The Day I Ate Nothing But Yogurt and Pumpkin

Date: October 10, 2013

Author: astottler

Hi friends! Can you believe tomorrow is Friday? It kind of snuck up on me this week! Tonight I still need to do a lab report and a prelab. Fun stuff. I skipped yoga in favor of homework for once…

WARNING: If you’re looking for a healthy lifestyle, today may not be the best example. But such is life.

I actually slept 8 hours last night. I can’t even remember the last time! I had weird dreams though-driving to softball practice on a motorcycle??

I went to 8am Crossfit. The workout included lots of thrusters and push presses (a brutal combo), and more double unders. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do a million and two single unders-I just had to attempt doubles for one minute each round. Way easier on the calves! And I actually did string some double unders together too-something sort of clicked!

Post-Crossfit.

I decided to go to the dining hall to restock on eggs.

And might as well get breakfast while I’m there, right?? Plus, after seeing these vats of yogurt….Swoon.

I also did something crazy…I drank decaf coffee! Who am I? Drinking coffee for a reason other than caffeine?? It was eh. (That’s what I get.)

I decided to pack lunch today-it was time to attempt pumpkin yogurt! Sadly, my yogurt got a little beat up in my bag and ended up leaking all over my lunch bag…it could have been much worse!

Here are the ingredients:

Plain yogurt, pumpkin pie filling, cinnamon. And yes, I did pack the entire cinnamon container-I’m just cool like that.

Yummmmm. So if we’re keeping a tally-yogurt #2 for the day.

After my Ochem section, I was mentally done. I’ve worked pretty hard this week, and my brain was feeling it. I decided to take a break and just watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother. SO good. Here are a few pre-football snacks:

I mashed up a small avocado with my guac mix and BAM. Instant guac party of one.

Pumpkin pie filling and sunflower seed butter. Pumpkin pie filling obviously isn’t the most nutritionally sound food, but folks, I have a big can to finish and it’s delicious. Hence, the don’t do as I do. Also, multiply this by more as a later snack.

Snap pea crisps and a pumpkin granola bar from Trader Joe’s. These are not my favorite, but interesting to try.

Then, it was off to my first flag football game of the year! It was really fun-we lost but I wasn’t expecting anything crazy. I got knocked down twice by the same guy and skinned my knee up a tiny bit. #battlescars Ok, technically I ran into him, and when a smaller mass and larger mass collide, guess who falls? Putting my Physics knowledge to use people!

On the way back to my dorm, I saw my little friend from last year! DAY. MADE.

He actually had a tag this year-his name is Finnegan, and he lives with the Resident Fellows in a dorm nearby. And he always seems to pop up around exam times…

I debated 1. going to yoga 2. going to the dining hall 3. eating in my dorm. I chose the dining hall. Nothing exceptional today-I got some type of fish which was pretty good.

They also had a baked potato bar today, which was fun. I got a small potato with all the fixings.

Aaaand because I obviously didn’t have enough sugar in the form of pumpkin pie filling, this happened.

Soooo yeah. That’s that. The rest of the nigh is homework time for me! Tomorrow morning, I’m hoping my calf is sufficiently recovered so I can get a solid run in. I’d like to get one more speed workout in-I’m hoping to get 3 miles in-.5 mile there, .5 mile back, and then 8×400 repeats. Cross your fingers!

Do you ever get into food ruts?

Sweater Weather

Date: October 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! It’s currently 9pm, and I’m camped out in the lounge blogging because my roommate is sleeping. I’m not sure if she’s asleep for the night or just napping, but I thought I’d give her some peace and quiet. I’m currently trying to burn off a sugar high-and if you know me at all, this likely means I won’t be sleeping for the next 3 days. Me+sugar=bad combo.

But let’s start from the top, shall we?

I woke up bright (well, dark) and early for a morning gym workout. The workout was 10 minutes working on snatches, followed by a WOD of 21-15-9-9-15 deadlifts and squat jumps. The workout originally called for burpees, but that would have taken me much more time than I had. The bar was SO ROUGH. My poor hands were getting torn up so badly! I looked around-and there’s only one bar out of like 8 like that at the gym, but they were all full. I then did 5 rounds of 250m row/7 rdls, and finished with some abs. This workout was nothing too crazy-just something to get my blood flowing!

