It's cold and I'm hungry.

*waves* Hello! Tyhada's not feeling that great, so I offered to blog for her today. Unfortunately, I woke up to 45 degree weather, so all I can think about it how F'ing cold it is. I live in Texas, where we don't get weather like this very often. Yes, I turned the heater on, and I'm wearing my favorite hoodie, but my knee is angry at me (stupid arthritis) and all I can think about is the pot of chili I'm going to make for dinner tonight.

Doesn't sound much like a #twitloss post, does it?

Well, it does if you make chili the way I do. I don't use ground beef (although PK thinks I do... shh, don't tell him!) and I use a special recipe I found years ago. It's not your traditional Texas chili. Meaning: there are beans in it. PK grumbled about it the first time I made it, but when he took his first bite, he promptly stopped talking because he had his mouth too full of food to speak. Yup, it's that good. It's also pretty healthy, for chili.

Serves: 8; Calories: 295; Total Fat: 8 grams; Saturated Fat: 2.5 grams; Protein: 22 grams; Total carbohydrates: 35 grams; Sugar: 8 grams; Fiber: 10 grams; Cholesterol: 37 milligrams; Sodium: 512 milligrams

Three Bean and Beef Chili

Recipe courtesy of Ellie Krieger, All Rights Reserved.

Total Time:

1 hr 25 min

Prep

15 min

Cook

1 hr 10 min

Yield:

10 cups (serves 8, serving size 1 1/4 cup)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, diced (1 cup)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced (1 cup)
• 2 carrots, diced (1/2 cup)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, seeded and minced (optional - I rarely use this)
• 2 teaspoons adobo sauce from the can of chipotles (again, optional - I rarely use this)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15.5-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15.5-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Directions

Heat the oil in large pot or Dutch oven over moderate heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and carrots, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the cumin and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the ground beef; raise the heat to high and cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon, until the meat is no longer pink. Stir in the tomatoes, water, chipotle and adobo sauce, oregano and salt and pepper. Simmer, partially covered, stirring from time to time, for 30 minutes. Stir in the beans and cook, partially covered, 20 minutes longer. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

What do you want from your life and how are you getting it?

We all know that weight loss is never just about the weight. Excess weight undoubtably comes with bad habits and poor choices, likely stemming from issues that none of us really want to face.

But, what if you did face them? What do you have to lose? What if you sat down and made a list of the things you wanted in your life and how you were to achieve them? Maybe the better question to ask is.... what if you don't do that? What are the chances that in 6 months you won't regret that you are still in the same situation or maybe worst? I imagine the chance of you regretting having made that list is much smaller than not, so go on. Do it.

Ask yourself what you want and how you can get it. Write it down and post it where you can see it.
Now make it happen.

I am certainly not perfect. I've had my fair share of slip ups, setbacks, and outright fails on this 2+ year journey toward better health and happiness. Yet, not once have I regretted making the decision that it was time to make my life my own.

What that means for you is likely entirely different than what that means for me. For me it meant finding self confidence, accepting my faults, accepting my needs, and acknowledging that I deserved better than I had. It means pushing myself harder. It means making myself uncomfortable at times in the name of getting what I want and fixing what's wrong. It means patience and finding a peace with the fact that I don't always get what I want when I want it.

So this year, forget New Year's resolutions and instead look at the long term. What do you want and where are you going? How do you get what you want?

Me? I want health, strength, independence. I want to be bad ass. How am I getting there?
-- Weight lifting, it burns fat, builds muscle. I stepped out of the women's gym and into the squat racks and it felt amazing.
-- Eat primal, at least most of the time. Or at least sort of. Basically I'm limiting my grains and dairy.
-- Roller Derby. I've wanted to for a really long time and I kept putting it off. "I'm not strong enough, I can't skate well enough, I'm not skinny enough." To hell with all of that. I want to do it, I'm going to.
-- School. And more school. I've got 5 classes this semester and I'm looking forward to every one.
-- Travel. I have people I need to see, places I need to visit.

See this? This is progress. This is hard work. But still, this is just a number. Life is about more than a number. So yes, make yourself weight goals if you need, but make yourself life goals as well.

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

In short, I'm leveling up my life. How about you? Will you join me? Or are you giving up already?

It is a loss, of sorts

I lost something really big in the last month. No, not a big weight loss month, but I didn't gain so that is good.

After being a pack a day or more smoker for 10 years, I quit. It has been 5 weeks since my last cigarette. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've only threatened to kill my husband a couple of times, and even those times I really didn't mean it. I wouldn't recommend my method of quitting to anyone.

I didn't set out to quit. I really didn't even want to quit most days. At the end of November, I came down with the upper respiratory infection from hell. I couldn't smell anything. For once that was a blessing, a particularly noxious patient came into the ER, and I was the only person in entire ER that couldn't smell him, and I took his clothes off.

After about a week of cold medicine and sleeping in the recliner because I couldn't breath lying down, I realized that I hadn't had a smoke in over a week. It hadn't killed me or anyone around me. We had all survived a nicotine free week. And then two weeks. Before I knew it, it was a smoke free month.

I didn't eat everything in sight. I didn't gain any weight. Maybe because for the first two weeks the only things I could taste were cough drops and Nyquil. Whatever ever the reason, I'll take it.

Now what am I going to do with that extra hundred dollars a month?

Happy New Year... And stuff.

It's that time of year... When we all promise we're going to do better on losing weight by dusting off the elliptical (or in my case: moving the boxes that surround it so I don't accidentally kill myself trying to get to it) and eating better. I really do plan on doing these things, but I'm not calling them resolutions.

Why? Because calling them resolutions tends to make me ignore them easier. I'm not sure why but when that one little word is attached to my thought process, it goes out the window. I know, I'm crazy, but it's true. And it seems to be that way for most people as well, seeing as how so many people tend to make and break their New Year Resolutions.

So my lifestyle change that I implemented before the start of 2012 goes like this:

1. Eat better. I don't need to fill my body with all that crap that's only hurting my body anyway.

2. Be more active. Whether its walking or hopping on the elliptical, I need to get up off my ass and DO SOMETHING every once in a while. Arthritis hurts, but it hurts worse when you don't do anything.

3. Do my homework early and often. I'm bad at procrastinating. So, when we cover a new unit in class, I'm going to come home and do the damn flash cards and read the damn chapter. This way I'm doing 30 minutes of work a night instead of 4 hours.

4. Stay on top of all my blogs!! I may be a well-known procrastinator but it's not actually a good thing. Being 20+ reviews behind is BAD.

So there you have it. Be more healthy. Be less lame (and be more punctual... or something, lol).

Happy New Year!!

Getting On Track...

Well, this will be short cause the muse is riding my ass and there just isn't a whole lot to say. No big sweeping New Year's resolutions or pronouncements. Just a quiet recommitting to loosing weight and being healthier. I am walking on my foot with and without the cast. My knee is hurting from the inactivity of the last 3 months I think, so I get to rehab both foot and knee together. Yay! Not. Anyhoo...like I said. No big pronounceents. I'm just planing on being good to me this year. How about you? Any big resolutions or leaves you're turning over?