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What I Ate For a 10 Hour Workday

Date: June 29, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

Hello, hello! It’s Friday night here, or so I’m told. I honestly have been really struggling to know which day of the week it is with my schedule! Today is technically my Tuesday? I think? I start late tomorrow though, so I thought I would take some time tonight to recap what I ate today!

Pre-workout: Handful of Berry Cheerios

Workout was 6am Crossfit. We did shoulder presses, and then a WOD with lots of dumbbell snatches and toes to bar. Big progress for me was having no issues with the snatches. Doing these last back home in California, the extra couple of inches closer to the floor with the dumbbell versus the barbell was a big problem, so that’s good!

Post-workout breakfast eaten in the car:

Chocolate milk drink plus some crackers. Can we talk for a second about that fact that Crossfit ended at 7, and I started work at 7:30? I got showered and totally ready to go in 10 minutes. One trick is to do (minimal) eye makeup that’s waterproof before Crossfit. It helps me look somewhat put together!

Lunch:

I’ve had roughly the same salad every day at work, but this was especially amazing. The nectarine was perfectly sweet and ripe, I used the last of my delicious fig balsamic goat cheese, and the chicken was amazing. It’s leftover grilled chicken from Hattie B’s; the original meal will appear in a later recap post but this was awesome.

I also had cotton candy grapes. I first tried these in St. Louis almost 2 years ago and became obsessed. I’ve never seen them in CA. I thought that they MUST have them somewhere here, and went to every grocery store until finally I found them at Publix!

I had to stop into Target to pick up a few things on my lunch break, so I had a few pieces of this:

Snack: I’ve been having a Luna bar every day. I haven’t had the Lemon flavor in a while, and after having it today, I realized that the last few of the Lemon bars I had months ago were probably stale because this was so good!

I was actually really hungry today, so around 4:30 I broke into another Target purchase, one of these new protein bars I found. I used to love ThinkThin bars in the days prior to my weird nut allergies, so I was excited to find a kids bar that didn’t have any! I actually liked this a lot. It didn’t have the weird fake sugar taste of some of the other ThinkThin bars I remember. This reminded me a lot of the Balance Cookie Dough bars I used to like when I was younger! Plus I love having a smaller bar option for when I want just a little something.

Dinner:

Since I’m impatient, I often snack while cooking. Today’s snack was some tzatziki sauce from Taziki’s leftover from some takeout I got earlier in the week, with some crackers.

Dessert:

Mint chip Halo Top.

And then a little bit later, I had some GF crackers with sunbutter.

And that’s a wrap!

Solo Life in Nashville

Date: June 22, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

It seems like it’s becoming a typical day off activity for me to blog my Nashville adventures! I’m currently at Frothy Monkey sipping on a blueberry basil espresso. Yes, it’s amazing.

I just recapped my most recent visitors, but I wanted to spend some time talking about my solo activities. Exercise has mainly been Crossfit. I ran for the first time before work on Sunday in like 3 weeks, and while I didn’t run very long (my neighborhood isn’t good for running), I was a little sore! I snuck in a spin class last night. There are 4 more spin studios I want to try while I’m here (!) and that’s actually going to be a challenge with my schedule! I went to a Cyclebar class last night and it was fun!

Now that we’ve covered fitness, let’s move to food and then things to do!

Last week I blogged from Capital Coffee, and had a delicious honey cinnamon latte.

Late lunch post-Crossfit at Food Company:

Gluten free turkey wrap with artichoke spread and a kale side salad. Yum!

Here’s a recent delicious dinner—salad with balsamic vinaigrette, grilled chicken, riced sweet potato/cauliflower, and cheese.

The other day during my lunch break, I stopped at the Wild Muffin, an amazing GF muffin shop. I got a double chocolate muffin to eat with dinner, and took home (ok, took home most of) a blueberry pop tart with lemon blueberry glaze. YUM.

Another good find at Walmart was these chocolate covered Greek yogurt bars. They’re cold but not frozen, and basically are just that: chocolate covered Greek yogurt.

