WIAW-Protein!

Date: July 16, 2013

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! Thanks as always to Jenn for putting on this foodie party every week!

Since today (Tuesday) was the MLB all-star game, I planned by workouts for the week around having a window open to watch. (It was a disappointing game for the NL, and only 1 Giant even got to play. Boo.) As a result, I went to morning instead of evening Crossfit.

Before 7am Crossfit, so I had a Thinkthin bar. Crossfit was a good one- 10,9,8…1 of pull ups and kettle bell swings, with 100m sprint in between.

And guess what? I may have sort have gotten myself a job for the summer. The manager of my Crossfit box was talking about how he needed someone to sweep/clean the box for free membership, so I volunteered! I don’t have unlimited class access for this month, so that would be awesome! Plus, I would love knowing everything is clean and sanitary.

After Crossfit, I drove out to the bay to get in a training run.

I had 4 miles on the schedule for today, but since I ran about a mile in Crossfit (between the warm up and the WOD), I stuck to 3.

And guess what? I somehow managed to get an appointment with the foot doctor on Thursday. Hopefully he can help me figure out a way to run pain-free, which would be amazing.

After my run, I got a quick rowing workout in. I’ve lost a lot of upper body strength, and rowing is a great way to build that up. Of course the millions of pull-ups (banded) I do at Crossfit help with that too….But yeahh my rowing shape? Not so great today. I probably spent a total of 30 minutes on the erg today.

After all that, it was shopping time! I went to Whole Foods for some Chocolate Almond milk, and picked up some coffee with almond milk to go.

I really, really didn’t like this. I’m not a big coffee fan, but this just tasted sour to me. Maybe it’s because it was a light roast? I’ve never had light roast before, and I guess I usually just have cappuccinos when I drink coffee (so sophisticated, I know). I wanted to drink as much as I could because I paid for it, but in the end I tossed about half of it.

Then, it was on to GNC for the much-coveted Quest bars. I’ve only had tried them once a long time ago, but since everyone has been raving about them, it was time to check them out again. Plus, I eat Thinkthin bars as pre-run/pre-workout fuel, and they were getting old. Quest bars seemed to have a similar nutritional profile, so I thought I’d give them a try.

*Note: Sadly, I was not compensated by Quest to review this product so I had to go out and buy them myself. 🙁 All opinions are my own.*

They were buy 2 get 1 free, so naturally I had to try ALL the flavors, right??

Soooo if I buy enough protein, will it lift the weights and build the muscles for me?

I immediately broke into the cookie dough.

It was really good! After a few bites, I heated it up. After having it hot, I don’t think I can go back to having it cold. YUM.

HOWEVER. Here’s my one big thing. I HATE the taste of stevia. This has stevia, which didn’t bother me while I was actually eating it, but left a really weird/gross taste in my mouth for a long time afterwards. I separated the bars into 2 piles-those with stevia, and those without. I’m pretty sure I’m going to like those without way more. I had a bite of the apple pie, which has no stevia and I really liked it.

Here’s my other issue with these bars-although they don’t have all that many ingredients, they do have a lot of artificial, weird things. I lot of them have quite a bit of sugar alcohols, which are known to upset stomachs. So I may have felt that a little today.

Overall, I like these bars. I’m a little scared to eat them pre-run though, and I’m almost positive I’ll like the ones without stevia way better.

Enough of that, onto other food as of late! (Not just today, just haven’t posted it yet!)

Egg scramble with spinach, garlic and herb laughing cow, and cheddar.

Cheesy garlic and herb brussels sprouts and sausage from Carrots n Cake. This was of course delicious, and perfectly satisfying. I used sun-dried tomato chicken sausage, and the flavors worked really well. I would recommend making this! I think we’re going to use the rest of the sausage over spaghetti squash and tomato sauce.

A healthy protein mug cake: chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, half a banana, baking powder, vanilla, coconut flour, egg whites, and bittersweet chocolate chips. The chocolate chips definitely make mug cakes.

Snap peas and leftover dijon vinaigrette.

Peaches literally the size of softballs. This picture doesn’t do them justice. Gotta love Costco!

