How Do You Eat?

So, have you foam rolled today?

NO?!?! C'mon look what I did before my nightly ice cream treat tonight...

Yup, my high density foam roller on the hard wood floor...pretty intense. But look, I'm still smiling...

And you know when else I'll be smiling? When I am back here...

How about we all learn from my mistakes and prevent injury? Good I'm glad we are all in agreement.

Okay I'll stop now.

On a different note, let's talk about how you eat. Not what you eat, but how. I am a big health magazine reader and I constantly read about how you should always sit at the kitchen and not focus on anything except for your food. That way you will not "forget" that you ate, your body and your mind will know you ate and therefore you will not be hungry right after. I'm sure this is great advice for some people but I have to say I completely disagree.

For me, it is far more important to eat slowly. If I eat slowly, I improve my stomach's digestion AND I ensure that my body has time to realize I am full, so I will not eat more. I believe I have read it takes 15 minutes for your body to realize you are full. If I eat too quick, it would only take me 5 minutes to grab for more food. For me, eating slowly means distracting myself while eating. I eat breakfast at work while getting things ready for the day, and dinner with my computer or a book. It has been known to take me 45 minutes to eat my morning oatmeal if I am sending e-mails, prepping lessons etc. Although I pay almost no attention to my breakfast, I am still not hungry until morning snack time. If I ate at home, I know I'd eat quickly and then be searching for breakfast #2 before I even got to work.

When I used to teach half day kindergarten I ate lunch while prepping for the next day, or sometimes in my car on the way to tutoring. Now, when I have 30 minutes to eat lunch- with nothing to distract me except conversation with coworkers, I have to literally force myself to not scarf down my lunch in 10 minutes. This is not to say I am an extremely fast eater. When Eric and I are at a restaurant, it will normally take me twice as long to eat my meal than it takes him. I just find it much easier and more practical to distract myself while I'm eating so I eat slower. What can I say, I love to multi-task. Since football started, Eric hasn't been home for dinner anyway so I don't have to worry about not sitting down to dinner with him. I may change my tune a bit when I have kids, but I am sure they will distract me enough to not put too much attention into my food :)

I realize what works for me, may not work for anyone else. But if you find yourself eating too quickly when you focus only on your food, try doing some other things and see how it goes. You may "forget" you ate like they claim will happen in magazines- but perhaps you will find it works well for you.

If you feel that you have eating down to a science, how do you eat? What works best for you?

And don't forget to foam roll :)

All About Foam Rolling

Everyone who has a foam roller can probably relate to the love/hate relationship I have developed with my foam roller since I got it in early June. I have to say that up until my meeting with a running coach last Tuesday, that relationship was leaning much closer to hate than love. That thing hurts!

Turns out, I didn't even have the most painful version. According to my consultation with a running coach, I need to be using a high density foam roller on hard wood. Previously, I was tortured enough with my regular density foam roller on a nice carpeted floor, but apparently not quite enough. I have to say if you are not injured and already own and use a foam roller, you probably do not need to invest in a new one. However, if you are just thinking about purchasing one, might as well get the high density foam roller. I bought mine on amazon and I went for 6" by 36" round. If you are trying to cut costs, I would go with the 6" by 12" round, rather than going for the half round. I genuinely don't understand what you would do with a half round one, or how it would work. If you do know, please enlighten me but for now I say don't get it.

So what is this foam roller you ask? It has been called the poor man's massage therapist...ha ha. Seriously though, that's what it is. Basically, it would be great for our muscles if we could all get soft tissue massages every day, but since we can't, the foam roller is a good second choice. By giving your muscles this massage, you improve your soft tissue extensibility which relaxes the muscle. As I have learned lately, a lot of our injuries that we attribute to the specific part of the body that hurts (our knee, our shins etc) are really a result of deficits in other areas of my body. For example, when thinking about the pain in my knee, my running coach focused on my feet (such as, do I have problems with overpronation? do I have high arches? etc) and my hips area (am I unbalanced?). It turns out my feet are just fine, but my hips are unbalanced and my calves and quads are too tight. Maybe some of you would've made these kind of assumptions, but I certainly didn't! I thought for sure my knee issue was a knee issue, but nope. Even patellafemoral syndrome, which was I originally diagnosed with involves the quad muscles not being strong enough to hold the patella in place.

So back to foam rolling. My physical therapist told me to do it twice a day, but since I hated it- I did it more like...maybe once? NOW...I am doing it 2-3 times per day and still stretching in addition. After only 5 days of this, my knee was almost completely pain free today. So I'm sold.