I had a really delicious lunch at Crumb de la Crumb the other day. I got an avocado salad with chicken.

And then had a GF chocolate torte (and managed to save half for post-dinner!).

And finally, today actually I had my first BBQ of the summer! I went to Martin’s BBQ downtown, and got smoked turkey.

The BBQ sauce was really thin and vinegary, but it actually worked for me! It was good, but there are other more highly recommended places I still need to try!

And now the adventures.

Last week I went to a show at the Grand Ole Opry, the “radio show that put country music on the map.”

It turns out that my grandma used to listen to the radio show when she was a kid!

The premise of the show is that a whole bunch of artists play a few songs, so you get a taste of a lot of things. It’s also a place for up and coming artists to make their names. I happened to be looking at the schedule of who was playing and recognized someone on this particular night, LOCASH, so I went for it!

There was a really big range of artists in terms of popular era and style. I actually ended up recognizing a couple of other songs that I didn’t realize I knew. It was a really fun time, and it really feels like a big piece of history!

On kind of a similar note, I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum as well.

I spent a couple of hours there, and actually enjoyed it more than I expected! It was cool learning about the evolution of country music and how the style changed through the years. I’m very new to country music so it was interesting to learn the history. Hey, when in Nashville, right?

Ok, I think I’ve rambled on enough for today! Monday I get to welcome my next visitor, so I look forward to that!

Goat Yoga and Nashville with Foodies

Date: June 21, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

I have another Nashville adventures post for you guys today, and it features the most epic of them yet: GOAT YOGA. Yes, yoga with goats. My sister and her husband visited this past weekend, and a month ago for my birthday, my sister gifted me a goat yoga class for when she visited me here!

Guys, this was everything. Everything and more. OMG. The yoga instructor described the class as “a little bit of yoga and a lot of goats.”

Little goats wandered around throughout the class, and there were plenty of goat friendly poses:

I don’t know how to properly explain how amazing it was to cuddle with goats and have them climb all over you. Although the adorable black and white one kept falling off of people’s backs, mine included. I’m pretty sure I still have some hoof print bruises. If you go to Nashville, this is a must-do. We did it through Shenanigoats.

The goat yoga travels to different venues, and this particular venue had an amazing farm to fork restaurant, so naturally we stayed for brunch. I was lucky enough to get given the whole day off work to spend with my visitors!

I tried a bite of the warm donuts.

This was probably the best meal of the weekend, we all agreed. We split a whole bunch of things, included an unpictured leek quiche. The real highlights?

Grilled peaches and goat cheese.

This was the real winner. Roasted beets with cheese (I don’t remember which kind but it was deliciously creamy), cilantro sauce, and curry brittle. The curry brittle was unique and amazing.

Next up was a trip to the farmer’s market. I took home some Georgia peaches, and introduced them to Jeni’s ice cream. The gooey butter cake is my new favorite flavor, so I had a half scoop of that which actually paired perfectly with a half scoop of lemon blueberry buttermilk frozen yogurt.

After some downtime in the afternoon (it was 97 degrees and HUMID) we went to dinner at the Sunflower Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant that had vegetarian BBQ. I had tempeh BBQ over brown rice with slaw and kale.

I also had some mashed sweet potatoes.

Everything was good but I probably won’t bother going again, to be honest.

Next, we headed down to Broadway so I could show my sister the plethora of live music!

Sunday, I worked all day and then met up with my sister and her husband for dinner at 404 kitchen. We shared some appetizers, including burrata with roasted carrot puree, grilled zucchini, and a delicious salad that was topped with nutritional yeast.

For my meal, I got roasted chicken over thick cut corn grits.

It was good but would have been amazing with a little more salt.

For dessert, we got a almond meal cake with saffron ice cream and a chocolate orange budino. Both good!

Because I’m obsessed, I brought them to Tailgate afterwards for some sunset brews. Fun fact: they do half pours so you can try more things!

Monday I also had work, but I was let off early so we met up for dinner at Tennessee Brew Works. I got a sweet potato stout and a salad with ranch and grilled chicken.

