What is this magic???

I think it might be called ketosis! But I should not be there yet. So I suppose it is just a seriously kickass diet! Great results on the third day for both my wonderful housemate and me!!!!

So what happened? Well, I felt terrible all day, in a bad mood and sooo tired. But - I had brought my gym gear to uni just to be able to do a chest session immediately when I was done there. So I forced my ass there and, tadaaa, my energy magically came back to life, the weights were raised in all sets and I even managed to end it with 15 mins of sprinting afterwords! This happened after only having two meals today with the last one 4-5 hours earlier. Fuckin' kickass!!!

And you know what else is fuckin' kickass? My housemate is obviously also suffering from an adapting body. Probably a lot more than I am since she is all new to the concept. Despite this, she woke up without a headache today for the first time in three weeks!!! And she's really pushing herself with this new way of eating. She is truly amazing!! Go miss Housemate!! :D

Breakfast in the bottom (yep, that's right), post-workout snack in the top and a happy Sofia filled with endorphins to the left:)

Challenges and beginnings

So I live in Australia now. And here in Australia - people don't do low carb yet. The miracle hasn't really managed to travel to this part of the world yet. But despite this - I have managed to convince my first Australian. Here's the story:

There is a house in Melbourne where three people live. A boy and a girl who are married, and Sofia who's an international student from Sweden. The married couple have looked at Sofia's food with huge doubt without saying anything. All that fat. And seriously, why can't she have a potato every once in a while?! But the thing is, the female part of the couple is very overweight. I don't know how much, but I would guess around 140-150 kg. The boy is doing a lot of anaerobic exercising, have terrible food habits (same as his wife), seems fine and healthy enough, but has gained 12 kg since he met the girl despite the cardio. He believes in low fat diets and anaerobic exercising to loose fat.

The boy and the girl have tried to get a baby for some time, but without success. The doctor says that they might increase the chances if the girl looses some weight. They start dieting every week but give up after a couple of days.

One day, Sofia comes home and sees that something is wrong with the girl. She's not her usual happy self. Apparently, there was a visit to the doctor with more bad news. Sofia start talking about how the low carb high fat diet from Sweden has helped a lot of people loose a lot of weight when everything has failed previously. She also describe health benefits and research for studies about low carb diets and fertility (good info about that in this interview by the DietDoctor).

Anyway, I can't bother writing like that anymore. My housemate and I have now started a challenge for one week to begin with (will most likely be extended). I am cutting the carbs to a maximum of 5 grams per day (aiming towards 0), and she is starting on LCHF. This is so exciting!!! I get to follow someone who has potential to gain huge health benefits in several ways from following the LCHF diet, in Australia where people still frown at fat and believes in processed low fat food. I love that her goal is not primarily to loose weight, but to get pregnant, which also makes it even more interesting to follow. She is more motivated now than I have ever seen her before which really makes me believe that she can do it! And - her husband is completely against the whole thing and refuse to listen to my reasoning. I will love to shove his doubts in his face when she stands there with a healthy and, hopefully, pregnant wife!

What I believe my beautiful, wonderful and fantastic housemate will gain is:

• A child
• A healthy weight
• More energy
• Good sleep
• Stable mood
• Lower blood sugar
• No more headaches
• No cravings

To contrast that, this is what it is like now (a summary):

• PCOS (no trace of a child)
• Heavily overweight
• No energy - naps every afternoon/early evening
• Bad sleep - nightmares and waking up several times
• Mood swings
• Risk of getting diabetes according to doctor
• Migraines and constant headache
• Sugar addiction

I will follow this closely and support her as much as I possibly can. It feels as if I am almost as involved in and motivated by her lifestyle now as I am in my own, and it will be great to see what happens now and if she can stick to it! Second day today :)

New found love: HIIT

I have already described my overwhelming love for sir Gym. The main thing that makes me so attracted to sir Gym is the weight lifting. Heavy free weights. I've always kinda hated doing cardio though. But - about a week ago a realized that I was not as tired as I should be after a session of my new program (4-split instead of 3-split which makes the sessions a lot quicker) so I decided to try sprinting. Intervals has always been my thing since my endurance is pretty shitty and I don't know how to motivate myself to keep running when I feel like I am about to die, but it has always been longer intervals with the goal of being able to run for as long as possible without resting.

