Chili and workout

I made the most delicious chili for dinner today, and upon calculating that it's only 71 calories per hundred grams, I had to share the recipe. It's easy peasy lemon squeazy!

CHILI

400 grams of ground beef
400 grams of canned tomatoes
410 grams of tomato beans
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
3-4 chili peppers
salt
pepper
ground cayenne pepper/chili powder (I used something called Chili Explosion, which is a mix of different kinds of chilis.)

First, you fry the ground beef, then season it with salt, pepper, and chili powder/cayenne pepper to taste. Add the tomatoes and leave it to simmer for 4-5 minutes. I left mine to simmer while I was chopping peppers and chili, which was probably much longer than 4-5 minutes. That worked out fine too.

Then you add in the red, the yellow and the chili pepper, and finally the tomato beans. The original recipe calls for chili beans, but the shop that's nearest to me doesn't stock 'em, and I'm not interested in running halfway across town for one ingredient.

Anyway. You're done. Leave it alone until it's reached the level of thickness that you desire. Then enjoy.

My roommates used to cook this for me all the time when we were still living together, and they usually served it with tortilla chips on the side, which is yummy, but you know... not all that good if you're on a diet. Or in general really.

In other news, I've finally signed up for another semester at the gym, and so far, I've been there twice. Once on Monday, which was the day I signed up, and once today. Both times, I've hit the rush hour (it's a gym primarily used by students). On Monday, I wasn't there until three-ish. Every single treadmill in the place was occupied, and the machines weren't much better. I went on the stationary bike for about ten minutes, while waiting for a treadmill and then "ran" for 45 minutes. I say "ran", because there was a lot of alternating between running and walking. I naively thought (hoped?) that I'd be able to run as much as I did back home, even though it's been nearly three weeks since I set foot inside a gym. Not happening. But I did manage nearly three miles, which isn't all that shabby.

Today, I was going to go the gym around 12:30, but it turns out, I'm lazy. Who'da thunk it? So I wasn't there until maybe 2-ish. Better than last time, and I did get a treadmill right away, but there were still too many people around for my taste. I really really dislike having to wait around for certain machines to free up, and I feel all self-conscious about people standing right there when I'm trying to work out. It's got nothing to do with my weight. I just don't like people watching me do stuff.

Despite the people, it was a good work out. I set my treadmill for miles per hour today, just for kicks. I averaged 4.5 miles per hour. I totally prefer saying that I averaged 7.3 kilometers per hour though, even though it's pretty much the same speed. The metric system is an ego boost for me!

After the running, I went through my weight program, and discovered that the machines that I've been pining for all Christmas actually aren't all that. But they work. And I guess that's all I need?

Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Considering the string of extremely bad days I had this last week, I expected to have gained ten or twenty pounds or so. I've certainly eaten enough for that to be the case. Add in the fact that I chugged lots of water before bed yesterday, am premenstrual, and feeling bloated. The result was one apprehensive girl about to step on the scales this morning.

It told me I weigh 77.8 kg, or 171.2 pounds. That's down 0.7 kgs/1.5 pounds from last week. How I managed this trick? I have absolutely no idea.

Like I said, it was an exceptionally bad week food-wise. Saturday was especially epic, in terms of gluttony. My ex-roommates invited me and my best friend over for movie night and pigging out. Chocolate, potato chips, leftover Christmas cookies, sour candy, soda, licorice, hot chocolate, more licorice... I'd like to say that I don't think I've eaten this much junk in one night before, but the truth is that I probably have. Just not recently.

On the exercise front, things have been a teeny tiny tad bit better. Not good enough to account for the weight loss, but better. My lectures have started, which means that I get a 20-30 minute walk every time I have a lecture or a workshop to go to, which is three times a week. And today I'm finally going to the gym to sign up for another semester of torture.

Extremely cranky.

I feel like telling someone to stick this diet where the sun doesn't shine. Who this person would be? I have no idea. But it would feel good to yell at someone right about now.

Phail.

Phail. Phail. Phail. Phail. Phail. Phail.

This day has been so incredibly full of phail. To make it short and sweet, the premenstrual cravings kicked in again. Big time.

Holy premenstrual cravings, Batman!

I. Need. Sugar. Now.

Weigh in numero dos: the good kind of 'huh'??

Here are the cold, hard facts of the previous week. Having spent more than away from the weigh in regime, I nearly forgot all about it today as well. Maybe I should stick a post it on the bathroom mirror?

'How much do you weigh?'

And while I'm at it, I can stick one on the fridge as well. A reminder and motivation!

Anyway. I was expecting to be disappointed this week, because the past week hasn't been great in terms of food, and last night, I was really really thirsty, so I ended up chugging a pint of water just before bed. But the scales were in a good mood today, and told me that I now weigh 78.5 kilos, or 172.7 pounds. Which means I'm down a pound and a half.

Monday weigh in? Nah!

My weigh ins are supposed to be on Mondays. What day is today? Monday. So where's the weigh in?

-crickets chirping-

Yeah, I totally forgot and ended up eating breakfast without jumping on the scales first. So, tomorrow kiddies, tomorrow! Stay tuned!