Why This Half Training Will Be Different

Date: January 30, 2014

Author: astottler

Hey guys! I’m solidly in the middle of week 2 now! And some things are changing-I’ll discuss in a minute!

Let’s back it up a bit, shall we?

Wednesday morning I went to the gym for a Crossfit-like workout (basically the one they did on Tuesday that I couldn’t make), plus 2 miles on the treadmill. The workout was working on hang cleans, and the conditioning part was 3 rounds of 500m row, 21 pull ups (assisted), and 21 push ups. The sad thing about this workout is it definitely made me realize my knee isn’t 100%. I had some trouble with the rowing! Also, I have a mystery bruise on the top of my foot, right along one of the seams…so that feels fabulous.

I went to the dining hall for breakfast-I really wanted a change of pace! Sadly they didn’t have just egg whites (which can be less sketchy), but I went with plain scrambled eggs and egg onion, spinach, and cheese. Plus a side of fruit!

Wednesday was a little crazy-I had an evening midterm, which needed to be studied for. Plus, I had lots to do for Thursday! I actually got 9 hours of sleep Tuesday night, and it was absolutely glorious. And I’m currently contemplating bed…

Anyways, here’s my randomly packed lunch-totally normal to eat turkey burgers and corn on the cob out of a bag, right??

This filled me up SO MUCH. This is the change I was talking about-when I get full, I’m SO FULL CAN’T EAT ANOTHER BITE. And when I’m hungry, I’m KILL ME NOW I’M STARVING hungry. I’m not sure if this is my metabolism changing?

Fun fact-did you know that polyunsaturated fats get used as hormones that regulate metabolism? So maybe this is because I’m eating more fat?

Now I’m thinking it may be something else though-like my body adjusting to more fiber/different foods. Today, I couldn’t eat a ton without being TOTALLY stuffed.

But on that theme, I left studying to come back to my room and eat a snack-the last of the yogurt from the giant container, with berries and sunflower seed butter.

If you can’t tell, I’m running a little low on bowls. And utensils…I ate my soup off of a plate.

I have real, non-paper bowls but they’re really deep, and since the soup got thinner when it thawed, all the goodies on top sink to the bottom. So plate=problem solved…?

My test went fine. Which is good. And I was on top of things enough that I wasn’t up crazy late (5 hours of sleep-yay!).

The next morning I went to spin, and studied for my morning midterm while eating. Breakfast was 0% Greek yogurt+mashed banana+cocoa powder. I poured everything onto a (you guessed it) plate, and it’s amazing how much yogurt comes out of a tiny container!

I ended up finishing my Nutrition midterm 30 minutes early-this stuff is my jam 🙂 So I had plenty of time to do my pre-lab before my afternoon class.

For lunch, I went with something small and more moderate-butter sage mashed sweet potatoes-but I didn’t want to waste the skin, so I stuffed them! Yum!

Look how it compacted after rolling around in the container all day!

After lab, I had a snack of sunflower seed butter (the last of it 🙁 ) and an apple, plus corn on the cob (totally normal, right??). Then, Crossfit. We didn’t have strength today-just mobility. Which basically meant foam rolling for half the time. Since my race is coming up, I wanted an easier type of workout anyways! The WOD ended up being worse than expected-we did 10, 9, 8, 7,….1 thrusters, with 90 jump ropes between each set, followed by an 800m run at the end. My shoulders are still really sore from push presses on Tuesday, so that was kind of terrible.

I pushed the run a lot at the end, and ended up feeling kind of sick, thanks to whatever changes are going on. I’m kind of concerned about this given my 5k is this Sunday, and that naturally has a tendency towards nausea. I think I may to stick to lower fiber/easier to digest foods or something! I think I’m going to have kombucha tomorrow morning too.

I forced myself to eat something afterwards-what ended up working the best was the brown rice fried rice (not really fried rice, they just like giving their rice different names to seem fancier.)

Veggies weren’t that appealing (but maybe the veggies choices also weren’t great), and I ate a lot of the tofu. Plus this mini plate with more rice and chicken, and a little pineapple.

