WIAW and Sunshine

Date: January 13, 2015

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! I’m going to link up to WIAW today because I have lots of unshared food pictures!

Before we get into that-on the fitness front, I’ve sort of switched around my schedule. In the past, I tended to run in the mornings versus do Crossfit in the evenings. The problem with that is when I do Crossfit in the evenings, it’s really difficult to make it back in time for dinner before the dining hall closes! Plus my evening motivation to make it to Crossfit is too low! That being said, I’m officially in 5k training mode with (hopefully) lots of speed work coming up!

In terms of actual workouts, I went to one last spin class at the gym from home (it’s halfway between home and school so it’s not outrageous to go once) before my membership ended. Of course, it was fantastic.

Monday morning we tested our 1 rep back back squats for a final time during the squat cycle we’ve been doing. Mine was sort of meh, sort of improved. I improved 5# from my 1 rep max at the beginning of the cycle, but I was still 10 lbs below my all time 1 rep max (205#). It was meh because 195# felt easy, but I kept missing 200#. Back squats are frustrating because the second you give in, you’re not making the lift!

After back squats I had the pleasure of doing and AMRAP of I believe it was Crossfit Open 14.4 last year? The Open workout at the time was probably the worst Crossfit workout I’ve done. 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 thrusters and over the bar burpees. Thank goodness, we did a 12 minute AMRAP, which meant I didn’t make it all the way down the ladder! But now my squatting muscles are scorched.

Tuesday’s Crossfit workout was lighter. I went to the 6am class since I have 9am class on Tuesdays. We did hang power cleans for strength and kettle bell snatches, wall balls, and 400m runs for the WOD. Then, after spending hours in the library, I went for a 3 mile tempo run (5k training!). I have a ways to go…but I kept my tempo pace pretty closely. It’s a good start! Ok-food time!

I went to a yoga class last Thursday and went to Eric’s deli-cafe afterwards for dinner with my parents to discuss pre-vet stuff. I had half a turkey and avocado sandwich, and a house salad.

My mom got me a couple of these protein boxes. They’re pretty similar to the ones at Starbucks, but sun butter instead of peanut butter! Good and easy. I had 2 meals of this on Friday. We don’t have to mention the fact that I didn’t have a single vegetable…

Saturday morning, I had to drive a ways to get gas. Long story short, my car is SUPER picky with the gas it will take and the check engine light was on and the engine was shuddering so I topped it off with “better” gas. Anyways, Whole Foods was close so I stopped in for brunch. Maple french toast casserole and chilaquiles were the highlights here!

Mexican dinner at the dining hall! But more importantly-GUAC! I made myself a salad.

Salad I picked up from Whole Foods.

Dining hall dinner-BBQ chicken on salad, and cheese and broccoli mini-casserole.

Dining hall breakfast-eggs and roasted veggies! I LOVE when they have those!

Cappuccino because I woke up before 5:30am and I’m a college student. However, I’ve gotten a lot of coffee lately and I’ve been generally over caffeinated so there’s that. I get to my 9am and announce to my friend that I got coffee. Her response? “I can tell.”

Lunch courtesy of my freezer. Balsamic roasted brussels sprouts, grilled chicken, and mashed sweet potatoes.

My favorite morning glory bread from a little cafe on campus.

A greek salad with chicken, roasted carrots, and sweet potato fries. This is pretty much my ideal dining hall dinner right here.

And lastly? The weather here lately has been insane. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to be here.

What is your ideal meal?

Making a Spin Class

Date: January 11, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I need to write a spin class tonight, so I thought this would be a good time to do a post on it!

Just a disclaimer-I’m just one of many spin teachers. Everyone has a different style and method, this is just what my process looks like!

1. AUDIENCE. This is super, incredibly essential. Who are you giving the class too? Will they like nothing but Top 40? Will they like country music? Rock? What age group? What is the fitness level? It’s great for you to enjoy your own class, but the students need to enjoy it as well!

2. (Hopefully) go to another instructor’s class for inspiration. This is so helpful, especially since I’m a less experienced instructor! You get a sense of what works and what doesn’t, and song ideas are SUPER helpful!

3. Decide on a profile. I usually come up with a general profile before finding specific songs, and then I try to fill in the songs. This can change too!

4. Find songs. This is the hard part. I can spend hours surfing on iTunes looking for the perfect song. I recently discovered that if you search any song name + “workout” you can usually find a workout mix, which may be perfect if the song isn’t upbeat enough for the class. Generally I search for something with a good beat. I have some go-to songs, but I try to mix it up as much as possible!

5. Decide on the specifics for each part. This is the choreography. More experienced instructors probably don’t need to do this, but I would highly recommend it when you start out! This means when to do jumps, when to do sprints, what you do on the hill, etc.

6. Make sure your songs and profile flow well. Do you want your hill to go from a sprint to a crawl in terms of music? This can definitely work, but you don’t want surprises while you’re teaching, and not every combination works.

7. If you don’t practice the playlist before you teach, at the very least, you need to listen to it. Every second of every song. It’s amazing how many songs don’t sound inappropriate until you imagine blasting them from speakers in class. So check first! Most gyms also don’t allow swearing so watch out for that!

8. If you can, PRACTICE! I often make adjustments to my choreography based on how things feel when I’m on a bike. I’ve also made some pretty bad playlists that I tried prior to teaching them, and was able to make a few simple swaps so they were much better!

That’s just my process-it takes a while to make each playlist, but it’s totally worth it!

The Future and What’s In Store

Date: January 9, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I think this was a long post coming. Here and there I’ve dropped little bits and pieces..I FINALLY figured out what I want to do with my life…lots of hard work…busy…Well, the time has come to discuss it.

