Speed Demon

Date: July 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Hey guys! I just wanted to pop in here really quickly before WIAW with my Summer Shape Up Week-whatever goal!

Last week’s goal was to make a reasonable meal and exercise plan and stick with it. Along with my attempts to avoid snacking, this actually worked out pretty well. I got all my workout in, with the exception of the hiccup that was Wednesday’s run-but I was only a mile short so it’s close enough! The problem? It was really hard to plan things so far out in advance, so I didn’t plan the weekend….so my weekend eating could have been more organized. Next time, I think I need to do a mid-week check in on meals for the rest of the week.

Now before you see tomorrow’s WIAW, remember that it includes things I ate before writing up this post. ANYWAYS. My goal is to eat gluten-free for a week. I’ve stuck to mostly eating this way, with a few notable exceptions. Here’s what happens. Since I haven’t yet gotten tested, I start believing that gluten doesn’t affect me-I’m still not sure. However, this little guy convinced me otherwise.

After a healthy lunch, I figured it would be fine. And, the whole cafeteria smelled like chocolate chip cookies! Well, I got a stomachache immediately after eating this. At first I thought, well that’s not necessarily the flour. But then I got the whole foggy-headed-can’t-stay-awake thing during my class. That convinced me even more.

Another thing-I’m starting to get a gut feeling that gluten gives me a stomachache. Really scientific, I know. You know how when you get food poisoning from a certain food one time, and then afterwards, thinking about that food makes you feel sick? I don’t exactly get that, yet I can just FEEL flour is doing it to me. When I think about these foods, stomachaches come to mind. It’s kind of like the whole nut thing. When my face first started breaking out like crazy and I was searching for the cause, I had a feeling it was nuts, yet I couldn’t quite believe it. Now, I’m 100% sure because I never eat them anymore and my face is fine, but occasionally when I have a little peanut butter, my face goes insane. So that’s this week’s goal. So what’s been going on in my life?

I got a flat tire yesterday. From running over a rock…what?

This is no where near how flat it got-luckily I was super close to where I was going, and it didn’t even deflate enough for me to tell until I looked at it. When we went to the tire place, the guy looked at all the tires on the car and determined that they’re starting to crack. The tires are 8 years old, and apparently when they get old they get brittle and start cracking, meaning that at any moment, most likely at high speeds, they were likely to blow out. So this whole flat tire thing might have been a blessing in disguise. I’m going to be driving this car an hour on the highway every day, and I can’t even imagine how bad a blow out could be.

There’s a dent on the inside of the rim which has to be fixed before we even get new tires, so for now I’m rocking the spare tire.

Notice that little the spot where it says 50 mph max? Yeah, I’m going to be a real speed demon these next few days. I either can’t take the highway, or will be that obnoxious person chugging along in the right lane 20 mph below the speed limit. Yeah, I think I’ll stay off the highway.

And since I owe you a food picture, here’s last night’s dinner.

Potato and corn chowder topped with cheddar cheese, along with asparagus. Yum!

And one last thing. For a while Matt has been encouraging me to do a Whole 30. So here’s the plan. I’m going to take it slow and start with a Whole7 (7 days instead of 30), and then go from there. Here’s the ingenious part-I’m going to do it the first week back at school. there are a few reasons for this, the main one being that the first week is an opportunity to start setting new habits in a new environment, so why not start off super healthy? Also, my parents won’t hate me for bringing more food restrictions into our house, I can grocery shop before I get to school, and the food at school that’s non-Whole30 isn’t really that great so I’ll be less likely to be tempted. So that’s that! See you all tomorrow for WIAW!

Have you ever gotten a flat tire? What happened?

Shaping Up My Summer (and Future)

Date: June 26, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hi friends! We’re almost to the second week of Summer Shape Up.

Technically I haven’t finished Week One, but I decided to do a post earlier with my plans. Paleo eating went pretty well for me, although I found my self resorting to several Paleo crutches. I’m looking at you coconut milk yogurt. For this next week, I’m not going to exactly be eating Paleo, but I want to focus on lean proteins and produce.

Although it may not be apparent from this blog, I actually love fitness…more than food. And yet I hardly ever post about fitness, in comparison to food! I want this to change! On a similar note, the new eating focus is eating to fuel my workouts. This is kind of getting back to my nutritional roots. An increase in intensity of my workouts resulted in my discovery of Nutrition. I feel like I have gotten away from this is the past year(s). Hence, the new week’s goal! I want to do well (ok, I want to complete) my upcoming half, and fueling well is really the only way I can do this. I’m going to add back in some dairy, but keep the grains out due to a possible allergy (I made a doctor’s appointment-yay!). Also, with Crossfit, I want to be able to do my absolute best on the WODs!

On a kind of sidenote, I’ve fallen in love with turkey burgers as of late. The next plan is to try them in the microwave, so I can continue this love affair next year back at school!

I also wanted to talk about my future fitness goals and plans. I love having something to train for, but I’m not sure running long distances is my true love.

