Happy Mother’s Day!

Date: May 8, 2016

Author: astottler

Hi friends! I wanted to take a quick study break from studying to wish a fantastic Mother’s Day to all the fantastic moms out there!

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Especially my fantastic mom! Thank you for all you do for me!

For Mother’s Day, my sister and I went home for a surprise brunch!

(My puppy was sheared!)

I brought some flowers and was in charge of eggs.

My sister made blueberry chai scones and made aero press coffee. It’s some fancy technique that I don’t entirely understand but the sip I tried was amazing!

For the eggs, I threw in tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella.

Scones served with the clotted cream that came with my fruit and cheese of the month box! I thawed GF biscuit from the freezer to eat with it.

Currently, I’m taking a study break from biochem. I have a final tomorrow! My brain is officially burning. Is that a thing? That’s another way of saying I apologize for any lack of coherency!

In terms of exercise, by the end of this stress fracture I better have abs of steel because I can’t do much else! That, and have killer strict pull ups. I’ve been playing around with some Blogilates videos, and this is the one I did last week. It was a good one!

I went to the gym in my Cherry Blossom shirt, only fitting because that is likely what contributed to this injury! Super cute.

Also, super random: does anyone have the new iPhone? I just got an SE for my birthday (my old phone was from freshman year! Needless to say it had been through a lot.) and apparently there’s a live photo feature which is extremely creepy, in my opinion. I sent my mom a picture and she told me “press and hold and it moves.” I couldn’t comprehend what that could possibly mean! Turns out the pictures move! Like it shows you setting up for the picture. Crazy.

This dinner picture from Cinco de Mayo was moving on my phone! Whatt?

And on that riveting note, back to studying!

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.

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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?

3 Hours of Biochem

Date: February 8, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guys, my brain is shot. 3 hours of Biochem on a Monday night? That does me in!

I wanted to get back to the typical day by day blog posts, so here we go!

On Saturday, I went for a walk and listened to several podcasts on Gastroparesis, and I think I got some helpful scientific insights. I have several theories on it, and on why I’m having problems. I love that my 4 (almost) years of college education have some really practical purposes. This is why I love Biology—it’s so applicable! I can listen to scientific talks and read studies, and critically interpret them. It gave me a renewed motivation and some ideas for how to manage my stomach condition.

I’m trying to get out of the habit a little bit of having random bites of things, so I’m trying to fit everything on a plate to take a picture because it makes things easier to track, and tracking food makes it easier to manage my stomach. So let’s go!

Pre-workout:

Cranberry Orange bread. I’m loving this in the mornings! It wasn’t actually cooked all the way in the middle, but I froze most of the loaf so I microwaved it a bit longer to firm it up!

Then, it was Crossfit time! We started with 6 sets of 5 squats, every 90s, and 6 sets of 5 strict pull ups every 90s. With a band for me! The squats were only 55-60% 1RM but I’m definitely feeling it.

The workout was basic and yucky. 800m run+50 wall balls+30 burpees. I think out coach is preparing us well for the open—so many wall balls and burpees lately!

Breakfast:

The rest of my yogurt from the weekend, the last of my berries, and sun butter. Classic.

Post breakfast was one of the more interesting showers I’ve taken. The hot water was not working at the house, but I decided to suck it up. Unfortunately, I think the water was shut off too because there was just a drizzle. I only could use a tiny dab of shampoo in the front and called it good enough.

Lunch:

Some cream of asparagus soup, and some turkey Bolognese sauce over lettuce, topped with cheese. I had gluten free noodles on the side. I’m realizing I’m not a huge fan of pasta, and I enjoyed the sauce much better over greens. I ate the past on the side and pretended it was crackers. Normal, I know.

Snack:

Honeybell. These are February’s fruit from my fruit and cheese club! I thought they were oranges, but it turns out they are a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit, which is exactly what they taste like! Totally reelable too which is a plus.

Dinner:

Since I had Biochem, I went home. The main dish was pear, sweet potato, and leek soup, with GF croutons.

On the side was caprese salad—the perfect complement for some greens and protein!

For dessert, I had a small slice of GF apple pie from the freezer.

Snack/Dinner #2:

A new granola bar in Biochem. I always get super excited when I find new bars I can actually eat so this was enjoyed!

That’s all I have in me today. I have 1000 things to do, and I am scared to start writing my to-do list! I think sleep may be approaching soon too!

What’s your favorite granola bar?

