Monthly Archives: April 2017

Life in Pictures

Date: April 10, 2017

Author: astottler

I meant to stop back in here Friday…and then Sunday…and now it’s Monday and here we are, so I’ll take it! We’re going to go through life lately in pictures, because why not?

Work at the vet has been good. THIS GUY. <3 (Note: this is not a patient, it is a kitten one of my coworkers found!)

I feel like I’m thankfully getting back into the rhthym of things faster than expected. I do enjoy my job, but still adjusting to the 2 and 3 pm lunches…

Things have been a little crazy at home lately, and I totally forgot about the CSA box I picked out until it showed up. Thankfully, it provided the perfect easy dinner, without the need for a trip to the store! I apparently went a little wild with carrots though….the entire box was loaded with regular carrots, purple carrots, and rainbow carrots. No complaints here though! Also included were beets and broccolini, so those were roasted up and served with brown rice, an egg, hummus, and chives.

I’m still working my way through some throwback breakfasts. This one is from my summer in DC. The banana wasn’t as ripe as I would have liked, but this is banana mashed and heated in the microwave, with cocoa powder. Plain greek yogurt, sunbutter. YUM.

This is a typical work lunch. Leftover ginger soup with crackers and half an apple. The apples we got at the fruit stand last week are delicious, and massive.

Roasted carrots showed up the following night as well (since there were so many!) Also on the plate was roasted potatoes with rosemary, broccoli, and rotisserie chicken (plus ketchup, of course!).

Still going strong with flapjacked cookies. I cooked these a little bit longer than ideal though!

I didn’t have work Friday, so Thursday was sort of my Friday? One thing about being at the vet is that it can be sort of loud (twin barkers on this particular day), and while I handle it fine at work, sometimes when I get home things feel a little overstimulating. My parents talked me into splitting a beer on this night.

My college friends and I took advantage of my free day Friday to make a trip to San Francisco. After much indecision, we decided on taking a trip to the Ferry Building. The food there is always amazing. This time, we tried a Mexican place.

Indecision was a theme, and my friend helped me decide to go with tortilla soup (over tacos). It was a delicious decision! We also had guacamole.

I really liked the cojita cheese in this as well!

We explored the various vendors a bit before stopping for gourmet ice cream. I went with malted milk chocolate and it was every bit as amazing as expected.

For dinner, I threw together a quick salad of leftover roasted beets, rotisserie chicken, dried cranberries, goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette, plus roasted carrots.

I picked up a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin from the gluten free bakery at the Ferry Building, Mariposa.

Another typical work lunch: the same salad as the previous night with a side of crackers.

Work on Saturday was a little tough, but good. Despite the unconventionality (for me) of working Saturdays, I actually really like the feel of the days. Everything feels a little bit quieter, and I feel like I can be more helpful. I am also getting the chance to work on some vet tech skills, which has been fun and exciting. Anyways, after work my mom and I split a dark beer for happy hour while we discussed our days and prepped dinner.

Dinner came together in a hurry, with an opened faced turkey and havarti sandwich with apple. On the side, we finished up our produce stand artichokes. Our usual dipping sauce is a mix of mayonnaise an flight balsamic vinaigrette.

More flapjacked cookies happening in these parts.

Sunday I spent all day at a Pre-Vet Expo my undergraduate institution hosted. It was a really great conference, with talks by veterinarians in difference fields, lunchtime discussions with vets, and various Q&As. A few things struck me about this day. First, it’s so crazy to me how I attended this same conference 2 years ago, new to anything veterinary medicine, and here am I now, headed to vet school. What?? Second, I’m really excited about the field I’m going into. I don’t know exactly what direction I want to go in, but there are so many opportunities and I can’t wait to dive in. Lastly, veterinarians are a really great group of people. Everyone is so friendly and eager to help young, aspiring veterinarians. If any pre-vets happen to be reading, I highly, highly suggest reaching out to any vets you may know for questions or shadowing. My start came from asking my local vet about shadowing, which turned into hundreds of hours of vet experience and a job.

