, since we won’t be seeing them on Easter. Their new favorite place is a Korean restaurant called Bowl’d, so we all went there. I got a chicken bowl, and here’s what it looked like:It was really good! The bowl had various types of rice, noodles, and vegetables. Topped with a citrus soy sauce, which was vaguely sweet (almost like a teriyaki sauce). I liked it! But the bowl stayed VERY hot the whole time, and I was constantly in danger of burning myself!

My whole family was ready for a nap by the time we got home, so I read in bed with this little guy:I love my cats. We ended up ordering a quick dinner from a local diner-type restaurant, and I chose huevos rancheros.Hey, anything with avocado and I’m sold!

This morning I headed over to one of my favorite spin classes. I had to get there early to sign up, so I did some crunches while I waited. It was a great class, I was able to push myself more like I normally do. My stupid bike seat started sliding back towards the end of class though, even though I tightened it. I got off my bike once to fix it, but when it slipped a second time, I just gave in and finished the class. 4 hills! Whoop! Which, I must say, is way better than 1 30 minute hill…

I didn’t snap a picture at breakfast because I was in a hurry, but I had a sort of yogurt bowl: kefir with peanut butter puff cereal and sunflower butter, plus a mango (of course). We still have like 8 mangos, which are all starting to be ripe. This will not be a problem.

After spin, I went to the farmer’s market.My best find? Avocados! They were 6 for $5. They also had mini avocados, which I naturally had to get.I think I am going to try to sprout the pits, and see if I get a mini avocado plant! I’m not sure they will sprout though; they are so tiny!

Have you guys ever gotten kettle corn at the farmer’s market before? It is by far the best kettle corn out there. So naturally we bought a reasonably sized bag (as opposed to giant. See? Showing restraint). We also bought an apple pie from a stand that came from a local pie restaurant that we used to always go to when I was little. My mom and I have both been dying for apple pie lately because it keeps coming up in the books we are reading. It cost just as much if we bought slices as to buy a whole pie, so a whole pie it was!

After the farmer’s market, I began this blog post and then went out to Indian food with Jessica, one of my best friends from High School.

It ended up being a buffet, which was just as well since neither of us would have known what to order anyways. She had never had Indian food before, and I never know what to order since I’m not exactly sure what anything is. The end result? We basically got some of everything to try.It was really tasty! It wasn’t too spicy, except for one thing, which I figured out fairly quickly and avoided. Jessica didn’t fare as well. Her plate got completely mixed together, so she couldn’t tell what anything was and couldn’t identify the really spicy item! We used the warm Naan served on the side to take away some of the kick.

After a fun lunch, we saw a froyo place that I had not tried yet right across the street, so NATURALLY, what choice did we have? And hey, it’s been over a week since my last one! It was a Tutti Fruiti. The yogurt was good quality and the toppings bar was a good variety, but the flavors weren’t especially interesting. But I guess at this point that’s hard to expect given how many places I’ve been to. It was a great afternoon; we probably stayed in the yogurt place chatting for an hour! I miss that girl!

Other than that, I haven’t done too much up until now. There’s one last thing I want to talk about though (hence the title of the post). As some of you may know, I walked onto my college’s crew team this fall after never having rowed before in my life. My school has a program for novice rowers, so the fall was spent teaching us all how to row. It was an awesome experience, one I wouldn’t trade for anything. I met some truly amazing people. Come winter, the novices moved in with the varsity rowers, recruits and Olympians alike, starting with winter camp (which you can see in my earliest blog posts). Through blogging about this, I found some other rower/former rower bloggers (shout out to Brittany and Theresa!), which is totally awesome. But then winter quarter got hectic. Rowing took up 5 hours every day, and I was only getting about 6 hours of sleep a night, and certainly not putting 100% into my classes. I can’t help but think this is part of why I got so sick. It probably didn’t help that the first day I was sick I spent a couple of hours freezing my drenched butt off in the bay…ANYWAY. These past few weeks have given me some perspective. I realize there’s no way I can keep that type of schedule up anymore. I spent a lot of time on softball in high school, but that was MY sport. I had to remind myself that while I loved rowing, I had only been doing it for a few months, and it really wasn’t MY sport. I had such an amazing experience, but I’m not up to full strength. Racing starts in less than a week. And most importantly, an aftereffect of this stupid illness (mono) is that I will need more sleep for a while. So I decided I cannot continue to row. One again, I wouldn’t trade anything for the opportunity to row at a high college level, but it is time to move on, hence the name of the post. Right now, I’m training to get back into shape for Intramural soccer, which I’m pumped for. I started playing soccer when I was 5, and haven’t played since my freshman year of high school, and I’ve really missed it. And I want to really get into running. I can’t wait to have more flexibility in my workouts and in my life. Seriously, I’ve never had this kind of freedom. For so long, anytime there was any event or activity, I automatically knew I couldn’t go. In high school, it was because I had softball, and this year it was because I had crew. I’m excited to try new things and meet new people. I feel like I have so many more opportunities now, and I think I will have a chance at not going through life as a sleep deprived zombie. (Speaking of which, has anyone done a zombie run? I think it sounds like fun!) It’s also important for me to have a good quarter academically, given I had to drop 2 of my classes because of the mono last quarter. Like I said a minute ago, a really want to get into running. I really want to try one of those “Mud Runs” where you have to go though/over all kinds of obstacles. That’s total body fitness right there! Anyway, I wanted to let you all know what is going on with me. I decided a little while ago, but i wanted to wait until everything was finalized. To end, here’s a picture of my favorite flowers, which my cats have been leaving alone so far (last year I found my birthday bouquet scattered around the house).The picture doesn’t do them justice!

What fun or interesting runs have you done?