Calories In, Calories Out

Date: January 20, 2016

Author: astottler

Today’s topic is a little bit different. I want to talk a little bit about the importance of getting sufficient calories.

I’m still navigating my new style of eating, and overall it’s going really well. One interesting change is that I don’t seem to get crazy sugar cravings anymore. I also have to be really vigilant about not overeating all at once, or my stomach will revolt. Due to both these factors, for the first time I’m having to worry about eating ENOUGH calories. I’ve had a few days where I simply didn’t get enough in, and the next day felt it a lot. I’m a very active person, and I definitely need fuel to teach my spin classes! Yesterday I felt like I didn’t have enough fuel in my body when I was teaching spin, and definitely was feeling it at the end of class. I taught spin again today, and really tried to plan my day to build in more calories.

To complicate matters, my stomach has been flaring a bit this week, so it’s actually difficult to eat enough! With all these moving parts, I also have to balance my attempt to get calories, the foods that my stomach tolerates, and appropriate nutrition (AKA vegetables). Vegetables actually have been a bit of a struggle for me lately. When I’m eaten half meals, I usually have to do a half portion of veggies, and vegetables are difficult for me to do as snacks/second meals.

I have instated a minimum calorie amount that I absolutely have to hit, otherwise I’ll feel awful/starving the next day, and today I just about got there but it took some work and a lot of planning. And a lot of crackers. I’m going to go through the little things I did today to try and get the calories in!

First thing this morning, I had about a half serving of crackers prior to a short track workout. I woke up not feeling great (flare+hunger) but the food helped! After my little run, I had a moderately portioned yogurt bowl. 1 tablespoon sunbutter+banana+plain yogurt.

And another couple of crackers.

Mid morning, half an hour before my first class I was hungry (thankfully) and was able to eat a few more crackers. GF crackers=my life currently.

For lunch, I has some quinoa salad with feta and craisins+a small portion of broccoli salad. For the afternoon, I packed about half a serving of crackers with the goal of eating them before I had to teach to meet my calorie goal, so I had a couple at lunch.

After my next class, I had my main snack for the afternoon, a Raaw Macaw bar. This was is slightly denser than my other because it has a sun butter base.

I had another couple of crackers, bringing me closer to my cracker goal.

My final class let out about an hour before I had to teach, so I finished my last several crackers.

Days like today are frustrating because I had a stomachache after eating each time, and could definitely not have eaten more at once, but by the time I finished my spin class, I was STARVING. But there’s nothing much I could have done to ameliorated the issue. I did take it easier in spin today given I wasn’t feeling 100% though. I tend to go especially hard when I’m teaching because I feel no pain, and then step off the bike and wonder what I did to myself!

Upon arriving at my dorm I had another 2 crackers, and then a basic dinner of chicken+veggies.

I could only have about 2/3 a serving of the chicken. About an hour later, I had another half piece of chicken (trying to eat something other than just carbs) and a big rice crispy treat. These past 2 days, this giant rice crispy treat pan has been great for sneaking in some extra food!

Dealing with my stomach condition has definitely been a learning experience, and is definitely frustrating on days like today when I did everything right, but the calories that I absolutely need to eat leave me with a stomachache.

Do you ever have days where you’re so active you need extra food?

This is How I Eat

Date: January 4, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I had my first day of Winter Quarter classes! My schedule is weird this quarter in that I don’t have any classes before noon…

Today I wanted to talk a little about how my eating habits have and will continue to change as a result of my newly diagnosed stomach condition (delayed stomach emptying). My treatment is to eat half meals, instead of full meals. The easiest thing for me to eat is soup, which is why we made a TON of soup over break! I scoured the internet for Crockpot recipes and made my mom a Crockpot cookbook for Christmas, which included lots of soup! The first 2 recipes we made were winners. Tuscan chicken vegetable stew and tomato soup.

This had a bit of tomato paste, but also had fresh rosemary, fennel seeds, and balsamic vinegar. Served with gluten free parmesan toast.

The tomato soup was not ordinary tomato soup! It was full of shred carrots and zucchini, and had parmesan and skim milk stirred in at the end. I topped it with some shaved parmesan, but that wasn’t really necessary.

Today was my first day eating in this new manner at school, so I was a little nervous. Breakfast for me didn’t really change because I always eat something before and after working out.

Preworkout I had a slice of cranberry orange bread. I made this recipe at home over the weekend. I made quite a few substitutions because of my nut and coconut allergies, but it turned out well! I added milk chocolate chips to half and dried cranberries to the other half. Surprisingly, I actually liked the dried cranberry half better! To split the halves, I placed a spatula in the pan while I poured in each side, and then pulled it out. I marked the line with chocolate chips but you can actually see the half mark!

Anyways, before Crossfit I had a piece with dried cranberries. Even though I don’t have class until late, I want to maintain my early schedule and have a productive morning.

Crossfit was tough. Front squats for strength and then this WOD:

EMOM 8 minutes: 5 burpees, 10 Russian kb swings

2 min rest

10 minutes to complete: 30-20-10-30 wall balls, 30 double unders, 15 sit ups

I was cut off in the last set of double unders. Also—side note: I got my Crossfit sweatshirt! It’s actually the coziest thing ever and I’m pumped.

After Crossfit, I had some Fage 2% plain yogurt with cranberry sauce made from leftover cranberries from the bread.