Anyways, after the conference I stopped in to the on-campus gym to run 2 miles on the treadmill. My achilles held up. I pushed it, but I think the right amount. I’m doing a race in less than 2 weeks (a 5k), and while I have no grand aspirations, I just want it to go well! When I got home, I was HUNGRY. After much debate, we decided to pick up sandwiches for dinner. I suggested Which Wich, because you can get any sandwich in a lettuce wrap or in a salad bowl. I decided to try the exact salad I get at Subway, but I added avocado. It was good!

I took a break from cookies to make this delicious bowl. Vanilla halo top, flax 4 life brownies, fudge, and whipped cream. YUM.

Chloe got another walk Monday morning.

And FINALLY, one more lunch: wrap with sundried tomato laughing cow, spinach, pepper, and half an apple and snap pea crisps.

WHEW.

I know that was a little all over the place! I’m actually going to record a day in the life tomorrow, so check back for that in a couple of days!

Monday Meals

Date: April 5, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hi friends, I’m popping in with a super quick full day of eating that I recorded on Monday, but things got a little bit crazy and I haven’t posted. I have a few minutes now because I don’t start work until 10:30, and I’m trying to delay my breakfast as much as possible because I won’t have lunch until around 3. So Monday.

AM workout was Crossfit. We did heavy squats and strict press. I felt the struggle of not squatting for a long time, and was having a lot of difficulty with one set of 5 at 85% of one my rep. 165 is not usually heavy for me, but I have no clue how I made all 5 reps given how ugly they were. WOD involved double unders, sit ups, and kb snatches. I did singles, which felt fine for my Achilles! Jumping higher would have hurt, hence singles. My Achilles has been progressively feeling better, which is really good!

Breakfast:

Peach kefir, vanilla cereal, sunbutter, plus amazingly big blackberries.

Mid-morning I took Chloe for a quick walk. It was the first walk since my tendonitis flared, and I was hurting by the end. Such a beautiful day though, and she needed the exercise.

Lunch:

Salad with grilled chicken, roasted asparagus, goat cheese, truffle salt, and champagne vinaigrette. On the side was GF cheddar crackers.

Snack: Luna bar+blackberries, with a side of a curious kitty.

That evening I taught my first spin class of the quarter! Thankfully, my Achilles felt totally fine.

Dinner: This was thrown together super fast.

Eggs, spinach, and cheese in the microwave, with a side of avocado toast loaded with everything bagel seasoning.

Dessert: the last of my carrot cookies from the freezer.

Nighttime snack: Luna bar.

Here’s some bonus from Tuesday:

Chloe takes her first ride in my new car and is actually an angel. *knock on wood* I seem to have broken her habit of trying to climb into the front seat.

Lunch of a wrap with sundried tomato laughing cow, spinach, and chicken. Side salad with super amazing aged white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Witht he high quality vinegar, the simple salad doesn’t need anything else!

Tuesday night’s workout was killer, which I want to share because it definitely helped dictate my evening food. We started with heavy cleans (it was supposed to be 5×3 at 95% but LOL I haven’t hit anywhere near that in years). The WOD was LONG.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of heavy front squats, pull ups, and box jumps, with a 100m run after every round. I currently cannot step down from a box, so I subbed wall balls. I used 95# for the squats. The workout took me about 25 minutes, and just seemed to go on forever. I didn’t think it looked that bad, but it was just a lot of time under physical stress! The soreness from the squats has not come in yet, but I know it will anytime!

Post-workout I knew I needed protein so I sipped on peach kefir (basically yogurt) while making dinner. I made shortcut ginger squash soup, but skipped the croutons because #dead and #hungry, so we had toast and roasted asparagus on the side instead.

