Puppy Day

Date: September 5, 2015

Author: astottler

Have I mentioned I’m obsessed with my cat? I think maybe once or twice.

Today is my first day on full time puppy duty. My parents are out of town, so we’ve spent all day together. Thankfully, she’s been an angel.

Luckily this morning, she was plenty sleepy and let me eat my breakfast while she slept in her crate. Breakfast was a handful of berries and sweet potato bread with soy milk. Sweet potato bread recipe to come!

Our only bump in the morning came when she ate a few bites of breakfast and then threw it all up. I gave her something to calm her stomach, and waited a bit before giving her her food in small increments-she was hungry! Also big news this morning-for the past week or two she’s had all her adult teeth with the exception of the canines. For the past few days, the canines have started to grow in, but the sharp baby teeth are still there so she’s had a double set of canines that are about the same height! This morning, one of the baby canines was gone! Yay! I’m ready to say good riddance to those needle-like puppy teeth.

I put her in her crate, and then went to Crossfit. We did bench presses, and then the following WOD:

10 minute AMRAP of 5 squat cleans and 5 dips. I didm the cleans at 95# and the dips assisted. I got through nearly 7 rounds, slowing a bit because I’ve spent all summer working on my cleans and I have no intention to reinforce bad technique because I am tired!

After Crossfit, I made myself an early lunch because I knew I’d never make it through a puppy walk without fuel, and I wanted to get our walk in before it got too hot. Lunch was a wrap, the same as lunch yesterday.

A veggie wrap, turkey, monterey jack, spinach, avocado, and garlic sauce. (Love that stuff, and love the ingredient list!)

Eaten with a side of puppy, as it should be.

I was trying to figure out what to do for our special day together, but in the end I decided to settle for a nice long walk for her and tanning time (LOL) for me, plus a trip to Petsmart. It was her first ride in my car, and she was really good!

Our walk was by the bay. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too warm, and I wanted a trail with minimal leaves. My puppy likes to put EVERYTHING in her mouth-leaves, acorns, rocks, and it’s a toss up what she’ll actually eat. Even still, there was a fair amount of dragging her from nature’s sweet bounty (aka rocks).

Overall, she was pretty good. I had planned to go for about an hour, but it was warm and she was starting to drag a bit so the walk only ended up being about 50 minutes. We stopped a few times for water, and during our break she laid down in the shade with no indication that she wanted to leave.

(I know everyone thinks they have the cutest dog ever but I actually do ;))

She was more than ready to get into the air conditioned car, and I got drooled all over in the process. With a puppy plus my job at the vet this summer, I’ve given in to the fact that I’m going to constantly be covered in some form of animal bodily fluids. We took some selfies while enjoying the air conditioning.

We then headed to Petsmart, and got 4 Halloween themed toys. Hey-it was buy 2 get 1 free-I couldn’t pass that up! With the edge taken off her from our walk, she was pretty good in the store, and enjoyed a treat from the woman who checked us out.

The aftermath?

She was 100% out all afternoon, so we stayed downstairs and watched Netflix. I woke her up to feed her dinner, and she scarfed it down and was suddenly reenergized. Around dusk, we headed out for walk #2. She was SO good for her walk. Very little dragging, very little attempting to eat things on the street. She surged forward like a puppy on a mission, and I had no idea where she thought she was going! On the way back, I couldn’t help but laugh at her. She was prancing ahead with purpose, with her little puppy booty swinging side to side and her ear totally inside out. I really enjoyed our time together. The puppy was so good, and despite the warm day, the night air had that bite of fall. I half expected to turn a corner and see the lighted face of a jack-o-lantern smiling back at me. We enjoyed views from above the entire Bay Area, and being out in the night also brought back memories from the summer before college, a summer to remember. It was my last time without responsibilities or worries but with freedom, and the anticipation of starting a new and exciting chapter of my life. At the same time, it felt like the victory lap of college and many nights like this one were spent with great friends doing what carefree teenagers do.

Another bonus? I avoided the mischief of a steadily reawakening puppy, and she is currently passed out by my feet. Not a bad day for the two of us!

Working the Calves

Date: December 30, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How’s that for a title?

I haven’t blogged about anything since Christmas, and here we are, almost at New Year’s Eve!

