Monthly Archives: June 2016

I Got TORCHED

Date: June 10, 2016

Author: astottler

Hi friends!

Currently living the pre-grad, post-class sweet life. I’m trying to soak up all my favorite people, and each moment.

Let’s take it back to Wednesday, shall we?

After a lateish (like 1…I’m a bit of a grandma) night and leftover exhaustion from finals, my body woke me up at 5:15am. I was dead tired, but not sleepy and couldn’t fall back asleep. I ended up getting up at about 6, which was probably better anyways because I had a lot to do!

I had a blueberry oatmeal muffin before heading to the gym to do my typical deadlift day.

warm up deadlift+ 4×4 deadliest, 155#, 3 seconds on the way down

4×8 RDL, 115#

3x8single arm DB press, 20# (my shoulders were sore from the previous day’s workout, so I kept it a bit lighter)/3×10 tricep dips

Leg machine where you press your legs in while seated, 3×10, then sets of 5 for heavier

Then, it was time to get ready for the beach! Breakfast was basic, yogurt+cinnamon KIND granola+mango (this batch of mangoes hasn’t been too flavorful 🙁 ).

Then, my friends and I were off to the beach! In case you don’t know, the beaches in Northern California are COLD. We bundled up, and ended up with perfect weather. Partly cloudy, breezing, cool but not cold.

We went to Poplar Beach in Half Moon Bay. I used to go there in High School, and haven’t been back in 4 years! Brings back memories <3

My friends and I stopped at New Leaf to grab some food for a picnic lunch. I’d never been there before; it’s basically like Whole Foods though.

We each ended up getting some freshly pressed juice: carrot, apple, ginger.

And then we headed to the beach!

Climbing down the steep hill to the beach actually wasn’t terrible.

Walking on the sand wasn’t great. This was the day after my first PT, and my calf was pretty sore. My foot felt ok until we got to the sand, and that was pretty rough. The uneven surface caused a little pain, but I took it super slowly.

In retrospect, this picture gives me so much regret…more on that soon.

For lunch, we grabbed a bag of heirloom carrots (the purple were the most delicious), some delicious gouda that was recommended to us, deli chicken (for me, ham for everyone else), and rice crackers.

After lunch, we did what any college students do post-finals at the beach and took a nap.

We also saw nature at work. I had fun observing seagulls after learning about animal behavior all quarter. We also saw a couple of sharks. Once again, Northern California beaches are NOT the place to swim! They were actually pretty close to shore, and we saw them circle a seal.

We were at the beach for a few hours, and a little bit after getting back I realized my legs felt….not right.

My friends, I’ve been torched. This is by FAR the worst sunburn I’ve had in years. Especially the leg that had a boot on it and didn’t see sun for the past month.

One day later, fully developed:

It’s super hot and painful. I was so excited not to have the boot in grad pictures, but now….

Dinner was mushroom sliders, corn on the cob, and potato salad, with chocolate chip cookies! It was our last meal by our chef, and my roommate and I gave him a bottle of champagne to thank him so much for all the delicious gluten free things he’s made us this year. It really does mean a lot to me. I remember one day winter quarter that I was flaring and having a rough day, and came home to an amazing turkey avocado sandwich in the fridge with my name on it, and it totally made my day. We’ll miss him!

I spent a little time packing before heading over to a party some of my friends were throwing. They had an ice bucket, and my sizzling legs and I stayed close to that all night!

One again, I had a great time talking with people. I actually had a long conversation about chaos theory and fractals with a friend. This is one of the things I love and will miss dearly about Stanford: the awesome, random intellectual conversations that you can have anywhere, especially those that are outside of your area of expertise. I think these conversations are how I’ve grown the most in this 4 years.

My friends live in a dorm, but one of the staff members there keeps a dog there. I tried to get a selfie with him, but he’s wiggly! The live stream photo on my phone looked much cooler (do you guys have live stream?), so I tried to screenshot that with limited success.

It’s such a treat to see animals at school!

I hope everyone is having an awesome week! More grad events to come!

This is It, This is the End

Date: June 9, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well guys, I made it. (Assuming I didn’t fail my final class that I’m still waiting for a grade in!)

All the work of my undergraduate career, is over, and now all that’s left to do is walk the stage (NOT in a boot!)

My weekend was full of studying. I spent all day Friday working on a take home test, and then devoted Saturday and Sunday to studying for my Human Behavior final.

I took a break on Saturday for a spin class and an acai bowl. This was my first time trying hemp seeds, and I liked them in this context a lot but can’t imagine any other way I’d eat them.

Sunday, my advisor had all the senior pre-vets at her house for a goodbye lunch. Every year, she has her seniors paint her a tile. Guess which is mine? (The sheep.)

Monday I took my final exam of undergrad. Then finished my take home test that night.