The soup has basically no protein, so I tried my last new flavor, the oatmeal, Flapjacked cookies. I did my healthier swap of applesauce for butter and egg whites for eggs, and added a few chocolate chunks. They’re SO good. I’ve been really impressed with all of the flavors. In my experience though they cook a lot faster than the actual time, although my swaps may play a role. I pulled these out at 7 minutes, and they were perfect. The package says 9-11.

I just got back from AM Crossfit, and it was kind of rough so I think it’s going to be breakfast time now! We did squats and heavy bench, and I got talked into Rxing the WOD with 155# deadlifts. It was 15 minutes of rowing, wall balls, and deadlifts. WHEW.

Have a good one everyone!

Puppy Hour

Date: April 3, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Aaaand we’re back with a “weekend” recap. I use quotes here because I was working 8-5 on Saturday. I knew I would want to celebrate my first week of work, so I suggested “puppy hour.” A lot of downtown in the town I work in is super dog friendly, so at 5 my parents brought Chloe and we met at a casual bar for happy hour. We’re trying to get Chloe better at going places, and this was a successful outing!

We got a couple of half pours to try, and a milk stout to share. One was a really interesting blueberry cheesecake stout, and the other was called “Free Kittens,” so we had to get it. The Free Kittens beer was a delicious rice based lager (I didn’t know that was a think), and appropriately, it was from a brewery really close to where I’m going for vet school!

After puppy hour, we walked a few blocks over to pizza! Chloe managed to eat her entire rawhide bone while we munched on a brussels sprouts salad and a gluten free pizza margarita.

After dinner, I suggested a short walk to froyo. The froyo is a block from work, and it was a frequent favorite when I worked there a couple of years ago! I had chocolate, birthday cake, and guava froyo with chocolate covered raisins, chocolate chips, and various sauces.

Sunday morning I went to a spin class with one of my original favorite instructors. Hers was the first spin class I ever went to! I haven’t been in well over a year, and the technology has upgraded the format of the class. It was called “threshold ride,” and used computers on a screen. We started at the beginning of class with taking 3 minutes to find a “threshold” power, which was a max power. Then, the screen would display what percentage of your max power you were at, so we went through intervals with goal percentages. It was a good one! I love knowing EXACTLY what I’m doing in a spin class.

The best part? My achilles is feeling better! It was totally fine for class. I found my plantar fasciitis sock that helps stretch out that area, so I wore it last night. Plus, I rolled out my calves before class and everything felt so much better.

For post-workout lunch, I made an old go-to Quick and Easy meal.

An egg scramble with sweet potato (this is Japanese), spinach, egg, and a high quality cheese. I used to make this after long runs in college. While I made it on the stovetop, the eggs can easily be cooked in the microwave. I microwaved my sweet potato. Which was a little bit of a disaster. The first attempt apparently cooked faster than usual and I pulled a smoking potato out of the microwave. My hands smelled like smoke all day, despite my best efforts.

After lunch, it was time for opening day!

We had beer flights for the occasion.

The Xingu was my favorite by far! It was a black lager, and was dark yet refreshing with subtle sweetness (described as raisin). I’m actually considering ordering more than just our couple of sample bottles.

Unfortunately, the game didn’t end as I would have hoped, but there was definitely some epic-ness, as our starting pitcher hit 2 HRs, which has never happened before on Opening Day!

For dinner post-baseball, I made my California Nicoise Salad.

My dad grilled the chicken, and everything came out deliciously!

For dessert, I tried the Flapjacked Double Chocolate cookies, again subbing egg whites and applesauce for the butter and egg. I didn’t overcook them this time, so that helped too! Seriously, these are just as tasty without butter.

As I said the other day, you can’t really go wrong with warm cookies, right?

That was my weekend! i have tomorrow and Tuesday off though, and I’m hoping that the time off my feet will really give me an opportunity to nip this tendonitis.

Did you watch Opening Day?

New Home

Date: April 2, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Wow. I meant to blog Friday, but it’s already Sunday. I worked Friday and Saturday at the vet, so it feels like my weekend is just starting!

