Monthly Archives: April 2014

iPhoto Dump #2

Date: April 14, 2014

Author: astottler

Hey guys! Things have been absolutely crazy on my end for the last few days and aren’t let tin yup for a while! I’m running around like a crazy person and don’t even know what continent I’m going to be on this summer! I promise for a full, normal post tomorrow but for now, here’s a picture from now, plus a million old ones to get to know me a little better! I promise I’ll respond to comments soon as well!

I’ve done one of these before, and thought it would be fun to do another one! So here we go!

Pig slippers. Fall leaves. Enough said. This was a day after I bashed my knee open because I wiped out on a run. The funny thing? I was running to meet my family for brunch, and my mom took a picture of me running up with blood running down my knee, before she even realized I had blood running down my knee. I decided to spare you all that picture.

Pig slippers are always acceptable attire, right?

My sister was known as the cookie girl in high school. I was her trusty sidekick, the cookie eating girl.

Why yes Charlie, I DID get a violin case just for you to sit in.

This used to be milk. Thanks dad.

What can I say? Whiteboards help me think!

This is a cake. My sister made it. Isn’t it amazing??

Avocado birthing.

I swear I didn’t search for this!

Have a great day!

Snacks I’ve Been Loving Lately

Date: April 10, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Disclaimer: I’m in the middle of a paper which has to be orally presented on Monday+ like 20 hours of rush stuff before then+getting my passport+obsessing over Latin American culture, things have been busy in these parts and I won’t really get to posting until after this weekend! Here’s a post I wrote last summer (please ignore the summer references-but know that right now we ARE getting 80 degree weather so it kind of works). Here are some go to snacks. One thing I will add though is my latest obsession: roasted carrots+mango. The best thing in the world.

1. Fruit. This is such an easy one, and I especially love it during the hot summer because it just seems so refreshing!

2. Veggies and guac. I snacked on this quite a bit during the school year. If you buy a pouch of the guacamole spices, it’s as easy as mashing up half an avocado and dipping.

3. Part of a bar. During the school year, before a workout I’d grab half of a Thinkthin bar. Right now, I’m sampling my wide selection of quest bars. I’m finding I enjoy them in small pieces because for me they start tasting funny by the end of the bar, and they’re pretty dense which can be hard on my stomach. Eating a bite or two of a bar here and there may be obnoxious if you live with people who would actually like to eat a WHOLE said bar, but the Quest bars are mine so no shame.

4. Laughing Cow with carrots. This is the perfect mix of protein and produce. It’s just what I need to make it through the afternoon!

5. Yogurt. Specifically, stand-alone yogurt. For a snack, I prefer something that is satisfying as is. For example, vanilla yogurt wouldn’t be a good snack for me because I’d need granola and sunflower seed butter. Coconut yogurt is perfect for this.

6. Coffee with milk. Sometimes you do need a little pick me up, especially in the morning. If you’re like me and like the milk to coffee ration more on the milk side, this is perfect. The milk has protein and some carbohydrates. And yes, I’ve used this as a post-workout recovery drink. No shame.

7. Leftovers. Many times, snacks are seriously lacking in nutritional value. Leftovers are the perfect mini-meal, and they often include easy to grab veggies. The other day I grabbed some leftover sweet potato wedges for a snack-more delicious and nutritious than chips!

8. This smoothie. I do best when my snacks are on the light side, especially if it’s right before a workout. This smoothie really hits the spot because it’s super refreshing, tasty, and sneaks in some veggies.

1 cup dark chocolate almond milk

handful of spinach

half of a frozen banana

large handful of ice

pinch of xantham gum

Blend and enjoy!

9. Dark chocolate. Sometimes all you want is something sweet. This will fulfill that while offering antioxidants and a small caffeine boost.

What are some of your favorite snacks?

What’s New?

Date: April 9, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! This is sort of a crazy week for me but I wanted to talk about a few things I’m doing right now!

The reason for the crazy week? I’m in a sorority and this is rush week. The way we do rush is sort of crazy. For example, Friday night is from 4:30-12:30…Another example of how it is crazy-starting a paper at 12:30 AFTER rush last night…oy.

I’m just going to go in list form to give this some sort of rough structure!

