One Day to the Next

Date: May 21, 2014

Author: astottler

Hey guys! Want to know something crazy? I slept for 9 hours last night, and it was FANTASTIC. I can’t even remember the last time I did that! I decided to try to run in the afternoon (spoiler alert-it didn’t happen), because at this point I really needed the extra sleep!

Breakfast this morning was leftover lemon poppyseed oatmeal with sunflower seed butter. It was definitely better yesterday-I think the poppyseed started to disintegrate a bit so it was a tad bitter! Also, one note I should have made yesterday: if you make lemon oatmeal, you should probably use non-dairy milk or water. It definitely curdled a bit-I was expecting this but I didn’t have anything else to use so I just lived with it.

Lunch after Bio was enjoyed in the sunlight. More frozen meatballs, half an avocado with lemon sea salt, and some roasted veggies.

Today was actually really hot, which I totally wasn’t expecting. I didn’t even think to check the weather! However, I was smart and brought a warm jacket to Bio because that lecture hall is always FREEZING!

After finishing eating, I was still a bit hungry and realized I didn’t have many carbs with the meal, and I was craving lemon. As a result, I picked up a bar at a local cafe.

And since I’m on this lemon kick, I have an idea of something to make! Hopefully this weekend I can make it happen-and hopefully it turns out! Any guesses? 😉

As a snack before Crossfit, I ended up having some carrots with avocado, and a banana with sun butter. Which was large enough to eliminate my run. On the plus side, all my Advil, ice, and elevation seems to have paid off-my Achilles was much better this morning, and nearly perfect by the afternoon! It’s so bizarre how it flares up-but it’s good that I can treat it fairly well. To be perfectly honest, 50% of the time that it gets bad, it’s totally my fault. If I’m really with with ice after runs and Advil, I can usually manage it much better than I do. One problem with running in the morning before class is I sometimes run out of time to ice.

Crossfit today was some work on cleans, and then am AMRAP of push ups, double unders (I did singles-didn’t want to push my Achilles too much!), and single arm dumb bell snatches. I must say, the single arm snatches brought me back to my high school weight lifting days-I used to do them all the time, although I landed in a split stance!

In terms of fitness, I’m kind of on the fence on…well, everything. I really miss the weight lifting workouts I used to do with my trainer in high school. And I’m pretty sure if I did some of them on my own (I wrote a lot of them down), and made some of my own lifting workouts with a specific schedule/program, I could get a lot stronger, faster. But I really do enjoy Crossfit-it’s something I do for fun! And I guess I don’t see an immediate need for getting super fit. So it’s something to think about I guess! And it’s not like I’m going to do 2-a-days with weight lifting just to fit them both in!

After Crossfit, I was hungry enough to decide to forgo the run, but full enough from my big snack earlier that I wanted something on the lighter side. I made a giant salad with lemon dressing, and had a few pieces of pesto on the side. Hit the spot!

Today, I got my housing assigned for next year! Junior year has the worst housing, but I got exactly what I wanted-a 2 room double on the quiet side of campus (and next to the shiny new gym), right next to the best dining hall on campus! Win!

WIAW-Nothing Crazy

Date: May 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Here we are, in the middle of the week. Who’s ready to celebrate WIAW? Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting the weekly party!

Before I get into some eats, I want to talk about my nutrition and exercise as of late. I recently posted about some weight gain that I wasn’t happy with. As a result, I’ve been taking a closer look at my eating habits and I’ve been working on my nutrition. I read a few chapters from one of my favorite sports nutrition books-Nancy Clark’s Guide for Athletes-and formulated a plan that is reasonable and long term. I’m not looking for a quick fix because I have habits I developed in college that need to change. One thing I did decide to do was to build in a small amount of sweets each day. While I usually feel best when I completely eliminate sugar, I tend to also feel deprived. And this way, I’m not tempted by every sweet that comes my way because I know I’ll have a little something later.

Now let’s talk about today’s workouts! My Achilles was understandably inflamed after Bay to Breakers. It was feeling surprisingly good on Monday evening until I ran the bases during softball. Now, it’s flared up pretty badly. As in, I couldn’t really walk this morning. It’s always worse in the morning before I loosen it up, so I hobbled to the gym in hopes of loosening it up gently. I took a spin class, which helps because it’s not directly using the part that hurts, but it moves it enough to break through some of the stiffness. Then, I went to yoga because I think tightness throughout my legs is a big part of the problem. Just to clarify-neither of these activities were a major problem for it, and I was walking a bit better afterwards. In yoga, we sat with our feet up against the wall to begin class. Given my Achilles is inflamed, elevation definitely helps! After class, I was still in quite a bit of pain so I triple multi tasked by icing, elevating with my legs up the wall, and practicing my oral presentation (and I looked ridiculous).

It felt SO much better after that-though definitely still painful. I’m hoping I can reduce the inflammation through lots of ice and Advil in the next few days! I wanted to run this afternoon, but I decided that would be stupid. I went to Crossfit, which had no running, and nothing that would bother it.

The workout started out with 10 minutes of 3 reps of push press on the minute, with strict pull ups for the rest of the minute.

