Author: steve

Posted on

RECIPE: World’s Best Chili

I made a killer chili yesterday. Maybe it’s not the “world’s best”, as the title proclaims, but I think I am allowed to hyperbolize from time to time. Even if it’s not the world’s best, it’s pretty damn good.

I am not a chili connoisseur, but I make it from time to time. Usually I go for a green chile-based concoction — that’s my New Mexico roots coming through. But this was a cold day in Texas, and I thought a nice red chili was in order.

The flavors were so good, and it was so simple to make, I thought I’d pass along the recipe, as best I remember it. I didn’t measure anything, but this should be pretty close. Use your judgment when you try to replicate (as will I).

I like beans in my chili, so there are beans in this one. Also, you may notice there are no tomatoes. No reason for that, except that I didn’t feel like putting any in. That may be part of what makes it so good. I dunno.

I wish I’d snapped some photos, but maybe next go ’round I will and then I’ll add ’em.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 lbs lean pork (I use 98% lean Kirkland Sirloin Tip Roast from Costco)
  • 1 medium-sized yellow or white onion, chopped
  • 1 quart + one cup chicken stock (I use Costco’s Kirkland brand organic)
  • 1 large can plain pinto beans (I use Bush’s Best 27-oz can)
  • 2 Tbsp hot red chile flakes, ground into powder (I use stuff I buy at an Albuquerque farmers market)
  • 2 Tbsp hot green chile flakes, ground into powder (I use stuff I buy at an Albuquerque farmers market)
  • 1 Tbsp onion powder
  • 1 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup masa (corn flour – I use Maseca brand)
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • Salt

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Put a large pot on medium-high burner to preheat. I use a Lodge cast iron dutch oven.
  2. Cut pork into one-inch cubes.
  3. Salt the pork cubes liberally.
  4. Put the olive oil into the pot and then add half the pork.
  5. Let the pork sit there for a few minutes, maybe 5 or so, until it gets decently browned on the bottom, then stir it up. Let it brown again for a few minutes.
  6. Add the rest of the pork plus the onion to the pot and stir everything.
  7. Stir every minute until the pork is about cooked through — this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes — then add the red and green chile. Stir to coat all pork pieces.
  8. Add the quart of chicken stock. Stir.
  9. Add garlic powder and onion powder. Stir.
  10. Add Pinto beans, including liquid.
  11. When the mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for a couple hours.
  12. Mix the masa with the 1 cup of chicken stock to the pot. This will thicken the chili. Stir and continue cooking for a half hour.
  13. Plate and serve.

Makes 6 large servings.

NUTRITION PER SERVING

  • Calories: 373
  • Fat: 5 g
  • Protein: 43 g
  • Carbs: 39 g (including Fiber: 9 g)

If you make this, let me know what you think of it.

Posted on

Do we really need to overeat on Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving in the United States is a day that celebrates gluttony.

Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, pumpkin and pecan pies, cranberry sauce. One helping is not enough on Thanksgiving Day. Gotta go back for seconds, thirds. Gotta have a slice or two of all the pies and other desserts, too.

Why?

It would be one thing if we ate healthy the rest of the year, but then on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, we chose to blow it out. I could buy that.

But that’s not the case, is it? We don’t deprive ourselves every other day of the year. We tend to indulge — overindulge — ourselves on a regular basis. Like five-year-olds in a candy store, we have no self-control.

Pecan pie is soooooo good!

Sausage stuffing is soooooo good!

[Insert your favorite food here] is soooooo good!

Well, sure those things taste good. Tell me something I don’t know.

But, you know what? I’m not five-years-old anymore. I have the ability to control myself both in the candy store and at the Thanksgiving feast.

Eating right is all about self-control, and not giving in to our inner urges is one thing, but we also often get off track by giving control to someone else.

“My wife will be offended if I don’t eat an extra spoonful of her special dressing.”

“My dad will be offended if I don’t have a second slice of his strawberry-rhubarb pie.”

If people choose to be offended because we are trying to be fit, then so be it. That’s on them, not us.

Do yourself a favor this Thanksgiving and try not gorging yourself.

Sure, go ahead and have some of everything you like, but skip the seconds (and the thirds, although if you skipped seconds, I guess you would never get to thirds. Skipping seconds would make thirds the seconds. I think I just blew my mind. How do I get onto these sidetracks?).

After dessert, when you see that last piece of pumpkin pie sitting on the counter — you know, the one that you always heap with Cool Whip and eat right out of the pan? — leave it for someone else.

Don’t succumb to guilt trips from others, and don’t let your inner child convince you that you should eat more, more, more, just because it tastes good.

