2 Weeks

Date: August 12, 2014

Author: astottler

GUYS. I apologize completely for totally leaving you! It’s been a week! I’ve been busy/haven’t had the energy so what do you say we do food pictures today and notes on workouts tomorrow? So this isn’t too insanely long.

Lunch-giant melty chicken pita with hummus:

Dinner out with a friend. We went to a tapas place, and it was phenomenal. Not to mention the adorable baby tortillas on the tacos!

Brussels sprouts with coconut/chipotle?

Guacamole (of course).

Mushroom tacos with fried plantains.

GUYS. The highlight of my life was on Friday. I went to the AVOCADO CAFE. That’s basically a dream come true. It was amazing. I think every item had avocado.

I went with a veggie wrap, and it was warm and delicious and came with roasted sweet potatoes (not crispy enough to be called fries).

I then went to Haagen Dazs and had a really delicious ice cream cone-midnight cookies n cream! I like it way better than Ben and Jerry’s..that’s just too much more me.

I then walked down to the waterfront and pondered how I’m leaving soon. 2 weeks…

Saturday, I went to a place called The Protein Bar. I saw someone tweet something delicious from there, and then I remembered I had seen one nearby! SO I had a guacamole type of salad and a chocolate protein shake. Delicious.

Sunday, post run I had a delicious unpictured meal (sorry, didn’t run with a camera) followed by a post run requirement-giant cupcake from Baked and Wired. It was called unicorn something-vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting. I really like their vanilla-I’m normally a chocolate person but this is very vanilla-y. And the cream cheese frosting tasted just like buttercream. Yum! I’ve liked Baked and Wired more than the first time I was there-the cake this time was very moist.

I went over to a friend’s house for a movie night, and “helped” with some of her leftover peach-gingersnap crisp. It was amazing-the crisp part was made with gingersnaps! It may or may not have also been breakfast because I’ve been too lazy to make my planned breakfast for the week (oops).

As you can tell, I’m enjoying myself. I swear I’m eating more than sweets, but vegetables only look so interesting after a while-I’m pretty sure I’ve shown the same green bean salad 50 times by now.

Also, you may notice I’m not linking up for WIAW. To be honest, it’s just not practical for me right now to try and deal with that while I’m at work, so it’s just not going to get done, so it’s just a regular Wednesday!

WIAW-Soup!

Date: August 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Remember how last post I wrote from the airport during my delay? Well…I didn’t get back that night. My flight kept getting pushed back later and later, and then we were switched to a much smaller plane and the plane was way overweight…so I spent another night in NY. I got to spend some extra time with family at least! Never mind the 6 hours spent at the airport…

Monday’s flight went without a hitch, thankfully!

Anyways, despite that whole debacle, let’s celebrate Wednesday! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the fun!

When I got to the airport Monday, I thought I deserved a cappuccino. Decaf though!

I also picked up a whole wheat chicken wrap with balsamic. So good!

I actually made it back in time for Crossfit that night, and worked on back squats with a pause at the bottom (it’s way harder-believe me!) and handstands. I actually held a handstand! Briefly, but still! I had a spotter, and then suddenly I wasn’t waving around anymore-and it surprised me so much I hopped down pretty much right away! I’ll expect it next time!

Afterwards, I went to Whole Foods for some things for the week and dinner. I had Minestrone with cheddar, and a whole wheat roll. Plus an unpictured kombucha.

Since this is totally relevant to food (not), I’m still going to include it. My new room is really cute!

This morning, I woke up super early to run 4 miles. It was very dark out. And humid. But I felt good and maintained a decent pace-and more importantly didn’t trip and fall on the brick paths!

Since I don’t have run pictures, I’ll show you a few of my new commute…over the Potomac and into a different state…

Breakfast was some amazingly large blueberries and an abnormally large banana topped with sun butter.

Lunch was too ugly to merit a picture, but snack was blueberries and plain yogurt in a sunflower seed jar. Thank goodness too, as I didn’t have any of the right sized tupperware!

After work, I headed to Crossfit. We worked on split jerks, and then the WOD was the following:

10 minute AMRAP partner workout:

Partner 1: 3 curtis P’s (dumbell hang snatch, lunge left, lunge right, push press) and then bear crawl WITH dumbbells the length of the gym and back

Partner 2: hold hollow rock position

Switch after each round.

