Recipe: Apricot Chicken

I happened to walk into the supermarket at the right time yesterday. They had reduced a lot of their fruits and vegetables for quick sale. Among the things I bought was a big bag of apricots, so I decided to make Apricot Chicken for dinner. Yum!

Apricot Chicken

8 Apricots

1 cup water

2 tablespoons raw sugar

1 packet French Onion Soup

Cracked Pepper

800g Chicken Thigh or Breast Fillets

1. Slice apricots, remove stone and chop into pieces

2. Place chopped apricots in saucepan with water, raw sugar, cracked pepper (to taste) and soup mix and simmer until soft.

3. Place chicken thigh fillets in a casserole dish and pour apricot mixture over chicken. Stir a little to distribute the mixture.

4. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 200 degrees Celsius (45 minutes covered, 15 minutes uncovered.

5. Serve as is for a low carb dish or with rice if desired. Makes 4 servings or 2-3 if you're greedy like me.

Do You Know How to Maintain?

I read all the time about people wanting to get leaner or wanting to get bigger or stronger. Less muscle, more muscle, less fat, bigger biceps, smaller butt... you name it. People seem to have all different ideas and seem to flit from goal to goal. For the past few years I have been this person. In 2006 I wanted to get stronger, in 2007 I wanted to get even stronger and now leaner. I competed in 2007. Last year, I wanted to bench 91kg and compete again so this meant getting stronger and even leaner!

Doesn't anyone just want to be? I hardly ever read about someone wanting to maintain their shape and it made me wonder: do people actually know how to maintain intentionally?

I guess I could say I am in this basket. I'm pretty happy with my current level of leanness and muscle size. To be honest, I would like to be a tad leaner so I can see my abs better but I'm not too worried about it and I definitely don't have to get there by a certain date.

As you may have read, I've currently worked out my schedule so I keep my diet pretty strict during the week (and at a deficit) and I relax during the weekend. This means I don't count calories, don't restrict portions and definitely don't cut out alcohol or fatty and sweet food. I don't however stuff my face; I just take what I want, a normal sized portion or meal and I'm happy with that.

However, last night (Thursday) I got home from work early, planning on going to the gym to get in a cardio session in an hour. Matt says the magic words "I feel like a beer". I immediately thought to myself, no... I won't go to the bar, I am going to be good and go do my cardio and make sure I stick to my diet and wait till the weekend for beer. Then I got to thinking: why do I need to go do cardio? I know I want to be leaner but I don't have a date I need to be lean by. Why can't I just relax and go out and have a beer and talk? I decided then that I would skip my cardio and go out for a drink. This is the beauty of maintenance. You can! Maintenance is give and take; one day you might have a rich dessert and the next you miss out on the dessert and have either nothing or a small piece of fruit. As long as you don't have more of one than the other you will maintain that balance. How thrilling and exciting it was for me to have this realization that I didn't have a schedule, I can make decisions to change my plans and make myself more flexible and I WILL BE OKAY. I have just been in this rut of goals for so long that I forgot the simple art of balance and give and take. Unfortunately, I see a lot of that in the forums I visit and people I talk to.

Even for you people that want to get leaner, this method still works. Add a little flexibility into your life and you'll still lose weight. Make sure you have more days at a deficit than at maintenance or surplus. You can still enjoy life, accept spur of the moment dinner or drink invitations and still look great. It might take you a little longer to get to your goal, but I can guarantee you will be happier for it!

Hump Day

Work has been quite slow this week, I'm actually grateful because I'm normally super busy and running around like crazy. I wouldn't like it to be like this all the time, but it's nice to have a rest.

I went to the gym today for cardio. I did interval training on the rower: 6 cycles of tempo training, totalling 5000m for 24:24 minutes. I also did 10 minutes moderate effort on the recumbent bike.

I got told from a gym friend that hadn't seen me for a month that I was looking really good and my arms were looking huge! *front double bi* Looks like all that work on my triceps has been paying off. She also thought my body seems to have changed quite a bit... I don't see that though. I have leaned out a little but other than that no major change. Anyway, it was nice to receive a compliment :-)

Diet was spot on today, although I was quite hungry. Just hanging out for the weekend!!

M1 - Protein Shake
M2 - Nectarine
M3 - Protein Crisps
M4 - large Chicken Salad
M5 - Mongolian Lamb

I have about 200 calories left so I'm going to eat some cottage cheese and yoghurt.

Cardio turned Rest Day

Today I had planned to go for a long walk after work but I ended up feeling really tired and a bit achy during work today. I'm not sure if it was the poor sleep I had last night or something else, but I decided to rest instead. Plus it ended up raining heavily and I didn't feel like getting my feet wet.

