Look What I Made! (My first VLOG)

Date: March 17, 2016

Author: astottler

Hello! If you’re wondering why it’s been a few days since I’ve posted, it’s because I’ve been working on a vlog for all of you! It’s a full day of eating, and it’s supremely awkward, but check it out with the link HERE. <-link to vlog

I actually had a good time making it, and although editing was a steep learning curve, overall I’m happy with how it came out and I had fun doing it! Also apparently my on-screen facial expressions are not the same as my in-person facial expressions. My roommate watched it and told me my facial expressions looked “unfamiliar.”

Anyways, go check it out! I’m posting the details of the food below (aka static pictures).

Breakfast:

Fage 2% yogurt, raspberries and blueberries reduced on the stove, crunchy sunflower seed butter.

Lunch:

Cooking light lemon chicken soup from this recipe, topped with feta. On the side, gluten free toast with avocado.

Snack:

A Lemon Luna bar, a few GF cheddar crackers, and some blueberries.

Dinner #1:

Tortilla pizzas: corn tortillas with tomato sauce, mozzarella, spinach, pear, gorgonzola, and a balsamic drizzle. I baked these in the oven at 400 until the cheese was melted. On the side, I had some garlic roasted broccoli (one of my favorite recipes!).

Dessert:

I had a slice of homemade key lime pie (not made by me). It had a gluten free graham cracker crust. Served with a dollop of whipped cream.

Dinner #2:

A rice cake with mixed berry whipped cream cheese, and a Nacho Cheese GF crackers.

And that was my first full day of eating video!

16.3 (LOL)

Date: March 13, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m currently taking a little study break. We’re in the home stretch! I have 2 finals tomorrow and then I’m DONE. Tomorrow will be a long day though—2 back to back 3 hour finals followed by my 3 hour off campus Biochem class.

Shall we back it up a bit to Friday before getting into 16.3?

My morning began with a WET 5 mile run. And cold. Yuck. Sometimes I like running in the rain, most times I don’t, especially in the morning. But I got it done. A highlight was breakfast—I was super excited to try the Siggi’s fig and lemon yogurt, and realized it would go perfectly with the copious amounts of lemon poppyseed bread in the freezer. I used the one with the slightly weird texture. I actually like the flavor of that more. Still looking for the perfect recipe!

In my morning class, I got to work with rats! Then, it was lunchtime. It was a made to order brunch, so I got eggs florentine on a gluten free english muffin.

After lunch, I went to my final class of the quarter and just got DRENCHED on the bike ride back. When I arrived at my dorm, my sister was waiting outside for me and I didn’t have time to change clothes. We were off to visit the cat she was going to adopt! I fell in love with a few others while there.

But meet Lava! My first nephew 😉

He’s such a sweetie. He loves climbing on everyone’s lap and purring.

The rest of my wild Friday night consisted of falling asleep before 10pm. #deadweek

Saturday morning before Crossfit, I stopped by the Stanford softball game. They were playing Cal Poly, and growing up I played softball with quite a few girls who are now on Cal Poly, so it was fun to see them play!

Then, Saturday morning was 16.3! I was not really excited for it. The workout was a 7 minute AMRAP of 10 snatches at 55# and 3 muscle ups. So, muscle ups are definitely not a thing for me. I assumed I would do scaled, which was 35# snatches and jumping chest to bar pull ups, which I was not excited about. When I showed up however, out coach informed us that since any reps in Rx is ranked higher than scaled, it made sense to just do Rx and then finish the workout with pull ups, and take a score of 10. Since 55# snatches are really comfortable for me, I took this option, and scored all of a 10. Because of that limitation, there wasn’t much hoopla around the workout. The exciting thing though was that I actually did 5 pull ups between my snatch sets WITHOUT a band. WHATTT. I used the smallest band for the first set and then ditched it for the last couple. I’ve been putting in work on the pull ups lately, so I was pretty pumped to be able to break them out in a workout for the first time!