For lunch, we had another new chef and so far I really like him! Since lunch was wraps, he made me a special one on gluten free bread. It was filled with chicken and grilled veggies, topped with hummus. On the side I had apple fennel slaw. I was a little unsure about how much to eat and the size of it. I ended up ditching the gluten free bread (all GF bread is not created equal) and think it may have been a bit more food than I should have had on that day at that time (so complicated). For “dessert” I had 2 slices of dried persimmon.

I had a perfect 40 minute break between classes for a snack so I packed a Raaw Macaw bar (custom made). SO good. My has a date and sunflower butter base, with chocolate chips!

For dinner #1, I tried my best to get a half meal and I think I did pretty well.

A bite of mashed potatoes, a few roasted veggies, maple glazed salmon, and salad with feta. For mini dessert, I had 1/4 of a peppermint bark bar (I proportioned a few desserts so it would be easier to keep track).

FYI, William Sonoma has the BEST peppermint bark.

An hour and a half later, I had dinner #2.

A persimmon with cheddar and doe honey roasted turkey slices. Plus a couple gluten free chocolate covered pretzels.

Overall, I’m proud of how well I did today given the new circumstances. To be honest, I’m a little anxious about sticking to this style of eating. Half meals are very much not the norm for me, so it requires a ton of control. All I can do is focus on the present and take it one (mini) meal at a time!

What’s Going On With Me

Date: February 20, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First off, I’m currently suffering from major DC nostalgia. I looked through my pictures and I miss it so much! My friends and I are hoping to take a trip out there at some point!

Second-so what’s going on with me? Well, I seem to be feeling better. So far today, I haven’t really been nauseous, and I only really had one instance yesterday.

First off-I figured out exercise helps. A lot. Yesterday morning, I did my 6×600 track workout, and surprised myself by killing my paces! Uhm, what??

I rewarded myself with the best pancakes on campus.

Lunch after class:

Salad, flatbread rice.

Lemon coconut macaroon bars.

Not sure what was going on but I felt like death after lunch. Which was probably an appropriate time to go see the doctor right? One of the weird things about when I feel sick is that my heart rate is elevated-I think it measured a 100 bpm at the appointment, which isn’t super high in the scheme of things, but it’s normally much lower! The other thing? When I feel sick I can get kind of dizzy and shaky. I was really nervous because I had to get blood drawn, and I was by myself. Which was an issue because I’ve had some traumatic blood drawing experiences (not finding veins plus taking 16 vials instead of 3, getting blood dripped everywhere and a massive bruise from the ER when I had mono, getting stabbed in one arm, the other, and back to the first because they couldn’t find the vein), and I’ve developed a bit of a physical reaction to start shaking. For better or for worse, I was a little out of it. The guy drawing my blood was fantastic. One prick in, and I didn’t even feel it. I felt kind of weird when the blood was coming out just because I was light headed to start with, but then it was over and I was fine, and after sitting in the car for a bit I felt fine again.

The verdict? Blood tests were normal so the doctor thinks it is likely not an ulcer but the acid condition that causes an ulcer, I just don’t have a hole in the lining of my stomach. I have something to take that will hopefully help this. In the meantime, I have to avoid acidic foods and foods that tend to produce acid. I don’t know-maybe I can see a pattern with acid causing foods and the times I felt sick-maybe?

Looking back on it-I can see why this may have happened. Remember the first time I felt sick-from my coffee overdose? Up until that point, I had been drinking coffee almost everyday for 3 weeks, which is extremely high for me. On top of that, for a long time I was taking a lot of Advil to try to aggressively heal my foot. Guess what 2 common causes are of this? Yeah…I stopped both because I was worried I might be doing damage but I guess it was a little bit too late! Also, the irony that we are learning about the gastrointestinal system and ulcers in my physiology class right now is not lost on me…

So other food?

Dinner last night. I was worried I would feel sick after feeling bad that afternoon, but I actually spent the evening very hungry. Weird.

Curry chicken and naan, salad, barley.

This morning, I went to Crossfit. I waited until this morning to make the call because I wasn’t sure how I’d feel, but I woke up feeling ok and went for it. It was tough.

First: 10-1 deadlifts and pushups with a 10 minute cutoff. At 10 minutes: start Helen. Which is 3 rounds of 400m run, 21 kb swings, and 12 pull ups. The push ups were killer. This was a little rough for me because I was feeling a little light headed, so I took it a little slow and rested as necessary. I felt kind of gross afterwards, but by the time I got back, I was starving and craving eggs, which I took as a good sign given I’ve been doing a lot of bland carbs in the mornings for a while now!

This hit the spot, but I was basically hungry again before my first (and only) class. I made it through class before eating lunch at 11am. Judge me.

I played it safe with a frozen meal because I have a sorority thing tonight I need to be functional for. I also had a homemade granola bar. I recently found out that these deliciously amazing bars I’ve found at whole foods have essentially 3 ingredients: Earth Balance, brown rice syrup, and oats. Guess what 3 ingredients I happen to have on hand? So yeah, that definitely happened. Yum.

Also I had a piece of dark chocolate which is currently making my heart race a little. I guess I’ve gotten really sensitive to it since giving up caffeine-which is just as well sine chocolate isn’t supposed to be good for my stomach anyways! (According to the oh-so-credible Dr. Google.)

What is your favorite homemade granola or protein bar?