Full Day of Eating: First Time Cooking Meat in….

Date: April 3, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Welcome back to another full day of eating!

Preworkout:

Apple Cinnamon Cheerios

The workout was Crossfit. It involved lots of double unders!

Breakfast:

Crackers eaten while packing lunch, protein shake drunk in class. Crossfit mornings can be a mad dash to get to class.

Snack/lunch dessert:

In vet school, clubs often hold fundraiser bake sales. There are rarely GF options, so if there are any, I jump at them! This was a butterscotch bar with butterscotch and chocolate chips.

Lunch:

Salad with hummus, goat cheese, and of course hard boiled eggs. GF crackers on the side.

Snack:

GF toast with fancy brie and apricot jam. This was a good combo!

Dinner:

I made a cheeseburger salad with half a baked sweet potato. For the meat, I added chopped celery to the ground turkey. I actually don’t think I’ve cooked meat all year…so this was a big step! I seasoned it with basically everything in my spice cabinet. Topped with cheese and a drizzle of ketchup for good measure.

Dessert:

Mint Halo Top with whipped cream. And then a piece of Easter candy.

Crossfit Open 18.1 and 18.2

Date: March 6, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s been a little while, but I wanted to pop in today to talk about the Crossfit Open! We’re 2/5 workouts deep in the Open right now, so I thought I would recap them! Plus, I’m in the blissful 6 days between Neuro exams!

Also, obligatory Jackson photo:

18.1:

20 minute AMRAP

8 toes to bar

10 dumbbell clean to overhead (35# dumbbells)

12 calories on the rowing machine

I signed up for the Open this year because it’s always a lot of fun. That being said, I haven’t been taking it too, too seriously.

At my Crossfit here, I think there are around 80 people signed up for the Open! Saturday mornings are pretty busy!

This workout was a long one, and pacing was definitely important. I haven’t done a whole lot of toes to bar lately, so I was pretty happy to maintain sets of 4 throughout the workout. My biggest issue was grip strength. I had really great advice before hand to hook grip on the dumbbell, and that definitely helped a lot. Honestly, the cardio here didn’t kill me until the end, but my grip was going. That being said, it’s definitely possible I was a little too conservative on pace and should have pushed myself harder! I got 225.

18.2:

12 Minute Timecap

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

dumbbell front squats (35# dumbbells)

burpees over the bar

18.2a: 1 rep max clean

This one was a little bit different. You had 12 minutes to both complete the squats and burpees, and find a maximum weight clean. This may be an unpopular opinion, but this was actually a fun one. I actually didn’t feel great going into it, and it was really the last thing I wanted to do that morning. Last week was just rough, and my body was just over it. I woke up a little sick on Saturday (though thankfully the very low fever only lasted that day?), so I was just not feeling it. For the record, I did not have a fever when I went to class. That being said, if it wasn’t for the Open I would not have worked out that day.

Anyways, going into this workout, I was a little concerned about even making it to the bar for the clean, and I was banking on only having 1 attempt. It’s sort of hard to guess an opening attempt because you have to take into account how your legs will feel after all the burpees and squats. But I also wanted to get a high number, obviously. I ended up opening with 120#, something that I was pretty confident I could get, but a number I would have been happy with.

I thought I did a decent job pacing the burpees especially, since burpees are just not a fast movement for me. I finished the work in 9:45, giving me plenty of time for the cleans. I easily got 120, then 125. 125 I power cleaned easily, so I decided to just jump all the way to 135 for my final attempt. My 1 rep max is 148, but the closest I’ve gotten in 2.5 years has been 135, which was recent, and I’ve failed at 130# since then. With 15 seconds left on the clock, I went for 135 and just slung it up. It came up SO easily, and I actually ended up power cleaning. Go figure.

I’ve always known for my Olympic lifts, I can get in my head a lot and mess up technique. I guess I just need adrenaline and not giving myself the option to fail it! Overall, again, I really liked this one. It had a lot of different components.

I’m excited to see what’s next, but I have a feeling around this week will be the point they start introducing movements that I can’t do (like muscle ups and hand stand push ups…). But we’ll see!

