16.1

Date: February 28, 2016

Author: astottler

I’m knee deep (more like chest deep) in Biochem studying and my eyes are threatening to snap shut, but I wanted to pop in for a quick weekend/16.1 recap.

Friday Highlights:

Coffee with my long lost sister+lunch with my sister and mom for parent’s weekend. Tomato basil soup with cheddar plus GF bread with some butter and some cranberry spread.

Cat sitting for the cat my sister is cat sitting (it’s quite complicated). He’s a sweetie! I did an ear cleaning while I was there.

SMITTEN! AKA ice cream made with liquid Nitrogen. There’s now one attached to the local Whole Foods. My friends and I squashed into my tiny car for the drive. Sadly my stomach was not 100% so I only got through half of this, but it was amazing! Also for some reason I’ve been crazy sensitive to the caffeine in dark chocolate lately….

Saturday:

16.1!

I joined a big group for the 10am workout. I ended up actually signing up for the open at the last minute. For this workout, I did the scaled version because chest to bar pull ups are not a thing.

The scaled was all about speed, since the weight was light, but since the workout was long, pacing was key. Here’s scaled 16.1:

20 minute AMRAP:

25ft walking lunge with 35# bar

8 bar facing burpees

25ft walking lunge with 35# bar

8 jumping pull ups

One thing I really pride myself on is my ability to pace, and my decent endurance (thanks to running). People were quickly passing me, but I held steady and passed them by the end. The worst part of this was the lunges coming off the burpees. This was a quad burner for sure! Burpees have actually gotten a little bit better for me lately, so it wasn’t terrible. Plus, jumping over a bar with no plates is 1000x easier.

The surprise: the jumping pull ups were a major quad burner as well! Jumping after all those lunges? Yeesh.

I held a steady pace until my very last 1.5 rounds when I floored it. I got through 9 and a half rounds—I almost finished the last set of lunges but got no-repped on the 5 feet. I’m really proud of my score though—251!

This was SUCH a fun morning. This right here is the Crossfit community. I stayed for the next heat as a judge, and my scoree did awesome—she did Rx and crushed her goal! Unfortunately, I had to leave after that to clean up and grab a quick lunch.

New favorite thing: microwave hash with sweet potato (I got a purple one!), spinach, eggs, and fancy cheese. This is my cheese of the month!

I had to rush off because at the last minute, I got called in on to work at the vet. I was only there for about 3 hours, but they had been pretty short staffed. I really enjoy working there, and hope to find a more regular time next quarter! Luckily I spent most of Friday night finishing my take-home test so I had the hours to spare, although as I said before, now I’m knee deep in Biochem!

I spent some of the evening reading my textbook with a lonely kitty.

Sunday:

Doing my long run is not ideal the day after the Open workouts, but it is what it is. I thought I would be sore from the lunges, but I basically wasn’t. What was sore though were my jumping muscles in my calves; probably a combo of the burpees and jumping pull ups. I spent the time to drive to my favorite place ever to run. It is SO pretty there.

I mentioned this last week, but I’ve gotten spontaneously faster, even with an easy (in terms of effort) pace. I had my watch set to only show distance, so I wasn’t focused on pace. I’ll take it! My legs were a bit tired at the end, but everything felt good!

The rest of the day has been spent studying, plus a short break to go to a sorority alumni event.

And back to Biochem.

Anyone out there do 16.1?

Toes to Bar

Date: February 27, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guys. Any other Crossfitters out there excited for the open? I’m doing it first thing tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I wasn’t planning on actually signing up, but I did, mostly because I want guaranteed space in a crowded workout! I will definitely be doing the scaled 16.1 though because pull ups are not really a thing. At least not chest to bar, and not more than 1!

I had a super exciting moment Thursday though.

Less than 2 months ago, I couldn’t hang from the bar with my shoulder injury. Even before hurting my shoulder, I only did a few toes to bar ever (during the open last year!). The last few weeks I’ve been doing more core work, and last week I started working on some toes to bar before or after the Crossfit class. I got a few, but never more than 2 without having to rest.

When I saw toes to bar in Thursday’s workout, I thought I’d try them and do what I could.

Well, something clicked. The toes to bar felt awesome, and I ended up doing 48 in the workout! WHAT?? I was so excited, and was just having the best time with it.

Toes to bar coming in right before the Open? I’ll take it!

Thursday night I watched the open announcement. To be honest, I’m really not a fan. I think walking lunges are really impractical for smaller boxes. I’m not sure how my box is going to do it, but it’s definitely not ideal. I think we might have to do the lunges/burpees outside, and burpees on cement? Yuck.

In non-Crossfit news, I’ve had some fun food lately.

Mexican food in salad form. Look how beautiful the avocado is! Honestly I feel like taco shells dilute the flavor of the good stuff!

Giant chip. Love.

Yogurt. Blueberries+cherries. Sunbutter. This blueberry blend reminds me of waffles. Probably because I used to put something similar on waffles in the dining hall freshman year.

Lunch with my mom and sister. It’s Parent’s weekend at school. Tomato soup with cheddar, GF bread with butter and cranberry spread. My mom also sat in on my Sleep and Dreams lecture.

Eggplant lasagna, cod, veggies. The eggplant lasagna is awesome—eggplant in place of noodles!

The real highlight—ice cream date with my friends! We piled into my tiny car (it was not pretty) and drove to Smitten, home of the nitrogen ice cream. This ice cream is ridiculous. Unfortunately I’ve become crazy sensitive to chocolate lately (caffeine+maybe the other stimulant—theobromine), so I only got through about half of this, and still felt the effects. Seriously, this past week has been so bad on the chocolate front. I had a single ghiradelli dark chocolate raspberry square last night and felt like I was dying. Cool, body.

