The Aftermath of Murph

Date: May 27, 2015

Author: astottler

So. I no longer have the ability to use my upper body. Every where from my elbows and ribs up to my shoulders is insanely sore. It’s weird because with arms, it’s easy to not move your arms too much while just sitting still, and I feel like the pain that will happen if I move makes me not move, which makes me stiffer. Ouch. I really wanted to try a new spin studio today but it’s one of the ones that involves weird moves on the bike. I went for a run this morning, and even that was death for my shoulders (…right??) I decided it was a no go.

I’m currently in the process of doing my stats homework and deleting pictures from my phone. It was brought to my attention a couple of times in the past week that it is not normal to have over 8000 pictures on your phone so I’m working on that. Also I have an embarrassing number of selfies, and that’s kind of obnoxious. I’ve only made it through like 1000-it’s going to take a while!

I haven’t done a very normal blog post lately. I feel like I’ve just sort of been a zombie, and to be honest nothing too exciting has been going on! I’m just in that end of quarter grind right now.

So…food pictures?

This is what I’ve been having for lunch. A salad with chicken (grilled from home this week!) and hummus which you can’t see. Plus a fruit bar for something sweet!

After lunch today I was craving cake. But I didn’t have cake so I went back to my room and ate a banana and a million blackberries.

At breakfast today I finally tried coffee for the first time since my stomach issues! “Try” is a bit of a generous term here. I had like 1/3 packet of instant decaf in a mug of soy milk. So not a lot of coffee, but it was nice to have a warm beverage that vaguely reminded me of coffee! And my stomach didn’t die which is always a plus.

Last night after spin I stopped at Safeway for a salad for dinner because it was on my way back. I had a BBQ ranch salad with chicken, and then I got froyo because it was next door and it’s the best froyo ever.

The last food picture I have is dinner tonight! Caesar salad, grilled chicken, roasted carrots.

The little cup is cheesy potatoes with corn but I wasn’t really feeling it.

So that’s what is up with me right now. Nothing fun or exciting unfortunately! 2 weeks until summer though!

Waddling

Date: March 3, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First I was wrong. Then I was right. Now I’m waddling.

Which is another way of saying I’ve been hitting it hard on the workout front this week!

On Sunday morning, I did a fairly heavy, high volume leg day. I did 5 sets of 8 front squats and back squats, 4 sets of 8 RDLs, and 5 sets of 5 deadlifts. My legs were so shaky by the end. They say you never regret a workout, but I had a feeling I’d regret this all week when I couldn’t walk. I definitely fueled up post workout though-soymilk, pancakes, and Southwest Eggs Benedict with turkey.

I was expecting to not be able to walk on Monday, but I actually felt ok. Definitely sore, but not the main muscles that inhibit walking and not in the super stiff way. My quads were pretty sore, which make biking painful, but other than that I was functional. Crossfit that morning included pull ups and back squats (although not too heavy), and then the WOD was:

3 rounds:

7 thrusters

30 kettlebell swings

15 burpees

FYI: that’s a lot of kettle bell swings! My shoulders were smoked.

That evening, I took a spin class because it has been far too long, and I don’t want my quarter pass to go to waste! I also did some abs.

And then I woke up this morning. Yeah. Second day soreness is definitely worse. I also think my abs are really sore, but that’s secondary to the pain and lack of mobility in my legs.

The last time I squatted, I wasn’t that sore in my left leg because I’m in the habit of favoring my right leg so this time I really focused on staying even. Yeah, my left leg is feeling it now. Ouch.

So I’m currently rocking a little waddle-walk. It’s cool.

I need to fit in a run later today for half training so I’m hoping my legs loosen up! Builds character?

In other news, my 9am class got cancelled this morning, which was amazing news because I was looking at a late night otherwise!

In more other news, we’re doing metabolism and the endocrine system in my physiology class right now, which is my favorite thing ever. I may potentially get excited about it all over again and do a post in the future-that counts as studying for my final, right?

On the food front, I need to make use of a lot of meal plan dollars, so I bought a whole bunch of snacks and probiotic drinks.

