What Makes a Good Blogger?

Date: August 26, 2013

Author: astottler

Quick note to my guest posters-I’m going to need your posts in the next few days! Thanks!

This a question I’ve been asking myself lately. What more could I or should I be offering you guys? I’ve come up with a few things.

1. Tackling the tougher issues. Frankly, I don’t really do this. Why? Maybe I’m afraid. I try to avoid controversy. Of the few posts I’ve attempting, I’ve tread very carefully. I’m scared of offending people. But with that fear, can I really be a “good” blogger? I get basically no negative comments on my blog. Which I guess is good, but maybe I should inject my opinions a little more? It’s not that I don’t have them. I suppose I’m just scared. I feel like things are mostly rainbows and sunshine over here on the blog. Which I’m fine with-when I started my blog, I wanted it to be a place for positivity. Specifically-I didn’t want it to be a place to beat myself up over food choices or body shame, so I’m happy about that. However, as my blog matures, some of the more serious topics should be tackled.

Why else might I not blog about these things? Maybe I’m young and naive.

Maybe those serious topics don’t even cross my mind. I am a relatively young blogger. Or maybe I need to take a closer look at things instead of glossing over them, pretending all is as it should be.

What else makes a good blogger?

I feel like most of the most popular healthy living bloggers have already arrived at health. They eat what they need for their bodies (both healthy and unhealthy foods, but in a balance that works for them). They have it all figured out.

I certainly haven’t.

I really thought I did though.

This time last year, I had the healthy thing all figured out. I felt like I had for a few years. But this past year…

I feel like my first year of college chewed me up and spit me out. It knocked me around and pushed me down, but now I’ve emerged once again, standing.

I always thought I was a strong person, until this year. I feel like this past year broke me, but I’ll hopefully be a better person from it.

My healthy habits that had been instilled in me for years vanished, masked by crew-my eating habits were bad but I exercised so much that of course I didn’t gain weight.

But of course health isn’t it. Being in an environment with all new people, most of whom are freaking geniuses who are CEOs of their own successful start ups, or who have traveled the world making a difference, all at the ripe old age of 18. Classes were much more challenging that high school. I didn’t sleep. Eating was the last thing on my mind-except it wasn’t. I was focusing on my poor eating habits, just enough to stress me out, but not enough for me to make a change. Awesome.

Winter quarter was dark-no sleep, high stress, poor school performance, crew stress-mentally and physically. Something was bound to break. And it did. I became the sickest I’ve been in my life, and then developed the worst eating habits of my life.

Mono stripped my body of the nutrients it needed to function. After weeks of not being able to tolerate food, I ate. I just ate. My body craved food, desperately trying to restore itself. And that’s the story of how I managed to gain 20 pounds in just weeks.

Spring quarter I’ve eaten worse than ever in my life-and gained weight faster than ever in my life. 4000 calories everyday will do that for you…

Also note-eating like a rower when you’re NOT a rower is not a good idea.

Do I blame the mono for the weight gain? Yes. But it wasn’t the beginning of the disruption of my health-not at all. You know, I had been patting myself on the back all year for not gaining the freshman 15, not gaining my usual holiday weight. Hah. little did I know what was coming for me….

That is the story of how I lost my health, which I am still trying to find. I’ve definitely restored a lot of the balance, but the damage is done and it will take a lot of hard work. I do truly believe that the experience will be for the better in the long term. I am stronger now than I was a year ago. Sure, several pounds heavier, but stronger. Yeah, being sick was awful. Gaining weight was awful. Feeling like crap all the time was awful. But I learned so much about myself. I believe that I can now pick myself off the ground, and continue on.

So do I qualify as a perfect healthy living blogger? No. The above-mentioned unravel occurred during the life of this blog. But the restitching will also occur on this blog. What falls apart can be put back together-it has to be. What’s life without a little journey? The bitter only makes the sweet even better. Life goes on. In 30 years, I want to look back on my illness and recognize it as a new beginning. Not the end of my healthy journey, but just a bump in the road, a fresh start. So do I have it all figured out? No! Maybe someday I will. Maybe not. That’s okay too. As long as each day I get one step closer, I’m happy. I have confidence in myself that I’ll figure things out.

And when I do, I’ll make sure that my blog covers it. Because that’s the kind of blogger I am-not there yet, but someday.

What makes a good blogger?

MIMM-Banana Chocolate Chip Custard

Date: August 26, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hi friends! I originally had another post planned for today, but I’ve been hinting at a recipe for quite some time now, and it’s finally ready! What could be more marvelous? I hardly ever make up my own recipe so I think that qualifies for an entire MIMM post. Thanks Katie!

Microwave Banana Chocolate Chip Custard

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
1 T milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond)
1/4 cup liquid egg whites of 1 egg
pinch of salt
1/8 t baking powder
2 T bittersweet chocolate chips (or any chocolate chips)

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, microwave peeled banana for 30 seconds.

