Answers

Date: December 17, 2015

Author: astottler

I had an interesting day on Monday. As you probably know, I’ve been dealing with some sort of mysterious stomach condition since February. I’ve had tons of tests, and everything was coming up negative. There was one last test to try and since I was feeling significantly better I put it off until winter break because it took 5 hours. But the reality was although I was feeling better, I don’t feel like a normal person.

All this led to be fasting for 16 hours and then eating radioactive eggs.

It’s weird going to the doctor and having them feed you, right? I did a gastric emptying study. Basically, they fed me radioactive eggs that they can then track through my stomach with an MRI type of thing, over the course of 4 hours, beginning with a 30 minute long picture. The process was long and involved a lot of waiting, but was relatively painless. While waiting, I googled symptoms/treatments for delayed stomach emptying and found myself nodding along with the symptoms, so I wasn’t too surprised when the test came up positive for delayed stomach emptying.

After a follow up appointment, it sounds like this is likely what is causing the problems. Treatment is mostly managing the symptoms and changing eating habits. I basically have to avoid eating too much. I have to eat more mini meals throughout the day, instead of full meals. I’ve actually been pretty good about eating fairly light over break so far, and I think that has kept most symptoms at bay. So I will be eating lot of small meals, and soups (since liquid can be easier to handle).

Lunch today was a mini bowl of soup and a baby piece of cornbread.

I have mixed feelings about this. I’m glad to finally have some answers, but I’m nervous this lifestyle change will be either difficult to adhere to or won’t “cure” anything. When I think to how bad off it was when it first started, I can’t imagine that smaller meals would make a difference. Thankfully I am better than that, but the threat of that worries me. I just want to be normal! If mini meals might get me there, then that’s what I’m going to have to do. But I feel like at least for now the threat of a full on flare is still very present.

So what else have I been up to?

More soup-Greek lemon chicken. We added carrots and lemon juice. This was topped with chives and feta, and the feta linked all the flavors perfectly. On the side was Trader Joe’s Gluten Free cornbread (from a mix). I really liked it! With butter and honey.

My first ever flat white.

Peppermint hot chocolate with my sister from Peet’s.

Last night’s dinner: sage, chicken, and mushroom soup, with a gluten free rosemary roll on the side. The roll is from Mariposa in San Francisco. Yesterday my mom and I went up to San Francisco to go to the Ferry Building.

We started out with a gluten free lunch at Mariposa, and I got a turkey sandwich with cheddar and cranberry sauce.

We also stopped by the gourmet ice cream shop. I was hoping they would have olive oil ice cream like I had last time, but they didn’t so I settled for some delicious chocolate.

We wandered the shops a little bit before heading home.

Another food excitement—new energy bars! It’s nearly impossible for me to find bars that meet all my various restrictions, so when I saw a website for custom bars on Kaila‘s blog, I jumped at the chance.

I got mine with a date and sunflower seed butter base, and then had whey protein, chia seeds, chocolate chips, vanilla, and honey. SO delicious!

In terms of workouts, this morning I went to the track to do my simple 6x200m. Love the view from this track though!

The other night, I went to a fun Santa Themed spin class, which I dressed up for with Santa socks and a holiday bow in my hair.

I’ve also been going to my home Crossfit, which has been SUPER fun. My first workout back was Tuesday, and the WOD was 5 rounds of 400m run, 30 sit ups, and 15 back squats at 115#. This is exactly the type of workout I LOVE, and it was fun! However, I haven’t done a ton of back squats since hurting my shoulder (I think the first time I was able to do them was like a month ago?) so while the weight wasn’t too heavy, the underuse plus high reps has left me unbelievably sore! Man!

Currently, I am blogging from under both a cat and heated blanket. Winter break isn’t too bad!

Weekend Adventures

Date: June 21, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I start my summer job tomorrow, but this was a great kickoff weekend! I had some college friends stay with me, and it was an awesome time!

We started with a home-cooked meal of my guacamole salad on Thursday night.

Friday morning, we were up early to head into the city! (SF)

Despite the fact that I went to the Ferry building a week ago with another friend, that’s where we were headed!

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city.

I was actually pretty warm in my long sleeves and boots! Gotta love San Francisco.

We explored the Ferry building a bit before grabbing lunch. We are all very indecisive people, but eventually settled on a cafe. I had a beautiful rotisserie chicken, and an amazing salad with nectarines, feta, and dates. I will definitely recreate that salad for the blog!

We walked around about before grabbing ice cream to take outside.

I had olive oil ice cream with fudge sauce. I didn’t think I’d like the olive oil flavor, but it was delicious! It had a touch of orange, and the savory-ness of the olive oil had a similar effect as salted caramel does.

After enjoying the sunshine, we made the trek back to meet up with another graduated friend for dinner. It was a Mexican restaurant, and I had a delicious salad with cheese, avocado, pumpkin seeds, and chicken. Plus plenty of chips and salsa!

I also split a side of plantains.

Unfortunately, that night one of my friends had to leave, so the next morning two of us made the drive to Monterey. My friend returned from South Africa on Thursday (I picked her up at the airport), and I moved her into her summer apartment in Monterey.

On the way up, I had to offer her the true California experience by stopping at a fruit stand for cherries in Gilroy.

We rolled in around lunchtime, and hit up the Giant Artichoke for lunch. My friend had never had whole artichokes, so I showed her how to eat the leaves.

I’m so spoiled in CA.

For my main meal, I ordered an artichoke veggie sandwich and skipped the bread.

After lunch, we explored Cannery Row first by foot.

It was definitely cool out! Highs in the 60s. While walking, we saw a sign for “free chocolate tasting,” and wandered into a shop that offered chocolate tasting with a complimentary mini glass of wine for only $3!

We got to pick out which chocolates we tasted-mine were mostly caramels because I’m nut-free. The salted caramel was delicious, but I went home with the caramel apple chocolate-it tasted just like fall and was very unique!

Then, I showed my friend how to explore Monterey in style. In a surrey-a sleek 4 wheeled bike.

I had the pleasure of driving this bad boy.

It was a great way to get in some movement and take in the beautiful views of the water.

Neither of us was in the mood for a big-deal dinner, so we stopped at a little Indian cafe. I was hoping for more vegetables, but the food was good!

We were both stuffed by the end!

It was sad leaving my friend this morning, but it was such an awesome weekend full of friends and adventure!

What did you do this weekend?

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?