Overnight Oats

Date: August 10, 2013

Author: astottler

It’s the weekend! This morning I did a killer workout at Crossfit-my arms were JELLO. It was a partner workout:

800m run

300 double unders (or 400 regular jump ropes)

200 hand release push ups

100 pull ups

Between you and your partner, you have to do that. Even with banded pull ups and knee push ups this was killer! I stayed an hour after class to steam clean the mats. Confession: my hands were getting blistered from this. #wimpyhands

Let’s back up a bit though, shall we?

Thursday night I played in an All-Star game for my slow pitch softball league. I was a little nervous going in-I hadn’t played in over 2 weeks because of my calf injury (which thankfully feels fine-I’m going to give it another week probably before I really start training again). Well, it turns out I had nothing to worry about! I played first base, which as it turns out, I like way better than outfield. In slow pitch everyone kills the ball, so outfield usually means chasing down home runs. I hit well too-and landed the title of female MVP!

I’m ready for playoffs next week!

We went out to dinner afterwards to celebrate. Since we were in Palo Alto already (my games are at Stanford), of course I chose to go to Lyfe Kitchen, which is basically my favorite place ever.

We started with guacamole and house made tortilla chips, plus garlic roasted artichokes.

The food came sooo quickly! For my main course, I wanted something with veggies (I had eaten a lot of carbs earlier in the day), so I ordered the quinoa crunch wrap, which comes with a side of hot sauce.

It was delicious and fresh-and of course totally up my alley since it was loaded with avocado.

For a little after-dinner treat, we went to a local pastry shop and found this:Have you guys heard of the Cronut? It’s a cross between a croissant and a donut. My spin teacher was talking about them last week-apparently there’s a donut place in New York that sells them, and they’re super popular! What are the odds that less than a week alter, I’d find them right here in Palo Alto?

I didn’t get one-they were out. To be honest, I’m not sure I like the idea of a Cronut…But I’d probably try it once. We ended up with some other assorted pastries to share.

My favorite was the twist-it had sweet potato filling!

Friday morning at spin class I got to tell my teacher about my findings-and of course enjoy a great workout. After spin, I took an awesome nap (5:45am spin…) and awoke with the biggest craving for overnight oats. This was really strange. Why? I’ve only made them once. And I didn’t really like them. But my mom bought me a few flavors of Chobani to try (pomegranate and banana), and I haven’t really been feeling my yogurt bowls lately. So, I whipped up a batch according to Julie’s recipe. I used the pomegranate yogurt for these. I then popped it in the fridge, and let it sit for…all of 10 minutes. Good enough for me! It still thickened up quite a bit! Topped with fruit and sunflower seed butter, and I was good to go.

The rest of the batch was enjoyed as a snack before Crossfit, topped with cacao coconut butter.

Not quite as photogenic, but still delicious.

Crossfit included wall balls which really stunk. On the plus side, nothing required chalk in the workout, so that made my job cleaning up a lot easier.

Also, the owner of my box gave me this Crossfit shirt-apparently when you finish the intro program you get it, but I never did that.

And finally, that brings us to today. For lunch, I tried my hand at avocado egg salad. The result resembled a cross between egg salad and guacamole. I have absolutely no problems with that. I mashed up avocado, hard boiled eggs, yellow mustard, garlic powder, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper. I served it on a slice of whole wheat toast, alongside yellow watermelon (!) and carrots with hummus.

What a colorful lunch! I have never in my memory had yellow watermelon, and I really like it! It tastes similar to watermelon, but has a slightly different flavor. I found it at Whole Foods and just had to try it.

After lunch, I decided to whip up more overnight oats with the banana Chobani for when the craving struck later on. I split the batch in half, and added cocoa powder to one half. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching baseball and helping my mom bake a cake for my sister’s boyfriend’s birthday. And by helping, I mean licking the spoons. I’ll post a picture of the cake tomorrow!

