Dirty Thirty

Date: June 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Over the weekends, I always feel like I don’t have that much to blog about (I truly live an exciting life! My friends from home are all going back to summer school and my friends from school are long gone!). But then I go to blog and realize I actually took quite a few pictures.

As promised, I have a workout for all you guys! I tested it on my friends, and they approved. The idea is to take rest when necessary. If you go straight through it will obviously be much harder! We kept taking breaks to chat, because, well, that’s what we do. Let me know what you think!

(I tried to make this into something prettier but me+computers is not a good combo…)

Forward squat jumps: jump forward (covering distance)

In and out- balance on tailbone, hands on head, and bring your knees in toward your chest while crunching up

Plank dips-plank position on elbows, and lower hips to the ground, then raise up

Cross leg sit up cross- sit with your legs crossed, and then do a sit up, crossing one arm over to touch the ground in front of you

Let me know if you try this! A modification you could do is Filthy Fifteen (15 reps of everything).

Other highlights of my weekend included a trip to Whole Foods for Paleo-ish foods.

YUM.

Actually surprisingly good!

Friday night I bundled up in all my warmest clothes and headed to San Francisco for the Giant’s game! Only in SF would I dress for a snowstorm in the summertime!

San Francisco is known for having good food at the ballpark, so I was able to find a pretty healthy option. I got something called a Cha-cha bowl.

AKA one of the few things there that had vegetables. It is a bowl with pickled veggies, pineapple salsa, chicken, black beans, and rice. They were kind enough to make it for me without the rice too! I’m maintaining my Paleoish way of eating! Since I knew I’d be craving sweets later in the night, I decided to bring my own (it would be really hard to argue that a Ghiradelli sundae is Paleoish).

Baker’s chocolate and raisins-a winning combo! Although sadly the Giants lost.

Saturday morning, I was back at Crossfit. Since I was the only Intro person, and the guy who usually works with the Intro people had to leave, I was thrown into the regular class, which I was super pumped about. The WOD was:

20 AMRAP

5 handstand push ups

10 pistols

15 pull ups

For the handstand push ups, I did them with my feet on a box, and definitely not a handstand! Pistols are single leg squats. And I did the pul-ups HEAVILY banded! I made it through 8 rounds, plus 15 reps! My arms were jello….I was glad there wasn’t too much leg work involved because I was a little concerned for my 8 mile run Sunday!

In the afternoon, I went for a walk along the bay with my friend. I am so grateful she introduced me to the trails along the bay-they are perfect for my long runs because they basically go all the way up the peninsula!

You can kind of see the city through the fog!

When I got back, I promptly put my feet up in preparation for Sunday’s run. Saturday was a quiet night spent watching Burn Notice with my family (and cats of course).

How is this comfortable??

And since I’ve been talking about it all post, you guys know that Sunday held my 8 mile run. I think this was the longest I’ve ever run. While training for my 10k last summer, I ran for 75 minutes, which my little Nike chip in my shoe CLAIMED was more than 8 miles, but I don’t believe that for a second. For one thing, when I run for time I definitely am dogging it.

Since I knew 8 miles was more than I’ve run before, I was a little nervous about how my feet would hold up. I got a really bad blister last weekend, which had been kind of sore all week (although it hadn’t bothered me much running). In addition, there’s also that whole landing on a nerve in my foot and making my toe hurt thing. Right before my run, I remembered how my toe thing actually got BETTER after like an hour.

My run went really well! To be honest, way better than I was expecting. My feet weren’t fabulous, but they held out just fine. My running shoes that I wore are super old though, and I felt like my feet were hitting the ground kind of hard. My new Nikes are in, so I’m picking them up tomorrow. Hopefully I can break them in enough for next week’s 10 mile run! (Gulp.) I ran with a book on tape this time, which I really enjoyed. I find that on long runs I get bored with music. Now, I can’t wait for my next run! They discovered a body just as I was finishing up!

I was also pretty happy with my pace. While I simply want to FINISH my race, I would LOVE to maintain 10-minute miles, so I am trying to train to this pace, which is pretty close to where I was.

I had a little trouble finding where I parked, but the walking time was much appreciated-I was not capable of getting in my car right away! I also found myself wishing I had a foam roller WITH me. Next time! On the way home, one of my favorite songs to spin to came on the radio. The gym was on the way home, so I stopped there to spin my legs out a little (just lightly) because they were starting to tighten up. 20 minutes of spinning, and then foam rolling worked wonders! I legs felt 1000x better. Foam rolling my calves was kind of death, especially the outside-ish parts, since I run on the outsides of my foot. WHEW.

