Father’s Day; Let’s Talk Beer

Date: June 19, 2017

Author: astottler

Father’s Day weekend seems like a pretty appropriate time to discuss beer, right?

Friday night, we pulled out one of our big cans of passionfruit beer from Hawaii to share.

They were from March but still pretty good!

Saturday morning I had work, so I did a little full day of eating for you all!

Breakfast:

A chocolate banana smoothie with frozen banana, milk, cocoa, and Quest chocolate protein plus sunbutter of GF cinnamon raisin toast.

Lunch:

I have this lunch so frequently. Salad with nectarine, grilled chicken, and goat cheese, and a side of GF cheddar crackers.

Snack:

Dinner:

My parents met me with Chloe for an outdoor dinner downtown by work.

I started off with a Budweiser.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually had Budweiser outside of St. Louis. I actually liked it there!

…but I don’t think the Budweiser you get there is the same as you get here. This was way more watery. Definitely not as good. Upon analysis, this wasn’t even close to the same color. The beer in STL is much more amber:

Yeah. What the heck?

….and back to the food.

We got roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potato fries for the table.

For my meal, I had a beet and goat cheese salad with TRUFFLE honey. OMG <3

We stopped for froyo after. Chocolate+bananas flambé.

A little bit later in the night, I grabbed a dulce de leche cupcake with chocolate frosting from the freezer. The freezer went through some freezing/thawing issues so my cow looked a little bit sadder!

NOW, for Father’s Day!

We started out with a run for me and a walk for pups by the bay before it got hot. Spoiler alert: it got HOT later. It was over 100 at my house, which almost never happens!

For our main Father’s Day event, we all went to Dan Gordon’s, the restaurant associated with Gordon Biersch. Fun fact: my dad actually coached Dan Gordon’s daughter many years ago!

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I had never actually had Gordon Biersch beer before! We decided to get a flight to try a few different things.

I ended up deciding on the Hefeweizen. It was really interesting; it had more complex flavors (fruity?) than most wheat beers.

Naturally, we got the famous Gordon Biersch garlic fries to start (found at AT&T park!).

And roasted brussels sprouts. (SO good.)

For my meal, I went in the brunch direction and got a goat cheese and portabello scramble, although I have to admit, I didn’t make a dent in it after garlic fries!

After lunch, we braved the 100+ temperatures to walk to a nearby diner for ice cream. I had to rally my dessert stomach hard, but the peppermint fudge could not be passed up.

When we got home, we let Chloe out of her crate (inside, in the AC), and apparently the house was so well conditioned that she went out into 100+ degrees and plopped down flat in the sun (she looked up when I took the pic.)

….dogs.

Sunday afternoon’s task was bottling my home brewed beer! That called for a mini toast.

I think the bottling went well! The beer isn’t fizzy yet, but I tasted what we had so far and it was pretty good! Now we wait two weeks, and then it will be time to test out the final product! Again, I’ll do a full recap on the process at that time.

And that was Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful father (who will definitely read this <3 ); I wouldn’t be where I am today without you!

The Great Water Experiment

Date: February 21, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mine has been fantastic. It included some good food.

Our chef made gluten free mocha chocolate cookies and they were INSANE.

Sunday brunch of a hash with sweet potatoes, eggs, spinach, and fancy cheese from my fruit and cheese of the month club. Good cheese takes the eggs to another level. This month is a citrus ginger, although those notes are very subtle. It’s a fairly strong cheese that almost reminds me of aged gouda.

It included time reconnecting with old friends. This is seriously the best.

It included some awesome times pounding the pavement. Friday night I dragged myself away from Netflix to hit the street in drizzly conditions and I shocked myself when the 4 miles felt fantastic, because I had such low energy. I’ll take it!

Saturday morning was my rest day so I took a little walk while listing to gastroenterolgy podcasts. Look what I found—such a cute idea!

And this morning after a glorious long night of sleep, I did my 5 mile training run which felt good! I’ve gotten spontaneously faster, which is awesome. I didn’t have my watch on pace and just ran what was comfortable. Comfortable seems to have gotten faster, so it looks like my speed work is paying off!

And finally, my weekend included a Stanford baseball game! I legitimately thought I would go to every single game when I was in college, but sadly it’s my senior year and this is the first one I’ve been to! This is definitely going to become a regular thing The weather was warm and sunny, and we won our opening game!

