What is More Than How Many

Date: August 23, 2013

Author: astottler

Hey guys! I owe you a no sugar challenge recap. But how about a post no sugar challenge recap as well?

I haven’t talked much about the no sugar challenge since the beginning. Usually, this means it kind of trickled out of my mind and I failed. But THIS time, I actually finished. For this challenge, I defined “sugar” as “sweets or desserts.” I enjoyed it, but I didn’t realize the impacts it had until POST no sugar challenge.

As many of my longer time readers may have picked up, sugar is an issue near and dear to my heart. So much so that I want to spend my life studying it. I’ve always been sensitive to sugar. I’ve done a lot of research into its metabolism. I’ve done quite a few no sugar challenges in the past. But this, in a way, may be the last.

So, let’s talk numbers. At the end of last week (the end of the challenge) I was feeling leaner. I initially thought it was because of my weight lifting schedule-it was a more intense week than the week before. However, I was annoyed because the number on the scale didn’t really change. That’s kind of the story of my summer. I posted a while ago about the weight I gained recently. I gained that weight through a bout of horrible eating habits. Over the summer, I exercised a lot, including training for a half and starting Crossfit, and really cleaned up my diet. I expected the weight to just fall off-I was eating so badly for a little while that I figured any improvement would have that effect. However, over the course of the summer, I lost maybe 2 pounds. How was that possible?

The mirror, however, told a different story. I definitely looked slimmer. The difference was the muscle I build through all the lifting and exercise. Showing once again that WHAT is more important that HOW MANY.

And back to the no sugar challenge. Although the number didn’t change, I felt and looked better.

Flash forward to almost a week post-challenge. I ate my first sweet. And I. Felt. Awful. It’s really easy to forget how something really makes you feel. But that’s not all. (Keep in mind, I’m super sensitive to sugar, so these reactions won’t happen for a lot of people.) This week, I’ve continued in indulging in sugar. Nothing too crazy, but desserts regularly.

I feel like a different person. I feel like my body fat has gone up (but still little change on the scale, mind you). I’m on edge. I don’t feel in control. I feel sick. One cookie is enough to give me a stomachache-and make me crave more. Now let’s talk about what I’ve been eating this week.

Carbs. Lots of carbs. All carbs. Very few vegetables.

But here’s the real zinger. I confess-I count calories. Why? Quite frankly, because I suck at intuitive eating. And I like data. Cold, hard facts. Am I accurate counting calories? Probably not. But that’s fine with me. I’m consistent, and that’s all that matters. I know how many my body needs in my counting system. So it works for me.

Back to the point-numbers don’t lie; I’ve eaten a similar amount of calories last week as this week. But those calories were oh so different. Fresh fruits, veggies, lean protein versus carbscarbscarbs and sugar. And my body is reacting to the two things very differently. Once again, WHAT I’m eating matter more than HOW MANY calories I’m eating.

What’s the point of all this? I know it’s been said before, but once again, A NUMBER ISN’T EVERYTHING. Sure, calorie counts and numbers on a scale can give you a rough check in, but it’s stupid to focus on them. There’s SO MUCH MORE to the equation than numbers.

Think of this-

4+4=8

4×4=16

Both equations include fours, but the result is very different; there is another factor, the operator. If you eat exactly 2000 calories a day (the government recommendation) and are exactly the perfect BMI, are you healthy? What if those 2000 calories are just doughnuts and cheetos? What if you have very little muscle and excess body fat? Is that the same as a person who eats 2000 calories of local, organic produce, lean protein, and low sugar, lifts weights, and is the same weight?

Health is so, so much more than a number. And EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT.

Keep that in mind when I say this-I could see myself living a no sugar life, long term, more than just a challenge. I’ve said it before, I’m super sensitive to sugar. One cookie is enough to send me off the wall-jitters and mood swings. If that cookie works well in your lifestyle-GO FOR IT! We are not the same people! Sugar can definitely be part of a healthy lifestyle-and it is for most people. But I don’t know that it is for me.

(Excuse the awkward tween picture.)

It’s not about body composition-it’s about health. Physical and mental. When I eat sweets, I lose control. It messes with my hormones-I’m super emotional and I crave sweetssweetssweets. I can envision a very low-sugar lifestyle. I’ve never regretted not eating a sweet. I feel better when I don’t eat them. I think it would be sustainable FOR ME.

As bloggers, we expose ourselves to all kinds of comparisons. I sometimes read a blog thinking-if this person can eat sugar and feel great, I should be able to too! But in reality, we can’t possibly make that comparison. We share a passion, not a body. We have different lives, different metabolisms, different circumstances. Just because one thing doesn’t work for me, doesn’t mean you all should stop eating it. Or because the blog world is obsessed with some food, it doesn’t mean I should jump on the bandwagon if I or my body don’t like it.