When I walked out of the gym, I was greeted by this:

The weather is starting cool down a little too-it’s sunny but with fall skies and a little bit of bite in the air. I had a long day ahead of me, and it was chilly, so on the way back to the gym, I stopped for a cappuccino.

BEST. THING. EVER. So worth the extra trip-and I went before getting ready instead of on my way to class, so there was no line.

I seriously love this weather-Sweater Weather! Do you guys know the song Sweater Weather? I think that’s going to be stuck in my head any time I wear a sweater. What I wore today was basically the epitome of fall-boots, a sweater, and a scarf.

I’ve been feeling so put together lately in terms of my outfits (ok, technically I’m still wearing leggings…), and I really do think it makes a difference on my outlook of the world. Here’s a sunny selfie of yesterday’s scarf.

Yes, I live in California. Yes, 70 degrees is considered cold.

Today was just such a productive day, and I feel so much better about my classes. I love Mondays and Wednesdays because I have all afternoon to hole up in a library or cafe and just accomplish things. I actually am not minding problem sets-minus Physics. I don’t mind spending hours working things out-as long as I eventually get it. I’ve said it before, but this is really something I was missing last year.

After class, I tried this new to me yogurt.

I saw it on Beth‘s blog a while ago, and have not been able to find it anywhere! Needless to say, I was super excited.

It was delicious! I ended up throwing a couple of dates I had packed for snack on top, and those really complemented the flavors perfectly. Next time, I would throw chopped dates on top.

Here’s a shot of the cafe. Kind of a basement, but cozy and quiet. Several study snacks happened as well.

Like my placemat? I really need to stop eating ON my school things.

Pumpkin bread. Because we know I’m obsessed.

After finished most of my work, I headed back to my room for a run. Since it was in danger of getting dark, I threw on the only long sleeve neon shirt I had. Is it too soon? I don’t think so.

So I set out for 4 miles-I was really in the mood to run. The weather was perfect, I was feeling great…until like .2 miles in when my calf reminded me that I did 600 jump ropes yesterday…and doing that many after not jumping rope in a month will make me sore. I immediately turned back-with my history of calf issues, I was NOT going to push anything this close to the race. So not worth it. I switched gears and went to dinner instead-not a bad alternative!

A really delicious turkey burger, salad, polenta, and fruit. I love turkey burgers. I should seriously just get 2 turkey burgers and veggies and call it a day-and not mess around with the other suspect items.

Paella-it tasted really fishy, so not really my cup of tea. Oh well, can’t win them all.

Then, tonight I had a sorority recruitment event-cookie decorating. Hence the sugar high. It’s the worst kind too-store bought cookies and store bought icing=my body hates me. Eh, live and learn. Here’s my first creation. Not my best work.

And now let’s talk running. Let’s talk races. Let’s talk about the future. I (obviously) have my next half in ELEVEN DAYS. I am SO incredibly excited-and I feel strangely prepared. It helps I’m not injured (knock on wood) right before the race…But being the overeager person that I am, I’m starting to think about what comes next. Life after half marathon training? Huh? First off-I know if I’m not training for a race I’ll never run. It just won’t occur to me. I’m doing a 10k Turkey Trot in November (obviously), and then I’m doing a Santa Run in mid December. This one is a 5k, and I’m racing it to PR. To be fair, I’ve only done one 5k (last year’s Santa Run). And I hadn’t run in a long time-I was in really good shape from rowing, but there wasn’t a ton of running happening. After my half, I’ll be focusing a ton on running fast. I obviously want to PR, but I THINK if I work hard between now and then, I can break 24:00. We shall see.

So…then what? I want to do the Giant’s race….in August. Maybe the Nike women’s again if I like it. But before then? There’s an abyss! BUT. BUT. I think I found a race-and I’m this close to signing up. Rock n Roll San Francisco on April 6. It should be a fun one-it goes across the Golden Gate bridge! I think it would be a good warm up for the Giant’s race, which is a much flatter course and therefore a better one to run hard for a PR. The timing is pretty good too. So…thoughts? GAHH I’m so excited about everything right now!

