WIAW #dormlife

Date: September 24, 2013

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! As we all know, that means it’s time for the fabulous party hosted by Jenn.

This is my first WIAW from college. First, let me just state that I hate the furniture in my room this year. It’s dark and small and immovable. So basically it’s impossible to stay organized. So I’m blogging from my headboard-less bed next to a giant pile of books that travels from my desk chair to my bed regularly because my desk and shelves are full. Such is life.

But let’s get on to the day of eats. Today was an example of both how college life doesn’t have to be unhealthy, and how it can be unhealthy.

I started my morning with a few dates pre-run. I had a 4 mile run scheduled today, and decided to do speedwork. I ran a mile of warm up and cool down(half a mile to the track, half a mile on the track). I then did 400 repeats for 2 miles. I haven’t really done these before, but they seemed perfect given all my recent foot issues. Having rest time was crucial for my foot and it actually felt really good. I liked these, but I think I prefer the 200 distance way more.

Post run, it was breakfast time. I think this here is an example of how hard I tried to make dorm food look pretty/interesting. Plus, you all can admire my new dorm pet (aka my plant).

I am well stocked on fruit right now since I only just got here, and it’s a lifesaver. Unripe melon gets old fast.

I had one class this morning before eating some food I packed. The original plan was a salad with a hardboiled egg, but there wasn’t much left in the dining hall last night, and I was at a loss for dressing.

Plus the lettuce looked kind of old, so I tossed it in favor of some of the veggies from my fridge.

After my Physics lab, I headed to one of my favorite places to eat on campus for some mystery bread. This stuff is so good-oh how I missed it!

So why, you ask, is this one of my favorite places on campus? They have the most amazing selection of quick breads and baked goods. I pretty much always stick to the same thing since I love it, but I’m sure something pumpkin will have to happen soon.

(This is only a fraction of what they have.)

Today was a pretty snacky day. Besides what’s shown, I also had a Thinkthin bar, dried mango, multiple types of cake….more on that in a minute.

I went back to Crossfit tonight. I did like it better-that could be because the WOD had rowing, and any WOD with rowing has my heart. It was rowing+thrusters+pull ups. Hopefully in time this new box will feel like home, but it’s just not the same as my old one.

Dinner tonight was a little different-I passed on the gross looking salad this time and went for other random veggies instead.

Grilled chicken, a taste of mashed potatoes, some type of Greekish salad, and citrus beets. Not going to lie, my expectations were way too high for those beets. But hey, dining hall food isn’t really supposed to have flavor, right?

I was all set to type up this post when I got a call from my sister. She and her boyfriend are training for a marathon, and they had just finished their 18 mile run….miles away from their apartment. Being the nice person that I am, I picked them up in my tiny car. (I usually say my car seats 2, or 2+3 others with no legs.)

Despite the little detour in my night, I did score some groceries.

While tonight I haven’t accomplished as much as I might have liked, I finish class at 12 tomorrow and have allll day to spend in the library.

I feel like it is definitely possible to eat well in college, but it does take some discipline. Today I started to fall back into old habits a little bit. I guess one thing to consider is that it is okay to indulge occasionally, but you need to pick and choose, and other delicious things may come up later in the night (like pumpkin cake-not passing that one up). One big thing for me this year is I’ve avoided the dining hall for breakfasts, and I’ve packed lunches. As for breakfast-it’s just too hard for me to pass up pancakes and muffins everyday, and I know they make me feel awful. I’d rather keep food in my room and start the day off on the right food. As for lunches-last year I got in the habit of buying, but the serving size was almost always too large, and I felt bad throwing stuff away. Plus, it’s easier to pack something cleaner.

So that’s that-my first few days back! I promise to try and keep my pictures interesting, even if that means buying a lot more plants. Or a puppy.

Have a great Wednesday, and eat something good for me!

How did you/do you stay healthy in college? How do I keep my room organized when there is zero space?

Long Runs and Yogurt

Date: July 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, it’s Monday. After blogging, I’m going to drive down to school to put in some hours in the lab, and then go to the library to catch up on reading for my Psych class. For that class, we also have an assignment where we choose a health behavior to change. I chose sleep-Im trying to get 8 hours a night. Guess how that’s working out? Yeah.