Hopefully you’ll think about what I said. Going forward, I’m hoping for sugar to play a minimal role in my life. (Don’t make big decisions under the influence of alcohol-how about under the influence of a sugar high?) I want it to be a non-factor. Hopefully, I can hit you guys with some lower sugar recipes in the future as well-don’t think I’m going to miss out completely on all the fall treats!

Thoughts?

WIAW-Dessertless

Date: August 13, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! That means, it’s time for another edition of What I Ate Wednesday. Thanks so much to Jenn (who is welcoming a new little human to the world pretty soon!)

I’ll make this post pretty short-I need to study for tomorrow’s Psych final! But all you really care about is food anyways, right??

One quick aside-I went to yoga today. Owwww. I haven’t been in over a month and I’ve gotten soooo tight! Lack of yoga could definitely contributed to my calf problem-it felt much looser after class. I need to make weekly yoga a priority as I train for my next run! And just to clarify-I’m only doing the half of the Nike Women’s marathon. To be honest, my feet couldn’t handle more than that. Exhibit A: It’s a week and a half since my last half and I’m still waiting to regain some of the feeling in my toe. So until I get that figured out….

Ok, onto the food. As you may know, I’m doing a no sugar challenge this week. I’m not doing 0 sugar, just no desserts. So a lot of my eats will feature healthier, no sugar “desserts.” Enjoy!

Breakfast burrito pre-roll. Tip: make the eggs for this in the microwave. It saves dishes and time-the texture is only a tiny bit off and you can’t even tell in burrito form.

Breakfast burrito post-roll.

Lunch sides require their own plate.

Tortilla pizza fail-I sort of overestimated the amount of toppings necessary. This was all cheese and sauce. Whoops…First “dessert.” I’ve been loving my fruit bowls lately-especially anything with peaches and banana, topped with sunflower seed butter. Indian food out of a pouch-hey, good enough for me!

Imitation coconut Chobani. I can’t find anything but the coconut flips, so I took matters into my own hands. After attempt #1, this was spot on. I used Oikos vanilla greek yogurt, which was a better choice because it’s slightly sweeter than my normal vanilla yogurts. I added unsweetened coconut and, this was the key I was missing, coconut extract. I then let it sit overnight so the coconut would soften up. DELICIOUS.

I’ve been loving my lunch plates lately. Where’s the other half of the English muffin you ask? I had the biggest fail splitting it, so it came off in chunks unfit for the toaster.

I took it as a great sign that I was craving grapes for dessert after this meal. I’ve also been loving my dried mango lately (the unsweetened kind). But that could just be major mango withdrawals-I haven’t found much fresh mango lately.

Cheesy polenta with mushrooms, a side of asparagus.

Another delicious fruit bowl as a post-softball snack. (I finally hit a homerun!)

Imitation PB&J crackers. Sunflower seed butter and a raspberry on top of a whole grain and seed cracker.

And I’ll leave you with this 🙂 How can I possibly study with that face to distract me?

Sorry for the short-winded post, I have lots of studying in my near future!

What’s the best thing that happened to you this week? What does your cat look like? Have you ever gone dessertless? Results?

R&R

Date: June 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How’s everyone’s weekend going? On the one hand, I feel like I’ve had a very productive weekend. On the other hand, I also feel like I have spent a good deal of it sleeping, although sleep is definitely productive in my book! As I said before, last week was kind of a rough week, and it is finally watching up to me! Or maybe this whole quarter of not sleeping enough (and for no good reason either, now that I’m not doing crew! Oh well, Spring quarter here is a thing-it is super relaxed!).

Friday night, I dressed up and actually wore heals for my sorority’s fancy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I’m not really sure what I think about the Cheesecake Factory. To be honest, it kind of intimidates me! My sister is in my sorority, and since we were sitting together, she suggested we order an appetizer of guac. And we all know that is one thing I am not going to pass up on!

I since we had an appetizer, I ordered an interesting sounding salad for dinner. It had a bunch of different veggies, including beets. I am convinced that I can like beets, I just need to find the proper preparation for me. I was about to dig in when I exclaimed to my sister, “Oh no, I’m being a bad blogger!” I then proceeded to grab my phone and snap a picture. This picture does not do this salad justice- it was massive!

I wasn’t planning on having any cheesecake, but after a few bites of my sister’s mango key lime cheesecake, I was convinced.

For the record, before taking this picture, I warned her it was going on the blog! The cheesecake was delicious but SO RICH. We saved the leftovers to take home to her boyfriend. However, my sister reminded me AFTER the cheesecake that we still had to run that time. Heh.

