So I Guess I Should, You Know, Blog…

Date: June 13, 2014

Author: astottler

Greetings from the other side! I am officially done with my sophomore year-yay! Which means I am halfway through college which is kind of concerning…

I decided I should actually blog. It’s been a while, for several reasons. First, I temporarily lost my phone (I left it at a cafe and someone picked it up), then I had to study for finals, and then move out! And now, here we are!

So, I haven’t exercised all that much this week. And my food has erred more on the side of “delicious” versus “healthy.” But it is what it is-you’ve been warned!

In terms of exercise, it’s basically just been Crossfit, although I’m about to head out on a run. I get to go to my home Crossfit, which is exciting! I went last night, and I always forget how much I love it, and all the people there!

In terms of life, I finally went to a Giant’s game yesterday!

It was windy and cold, as per usual! We have the most beautiful ballpark, complete with delicious food.

Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae!

And now some other food from the past week:

My last and second to last coffee from my favorite coffeeshop:

Lunch out with my sister and mom. We went to the Loving Hut, a vegan restaurant, and I got a vegan BLT-tempeh as bacon, plus with avocado!

I also tried a Cronut for the first time! (Croissant doughnut.) It was good! But not the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I wouldn’t stand in a 3 hour line for it.

Breakfast on my last day with a bare fridge-plain yogurt, berries, and sun butter.

After my last final, my sister and I went out to a celebratory lunch at Calafia. I got garlic mushroom noodles, which were delicious!

And for dessert, a chia seed pudding parfait sweetened only with maple syrup. Delicious!

And lastly, I had my first home cooked meal-Grilled chicken and Peach salad! Yum! The peaches at the store weren’t ripe so we actually just used nectarines.

What is crazy to me though is in a week, I’m leaving again! Eek!

Any fun plans for the summer?

Food and Fitness Lately

Date: April 26, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Who’s happy it is the weekend? My weekend is super low key. I’m currently watching the Giant’s game on TV, and I don’t have a ton to do this weekend. My quarter has been weird-some nights I have a ton of work to do, but at the end of the week it’s basically nothing. Odd.

Since it’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, I thought I’d share some photos!

The last of my Easter eggs! It only took a few days to eat them all, with the help of my roommate of course!

Lunchtime coffee…which really was the main event but there was also a veggie sandwich in there. I did it for the avocado!

Ok, I promise this is better than it looks. I made a little pretzel dip out of mashed banana mixed with sunflower seed butter. Super tasty! You could definitely do this with peanut butter, or any nut butter.

One of my school’s cafe-type of places recently started carrying green smoothies. Clearly, I had to try it out. It was very mango-orangey! And definitely a bit chunky-my friends thought it was guacamole! I love avocados but I’d have to draw the line at drinking them through a straw!

This cappuccino has a twist…it’s decaf! Crazy, right? This was the morning after I took Benadryl, so I slept REALLY well. Haha!

Check out this new Trader Joe’s purchase-I just had to get it, didn’t I?? The verdict-good but surprisingly subtle. I put mine in eggs, which I will admit, looks a bit odd.

So…the other day, I finally broke out my blender. I’ve been wanting to make a chocolate mint smoothie forever, and since I had fresh mint, it was time. So-I’m pretty sure the last time I used my blender was when I tried to make a chocolate mint smoothie and put in way too much mint extract…which was 1.5 years ago.

In the mix was lots of fresh mint, cocoa powder, frozen banana, almond milk, and chocolate whey protein. It tasted just like a milkshake!

There was a bit of an…issue. My blender is a tiny, one person blender. It also has individual cups that you can screw into the blade to make the smoothie into a cup. I’ve never used it like that before, so I thought I’d try it because it would mean less clean up. (HAH.) Well…this requires turning the cup upside down. I blended up banana and almond milk, and was ready to add everything else…when I accidentally unscrewed the cup in the blender base…upside down. Which meant I opened the contents of the cup all over my desk. It was fabulous. Thanks to amazing reflexes, I managed to not drip it all over my chair and the carpet…but yeah. The smoothie pictured above is 2.0.