Well, it’s off to bed for me! I’m sure dreams of burpees, lunges, and pull ups will be running through my head!

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?

This is How I Eat

Date: January 4, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I had my first day of Winter Quarter classes! My schedule is weird this quarter in that I don’t have any classes before noon…

Today I wanted to talk a little about how my eating habits have and will continue to change as a result of my newly diagnosed stomach condition (delayed stomach emptying). My treatment is to eat half meals, instead of full meals. The easiest thing for me to eat is soup, which is why we made a TON of soup over break! I scoured the internet for Crockpot recipes and made my mom a Crockpot cookbook for Christmas, which included lots of soup! The first 2 recipes we made were winners. Tuscan chicken vegetable stew and tomato soup.

This had a bit of tomato paste, but also had fresh rosemary, fennel seeds, and balsamic vinegar. Served with gluten free parmesan toast.

The tomato soup was not ordinary tomato soup! It was full of shred carrots and zucchini, and had parmesan and skim milk stirred in at the end. I topped it with some shaved parmesan, but that wasn’t really necessary.

Today was my first day eating in this new manner at school, so I was a little nervous. Breakfast for me didn’t really change because I always eat something before and after working out.

Preworkout I had a slice of cranberry orange bread. I made this recipe at home over the weekend. I made quite a few substitutions because of my nut and coconut allergies, but it turned out well! I added milk chocolate chips to half and dried cranberries to the other half. Surprisingly, I actually liked the dried cranberry half better! To split the halves, I placed a spatula in the pan while I poured in each side, and then pulled it out. I marked the line with chocolate chips but you can actually see the half mark!

Anyways, before Crossfit I had a piece with dried cranberries. Even though I don’t have class until late, I want to maintain my early schedule and have a productive morning.

Crossfit was tough. Front squats for strength and then this WOD:

EMOM 8 minutes: 5 burpees, 10 Russian kb swings

2 min rest

10 minutes to complete: 30-20-10-30 wall balls, 30 double unders, 15 sit ups

I was cut off in the last set of double unders. Also—side note: I got my Crossfit sweatshirt! It’s actually the coziest thing ever and I’m pumped.

After Crossfit, I had some Fage 2% plain yogurt with cranberry sauce made from leftover cranberries from the bread.

For lunch, we had another new chef and so far I really like him! Since lunch was wraps, he made me a special one on gluten free bread. It was filled with chicken and grilled veggies, topped with hummus. On the side I had apple fennel slaw. I was a little unsure about how much to eat and the size of it. I ended up ditching the gluten free bread (all GF bread is not created equal) and think it may have been a bit more food than I should have had on that day at that time (so complicated). For “dessert” I had 2 slices of dried persimmon.

I had a perfect 40 minute break between classes for a snack so I packed a Raaw Macaw bar (custom made). SO good. My has a date and sunflower butter base, with chocolate chips!

For dinner #1, I tried my best to get a half meal and I think I did pretty well.

A bite of mashed potatoes, a few roasted veggies, maple glazed salmon, and salad with feta. For mini dessert, I had 1/4 of a peppermint bark bar (I proportioned a few desserts so it would be easier to keep track).

FYI, William Sonoma has the BEST peppermint bark.

An hour and a half later, I had dinner #2.

A persimmon with cheddar and doe honey roasted turkey slices. Plus a couple gluten free chocolate covered pretzels.

Overall, I’m proud of how well I did today given the new circumstances. To be honest, I’m a little anxious about sticking to this style of eating. Half meals are very much not the norm for me, so it requires a ton of control. All I can do is focus on the present and take it one (mini) meal at a time!

WIAW-Kauai

Date: December 29, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Greetings from Kauai! I’m here for the week with my family so I thought it would be a fun opportunity to dive back into WIAW.

This is from Monday! I began the morning with a short 2 mile run to get the blood flowing. This is mostly so I am not a grumpy mess with my family. I got it in before my family woke up thanks to jet lag!

For breakfast, I had a few taro chips for some carbs (hah) plus a couple of pieces of dried mango.

The main course was plain greek yogurt with sun butter and fresh passion fruit.

Plus fresh Maui Gold pineapple!

The morning was then spent at the beach. It was a beautiful day, after a lot of rain the past couple of days! I read my book, and then fooled around with a volleyball with my sister and future in-laws a little bit.

From the beach, we stopped at Chicken in a Barrel and had delicious freshly smoked chicken. With brown rice and coleslaw.

For dessert, I stopped at a roadside fruit stand for a chocolate dipped frozen banana with toffee.

Next on the agenda was dropping into a Crossfit class at Kilauea Crossfit.

Everyone was super friendly and welcoming! For the workout, we worked up to a heavy set of 5 strict presses. The WOD was Open 13.4: 7 minute AMRAP of 3 clean and jerks, 3 toes to bar, 6 clean and jerks, 6 toes to bar, 9, 12, etc. I chose 75# for the clean and jerks and just did knee raises. It was a good one, and a day later I am definitely feeling it! I finished the round of 12 + 1. We finished with some core work.

On the way home I picked up some dried papaya at the grocery store and snacked on some of that.

I also snacked on some local goat cheese and crackers before heading over to dinner with my future in-laws.

They grilled chicken and made some rice and veggies, and we brought a salad with goat cheese and dried cranberries, plus a pie.

As I just mentioned, we brought a pie for dessert. It was guava chiffon.

After dinner back at our condo, my parents and I shared some pineapple cider.

What’s interesting is how drastically different this day of food was from even a week ago when I was home during break. At home, I’ve been eating a lot of soup and small meals. This is partly because my stomach condition isn’t flaring at all now, but I definitely need to tread carefully while I’m here!

What do you eat on vacation?