Time for change and some explanation

This weekend will be my third since I started the strict diet. And yep, I am getting quite tired of it. Not as tired as I thought I would though. The plan with this challenge was to start adding stuff slowly to see how my body reacts. This far, the results have been pretty amazing and I'm feeling better than ever! But since I'm getting pretty tired of it, I've decided to start adding stuff now. So today at the grocery store, some fancy cheese went down in the basket, and also baby spinach (something most people can handle, but I just want to make sure that I'm not sensitive to those fibers).

I am not sure if I explained exactly why I started this thing. It was just a few days before the start that I wrote about my current diet and how pleased I was with it. And I was. That is how I really want to eat! But it's still a fact that I, despite eating what many would call LCHF, still gained weight. So then my dear mrs Housemate was devastated after a visit to the doctor, and I was frustrated and confused about my weight gain. So we made this challenge for a week to get into new habits. It is life changing for her and for me it's a chance to see exactly what in my diet it is that's causing my weight gain. (And also to get back to the body I had a year ago when I managed to reach my dream weight.)

While I've been doing this I've also noticed the perks of being on a ketogenic diet. My goals have slightly changed. Just slightly. I still want the same things as before, but now I also want to see what effects I can get from being in ketosis for a longer period of time. It's a shame I don't have anything to measure ketones with at the moment though, so I'm not sure if I accidentally fall out of it. But I'll stick to a ketogenic diet until I go to Bali by the end of June. Than get back into it when I come home and see what happens :)

Results and eventual catches with ketosis

I did not weight myself last Sunday. My stomach was protesting so I returned to my daily shot of resistant starch and waited for my gut to start doing its job again before I went up on the scale. Result: -2 kg since last time! That is - minus 2.6 kg total since I started the ketogenic diet about 3 weeks ago. (EDIT: went to the loo, got my pajamas off and got on the scale again: minus another kg! So now- minus almost 4 kg since the start!) Happy girl!! :)

My exams are starting on Friday so I really don't have time to sit here and analyze my diet :( But considering all my studying at the moment, I am really pleased to be in ketosis!! I can actually focus on the studies and don't even have to take a break for food during the day. Might not necessarily be a positive thing though. I am still a bit worried that I don't eat enough. But then again - yesterday I ate heaps instead. Just eating when I am hungry and not eating when I am not kinda makes me vary my calorie intake a lot from day to day. Sometimes fasting for 24 hours and sometimes, like yesterday, eating well above my daily intake.

So well... the only issue I can think of now is the occasional waste of food. I mean, yesterday I brought a lunchbox to uni. The appetite was completely absent. So it lay there in my backpack for several hours in room temperature and then went back to the refrigerator when I came home. Now I'm not sure if I can eat it. Waste of money on that food. But if that's the only catch - then I am more than fine with that! :)

(well sure, my breath is still a nightmare but I see that as a good sign)

Good news and progress!

Some good news today! First of all: The Economist has published an article about how wrong scientists have judged fat, and that insulin (and thereby sugar) is the real bad guy. In a Swedish Facebook group about LCHF someone described our fat of fear by writing that "getting fat by eating fat makes as much sense as if you'd get sweet by eating sugar, or green by eating greens."

Then it was time for Purple Pant Check no 3 today! Last time I checked my purple pants was three weeks ago. Check this out:

Purple pants today

 

Purple pants three weeks ago

This time, the pants got up almost all the way, my bum fits as it should which I think explains the much more flattering shape of it today, and I didn't have to struggle as much to hold the zipper gap :)
At next check, they will go up all the way to the crotch and I will be able to get the zipper up a little bit!!

Now I can't wait to get on the scale tomorrow :)
Challenge today: party and going out tonight without cheating on the diet. I almost managed yesterday with the exception of some BBQ sauce on the pizza topping that I had (without the pizza bottom).

Sweating away

Started the day with an upper back session followed by some sprints today. On empty stomach since I'm not too hungry when I wake up anymore. And yes, it works perfectly fine. Estimated my calories to about 1250 yesterday, but I still managed to raise some weights at the gym today!

Morning visits to the gym are the best way I know to start the day. That's where I kinda do what I do best. I feel invincible! I feel confident! I feel strong!!! And honestly, it feels even better here in Australia since it's quite uncommon to see women lift heavy free weights. So when I am there on the floor where usually only the hardcore guys set their feet, I can notice some curious looks and I know that people are impressed :)

What's more - it slightly feels like I have seen the light and the girls on the crosstrainers or the fit balls, are living a lie. I wish everyone could begin to understand that torture will not give you the results you want. Eating real food and do more efficient training with heavy weights (no machines) and maybe some sprinting is what will get you there! And that is not torture. Well, not to me anyway. You will not be bulky, but you will finally get the results that you dream of!

Pictures of what Sofia feels like at different stages after sprinting. Dinner. And the tool that hopefully will fix my grip during deadlifts :)

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 ;)

No carb challenge - what happened?

I believe it is time for an evaluation of the no carb week! Report for mrs Housemate will come too, but after she's checked her weight (tomorrow).

Well well well. The adapting phase is over now, I believe. It has been a struggle the past week, but I pushed through and, considering my terrible breath, I think I've finally entered ketosis. :)

So what are the effects except bad breath and pimples (common side effects)? I am feeling absolutely fantastic! Seriously, I've felt somewhat depressed for quite some time while I've gained weight (not depressed because of weight gain... but perhaps they have a common cause). But now, after one week of extremely strict low carb high fat diet, my old energetic eyes that I've always been quite proud of, are actually back! I feel optimistic and I am getting my confidence back. This is definitely the best effect from the experiment!

Some things that I have described previously are still facts. Good results at the gym even if it's been hours since my last meal. Perfect hunger signals! It takes about 7 hours until I get hungry again after a meal, but I actually feel the hunger rather than just noticing that I have sugar cravings and that I am in a bad mood. There is no overeating either. I am satisfied with the portions I give myself and then I don't think about food until 7 hours later.

And what everyone obviously wants to know - has anything happened to my weight? Well yes it has! Not a lot, but it is going in the right direction. Minus 0.6 kg as of today. :D

This started as a one week challenge. But that was only the start. Now, since it took a week for me to get adapted, I want to keep this experiment going. The plan is to later slowly start adding things to the diet in order to see what it is that my body wants and what it doesn't want.

Fat and more fat. Some asparagus for a change instead of the same old broccoli today and the happy eyes :)

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