First Day of The Quarter

Date: January 6, 2015

Author: astottler

Happy Tuesday! I’m currently blogging while sipping a cappuccino before my 9am.

Here’s an obligatory first day of class selfie. It was cold-hence the layers!

I started my morning yesterday with Crossfit. I was thrown back into our squat program on a good day-the weights were fairly light still! The workout kind of stunk. Unless you’re into burpee box jumps.

15 min AMRAP:

10 dumbbell snatches

8 burpee box jumps

6 toes to bar

I think I got 5 rounds? With toes to bar scaled.

It was 37 degrees. Fantastic. Luckily I only had ice on my back windshield.

Since I don’t like lifting weights on an empty stomach, I had some cranberry bread beforehand.

Then I had whole milk and roasted carrots after. I think that equals a wholesome breakfast if you add them, right?

My first class of the day is Physics, and it was fine. Lunch was grilled chicken, brown butter sage sweet potato, and cumin roasted cauliflower.

Then Physics lab. Most of my classes are Tuesday/Thursday at this point which is kind of weird! So today is a bigger day.

After class, I went straight to the gym to practice my spin playlist. It was good…except I had to nix 3 songs because that had one curse word. And there were no clean versions. This is why I have to practice the playlist ahead of time!

The afternoon was spent enjoying Netflix one last time before the quarter picks up.

Dinner-back at the dining hall. Salmon with capers, roasted sweet potatoes, and a really bland Southwest Caesar salad. For some reason, all the salads have no flavor. Oh well-2/3 of the meal was good!

I also enjoyed some Christmas chocolate while catching up with everyone. Here’s a question-do you guys all have a ton of holiday chocolate? My family does, but when I was talking about this to my friend from Tennessee, she had no idea what I was talking about. I guess it’s not a thing there to give your neighbors and relatives lots of candy and or presents? How about you guys?

In terms of life and classes this quarter….it’s looking busy. I’m currently enrolled in 19 units, but that may change, I’m on my sorority’s executive board, and I will likely be volunteering a lot.So we shall see how it goes!

Holiday goodies-do you have tons like my family does?

I’m Alive Again!

Date: February 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday everybody! Happy happy indeed. I have officially survived my week so I’m FINALLY back here. I had two midterms and a lab today, plus a full day of classes. This week was especially rough because I never caught up on sleep over the weekend thanks to some fabulous allergies. I’m going to do a full post-project recap probably sometime this weekend when I write up a paper for my Nutrition class, but in summary: the project made some great changes in my body. Eating horribly for a couple of weeks can undo said changes. Sooo I’m at square 1. My eating habits were more normal this week, although higher sugar than I’d like. I think I was craving it more thanks to lack of sleep.

Also-can I brag how semi-on top of things I was? I finished my lab report a whole day early, which meant my hell night only involved me staying up until 12. Although to be fair the problem set that was due today we got an extension on…

Anyways-what have I been up to? Studying. Not that much exercise. I just got back from the gym-I decided to do yesterday’s Crossfit workout on my own tonight and finished everything in about 40 minutes. BAM. Plus-no driving time!

I’ve been holding true to my Beta carotene promise.

Sloppy joe filling (turkey) with roasted carrots and roasted sweet potato on Monday. I went to my home Crossfit Monday morning. It was awesome. I was actually the only one there, plus 2 coaches! My shoulder has been bothering lately thanks to too many push presses, so instead of thrusters, I did front squats for a quick WOD of 21-15-9 front squats and burpees.

Track workout under the stars. I really enjoyed running in the dark. I had the track all to myself! (since it was dark…)

Carrots for breakfast, yogurt bowls for lunch. But actually. I had -2 seconds to run out the door to train Quidditch early Tuesday morning, and they were convenient to grab….

Delicious chicken vegetable soup. The broth is butternut squash!

Protein chocolate. I swapped some cocoa powder in my normal chocolate recipe for chocolate protein powder. Not bad but a little grainy.

I had this whole plan of how I was going to have protein bars for dessert at dinner this week…until I realized I was out of protein bars. So there’s that. Protein chocolate.

Roasted carrots as pre-run fuel. Are we sensing a theme here?

Post run fuel.

Hi I’m Aurora and I eat my lunches out of ziplock bags.

I’ve ordered lattes a couple of times lately. Not sure why. But this was kinda sad-all the milk foam gone in a single sip!

Vegetables. I’m out of carrots which is insanely depressing.

For some reason I thought it was a good idea to melt a baby Thinkthin bar over coconut flakes. It did not magically turn into a coconut truffle….where’s my fairy godmother when I need her??

I finally got my post-project giant gooey cookie. I had my elves fetch it for my last night while I was studying. In other words, I bartered out my ID card to a hungry college student. SO good. SO worth it.

