I Ran a Lot and Lifted Some Heavy Stuff

Date: March 8, 2014

Author: astottler

Happy Saturday! It’s such an incredibly beautiful day here! Which will likely hold lots and lots of studying for me! I’m sorry I’m back up on comments-it gets a little bit confusing with all the Quest giveaway entries! (You still have until tomorrow night to enter!) I’m so glad I’m doing the giveaway-I am constantly tempted to eat them but now I know I can’t! And thankfully my skin is returning back to normal!

I have a few random pictures that pretty much tell my story from the past couple of days.

New haircut.

New favorite breakfast-whole wheat pancakes with plain Greek yogurt and pineapple. I had to carb load up-I did my long run for the week on Friday afternoon, and I wanted to have a very light lunch before!

I drove to the same park where last week’s 5k was held. It was farther than I expected! But the weather was slightly nicer.

Last week:

This week:

For some reason, lately when I’ve been doing long runs, the goo I take makes me cough like crazy. I decided to try something new.

I taste tested these beforehand so I’d know what to expect. The verdict? They TASTE good but I have no idea how people eat these while running! They’re SUPER chewy, and I had some difficulty not even on the run! Since this wasn’t a race, I decided to use them anyways and just take a lot more time to stop and chew them which was a bit difficult…plus since a serving isn’t just a pouch, you need a way to actually carry them, which was a pain.

I used this little handheld water. I’ve used it before without problem, but for some reason every time I turned it upside down, it leaked. Which was unfortunate given it was more comfortable to carry with my watch hand…All in all, it was a good run! But…11 miles is far! It felt really far!

I took Advil beforehand for my Achilles, and it really helped and was a nonissue. My foot pain/numbness though was a different story. It started early and was pretty bad. At the halfway point I took out my heel inserts which help my Achilles, and it helped the foot pain. Even still, starting at mile 7 or so I had to stop every mile and shake out the pain in my feet. Since I’m doing longer distances now, I think I’m going to try and cut out sugar for the next week before my next long run to see if it helps!

Last night was very low-key for me because this morning I did the Crossfit Open workout 14.2! It was hard. Very hard. Harder than it looked. Like, I’ve never gotten so shaky in 6 minutes before. I used a box to reach the pull up bar, and I almost felt off a few times because my legs were shaking. The workout was this:

3 minutes of:

2 rounds of 10 overhead squats and 10 pull ups

If this is completed, in the next 3 minutes, so 2 rounds of 12 of each. If that is finished, then 3 minutes to complete 14 rounds of each. And so on.

I made it to the second round, and finished with 84 reps, 4 pull ups away from the moving on to round 3! Of course though, I did banded pull ups because I’m not that strong! One guy in my class made it all the way to the 4th round! I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sore. Yes, from 6 minutes.

I need to go study now and do a lab report! But first, I need to share this.

This dining hall parfait. Looks pretty good, right? I was expecting oreos on top, with yogurt, granola, and raspberries/raspberry jam. Umm…I was right about the Oreos and granola, but it also had cool whip and cherry jello…that was a little bit too weird for me! I’m really not a jello person, especially not cherry!

Jello-yes or no?

MIMM-Chocolate and Friends

Date: February 16, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday. Who has the day off? My weekend has certainly been marvelous so far!

Marvelous is..

Oatmeal! x2. Banana oats topped with strawberries, sun butter, and a dollop of plain yogurt.

Marvelous is…

An iced chai! I had every intention of spending the day working at a coffeeshop so I got a big chai tea! The only problem was that I for somer reason woke up much too early that morning and could barely keep my eyes open so I left for a nap…whoops. There went my productivity!

Marvelous is…

Trying a different dining hall for lunch! It was actually really good! They had about 9 types of cream cheese, which looked homemade. I tried the cinnamon raisin, triple berry, basil and olive, and chive and onion.

Marvelous is…

A dessert party! My sorority had a Valentine’s themed party on Saturday, so I got to dress up and eat delicious things. Fun fact-there are 3 girls in my sorority who seriously want to go to culinary school-let’s just say that we eat well!

