The Project

Date: January 9, 2014

Author: astottler

Hey guys! Thanks for your comments on yesterday’s post! Today I’m going to talk a little more about the project-it’s still a little rough and I haven’t figured out all the details.

But here’s the plan.

It seems the common denominator with obesity is highly processed food. A majority of the country has a damaged metabolism. So I’m going to go out and test this.

For 4 weeks, my roommate and I are committing to eat only whole, unprocessed food.

This IS NOT a diet.

This IS NOT about weight loss.

This IS NOT a quick fix.

This IS NOT about calories.

This IS about real food.

This IS about health. Long term health.

And you know what? This IS possible. One of the main reasons I want to do this? To show that if two college students can do this, in the middle of midterms, with limited kitchen access can do it, then anyone can.

But I’m a scientist, and I want cold, hard evidence. This is about transforming overall health. I’m going to take some data before and after the 4 weeks-but not just weight or body fat. I’m still working on what these will be-I would love to do a test of blood insulin levels, because that would be such a great indicator of metabolic health, and whether eating unprocessed WHOLE foods are a possible cure. However, I’m not sure how plausible it would be for us to get lab tests done twice in a month.

We may try blood glucose tests-it should give a decent indicator of how our insulin is working (and if we are insulin resistant). We will probably do blood pressure tests as well. Another convenient test is that I have a 5k around the beginning of the 4 weeks, and another one around the end of the 4 weeks, so I’ll have somewhat of an athletic comparison as well.

So how are we defining WHOLE, UNPROCESSED food?

(Some of this is a little arbitrary, but I need somewhere to draw the line.)

(Most of this is straight from “The Fat Chance Cookbook,” By Robert Lustig)

-no refined sugar

-no highly processed oils

-no weird ingredients

-whole foods

-foods must resemble what they originally came from

-the fiber must not have been destroyed

-whole, non pulverized grains

-no restrictions on fruit, but less than 28 g (the daily recommend amount) of other added sugars, such as juices or dried fruit

-one special whole food dessert experience a week, with natural sweeteners, high quality ingredients, and still fitting into the daily sugar allowance

Why not Whole30? Doesn’t that cut our unprocessed foods as well?

The Whole30 seems like a great way to reset your body from junk, but the reality is, it’s just not doable for many people, especially those who are new to their health journey. If a person is just starting a healthier lifestyle change, cutting out all grains may backfire. By instead focusing on the least processed foods possible, we can get the nutrients and fiber necessary to restore health.

*Note: I do consider myself an overall healthy person, yet I still eat a fairly processed diet, like almost everyone is our country. If cutting out processed food improves my health, it will almost certainly help the people who struggle even more with their health.

The goal of this 4 weeks is to prove that it is possible to improve health, without sacrificing life. We aren’t exactly cutting out foods or even drastically changing the way we eat-we are simply changing the quality of foods we will be putting in our body.

For example, take this morning’s overnight oats:

Blackberry chobani, chia seeds, almond milk, and instant plain oatmeal. How would I change this?

Quinoa stirred into chia seeds and plain yogurt, topped with some type of fruit mixture (we’re thinking frozen berries in a slow cooker-how amazing does that sound?)

Real food doesn’t have to be bland or taste bad. I intend on enjoying everything I will eat during the 4 weeks.

This is also about the lost art of cooking-by making our own foods, we maintain a lot more fiber and nutrients (than processed), and can control exactly what we put into things. Plus, it is an experience.

We are already brainstorming recipes, meal plans, and cooking schedules. I’m excited for this!

During this time, I will also be discussing the biochemistry of food-what happens in our body as we break down food. If I’ve never heard of it, I probably shouldn’t be eating it. And it doesn’t count if the only place I’ve heard of it is in Chem lab!

I also realize that this won’t be easy. No more of this.

Or this.

(Yes, I did return to an amazing ice cream place.)

But back in the old days, people didn’t eat sweets every day, they were something for a special occasion-an experience. Hence why I’ve built in a weekly treat. We’re planning on making plenty and sharing with our friends. (Some ideas are homemade raw chocolate and a dense, nutrient and fiber packed banana chocolate chip bread.)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this-if you guys know of any other tests of general health, I would be interested in those as well (as long as the tests are within reason to do!)

