The Low Carb Booze Cruise

So I've been talking about this low carb-themed 24 hour booze cruise for a while now and yesterday I finally boarded M/S Galaxy in Stockholm.

I admit, I boarded this with a tiny bit of trepidation...

The Swedish LCHF (low carb, high fat) movement has been growing immensely over the last decade and this year's cruise hit an all time record attendance of over 500 low carb converts. LCHF is still seen as a bit of a cult in mainstream society, but many of the "teachings" are starting to trickle through (WeightWatchers are regularly ridiculed in the media, sales figures of light products such as margarine have decreased sharply, supermarkets are stocking more organic fruit/veg, etc). As the Tesco slogan goes, every little helps...

It was surreal to finally listen to and even talk to some of the people that have inspired me over the last few years. I spotted some of the very early pioneers in the crowd and on stage, including Dr Annika Dahlqvist and Dr Andreas Eenfeldt. I listened to and met a bunch of bloggers, both small time ones like me as well as bigger names, including the force of nature called My and one of my mom's favourites, Tommy Runesson (this one is for you, mamma ;-) ):

Tommy gets mobbed by fans all the time

Being the Lone Ranger, I crashed a few "parties" as well. The "I'm a celebrity on Instagram" entrepreneurial girlie crowd happily let me join their entourage, slightly overwhelming me with their "Insta" celebrity spotting and food logs. I had breakfast with two of the teachers on the paleo nutrition course that I will be attending this summer, Jonas Berqvist and Louise Edlund, as well as one of their former students Lena Winroth. And to top it off, I had dinner with lovely Olle, a thoughtful and inquisitive young man who kept me entertained in the queue for salami and cheese:

All smiles after bagging some salami

All in all, this was a fantastic crash course in Swedish low carb culture. Nothing new in terms of lecture content, but loads of new input for me on how people think and reason around low carb/ paleo, etc. And again, I was blown away by how open, friendly, enthusiastic and entrepreneurial people are. Go Sweden. :-)