After dinner, we headed back downtown to enjoy some more live music. It’s amazing how Nashville knows no days of the week! Monday was popping!

Tuesday morning, I snuck in a workout before we all met up for brunch. In search of the good biscuits, we ended up at Holler and Dash. This place gets two thumbs up! I got a delicious brussels sprouts salad with parmesan and apple, and a side of a biscuit with jam.

This biscuit is actually a huge deal for me. This is the most gluten I’ve had in about 3 years! More importantly, I felt pretty good after! I’m trying to try a few things when they sound really good, and while I’ve had mixed results, the trend is getting better. So I’m staying gluten free except when I want to try something amazing (i.e. biscuits).

After brunch, we went to 12 South to Firepot Tea, an adorable tea shop. Their specialty seems to be chai lattes, so I got the children’s chai latte, which was caffeine free and had a spicy flavor!

Since it was a block away, on our way out we took a picture with the iconic wall.

Next on the agenda was visiting a whiskey distillery. I don’t really like whiskey, but since I live in Tennessee, I really want to! Despite this minor detail, I really enjoyed the tour and the experience. We went to Nelson’s Greenbriar, and they have a really amazing story. It’s a pretty new distillery, sort of. It was a leading distillery pre-prohibition. During prohibition, things were kept shut down and kept so quiet that it was lost to history until the great great great grandchildren of the original distiller discovered their heritage and reopened it, using original recipes. Despite its youth, this Tennessee Whiskey has won numerous awards.

I also learned that Tennessee Whiskey is an official category of whiskey, that must follow 5 rules to be considered such.

Then it was on to tasting!

To be honest, I can’t really get on board with sipping and savoring 90 proof, but it was a cool experience. They actually let me try one of their vodkas that was made on accident because the last whiskey had pecans, and it was actually really good!

With only a few hours left in Nashville, we had one last major item to knock off the list: hot chicken. This is a Nashville thing, and Hattie B’s is the place to go. To be honest, I’m not really a fried chicken person, but I tried a few bites and it was good. Both my sister and her husband enjoyed it a lot!

Our actual last stop was Nada for guac and tacos. It was really good! I got a chicken taco and a roasted cauliflower taco.

And that’s a wrap! Thank you to my second set of visitors for coming to experience Nashville with me!

How to Spend 24 Hours in Nashville

Date: June 12, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

I know I wasn’t the greatest at blogging this past year at school, but I both had minimal time, and didn’t do many interesting things. I want to get back to blogging a little more now that I’m here because I have more time and am doing and eating more interesting things! (i.e. not zucchini pasta every night.)

I’m working longer hours than I have before, but it’s been going really well. It’s also so nice to go home and relax, not study! That being said…having a little time to relax combined with spending all day doing veterinary medicine and talking about cases has actually made me want to spend some time at coffeeshops studying on my days off. This summer is turning out to be EXACTLY what I was looking for. Some time to relax, some time to actually DO veterinary medicine and practice my clinical skills. Plus, because I’m in a different part of the country, there are definitely differences in clients and cases/diseases, which is what I wanted. I get asked many times a day why I came all the way from California. I know people doing the same program I’m doing 20 minutes from school. It goes to show you that your life is what you make it. I wanted to spend some time in the South, in a different place, so I made it happen. And I’m so, so glad I did. I may have grown up in California and gone to both undergrad and now vet school there, but I’ve managed to spend a few months living in DC, Knoxville, St. Louis, and now Nashville. Not only has it been a blast, but it really opens your eyes to what the rest of the country is like. In a way you wouldn’t get just visiting for a few days.

In addition, I think Jackson is living his best life here. He quickly adjusted, and absolutely loves the place we are staying. He gets along with the other kitties, but mostly he loves looking at little critters out the window. Starting when it gets light around 5am until when I leave for the morning, he’s darting from window to window chirping.

