Living la vida low carb in Australia

In Scandinavia the low carb hight fat, or LCHF, lifestyle is huge. It is now established after many years of public debates, skepticism and denial. Suddenly you can see low carb products everywhere! The low fat products are constantly on sale because no one wants to buy it anymore. The real butter and full fat cream are often out of stock instead. Even the authorities are starting to change their recommendations!

But I don't live in Scandinavia anymore. I live down under, in Australia now. And even though this lifestyle is spreading to other countries (especially America), no one really knows about it here in Australia. Suddenly, I am once again back to reading all ingredients extremely carefully in the grocery store since pretty much everything has added sugar, low meat content or is low fat. Once again, people look at my food with huge doubt. When I asked for help to find thickened, full fat, cream at Coles the other day, I had to be a bit persistent and the woman helping me laughed when I declared that I always buy the products with most fat in them.

In Sweden, many restaurants are used to people who eat this diet and provide alternatives. There are even low carb choices at some fast food restaurants and at IKEA. Here in Melbourne, I have simply given up the idea of finding good alternatives when I am in the city. Best choice is to find a grocery store and buy some nuts or Baby Bells.

Here's what I have learned this far: the stricter I eat, the easier it is. Good food is usually very expensive here. Sausages with a good content for example. I've solved this by preparing as much as possible myself. This includes spice mixes and sauces such as salsa. If I eat very strictly, as I do in my challenge now, then I don't have to look for food when I am away from home. Even though I feel hungry, it is still manageable. I will not get tired or in a bad mood or even start fantasizing about crap food. I can persist until I get home.

This blog is a way for me to report my experiences while I learn how to adapt in a country that still has to be convinced about the LCHF way of living. It is a way to memorize what works and what doesn't. And if someone finds it and gets some inspiration or help, then that is just a wonderful bonus. :)

Some Australian resources that seem really good:

An Australian site for LCHF

And their active Facebook group

A blog about LCHF in Australia with recipes that seem really nice

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 :)

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