And before I leave you, I want to share a few more snapshots from today.

This morning I ran 4 miles. I haven’t done much running lately that a)wasn’t intervals and b)wasn’t on the treadmill. Plus, I’ve been taking it very easy on the running front thanks to foot/heel pain. The good news is that my feet are starting to feel better, and my foot loosened up and felt ok pretty quickly. Another bonus-I swear I’ve gotten faster! I didn’t run with my watch so I can’t really say though.

I also had my first Coupa cappuccino of the quarter.

It. Was. Perfect.

I am still not sick of this lunch. The balsamic brussels are amazing. It’s amazing how much better flavored foods are!

In other news, I’m pretty sure I should not be eating Quest bars because they have nuts and my face is breaking out so much! I don’t know why I keep saying I should not eat them and don’t just stop. But to be fair, I’ve only had 2.

This was dinner. After Crossfit, I had to run to the store, so I decided to pick up dinner. I briefly considered just having ice cream, but then decided that that was a bad idea, so I grabbed this veggie and hummus wrap, before consuming the above ice cream.

Delicious.

On Obesity

Date: January 8, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Before I get into the topic of today’s post, I’m going to go through my day really quickly! I began the morning by training the other half of the Quidditch team. The movements were a little more unnatural for this group, but their form improved so much by the end! I can’t wait to see how they do the next time we do this workout!

I got paid in green juice.

I believe it was pineapple-apple-kale? In terms of green juice, I love anything with kale and pineapple! And this was made fresh this morning!

I also requested the pulp.

All the fiber and other good stuff is there! I had visions of stirring it into my oatmeal, but it was a lot blander than I was expecting. And my oatmeal was already really thick so I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Immediately after training, I did another run through of my Spin audition playlist. I feel really confident about it-I love the playlist, which is exactly how I need to feel about it! I’m in the process of arranging a live run through-as in I gather a whole bunch of people and practice with them as students. I left my workout feeling energized and happy.

My hunger was kind of strange today-it’s weird for me waking up early to train people and not going straight into a workout, so my eating routine for the whole day was kind of thrown off.

I still got some good stuff in there though!

Chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and roasted carrots.

For snack a little later, I had a Quest bar, which may not have been the best decision for me. From all of yesterday’s Olympic lifting, my legs were aching a bit and protein seemed like a solid idea though.

The problem was that I really didn’t like the aftertaste of the bar and had to eat a date afterwards to cleanse my palate, plus my stomach starting hurting a little later. Not sure why I eat a food that I know doesn’t always work for me!

I thought about going to yoga, but then got wrapped up in other things instead. I had a dining hall dinner of a burrito bowl with mahi mahi.

I think one of the things I don’t prefer about this bowl is that the only seasoning really seems to be citrus. I would love some more spices up in there!

Today I also had a fair amount of sugar, in the form of chocolate and cookies and hall meeting. But such is life. It’s interesting to feel the changes in my body when I eat it though!

Onto today’s topic.

Has anyone thought about the fact that so few bloggers write about obesity? Most talk about reasonably healthy (comparatively) people getting healthier. Which is great-don’t get me wrong! And maybe those people are more the audience of healthy living blogs anyways, but it seems a bit like an elephant in the room to not discuss the obesity epidemic. I’m not even going to get into the percentages in this post, because they can be looked up and are constantly changing.

Today, I cracked open this cookbook, written by one of my favorite people ever, Robert Lustig, a scientist and doctor who looks at obesity, especially in children.

I’ve talked about Robert Lustig before in the context of sugar metabolism, but this book goes a little deeper into more recent possible causes of obesity.

One of the first pages in the book directed me to this video-if you have a few minutes, it’s really interesting, and kind of mind blowing, in my opinion:

This is a TED talk addressing insulin resistance and obesity, as well as the stigma we as a society put on obese people. What was really interesting to me was when Peter Attia discusses how maybe obesity does not cause insulin resistance, but rather, obesity is a side effect of insulin resistance. It is a sign of metabolic disfunction. The hormone insulin removes sugar from the blood and stores it as fat. High levels of insulin will as a result cause more fat storage. No one could ever really figure out why obesity would lead to insulin resistance, but the other way around? It makes so much sense!