Doing the Chicken Dance

Date: November 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

And by the chicken dance, I mean the whole “running around like a chicken with its head cut off thing.” That’s how I’ve felt this past week. Heck, I went to make a note about that thought earlier today, only to find I had already made one…which I don’t remember making. It’s been one of those week-I’ve been so sleep deprived I can barely see straight. And I didn’t even have any midterms this week. Next week I have 2. Eeek! I’m currently enjoying a well thought out Friday night-I’m not even being sarcastic, I’ve been looking forward to this all week! I’m in Philz coffee and I’ve been studying Biochem for the past couple of hours while sipping an iced chai tea.

A large iced tea. It’s been one of those weeks-totally necessary! Thank you to Kaitlin for introducing me to Philz. We had a little blogger meet up here a few months ago, and I was obsessed with iced chais for months after. I love the atmosphere here-it strikes me as being super hipster, in a good way. They make everything by hand in a very complicated way and it’s awesome.

I also like the music here-it’s more my style than just pop, kind of alterntive. Although I can’t stand listening to music while I study because it’s so distracting! Anyways, I’m actually really, really enjoying my Friday night. I LOVELOVELOVE the things I’m studying. We’re doing carbohydrate metabolism and that’s kind of my favorite thing on the planet. I retrieved a poster I made back in high school to study.

I’m such a nerd. I bought a big poster board today so I can make a bigger and more detailed version. I have every intention of hanging it on my wall once I’m done studying it. I need to draw one out for sugar metabolism as well! Since my roommate is writing an essay about how sugar is a drug, we decided to give it up for a week, starting most likely on Sunday. It seemed like a better choice than showing how sugar is a drug by attempting to overdose on it. I wonder how many pounds you’d have to eat for it to actually seriously make you ill? Anyways, I’m starting today with avoiding sweets, although I won’t start completely avoiding sugar until after my long run. But I’m getting so far ahead of myself. Let’s back up a bit, shall we?

Last night (Halloween), I made Anne‘s microwave pumpkin cookie. You know I’m all about low sugar, microwave options. I didn’t have ground flax seeds so I used some chia seeds and egg in place.

I also don’t know how she got hers to look so small. Mine looks like a bowl of oatmeal!

I served mine on a plate, topped with THE BEST THING EVER. Apple butter infused greek yogurt.

My roommate is on the full-fat dairy train, and I have to admit, it is pretty delicious. This was the creamiest thing ever. And since we’re drowning in apples from the CSA box (which we’re most likely going to cancel because we can’t keep up 🙁 ), we’re making applesauce this weekend with no sugar, so that would be just too amazing in greek yogurt.

My hall ended up having a little Halloween party, so I peeled myself away from my work, threw on a sombrero, and joined in on the fun.

You don’t need a real costume if you have a sombrero, right? Plus, there was guac. We already decided we’re having an epic cinco de mayo party. And my roommate and I ARE going to try to make a guacamole hat, like the ones in Despicable Me 2. It was fun to actually celebrate Halloween a little, but it was a questionable decision because I had to stay up late and finish my lab report.

I’ll a little concerned about my long run tomorrow. I have not been treating my body well these last few weeks-I’m sleep deprived and have been subsisting on a diet of mostly coffee and sugar. It’s not necessarily that I’m craving sugar, but then apparently when I’m tired, I have zero ability to plan. Take today for example. I was super tired and running out the door, so I grabbed this for lunch.

A pear. That was a really dumb thing to do, given I wouldn’t be able to get any food between classes, so I had to power through a 4 hour lab powered by just a pear. That’s not a great way to treat my body! Plus I’ve eaten a lot of sugar this week-and it’s left me with a pounding headache every day. I’m already feeling much better at the end of today because I haven’t had sugar today.

I stopped by Trader Joe’s for dinner, and for some reason, my foggy brain picked out this wrap. Which is weird because it’s not something I would typically get, but it got the job done just fine, and I’m in an awesome mood now.

I also restocked on dried mango. My mom brought me some, but you can never have too much, right?

I stopped by the drugstore for my poster board, and what was Halloween a day ago is now taken over by Christmas. My thoughts?

Seriously?

OMG I really want to start decorating my room for Christmas. I used some restraint though-it’s too soon!

We’re going to have epic Halloween decorations, but I’m planning on spending all of Thanksgiving break planning that out.

Ok, that’s all I have today. I need to walk back to my car. In the dark-that’s kind of sketchy because it’s far. I’m actually feeling a lot better about tomorrow’s run, because I feel way better now than earlier today. Wish me luck-I’ll let you guys know how it goes!

*Edited to add-Ok, it really wasn’t sketchy. I parked a block from downtown…

When you get busy, what’s the first thing in your life that goes to hell?

For me it’s laundry. Heh. Speaking of which, guess what I desperately need to do tonight?