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?

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?

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.

My Current Exercise Routine

Date: March 13, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I call this a food and fitness blog when I tell people about it. But I don’t usually go into my exercise routine, for some reason or another! I’m going to go through a typical week, and explain why I do what I do.

Generally, mornings are for running. It’s local (I don’t have to drive there-I just walk outside), I get it done, and once I’m up I’m not going to back out. If I tried to run in the afternoons, more likely than not it just wouldn’t happen. I either get lazy or eat too big of a snack, or am just not motivated. I usually do Crossfit or yoga in the evenings-which is scheduled and which I can’t back out of!

I run 3-4 times a week depending on what is going on. Last week, I ran 3 times. This week, barring an unknown, it will be 4. At this point, I do maybe a day of speed work, 1-2 non-paced runs, and a long run. More than anything, it depends on my schedule and where I can fit it in. Here’s this week (proposed), which is more or less typical for me. Sometimes I go to Crossfit less or lift more on my own, depending on how much time I have or what the Crossfit workouts for the week are.

Monday: easy 4 miles+ Crossfit

Tuesday: Crossfit

Wednesday: 6 miles hilly run+ Crossfit

Thursday: AM spin+yoga class

Friday: 4 miles speed work (I’m planning 16×400 @ 10k pace but not sure if I’ll get that many in)+Crossfit

Saturday: Crossfit

Sunday: 12 mile run

As you can see, I like Crossfit! This is more than I would typically go in a week, but I liked the looks of all the workouts. One thing about Crossfit is that the workouts are more or less designed so you can go each day, or many days in a row. I get sore a lot, but it’s in different places, and the intensity is not that high that I’m immobilizingly sore (at least more than 1x/week!). In contrast, when I lift on my own, I won’t be walking for a week. If my only goal was to get as strong as possible, to be honest, I’d probably be better off lifting on my own, 2-3x a week. But I like Crossfit. It’s fun. It’s endurance as well as strength, and I’m still getting stronger. I just really like lifting weights. If there is anything going on with me, or if I don’t feel great, or I’m tired, I always feel better and accomplished afterwards.

For example, I had a great time yesterday because we did Atlas stones. Which is where you pick a giant concrete ball off the ground and lift it onto your shoulder.

(Source)

I’ve only done this once before, but I feel so legit! I was even able to move up to a heavier stone! (95 lbs).

Now that I’m doing more distance running, I’m really trying to be better about fitting yoga in. It’s the first thing to go when I get busy, but I get so tight during distance running that it really is essential for injury prevention. My legs have felt pretty tight all week, especially my calves, so I was glad to make it out to a class today! The last couple of weeks I’ve just been practicing on my own.

In terms of food, I have some things to share. Let me just say that my roommate is amazing. She made Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt. Take a moment to absorb all that.

They have been a staple of my diet these last few days. After eating so many cookies, I’m trying to clean it up a little bit to fuel all my studying! Here are some eats of late:

Plain greek yogurt, fruit salad, berries, and a pancake.

Lots of salads.

Scrambled eggs with oranges.

It’s deadweek so I get a heart in my cappuccino. Speaking of which, the other day I met up with a friend in the afternoon for coffee to catch up since I haven’t seen her much since last year. We went to my normal coffeeshop, and when I ordered a decaf cappuccino, the barista looked at me like I was crazy. I think I get coffee too much…

My prize-gotta love Nutrition class! I won these for my title page for a paper-local organic strawberries! I’m excited strawberries are starting to be in season (at least around here!).

This is still a work in progress. You can’t tell from the picture, but there are a few green streaks in there! I think I need more baking soda, and I think it needs to actually bake in an oven. On a different note: mashing up banana with sunflower seed butter and vanilla tastes amazing. I may never buy granola bars again, and just make my own! YUM.

What’s your favorite type of exercise?

P.S. I just saw the announcement for the the Open WOD 14.3 and I’m PUMPED. Deadlifts+box jumps are my favorite!

College Food (again)

Date: January 16, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Who’s excited for the weekend? I know I am! I feel like my weekend started a little early-I only have 1 class Friday, and my homework is already finished. Who am I? Ohh week 2…

Yesterday morning I started the day with a 5 mile SUPER hilly run. For some reason I was really dragging all day, despite sleeping in (relatively-I woke up at 7:40). But here are some of my delicious meals!

Fancy shmancy yogurt. In a ceramic pot. You better believe I’m keeping that! One of the reasons I’m most excited to do the Project is because it’s an excuse to eat really high quality yogurt. No complaints here!

A packed lunch-egg salad with the mayo and mustard from the tea party, plus dining hall eggs, as well as Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Herb Laughing cow. Not going to lie, the Brussels could have been cooked a little bit more!

I had a doctor’s appointment for my feet/tendonitis. I got some exercises to try to help, so I guess we’ll see. I was doing them in chem lab today while I was waiting around. Eh. We’ll see. He also adjusted my custom inserts that I never wear because they cause extreme pain when I wear them, but I’m not terribly optimistic about that!

