Amazing Zucchini Soup + Sac Giant Race and Picnic Day

Date: April 22, 2018

Author: astottler

I hope everyone is enjoying spring weather! The rain has stopped here, and it was mid-80s all weekend! Perfect for spending outside! I have some fun to share today, but I want to start with an amazing soup recipe I threw together tonight. And in true Fitness is Sweet fashion, this was done in less than 30 minutes. It would have been even faster if my blender wasn’t small! (Although the small blender still worked like a charm!)

Rosemary Zucchini Soup

Note that the quantities are approximate; I just threw everything together!

Ingredients:

3 large zucchinis

1 cup riced cauliflower

1 T minced garlic

2 T fresh rosemary

3 handfuls of spinach

salt and pepper to taste

broth to desired consistency

Sautee the zucchini, cauliflower, and rosemary with salt, pepper, and a little water. I covered it as well to soften. Cook until both are soft. Then, wilt the spinach on top of that mixture. Add garlic, and blend to desired consistency with broth. That’s it! It’s SO perfect for spring. You can also use any herb you want! I’ve made this before with sage because it was the only herb at the store that day, and it was good (rosemary is better). This would also be awesome with fresh dill, and then a touch of fresh lemon!

As for the rest of my weekend, I spent it mostly outdoors! Friday night I skyped some college friends before going to an outdoor brewery. Saturday was really the main day. I had the Sacramento Giant Race bright and early, and the weather could not have been more perfect!

I decided to try and maintain about an 8:20 pace. It seemed about right since I’m finally running regularly (as in once a week) again post-ankle bone bruise thing. I definitely lost some speed after not running for so long, and the couple of races I did (without running for months prior) during the course of the injury felt pretty awful and definitely were slower. I felt pretty good out there! More importantly, my ankle felt good too! The weather was beautiful, and the course was really nice. It went along the river, through some neighborhoods, and finished on the field!

It was a fun one, and so nice for my speed to be coming back! Again, the weather was amazing. It feels like summer! After some debate, I did go for the post-race beer because they had a non-IPA option, although I didn’t drink that much of it!

Next up was Picnic Day! It’s a huge deal here in Davis, and I can’t very well describe it. People come in from all over, and it’s basically a day of celebrating UC Davis. There’s a parade with floats (the vet school always wins), and basically every club and group on campus has some sort of booth. There’s lots of food and lots of people!

Here’s the one parade photo I got:

As I was getting ready to meet up with friends, I sipped on a green juice cocktail. Seriously, don’t knock it ’til you try it!

I spent the day walking around enjoying the weather and festivities with my friends.

Including the kittens from a vet school club…

Sunday involved Crossfit in the morning, which was mostly outside because it involved 3000m of running, some studying with an iced latte in a coffee shop, and a softball game. And ice cream. I’m currently loving the new Yasso frozen yogurt chocolate-vanilla swirl. I put GF mini soft chocolate chip cookies in it.

Besides the weather and fun things happening, I also really love what we’re doing in class right now. The gastrointestinal system is by far my favorite body system. I have lots of fun things coming up as well—I’m going home next weekend to go to some Giant’s games!

I’ll leave you with Jackson:

Weightless: New Beginnings

Date: March 21, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I know I’m a day late on this, but happy spring! While I’m grateful I’m not being subjected to East Coast snow, the rainy skies here in California don’t exactly feel like spring!

New Year’s is a time a lot of being get reinvigorated to change their lives. I would argue that spring is as well. The sunny skies and blooming flowers bring a renewed sense of hope. Of possibility. When the sun comes out, all I want to do is get outside. I want to move, I want to make changes and be productive. It’s no secret that cold temperatures zap motivation, both for me and many others. I find that when it’s warmer out, it’s much more inviting to be active. I’ve started walking Chloe more. I enjoy our bonding time alone together (especially when she’s well behaved), and I started listening to informative and interesting podcasts during our time together.

Obviously, it’s ideal to be consistent year round. But if you find you’re not happy with how things in your life are going, spring is a great opportunity to make a change. Embrace the changing weather, and let it inspire you.

For me, I’ve been switching things up both nutritionally and fitness-wise. I decided to challenge myself to try different classes at the gym, and have sort of reverted to my fitness roots as a gym rat. So far, it’s been fun, and I’ve found some new things that I both like and cause me to grow as an athlete. Following 17.4 on Friday, come Monday my body wasn’t ready for intense bending (yay lower back). In the morning, I tried a new spin class. It was all intervals, but it was on the shorter side. It was perfect for a quick sweat! In the evening, I returned to Core Yoga, which I originally planned to be a one and done, check that off the list class. However, moving my body in a different way felt really wonderful, so I headed back. In addition, I felt like my back could use a deep stretch!