We’re adults, let’s act like it and take control of our own lives, be responsible for our own fitness, by not overeating — or, if that’s too much to ask, at least try overeating less — on Thanksgiving.

Posted on

What I’ve learned about fitness and nutrition over the past few years

I’ve been on my fitness quest for about four years now. I went in with with an open mind, wanting to find out as much as I could, experiment on myself, see what works and what doesn’t.

Here are a few of the things I think I know, subject to change as I learn more:

  • It’s more about what you eat than what you do. You can lose a lot of weight by eating properly. Without exercise, though, you will lose muscle along with the fat. You have to work out to build that muscle. Still, if your only goal is to lose weight, know that how you eat is responsible for about 80% of how your body looks.
  • Carbs are not evil, but sugar is, and grains are not far behind. Fruits, vegetables, those are carbs. Eat ’em up. Anything with added sugar in it, though, is just asking for trouble. Then if you add grains, wow, you are really packing a caloric punch. By removing sweets from your diet, you can much more easily find your way to healthy eating habits. Not only that, but when you get used to eating less sugar, naturally sweet foods like fruits will taste sweeter to you.
  • P90X is a great way to dive into a fitness-oriented lifestyle. It got me motivated, took me from a terrible diet to a pretty good one, and from walking/pushups/crunches to real, structured workouts. The main thing P90X did was show me that even people over-40 can get into shape. I’d just about given up, but now I am in the best shape of my adult life.
  • Insanity is a great way to continue that fitness-oriented lifestyle. I lost some of the muscle I’d built with P90X when I went through Insanity, but did I really need all that muscle? The only part I regret is that I lost a lot of pullup (back) strength, so when I am doing a round of Insanity, I add pullups. Insanity doesn’t focus enough on the back muscles and I think the body needs that balance. I add yoga, too, just because I like starting the day with yoga.
  • Insanity: The Asylum is just too much. Maybe I feel that way because I don’t have enough space to do all the moves conveniently, but….
  • You have to warm up first, no matter what it is you are going to do. Unless you are going for a walk, which is not really a workout, you gotta warm up. I have hurt myself doing impromptu pullups. True story.
  • Insanity is good for my knees! I was shocked by this. Before I started P90X, my knees were okay, presenting minor problems when I tried to run, but they didn’t pain me much. A couple months into P90X, my left knee started bothering me. Not enough to make me stop, and the pain was not there when I exercised, but it was there from time to time. The pain was bothersome enough that I mentioned it to my doctor. He took a look and told me I had arthritis in that knee. I continued on with my P90X and One-On-One workouts. I didn’t start Insanity, because I figured if my knee was bad now, Insanity would put it over the top, right? So I put Insanity off for a few months. Then I took some time off to just do yoga and walking, give my body a rest, and my knee pain subsided considerably. When I went back to working out, it came back. At that point I said to myself, “If the pain can go away, then come back, that probably means it can go away again, so I’m going to go ahead and dive into Insanity.” After I started Insanity, my knee pain gradually diminished and has now disappeared. So … I stay away from Tony Horton (P90X) leg routines and stick with Shaun T (Insanity) ones.
  • Yoga is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It is so all-around fitness-increasing, affecting breathing, balance, and strength. Your whole body is engaged in yoga moves. It inspires discipline. And, you know what? It ain’t for pussies. Yoga is hard. Don’t skip it. In fact, I added more.
  • I much prefer body weight or band resistance training to working out with weights. Weight training is cool and I know it helps build strength and balance, but it’s a hassle. I guess that’s another reason to really like Insanity. I am not about building too much muscle, preferring a lean look, so it’s all good.
  • If you can perform a fitness routine completely without breaks the first time through, it’s not a very useful fitness routine. You need something that challenges you. Any of the aerobic workouts in P90X and Insanity definitely qualify as useful, by that definition. Plus, here’s the thing, take, for example, the P90X Plyometrics routine. Man, that is a monster. I was stopping the DVD for extra breaks a lot when I first started it. Then not so much. Then, on the day I was able to get all the way through it without stopping, I had such a feeling of accomplishment. Rightly so! As for Insanity, I still have not got all the way through any of those routines. Close. But not quite. But I will.
  • With that in mind, accept the fact that Insanity is (almost) impossible.  I say “almost” because, I suppose, anything is possible. For Insanity, unlike for P90X, I say take breaks without pausing the DVD, but don’t dog it. Get back in as soon as possible.
  • You can build great abs without doing any crunches. That is a fact, and Shaun T (Insanity) knows how to do that. Insanity is great for abs.