So hopefully whatever is going on resolves itself-this is really strange! But I guess your body will react when you completely change what you’re eating!

Oh, and I came back to my dorm to find this:

Yes, that is my door. (And by that I mean the door I always use to enter/exit my dorm). No clue how that happened. #collegelife

One story is someone was mad and kicked it in. Another is someone accidentally ran into it. Not sure how that is possible….

In fitness news-why is this half training different? Besides the fact that I’ll be doing more speed work than before, some of the longer runs may be a bit more…unconventional. Why? I’m doing a Tough Mudder! The weekend after my half…the timing isn’t ideal, but I’m doing it with my sister and her boyfriend. We’re trying to get up a bigger group as well! So some of my longer runs may incorporate more strength elements-like running 5 miles, doing Crossfit, running 5 miles. Or doing some type of strength move every mile. That would definitely break up the monotony of a treadmill run as well!

Can I confess something? I’m on week 2 of my project…and I don’t feel different. Maybe feeling good is my new normal (I think this is the case), but I want to keep seeing changes! I’m scared this project won’t work. That after 4 months nothing will be different. That my theories were wrong. And I understand that it’s really too soon to tell whether this will be life changing, but I’m impatient. I would just feel really silly if after 4 weeks, nothing happens. I mean, I’m definitely developing new habits and trying new things, which is great, but do you have any idea how many cookies I’ve passed up on? I never realized how abundant cookies are on a college campus. They even had cookies for us after the bio midterm! But I know I need to be patient. And I’m determined to stick with this. And get more sleep…I’m actually not sleep deprived right now thanks to Tuesday night, but I know it will happen again if I don’t make sleep more of a priority. One of my chem friends today was super sleep deprived, to the point it was amusing to witness. Remember last Thursday when I was running on 3 hours of sleep? I was flat out delirious. Inspired, yes. Very inspired. But totally delirious. I’m running out of energy here-and since no more work needs to be done today, bed sounds really nice right now. Maybe I am more sleep deprived than I thought?

Have you ever done any type of obstacle course race?

WIAW-Oatmeal, Oatmeal, and More Oatmeal

Date: January 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! How’s the week treating you guys? I’m definitely dragging. Midterm season is officially upon us. Yayyy. Thanks to Jenn for the food party!

This morning I got in a quick treadmill run. The good news? My feet are still cooperating. I guess this ‘no processed food’ business really is doing something? The true test will come when I start half training soon!

Breakfast was leftover banana egg white oats with yogurt stirred in.

I apologize that everything I eat is in a cup. I then topped it with some berry compote.

Plus a little crockpot oatmeal-but more on that in a minute!

Lunch was eaten outside in the beautiful weather-although I think we’re getting rain soon!

Brussels sprouts tossed in balsamic dressing plus a turkey burger.

And this:

I definitely thought this was a blood orange, so I packed it in my lunch. Upon further inspection, it was clear something was up. It was a Meyer lemon! Meyer lemons are a cross between oranges and lemons, and I was convinced to try it anyways.

Yeah, it’s still just like eating a lemon.

So, yesterday, we made applesauce in my roommate’s crockpot. Since it was out, last night she put in the mixings for baked oatmeal, which I HAD to try this morning, as it smelled amazing. When I returned from class, she was fiddling with it a little more. She added all kinds of things-banana, raisins, cinnamon, dates, egg, pumpkin.

After cooking all day, the texture was more like a sticky pudding-very soft.

Then, we tried to make a quick bread type of deal out of it by adding more egg and coconut flour, and cooking further.

It baked a little on top, but it was just too wet for bread. The texture because a thick, stick to your rips custard type of deal. Definitely good, but not really resembling oatmeal or quick bread! But still a great snack on a cold (ish) afternoon!

Dinner was at the dining hall. After talking about fats on here yesterday, and talking this morning about how fish oil is the ideal type of fat, I was pretty excited to see fish at the dining hall that didn’t appear to go off my project!

Plus, I was ready to load up on veggies!

Tilapia, a simple spinach salad, cabbage salad, mushrooms, and some type of potato dish.