Now, onto the great water experiment. A few weeks ago, I learned that many people (often women) have electrolyte balance issues. They drink lots of water, but still feel thirsty and dehydrated because “plain” water doesn’t have the necessary electrolytes to be absorbed in the bloodstream. This hit a chord with me. I feel like I’m ALWAYS thirsty, and always drinking. These past few months, I felt like my water balance issue was especially getting out of hand, as I was up almost every night. I figured, in the spirit of science, why not conduct a little experiment?

In class, the recommendation we were given was to add a little salt to drinking water. I was a little worried about doing this because a) I have no measuring spoons and b) I tried it one morning and had a mini flare (almost 100% unrelated, but I wanted to be safe). Ever since my ridiculously hot and humid 10 miler in Hawaii with Smartwater, I’ve been a big believer in the effect of the electrolytes in it. For my experiment, I decided that for 3 days, I would drink nothing but Smartwater. These 3 days included teaching 2 spin classes, which I normally get dehydrated from, and one normal day.

The difference was dramatic and immediate. I felt SO much better. Often times, I feel really dehydrated mid-morning after my morning workout, but this wasn’t the case at all. I felt like the water I was drinking was FINALLY going where it was supposed to go, and actually being absorbed. The morning after the first day, I woke up in the morning without a bursting bladder, and to me that was the most dramatic and definitive thing.

Unfortunately, drinking nothing but bottled water can be quite an expensive habit, so I may try adding salt again, or may choose smartwater as my sipping water throughout the day and after workouts, and drink regular water at meals and things like that.

The conclusion? I 100% stand behind the importance of electrolytes in water. If you feel like you’re constantly dehydrated despite constantly drinking, I highly recommend trying this!

Ending California’s Drought One 5k at a Time

Date: March 2, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How’s everyone’s weekend going? It’s been a wet one over here! I’m about to go on this week’s long run, and am hoping the run holds off! Yesterday I did a 5k-but we’ll get to that.

I woke up Friday morning and went for a walk. I wanted to do something to get my blood flowing, but seeing as Saturday was race day, I wanted to take it easy!

It started raining just as I slipped into the dining hall for breakfast!

Toast with cream cheese and hard boiled egg, fruit, and spinach with a cheese cube.

After my one class of the day, I had grand intentions of being very productive in a little cafe. As it turns out, out of my 3 tasks I set aside for myself, I forgot the materials for 2 out of the 3. But I did manage to eat lunch!

A veggie hummus wrap.

I spent Friday afternoon running errands and trying to stay dry! Then, one of my best friends from home came and visited me for dinner.

(Super old picture!)

I took her to my favorite cafe, which is outdoors. They were playing a Spanish song that we had to learn together in high school! We walked back to my dorm and ate inside. It was so great to see her!

I ordered a chicken pesto crepe. So good!

She apparently was inspired by my project, so now she’s going sugar free for 40 (or 50?) days! I’m so proud of her!

Saturday morning I was awake bright and early. I had my current 5k pre-race meal of homemade granola bars.

By the time I left my dorm, it was already pouring. We’re in a drought. It’s rained once this winter. Can anyone guess the last time? Oh, that’s right. My one other 5k. Fabulous. We had to park pretty far away (my parents brought me), and I was pretty much drenched by the time we reached the start. We feet certainly were!

The 5k started a few minutes late, and they managed to hold off just enough for the rain to stop.

The race was also a half marathon and 10k, so it was a decent sized race! The course was very nice. Some rolling hills but pretty flat. (I’m planning on doing some long runs here!)

Given that it stopped raining, the conditions were not bad for a PR. The first mile I think went pretty well. I was keeping pace. But then it just wasn’t happening for me. I just did not feel that great out there. This was my slowest 5k to date, although according to my watch I was about 4 seconds off my pace from my last one. The course was a tiny bit long, and I had to stop and walk the last little bit to the finish because it was a giant slippery mud puddle. I actually had to run through several streams because there was so much water coming down that everything was overflowing. We had to run through a foot of flowing water multiple times. I thought my Tough Mudder wasn’t until April? Haha!

I actually saw someone from my dorm in the race! He did super well-he came in 2nd overall!

An while this definitely wasn’t my best race ever, my parents actually got some good running shots.