I have some adventures, workouts, and delicious food to catch you all up on!

First things first: my tendonitis? Not good. It’s been bothering me a lot, and feeling really weird. It’s definitely better than it was the first few days, but it’s bad. It’s unfortunate that it flared up right as I was starting work again, and on my feet literally all day. It’s painful, and it feels like there’s rubber rubbing against rubber when I flex my foot, which is a really weird feeling. It was also visually a little swollen, although that’s gone down. I’ve been diligently icing, as well as electrocuting with a little handheld electrical stimulation machine. Workouts as of late have been strength based, and designed as to not aggravate it at all.

Thursday morning, I went to the gym for a little lift+non-impact cardio. I did 4 sets of 8 single leg split squats and RDLs with 25# dumbbells, and 5×8 dumbbell bench press, I think with 25s. Next, I did an ab workout video, and finished with 8 rounds of HIIT on the spin bike (seated), 1 min on, 1:15 off.

Post-workout breakfast was an amazing Cara Cara orange and a flapjacked.

Mid-morning, my mom and I drove over to Davis! We got there early enough for lunch at Panera, where I had a Fuji Apple Salad.

We also had time to drive around and locate a brewery and Crossfit (conveniently next to each other) before meeting up with my future roommate and her adorable pets! So yay! I have a place to live!

Before heading out of town, we stopped at Temple, an amazing coffeeshop that I stopped in a few years ago when I was in Davis for a conference.

Decaf capp, gluten free blueberry muffin (delicious, and limey a future dietary staple).

Also spotted: chicks!

On the drive home, we stopped for gas and stumbled upon an amazing fresh fruit and veggie stand. We brought home some super fresh and super cheap produce. This stand is probably 10 minutes from my new home! What a find!

We made it home in plenty of time to go to the Giants-A’s exhibition game (pre-season, end of spring training).

Thank goodness it’s baseball season!

Of course, beer is necessary for baseball.

As well as gluten free cauliflower truffle flatbread. I love SF.

I also tried hand tossed warm caramel corn for the first time. It’s so messy, it has to be eaten with a fork!

Most of the game was pretty uneventful: not a lot of hitting. We finally broke through for a few runs late in the game though!

We left a bit early because I had work the next day.

Friday morning’s workout was another solo one at the gym. I started with deadlifts and worked up to 175, which is only 75% for me, but I haven’t lifted heavy in a LONG time (read: not since St. Louis). Then, I did some bench pressing. Not too crazy of a weight, but enough to hopefully build a little strength. I was trying to roughly follow the Crossfit programing of the day. I heavily modified the WOD to be tendonitis-friendly, and did the following: 2000m row, 50 dumbbell thrusters (20s), 2000m row.

For breakfast before work, I had my current go-to: a protein smoothie with banana, protein, cocoa, and milk, with pumpkin spice Cheerios.

One adjustment I’m having to make with work is tweaking mealtimes. I work the later shift, 10-7, so I don’t get lunch until 2 at the earliest on those days. I’m trying to eat a filling breakfast, and have it as late as possible, since I”m usually ready for lunch right at 12.

Lunches this week have been leftover stew with crackers.

For dinner after work, we had leftover sweet and sour chicken bowls with artichokes from the produce stand.

The sweet and sour chicken was a recipe from the Cooking Light magazine (and I can’t find it online). It was cooked in the slow cooker, and served with brown rice and Asian slaw. The chicken was SUPER delicious, perfectly favored and perfectly tender. Original dinner:

For my Friday night dessert, I made some Flapjacked cookies. Instead of using butter, I used applesauce and a little salt, and then egg white in place of egg (mostly because I was making a small amount and 1/3 of an egg is hard to do). The honestly came out perfectly, and I think I liked them better with applesauce, which helps the nutritional info a lot!

You really can’t go wrong with warm chocolate chip cookies though, right?

I’m going to end this post here, but weekend happenings will come soon, including puppy hour!