Live & Learn

This has been quite the week!

I was running with my friend Heather on Monday morning and about a mile and a half in my knee started hurting.  It wasn't like an old familiar pain or anything like that - it just hurt around the outside of my knee by the kneecap.  We finished 3.7 miles and the rest of the day it hurt!  Walking around, everything.  It just hurt.  I was BUMMED to say the least.

There was no swelling, which is good, but I have learned one thing - take a break when you may have an injury...or you will spend a LOT more time down than you intend to.

So I skipped Zumba Monday and Wednesday night and did not run again until this morning.  I wore a light knee brace and felt fine.  A little sore but no real pain.

How did this happen?

I was analyzing my activity for the last week and have determined it was overuse.  As a runner, "they" say you should never increase your mileage by more than 10% a week.  I inadvertently almost doubled my mileage last week.  It's been getting cooler outside and I felt great!  10 miles in 3 days is alot for me...

So I have learned.  Sigh.  Once again.

Know what else I learned?

When I'm not exercising regularly AND I'm in meetings in a board room all week, I eat poorly.  It's funny, I just realized today that there is a very strong connection between eating and exercise for me.  I feel like I need to fuel my body well and I make good food decisions.  Not being able to exercise made me feel weaker about my food choices...

And it shows!

I'm not beating myself up here, as I am glad it happened this way.  It gives me a chance to learn something and be stronger for the next time.

I could take this opportunity, instead, to berate myself, belittle my choices and give up altogether.  But I have come WAY too far to let that happen. 

I try to take each setback, each challenge, and glean something valuable from it.  What is the point of suffering without growth?

Growing hurts, that's why there are growing pains to begin with.

Everything painful I've been through has made me stronger and wiser.

That said, think about where you are right now.  Are you still beating yourself up for not keeping up with that cabbage soup diet or the unrealistic 900 calorie a day diet where you gained it all back and then some?

Learn from it.  And love yourself enough to try something more realistic.  Like an overall lifestyle change.

It's do-able.  I should know.  :)

~Clara

PUMPKIN RAVIOLI RECIPE:
(adapted from www.peak313fitness.com and Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook)

Ingredients

♦ 1 (15-ounce) can white beans rinsed and drained

♦ 1 cup canned 100% pure pumpkin

♦ 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

♦ 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

♦ 3/4 tsp garlic powder

♦ 1 large egg

♦ 72 wonton wrappers, about 1 1/2 (12-ounce) packages

♦ 1 tablespoon flour

♦ 1 1/2 cups jarred marinara sauce, microwaved 1 min or until warm

Directions

*Fill a large stockpot with water and bring to a boil. Place the beans, pumpkin puree, ricotta, Parmesan and garlic powder into a food processor. Process until smooth (I ended up mashing as my food processor is small and cheap!)  

*You can cut the wontons into circles, I used my pampered chef sandwich press, just didn't press down the sandwich part.  Next time, however, I will leave them in the little squares they came in - square ravioli are fine!

*brush the egg mixture around the edges of the first wonton wrap - place a tablespoon (or so) of filling onto the wrapper then seal the edges together.  Place onto a cookie sheet with cornstarch or flour (I only had flour).
*put about half of the raviolis into the boiling pot of water, and when they float to the top, scoop them out!  Only issue I had here was that the raviolis get sticky as soon as they get put on a plate together - will need to work with that - made it challenging for leftovers (they just got messy - lol).

These were SUPER yummy - I'm excited to try different things now that I know I can make ravioli!

Here are the nutrition facts:
 
8 Servings

Calories: 286
Fat: 3.9 grams (1.8 Saturated, .6 Poly, 1.0 Mono)
Cholesterol: 35 mg
Sodium: 433 mg
Potassium: 366 mg
Carbs: 48 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.3 g
Sugars: 1.1 g
Protein: 13.6 g
97% Vitamin A!