I’m going to be super lame and do a basic food+fitness post for the period after Christmas!

I guess I might as well link up to WIAW?

Since we had Christmas dinner (lunch) out, we didn’t have any Christmas leftovers. I mean, besides all the desserts!

The day after Christmas, my family went up to a big mall in SF and I had a Chinese Chicken salad from the food court. Nothing like a giant plate of veggies post-Christmas!

On Sunday post-workout, my family stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to get lunch at the hot bar! I got some rice with Chicken Masala, with a side of salad-y things and some little rice filled balls (that I couldn’t really tell you what they are).

Homemade key lime pie with FRESH key limes. My sister made this for my mom as her Christmas present, and it was amazing! She squeezed about 30 key limes herself to make this!

Black bean soup topped with cheese and avocado.

Banana “ice cream” AKA frozen bananas in the blender. It really is amazing how creamy bananas can get! Topped with chocolate sauce.

More black bean soup, but this time with cornbread.

Leftover blueberry cheesecake. YUM.

Citrus glazed carrots, garlic sautéed spinach, and BBQ chicken.

Chipotle chicken salad! Fun fact-I think this was only the 3rd time I’ve been there? But that is some quality guac.

And now to workouts.

Saturday, I went to Crossfit. The WOD was essentially Cindy with some jump ropes mixed in. (Cindy is various rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 squats). Sunday, my calves were pretty sore!

Sunday morning, I went for a 6 mile run by the bay. It was SO beautiful out…but freezing!

It was a solid run-nothing crazy! Just working on finishing my audiobook.

Monday morning I went to the track to do a stadium stair workout. It’s one I used to do as part of agility training for softball. After warming up, I completed three sets of the following:

hop up on one foot (one stair at a time)

hop up on other foot

hop up with both feet (like squat jumps-skipping a stair with each jump)

2 sprints up the stairs

25 scissor abs

Things I learned: my left calf? Incredibly weak. Like, super super. It was shaking after one set. My left side is significantly weaker than the right. My leg plantar fascia is also my bad side. I think the lack of strength may be contributing to the pain. The next day, my calves were really sore, but my foot felt perfect. I ran 4 miles of hills and my foot felt really good. So I guess that means I need to do some more jumping work!

Speaking of my run, I used my new Garmin for the first time!

My old one is….old. This has so many features! Like showing my mile splits. Plus it’s so lightweight!

The other noteworthy exercise?

I went for a walk/yoga with one of my friends by the bay. It was WINDY.

The cool thing is you can see this hill from the track I was at that morning!

I enjoyed my first yoga session in about 5 months and it was in about 30 mph wind!

And when the sun set…my lips turned blue. Cute.

What are you eating post-holidays?

Yoga Again…Finally!

Date: July 7, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everybody had a fantastic Monday! Mine was good. It wasn’t insanely hot today here-only like 90 and humid. Tomorrow is supposed to be 98…

I’m debating whether or not I should become one of those bloggers who posts shorter posts more often-what do you guys think? Although not that I could really post at work anyways!

Breakfast this morning was simple. I haven’t been feeling the yogurt AT ALL since I got here, so I’ve just been rolling with the lighter breakfast of fruit bowls with sunflower seed butter mountains.

On the way to the Metro, I stopped at Starbucks for a latte. I hardly ever get lattes-typically only if the coffee place has lack luster milk foam (and really strong espresso). The one from Starbucks? Is there actually any coffee in there? So milky…And I didn’t even have time to finish it because it took longer than I was expecting. Ah well.

Lunch today was good (although not as amazing as dinner). I made an extra chicken breast, and sautéed some spinach with spices and nutritional yeast. The sad thing is that little mound of spinach started out as like half a bag…

After eating, I decided to go for a walk in the 90 degree heat to thaw and get out some restless energy. My office building is SO freaking cold! The heat was much welcomed.