1: I’m writing a huge quarter long research paper on exercise addiction. I’m really excited about this! It’s a little more complicated than that, but this is the most blog relevant part!

2. I had my first cappuccino of the quarter the other day, and it was fabulous. I have to be super careful about caffeine because I’m worried I’ll give myself heart issues (family history+heart racing last quarter) so I laid off completely and now I’m fine if I keep it to a small cappuccino or a baby cup, only when I really need it!

3. I cannot get enough of these new KIND bars!

4. Food. So, I’ve been doing this thing sort of. I’m semi-roughly following a meal plan, which I actually love because I’ve found some new things that are healthy and delicious. Which is why you may have seen some different things as of late. I’m looking at the Blogilates 12 week meal plan, but I’m really just taking some of the delicious sounding food and recipes and incorporating them into something that works for me. For some reason though, I’m really not feeling this week’s breakfast, which is essentially overnight oats. Here’s what’s crazy-the recipe calls for Greek yogurt and oats to sit over night, but no liquid! That’s craziness! So I definitely added almond milk. Not sure why I’m not feeling it-I liked over night oats in the past, but maybe that was because it was with fruity yogurt. In contrast, I LOVED last week’s egg cups and quinoa, which surprised me because I thought it was going to be a blah breakfast.

Other things: chicken meatballs+roasted carrots. As I study addictions, the more I’m convinced I have a carrot addiction. It’s a problem.

Another fun find from the meal plan? Turkey wraps with tomato and basil laughing cow+turkey+spinach+red pepper. I have the ingredients in my room and it makes a fabulous light dinner.

5. Crossfit today was rough. I actually tore my hand in the last round of pull ups, which is something I’ve never done before. It was weird though because I was not expecting to tear my hand in that place…here’s the workout:

100 wall balls

100 pull ups

100 dumb bell snatches

100 push ups

6. My achilles magically feels good right now, despite having difficulties walking after standing up in rush events last night. The probable reason? I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow! I’m getting some type of treatment on it that is supposed to magically make it better. I’ll believe it when I see it. Maybe all I need to do is go to the doctor for it to be better-that’s what happened last time!

7. Here’s something crazy-I’m seriously considering studying abroad this summer. I was planning on doing it next spring, but there seem to be some spots left in the summer program and I don’t have anything that meaningful planned for the summer, plus it would give me more time for my major classes during the school year. Two downsides: it’s winter there…and my Spanish ability…this is my first quarter of Spanish in college. Granted, I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, including AP, but it’s still coming back to me. And all the classes are taught in Spanish. So I’d need to mega cram my Spanish before then. I already told my roommate that we’re going to have a Spanish only rule for our dorm room.

Want to know one of the firs things I looked up when I started considering this? Crossfit boxes in the area. How cool would that be? I think it would be a great way to meet locals and insert myself into life there.

That’s all I have for today!

Did you study abroad? Where? How did you like it?

Living the Self Hosted Life

Date: April 7, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! How are you feeling? I’m feeling sore. My achilles was in a lot of pain this morning but that seems to be fading, but my QUADS are super sore. And thanks to my magic compression socks, my calves are fine. However, biking around wasn’t the most fun thing in the world this morning.

Clearly I did not do a morning workout! I slept in and it was fabulous. I think I’m still behind on sleep though because I needed an afternoon nap as well!

Breakfast was a classic-overnight oats. It was super thick though. I think I need more liquid next time!

Oats, plain yogurt, chia seeds, dried cranberries, and apple. Topped with very thoroughly cooked berries!

So, something strange and frustrating happened this morning. I lost my turkey. I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE while I was making my lunch, and I was rely angry because that meant it had likely gotten lost in transit and it was a lot of nice turkey that was going to make up quite a few of this week’s meals!

Well, this afternoon I found it. I somehow managed to throw it away this morning in the process of looking for it. It was actually still kinda cold! But I think I’m getting new turkey…SO frustrating though! At least it wasn’t sitting in my car all day today like I was worried it was!

Lunch was supposed to be a Chef’s salad, but without turkey it was just kind of a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, and avocado.

Still good, but would have been better with turkey.