Have a great night everyone! I’ll leave you with this-apples from my neighbor’s yard. I swear, his soil can grow anything! In our hard, we’ve had zero success. Do you grow any fruits or vegetables? What is your favorite type of cake? Thoughts on overnight oats?

Cleanup Crew

Date: August 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Thursday everybody! Only a couple of days until the weekend, right?? I’m thinking this weekend might be a good time to go up to the city (San Francisco), try out the frozen yogurt place I had no appetite for post-race, and drive the route of my next half marathon! It’s hilly-I want to know what I’m getting myself into!

Yesterday was a good day, AM spin-VERY early. I am no longer ever having dark chocolate before bed-I was seriously dragging! I spent the rest of the morning finishing up my final presentation for Health Psychology. I did a study on the effects of aerobic exercise versus yoga on reducing stress. Fun fact-in Psych studies, to induce stress, you make your participants count backwards from 400 by 7s, yelling at them to go faster and making them start over if they’re wrong. Fun!

Lunch was a basic one-tomato soup with cheddar (seriously SO good) with a side of popcorn. That popcorn is kind of significant-it was some of the swag I got from my half marathon’s expo!After my 3 hour class, I hustled my way over to Crossfit for a 6:15 class. It was a decent WOD-not a lot of heavy lifting so not one of my favorites. We did kettlebell clean and jerks, which were really weird. I’ve never done them before so I stuck to a low weight; I didn’t want to smash my wrists!

I stayed after class to clean up the box. That was my first day of cleaning. It’s really not too bad-wipe stuff down, sweep, mop. I actually really like just being around the box/fitness environment. There was a small WOD going on while I was cleaning, so I got to watch them ~~suffer~~. It’s a cool way to get to know the trainers better (and earn a free membership!). It took me about 45 minutes.

At that point, I was more than ready for dinner! We had asparagus with garlic aioli, plus cornbread (with whipped butter and honey). The main dish was a butternut squash-chicken vegetable soup, recipe found here.

This morning I was awake early for the kitten nursery morning shift! And since you obviously need to see kitten pictures…

You know how I’ve said many times before how I’ve picked out which kittens I’m dying to adopt? Well this time I REALLY have. The difference is this one kitten really does need me. He’s a little black kitten. He’s by himself, and he’s misunderstood. (Cliche, right?) To some he may seem like an anti-social cat, but I know better. He demonstrates all the personality facets of a typical black cat. On his sheet, someone notes he doesn’t like to be touched, and is kind of antisocial (TYPICAL black cat). He seems quiet and withdrawn, but given my black cat experience, that’s not exactly it. I’m worried that this behavior might not be conducive to future adoptions, or future success in his adoptive family. Even worse, he would really do better in an environment with fewer variables-different people caring for him everyday, people with not enough time. He’s losing weight, which is bad. I think this is because people are not putting enough time into him. I had him out for at least 45 minutes today. He doesn’t eat a ton on his own, so I had to syringe feed him. He’s fussy but eager to eat; if one didn’t have enough patience he’d be written off. In addition, he kept wriggling away while I was feeding him to wash his face…yeah that’s a black cat all right.

As for anti-social? Not exactly-he’s a sweetie if you get to know him better. I tried to feed him in my lap, and that didn’t work because all he wanted to do was sit on my shoulder. I’m not sure how I’d be able to at least foster him, but he needs something.

In other news, I had full intentions to work out after the kitten nursery, but instead went to Whole Foods and ate a muffin. And bought cinnamon kettle corn-ADDICTIVE. In my defense, I probably needed a rest day anyways.

One more thing-I posted my first “real” article on the local fitness blog- The Link Between Heart Disease and Mile Times.

What’s you mile time?

Back in the day I was able to break 7:00. I definitely can’t do that anymore! I want to do a timed mile soon though!

Accidental Throwback Thursday

Date: August 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I’ve been trying to post for a while, but my internet connection at home just was not having it!

Since this post was supposed to go up yesterday, this becomes accidental throwback Thursday!

And what, my friends, are we throwing it back to?