Snack in the afternoon was an apple and some oatmeal raisin cookies from the vending machine (super healthy, I know). But a trip to the vending machine was necessary-at this point in my life I desperately need quarters. Yet again, when I did laundry Sunday night, I failed to have enough quarters to actually, you know, dry my clothes. The change machine was broken, and a sign said to try getting change from the vending machines in the building. Yeah…I lost about $3 trying to get it…So I have a TON of wet laundry hanging all over my room. It takes forever to dry in this hot climate! Anyways, at the work vending machine I stocked up on quarters so I can actually finish my laundry and dry my clothes. Wearing wet shorts for my workout was not the most pleasant feeling in the world…

After work, I headed to the gym for Crossfit+yoga. At Crossfit we worked on handstand push ups (or modifications!) and squats. Afterwards, I headed over to a yoga class. It’s been WAY too long since I’ve taken a yoga class, and the classes I took most recently were basically entirely stretching. Anyways, the moral of the story is I’ve become even more tight. Sitting at a desk all day has not been good to my body, and my back has been a little wonky lately thanks to it.

The yoga class was a Power Vinyasa, right up my alley. It was the FASTEST paced yoga class by far that I’ve ever been too! Whew! So many vinyasas, so fast. My arms are going to be sore tomorrow. It felt amazing though. I will definitely be returning, especially as I get deeper into half training!

Dinner was AMAZING. It could be because it was 9 o clock by the time I ate it, but luckily it came together quickly! Inspired by my latest food craze, I decided to modify the coconut flour quesadilla things and make coconut flour arepas! Seriously, SO good. I filled it with smoked gouda, and served it with another side of spinach cooked the same way as for lunch.

A recipe will be coming your way soon!

Now, it’s basically bedtime for me-half marathon training week 2 kicks off in the morning!

Have you ever had an arepa?

The Enforcer

Date: August 24, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I haven’t shared a general life type of post with you all lately so let’s go through some highlights!

I of course have obligatory kitten nursery pictures. I only have a few more weeks-crazy! I’ll miss seeing those faces every week!

After the nursery, I drove one highway exit away for training run #2. I ran by the bay where I normally would do my long runs. It wasn’t my first location choice for a shorter run, but one highway exit was all I could manage in that traffic!

Being the smarty pants that I am, I failed to bring my Garmin. That wasn’t really an issue for me. I planned to run for time, but I kind of failed with that too. Luckily, when you do enough hard, long runs in a place, you have a very good sense of when you have 2 miles left. Since my run was 4 miles, I hit that out and back point from memory and it was fine. I felt kind of tired-the run felt long. At the same time though, I think I was going at a good pace. My original plan was 3x per week of running, but I think I’m going to bump that up to 4 for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, me feet weren’t great by the end-my new inserts aren’t the solution…

Overnight oats were exactly what I was craving for lunch, so I whipped them up from my vanilla yogurt that was on its last legs. 15 minutes of waiting, and they were good enough for me!

I listen to an audiobook on my long runs. I had the idea a week or so ago that in the afternoons, instead of reading a book, I should just take my audiobook and go for long walks. This summer, I’ve felt pretty sedentary when I’m not working out.

I really enjoyed it-my walk ended up being 2 hours long and very hilly. I’m thinking these walks will be decent training at least for the downhills of my half, sicne the movement is pretty similar.

Here are some of the views:

I didn’t sleep enough Thursday night. I had a 5:10 wake up for spin Friday morning. The thought of staying in bed could have crossed my mind if it wasn’t for this.

At 5:08 am, this guy busted my door open (not really sure how…) and started meowing his lungs out for me to get up. Not for attention, not to be petted, but so I would get my rear end out of bed. So, on 5 hours of sleep, I got up before my alarm. I don’t understand how he knows. When I wake up early for a workout (or the kitten nursery) he always wakes up and gets ready with me. I’m not sure how he can possibly know the day and time, since Thursdays I wake up an hour later. I swear, that cat!

After spin, I refueled with a plum, and eggs with kale and chive and onion cream cheese.

After a quick nap, I helped my mom take our car in for service. While the car was being worked on, we headed downtown in search of a coffee shop.

We happened upon a little place that attracted us with its produce and Blue Bottle coffee. Blue Bottle for some reason sounded familiar to me, so we decided to check it out.

I ordered an oat bar and a cappuccino.

How adorable is this??

We got talking about health, nutrition, weight, eating plans, and life. We ended up staying for 2 hours, leaving only when the parking meter was going to run out. This little discussion sparked my last post, as well as another one I wrote at the same time, which should appear on Monday. It was really, really nice.