Now back to the book-where has insulin resistance come from? It’s not calories in, calories out. It is so much more than that. It’s not just about weight-some obese people do not have insulin resistance, and some normal weight people do, and are at risk for the related diseases. Listen to this: “the majority of the people today, regardless of weight, produce twice as much insulin for the same dose of glucose as people produced 30 years ago.”

Think about that for a second.

That means, MOST people are storing more fat for the calories they are eating than did people 30 years ago.

Think back to 30 years ago-think of movies. Everyone was much slimmer back then. And there wasn’t a significant shortage of food then-food isn’t really more available now.

Things like this make me angry. So angry. Our food system is toxic. In a day and age where we strive for advances that make our lives easier, we pollute our food system in a way that makes eating truly healthfully nearly impossible. (I understand that my readers may disagree with me on this point, but keep in mind, I’m speaking of the general population, which tends to lack knowledge about eating healthfully-clearly healthy living bloggers will have this a bit more figured out!)

THIS is what I want to do with my life-I want to cure the obesity epidemic. I want to uncover ever underlying cause, and help work out a solution.

But it’s not just the obese. Take me for example. I’m a pretty healthy person. I’m extremely active, I eat my veggies, I try to balance my meals. But I still crave sugar and overeat it and feel awful. I still have plenty of days where I’m dragging. I still sometimes struggle to eat healthily. I’m sure my liver isn’t happy with me for the sugar in all the cookies I ate.

How messed up is my metabolism? I’m willing to bet it’s not running as nicely as it could and or should be. And I’m a relatively healthy person.

I’m not through the book yet, and I’m still working on figuring out the toxins that are contributing to metabolic dysfunction, but what I do have to tell you guys is that I’ve been inspired, and am planning a big blog project for the near future. As a blogger, I have a voice in the community, albeit a small one. I have an opportunity to make a difference in a few people’s lives, if I take it.

I’m going to wait until everything is better planned out to give you guys all the details, but I’ll just say that I’m going to spend some time really analyzing what happens to food in our bodies as we eat. I am not going to promote any type of ‘diet’-but I will ask you to consider this: how many of you are constantly trying to lose those last few pounds? Or know someone that is? I’m willing to bet most people.

Consider this-if we store more fat per glucose now than we did in the past, of course we’re going to carry extra pounds. We’re going to work on fixing the problem of the American metabolism.

(But I promise there will be plenty of ‘normal’ blogging as well!)

WIAW-A New Quarter

Date: January 7, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

WHEW, happy Wednesday! Can you believe it’s only Wednesday? (Well, tomorrow for me-I’m typing this up Tuesday night.) I’ve been saving up the last couple of days of food photos for…What I Ate Wednesday! Thanks as always to Jenn for helping us celebrate our new favorite day of the week!

Let’s start with my last meal at home-vegetable soup with cornbread!

Does anyone else eat their cornbread with honey? So good!

On Monday, I started my “meal plan.” Just to clarify, but “meal plan,” I really mean meal planning. It’s not so much only eating certain foods as it is getting into a routine and making my meals the night before, so when I running out the door with a minute before class starts, I have something good to grab!

After Monday’s Spin+Run, I wasn’t super hungry but knew I needed fuel and would be super hungry later in the day if I didn’t force myself to eat a decent amount. Here is a giant bowl of overnight oats-I used Julie‘s recipe, which is 3/4 c oats (which happens to be one packet of instant), 1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk, a tablespoon of chia seeds, and a container of yogurt. For this particular meal, I used mango chobani.

After my one class on Monday, I ate my packed lunch in the sunshine (sorry East Coasters)-prepared over the weekend at home. Greek seasoned chicken, sage-brown butter mashed yams, and Garlic Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

This was perfect-it’s great to have well seasoned food at school!

For a pre workout snack, I ate some dried persimmons, made and brought to me by my wonderful roommate.