2. Mash banana.

3. Add milk and stir.

4. Add all other ingredients except chocolate chips and mix well.

5. Stir in chocolate chips.

6. Microwave on high for 1:15 or until cooked through.

Note: Different bowls and microwaves may take different time, so check every 30 seconds or so just in case.

Enjoy! This is delicious, simple, and low sugar. Plus-it’s dorm room friendly! My dining halls at school always have bananas which are easy to grab for later, so this is perfect! To new college students-I also highly recommend keeping a carton of liquid egg whites (such as egg beaters) around- they make an easy protein rich meal any time,plus there’s no shell to sit in your trash can for weeks (at least if you’re me and don’t take out your trash NEARLY enough).

If you want a silkier texture, add an extra tablespoon of milk-it might take a little longer to cook, so monitor that.

Try this! It will make your Monday a little more marvelous- I promise 🙂

The Enforcer

Date: August 24, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I haven’t shared a general life type of post with you all lately so let’s go through some highlights!

I of course have obligatory kitten nursery pictures. I only have a few more weeks-crazy! I’ll miss seeing those faces every week!

After the nursery, I drove one highway exit away for training run #2. I ran by the bay where I normally would do my long runs. It wasn’t my first location choice for a shorter run, but one highway exit was all I could manage in that traffic!

Being the smarty pants that I am, I failed to bring my Garmin. That wasn’t really an issue for me. I planned to run for time, but I kind of failed with that too. Luckily, when you do enough hard, long runs in a place, you have a very good sense of when you have 2 miles left. Since my run was 4 miles, I hit that out and back point from memory and it was fine. I felt kind of tired-the run felt long. At the same time though, I think I was going at a good pace. My original plan was 3x per week of running, but I think I’m going to bump that up to 4 for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, me feet weren’t great by the end-my new inserts aren’t the solution…

Overnight oats were exactly what I was craving for lunch, so I whipped them up from my vanilla yogurt that was on its last legs. 15 minutes of waiting, and they were good enough for me!

I listen to an audiobook on my long runs. I had the idea a week or so ago that in the afternoons, instead of reading a book, I should just take my audiobook and go for long walks. This summer, I’ve felt pretty sedentary when I’m not working out.

I really enjoyed it-my walk ended up being 2 hours long and very hilly. I’m thinking these walks will be decent training at least for the downhills of my half, sicne the movement is pretty similar.

Here are some of the views:

I didn’t sleep enough Thursday night. I had a 5:10 wake up for spin Friday morning. The thought of staying in bed could have crossed my mind if it wasn’t for this.

At 5:08 am, this guy busted my door open (not really sure how…) and started meowing his lungs out for me to get up. Not for attention, not to be petted, but so I would get my rear end out of bed. So, on 5 hours of sleep, I got up before my alarm. I don’t understand how he knows. When I wake up early for a workout (or the kitten nursery) he always wakes up and gets ready with me. I’m not sure how he can possibly know the day and time, since Thursdays I wake up an hour later. I swear, that cat!

After spin, I refueled with a plum, and eggs with kale and chive and onion cream cheese.

After a quick nap, I helped my mom take our car in for service. While the car was being worked on, we headed downtown in search of a coffee shop.

We happened upon a little place that attracted us with its produce and Blue Bottle coffee. Blue Bottle for some reason sounded familiar to me, so we decided to check it out.

I ordered an oat bar and a cappuccino.

How adorable is this??

We got talking about health, nutrition, weight, eating plans, and life. We ended up staying for 2 hours, leaving only when the parking meter was going to run out. This little discussion sparked my last post, as well as another one I wrote at the same time, which should appear on Monday. It was really, really nice.

That evening, I went to Crossfit and was able to Rx the workout (go at the prescribed weight/height of box). The workout was 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of kettle bell swings and box jumps. The kettle bell swings were a non-issue. The box was higher than I was expected…And I thought for sure the workout would end with me picking pieces of Aurora out of the box. I have a bit of a fear of box jumps-and a pretty little scar on my shin to prove it. I’ll spare you the pictures of when it first happened. When I first began working with my trainer 3 years ago, I bashed my shin REALLY badly in one of the first sessions with him. He later told me he thought I’d never be back after that! I did it again a year ago, and now box jumps always make me nervous when I know they’re not a super easy height.

I was worried also that I’d be tired at the end and mess up. It took intense focus, and a lot of nerves, but I successfully Rxed the workout! I don’t care that I was the last to finish-I still did, I pushed my boundaries, and had a ton of focus.

That evening I visited my sister in her new apartment where she invited a whole bunch of friends over. It was a ton of fun-pizza, boba, games. The highlight was learning how to make paper airplanes-which of course degenerated into all out paper airplane warfare.

