I had a Physical Therapy appointment on a clinic, like the best physiotherapy edmonton, this afternoon (hence the tardy post). It went well and I’m planning to run 3 miles this weekend.
While, 3 miles seems kinda tragic after a run 26 miles two months ago, I’ll take what I can get right now!
My physical therapist has been taping my knee each session. My knee cap is shifted a bit to the outside from my imbalanced hip muscles and we are trying to encourage it back to the front. When you think about it – isn’t that gross?
Lunch was a chik’n burger on a sandwich thin with hummus and carrots. Ben was mad when I came home with another plate yesterday, but this one puts me in such a good mood 🙂
Happy plates = Happier Meal 
And Veggie Crisps on the side (dipped in ketchup and hot sauce). While I hate making extra trash – these individual bags really help with portion control!
After PT I had a huge iced coffee and a Kashi bar. Great afternoon pick-me-up!
Intuitive Eating – This hiatus from running has really taught me a lot about my body, my hunger and intuitive eating.
Since I am not running my need to snack has really lessened – it’s not completely gone because it’s a long standing habit, but I have noticed a big difference. Also, I am unable to justify eating something because I ran today. I think it’s made me more accountable in that if I eat something I can’t just convince myself my body will burn it on tomorrow’s run.
So often in the past (particularly on long run days) I would eat things because I felt like I “deserved it” or because I thought I needed it to refuel. These past couple of weeks of not running have helped me get more in tune with my actual needs.
I am making great progress and do feel a difference in my body. When I over eat I don’t feel guilty, but I feel unhealthy and I don’t like that. When I listen to my body I feel good health-wise, but also my mind set stays at a healthy place too – which is just as important!
I really feel these things like you, for example when I ran 22 km on saturday, I ate a lot the rest of the day because “I deserved it” and now I know it was a big mistake, and probably that’s the reason that I never could lose weight while I was running 🙁
I was browsing around & followed some Intuitive Eating links to this post. I just realized – my healthy food looks a lot like what you’ve got here. Eh. Your recent posts (since I’ve only been following for the last 3-4 months) have amazing looking food going on. I need to make the leap to your current food since that looks a lot more satisfying!!
Yay! Unexpecte inspiration to keep my booty in gear! Thanks!
You know, a great alternative way to help ease the pain in your knee is with floating! It is like floating in the Dead Sea, but in a warm salt water pod. You should give it a try and see what you think! I definitely recommend it. http://www.floatspasandiego.com
I’ve been trying yoga every day and I find that it’s really pushing my body to the limits – I’m discovering muscles I obviously have never worked before!
Like they say, though, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is 80% diet, 10% genetics, and 10% exercise, so I don’t mind NOT overdoing it with exercise now and again.
Has your PT shown you how to tape your own knee? Mine taught me on day one and now when I have a longer run (well, longer than 2 miles) I’ll tape up my knee and I’m off!
I really try to listen to my body on the weekend. During the week at work, it’s easy to stick to smaller meals and go by when my breaks are, but on the weekend I find that I can wander in the kitchen and just start snacking on random things.
Good luck!
K
I’m so glad you’re having success with intuitive eating! I forced myself to take an exercise hiatus specifically to do what you’re doing – to renew my relationship with food. I was convinced I was going to gain 5 pounds in a week. Guess what, over three weeks, I didn’t gain a pound!
Love that you’re reading michael P’s. book. and posting about it! and about intuitive eating. thank you!
i’m loving your attitude about eating and intuitive eating. i’ve actually noticed myself listening to my body more with my running, but especially with the amount of work i do out in the field. leaves such a great attitude to look back upon!
you are such a great intuitive eater, monica! and you have a great attitude about running.
I am in week two of tapering for the LA marathon and my appetite has drastically decreased. I do not need to snack as often, and even my meals are smaller. I was running 40 miles per week before tapering, and reducing my mileage to 31 miles last week was such a noticeable difference. Also, have you considered buying knee sleeves for your patella shift. It has helped me some as I try to strengthen my adductors.
I asked my Physical Therapist about knee sleeves and she doesn’t think they would help. It’s not about holding my knee cap in place, but actually pulling it to the side. A knee sleeve would just hold it in the wrong place since that’s where it’s sitting right now.
Awesome. I’m so happy to see hear your making progress. That’s so important since you’ve really been working hard.
Perhaps that is the silver lining of this break from running: it’s enabled you to get more in touch with your body and your hunger. I’ve actually wondered about this before. I’m running as hard/long/often as I ever have, and my body is definitely craving more food. I’ve wondered if/when my running decreases, if I’ll still want to eat the same amount. This gives me confidence that I can trust my body to tell me when it needs both more and less fuel.
Yes, I totally see this as a silver lining 🙂 I feel like my body does know what’s best and I just need to listen better.
Hooray for getting back to running! I’m finally starting to train for a 10k (I usually only run 5k max during the week), and I have to keep reminding myself that the longer distances mean I need to fuel up more. It’s funny how our bodies know what they do/don’t need!
I had a minor surgery last Monday and was told that I can’t run for two weeks. The hubs and I had already paid for a 5k this last weekend, so I walked it instead, VERY fast. I averaged 13 minute miles. I am still sore from it! It’s amazing that you use different muscles than you do when you run.
Good for you for doing the race either way!
Enjoy that first run back! Awesome to hear you are feeling better about your intuitive eating too!
So glad you get to run soon. And I love your positive outlook about being more in tune with your body. when i can’t work out it’s easy to get down in the dumps but good for you to notice how much better your eating has been! 🙂 Keep up the good work!
glad youre being more in tune with your body. that’s such a great thing 🙂 and hizzah to running this weekend!
Since you can’t run, what about doing a weight routine?
I’ve been taking kickboxing classes at the gym. I don’t really like weights.
I have to reign in my snacking and eating on my “rest days”. It’s hard when your body is used to working out hard and burning a lot of calories!