Work Hard, Play Hard

Date: October 15, 2018

Author: astottler

Hello from Cardio Finals week! It’s going to be a rough one over here, I’m not going to lie. Since starting out Cardio block (class), I’ve made an effort to do at least one fun thing on weekends. I’ve had a great time—visiting a college friend, having my family come up and meet kitten, having friends from back home come up. I have a lot of fun things coming up as well…but also a lot of work! I’ve always thought that I could easily study 10% better to make time for the fun stuff. That’s what the next few weeks are going to look like! After Friday. Until then, it’s study central over here.

I figured I would pop in with a quick full day of eating. My current emphasis is to actually eat up the food I buy, and to increase my protein. I’m doing quite a bit of exercise these days now that I’m teaching 3 cycling classes a week. I’m also attempting some long runs (more on that later), and recovery is feeling more important than ever!

Pre-teaching: A handful of pumpkin spice cheerios.

Class was awesome. I love the morning crew. I’m amazing by how full a 6:15am class on a college campus is!

Breakfast:

Smoothie with a frozen persimmon, frozen cranberries, chocolate protein powder, plain greek yogurt, and cocoa powder. Plus a few crackers.

Lunch: I went to a lunch talk on treating respiratory distress in the emergency setting, which was really relevant given I was in class all day learning about respiration. We were given Mediterranean food at the talk. I had some chicken, a falafel, and veggies with hummus and tzatziki.

Snack: Luna bar and some dried carrots (still obsessed).

I had been planning on going to crossfit this evening, but I was pretty sore from yesterday, and I just couldn’t justify a second workout for the day on a week with so much studying.

Dinner: This was a good one! Spaghetti squash with parmesan and garlic, topped with Trader Joe’s Fall Harvest pasta sauce and fresh mozzarella.

For dessert, I had some pumpkin bread that I made over the weekend. I’ve been using the same recipe for years, and honestly it didn’t turn out too well. It was dry and too flour-y tasting. I realized that I don’t think I’ve made a good batch since I’ve been using GF flour so maybe that’s it. I froze most of it, and it should be better on ice cream.

Later in the evening, I had some dark chocolate and dried persimmons. And now it’s back to the grind!

Full Day of Eating: Full Day of School

Date: October 9, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I know I did a full day of eating yesterday, but I figured why not do another one?

Pre-Workout: Cheerios

I was planning on doing Crossfit, but I could actually do zero of the movements with my wrist so I decided to just do a lift on my own instead. I did 10-10-8 back squats at 135-145-155, 3 sets of single leg split squats and pistols, and then some rowing for conditioning! 3x1000m with 4 minutes of rest in between! I think my average time was 4:13 per 1000? It took me back to my rowing days though!

Breakfast: Cottage cheese with pumpkin pie filling and sunbutter, plus a few grapes. The saltiness of the cottage cheese pairs perfectly with the pumpkin—kind of like cheesecake (but I wouldn’t take it that far).

Lunch: Same thing as yesterday, but packed since I was at school all day. Chicken, nectarine, apricot cranberry goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack: It ended up being a pretty warm day, so I went and got ice cream with a few friends. I had salted caramel.

And then when I got home I had a few carrot sticks.

Dinner:

Of course I had a dinner-making snack:

And I know I recently posted this meal, but here it is in context. Zucchini noodles, apple chunks, chicken apple sausage, and white cheddar laughing cow. Seriously so good.

Dessert: Same as yesterday. Pumpkin pie filling with dark chocolate chips and whipped cream. And a piece of dark chocolate.

Bedtime snack: The same rice cake with pumpkin cream cheese, and a couple of pieces of dried persimmon.

And that’s it! I’m currently trying to hurry up and get my studying done for the night because I have early morning spin to teach tomorrow!

Here is your obligatory kitten picture:

Full Day of Eating: Fall Foods

Date: October 8, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

One thing I really haven’t done in a LONG time is a full day of eating! So, I figured now that fall is in full swing, I’d share one! If you know me, I’m all about the seasonal foods, so let’s see what I got into today!

Pre-Workout:

A couple of handfuls of Cheerios.

I teach 6:15am spin on Mondays and Wednesday now, so this was before my class! I’m still getting used to the early schedule, but it was a blast! I’m impressed at the class I get that early on a college campus!

Breakfast:

A couple of pumpkin crackers (these are really good and taste similar to Trader Joe’s pumpkin soup crackers, but with more spices).

And then a persimmon protein smoothie. One frozen persimmon from last year’s bounty, milk, salted caramel protein powder, and a few shakes of cinnamon.

Mid-morning snack: I don’t normally do a morning snack, but breakfast was on the earlier side and I didn’t have class until 10, so I had some of these carrot chips. They’re my newest obsession.

Lunch: I’ve had the same salad literally every weekday with a few variations. This one was nectarine, Trader Joe’s rosemary balsamic grilled chicken (this is amazing), Trader Joe’s apricot cranberry goat cheese, and light balsamic vinaigrette.

Whenever I had lunch at home, I always have to have something sweet. I try to keep it on the healthier side, so I had a square of 78% dark chocolate and half a piece of my sister’s homemade (!) chocolate.

Snack: Banana with Trader Joe’s unsweetened sunbutter. I actually really like this because I think it tastes a lot like peanut butter.

Dinner: Of course I have to have a bite of something while I cook, so I had a few of these:

And then my actual meal was a fall kale salad: kale massaged with aged balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper, butternut squash, dried cranberries, parmesan, and chicken apple sausage.

Dessert: I forgot to take a picture, but I had the exact same thing as last week that I shared before—pumpkin pie filling with dark chocolate chips heated up and topped with whipped cream.