Marvelous is…

A kick butt run! There’s no question I’ve gotten in better shape and faster in the last few months. I did the same run I’ve done a couple of times before-it’s one of my absolutely favorite places to run because it’s SO pretty! There’s a fairly big hill in the middle-the last time I was proud I kept my pace until 11:00 for the hill. I ended up powering up the hill around a 9:00 pace! And it wasn’t death!

Marvelous is…

A reunion with my best friends from high school! We actually went the same place the same weekend last year! (Sadly, it was the last day before I was sick for 2 months…)

Last year:

This year:

(Excuse my sweaty-just ran self)

But more importantly-the delicious food! We couldn’t decide between sweet or salty, so we got pancakes for the table to share.

Marvelous is…

Relaxing at home! I spent the day lounging around with these guys and watching the Olympics.

Things are going to get crazy starting tomorrow because I have loads of studying to do and a crazy amount of stuff to do this week!

Marvelous is..

Homemade chocolate for my family! And heyyy I finally took down the recipe for those interested!

Ingredients:

2 T coconut oil

2.5 T maple syrup

1 t vanilla extract

2 T half and half

1/2 c cocoa powder or cacao powder

1. Melt the coconut oil and maple syrup in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds and blend well. Then stir in vanilla.

2. Stir in cocoa powder and half and half (if the half and half is very cold, you may need to heat the mix up a bit).

3. Chill in the fridge on wax paper, or grab a spoon and enjoy!

Marvelous is…

Visiting my home Crossfit tomorrow morning! Yay!

What did you do this weekend?

Friday Things

Date: February 6, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Not the most creative title, I know. I wasn’t planning on blogging tonight but here I am again, in the laundry room. Which is fabulous because it means I’ll actually have clothes. More clothes. But also stupid because it means I’m guaranteed to be up past midnight doing laundry. I live a wild life you guys.

I’ve talked a lot about how amazing this project is and all the changes. But today, I’m going to get into the hard parts.

Guys. I am SO sore from doing hill sprints yesterday. Clearly a sign I need more sprinting in my life! My calves are donezo, and my hips are so sore! My achilles was bad this morning but it feels better now at least! I started my morning off with a spin class in my last pair of clean workout pants (hence the laundry).

Then-food!

I’d been dreaming about that fat, juicy orange since I saw it in the CSA box on Wednesday. The oranges we’ve gotten have been unreal, and this was no exception. I was a little too excited about it! Plus microwave scrambled eggs with manchego. Fancy cheese is life changing, and I need to stock up ASAP.

I was totally at a loss for what to pack for lunch. Then, I opened the freezer and remembered I had this, all packed up and ready to go! I’m a genius. And I forgot how much I love this lunch. It’s just so perfect. I need to make more lunches like these!

After a 4 hour chem lab, I was hungry so I ate food. A lot of food. Which was really, really stupid given I only had an hour before Crossfit…I wavered a lot about whether or not to go, but we can’t un-sign up within 2 hours of the class, and I’m not really sure what happens if you skip…

But as giant snack part 1, I tried making tapioca in the microwave with nonfat milk and dates. It was a totally success-totally delicious (although I put too many dates in so it was a little sweetener than I would have liked!), and it may have overflowed a few times, but I still downed the whole bowl.

I also had a ton of crackers with sunflower seed butter and fancy cheese (not together!). Which would have been just fine if I wasn’t about to work out and had just eaten my body weight in crackers and fats. And the workout today seemed particularly bad for these types of issues.

But by some miracle, it was totally fine, and I felt ok, despite burpees on burpees on burpees, wall balls, kettle bell swings, jump ropes, etc. No clue how that’s even possible. But at this point in my life I’ve eaten some really junky things before workouts. (The worst in my memory is cake with a lot of frosting…) Stomach of steel?

Since I had snacked so late, I was on the fence about another meal, but I ended up making up for veggies at the dining hall with a big plate of food.

SO FULL right now…

And then I had to make some homemade chocolate to celebrate. I got my chem test back today and I did much better than expected, which made my ~~life~~ week. Totally necessary. And homemade chocolate game changer? After making it (while melty still), adding a splash of half and half. Amazing.

And I finally captured a picture of the beauty. Also, note the presence of a real, non plastic spoon. This girl did some dishes!