While my days at work are longer than I’m accustomed to, they haven’t been totally wiping me out and dragging like I was worried they would. The only thing is my feet hurt SO much from standing all day! Hopefully they’ll get accustomed to it. In terms of fitness, with longer hours I just try to fit it in when I can. On days I start at 8am I do 6am Crossfit. Because I work 10-12 hour days, I make workouts a priority on my days off as much as possible. I may try 5am crossfit classes at some point…but I”m not ready for that yet!

I’ve been eating the same salad every day at work: peaches, goat cheese, turkey, and balsamic.

But back to the title of this post. Last weekend, my St. Louis friends made the 5 hour drive to visit me here! I worked Saturday, and they arrived Saturday afternoon and left Sunday late afternoon. We did a LOT in the 24 hours they were here, so here’s what to do in 24 hours in Nashville!

Our frist stop was dinner at a brewery really close to me, Tailgate. I’m OBSESSED with the atmosphere here. It feels like summer. There’s an outdoor area overlooking a hill, with lights strung up. At dusk, fireflies come out (which is mesmerizing for someone from California!

They also had REALLY good pizza. They had both GF crust AND cauliflower crust. It was so good we actually went again Sunday afternoon before my friends hit the road.

Everyone who visits me is coming here. It just feels like summer. I honestly didn’t exactly understand summer until I left CA and came to Tennessee 2 years ago. There’s something different on the other side of the country.

Next, we headed downtown to Broadway street. This is the main “downtown” that Nashville is know for. The cool thing about it is it’s a several block area with a whole bunch of bars, most of which have multiple floors with life music, and a lot have rooftop bars as well. We totally lucked out and the weather was in the upper 70s at night. We went in and out of a ton of different places. It was a blast!

On Sunday, we went to brunch at the highly recommended Biscuit Love. We went to the Hillsboro Village location, and I would highly recommend doing this. It’s their newer location, and after looking at their website, I was expecting an hour line to order, but we were able to order right away! Two of my favorite foods ever are biscuits and grits, so that’s exactly what I got. I got a bowl with cheddar grits, eggs, tomato gravy, and kale, and then a biscuit on the side. I only had a little bit of it though. It was good but not my favorite style of biscuit. In terms of gluten while I’m here, I’ve had a couple of small things and been ok, so I’m going with it. I didn’t push it since these weren’t my favorite style of biscuits, but biscuits are going to have to happen while I’m here.

My friends also ordered the Bonuts to share, which are biscuit donuts rolled in sugar and topped with berry compote and mascarpone.

Hillsboro Village is a cute little area near Vanderbilt, so we walked around there a little bit before heading to 12 South, my current favorite neighborhood, to take the iconic Nashville picture.

While there, we had to stop at Jeni’s ice cream. Another place that everyone who visits is going to go to. I’ve been DYING to try the gooey butter cake flavor, which is actually GF! When I went before and when I passed by a Jeni’s, they were both out! So of course that had to happen. It’s AMAZING. I got it with dark chocolate.

After we saw everything in that neighborhood, we walked the pedestrian bridge. We were going to try and park on the other non-downtown side of the river, but we drove in circles across the river trying to find a place to enter or park, so we ended up parking downtown in a cheaper lot that our Uber driver from the previous night actually recommended. To get to the bridge, we walked through Broadway, which was just as much in the day as at night.

Note: we didn’t actually go to CMA Fest, but there was a lot going on all weekend!

Here are the views from the bridge:

And then it was back for pizza before they headed out. I am so thankful for my zoo friends. You know true friends will drive hours to visit you! (They drove 10 hours to visit me in Alabama last year!) It was such a great weekend.

And that’s how to spend 24 hours in Nashville!

Nashville Things

Date: June 11, 2018
Author: astottler
Categories: Uncategorized

I’m in Nashville! Yay!

I thought I’d recap what I’ve been up to so far before works starts getting crazy (I work pretty long days). I’m currently blogging from a coffeeshop, the Frothy Monkey, downtown. I have a drink with beet juice and cocoa powder. I didn’t think it had any coffee in it, but I actually am not sure if ti does or not…

I’m definitely not expert on Nashville, but I’m trying to get the most out of my time off!

