Can't wait for christmas! - Pictures

Alex is excited to get decorated again

Sanna!

I feel so excited for this years christmas, almost like when I was a child.. I don't know why but it just feels so great! First of advent is now on sunday and then the countdown starts! We will have advent "fika" with the family 1st of advent and then 2nd me and a few of my friends are going to a Lucia concert in Uppsalas cathedral.. We are also going to a christmas market in Stockholm the 3rd of advent.

When I was a teenager I decorated my room as much as I could (or ludicrously much as I would say). The top picture is of some of the christmas decoration I used. Notice the fake snow in the window sills. I haven't done it in a few years but as I'm overflowing with christmas spirit this year, I think it's time to do it again this year! Now on saturday will be the day.

And people, don't forget WHY we celebrate christmas. I was surprised last year when I met so many people that didn't know why we celebrated it. For you who don't know - we celebrate that Jesus was born into this world to save us!

Sidenote.. I was looking through a lot of pictures from past christmas'... I love how my grandma has the same shirt on her every year :) And my dad has food in his mouth on all pictures :)

Calcium

Calcium will be on our next exam and I read through it today and got so excited because it's so interesting, so now I have to blog about it. (Yes, I know I'm a nerd) So here you have an introduction to this mineral.

Most of your calcium in the body is in your bone structure -->1,2-1,3 kg or about 2,5 pounds. You also have a some in your blood (about 1 % of your body weight).

The ratio between calcium and phosphorus is 2:1 in the bones. This means that if you don't have enough calcium or phosphorus, it will effect the levels of the other mineral.

You absorb 15-80 % and is regulated by several different hormones (calcitonin, PTH) from thyroid and the parathyroids (sköldkörtel och bisköldkörtlar) And an ongoing exchange of calcium happens (blood, bones, reabsorption from kidney's etc) directed by these hormones. Two other important factors affecting the level of calcium is vitamin D status and availability, and the kidney's regulation of secretion. 
This means that is is very important to have enough vitamin D - otherwise you won't absorb enough calcium.
The body is very good at regulating all these things though.


Some things inhibits the absorption and they are phytate and oxalate. Phytate are found in whole grains and especially the outer parts of the cereal. Phytate actually inhibits many different vitamins and minerals so it can definitely be something important to remember. If you want to remove the phytate, you can bake sourdough bread, or simply combine your food in that way that you do not eat phytate with food rich in vitamins and minerals. Oxalate can be found in, for example, rhubarb, spinach and soy.
 Large amounts of protein and sodium also makes the kidneys excrete more calcium through the urine - which means greater losses.


Large intake of calcium has shown to be positive for the blood pressure and lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

And then when it comes to bones and bone fractures... Both vitamin D and calcium are important to prevent fractures but don't forget that things like not smoking and exercising are even more important. When you are 20-25 years old, then your bones have reached it's best state, that's why it's important to exercise when you are young so you will get good bones as you can not improve this after this age. However, if you continue to exercise after that, the degradation (nedbrytning) will go slower.
Older women has a much higher risk of getting bone fractures, and one reason could be that they have less estrogen and estrogen inhibits the degradation. It's also important for us swedish people to think about our vitamin D intake (because of the lack of sun where we get most of our vitamin D) as this higher the risk of fractures.


The swedish recommendations on calcium intake is 800 mg per day for adults. You find a lot of calcium in milk, cheese, legumes (baljväxter), green leafy vegetables and nuts. Dried figs and shrimps also contains quite a lot of calcium. If you don't eat milk or products of milk as cheese, then you might need to think an extra thought of what you are eating so your intake will be enough. I have pretty much stopped eating products from cow such as milk, cream and cheese and I have not thought at all about the calcium intake so I know I need to start doing that.
The reason why I (pretty much) stopped eating that is because of that all the hormones they are giving the cow will end up in the fat - which means in the milk/cream/cheese products. It also highers the risk for inflammation in the body. You need 20 kg of milk to produce 1 kg of cheese... that is a lot of hormones concentrated in cheese... That didn't really have much to do with calcium but wanted to through it in there.. I have learned that from Stig Bengmark, the doctor I have mentioned several times before. I will go on another lecture with him hopefully next week and I will ask him more about that then as I think that is an extremly interesting subject!


Other sources are Näringslära för högskolan from 2008.

Another exam result back

And another exam passed :) I'll keep the result to myself but lets just say I'm very happy!

I need a man - preferbly before I need to change the tires on my bike again in spring

I changed the tires on my bike today. It's getting slippery outside and the snow will come soon so I need winter tires on it. Men should do those kind of things. What about the women cook and the men change bike tires? That sounds like a perfect idea to me... After about 50 min, I was finally done with the back tire and dad saw that I had done it wrong. I was not happy at this time and dad had to help me.

It's all done now but I decided during this process that I need a man to do these things for me. I also have two lights in my room that aren't working and the back light on my bike isn't working that good either. Maybe I should bribe someone with a cooked meal in an exchange of getting these things done?

Change of course in school? - a post about my thoughts

I've been thinking about if my education is leading me where I want to be. I want to educate people about nutrition and sometimes it feels like the program I'm going now is not sharp enough or however I could explain it.. I want to go so much deeper in things and learn so much more.
This semester has been really great but when I read about some courses I will have in the future, I don't get too excited because I doubt they will teach me what I need to know. I've been thinking about maybe putting together my own program, with courses I believe will take me where I want to go instead of just taking all these courses in this program to get a "proffesion name". That name won't help me if it's not what I need for what I want to work with.

As a part of our course, we had to interview a person who works with food in different ways in different counties. I was not excited about it because it would be my nightmare to get one of those jobs.. But many people who goes this program that I'm on end up there so our teachers wanted us too see how it could look like.
Today I talked to the person I was going to interview. We talked for about 1 h and 20 minutes, and maybe 15-20 minutes of those were the actual interview. She was amazing and it was like having a personal mentor for an hour. She was really honest and told me that the program I'm taking is not going to lead me where I want to go.. She even didn't think this education was good preparation for the job she has now! She told me about another education that I had actually been thinking about before in Stockholm (but I could do it distance) that is much better and we also talked about that I should maybe create my own program, picking courses that would be more relevant. I would still be done by the time I'm suppose to be done now.
Seriously, the whole phone call was so amazing and I felt so inspired afterwards to rethink my education. I really feel that it was from God that I got to speak with her.

So what will happen now.. I will pray through the whole thing and I will continue on the program I am on now until I figure out what courses would be good to have and then I will probably customize my own program. This means I could read more physiology and other things that I believe are more relevant.
It is to late to apply for other courses for the spring but I will talk to my teacher and see if there's anything we can do because there will be much more time in the kitchen next semester and that really feels like a waste of time as I already have an education as a chef and I have already taken courses in things like gluten-free food etc, (things I'm guessing we will do.) I would so much rather write papers or do something else those days that I could actually learn things from!

Swedish classes - pictures

Today I had 8 students in my swedish class. They are doing so good! Today we started with step 2 which was about animals, buildings, times etc..

Pictures from dads phone

Found some old pictures from dads phone. Mostly on our precious cat.

The siblings.. Sorry Sanna, you were blurry on all of the photos

Alex working

Alex at work again

Alex with his food

Christmas Alex!

gos gos

Me and Sanna planting all the seeds last spring