It was a fun one…not as annoying as I was expecting-I normally hate dumbbell cleans.

After Crossfit dinner was something super easy-balck bean soup topped with cheddar, and a side of corn bread from Whole Foods. The corn bread at WF is way better here than in CA…

And now I’m off to make sure my carrots aren’t burning!

Have a great Wednesday!

Long Lost Cousin

Date: August 3, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m currently at the airport waiting for a 2 hour delay. While I’m perfectly happy here with my Wifi, it’s not exactly ideal because I won’t get to DC until late, have a long trip back from the airport, and am living somewhere new. No clue where my room is, and my commute tomorrow is a bit of an unknown. But it is what it is!

Friday morning before I left for the airport, I completed my 10 mile training run. It was uneventful-I ran past the airport though! Decent pace, fine weather, nothing exciting. The morning was kind of crazy-I had lots of stuff to lug around and had to stop by the new place before leaving. As for transportation, I did it all-I ran, walked, flew, took the bus, took the metro, took a taxi, and rode in a car.

Pre-airport treat was a little stop for ice cream. I’m boring and got the one I’ve had before-Chocolate Therapy.

Then, I was off! I went to up-state New York to visit family. I haven’t seen my cousins in 5 years! How crazy is that? I’m the long lost CA cousin-they all live on the East Coast!

I was immediately put to work. My cousin had a graduation party on Saturday, so we were busy preparing for it. I was on cooking duty.

Between Friday and Saturday, I made a cheese, spinach, and artichoke dip:

Cheesecake brownies:

And peach cobbler 100% from scratch. A triple batch. I don’t think the pictures capture the size!

I also helped with macaroni and cheese.

On the day of, there was plenty of food!

I ate my weight in appetizers, so I had no room for a burger. I just went with macaroni and taco salad, plus dessert.

Here’s the crew:

After everyone left, we went through and divided up a whole bunch of old photos. I found some from when I was really young, plus a few gems from my dad’s family’s Christmas cards. The ’70s were a difficult time, my friends. Those clothes…

Here’s me and my sister! I’m on the left.

On Sunday, I had planned on running my 5 miler, but after a heavy breakfast that wasn’t happening. I’m glad I was ahead on my running for the week anyways! We did take a nice long walk though. It was so pretty with all the wildflowers!

That afternoon, we went to an adorable tea place, and got the full spread. Buttermilk scones, clotted cream, and smoked salmon, egg salad, and cucumber marscapone sandwiches!

Despite the fact that I currently feel like I’m going to pop, this weekend did make me think about my food philosophy. I haven’t seen these people in 5 years, and they knew I was really into sugar metabolism, nutrition, and how sugar is not good for you, and they were worried I wouldn’t eat sweets or anything.

I was thinking about this when they mentioned it to me (while I was chowing down on a brownie). I realized that what I really believe in is habits and overall trends. Sure, sugar is not good for you, but if you avoid it for the most part, especially in everyday foods, there’s plenty of space to be healthy and still eat dessert. If you limit added sugars throughout the day, there’s still room in a healthy diet for sweets. I definitely have perfectionist tendencies-not that I ever eat perfectly, but I tend to strive for this (and end up obviously not-you’ve seen what I post here!), but health really isn’t perfect. Our bodies are adaptable, and as long as we eat mostly healthy, I think we function just fine!

Overall, it was a really fun weekend, and I’m glad I was able to come up here to visit my family and their cats. I just hope I make it back tonight! I’m a bit worried because my flight keeps getting pushed back in a tiny airport! Fingers crossed!

When was the last time you visited extended family?

Moving Through the City

Date: July 31, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Sorry for leaving you guys for a bit-this week has been kind of crazy! I get kicked out of my housing this weekend, so I’m moving to a house across town. On top of that, I’m going out of town this weekend to visit family in upstate New York! I have until my laundry finished to type up this post!

Crossfit wise, I am happy to report I PRed my split jerk this week! And my handstands against the wall are getting worlds better. On the running front, things are looking pretty good as well. Each week is a bit faster than the last one. Running club is making a huge difference, and I consider it the hardest workout of the week. I went tonight, and it was short but sweet because I’m doing my 10 miler tomorrow-since I’m traveling, that was going to be a mess to try to figure out once I’m in NY!