So let’s talk running. Sunday was my 11 mile run. I have a whole routine down now. Wake up at 6:45, eat breakfast, and leave at 8:30 for a 9:00 run. Since I run by the bay, I have to run early to beat the wind. I had my typical pre-run breakfast.

I felt much more confident going into this run than last week’s 10 mile run. For some reason, 10 miles seems like so much, and anything beyond that basically seems the same. If I could do 10, I could do 11 right? I wanted to pick up the pace a little bit from last week too.

I started off having no trouble with my “goal” pace. I say that in quotes because it’s my ideal pace but not what I was expected to maintain (spoiler-I didn’t maintain it). Immediately, I was feeling better than last week. This could be for a number of reasons. 1. I had logged more miles the week leading up to this run than last weeks. I skipped a longish run last week. 2. I had already done a long run and probably most important-3. I didn’t do a killer leg workout 2 days before, so my legs weren’t sore at all (my arms though were a different story). Moral of the story? Do heavy leg days early in the week. Anyways, the run.

I swear the longest part of the run is the mile or two leading up to the turnaround. And the miles right after the turnaround…I did stop to walk a few steps every few miles to get try and get some feeling back in my toes. Gosh I love my feet. I really shouldn’t complain-my feet behaved much better than expected and much better than last week. I think I was landing with a slightly different part of my foot, so for a good part of the run my big toe was numb, but it didn’t hurt because I wasn’t striking on the nerve I usually hit it on.

I took my goo at the halfway point. It was really disappointing. I tried the Power Bar brand of chocolate and it didn’t taste good. The Cliff bar kind from last week was better, and had a better list of ingredients. I just never got a chance to make it back to the store to pick up another one. Here’s a question for you runners-for a half marathon, do you fuel once or twice? Before training, I was thinking I’d do it at miles 5 and 10, but at this point I feel like by mile 10 I just want to power through until the end.

Here’s the crazy part about this run- my slowest miles were definitely the middle miles, but my fastest was the 11th mile. What?? Like, it was probably a minute faster. Ok…I obviously need to start running the rest faster! It’s funny-I’ve been listening to an audiobook on my long runs, and beforehand, I discovered that only if I hit my “goal” pace would I finish my run before my audiobook ran out. Hey, it’s extra motivation! I ended up running out at the VERY end of my run. Nothing too terrible. So that was that!

Here’s the view of SFO from after my run:

I actually felt better after this run than after the last one, in terms of ability to move. I was stupid though and didn’t wear my compression socks, and my calves were sore already yesterday afternoon. Whoops.
What’s the best thing to do after a run? Go yogurt shopping obviously!

Heaven right there my friends. It’s been too long!
By the time I got home, the post-run-crazy-hunger began setting in. I was sooo salty from my run and my body was craving salt like crazy. After a few handfuls of cheddar popcorn from the Farmer’s Market yesterday, I was ready to break open some yogurt. I tried pineapple Chobani, which I’ve never tried before.

Topped with some gluten free granola from the Farmer’s Market, blackberries, and sunflower seed butter. Perfect!

I spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy. And desperately trying to keep up with the 1000 incoming text messages I was receiving. Bloggers sure are a talkative bunch (but I love them for it). Saturday night I went to dinner with my friend, and when I got back I had 148 texts. I felt so popular-I’ve never gotten that many before! Haha.
Dinner last night was leftovers, plus corn on the cob. At the Farmer’s Market, there was a huge line for a corn vendor. I mean, the line was going around the corner, and no other vendors ever had any type of line. Plus, they weren’t the only ones selling corn. Naturally, the long line made my mom WANT this corn. We ended up walking away with 10 ears. It was really good-but enough to cause a giant line? I don’t know.

On the side was leftover chicken sauteed with white wine, mushrooms, and zucchini. Kettle corn was also consumed. Farmer’s Market seriously have the best kettle corn.

I also was dying for some fro-yo, so I made a little fro-yo sundae.

I topped vanilla frozen yogurt with chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream. YUM.

And staying true to the title of this post, here’s this morning’s breakfast-another yogurt bowl.