Sunday was spent mostly settling in. Side note: when I got in Saturday, it was so late nothing was open so I went through the McDonald’s drive through. I got the Southwest salad with grilled chicken and it was actually REALLY good.

I went to Target on Sunday on pretty much bought one of everything. There are just a lot of things necessary to live! I also wanted to spend plenty of time with Jackson on my first day to make sure he was settling in ok.

Yeah, I think he’s fine.

The main event was Sunday afternoon. I researched spin classes in Nashville, and came across Cyclebar, which I’ve heard of. I wanted to go to a class on Sunday, and happened to find that they had an outdoor class at a brewery. Um, sign me up! We got to cycle outside, with a great view of the Nashville skyline. and then, we got a free beer at the brewery!

I also figured this was a step up from drinking alone! It was at Jackalope, and I had the Lovebird beer, which was a strawberry/raspeberry hefeweizen.

Afterwards, I went to dinner at the Frothy Monkey location in 12 South, an area I went with my friend when I visited Nashville a few years ago. (I think I will probably go back there and not come here to the downtown location, just because parking is RIDICULOUSLY expensive here). I got a sandwich with smoked turkey, cheese, and avocado on GF bread, and a salad with citrus vinaigrette.

Afterwards, I walked down the street to Jenni’s ice cream. I was hoping to try their Gooey Butter Cake flavor (#stlouis) but they were out. I “settled” for dark chocolate and salty caramel. You can do two half scoops of different flavors! So this was technically single scoop, but it was huge!

Monday morning I went into the clinic I’m going to work out to do some paperwork and get oriented.

I was home in time for lunch, and discovered a new quick and easy salad combo that apparently I haven’t take a picture of yet. Bolthouse farms Salsa Racnh dressing, deli turkey, and american cheese. The American cheese I got tastes a little cheddary so it works!

Monday afternoon I went to a new Crossfit! I had a comprehensive evaluation of my movements beforehand. I can tell the coaching here is really good. I’ve been to 2 classes so far and they’ve definitely been challenging! It’s really nice to go somewhere different and get pushed, plus it’s smaller so there’s more individual attention. For better or for worse, they have 5am classes. Which might become a thing when I start work at 7am and work until 7:30pm (ouch, we’ll see).

Because I work such long hours, I’m going to try to go as much as I can, when I can. Which means on my days off, I really need to hit it!

After Crossfit, I made myself a giant salad with salsa ranch, corn, tomatoes, Mexican cheese blend, and BBQ chicken.

This is a super easy dinner that will be on repeat this week. I’ve made this before with lime juice and olive oil as the dressing!

Tuesday and Wednesday I had off of work. Tuesday morning was lazy until I went to 11:30 Crossfit. It crushed me. We did RDLs for the strength, which I am definitely feeling now. Followed by box steps ups. I like the accessory strength work that we do as well. I think it’s important! The WOD was a 15 minute AMRAP of 15 cals rowing/15 wall balls/9 burpees. I finished just over 5 rounds. We also do some “cool down” work here, and today it was sideways leg raises which I am also feeling.

That morning, I went to Walmart (I don’t have one near me, but they have some awesome healthy food things! The new Peach Halo Top is fire.) which happened to be near a GF, nut free MUFFIN bakery. The Wild Muffin is a super small shop that specializes in GF muffins, and I’m obsessed because muffins are the superior baked good. I got a lemon blueberry and a pumpkin cheesecake, and they were still warm. They were both gone in a day, and this is going to have to become a weekly occurrence.

After lunch, I went to Radnor Lake to hike the trail around the lake. I figured I should do some outdoor things while it’s still 80s here! It was really beautiful, and the trail around the lake took me about an hour and 10 minutes.

Being outdoors like this feels like summer to me!

When I arrived home, I cleaned myself up and went to a Nashville Sounds baseball game! The minor league team here is the AAA affiliate of the Oakland A’s. The stadium is really nice so it’s a fun time!

Nothing like beer and baseball in the summer!

More to come soon!