I’m sure I’ve learned more than that, but those are a few good lessons that came to mind pretty quickly.

Posted on

Keep your workout results expectations realistic

You may see commercials on tv or  ads in magazines that show ripped guys who got that way in only 30 or 60 days!

“Yeah, right,” you say to yourself. “But, maybe….”

I’m not Fire Marshall Bill, but LETMETELLYASUMTHIN! If you’re a regular person in regular shape, it ain’t gonna happen.

I have no doubt (well, I do have some doubt, but I can see how it could be true) that the people in the commercials and advertisements really did achieve the looks they display in the promised number of days. But they started the program a lot closer to that shape than you will.

Let me be clear. I am not putting down these exercise/diet programs. They do work.

I’m just saying, don’t expect to go from 40 pounds overweight to washboard abs in 60 days. Or 90 days. Or 120 days.

You’ll get some great abs, sure, but seeing them will be the problem. Those last 10 or 15 pounds are a bear to lose. Trust me. Been there, still doing that.

Unless you are absolutely fanatical about calorie restriction and/or doubling up your workouts, you ain’t gettin’ there.

Here I am 21 months into it, and I am still stuck with the fat that covers my six-pack. Now, I look great (and that is not just me being vain, I have been told this by many people, even those I don’t know very well), but I am not ready to hit the runway for a pose-off anytime soon, nor do I ever expect to be that ripped.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a subject of some soreness for me, because I really want to see the six-pack. But I have to be pragmatic about this. If it were my job to get ripped, I mean, if I were getting paid to get ripped, you had best believe I’d get there. That is not the case, though, so I still enjoy ingesting comestibles that keep my waist from shrinking any farther. I still enjoy taking days off from workouts that might burn those extra calories.

I am a regular human living a regular human life.

So, really, it’s all good.

I’m just saying, don’t get all disappointed with your program, when you don’t see that muscle definition you were looking for. That’s the way it is. Either work harder, eat less, or just accept the fact that you will be in great shape, but maybe not with as low a body fat percentage as you’d like.

And if you are dedicated enough to be able to put that six-pack on display … well, good for you (you bastard!)

Posted on

How to survive the holiday food fest

The holidays are upon us, with Halloween just past, and Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner.

I don’t know how it is in other parts of the world, but here in the United States, mid-November through New Year’s Day is prime eating season, with large family gatherings that include lots of food, including pies, cakes, cookies — everything you may be trying to avoid.

One way to deal with this time of year is to just say, “Screw it! I’m going to eat whatever is put in front of me, and then I’ll get back on the wagon in January!”

Okay, you can do that, but wow, putting on 10 to 15 (or more) pounds doing that is not out of the question, if you are also lowering your number of workouts, and that can be disastrous. Well, it would be for me, anyway.

Another way to handle the holidays is to eat your way through it, but increase your number of workouts. That is not a bad idea, but remember, an average-sized slice of chocolate cake will run you 500 calories. Ten Oreos have about that same number of calories. A couple cups of mashed potatoes have that many, too.

It doesn’t take long for those calories to add up, so I hope your extra workout is one helluva good one!

The way I choose to survive the holidays is to do nothing out of the ordinary. Just because it’s the holidays, doesn’t mean I have to go off the deep end. Really!

So, as usual, I won’t eat any sweets. I don’t want them, I don’t need them. My blood sugar rides the fine line between okay and trouble, so I don’t want to shoot it over the top. That’s a personal choice for my own health — yours may not be so strict.

I will overeat at a meal or two or three (or four or five). That’s normal for me, and it’s one of the reasons I can’t see my abs as well as I’d like to. But remember, I am a regular guy, not a fanatic.

Will aunt Gladys be upset by the fact that I won’t eat her pecan pie? She should know better than to try to feed me that stuff.

Will mom be pissed because I won’t eat a second helping of her sausage dressing? Sorry, mom, it’s great, but one serving is enough.

One of the reasons I was overweight for so long was because I sacrificed my own health to keep order in the family. I didn’t want to upset aunt Gladys or mom. It was not until I broke that control others had over my diet, sacrificed their feelings rather than my body, that I was able to get into shape. Once my family saw the results of my new way of eating, their hurt feelings were salved.

Am I oversimplifying? Sure. My life is pretty simple.

You may have more pressure, because you are around more family than I am. Eat everything but in smaller portions. Make the right choices for you.

Most importantly, develop a strategy that will work for you, before the holidays start, and then stick to it. Believe me, you will be happy you did, when you start next year without the extra fat.