Stoneyfield vanilla greek yogurt, gluten free granola, a chopped up nectarine from the Farmer’s Market, and a scoop of sunflower seed butter. I really like Stoneyfield-it’s smooth and not super sweet. My biggest issue with the Chobani that I’ve tried is lack of tang, at least for the key lime and pineapple flavors. I feel like those should be at least a little tangy. Maybe the new key lime? I’ve only tried the one in the flip.
Also, I love this new granola. It’s only sweetened with maple syrup, but it’s still not that sweet. It was a great maple-y flavor because of this. Technically, it’ Coconut, Cranberry and Cocoa Nib, although I don’t taste the cocoa as much. No complaints here though! I need to go get ready for the day-have a great Monday!

What is your favorite flavor of yogurt?

Arts and Crafts

Date: May 12, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I actually writing this post Saturday night, but I’ll delay it until tomorrow. That way I’ll be all caught up in case things begin to get busy (they should get busy- busy studying).

First off- HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the mother’s out there, especially my own, who has put up with me through a lot.

Also, to all mother’s out there: make sure you’re not the only on taking pictures! Many years from now your daughter may be writing a blog post for which she will have trouble finding pictures of the two of you together.

Although she does not know it at the time I am writing this post, my sister and I are surprising her my coming back for lunch! I’ll let you know how that is tomorrow!

There are a few things I want to touch on about Saturday. First. It was very unproductive. And I skipped some events because I wanted to get things done. But that wasn’t great. It’s ok though, it was only Saturday. Some R&R is necessary.

Brunch. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The food is really good, but it completely messes up my entire eating schedule for the day. This may be why I struggle with eating well on the weekends. I went with half of a whole wheat bagel, toasted with cream cheese and eggs, plus a salad with guacamole. Half of a waffle was also consumed, although it went unphotographed.

Brunch always leads me to snacking. Which causes problems. I had a big grand workout planned, but I kept eating and then having to digest. Here are some snacks:

Greek yogurt, cranberry orange quinoa, and cocoa sesame seed butter. Citrus+chocolate works, right??

Blueberry-pomegranite kefir, zucchini bread (from the freezer), and sunflower seed butter.

Numerous other snacks included bananas with sunflower seed butter, and granola with a protein bar. Dinner was just meh but here it is:

Well guys, this is it. It is the ending of an era. That’s right, I’m finally getting over my sunflower seed butter and my yogurt obsession. Since ditching some of the sugar in my diet, I don’t find these items as enjoyable. Or maybe consuming 10,000 jars of sunflower seed butter in a quarter is too much. I’m not sure. But I’m feeling ready to move on. It’s not that I dislike these things, but they don’t hold quite the same level of joy for me as they did in the past. :'(

I may try plain yogurt and see if that is more appealing. But as it is, I only have a bit of yogurt remaining anyways. I guess I’ve been more into produce lately: fruits and veggies. Produce kind of shaped how well my week went last week; I focused more on eating fruit and veggies, and it helped me eat more healthfully overall. Which takes us to the next topic of conversation.

As any normal American, I don’t eat as nutritiously on the weekends as on the other days of the week. For me, starting Monday on a positive note is crucial, and sets the tone for the week. Last Monday, I really focused on clean eating, and ate mostly fruit and veggies (minus the pizza that may have slipped its way in). As a result, I felt great the whole week, and had no difficulty eating well. Which is why I want to try something different this Monday. Before I say anything. let me first iterate that it is not necessarily something I believe in, but just want to give a try. A juice cleanse! I was inspired when last Monday I tried Trader Joe’s Green Juice and actually enjoyed it. It is a bit sugary (from the fruit) so the plan is to mix it with a more unpalatable and veggie heavy drink. I wasn’t sure whether to blog about this, but since it’s only a day, it’s not really going to change anything anyways. And the idea has always intrigued me.

But on to the title of the post! Lately, I’ve been finding workouts online and writing them on Post-its. I regularly take these post its to the gym with me when I work out, but they get really rumply and crinkly and gross. So I decided to laminate them with tape!

Most of them are WODs, and I thought it would be easier to have them in one medium, together. The ultimate plan is to make some type of pretty poster to put on my wall that I can stick all of them to for easy access when I want to pick one for a workout. I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’m satisfied with the finished cards!Most of them came with names, but I gave names to most of the ones that didn’t for ease of reference. For example, the one I did the other day that featured pull-ups, push ups, and squats I titled “Popeye” because it killed by arms for several days after. And Popeye has huge arm muscles, right?

I’m slightly obsessed with Crossfit. Yet I’ve never even tried it. Sad. This summer though I want to try it!

Aaaand to tie this post together again: Happy Mother’s Day!