In other fitness news, I’m starting to slowly run on my ankle again. It gets sore when I run on it, but I think this is the next step in the recovery process. I just need to slowly build up distance, and not run more than once a week, and definitely not back to back.

The biggest thing though is that my powerlifting competition is next week! Weee! Thankfully, things finally started coming together last week, and I’m hitting the numbers I was expecting to be hitting. My squats were coming along really slowly early on, I think partly due to poor nutrition. I wasn’t getting enough carbs in before my workouts, so I didn’t have enough in me for the strength. Plus, I was neglecting protein in general. Another change I made was adding my accessory strength back in once a week for squats. In the past, whenever I did my squat program, I would do single leg squats and pistols on the same day, just to round out my leg workout. I didn’t do that for the first part of my prep, partly because hitting my 3 lifts was already taking a while. A couple of weeks ago I added it back in, and now my lifts feel WAY stronger. Go figure.

In terms of life, vet school is going as well as can be expected!

We’re currently in the Neuro block, and from what I’ve heard, this is where it gets REAL. It is definitely a cool topic though! I also found out I got accepted into a program that will allow me to work in Nashville this summer, so to say I’m excited to get back to Tennessee would be an understatement!

I haven’t taken many food pictures, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been eating the same things for the past month. I’ll share a few of the ones I have.

Butternut squash needles with cheese and an egg.

Salad and really delicious GF white pizza with ricotta.

I FINALLY made it back to the produce stand for the first time in months. Can’t beat $0.69 a pound zucchini.

Salads this time of year are with bosc pears. This is basically what I eat every single day for lunch, but with goat cheese instead of aged cheddar as pictured.

And finally, avocado toast with cumin (this is key), an egg, and feta. Super simple side salad with aged white balsamic vinegar.

That’s all for now!

Easy Butternut Squash Salad and Butternut Squash Hack

Date: January 27, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello my friends! It has been less long this time, so I consider that a win! I had a test yesterday (and I have one Monday), so naturally I’m here to blog!

Today, I’m going to share a ridiculously easy salad recipe, a fast way to make delicious butternut squash, and then do some food updates.

First, Jackson update! He’s now just over 6 pounds and is in a growth spurt. He’s eating a ton, and gained nearly a pound in the last week! He’s still a lean little guy though! He’s also currently right at my side, thinking about pouncing on the keyboard. He and my roommate’s dog have started playing together, which is adorable! He loves her toys, and she likes his as well! I think the majority of his baby teeth are gone; all his baby fangs came out. I actually found one of them embedded in the arm of my sweatshirt, because in this face he likes to grab onto my arm. (His 2 favorite ‘toys’ are my arm and my iPad, which is clearly very conducive to studying.) He also LOVES human food, and regularly gets his tongue in whatever I’m making the second I turn around. It’s a work in progress…

OKAY. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about the salad!

It’s super simple. Are you ready?

kale/lettuce
“roasted” butternut squash
aged cheddar
egg over easy
balsamic vinaigrette

So how do I cook the squash? We all know I’m a tad lazy and impatient in the kitchen. If I can’t have it on the table in 20 minutes, I’m probably not doing it. My butternut squash hack is to microwave it (with a little bit of water) until it’s soft; this works for whole squashes, or pre-cut cubes. When it’s soft, sauté it up in a pan with a little oil, until it’s brown and crispy. Basically all of the deliciousness of roasted butternut squash in a fraction of the time! I’ve been doing that meal quite a bit!

What else have I been eating?

On nights I’ve had more time, I’ve roasted sweet potatoes. Side salad of kale rubbed in olive oil spray and balsamic vinegar, with parmesan and dried cranberries. Plus and egg.

Rosemary apple grilled cheese in Santa Cruz.

Another amazing eat from Santa Cruz: Penny’s Ice Cream. My college roommate literally talked this place up for YEARS, and we never made it over there. Finally, I went with my vet school friends and it was delicious! I got dark chocolate sorbet with toasted marshmallow fluff on top!

This is another meal I’ve had a couple of times. Butternut squash (cooked as described above) with Mexican cheese stirred in. Plus a side salad with AMAZING aged balsamic vinegar, a spray of olive oil, salt and pepper, goat cheese, and dried cranberries.

Same salad but with a sweet potato.

