Next Step

I'm on my way to Stockholm again, this time for another milestone in my new hippie life: the first part of the course in paleo/ low carb nutrition.

The hazy finish represents my usual motion sickness 

I booked the course as soon as I had decided to leave Pharma and go all hippie. I still remember the feeling of pressing enter and knowing that it signified the no turning back.

At the time, I didn't know how I wanted to use the course and I am still fairly open-minded about it. For a while I only saw it as a way to make the decision to leave London final, albeit something that would be useful to me and in line with my beliefs on health.

Half a year later, I have a feeling that this course will be the start of something pivotal in my life. The more distance I put between myself and Pharma, the more I realise that this is what I should be working with. I think I have finally found my calling.

Big words on a Thursday.

Lil T is One!

Our Lil T turned one in the week and it was time for her birthday party today. I was faced with the tough decisions about what to serve. I didn't want Lil T to miss out on birthday cake, but at the same time, I didn't want to serve her anything sugary. So, it was time for some experimenting.

Swedish birthday cake is usually a sponge cake with lots of cream and berries. I paleofied the concept by baking a paleo sponge cake where I substituted the maple syrup for mashed banana (No joke chocolate cake), then I layered with cherries, raspberries, blueberries and cream. It looked quite indulgent and you can't tell that there was no sugar involved!

I also wanted to try making a 'cake' purely out of fruit and lucky for us, Lil T's birthday is in the summer. I cracked open a watermelon and added some fruit layers. It wasn't too bad looking either!

Plastic Fantastic

I'm notoriously freaked out by plastic nowadays, especially when it comes to food. I don't care what packaging producers say about the quality of their plastic, I try to avoid it as much as possible so it doesn't leak into our food and mess with our hormones. Hence, our fridge looks a bit like a recycling bin:

I think we need a bigger fridge...

The second thing that motivates me to avoid plastic is the environmental factor, of course. We consumers just don't question plastic much, do we? It's everywhere. Not many people think twice about that plastic lid on takeaway coffee. Or the plastic bag around (often organic) fruit and veg. Or the plastic tubs in which processed food comes in, including most icecream and sodas and ready meals and so on and so forth. Yeah, some of it can be recycled to make, uhm, fleece (that leaks little plastic particles into our water, but that's a different story) and what, building material? But a lot, and I mean tons of it, ends up here:

I couldn't resist and read the ingredient list. Gag. Why do I do it? 

My high school friend Meyer taught me a lesson a long time ago. I was gushing over the in-store recycling facilities at the local Aldi, when he cooly remarked something along the lines of "well, how about we didn't have to buy all that packaging in the first place?"  That stuck with me and has made me think twice before buying something with unnecessary packaging. 

End of rant! :-)

Outdoor Gym

We've got some awesome entrepreneurs out here in the sticks. Two local teenage girls decided to organize an outdoor gym, I'm impressed! Check out the HUGE tractor tire in the background. Can't wait to attack that one. 

Now I just need to figure out what to do...

Unfortunately, we've had some less productive "entrepreneurship" in the woods lately, with half of the woods being fenced off by a pissed off builder. After a fair few angry articles and interviews in the media as well as some local vigilante action, the builder has at least taken down the gates. This leaves some rather lonely looking ladders. Perhaps they can be incorporated into some kind of obstacle course? Wouldn't want them to go to waste, they are awfully sturdy.

So very wheelchair friendly

Eating With Danes

I always thought that I'd end up in Denmark if I moved back to Scandiland, but life throws you a few surprises along the way, ey? The good thing about South Sweden is that Copenhagen is pretty much around the corner, so when my London-based girlfriend Mette happened to be around, I got myself on a train and a bus and a train (those strikes are a bugger) to see her and and another London girl, Marie.

Copenhagen is a bit of a hipster food Mecca, so I was expecting great things. I wasn't disappointed! Our first food stop (yes, I ate myself through CPH) was the aptly named Palæo (forgive the Danes their spelling, they just need to feel a bit special, in a small brother kind of way). A grain-free meat fest was promised and pretty much delivered on, including bullet proof coffee (coffee with butter, oh yeah). The only caveat was the service that was, well, hapless in a prehistoric kind of way. Given the cuteness overload of the staff, however, they were promptly forgiven. 

