A Different Reason to Eat Healthy…

Date: February 10, 2015

Author: astottler

First of all, I’m currently so grateful that I was planning on writing this post between classes, because it meant I brought my laptop with me. There’s a class I really need to take next quarter that fills up quickly, and for some reason the enrollment wasn’t open. They sent an email this morning saying it was open while I was in class, which my friend saw within a minute of it being sent. I immediately pulled out my laptop….and got the last spot. PHEW.

Anyways.

Do you ever have one of those weeks when you want to eat super healthily? I mean, consistency is most important, but maybe you want to spend a week refreshing yourself for one reason or another-to feel better, to look better, because you have an event or a dress or a race.

Well, here’s a reason I am SURE no one in the healthy living world has used before.

I need to eat super healthy this week so I can cut up a dead rat on Friday.

Uhhh….yeah. After a rough experience with the pig on Friday, I want to do everything in my power to ensure my stomach is as happy as possible going in and I am feeling my best…Ever since my caffeine overdose, I haven’t been feeling the best. For some reason I’ve had trouble eating in the mornings, and after Friday’s pig experience, I felt sick a lot after eating, especially if it was junk.

I’m sick of feeling sick, and hopefully eating really well between now and Friday will get me through the lab. Ohhh the life of a bio major.

In terms of workouts, yesterday’s was a good one. The strength was front squats-3 every minute for 8 minutes, adding weight each minute. The WOD was a 15 minute AMPRAP:

5 toes to bar/knees to elbow

10 dumbbell push presses

15 squats

I surprised myself and actually flew through this workout-I got 11 rounds plus something.

Then, this morning I went to Crossfit as well, although not as planned. I normally do the 6am on Tuesdays because I have earlier class, but I was up pretty late working on homework, and my alarm was set to less than 4 hours from the time I went to sleep. My phone must have made the executive decision that this was not ok, because it failed to go off and I woke up 5 minutes after I would’ve had to leave. I decided to just go to the 7am, and be super rushed getting to class, but it was fine. The workout was power cleans for strength, and a sprint/hang clean, burpee combo for 15 minutes.

I realize this was a crazy random post but oh well!

Have you ever done a dissection?

Elephant Seals

Date: February 9, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone’s Monday is going well! I’m sitting outside currently and hoping the gray clouds won’t dump rain on me! I have some fun things to share from this weekend!

On Saturday, I went on a field trip to Año Nuevo to see elephant seals! They are currently in their mating season, so it’s a very unique time to see them.

It was rainy and cold, but armed with multiple jackets, a rain poncho, and mostly no downpour, it was great! As a result of the cold weather, the seals were especially active.

During mating season, the testosterone levels on the beach are high, and you have to go on a docent lead tour to go down and see them. Even still, we got pretty close to a few of them!

These elephant seals are big. The alpha males can be as much as 5000 pounds!

During this season, the seals come to the beach to mate. Often, the females will give birth soon upon arriving and then nurse their pups.

Then, they will mate again before heading out to sea. During their time here, these seals don’t eat anything and survive off their fat stores. The babies gain weight incredibly fast-the mother’s milk is 55% fat, and pups can go from 75 pounds at birth to 250-300 pounds in a month.

This was my favorite seal-it kept looking at us and got pretty close! The guides told me he was probably around 1-2 months old.

It was such a cool experience. We got to see all kinds of behavior-fighting, mating, nursing.

Afterwards, the class went to lunch at Duarte’s in Pescadero, which is famous for their pie and artichoke soup. I had half cream of artichoke and half green chile.

Then, Saturday night, my sister had a birthday party. And of course, she had all kinds of delicious food-from snicker doodle cake to guacamole to baked brie.

Sunday morning, I braved the torrential rains and went to a Spinning continuing education workshop. For my Spinning certification, I need 14 units of Continuing Education every 2 years to keep my cert active. Besides that, I was looking for some inspiration for my classes! This workshop was on cadence building and resistance loading. The format was a 70 minute lecture followed by a 40 minute ride to practice the techniques we learned. It was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to incorporating some of these things into my next class!

In terms of food, here are a couple of shots:

Mashed banana and cocoa powder, plain greek yogurt, and sunflower seed butter for breakfast pre-spin workshop.

Mashed root vegetables, tilapia, green bean casserole, and rainbow chard.

Dining hall breakfast-eggs with cheese, fruit, and roasted veggies. I love that they sometimes have those at breakfast!

Veggie sandwich with avocado. Because avocado.

Have you ever seen elephant seals?

700 Rep Workout

Date: February 6, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! How was your day? My morning was a bit rough…I learned that seeing large dead animals getting cut up is going to take some getting used to…which is sort of problematic. Nothing dramatic happened, but I wasn’t feeling the greatest today after that!

On that note..here’s breakfast-the end of my cottage cheese and the end of my berries+sunbutter.

I went to noon Crossfit. My did dad lifts for strength, and then a tough WOD. I was still feeling sort of bad so I didn’t expect it to go well, but I actually felt significantly better when I was working out. Here it was:

3 rounds:

30 wall ball

30 double unders (90 singles)

30 dumbbell snatches (45/25#)

But here was the catch-every 3 minutes (starting at 0), we had to do 7 burpees. I ended up finishing in 17:27.

