The Answer Should Be Yes

Date: June 27, 2015

Author: astottler

Well hello guys! It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? My life has literally been nothing but the vet lately. Animals are taking over my life. Because then I come home to a crazy pup and a needy kitty!

I’ve had no energy or desire to pop open my computer these past few days. The first couple of days were totally exhausting, and my brain shut down before 10pm. Yesterday I started work at 7. I’m there for 9 hours a day, including lunch, and I’m on my feet the entire time. Needless to say, my feet haven’t been too happy about this! I love working at the vet though-I’m getting the hang of things much faster when I’m there 40 hours a week rather than the 4 hours a week I had been doing during school.

What else have I done this week? I went to the Farmer’s Market on Thursday-there’s one in the evenings right next to work on Thursdays. I’ve done some workouts, including teaching my spin class. One workout in particular I’d like to mention is the reason my legs are currently sore, and will only get more sore.

I mentioned it before, but I’m working with a trainer this summer. I trained with him all throughout high school, and in just the 2 weeks I’ve been with him this summer, everything is improving. My Olympic lifting technique is improving rapidly. In Crossfit, I feel like the strength/Oly portion gets glossed over on the way to the WOD, so this is really good. I still need to get a little more confident in my lifts, and my max weights should go up even more. Yesterday we did both snatches and cleans. I PRed my snatch again this week-from the power position. How crazy is that?? Then we did squats. I’m on a lifting program, and this week was sets of 10, 10, and 8. Yuck. High rep squats are the worst. My first set of 10 was 145#, my second was 155#, and my set of 8 was 165#. I can confidently say I’ve never done a set of 10 at 155# before. The thing though is, I never doubted that I wasn’t going to make these lifts. I think the mental aspect of weightlifting is incredibly important, and in high school, this is something that really shaped me in other areas of my life, which is one reason I fell in love with weight lifting. I actually wrote part of my college admissions essay about this. I can’t believe I’m actually sharing this, but I think it is really important so here’s a little excerpt:

“In weightlifting, I learned to push through mental roadblocks, launching myself into uncharted territory. With my mind, I could push my body further than with sheer strength. With difficult lifts, I found that if the thought of failure crept into my mind, I would instantly fail.”

Also note that I was a much better writer 3 years ago-being a science major does not foster the same types of skills…

I think that weightlifting has been a huge influence in shaping who I am.

Anyways, back to the workout. After squats was push presses and bent over rows. Then conditioning. My trainer asked me how my legs were. I said they were okay, to which he replied, “Oh, I thought they’d be shot.”

The answer should be yes, they were shot, because then I proceeded to do conditioning full of burpees.

6 minutes, on the minute:

1. 1 power clean (85#), 10 burpees

2. 2 power cleans, 8 burpees

3. 3 power cleans, 6 burpees

4. 4 power cleans, 4 burpees

5. 5 power cleans, 2 burpees

6. 6 power cleans, 1 burpee

I honestly surprised myself that I even finished 10 burpees in a minute!

But yes, now I’m feeling those squats. I started to get sore 2 hours later. So this should be interesting.

Foodwise?

Breakfasts

I mashed up a ripe banana with cocoa powder and then stirred in oats. I topped all that with plain Greek yogurt and sunflower seed butter.

Eggs+oatmeal. My berries to oatmeal ratio was 2:1 which was just about right. Oatmeal isn’t exactly my thing.

Lunch

For the first half of this week, I packed really unphotogenic sweet potatoes stuffed with black bean soup, chicken, and avocado. Plus a veggie. I’ll spare you the pictures. I finally settled on a favorite work lunch of a salad with dates, feta, chicken, nectarines, and champagne vinaigrette.

Dinner

Black bean soup with cheese and avocado.

Salad with corn and avocado, topped with Trader Joe’s BBQ chicken.

Parmesan encrusted chicken over garlic spinach, with a sweet potato on the side.

Take out-a chicken burger with dijon and avocado on a gluten free bun.