This is a good segway into today’s topic-the struggles I’m facing on the project. I’d be lying if I said I always felt good. Like right now-I feel pretty gross. Even with cutting out processed food, it’s definitely still possible to overeat or eat badly. And sometimes I just want a cookie, darn it! I’ve gone through various mental struggles with this project, but the current thing I’m hung up on is what will happen post-project. I’m well past the halfway point, and definitely thinking about the future. I feel like I’ve treated this as my saving grace-what was going to change my life and get my health back on track. And I had amazing progress so far-but lately I’ve been eating a little too much of the wrong things. I’ve eaten a ton of dates, which kind of puts the foundation of the changes into question-limiting sugar. I think I’m the kind of person who constantly needs new motivation and a new direction to stick with things, and I think it’s time to refocus to really bring this thing home. But seriously-given that I feel kind of gross now, I have to worry how I can manage to feel good post-project. All those cookies I’ve passed up-will I be able to continue to pass them up? Or will I be right back where I started? If nothing else, this project has changed my perspective. I would have to argue that one of the reasons behind obesity in this country is availability. There is delicious, sugary food all around me. It’s taken all this to pass it up. But without the support and backbone of this project, how would I be able to? How would anon be able to? Warm, melty chocolate chip cookie with cool, creamy ice cream. That’s what I’ve been dreaming of!

And realistically, I’m not going to always remove myself from situations just to avoid foods. That’s crazy and I would have no social life, which definitely isn’t healthy.

So I guess what I’m struggling with now is that if I’m not currently eating the best or progressing with all these fancy guidelines and motivation, how will I continue to progress post-project? That’s something I’ll be thinking about for the next week or so. While I try to lay off the dates. And saturated fat. Heh.

What are your tips for avoiding treats at every corner?

WIAW-“If She’s Laughing it Can’t Be Good”

Date: February 4, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Happy Wednesday! I’m actually especially happy this Wednesday because by some miracle, I don’t have the 2 problem sets I normally have this week, OR a lab report. Which means my week basically ended after today’s midterm. In terms of the midterm-it didn’t make me physically ill, so I’ll take that as at least a decent sign! And as always, I’m linking up for What I Ate Wednesday!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting this weekly party!

Guys. I just want to say, I’m doing something crazy right now. Laundry. Go me! I had to push it until midterms were over, so now I have no excuses. And no underwear. Needless to say, it’s time! I’m just doing a single load though because that’s all I can force myself to fold in one night. Who needs darks, am I right??

But let’s talk about some food. And fitness.

Yesterday morning I did a track workout-10x400m repeats. Nothing crazy. I may have eaten a bit too much the day before and felt kind of sick during them, so I didn’t push them like crazy.

Breakfast was amazing, and a new favorite. Full fat, super high quality Greek yogurt, sunflower seed butter, and berry compote (frozen berries reduced down on the stove). Amazing. Just like PB&J!

I’m going to run through the food from the last couple of days in no particular order-I had some snack days, and not everything was captured or necessarily a full meal!

Brussels sprouts with butter and parmesan, and an apple. Yeah, doing tupperware dishes is on my post-midterm to-do list as well…

Cheese and crackers, and a blood orange. We got fancy cheese at our marathon Whole Foods expedition, and they certainly have not disappointed. These two are manchego and goat gouda. And crackers never tasted so good-for the last 2 weeks, the only snacks I had very sweet things, like fruit, yogurt, and nut butter!

More brussels, more parmesan. Eaten cold. In retrospect, they probably would have been better hot…

But the microwave was in use-I’ve been dying to try making oat pancakes for the longest time! And all I have is a microwave…

It’s kind of hard to evaluate how they turned out. They might have been really awesome on a griddle. Or with the oats actually ground up. The flavor was fine-lots of vanilla and slightly sweet! Oooo I bet they would have been awesome in a waffle maker…

In the microwave, they just didn’t quite solidify. The recipe was half a cup of extra thick rolled oats, half a cup of unsweetened apple sauce, an egg, vanilla, and a pinch of baking powder. I’ll have to try these again at home sometime! (Or sneak my batter into the dining hall…hmm).

I roasted some blueberries in the microwave for topping, plus some whipped butter.

Because sometimes you just want pancakes for dinner! I also bet these would have been even better with maple syrup-the butter kind of got to me for some reason! Mmmm or nut butter…moral of the story-microwave pancakes are hard to do!