Next up was 42Raw, a raw veganite heaven and funnily enough right next door to a second Palæo café. Nothing is heated above 42 degrees and hence retains many of the enzymes and nutrients that would otherwise be lost in the cooking process. Because we were already full, we headed straight for the cakes... 

Although a fairly sweet affair (assuming mostly from dried fruit and bananas), the cake didn't do too much to my blood sugar. Aces!

I needed the energy for the little house party at Marie's house later. The usual kitchen utensils were brought out after a few glasses of wine (organic, bien sûr, one doesn't do hangovers anymore) and the singing started. Is it just my Danish posse that has this particular fetish for air guitars and pretend microphones?!

This morning we walked into town and stopped at Bodega for breakfast. Given the grain-heavy brunch options, I went straight for the herring. It cracked me up how most of the lunch menu was so traditionally Danish... funny how cool gets redefined. Anyway, the herring was love at first bite. :-)

Monday Fish

Sometimes I don't plan ahead and I need to make dinner from whatever random things are left in the fridge and freezer. Today was such a day and the result was pretty amazing! This is what I used:

350g frozen pollock, cut into cubes (no need to defrost, but it is easier to cut if it has been out for 30 minutes)
1/2 onion
1 sweet potato
1/2 kohlrabi
2 garlic cloves
3 chunks frozen chopped spinach
2 tbsp tomato purée
100g creamed coconut, dissolved in hot water
1 lime
Dried thyme
Dried oregano
Salt
Cayenne pepper

Fry chopped onion in fat of choice (I used coconut oil), then add thyme, oregano, pepper and chopped garlic. Then throw in diced sweet potato and kohlrabi, stir once in a while. Pour in creamed coconut, lime juice, tomato purée and spinach after a few minutes. Stir and cover with a lid. When the vegetables are almost done, place the cubed fish on top, replace the lid and let cook for a few minutes until fish is done. Stir and serve. Easy!

Confetti Sauerkraut

The rest of the clan is flying in from a London today. I can't wait to see little T again, now with a "complete" set of teeth. Complete in the sense that grandma fears that she'll start gnawing on the coffee table and the like, ha ha. Just like her mama and auntie used to do with our parents' bed's headboard. I can still feel the satisfaction of sharpening my teeth on it.

Anyhow, trying to keep busy I've made a new batch of sauerkraut. More like sauer vegetable confetti, I know, but the principle is the same. I just got a bit lazy and blitzed what I found in the cellar (cabbage, carrot and beetroot), added a few tablespoons of sea salt, mashed it up further with a spoon & my hands and stuffed it into jars.

Fermented party trick

The only problem with this stuff is that it doesn't last very long. The longer it ferments, the better, but as it starts fermenting pretty quickly and hence starts tasting bloody awesome in just a few days, it is difficult to keep your spoon out of the jar. (And if you still need convincing of why you should eat this stuff, read Marky Mark's article on fermented foods...)

Kettlebells

Our crossfit friends Sevan and Darren recently introduced me to Russian Kettlebells. Essentially, they look like large cast iron cannon balls with a handle on top.

8kg and 12kg Kettlebells

What sets the kettlebell apart from the trusty dumbbell is that they are far more versatile and take up a small amount of space, which is great if you are working out from home. I have subsequently learnt that they have been around far longer (300 years) than the standard dumbbells seen in most gyms.  

One thing I first noticed about the kettlebell, is how it feels slightly heavier and a bit more awkward to hold than a dumbbell. This is down to its centre of mass being extended farther out from your body, so making it harder to handle and manoeuvre. This ensures that when you do lifts or swings you have to concentrate more on your form to keep the kettlebell stable, thus improving your technique.

I am still learning new routines, but so far I have been able to target all the main muscle groups and core.  One of my favourites is called the Kettlebell Get-Up. It works the entire body and begins with you laid out on the floor and standing up with a kettlebell raised in the air. It's not as easy as it sounds.

At the moment, we only have an 8kg and 12kg kettlebell, but as we become more confident in the routines and stronger we will be adding to our collection.

For more information, have a look at the really informative blog by Ben Greenfield.