And a baby plate of cilantro rice, more potatoes, and green beans.

Plus a little bit of applesauce.

It was a good day of food! But not going to lie, there are only so many ways you can do oatmeal, bananas, and yogurt. I’m getting so tired of them! I think I’m going to try to go to the dining hall for eggs tomorrow, but still not the most exciting option!

Any good ideas for breakfast that have no sugar and are easy? (As in dorm friendly…)

Things Break Down (And Science Doesn’t Lie!)

Date: January 26, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys!

I wan’t really feeling the posting today…but I’m keeping it real here on the ol’ blog. In terms of the project, things are a little hot and cold.

Last night, I ended up making homemade chocolate-it was really good! Super rich, super dark, not that sweet. It was simply coconut oil, maple syrup, and cocoa powder.

Last night was spend studying and hanging out with friends. And maybe singing to ’90s music at 1am.

This morning I woke up and stabbed myself for the sake of science.

I read the directions (yay) and successfully took my blood sugar! It was lower than last March, but still on the high side of healthy, so there should be some improvements, hopefully! My roommate’s blood sugar was on the lower end of healthy, so it’s unlikely she’ll see much of a drop.

For breakfast, I tested out my pre-race breakfast.

Banana and egg oatmeal! This was a little different than how I normally make it-I used extra thick rolled oats instead of instant (so I soaked them overnight), and a whole egg instead of egg whites. Plus, I normally make this with almond milk, but that’s not technically allowed, and i don’t really want dairy before a hard run, so I just used water.

Remember how I was craving bananas so much?

I’m SO. SICK. OF. THEM. Banana overload!

Plus a kiwi.

For this morning’s workout, I wanted to do a pace run. I went to the track and did 2 miles at race pace. And it was doable! Let’s just hope I can push out another mile at that pace!

Plus the course isn’t exactly totally flat…and it’s never exactly 3.1…but I still have a week to get faster and stronger, right??

I followed the run with some weights-back lunges, single leg RDLs, and abs.

And then-lunchtime!

Salad with oil and vinegar, mixed grain salad, and a garden burger with cheese cubes. Not totally sure on these ingredients, but I felt good after so we’ll go with it! Plus nonfat plain Greek yogurt with pineapple. Ignore the strawberry mess-I was hoping it would be without any added sugar, but a small taste immediately told me otherwise!

Later in the day is where things started to break down. I felt SO great. I kept thinking how I barely notice feeling great anymore because it’s my new normal! But then I was hungry. So I had a snack.

Yesterday I talked about “fake” desserts-which for the record I should especially avoid because my stomach was not a big fan of all the coconut flour. Today, I’m talking about “real” desserts that don’t seem real. It’s science people! (kidding-that probably makes no sense.)

Over the last couple of days, I’ve had a decent amount of sugar. But it’s “natural” sugar, so totally doesn’t count, right? But here’s the crazy thing. In your body, sugar is basically just sugar. And if you’re sensitive to sugar anyway, and then you try to avoid it, you’re likely going to react to natural sugars as well.

I’ve had a few too many dates and dried mangoes lately…and I feel it. And I react no differently than regular sugar.

I feel sick. I can’t focus. I’m anxious. I want more sweet stuff.

So I caved. It happened. I’m being honest with you guys. But I’m also learning from it.

How did I feel? Gross. Sick. Panicky (this is probably not a normal reaction to sugar but it always makes me crazy).

But what did I do about it?

I learned from my mistake.

1. Sugar tastes good. Desserts are great. But I’ve never been one of those people that handles sugar well, and I honestly should try to keep it out of my life. For me, the worst effect is mental. To be clear-the problem is NOT that I beat myself up over it, but I’ve always had bad reactions. My heart races, I get really hot, my hormones go crazy. Those physical responses lead to anxiety, lack of focus, feelings of panic. Which makes sense-those physical symptoms evolutionarily would indicate a reason for panic (like seeing a tiger).

2. Sugar is sugar. Sugar makes me crave sugar. Dried fruits (especially dates) are still sugar. And I need to be more careful.