It’s almost race day!

What’s the best race you’ve done? Suggestions? Favorite part of fall?

WIAW-And What I Miss Wednesday

Date: October 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Heyyyy happy Wednesday! We’re halfway through the week…although my school work is very end heavy this week so that’ll be interesting…But it also means…time for What I Ate Wednesday! Thanks so much to Jenn for hosting.

Today’s post is going to be a little different…My eats haven’t been crazy exciting lately (thanks #dormlife), so I’ll give you guys an idea of what those are looking like, as well as what’s new with me. Then, I’ll move on to some of my favorite foods from home that I seriously miss eating.

I went on a late night boba run with my sister for some sisterly bonding. This was a jasmine milk tea, and it was phenomenal! I know a lot of people are obsessed with boba around here, but I actually haven’t had it that much. I’ve always liked it when I’ve gotten it though!

This morning I went to a spin class and then ran 3 miles. I had to show you guys a picture though because I <3 this shirt!

And without further ado-here are some of my random dorm eats.

Raspberries and sunflower seed butter, with a side of chocolate milk post workout.

Soo funny story about that egg. I almost made a huge mistake with that egg…in that I grabbed an egg from the fridge, and it felt funny. I kept shaking it, and something felt wrong. But I kept convincing myself nothing was wrong…I finally went back to the fridge to check where I got the egg from…yeah, it was clearly a raw egg. That I was about to throw loose into my backpack. Whew.

Eats from the last couple of weeks. Half of the above came from my freezer-can you guess which?

And pumpkin-y snack-y goodness:

Cottage cheese with pumpkin butter=BEST THING EVER. Seriously-go try it. To kick it up a notch, add sunflower seed butter, cinnamon, or apple chips (pictured below).

Also…there’s an open can of pumpkin pie filling in my fridge right now…a soon to be empty can of pumpkin pie filling. Ok, maybe it’s not the healthiest option, but it has to be healthier than eating an actual pie, right? It’s crustless! (And oh so delicious.)

But here’s the thing. I came back from class STARVING today, so I stuffed my face with pumpkin goodies…less than an hour before Crossfit. This is not a good combination my friends. My stomach was definitely off when I left, and I debated skipping dinner but in the end decided it would probably be best to just eat. Does anyone else have the problem of when their stomach feels off, they overeat because they have trouble telling how full they are? I kinda had that issue. I think I’m really thirsty too…huh.

Also-somehow my dining hall managed to mess up corn on the cob. I mean, come on! How is that possible??

And on that note-here are the things I miss most that I just don’t have access to anymore. Cue the violins.

Fig and goat cheese salad with grilled chicken.

Green protein smoothies.

Turkey burgers and zucchini fries.

Hummus salads with runny yolked eggs.

Spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs.

Confession: after looking through my food pictures from the summer, I’ve concluded that a lot of the things I miss so much I could easily eat…if I planned ahead a little and wasn’t so darn lazy! I miss my smoothies so much…so I should just deal with the pain of cleaning my blender, and actually make ice cubes. There are a lot of salads that were so delicious I enjoyed this summer-and with a little planning, I can easily have all the ingredient necessary. Wow, this post ended up being pretty educational to me! That’s all I have for you today-have a great Wednesday!

What summer foods do you miss? I miss mangoes. A lot.

New Loves and Eating a la Dorm

Date: October 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday everyone! I got a great night’s sleep last night, so I woke up well rested and ready to tackle the day.

Being the smarty that I am, I totally forgot to pack my lunch until I was walking out the door. Down side? I had to wait until after class and going to the lab to eat. Upside? No tubberware to sit on my desk and grown weird things.

A hummus salad, plus a million snap peas and a ThinkThin bar. Trader Joe’s has BY FAR the best snap peas! I ate a ton at dinner as well, and between that and freeze dried mango, I’m going to have to make a return trip soon!

After lunch, I headed out to get some Ochem work done. Guys. I have a new favorite place to study-my favorite cafe. It’s in the basement of a building, and they have amazing quick breads. Ok, maybe this new study place won’t be the best for my health, but it was perfect! Of course, I had to try their pumpkin bread. No shame.

