A Chill Day

Date: October 5, 2013

Author: astottler

Are you guys all having a good weekend? I definitely am! And Sunday marks the official 2 week out point for my race! I’m starting to get excited!

I haven’t really posted in a few days (besides my scheduled post) so I have a kind of random selection of pictures from the last couple of days.

Thursday morning started with Crossfit-lots of deadlifts! I refueled appropriately:

Nothing too crazy happened during the day- I got a veggie wrap for lunch with hummus. I didn’t actually bring money with me, and it was the only real food I could afford with the few dollars in my backpack.

And my pumpkin butter obsession continues (more on that in a minute!). One thing about dorm life-I have the tendency to buy something and eat nothing but that item until it is gone, which is really quickly. And then I buy something else and the cycle repeats. I guess this is what happens when grocery trips are infrequent…Well, the pumpkin butter is certainly disappearing quickly! I made “paleo oatmeal”-I wasn’t trying to make paleo or oatmeal, but I threw a ton of things in a bowl and that was what I got! This was applesauce, egg whites, chia seeds, coconut, and almond milk. Topped with pumpkin butter! It really was just a medium for pumpkin butter. I wanted pumpkin oatmeal, but I don’t have any oats….so there’s that.

That evening at flag football, the soreness from a full week of heavy lifting began to set in, and my hamstrings began a war on me that would last another day. I also did the spin class I wrote for myself that evening-it turned out to be pretty good! I definitely have a tendency to do a lot more in the saddle than out…talk about a quad burner! I really don’t like the spin bikes at school-they feel really plastic-y, and I don’t really get the feel of the road. It’s more like moving your legs with resistance that spinning-but the quad burn can definitely sneak up on you!

Afterwards, it was pretty late so I refueled with hot chocolate. Kind of. Another #dormlife problem-no milk. And as much as I love almond milk, it has almost no protein. I mixed (not very well based on all the powder floating around) chocolate protein powder, brown rice syrup, a little honey, cocoa powder, and almond milk and heated it up. Perfect. Kind of.

After my workout, a little socializing while drinking this concoction, and doing a pre-lab, I was beat. I woke up yesterday morning still really tired. I debated skipping my 5 mile hilly run, but I knew I’d never be able to fall back asleep because I had already gotten up. The run went pretty well-these are some intense hills. It took a while for my legs to loosen up, but I’m glad I got some hill work in. There was just one glitch-my shoe inserts. I think they do help prevent foot pain, but they give me the worst blisters-it’s only one foot for some reason, but I took them both out halfway through the run (so I’d be even). My foot hurt a little by the end of the run-so I’m not really sure what I should do at this point.

Here are some random eats from Friday:

My roommate and one of my other friends baked banana bread-you better believe I was all over that!

After my run, my legs kind of tightened up and all the soreness from the week hit. My hamstrings felt like death-I can’t even remember the last time they were that sore! After a 2 hour Chem lab (we finished 2 hours early!), my legs felt 100x better. Which was good given I had flag football practice. I swear, I’m so bruised up right now! I may or may not have bar shaped bruises going up my legs…at Crossfit, I got a big bruise on the front of my leg because I kept dragging the bar against my leg doing cleans. Smart one Aurora.

(Finally fading)

Plus, I’m getting a little beat up playing football. I guess that’s just what happens in sports-I used to be pretty bruised up from softball regularly.

Back to food. GUYS. I had the best idea. Pumpkin butter. Cottage cheese. I really liked how the pumpkin cream cheese was creamy and a little savory-but it’s too rich to eat with a spoon (or is it?). I found out that a little market on campus now uses meal plan dollars (part of our dining plan-I NEVER use them) and they actually sell really good, useful stuff. It’s basically a mini grocery. And meal plan dollars are like free money.

I immediately dug into the cottage cheese.

YUM. But for my next snack, I kicked it up another notch.

Cottage cheese. Sunflower seed butter. Pumpkin butter. Apple chips. That’s gourmet my friends. Or at least college gourmet. SUCH a good combo. Too bad I’m out of cottage cheese…and apple chips…and almost pumpkin butter.

This morning I managed to sleep in until 9-which is a pretty big accomplishment for me! I hit the gym first thing-but I wanted to give my legs a complete rest day after this past week, and before tomorrow’s 9 miles. I did something I’ve never done before-arms and abs day. I NEVER do arm workouts-I usually do full body workouts, and occasionally leg days. But I didn’t want to do anything that put any stress on my legs at all. My workout ended up consisting of mostly pull ups and planks. I’m so close to being able to do a full pull up-only 25 pounds of assistance, which is such a huge improvement. My goal is to get it by Thanksgiving! And with the quantity I did today, I should be able to get there!

After my workout, I was starving and more than ready for brunch. I was really hoping to get a smoothie, but the line was insane, as was the waffle line. I still haven’t gotten a waffle yet this year!

But then again, I’m never going to complain about copious amounts of guacamole.

Giant Mexican salad. I also had a biscuit and this frozen fruit.

I spent the day doing nothing too crazy. I realized that Netflix streams season 8 of How I Met Your Mother. I was considering going to the football game today, but I decided to just hang out. Dinner with How I Met Your Mother? That sounds just right to me.

I made a scramble with the last of my spinach, plus laughing cow garlic and herb and pesto. I finally peeled myself away from the screen to do laundry, which is where I am right now. I discovered that blogging is the perfect thing to do while doing laundry!

And with that, I’ll leave you all to your weekends! I’m going back to the trail by the bay to run, so I’m visiting my cats and grabbing lunch with a high school friend also home this weekend.

What are your favorite TV shows? What other things should I put pumpkin butter on? What amazing pumpkin products should I try? Can you tell I’m obsessed with all things fall?

Confessions (I’m Not as Put-Together as I Appear)

Date: October 3, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Confession: I put this post together this summer for times like now when my pillow is looking more attractive than my computer screen. Enjoy!

Hey guys! I love reading posts about all your confessions, and I’ve never done one before so let’s go!

1. There have been far too many occasions where I’ve seriously gotten my sweat on and not showered before class/the day/any social event. Yum. During crew, our morning workouts always took longer than I anticipated and I often ran out of time to shower…If you ever see me with my hair up, it’s a tell-tale sign that I’ve worked out and haven’t showered. I never wear my hair up besides then.

Aurora’s Lack of Showers Through the Years

Hint-bows help. Or at least I tell myself this.

Uhhh trying on a prom dress right after softball…

2. The #1 reason I skip a workout is to eat.

2. I really, really hate the song Blurred Lines. I also hate Justin Timberlake, and since I used to think he sang that, it kind of makes sense. And since we’re on the topic of music, I used to not have any clue what language “Gangham Style” was in.

3. I visited home from college during the school year for 2 reasons-my gym and my cats.

4. I’ve been known to keep up with what’s what nowadays through a mom-blog, The Stir. Consequently, now I now a ton about being a mom…

5. When I first come home from college, I’m so avocado deprived that I was going at a rate of AT LEAST half of an avocado a day.

(And apparently I’m so avocado obsessed that I draw pictures of them…)

6. I can’t remember the last time I wore jeans. In my defense, it has been spring and summer lately, but biking in jeans kind of stinks (I’ll pretend like that’s my excuse).

7. For a training run, I will never run .01 miles more than I need to. Let’s just say I’m about done right then and there. Notice a trend?

8. When I was doing a project on sugar metabolism last year and trying harder to avoid sugar, this was my screensaver. And my friends all made fun of me for it (and I probably deserved it).

What are your confessions? I would love to hear them!

Multitasking and I’m Finally Doing It!

Date: October 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello everyone! I wasn’t exactly planning on posting, but this day has become more post-able so here I am.

My alarm went off this morning…freaking too early. 4.5 hours of sleep after a 5 hour of sleep night is just not enough. But that’s temporary. I headed to the gym for a lifting session. It was supposed to be entirely leg day (my Leg Demolisher workout, but I didn’t have a bar to use for overhead squats, so instead I made myself a little pull up WOD. Before that, I tested with the pull up machine how little resistance I could use and still be able to perform the exercise. GUYS. I’m only 25 pounds away from being able to do a real live pull up! Anyways, the WOD was 15-12-9 pull ups and box jumps. Short and sweet.

I also added on some planks. I’ve definitely neglected ab work lately, and after power yoga tonight as well, I can already feel it.

After my workout, my sleep deprivation started to catch up to me, so I went to the dining hall for breakfast for the first time this year for some quick coffee.