3. I can’t wallow in self pity. Feeling bad about not being able to eat things is a recipe for failure-I need to focus on the delicious things I’m CHOOSING to eat (not just that I CAN eat).

4. I may need to take a step back. From the Internet world. Just for a little while-I love looking at pictures of froyo and chocolate and muffins, but if I’m going to finish this thing, I need to limit my exposure. But I have midterms anyways so there’s that distraction…

Oh, and here’s dinner:

Bottom line: I really want to finish this strong. The changes I’m seeing and feeling are amazing. My confidence is higher than I can even remember. And I’ll do whatever I need to do to finish this out. Depending on what’s happening 3 weeks from now, I may go an extra week to really do a full month. But given the changes I felt in a week, we’ll see.

Another thing I’m recognizing: just HOW MANY occasions come up that I would have grabbed a sweet at. Multiple cookie parties, giant cookies at late night, waffles and muffins for brunch. I now understand exactly where the Freshman 15 comes from!

So-yes. I slipped up. But I’m not going to sit here and complain about it, because it’s an opportunity to learn.

To be quite frank, the thing that worries me the most is life post-Project. After the difference in how I felt this morning vs. after sugar, I don’t know how I can possibly function in a life with sugar. Yes, I have the biggest sweet tooth, but I also have a really bad reaction to it. I don’t know how I can go through life functioning and feeling good with it. I feel like a lot of the stress I felt last year was a result of overconsumption of sugar. It’s crazy how things work, isn’t it?? I wish I understood WHY I’m so sensitive!

But-tomorrow is another day! Please don’t take this post as me complaining and feeling bad about eating sugar. I’m only posting because I want to be honest with you guys, and I do think it’s an important learning experience. And remember-the things my body responds to are completely different for a lot of other people! Some people can have a moderate amount of sugar everyday and it works for them-if this is the case for you, but all means go for it! These are just my experiences.

I think I’ve asked this before, but: any ideas on how to be get magically fast in a week??

Teaching Yoga

Date: January 24, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Who’s glad it’s the weekend?? It’s a little bittersweet for me because my to-do list is off the charts…how is it already midterm season?? (As is reflected by my coffee consumption.) If I did this challenge without coffee, I would actually be dead.

For whatever it’s worth though, I am slowly catching up on sleep. Last night I went to bed fairly early and I took a nap today!

Let’s rewind on the food front a bit to last night first!

Nothing new here-I am still not tired of this!

Let’s pretend that this is an artsy shot and not just me being impatient. These pink ladies are from out CSA box, and they’re phenomenal!

After dinner I took a quick nap before yoga-and then had some unsweetened chocolate to wake me up.

Then-yoga time! I made up a sequence-with no clue how long it would take (it ended up being about half an hour but I cut it a little short).

Ignore my spelling and/or totally made up descriptions for things I couldn’t remember the name of.

It was SO MUCH FUN. I channeled my inner yoga teacher-I have one teacher who I’ve gone to for years, and can basically quote word for word. It was awesome-I felt strong and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t do anything that would reflect my lack of flexibility too much!

Kinda awkward picture but I’m the one facing everybody. This made me realize I need to do my own yoga practice! I’m totally capable of making a “class” for myself, and it felt so great! I just wish it were a little warmer so I could be outside!

Guys. I feel like I’ve made so many new friends already this quarter! It’s wonderful and it warms my heart.

This morning, I went to the gym for a treadmill workout. I did the one where I do a mile at my goal pace, and then 10 intervals of 2 minutes at a faster pace (with walking in between). To up the challenge, I did the first mile and 2 intervals at a 1.0 incline. It’s interesting-I’ve done this workout a lot and it varies a lot based on how I’m feeling. The first time I did it was over break, when I would do it AFTER spin. My legs felt kind of heavy when I woke up this morning, and man was it hard today. I’m thinking that’s most likely due to sleep deprivation. But at the same time, I think my running has definitely gone downhill in the last couple of months-all my distance training is gone, so I’ve lost a decent part of my endurance base. The frustrating part is that I really can’t do any long distance runs with my tendonitis at this point.