Most of the sweet potatoes we have are orange, but I got some amazing white ones at the farmer’s market the other week. I’ve been trying to find that kind ever since! These ones looked a little different in color on the outside, so I thought maybe they were the white variety. Imagine my surprise when we cut them open! I kind of love purple sweet potatoes, so this was just fine with me!

Complete with rotisserie chicken and mango barbecue sauce, and spinach and mushrooms sauteed with garlic and olive oil.

Some other random things:

1. I’ve spent some time lately writing blog posts “for a rainy day.” As in, when I’m back in school and life gets just a little too crazy. Don’t want to leave you guys hanging! I want to have a nice little arsenal for before school starts.

2. I ordered some workout tanks! I’m super excited; two of them have already shipped! I made some custom Fitness is Sweet tanks, plus another workout tank not designed by me. I’ll leave you all in suspense until they arrive 🙂

3. After a lot of thought and deliberation, I’ve decided not to go to Healthy Living Summit. I really wanted to go, but it doesn’t exactly make sense for me this year. It’s across the country, it’s right before I start school, I don’t know anyone going, it’s pricy, and my blog is not even a year old. I thinking that next year would make a lot more sense.

And with that, have a great week!

Do you like Quest bars? What is your favorite flavor? Thoughts on Stevia?

I could do a whole post on my personal thoughts on stevia, but that could create a big old controversy!

WIAW-Procrastination

Date: July 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Do you guys know how much I like Tuesday nights? Why do I love Tuesday nights? I get to write up my WIAW post! Thanks a ton Jenn!

I’m actually going to do this post sort of backwards, starting at dinner because I have a recipe for you all!

As you’ve seen on my blog before, at least once a week during school I would head over to one of the bazillion Coupa Cafe’s on campus and order the Beverly Hills chopped salad.

Well, tonight, my mom and I decided to try and recreate it. And I must say, it turned out pretty darn good! However, since this is Northern CA, I’m renaming it the California Chop Salad, because we need some love up north here too.

California Chop Salad

Serves About 3

For the dressing:

3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 shallots, quartered
1 garlic clove, halved
Pinch of sugar

Blend in food processor until smooth. We actually had leftover dressing, so add as much or as little as you choose.

For the salad (roughly):

1/2 large heirloom tomato
2/3 c grated gouda
8 asparagus spears
3 c mixed greens
2 shredded chicken breasts
10 chopped kalamata olives
1 chopped avocado

Feel free to chop everything up as fine as you like. Toss everything together except for the cheese, and then serve with the cheese on top. Enjoy! I know I did!

And now that that’s out of the way, let’s back up. First, let me start by saying I have to write a paper tonight, but I figured blogging would get my writing juices flowing. The paper was on a sleep intervention I gave myself. Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned, but it’s fine if the intervention sort of failed. Let’s jump back to this morning, shall we?

No pictures of my breakfast, but it looked about like this.

The plan was to get my 4 miles in before yoga, but I quickly realized I scheduled myself way to tightly and that was just not going to work out. After yoga, I was feeling a little too zen-ed out to run, so I went to Whole Foods for lunch. I got the salad bar-and I’m not one to pass up the opportunity to try avocado vinaigrette!

The dressing wasn’t bad but I just didn’t enjoy this salad. I’m terrible and putting together my own salads from the salad bar-I just can’t get the correct mix of things. Oh well.

After shopping around a little, I decided on a blueberry muffin. I guess this was my one last test to see if gluten affected me-or whatever. I’m not really sure what I was thinking.

It was delicious and totally what I was wanting, but I pretty much immediately got a stomachache. Boo. Also, have I mentioned that carbs tend to make me crave more food? Here are some snacks from the day. At least they were delicious and somewhat healthy!

I saw these on a giveaway yesterday and was intrigued. Nut and gluten free! I tried a bit of one, because I can’t buy something new and not try it right away.

I also got this Chobani to try. OMG was it good! I can’t wait until just the coconut is available in stores! I mean, I can’t describe how good this actually was. So do yourselves a favor and go out and buy it.

I also enjoyed the company of this guy.

Aaand one more snack-Smoked Gouda popcorn. And yes, it is as good as it sounds.

This evening, I went to Crossfit. It was hard, but good. For the strength, we worked on snatches, which felt really good. I haven’t been able to do anything like hang cleans or snatches in a loooong time because my gym at school didn’t have bumpers, so this was a lot of fun for me. Plus, not gonna lie, I like showing off my weight lifting. I didn’t go super heavy for me since it had been a little while and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was fun.