Lunch was just chocolate milk, cheese, and crackers in my dorm. I wasn’t super hungry but I knew I needed something!

Later that afternoon, I promised to work out with some friends and my sister, so I chose the 1000 rep workout from Jen.

Yeah, I think my friends loved me for that choice….we ended up making the group decision to cut it off after 7 rounds, making it the 700 rep workout! Still-not too shabby!

Also noteworthy today-it’s pouring down rain. We got drenched walking back from the gym to grab dinner. Dinner was pretty disappointing, as is typical for Fridays.

I made myself a little salad, plus chicken and some veggies.

The real event was a girls’ ice cream night. A couple of my friends and I met up at Smitten because I really wanted to try the flavor of the month:

Earl grey with chocolate chunks! For those of you that aren’t familiar with Smitten, they make ice cream to order with liquid nitrogen! Pretty cool! I got mine with chocolate sauce.

It was good, but I think I like the chocolate ice cream a lot more. They also apparently have cookie dough pretzel which I may have to try at some point in the near future!

Speedwork Round 2

Date: February 5, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I haven’t done a “normal” post in a while, let’s let’s hop to it!

This morning, I started out with a track workout. I’m following a 3 week cycle for my track workouts: 10x400m, 5x1000m, 6x600m. Today was 10x400m, so the second time through the cycle. I have to say, it was night and day different from my first round! It may be that it was warmer because it’s going to rain here soon, but I just felt 1000x better and faster. Go figure!

After a long bike ride back (why do I live on the opposite side of campus?), I stopped at the dining hall for breakfast for my current usual-eggs with cream cheese, some type of fruit (today was mandarin oranges), and a pancake with butter.

While we’re at it, yesterday’s breakfast in the room was a good one too. Cottage cheese, berry compote, and sun butter.

Since I was done with class by lunchtime, I decided to head back to the dining hall and save one of my pre-made lunches for another time.

The flatbread was the star of the show.

Bleu cheese and pear, with a blueberry balsamic reduction. Um, what?? Seconds were necessary. Plus a coconut lemon macaroon bar.

I spent the afternoon running some errands and doing other work, before going to an evening spin class. I did a few minutes of rowing and abs beforehand since I was early. The spin class was pretty good. I miss my classes back home, but I really need to get back on the bike! I’m actually doing a Spinning workshop on Sunday. For Spinning certification, I need a certain number of continuing education units every 2 years, and this workshop counts towards those. I’m excited-I’ll be sure to recap what I learn!

No picture of dinner today because I’m lame, so here’s yesterday’s.

Chicken caesar salad, roasted carrots, quinoa, and a shepard’s pie. I’ve never had shepard’s pie before and wasn’t a big fan. Plus it said vegetarian, and I didn’t trust that and couldn’t tell what meat might have been in it. So that’s that! I hope everyone’s week is going well!

Any plans for the weekend?

I’m also going on a field trip, which should be cool!

I Am So Lucky To Be Here

Date: February 4, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Today, I planned out what classes I’m going to take next quarter. Oh, and the last 4 quarters of my time here. This is so crazy to me-I don’t have that much time here left. College has always felt endless.

I really want to take advantage of everything my university has to offer. This place really is amazing, and I am truly lucky to be here. It’s hard to appreciate it when I’m neck deep in homework, but the grind of core classes and sophomore year is behind me. I realized that this quarter may be my hardest academically of the quarters I have left, and it’s definitely nothing compared to my work last year. I really want to take advantage of everything college now that I’m not drowning. (That being said, we can talk later in the quarter during my week of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday midterms).

I’m in a really good place right now. I’m full of excited energy and ready and open to experience and learn new things.

And I really need to get out more! I’m trying to make it out to more events on campus. Last night I went to a diversity in Greek life panel, and tonight I went to a Global Health event.

I want to open my blog up a little bit more to more perspectives and ideas, so I want to share some of these things with you guys. The event was awesome-it was a combination of a concert and speakers talking about their global health experiences.

The band was really great, and the things some of the speakers talked about were really mind opening. One woman talked about her experience in Senegal over the summer doing research. When a possible case of ebola arrived at a nearby hospital, my school pulled her out of there early (she was there through a university program). One thing she said stuck with me-“When I was leaving, all these people who I had spent weeks working side by side with told me ‘Ebola is just part of life here. Why do you have to go?'” I think we take many things for granted, especially our health and healthcare. We are lucky enough to live in a place where ebola is not just part of life. We have the privilege of fearing it, because we are not constantly faced with it. That’s something to think about.

On the same vein, one of my favorite parts of being here is the amazing people I’ve met, who have completely changed my worldview and helped me grew as a person. People here come from completely different backgrounds and have had completely different experiences. I recognize how lucky I am that I get to live at a place with all these people, and that not everyone is as fortunate. I want to bring some of my experiences to you guys here on the blog, so I’m going to ask some people to guest post-look forward to those! My friend who organized the event tonight agreed to do a piece on public health, something she is very passionate about, and I have a couple of other ideas for posts. This is a healthy living blog, and I think part of being healthy is keeping an open mind and allowing oneself to see different perspectives.