Hawaii-Final Adventures

Date: September 17, 2015

Author: astottler

Thanks for sticking around for all my vacation posts! I promise this is the last one!

Sunday morning began with my 10 mile half marathon training run. With record high temperatures in Maui, I knew this one was going to be a struggle. I scouted out a nice hilly route ahead of time-3 miles out from my hotel until the sidewalk ends, then back, and then I would play it by ear. I was prepared to jump on the treadmill for the last part if it got too hot.

It rained early that morning, so the air was SO thick. I got out the door by 6:30am, and it was nasty out. 1 mile in, I was drenched and felt kind of terrible. It must have been about 90% humidity. I wasn’t even sure I’d make it through half the run out there without dying. Luckily, the weather improved a bit. I ended up turning around at 3.5 miles, then running a mile in the other direction before realizing there was no shade and I was dying. At that point, when I reached the hotel I was at 9 miles so I did the last one in the comfort of the hotel gym.

I was really vigilant about hydration. I officially swear by SmartWater-I filled my bottle with it for the run and didn’t have the problems I’ve had in the past in the heat. I also drank some vitamin water before my final water. I did a really good job with fluids the rest of the day, and it really paid off!

Nothing like wear compression socks while on vacation…

For lunch that day, we stopped by a “healthy fast food” restaurant that we had passed previously. It’s called D’Lish, and it had all kinds of healthy sandwiches and bowls. We shared a beet salad with goat cheese.

And a mix of purple sweet potato and taro chips.

For my main meal, I got a veggie bowl, which was quinoa topped with broccoli, mushroom bisque, tomato, and feta. Yum! Love the idea of making a bowl using soup.

Our next stop was to the movies-we saw the Perfect Guy, which was pretty intense. Then, we stopped by Maui Tropical plantation, which is a nice little place with a gift shop, pineapples growing, and now a zipline that we tried 2 years ago when we went. It’s in a beautiful location.

That night, I made reservations for the Molokai Bistro at the Grand Wailea hotel. We put on our fancy clothes (although the restaurant was fairly casual) and headed out!

We ordered a bottle of rose for the table, and my parents still insist on taking pictures of me any time we drink wine in public. #21

To start, we shared Maui Onion rings (Maui onions are sweeter than regular onions) and sweet potato fries, with lilikoi BBQ sauce.

I got the catch of the day-mahi mahi served over purple mashed sweet potatoes and garlic broccolini.

It was delicious, and it was nice that the portions weren’t giant!

Dessert was also amazing. Butterscotch creme brûlée topped with banana mousse and shaved chocolate. YUM. What a nice dinner!

We saw 2 stray kitties and some frogs on the walk back!

I’ll spare you of Monday’s food pictures because I posted all that for WIAW, but here’s the day!

I was hoping to got to Lahaina Crossfit, but my shoulder wasn’t anywhere near ready. Instead, I took it to the hotel gym for a shoulder friendly strength workout. I started with 100 lunges, 100 squats, and some RDLs with lighter weights than I would normally use to accommodate my shoulder. I then did a 15 minute ab circuit that I am still sore from because I never do abs, and finished with some light shoulder exercises on my bad shoulder and dumbbell snatches/push presses on my good shoulder. It felt good to get some strength work in despite my injury!

I went straight from there to the beach with my family. I lost the gamble of whether or not I would burn without sunscreen in an hour or so. Oops. Later that day a former fireman came up to me and recommended I put aloe on my burn!

It was a beautiful day, but hot. We went to the gluten free bakery again in Lahaina, but decided to keep it indoors with another movie.

This time it was the Transporter-Reloaded. It was pretty good-I don’t watch too many action movies but it was a pleasant experience. We came out to find a rainbow!

We stopped by Barnes and Noble for some reading material, and then Whole Foods for dinner since my stomach was flaring. The rest of the night involved Netflix-does anyone else watch The Good Wife?

Tuesday was our last partial day in Maui. I started off with a treadmill 4 mile interval/speed run and then went out with my family for one last beach trip. I enjoyed yogurt, passionfruit, and papaya beachside and got my fill of tropical fruit!

It was nice out but definitely starting to heat up! We weren’t at the beach for long because packing still needed to happen.

We said goodbye to our hotel and stopped for lunch at a health store near the airport. I had delicious avocado salad and some really interesting soup that had gluten free oats, zucchini, and cauliflower all blended up.

I also enjoyed a couple of bites of chocolate avocado mousse! So delicious, but so chocolatey-unfortunately these days I can’t handle more than a little chocolate.

Then we were homeward bound-overall it was a great trip!

Squats on Squats

Date: November 16, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, I think our new squat program is working. After the first day, I couldn’t walk the rest of the week and I did not understand how this was going to work. Well, I’ve been way less sore each time since then. I missed the squats on Thursday, so I did them on my own Saturday morning. The final set called for 8 reps at 80% of your max. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. But guess what-I did it! And it was fine. It even felt easier than 6 reps at 80% the week before. I guess that shows what a dedicated program will do!