All done! After the race, there was food. Like, food like I’ve never seen before.They had literally everything! Fruit, bagels, chips, pretzels, hot chocolate, pastries, chocolate cake, brownies, cookies-they even had It’s-it’s! Crazy!

I definitely had to try quite a few things!

While this wasn’t my best race by a long shot, the race was small enough that I somehow still managed to win my age group! Hey, I’ll take it!

I also think this race is a big testament to the project (which I swear I’ll do a recap of REALLY soon!). I have not been feeding my body that well since then, and I did not feel that great out there today, and was definitely slower despite better conditions. I’m working on a plan for the future though. I have been eating a fair amount of sweets lately and I’m getting seriously concerned for me health-nto just because sugar is “bad” but because my heart has been racing a lot and I know my family has a history of heart sensitivities. I’ll talk more about this in the project recap!

After the race, we all went to Whole Foods in search of granola bars. And of course had to get some hot breakfast!

AMAZING french toast casserole, plus fruit and some really spicy Mexican breakfast dish.

I also got some young coconut, pre cut and everything! It was a great snack later in the day.

And since this seems to be photo overload day, here are some pics from my sorority event-we did a Murder Mystery dinner, where we acted out a murder plot and then had delicious Indian food!

Roomie love!

It was a fun night! But I stayed up way too late watching KPop videos, thanks to a friend who is a bit obsessed!

What did you do this weekend?

Uncertainty

Date: February 9, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m just going to pop in briefly to say at this point, I’m not really sure where I’m going to go with the project moving forward. I’ve gotten to the point where the restrictions are causing me to actually eat more unhealthily because I can’t have what I really want! And I’ve been living in the loopholes so much lately that I’m not sure how much of the integrity of the project is holding up. Plus living outside the loopholes this weekend…I’m also not sure I like having to put THIS much thought into food-it’s starting to mess with my head a little bit! So not sure what’s going to happen in the future, but I’m going to play it by ear and how I feel-which right now is not so hot thanks to some most definitely processed food…so here’s a bit of a photo dump of this weekend, and I’ll do a more detailed project post a little bit later in the week!

Sushi bowl-again. But sadly without avocado.

My attempt at coconut truffles. Which didn’t really work out-the inside was just mashed banana and coconut, and it just tasted like not that ripe banana…but the chocolate was amazing!

Sloppy yogurt bowl with applesauce that still needed a few hours in the slow cooker.

Saturday I was going to go to the gym, but then brunch sounded really good so this happened.

Also in place of gym-we may or may not have swiped a carton of heavy whipping cream from the dining hall. Homemade chocolate with this? AMAZING. It tasted like the center of a lava cake.

Cinnamon tea made by a girl in my sorority-she boiled cinnamon sticks!

Highlight of the weekend-sorority retreat and getting to see a real, live cat.

Retreat food.

And the actual nail in the project’s coffin (for now-will definitely be discussed): fresh ice cream sandwich.

What am I wearing? On a side note, now I really want a tutu of my own.

Applesauce 2.0-much better! Plus sun butter.

My innovative wrapping skills-tomorrow is my sister’s birthday so we went out to dinner! And wrapping paper was nowhere to be found…

And cake.

As for this week? I’m going to eat as well as possible with as little effort as possible. I went to Trader Joe’s and stock dup today. I have to say though, since doing this project, reading all the nutrition labels/ingredients was really frustrating because EVERYTHING had extra little ingredients, even at a place like Trader Joe’s!

Another observation-as my eating habits deteriorated, so did the positive effects. My foot issues are starting to come back a little bit for one thing-so when I’m not so full of delicious food I’ll figure out a plan going forward. I will say this about the project now though-the biggest problem was being underprepared in the second and third week, and eating in a dining hall made things harder because the food was definitely lower quality. If I wan’t living at college and if I was cooking completely for myself, this would have been much easier. So expect a follow up post soon!

Letting the Pace Go

Date: June 30, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everyone! I’ve been meaning to blog since Friday…and I really have to good excuse. I’ll try to do a fairly quick recap of the past few days, and promise the next posts will have more/better content!.

Friday I had been planning on going to early Spin, but I went to bed too late and decided I would never be able to stay awake at my research job if I went. First, I ate this delicious breakfast:

The last of my vanilla yogurt, gluten free vanilla crunch cereal, raspberries, and sunflower seed butter.