Life saver. Except not because either dining hall coffee isn’t very strong or I’m just used to my beloved cappuccinos. I was very tired today, and we’ll leave it at that. Here are some other morning eats.

Dining hall fruit. Not too shabby!

Casually stealing eggs from the dining hall in a glass…That’s totally normal…

I really tried to rally after finishing the days classes to go to the lab, but the banana was just not going to be a substitute for sleep. I decided I wouldn’t be able to do good work anyways so I returned to my dorm for a glorious, glorious nap.

After my nap, I made a half asleep decision to have a snack of pumpkin cream cheese and pumpkin butter on crackers. I say half asleep because I could not for the life of me remember making that decision…but hey, it was a delicious one! Aaaand let’s just say the pumpkin cream cheese may kinda sorta be gone already.

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing this week’s problem sets (yay!) and skipping my run because I napped for so long. I’m fine with this-my original plan was 3x a week, so the 4th run is icing.

Chicken, balsamic salad, and root vegetables that tasted how horses smell. But maybe I’m just not a root vegetable person.

Baby dessert-muesli with a little grape jelly and almond milk-so happy the dining hall has almond milk this year! The whole “only pumpkin desserts” thing? Well…

They brought gourmet ice cream sandwiches to our house meeting…And once again, the free foods wins. Which is partly why I’m still awake.

Before the house meeting, I spent a ton of time on iTunes browsing new spin music. Did you know there was a genre called “hardcore dance”? Interesting…Well, I made a class for myself to do sometime this week. Which leads to the multitasking. I decided to listen to the playlist to get a feel for it while doing laundry (yes, it’s 11pm). I desperately needed to do laundry-I have no clothes left (specifically workout clothes) plus my sorority has a mixer on Friday and I won’t have any time on Friday to do it then. I decided to do half a load tonight and half a load tomorrow. So I’m currently doing laundry, blogging, and checking up on my playlist.

Also-I was stupid enough to throw all my clothes in the dryer and press start…before realizing it was the dryer and not the washer. Yes, it’s been that long since I’ve done laundry.

And after all this spin talk, guess what??

I finally registered for spin certification training! So, I’m actually doing it-I’m going to teach spin! The class is 9am-6pm. I’m HOPING we’re not on the bike for the whole time….

That’s all I have today! My laundry calls!

WIAW and Relearning to Run

Date: October 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! I’m dead tired and I’m staying up to write this post, but I simply couldn’t miss WIAW. I just finished marathon Chem and Physics problem sets so let’s hope this post is at least kind of coherent. Thanks Jenn!

This WIAW is a collection of a ton of random shots I took of my food. I think it pretty accurately describes my eating right now. #dormlife

Before I get into that, I wanted to talk about this morning’s workout. I took a 45 minute spin class, and then went our for a 4 mile training run. I had some…technical difficulties. It’s never good when your shoes don’t finish in the same state they began.

I got new inserts to in theory help with my foot problems. Do they help? Maybe? At least on shorter runs? My feet still stunk on my 12 miler. Well, there’s one little problem. Well, 2. A) I don’t own enough anti-blister socks so I need to save them for the longest runs and B) these inserts rub like crazy. After 2 miles, I couldn’t stand the intense burning on one foot, so I stopped and ran the rest of the way with the insert in my hand. The blister pain went away, but I had kind of a strange experience. I really concentrated on running correctly. I’ve done a ton of agility/sprinting training, so I know how to run. And my sprinting run is not at all like my distance run in terms of how I strike with my feet. I was being really careful to strike with my foot in a better position (just one foot…baby steps), and guess what? No foot pain. The motion was a lot different though, and my heel was burning like crazy by the end of the run. I think the only way to solve my foot issues is by relearning to run. After my race, I’m going to really work on it, which will involve a lot of barefoot running.

Aaand onto the food from the past few days.

An Asian pear with the morning view.

Leftover salad and foccacia. The salad is from the Cheesecake Factory-my friend invited me to dinner there with her grandparents Sunday night. I actually really liked this salad! Perfect leftover.

I was craving pumpkin (no surprise there) so I threw a bunch of things in the microwave in hopes of something similar to the amazing pumpkin microwave cake we made. It didn’t really come out at all like that, but it tasted just like pumpkin pie so I’m not complaining.