I had a few of my pre workout balls before the run, and then coffee after, plus this bowl of deliciousness:

Plain yogurt, pink lady apple, and sunflower seed butter. Plus a kiwi. I’ve eaten so many kiwis today! We’ve been getting them in our CSA box, but I never really ate them much! They’re super ripe, and definitely the best kiwis I’ve had.

I also took some ‘abs’ pictures today to have some visual record of this project. I think I’d really need a 6 pack by the end of 4 weeks though to have my abs circulating the Internet…yeah I should probably do some abwork…But still, I probably won’t post these pictures-it’s just to notice differences.

After class, I had every intention of working, but I ended up getting hungry early-weird because I ate a late breakfast. Since I was done for the day, I actually got to have a hot lunch!

Same old, same old with balsamic dressing on the asparagus.

After my nap, I did a little banana experimenting. I have an idea for next week’s pre workout balls, and I used a little mashed banana to test that. I know they’ll taste fabulous, but not sure how they’ll feel pre workout!

I had the rest of the banana with cocoa powder and yogurt.

Something about this snack just unleashed the hunger in me! Before Crossfit, I had a nice little meatsicle, some sweet potatoes, and some dried mango.

file:///Users/stottler/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Previews/2014/01/23/20140123-163711/zSfuddS1QoO2JZS77Q690g/IMG_6331.jpg

Plus, I’ve been having handfuls of this:

I think I’ve been having a little too much coconut and sunflower seed butter these last couple of days though-I’m feeling a little bit off from all the fat/fiber in the coconut!

Today in Crossfit, the WOD was wall balls and toes to bar (which I can’t do fully). For some reason, lately my usual 14 lb wall ball has been feeling insanely light. Which is funny because my arms have felt a little week lately-I can’t even remember the last time I did pull ups!

After Crossfit, I made a valiant effort to get the rest of the things I need for the blood sugar test, but I couldn’t find parking so I gave up!

I attempted my first dinner at the dining hall. I did reasonably well-the chicken rice soup said it contained wheat, which meant it was probably just a little to thicken so I let it go. Then I realized it was white rice, which is technically processed, but oh well. The real star was the black bean and corn salads-which I mixed together.

So-what does the future hold? Next week I want to try to go to the dining hall more-but it doesn’t always fit in my schedule and I still have an entire container of soup in the freezer-and I love soup for dinner! For breakfasts, yogurt or overnight oats with berry compote, or maybe dining hall food (eggs/fruit). For lunches, I still have a frozen meal, but I want to make quinoa fried rice-quinoa, tons of veggies, egg, leftover chicken, garlic, etc. Plus a new variety of energy balls.

Also-look out for a post about fat. That’s this week’s topic in nutrition, and I think it helps clarify a lot about the different types of fat!

And I’m sorry-I’m a little behind on responding to comments because I normally do that on my phone, but I got the updated app and it’s a little funky! I will get right on it though 🙂

Any suggestions on how I can get magically fast in the next week?

My race is next weekend! (5k)

WIAW-Unproccessed Food

Date: January 21, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Which means, it’s none other than What I Ate Wednesday-a big thanks to Jenn for hosting!

My morning started bright and early so I could lead weight training to quidditch. I put together my breakfast the night before so it would be quick and easy in the dark.

This.

THIS. SO GOOD-I felt like I was eating a pb&j sandwich. Fun fact-did you know I ate pb&j everyday for about 3 years? It was sophisticated too-different peanut butters, ALWAYS two types of jam (each half was different). And somehow now my body rebels at nuts-go figure. ANYWAYS. This is plain greek yogurt topped with sunflower seed butter and mixed berry compote. The mixed berry compote? I hinted at it yesterday. So easy. So good.

Take a bag of frozen berries (i added a few frozen cherries to the mix as well).

Simmer on stove at low heat for a couple of hours-until the berries thicken. Or throw in the slow cooker-we have one in our room and that is going to happen at some point.

Result: deliciousness. No sugar needed.

