Thursday 30 June 2011

Day of preparation

Woke up 4.45 am today, after sleeping 10 hours.. i feel so grown up :) but i have to get up 2.55 am tomorrow for work, thats why. But honestly, it felt so great! I had hours in the morning before the heat came so I got so much done.
My parents are leaving for a vacation tomorrow for 2,5 weeks so today we got instructions how we should water the flowers, how the vaccum cleaner works etc etc. We obviously know all those things already but my mom always want to make sure we and the plants survive when they are gone. I keep reminding her of the summer a few years ago when the flowers looked great when they got home from a vacation but died a few days after (when they took over the responsibility for the watering). For some reason she can not remember that.

For you uppsala people, kvantum in gränby has really good prices on grilled chicken today. 30 kr instead of the usual 45. It's cheaper then the frozen ones so I bought 5 of them. I also bought fresh norweigian salmon, 2 kg as coop next to kvantum (i feel sad that i need to advertise for coop as kvantum is otherwise so much better) had a really good price for it. So for a few hours, I took out all the meat from the chicken and put it in portion sizes and froze it, same with the salmon. So now I have 19 portions of chicken and 17 of salmon in the freezer! It is so easy to cook then as I work a lot the nearest weeks.

My dad also brought home 30 liters of strawberries. We do that every year and freeze it so we can have it during winter. My brother got home and my dad realized he had bought to much strawberries (they wouldnt fit in our freezers) so my brother got 10 liters. So we had a great afternoon, Sanna (sister) and Fredric (brother) took care of the strawberries and I the chicken etc.
our red, white and black currants are finally ready to eat!
5 of the 30
our white currant bush at the left and the red at your right
finally got it up a couple of days ago.. so about 2-3 months later then everyone else :)

Some concerns + my sugar fast

My dad knows a nutritionist (or whatever his "real" title is) that knows a lot when it comes to food/nutrition. He has taken care of many famous athletes when it comes to how they should eat etc and is one of Sweden's best. We discuss nutrition pretty much every day in our family and if there's anything we can't agree on, we normally ask dad what he thinks this nutritionist would say as he knows him very well and has learned a lot from him. This guy is extremly good and I have highly respect for his opinions in this.

After my last post, I asked my dad what he think the nutritionist would say about LCHF, as I already knew he has been sceptical to it. My dad said that the guy would probably say that it's too much animal fat and gives you too much omega 6.
My friends brother has also tried this diet and he got a heart attack. So, what I will do is that I will still try this diet because I also heard people saying their stomach problems went away, and that they feel so much better in many ways. But I will not eat as much animal fat/saturated fat as LCHF alouds but more polyunsaturated fat.

LCHF and our National Food Administration here in Sweden pretty much goes totally against each other in their recommendations. Personally I don't think either of them have the right solution.
For example. LCHF says lots of bacon is okay. Bacon is still pig and pig is not healthy at all. The National Food Aministration teaches us to eat 6-8 pieces of bread every day, which is obviously crazy.

It's not easy to know how you should eat when so many people give different recommendations. This really makes me want to do research and investigate in the future.

To another subject! After today, I've done half of my sugar fast! I decided to do the whole year and it's going really good. I still eat sugar when it's in normal food, so my fast only includes obvious sugar like cookies, candy, soda etc and also I wouldn't add sugar to anything. So now, I'm going to stop with sweeteners as well. Which means no more läkerol at work :( and no more gum! I'm excited though :)

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Really interesting facts from the book!

Have now read another chapter in the book I've been talking about. Man.. it's so interesting! I don't know if I believe in all of it (yet) but I have decided to try it myself to see how it effects me. For you who don't know what it's promoting, it's about the LCHF diet (low carb, high fat).

I'm working a lot the coming weeks now and it will be hard to do a fast while working so I've decided to postpone my fast to later on this summer. I will still do the detox (only raw, organic vegetables/fruits/berries) for a week or 1½, depending on if I'll be able to work properly. After that, I've decided to do about a month with the LCHF diet. Not to loose weight but to see how it's effecting me. I want to see if I stay fuller for a longer time than I do with the food I eat now. But I also want to do it as I've heard so many good stories of other people that are eating like this and as I will be starting studying nutrition soon, I know the LCHF will come up many times and it could be good to have some personal experience of it. And if I don't think it works, then fine, but it's worth a try I think. One of my concerns are the hormons that they have in butter/meat etc. I will start with the detox latest monday next week.

 There's a couple of things from the 3rd chapter I want you to know (page 51):
The 8th of Feb 2006, a big study from America got publiced. It had cost 700 million american dollars and its duration was 8 years. They did it to prove that fat was bad to eat. 50 000 women got divided into 2 groups, where one half continued living as usual and the other half ate much less fat and started eating more fruit and vegetables and also started exercising more. The result was that the 2nd half (non-fat eating group) did NOT get healthier. They didn't get less cancer, nor less heart diseases! AND the people that already had problems with their heart got even sicker!! The diet with less fat increased the heart diseases with 26 %!