And of course-this is necessary:

How was your week?

SUMMER

Date: June 13, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guess what? It’s officially summer for me! Which means more blog time and puppy time!

I finished my last final Wednesday afternoon, and was almost immediately on puppy duty-she came to school and got to meet all my friends!

I didn’t actually move out of my dorm until yesterday though.

Moving out is always fun….I always forget how much stuff it actually is! I managed to be pretty efficient though-I think the whole process took 4 hours, which seems like a long time but could be much worse.

First item of business back was a workout at my home Crossfit! I have a feeling I’m just going to be really sore a lot of the time these first few weeks. The stuff we do there is harder. Thursday’s workout was rope climbs, ring rows, and bent over rows, and then the following WOD:

10 rounds:

10 push jerks

10 hand release push ups

10 knees to elbow or V ups

My arms are still so sore 2 days later.

Here are Thursday’s meals. I’m trying to balance my meals more with protein, carbs, and vegetables.

The dining hall was closed so a sort of random breakfast-formerly frozen mashed sweet potatoes, and cottage cheese with sun butter and blueberries.

Lunch was a Trader Joe’s salad with chicken, dried cranberries, kale, broccoli slaw, and sunflower seeds.

And finally, my first dinner home was guacamole salad with a side of brown rice/quinoa.

On the way home from Crossfit, I picked up some Greek yogurt bars. The verdict? Good! Light and perfect for summer, and not too sweet!

I have another post with some SF adventures to come!

Watermelon and Feta Summer Salad

Date: September 22, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Today I have another recipe to share with you all-another Sweetgreen copycat recipe! This one is of their August seasonal salad, and it features fresh mint, feta cheese, and watermelon.

Here’s their version:

And mine:

Serves 3

Ingredients:

3 handfuls of arugula and baby kale or kale

1 medium heirloom tomato, chopped

1.5 cups fresh watermelon, chopped

1 cucumber, chopped

1/4 cup spicy sunflower seeds

1/3 cup feta

8 oz chicken

1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped

Champagne Vinaigrette

Toss all ingredients together and enjoy!

Don’t know how to cube a watermelon? Be on the lookout for a tutorial!

WIAW-Summer Food and the Official Start of Half Training 4.0

Date: July 1, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! I feel like this week has already been flying by! Only 2 days left until the weekend-how is that possible? Let’s celebrate with What I Ate Wednesday!

Before I get into the good stuff (aka the food) I want to talk about a few things I’ve done the past few days! Sunday, I went to the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market, and got some fresh peaches and greens for my favorite summer salad. Afterwards, I went to Target to pick up a few things. Prior to the weekend, I had only rode one Metro line. Sunday, I rode them all. I’m pretty sure I officially live here now! One thing I want to do sometime is play Metro roulette. Get on a random line and then get off at a random stop to explore. We’ll see.

On the fitness front, Monday kicked off the official start to my training cycle for my 4th half marathon! How crazy is that? 4? I knocked out an early morning 3 miles. For some reason, my Garmin kept losing me, so I’m not sure if I’ve actually gotten slower or if it was losing its little mind…Either way, I have no problems waking up for these views.

Can you guess which picture I stopped to take, versus just shooting on the run?

Now, onto the food. I’m insanely, insanely proud of Sunday’s meal. It was probably my most beautiful creation. I made my Grilled Peach and Chicken salad, but baked the chicken instead of grilled it and sautéed the peaches on the stove.

Plus a hunk of farmer’s market fresh whole wheat bread. What more could possibly say “summer”?

I feel like I should just stop there with that picture. This also marks my first time cooking chicken. That’s right-I’ve never cooked chicken. I’ve done ground turkey and even fish, but never chicken! (At home my dad would usually grill). It was insanely easy and came out way better than I was expecting!

Also, feel free to ignore the fact that it’s in a loaf pan. Kitchen tools are a bit sparse around these parts…(But a loaf pan was clearly a priority.)