Last year’s Giant’s Race!My sister and I ran the 10k last year. What’s this? Yeah, um. I won my division last year! What? How did THAT happen?

Well, I’m super proud of that! To be fair, my age group isn’t huge. But I’ll take it! Next year I’m considering doing the 10k again…and training to win. We shall see!

Back to the important stuff…food and exercise.

Yesterday morning was an early spin class. Yes, I get up at 5:10am in the summer for my own pleasure. Yes, I’m a college student. Yes, those are oxymorons.

My calf continues to feel better, especially after spin. I refueled with a chocolate protein smoothie, with 1/2 cup less almond milk than usual. Plus a small slice of toast with sunflower seed butter.Yesterday morning I took my dog out to the park to participate in his favorite activity ever-soccer. He goes absolutely crazy for soccer balls. I wish I had gotten a picture of him, but I left my phone in the car so it wouldn’t get slobbery. It’s funny, he got mistaken for a puppy again. This happens regularly! Umm no, he’s almost 12?

Before class I whipped up a quick lunch of leftover spinach quiche. After class, I hustled over to Crossfit. It was a little close-I hate rush hour traffic! The WOD was 7 rounds of 100m run, 5 toes to bar, 10 deadlifts (115), and 10 overhead squats with a 25 pound weight. I Rxed the weight, but did knees to elbows. It took me about 17:00-on the slower side. I wasn’t going to really push my calf on the run! (And *knock on wood* it’s feeling good as new!)

I made myself a little snack plate, plus the leftovers from that morning’s smoothie.

Trader Joe’s spinach and kale bites-not bad but they shouldn’t be microwaved (not that they have microwave directions…) They heated super unevenly! But tasty other than that!

Plus crunchamame, peas, and half a mango. It was perfect!

Sadly, I did not get enough sleep last night. I had to get up early this morning for the kitten nursery, and I had to stay up to sign up for fall classes….and the system failed. Grrr. I can’t believe I’m already signing up for classes though! Where has the time gone?

-Granted, I still have almost 2 months of summer….

Also, please tell me how much I’m going to hate myself this quarter-here’s the current schedule plan: Chem, Chem lab, Physics, Physics lab, Bio, a unit of labwork.

Ughh not even one fun class in there….

And since I love you all, here are some pictures from the kitten nursery this morning; we got 5 new litters of really little kittens! I had to syringe-feed a litter and I came home covered in cat food….sacrifices people!I love this.

After changing out of my cat food caked clothes, I made myself a fruit bowl topped with sunflower seed butter.

And one last thing-how cool is this? At the lab I work at, I had to take pictures of printer cartridges to be returned because they were defective….3D printer cartridges! The “ink” that was leaking everywhere was wax and plastic. Crazy.

What was/is your favorite subject in school?

WIAW-The I Didn’t Forget Edition

Date: July 30, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I still can’t believe I forgot about WIAW last week. Let’s just say I was more than ready to go with it this week! As always, a huge thanks to Jenn for hosting 🙂

I began my morning with an early spin class. My calf was sore after Sunday’s run, but after spin class I walked away feeling 1000x better. In an attempt to get a head start on the day, I walked over to Starbucks for a strawberry smoothie and some reading for Psych. Sadly, my productivity was short lived. After about an hour of work, a nap was beginning to feel really necessary. 6 hours of sleep a night is not enough for me! Since it’s summer and I didn’t have to go in to the lab, I saw no problems with a nap.

Sometimes simpler is better-lunch was a plate of snack items- carrots with laughing cow, celery(one stalk with sunflower seed butter, one without), and a Chobani flip. I’m obsessed with the coconut yogurt; I can’t find any of the new flavors anywhere around here though!

I finished the meal with something sweet. A dark chocolate square and a mango log. I picked up a bag of mango logs at a fruit and garlic stand on the way back from San Luis Obispo. We passed through Gilroy, which is the garlic capitol of the world! You can even smell the garlic as you drive by; it’s crazy! The mango log is basically dried fruit ground up in log form and wrapped in coconut. Probably with some sugar added somewhere along the line. They’re DELICIOUS.