So with that said, here are my upcoming race plans. The Giants race in early August (you know, the one I’ve been training for for the last month?). Then, head straight into training for the Nike Women’s marathon in October. After that, I want to take a break from distance running.

I am kind of dying to do a Turkey Trot, and a 10k sounds just about perfect. I take my Thanksgiving meals very seriously, and 6 miles sounds great to really rev up my appetite.

(Plenty of space for expansion in that dress!)

I also want to train to PR a 5k. I did a Santa Run last year, and got 25 something. I hadn’t run much (although I had been rowing a ton), so I think I can crush that PR with proper training and speed work.

Longer term, I’ll probably do some halfs in they are interesting. I might do the Giant’s race next year, but do the 10k and try to PR. (Because PRing is fun). I trained hard last summer for the 10k, and actually won my age group! (I’m super proud of this!) Sadly, next year I’ll be going up an age group, with super fast people. But with proper training, I should do pretty well (based on last year’s results).

In summary, more of this:

None of this:

(Grains are not working for me right now, and peanut butter makes my face break out like crazy. Yeah, I’m basically a mess.)

And some of this:

I’m thinking of making Sunday fro-yo a thing. I Yelped the best fro-yo places in SF, and I’ve already picked one out for after my half. Priorities people.

One more interesting thing I forgot to note-I’ve definitely eaten fewer sweets this past week. I guess eliminated grains takes away a lot of the unhealthier sweets options. I’m fine with that!

So expect more about fitness and exercise on this blog in the future!

WIAW-Paleo-ish

Date: June 25, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! I feel like this is basically a holiday, except it happens every week! Yay! Thanks again to Jenn for hosting the fun!

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my goals this summer, I want to figure out what foods work best for me. And yes, I promise I’m going to get tested for gluten soon!

(I had way too much fun making this banner.)

My summer shape up goal for this week was to try a mainly Paleo style of eating, as I’ve felt pretty good in the past when I’ve tried eating in this way (although it was only a few days in the past). My basic guidelines have been to avoid dairy and grains, so not totally Paleo. So without further ado, here are some of these new eats!

Spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs, topped with almond milk mozzarella. For the meatballs, we simply balled up Italian seasoned ground turkey, and they came out really well! As for the almond milk cheese-it’s pretty good. I wouldn’t necessarily eat it in something where cheese is the focus, but it works in tons of different things.

Leftover blueberry lavender smoothie from Gina. For this, I used egg white protein powder.

This is a Turkey and Havarti sandwich from Cooking Light. My mom and I both LOVE this recipe! This is hers- bread, mustard and mayo, arugula (spinach works), red onion, havarti cheese, turkey, and sliced apple. Put in the oven on broil until the cheese is bubbly, then top with ground pepper. The pepper makes it! Here’s my Paleo version:

No bread (hence the tinfoil), and almond milk mozzarella cheese. SO delicious! Make this-you won’t be sorry!

Chocolate covered frozen banana-the chocolate fudge sauce isn’t exactly Paleo, hence the “ish.”

My new obsession! The mango-cocout flavor is so good!

Snacks. The Thinkthin Divine bars are sooooo good. They are gluten free, and MOSTLY kind of Paleo.

href=”http://www.blogilates.com/videos/healthiest-quesadilla-ever-obesity-as-a-disease” target=”_blank”>This quesadilla from Blogilates. This was a great use of almond milk cheese-this meal is totally Paleo!

Mangos which I am obsessed with. Remember when I had over 20 mangos in my dorm room? Yeah, not one went bad :)<a

See’s dark chocolate (left over from Easter…). One thing about avoiding grains is my desserts are mostly just dark chocolate, or Baker’s chocolate with raisins. This is likely keeping me sane.

Any Star Trek fans out there? Yes, my family owns a Starship Enterprise pizza cutter.

In other events in my life, I finally picked up my new shoes, and they’re ever prettier than I was expecting!

I wore them this morning for my 3 mile run and I’m in love! (Sidenote-I think 3 miles is my mental limit on the treadmill…) I can’t wait to wear them for my 10 mile run this weekend. To clarify, I can’t wait to wear the shoes, I’m terrified for the run!

Today also marked the beginning of summer quarter. I went down to school yesterday to get instructed on the research I’m doing for a Professor, and I went back today as well. It’s not glamorous work (looking at pictures of mouse carcasses) but hey, I’ll take it! Wednesday is my first day of Health Psychology, so I’ll be sure to share anything interesting I learn from that! Hope you all have had a great week so far, and have eaten some deliciousness!

What are you thoughts on Paleo? On food sensitivities?

Summer Shape Up Goals

Date: June 20, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello friends! To start off the morning, here are some pictures of the adorable (and wacky) kittens I get to play with every Thursday morning.

Somehow one of the kittens managed to get in the wrong cage, which is an issue because these kittens aren’t 100% healthy, so that would spread disease really quickly. Each kitten has a card where its weight is recorded, and his cage number and been rewritten in. Luckily, I noticed this because that little guy was the troublemaker who jumped off the table last week! On another note, I’ve decided which litter or kittens I want to adopt. Because you can’t possibly separate them, right?

