Life is what you make it

Since My Opera has a Cooking Challenge contest going on, i thought i'd share one of my favorite dishes. It's fairly simple to make, and tastes really good (provided you like chicken, of course).



Step 1:
Chop vegetables and onions into big chunks. I use tomato, zucchini and onions. You can also add potatos, carrots and whatever else. Put them in a large baking dish, and season with salt and pepper.




Step 2:
Put a whole, fresh chicken on top, like this:




Step 3:
Peel an orange, stick it where the sun doesn't shine:




Step 4:
Pour some oil (olive oil or similar) in a small bowl, and add rosemary, salt, pepper and bell-pepper powder. Mix it with your fingers, they are about to get dirty anyway.




Step 5:
Gently loosen the skin on the chicken from the meat. You probably need to use a knife to loosen it from the chicken breast. Use your fingers to do the rest, and try to loosen the skin from the legs too. I was a bit too reckless, so i managed to rip the skin a bit.. ideally the skin should cover all of the meat.



Step 6:
Take some of the oil & spice mixture and rub it under the skin, try to cover the entire chicken. Whatever's left once you've done that, you can rub on the outside of the skin. Make sure the outside of the skin has some oil on it, to prevent the skin from getting too dry. Add a little more spices on top.




Step 7:
Cook in an oven at 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C until the internal temperature is 165 degrees F or 73 degrees C. You probably would want to use a cooking thermometer for this.




Step 7:
Enjoy alone, or together with potatoes, rice and/or bread!

That's it, i've had enough! Today i decided i've had enough of my diet. I've lost 8 kg in 9 weeks, which is more than i ever thought i'd lose in such a short amount of time. It's time to give a summary of the results, start eating normally again and in general just enjoy the summer

Let's start with the weight:
My weight started at 82 kg (morning) and ended up at 74,1 kg (morning). That's a loss of 7,9 kg.
As you can see on the graph my weight has slowly decreased at a fairly steady pace, and most of the spikes have been on my eat-what-you-want-saturdays.

And now, let's go straight to the before and after photos!

Front:

Ok, so i had to use my spotlights to create shadows in the right places, but hey.. if bodybuilders can do it, so can i! As you can see i don't have a full sixpack, but i'm still satisfied with the result. Maybe next year my abs will be bigger and bulkier My brother says i look too skinny in this photo and i should straighen up more, but if i do that my abs disappear..

Back:

So to sum it up, it's been quite rough, especially the past two-three weeks. I underestimated the mental aspect of the diet, it's been harder than i thought. Once you get hungry, your mind starts going crazy and may actually work against you, making you focus too much on negative things. It's important to stay focused and keep going. With that said, it's been totally worth it. If i ever get chubby again, i won't hesitate to go back on a diet.

However, i don't intend to get chubby again! Although my 3 week vacation in USA this summer may change that..

This week was a bit rough. I started losing energy, and it became increasingly difficult to get out of bed in the morning. My workouts were a drag, without a good dose of caffeine in me right before going to the gym, i don't think i'd get much done. However, right after the workouts i've felt great, so it's been worth it.

I've quit using the Udo's Choice oil i mentioned in the first diet-related post, as it was expensive and tasted like crap. But you need fats in your diet, so i substituted it with peanut-butter and fish-oil. I think it gives roughly the same result, but for a fraction of the price.

Summary of the week:
Hunger: 8/10
Strength: 5/10
Cravings: 9/10
Endurance: 5/10
Concentration-level: 4/10
Aggression-level: 4/10
Overall happiness: 3/10

Weight:

Another week of the wonderful diet! This week i started cutting more carbohydrates out of my diet, slowly moving from the diet-plan of my original weight class (80-90 kg) to my current weight class (70-80 kg). I started by cutting down to 80g of oat meal for breakfast instead of 100g. I've also cut a little of the sweet potato or rice i eat together with my chicken and broccoli.As a result my hunger-level went up a little bit, and together with that also the cravings for unhealthy foods.

Summary of the week:
Hunger: 5/10
Strength: 6/10
Cravings: 8/10
Endurance: 6/10
Concentration-level: 5/10
Aggression-level: 3/10
Overall happiness: 5/10

Week 4 of the diet has been fairly uneventful. My stomach has seemed to be more stable than last week, and i haven't been as hungry as last week either.

This Saturday i completely ignored the diet all day, as i went to a bachelor's party. The drinking started at 3 PM and lasted until 3 AM. I don't think i've done that before. You can see the drop on my morning-weight on the 15th, which is most likely due to the lack of food, too much alcohol (which dehydrates you) and a couple hours on the dancefloor (dehydrating too).

Other than that, there's not much to report. Still loosing weight as planned, and my muscles seem to be fairly intact. I base this on the size of my upper-arms, which is the same as before my diet started. That's right, i'm the type of guy who measures my arms.. i even have a special tool for measuring ;-)

Summary of the week:
Hunger: 4/10
Strength: 6/10
Cravings: 7/10
Endurance: 7/10
Concentration-level: 5/10
Aggression-level: 3/10
Overall happiness: 6/10

Weight: