Fed Up

Date: November 7, 2014

Author: astottler

I just finished rewatching the movie Fed Up. That movie is amazing-I think it is something everyone needs to see. It’s about the food industry and the obesity epidemic. One of the biggest things I really think was important was the discussion of our food environment. Junk food is everywhere we look. We are actively fighting to eat healthily. Given how addictive these foods are, this basically gives us no chance. (One study they brought up was roughly the following: mice were dosed cocaine until they became addicted. Then, they were given access to either sugar water or cocaine. 40/43 chose the sugar water. The COCAINE ADDICTED MICE chose SUGAR over COCAINE.) I wrote a research paper last spring on drug addiction, and I really examined the pathways of addiction. Half of addiction is dependent on environmental cues (for those interested, the glutamatergic pathway). How are people supposed to fight biochemistry? I definitely fall prey to my environment. And it’s not like you can just avoid the real world!

Ok, enough ranting for now. Today included a couple of things:

1. A timed mile

2. An “I don’t know what I want to do with my life” crisis

3. COFFEE

I went to the track first thing this morning for a timed mile. It’s been over a year since I did one. I also have done very little speed work lately, so there’s that. I was expecting it to feel terrible but it wasn’t too bad. Not as fast as I would have liked, but I’m also sore today (what’s new) so who knows how it would have gone. It’s fine though-a good starting point!

I was going to do a track workout, but my legs weren’t feeling it after the mile so I did a couple of laps of cool down and a few sprints.

Then, COFFEE. Track workouts mean a trip to my favorite coffee place I never go, since it’s on the way back! This cappuccino was amazing.

Then, breakfast was in the dining hall-banana pancakes with a bit of butter, eggs, and grapes.

Today I did something different-I spent my day phone less. It was exhilarating. Or maybe that was the caffeine…I was way more productive, although also somewhat lost. I was convinced it was a Wednesday…

Lunch was same old-same old. Grilled chicken with Greek seasoning from home last weekend, sage mashed sweet potatoes, and roasted asparagus.

After class today, I FINALLY got a haircut. My ends have been driving me crazy for far too long. Beforehand, I had some roasted carrots, a spoon of sunflower seed butter, and earlier a granola bar in class.

This is sort of embarrassing-after my haircut I DROVE to the gym. On campus. But I was already in my car, and I went to the far gym so…

I had to go though to practice my spin class one last time before tomorrow morning! It went really well, and I’m feeling pumped about my playlist!

Dinner back in my room was more wraps. One with salsa this time though, which was delicious! I just need some avocado now!

On the side, I had some sweet potato tortilla chips and persimmon.

And WHEW, now I’m ready for bed! I will say though, that movie really makes me want to cut out some more processed food!

Feelings on the food industry?

Let’s Talk About Food (WIAW)

Date: June 17, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I have a bit to catch up on but today, since it is conveniently WIAW, let’s talk about food.

And I’m not just going to blast everyone with pictures today-I actually have some things to talk about.

But first, since this is WIAW, I need to share a picture of the Boston Cream Pie I made for my sister’s graduation, although I’ll share details in a separate grad post.

I guess before I get too deep into my discussion for the day, let’s go through some other food from the week.

This has been my breakfast nearly all week. I started the break having toast with sunbutter+fruit, but since I was eating breakfast later than usual and had a regimented lunch time since I’m eating meals with my family, I wanted something that stuck with me less.

Plus, these are basically my two favorite foods so it’s working for me! Roasted carrots+mango.

Monday morning, I met up with my high school friend for a workout, followed my sandwiches. I got a turkey sandwich with avocado, on a whole wheat roll.

If you’re are trying to healthify a sell sandwich, I have a couple of tips-one which I followed, the other which I wish I had.

1. A lot of sandwiches these days are pretty saucy, and I don’t want to miss out! One way to cut back on fat/calories is to skip the mayo and mustard, and just stick with the sauces. I wish I had done this-it was pretty saucy!

2. Thin the bread. If you’re anything like me, the inside of the sandwich is where all the good stuff is (read: the avocado). Eat the sandwich open faced, or hollow out the bread. I probably picked off about half of the roll, and I didn’t miss it!

Today, my family and I went to the Ferry building in San Francisco because my grandma is in town and I wanted to see a movie that was only really showing up in the city.

My first stop was coffee! I got a delicious cappuccino, of course.

