Shauna's Spot

So you’ll remember I blogged at the beginning of the month about a 90 day diet challenge that my husband and I were embarking on. Well I’m proud to say we made it through the first month. Now, my husband’s birthday is at the end of January and I had already planned to take him out of town for a long weekend before we started this stupid diet so we agreed we could have some cheat meals while we were gone, so looking forward to that for four weeks was very helpful. But now we’re back on the wagon.

I told my husband that I wanted to throw a Saint Patrick’s Day party this year since it’s on the weekend and I want to celebrate with my people. So we have to get through the whole month of February and half of March for one day of good times. But, let me tell you, short term goals really help.

So what am I doing to make it easier to consume copious amounts of brown rice, grilled chicken and steamed veggies? Making them taste different, duh! My two favorite things to do is to cut everything up and throw it in a bowl and either make it Asian or Mexican. Luckily with Mexican salsa is just more vegies and herbs so that’s not cheating. With Asian, you have to be more careful with your sauces because of the sodium, sugars and sometimes calories. So I usually use Siracha (the awesome red chili sauce found in Chinese food restaurants) because a little goes a long way and it gives it a new and interesting flavor and then I usually use one serving of sauce between two meals by thinning it out with water.

Also, just a little tip for you: if you add spice to your food you spike your metabolism. So add some peppers, add some hot sauce, add some salsa, make it spicy!

We haven’t lost a ton of weight yet, but we area steadily loosing. One big accomplishment for me is my cardio. I grew up with environmental asthma so I don’t have very strong lungs and I’ve never, ever been able to run. I could do sprints in P.E. class but when we had to run the mile or the 2 mile I had to walk over half of it and could only run very short distances. But in the last week I’ve managed to run for ten minutes. This is a huge accomplishment for me. Usually once I’m creeping up to just 1 minute of running (though I imagine most would call it “jogging” and to those people I stick my tongue out at them) I’ve got a stich in my side and can barely breathe. So to be able to run for ten minutes I feel like a super hero! My goal is to be able to run for 30 minutes. My husband likes to run for his cardio so it would be nice to be able to go for a run with him. Thank goodness for treadmills.

I’ll let you know how it’s going the closer we get to St. Patrick’s Day.

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