I actually enjoyed this run, although I am kind of scared for the 10-miler. So my Crossfit gym is holding a trail group run on the same day that I am supposed to run 12 miles (which is the highest distance my plan goes), and there is a 13.1 distance option for that trail run. Should I do it? It would be more interesting, and to be honest I would be a bit more comfortable getting the race distance under my belt before going into the race. Plus, it’s only a mile more, and what are the odds my schedule would line up so perfectly??

I wanted to update you guys on this week’s goal of my Paleo(ish) style of eating. It’s going really well! I feel a lot more confident making eating choices, although there are definitely some areas I could clean up (for instance, I’m sticking with corn but eating half a bag of kettle corn wasn’t necessarily the best option). Is it possible that grains could mess with my hormonal levels? I swear I feel almost depressed eating them. I’m just way happier eating this way! So what HAVE I been eating?

I really disliked this. It was just WAY too sweet, and I felt a little jittery. I missed the tartness of yogurt! I may add kefir back in, since it is 99% lactose free.

I much preferred the coconut milk yogurt; it was tarter. Although I probably won’t get it again unless I can find it in Plain instead of vanilla.

href=”http://fitnessista.com/2010/04/insanity-workout-re-cap-week-1/” target=”_blank”>Blueberry lavender smoothie from the Fitnessista! This was SUPER good, and I still have some left over for another day!

I really liked this flavor of Kevita-Coconut Mango, how could you not??

Salad with hard-boiled eggs and roasted garlic hummus.

Pre-run fuel. For this, I kind of decided “screw Paleo.” The bar has grains (Gluten Free) but worked for me before a run in the past, which I decided was more important. I also said screw you to during run fueling, which I was planning on practicing on this run. Mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to carry a water bottle (I ran in the morning, on a cloudy day, next to the bay. It was definitely not hot!)

Post run. After drinking random almond milk and sampling all kinds of things trying to decide what I wanter (answer-FOOD). I really was craving sweet potatoes, but making them would take time and effort, so I settle for these little spinach bites. Yes, they are Spongebob shapes. HOWEVER. They are one of the cleanest foods in the frozen section at Whole Foods-potatoes, spinach, eggs, spices. No sugar, grains, or dairy. For this coming week, I’m going to try to clean up a bit more-more fruits and veggies and less Paleo-alternative products. So we’ll see how that goes! I’ll leave you with this picture of my crazy cat watching the Giant’s game:

How do you spend your weekends? Do you watch baseball-what team?

Scenes from the Weekend

Date: June 16, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Father’s Day to the most amazing dad ever! (Since I know you will see this)- thanks for everything you have done for me-the hours spent at the softball field in catching in the backyard especially!

Since I’m a bit behind, let’s go through the weekend in pictures. Also- check out my guest post at Miranda Runs!

New shoes! I got them at the Nike outlet months ago and am finally breaking them out. I’m not sure how I feel about them yet-but I guess at this point it’s been almost a year since I got new running shoes…wow I was definitely not aware it was that long. The amazing shrinking power of spinach! I was mock Korean bowls for dinner the other night. I sauteed mushrooms and spinach with teriyaki sauce, then served that with garlic and herb quinoa-brown rice mixture and an egg.Obligatory cat photo. If you follow me on Instagram (which you should! fitnessissweet), you will be quite familiar with my cats. (But I swear that’s not ALL I post.)

I went back to Crossfit Saturday as well! We are still doing a ton of Intro stuff, but here’s a WOD for you all:

2′ on 1′ off

burpees

wall balls (ugh)

lunges

overhead squat (with pvc)

I got 166 reps total! So far I’ve only been going to Intro classes, but I intend on signing on for real, and hopefully doing more things. There is an on-ramp program where you go for a month and they teach you everything, in a more individualized way. I decided that even though I know the lifts, since it is individualized, it should be a good opportunity for me to work on my technique. Post-Crossfit Indian food buffet. I generally don’t do too well at buffets, so I tried to load my plate up with salad (it’s under the yogurt sauce).

After lunch, I FINALLY made it out to Whole Foods. I tried some new-to-me products:I have been out of my probiotic supplement for like 2 weeks now, and we haven’t been to stores that carry them. After reading about how awesome Kevita is on Lauren‘s blog, I decided to give it a try! It was good! I’m actually not a fan of things that are sparkly, but I enjoyed it! They also make coconut mango, but Whole Foods was out. I bet that flavor would be sooo good. I found this in the gluten free section, and I was pumped! I am kind of trying to avoid gluten, and I was looking for an alternative to put on yogurt to granola. Let me tell you-this stuff is delicious! It’s chocolatey, with the perfect amount of crunch! I can’t wait to try it in yogurt. I interpreted these to be a healthier version of Doritos, which they basically were. And another bonus-they weren’t neon orange! Haha.

Saturday night I also went to the fair with my best friends from high school!

Fair food:

In terms of healthiness, I certainly could have done worse!