So, this quarter I’m in Spanish 3. The class is entirely in Spanish. Which is fine, except I have Bio 10 minutes afterward, and it’s surprisingly confusing to have to switch around the way that I think. It’s funny because when I take Spanish, I definitely think in Spanish a lot.

Snack was carrots with a beautiful pool of sunflower seed butter.

And dinner was dining hall food. Not too shabby today-some type of Mexican seasoned chicken, salad, and my new favorite combo thanks to last week’s breakfasts: quinoa and sunflower seeds! Seriously-you need to try this!

And dessert-a Honey Oats and Coconut KIND bar. I’m really excited that KIND has come out with these new, nut-free granola bars! This one only has 7g of sugar!

And now onto today’s topic-living the self hosted life.

In summary: I don’t like it so far. Sure, I have more theme and style options. I got search engine optimization, which I’m still working on setting up. Fun fact-one of my top searches last week was “items made in the year 1842.” Ummm ok? Clearly need to work on that optimization!

I know there are more benefits-does anyone have any specific suggestions for me?

Now the cons. My number one annoyance right now is spam. I have to filter it myself, and there’s a whole lot more than I thought. And some things I have to make a decision about whether or not are spam. It’s a pain. And I still get email notifications about every spam comment which I really should turn off.

Next problem-is it just me or does my blog take forever to load? It was taking FOREVER to load the other day. And then my pictures came up black and I started freaking out. Until I realized it was my computer that sometimes likes to spaz out and freeze up when I go on the Internet. So maybe it doesn’t take forever to load for you guys and it’s just me? Let me know!

Last problem-I’m not sure how the transfer affects different blog reader sites, so I’m fairly certain I’ve lost readers as a result. For a while, the new posts weren’t coming up on Bloglovin if you followed my wordpress.com account, but now they are and as a result I see 3 Fitness is Sweet posts on my Bloglovin reader every time I post so I can tell it’s working!

So what do you guys think about self hosting-like, love, or hate it?

Rock n Roll SF Recap

Date: April 6, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I just completed my third half marathon-Rock n Roll San Francisco! I decided to do this race for fun, not trying to PR because I felt like I was so caught up in the time last race that I didn’t really get to enjoy the race.
Let me just say, I clearly have a sick idea of fun.

TALK ABOUT HILLS. I did the Nike Women’s marathon, which is known for its hills. Well, this was worse. But let’s go through it, shall we?

Saturday afternoon after a meeting, I sprinted home to get up to the city in time to pick up my packet. The expo was well run and not crowded.

Lots of protein bar samples too! I’m ALL about the free samples.

After the expo, I came home and had a pre-race dinner.

Strawberries as big as my face.

Literally.

Plus scrambled eggs, roasted carrots, and toast with homemade raspberry jam (unpictured).

I really think I did everything right for this race. Perfect pre-race food, went to bed early, good pre-race breakfast.

Then, it was race day! As soon as my kitty heard my 4:20am alarm go off, he came running to greet me and ~~cover me with fur~~ help me get ready.

I slightly modified my pre-race breakfast of egg whites, cocoa powder, and banana by throwing some instant oats in there because I thought I needed more calories and carbs.

I also had some strawberries and sort of burnt berry compote on top. I may or may not have forgotten it was still on the stove for a couple too many hours…oops.

And then I put on my new race shirt! I LOVELOVELOVE it!

And then we were off! My parents dropped me off near the start just before 6am, the perfect amount of time to wait in port a potty lines and find my corral. The pre-race was very organized, and I had no problem getting into the correct corral. Plus, it wasn’t THAT crowded (or at least not when I arrived maybe!).

My first half, I wore short sleeves.The second one, I wore long sleeve Under Armour and ended up getting super hot and tossing it 2 miles in (it had seen much better days anyways). This time, I fashioned some beautiful and stylish throwaway sleeves out of my dad’s old socks.

Then, it was go time! As soon as we started, I knew I was feeling good. I was more than ready to tackle the first hill-which came up fast! I tossed my sleeves at an aid station around mile 2, but I would have earlier if I had seen a trash can! Hills have a way of warming you up quickly.

I crushed the first hill. It felt good, I kept a decent pace, and I thought about how much all my hill training had helped. Almost all of my long runs were at least somewhat hilly!