In honor of spring, we spent a lot of time working on inversions and inversion progressions against the wall. I didn’t do anything too crazy, but I can tell I’ve made progress in terms of shoulder strength and flexibility. Handstands are one thing in Crossfit that I both can’t do, and I hate. I can wall walk into a handstand, but I can’t kick into one, which I absolutely should be able to do at this point. This is partly because I hate them. But I really think that it’s something I need to just get over and work on if I want to grow as an athlete.

Now onto the food.

For breakfast before spin, I had a simple Luna bar.

After spin, I snuck in a walk with Chloe before the rain. We walked for just over an hour which is on the longer side for us, partly because I wanted to finish my podcast and partly because Chloe needed some exercise given the week’s rainy forecast. Post walk, I had a glass of cranberry kombucha.

Finally, it was lunchtime! I was feeling hungry, so instead of just the soup and fire roasted veggie crackers, I cut up some red pepper. The soup was more leftovers.

For my afternoon snack, I dug a slice of whole grain persimmon bread out of the freezer, and ate it alongside a mango.

The persimmon bread is just my banana bread recipe made with persimmons in place of bananas.

For dinner, we threw together a delicious salad with roasted butternut squash, herb goat cheese, dried cranberries, rotisserie chicken, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

On the side, I had gluten free whole grain bread with herb and parmesan olive oil dipping sauce.

For dessert, I made an ice cream bowl with vanilla Halo Top, chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and a dab of whipped cream.

In my opinion, there is no reason desserts can’t be part of a healthy diet! I also believe that a life without desserts just isn’t worth living.

For a nighttime snack, I had a brown rice cake with whipped chive cream cheese.

I’ve made the decision to try and push my nutrition a little bit. It’s not because I’m not happy about where I am now, but because I want to see how much better I can be, both in terms of how I feel and athletic performance. In the past year, my eating habits have been very stable, which is not something I can really say about any other point in my life. Because of that, I feel ready to try and up the nutrition a little bit. I know my body well enough at this point to know what I need and to know what makes me feel good or bad. I’m definitely not doing anything crazy, I’m just making more of an effort to balance things. For instance, I added back in an evening snack. My body reacts so much better if I split my nighttime calories up a little bit, and so far I’ve felt a difference. I’m making an effort to meal plan for the day such that things are more balanced. I haven’t decided how much I want to get into this kind of thing on the blog in terms of specifics, progress, etc, but of course I’ll continue to post my meals and meal ideas like normal!

Do you feel like spring is a fresh start?

Talking Nutrition

Date: March 15, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I think for a little bit I’m going to go back to blogging full days of eating. I’m trying to change up how I eat a little bit, and get more creative with what I’m making! As a result, let’s take it back to Monday and go through the day in that format.

I decided my body needed a break from exercise so I had a leisurely morning. I’ve been in a major breakfast rut lately (all I want is flapjacked muffins), so I was happy to find myself going for a yogurt bowl! Plain yogurt, maple KIND granola, sunbutter, and mango on the side.

I’m actually planning a mini-blog series to work on my breakfast rut. I’m going to take a little trip down yogurt memory lane (….yes, just go with it) and remake my different variations on yogurt bowls over the years.

At lunchtime, I gave a lecture on nutrition to my dad’s company. I did a basic overview on different food categories and what they did in the body, as well as discussed practical applications of nutrition (eating out, for instance). I do want to talk about trans fat a little bit here (otherwise appearing as partially hydrogenated oil, fractionated oil, hydrogenated oil). Trans fat is not “generally regarded as safe” by the FDA, which is saying something because there’s a lot of crap that is. It’s also the ONE thing in nutrition that everyone actually agrees on. Everyone agrees it’s incredibly harmful to health. While preparing for this talk, I did a little research on fast food. Several years ago, trans fat was a big issue. It was a big enough issue to the public, that the government began requiring the grams of trans fat to appear on food labels (note that trans fat still appears as “0g” if the serving of food has <0.5g). A lot of food companies made a big deal out of removing trans fat from their foods. McDonalds made a big deal about it. Jack in the Box was always one of the worst trans fat offenders, and they never did this. Well, imagine my surprise, when I found out that now, several years later, companies have been quietly adding trans fat back into their foods. McDonald’s used an oil blend containing trans fat to fry their foods, so any item at McDonald’s that has been fried has trans fat. Girl Scout cookies are another example. For a few years, they took it out, and now it’s back. Basically, when people stopped paying attention to trans fat, companies added it back in. Stay vigilant, my friends!

