Summer State of Mind

Date: June 5, 2014

Author: astottler

I’m so close to summer it’s not even funny, and my head has been in the clouds all week! I’m already dreaming of all the places I’ll run in DC, of all the awesome people I’ll meet! I’m so excited for my internship as well. I haven’t talked about it much but I’ll basically be working for the government on Child Nutrition-I could not imagine a better internship for the summer!

I have a few post ideas in mind, but I’ll keep it simple today just because I have a paper that doesn’t seem to be writing itself. When I finish my paper, I think I’m actually going to post it here. It’s long and detailed so I’ll do a separate post summarizing it, and it’s not insanely relevant to this blog, but I think there are some people that it could really help, and given there isn’t much on the topic now, I hope that someone may come across it who is struggling. But like I said, it won’t finish itself!

This morning I woke up for spin and yoga, same old, same old. Breakfast was also nothing new, but my cappuccino was extra pretty today!

I actually had lunch with one of my best friends ever from back home. She’s off school, so she came to visit me! We went to a campus cafe, and I had a veggie crepe (spinach, swiss, mushrooms).

I can’t even describe how great it was to see her again!

And more food. I finally got a more decent picture of my sunflower seed butter and berries on bread, but this x2 for my snack.

Later in the afternoon, I was hankering for something sweet (ish) and chocolatey so I made “fudge.” At least, I think that’s what it would be if 1. I actually waited long enough to get it chilled and 2. the banana was super ripe so actually sweeter.

Into a bowl, I threw in a banana, coconut oil, and cocoa powder, and heated and mashed it all up.

Also, note the use of a real bowl. I’m really low on basically everything at this point. No paper bowls or plastic wear so I get to pretend I’m a real person and use a real bowl. My food supply is also pretty bare as well. I ate an early dinner, so I came back from a review at 8 hungry…and ended up snacking on some random leftover Indian food from a pouch. Which was actually probably a lot better than that description made it sound…

Anyways, dinner was broccoli with a frozen turkey burger and Laughing Cow wedges. Turkey burgers don’t seem to make as good leftovers as grilled chicken. But there’s also a possibility that it had a major case of freezer burn. Yum.

And with that, Day 4 of no sweets is done. I really do feel a lot better than normal. I think it’s much easier for me to eat intuitively when I’m filling myself up with nutritious foods. Not sure how long this thing is going to go or what will happen afterwards, but I’ll try not to think about that! Also, I’m planning a killer zero sugar dessert for when I get home!

As for tonight, I’m planning a 15 minute weight lifting workout. Yes, 15 minutes. And I predict it will make me sore! More on that tomorrow!

How was your day?

Learning my Lesson

Date: May 14, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Today was another scorcher! I got my run out of the way first thing. It was my hilly 5 mile route, and I’ve been dreading this run all week. The hills have just not felt good lately-my legs feel dead! Well, as it turns out, it’s officially hot enough that I need to start carry water, even on these short-ish runs! Mid run, at the top of the hill, I was SO thirsty! I drank a ton of water when I returned, but with the heat and my morning run, I’ve been fighting dehydration all day.

Post run breakfast was the same old-plain greek yogurt with berries and sunflower seed butter. To be perfectly honest, I don’t want to switch it up, partly because it’s delicious and refreshing, but partly because I’m scared my berries will turn alcoholic before I can eat them, because the last batch did! So far so good though!

I didn’t pack a lunch today because I wasn’t sure if I’d have time to eat it between classes. In the end, I did get a chance to stop by a cafe on campus for a chicken and pesto sandwich on whole wheat.

My second morning class has air conditioning, but it’s always on SO high that even though I brought a sweater specifically for that class, I was still freezing my booty off! I have never been so happy to walk outside in nearly 100 degree heat-to thaw!

However, my afternoon class is most definitely not air conditioned. I spent 2 hours staring at a computer screen and melting my brain. Not fun. I then picked up LITERALLY the best, most amazing, refreshing, and cool thing in the world. An iced latte! (decaf)

Crossfit today was pretty empty. I guess everyone got fed up with the what yesterday and decided not to show today! For the strength, we worked on power snatches and I FINALLY PRed by 5 pounds! The WOD was a tabata of pull ups, push press, sit ups, and dumb bell cleans. The push presses were probably the most difficult for me!

After my workout, I headed to dinner at the dining hall. I’ve actually been digging the dining hall lately-today they had HUMMUS, which is rare and exciting. I filled up a bowl with salad, chicken, and plenty of hummus!

For dessert, I had a cool cup of plain Greek yogurt with cereal and strawberries, as well as a small slice of lemon cake. I’ve been really into lemon lately, ever since I came across this recipe that I’m dying to make! I had a lemon luna bar earlier as well-so perfect for summer!

And now, I’m sitting in my room sweating. Gotta love lack of air conditioning! Also-I only have 4 weeks until summer…what??

Do you have any exciting plans for the summer?

WIAW-And What I Miss Wednesday

Date: October 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Heyyyy happy Wednesday! We’re halfway through the week…although my school work is very end heavy this week so that’ll be interesting…But it also means…time for What I Ate Wednesday! Thanks so much to Jenn for hosting.