That’s all I have for you today! Also-expect a recipe coming your way soon!

What did you do this weekend? What is one exercise you’re terrified to do?

What is More Than How Many

Date: August 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I owe you a no sugar challenge recap. But how about a post no sugar challenge recap as well?

I haven’t talked much about the no sugar challenge since the beginning. Usually, this means it kind of trickled out of my mind and I failed. But THIS time, I actually finished. For this challenge, I defined “sugar” as “sweets or desserts.” I enjoyed it, but I didn’t realize the impacts it had until POST no sugar challenge.

As many of my longer time readers may have picked up, sugar is an issue near and dear to my heart. So much so that I want to spend my life studying it. I’ve always been sensitive to sugar. I’ve done a lot of research into its metabolism. I’ve done quite a few no sugar challenges in the past. But this, in a way, may be the last.

So, let’s talk numbers. At the end of last week (the end of the challenge) I was feeling leaner. I initially thought it was because of my weight lifting schedule-it was a more intense week than the week before. However, I was annoyed because the number on the scale didn’t really change. That’s kind of the story of my summer. I posted a while ago about the weight I gained recently. I gained that weight through a bout of horrible eating habits. Over the summer, I exercised a lot, including training for a half and starting Crossfit, and really cleaned up my diet. I expected the weight to just fall off-I was eating so badly for a little while that I figured any improvement would have that effect. However, over the course of the summer, I lost maybe 2 pounds. How was that possible?

The mirror, however, told a different story. I definitely looked slimmer. The difference was the muscle I build through all the lifting and exercise. Showing once again that WHAT is more important that HOW MANY.

And back to the no sugar challenge. Although the number didn’t change, I felt and looked better.

Flash forward to almost a week post-challenge. I ate my first sweet. And I. Felt. Awful. It’s really easy to forget how something really makes you feel. But that’s not all. (Keep in mind, I’m super sensitive to sugar, so these reactions won’t happen for a lot of people.) This week, I’ve continued in indulging in sugar. Nothing too crazy, but desserts regularly.

I feel like a different person. I feel like my body fat has gone up (but still little change on the scale, mind you). I’m on edge. I don’t feel in control. I feel sick. One cookie is enough to give me a stomachache-and make me crave more. Now let’s talk about what I’ve been eating this week.

Carbs. Lots of carbs. All carbs. Very few vegetables.

But here’s the real zinger. I confess-I count calories. Why? Quite frankly, because I suck at intuitive eating. And I like data. Cold, hard facts. Am I accurate counting calories? Probably not. But that’s fine with me. I’m consistent, and that’s all that matters. I know how many my body needs in my counting system. So it works for me.

Back to the point-numbers don’t lie; I’ve eaten a similar amount of calories last week as this week. But those calories were oh so different. Fresh fruits, veggies, lean protein versus carbscarbscarbs and sugar. And my body is reacting to the two things very differently. Once again, WHAT I’m eating matter more than HOW MANY calories I’m eating.

What’s the point of all this? I know it’s been said before, but once again, A NUMBER ISN’T EVERYTHING. Sure, calorie counts and numbers on a scale can give you a rough check in, but it’s stupid to focus on them. There’s SO MUCH MORE to the equation than numbers.

Think of this-

4+4=8

4×4=16

Both equations include fours, but the result is very different; there is another factor, the operator. If you eat exactly 2000 calories a day (the government recommendation) and are exactly the perfect BMI, are you healthy? What if those 2000 calories are just doughnuts and cheetos? What if you have very little muscle and excess body fat? Is that the same as a person who eats 2000 calories of local, organic produce, lean protein, and low sugar, lifts weights, and is the same weight?

Health is so, so much more than a number. And EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT.

Keep that in mind when I say this-I could see myself living a no sugar life, long term, more than just a challenge. I’ve said it before, I’m super sensitive to sugar. One cookie is enough to send me off the wall-jitters and mood swings. If that cookie works well in your lifestyle-GO FOR IT! We are not the same people! Sugar can definitely be part of a healthy lifestyle-and it is for most people. But I don’t know that it is for me.

(Excuse the awkward tween picture.)

It’s not about body composition-it’s about health. Physical and mental. When I eat sweets, I lose control. It messes with my hormones-I’m super emotional and I crave sweetssweetssweets. I can envision a very low-sugar lifestyle. I’ve never regretted not eating a sweet. I feel better when I don’t eat them. I think it would be sustainable FOR ME.

As bloggers, we expose ourselves to all kinds of comparisons. I sometimes read a blog thinking-if this person can eat sugar and feel great, I should be able to too! But in reality, we can’t possibly make that comparison. We share a passion, not a body. We have different lives, different metabolisms, different circumstances. Just because one thing doesn’t work for me, doesn’t mean you all should stop eating it. Or because the blog world is obsessed with some food, it doesn’t mean I should jump on the bandwagon if I or my body don’t like it.