I was very concerned for the run, but it turned out to be fine. We ran on a Friday night during prime party time, and it was interesting to run by party-goers. We got a whole bunch of “Why are you running now?”

Saturday was a fairly productive day, at least in the morning. I had plans to work out after lunch, but then a 4 hour nap happened, and I ran out of time before my evening events. Hey, if I am going to sleep for 4 hours, I obviously need it! Hence the R&R. I’ll have plenty of time for exercise in a week!

First on tap for Saturday night was a banquet for my dorm. We all dressed up and enjoyed a dinner of non-dining hall Greek food!We also did Superlatives which was a ton of fun! Some of them were hilarious, and all of them were spot-on. Surprisingly, mine was not “Most Likely to be Awake at 5am.” Here’s mine:

How cute is that?

After dinner, we watched a slideshow. We saw pictures from move-in day in the fall! It was so sad! The saddest part though was a song. There is a guy in my dorm that writes parodies of popular songs, with the parodies being about how awesome out dorm is, and then performs them with his guitar. We listened to all the songs from this year, plus a new one that was sooo sad. I am going to miss all these people so much! I never really realized what a great community I have in my dorm.

After that, I went to a sorority party planned by the pledges. We used my theme idea-neon. Hey, I’ll take any excuse to wear workout clothes!

I slept unusually late this morning, and am considering taking another nap. I don’t know what it is!

Also, I just wanted to clarify something. I’ve posted before about my No Sugar challenges, and I want to discuss a little bit about the reasoning behind them. It isn’t because I believe sugar is an off-limits food that should be avoided at all costs. I’m all about eating whatever you want as part of a balanced diet. It’s not that I think “Oh no, if I eat any chocolate, I’m going to gain so much weight.” The reason is that I have a really bad physical reaction to sugar. The worst is it makes me literally crazy-it completely alters my hormone levels. It also raises my body temperature. Yes, I actually get a measurable fever from sugar, I’ve tested it. I have trouble thinking clearly as well, and I get stomachaches a lot of the time. It also has this very addictive hold over me- whenever I eat it, it is hard for me to stop at a reasonable amount. And the newest thing- since I’ve been eating sweets this week I’ve had this nagging headache, which is really irritating. It can’t be a coincidence that it started exactly when I started eating sweets again. So that’s my rationale. I have a very strange and purely physical reaction to sugar, and most of the time it just isn’t worth how it makes me feel. In the future, I don’t intend to never eat sugar again, but I feel more sane when I avoid it!

(Because this post didn’t have many pictures!)

Do you have a food that makes you feel yucky?

…And the World Didn’t End

Date: May 28, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First of all, Happy Memorial Day everyone! I want to take a minute to remember all those who have made sacrifices to our country.

memorial day.gif

(Source)

My day has been rather low-key. I actually got to sleep in today, and got 10 hours of sleep! When was the last time that happened?? Unfortunately, my allergies were going crazy this morning. Naturally, that would happen the same day I run out of tissues…I’m not sure what I might be allergic to or why it is such a problem all of the sudden, but it sure is annoying!

I planned to take some homework with me to the dining hall so I could grab brunch and then do work until I was ready for the gym. I ended up having a larger brunch than planned, so I was there for a good two hours, reading about Darwin’s finches (I’m in a class about evolution).

Upon arriving at the Spin bikes, I quickly realized that I was missing part of the shoe that would be integral in using my new shoes. I guess there is some clip that screws into the shoes. I am obviously so knowledgable. My wonderful mother went out and bought one for me though, so whenever I see her next, and I will finally be able to try my shoes!

(Source)

It looks something like this.

I did a short workout at the gym- 2 sets of 10 minutes on the erg, with the stroke rate 18, 20, 22, 24 for 4′ at 18, then 3′, then 2′, then the last minute at 24. I followed that with 10 minutes of abs. Why was my workout short? Because today kicks off my half marathon training! I am going for a 3 mile run with my sister pretty soon! In 10 weeks I will be running 13.1 miles!

I spent most of today doing laundry. Unfortunately, after my first load in the washer, there were no dryers free, so I attempted to hang everything in my room. Luckily, now everything is in the dryer! I usually do laundry early in the morning before everyone is awake, but I slept in today so that wasn’t really an option.

The only other noteworthy thing from today- I ate dessert. I’ve gone more than 3 weeks without, but I finally caved. I had a chocolate avocado cupcake and some dark chocolate. And you know what? Nothing happened. Sure, I feel a little sick, but the walls didn’t crumble around me, and I didn’t eat an entire batch of cupcakes. Nothing tasted quite as good as I was expecting. I also realized that I am probably eating too many sweets that aren’t technically desserts, like muffins and pancakes. I intend to continue avoiding sweets after this-I just don’t feel that great; however, if something is amazing, I might try it. The biggest downside- I had wayyy too big of a snack recently giving I’m running in 30 minutes. Ugh. Oh well, what can you do? Sorry I don’t have any pictures from today. I’ll compensate like I normally do, with an adorable kitty picture! (And only 2 weeks before you guys get ‘fresh’ kitty pictures!)