The WOD was HARD. I think it was because the push presses were pretty heavy for me-75 lbs, but I Rxed it. Here it is:

3 rounds with 1 min rest in between of:

5 minutes: 400m run and then AMRAP of push press and Sumo Deadlift High Pull.

I got in 3 rounds plus 15. I don’t think I’ve ever done a sumo deadlift high pull before, but I’ve done a sumo deadlift and a high pull, so basically the same, right??

And here are some last eats from dinner. My mom had a stressful day so she got us eclairs 🙂 I can’t complain-I’ll start the whole no gluten thing tomorrow.

Are you a procrastinator, or is it just me?

WIAW and Graduation!

Date: July 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday- the one time in the week where we all come together and enjoy delicious food! And of course, thank you Jenn!

Guess what? I’m actually ahead on post ideas. As in, I have 2 posts that I’m planning on writing up. What?? Who am I? So be on the lookout for those. I also had some excellent suggestions from you guys for how to make my pictures pretty- pic monkey! So naturally I had quite the fun time today playing around with that! And…naturally this was my subject-so let us commence What I WISH I Ate Wednesday!

Heh heh. Editing is fun. Although this didn’t actually need anything to look mouthwateringly delicious. Did you guys know there’s even a spray tan and a nip and tuck feature? Although I assure you, this froyo does NOT need to appear smaller!

As you can see, I definitely have a type 😉

So let’s move on to what I ACTUALLY ate:

A salad inspired by Beth and my laziness. A salad with spicy avocado hummus and beautiful Farmer’s Market heirloom tomatoes, topped with a runny egg.

Normally I would have my hummus salad with a hardboiled egg since the yolk is delicious combined with the hummus. However, I was not about to hard boil eggs (that takes TIMEEE), so I decided to try this! My opinion? Two thumbs up!

As you may know, I’m trying to change my snacking habit. (It takes 21 days to change a habit, so that’s how long I’m skipping snacks for!) And just a clarification, I’m not necessarily trying to restrict food intake, just break the habit of mindless snacking. One thing that was interesting that without snacking, I didn’t want as much food at dinner. Interesting! So that’s one day down!

ANYWAYS. Dinner was delicious!

The breakdown: a couple of recipes courtesy of Cooking Light: Asian Lettuce Cups and Steamed Sugar Snap Peas. The lettuce cups are delicious- they have ground turkey, water chestnuts, and mushrooms. They’re fun to eat, and would also make a great finger food at a party (but granted they’re a bit messy). Also on my plate was a Garlic Brown Rice and Quinoa mixture.

I love this stuff-it’s more interesting and has more flavor than plain rice, and it’s still super versatile. I’ve seen it at both Whole Foods and Costco. For dessert, I had some papaya and dark chocolate.

I love Hawaiian papaya, I just wish it wasn’t so darn expensive! Blah.

I love super dark chocolate. The lower square is 91%.

So let’s get to today’s workouts! This morning I went to a yoga class, but I complete my 4 mile training run beforehand on the treadmill. I did some intervals and some steady. It’s amazing how much intervals can kill your legs! Yoga was really good as well. I haven’t gone in 2 weeks- not since I tried Bikram. I’m sooo tight. I guess that’s what running will do to you! I need to make it a priority to go more often. Also, my arms are pretty weak. I can’t remember ever before my arms having this little muscle. For years, I was playing softball regularly, which included pitching, which kept my arms strong and muscular. And then of course, rowing kept that up (I actually bulked up a ton in my shoulders during winter quarter…). Even after lying in bed for weeks with Mono, I still had a little of my rowing muscle left over. However, now with no sport, and running pushing weight lifting out of my routine, I’ve lost that. Yoga plus Crossfit tonight left my arms quite jello-y. At Crossfit, I worked on handstands-I was against the wall, and got about a foot away from a decent handstand. Not bad for my first time!

I also worked on deadlifts. It was a super light weight for me, but I was technically still in an Intro class. I was able to Rx the WOD though in terms of weight! Here’s what it was:

4 Minute Tabatas (20″ on 10″ off 8x) of each:

Deadlift (95)

Kettlebell Swing (35)

Hand Release Push Up

I finished with a total of 171. I did the hand release push ups on my knees though since I wanted to maintain good form, and there were a lot of them. This WOD was HARD. My arms were jello. Yoga plus hand stands+ push ups=jello arms.

