People have been worried about my cholesterol

My diet at the moment roughly contains of;

0% carbohydrates
80% fat
20% protein

as I'm still on the extreme version.


A lot of "self taught doctors" our there have been warning me that my cholesterol much be "through the roof" and "oh this is so dangerous". And of course it worries me when people go around saying things like that to me. It scares me to hear that my arteries are clogging up as we speak and I will pretty much die an early death. So i went for a test.

You want your cholesterol to be no higher than 5.7. Mine was 3.2 - the lower part of normal.
Is that enough for people to shut it for a bit?

Why am I stuck?

You're getting two posts closely together now but this is something I'd like to bring up.
I've realised lately that I'm not losing weight anymore. I've got 5 kilos left and nothing's happening. Apparently there are quite a few reasons as to why this could happen.

Here are a few

You have been on diets before

If you have been on a diet before, and especially one where you drastically reduce calories in order to lose weight. Then your body will do its best to get energy from anything that comes in to make sure it survives. It holds on to al the fat that's in there as fat gives the most energy.
After a diet like this, you will need to reassure your body that you're not going to starve it and it's only after that's been done it will start letting go of the kilos.

You are stressed

When you are stressed or doesn't sleep properly our body has another survival mechanism, releasing cortisol, which gives us more energy in stressful situations. When this happens the blood sugar is raised so insulin is released. When insulin is released the body changes its settings to store fat.

You don't know what you're eating

When being out in town it's hard to know what you eat. Also it's easy to get into the habit of thinking that it's little carbs in this and little carbs and that and all of a sudden those "little carbs" have ended up being a lot of carbs.
There might also be factors you're not aware of are a problem. A lot of people on LCHF are extra sensitive when it comes to milk and nuts and eating too much of that could completely stop your weight loss no matter how little carbs you eat.

You eat too little

Some of us are stuck in the "old" thinking where you believe you lose weight if you eat less calories. Which in it's own way is true but you'll gain it again when you start eating. When your body isn't getting enough calories it puts itself in starvation mode and refuses to let go of any excess fat it has. Also when hungry the body releases a stress hormone and we've already established what that does to your body.
So eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full. Listen to your body and not to the clock telling you it's time to eat

You only have a small overweight

This is where I'm stuck at the moment and it's completely different. It's going to take more time to lose these last few kilos as the body might be quite happy with where it is at the moment. All you can do at this point is just wait.
Alternatively the body already has its perfect weight, the one you're supposed to have, as LCHF isn't a traditional diet, it's to stabilise your weight. So if you're underweight it'll make you gain weight and if you're overweight it'll make you lose it.





For me, it's a mix of the last two. I only have a few kilos left to lose and since I'm struggling with them I fall back into my old thinking of counting calories and reduce my intake even though I know I've lost 10 kilos while eating properly and probably over the recommended calorie intake per day.

But now I've realised I'm still not losing weight by radically cutting out calories so I'm going over to plan B (another take on the original plan A). Force-feeding myself!
Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds, but I have a tendency of ignoring hunger feelings (something still hanging around from starvation diets maybe?!) and I don't eat enough. So my fear now is that my body is saving whatever it can get hold of.

Before changing my eating pattern these past days, I had reduced my calorie intake to 1230 calories a day when the common number for the body to put itself in starvation mode in 1200. To avoid that happening I am now "force-feeding" myself so I get 500 more calories a day adding up to around 1700-1800 calories a day which is completely normal for someone wanting to lose weight healthily.









more information at:
http://kolhydrater.ifokus.se/(in Swedish only unfortunately)
http://undergroundwellness.com/

Why have sauce with the dinner when you can have dinner with the sauce?

In Sweden we have something we call ”fredaysmys” or ”Friday cosiness” for you.
The fact that we have an actual word for it may sound a bit silly but it's massive in Sweden so go there and say it and we'll all know what you're on about. Basically, it's the Friday night, the first night where you can sit with your family and stay up and eat and drink good and you don't have to worry about getting up the morning after.
There’s even a song about it

"Det finns en dag då man kan andas ut.
Man slipper chefens tjat & kommer hem till slut.
Since i move here all i do is mysa mys. (yes we do)
Det är dags för fredags mys, om det så är det sista jag gör.
Snart är det fredags mys. hoppas inte föräldrarna stör.
Nu är det slut på veckan, det är dags för fredags mys!"

"There's a day when you can relax.
You don't have to hear the boss nagging and you get home on time.
Since I move here all I do is "mysa mys" (yes we do).
It's time for fredagsmys, even if it's the last thing I'll do.
It'll soon be fredagsmys, hope the parents won't disturb.
This is the end of the week, it's time for fredagsmys!"

So yeah as you may have guessed the advert is for crisps and that there's no fredagsmys without crisps.
But for us dieters it's all about doing the best of the situation.
So my "fredagsmys" treat last night was beef with cheese, hollandaise sauce and underground vegetables. A bit naughty but still within the limit of 20 grams of carbohydrates per day.

I love fredagsmys!

Determination

My friend Sophie says: "I wish I had your determination."
I've never really thought of myself as determined. This is just something I do.
But then I realised that this is what I have on the wall next to my bed only because it adds a bit of colour to my room so maybe she does have a point.

Better than a chinese

Have done a fair bit of work today so treated myself to two squares of chocolate. 85-%-and-therefor-I'm-allowed-to-eat-chocolate of course.

What should I eat?

Hi first I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates here. Have been a bit busy and also went away for Easter weekend.



I was buying burgers the other day. Sainsbury's frozen 100% beef burgers...with 1.4 grams of carbohydrates in it.
Now something doesn't add up here. Oh yeah, it's the fact that 100% meat should contain as little as zero, nada, nil grams of carbohydrates. It probably wouldn't look at good but I'd prefer it if they wrote 99% beef burgers because it isn't a 100%.

After that I've made a habit of checking everything I buy, not assuming I know what's in the products because even if I know what should be in a packet of something there's nothing saying it actually is like that.

And it also makes me think about how different the nutrition values can be on the same product but from similar brands.

Example!

Sainsbury's Desiccated Coconut per 100 grams - 6.4 grams
Crazy Jack's Organic Desiccated Coconut per 100 grams - 8.2 grams
ICA's Organic Desiccated Coconut from Sweden per 100 grams - 1.5 grams (!!!) (no link unfortunately)


In this case it's not the carbs themselves that worry me, it's more the fact that what is supposed to be the same product in fact isn't.
And 100% beef burger should be 100% beef so why is the nutritional facts different on something that is supposed to be zero?

FAILURE

So, Easter time ey? Two weeks off uni and the chance to take my work load with me and go home to Sweden to see family and friends.
Yeah right!

This was the plan!

Mr Huggable and me in January. JANUARY!!!

Oh yes, I too was meant to go home to Sweden and see the guy I'm dating and maybe give my mother a little visit to say "hello how are you". But nooooo, I'm destined to be at uni with a lot of work to do and no one to go to sleep with at night thanks to lack of funding and the realisation that I sometimes tend to be followed by bad luck that I had a feeling would strike when overseas and my computer would fail where there's no university newsroom in sight to work in. So here I am.


What's the solution to this then?


This is!!!!

I don't care what any experts say. Comfort eating rocks! Especially when it's a chinese take away with so much sweet and sour sauce the artificial colours in it could re-paint the whole university.
The good thing is that it feels good until tomorrow morning when I wake up and feel like shit and I realise how good proper food makes me feel and I won't want any more shit food.
But still, it's in me now so thank God I'm playing squash in the morning and that in around five weeks time I will be back in Sweden.

But then again, is it so bad to fail? I have to live, don't I?