Sadly, I don’t think my parents would be too happy with one kitten, let alone 4. Having 6 cats would kind of make us crazy cat people. Well, crazier. In other cat antics, one kitten managed to tackle another kitten off the table. They were both going down, but I was able to catch one of them! Luckily, cats always land on 4 feet!

Ok, onto the topic of this post. Hanna and Haley posted about their Terrific 21 Plan, which is a set of overall goals, along with week to week goals. Miranda had a lot of success with something similar, her Operation Prom Dress. As you may recall, I started something similar with Miranda, but failed miserably. Whoops…

But this summer, I planned on re-figuring out my eating habits. I don’t want to spend too much time or energy figuring out HOW to be healthy and feel my best during the next school year-I want to get it all figured out this summer. I need to be able to focus on SCHOOL. So what better way than a Summer Shape Up? (I’m not sold on the name yet, so if you can think of anything better that starts with an “S”…) I love the idea of weekly goals; I think it makes it easier to achieve overall goals.

So along with the whole “how” to eat thing…here’s a little explanation (some longer-time readers will know what I am talking about). I developed some new food sensitivities/reactions to foods around the same time I started college, where everything I normally ate changed as well. Over the summer before I started college, my face started breaking out like crazy, out of nowhere. I FINALLY pinpointed nuts (especially peanuts) as the cause in like March…So a previous dietary staple had to be cut out (and my face definitely thanks me). My other sensitivity (maybe) is grains. I don’t know if it is a gluten thing or a carb thing, but there’s something off. My roommate last year had a gluten allergy, so she opened my eyes to the symptoms. I get what I like to call a “carbocrash.” After eating grains, I can’t keep my eyes open. It’s like getting hit by a brick wall (that made no sense…). …but then it passes. I’ve also noticed other things lately…so I want to figure that all out this summer. I am planning on getting allergy tested ASAP so I can get everything squared away!

Oats AND peanut butter :'(

So without further ado, here are my Summer Shape Up Goals!

1. Figure out my food sensitivities, and what to eat to feel my best.

2. Find a manageable workout routine- I’m definitely going to be working out more over the summer because I have more time, so I want to figure out a balance of activities for the fall.

3. Do at least 5 minutes of abs every day. Youtube is such a great resource-why haven’t I thought of this before. (Thanks Miranda!)

4. Be able to eat sweets in moderate quantities. I’m kind of all or nothing in this respect. I want to tame my reaction to sugar. When I have sweets, I have to have a LOT. This is half physical, and half mental. I do have kind of bad reactions to sugar, so figuring this out is a priority as well.

5. Fuel my body for energy. There’s nothing worse than a bad meal ruining a workout!

6. Lose the college weight. Yeah, yeah. This isn’t something I like blogging about, and I probably won’t talk much about, but it’s part of figuring out what to eat that is best for my body. Plus, running 13.1 miles extra heavy is not going to be terribly pleasant. I’m a little concerned that there is something else going on besides just calorie in/out balance though because all of the gain came after having mono, and it came on REALLY fast. And I was definitely eating healthier than before getting sick, and although I wasn’t rowing, I was still working out pretty hard. Yayy doctor’s appointment…

Right now, those are my overall goals. Basically, figure everything out. So, I didn’t exactly figure out what my specific plans for this week are…and what would be a good day for the week’s post? Maybe Sunday?

Here’s the deal. I am a big proponent of the idea that good nutrition can fix health woes. Feeling tired? Eating well will help. Getting sick a lot? Sugar weakens the immune system. Earthquake? Start eating better. Ok, maybe I’m a little TOO convinced that what we eat affects us in tons of less obvious ways. I have the tendency to blame anything that goes wrong in my life on sugar. (I’m kind of obsessed with sugar metabolism, and after college I want to do research in this field.)

Sugar seriously messes with my hormones and can make me super moody. But now I’m wondering what other foods affect me? I’ll be honest. I haven’t exactly felt like myself lately. I’m normally a super happy, optimistic and energetic person, but these past few months I’ve been feeling…kind of down. (Mono could be part of it). That is, until yesterday. The difference? I had eaten mostly Paleo that day, and the night before. And I. Felt. Awesome. I had a 6am wake-up, ran 5 miles, had no trouble stopping eating when I was full, and was more than ready for afternoon weights and a dog walk. I think the Paleo helped because of whatever weird grain thing is going on…But it was amazing! My mom suggested I try a week of Paleo to see how I feel, but before I try it strictly for a week, I want my vegetarian sister to be gone (it’s hard to find meals we would both be able to eat). So, I guess that is this week’s goal! I won’t try it strictly until maybe Sunday. So you’ll be seeing more meals like this for a while:

Good thing I recently fell in love with Turkey burgers!

Sorry for the lengthy post, I have a way of writing…and writing…and writing…

Who’s up for a fun summer challenge?