That evening, I went to Crossfit and was able to Rx the workout (go at the prescribed weight/height of box). The workout was 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of kettle bell swings and box jumps. The kettle bell swings were a non-issue. The box was higher than I was expected…And I thought for sure the workout would end with me picking pieces of Aurora out of the box. I have a bit of a fear of box jumps-and a pretty little scar on my shin to prove it. I’ll spare you the pictures of when it first happened. When I first began working with my trainer 3 years ago, I bashed my shin REALLY badly in one of the first sessions with him. He later told me he thought I’d never be back after that! I did it again a year ago, and now box jumps always make me nervous when I know they’re not a super easy height.

I was worried also that I’d be tired at the end and mess up. It took intense focus, and a lot of nerves, but I successfully Rxed the workout! I don’t care that I was the last to finish-I still did, I pushed my boundaries, and had a ton of focus.

That evening I visited my sister in her new apartment where she invited a whole bunch of friends over. It was a ton of fun-pizza, boba, games. The highlight was learning how to make paper airplanes-which of course degenerated into all out paper airplane warfare.

That’s all I have for you today! Also-expect a recipe coming your way soon!

What did you do this weekend? What is one exercise you’re terrified to do?

Dirty Thirty

Date: June 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Over the weekends, I always feel like I don’t have that much to blog about (I truly live an exciting life! My friends from home are all going back to summer school and my friends from school are long gone!). But then I go to blog and realize I actually took quite a few pictures.

As promised, I have a workout for all you guys! I tested it on my friends, and they approved. The idea is to take rest when necessary. If you go straight through it will obviously be much harder! We kept taking breaks to chat, because, well, that’s what we do. Let me know what you think!

(I tried to make this into something prettier but me+computers is not a good combo…)

Forward squat jumps: jump forward (covering distance)

In and out- balance on tailbone, hands on head, and bring your knees in toward your chest while crunching up

Plank dips-plank position on elbows, and lower hips to the ground, then raise up

Cross leg sit up cross- sit with your legs crossed, and then do a sit up, crossing one arm over to touch the ground in front of you

Let me know if you try this! A modification you could do is Filthy Fifteen (15 reps of everything).

Other highlights of my weekend included a trip to Whole Foods for Paleo-ish foods.

YUM.

Actually surprisingly good!

Friday night I bundled up in all my warmest clothes and headed to San Francisco for the Giant’s game! Only in SF would I dress for a snowstorm in the summertime!

San Francisco is known for having good food at the ballpark, so I was able to find a pretty healthy option. I got something called a Cha-cha bowl.

AKA one of the few things there that had vegetables. It is a bowl with pickled veggies, pineapple salsa, chicken, black beans, and rice. They were kind enough to make it for me without the rice too! I’m maintaining my Paleoish way of eating! Since I knew I’d be craving sweets later in the night, I decided to bring my own (it would be really hard to argue that a Ghiradelli sundae is Paleoish).

Baker’s chocolate and raisins-a winning combo! Although sadly the Giants lost.

Saturday morning, I was back at Crossfit. Since I was the only Intro person, and the guy who usually works with the Intro people had to leave, I was thrown into the regular class, which I was super pumped about. The WOD was:

20 AMRAP

5 handstand push ups

10 pistols

15 pull ups

For the handstand push ups, I did them with my feet on a box, and definitely not a handstand! Pistols are single leg squats. And I did the pul-ups HEAVILY banded! I made it through 8 rounds, plus 15 reps! My arms were jello….I was glad there wasn’t too much leg work involved because I was a little concerned for my 8 mile run Sunday!

In the afternoon, I went for a walk along the bay with my friend. I am so grateful she introduced me to the trails along the bay-they are perfect for my long runs because they basically go all the way up the peninsula!

You can kind of see the city through the fog!

When I got back, I promptly put my feet up in preparation for Sunday’s run. Saturday was a quiet night spent watching Burn Notice with my family (and cats of course).

How is this comfortable??

