When life gives you lemons

One of the things I hate the most is not being to sleep doing to anxiety. Especially when its that kind of anxiety that makes you so weak your scared of opening your eyes and  starting your day. 

Thankfully I have learned loads of tricks to help myself get through my day with a big smile and without making it too obvious for the ones in my surroundings. 

But today I feel more than positive and  happy because I have three main things that make me strong around me: my mum, my dog and my best friend (that moved over to my house last night and will be living here with me for two weeks)

Its important to never forget how healing human contact can be. For years I hid myself from the world when I was not feeling strong enough and for years I hid my feelings and emotions, even from the people I trust and that care the most about me. 

But this year its going to be different, 2014 is going to be my year, a year where anxiety will be treated with long talks with friends and family and my so beloved "therapy baking". This will be a year where I will do my best to believe in myself and not to take things too personally. 

Every day we wake up and  we decide how our day will be. Make sure you laugh,smile and add a pinch of kindness in every gesture you do.

 Remind yourself that :

when life gives you lemons you have to make cupcakes, chocolate fudge cakes and crumble pies, so that you leave the ones around you with their mouth open, wondering how the hell you made it. 

SUMMER IS FOR EVERYONE

I really love spring and summer. They are my favorite seasons of the year. 

But there is one thing I can not stand. And  that is this "PERFECT SUMMER BODY OBSESSION". All I see on instagram, on facebook and on magazines is articles about "getting the perfect summer body". The media is filled up with miracle diets like the "15 days pineapple diet" where all you eat is pineapple for 15 days and you  are miraculously supposed to turn into the most beautiful victorias secret model with  both a tight gap and a perfectly toned and hydrated skin.

It seems that if you don´t go on a diet before the summer and that if you do not get a perfect summer body you can not be happy nor enjoy summer.
SUMMER IS FOR EVERYONE ! No matter what size you are, we can all enjoy summer. Do not let society push you down! 

This "perfect body obsession" is has gone over all kinds of limits.  Statistics show that 91% of women worldwide go an a diet before the summer. 86% of women suffer or have suffered from some type of eating disorder by the age of 20. 50% of the women out there consider themselves "overweight". We live in a society where looks and appearance seem to be the only thing that matters.This body image obsession only feeds eating disorders, body image issues and unhealthy relationships with food and with oneself.
 There is no perfect body just like there is no prince charming. Those only exist in fairy tales.

Every body is beautiful and perfect in its own way. The faster we all make "peace" with ourselves the better and happier and the more comfortable we will feel. This confidence will sparkle out and nothing that shines brighter than confidence and inner beauty. 

STOP CALORIE COUNTING

Studying nutrition gives you access to a lot of  programs, like  DIETIST NET.   You can add all the food you eat and find out how many calories you have eaten that meal/day/week. The program also tells you  amount of calories you should eat daily, the amount of fat, carbs and protein you should eat to maintain your weight. It also tells you the macros that each food contains.

I have never cared about calories but for fun this week I wrote down in the program everything that I have eaten and the amount of exercise I have done. I was pretty surprised to find out that I eat over 4  TIMES AS MUCH (in calories) then I should for my age, sex, height, exercise level!!! And more than two times the daily recommended amount of fat.
And no I do not  suffer from hypothyroidism, in fact my thyroid (T4 and T3) leves are lower than they should be. 

Calories are not everything and this is why I am so against calorie counting. I should be a baby whale if this was true! 

Your body will thank you much more for eating a nutty avocado salad instead of a burger from Mc Donalds, and the nutty avocado salad will probably have two times as much calories than the burger! 

Here are a few things I am sure that you did  not know about calorie counting : 

• A 20% calorie error margin is  allowed. So what you think was 1000 calorie meal could have been 1200 calories, or that 500 calorie chocolate could have been 600 calories. 

• Calories in fruit and vegetables vary on the season and on its ripeness. 

• More calories does not equal weight gain ! Studies comparing diets showed that people on low carb diets burned an average or 350 calories more than those eating low fat diets AND yet, nutrition guidelines advice you to opt for the low fat version of products. 

• When it comes to nuts, 20 % of the calories are not absorbed !!!!

My advice to all of you is to get rid of that sugar craving within you and then LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Your body will guide you. 

Eating is about pleasure and nourishment and not about maths and restrictions!!!

fat fear epidemic

Many of you might have noticed that I have increased my fat intake A LOT and reduced my carb intake. I used to eat 10 fruits a day because my sugar craving was so high, now I only eat fruit some days a week and I eat a lot of berries a day.My continuous fruit eating was just to satisfy my constant sugar craving. I don´t know why I never thought of getting rid of my sugar craving from the beginning. 
I guess I was to lazy.


I was very shocked when, during a nutrition class about fat metabolism, I found out that "FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT" , as it goes against all the principles I had learned so far in my life. My whole life when I saw people dieting I saw them "living" on fruit and low fat yogurts. And when I used to spread thick layers of butter on my sandwich as a child the first reaction I got from people was: You are going to get so fat if you keep on putting so much butter on your sandwich. 