I also had a slice of chocolate chip banana bread, another item prepared over break.

For my new quarter eating schedule, I’m a little unsure of whether or not I should eat snacks. I know it’s totally counterintuitive to most people to skip snacks, but more often than not, snacks mess up my stomach really badly-it doesn’t seem to matter what the snack is! A few minutes after Monday’s snack, my stomach was twisted in knots.

But I guess it’s really hit or miss-on Tuesday I had 2 snacks without issue, and was hungry enough that I felt they were the right decision. Our bodies our so complicated!

Monday night, I also had my first dining hall meal of the quarter. It wasn’t a bad one-they had 2 different types of brussels sprouts!

Besides brussels sprouts, I stuck to my basic formula of a carbohydrate and a protein-brown rice and cod.

And for dessert, I threw half a chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar in the microwave.

This is kind of ironic given I recently purchased a couple of Quest bars for after dinner treats (because yay chocolate!), but today I found this article. It talks about the nutritional merits of Quest bars. I don’t really know what to think of them. I’m sort of against them because a)I don’t like the taste of stevia and b) they sometimes give me stomach aches. But sometimes I crave them. I guess what bothers me is that they are touted as a super natural protein bar, yet I have never heard of half the ingredients, and would never be able to buy half the raw ingredients in a store. But who knows. I’m also a little suspicious of stevia, just because there has been so little research on it. But I don’t know-to each his own!

Tuesday morning I was up bright and early-I had to be at the gym at 7 to train the school quidditch team! I’m leading weight training for them, and today was the first day. It went really well-even those who hadn’t lifted before had good form by the end! And I’m pretty sure they’ll ~~hate me~~ be sore tomorrow…We broke the training up into 2 days, so I have the other half of the team Wednesday morning. I never realized how much I love teaching something I’m super knowledgable about! And I can’t wait to see everyone get stronger.

We allotted a full 2 hours for the first session so we wouldn’t be rushed, but it only took 1:15, so I had plenty of time to grab coffee and eat my packed breakfast before class.

First cappuccino of the quarter!

Same overnight oats as on Monday.

I didn’t exactly need coffee today, except for the fact that I had over 2 hours straight of Organic Chemistry today-Tuesdays are rough because of this! However, I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting through them because the first class of the day is Human Nutrition! Today, I sat in class with the biggest smile on my face. I love learning and doing things I’m passionate about. Leading weights+Nutrition class? How could I go wrong?

Lunch was also a repeat of yesterday, eaten in class.

Note to self-next time pre cut the chicken if eating in class. Don’t attempt to eat with only a fork…

After class I went to read Bio in a little cafe and grabbed a snack-it wasn’t my first choice but it did the job!

Since my car was still in the shop, I had to bike to Crossfit today. It gave me time to reflect-and I realized, I’m in such a good place in my life right now. I’m happy. I’m doing things I’m passionate about. I love teaching weight lifting. I absolutely cannot weight to teach Spin-my playlist is ready to go! I love the fitness industry, and I love Nutrition. I’m branching out and trying new things this quarter-Mariachi band? What?

I feel like I have so many opportunities right now-I’m going to talk to my Nutrition professor about different careers in the field-I don’t particularly want to be a Nutritionist, and I would probably prefer something on the research side of things. I’m considering signing up for a conference in San Francisco about the obesity epidemic-one of my favorite scientists ever, Robert Lustig, is going to be there. (Yes, I know I’m a nerd for having a favorite scientist!) Also, my friend in my sorority asked me if I could lead some type of fitness-y event for our winter recruitment, like yoga or spin (my suggestion). I’m planning on gathering a some friends and hopefully some of the quidditch team, who I sort of have control over now, to practice teaching a spin class to real live people!

Another new thing? I went to the weight lifting class at my Crossfit gym. The weight lifting class isn’t exactly an add-on-it’s its own program. I love Olympic Lifting, and I just don’t get enough opportunity to work on it in Crossfit, especially this particular box.

