A Stuffed Acorn Squash Makes My Day

Hello and Happy Tuesday! (complete lie, is it Friday yet?) Today I woke up with a huge amount of motivation and went back to old Kelly that used to work out before work. I started walking on the treadmill and since my knee has been feeling good decided to run for 2 minutes. Later in the walk I ran for 2 more minutes. Just to make it clear, that's four total minutes of running. At five miles an hour (read: very slow). Then, I stretched...a lot. THEN, I iced.

Result? Pain all day. My thoughts? Total frustration and anger. Since I have been "injured" I have watched people recover from surgery, broken bones and sprains and run again...while all the while I STILL cannot run. It doesn't make sense and it's really annoying. I've been to my primary care doctor, a physical therapist, an orthopedist and a running coach. Most were helpful, except for the orthopedist who just told me that we don't worry about these things until there has been pain for a year. Correction: He may not worry about things like this until there has been pain for a year. I continue to worry.

So today I made an appointment with a different orthopedist for a second opinion. I already think me and this guy are going to get along much better. 1. He actually had an appointment after 4 on a Thursday which means I don't have to miss tutoring and lose money yay. 2. He listed one of his hobbies online as "long distance running." I'm guessing he is not going to tell me that not running for a year is fine and dandy. My appointment is not until December 10th so I'll let you know after that. You guys have been really supportive about this knee dilemma and I do really appreciate it. Most of the time I go along just fine with everything but occasionally the frustration really comes out.

But, on a positive note (you did know I was going to turn this around right?)...my dinner was SO delicious I just had to post it. It seems like everywhere I look everyone in the blog world has been stuffing acorn squash lately and I have been dying to try it. I finally decided to stop by the farm near my house this afternoon and get myself a nice big acorn squash to try.

I was a little concerned about cutting the squash in half by myself (Eric wasn't home this time to do it for me) but after one unsuccessful attempt, I put the squash in the microwave for two minutes and it was soft enough to cut right through. Then I let it cook in the oven while I made the inside.

I decided to fill my squash with Harvest Grain Blend from Trader Joe's (Israeli Cous Cous, Red Quinoa, Baby Garbanzo beans, and Orzo), fresh tomatoes also from the farm and a few pieces of leftover pad thai chicken from my sunday night dinner. I have to admit that while I fully enjoyed my first experience with pad thai on Sunday, my stomach was less than pleased with all of the oil. I decided with all the other wonderful things I would be eating tonight, my stomach would be okay with a small amount of chicken. This is one of the great things I have learned from having IBS (yes, there are small perks). It's okay to have something with a little fat, but try to mix it with a lot of other healthy parts to your meal. The result was fun to look at...

And more than delicious to eat. So delicious I interrupted my phone conversation with Katie to announce how amazing my dinner was. I don't do that for the average meal. I finished off my meal with a small piece of this...

I know, a healthy blogger like me should be finishing my meal with a piece of dark chocolate. But frankly, I don't like dark chocolate and I don't eat chocolate to be healthy. I can get antioxidants elsewhere. This is my favorite kind of Lindt chocolate because it is milk chocolate with white chocolate on the inside. Yum.

How is everyone's week going? Mine is dragging. I was so bored during tutoring today that I told my 3rd grader the best way to remember how to spell crocodile is to remember that song "crocodilly oh my croc croc croc" because when we say crocodile, we say it as "crocadile" and in that song we say crocodilly, which if you ignore the silent e rule entirely could be spelling crocodile. Um, what? Haha. Poor girl is going to be singing "crocodilly oh my croc croc croc" during her spelling test on Friday. Oops :) Though she'll probably spell the word right. Just get me to Friday.

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 :)

Kettlebell Take 2

Tonight I had another successful Kettlebell class. It was much harder this week but still do-able. We learned a few new moves including "The snatch" which is when you move the kettlebell from a lower position to above your head with your arm extended. If you are familiar with kettlebell at all it's another one of those exercises where improper form will result in smashing your wrist with the kettlebell, which inevitably happens to me every time. It is similar in this way to the "clean" which also bruises my wrist haha. We also learned figure eights where you bring the kettlebell around each leg in a figure eight fashion. I liked those.