Hopefully this is the last coffee for a while for me!

Eggs and gouda post-spin.

PB&J in a sweet potato. Kind of. Berry compote and sunflower seed butter. This was actually kind of disappointing. I would have preferred to just eat the sunflower seed butter and berry compote together with a spoon!

Uhh my excuse was I had a 4 hour lab and midterm that afternoon?

My lab got out after only 1.5 hours though which was amazing. I’ve been trying to curb my insane snacking as of late, so I ended up holding out a little on a snack and eating an early dinner at 4. It’s 5 o clock somewhere, right? Dinner is clearly what they’re referring to when they say that!

More soup plus a snack plate with crackers and gouda, and apple chips dipped in cottage cheese and sunflower seed butter.

Aaaand a close up of the action.

From this post, you could assume that I’ve down nothing but eat all week! That would be correct. I definitely haven’t been as active or gotten as much sleep as I would have liked this week, but the goal was to make it through the week, and here I am!

Do you crave anything when you’re sleep deprived?

New Loves and Eating a la Dorm

Date: October 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday everyone! I got a great night’s sleep last night, so I woke up well rested and ready to tackle the day.

Being the smarty that I am, I totally forgot to pack my lunch until I was walking out the door. Down side? I had to wait until after class and going to the lab to eat. Upside? No tubberware to sit on my desk and grown weird things.

A hummus salad, plus a million snap peas and a ThinkThin bar. Trader Joe’s has BY FAR the best snap peas! I ate a ton at dinner as well, and between that and freeze dried mango, I’m going to have to make a return trip soon!

After lunch, I headed out to get some Ochem work done. Guys. I have a new favorite place to study-my favorite cafe. It’s in the basement of a building, and they have amazing quick breads. Ok, maybe this new study place won’t be the best for my health, but it was perfect! Of course, I had to try their pumpkin bread. No shame.

I was there near closing-they close up the cafe, but there are still tables and chairs out in the open (inside). It was perfect-quiet, fairly deserted, and I had a table to myself to spread out. I liked that there were fewer people there than at the library-this may be my new study spot!

Which leads me to my next point. Being back at school has kind of facilitated a lot of reflection. Last year was rough. There’s no way of getting around it. I really realized that I’m in a really good place right now, both mentally and physically. Sure, I’m still working off the Freshman 15 (or for me, post-crew 15), but I have much better eating habits, and I know that in time I’ll get there. Being an athlete was hard-and this is going to sound kind of bad (sorry Mom and Dad), but I feel like one of the experiences I really missed out on last year when I was rowing was being a student. I have a tough class schedule with a lot of work, but I’m not stressed because I know I actually have enough time to get my work done. Before I went to college, I always imagined myself in a grandiose library or coffee shop for hours-something I simply never had time for last year. I have a lot of work this week…so I simply went to a cafe and worked for hours. It’s amazing to actually have time and energy to do all the reading, and take the time to understand the problems. While at times I miss rowing like crazy, I know it just wasn’t good for me to spend that much time doing. I feel like I have a good balance right now-I don’t have a ton of extracurriculars, and while I feel like “Oh, I should!”, I really don’t need that in my life right now. I’m happy where I am, and nothing really calls out to me. I guess I do a lot of things on my own-Intramural flag football, Crossfit, yoga, training to teach spin. Plus, I’ve had the time to just sit down with people in my dorm and TALK. Sure, there were a few nights last week where I didn’t get enough sleep, but some of the time was spent bonding with my hall mates over our love for guac parties. And that’s important too. As far as eating habits go, I’m in a better place also, but I’ll elaborate at that at the end.

Crossfit tonight was…interesting. I went to the later class, which I really liked because it gave me more afternoon time to work on Chem and it was less crowded. The strength portion was right up my alley- low reps and HEAVY. We went to 90% max back squats, 1 rep every minute on the minute. The WOD was a weird one-liners, atlas stones, and pull ups. First of all-I’m never going to the later class again if there’s any running involved. It was DARK. We had to run to faint chalk lines in the dark parking lot, and it was…interesting. I didn’t die. So there’s that. Atlas stones are definitely not something I’ve done before. You basically pick up a heavy concrete ball off the ground and onto your shoulder. These were hard! My “baby ball” got confiscated halfway through the workout, and it took me several tried to get the technique down for the heavier ball.

GUYS. I a literally SO CLOSE to being able to do a pull up. I can basically do a kipping pull up-I’m sure I could do it if I spent a little time trying and getting my timing down (I only tried like 2 times and was only inches away). I want to be able to do pull ups SO BADLY. I’m going to do a little work on the assisted pull up machine tomorrow after spin.