Last night, I ended up going to the gym pretty late-as in, 10:30pm. I did an hour long spin workout-instead of a set playlist, I plugged in an hour long race playlist and just rode whatever felt right. As a spinner, I think these types of rides are especially important-figuring out what works with what, and just enjoying riding on my own an kicking my own butt. The only late night workouts I’ve done have been spin, and I actually really like it-I feel like I get extra adrenaline!

This morning, I was up bright and early to train quidditch. I always forget how much I enjoy it! And torturing them. We did a new conditioning today-and when I was explaining it, someone remarked “If she’s this happy, this can’t be good!” It was great-we really took it to the next level today with a tabata of thrusters and push ups. It’s amazing how fast these exercises get difficult when doing tabatas! My sister’s boyfriend was evening failing on the push ups by the end-and he regularly does push ups with her sitting on his back! Major success in my book 🙂 I think I’m going to do their leg workout myself this weekend. I haven’t actually done the full sequence, and I’m craving more intense workouts right now.

This pretty much sums up my morning-coffee and chemistry.

Lots of yogurt. Lots of sunflower seed butter. Lots of berries. Perfection.

Semi-homemade guacamole with carrots and the following crackers. For the guac, I just mashed an avocado with some fresh salsa.

Dinner after Crossfit tonight was a different one. We finally put some of our Whole Foods goods to use.

Roasted carrots.

And the crowning achievement-sushi bowls! My roommate suggested we try making sushi, and I suggested we just be lazy and throw it all into a bowl.

We threw some short grain brown rice in the rice cooker, and then mixed it with some rice vinegar for that sushi rice flavor. Plus some Nori (seaweed), toasted sesame seeds, steamed kale, avocado, cabbage, coconut amines, and tuna. The tuna was really good-we got some in a jar marinated with herbs and olive oil. I’m no usually a tuna person (I’ve lived with cats way too long to not associate it with cat food) but this was flavorful in all the right ways! Major win in my books! Plus-leftovers!

Also-I’m starting to really fall in love with running. Which is fabulous. My race was great. Aside from the result, it actually was fairly enjoyable. I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up until the last .5 miles, which was a huge improvement from my previous 5k where I felt really sick pretty much as soon as I took off…

But the biggest reason? I’m starting to feel fast again. I’m starting to feel like myself again. I’m freaking excited for tomorrow morning’s tempo run. I’m doing hill sprints later in the afternoon-can’t wait for those. I want to do sprints. I want to be fast.

These last few months of running (aka my whole “official” running career) have been sort of tough-I’ve improved so much, and definitely done distance I never imagined before, but the few extra pounds from my freshman year put a HUGE dent on my speed. Plus, my feet kind of hated me. To be honest, I credit my project for helping me find my love of running again-due to some miracle, my feet are cooperating and I cannot wait for my next long run. And to be honest, losing some weight is definitely helping. Heck, maybe that’s even why my feet are improving. But I have the desire to run-as an athlete, as a racer. I also think that with these continued diet changes, I could make leaps and bounds with my speed, which is exciting. Post-project, I’m not really sure what is going to happen. But for now, I’m going to roll with it.

(I really like this picture but I couldn’t come up with an excuse to include it…so here?)

What is your favorite pancake topping?

Teaching Yoga

Date: January 24, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Who’s glad it’s the weekend?? It’s a little bittersweet for me because my to-do list is off the charts…how is it already midterm season?? (As is reflected by my coffee consumption.) If I did this challenge without coffee, I would actually be dead.

For whatever it’s worth though, I am slowly catching up on sleep. Last night I went to bed fairly early and I took a nap today!

Let’s rewind on the food front a bit to last night first!

Nothing new here-I am still not tired of this!

Let’s pretend that this is an artsy shot and not just me being impatient. These pink ladies are from out CSA box, and they’re phenomenal!

After dinner I took a quick nap before yoga-and then had some unsweetened chocolate to wake me up.

Then-yoga time! I made up a sequence-with no clue how long it would take (it ended up being about half an hour but I cut it a little short).

Ignore my spelling and/or totally made up descriptions for things I couldn’t remember the name of.