Yesterday, the craziest thing happened. It rained. AND I didn’t have a race! This is the only time all year that it has rained without me having a race that week. I’m 100% serious. It’s also Admit Weekend, where all the prospective freshman come and stay. Why am I telling you this? I wanted something warm for lunch, at a place that didn’t have a million prospective students. A little cafe tucked into a basement in the corner of the quad was perfect. A tomato and mozzarella panini!

And lastly:

I went on a mango run post-Crossfit. And also picked up a green smoothie and blueberry muffin. I may have to make this a Saturday morning tradition!

On the fitness front:

Thursday morning I did an abbreviated version of my treadmill workout. I haven’t done much speed work lately, and I wasn’t exactly loaded with time, so I did 7 intervals instead of 10 and shortened the warm up to .5 miles. In the afternoon, I had my last sound wave treatment on my Achilles. My Achilles wasn’t doing so well last week, but the good news is it seems to be feeling a bit better now. The treatment can actually take up to 3 months to work! So we shall see.

Friday morning I did a bit of Spin on my own. And made the poor decision to do a late night rowing workout after sitting around all day. I rowed about 6k (which would have been nothing to my former self) at like 10pm…So at Crossfit this morning my legs started out feeling heavy! This morning’s Crossfit was called “Lumberjack 20” which was the following:

20 deadlifts (I used 165 lbs)

400m run

20 kettlebell swings

400m run

20 overhead squats (I used 65 lbs)

400m run

20 burpees

400m run

20 pull ups

400m run

20 box jumps

400m run

20 dumbbell cleans

400m run

It was a long one! It took me just over half an hour!

That’s all I have today-I hope everyone has a great weekend!

How did you move this week?

Final(s)ly Done.

Date: March 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m done with finals! Woooo! I’ve spent the last 2 hours since finishing eating froyo and a cupcake, watching the Crossfit 14.4 announcement, and online shopping for food/fitness things. Spring break is amazing 🙂

So…I ran on Monday and was kinda sore from that. But on TUESDAY, I did a stupid little 10 minute abs video (find it here). It was THAT bad at the time…but oomph. The next morning? All through my sides, from my shoulders down to my hips-PAIN. I’m STILL suffering considerably! My hips especially when I lift my legs-biking around campus has not been fun. Rarely do I regret a workout-only when I’m stupid sore. This may be one of those times. I love being sore, but it can definitely get annoying!

This morning, the workout we did at Crossfit was killer, and my legs are still aching a little bit. It was 500m ALL OUT row followed by 30 wall balls, then rest, then 500m row and 30 pull ups, rest, and 500m row and 30 burpees.

And then proceeded to spend the day studying for Chem. Merp.

Here are some photo highlights:

Yesterday’s lunch-I took this back from the dining hall the night before. Eating fish out of a ziplock bag is kind of weird…also, when I eat healthier, I tend to crave meat a lot. Is that weird?

Testing out the new kicks-I’m finally coming around! I will probably wear my old shoes for my half, and then retire them at the Tough Mudder.

I have awesome friends-these are 100% homemade, from scratch croissants. They were SO amazing!

I really do appreciate that our dining hall sometimes has Brussels sprouts. Really, I do. But it would be fabulous if there were actually chewable. Or cut-able. They were like rocks!

Breakfast after Crossfit-finals means chocolate chip pancakes.

Lunch while studying.

Starbucks salad. I’m actually really impressed by their salads!

Post finals celebration. 100% necessary. There are brownie chunks and blueberries hiding under there!

And a red velvet cupcake my roomie brought me! She took an English final on Moby Dick, and they gave them cupcakes but she can’t eat gluten! It was SO good 🙂

I wish I had more enlightening things to say today, but I just really need a nap. I’m SO excited to to 14.4 at my home Crossfit tomorrow though!

My Current Exercise Routine

Date: March 13, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I call this a food and fitness blog when I tell people about it. But I don’t usually go into my exercise routine, for some reason or another! I’m going to go through a typical week, and explain why I do what I do.