Snack of an orange and chocolate chip banana bread. I’m kind of getting to the end of my freezer supply of this, which makes me very sad.

I went to weightlifting class again. Everyone there is super nice. Apparently they’ve been watching me in Crossfit and trying to get me to come for a while now! I only (ONLY, right??) had an hour because I had class, so I just worked on clean and jerks the whole time. For some reason, the weight lifting class goes by kilograms, instead of pounds. Which means without making calculations, I have no idea how much I’m lifting. I think this is good for me-I sometimes tend to overthink things and psych myself out. I ended up doing a ton of sets only 2.5 lbs away from my 1 rep max, and only missing the last couple at that weight-although I missed some jerks, I made all the cleans but the last 2.

The downside? I haven’t done a ton of Olympic lifting lately, like I had in the past, and my knee isn’t liking catching heavy weights in a super deep squat, so I’m kind of out of commission for a little bit. I skipped Crossfit because I can’t row (the workout for the day), because compressing my knee that much is a little iffy. I’ve been icing and taking care of it-I went to a spin class this morning (it was nice to not just be doing my own thing!), and did a 3.7 mile run this afternoon, both of which felt fine and loosened it up a bit. I think I need to just wait this one out and hope it’s just pain from getting back into it.

ANYWAYS, here was dinner: they actually had meat, which was nice.

(Wow, I didn’t realize how blurry this is-that’s kind of embarrassing…)

My hall also had a late night guac party, which I of course participated in.

After spin this morning, I decided it was going to be a long day, and I didn’t go to bed as early as I would have liked, so I got coffee.

I’m on a first name basis with the barista, and my order was finished almost before I was done ordering.

Overnight oats made with Siggi’s and a minimal amount of milk. These were sticky and thick-note the spoon sticking straight up. I topped them with a little sunflower seed butter and wondered if they would hold me over until next week. Talk about stick to your ribs! My meals have definitely filled me up quite a bit lately-like lunch.

This packed lunch was almost entirely dining hall food-a couple of hard boiled eggs made into egg salad, leftover yams from last night with a drizzle of honey, and store-bought brussels sprouts with white cheddar. So good. So filling!

I had Ochem lab all afternoon. I find labs stressful, but my result ended up being good, and the TA took a picture of my spectra.

Ignore my reflection in the background-the printers weren’t working so we had to take pictures of the machines with out phones.

Organic chemistry friends out there-any guesses as to what this is? 🙂

After lab, I realized my Garmin was dead, and I wanted to do a tempo run, so I charged it super fast while eating a snack.

One thing I recently realized is that when I run first thing in the morning, I don’t do well on an empty stomach-I almost always get stomach cramps. Kinda counterintuitive, isn’t it? I’ve found these Thinkthin Divine bars are perfect-I can eat one and go straight out. I haven’t really worked out yet what I could eat before morning runs in the next month-maybe oatmeal? I’m not sure.

My run went pretty well-at the 1.83 mile point, where the road changes, I picked up the pace, although I don’t think I held it the whole time, but it was still faster (it was getting dark and hard to read my Garmin). It definitely felt easier than the last time though-I felt like I could have kept going, and I wasn’t dying.

I ended up turning back a little sooner than the full loop-I didn’t need the extra .6 miles and my feet were starting to feel a tad brick like so I just picked up the pace a little and cut across campus. Plus, there were no cars so that was a plus!

I kind of planned on going to yoga tonight but I saw it was subbed as pilates, so I sat back with a couple of ice packs and Glee. I ended up making dinner while rolling around in my desk chair. There are advantages to living in a dorm-pretty much everything is within arms reach, plus a little bit of rolling!

Thai tomato coconut soup, topped with cheddar. Black cherry quick bread from the freezer topped with sunflower seed butter. Plus some carrots on the side, as well as a couple of cuties.

Not going to lie, I’m having the biggest chocolate cravings right now. But guess what I don’t have in my room? Chocolate! For some reason by the end of the week I crave more sweets and carbs.

Speaking of carbs-as it turned out, I should not have had that coffee this morning! We were discussing carbohydrate metabolism in my first class of the day, which is basically my favorite thing ever, and I was insanely excited anyway. Let’s just say I was wired. I’m pretty sure I don’t ever need coffee on the days when I have Nutrition first, despite the fact that it’s an earlier class time because I have my own excitement to carry me through!

Despite today’s excitement though, I was pretty disappointed at the depth at which we looked at carbohydrate metabolism. We just talked about digestion and absorption, no biochem. Boo. I <3 biochem.

Ok, I need to do laundry/pack for ski trip/watch lecture videos/do dishes/clean my room. Oops.

Also-I may or may not have internet or cell service in the mountains, so I will get back about anything once I get back!

What excites you?