My absolute favorite part of the fair is the pig races. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the pig races, basically, a whole bunch of miniature pigs or piglets run around a small track, while the crowd cheers them on.

We also went on the ferris wheel. I’m kind of afraid of heights, so I haven’t been on a ferris wheel in a really long time, and I had no idea what to expect. It was simultaneously awesome and terrifying. I may or may not have had a death grip on the pole in the middle the whole time though…The view from the top!

Since this is already pretty long, I’ll recap Sunday tomorrow. I have to go to bed-I have a big day planned! Early morning abs class plus some lifting on my own, and then my first Bikram class with a friend! I may go to spin in the evening with a different friend if I am still alive (doubtful). Any advice for surviving yoga in a 105 degree room? Hey, if I can play softball in that kind of heat, this should be fine, right??

Have you ever done hot yoga? Thoughts?

WIAW-SUMMER

Date: June 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Happy WIAW! Thanks a lot to Jenn for posting, as always!

First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food.

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.I LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!I’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!Yeah, I have a lot of stuff…And last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity.

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are.

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:These things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously).

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well.

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts.

After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops).

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class.

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!What is your favorite thing about summer?

Happy Pants

Date: May 18, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First of all, let me just say, I am so jealous of everyone going on the BLEND retreat this weekend! Beth from Mangoes and Miles had the great idea of trying to put together a retreat for college bloggers. How awesome would that be??

My morning began with a quick workout- 3 sets of stairs. Each set- single leg hops (each leg), squat jumps, 2 sprints, and 25 (ea) scissor kicks. Then I followed that with 4k on the rowing machine.

I tried to finish my workout a little bit early so I had time for a photo shoot for my pear. Food blogging at its finest.

This is one of my birthday pears from Harry and David! Harry and David has the best pears ever. Sweet, juicy, and the perfect firmness. I seriously can’t eat any other pears.

Guess what? My duct tape solutions to my bike’s woes actually worked. My brake works fine and my basket stays in place.

Pshhh who needs to go to the bike shop?

A couple of shots from last night?

I do not like being locked out. Thank you car key lanyard for looking exactly like room key lanyard.

I had to walk to the library last night because my bike key is attached to my room key…which was in my locked room. But at least I got a nice picture!

My Big is seriously awesome. How great is this? 2 of those pictures are Lilly. Can you find them?

So this morning, my flowers all of the sudden looked….really really bad.

This thing drinks like crazy, I even watered it yesterday! I swear I’m not a bad plant mama!

Today was such a nice day. I got to pretend to be on the quidditch team and ended up with a free Ike’s sandwich. If you aren’t from CA, you probably don’t know what Ike’s is. If you are from this area, you are incredibly jealous. It was veggie with garlic and pesto!

And since we’re on the topic of food…

Guacamole complements of my Big. She gave me the MOST PERFECT avocados, and since I have guacamole mix, this whipped up to be a great snack!

The other half was used for dinner on my egg scramble with pesto.

See how much better the flowers look already?? Phew.

Now let’s get to the meat of the post. Today in Psych, we had a lecture on the Psychology of Health. Did you know that when you are stressed, you are way more likely to get colds? Ok, you probably knew that. But there are tons of other interesting studies. Apparently, you get sick more when you’re lonely as well. What I don’t get is how the researchers got the approval to administer the cold virus to tons of people…I would not want to participate in that study! Anyways, when you are stressed out, it is as if your body is in a continual fight or flight response. Cortisol has signals for the cells in your immune system that kill them off. Basically, your body focuses on the fight or flight issue, and conserves energy by shutting down your immune system. Yep, sounds about how I got Mono. Crew 5 hours a day, no sleep, and no clue what was going on? Yeah.

We also talked about the amazing benefits of exercise. Exercise can significantly reduce depression and anxiety. It has been shown to work as well at alleviating clinical depression as anti-depressants. How cool is that? This whole lecture got me thinking. What stresses me out? What is valuable to me? What makes me unhappy?

I realized, I exercise most days. I do hard exercise. That is awesome. I need to appreciate myself more, and what my body can do for me. I need to appreciate the world more. I feel like this past week I’ve really had my head in the clouds. I do feel like I got quite a bit of schoolwork done, but not a lot in terms of social interactions (which are SUPER important). And although it was technically a good week, it was just kind of blah.

The takeaway? I am trying to look at everything with a super positive light. I want to experience things more, and stop being concerned by the things that really don’t matter that much in terms of everything else.

I have some fitness goals that I set for myself. I had a reward planned for each goal. But I simply wasn’t meeting them, and it was getting extremely frustrating. So I decided to stop being so hard on myself, and appreciate myself for what I can do. So I went out and bought the first item on the list.