Tuesday morning, I did a workout of bench presses, pull ups, and rows, and then I went to physical therapy for my foot for the first time. Honestly, it was a little rough after.

And from there, I went and turned in my take home final. And thus ends my Stanford career.

Lunch on Tuesday was super delicious: salmon lettuce wraps. Our chef makes the BEST salmon.

After lunch, I drove to my home-area to run some errands. First up, I picked up cupcakes for the end of the year party I was throwing that night.

From my FAVORITE cupcake place ever. These are GF, and I customized the flavors a bit by swapping the icing on the dulce de leche and chocolate cupcakes. BEST decision. Chocolate cake with dulce de leche icing, and vice versa.

After that, I made the mistake of heading to the mall to look for a dress for some of the week’s festivities. That was far more walking/standing time than my foot was ready for, and I was dying and grumpy by the time I left the mall. I don’t know if it’s stress fracture pain, weakness pain, or not walking in a month pain, but it was rough.

That evening, I went to a spin class (and took it easy of course), before heading back to the house to prepare for the party.

The part was really low key. I mostly wanted an excuse to eat cupcakes and see all of my favorite people one last time! I tried to get a picture with everyone, but ended up failing in that respect.

Check it out: no boot!

It was great to chat with my favorite people!

Later that night, there was a Stanford tradition that I’ve never done before. Apparently a giant group of people move around campus on the last day of finals. My foot wasn’t loving me, so I wasn’t sure how making it across campus was going to work, but my friends are legitimately the best. And the strongest. They literally took turns carrying my crippled butt most of the way across campus. Love them!

We met up with the group near the main quad, right as it was heading to the final stop, a big fountain. I have never seen anything like i in my life.

There was a giant boat that someone made and was carrying, with music. #stanford

I was so glad to be bootless and able to hang out in the fountain for a bit, taking it all in.

It was one of those days/nights that make me so grateful for my school, and all the amazing friends I’ve met. I really want to try and keep up to date on blogging this week, because I know I want to be able to look back on it, and I also want to share some of the Stanford traditions.

More fun/food/fitness to come soon!

#Bootlife Workouts

Date: June 3, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello friends! I’m enjoying my first full day without the boot. Lots of secondary pain in the foot though still from wearing a boot for 4 weeks. I’m trying to take it easy and slow. My calf/ankle/achilles is already sore.

I’m currently slogging through a take home test (yes, still). I predicted it would take me about 14 hours, and I think I’m 7-8 in? I spent all day today working on it. I don’t know what it is about studying days, but I feel like I always eat way too much when I’m just doing work. I spent most of the day out of the house, so I fueled more appropriately, but man, I am so full now!

Here was my morning in meals: Preworkout: blueberry zucchini bread. Sort of regret sharing it with friends because now it’s gone.

Breakfast: yogurt+nectarine+KIND raspberry granola. I added a bit of sunbutter post-picture.

Lunch: cornbread with honey+split pea soup, courtesy of my freezer stash.

Snack: Bobo’s Oat bar, lemon poppyseed.

I don’t have a dinner picture, but the main course was chipotle tofu, a salad, green beans, and avocado toast. Lots of snacks were consumed between then and now.

As I was doing my workout this morning, I thought it would be a good idea to share what my workout routine has been since this injury, because I’ve kind of settled into a groove. As I said before, I’m not planning on changing anything/adding anything until I start PT. This week was different because Murph on Monday, but I’ll share my typical schedule. And a GIANT disclaimer: I am not a doctor, physical therapist, trainer, or anyone remotely qualified to inform you as to what you should do while healing from a stress fracture. This is what worked for me, and everyone is different. Whether or not every single one of these movements was 100% smart may be questionable, but the boot is off and here we are. I probably could have done less spin, but I needed it to stay sane/I was not giving up my last few classes of teaching. WIht that disclaimer, here was my rough schedule:

Monday:

4×4 deadlifts (keeping my weight on my heels, off the bad part of my foot) at a slow tempo going down. I was able to get more work out of a lighter weight this way (I didn’t want to do anything crazy for my foot), and it was more controlled.

4×8 RDLs or good mornings

4×8 single arm kneeling DB press, alternated with 10 tricep dips

Tuesday: Usually Crossfit. For the past few weeks, we’ve been doing bench press on Tuesdays, and the WOD has been pretty similar and easily modifiable for me. It usually ended up being a combo of assault bike+pull ups+push ups.

Wednesday AM: Weights (The odds any of these names are correct are about 0.)

4 sets: 10 both arm seated cable rows/ 8 seated DB press both arms

indefinite sets (usually 25ish minutes) alternating sets of 10 on the machine where you sit and pull your legs apart, and the machine where you sit and push your legs together

a few sets of abs

PM: teach spin, in the saddle only

Thursday: Go to Crossfit and do some work on my own. This varied a little bit more, but usually involved 15-20 minutes on the assault bike, and mainly pull up work. Usually negatives.