Hopefully you’ll think about what I said. Going forward, I’m hoping for sugar to play a minimal role in my life. (Don’t make big decisions under the influence of alcohol-how about under the influence of a sugar high?) I want it to be a non-factor. Hopefully, I can hit you guys with some lower sugar recipes in the future as well-don’t think I’m going to miss out completely on all the fall treats!

Thoughts?

What…me? Fashion?

Date: August 21, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Since I’m a little behind on day to day happenings, let’s take a little trip back to Tuesday. I began the morning with Crossfit. The WOD was 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 air squats-for 20 minutes. I used a lighter band than I ever have for the WOD before, so I was really excited about that!

From there, I went straight to yoga. I’m really trying to incorporate it into my routine again, especially since running is picking up. I didn’t think anything of the Crossfit workout until I tried a chaturanga. Yeah. Low push ups? That was not happening. At all. So that was interesting.

Since I was missing my post-early workout nap, I decided to walk over to Peet’s for an iced green tea.

It was STRONG. Way more so than Starbucks-which I guess I should have expected. But I’m not complaining!

I picked up some groceries at Whole Foods-I needed coconut sugar for a recipe I’m trying in the near future. All the pastries smelled so good in there though-I was really tempted by the cinnamon raisin scones. However, I knew if I gave myself such a shot of sugar on an empty stomach I’d feel awful all day, so I settled on some plain yogurt and DELICIOUS vanilla granola.

Then, I got a quick but much needed haircut, and headed to the mall to meet up for shopping with my best friends from high school.

One of my friends is the best shopper. She can pick a ton of cute things in about 10 minutes. It’s amazing. Both my friends are a lot of fun to shop with because they both try on and buy things. And I’m bad at picking things out. Which leads to the title of this post…

Wait, what? Me? Doing a fashion post? Think of this less as a recommendation, but more of an idea of what I like to wear.

Here are my finds from the mall the other day:

I love this dress!

So what’s my style like? Simple, slightly athletic. Mostly simple. Throughout high school, I wore jeans and a sweatshirt pretty much every day. Now that I’m in college, I feel like I need to make a little more of an effort. Sometimes. I’m lucky that my school is super casual. Nike shorts to class? 100% acceptable. It’s a good fit. But the biggest reason I’m getting away from wearing jeans and a sweatshirt is frankly because biking in jeans stinks. It just does. It’s not comfortable. So that combination of factors has forced me to be a bit more creative.

Here’s one of my weird quirks-I don’t wear jewelry. At all. For some reason it kind of annoys me to have it on-hence the “simple.” So what do I wear?

I’m a big fan of loose sweaters. My favorite is a peach and white striped sweater that I seem to have no pictures of. I also love scarves-specifically infinity scarves. I could never figure out how to properly wear/wrap a regular scarf so at this point I exclusively buy infinity scarves. I love dressing up a simple crewneck sweatshirt with a scarf. Plus, in winter it usually keeps me warm enough to avoid wearing 2 jackets. (Yes, I’m a wimp. Weather in the 50s merits 2 jackets, and I still ‘freeze.’)

This is probably my favorite scarf. I love the color and the subtle sparkle. I also have it in purple (they were on sale-how could I not??).

Here’s a really awful picture of my navy scarf. Simple, but effective. It would be good with a light or bright cardigan, depending on the season.

Speaking of cardigans, these are my newest thing. In the winter they look great with a tank top and scarf (yes, this is a CA winter). This summer, I’ve been dressing up my workout pants with a cardigan. Yes, once again my school is casual enough I can wear workout pants to the lab and it’s totally fine. I feel like I do look a little more profession with the sweater though.

Here’s the full look-with my summery scarf and the lovely Kaitlin (old photo).

Here are a few more sweatered looks:

That’s one of my new tanks. I wanted something a little fancier looking. This could be dressed up a lot with a pencil skirt of some type.

In terms of skirts, I am a big fan of the high waisted skirt look.(Ignore the fact that I was weirdly tan last summer.)

This flowy type of high waisted skirt seems to be a bit last year (not that that stops me from wearing them). The new thing seems to be the a-line skirt, which I also really like and have a few of, I just haven’t worn them a whole bunch.

In terms of fancier clothing, this is my all time favorite dress. And pretty much my only fancy type dress until I got that blue one yesterday!

Realistically, who knows what I’ll wear next year. When the weather gets colder I’ll almost certainly turn to the crew neck and scarf look. Once again, I’m a wimp in the cold-any breeze in the air and a cardigan just won’t cut it!

I hope you enjoyed this post. I’m not necessarily the most stylish person, but hopefully this gives you a sense of my ‘style’!