I spent the afternoon attempting to catch up on work for my Psych class with my little homework helper.

Please note the previously black shirt-I swear that cat sheds like no other.

I also spent some time reading blogs-please tell me I’m not the only one who gets hungry from reading food blogs?? So being the healthy living blogger that I am, I whipped up a protein cake. I would post the recipe, but it wasn’t exactly a winner. I should have added cocoa powder, which I forgot to do. The “cake” (and I’m using this term loosely here) was made up of protein powder, egg whites, a splash of almond milk, a splash of apple sauce, and some chocolate chips. Like I said, this wasn’t a winner. However, chocolate chips can right a lot of wrongs, so I didn’t mind. I think in the future, I’d prefer more of a sweet scramble kind of deal with no protein powder, banana, and chocolate chips.

Before dinner, I went to Crossfit. I got new Crossfit shoes at the Reebok outlet last weekend, and I was more than ready to try them out!They were awesome! The shoes I had been wearing were worn out and not great for weight lifting because they weren’t so flat. I used to lift weights in flatter shoes which coincidentally were terrible for running. These guys are the best of both worlds!

Lots of Olympic Lifting happening today! Our strength portion was snatches, which I’ve found a new love for. Not gonna lie, I like showing off juuuust a little. Plus, the movement feels so smooth.

The WOD was Elizabeth-my first of the girls!

Cleans and ring dips for 21 reps, 15 reps, and 9 reps. I didn’t Rx this. This is my first time doing cleans at Crossfit, so although I can clean 95 pounds, it had been a little while since I’d done them, and when I lifted weights in the past, I always did fewer reps. I went with 85 pounds for the cleans, which was just about right. I broke up each round into roughly 5s (putting the bar down and resting a little every 5 reps). I also didn’t Rx ring dips. Anything strictly upper body is pretty awful for me. I used a band, and I didn’t do them on rings, I just did regular dips. Well, with those modifications, I finished in 7:43! And my clean muscles will be sore tomorrow…

When I first started lifting weights with my trainer (3 years ago), I only heard him say the names of the lifts, I never saw them written out. I thought “cleans” were actually “clings.” Haha!

When I arrived home, dinner was waiting for me. We had corn and potato chowder with added rotisserie chicken and finished with cheddar cheese and green onions. On the side-asparagus and garlic aioli for dipping.

Not a bad day of eats! I wanted to show a few more pictures to you guys. Here’s my lunch from yesterday:This little guys LOVES meat. I was making turkey wraps, and he would not leave me alone! He kept trying to eat the food off my plate, trying to eat the turkey out of my hand, trying to eat it out of the container. And of course, when he wants something all he does is purr, act super sweet, and forcefully try to push his head into my food. It was so hard to get this picture-I almost had to sacrifice my lunch for the sake of a good picture. The things I do for you guys…

Also, check out this tan line from my hike the other day. Fun fact-I also have a tan line from the strap of the bag I was wearing during the hike. Nice. You know what else is sad? I have a sunscreen tan line. On my face. Only it’s worse than that-I have a tan line from rubbing the sunscreen off the edges of my face with sweat when I run. In other words, I have pale blotches on my cheeks. At first I thought some face product was messing with my skin. Nope.

On another positive note, I’m getting so psyched for my half marathon on Sunday! I’m feeling much better about my calf, although I’m not sure I’ll run at all before the race and risk it tightening up again. We’ll see!

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

What did you eat this week? Highlights? Details?

Legs Don’t Fail Me!

Date: July 25, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’ve been meaning to post the last few days, but things keep coming up! I can’t believe I forgot about WIAW! Who am I??

Before we get to the deliciousness, let’s talk fitness and the status of my calf. I’ve been going to physical therapy all week, and I think it’s definitely helping. My physical therapist is great-my dad is friends with him since my dad has all kinds of things wrong with him. I’m getting the whole 9 yards-calf exercises, stretching, ultrasound, laser treatment, electrocution. Ok maybe they don’t actually call it electrocution, but what would you call getting electricity pumped into your leg?

