A report from the land of cream and cheese

So. One slightly annoying aspect of visiting the sis was that she practically talked my ear off about the apparently unlimited marvels of the LCHF diet. As if it wasn't hard enough to sync our respective diets as it was (one gluten-intolerant allergy-prone meat-eater - meet the veggie visiting Spain - carne, carne, carne)!! Now my sister was avoiding carbs as well. Geez!
However, I recognize this obsessive behaviour in myself when I discover something I want to share because it can benefit others and as my sister certainly has my best interests at hearts and I'm a researcher and this Dr Dahlqvist thing has been circulating the media without me bothering to find out properly what it's about, I decided to do what I do best: research.

Having been convinced of its apparent scientific merit (oh there's a real juicy conspiracy involved, one of the best articles can be found here) I've decided to at least give it a try.
Almost one week and counting! I am considering buying a pair of scales, so far it's to early tell for sure whether I've lost any weight, but despite having cooked some fabulous dinners (oh god I made this fish soup Saturday that was to die for with hoki and cream and lemon and broccoli mmm) I certainly haven't put on any weight. My stomach doesn't expand gradually throughout the day like it always has (skirts fit the same way at 4pm like they did at 6am!) so at least in the short term I feel thinner. None of the side effects that I dreaded, constipation and bad skin, have happened. I wouldn't say my skin has gotten drastically better yet but at worst no difference. I have no problems with my stomach at all. The argument is that we need a lot of fiber today to process all those carbs. Reduced carbs = lower fiber intake required. Or, like some guru somewhere put it: eat like a cow, shit like a cow, eat like a fox, shit like a fox (I don't know what fox faeces look like but I'm assuming they're rather tiny compared to cowshit...).

Also, I'm not constantly hungry. I haven't had any severe tests yet (Friday morning brunch was downstairs so less in-your-face tempting) but I can't say that I crave sugar. I usually spend a lot of my mental energy thinking about food, analysing what I eat, todays calories, planning, trying to resist, eating, regretting eating, thinking what I could have eaten instead, etc etc. Hell, one of my most traumatic childhood memories is my after-school teacher telling me I was obsessed with food and how upset I got (I was 7). I can't remember not trying to loose weight and I read everything about nutrition I come across. When it comes to my relationship with carbs/sugar I act in ways that make me ashamed or feel bad or feel guilt pretty much daily. I eat things I don't want to eat because I can't not eat it if it's there.
Now I have completely changed my diet so I do have to still think and plan a lot - but I eat less volumes and I can certainly be more detached when planning.

TBC - I'm going to go have some cheese before heading home for choire practice!

I spy with my little eye... Chamonix? St Anton? No, St Moritz, claro!!

OK, so I didn't ask for wine. I got the apple juice again... But I had a hangover!! The only one during the whole week, despite drinking moderate to copious amounts of red wine almost every day (usually just a big glass is enough to leave me feeling a bit off the next day, like bag-lettuce on day 3 - you can eat it but it's not going to be a gourmet meal. OK this analogy got out of hand, will.stop.now).

On my last evening we catched the fountain show at Plaza Espanya (just barely though!) and then headed off to Guru where I proceeded to have three drinks (one mai tai and two passion mojitos) and the cheese platter of my life, semicurado with honey on, mmm!! (am going to try and recreate, there's a cheese store in my city centre I haven't tried which is apparently very good)

Anyway, I was drowsy and tired in a sort of pleasant way on Sunday when I flew home which allowed me to snooze a bit on the flights. The transfer was nothing to worry about, we landed on time (again!!) and my arrival and departure gates were only 2 gates apart... Whoever manages that airport runs a tight ship. Eh. So to speak.

So! It was a lovely week, I felt well rested on my return. I've still got several items I bought that I haven't worn so that's quite exciting as well and prolongs the vacation feel in a way. I'm definitely not less two-faced and inconsistent than any other human being - I was (and still am) outraged about WHSmith, the British book/magazine retailer having acquired two outlets at CPH (see brief rant in previous post). However, I was in 7th heaven when I stumbled upon River Island (British clothes retailer) in Raval, the old town in Barcelona. Hy-po-crite. WHSmith is boring and ugly, River Island has for example lovely pink tailored skirts on sale (one is now living in Sweden, incidentally).

Some snaps :)

Fountain show!! SO grand.

Inept sibling photography

The alps!! I spent at least half an hour glued to the window spotting ski resorts - easier than you might think actually! (though none available on this pic... or are there??)

Amazing mai tai and bit of oddly shiny leg

Bloody A-M-A-Z-I-N-G cheese platter. Sigh.

la comida esta muy bien, el tiempo so-so

So. Tengo vacacciones en Barcelona, where the weather is a bit shite. But as it was gray and prone to rain last week and also will be next week I'm not that bothered. It was quite sunny Sunday and Monday and I even managed to burn my 'haven't seen the sun in 5 months' neck. It's finally stopped itching!

Flight here was long but didn't feel that long as I found a new Marian Keyes in the WHSmith at CPH (otherwise horrendous place, exact copy of UK chain but in Denmark complete with British speaker system 'please go to cashier five'. Why? WHY??). Her novels are always so good and serious and dealing with heavy stuff, this one had so much angst and death and was soo good and at 800 pages I didn't finish until today (am quite sad about that, going to have to distract myself with new book shortly).

Anyway. I flew through Vienna and bloody hell that's got to be the most rundown and boring apirport I've ever been to. And with security checks at each gate. What's up with that? Boarding takes forever! However, all that faded into background noise once I found my faux-Kneipe with the kindest and nicest waiter/manager ever and actual hot vegetarian food on the menu. And I mean that literally! See?

"Vegetarian food" haha I love it! According to leo.org Laib means 'loaf' but the actual meaning would be patty I think.

Another tempting dish on the menu:

"Dumplings in a napkin". Doesn't it just sound delicious? (not quite as disastrous/hilarious as China-town menu translations, but very sweet all the same)

Anyway, my meal of vegetarian mini-loaf was delicious. I even had a beer! (I can only stand beer when it's very warm - I had to travel with my boots on because they wouldn't fit in my bag so I was sweating like a pig. Hence I also had the season's first ice-latte at CPH...)

Anyway. I flew Austrian Air and I was very impressed when we started taxiing out of the gate several minutes before the set departure time on both flights. I usually fly SAS, I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least 20 minutes delayed. Also; we got free snacks! Coffee! Apparently even the wine is free - I'm so getting that instead of apple juice on the way back!

Living on the edge

Not a long post this, because while my teeny tiny computer is cute and silent, typing is not fun. I mean, look at the proportions! And I´ve still got quite small hands.
















Right. Work is done, it really has been the week from hell with politics and the excel spreadsheet from hell and backache and trains and dude! Check out this not completely insignificant bruise:














It started showing minutes after impact, slightly swelled, a vivid turquoise blue colour with great colour variations - supposedly because of the soft tissue and veins underneath.
Cause? Train chaos #4 this week, me actually walking to the new trainset despite the train stewardess´ warning to hurry if you want to catch the train (smart lady that, not like chaos doesn´t arise anyway). Some guy took her seriously and ran as if death was on his tails, laptop bag swinging wildly. Que ouch.
Commuting is a dangerous business!! I actually had an even more impressive bruise last week the size of my fist from a bus incident but well, that was on my ass.
This ain´t that kinda blog folks!

Right. This keyboard is driving me mad! I´m gonna take my exhausted self to bed now, house all cleaned (on a Friday evening), I´ve got till noon tomorrow to chill and get ready and pack all the unscented coconut fat and coconut smelling hair products and biscuits and floss and whatnot.

Toodles.