After my heat, I judged a heat and watched another. It was actually a lot of fun, and sort of amusing. Because of the way the standards for muscle ups were set, you can actually do some pretty ugly things to make it work.

After the workout, I went out to lunch with my gym-mates. We went to The Counter, which was delicious but insanely slow. We were there for over 2 hours! It was really fun getting to know everyone though. I keep saying this, but I love the Crossfit community.

My make your own burger creation went unphotographed because I was ravenous, but I did a chicken burger with gruyere, garlic aioli, avocado, mixed greens, and tomato on a GF bun. Demolished.

The rest of my day consisted of a review session, studying, and a cat bath.

Because of my vet assistant experience, I came over to bathe Lava and clean his ears. He was not amused. He’s such a sweetie and we weren’t worried about getting bitten, but he definitely did not love the water and was quite squirmy! After his bath and partial blow-dry, he would not stop cleaning himself—I don’t think he liked any part of the experience!

I think he forgave his mean old aunt though because he was curled up on my lap an spurring before I left.

Sunday morning was my 9 mile training run, which I was not looking forward to AT ALL. The weather report called for rain all day, and it did not disappoint. I was a little worried about blisters for 9 miles in the rain, but that ended up being a non issue. I was also thoroughly unprepared for this run. I don’t actually have any water bottles at school right now (right??), and forget to get some gu from home last time I went back. Luckily, I still had a few packets of chocolate, but I was worried about the caffeine in chocolate because last time I had issues with it. But sometimes you have to suck it up, get out, and get to work. Based on the route, I hit a water fountain at mile 5 so I could take my gu then. It gave me quite the energy boost! Overall, I felt pretty good, albeit wet. Myshoe came untied in the last mile, and when I bent down to tie it, and nice little puddle came out of my rain jacket. Needless to say I was DRENCHED.

I’m not really paying attention to paces right now, so I was pretty happy with this!

Lunch was super delicious. A bowl of polenta, eggs, spinach, and mozzarella.

And then I committed to not going outside the rest of the day. I’m so over being cold and wet!

I’m currently rocking my seasonably appropriate compression socks. It’s a good thing St. Patrick’s Day falls during long run season!

Aaand now it’s back to studying. ONE MORE DAY!

Running in the rain—love it or hate it?

If You Try Really Hard

Date: March 10, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I just watched the 16.3 announcement. When Dave Castro (the director) of the games pretended like it was a 20 minute AMRAP? Not cool. Not cool at all. (It’s 7 minutes.)

I’m not a fan of this one, because I have to do scaled because muscle ups are definitely not a thing. I’m not a fan because I could totally have Rxed the snatch, and how does it even work to lift the bar all the way from the ground? That’s just uncomfortable.

Moving on. I’m actually getting really excited to do a VLOG, and I’m starting to plan it out. Honest question—if I film on an iPhone, do I film with it horizontal or vertical?? Me+technology guys…

I spent most of the afternoon watching youtube videos (well, like an hour). I had my last midterm today and I needed a break! My last midterm was the last day of class for the quarter…

Overall, I’m just feeling deeply tired. In addition, I think I’m a bit overtrained. Between the Crossfit games, 5k training, 10 miler training, and teaching spin, my body is reaching its limit, which I knew would happen around this time because it was an intense month! Last night for the last class of the quarter, I taught a throwback spin class. It was SUPER fun, and I found myself pushing myself especially hard!

Screen Shot 2016-03-10 at 5.46.19 PM

I spent the rest of the night studying, and didn’t sleep well at all. I’m trying to cut back on exercise where I can and not do the workouts that aren’t necessary for each training item for a little bit until I feel recovered! I was going to run this afternoon but decided I needed the rest instead!

One thing I wanted to mention was the meal I had for my sister’s birthday last weekend. I know I shared the soufflé, but the entire meal was awesome! This was my first Michelin star experience.

The table shared a bottle of wine, which we all agreed was delicious!

They started out by brining warm bread—sourdough, garlic, and rolls, and even brought me some gluten free bread!