How I Gave Up Desserts

Date: May 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m not going to go into today’s eats much today…maybe tomorrow. Plus today included a ton of snacking (which is always a bad sign for me). I woke up this morning for Spin, but barely. I seriously wanted to crawl back into bed. But I went. And I’m glad I did. And it was raining! What the heck? This is California, darn it! On another note, my bike is causing me great annoyance, which is a problem considering campus is HUGE and I definitely need to bike everywhere. First, my brakes started jamming. The front brake will brake just fine, but when I stop pressing on the brake, it won’t go off. Awesome. So I have to reach down to the wheel and pull the little spring-type things apart manually.

(That thing.)

The good news? Upon further examination, I think this problem can be solved with a few pieces of well placed duct tape. Please tell me I’m not the only one who used to think duct tape was tape with pictures of ducks on it?

Also noteworthy: I tried Overnight Oats for the first time! I actually broke into them last night for a snack. I didn’t expect them to be so thick! Also, a note to first timer OOers, remember before you taste your first bite that the oats contain an entire container of rather tart yogurt.

I just had it with some sunflower seed butter. I had the other half today with some thawed blueberries and sunflower seed butter. I just opened a new crunchy sunflower seed butter, and it’s my new favorite!

Overall, I’m not a HUGE fan of overnight oats, but I would probably make them again. I’m thinking they have some serious staying power!

This afternoon was spent snacking (GAH I blame you again nap!) and looking into becoming a Spin instructor. The general requirements for group fitness at my local gym require a group fitness certification as well as 1 year of experience….but I have no experience, so I’m going to look into tons of other things.

And now onto the topic of this post. Some of you may recall that the night before my birthday, I declared I’d give up desserts for the rest of the school year. Now, it’s been almost 2 weeks! (My record is 3 weeks, for anyone that cares.) And to be honest? I don’t miss desserts at all. To be fair, I am still having some sweet things, but these healthier alternatives are still cutting my sugar intake and keeping me sane. In my previous sugar challenges, these are items I probably would have done without. But those have all failed. So this time, I decided to take a more low-key approach and allow some things. Like this deliciousness:

And I’ve had some granola with chocolate chips. And who needs oreos when you could have this beautiful combo? (Flax snacks with the sesame seed butter.)

Ok, I admit, this one kind of pushes the boundaries, as both items are sweet. But they’re almost gone. 😉

Another thing I noticed, a few days in to my challenge: a lot of things just tasted sweet. I had my yogurt+sunflower seed butter+pumpkin bread combo, and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been before. The point is, my taste buds have adapted and I don’t miss everything all that much. Ok, I know I’m painting this up to be all daisies and sunshine; there have been some very difficult things to pass up. Like in Yosemite when all my friends were eating Oreos and M&Ms. Or on my Mom’s birthday when the table ordered a ton of specialty desserts. But I’m glad I did choose to pass up. In the long run, I know this is better for me, and I’ve reached the point where it is mostly smooth sailing. That being said, maybe a few less ThinkThin Divine bars wouldn’t hurt. (Yeah. I had 3 today. But now they’re gone so that’s that.)

The point is, once your taste buds readjust, there is no turning back! I love healthier alternatives. Last quarter I had many bananas mashed with cocoa powder.There’s seriously one picture every day from the beginning of last quarter. (Try this one guys! I haven’t had it lately because my bananas haven’t stuck around long enough and because it was awesome with peanut butter. Which makes my face blow up. Just microwave a banana, and mash it up with cocoa powder!)

There are tons of healthy alternatives out there (and I will most likely spend my summer finding them). I’m still deciding what I want to do when my so-called “challenge” is over. I think I might continue. I wish I was one of those people who could have a bite of chocolate and be good to go. I’m definitely an all or nothing personality type. And eating sweets is a VERY slippery slope for me. Although you guys don’t see it on the blog, previous to teh challenge I was eating a ton of sugar. It just doesn’t usually stick around long enough to be photographed!

On another note, I’m considering trying Paleo again now that my yogurt phase has more or less come to an end. Every time I’ve tried Paleo for a few days, I’ve loved how I’ve felt. ANd to be honest, yogurt was a BIG reason why I didn’t want to try it again. Plus I’ve been feeling so-so with my food choices as of late. Thoughts?

Would you ever or have you ever given up desserts? What was it like?