WIAW-The Magic Number

Date: February 9, 2016

Author: astottler

And it’s almost Wednesday again. GUYS. I am halfway through my last year of college. (Well, undergrad. Plenty of schooling left for this girl.) How crazy is that? I’m trying to make each moment count, and I am actively trying to remember to enjoy myself each moment because there’s not much time left here! I’m trying to get away from watching the clock until X or Y is over, because then time is passing that I will never get back.

Well, that wasn’t where I was planning on going with that. Where I was planning on going with that was WIAW with Jenn (and friends).

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Pre-Workout:

Cranberry-Orange bread from the freezer. Currently my favorite pre-workout bread, and also the only one I have in the freezer right now. I have my eye on this recipe though for possibly the next one, although I usually like to keep the pre-workout breads a bit lower sugar.

Workout:

UGH. We’ve been doing these yucky sprint intervals at Crossfit that I’m pretty sure are really good for me but they stink.

We started out with 5×3 power snatches. I did those at 55#, and then a set at 65#. I’m pretty sure that’s the heaviest I’ve gone overhead since my shoulder injury! The weight felt easy, but I’m still weak stabilizing at the top so I’m definitely not going to push the weight anytime soon.

WOD:

Every 3.5 minutes for 5 sets:

200m run

7 push press (I used 55#)

5 over bar burpees

7 push press

I actually really enjoyed the running portion, because I felt fairly fast compared to other people, especially by the end. In general, I’m definitely not the fastest but I’m pretty consistent! Every set was within 3 seconds of the others.

Breakfast:

I’ve been really loving my fruit compote with yogurt again lately. This week’s combo is a real winner: cherries+peaches. On top of full fat yogurt and a side of sun butter. In terms of yogurt, I basically just eat whatever my house/dorm buys. I much prefer Greek plain, but otherwise I could go either way full fat vs. fat free and tend to switch week to week.

Lunch #1:

Leftover sweet potato, pear, leek soup with GF croutons, and a side of roasted veggies, mainly sweet potatoes. I think those were leftover veggies from diner at the house last night, and I was able to snag the last bit!

Lunch #2:

A turkey sandwich on GF bread that was from lunch at the house (which I missed due to class) and a Honeybell. Honeybells are a cross between a tangerine and grapefruit, and I’ve been really enjoying them this past week!

I also had a few bites of other things—some snap pea crisps and granola, and a Ghiradelli raspberry dark chocolate square.

My gastroparesis has been better lately (knock on wood), but even when it’s not flaring, I have to be really careful about how much I eat at once or I’ll get a (moderate comparatively) stomachache. I think I’m finally honing on what this amount actually is, although the content of the food also has a big effect! After lunch #1 today, I actually felt really good. Like, normal. Perfect even. Lunch #2 ended up being a little too big (with the random bites). For the most part, I think the magic number is 400 calories. 400 calories and below for a meal, and I seem to be good (assuming I’m not in a bad flare). 400-500 is usually okay, but I don’t feel as good. Over 500 and I’ll have some problems. 600 or significantly above and I start risking a flare up.

Obviously, that’s not very much in one meal, hence why I have lunch #1 and lunch #2 (and the same for dinner). I honestly think I can get a lot healthier as I start to figure this out more, but it can be really difficult to stick to, especially when the food is especially delicious, or if I’m at restaurants. It’s going to take some practice, as well as remembering that I CAN eat everything, I just need to come back to it in a few hours. It’s also difficult if I get a lot of sugar/carb cravings, but the more I stick to what makes me feel good, the fewer I have (because my blood sugar is much more regular).

Workout:

Teaching spin! Lots of hills today, including a 4 song hill (I normally do 3 song hills). I also wrote tomorrow’s class this afternoon, which includes HIIT in place of a second hill. We’re going to do 5 rounds of 1 min max effort on/1 min recover.

Dinner #1:

BBQ chicken leg, red beans, rice, kale.

I also had some frozen mango and another Ghiradelli raspberry square.

This dinner comes back to the perfect number theory. Unfortunately, I was a little over the magic number and am feeling it a bit. But it’s all a learning process and I do think I’ll get there!

Dinner #2:

A new to me bar. Sesame products can be really hit or miss but this was good!

Do you eat 3 square meals or more snacks/mini meals?

WIAW: Attempting to Take Pictures

Date: February 2, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Welcome to another edition of What I Ate Wednesday, hosted (initially) by Jenn!

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I know I recently did a (mostly) full day of eats with my Day in the Life post, but it was so much fun I had to play along again.

I started my morning with cranberry orange bread. I like having some form of quick bread pre-Crossfit, and my body actually seems to respond best to this particular recipe! Made with dried and fresh (well, formerly frozen) cranberries and GF flour. Also let it be noted that the I unvegan-ified the recipe.