Diet today was good. Today I was pretty hungry actually. I just ate my dinner and I'm still hungry! Gah!

M1 - Banana Protein Shake
M2 - Chicken 'n Corn Soup
M3 - Big Egg Salad
M4 - Snack of Blue Cheese and Mini Easter Egg
M5 - Roast Chicken + Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Red Pepper

I am currently browsing Karina's Kitchen for recipe ideas. It's making me even more hungry! I think I'm going to make her Coconut Carrot Cake this weekend! I love both coconut and carrots, so it's a great combination for me. Carrots are a rich source of Vitamins A, C, and K, folic acid and beta-carotene and coconut contains MCT's which are easily and quickly oxidized for energy and similar to carbohydrate metabolism. Sounds healthy to me! Well, that's my excuse :-P

Update

Friday was a rest day. I decided to give my cardio session a miss and we went out for dinner instead. I had grilled Barramundi with a salad and some fries and a couple beers.

On Saturday I went to work. I had Subway for lunch... nom nom, then I bought some gummy lollies and shared those with my workmate. They made me feel a little ill actually, kinda like a bad sugar rush. It's probably why I don't eat them that often anymore. After work I went to the gym for a lower body workout.

SATURDAY'S WORKOUT

Squats (with Safety Squat Bar)
warmup: bar x 8, + 20kg x 5, + 30kg x 4, + 40kg x 3
sets: + 50kg x 5, + 52kg x 5, + 52kg x 5

These are feeling really good.

Glute Ham Raises 4 x 10 x 7.5kg behind head

Split Squats 2 x 10 x 48kg

Cardio: 15 minute incline walk on treadmill

Saturday night, we went out for beers. Had a great time!

SUNDAY - Rest Day. I was feeling slightly hungover in the morning from the beers the night before then by the time I remembered I was supposed to go to the gym for intervals I didn't really feel like it. In the morning I made those Cheesy Walnut Scones and then some Almond Biscuits. I spent the day just lazying around then we went out for a couple of beers again then went to see Underworld 3.

I didn't really have a great sleep last night, luckily I don't work Mondays.

MONDAY'S WORKOUT

Inverted Rows - 4 x 8

KB Snatch - 1 x 6 x 8kg, 1 x 6 x 12kg

DB Snatch - 3 x 6 x 20kg

Neutral Grip DB Press - 3 x 8 x 55's

DB Row - 3 x 8 x 32.5kgs

Overhead Tricep Extensions - 3 x 10

Cardio: 30 minutes on Step Mill, 4.29km

Diet today was good. It actually sux a little to go back to dieting when the weekend is pretty lax, but it must be done I guess.

M1 - Chocolate Banana Protein Shake
M2 - Tropical Prawn Salad
M3 - Cottage Cheese and Vanilla Yoghurt
M4 - Baked Chicken in Corn & Avocado Soup

I ordered some Candy Corn on Friday and got an email today that it's been posted! I hope it gets here in time for the weekend so I can eat them then. I ordered the Pumpkin Mellowcremes, Autumn mix and Fall Festival Mix. They were out of the regular Candy Corn. I can't wait!!

My Workout

I made it to the gym today. The workout was pretty average, I felt a little drained to be honest. I took my intervals down a notch and still felt pretty winded. Hmmmm. Hope this isn't a trend!

THURSDAY'S TRAINING

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 8, 40kg x 5, 50kg x 4, 60kg x 3, 70kg x 1
sets: 70kg x 5, 3 sets

The last rep of the last set was pretty damn hard. I really ground that one out. I felt pretty weak benching today... not only that but really tired out from it.

Pendlay Rows
60kg x 5, 3 sets

Dips
BW x 10, 2 sets

DB Curls
12kg x 12, 2 sets
12kg x 10

I might try and get in another upper body workout on Monday.

Cardio: Interval training, 6 sets, total 25 minutes.

Diet was good today. Just the usual:

M1 - Protein Shake
M2 - Large Plum + Low Fat Latte
M3 - Red Curry Tuna + Mixed Bean Sprouts
M4 - Garlic & Herb Naan Bread, 2 Mini Easter eggs
M5 - 2 boiled Eggs
M6 - Pan Fried Fish + Grilled Veggies.

Lots of little snacky meals today.

Meet Teddy

This is Teddy. He arrived on my 30th Birthday and he's been partying ever since. I come home from work and he's already been drinking. He can't even sit upright he's so drunk all the time *shakes head*


Anyway.

No training or cardio today. I had planned on going to the gym to do some cardio, but it was raining so hard after work I decided just to stay at home instead. I would have been soaked walking to the gym. I ended up not even eating enough food anyway.... I did the classic fall asleep through dinner job that I seem to do all the time, so my calories ended up being pretty low. Nevermind!