Salad with grilled chicken, bear, and goat cheese.

The above dessert was one of the better ideas I’ve had in a while! I was craving something fruity for dessert, so I tossed fresh blackberries with some honey, and then topped them with Flapjacked Oatmeal Cookie mix (which is the one cookie mix I haven’t used much because it doesn’t have chocolate), and then microwaved it!

Salad with goat cheese and blueberries.

Chocolate Halo Top with salted caramel sauce.

And now I have to run off to a spin class! Have a great weekend!

The Craziest Week of Vet School

Date: December 3, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

My goodness, what a week. After Thanksgiving I really took the ground running. Hard. I think I studied more last week than I ever have in my life, and I learned more in 3 days than I ever thought was possible. This weekend was a quick gasp for air before the 2 week sprint to the end of the block, and to winter break! It is really rewarding though to work really hard and then actually know things.

I didn’t really cook much this week. When I was home for Thanksgiving, we had vegetarian chili, and I brought back the vat of it to have for dinners every night.

This was really the first week of vet school where I felt like I didn’t have time to cook. Luckily, I have a ton of easy/frozen meals for the next couple of weeks when it picks up again!

On that note, I have a few snippets for the week.

New spin shoes! Finally. My old ones were 4.5 years old and while they held up really well, they were a little gross.

Her new favorite toy. We got it in Napa for her, and she falls asleep on it.

I am so, so, SO glad we decorated. A lot of time was spent on this couch or in this room last week with my notes. It made studying feel cozy and (somewhat) fun. Plus my study buddy, who honestly is in it more for the blanket than for me. But look how cute she is!

Thursday, test day, was one heck of a long day. I got up at 5am to get a little exercise and then last minute studying in before the last, and then the day ended up not going according to plan due to some technical difficulties. When I finished my test, it called for one of the chocolate milk stouts I’ve been hoarding since February from St. Louis.

I watched a movie on the couch, drank this, and baked pumpkin bread.

I made healthy flourless pumpkin bread (with oat flour). At first I didn’t love it and felt like it was kind of bland, but it’s grown on me. I actually like it better NOT hot out of the oven. I used a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and a teaspoon of cinnamon, and I thought it could have used a bit more spice! It tastes and feels really healthy though, so I’m happy eating it at all times of the day! (And with my schedule…I basically have.)

This weekend for me has really been about relaxing and recovering and doing my best to prepare for the next couple of weeks. I got to break out my favorite Christmas sweater on Friday (and failed to take any pictures).

Saturday and Sunday were a mix of lazy and productive.

I got a mint tea latte as study rule, plus a lavender cookie.

And then spent the evening watching Elf with my roommate and her friends.

Sunday, I went into Sacramento to take a spin class. It was at a boutique studio downtown, and it was a lot of fun! The staff was also SUPER nice and welcoming. I had originally planned to do that and then go to the gluten free bakery for their Sunday only donuts, but they weren’t making them this week for some reason. I found this out AFTER I signed up for spin, but I decided it would be good for me to get out a little bit anyways. After class, I got a little pastry that was sort of like the inside of a cinnamon roll, plus an egg sandwich. Both were delicious!

I spent a couple of hours afterwards at a Starbucks doing school work. I never really thought about this until this year, but it’s REALLY nice to get out of a college town to study. All the coffeeshops here are always SUPER full of students, and it’s nice to go to a quieter, emptier spot!

In terms of workouts, this week was a little bit different. It was all about time efficiency, and doing what I needed. My Crossfit actually had a little mini competition that I failed to sign up for and regretted, but I was tired at the time and such is life!

Monday:

20 minutes of HIIT spinning in the morning because I had Thanksgiving weekend sugar running through my veins, and Crossfit in the evening.

Tuesday: Crossfit

Wednesday: Kickboxing at lunchtime. The Health and Wellness club here brought in a kickboxing instructor to teach us vet students a little lunchtime class, and it was perfect timing because I legitimately did not have time to workout that day! It was fun but kickboxing is clearly not my forte. My coordination is not quite there!

Thursday: Weightlifting on my own. I did a super quick workout (despite having to wait for a barbell…seriously, before 6am??) of 5×5 back squats at 165#, single leg RDLs/calf raises, and a few minutes of abs. Those squats left me SORE.