I remembered to take a picture about halfway through, so here’s a picture of my remaining piece.

Crossfit was hard! I was still a bit sore from squats yesterday which probably didn’t help. We did 5 sets of power cleans. The WOD was every 3.5 minutes: 150m row, 10 push press, 8 bar facing burpees. It was a sprint, and the faster you went, the more rest you got. I did each round in just under 2 minutes, and we completed 5 rounds. I felt wiped out, and because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, I was about ready to crawl back into bed.

Immediately upon arriving at my dorm, I had a few GF multigrain crackers while I prepped my yogurt bowl.

I’m bringing back the berry compote! It’s been at least a year since I had this. It’s just frozen berries, reduced on the stove. I haven’t been feeling the sweetness of my jam lately. Yogurt on the bottom, crunchy sun butter on top.

Lunch was leftover soup from Monday night’s dinner. I have an off-campus class on Monday nights that is actually in my hometown, so I’ve been going back for dinner those nights to beat traffic. I will share the pictures from Monday night because they are far prettier. It was paleo Mushroom, Leek, and Thyme soup.

On the side was some type of cloud bread. I’m still a bit unclear on what exactly it is, but it doesn’t have flour and is supposedly made of egg and cream cheese, topped with rosemary. I really liked it, and though it was be great in muffin tins like a popover.

In my afternoon class, I had the final pear of my fruit and cheese delivery.

After classes were over for the day, I had my afternoon snack (or lunch #2 since the soup was light and early). Since I missed lunch at the house, I scoured the fridge for leftovers and found some roasted sweet potatoes.

Part two was one of my Raaw Macaw bars. This time, I added dried cranberries to the bar and actually like it better without. I feel like the cranberries somehow dried out the texture a bit.

About an hour before teaching spin, I was a little hungry so I had a few crackers so I wouldn’t be starving by the time class was over.

Spin was a blast as always! For dinner, I had a small piece of chicken, some salad with sesame dressing, a few stir fry veggies, and some asian rice noodles.

Dessert was a small GF shortbread and some chocolate.

My evening snack was extra special today. My house had an event called “Avocado Appreciation,” which included avocado facemasks, guacamole, and avocado smoothies.

I tried really hard to get a decent smoothie picture but it wasn’t happening! The smoothie was really good—the only time I tried an avocado smoothie in the past, I didn’t like it but this one was delicious! Turns out the key is honey. The one I made once had banana. The smoothie had avocado, honey, yogurt, and milk.

And that’s a wrap!

What is your favorite avocado item?

WIAW-A New Routine

Date: January 5, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! I’ve now been to all my classes, and while I’m a bit overwhelmed, I’m really excited for all of them! This quarter I’m taking Sex and Gender in Physiology, Abnormal Psych, Cosmology, and Sleep and Dreams.

Now that I’m (hopefully) getting into a groove with my new eating habits, I thought I’d do another WIAW link up with Jenn and the gang.

Before Crossfit, I had another piece of Cranberry orange bread. Love it.

Crossfit was really tough. The workouts at this Crossfit are hard, I’ve determined! Haha. They tend to be longer. This one took me about 14 minutes.

3 sets

15 box jump w/step
10 no push up burpee
5 power clean and jerk
250m row
Rest 1

Post Crossfit, I had some fage 2% with homemade cranberry sauce and sun butter. Cranberry sauce is the easiest thing to make. I had no idea. I just threw leftover cranberries on the stove and eyeballed water and sugar. This is probably tarter than most which is fantastic!

My first class today was at noon, so I packed a lunch and ate early. Miltons GF everything crackers+leftover Tuscan Chicken and Vegetable stew.

After a couple of classes, I came back and had my afternoon snack. I grabbed a couple of slices of turkey on the way in with a piece of avocado, and then had one of my Raaw Macaw bars.

After doing some reading, I headed to the gym for a short spin workout. The classes I teach start up again next week and I have a ton of new music, so I wanted to get a feel for the choreography.

I was hungry when I got back so I had a few more crackers to take the edge off.

One thing about having to eat small meals is I have to be careful not to get ravenous because I have to really be in control when I eat my mini meals.

Dinner came shortly after—for some reason this looks like more food than it was, but I had some roasted sweet potato, roasted garlic kale (SO good), and a small salad with rosemary chicken and sesame dressing.

Dessert #1 was an Enjoy Life gingerbread cookie. These are so good—soft and spicy! I prepackaged a few desserts before coming back to school to help with portion control and because it makes me feel more organized.

For the first time, I grabbed dinner #2 while getting dinner #1. This is mostly because I think I need more vegetables, and the vegetables are never present as leftovers from dinner.

