Hot! Hot! Hot!

197.6 lbs

Not quite losing like I want or should. I am, however, increasing muscle mass but I hope to see below the 195 mark this week or even lower. I got a really good chance of making it this week because I had fun on binge day and that usually helps break the "wall" I hit every few weeks or so. I tend to notice this "wall" happening when I get a slight up tick in my weight on Saturday morning. Hopefully what I did on binge day did the trick.

This Saturday we did a few special things for binge day. We had donuts in the morning as is per the norm these days. At lunch Christy and I ventured out to the Carlsbad Tavern in Scottsdale. There is a particular burger there that I love and I had never taken Christy there before. The restaurant is basically New Mexico cuisine with a few twists. The burger that I mentioned earlier is a habanero burger and it even includes warnings in its description on the menu. Like they say, you order it, you own it. It's one of the Food Network's best burgers in America and it is mostly certainly its hottest. The thing actually has ground habaneros inside the burger and even the side salad has a jalapeno dressing.

It's not the first time I had this burger. Either the burger has become milder over the years or I have become desensitized by eating so much hot stuff while living here in the Southwest. In the past, upon eating one of these fire breathing monsters, I would sweat profusely and on one occasion I even lost hearing in one ear as my hair felt like it was growing out my head. The thing goes beyond hot and keeps going. Now, to be fair, I did do a very sensible thing before eating one this time, I drank some milk. It used to be standard with your order for them to offer a glass of milk (they don't now) but I had to request one this time (in the past I shooed it away). I am glad I did. I still got a small endorphin rush and my hair felt like it was growing slightly but it was nowhere near the gastronomical armageddon I had endured previously.

I love very very spicy food. Right now, at my work desk, sits a bottle of the hottest stuff I have ever put into my body - Blair's After Death hot sauce. But still, it is only 50,000 scoville units which is roughly 10 times hotter than a jalapeno. Supposedly what I ate over the weekend was pushing 100,000 scovillle units. I can tell you that it really wasn't even close to being as insane as After Death. I usually only put a drop or two of it on anything I eat because the smoky taste that I crave will turn into the searing pain that I don't. Besides the possibility of chemical burns, hot sauce is very good for you.

The endorphin rush is a plus but there are also nice side effects that the capsaicin in peppers provide. Mainly, it lowers blood sugar and cholesterol in your body. Oh and if you are up to it, like me, it tastes yummy. I have become a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to my peppery condiments. I generally avoid anything with a filler food such as carrots. If I wanted carrots, I would buy them and I definitely don't want anything screwing with the taste of my hot sauce. I am looking at you too, Mr. Tomato - stay in ketchup and salsa like you should!

At this very moment, as I type this on my lunch break, my hair feels like it is going all wolf man like as I ingest a diablo shrimp salad covered with hot sauce - with a little added After Death. It is so very good. Try a little bit of hot sauce on everything, it's fantastic.