Generally, mornings are for running. It’s local (I don’t have to drive there-I just walk outside), I get it done, and once I’m up I’m not going to back out. If I tried to run in the afternoons, more likely than not it just wouldn’t happen. I either get lazy or eat too big of a snack, or am just not motivated. I usually do Crossfit or yoga in the evenings-which is scheduled and which I can’t back out of!

I run 3-4 times a week depending on what is going on. Last week, I ran 3 times. This week, barring an unknown, it will be 4. At this point, I do maybe a day of speed work, 1-2 non-paced runs, and a long run. More than anything, it depends on my schedule and where I can fit it in. Here’s this week (proposed), which is more or less typical for me. Sometimes I go to Crossfit less or lift more on my own, depending on how much time I have or what the Crossfit workouts for the week are.

Monday: easy 4 miles+ Crossfit

Tuesday: Crossfit

Wednesday: 6 miles hilly run+ Crossfit

Thursday: AM spin+yoga class

Friday: 4 miles speed work (I’m planning 16×400 @ 10k pace but not sure if I’ll get that many in)+Crossfit

Saturday: Crossfit

Sunday: 12 mile run

As you can see, I like Crossfit! This is more than I would typically go in a week, but I liked the looks of all the workouts. One thing about Crossfit is that the workouts are more or less designed so you can go each day, or many days in a row. I get sore a lot, but it’s in different places, and the intensity is not that high that I’m immobilizingly sore (at least more than 1x/week!). In contrast, when I lift on my own, I won’t be walking for a week. If my only goal was to get as strong as possible, to be honest, I’d probably be better off lifting on my own, 2-3x a week. But I like Crossfit. It’s fun. It’s endurance as well as strength, and I’m still getting stronger. I just really like lifting weights. If there is anything going on with me, or if I don’t feel great, or I’m tired, I always feel better and accomplished afterwards.

For example, I had a great time yesterday because we did Atlas stones. Which is where you pick a giant concrete ball off the ground and lift it onto your shoulder.

(Source)

I’ve only done this once before, but I feel so legit! I was even able to move up to a heavier stone! (95 lbs).

Now that I’m doing more distance running, I’m really trying to be better about fitting yoga in. It’s the first thing to go when I get busy, but I get so tight during distance running that it really is essential for injury prevention. My legs have felt pretty tight all week, especially my calves, so I was glad to make it out to a class today! The last couple of weeks I’ve just been practicing on my own.

In terms of food, I have some things to share. Let me just say that my roommate is amazing. She made Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt. Take a moment to absorb all that.

They have been a staple of my diet these last few days. After eating so many cookies, I’m trying to clean it up a little bit to fuel all my studying! Here are some eats of late:

Plain greek yogurt, fruit salad, berries, and a pancake.

Lots of salads.

Scrambled eggs with oranges.

It’s deadweek so I get a heart in my cappuccino. Speaking of which, the other day I met up with a friend in the afternoon for coffee to catch up since I haven’t seen her much since last year. We went to my normal coffeeshop, and when I ordered a decaf cappuccino, the barista looked at me like I was crazy. I think I get coffee too much…

My prize-gotta love Nutrition class! I won these for my title page for a paper-local organic strawberries! I’m excited strawberries are starting to be in season (at least around here!).

This is still a work in progress. You can’t tell from the picture, but there are a few green streaks in there! I think I need more baking soda, and I think it needs to actually bake in an oven. On a different note: mashing up banana with sunflower seed butter and vanilla tastes amazing. I may never buy granola bars again, and just make my own! YUM.

What’s your favorite type of exercise?

P.S. I just saw the announcement for the the Open WOD 14.3 and I’m PUMPED. Deadlifts+box jumps are my favorite!

WIAW-Lately

Date: March 11, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! It’s Wednesday and I’ve officially on that dead week grind. I have an infinite amount of studying to do before Monday, but a collection of delicious things from the past few days is a great way to break it up! Thanks as always to Jenn for hosting!

