Choosing the Right Social Media

Date: August 18, 2014

Author: astottler

Let me just preface this post by saying that I’m not going to stop blogging.

That being said, I’ve been feeling a little lacking in motivation lately. And then I started to wonder if it’s holding me back. If constantly focusing on food/fitness is affecting me or making me obsessed.

I also haven’t been as involved in the blogging community lately. I blame this on the fact that I read lots of blog posts during my commute on my phone, and it’s a pain for me to comment on my phone, so I just don’t.

And don’t get me started on the fact that anytime I open Instagram I get hungry.

After some thinking, I’ve decided to step back a little bit in certain ways. For one thing, my phone has zero ability to hold charge, and I can’t make it through a day even without browsing social media. So I’m kind of forced to stop using my phone to browse things during my commute because Googlemaps are important for me to get home within a reasonable amount of time (yayy public transportation), so there’s that.

So here’s what I decided. One of my favorite forms of social media, Instagram, has to go. It’s influencing me too much. When I find myself about to go out and buy a Quest bar, I know I’m in trouble. Not that there is anything wrong with Quest bars-I know a ton of people love them-but they turn my stomach into knots and they have nuts (and I know I’ve reacted to them before). So when an app has me on the verge of going out and consuming an allergen, I know it’s time to step back.

I decided to be more active on Twitter. I like Twitter because it’s a small place to keep track of everything, and it’s easy to keep track of what is going on in the world.

I decided to stop reading so many blogs on my phone (partly not by choice but by necessity), and instead read them on my computer, where I can comment, interact, be more mindful, and not get run over by a bus in the process (#commutingproblems).

I think to reignite the blogging spark I need to be more active and go out there and find and read new blogs, and comment on my favorites.

I also would like to be more representative of what I’m actually doing on my blog. I guess I partly feel less motivated to blog when I’m having ice cream every day and I’m supposed to be promoting health, but ice cream is part of health.

I also worry about posting my exercise schedule. I always worry I’ll be judged for what I do-I’m not obsessed with exercise, I just really like it. I like my Crossfit friends, and love exploring DC by foot on my runs. For me, I can run in the morning and then do Crossfit at night. But that’s just what works for me! (And I definitely don’t do that every day-just to be clear).

But I’ve found that talking about exercise on my blog is a way to express all my thoughts on anything exercise related without annoying the heck out of everyone in real life. I always have to hold myself back when I see my family or all I find myself talking about is my latest run or WOD.

So that’s that. I’m going to be discussing this more later, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on social media. And since this is a food and fitness blog, here’s some food:

Breakfast: Banana custard made in the microwave because I didn’t want to dig and find my pot.

Lunch was the typical green bean salad and milk, plus yogurt, sunflower seed butter, and a twist-nectarine! (Not blueberries like every other day for the past 2 weeks.)

And dinner was at the Whole Foods Salad bar.I normally get soup+bread there for dinner on Mondays, but after trying some of the garlic-y kale the other day, I’ve been wanting more! I need to do a copycat version-it is delicious! I had that topped with Southwest chicken and some other random salad bar items. And then I impulse bought a huge piece of corn bread and ate the whole delicious thing. Cornbread here is so much better. I guess since it’s sort of the South?

And thanks for sticking with this post!

Thoughts on social media?

The Dark Side of Social Media

Date: August 14, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! This post is on a topic I’ve been thinking about a bit lately; I was unsure if I should post on it, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the matter. Also, please note-I am not trying to criticize anyone or anything! I’m just throwing some thoughts out there-and I’d love to hear your feedback.

I’m sure you guys have all come across fitspo twitter accounts. Many of them are anonymous, and the profile picture is a person’s abs or legs. People talk about their workouts and super clean food. I’m honestly not sure what I think of these. I’m curious to hear your thoughts-while it sounds similar to a healthy living blog, it just doesn’t give me the same impression. I’m not criticizing these-just observing. I guess maybe the difference is that healthy living blogs include living. Maybe they seem more balanced? Once again, I’m not sure what I think about them.

I feel like these types of accounts really open people up to comparison. I mean, sure, they’re anonymous, but the person with the account still has the opportunity to compare herself to all the other accounts. And maybe other people’s abs just are not gong to happen on every body. I guess this is my criticism with fitspo-it’s not necessarily realistic for everyone. But ok, I get it. It is motivation, and it does help people get off the couch. What concerns me a bit is thinspo. There is a whole twitter community more or less dedicated to this; many are anonymous accounts of people with eating disorders. I think it’s great that people struggling through the same thing have somewhere for support, but what else is there? If you have an eating disorder, is it the best to constantly compared? Many of the accounts post their weights, and goal weights. I guess what bothers me more is that many of these girls are young. My first response is just to want to give them a hug. But twitter is public-what about the vulnerable high school girl trying to be healthier who comes across an extreme diet plan (only hundreds of calories a day) thinking it is a healthy way to lose weight? As healthy living bloggers, we can tend to take our knowledge of health for granted. How is someone supposed to know that that isn’t healthy?

I am in no place to judge. I’m not trying to judge. I’m just wondering if constantly being up for comparison is the best thing for health.

In some anonymous twitter accounts, I feel like maybe constantly publicizing themselves is not the best in the long term.