Now I've been quite inspired of the Primal Blueprint lately and by listening to their podcast I was curious to try really high intensity sprints after my workout. So I did. And then I did it after every upper body workout session this week. And I must say that wow, sir Gym - why didn't you show me this side of yourself earlier??? So what I've been doing is just 15 min sessions of 45 sec - 1 min of running at the top speed of what I have previously been capable of, followed by 1 min walking.

Why I love it you ask? Because it is over quickly so it is easier for me to push myself into both starting and continuing for the remaining time; because it releases all the happy hormones that I love from cardio exercise without being as torturous; because it is not as tough as aerobic exercise so I can do it after my strength programs which I have never managed before (I suppose - not really surprisingly - that anaerobic exercise is my thing), because I notice results after only one week of doing this!

Mark Sisson wrote an excellent post about this a while back, describing the benefits you get from sprinting. I am really looking forward to keep up these intervals and see how it will affect me in the longer run. What I can notice after only a week is: more energy and feeling a lot better mentally, starting to actually recognize my hunger signals which I haven't felt for a long time, increased speed (I suppose it is the same as when you start lifting - rapid progress in the beginning) and better focus. I mostly feel more stable mentally. I don't know if I can put all credit for that into the sprints of course, since my food intake has been really good the past week as well, I have managed to stick to my exercise routine and I have had a humane amount of things to do at uni (meaning: no stress). Although I definitely believe that the new addition of short HIIT sessions have strongly contributed to my new well being that has been absent for quite some time.

A pretty exhausted Sofia just off the treadmill. Sweaty and very satisfied with herself! And the eyes were a lot more energetic after some recovery ;)

Entering into the light

In the beginning there was darkness. But after a certain period of time, filled with mood swings, struggles, mental fist fights with miss Sugarmonster and maybe a slip or ten, after forcing yourself to stay on track - you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. And suddenly you are there. Still far away from your goal, but you have reached the light. The light where it is no longer a constant struggle to keep on trying but rather just goes automatically. The light where you notice that you actually don't really feel like trying the cake at work because miss Sugermonster has given up. The light where you actually long for kicking some ass at the gym because you know how great it will make you feel afterwords. Suddenly you are not trying to convince yourself anymore - you are just doing it and you start feeling that you can actually manage this, for real!

It is worth going through the torturous phase to get to the light. And really - it does not take that long. I have a three day rule. That is how long it takes to get past the worst of the cravings. The diet is easier after about a week. After two weeks you'll probably be in the flow, you've gotten the hang of what you can eat for your different meals, the sugar addiction is on hold, it is not a huge mission to get to the gym anymore and you're probably starting to see your first results.

I read somewhere that it takes three months for a new habit to get established. Might be true. Probably is. But it will not be a constant fight trough all that time. The fight is only in the beginning. I believe that you will find your health salvation within a month. Just give it a try. A real wholehearted try. You can do it!

To force motivation

I have tried to lose my extra kilos that I've gained a number of times now, but I am still going to see this as a start. The last week have been absolutely horrendous in the healthy perspective with shitloads of crappy food and hardly no exercise. This means that I have to really force myself to the gym now. That's how it always is when you start. But force yourself for a couple of times and then it will be a routine and no probs at all.

It is really hard to leave the computer at the moment and get my ass to the gym so here's my strategy:

1. I put on my gym gear first thing in the morning before even having my coffee.
2. Deciding when to go - after breakfast and one episode of Big Bang Theory!
3. Write about it here with a picture of how I feel about it (so I can make another update when I come back with a new picture of how awesome I will feel then! Great for future motivation!!!)
4. Repeat all the reasons for going there as a mantra: "Sofia - you do love lifting weights, you do want to raise the weights to feel less embarrassed at the gym, you do want to look fit again, you will get rid of your headache if you go out for fresh air, you will feel awesome afterwards, it will be easier to focus on your studies when you get back etc etc..."
5. FUCKING JUST DO IT WILL'YA?!?!?!?!

Pat on the shoulder for: Pretty good breakfast with hardly any carbs. Good on ya! :)

Weight lifting - YEY!!!! :D

Mission started!

So the idea is to use this as an inspirational platform for myself to keep on going in my health mission. I have done it before and I KNOW that I can do it again!!

I managed to get into the best shape I've ever been in by losing 20 kg over... two years or so. Then the tough shit began (life happened y'know) and I gained more than 10 of them again. Now I've tried and tried to drop them again and nothing happens. So here I am exposing myself to the world to see if that helps. And I have done it before so if I manage again - then maybe I'll even be able to give some helpful advice to someone else :)

Here's the deal - these pants will fit again! Like a glove!!!