I actually really liked this flavor!

Sea salt caramel apple chips?? Of course I was going to try this! The sea salt was subtle-I would have loved a little more of it, but they were still quality apple chips.

The other day I had a salad for lunch that was without significant protein because there were no eggs in the dining hall, so I was starving mid afternoon and picked this up. It’s kind of sad how few bars out there I can actually eat because they don’t have nuts…

What makes you waddle-sore?

New Shoes!

Date: November 10, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m going to keep it short and sweet because I have a midterm tomorrow so…yay…

First off, I got new boots over the weekend and I’m sort of obsessed with them.

And the good news is, my feet are too! I got boots with some really good support for my plantar fasciitis, and it’s making a world of difference!

Also new shoes-new running shoes! My old ones took me through a lot. Countless DC rainstorms, through the monuments, and across the finish line of a half marathon! But my feet were starting to feel every bump in the road, and to be honest, my feet don’t need any more reasons to complain!

Here are the new ones! I wasn’t sure about the feel when I first put them on but they felt great on the run! I like the look of the old ones more though.

Old:

New:

So, let’s run through food and fitness, shall we?

I went to 7am Crossfit, and had some healthy pumpkin bread to fuel me. It was perfect! No lightheadedness despite 50000 squats.

In all seriousness though, our new squat program we are doing is why I will not be able to walk tomorrow. I think I did 56 HEAVY squats? And then 50 wall balls. And I already feel it. Yippee. The WOD was 50 wall balls, 800m run, and 30 pull ups.

Good news on the pull ups front though! After losing my pull ups strength over the summer because we never did them, I finally got it back! I was coerced into switching to a very small band during the workout, and then I whipped out a couple of real kipping pull ups afterwards! YES.

Post-workout, protein was very necessary. Yogurt+peaches+sunbutter.

And coffee. I definitely took the time to get a real coffee-a cappuccino!

Lunch was same old, same old from my freezer this week. I only have 2 more frozen meals! Then I need to go grocery shopping. But first I need to make it through this week…

After class, and before a meeting, a rushed to the gym for a quick run to shake out my legs. I did a modified version of my treadmill workout, and was shocked at how well it went. I had no problem knocking out the 8:00 mile, and keeping up with the intervals.(5 rounds of 2 mins @7:30 pace, 2 mins walking.) I ended up covering 3 miles. Seriously though, coffee+not super early+not sore (yet) is a running game changer. Plus, I definitely had some excess energy to burn! I think I may switch my Monday runs to afternoon treadmill speed workouts because I loved it so much. That and my next 5k is in a month and I’m not in that sort of speed-shape yet! Plus, my feet seemed to appreciate the extra cushion the treadmill provided.

Dinner was pretty good in the dining hall today. Rosemary chicken, salad, a little rice, yams with cranberries, plus a baby spinach and cheese pie, which was delicious.

I also tried some of a dessert that apparently is pretty popular but that I still don’t know what it is…

I think it was pudding? Chocolate pudding, whipped cream, banana, strawberries, and what appeared to be some type of ores pudding? It was pretty good.

And that my friends, was my day! Now I’m off to study!

How do you feel about the treadmill?

That’s okay Crossfit, I didn’t really want to be able to walk anyway.

Date: November 7, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First of all, you guys are seriously amazing. Your comments on my last couple of posts seriously made my day!

Second of all-I guess this makes the first post on my ‘journey’?

My morning began with a trip to the gym. I’m teaching spin this weekend, and my playlist was pretty terrible, so I had to make some adjustments. It was 1000x better afterwards! Phew! I want to practice it one more time before teaching though. I also did some abs (because I never do them) and calf raises because I’m hoping strengthening my calves will help my plantar fasciitis. Hopefully.

Normally I would do a dining hall breakfast but it was already closed so I had a banana and sun butter in my room, followed by a persimmon.

I ended up only having one class today, which was unexpected. My lab was postponed due to a gas leak in the building, so I gained 4 hours in the afternoon.

For lunch, I went to the dining hall with my friend.

Clam chowder (surprisingly good), salad, kabocha, and a small slice of super thin crust pizza.