My newest obsession-apple chips. And yesterday/today I was pretty much out of food so it was apple chips for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I kid. Sort of…

A solid dining hall dinner post-Crossfit. The dill salmon was actually really good-normally dining hall salmon is pretty gross.

You know I’m out of food when…I break into my freezer supply of quick bread. This is zucchini bread-a study snack.

Post workout drink with a side of college life-that mess on my desk is what I have to deal with constantly. There is zero space in my room, if you’re wondering why a lot of pictures are of me holding food, not on a table or desk. And FYI-it’s not a good habit to get into to just plop your food down on TOP of everything…laptop included…

I was about to just grab a bar for breakfast, but I decided I should have something at least a little more real. The last of my cinnamon apple blueberry bread from who knows when in the freezer! Yum!

It’s all about balance my friends. And by that-of course I mean the balance of chocolate and vanilla. Kidding. But I’ll talk about the actual balance I’m referring to at the end.

Strange but good-harboiled egg and pesto. Add in some dried fruit, and you’ve got yourself a pre-workout snack.

Pre-workout dates. Yum.

Since I was crazy low on food and I saw some posts about all the amazing pumpkin things at Trader Joe’s, I HAD TO GO NOW. Despite the crazy amount of work I had today. Study fuel…right??

Dinner was some veggie soup from the freezer, plus some new purchases. Edamame crackers topped with pumpkin cream cheese!

GUYS. This pumpkin cream cheese is BOMB. It’s not too sweet either-that surprised me! It’s not going to last until the weekend. There’s no way.

I also got these because, I mean, come on, how cool is this? Honestly though, I wasn’t a fan. They were a bit dry and sweet for my taste. Better topped with pumpkin cream cheese. Sensing a theme here?

Today was also the night of our guac party. It was honestly a much needed brain break. Yesterday held hours of work, including late night work and an early morning.

And avocados make everything better, right?

Speaking on study snacks…apple chips+pumpkin cream cheese? YUM. If that doesn’t say fall, what does? Are you sensing WHY this cream cheese won’t be around much longer?

And onto the whole balance thing…I feel like my eating habits are starting to slip. Mostly I’m just not feeling as great. Late nights are not helping when I have a snack because I’m up late working. I’m making a 30 day challenge for myself-only eat pumpkin. Not literally-only eat sweets if they involve pumpkin. That way, I won’t eat something that will make me feel bad unless it’s seasonal and really worth it. That’s a balance I can live with. And hopefully some sleep, coffee, and fresh groceries can get me right back on track.

Favorite pumpkin product so far?

Trail Fail and Microwave Cake

Date: September 29, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello guys! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I have to admit, my first weekend back at school was pretty awesome. Yesterday, I had guacamole TWICE. That alone makes this a great weekend.

I also began the whole “random dorm food snack thing” yesterday when I mixed up a random bowl of chocolatey goodness.

Dried coconut, chia seeds, tons of cocoa powder, sweetener. In the microwave with almond milk, and you get a delicious snack!

Oh, and raisins! I’m starting to realize I really love dried fruit because it’s not as sweet as other desserts. My friends are awesome-they went to Costco and got me a giant bag of apple chips, which I’m ridiculously excited about.

Being the party person that I am, I had a pretty wild Saturday night before my 12 miler. As in, I stayed in my room all night making pumpkin cake in the microwave. Like the party animal that I am. Last year, my roommate and I made pumpkin cake in the microwave, and I think this is the same recipe that we used.

We made a few adjustments since we’re cool people and my roommate has a gluten intolerance. Personally, I think our modifications made it even better (and probably healthier). Also, I almost royally screwed this recipe up. It calls for you to divide out half the mixture. Well, I started to do that without realizing I had forgotten to add sugar. So I almost forgot the sugar in this cake. I kind of messed up the cinnamon too but not as badly!

Here’s our version of the recipe-I apologize ahead of time for the poor photo quality because my dorm has horrible lighting at night.