You should be too. Even if you are not injured now...why wait until you are? Prevent it!

I've convinced you? Good. Here is what to do. Go here and buy yourself a foam roller. Trust me, if you get injured you will spend way more on doctor's visit co-pays and physical therapy co-pays. This summer I was spending $45 per week to go to physical therapy, the most expensive foam roller is less than $30. Then, check out this video for examples of how to use the foam roller. I use mine to stretch out my IT band (they are doing that in the video when they are on their side), quads, hamstrings and calves. On the video, they also roll on their backs, which I have not tried yet. I also think you can roll on your butt but I haven't QUITE mastered that yet.

Also if you are a runner, I recommend reading this article from Runner's World about foam rolling specifically for runners. They mention all the specific areas that runners should roll and briefly explain how foam rolling can increase your flexibility and improve your performance. They say you should run, roll, then stretch. I have read in other places (and been told by my physical therapist to roll FIRST). I myself am rolling firs thing in the morning so that I can increase my flexibility at the start of the day before I walk on my knee all day long. I think at the end of the day, the important thing is to use the foam roller- no matter WHEN you use it :) That's right...go foam roll, right now!

Birthdays and Fall Arrivals

The weather in Boston has been GROSS this weekend and it has matched how I feel exactly- sore throat, exhausted and other fun things that go with either fighting a sickness (what I tell myself I am doing) or actually being sick (probably what I am). I did take an hour and a half nap yesterday afternoon so I'd be somewhat alive for Ronnie's B-day Party last night. Ronnie is my friend Tiff's fiance and he turned 30, wooo!

A little background on Ronnie/Tiff because I think its a fun story. I have been friends with Tiff since 7th grade. Back in 7th/8th grade, Tiff and I basically lived at our other friend Lisa's house. Here we are at Tiff's bridal shower a few weeks ago:

Our friend Lisa (right) also has three older brothers who also always had friends over. I was a pretty shy(ish) 7th grader, so I wouldn't say I really talked to the brother's friends all that often but I did remember one of them in particular because he was Lisa's brother's best friend at the time, he had a memorable name and red hair (always memorable) and that was Ronnie. Flash forward about nine years later and I am talking to Tiff on the phone. She tells me she is dating one of Lisa's brother's friends and asks, "do you remember Ronnie?" OF COURSE I remember Ronnie! Flash forward 3 more years and they are engaged, 4 more years and it's 40 days from their wedding. Crazy, huh? This guy we used to "hang out with" (as in, in the same room) is now Tiff's fiance. Since they were four years older than us, we didn't see them much when we were in high school/college because they were in college and then we were, but once we were all out of college- this is where they ended up.

Also important to note that Ronnie is by far the best guy Tiff has ever dated. Although, thats probably not giving him enough credit since some of those guys were absolutely terrible. But really, they are great for each other...truly! Here is the cake that Tiff made Ronnie:

And me, Tiff and Bruschi:

And Eric with the dog form of himself haha

Bruschi was so cute...I just could not stop taking pictures of him haha

And last one, Ronnie's birthday cake...

On a different note, this morning I noticed some arrivals in my front yard. #1- the official sign of fall, a beautiful tree with a bunch of leaves around it (I suppose at some point I am going to have to do something about those leaves, ugh!).

And #2 my new "high density" foam roller:

I tried it out really quickly and all I can say is...oww! I promise to do a full review once I use it a few times :) I have to go get ready to take my sister and 2 cousins into Boston for the final measurements for bridesmaid dresses. After today all my girls will be measured and we'll be ready to place our order. Whoa hoo!

The Plan: Updated

Last night was my big (free) consultation with the running coach. It started off well, I got there early and quickly noticed I was literally 400 feet (according to the Garmin) from my friend Gerry's apartment so I decided to visit her first. I'm sure she was quite confused about why I was 30 minutes from home on a random Tuesday night but I like to be surprising what can I say?

Overall the appointment was extremely productive. He had me fill out a bunch of forms listing what I normally do for exercise, health problems, running goals, etc. He asked me a lot of questions about when the pain started etc. It felt a lot more like a doctors appointment than a "running" appointment except that he did not focus on my knee at all. He explained that my knee problem probably has little to do with my knee so we have to figure out what is causing it. He did a serious of tests. I had to squat for 90 seconds (which I don't recommend doing for fun), squat with each leg in the air, do some calf stretching, he measured my arch height etc. He confirmed what others have said about my feet which is that they are not the issue.