Friday: Usually ab/pilates videos (Blogilates)

Sat/Sun: One of the two, spin class (in saddle only) at a local spin studio

Sometimes in the afternoons, I would do a Blogilates abs video. I was lazy this week an that didn’t happen though, haha.

These workouts kept me sane, and I actually had fun doing different things. My abs and arms are noticeably stronger, and I think this was strength work my sort of gimpy shoulder could use anyways. Now I just have to maintain my pull up strength/get strict pull ups!

….and now it’s back to my take home test. Meh.

#BOOTLIFE??

Date: June 2, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! It’s finals week and I’m working on a take home final/about to go to bed. I wanted to check in really quickly for some big news…

Look at that foot! What do you notice? 2 shoes! AHHHHH!

I went in for my 4 week check up x-ray, and ended up unexpectedly getting the boot off! I thought I had 2-4 more weeks. This is crazy exciting, and i won’t be graduating in a boot! For now, I have a brace for added support, and I’m relearning to walk, which is sort of hard, because it’s hard to trust it. Next up is Physical Therapy. In terms of what I can do, workouts are going to look the same. I’m not adding anything else in until I see the PT and get advice about that. I’m in no hurry to get back to running!

And since #fitnessblog, my workout today was Crossfit. We did 2 1k row tests, so I did 2 assault bike tests, 5 minutes for the first and 50 calories for the second. In the middle, we did handstand practice. I just used a box. I was struck by how strong my shoulder felt though. Honestly I wondered if my shoulder would ever be capable of handstands…

Since I’m here, do you guys want to see some food? Let’s see some food.

My new favorite yogurt bowl combo: plain Greek yogurt, KIND raspberry chia granola, blueberries, and mango on the side.

Since its the last week, we’ve been totally spoiled with meals. This is mushroom risotto, with veggies, brie, and crackers on the side.

Portabello mushroom sliders with roasted sweet potatoes and french fries.

Cioppino. I didn’t actually think I’d like this, but I really appreciated how it was served. I’m not a huge seafood person, but this was build your own. I selected the vegan base, and topped it mainly with veggies, and then some crab/lobster. Salad on the side. And that little cup up top? Cheesecake with homemade caramel. YUM. Definitely had a leftover of that at lunch today.

More yogurt, this time with an apricot.

AVOCADO SMASH. We were sent a survey to request meals, and my roommate and I both put this. Mashed avocado with seasonings (I think this was lime and cumin), tomato, and a poached egg. Delicious.

Another food suggestion: mashed avocado+crab+tortilla chip. That was my snack, and it was delicious. We had leftovers from those meals in the fridge, and that definitely ruined my appetite for dinner! I don’t know what it is, but when I’m around the house/not in class it’s hard for me not to snack all day. That and when I’m hardcore studying for long periods of time.

Anyways. Boot is off. Graduation is in 1.5 weeks. Ahhhhh. Far too much time has been spent having meaningful conversations and not studying, but honestly, so worth it.

Boot Takes on Murph (Memorial Day Recap)

Date: June 1, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Checking back in for a Memorial Day recap.

Memorial Day is a time to remember and honor those who have served. Thank you.

When we left off, I was getting ready for my freshman dorm reunion on Saturday evening.

I had a lot of fun at the reunion, but left with sort of strange feelings.

Dinner was delicious. I was trying to be careful with my stomach so I didn’t eat a lot, but would totally go back to the catering restaurant at a later date.

Make your own tacos! Mine with chicken and veggie filling.

It was great catching up with people. I actually saw the end of the Warriors game with a table of guys who were streaming it. I did find myself mostly talking to the people I’m still in touch with though.I guess there’s a reason we’ve stayed in touch! I actually think I’m still pretty close to all my good friends from freshman year.

freshman reunion

I left a bit early to hang out with another friend, and I feel like I missed out on a bit of fun, as everyone migrated back to visit our freshman dorm. I think it’s probably for the best because walking clear across campus in a boot wouldn’t have been a good idea, but I missed hanged out with those people.

After spending the evening being careful with my stomach, I actually had a really, really bad flare Saturday night after I got back. Our chef made GF chocolate cake, and my friend made me GFG snickerdoodle cupcakes, and I just had too much, and the fat in them sent me into a bad flare. On the one hand, I do feel like my stomach has healed a ton. But this is a reminder I have to be careful. Now, pretty much every flare or mini flare I have, there’s a clear cause, and in this case it was the fat in the cake/frosting. I had a pretty rough night. I had to stay up far later than planned because I was too nauseated to get in bed. Finally after a second dose of stomach meds, I started feeling better. Luckily, I woke up feeling much better, although tired.