The second hill came up pretty quickly after the first, but we were rewarded with a view of the Golden Gate bridge from waaaay above. I definitely slowed down more on this hill! At this point, I was sort of thinking I could maybe PR this race, but I would see how I felt later on. Goal #1 was to ENJOY this race!

One of my biggest complaints about this race was how crowded it was. It was crowded quite a bit leading up to the bridge, but it was INSANE on the bridge. My legs were starting to feel heavy and I couldn’t keep pace at all in the crowds of people. I lost .07 miles just from weaving going one way across the bridge! It was very frustrating-but I had to remind myself that a) this was for fun and b) if I have my blog URL on my back I need to be a nicer person! (Not that I was rude….but getting there!)

The bridge was surprisingly and noticeably not flat. Very little of this race was flat. Another slight issue was that there was an aid station at mile 4, 8, and 10 but none around 5 or 6 because of the bridge, and 5 is where I normally take goo. I decided to take it early, especially since I was coming off of 2 hills! I took it at 4 and 10.

After it flattened out after the bridge, my legs were really starting to feel heavy and I knew I still had hills-lots of them-at the finish so I decided to give up on trying to PR and work on a) surviving and b) having fun.

Mile 10 and on I could only think of one thing: “What sick, sick person designed this course??” 2 giant hills already, and then the last three-ish miles as hills? That’s just mean. My legs were already done and I was hurting. Since this was a for fun race, I walked a little bit on some of the hilly stretches, a few steps here or there. I knew that at that point I would end up with a time I was happy with anyways.

The ONLY saving grace about the course was that the last half mile was straight and downhill, and you could see the finish from half a mile away. I FLEW down that hill! I think I hit a sub 7:00 at some point!

(See me in the black?)

When I crossed the finish line, I was happy with my time, happy to be done, and noticing how tight my calves had gotten!

It turns out I was only 40 seconds off my PR, and definitely on a more difficult course! I had a lot of fun running this-that being said, I think I’m going to stay away from super hilly races for a little while. My goal race is the Giant’s Race in September, which although it is in San Francisco, is still fairly flat.

Then, I hightailed it over to the chocolate milk tent and found my parents.

Chocolate milk in a bag…?

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city. When is it EVER sunny in San Francisco??

I quickly scarfed down a free Powerbar (It was Vanilla, and actually really tasty!) and then walked over to the main stage (it’s Rock n Roll after all!) to watch the concert and find one of my friends who came to see the concert!

It was actually a well known (ish) band-The Neighborhood. I know exactly one song of theirs-Sweater Weather. I thought they sounded good but didn’t have the best stage presence. It was definitely the tamest concert I’ve been too!

One thing about Rock n Roll SF-I feel like it was a bit deceptive. They sort of made it sound like there would be a live band at every mile. I didn’t have a problem with the entertainment, I just thought it was a bit misleading. There were no bands until mile 8-just a few jugglers every few miles. There were maybe 4 bands, and only 2 actually had amps and microphones and were playing.

After the concert, it was time for real food! We stopped at Panera where I got a Fuji apple chicken salad.

But then it was time for the real show. Has anyone heard of Bi Rite Creamery? It’s one of the best ice cream places in the area-it rivals Smitten (Nitrogen ice cream)! And since we were up there, it had to be checked out.

I got salted caramel and chocolate with bittersweet chocolate sauce.

If there every was a time for a double scoop, it was after a half marathon. This was really good! I liked the flavors, but my mom’s toasted coconut was amazing.

Overall though, I have to say that my favorite is probably Tin Pot, followed by Smitten. And no, I have zero problems becoming an ice cream connoisseur.

Overall, I’m really happy with how the day went! I went out there and ran for fun (hah) and am more than happy with my time!

So what’s next? Like I said, the Giant’s Race is my PR race. I’m considering doing the ZOOMA Napa half, but I’m concerned it’s going to be really hot! I’m also considering doing Rock n Roll San Jose in October. I will most likely not be doing the Nike again this year. It was a good experience, but not amazing and not something I would want to do every time. My absolute favorite race I’ve done is by far the Giant’s race. It’s not insanely hilly, there’s a lot of crowd support, and it take s you through a whole bunch of sites in the city.

What’s your favorite race?