Then, after browsing around the little stands in the Ferry building, we stopped for lunch at Cowgirl Creamery, a fancy cheese store. I had a salad that came with a cheese crisp, and then my mom split a fancy macaroni and cheese.

And since there were so many interesting little stands, we stopped at a fancy doughnut place. My mom and I once again shared, and split a chocolate and a salted caramel. The salted caramel was especially delicious-something I’ve never had in a doughnut before! The doughnuts surprisingly seemed on the healthier side, as we didn’t feel too bad afterwards.

Ok. Now, onto the food talk and more pictures (I promise). The reason I went to the city in the first place was to see the movie Fed Up. It’s basically about how messed up our food system is, and how it is affecting the obesity epidemic. I agree so much with a lot of what was said in this film, and I highly, highly recommend watching it. It reignited my passion for change. I’m not sure exactly what I can do at this point to make a change (in the obesity epidemic overall), but I think I’m setting myself up to be in a position where I can actually do something. I’m at a university that has and will give me opportunities, and I like to think that maybe one day this little blog of mine might be a forum for change.

So what change? I think our food system is messed up, but I also think our food culture has problems as well. Food (mostly junk foods) is everywhere we turn. Everything is celebrated with food, food takes away our boredom, food commercials and advertisements are found everywhere. I also think one factor many people overlook is the addiction to processed food our country has in general. I’ve done quite a bit of research on the neural circuitry of addiction recently, and I think many people underestimate how strong of a hold this addiction has on people. The documentary interviewed one boy and his family. The boy was obese and wanted to get healthy, but it was a struggle. One scene shows his mother crying as she talks about how she knows to save her son she needs to get rid of the chocolate in the house, but she can’t exactly bring herself to do it. On the surface, she may seem like a terrible parent for choosing chocolate over her son’s life. But compare her behavior to that of an alcoholic with a child-is it really so different?

That all being said, I don’t think I talk enough about health in general and the obesity epidemic on this blog. To be honest, I’m not going to rant about how no one should ever eat processed food, while I post photos of a doughnut. I have no credibility. I want to make an effort to get more into this kind of thing in the future, starting with what is coming next-dinner+dessert.

The movie ended with a challenge to cut out processed food for 10 days-completely. I’m not sure what my next 10 days will hold (yayy moving across the country!) but I want to do my best, because I feel inspired and like I need to do something.

For dinner, we made a taco salad. I decided to whip up some fresh guacamole, but this time with a secret ingredient. A month or so ago I had the best guacamole ever, and it gave me some ideas for my future guac-ing.

The secret ingredient? Queso. I mashed it in and it made it creamier and so much more flavorful! Also into the mix went scallions, onions, tomato, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Fresh guac is the best!

Since there were extra veggies already chopped, I added them to the taco mix of taco seasoning, ground turkey, and black beans.

For the salad, I topped lettuce with a mix of lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and tomato, then the meat mixture, then cheese and guacamole.

This came together in no time at all! Real food doesn’t have to take forever to make.

The crowning achievement however was dessert. It got rave reviews from my whole family, and they basically ordered me to share. A no sugar, completely unprocessed hot fudge sundae. Yes, it can be done. I wish I had more pictures of the process, as opposed to just the finished product, but I’ll do my best with descriptions!

The “ice cream” was simply frozen bananas blended together very well to make banana ice cream-they get insanely creamy-it’s amazing!

The whipped cream was heavy whipping cream whipped up with a mixer, nothing else added. The fat adds plenty of sweetness.

The fudge was a bit more complicated, and I promise to have a better recipe soon. I threw a few ripe bananas into a saucepan and mashed them up while cooking them. I also threw in coconut oil and heavy whipping cream-probably could have done without the cream but I happened to have it on hand, and it came out a bit too creamy-and also a few squares of unsweetened chocolate as well as cocoa powder. No sugar, all real foods. Still delicious.

Another interesting thing-we all were SO full from this. If this had been a regular ice cream sundae, I guarantee I could have downed it without issues. It’s amazing how real food ACTUALLY fills you up, and ignites the fullness cues!

What do you think about the obesity epidemic?

WIAW-Day 2

Date: June 3, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! After the short week last week, does anyone else have difficulty wrapping their head around what day it is? Well, to celebrate the middle of the week, I’m linking up with Jenn for WIAW!