My gosh, I feel like a 5 year old talking about “what I want to be when I grow up.” Well, I figured out I want to be a veterinarian. I don’t know what type specifically, but in my limited experience, I’ve loved it. Anyone who I’ve told my decision to who know me says, “That makes so much sense. Why didn’t I think of that?”

He loves me.

The crazy thing is that I was so unsure for so long about what I wanted to do, but ever since I made this decision, I haven’t looked back. I’ve never been so sure of anything, and I’m prepared to work extremely hard to make this happen. I discussed this possibility on the blog a year and a half ago-my gosh how I wish I had just decided then! But then I don’t think I would be as certain as I am now.

So what does that mean for me? On the plus side, I’m a Bio major so I’m not behind on the course work. On the minus side? I have a lot of experience to gain before I can apply. This quarter is looking crazy. I need to get lots and lots of experience hours while also keeping grades up, which is likely to be a lot of work based on my 1,200 page Physiology textbook.

This means I may not have as much time for blogging. I’m not leaving you guys, just know that I’ll have all that going on!

Breaking Free from the Suffocating Grip of Social Media

Date: January 8, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

That’s quite a title, isn’t it?

A lot of people talk about how we need to step back from our phones and computers and experience the world more.

You’ve all heard it before, right? Put down your phones and pay attention?

In preparation for a lot of hard work to come this quarter, I deleted al social media apps from my phone.

And I feel so free. I felt like my social media was pulling me down and strangling me. Like I couldn’t get away. It was a hassle, but I couldn’t break free. With a new quarter and a new routine, I did something I’ve never done when I removed them all from my phone. And my gosh it feels great.

I’m less distracted when I’m doing homework. I don’t surf social media right before bed, and it’s much easier to fall asleep. I’m more focused in everything. I don’t feel the constant need to be checking my phone. Instead of surfing Instagram when I had a few minutes of downtime, I pulled up my GRE flashcard app. Over lunch, I read a couple of relevant news articles.

But most important of all? I feel like I’m regaining my intellectual curiosity-my desire to learn and my ability to sit down for 2 hours reading a textbook. It’s incredible. I finally feel like myself again-the post-social media person before all those apps on my smartphone.

Honestly, that’s all it took. I read some blogs on my computer, but it’s not the time and focus suck that was the infinite hole of twitter on my phone. My gosh, it’s amazing.

So-let’s catch up?

Tuesday was crazy busy-workout, coffee, class, class, class, rush back, drive across the bay, fit in reading in the extra minutes before I taught. Class went really well! I selected an upbeat and energetic playlist for the first week of the year! I’m teaching again next week too.

I stopped by Tin Pot (best ice cream EVER) on the way back to pick up ice cream before meeting up with one of my best friends and former roommate. She’s abroad this quarter, but stopped by before she leaves later this week. While catching up from winter break, I heated up some leftover butternut squash soup that I brought back with me when I returned to school.

We stayed up until midnight chatting. She came to my Physics class the next morning, which I’m sure was an interesting experience given she is an English major. That evening, we went to a Korean place for dinner. I had Bibimbap with chicken.

This is a rice bowl with various spiced veggies, chicken, and an egg cracked on top. It’s served in a hot stone bowl, and the rice gets nice and crispy at the bottom!

This morning, I went to the track to do 10x400m repeats. I biked all the way across campus, only to find that the track was closed for maintenance..

I ended up running on a path next to the track. Each length was .15 miles, so I did 16 of those at a fast pace. It was probably an even better workout than what I had planned!

And since I had a 9am and coffee was on the way back…

And now I need to go. Give some thought to social media!

Thoughts on social media?

First Day of The Quarter

Date: January 6, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Tuesday! I’m currently blogging while sipping a cappuccino before my 9am.

Here’s an obligatory first day of class selfie. It was cold-hence the layers!

I started my morning yesterday with Crossfit. I was thrown back into our squat program on a good day-the weights were fairly light still! The workout kind of stunk. Unless you’re into burpee box jumps.

15 min AMRAP:

10 dumbbell snatches

8 burpee box jumps

6 toes to bar

I think I got 5 rounds? With toes to bar scaled.

It was 37 degrees. Fantastic. Luckily I only had ice on my back windshield.

Since I don’t like lifting weights on an empty stomach, I had some cranberry bread beforehand.

Then I had whole milk and roasted carrots after. I think that equals a wholesome breakfast if you add them, right?

My first class of the day is Physics, and it was fine. Lunch was grilled chicken, brown butter sage sweet potato, and cumin roasted cauliflower.

Then Physics lab. Most of my classes are Tuesday/Thursday at this point which is kind of weird! So today is a bigger day.

After class, I went straight to the gym to practice my spin playlist. It was good…except I had to nix 3 songs because that had one curse word. And there were no clean versions. This is why I have to practice the playlist ahead of time!

The afternoon was spent enjoying Netflix one last time before the quarter picks up.

Dinner-back at the dining hall. Salmon with capers, roasted sweet potatoes, and a really bland Southwest Caesar salad. For some reason, all the salads have no flavor. Oh well-2/3 of the meal was good!

I also enjoyed some Christmas chocolate while catching up with everyone. Here’s a question-do you guys all have a ton of holiday chocolate? My family does, but when I was talking about this to my friend from Tennessee, she had no idea what I was talking about. I guess it’s not a thing there to give your neighbors and relatives lots of candy and or presents? How about you guys?

In terms of life and classes this quarter….it’s looking busy. I’m currently enrolled in 19 units, but that may change, I’m on my sorority’s executive board, and I will likely be volunteering a lot.So we shall see how it goes!

Holiday goodies-do you have tons like my family does?