Then, we did 3 sets of 500m rows, with negative splits on each. I actually felt like the rows were getting easier-I felt stronger on the later sets! However, my legs were majorly jello. We followed this with abs, so I was pretty much just jello.

OKAY. Now, I promise we’ll get on to the food! One thing to note-I only have 3 weeks left of school, and I seem to have build up quite the supply of frozen meat (what? right??). So that will be featured quite a bit in lunches for a while!

Monday morning I had a strange but energizing breakfast of a much needed cappuccino (yayy 2:30am bedtimes!) and roasted carrots with an orange.

Lunch was courtesy of the freezer-frozen turkey/chicken meatballs from a Blogilates recipe, topped with Garlic and Herb Laughing Cow. Served alongside more roasted carrots. Notice all the roasted carrots? I finally decided to stop being lazy, and I made some in the dorm oven. The verdict? Definitely not the best I’ve made-they needed to be cooked longer!

Monday was spent frantically cramming for a midterm, so dinner was eaten with a side of Photosynthesis. I had a turkey burger with cheese (no bun), a salad, and originally rice, but I wasn’t a fan so I went back and got sweet potatoes. Also, there was a warm, buttered roll. It’s amazing how good warm bread with butter is!

Tuesday morning after my workout, I refueled with some oatmeal I had made in the microwave the previous day-Lemon Poppyseed Oatmeal! I loved the freshness of the lemon, although I did add some honey because the oatmeal was pretty sour-but this could be partly because my banana wasn’t super ripe! I topped it with sunflower seed butter, because everything is better with nut/seed butter of some kind, right?

I really want to try this recipe, but with key lime instead of lemon! (And omitting poppy seeds-maybe some graham crackers crumbs though?) This is so perfect for summer! (I actually ate this cold because I made it the day before.)

Lunch was more frozen meat-but clearly not in the frozen form! Plus more roasted carrots, and an avocado I picked up the other day.

Since my lunch was packed and I brought my avocado unopened, I wanted to salt my avocado, but I knew my salt shaker would spill salt everywhere if I brought it. Instead, I decided to try a new salt seasoning from Trader Joe’s, which has a grind dispenser. I really, really liked it! It tasted very summery as well-this summer may just be the year of the lemon for me!

Snacks through out the day included half a banana with sun butter, snap peas (such a good impulse buy the previous night), and a much, much needed cappuccino that tasted like milk of the gods. Let’s just say that I haven’t slept anywhere near enough lately and didn’t have time for one before my first class, so it was actually the best thing ever.

After Crossfit, dinner was at the dining hall.They had barbecue chicken today, which was a change, so I centered my meal around that. I put my chicken atop a salad with lemon vinaigrette-and I just realized that lemon really does seem to be the theme today! I also grabbed a mystery tamale which turned out to be chicken and cheese, and a few bites of polenta.

And for my daily dose of dessert?

Yummm.

That’s all I have for today. I’ve dead tired and my room currently looks like sorority exploded on it, as if it wasn’t messy enough already! It’s Big-Little week for my sorority so I’m breaking out the arts and crafts.

What’s one of your favorite summer flavors?

Back to Life (WIAW)

Date: April 15, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

WHEW. What an absolutely insane couple of days! My schedule was insane and I’m still running around a bit like a crazy person but it’s whatever. Since I haven’t posted food in forever, this will double as WIAW!

Things didn’t get too super crazy until Friday. Thursday I got sound wave treatment on my Achilles. It was kind of strange, kind of painful, and extremely short. I have to go back 2 more times. I think it helped? I’ve been on my feet ALL weekend which normally KILLS my achilles, and I have been able to walk so I’m taking that as a good sign! Here’s some Thursday food:

So, the dining hall has been stepping up breakfast lately. Bread pudding? Of course I’m going to try that! I’m kind of in love with the blueberry bread pudding. SO good. But really sweet for breakfast! Next time I might bring some back for later! They also had sticky buns.

Lunch-carrots and meatballs. With a side of finally declaring my major! Bio all the way!

I love the shirt, haha!

Super simple dinner-chicken caesar salad and a warm, buttery roll. Sometimes the simplest things are the best. This was followed by a treat thought-the dining hall had a big fat of HOT brownie!

Umm YUM. Friday morning I did a weight lifting work out that didn’t use my achilles so it could rest after the treatment. I did front squats, good mornings, back squats, and RDLs, and then finished with abs.

Breakfast was actually in the dining hall! I tried a weird mixture of steel cut oats, cottage cheese, golden raisins, and later banana, and really wasn’t feeling it. Also pictured is blueberry bread pudding. 🙂

Hey, you can’t win them all! So, the craziness REALLY got underway. Friday I met with a girl in my sorority for dinner….at 3:45….to talk about her experience abroad in Chile. We had to meet to start prepping everything at 4:30. Last weekend was formal recruitment for my sorority. The way my school handles this is that every girl has to go to these little “parties” with every chapter. So Friday we were there 4:30-12:30, and I didn’t get in bed until 3. My entire Saturday consisted of sleeping ish in, Crossfit, a quick trip to Whole Foods, a nap, and then returning for night 2 of recruitment. I went to Whole Foods for one reason: it’s the absolute best time of year.