I forgot how much energy Olympic Lifting takes! I didn’t even lift that heavy, but each rep really takes it out of you! It’s also mentally exhausting. Oh, and it lasted an hour and 45 minutes. I was doing snatches and clean and jerks for 105 minutes straight. My body just kind of felt numb afterwards. Not exactly tired, not out of breath, not necessarily burning muscles, but without energy. I don’t even want to think about how many squats were involved today. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any significant amount of Olympic lifting!

Oh, and I may have agreed to do a weight lifting competition. (Not a Crossfit competition, Olympic lifting!) It’s in February, but at this point in my life I feel a little unprepared. In the last year and a half, my technique has faltered a bit, but I’ve gotten stronger, so when I nail down technique, that should be awesome, right??

On that note, I was craving protein like crazy when I returned to campus. Specifically, MEAT. It’s interesting how our bodies know exactly what they need! This may be kind of strange, but when I eat less sugar, I tend to crave meat more. But I’ll roll with it!

Greek salad, some not super excitingly cooked kabocha squash, a few brussels, and MEAT-chicken with ketchup. Lots of meat. It was heaven.

After dinner, I finished the other half of my Quest bar from the previous day, as well as the last of my double chocolate banana bread.

A couple of days ago, I started tracking my food intake on My Fitness Pal, more for interest than anything else! It’s cool to see the ration of carbs to fats to proteins-my protein ration was pretty low, so I guess it was no wonder I was craving it! What drives me crazy though is the sugar count. I really wish it was divided into added sugars and natural sugars. There is a BIG different between lactose sugar and high fructose corn syrup! I also don’t understand how my sugar consumption was insanely high today, especially compared to yesterday, when I ate basically the same thing both days? I’m not reading too much into it though-I feel really good, likely thanks to balanced meals and more veggies in my life!

That’s all I have today! I swear this post would have been insanely upbeat BEFORE the lifting drained my energy!

Tomorrow morning, I am training quidditch again and then will do another run through of my spin audition playlist. AHHHH can’t wait! So much excite happening right now!

What exciting things do you have in your future?

Black Cherry Quickbread (AKA NOT Pumpkin Bread!)

Date: January 6, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday! I am one day into this quarter! I’m taking 15 units this quarter, but looking at my schedule, I feel like I’m never in class! Sections haven’t started, and I’m sure my time will fill up, but I’m hoping to have more time on my own to study.

I started my new quarter meal plan today and it’s working SUPER well for me. I was worried I’d be hungry, but that was not the case at all! I’ll save talk about that for tomorrow’s post. Meanwhile, I want to give some life updates-lots of new things for me this quarter!

Things you may not know about me-I’m sort of obsessed with Spanish. I loved it in high school, and I have an extensive Spanish music selection. You better believe those songs make it onto my workout playlists! My prom date my senior year even brought me a sombrero because prom was on Cinco de Mayo. Best. Date. Ever.

Thing 2: I played violin for a decent chunk of my life-5th grade through my junior year of high school.

So…I’m joining the mariachi band! I’m actually really excited for this-I was looking for something to get involved in this quarter, and this seems perfect! Everything is directed in Spanish though…and my Spanish is a tad bit rusty…But I’m sure I’ll figure it out! (Not to mention my violining is rusty…)

New on the fitness front-I have my audition playlist! I practiced it this morning and it was awesome! I also practiced verbally teaching the class-at least mentally. I left feeling completely pumped up and excited! I followed spin with my treadmill workout-this was hard! I don’t always eat before morning workouts depending on how hungry I am when I wake up, and since I didn’t eat anything, I think I kind of ran out of steam by the end of the run! Aaaand my awesome feeling feet hurt again. At least it’s just one foot. And they might as well hurt-I have a doctor’s appointment this week!

Also new on the fitness front-I’m teaching weight lifting to the school quidditch team, and the first session is tomorrow morning! I can’t wait! In terms of my own weight lifting-I’m trying the weight lifting class at my Crossfit tomorrow-I’m a little bummed I’m doing it tomorrow just because the Crossfit workout seems like a really good one, but I’m excited to try something new! A lot of the Crossfit workouts at this Crossfit (vs my home one) just don’t click with me, so we’ll see how this is!

Now for the recipe!