I shared a salad with my mom—just veggies, nothing crazy—but still good.

Before the main courses arrived, we were brought a cheese puff each. They brought out some marinated olives for me!

For my main course, I got the fanciest soup ever. It had a parsnip base, and was served over roasted pears and tapioca balls. Normally, it would come with spiced granola but it wasn’t GF.

The highlight was obviously the soufflé though. Chocolate soufflé served with a warm orange Earl Grey cream sauce, which they poured into the center.

In other health/life news, I’ve been working really hard the past couple of days to eat optimally for my stomach, and it’s actually been making a huge difference. I generally do pretty well with it, but sometimes certain foods are worth it. Additionally, I tried something new. Aloe juice! I read online (because you should always do what the internet says) that it might help with gastroparesis, and it’s actually been making me feel better, so I’m a fan!

This is a watered down version because I wasn’t sure how I would like it or how my body would react, but it tasted plenty good to me!

It’s very encouraging to me that I can feel really good when I do everything perfectly—so it is possible! That being said, even when I feel good, it’s not quite the same as if I was normal. But hey, I’ll take it! I think it takes some consistency—doing the right thing day after day—to feel good. And I’m definitely figuring things out as I go. But this is definitely progress!

That being said, balance is important too, and sometimes I will weigh the benefit/cost of certain things, because sometimes you have to live a little!

Finally, one more VLOG note—I’m going to film it over spring break, which means we get to have a little puppy cameo!

How do I film a VLOG—horizontal or vertical? Help!!!

WIAW-A Series of Goodbyes

Date: March 8, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s started. The graduation goodbyes have started. Today was my last Tuesday spin class of the quarter, and next quarter I’m only teaching Wednesdays. Because there are some people that only can come on Tuesday, today was my last class with some of them!

Goodbyes are the hardest. I love Stanford, but the people I’ve met here (both on and off campus) are the part I am going to miss most.

Over the past few years, I’ve realized that life is a series of goodbyes. My first taste of this was leaving DC after a summer. Every time I go somewhere new, there are people I leave behind. It’s so sad to leave people that have touched your life in so many different ways. It’s been such a joy teaching my spin students this year, and I know I’m going to be a mess during my last class in June! I also am really going to miss my Crossfit community here. I’ve spent 3 years there, and the gym itself has evolved and turned into such a community.

Enough mushiness, let’s cheer up with a little WIAW action, huh? Thanks to Jenn for starting this madness.

WIAWbutton

I always seem to do Tuesdays for WIAW, so I thought I’d do a Monday for some variety because what and how I eat varies day to day. ALSO: I have decided to do a what I ate in a day VLOG over spring break, so if I can figure out the technology, look out for that!

Preworkout:

Lemon-blueberry poppyseed bread, which I remembered about halfway through to photograph. Classy.

Workout: Crossfit

For strength, we worked on overhead squats. I think I got to 65 or 75#? This is kind of a big deal with my still recovering shoulder, and I was sore today! The WOD was 3 rounds of 4 exercises, for 1 minute each, with 2 minutes of rest between rounds. The exercises were box jumps, rowing, wall balls, and burpees.

Breakfast:

Full fat Greek yogurt, a nectarine/cherry blend, and crunchy sunbutter.

Lunch:

Minestrone soup (GF) with GF cheese toast and an artichoke olive salad. Perfect for a stormy day!

Dessert:

GF blueberry upside down cake. My mom made this for my for my sister’s birthday dinner, and it’s ridiculously good. She used the pineapple upside down recipe and subbed blueberries for pineapple!

Snack: Not sure this is even worth posting because I literally had 3 carrots, but I was hungry after class at 4:30, and even though dinner was at 5, I wanted something in my stomach so I wouldn’t get hangry in traffic on the drive home.

Dinner:

Dijon chicken and kale stew topped with cheese. SO delicious. Asparagus on the side, plus half a carrot cake flax muffin (another 1/4 was eaten not pictured).