Quidditch training went really well-today was the first week we repeated a workout, and the improvements were insane! I mean, there’s a lot of form improvement as well as strength, so the increase in the weights they used was huge. On back squats, most people moved up 20-30 pounds! One guy who lifts on his own couldn’t get very low on his squats a couple of weeks ago. He’s been working on it, and now his form was WAY better, and he lifted 30 pounds heavier! It’s so excited-I’m so proud!

One guy made me check that his form was good because he was using way heavier weights than last time, but it felt so much easier that he was sure he must be doing something wrong. And on top of just the strength, everyone did more rounds of the timed conditioning.

The best part? We got through everything smoothly and quickly so I had time for coffee before my first class.

Lunch after class was prepacked-chicken, asparagus, and brown butter sage mashed sweet potatoes.

Before my 4:15 class, I got an email that I needed to be somewhere at 7, so I had to reschedule Crossfit and rush straight form my last class, so before class I went back to my room to change and eat a quick snack. I had the biggest banana craving EVER. Like, I would have killed for a banana. Ohhh what eating well does to us. I ended up buying a banana on the way back.

I also had a couple of squares of unsweetened chocolate, on with sunflower seed butter and the other without.

But banana and sunflower seed butter? Hit. The. Spot.

Plus a spoon of berry compote and a cutie.

Unsweetened dark chocolate is intense-it’s hard to eat too much. I now know my limit-not 2 squares. I was a bit wired/heart racing. Noted.

I made it to Crossfit on time-I could do everything in today’s workout with my knee, although I had to be careful to really get high on the box jumps so that I wouldn’t land in a deep squat. My knee is doing way better-I can squat if I’m SUPER careful, so that’s a good sign (although it feels a little stiff now, so I should ice!). I’m planning on going to weight lifting tomorrow, but instead of doing full lifts, I’m going to do power lifts instead. For those that don’t know, the difference between a full and a power lift is that full lifts finish in a squat, and power lifts catch the bar standing up.

Dinner tonight was sort of late (and therefore from my fridge). I am going to make some attempts at the dining hall soon, but I didn’t get back from various things until late, and the dining hall would have been closing.

While I heated my soup, I munched on some grilled chicken with homemade ketchup.

It’s totally normal to eat this as a meat-sicle, right? I mean, it saves a knife….

And then the main course-butternut squash soup with modified cranberry relish and creme fraiche.

I also had a small bite of the unsweetened chocolate to give the meal some finality.

Overall, I’ve felt great these past 2 days. Better today than yesterday-maybe it was more caffeine, or maybe sugar withdrawals are over. I’ve leaned out a little in the last 2 days, simply because I’m not eating junk, and my body is flushing out all the cake/muffins/chips I ate over the weekend. In other words-the starting weight measurement from Monday really wasn’t representative of where I was, but we’ll go with it. In terms of the other data-my sister is sick so she couldn’t do blood pressure, and I decided that I am not sticking my finger with a sewing needle, because that is going to hurt too much, so I can’t take blood sugar until I get the lancets. And that is not a priority when I have schoolwork deadlines breathing down my neck!

It’s really interesting to me the foods that I’m seeking out-like bananas. I’m actually having less trouble eating like this because there are fewer options, and things are pretty much laid out for me.

What’s also interesting is my macronutrient composition. I was thinking I was not eating enough protein, which was probably true, although it’s still in the healthy range.

But then eliminate sugars, and there’s more space for the good stuff-here’s what the past couple of days have looked like:

I’m on the low end of carbohydrate and the high end of fat (thanks Nutrition class for that knowledge), but I think that will probably shift as the week goes on-I tend to want more carbs later in the week, so I’m trying to make sure I replenish the carbs I’m using. That being said, despite the government’s macronutrient recommendations, people function very well on a wide variety of intakes-some cultures eat mostly fat and are healthy. Others eat mostly carbs and are healthy. (I’m not talking about the typical American diet). What I’m saying is people are really good at functioning well on diets with whole foods, despite the ratios-so the ratios really aren’t that important!

I also felt really good today in Crossfit-strong and fast (in terms of running). But this could also be because I haven’t lifted heavy much lately.

Day 2 done and I’m feeling good!

What’s the weirdest food craving you’ve had?