Tell me something awesome about your mother.

Morning Blogging

Date: May 10, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So I’m blogging in the morning before class…this is weird. I don’t know how people blog before work or school. I’m always in such a hurry as it is. But today I don’t have class until 11 (midterm yayyy) and this morning is a rest day (although I might go for a bike ride later). But since I didn’t have time to post last night, this is perfect!

As usual, my day began with a 7am spin class. There are these two adorable ducks that have been hanging out near the gym. Which is nowhere near water…And Wednesday they were sleeping in the grass outside my dorm. I’ve been meaning to snap a photo of them but I didn’t get the chance, until I saw them snoozing on my way back from Spin. Too cute!I attempted to make my breakfast look pretty…I had been planning on using my real camera in my room when I am eating instead of my phone, but my roommate is still asleep when I am eating, so it is kind of dark. And it’s not really fair to wake up my roommate just to take a picture….For some reason, my iPhone takes better pictures in this awkward lighting…Who would have known?

My 9am class had a midterm, but it was not difficult. I was done in half an hour. Then, I went to the library to study for today’s midterm, since I knew I had a lot going on tonight. At the library:What is that, you may ask? It is a Coupa Coffee machine! You swipe a credit card and select your drink, and it makes it right in front of you! I had a Cappuccino. Milk foam (AKA the only reason I like this drink).Espresso.

The finished product!

I spent 4 hours in the library working yesterday…with a lunch break 🙂A salad from the actual Coupa. No salad machine! Although how awesome would that be?? This is what I got:

beverlyhills chopped salad

chopped mesclun greens, romaine, chicken, tomatoes, olives, asparagus, and avocado topped with gouda cheese and tossed in a dijonmustard vinaigrette

YUM. I also learned you apparently get wayyy more when you get it for there, and not to go. Look at the height on this thing!

After 4 hours of hard work, my brain was pretty fried. In Psych section, we talked about our week’s project. We had to pick a social norm, violate it, and get a picture of ourselves doing so. The best was a person who wore tons of makeup on one half of her face, and people thought she was actually insane. Mine was boring. I went to the dorm lounge and did my homework upside down. I thought it was weird, but no one so much as looked up. Apparently I do stuff like this normally? I have been caught doing yoga with my textbook before…Yesterday I got the best idea for what I should have done. I should have walked around with a camera to all my classes and taken a picture of everything. How perfect would that be for the blog??

After class, I had to do laundry. I had an event last night, and not too many clean clothes. Although it turns out I had everything clean that I needed….Oh well I needed towels. Unfortunately, since I was under some time pressure (had to make it to yoga), I only did a really small load that would dry in time. And I still have a ton of laundry…as in, I have very few clothes. As in, my workout clothes are dirty. Good thing I have so many!

Pre-yoga snack:

One thing I’ve noticed since I gave up desserts is things are starting to taste really sweet. Like this oatmeal-ish thing. Interesting…It’s been a week guys! And honestly I don’t miss desserts. I was thinking, “I’ve had no desserts in the 19th year of my life! Maybe I can do the whole year!” Somehow, I doubt THAT is going to happen!

Yoga was awesome, as usual. I can feel myself getting stronger again. After yoga, I headed to Spring Fair. Yesterday, all the dining halls put out their best efforts in a Fair, where we could get tickets and get all kinds of delicious things. Since the fair was in the plaza, all the dining halls were closed. Aaaaall of the bikes.I got Hawaiian food from the best dining hall on campus. To be honest, I was disappointed. It was kind of plain. Then I got a lettuce leaf (that sounds sooo filling) and a veggie empanada from a different place. The empanada was good, but not my favorite combo of flavors.

After the Fair, I ran back for a shower before heading out…to make challah! My school has a program called Challah for Hunger, which makes and sells Challah to students and the proceeds go to charity. My sorority is vaguely Jewish ( I’m not. Only like 3 people are…) so we get a chance to do some of the baking sometimes.

Note: in taking these pictures I managed to coat myself and phone in flour and dough. Sacrifices, guys. LOTS of dough.All I was actually doing was braiding.

Aaaand done!

There was plain, chocolate chip, cinnamon raisin (I want to try this!), and banana. I know there was going to be Sun-dried Tomato and some other flavors as well, but I had to leave. I had to go to another sorority event. I didn’t actually decide to get any challah because I didn’t want to encourage myself to eat late at night, but that kind of backfired when I had yogurt after the mixer…

Ah well. It is Friday! Happy Birthday to my fabulous mother!