Friday: Crossfit

Saturday: Gym workout by myself. After my test, I was having a hard time getting my body and mind to relax, which is a really important thing for sustainability in terms of my physical health and my ability to keep working hard. I could also tell that maybe I wasn’t getting quite enough exercise (plus lots of sitting) and while my diet was honestly fine, a few extra sweets here and there can affect me a little bit. Anyways, the point was I wanted to hit it fairly hard at the gym but didn’t want to spend a lot of time waiting around for a barbell, so I made use of dumbbells. Here’s what I did:

5×12 lunges with 30# dumbells

7 minute AMRAP:

Push press/RDLs with 30# dumbells

3-6-9-12-15-….

(This was a variation of one of the competition workouts.)

4×10 single arm dumbbell snatches (35#)

4×10 box jumps (24″)

A Blogilates ab video. This is the first full length one I’ve bothered to finish lately!

Sunday: Spin

I mentioned it last week, but I want to reiterate how important it is to know yourself. My body was feeling physically stressed and I had to recognize that and how to combat it. In some ways vet school is like some type of endurance training. You work hard, and you recover hard. That’s honestly how I felt about this weekend. Rest and get ready to hit it again!

Vet Disaster Response/Apple Picking (Out)/Weights

Date: October 22, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s been a hot minute, hasn’t it? I want to catch up! I just finished my first block of vet school (essentially a class), and now I’m cuddling under a blanket with a sleepy kitty. I’m going to have another post up feature food as of late, but for now I wanted to discuss some of my life happenings lately.

In terms of the wildfires, thankfully they seem to be mostly contained at this point. The vet school has launched a pretty big response, so I’ve been taking several shifts a week to help care for some of the animals coming in. I also signed up to become certified in disaster response. This stuff is so important. I want to help, but you never know what to expect until these things happen, hence why I want to get trained specifically to respond.

In terms of workouts lately, I’ve mostly been running and doing Crossfit, and squeezing in a day of weights on my own every week to maintain basic strength. I’ve also been working on higher box jumps, which is fun! The boxes at the gym at padded, which is why I feel comfortable enough doing that. I’m maintaining my squat program, and also doing the same sequence with deadlifts. The disadvantage of the gym at school is it’s a quite small gym for like 25,000 people, so there’s usually a line for the squat racks, so I have to be smart about when I go, and still allow a minimum of 10 minutes of waiting. Boo. Here are my weight workouts from the last 2 weeks. I’m off-setting the squats and deadlifts by a week in terms of number/percentages (so my heaviest days will be different for squats vs. deadlifts).

Week 1:

Not on the squat program yet, but working on building volume. Day 1 of deadlifts.

4×3 back squats with 3s pause at the bottom

8 minutes of 2 backsquats every 30 seconds (155#)

12-12-10 deadlifts at 145-155-165

4 rounds of single leg rdls and 20 heel raises (to help with plantar fasciitis)

3×6 box jumps

Week 2:

Going an extra rep on the squats, and finishing the last week heavier than last time through the program.

Back squats: 11-11-9 at 135-145-155

Deadlifts 10-10-8 at 155-165-175

4×6 boy jumps (I worked up to maybe 28ish inches? It felt high!)

Half of an ab video

I think I bruised my tail bone a little bit a while ago (not really sure how), so I haven’t done much ab work lately, and I didn’t want to push it with that.

And now onto the fun stuff! I went to Apple Hill yesterday. It’s east of here, and it’s a little town that goes crazy with apples this time of year. There are a bunch of farms that sell apples and every imaginable apple product. We were hoping to pick apples, but apparently there weren’t too many places that let you do that, and they were already picked out for the season. Darn!

That didn’t mean I couldn’t get ALL THE APPLE PRODUCTS though. Plus, it was festive and so pretty up there!

Even better, my friend brought her adorable puppy!

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The first thing we did was get some apple goodies. I got an amazing caramel apple!

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There were a bunch of vendors selling various crafts and food products. I went home with some blackberry honey from that place, and some apple cinnamon BBQ sauce, apple salsa, and unsweetened apple butter from the next stop.

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