I was there near closing-they close up the cafe, but there are still tables and chairs out in the open (inside). It was perfect-quiet, fairly deserted, and I had a table to myself to spread out. I liked that there were fewer people there than at the library-this may be my new study spot!

Which leads me to my next point. Being back at school has kind of facilitated a lot of reflection. Last year was rough. There’s no way of getting around it. I really realized that I’m in a really good place right now, both mentally and physically. Sure, I’m still working off the Freshman 15 (or for me, post-crew 15), but I have much better eating habits, and I know that in time I’ll get there. Being an athlete was hard-and this is going to sound kind of bad (sorry Mom and Dad), but I feel like one of the experiences I really missed out on last year when I was rowing was being a student. I have a tough class schedule with a lot of work, but I’m not stressed because I know I actually have enough time to get my work done. Before I went to college, I always imagined myself in a grandiose library or coffee shop for hours-something I simply never had time for last year. I have a lot of work this week…so I simply went to a cafe and worked for hours. It’s amazing to actually have time and energy to do all the reading, and take the time to understand the problems. While at times I miss rowing like crazy, I know it just wasn’t good for me to spend that much time doing. I feel like I have a good balance right now-I don’t have a ton of extracurriculars, and while I feel like “Oh, I should!”, I really don’t need that in my life right now. I’m happy where I am, and nothing really calls out to me. I guess I do a lot of things on my own-Intramural flag football, Crossfit, yoga, training to teach spin. Plus, I’ve had the time to just sit down with people in my dorm and TALK. Sure, there were a few nights last week where I didn’t get enough sleep, but some of the time was spent bonding with my hall mates over our love for guac parties. And that’s important too. As far as eating habits go, I’m in a better place also, but I’ll elaborate at that at the end.

Crossfit tonight was…interesting. I went to the later class, which I really liked because it gave me more afternoon time to work on Chem and it was less crowded. The strength portion was right up my alley- low reps and HEAVY. We went to 90% max back squats, 1 rep every minute on the minute. The WOD was a weird one-liners, atlas stones, and pull ups. First of all-I’m never going to the later class again if there’s any running involved. It was DARK. We had to run to faint chalk lines in the dark parking lot, and it was…interesting. I didn’t die. So there’s that. Atlas stones are definitely not something I’ve done before. You basically pick up a heavy concrete ball off the ground and onto your shoulder. These were hard! My “baby ball” got confiscated halfway through the workout, and it took me several tried to get the technique down for the heavier ball.

GUYS. I a literally SO CLOSE to being able to do a pull up. I can basically do a kipping pull up-I’m sure I could do it if I spent a little time trying and getting my timing down (I only tried like 2 times and was only inches away). I want to be able to do pull ups SO BADLY. I’m going to do a little work on the assisted pull up machine tomorrow after spin.

I also want to discuss dorm eating a little bit. I’ve been avoiding the dining halls a lot more this year-or I get back after they’ve closed (like tonight). I don’t trust myself to make good decisions on a regular basis-it’s just easier and less to worry about if I don’t put myself in bad decisions. With that being said, my eating habits are definitely more on the snacky side. I just focus on getting a total of all my food groups in, and to refuel accordingly after workouts. For example, tonight I wasn’t super hungry so I made hot chocolate with almond milk and a scoop of protein powder (and cocoa and honey).

For a vegetable, I ate a ton of snap peas. These were my carbs:

This is one of my more unconventional meals-I do a ton of egg scrambles too, although dinner is usually at the dining hall.

I would like to cut down my sugar intake a little, especially the later at night sugar-I struggle the most with any free food. It isn’t conducive to sleeping, and isn’t really necessary. I don’t really have many sweets in my room (besides pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin butter), so it’s really just the sweets available in life. I’m not super concerned though-my mood is for the most part good, which means I’m not eating enough sugar to screw up my hormones. College really just is about making good choices-not necessarily perfect choices. For example, I skipped out on cookies at my sorority meeting, but I’m getting boba with my sister later tonight because we haven’t talked in weeks. It’s also about planning ahead-packing enough food to get me through the day.

And onto ONE last topic-my love for running. I actually have fallen in love with running. This love didn’t come until I was running my last race.