And since I’ve been talking about it all post, you guys know that Sunday held my 8 mile run. I think this was the longest I’ve ever run. While training for my 10k last summer, I ran for 75 minutes, which my little Nike chip in my shoe CLAIMED was more than 8 miles, but I don’t believe that for a second. For one thing, when I run for time I definitely am dogging it.

Since I knew 8 miles was more than I’ve run before, I was a little nervous about how my feet would hold up. I got a really bad blister last weekend, which had been kind of sore all week (although it hadn’t bothered me much running). In addition, there’s also that whole landing on a nerve in my foot and making my toe hurt thing. Right before my run, I remembered how my toe thing actually got BETTER after like an hour.

My run went really well! To be honest, way better than I was expecting. My feet weren’t fabulous, but they held out just fine. My running shoes that I wore are super old though, and I felt like my feet were hitting the ground kind of hard. My new Nikes are in, so I’m picking them up tomorrow. Hopefully I can break them in enough for next week’s 10 mile run! (Gulp.) I ran with a book on tape this time, which I really enjoyed. I find that on long runs I get bored with music. Now, I can’t wait for my next run! They discovered a body just as I was finishing up!

I was also pretty happy with my pace. While I simply want to FINISH my race, I would LOVE to maintain 10-minute miles, so I am trying to train to this pace, which is pretty close to where I was.

I had a little trouble finding where I parked, but the walking time was much appreciated-I was not capable of getting in my car right away! I also found myself wishing I had a foam roller WITH me. Next time! On the way home, one of my favorite songs to spin to came on the radio. The gym was on the way home, so I stopped there to spin my legs out a little (just lightly) because they were starting to tighten up. 20 minutes of spinning, and then foam rolling worked wonders! I legs felt 1000x better. Foam rolling my calves was kind of death, especially the outside-ish parts, since I run on the outsides of my foot. WHEW.

I actually enjoyed this run, although I am kind of scared for the 10-miler. So my Crossfit gym is holding a trail group run on the same day that I am supposed to run 12 miles (which is the highest distance my plan goes), and there is a 13.1 distance option for that trail run. Should I do it? It would be more interesting, and to be honest I would be a bit more comfortable getting the race distance under my belt before going into the race. Plus, it’s only a mile more, and what are the odds my schedule would line up so perfectly??

I wanted to update you guys on this week’s goal of my Paleo(ish) style of eating. It’s going really well! I feel a lot more confident making eating choices, although there are definitely some areas I could clean up (for instance, I’m sticking with corn but eating half a bag of kettle corn wasn’t necessarily the best option). Is it possible that grains could mess with my hormonal levels? I swear I feel almost depressed eating them. I’m just way happier eating this way! So what HAVE I been eating?

I really disliked this. It was just WAY too sweet, and I felt a little jittery. I missed the tartness of yogurt! I may add kefir back in, since it is 99% lactose free.

I much preferred the coconut milk yogurt; it was tarter. Although I probably won’t get it again unless I can find it in Plain instead of vanilla.

href=”http://fitnessista.com/2010/04/insanity-workout-re-cap-week-1/” target=”_blank”>Blueberry lavender smoothie from the Fitnessista! This was SUPER good, and I still have some left over for another day!

I really liked this flavor of Kevita-Coconut Mango, how could you not??

Salad with hard-boiled eggs and roasted garlic hummus.

Pre-run fuel. For this, I kind of decided “screw Paleo.” The bar has grains (Gluten Free) but worked for me before a run in the past, which I decided was more important. I also said screw you to during run fueling, which I was planning on practicing on this run. Mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to carry a water bottle (I ran in the morning, on a cloudy day, next to the bay. It was definitely not hot!)

Post run. After drinking random almond milk and sampling all kinds of things trying to decide what I wanter (answer-FOOD). I really was craving sweet potatoes, but making them would take time and effort, so I settle for these little spinach bites. Yes, they are Spongebob shapes. HOWEVER. They are one of the cleanest foods in the frozen section at Whole Foods-potatoes, spinach, eggs, spices. No sugar, grains, or dairy. For this coming week, I’m going to try to clean up a bit more-more fruits and veggies and less Paleo-alternative products. So we’ll see how that goes! I’ll leave you with this picture of my crazy cat watching the Giant’s game:

How do you spend your weekends? Do you watch baseball-what team?