Microwave Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients:

1/3 c butter

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 c coconut sugar

1/2 c applesauce

1.25 gluten free flour mix or regular flour (my roommate mixed together a ton of flours, along with xantham gum)

3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 c plain yogurt

1/2 pumpkin

1 egg

Instructions:

In large microwave safe bowl, melt 1/3 c butter for 30-45 seconds; stir in sugars and applesauce. Min in flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt. (This will likely be kind of soft, unlike what the original recipe called for; I think this made it even better though). Remove half of the mixture and set half aside. Stir in cinnamon to one half. Then, add in other ingredients to the cinnamon half and mix. Top the bigger half with the smaller half (the one with fewer ingredients) and microwave for 8 minutes, rotating halfway through. Then, microwave for about 3 minutes, or as needed, checking every 1:30.

Pre-microwave

Ready to be eaten!

SO GOOD. Seriously guys, if you make anything, make this. Plus, it’s quick and one bowl! This is gooey, pumpkin-y and perfect for fall. The apple sauce gives the topping a touch of flavor, in the best way possible. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday night- friends and pumpkin baked goods.

I didn’t go to bed as early as I probably should have before my run, but I woke up and ate breakfast. Here’s a really unattractive picture.

I’m reconsidering my pre-run breakfast. It used to be a Thinkthin bar and fruit, but I’m liking this 2 ingredient pancake (with cocoa powder) with fruit. It’s easier on my stomach, but I feel like it’s not as hefty. I think if I do this, I need to eat closer to running, which is probably better since my race is at 6:30am-that way I won’t have to wake up as early.

After eating, I mapped out my run. I wanted to give trail running a try, as well as get some hill training in. I found a route that would accommodate my 12 miles and wrote it out. I also actually carried my phone since I was running alone in the wilderness, so here are a couple of pictures.

This trail was really nice at the beginning. I was thinking how much fun trail runs are. The first few minutes were all downhill. The 12 mile route I had planned out had 1000 feet elevation change, to put this in perspective. It took me all of 5 minutes to get horribly lost. About a mile in, I somehow ended up on a random road with no trails in sight. Some nice other runners pointed me in the correct direction, but I ended up on the street again. I don’t think I ever made it to any of the trails I had planned out, and I just ran on the smaller trails. The hills were really intense-my legs were shot a mile in. I decided that this was not going to work for 12 miles. Plus, the trail running was actually worse for my feet. At 4.5 miles, I found my car and drove down the mountain to flat road to finish the run. Well, relatively flat.

Overall, it was a weird run. But it was good to get some hill work in in a long run. And trails. I had never run trails before my last half, so the 2 miles or so of trails I was cursing the whole time. I was pretty done by the end of this run though. I stopped for water at mile 11, and I had to really give myself a pep talk to get going-although I guess it worked since my last mile was by far the fastest! Another thing-my new shoe inserts didn’t really help much. Which means for now I’m pretty much screwed. After my race, I’m going to try some barefoot running/minimalist shoes and see if that might help. Plus, I have no halfs scheduled yet for the future-just shorter races.

On the way back to campus, I happened to run into a small farmer’s market. One of the stands was a gluten free bakery, and of course I had to stop there since my roommate is gluten free. I got some delicious foccacia and a pumpkin bar. SO good. I think better than any gluten-filled foccacia I’ve had!

This was also a life saver. I was sooo hungry at this point-it was already around 1:30. My run was probably the longest time I’ve run, since my pace was so slow on the trails.

After my run, I prettied myself up-with one problem. I had a tea party to go to that I needed to dress up for, and I didn’t pack my maxi skirt. And I knew if I didn’t wear compression socks, I would really regret it tomorrow. I was actually thinking back to my last training-one time I didn’t wear my socks after a run, and my calves were really sore all week. And I’m pretty sure that was the week I hurt my calf. So I was not going to neglect to wear those socks-it was the same point in my training last time that I got hurt!

New fashion trend? Yes? I was going to go out like that when I had a genius idea-boots! Here’s a picture where you can kind of see.

Here I am at the tea party with my friends.

There was lots of delicious food. Pumpkin cookies, maple cookies, sandwich cookies. And grapes. Lots and lots of grapes (they were in front of me and I ran 12 miles this morning so…). It was bring your own mug, so I brought my classy piggy mug.

Yum.

I’m a big fan of tea parties-I need to make those a regular thing. Also, my roommate and I have an abundance of ripe avocados, so a guac party may be in our near future.

Do you like trails? Any good microwave recipes?