Throughout the training for my first half, I really had to will myself to get out there on those runs. Now, I don’t mind them at all-and I look forward to the long runs. It probably helps that I’m in way better running shape than when I began training for my first half-but I’m really loving my runs. I seriously felt like I was FLYING on my 9 miler. And I cannot accurately describe how excited I am for my race coming up. I’ve gotten so much faster and stronger since my last one! Looking beyond my half…I kind of don’t know what to do with my life. I have some short races planned-I want to PR my 5k in December, but beyond that, nothing. I kind of don’t want to lose all the endurance I’ve built, but my body could probably use a break. I’m tentatively searching for a half for late winter/early spring. Another thing-my running would probably be better if it was my priority…and while I do love it, weight lifting really has my heart. This means my runs are usually with more tired legs, which stinks at the time, but come race day when I’m well rested, it definitely helps!

WHEW that was a lengthy post! I’ve paused 2 times writing this, and now it’s late so…that’s all folks!

What difference has a year made in your life? Favorite form of exercise? MUST DO race suggestions? I kind of want to do Rock n Roll Las Vegas…

What a Difference a Few Months Makes

Date: October 6, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I had a pretty awesome day, despite a little hiccup. I recently changed my pre-run breakfast, and I’m experimenting with the timing of it a little-it’s not as hard on my stomach so I don’t have to wake up as early!

Banana. Egg. Cocoa powder. Plus a coconut garnish. Which somehow managed to get all over my desk…Plus blackberries.

I went home today, so I ran on my favorite route. Since I’m tapering, I’m thinking a little more about speed-my last couple of runs were hilly so I didn’t even consider pace.

I pulled into a parking space and began gathering my running stuff when all of the sudden, the car parked in front of my starts backing up….quickly. I guess he never even saw me, because he rammed into the front of my car. I’m fine-but it definitely shook me up a little bit! My car is pretty much ok-my front bumper has a crack in it. First of all-how does a bumper crack? Oh yeah, my car is made out of plastic. So I have a plastic bumper. Awesome. I’ve never been in an accident (knock on wood!) but I’ve been backed into 3 times. Talk about pre-run adrenaline though!

My run felt really good-minus some more technical issues. I stopped the clock a couple of times to adjust my shoes-I think my foot inserts help prevent the toe pain I get, but they cause such bad rubbing that I had to stop and take them out 2 miles in. I ran another 4 miles without, and then my feet starting bothering me so I put them back in…only to have to remove them a mile later.

What a difference a few months makes! A lot of my training runs (the flat ones) have been faster than the last training cycle for my first half, but this one really stood out. A few months ago (the picture on the left), I ran 9 miles, in the same place, at the same point in my training. The run was by far my fastest long run, but I destroyed my calf doing it, and was barely able to race. Today, I killed that time. I wasn’t dead. My legs are still intact. I’m ready to rock this race!

I visited my parents and kitties after running. And ate a snack.

I then met up with one of my best friends from high school for lunch. We got sandwiches-turkey and avocado for me! I can’t remember the last time I had a sandwich!

We then both had the genius idea of stopping by an amazing cake shop on the way back to the car-Nothing Bundt Cakes.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that I immediately went for the pumpkin spice cake…I’m a tad obsessed.

We also got a chocolate chocolate chip cake. We shared them both.

Since Jessica is super artistic, I dragged her to a party favor store for a little craft project-I’m Sunshine Chair in my sorority which means I’m in charge of sending out inspirational messages, kitten pictures, and recognizing people’s birthdays (ok, I kind of read between the lines about the kitten pictures…). I wanted to have sometime nice to give people for their birthdays…with the secret hope that they will keep it and put in on their walls for ever. This is the end result (it’s a girl’s birthday tomorrow!)

I then settled in with this baby-it’s time to get serious folks!

And then the tiredness from the past few days began to hit me, and I started to fall asleep with images of freshly cut mango dancing through my head. I think this is a sign that I’m severely mango deprived. I then went to a quick dinner.

And then I proceeded to break into the giant can of pumpkin pie filling my mom got me. Spoons up! (To be fair, there was some yogurt involved.) I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I may be kind of pumpkin-ed out for a while!

I hope you all had great weekends!

What is something you are proud of that you accomplished lately?