Another thing (Page 55-56). There has only been smaller studies where they say that fat is bad for you. Three scientific/investigator groups decided to look through ALL these studies.
The first one was led by Andrew Mente and its result got publiced April 2009. The result was very obvious - there was not enough evidence that the total of intake of fat, meat, egg and milk had anything to do with heart diseases.
The second one was a big raport from WHO (World Health Organization) and got publiced September 2009. It showed the same result, that people that eat less fat does not get healthier.
The third group got publiced January 2010 in the magasin "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition". They also got the same result.

And one more thing (Page 57). During the 2000's, the obesity in Sweden has stopped increasing and our children (and it says maybe even our women) are becoming smaller again. Sweden is most likely the first country where this has happen. This makes me so excited and priviligated to study nutrition here (if I get in ;)!

Monday 27 June 2011

The food revolution - Fat!


What a wonderful day! I had planned to get things done that needs to get done but I was too tired so instead, I've spent most of this day in the sun relaxing.
I had a great bike ride with my mom this morning and also throwing my new american football with my sister this evening.


I've read a little bit in the food/nutrition book I'm borrowing from a guy at work. I've now read the 2 first chapters and it's been really good this far. It explains it soo good how the world (mostly the US) all of a sudden got so scared of fat and how that made us eat more sugar and bad carbs, and how it looks like its all about to change now. I don't know what will come out of this whole "new" debate that has been going on for a few years now, especially here in Sweden the last years but it's really interesting. I haven't seen much of this debate in the US, but at the same time, I don't live there so I might have missed it. But it seems like they are still really scared of fat.


The guy who wrote this book is called Andreas Eenfeldt and he is a nutrition doctor (kostdoktor) and has (as it says on the cover) Sweden's biggest blog about health.
It says in the book that scientists/investigators has calculated on when (if it continues as it does now) there won't be a single normal weight american anymore, when all americans will be overweight, and it says that will be year 2048. Right now only 1/3 of all the americans have a normal weight. That is pretty scary and it really makes me sad. This is one of the reasons why I want to work with this in America.

We have overweight people in Sweden too and we are 20 years behind America in this, and I can't be sure but I personally don't believe we will end up where they are now. There seems to be so many more people here in Sweden that have a pretty good knowledge of what food is good for you etc etc. One thing I saw last time I was in the states now was something called "fried pork skins". It was the winner of a "best taste award". Honestly??? You swedish people, would you eat something called "friterad grishud"??.. No, didn't think so. That just wouldn't happen here. So that's why I have a passion to go to the US and help make sure that there will be less overweight people 2048 instead. I really love americans and I want to see them getting healthier.

Another thing the book said is that it's pretty interesting is how less butter and obesity goes together.
Sweden got warned of fat at the 80's. People started buying much less butter. People started to get bigger and bigger. In the 2000's, we started eating more butter again and the incresing of obesity has stopped. I don't think that this mean that if you eat more butter, you get thinner, and I don't think that's what the book is trying to say either. Anyways, I'll be coming back again about what else the book is saying!

For you swedes: Eat more strawberries - http://www.aftonbladet.se/vikt/article12370211.ab
My house from far far away
Me at the bike ride this morning
My sister
Me

No pain, no gain

I love the expressions like "no pain, no gain" or nike's "just do it". It's not always easy and comfortable to work out, but if you don't "suffer" a bit, then you won't get any results. With that, I also have to say that you should do exercises that you like doing. If you do that, then you won't have as many days when you just have to decide to do it even though you don't feel like it. I'll give you an example. For two years ago, I was out of shape and my brother made me go on our work out machine we have at home, and until then, I'd never sweat so much and it was soooo hard! But he made me (practically forced me) to do 20 or if it was 30 minutes, full speed. Even though it was extremly hard, I'm glad he made me do it as I saw I could actually do much more than I ever thought.

Another example is when I went running yesterday. I decided to run 11 km, but the first 6-7 was pretty hard and in my mind I had decided that I would take a month break from running. But then I came into my "second breathing" and the last km's was the best in a long time! Sooo worth it and I didn't want to stop running but had to stop at 11 otherwise I'd been late to church. But it was so great!

Yesterday was a great day. I was spending most of it with my sister. Ate lunch with my parents and sister out in the sun. My sister and I also spend some more time in the sun which was so wonderful as I haven't really seen the sun since Texas 2 weeks ago. In the evening we went to hang out with my brother and we watched an old wife swap episode with "King Curtis" and 2 episodes of the office. I laughed so hard.

