― Mahatma Gandhi
Home (not school) and Off the LCHF wagon
Or “on” the wagon as Seinfeld would have it. :)
Either way, I had cake yesterday (small piece, sample really). And later, a bowl of cereal. Followed by a massive headache and an urge to sleep roughly within 30 minutes of finishing the cereal. Ended up sleeping for the rest of the night.
Today, I had two cookies. And another massive headache. Finally realized that my body will no longer tolerate sugar the way it used to. I’m proud of this, it means I’ll think twice about sugar from now on if it means a sugar-hangover every time. BUT, it’s also sad. I miss the sweet taste soooo much! I can rationalize it all I want and I know how bad it is for me. But man do I want another cookie.
Can’t wait to be back at school where I don’t have these temptations.
T-minus 12 hours.
Quote reblogged from Obama for America with 5,566 notes
As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right. While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue—no matter what our views, we must stay united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant woman and mothers, reduce the need for abortion, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption. And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.
President Obama’s statement on the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (via barackobama).
The only difference between legal abortion and illegal abortion is the number of women that die from it.
Source: theamericanprospect
Photo with 7 notes
LCHF has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. This is the beginning of my story.
I’ve always been one of those skinny-fat people. You know, the kind that look overall skinny but somehow still have a lot of cellulite and belly fat? I was sick of this excess fat but knew it was the hardest to get rid of. Being a full-time student, I didn’t really have the time and energy to get rid of it so I just let myself not worry about it.
6 months ago, my brother first told me he was doing LCHF. And I blew him off. One thing I never cared to follow was fad diets and a diet that told you to cut out an entire food group could only be unhealthy. About 3 months ago, I caught up with an old friend from high school who had been doing the Paleo Diet for about 3 months. She looked great! She was one of those people that had always struggled with her weight (never in an obese way, just in a slightly overweight kind of way). The most gripping thing for me was that she lost fat from her belly area first. Which I thought was impossible.
So I went home and had my brother email me all the stuff he’d been telling me about. And it blew my mind.
Mostly because the science made sense: your body has two sources of energy, carbs and fat. Carbs spike your blood sugar level and then crash it because of the high amount of insulin that has to be released to control it. Fats maintain your blood sugar level. I’ve been having “healthy” meals for years - complex carbs, vegetables, fruit. I would eat to full and satisfied…and then go take a nap. Almost every single time after I had a meal, I would immediately crash. It worried me - I KNEW it wasn’t healthy…but I didn’t know how to fix it or even what was wrong that it was happening. So when I read about sugar spikes, I was immediately able to see the root of my problem and its solution. Get rid of the sugar and the carbs, replace it with fat. (This problem has totally been fixed by the way from day 1 of being LCHF).
But then the second question of course is…how can fat be good for you? It was really important that I did a ton of research confirming the stuff I read. I watched a lot of videos, heard a lot of lectures, read books and blogs. I’m glad I did because even though I’ve been on this for about two months now, I still find myself second-guessing the amount of butter I added to a pan (maybe that was too much?) or buying full-fat yogurt (next to all the low-fat, nonfat stuff, this looks decadent…). I have to remind myself of the science, that I’m right and the food industry is wrong.
This is where I believe other people go wrong, the ones that look at any diet as the cure for all their problems. They follow it blindly without considering the science and so at any sign of weakening, they go completely off of it and declare it a failure. I think that’s one of the best things about LCHF—because it’s such a game-changer, you really have to read about it significantly before you can believe it and start practicing it. That’s the way any diet should work.
Being on LCHF initially was hard. And I had a pantry full of expensive “healthy” food and exams were just about to begin. So I decided I would put it off until I got home but still trying to be conscious of carbs. I did this successfully and before I left for home, I took all the bad food home with me so that I could start with a fresh pantry when I got back from break.
At home, one of the first things I did was tell my family. My dad has high blood pressure and my mom has always had issues with her weight (esp. after Sara, my little sister who is about to turn 4). They understood what I was saying and my mom joined me in my effort—she tried to go off sugar in her tea and to cut out the carbs. She lasted about two days, she was so irritable. The experience has made her more aware so I know she’s healthier just knowing about this stuff, but it still saddens me that she feels she doesn’t have the time right now to devote to her health.
For the rest of my month-long break, I was eating mostly LCHF but frequently broke or carb creep would break me. It was a good month though I think because I feel like I eased into it in the sense that I got used to what the cravings felt like, what the temptations were, and how to avoid them; I also figured out that I was most vulnerable if I got hungry before I started making my LCHF meal. LCHF meals take a LOT of time and work because you have to cook these dishes, it’s hard to find them ready-made and frozen, it’s hard to find them in a convenience store, your local deli or fast food chain. (Restaurants are easy - fish and veges).