Then, it was off to school for research. While this may sound glamorous, I assure you it is not. My job is doing a ton of spreadsheet stuff and examining photos of mice carcasses. I actually don’t really mind (although Friday was my first day of doing real stuff). The building I’m working in is attached to the hospital, so I decided to check out the hospital cafeteria for lunch. IT IS SO NICE. It was ridiculous. A salad bar (with chia seeds!), sandwich bar, hot food, pastries, everything! I went with the salad bar.

And they even had a new to me flavor of Kevita! It was way overpriced though. And ended in an embarrassing situation- breaking on the floor of Sports Authority while I was shopping for workout pants. On the plus side, it was mostly gone!

After wearing the same workout pants for workouts 3 days in a row, my mother decided that I needed to buy more workout pants. No complaints here! The highlight was a new pair of my favorite workout pants, but with a hot pink waistband, instead of yellow.

Since I missed spin that morning, I decided to lift before my run. I did a leg workout, which I will post soon. I’m planning on creating a workout page shortly! I mostly make my own weights workouts, and for some reason I feel like I shouldn’t post them, which is silly. So that will change! After lifting, I ran 3 miles on very rubbery legs. Ehh it felt good to lift again so I can’t complain (well, actually I can complain…).

Dinner was a delicious greek salad with a touch of Greek dressing, but topped with hummus.

I also had some watermelon…and a friend!

I love this picture because I was simply trying to take a picture of watermelon-Billy just happens to love watermelon!

Saturday morning before Crossfit I made some very ugly pancakes-they tasted just fine though! I mixed up a banana, egg whites, vanilla, chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, and a dash of almond milk.

Post Crossfit I made a smoothie inspired by Beth– pineapple, mango, and pineapple coconut water. Thick, delicious, and totally hit the spot!

After lunch, my family saw The Internship. My sister even joined us since she was in the area! Overall, I wasn’t a big fan of the movie. However, if you want a taste of where I live (Silicon Valley), this was pretty much spot-on! We couldn’t help but laugh when the characters ran in on broomsticks for quidditch, as my sister is the captain of our school’s quidditch team. Spot-on!

We went to The Melt, a grilled cheese place for dinner. I opted for sweet corn soup, which tasted exactly like those corn cakes at Mexican restaurants. And, we were right next to a frozen yogurt place, so no complaining here!

I went half ‘healthy’ and half ‘unhealthy.’ Plain with fruit on one side, butter pecan/chocolate with heath and brownies on the other. Yumm.

As I’m sure you’re all well aware as I’ve been sort of freaking out about it all week, Sunday was my 10 mile run, which is farther than I had ever run before.

I ate my typical pre-run breakfast:

I was up in time to beat the heat/wind (I ran by the bay, so the wind is a bigger issue than the heat!).

I’ve been wanting to keep up a particular pace, but my dad advised me to just worry about the distance, and not the pace. So I let go of that ideal pace, and in turn, the run went really well!

I really loved this trail-it was along the bay, but it took me through different areas so it was more interesting. I took a Gu for the first time at mile 5, the turn around point. I couldn’t imagine running while eating, so I walked while I took it. I was a big fan-it was Cliff chocolate, and only had a few, very recognizable ingredients. It was a little weird though because it was like eating straight chocolate syrup…during a run…

I also was annoyed at having to carry a water bottle. I ended up dumping half of it right away so it wouldn’t be so much weight. I tossed it around Mile 6-7 when it was empty, which was the plan. I didn’t really think through the fact that that was the only water I had with me though…I was so thirsty by the time I got home!

Overall, the run went really well. I enjoyed myself more at a slightly slower pace. I figure I can push the pace more with the adrenaline of the race, but if not, that’s fine too. This is my first half, and I’m still running longer than ever before!

Recovering with my compression socks:

And my beloved PVC pipe- my hard core ‘foam roller.’ Love it!

Let’s just say that sore legs from weights on Friday+10 miles=can’t move.

And some more scenes from the day-Farmer’s market!

Also, 2 more things.

1. A healthy living COLLEGE conference is in the works! SO EXCITED.

2. Thanks for all your input on self-hosting! I’m still on the fence, but I’m leaning towards taking the plunge. I need to look into it a little more though!

What’s the farthest you’ve run? Are you in college? How do you fuel during long runs?