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Tamale Wednesday Returns

Date: April 18, 2018

Author: astottler

Hello, hello! Today was another light day school-wise so I have no complaints! I started my morning with a spin workout on my own. I debated going to Crossfit, but deadlifts were the strength and that’s just not happening right now, plus the WOD looked fun but had running and given I had soccer yesterday and a 5k this weekend, I don’t want to exceed my ankle’s ability to run. Wow, I truly am falling apart…the spin bike never fails me though!

Breakfast:

Plain greek yogurt, sunbutter, blueberries, and a couple of crackers. All of our metabolism and GI lectures have made me want to try to shift my macronutrient intake to be a little less carb-heavy, so I’m trying to add some fats back in and reduce the sugar a little bit.

Lunch:

I went to a lunch talk with food, but brought my own salad. I had a side of rice and roasted vegetables in place of the crackers I packed, and then had my salad with fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomato, turkey, and green goddess dressing.

Snack:

A custom granola bar with sunbutter, chocolate, and dried cherries, and some dried pear. A little later I had a couple of crackers with sunbutter.

Dinner:

Tamale Wednesday returns! Some may remember from this past fall, but the Wednesday Farmer’s Market is back for the season and there’s a place there with the best tamales. I went just for the tamale. I got a chicken one this time, and had it with a salad with white balsamic and dried cranberries.

Dessert:

Some Trader Joe’s Churro bites which are way too addicting, and Halo Top with mint chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Snack:

New KIND bar that’s mostly dried banana with a chocolate drizzle.

Soccer Season Begins

Date: April 17, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Tuesday! My day sort of felt like a weekend since i only had class 9-12…Today was metabolism which is one of my favorite things too!

I started my morning with Crossfit. My back is still fairly still today. It tightened up a lot between last night and today and I think that happens when surrounding muscles are tight. Pre-CF I had the usual Cheerios.

Breakfast:

A lemon poppyseed protein muffin with the most amazing giant blackberries.

Lunch:

A salad with grilled chicken, pear, and creamy goat cheese. Pirate’s Booty on the side.

Snack 1:

Snack 2:

Since I was going to be having dinner on the later side, I had a second snack of more amazing blackberries, plus some of thoe TJ’s Churro bites. So addicting.

Today I started intramural soccer and it went well! We have a pretty big team which means lots of subs! I actually felt more coordinated than I was expected, and it felt better than softball because I can run without any pains/feeling super slow…I definitely feel like my soccer improved over the course of the fall season. It’s so nice to be playing sports again! I actually even scored a goal. On a penalty kick, but I’ll take it. Literally the only thing I’m good at is shooting, so hey, if you place it right in front of me in front of the goal…

Dinner:

Something different! I had leftover stir fried veggies from the other night, so I made a scramble with a whole egg, egg whites, the last of my spinach, and manchego (the best scramble cheese in my opinion). Side of avocado toast!

Dessert:

A sunbutter cup and a mint chocolate.

And then I had a handful of peach Cheerios later on!

Thankfully, by this time in the evening, my back is feeling much better! Hopefully this trend continues!

Full Day of Eating and Busy Gym Workout

Date: April 16, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Today was the first day of our new block—GI! I’m personally excited because I think that’s my favorite body system. I’m back with another day of food!

Breakfast:

Tart Cherry and Chocolate protein muffin.

Lunch:

I didn’t snag a picture because I was in a meeting, but I had a salad with chicken, creamy goat cheese, blueberries, and balsamic, with a side of seedy crackers.

After my lunch meeting, I headed to the gym during our break between classes. The Crossfit workout today wasn’t a great one for me right now and the class times didn’t work great with my schedule, so I did my own gym workout. I’m currently working through some aches and pains. Ever since training and doing my powerlifting competition, my haps have been hurting so I haven’t been doing too much squatting. More annoyingly, I tweaked my back on deadlifts a couple of weeks ago. It’s a lot better, but I’m trying to avoid certain movements. Also, after my softball game yesterday, it was not feeling the best today so I tried to put a workout together that was easy on it.

I did a few push presses, thinking about working on that (the bench press bars were in use), but my thumb was randomly sore. Not sure if it’s from softball but it’s the same thumb I had issues with a little while ago. I’m basically falling apart. So I decided to grab some 30# dumbbells and get some strength in. I wanted to do some strength focusing on squatting muscles without putting a bar on my back or stressing my hips as much so I did 4 sets of:

8 single leg split squats with dumbbells

8 pistols

8 dumbbell bench press

Dumbbell work is great to do when the gym is on the busier side. It wasn’t too bad today, but this worked for what I could do!

Then, I did a 10 minute conditioning couplet of 3,6,,9,12,15 etc push ups and box jumps. I challenged myself to do push ups not from my knees so this was a little tough! I finished with 10 minutes of abs.

Snack:

Then, I had a 2 hour lab. When I got home, I snacked on a couple of crackers with a fancy brie-type of cheese, and some of these amazing churro puffs.

Dinner:

I made a veggie stir fry with zucchini and frozen mixed veggies. I sautéed them with garlic and tamari, and then served it on top of white rice, with some teriyaki sauce on part of it.

Dessert:

It may not be the best, but lately I’ve been getting my protein in through dessert. Chocolate Halo Top with mint chocolate sauce and of course whipped cream.

And then a couple of pieces of dried pear and a ginger chew.