To be perfectly honest, I have not been super inspired with my blogging lately. I may be having a mid-life blog crisis. What is the purpose really of my blog? Should I make my writing voice more formal? Is this really a “healthy living blog”? What does that even mean? What valuable content can I contribute to the vastness that is the Internet? I’m also starting to think about myself and how to be a better person. I think that’s something we can all work on! It’s interesting because I have a post from sometime around this time last year talking about a similar thing. Although of course it sounds silly looking back on it now just in the way I worded everything!

I suppose my current contribution to the Internet is my food as a college student. Which means easy and microwave friendly, more often than not! And many times lazy-I am not ashamed of ziplock bag pictures! (Ok, maybe I am.)

This is an easy breakfast that never gets old. An orange and scrambled eggs with interesting cheese. Microwave scrambled eggs are SO easy, and are indistinguishable from stove scrambled eggs. And a quality cheese completely makes the dish.

Brunch of a whole wheat waffle and a little bit of yogurt+fruit.

Dining hall dinner-Indian food! I admit, I ate virtually zero vegetables this day, and normally I would have a bed of spinach in there, but some days I’m just really not feeling it.

A ziplock bag lunch which is always a winner, and so, so easy. Simply microwave (or bake if you’re fancier than I am and have an oven) a sweet potato, season, and top with salsa! I have little guacamole packets which I put on at lunch time. I also packed some hardboiled eggs for protein. To season, I used this amazing salt blend:

This is SO GOOD. It has a very smoky flavor, and reminds me a bit of barbecue sauce.

This dining hall dinner was a complete WIN. I seriously lucked out. Salsa baked chicken, cilantro brown rice, salad, and the star of the show-roasted cauliflower and carrots! I don’t know why the dining hall always insists on steaming cauliflower, so this was quite the treat! I definitely brought back some to pack in my lunch for the next day.

My yogurt mess really is quite the mess in this picture because it rode around with me all day. It is reduced berries with sunflower seed butter and plain yogurt-my favorite!

If you haven’t tried dried persimmons, this should be a priority in your life. We all know I was a tad obsessed with fresh persimmons this fall, and while these definitely aren’t the same, they seem to disappear quite quickly!

In other things that you should go out and buy: this. Now. Run. It’s delicious! Everything I could have hoped for and more. Creamy goat cheese, sweet and fruity blueberries. Amazing.

An unexpected treat-dinner in the form of a care package from home! Vegetable soup and a corn and cheese cake. There was another cake as well but it seemed to disappear before the picture was taken! Yum!

I guess one contribution I have to the healthy living world right now is my attempt at a microwave St. Patrick’s Day cookie. Which may actually be made in the oven if I can get the microwave version to turn out first (it’s lower commitment!)

I did make one major mistake though. Check out the results:

Pre-“baking.” (Wouldn’t it be awesome to have an Easy Bake Oven in a dorm room??)

Post-“baking.”

These don’t really look like St. Patrick’s Day cookies, do they? Let me explain.

We already know about the Mystery Bread I’m obsessed with. (Which is now solved, by the way!)

See the green things? Those are sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds react to turn green under certain baking conditions. I wanted to make green sunflower seed butter cookies. I SWEAR I thought it was baking powder that caused the reaction, but I failed to check before producing marvelously un-green cookies. It’s actually baking soda. So attempt #2 will come soon! The good news is, they tasted great!

On the fitness front, today I did one of the “girls” at Crossfit-Helen. This is 3 rounds of a 400m run, 21 kettle bell swings, and 12 pull ups. This one is harder than it sounds! I’m happy to report that I beat my last time by about 20 seconds, but I used much less assistance (a thinner band) on the pull ups!

Tomorrow, I’m supposed to run 6 miles but I’m considering cutting it to 5. Today is my heaviest week of running on my training plan (4,6,4,12 miles), and despite following the training plan twice already, I’ve never actually fit in all the runs for the heaviest week! My calves are feeling a bit tight so I might cut it to 5 and then play it by ear. Lots of rolling out will be happening tonight between studying though!

Have a great week!

Any fun St. Patrick’s Day Traditions?