I also had 1.5 small cookies.

My afternoon wasn’t nearly as productive as it should have been, but such is life. For a snack, I munched on some sweet potato tortilla chips-seriously, these are good! I also had a pomegranate.

My roommate brought these back from her farm (right??) and it was so good! That being said, if you want an exercise in mindful eating…this thing was so difficult to eat! And my desk looked like a murder scene afterwards.

After studying for chem, I went to Crossfit. We usually have one class a week that is just strength, which was what today was. Before I get into that, let me just say that today is the first day since MONDAY that I’ve been able to walk like a somewhat normal person. Apparently we started this new program that includes high reps of squats. I don’t think I’ve ever done a set of 10 weighted squats. My gosh. That was Monday night. I went in again Tuesday morning where we proceeded to do 120 wall balls and 50 air squats. Yeah. I’m still sore, and I’m hoping today doesn’t make me unable to walk tomorrow. I love weights…but man.

Today was…more squats. Yay? It went better than I was expecting. We did sets of 8, which wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. We also did 5 minutes of rowing, stiff leg deadlifts, and planks. So a pretty low key day.

For dinner, I made some wraps in my room. Turkey, garlic and herb laughing cow, spinach, and red pepper on a whole wheat tortilla.

I downloaded a Blogilates meal plan a while ago, and while I never really followed it, I’m a fan of these guys. They are easy dorm food, super filling, and I’m already dreaming up variations.

After dinner, I was still hungry and craving something sweet so I thawed out a couple of frozen pumpkin muffins.

These probably weren’t the best choice. What I really want is to make some pumpkin bread. I have a fantastic healthy recipe, but I’d need to go home to do it because I have no ingredients here. I also desperately need something for before morning Crossfit, which I’ve been going to more. Back in the day when I used to do morning weights, I always had banana bread or some type of quick bread and it worked great. I just don’t really have many carb sources in my room right now, and I always get so light headed so that needs to change!

Overall thoughts? Not bad, definitely areas for improvement. And now I’m off to do more work! Yippee.

Pumpkin Emergency

Date: September 27, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m aware it’s been way too long since I’ve posted but sometimes life gets in the way, and that’s a good thing! Anyways, Thursday evening after I finished my 3 hour lab, I walked into my room and said “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m having a pumpkin emergency. We need to go RIGHT NOW.”

So, my attempts at waiting to get ALLTHEPUMPKIN until October failed and I gave in. We headed to Trader Joe’s. I proceeded to spend much too much time looking for the perfect pumpkin.

(But he is perfect, isn’t he?)

Then, I proceeded to ~~clear the shelves~~ pick out several items. My noteworthy purchases were pumpkin butter, pumpkin cream cheese (my favorite!), pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon apple chèvre (goat cheese). Also noteworthy finds that I restrained myself from purchasing were pumpkin mochi, pumpkin cranberry granola, pumpkin pop tarts, and some really, really delicious pumpkin cranberry crackers (they were the free sample with honey chèvre).

It was so fabulous. In terms of other non-pumpkin life events, Wednesday morning I went to an insanely early spin class which was awesome, and then proceeded to over caffeinate myself with this latte:

Thursday morning I did the Crossfit workout that was posted just in the gym at school, which was pretty quick. I did 10 minutes of 3 snatches at 65% on the minute, and then 9 sets of 250m sprints on the rowing machine.

Friday morning I spun a little on my own, and then went to Crossfit in the evening, which I am already sore from. The strength was back squats with a pause at the bottom, which gets me every time! My legs were already done before the conditioning portion, which was a 15 minute amrap of 20 front lunges (65#), 15 burpees (blech), and 20 single arm dumbbell snatches.

In terms of food, I haven’t broken into the pumpkin THAT much. The pumpkin seeds are delicious, but my current favorite way to eat pumpkin is crackers with pumpkin cream cheese and pumpkin butter. I also tried the pumpkin Chobani-it’s good! I would recommend it.

For breakfast, yogurt bowls are nothing new. Sometimes in my room, sometimes in the dining hall. Always with sun butter.