So I wanted to explain a little the Theory behind LCHF.  To do so we have to undertand both the carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. 

CARBOHYDRATES: 
  Carbohydrates are digested in: mouth and in the small intestine, where they are slowly broken down from polysacarides to monosacarides like ;  galactose, glucose and fructose that can be absorbed transported into the body through the blood. 
Galactose is transformed to glucose. 
High blood glucose levels stimulate the secretion of insulin, a hormone that stimulates the cells uptake of glucose, reducing the amount of glucose in the blood stream. Glucose provides the cells the energy they need in that moment, and excessive glucose is stored as body fat. Insulin is a hormone that STOPS fat metabolism. When the cells have taken up the glucose level, the blood sugar is lowered and  we feel hungry again. (This takes 2-3 hours). 
 Fructose is metabolized directly by the liver to body fat and liver glycogen store, does not influence the blood sugar level and does not stimulate insulin secretion. 

If you lower your amount of ingested carbohydrates, the levels of blood glucose and secreted insulin in the body will decrease, and the fat metabolism will carry on. The body will use stored energy, like glycogen and fat. It will use fat instead of the sugar as fuel. The body will adjust itself to high fat burning when you avoid carbohydrates and no insulin is produced in the body either.

This is also the reason why sumo wrestlers have a high carbohydrate intake and a very low fat intake .Their fat intake is been 12% and 9%!!!!

FAT
A high fat diet stimulates the release of the hormone LEPTINE, one of our satiety hormones. This hormone,unlike the others, makes us feel full for longer and does not make us crave sweet/sugary food. 

There are many studies that promote a LCHF diet, where weight loss is not the only benefit.
A study from Harvard university shows that if you eat LCHF you burn approximately 300 more calories during resting.
Micraines are reduced, sugar cravings disappear, 
Other benefits apart from fat loss are also a  REDUCED RISK for : cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, caries, and high cholesterol. 

Since I started eating lchf my anxiety is completely gone, ( I have not taken any of my anxiety pills!) I feel a lot more energetic. I actually look forward for my day to start, I feel happy deep inside and my achne is gone. I have always  had a bad and oily type of skin and I have slept with achne removing face masks the past 8 years of my life! 

Get rid of your sugar craving !

Many of you have asked me how I managed to get rid of my sugar addiction in just a few days so I decided to make a blog post about it,  that hopefully will be able to help others. 

Already as a child I was addicted to sugar, my mum used to say "having you and sugar together is like having a dynamite".I used to cry and literally get hysterical if I did not get my daily intake of 100g of white chocolate.  I used to eat something with sugar after every meal and to every snack. I ate cookies and ice cream for breakfast. I could never have only one slice of cake and one slice always led to an other. I even dreamed of chocolate and cakes at night ! 

So two weeks ago, I was tired of the situation I found myself in, and decided that it was time that I made a few changes:  

1. I got rid of all sugar containing things inside my kitchen.

2. I stared taking 1 teaspoon of spirulina every day in a glass of water 30 minutes before eating lunch. 

3.  I stopped sweetening my tea with stevia and started drinking only green tea.

4  I also increased my fat and protein intake and lowered my carbohydrate intake. I ate berries and fresh coconut instead of fruit, hid the protein bars inside my brothers room and bought a LOT of quark, eggs,cheese, nuts, nut butters (almond and peanut) and coconut oil  that I filled the kitchen with. I ended all my dinners  with a few slices of mature cheese and a few tbsp coconut oil or almond butter. 

5. I bought a lot of packages of chewing gum.

IT WAS NOT EASY !!!!!
And do not expect the sugar craving to disappear over night! 

The first three days were horrible. I cried and cried and cried for everything. I argued with everyone and  I felt as if everyone was against me. So many times I wanted to run to the supermarket to buy some Ben & Jerry ice cream or just a few chocolate chip cookies.  I was anxious and I even shaked at times because all I could think of was a way of getting to the supermarket alone so that I could buy sugary food and eat it in secret. Thankfully my mum was always with me, guarding me and controlling me. When my sugar craving was worst I chewed gum and headed of the gym. 

After 5 days I became "human" again. My craving for sugar was gone and I started taking protein powder again. Now I eat sweet (no white sugar, only stevia as a sweetener) only once a day because baking is therapy and not because I crave something sweet. I still drink my spirulina drink before lunch and eat high fat and high protein.

 I will now start reintroducing root vegetables, fruits and protein bars. I am truly enjoying benefits (both physical and psychological) that a high fat diet has given me. 
I have never been able to sleep as well as I do now, my anxiety and panic attacks are gone and i feel happy deep inside. Physically my muscles are growing so fast!

I HAVE MADE IT AND SO CAN YOU !