It was SO MUCH FUN. I channeled my inner yoga teacher-I have one teacher who I’ve gone to for years, and can basically quote word for word. It was awesome-I felt strong and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t do anything that would reflect my lack of flexibility too much!

Kinda awkward picture but I’m the one facing everybody. This made me realize I need to do my own yoga practice! I’m totally capable of making a “class” for myself, and it felt so great! I just wish it were a little warmer so I could be outside!

Guys. I feel like I’ve made so many new friends already this quarter! It’s wonderful and it warms my heart.

This morning, I went to the gym for a treadmill workout. I did the one where I do a mile at my goal pace, and then 10 intervals of 2 minutes at a faster pace (with walking in between). To up the challenge, I did the first mile and 2 intervals at a 1.0 incline. It’s interesting-I’ve done this workout a lot and it varies a lot based on how I’m feeling. The first time I did it was over break, when I would do it AFTER spin. My legs felt kind of heavy when I woke up this morning, and man was it hard today. I’m thinking that’s most likely due to sleep deprivation. But at the same time, I think my running has definitely gone downhill in the last couple of months-all my distance training is gone, so I’ve lost a decent part of my endurance base. The frustrating part is that I really can’t do any long distance runs with my tendonitis at this point.

I had a few of my pre workout balls before the run, and then coffee after, plus this bowl of deliciousness:

Plain yogurt, pink lady apple, and sunflower seed butter. Plus a kiwi. I’ve eaten so many kiwis today! We’ve been getting them in our CSA box, but I never really ate them much! They’re super ripe, and definitely the best kiwis I’ve had.

I also took some ‘abs’ pictures today to have some visual record of this project. I think I’d really need a 6 pack by the end of 4 weeks though to have my abs circulating the Internet…yeah I should probably do some abwork…But still, I probably won’t post these pictures-it’s just to notice differences.

After class, I had every intention of working, but I ended up getting hungry early-weird because I ate a late breakfast. Since I was done for the day, I actually got to have a hot lunch!

Same old, same old with balsamic dressing on the asparagus.

After my nap, I did a little banana experimenting. I have an idea for next week’s pre workout balls, and I used a little mashed banana to test that. I know they’ll taste fabulous, but not sure how they’ll feel pre workout!

I had the rest of the banana with cocoa powder and yogurt.

Something about this snack just unleashed the hunger in me! Before Crossfit, I had a nice little meatsicle, some sweet potatoes, and some dried mango.

file:///Users/stottler/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Previews/2014/01/23/20140123-163711/zSfuddS1QoO2JZS77Q690g/IMG_6331.jpg

Plus, I’ve been having handfuls of this:

I think I’ve been having a little too much coconut and sunflower seed butter these last couple of days though-I’m feeling a little bit off from all the fat/fiber in the coconut!

Today in Crossfit, the WOD was wall balls and toes to bar (which I can’t do fully). For some reason, lately my usual 14 lb wall ball has been feeling insanely light. Which is funny because my arms have felt a little week lately-I can’t even remember the last time I did pull ups!

After Crossfit, I made a valiant effort to get the rest of the things I need for the blood sugar test, but I couldn’t find parking so I gave up!

I attempted my first dinner at the dining hall. I did reasonably well-the chicken rice soup said it contained wheat, which meant it was probably just a little to thicken so I let it go. Then I realized it was white rice, which is technically processed, but oh well. The real star was the black bean and corn salads-which I mixed together.

So-what does the future hold? Next week I want to try to go to the dining hall more-but it doesn’t always fit in my schedule and I still have an entire container of soup in the freezer-and I love soup for dinner! For breakfasts, yogurt or overnight oats with berry compote, or maybe dining hall food (eggs/fruit). For lunches, I still have a frozen meal, but I want to make quinoa fried rice-quinoa, tons of veggies, egg, leftover chicken, garlic, etc. Plus a new variety of energy balls.

Also-look out for a post about fat. That’s this week’s topic in nutrition, and I think it helps clarify a lot about the different types of fat!

And I’m sorry-I’m a little behind on responding to comments because I normally do that on my phone, but I got the updated app and it’s a little funky! I will get right on it though 🙂

Any suggestions on how I can get magically fast in the next week?

My race is next weekend! (5k)