Sunday morning, I went to another farmer’s market with a couple of friends. I’ve always heard that there were kittens there, but I never actually saw them until this week. How adorable!

I got a large quantity of fruit (after 2 days of farmer’s markets, I’m totally stocked), and my friends and I stopped at one of the stands for lunch. It was a sandwich place, but you could get it as a “paleo plate” over lettuce with an egg, instead of bread, so that’s what I did! I got the avocado, which was mashed avocado and fresh mozzarella. SUPER delicious.

After the farmer’s market, I stopped at a sorority alumnae brunch to celebrate my chapter’s birthday. We had bagels and died tea, and it was nice to catch up with those who have graduated, and hear about life in the real world.

Monday, I went home to clean out my closet. Both my home Crossfit and school Crossfit were doing Murph, which is one of my favorite Crossfit workouts. I had a tough decision as to which gym I should do it at, and ultimately decided to do it at home. I was happy with that choice; it feels like summer now, it was great to see everyone, and now I’m a bit more excited for summer (aka post-grad).

Since I have a stress fracture in my foot, I had to modify. I figured I could do push ups and pull ups, so I was at least half way there! For those of your unfamiliar with Murph, it is a hero WOD typically done every memorial day. It is:

1 mile run

100 pull ups

200 push ups

300 squats

1 mile run

The pull ups, push ups, and squats can be broken up however you want, but most people do 5-10-15.

I knew I would have to sub the assault bike for the runs, but wan’t sure about the squats. I can do deadlifts because the weight is entirely on my heels, but I’ve stayed away from squats. I decided to see how it felt. If I felt like it was at all unsafe for my foot, I planned to switch to sit ups in place of squats. As it turned out, the squats were fine, I just couldn’t rush them.

This was my fourth time doing Murph. (Just for fun, here, here, and here.)

So how did it go? Let’s just start by remembering that I haven’t done a single squat in 4 weeks. Moving on.

I did 3 miles on the bike for the mile run, which took about 9 minutes. I used a band for the pull ups and did strict, but it actually felt really easy, so about halfway through (round 10 of 20) I started doing kipping no-band pull ups for 3-5 of my sets of 5. I honestly probably could/should have ditched the band for the whole workout and just done kipping pull ups the whole way, but it really surprised me that I felt as good as I did. I’ve definitely gotten stronger since hurting my foot: before, I could only string together 3 kips, and now I can do 5, even in round 20! The push ups I scaled on my knees, and they actually felt much easier than expected as well. Next year, I hope to do the workout unscaled!

For the squats, they felt hdd but less awful than they could have been.

I finished Murph in about 51:00. One of my slower times, but I have no problem with that! I was so happy I was able to do what I did. Murph is one of my favorites, as I mentioned, and was really the only exercise thing I was sad about missing out on with my foot.

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Boot takes on Murph.

Afterwards, I went home, ready for some PROTEIN. We had grilled chicken and peach salad with goat cheese, plus some baked Lays on the side while watching the Giant’s game.

After cleaning myself up, I made a recipe I’ve had bookmarked for a while, Blueberry Zucchini bread.

It came out beautifully, and was delicious! Although its 1/2c of sugar is a little higher than I’m used to, so I think it would still be great with 1/3 of a cup!

My main task/reason for going home was to clean out my closet before I dump a whole bunch of stuff from school there. I’m entering a new stage of my life, so it’s out with the old! I think I made pretty decent progress. Someone decided to be oh so helpful. In denial that she is not a lap dog.

A few nights again, my friends and I had a little Pinterest party, and I learned they had entire boards devoted to soup. Um, YES. Soup was courtesy of my friend Kate’s pin. Sweet potato, kale, and corn chowder. Served with GF avocado toast.

I love that despite having soup more or less every week, I’m still finding new and different recipes!

I watched about an hour of the Warriors game, before rushing back to campus for my last sorority initiation.

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And now it’s back to reality. Sort of. I only have classes Tuesday and Wednesday this week before finals start Friday, and only have 1 class Tuesdays. Summer is so close! Not sure how I feel about impending graduation though….

Also, if you’re wondering whether or not you should do 300 squats after not doing them in a month, the answer is a solid no. I’m in a world of pain! Last night (Monday), I wasn’t feeling too bad, but throughout Tuesday I’m growing progressively more and more immobile. My quads are just LIT UP right now. Stairs are the mortal enemy. Both up and down. Between that and the boot, it’s rough walking! My arms/shoulders actually aren’t crazy sore, though the soreness is starting to come in a little stronger. Nothing compared to legs though. I basically don’t want to move at all. For a while.

(Want to see the aftermath of past memorial day Murphs? Here and here.)

Have you ever done Murph? What’s the hardest part for you?