And a ginger chew.

Evening snack: Rice cake with pumpkin cream cheese.

What do you think—was that enough fall foods??

I’ll leave you with this:

Happy fall!

Workouts, Fall Food, and a New Family Member

Date: October 3, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

If you’re wondering what’s new around here, it would be my little foster fail, Marie!

I met her when she was 7 weeks old, and fell in love with her. When she needed a new foster a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the opportunity. I foster failed within a week. Jackson has been the most amazing older brother and they became instant BFFs. He didn’t hiss when he met her, just trotted up and wanted to play. It took about 5 minutes for them to start playing, and they literally played ALL NIGHT that first night.

Also new is that this has been my first week teaching spin for fall quarter! I taught a class the last two weeks, but this is the beginning of normal fall classes and I have 3 a week! It’s been fun but I need to adjust my sleep schedule for the 6ams because they have been wiping me out.

That all said, it’s fall so you know I’m enjoying seasonal foods. And zucchini. Always zucchini.

This is my new favorite dish. All the flavors of fall despite the summer veggies! Zucchini noodles with apple sautéed in, white cheddar laughing cow, and Trader Joe’s chicken apple sausage which is super mapley.

I felt like such a real adult peeling and cutting and roasting carrots. I served them with cheesy zucchini noodles and a salmon burger.

I love this breakfast for fall. Cottage cheese with sunbutter and pumpkin butter.

I finally got my first Jamba Juice Pumpkin Smash of the season! This is actually one of my favorite fall foods, and I never know when to get it because a smoothie is always seems awkward to have between meals. I went after teaching my first 6am spin and had this for breakfast. It’s basically ice cream for breakfast, but all this teaching is burning up my metabolism. Today I taught spin and then went to Crossfit, and instead of eating a banana for a snack like I was going to, I had some frozen donut pieces and it was amazing.

Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi with zucchini slices and trader joe’s butternut squash pasta sauce.

Dessert of pumpkin pie filling and chocolate chips.

And finally, pumpkin pie filling and sunbutter with cottage cheese.

I haven’t posted in a while but I did want to share some of the workouts I did when my wrist was much worse than it is now. It’s not healed, but it’s so much better and there’s a lot I can do.

Workout 1:

4×5 barbell squats

4×8 single leg squats supersetted with pistols (to a bench for me)

20 minute (or 15) AMRAP: 30 sit ups, 20 lunges, 10 box jumps

Workout 2: No Barbell Workout (perfect for busy gym times)

4×6 heavy single leg RDLs

4×8 single leg squats supersetted with pistols

3 Rounds of tabata for conditioning (20 seconds working, 10 seconds of rest for 4 minutes—one tabata for each set of movements)

Squat jumps/ speed skaters
Air squats/ lunge jumps
In and outs with a twist at the top

Workout 3:

Heavy backsquats

Hip flexor exercises—3×20 (fire hydrants, etc)

MetCon: 5 min AMRAP of kettle bell swings and box jumps 3-6-9….

That’s all i have today! Enjoy the fall season!

Meals Lately: MORE Ways to Eat Zucchini

Date: September 17, 2018

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I know I haven’t shared much food lately, but I wanted to catch up on some meals I’ve had lately, hopefully to give you guys some ideas for something quick and easy! We’re going to skip the chit chat and dive right in. Featuring: MORE ways to eat zucchini!

Zucchini noodles with artichoke bruschetta and topped with a giant ball of burrata (burrata is amazing).

Zucchini scramble with whipped garlic and herb cheese (alouette). Plus half a papaya.

Egg+banana in the microwave, topped with cinnamon sugar and a drizzle of honey for breakfast.

Stir fry with lots of zucchini and veggies, plus tofu.

This was a good one. I shredded zucchini and sautéed it up, and then I added Bolthouse Farms salsa ranch and Mexican cheese. This would make a really good cheesy dip with tortilla chips! I also threw some guacamole, apple salsa, and a salmon burger on there.

Super delicious grocery store find! You just heat it up!

Cauliflower gnocchi with sautéed mushrooms, chicken, garlic, and plenty of cheese. Parmesan and mozzarella.

A mini cup of the amazing Jeni’s (that I had weekly in Nashville). I found it at the specialty grocery store here! They only have two flavors but I did order some online the other day….

I’m trying to go for something a little more natural than Halo Top for dessert, so lately I’ve been putting my orange chocolate sauce over vanilla yogurt!

After hurting my wrist, I had this meal a ton because I was on a “no chopping of anything” protocol and couldn’t really use my wrist. I made a chicken-queso type of mixture by heating up chicken with Mexican cheese and salsa ranch dressing. I put that over lettuce with guac and salsa.

Post-5k donuts from Dynamo Donuts in SF. They make amazing gluten free donuts that I’ve been craving for over a year! I got lemon raspberry, chocolate ginger, and carrot cake.

Decaf cappuccino from Bluestone Lane post-race.

With their avocado smash. Honestly I thought the one I had there i nNY was better.

This was a good one! Zucchini noodles with laughing cow cheese and chicken apple sausage. With giant zucchini that I got from my friend’s garden! Jackson below for scale.

Lunch salads still going strong. Peaches, goat cheese, Trader Joe’s grilled balsamic rosemary chicken, and aged balsamic vinegar.

I discovered this amazing smoothie. I have quite a few persimmons that I froze last year, and I recently realized that they make great smoothies! My favorite is a frozen persimmon with salted caramel protein, a touch of cinnamon, and a sprinkle of salt.

And finally, more use fo the burrata in a blueberry burrata salad.