Any fun weekend plans?

Flashbacks

Date: May 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! How was your Tuesday? I had a pretty great day, thanks to some awesome workouts. My day began with 7am spin, which was great as usual. I’m glad I found a teacher here who I really like. Plus, they’re considering getting super nice spin bikes! I’m not used to NOT being able to see my RPMs, and the new ones should show that, as well as the level of resistance. Yay!

No surprise what breakfast was!Vanilla greek yogurt, crunchy sunflower seed butter, pumpkin bread(ish).

And due to my stream lined breakfast process, getting to class on time was no problem at all!

After my 9 am class, I met with my Psych TA to discuss a paper I have to write. I’m actually getting excited about it; it is going to be on the cognitive effects of practicing yoga.

I then returned to my room with intentions of getting work done, but soon decided that a nap was probably a better option.

This didn’t leave a ton of time for lunch before my next class, and given I was in the mood for yogurt, I decided to just roll with it, because I figured if I tried to eat something else, I would end up eating yogurt anyways. Plus some veggies-carrots with roasted garlic hummus, which I exchanged for guacamole about halfway through my meal.

I decided to bring my workout gear to class so I could go straight to the gym, an save time/not lollygag. Since I was planning on doing a rowing workout, I planned to wear a skirt that day so I could already be wearing my spandex. I accidentally left my dorm wearing my shower flip-flops though! Oops! Giants flip flops+ skirt….not sure about that one.

After class I headed over to the gym, but then sat in the shade for a bit and worked on Chem because I still felt pretty full from lunch.

My workout really felt awesome. It was surprisingly nice to be back on the erg. Granted, I did a fraction of what I was doing towards the end of last quarter, but I’m totally fine with that. I don’t see any need to be on the erg for an hour and a half now. I actually looked back in my email history and pulled out the first workout we were assigned in the fall. Hey, gotta start somewhere, right? It was 4 sets of 5 minutes. I followed that with about 20 minutes of abs.

I was riding back from my workout while wearing spandex, and pondered whether spandex would be good to wear for biking, since it doesn’t move around like regular shorts. Then, I had the biggest urge to go for a bike ride. I’ve been wanted to go, but I’ve been a little apprehensive since my little spill.

Results of my little spill:The picture doesn’t do it justice…

But I decided, hey why not? So I went for an impromptu 4 mile loop of campus, and it felt great too. I have to say, with my increase in workouts in the last few days, I am beginning to feel more like myself. This is how I thrive. I love pushing my body. And I’m finally beginning to see definition again in my legs which has been absent since I was sick. But mostly, I just feel strong. Which makes me happy. Although I must admit I’m still lacking in the running category…oops. Tomorrow’s workout schedule will be quite different. I’m taking the morning off, because in the evening, I’m doing….quidditch conditioning. I miss the agility workouts I used to do for softball, and my sister is in charge of the quidditch team, and was more than willing to let me tag along for conditioning. With the promise that no brooms were involved, that is.

But back to dinner. I tried a new dining hall that is SUPER close that I only vaguely knew existed, and it was a success! Although it’s small, it was so nice to have a change of foods. And blue cheese polenta? Yum! They also had scones and veggie wraps!As well as a slice on edible beet (normally I’m not a big beet person).

Over dinner, I talked to some friends about housing for next year. The deadline is this weekend! I’m going to live with my roommate, but not sure who else or where.

We also decided it was time to set up our fan. Our room gets super hot in the evenings since it’s in direct sun then. We’ve been putting it off because we weren’t sure where to put it. Well, as it turns out, we aren’t engineers. And the instructions weren’t the most helpful. But we are college students. Which means 2 things: we are creative and we don’t have a screwdriver. So here’s what we came up with:Pshhh who needs a stand anyways? This actually ended up being the perfect place for it, and our room has cooled down substantially.

I just realized I never explained the name of this post…For my erg workout, I used a random playlist I found on my iPod that I made for spin sometime in the fall, with songs I listened to a lot then. Do you guys ever listen to music that you listened to during a certain time in your life, and the memories come flooding back? It reminded me of all my crew fun in the fall. Plus, I was doing a crew workout!

Do you ever have “flashbacks”?