Snack:

Feeling Like Summer: Baseball, Vet School Prom, Zucchini

Date: April 15, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Last week was behavior week, which is one of my favorite things ever. It was technically part of Neuro, which meant that this weekend after our Behavior final, I had zero school obligations. It was glorious.

Last weekend I had minimal school obligations and watched maybe 8 hours of baseball? This weekend was a mix of relaxing and fun!

It kicked off with vet school “prom.” Not entirely sure what that means other than an excuse to dress up!

A lot of times I put pressure on myself to get up and get stuff done/workout on the weekends. Saturday I took that pressure off. I slept in until 8 and was shocked because that is unprecedented…I don’t think I’ve slept that late all year! I had a lazy day consisting of chores, reading, time soaking in some sun with my friend, and then a minor league baseball game! I love baseball. The Giant’s AAA minor league team is in Sacramento, so it’s really easy to catch a game!

Sunday morning, I had a great plan to find somewhere nice to run in Sacramento, and then to go to the GF bakery for their Sunday morning donuts. I found a really nice looking trail by the river in a park. Well, I couldn’t find an open entrance to the park. I spent 30 minutes driving in circles before giving up and driving to the bakery and just running around the neighborhood there. Despite that, the 3 mile run went well and my ankle actually felt good! The donut line took FOREVER but I couldn’t complain too much given I had very little to do that day!

I got a chocolate cruller and an apple fritter. Both were SOO good but I think eating 2 donuts at once is a lot for me because I didn’t feel the greatest the rest of the day…

My other big activity for the day was a slow pitch softball game! It was fun but I’m definitely rusty, and have some random aches and pains that are now more achy and painful…I swear I feel myself getting older every year…

Since my full days of eating last week were sort of repetitive, I wanted to share some from this week because of course when I’m not tracking full days of eating I actually keep it more interesting…

Breakfast:

It’s no secret I’m obsessed with these protein muffins, so I was thrilled that they recently came out with a bunch of new flavors. I love the lemon poppyseed for spring!

On Crossfit mornings getting out the door is a mad dash, so here’s a breakfast in class (it was a lecture that didn’t require much note-taking). Plain Greek yogurt, blueberries, vanilla cereal, sunbutter.

And another one.

I love the blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries stirred in, and blueberries recently started being amazing.

I decided to mix it up with a savory breakfast on Friday when I had more time. I was actually not a fan. I don’t like the way eggs make me feel in the morning.

This was my pre-run breakfast on my donut morning. If you can get your hands on these, you need to. I recently saw them on Amazon.

Lunch:

This salad is nothing new.

…and again.

My lunch pretty much every day at school. Salad with chicken and pear and goat cheese.

Weekend salad from Trader Joe’s—the Citrus Chicken.

Dinner:

Zucchini noodles tossed with fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, and heirloom tomato.

Stir fry with zucchini and frozen veggies over brown rice. I used a GF orange sauce that is good, but the orange is subtle.

Similar stir fry but with soy sauce and half orange sauce.

Zucchini noodles with pasta sauce, mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, and basil. One night I was out of mozzarella so I used a combo of parmesan and cheddar and it wasn’t bad!

Salad with egg whites and cheese puffs on the side.

Subway turkey salad before baseball since I was craving something on the healthier side.

Dessert and Snacks:

I discovered these and not only are they delicious, but they’re a really nice size for something small!

I never have celery so when I got it to put with turkey, I had to have the “ants on a log” snack. Sunbutter and dried cranberries (raisins are better but I didn’t have any).

I made GF brownies for a vet school bake sale, and naturally I had to do some quality control.

My most common dessert of late has been chocolate or vanilla Halo Top with chocolate mint sauce and whipped cream. I tried the Breyer’s Halo Top equivalent and it’s not bad! I maybe SLIGHTLY prefer Halo Top.

And as always, I’ll end with a kitty picture.

Post-Neuro Celebration?

Date: April 8, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Whew, I am tired. I didn’t stay up that late last night, but for some reason I woke up super early and couldn’t fall back asleep. I had an all day training for my animal emergency response certification, so I decided to just get a little run in since I was up. In terms of my ankle, I’m totally fine to do 1 run a week; any more and it seems to get a little sore. I did 2 miles to start the day.

Breakfast:

The last of my Easter eggs! This breakfast has been on repeat this past week and I’ve really enjoyed it! I actually basically ran out of bread and am most of the way through my freezer supply as a result. Which is probably good, the freezer stuff has been there a while!

Lunch:

I picked up a Trader Joe’s salad to bring to my training, plus some crackers.

Snacks:

A bar, plus a couple of pieces of dried fruit, and some cheese puffs. The fruit is from my favorite produce stand ever. I went after my training, and got my $0.69 a pound zucchinis. Even more exciting? Now they’re the big ones! Lately they’ve just been little ones!

Dinner:

I got this BEAUTIFUL tomato from the produce stand. I’m not a huge tomato person, but I do like heirlooms. This was so good I was eating slices of it while preparing my salad! The salad had Trader Joe’s new green goddess dressing, and I like it! It tastes very fresh and summery. I also had a chicken tamale from the produce stand.

Dessert:

1 small cinnamon cookie and a sunbutter cup!

Later that evening, I went to a fundraiser for a vet school organization at a brewery and got a milk stout.

I also had a chocolate cupcake. I was in bed before 10. So…post-neuro celebration? I’m just tired!