So guys…will you excuse the photo dump if I include lots of delicious food photos, and promise a real post tomorrow?

Ok. Let’s roll with it.

Post-speed work breakfast.

My favorite ever quick bread. Long referred to as “mystery bread” on my blog, its true identity is morning glory bread. SO amazing. Fun fact: the green is from a chemical reaction between the sunflower seeds and baking soda.

Saturday morning we had brunch with the resident fellows at my dorm. (The RFs are a family that lives in a house connected to the dorm and they are sort of in charge of us.) They made crepes that I filled with lemon juice, whipped cream, and berries, plus a slice of pumpkin bread.

I finally, FINALLY made it out to my favorite ice cream place this quarter. It was amazing, as was expected.

Today (Sunday) I went home. My family went out to lunch at Whole Foods to sample their Thanksgiving fare. We don’t normally make Thanksgiving dinner ourselves, but this year we are. While I definitely want to make our own sides, I don’t think we have any need to roast our own turkey.

Another part of going home is working on CS homework. If Charlie is on top of my homework, that means I don’t have to do it-right?

My little doggy-so tired!

For dinner, we tried a couple of new recipes. The first was roasted cauliflower from Ina Garten’s cookbook. It had panko and parmesan-It was delicious!

We also made goat cheese and broccoli soufflés. Seriously-souffles aren’t too hard to make! And so beautiful too.

Sadly, the soufflé didn’t have quite as much flavor as I would have liked.

And that’s all I have for today! Have a great week-we’re almost to Thanksgiving!

WIAW-Soup!

Date: August 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Remember how last post I wrote from the airport during my delay? Well…I didn’t get back that night. My flight kept getting pushed back later and later, and then we were switched to a much smaller plane and the plane was way overweight…so I spent another night in NY. I got to spend some extra time with family at least! Never mind the 6 hours spent at the airport…

Monday’s flight went without a hitch, thankfully!

Anyways, despite that whole debacle, let’s celebrate Wednesday! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the fun!

When I got to the airport Monday, I thought I deserved a cappuccino. Decaf though!

I also picked up a whole wheat chicken wrap with balsamic. So good!

I actually made it back in time for Crossfit that night, and worked on back squats with a pause at the bottom (it’s way harder-believe me!) and handstands. I actually held a handstand! Briefly, but still! I had a spotter, and then suddenly I wasn’t waving around anymore-and it surprised me so much I hopped down pretty much right away! I’ll expect it next time!

Afterwards, I went to Whole Foods for some things for the week and dinner. I had Minestrone with cheddar, and a whole wheat roll. Plus an unpictured kombucha.

Since this is totally relevant to food (not), I’m still going to include it. My new room is really cute!

This morning, I woke up super early to run 4 miles. It was very dark out. And humid. But I felt good and maintained a decent pace-and more importantly didn’t trip and fall on the brick paths!

Since I don’t have run pictures, I’ll show you a few of my new commute…over the Potomac and into a different state…

Breakfast was some amazingly large blueberries and an abnormally large banana topped with sun butter.

Lunch was too ugly to merit a picture, but snack was blueberries and plain yogurt in a sunflower seed jar. Thank goodness too, as I didn’t have any of the right sized tupperware!

After work, I headed to Crossfit. We worked on split jerks, and then the WOD was the following:

10 minute AMRAP partner workout:

Partner 1: 3 curtis P’s (dumbell hang snatch, lunge left, lunge right, push press) and then bear crawl WITH dumbbells the length of the gym and back

Partner 2: hold hollow rock position

Switch after each round.

It was a fun one…not as annoying as I was expecting-I normally hate dumbbell cleans.

After Crossfit dinner was something super easy-balck bean soup topped with cheddar, and a side of corn bread from Whole Foods. The corn bread at WF is way better here than in CA…

And now I’m off to make sure my carrots aren’t burning!

Have a great Wednesday!

DC Workouts

Date: June 26, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So…I know I have a bit to catch up on but if I can write this post quick enough I can catch another Scandal before bed. SO GOOD and totally relevant to this city!

Yesterday I woke up at 5am (that’s 2am CA time for those keeping track) to run over to the Lincoln Memorial for November Project.

I was shocked by how light-and hot and humid-it was at 5:30am. Since where I’m from it’s always freezing at night, I couldn’t quite believe it!

We all gathered on the steps. Today was “PR day,” which meant running the stairs for time.

Well, for some reason I thought we were doing that once, so I sprinted up the stairs. And then no one was stopping. Turns out we had to do it 17 (or 13) times…I scaled and did 13, partly because I had to leave a bit early. Guys. The Lincoln Memorial has SO MANY STAIRS. Like, you have no idea. THE BURN! Somehow magically I’m not insanely sore today-maybe because I spent the rest of the morning hydrating like a mad woman, but it was definitely a good one, and so peaceful to be running the city so early!