MANGO SEASON. When they start going on sale is when they really start being great. I bought 8 mangoes. Which I will admit is a far cry from the 29 I had last year… I also picked up a quick lunch. Brunch? Dinner?

A green smoothie and a blueberry muffin. My meal schedule was so weird. I had very few actual meals. Saturday, we were there from 5pm-2am, when we were physically kicked out of the building. Sunday, unless you count the pb&j (ish) tortilla at 2, my dinner consisted of animal crackers. So there’s that. I was really dreading rush, I must admit, but it ended up being pretty fun. I met and talked to some pretty cool people, and had a shockingly good time performing a ridiculous dance for all our potential new members. There is a video, but I’m pretty sure the Internet does not need to see that. I also developed some bizarre allergy thing on Friday, AKA right as all this craziness started. I must be allergic to something that was blooming, because it’s a lot better now. However, my weird allergy thing plus talking to people for 7 hours a night, plus screaming and singing insanely, my voice has been GONE since Saturday. By the end of the night, I could barely make a sound. The last girl I talked to was legitimately concerned for me! The craziness continued after rush for me-I got out at midnight on Sunday night, and had the pleasure of going home to write and prepare an oral presentation for the next day, as well as write a Spanish paper. Monday was filled with class and meetings, and a bid day party for our new members. We didn’t get as many as we would have liked, especially given all the time and energy we put into the process, but it is what it is.

Me plus my giraffe, and a baby giraffe for a new member. The craziness continued through this morning. We hosted a breakfast for new members…in my dorm room at 7am. So my room needed to be clean, and I needed to be awake. I didn’t get a chance for a workout at all yesterday, and the day before all I had time for was 20 minutes of HIIT on the Spin bike! Craziness!

Breakfast was matzah eggs and fruit, since it’s Passover and we’re a historically Jewish sorority. And before class, I made sure to grab coffee. I actually went with my sister! My real sister who despite the fact that she goes to the same school as me, you never see her pop up on here because I never see her!

Big sis and little sis coffee. I will never understand how she can handle so much more caffeine than I can! Ok-WHEW. We’re almost caught up. On the workout front, I decided to run TO Crossfit today. It’s just over 2 miles each way, so it made for a good first run post-half marathon. It was definitely more difficult on the way back though! And LASTLY (I promise, I know this has been a marathon post), dinner tonight: a beautiful avocado atop sweet potato, turkey meatball, and salsa.

And now, I’m off to get a start on the million and one things I need to do today!

Catch me up on your lives-what’s new?

Bouncing Back

Date: November 13, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

After yesterday‘s overconsumption of sweets, I want to show that bouncing back from a blah day really isn’t hard. Here are a few tips:

1. Morning workout-this is pretty much guaranteed to make me feel better.

2. Probiotics. Kevita/kombucha saves me from stomachaches every time.

This is probably my favorite flavor. I’m not thrilled that Kevita has stevia though…not a fan.

3. Eat something delicious and wholesome-this means lots of veggies!

Let’s start with the first one.

I know that this workout would be a doozy given the paces for the run, and the fact that the squat portion (5 pounds lighter) immobilized me for quite a few days last week. I also knew it would be a bit of a time crunch since I had to race between the track and gym (although they are across the street), and let’s be honest-when I have to get to morning classes, I always run out of time.

The run kicked my butt. That was totally expected. I had to walk a little between sets, which was not called for on the workout but whatever. I also definitely didn’t hit the paces-the workout was probably made for someone a lot faster than me. I was pretty close/sometimes on the pace for the 3 minutes, but it’t not exactly a recovery pace for me! Overall, I loved this one though-quick and incredibly effective. This may become a workout staple as I try to pick up speed.

The squats were no where near as bad as I expected, and I doubt I’ll be super sore like last time-the difference a week makes! I didn’t get through all the push presses/good mornings, or the hollow rocks and one of the rows. I’m planning on squeezing in a full rowing workout tomorrow evening since I have nothing else on the schedule.

My arches have been bothering me a lot lately-I think it’s due to tendonitis in my achilles. Fun fact-I had bad tendonitis in my achilles in third grade. Yes, third grade. That right there should tell you something about my genes (i.e. they suck). I haven’t had much of a problem with tendonitis basically since then though. I think the long run a couple of weeks ago, maybe combined with a different style of running (fast), and maybe mainly aggravated by some intense rolling out of the achilles tendons in Crossfit-they’ve been feeling wonky since then and I think maybe that caused something to flare up. I’m hoping advil will help bring down the inflammation. The good news is it’s the type of thing that feels a lot better after rolling out with a lacrosse ball, and is pretty much fine once I’m warmed up. You don’t warm up to walk around in daily life though!

The only food pictures I have for you today are these:

I think I’m in love with persimmons. End of story.

And this delicious feast, courtesy of Carrots n Cake.

Brussels sprouts, garlic and herb laughing cow, chicken sausage. So delicious. Such perfection.

Tell me something about your week!