I also want to discuss dorm eating a little bit. I’ve been avoiding the dining halls a lot more this year-or I get back after they’ve closed (like tonight). I don’t trust myself to make good decisions on a regular basis-it’s just easier and less to worry about if I don’t put myself in bad decisions. With that being said, my eating habits are definitely more on the snacky side. I just focus on getting a total of all my food groups in, and to refuel accordingly after workouts. For example, tonight I wasn’t super hungry so I made hot chocolate with almond milk and a scoop of protein powder (and cocoa and honey).

For a vegetable, I ate a ton of snap peas. These were my carbs:

This is one of my more unconventional meals-I do a ton of egg scrambles too, although dinner is usually at the dining hall.

I would like to cut down my sugar intake a little, especially the later at night sugar-I struggle the most with any free food. It isn’t conducive to sleeping, and isn’t really necessary. I don’t really have many sweets in my room (besides pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin butter), so it’s really just the sweets available in life. I’m not super concerned though-my mood is for the most part good, which means I’m not eating enough sugar to screw up my hormones. College really just is about making good choices-not necessarily perfect choices. For example, I skipped out on cookies at my sorority meeting, but I’m getting boba with my sister later tonight because we haven’t talked in weeks. It’s also about planning ahead-packing enough food to get me through the day.

And onto ONE last topic-my love for running. I actually have fallen in love with running. This love didn’t come until I was running my last race.

Throughout the training for my first half, I really had to will myself to get out there on those runs. Now, I don’t mind them at all-and I look forward to the long runs. It probably helps that I’m in way better running shape than when I began training for my first half-but I’m really loving my runs. I seriously felt like I was FLYING on my 9 miler. And I cannot accurately describe how excited I am for my race coming up. I’ve gotten so much faster and stronger since my last one! Looking beyond my half…I kind of don’t know what to do with my life. I have some short races planned-I want to PR my 5k in December, but beyond that, nothing. I kind of don’t want to lose all the endurance I’ve built, but my body could probably use a break. I’m tentatively searching for a half for late winter/early spring. Another thing-my running would probably be better if it was my priority…and while I do love it, weight lifting really has my heart. This means my runs are usually with more tired legs, which stinks at the time, but come race day when I’m well rested, it definitely helps!

WHEW that was a lengthy post! I’ve paused 2 times writing this, and now it’s late so…that’s all folks!

What difference has a year made in your life? Favorite form of exercise? MUST DO race suggestions? I kind of want to do Rock n Roll Las Vegas…

And 6 Weeks Later….

Date: April 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guess what?? I’m back at school. Like a normal student. I’m all better now, living at school, and taking a full load of classes again. I got sick 6 (?) weeks ago and now here I am again! New quarter, fresh start. I’m now trying to figure out a new workout schedule. I signed up for unlimited spin and yoga classes for the quarter, which I am excited for. I feel like I have so much freedom with my schedule now though!

Ok, let’s do an Easter recap. Breakfast was the best cinnamon toast: cinnamon twist bread with butter and cinnamon sugar. Plus an Easter egg of course! Ok, and there may have been some jelly beans involved…My sister came back for a little Easter egg hunt with her boyfriend. We found them all this year! And of course those plastic eggs make the best cat toys…Funny story, we found one like 3 months ago that the kitties must have kicked around…Last year was an interesting one with the eggs though. The plastic eggs with candy inside were hidden in a yard, and a squirrel grabbed one, carried it up a tree, and chewed through the plastic.

After a few pieces of candy, we headed out for a fancy brunch at a nearby hotel. It was a beautiful buffet. Now let me just warn you, I take my holiday buffets VERY seriously (especially Thanksgiving) and I usually want to try some of everything. The food was delicious and beautiful.My favorite things were the shrimp gnocchi and the warm bread pudding. Also pictured on the dessert plate is a fruit tart, random baby mousses, and a mystery cake believed to be mango green tea. Oh, and a baby eclair! Somehow I managed to get honey all over my food….I blame the cheese plate. The set up was so pretty. There was even an ice sculpture on a bunny!The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, napping, and watching TV. Dinner was low key and easy, artichokes, and macaroni and cheese from a box. Yumm healthy, right??Some See’s eggs may have rounded out this meal….

Sigh. But today it is back to the healthy habits. I woke up still stuffed from yesterday. Is it possible to gain 10 pounds in one day? Haha. This morning I went to my abs class at home before going back to school. I ate a quick breakfast of my favorite mangos, and an Easter egg.My first class was at 10. My classes seem interesting this quarter, but I can already tell I am going to have a TON of reading to do. I have to retake Organic Chemistry since I dropped it last quarter when I got sick, so that should be funnn. Right now my schedule is very M/W/F heavy. I don’t have much Tuesday and Thursday. After I was all done with class for the day, I had planned to run, but that run turned into a nap. Eh, I need to listen to my body, and if it says sleep, that’s what I’ll need. I already know I am going to need way more sleep this quarter.