After we learned our new moves, we completed a work out. Our instructor (who is actually a high school student kettlebell instructor in training, being monitored by an older more experienced kettlebell instructor) wrote out what we had to do and taped it to the mirror. I felt like a massive teacher but I LOVED THIS. I am such a visual person and I love seeing the itinerary of the work out so I know what is coming. My principal (who advocates us doing this for every lesson) would be SO proud of me for saying this. Between each set of exercises we were supposed to do jumping jacks for 30 seconds which was our active rest time. I immediately went into panic mode because my knee does NOT like jumping jacks. I thought about asking for something else to do but all I could hear in my head was "for those of you looking for the modification for a jumping jack, look elsewhere, I've got 400 pound people who can do jumping jacks, SO CAN YOU, you want results? you have push yourself..." etc. For those of you who are not PSYCHO 30 day shred addicts, that is what Jillian Michaels says during the jumping jacks. Fortunately, my instructor is NOT Jillian and he gave me a non-impact cardio move to do instead. I looked ridiculous but my knee will thank me later. The work out was great and I may actually be sore tomorrow :0)

At the end of class the personal trainer who is watching my instructor offered to watch me walk and run and see what may be causing my knee pain. Even though I've had at least 4 different doctors and physical therapists watch me walk, I figured why not? He said I have a pretty good stride and only point my foot out a little when I walk. He is the first person to ever even mention ANY turn of my foot at all. He also thought my patella was really pronounced compared to most people and he said that may be why my knee strap provides some relief....interesting. When we got outside he watched me run back and forth in the parking lot. He said again my stride is not bad but there are some things I can do to take pressure off of my knee. He showed me how to lift my knee way up behind me, come down in front with my toes pointed up and then hit the ground in a more efficient way. Of course I was terrible at actually applying it but I will still work on it. He also recommended a running coach to me at Boston Running Center. I put in an inquiry online for a free consultation. Of course the coaching is INSANELY expensive. While I am willing to try almost everything, I am hesitant to try another thing that may not work and will also drain all my funds in life. I figure the free consultation can only help so I am going to do that and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.

I am so excited... 3 days til my engagement party! Yes, I know I've been engaged for like 8 months but we are a little slow and still ready to celebrate that fact. Whoa hoo!

Is it Friday yet?

Hola everyone. I'm glad my weekend was so fun, but I always suffer the results of a fun weekend on Monday and Tuesday of the next week. Whew! I am so tired. Yesterday was one of those days where the only reason I even considered working out was because I had a spinning date with two of my friends from work. We go to this AMAZING spin class on Monday nights. Have you ever done "isolations" in spinning? Basically it means you only use your leg muscles, so you can't bounce up and down at all even though you are biking standing up. I had done it in other classes for 5 or 10 seconds and thought it was fine. This instructor makes us hold it for 20-30 seconds, multiple times! It is SO painful. But I imagine it is amazing for my quads, so I do it (well that, and I'd probably look weird if I was the only one bouncing up and down and completely ignoring the instructor!). I'm so happy I had my girls to motivate me because after being out of the house since 6:15 in the morning, the last thing I wanted to do at 6 at night when I finally got home was shove a tuna sandwich in my mouth and run out the door to class. But I did!

As for the knee, I really appreciate how helpful you guys have been in giving me things to try. I feel like I am dealing with my stomach all over again where there are one million things to try, but nothing will really ever actually work. Very frustrating. Thanks to Amber's recommendation, I re-looked at Caitlin's post about her knee. She was diagnosed with the same knee problems so I watch her progress carefully. She was running very little only a few months ago and is now training for a MARATHON after being given the same advice for treatment plans. In a way, this makes me very hopeful- because if someone with the SAME problem as me (who let it get MUCH worse) can now train for a marathon pain free- there is hope for me running again, ever. But at the same time it also makes me secretly (not so secretly) hate her (I can say this because I don't think she reads my blog haha- boy will I be in trouble if she does haha). I mean obviously I don't really hate her and I know life isn't fair. But how can it be that I have been icing my knee and doing these exercises for over a month longer than her, and I am not running AT ALL, while she is training for a marathon. I am not even asking my body to run a marathon! All I want to do is 3 miles! Maybe 6, tops! Right now I'd totally settle for 3! And I am not slacking on these exercises (I'm sure she's not either though). I have seriously done them EVERY OTHER DAY since June. So...this should be over. That's all I'm saying. I am trying two new exercises that Caitlin mentions in her post. I started them tonight, maybe they will be my secret fix...I still have hope.

However, no more complaints allowed. Tomorrow is my second kettlebell class, and even though I made it through last class with no major aches and pains- I was told tomorrow would be twice as hard, so I am ready! I hope everyone is having a good week and that it SPEEDS to Friday this week :)

Doctors Appointment Recap

This morning I woke up bright and early for my doctors appointment about my knee. I was so nervous that they were going to tell me I needed surgery and I had already ran through my head how no possible time this year would work for surgery (is there ever a good time for a kindergarten teacher to be out of work and then on crutches? probably not!). Fortunately, that is not what it came to.