Once again, I’m trying to be a neutral party-but I am curious about your thoughts on these types of accounts.

And while we’re at it-what would you consider healthy?

A Day of First: Kitten Nursery and Crossfit

Date: June 14, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everybody! I just got a Twitter and Instagram so follow me at @fitnessissweet and fitnessissweet!

Yesterday morning was another early wake up call-I had the morning shift at the kitten nursery at the animal shelter. Before running out the door, I had a quick breakfast of yogurt with banana and sunflower seed butter.

As soon as I got there, we went right to work. We had to clean out the kittens cages, weigh them, feed them, play with them, and then set up their cages again. When we took them out of the cages, we kept them in cardboard boxes, and then carried the boxes to a table and took them out there to play and eat. They were pretty mischievous- the boxes were so hard to close because little paws and heads kept popping out!To put it in perspective, most of them weighed about .5 lbs. The next pictures are the group of kittens we took care of last. Since we were basically done after them, we had them out for longer to play and socialize with them. This group was fast asleep when we took them from their cage. Anyone who has had kittens knows this is a recipe for disaster! Kittens have this instant on switch that brings them instantly from 0 to 60! These guys were rambunctious! So much so that the little stripy kittens wouldn’t even eat at first, they were so busy playing! On top of that, they kept trying to wander around. When there are 4 kittens on the table and one of me, there are going to be problems! They kept trying to climb onto the windowsill. The white and striped one was quite the adventurer- somehow he made it off the table without me even seeing him get near the edge! By the time we were all done though, all the kittens were snoozing. We then went back to the other kitten nursery where the even younger kittens are. These kittens can’t really eat on their own, so we learned to feed them with a syringe. It was pretty difficult-the kittens were pretty fussy! I ended up finally being able to get some food in by wrapping the little guy up in a kitten burrito. I managed to feed him enough-he even went for the food bowl a little himself! Soon though, he stopped opening his mouth, and a minute later, he was fast asleep! Having a tiny kitten fall asleep in your arms is the best thing ever. I can’t wait to go back!

When I got home, I wanted a snack, which turned into a snacky early lunch.

Edamame Leftover sweet potato fried from dinner the previous night. Turkey roll ups-big leaf lettuce with deli turkey, onions, avocado, and ketchup.I also wanted to try and recreate the delicious iced tea from the previous day. I brewed Earl Grey tea with mint leaves, and then added ice, almond milk, and a touch of honey. I loved how refreshing the mint made it, so I concentrated on that aspect. Overall, it was good but nothing really like what I had had the previous day. I think it would have been better with coconut milk, or something slightly thicker than almond milk. And the Earl Grey tea flavor kind of overwhelmed the mint. But it was quite thirst quenching all the same!I then spent some time on the old blog, attempting to figure out Twitter. I sent this to my friend asking her what it meant my username was. #clueless

If you follow me on Instagram, you can see tons of cute cat pictures such as this one 🙂Before I knew it, it was Crossfit time! It was in a warehouse right next to an indoor batting cage where my high school softball team would occasionally practice.

First, let me just say- I loved it! Everything about it-I love throwing heavy things around. I really liked the warehouse atmosphere as well-it seemed very hard core (in a good way). If you are thinking about trying Crossfit, do not be intimidated! Everyone is super nice and of different fitness levels! We began with a warm up run and stretching with the regular class, and then another new person and I broke off with a trainer to be assessed and to go through a mini WOD. The WOD we did was actually one I had done on my own before,but a shorter version. I had had to modify it when I did it at the gym at school, and it was much harder yesterday.

10 AMRAP

100 m run

5 pull-ups (banded for me)

10 push ups (chest all the way to the ground)

15 air squats

I made it through 5+ rounds in the 10 minutes. I really, really loved the atmosphere. The workouts are very similar to what I did with my trainer at the gym in the past, and the atmosphere is more what I liked about softball conditioning with other people, except everyone actually cares about working hard!

The only thing for me is since I know all the Olympic lifts (there are very few Crossfit moves I don’t know), I would really like to try and skip some of the Intro classes and dive right into the normal WODs. I really don’t want to have to sit through classes learning the lifts I’ve been working on for the past 3 years. Plus, watching everyone throw heavy weights around kind of had me drooling-knowing I can do the lifts at the same weight that they are make same want to join right in! I totally could have done the normal WOD! I need to try and see if I can somehow be fast tracked at least a bit.

But I really, really loved it. I would say I’ve been bit by the Crossfit bug, but I know I’ve been obsessed for much longer! I’m going back again Saturday, and I seriously cannot wait!

Dinner was black bean soup from this Whole Foods recipe. We didn’t want to have to wait for the beans to sit, so we got canned, and probably didn’t add enough beans, because it was pretty liquidy (normally it’s pretty thick). Still delicious though! I highly recommend this recipe. HOWEVER. One major modification I made was using vegetable broth instead of water in the soup. It’s super plain without, but has a ton of flavor with!

My bowl was really weird/pathetic looking so I took a picture of my sister’s instead!Plus a side salad.After dinner, my wimpy mouth was burning! What better solution than frozen yogurt (with chocolate sauce)?What a fabulous way to end the day!

Have you ever done Crossfit? WHat did you think?