My issue is apparently coming from my hip, back area. He is the first person to consider this possibility, everyone always looks at my feet! I am slightly imbalanced and lean to the left when I do things. No offense to my body but this is the WORST idea for my body ever since my right side is so much stronger than my left. It didn't sound like there was any miracle cure for being imbalanced but he did say that I can get my body better equipped to handle this imbalance. Also since my right knee does hurt sometimes when I run, the imbalance is not the cause of the problem, but simply the reason why my left knee bothers me all the time.

So, the actual problem? Tightness. He was pushing on parts of my legs and telling me it shouldn't hurt at all and I was about to cry in pain. Apparently, the most important part of my physical therapy was probably the foam roller and it was the part I was least serious about. Sure, I did the foam roller when I was about to work out or do my physical therapy exercises but he said I should be doing it as much as I possibly can, several times a day. Dear Parents, It may sound strange but your 5 year old will be learning a new technique called "foam rolling". Since Ms. Winn has to do it several times a day, we figured what better way to ensure that happens than to make it just as essential to the kindergarten day as reading instruction :)

I have to say, while he is the first to say it, this "diagnosis" is not shocking to me at all. I have never been a flexible person and add that to my overall hatred for all things stretching and you have an obviously injured runner. To give myself some credit, I have been stretching a lot more. I never work out without SOME stretch after. But is it enough? Obviously not.

Enter: THE PLAN.

To Buy

• 1 high density foam roller (apparently mine is not serious enough, go figure)

To Do

• 10 minutes of foam rolling 2-3 x per day
• calf stretches 30 seconds, 3x per day
• quad stretches 30 seconds, 3x per day
• squat and hold 60-90 seconds, 2x per day
• yoga 2x per week

How am I going to fit this in? The plan is to do everything right in the morning, fit in more stretching while my kiddos are at recess (they won't notice, I already do laps around the playground sometimes), do an afternoon session any days when I am home early enough perhaps while I am making dinner and then do an evening session right before I eat dessert at night (I guess this means I'll need some dessert every night ha ha). I'm hoping if I make a habit of it, it will not seem so terrible. I also plan to make the time by easing up *a little* on my PT exercises. I am sure they are still important but not as important as this. Also it was kind of depressing how much I've been working my quad muscles and yet I was still dying trying to hold a squat for 90 seconds.

As for the running coach, we agreed that I would do this stuff for awhile until I am completely pain free. When that happens, I can choose to go back to him to have him help me get back into running safely, or I can try it out myself. The goal right now is to get there. I'll let you know how it goes :)

Dare You To Run

I woke up this morning to absolutely pouring rain and began my usual Saturday morning routine of eating breakfast, catching up on TV shows and reading some blogs. All of a sudden I just had this overwhelming desire to start up running again. My knee has been feeling significantly better (I haven't even been wearing my strap all the time anymore) and I can go for hours without any pain at all. When pain is there, it's almost not even noticeable except that I am paying attention.

I immediately jumped in crazy Kelly mode of looking at 5k races that I could still do this fall, and I did find a few for the last few weeks of October and early November. Plus there are always Thanksgiving day races (although Eric will have a football game I may want to watch as well). I have no idea if I'll really be able to do another 5k this year, but I'd like to ate least TRY to get back into running before the winter. Enter: Couch to 5k. I LOVE this training plan for beginning running, and although I'm not a running beginner I definitely need to start up VERY slow so I do not bother my knee again. And if I do bother it again (even taking it slow), I am going to stop. Because it's not worth it.

Since it's pouring rain outside, I decided to start with the treadmill (plus I think I'll stick to as much treadmill work as possible to help the knees). I broke out my old sheets I had typed up which said when to switch from walking to running. The first week of the Couch to 5k has me warming up for five minutes and then alternating 1 minute jogging with 90 seconds of walking. I have it all typed up before hand because otherwise while I'm running I'll be wondering "what time did I start running?" and "when do I switch again." I taped it back up next to my treadmill.
Up close...
My promise to myself as I start up running again (besides stopping if it hurts) is that I am going to be very serious about foam rolling, stretching and doing all of my PT exercises every other day like I am supposed to be doing. This is no time to be a slacker. I was off to a good start today with foam rolling and stretching and I'll do my PT exercises tomorrow morning (I just did them yesterday).
After I was all foam rolled out, I started up my walk/run combination.
I LOVED doing this. First of all, the beginning of the Couch to 5k goes by so fast because it's only 25 minutes and you are constantly switching from running to walking so I barely had a chance to look at my magazine at all because I was so focused on switching the speed. I did get a chance to watch Samantha's Browns Passport to Great Weekends Chicago that I DVRed. It was fun to watch and it convinced me that I had the most fantastic tour guide on my trip to Chicago last fall..