Dinner #2 (eaten in Biochem):

Besides the fact that I need more food in my day, this snack helps break up 3 hours of Biochem!

What is the best thing you ate this week?

16.2

Date: March 5, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Full disclosure: I’m writing this post to procrastinate this paper. That being said, I had some thoughts I wanted to get down.

This weekend is currently my craziest in terms of school work, but so far I’ve been checking things off the to-do list at a reasonable clip!

The main topic today: 16.2. I did Crossfit Open workout 16.2 this morning, and I am seriously in awe of what my body can do, and am so, so proud of myself. The workout was 4 minutes of 25 toes to bar, 50 double unders, 15 cleans (85#). If you completed that in 4 minutes, you had another 4 minutes to do the T2B, double unders, and 13 cleans at 115#. And so on. the cleans got progressively heavier with fewer reps.

I did this workout Rx. I literally got my toes to bar last week. I can only do one rep at a time, and previously I had only done sets of 4, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew the toes to bar would take me most of the 4 minutes, and my main goal was just to make it to the jumprope. My over the moon goal was to reach the bar for the cleans. (This workout was a bit frustrating because my cleans are really solid, and the weight was a nonissue, but I knew my other slow movements would be the limiting factor). After some calculations, I determined that if I nailed my toes to bar, whether or not my double unders were on point today would determine if I would reach the bar.

Guys. I BUSTED OUT the toes to bar. Far faster than expected, and at perfect pace. I was SO proud. Once I reached the jumprope, I realized how shot my arms were! My double unders tend to go when my arms are wiped out. I got into a rhythm for the first 20ish, and then I could not string them together, only get a couple at a time. Ultimately, I finished 46 double unders, just 4 reps from my reach goal. I was happy with that, and felt so accomplished with how far I’ve come. This time last year I couldn’t Rx this workout. Heck, this time last month I couldn’t. At this point, I can do pretty much every Crossfit skill. For good measure, every time I’ve been at the gym I’ve done a few pull ups at the end of class, and they’re getting stronger!

I went in the first heat (what can I say, I like getting it over with!) and hung around to watch everyone else go. THIS is what I love about Crossfit.

Other happenings:

I fully intended to do a WIAW post this weekend and recorded a full day of food, but then didn’t have time Tuesday to write it up.

This is another attempt at lemon poppyseed bread, using the flavors from the previous recipe I tried and the base from the recipe I’ve been using for cranberry orange bread. I really liked this version! Currently obsessed with lemon poppyseed. I’m not sure if it’s the ultimate version though. I may need to play around a bit!

Also from my full day of eating was this dinner, which was really unique. Eggplant polenta balls, served with a red pepper cream sauce.

I got a Graze box! It’s basically a monthly snack shipment. The first box, a sampler is free, so this was my free box! My options are limited thanks to no nuts/not gluten, but I think I’m going to get another box, simply because having interesting food shipped to my door is super exciting 🙂 I really liked the dried rhubarb (never had that before), and the caramel apple was a creative idea.

I haven’t tried them yet, but the seeds seem a little plain.

I think my biggest regret of my college career is not going to more baseball games. Before coming to college, I assumed I’d go to every single one. Things happened (read: mono) and I never got around to it. On an impulse, I headed over to the last-minute scheduled game (due to impending weather) after Crossfit to watch the game, totally disregarding my long to-do list. Totally worth it. I love baseball so much.

This is my typical yogurt bowl but I thought I’d share it because it looks sort of presentable.

This was hands down my favorite meal of the week. Bean chili (over greens), cheese, tortilla chips, and GLUTEN FREE CORNBREAD. OMG, so good. I LOVE cornbread, and this just hit the spot, especially after my 5 mile run that morning.

And finally, another good meal. Mustard salmon, garlic kale, and roasted veggies.

Actually, one last thing. I’ve sort of been sucked into youtube lately, watching what I ate in a day videos, and am considering doing a what I ate vlog. Would anyone be interested in this??