I got to the appointment and the first thing they did was take some XRays. I have never had XRays except at the dentist but that was pretty straightforward and not too scary. Then I was lead back to my own little room where the doctor would meet me. When the doctor came he talked to me briefly about where the pain was, what triggered it etc. Then he checked out both of my knees and moved both of them around a lot. He said that everything looks good in my XRays except for a small rough patch along, I believe the tendon? (I should always write things down). But that it was nothing to really worry about (but did explain the pain when we press down hard on my knee). He said that he agrees with the patellar tendonitis diagnosis. The weird thing is, both he and my PT both used patellar tendonitis interchangably with patellafemoral. I'm not sure if that's because they are the same (it appears different in my online research though?) or because they don't want to outright say that my original diagnosis was not right. It does not seem like the treatment plan is very different for either one so it probably does not matter.

The doctor today said that my treatment plan so far has been good and that I should continue to go to the Physical Therapy, which I cannot do because insurance will no longer cover it. I just have to make sure I continue with all of the exercises as religiously as I possibly can. He said that I can continue to run but I should cut down a lot from what I was doing. Since right now I am doing no running at all, I'm not sure if cutting down is really possible. He also said that I have to take Advil before and after running and continue to use the knee straps. I am supposed to go back to him in April 2010 if it still hurts and then I will get an MRI. I really hope it does not still hurt then. So basically this appointment confirmed what I already knew, but did make me feel a lot more confident about my diagnosis and not left wondering if I really have a tear that we just do not know about.

The big guest now is what to do next. Clearly he said I can run, so my first instinct was to do the Couch to 5k plan again, so I can slowly build up my stamina both for the sake of my own body (I am not one of those people who can just pick up at run 3 miles again) and because I am sure the knee would do better with a slow and steady return to running. However, I'm wondering if yes I CAN run, but if it would really be better if I did not. I have tried resting the knee for 2 months now (with the exception of about 3 runs) and it has improved by still does not feel 100 percent. Should I continue with the biking, swimming and walking until I am at 100 percent? Will I hinder my progress and end up back at that doctor's in April if I start running again? I really do want to run, believe me, but even more so I really want this knee to get better. I am no expert on tendonitis, but I thought rest was considered the best thing for it. Does anyone have any experience at this?

I have a fun filled day of beauty appointments (in preparation for the next two weeks of weddings) and some tutoring of the kiddos. I'll leave you with some pictures from my weekend in NH with Eric's fam.
1st- Eric and I on the boat...
On the awesome deck with the lake background...
I love summer weekends.

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.

Congrats Jake!

I have to start by saying a great big Congratulations to my little bro who graduated from high school on Sunday!!!
I look a little unhappy about the sun in this picture, but Jake looks snazzy in that cap and gown, huh? I am very proud of the last member of the Winn fam to graduate from LHS!!! For those of you who have not had the experience of my high school I will say, it is no easy task to make it out of this place alive. And Jake has made it through with style (and many ridiculous adventures). I can only imagine what college will be like for him. But as long as he is safe and happy, I will be too.

It's that time of the school year again where I start to get all my pictures together to put together a slide show of all of our pictures from the year. I just spent the past 3 hours organizing pictures, figuring out how to add music and then watching the slide show as it is now. In one of the pictures, you can see RIGHT up one of my girl's skirts- so obviously I need to take that one OUT. Of course now I can't find it, so I am going to have to watch the whole 20 minutes again to try to find it. I was going to keep working on it tonight until I finish it, but when I was googling song lyrics to find one more song for the slide show, all of a sudden porn pictures started flashing all over my screen. At that point I decided to take a break for a day or two and come back to it.
So now here I am watching the Red Sox and blogging. I am supposed to be going to the game on Thursday, so I hope the weather people are all wrong about it raining all week :)

I went to my second spin class this morning! I am a true expert now. Okay fine maybe not quite, but I felt a little less lost about the whole "take it up to 5, now 6!" talk. I did get slightly more bored today, but I think part of the problem is the GIANT clock at the front of the room. I cannot avoid looking at it, which makes time go by SO much slower. When I was doing yoga last summer I used to position myself so that it was near impossible to see the clock. I like to be able to look at it once or twice during the class, but staring at it is basically like slow torture for me. Still love spinning though, and it's going to be my new best friend this week because of all the rain!