Ash! She took Eric and I to basically all the same places that Samantha Brown went to. Except, she added our all time favorite Chicago Restaurant, Rosebuds on Rush into the mix. Yum. I want to go back to Chicago now.

Anyway, back to running. My plan for the next week involves a mix of 3 days of running, plus some strength training and other cardio. Hopefully I'll be able to make it through with no knee issues.

Sunday- Shred and PT exercises
Monday- Spinning
Tuesday- Couch to 5k Walk/Run
Wednesday- Kettlebell Class
Thursday- Couch to 5k Walk/Run
Friday- Off
Saturday- Couch to 5k Walk/Run

Tonight I have a Bachelorette party and tomorrow a Bridal Shower (for two different girls, both very good friends of mine from high school). It's going to be a weekend of preparing for tomorrow's shower, going out tonight for the bachelorette and preparing/going to the shower tomorrow. Good thing my master's classes are all over now and I can have weekends like this guilt free :)

Detox Day

Whew! I am exhausted. Now that I am 25, I find it much harder to drink and stay out late multiple nights in a row. Just kidding, I found it difficult at 24 too...and probably always. The Brad Paisley concert last night was a ton of fun. I love hanging out with Eric's brothers...it's always crazy fun debauchery and a million funny stories always come of it.

Today I had to recover from the past two nights. I'm a total wimp when it comes to losing my sleep. I woke up this morning and made myself a nice giant bowl of oatmeal with raspberries and apples. This always settles my stomach no matter how mean I have been to it (well, within reason, but I wasn't that mean to it). Then I went for a nice long bike ride with my sister again. I'm a little bummed that my summer weekends are going to be really crazy and probably not allow for a lot of sister bike rides. I tried out my new Garmin today so I could tell Caroline how far we were going and how long we had been biking for. We were a little slower than last week, but I blame it on the fact that it was the first nice day in nearly a week so everyone was on the bike path this morning.
So, we went 13.39 miles (well actually that's how far I went, Caroline and I have to meet in the center of town so our mileage is a little off). It took me 1 hour and 8 minutes. That pace on the side was my current pace as I was taking the picture, not my average for the whole time haha. When I was going fast it said my pace was about a 4 minute mile, so that's pretty good. But like I said, there were definitely some slow parts. Overall it was a great bike ride.

I have some questions for the bikers out there who read my blog. I just learned how to work my bike pump today so I clearly still have a lot to learn.

1. This is more of a plead than a question- Please tell me I am going to get used to this bike seat. It's so painful! This is going to be too much info, but it literally hurts when I come home and pee!

2. This week my neck really hurt after I rode. This did not happen last week. Am I sitting wrong? Maybe hunching forward too much?

3. How can I keep my hand from falling asleep? For some reason my left hand always falls asleep at about mile 6.

When I got home, I did my knee stretches. I thought I'd share them with everyone because I wish I had been doing them long before I hurt my knee!

1. Calf Stretch
2. Hamstring Stretch
3. IT Band Stretch- I realize it's impossible to see what I am actually doing in this picture. Basically you cross one leg in front of the other, bending the front knee a little bit. Keep your back leg straight. Then reach your opposite arm across to touch the back leg. This stretch also works your hamstring.
4. Quad Stretch- This is like the normal quad stretch where you told your leg, but I am resting my leg on my dining room chair because it's better for your knees.

I am supposed to be doing these stretches twice per day, holding each side for 30 seconds. The 30 seconds is the biggest thing for me. I was RARELY ever holding any stretch for 30 seconds. Even now, I have to check my watch to make sure I really hold it because when I do what I think is 30 seconds, it's usually about 10 or 15. No wonder I am so tight!

I also have my new favorite torture device foam roller that helps me loosen up as well.
It looks small and not intimidating, but do not let looks fool you, it hurts a LOT. But I figure it's all worth it in the end if I can run without my knee hurting a lot. So far I am not seeing a huge improvement in my knee pain, so hopefully that is going to come soon. Anyway, I know it's about 9:30 on a Saturday night but I think I am going to call it a night- I told you I was a total wimp with no sleep! I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far.