I actually have some slightly different and interesting eats this time-and after this week I promise things will improve even more because SUMMER.

Also-when i say Day 2, to what am I referring? Day 2 of no sugar (with one exception but it was very low sugar and it was fancy yogurt). Has anyone heard about the movie that is out now, Fed Up? I haven’t seen it, but I’m dying to. We all know I love bashing sugar-although mostly because I think sugar metabolism is the coolest thing ever. I guess I should restate that a bit though-I think added sugars in everything and the insane amount of sugar many Americans consume is leading to major health problems, and too much processed food (especially when filled with sugar) is seriously contributing to the obesity epidemic. I’m not fundamentally opposed to sweets in moderation-whatever works for you! Anyways, in honor of that movie and a paper I recently wrote, I’m trying a week without sugar. Clearly the best time to do this is during finals, right?? So that’s where I am. I have to say, when I stop eating sweets, I start to crave meat and protein…which is kind of weird, but for me it’s usually a decent sign that I’m being healthier.

I’m going to go over some food items from the last two days, for fun.

While I’m still going strong with my usual breakfast-yogurt+berries+sunbutter, this week I mixed it up. Instead of making the berries with mixed berries, this time I used frozen strawberries and peaches-and it came out SO well! I was pleasantly surprised!

This morning, I woke up bright and early for spin. I wasn’t sure if the class would happen since this is the last week-as in, I wasn’t sure when the last week was. Well, it didn’t happen, but not because the class didn’t exist, but because there was a huge power outage and the whole gym was closed because it was without power. I still wanted to do something since I was already up, and I hadn’t really taken good enough care of my Achilles the past day for a run (plus I think I need to be more in running mode) so I did a Nike Training Club workout from my app. I’ve done the same one about 3 times and it still kicks my butt. I think I might already be getting sore from it. I followed that up with several short sprints, and then COFFEE.

What is so sad is that with where I am living next year, I won’t be anywhere near my favorite coffee shop-or any coffee shop for that matter. I better stock up now, right? Where else do you find such a perfect cappuccino?

Yesterday, I did my big presentation for the quarter. It went super well! But afterwards, I was craving meat and protein. So meatsicle it was.

I also dug into my fancy yogurt. Since I’ve been on a lemon kick lately, when I was at the store and saw fancy local lemon yogurt (you know it’s fancy if it’s in a jar) and had to try it. This was my one “sugary” item-it only had 12g of sugars but probably about 8g of those where lactose-it definitely wasn’t very sweet! But definitely tasty!

Today, I actually had lunch with my mom. We went to a nice cafe sort of on campus. We split several dishes-a chop salad, a gouda arepa, and fried plantains. They were so nice and split everything on separate plates for us!

So good! Later, for “dessert” I had a plum and “pb&j.”

The “pb&j” technically had no pb or j. On European bread (which I oh so classily broke into small pieces) I spread some sunflower seed butter and some blueberry compote (which is just blueberries on the stove). It was good!

Sometime in the late afternoon I had a snack of bread with cheese and snap peas.

Crossfit tonight was rough. For strength we did power snatches but the WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of “Helen.” Helen is bad enough as it is-but 20 min??

“Helen”

400m run

21 kb swings

12 pull ups

For this, I decided it’s time to stop slacking off on my pull ups and ditch the band I had been using in favor of a thinner one. So the pull ups were definitely a bit of work, and required all of my strength effort-I actually broke them into sets of 3. For half of each set I used the thinnest band (which was HARD) and then for the rest of the set, I used the next thicker band. I’m really glad I am pushing forward on the pull ups. It was time to graduate from that band! I was sort of dead afterwards, and super thirsty.

At dinner, I chugged lots of water, and wasn’t feeling super hungry. I picked out a salad with chicken and roasted potatoes.

Since I wasn’t super hungry, the I just wasn’t feeling the salad at all, and I got what little meat there actually was off the chicken bones! I ended up having a couple of small whole wheat dinner rolls, because that sounded way more appealing, and I had already eaten plenty of veggies today!

In terms of the whole no sugar thing, I’m actually feeling much different-in a good way! I had kind of slipping into the “snacking on lots of chocolate” habit, so I feel much better! Hopefully I can finish the week!

And back to the pull ups thing-my goal is to be busting out some pull ups during WODs by the time I return from the summer. Maybe not the whole WOD, but at least some of it!

What your next fitness goal?