But you want to know the best part? The coaches determined that I don’t have to do the “on-ramp” which is the 1 month program beginners of Crossfit have to go through to learn the lifts, since I already have a really strong lifting background and basically know all the lifts. Yay! (Hence-graduation. I’m no longer an ‘Intro’!) What does this mean for me? I get to do the regular WODs, come in for any of the workouts, and save $75! Woo hoo! I can’t wait to go in again-not sure when that’s going to be though! See you all tomorrow!

What is your favorite way to eat froyo? Are you going to the Healthy Living Summit? Crossfit-love it or hate it?

WIAW-Paleo-ish

Date: June 25, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! I feel like this is basically a holiday, except it happens every week! Yay! Thanks again to Jenn for hosting the fun!

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my goals this summer, I want to figure out what foods work best for me. And yes, I promise I’m going to get tested for gluten soon!

(I had way too much fun making this banner.)

My summer shape up goal for this week was to try a mainly Paleo style of eating, as I’ve felt pretty good in the past when I’ve tried eating in this way (although it was only a few days in the past). My basic guidelines have been to avoid dairy and grains, so not totally Paleo. So without further ado, here are some of these new eats!

Spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs, topped with almond milk mozzarella. For the meatballs, we simply balled up Italian seasoned ground turkey, and they came out really well! As for the almond milk cheese-it’s pretty good. I wouldn’t necessarily eat it in something where cheese is the focus, but it works in tons of different things.

Leftover blueberry lavender smoothie from Gina. For this, I used egg white protein powder.

This is a Turkey and Havarti sandwich from Cooking Light. My mom and I both LOVE this recipe! This is hers- bread, mustard and mayo, arugula (spinach works), red onion, havarti cheese, turkey, and sliced apple. Put in the oven on broil until the cheese is bubbly, then top with ground pepper. The pepper makes it! Here’s my Paleo version:

No bread (hence the tinfoil), and almond milk mozzarella cheese. SO delicious! Make this-you won’t be sorry!

Chocolate covered frozen banana-the chocolate fudge sauce isn’t exactly Paleo, hence the “ish.”

My new obsession! The mango-cocout flavor is so good!

Snacks. The Thinkthin Divine bars are sooooo good. They are gluten free, and MOSTLY kind of Paleo.

href=”http://www.blogilates.com/videos/healthiest-quesadilla-ever-obesity-as-a-disease” target=”_blank”>This quesadilla from Blogilates. This was a great use of almond milk cheese-this meal is totally Paleo!

Mangos which I am obsessed with. Remember when I had over 20 mangos in my dorm room? Yeah, not one went bad :)<a

See’s dark chocolate (left over from Easter…). One thing about avoiding grains is my desserts are mostly just dark chocolate, or Baker’s chocolate with raisins. This is likely keeping me sane.

Any Star Trek fans out there? Yes, my family owns a Starship Enterprise pizza cutter.

In other events in my life, I finally picked up my new shoes, and they’re ever prettier than I was expecting!

I wore them this morning for my 3 mile run and I’m in love! (Sidenote-I think 3 miles is my mental limit on the treadmill…) I can’t wait to wear them for my 10 mile run this weekend. To clarify, I can’t wait to wear the shoes, I’m terrified for the run!

Today also marked the beginning of summer quarter. I went down to school yesterday to get instructed on the research I’m doing for a Professor, and I went back today as well. It’s not glamorous work (looking at pictures of mouse carcasses) but hey, I’ll take it! Wednesday is my first day of Health Psychology, so I’ll be sure to share anything interesting I learn from that! Hope you all have had a great week so far, and have eaten some deliciousness!

What are you thoughts on Paleo? On food sensitivities?

WIAW-SUMMER

Date: June 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Happy WIAW! Thanks a lot to Jenn for posting, as always!

First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food.

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.I LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!I’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!Yeah, I have a lot of stuff…And last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity.

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are.

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:These things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously).

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well.

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts.

After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops).

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class.

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!What is your favorite thing about summer?