I think I was doing reasonably well with the whole "no running" thing, however I am starting to get bored, annoyed and anxious!

Bored- of doing everything except running!
Annoyed- that everything else seems to take so much more effort to actually do than running (as in I actually have to drive my butt to the gym at 5:30 am instead of just running out the door or hopping on my treadmill)
Anxious- that my training plan says I should be running 4-5 miles and I am not running at all. How am I going to be able to do the running part of this triathlon?!

I am going to ask at Physical Therapy tomorrow how much longer I have to "rest". My knee does appear to be improving a bit, but I'm not sure if it's mainly because I am not running or because it is actually getting better and I can maybe run again. There should be a rule of the world that if you are willing to put in the effort and do exercise, you will not get injured!

For tonight I have to go because my mom has decided to call to discuss wedding dresses (which is probably my least favorite topic when I am exhausted and stressed at 8:45 at night), but coming up in Kelly's blogland: Sweet Potato Risotto Recipe created by my amazing chef fiance Eric and Kelly's stretches to keep your knee injury free so you don't end up like me!

I Don't Get It...

So I have a physical therapy appointment for next Monday. Until then though, my knee continues to hurt and I'm not sure what to do.
According to my doctor's 3 minute assessment, I have Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.

Of course I have been googling away. I love that all this information is available to me, especially since my doctor didn't really say what exercising I should or shouldn't be doing. However, the internet is a confusing place! Some sites say that biking is good, some say people with patellofemoral pain should be taking time off biking. Many sites say that people who have been running should switch to swimming. Two other sites say that swimming, biking and running (GO FIGURE) are the causes of patellofemoral pain syndrome!

What can I do? What should I do?

I realize I have to take a break from the triathlon training right now and that's fine, but I'd like to do something with myself! Gotta burn off all that ice cream somehow :)

On a total different note, Eric is trying to make a mix cd to play with his middle schoolers so we are sitting here listening to songs to see if they are appropriate. As a result we are taking a massive trip down memory lane with lots of really hilarious/awesome songs. Just in case you'd like to come on our memory lane trip, remember these songs?

Black Eyed Peas- My Humps
Kelis- My Milkshake
LL Cool J- Lougin (you may remember this as the song that goes, "Who do you love? Are you sure?)
Next- Too Close
Cam'ron- Hey Ma

Seriously, just download all of these songs and listen to them right in a row and you will automatically be a good mood. Haha, or it could just be me. Unfortunately, most of these songs were banned from Eric's mix cd for obvious reasons, but I had a fun dance party with myself in the process!

Don't Forget to Enter the TRADER JOE'S GIVEAWAY!!!

Save Some Room For Dessert

Today was a successful swimming day. Well, successful in that I swam 30 laps in a row, all freestyle. I still got a massively dirty look from the guy who's lane I joined. I don't know what it is about these swimmers, but newsflash- the pool is not yours!!! If I ever have the luxury of having a lane to myself and someone wants to join I am going to shoot them an amazingly happy smile like I couldn't be any happier they have graced me with their presence. Maybe that will make up for all the rudeness. Anyway, my knees hurt a lot after. I really don't get what the deal with my knees are. They feel better tonight though and tomorrow is my off day so I hopefully the rest will be good. Of course as soon as I do a lot again they will get worse again. The oddest part is that swimming and biking are supposed to be easier ont eh legs. I see all the people who take a break from running in order to help their knees, shin splints etc- they bike and swim! Why is that making my pain worse? I seem to do best with running!

On a happier note, I love dessert. I am including some recommendations for yummy, low-calorie, dairy-free desserts (I still recommend them even if you can have as much dairy as you want). The first I discovered about a year ago. They are raspberry and vanilla popsicles and only 80 calories :)
At one horrible point I thought these were discontinued (they disappeared from Stop and Shop & Whole Foods!), but it turns out they are on. On my quest for another possible dessert, I found these amazing pudding cups. I tried the only chocolate and the only vanilla versions as well and they were fine but I find the chocolate and vanilla mix to be the best.
I am basically completely addicted to these. I could easily eat ice cream every single night but these stop me from doing so because they taste just as great (but are better for me because I will only eat one of these as opposed to ice cream which I may just continue to eat forever haha). One warning about these two fabulous desserts is they are not cheap. However, they are delicious and you don't really need them every day (well I do haha but normal people may not) so it won't add up too quickly. Besides, you should never skimp on dessert!