I also made a loaf of my healthy banana bread to demonstrate that you can have low-sugar baked goods that are still delicious!

Lunch was catered, so I had a turkey sandwich.

After lunch, I immediately changed into shorts and a tank top and took Chloe for a walk, since the weather was absolutely beautiful! We went on a route with fabulous views of the whole bay.

When I got back, I grabbed some sliced mango and embarked on another spring activity, baking!

Lemon baked goods just taste like spring to me. I used this recipe for blueberry lemon muffins. For a year, I’ve been searching for the perfect lemon bread/muffin recipe, and I was excited about this one!

That being said, I think there’s some reaction with gluten free flour and lemon, because in the lemon products I’ve made with GF flour, the texture is always a little off, and I’ve never had that issue with other GF baked goods. These had great flavor, and ended up being pretty dense when they eventually cooled. They were jam packed with blueberries! And surprisingly, I think they actually had plenty of lemon flavor, something a lot of lemon recipes are lacking.

That evening, I went to a Core Yoga class at the gym. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this already, but I’m trying to go to all the fitness classes at my gym. That’s well and good for all the spin classes, but the Zumba? Yeah, that’s going to take me out of my comfort zone.

I really enjoyed this class. I normally go to the Vinyasa Yoga classes, and this was definitely different. There was a lot of deep stretching, which was so much needed after 17.3′s squat snatches. The focus of this particular class was the feet and ankles, which was actually a really interesting and effective way to cue different poses. I think I’m going to try and go back to this class next week, although that will be my last chance for a while since I’ll soon be teaching spin Mondays!

For dinner, we had Chicken Stew with Kale and Dijon, with a side of cornbread pulled from the freezer.

One modification we did make was to use chicken breast in place of chicken thighs. My family prefers white meat, especially in soup, and when we made the recipe with thighs in the past, we decided we would prefer this modification.

For dessert, I had a See’s Peppermint Scotchmallow, See’s St. Patrick’s Day candy with mint marshmallow and caramel. It was SO good. It tasted like a thin mint! I also had some chocolate Halo Top.

For an evening snack, I had a handful of blackberries.

What are your thoughts on trans fat?

Any amazing lemon recipes for me to try?

California Sunshine|17.3

Date: March 13, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Daylight Saving Time…am I right? I spent Saturday night out with my high school friends for a birthday, and had the lovely experience of watching my bedtime shift from 2 to 3 am…would not recommend.

My St. Louis friend was snap chatting me snow in St. Louis the other day…meanwhile, spring has arrived here in CA. The weather has been absurdly nice. I’ve been trying to take advantage as much as possible!

Friday morning, I took Chloe for a walk after my own 3 mile run while listening to a podcast.

For lunch, I made a ridiculously simple yet delicious salad. Garlic hummus, herb goat cheese, and an egg over easy. With a side of sweet potatoes.

For snack, I tried the Vanilla Flapjacked Smoothie mix, but I blended it up with half milk and half ice for a frosty treat. It was a little bit watery in flavor (too much liquid), but I liked it at that texture!

Afterwards, my mom and I went with my sister for her wedding dress fitting! The big day is coming, and the dress is nearly finished! She looks amazing in it! After the fitting, we still had some wedding details to discuss so we headed to Pete’s for some honey macchiatos.

We stayed pretty late, but thankfully dinner came together in a jiffy! We made hummus sandwiches with cheese, tomato, spinach, and avocado. Simple, but delicious. On the side was a simple herb salad with mint, basil, and dill, and a dressing of aged white balsamic vinegar and lemon olive oil.

Saturday morning, I did 17.3!

It. Was. Epic.

I currently live about 30 minute away from my college Crossfit, the place I called home for 3 years. I haven’t really been back there since I left for Tennessee in June, so I decided the Open would be a fun time to see everyone. I have to say, a lot has changed. Apparently they moved (to a super nice new facility!), which I figured out 10 minutes before I left to drive there!