I only ate about 1/2 of the drumstick because I wasn’t really feeling it. The disadvantage of getting food beforehand is that it’s hard to be intuitive about what I need so I’ll reconsider that in the future. For second dinner dessert, I had 3 GF chocolate covered pretzels.

And that’s a wrap!

What’s your favorite kind of quick bread?

Quickbreads are one of my favorite things so I’d love an idea as to what to make next 🙂

WIAW-Kauai

Date: December 29, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Greetings from Kauai! I’m here for the week with my family so I thought it would be a fun opportunity to dive back into WIAW.

This is from Monday! I began the morning with a short 2 mile run to get the blood flowing. This is mostly so I am not a grumpy mess with my family. I got it in before my family woke up thanks to jet lag!

For breakfast, I had a few taro chips for some carbs (hah) plus a couple of pieces of dried mango.

The main course was plain greek yogurt with sun butter and fresh passion fruit.

Plus fresh Maui Gold pineapple!

The morning was then spent at the beach. It was a beautiful day, after a lot of rain the past couple of days! I read my book, and then fooled around with a volleyball with my sister and future in-laws a little bit.

From the beach, we stopped at Chicken in a Barrel and had delicious freshly smoked chicken. With brown rice and coleslaw.

For dessert, I stopped at a roadside fruit stand for a chocolate dipped frozen banana with toffee.

Next on the agenda was dropping into a Crossfit class at Kilauea Crossfit.

Everyone was super friendly and welcoming! For the workout, we worked up to a heavy set of 5 strict presses. The WOD was Open 13.4: 7 minute AMRAP of 3 clean and jerks, 3 toes to bar, 6 clean and jerks, 6 toes to bar, 9, 12, etc. I chose 75# for the clean and jerks and just did knee raises. It was a good one, and a day later I am definitely feeling it! I finished the round of 12 + 1. We finished with some core work.

On the way home I picked up some dried papaya at the grocery store and snacked on some of that.

I also snacked on some local goat cheese and crackers before heading over to dinner with my future in-laws.

They grilled chicken and made some rice and veggies, and we brought a salad with goat cheese and dried cranberries, plus a pie.

As I just mentioned, we brought a pie for dessert. It was guava chiffon.

After dinner back at our condo, my parents and I shared some pineapple cider.

What’s interesting is how drastically different this day of food was from even a week ago when I was home during break. At home, I’ve been eating a lot of soup and small meals. This is partly because my stomach condition isn’t flaring at all now, but I definitely need to tread carefully while I’m here!

What do you eat on vacation?

WIAW-Senior Food

Date: October 6, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Happy Wednesday-halfway through the week! Woohoo! Today, I’m linking up for WIAW again!

I tried really really hard to take pictures today!

My morning began with a track workout. Not ideal after my long run yesterday, but I needed to time a 400m sprint for a class project by Wednesday so I trudged out there. Prior to the run, I had some crackers and a few pieces of dried mango.

I ran a total of 3 miles per my training plan, including my timed 400m.

Post-run was my typical breakfast-not the most interesting but gets the job done. Plain greek yogurt, banana, and sun butter.

After breakfast, I headed out for my fake first class. I dropped my 9am, but I’m trying to fill that time with other work so I scheduled myself to be at a coffeeshop for the first hour of my day. A latte (decaf) beats biochem right now!

After my morning classes, I headed back to the house for lunch. Today was pho-I wasn’t sure if the noodles were gluten free so I stuck to chicken and veggie toppings. Yum!

After lunch I was craving something a little sweet and carby, so I had a couple of dates and a pumpkin muffin from the freezer.

These are green because I used sunflower seed butter in place of almond in the recipe, and there is a chemical reaction between sunflower seeds and baking soda!

After an afternoon of classes, I pulled some zucchini bread out of the freezer-I totally owe you guys that recipe!

Crossfit today was good-I can now do a burpee with no shoulder problems, which I couldn’t really last week so this is progress! We did 5 rounds of 3 hang power cleans, 5 burpees, and a sled push at max effort, and then took a full recover, repeating for a total of 5 rounds. It’s crazy-I’ve been away from my school Crossfit for 3 months and I feel like everything is different-the people, the equipment-so weird!

Dinner was a salad from Trader Joe’s-rainbow slaw. It was a little plain for my liking-needed some meat! I grabbed a few pieces of chicken from the dinner at the house as they were closing up, plus some mashed potatoes and chocolate mousse.

After dinner, I had some caramel cheddar corn and a gluten free brownie.

After being sick for so long with no desire for anything sweet, I think my sweet tooth is coming back with vengeance! It’s a little frustrating because I feel like after every flare up, I have to relearn how to eat. Hopefully no more stomach flare ups though!

What is your favorite pumpkin product?

I think mine is pumpkin bread but I’m craving a pumpkin chocolate chip bar right about now!