In preparation of coming back to school, I wanted to have some quick breads frozen. I really wanted to make pumpkin bread, so I set out to do that. Halfway through mixing it up, I realized we didn’t have any pumpkin! How is that possible?? I tried to find anything remotely the same consistency-squash, frozen mango? Literally the only option was frozen cherries! So I figured, why not? I always wanted to try making blueberry bread in a similar way-mashing the blueberries (next time!), so i went for it with the cherries, and the result was successful!

Black Cherry Quickbread

Ingredients:

1.25 c flour

1 c whole wheat flour

.5 T baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

1 large egg

1 large egg white

.25 c canola oil

1 t vanilla

1 t cinnamon

1.5 c black cherry puree

.25 c brown sugar*

2 heaping spoonfuls brown rice syrup*

*The recipe calls for a cup of packed brown sugar as the only sweetener, but I reduced this quite a bit, and the bread I made wasn’t that sweet, so feel free to add more or less, or add chocolate chips!

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 9 by 5 loaf pan with nonstick foil or cooking spray.

2. Stir up flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl.

3. To make cherry puree-thaw cherries in microwave, drain the excess liquid, and then blend in a blender.

4.Whisk together remaining ingredients, including cherry puree.

5. Stir together wet and dry ingredients until just mixed, and pout into loaf pan.

6. Bake for 50 minutes of until toothpick comes out clean.

Feel free to experiment with other fruits, such as blueberries or mango!

I have to say, quick breads are by far my favorite thing to bake, and they always seem to come out well no matter what crazy things I throw in there!

What is your favorite thing to bake? What’s something new you want to try this year?

Preparing for the New Quarter

Date: January 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m currently without computer-I got a new laptop for Christmas and all my data has to transfer over! Which means I’m stuck at home until it’s done-which is hopefully soon! I need to make THE spin playlist-the one I want to audition with! It has to be perfect-I decided I’ll make it and practice it a couple of times this week, and then apply next weekend!
In other fitness news, I was excited to sign up for a rookie Crossfit competition, only to have it be sold out before I could!
So what’s been going on the last couple if days? Not a whole lot-I went to an awesome spin class this morning, as well as my last class at my home Crossfit yesterday. And guess what else? Thanks to yesterday afternoon, I am now officially CPR certified!
But let’s go over some food. Because I’m sure that’s what everyone comes for, right??

As one of my last meals, I always have cheese soufflés-a recipe from Cooking Light-with a side of balsamic Brussels sprouts and an herb salad. If you haven’t tried added fresh herbs. To salad, you need to!

A small banana with slightly melty chocolate chips.

A Greek salad with Greek seasoned chicken, feta, olives, veggies, and butternut squash hummus. I really like hummuses with a less sharp flavor, so this is a favorite!

A packaged BBQ chicken salad-with a side of veggie tortilla chips and 6 layer dip. The dip was kind of a rip off-the only guacamole was around the edges where it would be seen through the clear container!

I’m not sure if this is a New Year’s resolution or just a January goal, but I’m trying to drink a cup if tea everyday-so this jasmine green tea was enjoyed while watching the 49ers!
I’m looking to kick up my nutrition a notch this quarter, so I made a meal plan for myself that is balanced and easy. Since coming to college, I never exactly got a solid eating routine down-as in, I never really figured out what to eat for breakfast and never had any consistency. This quarter, I’m ready to make a change, and planning and meal prep is key! Especially since I’m still at home!
Today, I prepped lunches, as well as dessert.

Leftover Greek chicken, balsamic Brussels sprouts, and sage-brown butter mashed yams. I now have a full week of lunches-I just need a protein source for the second half of the week, which I’ll grab from the dining hall. I also have some roasted carrots, plus more mashed yams to freeze for next next week! As for the “dessert”?
I had every intention of making pumpkin bread-I was halfway into mixing it up-when I realized I had no pumpkin. Smart one Aurora. I looked for ANYTHING that might have a similar consistency-squash, mango…? The only thing I had was frozen cherries, so I improvised. I had no clue what was going to come out of the oven!

The result? Success! I’ll post the recipe tomorrow when I have a computer again!
Have a great week!