I went to Crossfit that evening because apparently I’m crazy, and everyone seems to think it’s PR week. Well, I did get a PR! I PRed my deadlifts by 10lbs for a total of 245! And my form was way better than my previous PR so that’s good!

And since we’re on the topic of workouts, I went to a run club today that’s through my gym (which I get a membership to as part of Crossfit). I should also mention that it was 90 and humid today. And that I never have to run in heat because I’m from San Francisco and such a thing does not exist…

There were only 3 of us plus an instructor, and the other women looked pretty fast. On the schedule was about a 35 minute tempo run-10 easy, 10 min tempo, 5 min easy, rest of the run tempo. In theory tempo was a faster pace, or 10k pace. In reality, it was me trying not to die. I was doing ok keeping up with the easy pace-it didn’t feel too bad but it was about a 9:00 which is on the fast side for a longish run for me (My latest 10k pace was 8:45). But I was doing fine. I fell behind pretty quickly when the tempo part started but I did what I could. Coming back though, my legs were absolute bricks. During the “tempo” part, I was just trying to keep them moving. So fast runs in hot and humid weather build character, right? I’ll probably go back even though I probably slowed the others down, because it’s good for me and I’m sort of learning the area through a guided run. That was a little extra incentive-better keep up if I don’t want to get hopelessly lost! And hey-official half training starts next week! Although I’m going to keep up my weekend 6 milers until I get to that point.

Foodwise?

I wasn’t sure if I’d have time for breakfast post-November project, but it was a non-issue and I had woken up HUNGRY. So this protein was much needed after 10245412342 stairs.

And I finally worked out my coffee situation. After waking up at 5am, this was a lifesaver.

As a side note, this is a 12oz coffee, which is the smallest size they serve. I had one again this morning and it was WAY too much caffeine, even though I was drowsy all morning. WHEW. Guess who usually drinks baby espresso drinks? THIS GIRL.

Lunch today was kind of awful. I made some cauliflower in the microwave and topped it with hummus leftover from the previous night’s dinner (picture will follow) and it was just a mushy mess. Ick. I also had scrambled eggs with manchego and spinach, which were ok but it was kind of a mess.

Here’s the aforementioned dinner. The craziest thing happened. I heated soup up on the stove. Not the microwave, the STOVE. Am I officially a real person? I took tomato soup and mixed in some fresh spinach, then topped it with cheddar. On the side was some hummus and pretzels, plus my new favorite thing-FROZEN GRAPES! I had some on the softer side which I hate, so I just stuck them in the freezer. SO good!

The tomato soup was Trader Joe’s, and I was really disappointed. I forgot to check added sugar, and this had a fair amount-it tasted sweet. Ugh.

Speaking of which, on my way out of work today, I was hungry and wanted some quickly digesting carbs to fuel my run, so I picked this guy up from the restaurant.

It was pretty tasty, but SO sweet and oily. But my run went well (as well as it could have) so who am I to complain. I just don’t want to make it a habit!

After the afternoon’s run, I stopped at Whole Foods to be lazy as well as to make use of my gift card. I picked up some fruit, carrots, super dark chocolate, and sun butter, plus dinner and lunch for tomorrow. Not having to pack lunch tonight is sort of fantastic.

My dinner was Mexican tilapia over beans, roasted potatoes, and garlicy cabbage and green beans. Plus lots of grapes with sun butter when I got back, and a bit of dark chocolate.

And now I’m at that point where I could go to bed nice and early, or watch another Scandal…decisions….

Last Post from This Side of the Mississippi

Date: June 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! I’m currently at the airport waiting to board my flight to DC! I’m not sure what my schedule or WiFi will be like for the next couple of days, so I wanted to take the chance to recap some things now. First things first. I wanted to visit the Kitten Nursery I worked at last summer before I left, so of course I have to share adorable kitten pictures. I’ve been trying to eat mostly whole foods lately, so here’s some things from the past couple of days. An egg and lower sugar raspberry jam made by my aunt. Lunch out with my sister-I started with a giant cappuccino which I couldn’t finish! (But you better believe I drank all the milk foam!)

For the main course, my mom and I split a gouda arepa (corn based) and a salad with chicken, avocado, and gouda. And as my last dinner at home, I had one of my favorites-grilled chicken and peach salad with goat cheese. On the side was some whole grain bread rolled in sunflower seeds. And then lunch this morning pre-airport was simple-2 eggs, half an avocado, cheese and crackers, and some English peas (unpictured). Today, I went to my last home Crossfit, got a couple of episodes of Scandal loaded up on my computer to get in the mood, and said goodbye to my kitty. I’m going to miss him! Catch you all from the other side of the country!