Now that I’m back at school, I’m more aware of the pitfalls and how I fall into them. So thus far, it hasn’t happened. I feel good because I know I’m eating healthy. However, it definitely takes time. I’m still surprised every time I spend more than 20 minutes putting together a meal (remember I’m a college kid! I’ve never really done this…the first year I had a meal plan. Second and third year I was living off easy, frozen stuff—the worst kind of diet possible).
Another benefit of LCHF is that my appreciation for organic food has come about, pun intended, organically. I started buying at Whole Foods because I figured I would see less of the low-fat, nonfat stuff (which is absolutely false btw, I saw plenty of that). But I also saw the stuff I knew I wouldn’t find in a normal grocery store—full-fat, sheep’s milk yogurt which is incredibly hard to find (just full-fat, not even sheep’s milk). Non-homogenized, only-pasteurized-once dairy products such as milk and heavy whipping cream—from grass-fed cows. Eggs from humanely raised chickens. (I haven’t gone for cheese yet because I have a huge chunk in my fridge right now but will update on that when I do). Basically—this is the stuff I use daily and want to have available to me in the healthiest form possible. So I came to Whole Foods not because it’s the trendy thing to do but because I wanted to buy the least-processed food I possibly could. And that won’t come from your local Giant or Safeway or Kroger’s or even Harris Teeter. Plus, the price of the organic food at Whole Foods is a lot cheaper than at any of these other places where they jack up the prices and get people to think it’s okay to spend 2x, 3x as much on organic food.
Another thing that has helped me is that reading the science, understanding it made this less of a “diet” from the beginning and more of a “lifestyle change”. I really believe that what I was eating before was the extreme version and what I am eating now is the more normal diet for me. So in that sense, thinking about doing this for the rest of my life—that’s the easiest thing in the world.
However, it has been an ongoing struggle to add fat to my diet. It was also a struggle to limit protein since it’s so satisfying. I try super hard to make sure I drink a liter of water every day to help my kidneys flush out the excess. It’s also really frustrating because I have questions and it’s hard to get the answers, especially in America where very few people do it, and most doctors and nutritionists are going to fight you on it. Questions like, how many grams of fat do I need per day? What’s a moderate amount of exercise? How long do you have to be in ketosis before you can have some carbs?
Another struggle has been dessert. I was never much of a dessert person growing up, although I loved candy and ice cream as much as anyone. Just wasn’t big into brownies or cake or pie. I also cut out soda pretty early in my life, about when I was in elementary school, maybe middle school. I didn’t like it and my family just stopped buying it. (Course we bought a lot of juice instead so can’t say I was really cutting out sugar). However, when I got to college, I started eating dessert. A lot of it. It was easy—first I was on a meal plan so dessert was ready made and always available. The second and third year I was cooking on my own…but I lived with people for whom dessert was absolutely necessary to finish a meal. So eating with them, it became necessary for me too. So letting go of that desire to finish a meal off with something sweet—that has DEFINITELY been the hardest thing to do. Sometimes I’ll try and eat some fat-loaded nuts to make up for it. Or I’ll make coffee or tea to try and occupy myself out of the craving. Sometimes, I’ll give in and make a hot chocolate. Recently, I bought this mayan spice stuff that has about 4.5 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbs, but only 3 grams of sugar. These are the lowest possible stats and I searched high and low for anything else. Unsweetened cocoa powder is lower in carbs; as it’s also low in fat and would not satisfy my craving at all, I figured the mayan spice stuff is better.
So that’s my story…thus far. In conclusion, it’s hard but it’s worth it. Not just because you’re cutting out carbs. Whether you do that fully or not, this diet makes you more aware of what you put in your body, the highly processed nature of our food, the way sugar can actually be addictive, and the amount of time it should take to make and eat real food. For just those lessons, it’s worth doing for a couple of months.
Photo reblogged from Jag heter Ellen with 14 notes
Gotta love low carb food (LCHF). Lost 35kg in 1,5 year :) Sugar is bad for you!
Source: jagheterellen
Photo reblogged from Cognitive Dissonance with 137 notes
Rick Santorum whispers into the microphone at the CNN debate. Is it just me, or is this begging to be ‘shopped?
h/t to @ryanjreilly
Source: cognitivedissonance
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