Wednesday was another spin class. It’s one way for me to keep up my cardiovascular fitness. My spin teacher actually just tore her calf muscle, and she can’t exercise at all for like 6 weeks, so I shared miseries with her. After spin, I tested my calf by doing a lap around the parking lot with almost no pain.

This morning was the real test though. I wanted to run 2 miles, so I went to the track. That way, if I had to stop, the farthest away I’d be from the starting point was 200 meters! To be honest, I was expecting running to be painful. And it wasn’t. Thank goodness! At least not for the first mile. My calf started hurting a little bit after that, so I called it quits after a mile and a half. I didn’t want to push it-that’s what race day is for!

All I could think of today-legs don’t fail me now!Not after all this work!

Then tonight at Crossfit, I felt no pain and was able to do everything, which I am ecstatic about. I ran 1400 meters total during Crossfit, so my total mileage for the day was almost 3.

So the verdict? I’ll be fine by race day. It starts hurting when it gets tired so the next step is rebuilding strength. I’ll be good to go for race day, but the rate of healing will determine how ugly the race and aftermath is. I can’t help but think I jinxed myself by ordering this shirt:

So the plan? Crossfit tomorrow morning. If it still feels ok, I’m going to try for 1.5 miles. Then, I’ll try another 1.5 in the evening. I want to get the mileage in, but having recovery time will really help. Of course I’ll back off if I feel pain. My family and I are going to San Luis Obispo this weekend, so Saturday we have a hike planned. I found a great route for my run on Sunday. It’s a 5 mile loop, which I’ll attempt to run, but walk as necessary.

Ok, enough of that. On to the food!

I had a great salad from Cooking Light the other day- an Avocado Cobb salad! The dressing was made with creamy avocados, and the salad included chicken breast, hard boiled egg, avocado, goat cheese (it called for bleu but that freaks my mom out), and tomatoes. It called for bacon, but I don’t eat it and the only bacon we had was gray…so we subbed chicken sausage, which was actually quite delicious!

Wednesday night I went to the Giant’s game. They lost, booo. But that doesn’t take away from the delicious food offerings at the San Francisco ballpark!

For dinner, a Cha-cha bowl. It’s rice, black beans, and chicken breast topped with a veggie slaw (with pineapple!). They were able to make mine without rice and with extra veggies-yum!

We also enjoyed some unpictured garlic fries-I mean it is a ballgame, right?

And no AT&T park visit is complete without a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae. If that doesn’t taste like San Francisco, I don’t know what does.

And of course a windy selfie. Only in SF would you bundle up to go to a mid-summer baseball game. I broke out the leg warmers and uggs, sweatshirt, fleece Northface, and a blanket. Brrrr.

Sadly, all the ballpark food (ok, probably mostly the fries and sundae) left me with a stomachache today. I decided that I need to make more of an effort to base my meals off of fruit and veggies, so I decided a bowl of assorted fruit and sunflower seed butter would do the trick for breakfast.

Here’s an obligatory kitten nursery photo. The kittens are doing much better! They were all pretty healthy and VERY energetic. One little guy thought it would be the most fun thing in the world to constantly, out of nowhere, leap from the table onto my shoulder, which is a bit of a problem since we’re technically still on quarantine.

This evening, I went to a local farmer’s market downtown. I didn’t take a ton of pictures, but I thought you nut butter fans out there would appreciate this vendor:Maybe I’ll have to try butterscotch sunflower seed butter! I wish my face didn’t hate nuts…Last year I got my dad chocolate bacon peanut butter.

I also got some beautifully delicious figs. I love figs but they’re always super pricey at the grocery store.

And another highlight?

Mini pies. Sweet potato and lemon strawberry. They were just perfect, and not too sweet.

I’ll leave you guys with that! Have a great Friday!