For breakfasts, I just haven’t been feeling the yogurt+berries+sunbutter, although I need to eat that tomorrow before my berries go bad. Instead, I’ve been feeling the lighter fruit salad with sun butter. Currently in the mix is a banana and blackberries. Monday this was prepared and eaten in 3 minutes flat. Not ideal, but better than nothing!

In terms of lunches, I packed lunch on Monday. Baked chicken, plus roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and mashed sweet potatoes with sage.

Lunch on Tuesday was bought from the cafe at work. I needed to buy something. I had the pleasure of only doing half my laundry on Monday, and being one quarter shy of actually being able to dry it (and how the heck do you hang dry socks??). I’m spoiled at school because our laundry is free, but I managed to not have any bills the quarter machine would accept. Hence why I needed to buy lunch-just to get quarters and smaller bills. I got a hummus veggie pita on a whole wheat pita.

These things are massive. The pita is stuffed with tons of veggies, hummus, feta, and provolone. I was glad to be eating this alone because it’s kind of a mess!

Plus an impulse buy of marble bread. This seriously is my weakness.

After Crossfit today, I went grocery shopping. Twice. Apparently coconut flour is much more rare here? I was at Trader Joes and couldn’t find it, and with the knowledge that dinner would therefore be a ways off, I grabbed a protein bar. I’m not a proponent of artificial sweeteners in general, but it is what it is. This is one of the few protein bars out there with no nuts, and I munched on it as I walked to grocery #2.

Even at Whole Foods, I barely found it. In CA, there would be like 5 different types…

Once I FINALLY made it back, I whipped up a quick dinner. Coconut flour quesadillas, from Blogilates. With plenty of avocado and a side of grapes.

It didn’t come out as well as I would have liked-I didn’t add enough water to the batter so it was sort of dry. Take 2 is tomorrow night though so I have a chance to fix it! This may be my go-to easy meal for a while because the recipe calls for 4 oz of meat, so I was left with 12 oz leftover, which I cooked up and froze. Now that I have coconut flour, the other ingredients are staples. So maybe I can get food on the table before 8:30!

That’s all I have today-I have an early workout (followed by lots of coffee) on the Lincoln Memorial steps!

What is your favorite summer food?

So I Guess I Should, You Know, Blog…

Date: June 13, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Greetings from the other side! I am officially done with my sophomore year-yay! Which means I am halfway through college which is kind of concerning…

I decided I should actually blog. It’s been a while, for several reasons. First, I temporarily lost my phone (I left it at a cafe and someone picked it up), then I had to study for finals, and then move out! And now, here we are!

So, I haven’t exercised all that much this week. And my food has erred more on the side of “delicious” versus “healthy.” But it is what it is-you’ve been warned!

In terms of exercise, it’s basically just been Crossfit, although I’m about to head out on a run. I get to go to my home Crossfit, which is exciting! I went last night, and I always forget how much I love it, and all the people there!

In terms of life, I finally went to a Giant’s game yesterday!

It was windy and cold, as per usual! We have the most beautiful ballpark, complete with delicious food.

Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae!

And now some other food from the past week:

My last and second to last coffee from my favorite coffeeshop:

Lunch out with my sister and mom. We went to the Loving Hut, a vegan restaurant, and I got a vegan BLT-tempeh as bacon, plus with avocado!

I also tried a Cronut for the first time! (Croissant doughnut.) It was good! But not the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I wouldn’t stand in a 3 hour line for it.

Breakfast on my last day with a bare fridge-plain yogurt, berries, and sun butter.

After my last final, my sister and I went out to a celebratory lunch at Calafia. I got garlic mushroom noodles, which were delicious!

And for dessert, a chia seed pudding parfait sweetened only with maple syrup. Delicious!

And lastly, I had my first home cooked meal-Grilled chicken and Peach salad! Yum! The peaches at the store weren’t ripe so we actually just used nectarines.

What is crazy to me though is in a week, I’m leaving again! Eek!

Any fun plans for the summer?