The success of mrs Housemate!

My wonderful friend and housemate has gotten fantastic results for her first week of this so called "extreme" diet! Her sleep is still perfect and the previous headaches are still absent. This is the first time she has managed to stick to a diet for this long even though it's just been a week. And the scale told her today that she has lost... *drums*... 3,3 kg! That is wonderful and she was so happy this morning and I am so proud of her! :)

Since I keep on following the LCHF lifestyle in Sweden, I get a lot of inspiration from there. One thing that I wanted to try was pork crackles with butter. So I did. And it tasted amazing! Was it good and healthy though? ... Nah, not if you intend on being strict as I do. Many ingredients and most of them suspicious things such as hydrolysed soy proteins and lots of numbers that I suppose have an invisible E in front of them. No sugar in the ingredients, but I guess there are some since the packing says "low in sugar" instead of "no sugar". The carb content was less than 1% though so I decided to go for it. Won't buy this anytime soon again though.

I am starting to get slightly nervous about one thing. Today I've only had a bulletproof coffee for breakfast and then nothing at all until about 5:30 pm when I had the pork crackles and butter. And now its 8 pm and I don't think I'll be hungry again before I go to bed. Problem is - I made a great steak yesterday that I intended to have as main food source this week together with fried asparagus, but I am not hungry enough to eat it! I also have heaps of organic eggs, tuna and homemade mayonnaise. It's not a lot, but I don't feel like eating anything anymore. It's probably a good sign - my body has finally learned to only eat when it has to. I just don't want to miss out on tasty and good food that I've made an effort to prepare.

Pat on the shoulder to mrs Housemate for great success and to me for not having bigger problems but rather enjoying life ;)

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

Treat - no binge

Today I bought chocolate. 90% cocoa. I took two squares and now its lying here beside the computer and has been there for maybe an hour and I don't actually feel any need of having another piece. Wow. What just happened? Miss Seductive S. Monster - I was expecting you and you're not here. Fuck yeah :)

Screw you miss Seductive Monster, I'm going sprinting!

Mental tools in all their glory, plus the rediscovered treasure in low carb diets... But the best way to truly knock miss Seductive Sugarmonster out (and I know you don't want to hear this, but it's true) is exercise. Sweaty, tough, wonderful exercise. And I will not say that I'm an expert - but I would say that I'm at least pretty decent when it comes to heavy resistance training with free weights. And that kind of workout - boy does it release the beloved endorphins that kick miss S. Monster right out of the brain! Especially if it's combined with some high intensy intervals on the treadmill.

If Sugarmonster turns out to be extra fierce and irresistible - just decide to do a heavy workout first, then you can go past the store on your way home. I never feel like eating anything after a workout (but of course I'll give my physical armor a well deserved treat to repair the muscle fibers) so if I say this to myself, then I'll most likely just walk past the store and go home without the poisonous sugar. If I would fail and buy something - then at least I'd probably not get a binge anyway and also - it wouldn't do as much damage if it's after a workout when the metabolism is doing its best to use all energy for repairing the muscles rather than storing fat. 

Things that I'm thankful for today: a compliment for my beautiful smile. It reminded me that weight isn't everything. And also the guys who serenaded me on the tram back home. Made my day! And oh - I'm so thankful for my 24/7 gym that allowed me to go there at 10:30 pm today :)

Great post-workout treat for the armour:

Slips and struggles

The inner monster is trying its hardest to get you where it wants. It is seducing you with a voice full of pleasing promise, caressing you with words of how sweet and comforting it would be if you only had a small piece of chocolate. It doesn't have to be a whole bar, just a piece. Maybe melt it and dip fruit in it. Maybe you can break it into smaller pieces and sprinkle it over some wonderfully creamy ice cream. Maybe you can buy bananas for extra luxury. And how great wouldn't it be with a topping of fluffy whipped cream mixed with vanilla powder... Oreo's would give it a pleasing crunch as well. Your friends can have ice cream and they look great and are healthier than ever, so why shouldn't you be able to have it to?

...and the binge is on...

At the taco night yesterday, my friend had prepared the meal for me before I arrived. Put everything together, folded the tortilla bread with all content in it and poured up a glass of orange juice. So yes, I ate it. And drank the juice. Although - I managed to decline the cupcakes, doughnuts and chocolates that she also had. I choose to see that as success.

Today another friend invited me for dinner. A great, healthy meal that I can't say anything negative about. She and her boyfriend had couscous with it. She asked me if I wanted some and... I heard myself answer "you two can have as much as you want and if there's anything left then I can have a bit of that." Why, Sofia - why??? Second day in a row. I guess it doesn't seem like a big slip for most people, but it does have a big effect on me. And I never learn.

After dinner I was completely stuffed, you know - the way you only get after eating carbs. I felt like rolling walking home which turned out to take 1 h, and here's when the effect from cheating on diet two days in a row became apparent. Even though I was way oversatisfied from dinner, my monster still wouldn't shut up even for a minute on the way home. She kept on trying to make me enter every single café, every single milk bar, every single kiosk... this time, I managed to actually identify the monster though. I managed to see that it was not my own words or my own will, but the seducing sugar monster trying to get fed with addictive substances that I myself know are terrible for me.

Once again - I will forgive myself for my slips, but with a condition - remember that even the simple carbs will wake the inner monster. That is how I work. Unfortunately.

Pat on the shoulder of the day: for resisting the sugar monster and walking home instead of taking the tram.

Mmhm, sugar monster knows seduction