17.3:

Prior to 8:00, complete:
3 rounds of:
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
6 squat snatches, 95 lb.
Then, 3 rounds of:
7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
5 squat snatches, 135 lb.
*Prior to 12:00, complete 3 rounds of:
8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
4 squat snatches, 185 lb.
*Prior to 16:00, complete 3 rounds of:
9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
3 squat snatches, 225 lb.
*Prior to 20:00, complete 3 rounds of:
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
2 squat snatches, 245 lb.
Prior to 24:00, complete 3 rounds of:
11 chest-to-bar pull-ups
1 squat snatch 265 lb.

*If all reps are completed, time cap extends by 4 minutes. (These weights are for men.)

Going in, I had no idea if I could do a chest to bar pull up. I felt like I SHOULD be able to, and I knew it would be close.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. I was a few inches away, but knew that even if I got ONE, I’d never get a full round’s worth! I decided to do scaled, which was jumping pull ups.

For the scaled, the weight progression was 35, 55, 65, 75, 95. I knew I was good up to 75. My PR on the snatch is `108, but it wasn’t from the ground (I’m worse from the ground because I have trouble getting into the proper position), and it was right before my senior year of college where I was working hard on my olympic lifts and was super strong, and right before I dislocated my shoulder. The heaviest I’d gotten since my injury has been 75#!

In my warm up, I loaded up to 85, and didn’t even try it because it felt so heavy off the ground.

I went in the second heat, and had a pretty solid pace going through the first 8 minutes, easily making the time cap. By easily, I mean in terms of time, not effort! This felt harder than expected; jumping pull ups actually start to get hard with that many, plus with snatches!

A lot of people around me didn’t scale, so they finished much earlier than I did because they didn’t make the time cap. I was just kind of in the corner, doing my thing. I’m not sure a lot of people realized I was still going, and I was worried they would stop the clock before I finished, until my coach (who knows me) stole the clicker so that couldn’t happen!

Finally, I found myself staring down a 95# bar with 30 people looking on. I honestly didn’t think I would be able to make the lift. I just wanted one, so I took some time to rest and catch my breath, and my coach definitely helped talk to me. I missed the first attempt, but after another minute or so of rest, with 30 people cheering me on, I hit 95#! I knew once it was overhead, I could overhead squat 95#, so catching it up there was the best feeling! I’m so proud of how I did, and was definitely not expecting to get that!

I helped judge other heats, and helped my coach change weights during his attempt at the workout. He was pretty amazing to watch. He hit 1 rep at 245# with no time to spare, and it was epic.

It was so nice to return, and I’m glad I did. Things are changing, my coach is actually about to move away! It left me with both a warm and a weird feeling.

The new location is in downtown Palo Alto, so I walked around a little bit to grab food. I got a delicious iced latte from Zombie Runner (interestingly, Zombie Runner is both a running store and an amazing coffeeshop).

I also picked up a Subway salad to go and took it to campus to hang out with my sister while she watched her fiancé play quidditch.

Plus a chocolate chip cookie!

After a little time in the sun, I drove home and was greeted with a delivery!

These blondies are chickpea based! I haven’t had any chickpea based baked goods before, and I must say, based on how they looked in pictures, they weren’t exactly what I was expecting! They’re really moist and kind of spongy, definitely bean based, but still tasty!

For dinner, we ordered take out from The Counter. I whipped up a side salad and split a custom chicken burger with my mom: gruyere, avocado, garlic aioli, tomato, greens, scallions.

And later that night, I was back to Palo Alto to celebrate a birthday (see above).

I woke up Sunday morning SO tired. Go figure. We drove down to Palo Alto again so I could run and my parents could walk the pup.

We grabbed lunch outside on campus, and on the way, Chloe met another dog and went fountain hopping!

For lunch, my mom and I shared an iced latte, a breakfast arepa (with scrambled eggs), and a salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries, and honey vinaigrette.

Then, we went to Tin Pot for ice cream. The TCHO chocolate is my favorite ice cream ever. But look how tiny the scoop was!

On the drive home:

Thanks to the beautiful weather, we had happy hour before making a summery dinner.

On the menu was grilled pineapple and grilled chicken, roasted cauliflower with parmesan, and a side salad with blueberry balsamic and blueberries.

We didn’t have any teriyaki sauce to marinate the chicken, so I made a marinade blend of liquid aminos, honey, garlic, rice vinegar, ginger salad dressing, and sesame seeds.

It truly feels like spring in CA now!