Today’s post is going to be a little different…My eats haven’t been crazy exciting lately (thanks #dormlife), so I’ll give you guys an idea of what those are looking like, as well as what’s new with me. Then, I’ll move on to some of my favorite foods from home that I seriously miss eating.

I went on a late night boba run with my sister for some sisterly bonding. This was a jasmine milk tea, and it was phenomenal! I know a lot of people are obsessed with boba around here, but I actually haven’t had it that much. I’ve always liked it when I’ve gotten it though!

This morning I went to a spin class and then ran 3 miles. I had to show you guys a picture though because I <3 this shirt!

And without further ado-here are some of my random dorm eats.

Raspberries and sunflower seed butter, with a side of chocolate milk post workout.

Soo funny story about that egg. I almost made a huge mistake with that egg…in that I grabbed an egg from the fridge, and it felt funny. I kept shaking it, and something felt wrong. But I kept convincing myself nothing was wrong…I finally went back to the fridge to check where I got the egg from…yeah, it was clearly a raw egg. That I was about to throw loose into my backpack. Whew.

Eats from the last couple of weeks. Half of the above came from my freezer-can you guess which?

And pumpkin-y snack-y goodness:

Cottage cheese with pumpkin butter=BEST THING EVER. Seriously-go try it. To kick it up a notch, add sunflower seed butter, cinnamon, or apple chips (pictured below).

Also…there’s an open can of pumpkin pie filling in my fridge right now…a soon to be empty can of pumpkin pie filling. Ok, maybe it’s not the healthiest option, but it has to be healthier than eating an actual pie, right? It’s crustless! (And oh so delicious.)

But here’s the thing. I came back from class STARVING today, so I stuffed my face with pumpkin goodies…less than an hour before Crossfit. This is not a good combination my friends. My stomach was definitely off when I left, and I debated skipping dinner but in the end decided it would probably be best to just eat. Does anyone else have the problem of when their stomach feels off, they overeat because they have trouble telling how full they are? I kinda had that issue. I think I’m really thirsty too…huh.

Also-somehow my dining hall managed to mess up corn on the cob. I mean, come on! How is that possible??

And on that note-here are the things I miss most that I just don’t have access to anymore. Cue the violins.

Fig and goat cheese salad with grilled chicken.

Green protein smoothies.

Turkey burgers and zucchini fries.

Hummus salads with runny yolked eggs.

Spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs.

Confession: after looking through my food pictures from the summer, I’ve concluded that a lot of the things I miss so much I could easily eat…if I planned ahead a little and wasn’t so darn lazy! I miss my smoothies so much…so I should just deal with the pain of cleaning my blender, and actually make ice cubes. There are a lot of salads that were so delicious I enjoyed this summer-and with a little planning, I can easily have all the ingredient necessary. Wow, this post ended up being pretty educational to me! That’s all I have for you today-have a great Wednesday!

What summer foods do you miss? I miss mangoes. A lot.

MIMM-Summertime!

Date: July 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Marvelous in my Monday! I wasn’t planning on posting this morning, but I feel there is so much marvelousness to be celebrated! Thank you Katie for hosting, especially right after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy! Congrats!

Marvelous is…

Seeing 3 cats on my long run the other day. They live in the rocks by the water-they are all spayed/neutered and someone feeds them daily, even though they’re strays.

Marvelous is…

We’re days away from a holiday! Yay!<

Marvelous is…

My half is about a month away, and I kind of feel ready!

Marvelous is…

Compression socks. No explanation necessary. <

Marvelous is…

My research schedule this summer is totally flexible, so I never have to miss a workout or hit rush hour!

Marvelous is…

My Health Psychology professor is a spin teacher…whose class I’ve taken! It took me the entire class to figure out where I recognized her from!

Marvelous is…

A COLLEGE healthy living conference in the works! YAY! I’ll keep everyone updated on that!

Marvelous is…

Summer fruit.

Also, as far as my summer shape up, I FINALLY figured out a goal for the week!

Make a REALISTIC workout and meal plan for the week. There are a few reasons for this:

1. I HATE wasting food. HATE. A meal plan helps avoid tossing old food and overbuying.

2. I tend to make unrealistic plans. Like HOURS of exercise a day; I often don’t think through how long things actually take. I’m more of a “Ooo this looks fun I should do it!” type of person. Which can lead to burn out, or general laziness. (I mean if I skip one thing, I might as well skip everything<- bad mindset). I also have never been able to stick with a meal plan. Like not ever, not one day. So it’s a new challenge-but if that plan is unreasonable, there’s no way I can stick to it!

And with that, have a Marvelous week!

WIAW-SUMMER

Date: June 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Happy WIAW! Thanks a lot to Jenn for posting, as always!

First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food.

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.I LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!I’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!Yeah, I have a lot of stuff…And last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity.

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are.

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:These things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously).

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well.

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts.

After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops).

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class.

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!What is your favorite thing about summer?