Today was the return of dining hall food. 1 meal in and I’m already tired of it. There just aren’t very many options.At least the line for the grilled chicken was short. I also had some melon. Upon retuning to my room, I ate about a third of the banana with sunflower butter and am saving the remainder for tomorrow’s breakfast. And I didn’t have any yogurt today! GASP. Ok, off to figure out my workouts/start my homework. I may sneak in a run later today (it is still light out). Tomorrow’s workout is still TBA; I was planning on spin, but it doesn’t start until next week. Good night everyone!

Back Home

Date: January 7, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m finally back at school! It feels good to be back. Before I got here, I didn’t feel ready to be back, but now I couldn’t be happier! Classes start tomorrow, along with my new practice schedule. I’m a little bit nervous for it. My schedule is basically full from 6 in the morning until 7 at night.

First, I need to remark: my internet connection here is amazing! My photos uploaded so fast! Even faster than at home. It’s awesome. A note: I have already lost 3 blog posts due to poor internet connection, and had to completely rewrite them (yesterday’s included). So I’m pretty happy about this. How was my day?

I woke up at 4:40 in order to get on the road. I slept for the first 2 hours, which was nice. Then, we stopped at Starbucks to switch drivers and grab breakfast.

I had a Spinach and Feta egg white wrap and a strawberry smoothie. The wrap was good but the smoothie wasn’t my favorite. I could taste the protein powder a little too much.

Not of lot of excitement happened on the trip. Lunch was at Subway:

Turkey with avocado, spinach, and tomatoes. This used to be my go-to meal during softball tournaments! I was happy to be able to have some healthy meals while on the road! During the trip I also had a couple of bars and a handful of peanut butter M&Ms.

Overall, we made really good time! Only 7.5 hours, including 2 stops! I pretty much read a book on my phone the whole time. It was a nice ride. When I got back, I had to unpack everything, some of which I still need to do. I had to go fill up my bike tires as well, which was interesting, considering I know absolutely nothing about bikes. I went with a friend, and neither of us was able to figure out how to put air in my tires, but luckily a nice person waiting in line behind us helped us out! I spent the erst of the afternoon figuring out textbooks and catching up with my dorm friends.

I’ve noticed a change in myself since I went to camp. I’m more talkative and confident. It’s really interesting how a week and a half trip can change you. I don’t really understand it.

Another awesome thing: I ordered a calendar from Costco, with photos of my cats on it, and I just got it!

Since I’m realizing I never shared a photo of my room, here one from the very first day, before my pictures started falling off the walls (seriously, NOTHING sticks to these walls).

I’m realizing I never shared my avocados with you! I have an avocado plant in my room, which I sprouted from a pit! I absolutely love my avocado, it’s my baby. Hey, if I can’t have pets, I have to have something! Here it is as a baby:

And here is a more recent picture!

Unfortunately, my avocado lived in the garage while I was home, and didn’t get enough sun, so it is looking pretty brown right now. Hopefully being back at its normal location will fix the problem! This picture is from the summer, when it was still living outside. I have another one as well, but I think they’re different varieties, and the other one needs more sun than my dorm room can provide, so it lives outside at home. Unfortunately, it has been so cold lately that I’ve had to bring them into the garage.

After getting mostly settled, I headed out to dinner! I actually kind of missed the dining hall! DInner was pretty good today, I had some type of tofu dish that was maybe vaguely teriyaki, which was overall pretty good, but the tofu itself wasn’t great (it almost never is here). It was vaguely fried without much flavor. I had that over brown rice, and caesar salad, which I was really excited for, because I’ve been wishing forever that my local dining hall would have prepared salads, and this was the first time they did!

I ended up going back for a piece of garlic bread, and some dim sum chicken thing (the lines were super long when I got there, but empty when I returned), which were both pretty tasty.

I couldn’t give up on my cereal for dessert thing I have going, so I ate some raisin bran with chocolate milk and peanut butter. I also had a couple of chocolate chip cookies. I’m realizing that I probably shouldn’t be eating 3 plates of food every meal now that I’m back from training camp and working out every minute, because I’m totally stuffed!

I also stole a couple of bananas from the dining hall. Bananas are a big thing here, the moment there are put out, everyone instantly grabs them up to take back to their rooms for later.

Tomorrow morning I have weights for the first time, which I am pretty excited for. I love lifting, but I’m also a bit nervous because I have no idea what is in store for me. Wish me luck tomorrow!

How do you feel about starting something new?