I went to November Project this week, and it was PR week, meaning we run the stairs 13 or 17 times straight for a time. I did the scaled version, but I felt 1000x times stronger than PR week a month ago! Progress!

Food-wise, there’s been some of the same, some more exciting, and some me being lazy and failing to take a picture.

For lunches, I’ve been splitting it into two parts-salad/veggies and then yogurt mix.

Heirloom tomato salad:

Green bean salad:

And then yogurt with sunflower seed butter and blueberries:

As for dinners, I’ve made a couple of “quesadillas.” I couldn’t actually find tortillas at the grocery (what??) so I got some type of whole wheat flatbread thing-it’s pretty similar when filled with cheese and then cooked on a stove.

Round one was stuffed with cheese, tomato, and avocado:

And round two was filled with ground turkey and veggies from the freezer:

On the more exciting dinner front, I went out to dinner yesterday because one of my friends here is leaving this weekend! It was a super late dinner-we met at 9pm. I classily satisfied my post workout hunger before hand with milk from the carton and sunflower seed butter from a plastic fork.

For my main dish, I went with salmon with fried plantains and creamy herb sauce.

And of course, dessert was necessary. I chose the bread pudding, which was delicious (but not as good as my family recipe-I need to make that sometime!).

A perfect end to the night. Needless to say, I’m running on fumes. I didn’t get back until after 11 last night after waking up at 5am for November Project. Hopefully I’ll have some time for some much needed rest this weekend!

Wiped Out

Date: July 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Whew guys. Sorry for lack of posting-this weekend just wiped me out! In addition to spending hours outside in the hot sun exploring DC, I still slept an insane amount, thanks to drowsy-inducing alley medicine. I got eaten alive by mosquitos the other day-and I do not react well to East Coast mosquitos. None of the normal tricks were working, so it was necessary. And then Sunday I accidentally had a bite of something with a nut in it, so I’m hoping that with allergy medicine I can prevent the reaction from coming on, although I probably won’t know if it worked for a few days!

Friday evening started with bench pressing at Crossfit and sweet potato nachos.

After staying up later than I should have, Saturday morning my friends and I met up again to visit Mount Vernon. I am seriously falling in love with the Virginia countryside. It was beautiful. And all the history was so cool! I forgot how much I love American history!

Afterwards we got froyo and it was fantastic.

On the running front, I want to give a little plantar fasciitis update. For some reason, I woke up for my 5 miler on Friday morning and I couldn’t walk it was so bad. I immediately took Advil, and hobbled along for a mile or so until it warmed up, and then had a good run. The other day though, I bought some sleeves for my feet that give me extra arch support and they are lifesaving. I’ve been on my feet all weekend, and my feet are fine. It’s amazing.

On Sunday, I had my long run in the morning. I had a great route. 3 memorials, 1 river, Mt Vernon trail, an airport….and most importantly, ending in cupcakes. The plan was to run to cupcakes, and then metro back. I saw the Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR memorials. The FDR was on accident. I made a turn looking for a bathroom and there it was.

It ended up being a good run, although I felt like I was slugging along. I always forget how hard these first long runs are. Somehow I managed to hit a pace that was around where I should be though, which was nice.

Most importantly though, I have finally found the best cupcakes in the DC area! I had a good feeling about this place. I heard about it from my coworkers. It’s called Lavendar Moon, in Alexandria. I even ordered a cupcake that wasn’t my favorite flavor, and I’m still saying that. FINALLY a perfectly moist cupcake. I had a s’mores cupcake.

Look at that beauty. Can every run end here?

After returning home and cleaning myself up, I headed out to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was really cool-I mostly wanted to see one of the IMAX movies, and it did not disappoint. I only got the the air part, not really the space part, before I got incredibly tired and had to call it a day. I got some books though that I’m excited to read!

And that was my weekend. The only thing I’ll add-I went to spin today without my spinning shoes. It was awful. My arches don’t like me right now. It’s amazing the difference they make!

Have you ever been to a Smithsonian? Which should I go to next?