I'm having two more days off work now. Today I'll probably go out biking, read some of my nutrition books in the sun and get some other things done. I have a feeling I'll have some facts about nutrition to share tonight with you from the books.
My dad with his lunch
The ruccola! Starting to come up :)
Sister and brother
Me with our precious cat "royal, master of seduction"

Saturday 25 June 2011

Fasting/Detox

I don't remember where I heard/read this, as I've been reading/listening on a lot about nutrition at different places lately, but apperently fasting makes the bad cells in your body die. Cells that could be developed into something that would make you sick etc. Obviously it's also good for other reasons, like as it's cleaning out toxics from your body.

I was planning to do a fast/detox after my trip to Dallas, but now I've been home 2 weeks and forgot to do it. But now it's time, or soon :) Was thinking about doing a 2-3 days fast, and then another 7-8 days of only organic vegetables, fruits and berries. So a cleanse/detox for a total of about 10 days, so I then can take my healthy life to another level and start living more healthy after that. Was planning to have an organic month in July to see if I would feel any difference or not... So if you have any tips on the fast/detox, let me know! This is my first time doing this for health reasons so ideas/tips for it would be great!

Otherwise my day has been good! Realized I'm so much more friendly to american customers.. Can't help it. I love them. Had a swedish customer that lives in Texas, that defently made me wanna go there right away.
Running's hasn't been good the last weeks. I need a new goal with it, or maybe switch to another exercise type for a while, maybe rollerblades.

Friday 24 June 2011

Midsummer!

Today is midsummer, a very fun holiday we celebrate in Sweden.. There's lots of traditions around it but as I got up 2.53 am this morning for work and have to get up in the middle of the night again tomorrow for the same reason, I was too tired to celebrate it as you're suppose to, so me and my sister decided to only grill salmon and eat strawberries. We skipped the herring for this time.

Otherwise I had a great day, met a lot of americans at work which always makes me happy and I also got to borrow a book from a friend from work called "the food revolution" by Andreas Eenfeldt.

Thursday 23 June 2011

If I don't get into the university this fall..

then I think I want to move to France and study french for a half year...
Today I worked a morning shift at the airport, and I got to sleep till 3.55 am which I think is "luxery" (actually not being sarcastic) as that is a half an hour longer then I normally get to sleep for morning shifts. Maybe you are thinking that it's not a big difference but BELIEVE me, it is! A half an hour more before a morning shift can make the difference on the whole day! But tomorrow my alarm will be set on 2.55 am... but it's midsummer tomorrow so it's good I start earlier, as that means, finishing earlier, so more time for celebrating! Not that I have much planned as I also work a morning shift the day after but at least I will do something :)

Today was also the second day I worked since I got back from Dallas 1½ weeks ago and I saw many of my friends at work today for the first time since then, and I must say that I'm so happy that I get to work where I work now. I appriciate it so much to be able to have a job that I like, and with people I like.


our herbs

To a bit more interesting subject.. as I guess many of you know, there's not at all as much vitamins and minerals in the fresh food we eat today as it was around 50 years ago. And then we heat up most of our food (me included) so then even more of the vitamins get destroyed, or leave the food somehow, especially if it's heated up in the microwave. In the end, there's not actually a lot left. My dad always drink the water he boils vegetables in for this reason as many of the vitamins goes into the water.

This whole thing is so interesting and it has made me excited about growing my own vegetables, clean from all the pesticides and also it taste more and better and it's more exciting to do salads as it's in the back yard! So me and my sister sow mainly herbs but also spinach and lettuce etc a few weeks ago. 3 days ago we sow more lettuce and spinach as we realised we need more. You should try it, it's very simple and it's so much better then the ones you'd buy. Dad has sown vegetables, but they are not ready yet. I also got tomato seads from work before and this is how those plants look like at the moment:



Unfortunally as you can see it has rained a bit too much on our new salad and spinach "boxes", a problem I'll solve soon.
We are also trying to make broccoli sprouts.. Yet nothing has happen with them.. but hopefully it will work!




Wednesday 22 June 2011

Welcome

Hi everyone!!! I have started a blog as you can see... I never thought that would happen as I don't really like doing what everyone else is doing, and here "everyone" seems to have a blog. But I changed my mind because the more I learn about nutrition, the more I want everyone else to hear it, so people can start realizing how important it is.
Anyhow, I will not only write about those things. This will be a normal blog I guess, not a special nutrition blog.. I decided to write in english as many of my friends doesn't understand swedish, but maybe I'll have a few posts in swedish as well.

So who am I? I am right now 24 years old and I work in a few stores at Arlanda airport, and also a couple of other places sometimes. I have applied for a nutrition program at Uppsala University and they will let me know in the middle of July if I get in or not... Im very excited about that! My "plan" or dream is to someday be able to help americans when it comes to health and nutrition.
I live at home with my parents and my sister as I'm trying to save everything I can so I don't have to take loans during my time at the university but am planning to move out in a half year or so. We also have a room in our house that we rent out and in August, there'll be a girl from Oklahoma that will be staying there which Im very excited about as she has studied nutrition.

I'm not really sure yet how all of this will look like so if you have any suggestions of what I should write about, then please let me know!!

Peace