Did I need these? Absolutely not. But I decided that they are going to be my Happy Pants. They reflect a decision I made to appreciate and celebrate myself (wow that sounds incredibly selfish…). When I wear them, I want to remember that. On a different note, I am smack in the middle of the midterms. And I want a bit of time to myself to try and figure some things out. Anyone interested in doing some guest posts for next week? Shoot me an email at astottler@gmail.com.

Thanks guys! I’ll leave you with this-my current phone screensaver.

You’re Jamaican Me Crazy

Date: May 12, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

You know what is crazy? I only have a month left of school. That means that my freshman year of college is almost over! How did that happen??

This morning I was doing some blog reflections. I’ve noticed my writing style has changed considerably. I get the impression that it is choppier now that it was before. And a LOT more sarcastic. Am I getting TOO comfortable on the Internet? Haha. But I also get the impression that although my writing seems a bit rushed, it definitely has more energy and is overall more positive. The things sleep will do for you! It was also interesting to reflect on my food choices, especially given I’ve recently given up sweets. When I was doing crew, I ate sooo much! It’s crazy! It did make me nostalgic for crew as well. But hey, life happens. I do feel healthier now though that I am not consuming quite so much sugar. Another thing: I read some of the first posts from when I was getting sick. It’s kind of pitiful; 2 days into being sick, I wrote, “I think I’m finally getting better!” Sorry sweetie, but it’s going to be another month before you ACTUALLY get better. Hah. I had nooo clue what I was in for.

But ANYWAYS. My takeaway from this is that I want to improve my writing style. I want to be more descriptive, and I suppose in some ways more formal. I think I was beginning to write a little too much like I would write a text message. Also, I realized how many typos I have, and for that I am so incredibly sorry. I have so much trouble catching my own typos!

But let’s get back to life, shall we? My Psych midterm was pretty easy (I hope) so that was one midterm down. My super important midterm is OChem this Wednesday. After my exam, it was lunchtime! Friday was one of those days where I ate a ton, but was never super full.I started with a Southwest salad. Every time I am at the cafeteria there, I see this amazing looking pizza, but I can never rationalize getting a slice. Yesterday was no different, until I decided to just go for it, since I wasn’t full from my salad. It was described as Margarita pizza, but it wasn’t really like any Margarita pizza I’ve had before! Deep dish Margarita?This was delicious. There were globs of fresh mozzarella under the tomatoes, and the pesto complimented everything perfectly. SO worth it.

After class, I decided to go on a bike ride. I found a bike loop online that a lot of bike riders take around here. It’s not a bike trail, just 3 roads connected. It was a 15 mile bike ride. (My trusty sidekick that sometimes decides to try and kill me.)

I wasn’t too happy with the gears on my bike. The chains have fallen off a few times, and given my highly limited knowledge of bikes, I most likely did not put them back on in the correct place, so I only really had 2 gears to work with. I stopped to adjust them, and I think it helped. I really liked/really hated this ride. It took me a really long time to complete; apparently I’m the world’s slowest biker. Ah well. I’ve ridden most of the first leg of this loop before. The first leg is uphill for a long time, although for the most part it isn’t too steep. But definitely enough to feel the burn! This bike ride is interesting; I start on campus and see tons of people leaving work. Then, as I get farther out, the world transforms. I begin to see horses and ranches, and little town stores. On the second leg of the loop, I saw Vineyards and all of the sudden there were horses on the road next to me. It was as if I had traveled to a different time period. After some downhill, and more climbing, I was finally at the top. I didn’t realize I was at the top at first; I first noticed I had a feeling of unexplained happiness. There was nothing higher than I was! I was pretty tired at this point. I went down a hill, only to turn a corner and find a super steep looking hill waiting for me. I actually said “Oh shit” out loud before. I don’t normally say things like that to myself, that loud. It didn’t turn out to be as bad as I was expecting, since there was a pretty big downhill going in, and I had a ton of momentum carry me to the top.

All in all, a great ride.

As I mentioned before, friday was my Mom’s birthday. I love these pictures:

What an angel!

My mom sent me this caption: “They’re just lollipops to Lilly.”

I don’t know what it is, but my kitties love chewing flowers. Last year I had a big birthday bouquet of roses. We woke up the next morning to find the downstairs completely covered in rose petals. Oh cats.

For her birthday, we went out to a Jamaican restaurant called Coconuts.

Guac and Plantain chips? Um YES.

In case you are wondering why there are so many plates, it is because the restaurant was family-style. They weren’t all for me; I wasn’t THAT much of a bottomless pit!

The food was really good, but had this spice that took a little while to hit you. So by the end of the meal, all the spiciness had built up and my tongue was on fire! I’m kind of a wimp in that regard.

We all had a great time. I think I’ll hold off on the other things I want to share because this post is already pretty long!