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/04/more-endurance-in-less-time/

Breaking Fast (Practicing What I Preach)

Right-ee-o, so sometimes I don't really practice what I preach. I've mentioned that prolonged fasting is perhaps not a great habit for the ladies but I still go ahead and do it myself. Fail.

Fine, the theory behind it is great, that it will give the body time to heal and clean up a few inflammations, but women are different hormonal creatures compared to men, so will react differently. In this case, pappa was just fine in dealing with any lingering hunger pangs, whereas the two ladies involved developed some pretty severe grumpiness (am surprised pappa still has a head on his shoulders). Like PMS for a week. Without the resolution.

So that part of the experiment ended this morning. The family is going back to having breakfast 10-15 hours post-dinner, with the window reflecting what feels natural to the women in the family.

The rest of the experiment is still on though! The middle finger is feeling rather sprightly at the moment, so maybe it is doing some good, after all.

The herring is in there somewhere

The Lowdown on Tweak Week

As mentioned in my previous posts, I've decided to tweak my diet to see if it has any effect on what I suspect may be the start of osteoarthritis. Although a week is by no means a long enough time to tell if I can delay onset of full-blown osteoarthritis in a decade or so, I have already noticed a few interesting things.

My fingers feel better, but still feel a bit swollen in the morning. I use my hands for various gardening tasks that I am not entirely used to yet, so the lingering stiffness could be a result of that.

Food-wise, I have been completely compliant with one exception. For pappa's birthday, I made chocolate mousse with cream and dark chocolate (and eggs and orange peel, if you must know, and it was absolutely divine). I probably had the equivalent of 50 ml of cream and 20 g of chocolate, so not a huge amount. But I woke up with a slightly painful middle finger the next morning. Who knows, I might have been busy sleep-walking and giving the neighbours the finger, but my guess goes with the dairy. I am steering clear until my cousin's wedding in two weeks to do another experiment (assuming that cream is served, that is!).

Fasting for 16-18 hours, ie between an early dinner and a late breakfast/ early lunch feels ok, energy-wise. Going for walks, sprinting, working out and gardening before breakfast went well, although the heavier exercises were perhaps a bit slower than usual. Also, there were some issues with crankiness before brunch was served up, so perhaps 15 is the sweet spot. Or maybe maybe it's a matter of getting used to.

I have lost a bit of weight, around a kilo. Obviously, eating twice or at most three times a day will do that to you. Especially since my sweet/ snacking tooth disappeared with the dairy fairy. However, I still weigh more than I've ever weighed in my life, just 6 kg less than pappa (ah, the awesomeness of working out less and still adding muscle...).

I have a funny taste in my mouth, but I guess that is the usual early sign of ketosis.

I had some skin blemishes that disappeared within the first two days.

My belly is happy. Enough said.

So overall I'd say it's well worth prolonging the experiment to see how things develop. Luckily, both my parents are extremely indulgent, happily joining in the intermittent fasting and phasing out all non-organic meats and vegetables. I'm impressed with their patience. :-)

Cheek to Cheek

We finally made it to Lindegrens yesterday and stocked up on proper meat to last us for a few weeks. Among the slightly more weird and wonderful cuts was pig's cheek. Given Lindegrens organic/ grass-fed profile, the meat is pretty expensive, but this cut was on the affordable side. Happy days!

As per David Lindegren's suggestion, I went for a slow-cooked, rolled up cheek. I spread an herb/lemon/sundried tomato concoction evenly on both and rolled them up as tightly as I could.

The cheeks looked like this after 3 hours at 100 degrees, followed by 45 minutes of 175 to brown them.

They tasted great, but were a bit on the fatty side, meaning that one unlucky person got a huge amount of fat and not too much meat. I figure I'll try some ox cheek next time around to avoid the fat overload, especially since pork fat tends to have an unfavourable omega 3 & 6 balance.

Nature Calling

Happy feet, freed from their shoe prison

Week 3 in the office and I keep longingly looking out the window at the lush green trees across the road. I feel a deep desire to be outside with some fresh grass under my feet. I recently read about “earthing” or “grounding” on some paleo forums and dismissed it as a fad, but now I am not so sure. I think I need to listen to my inner voice calling for some time touching green stuff to counterbalance all the time spent in an office. I go outside each lunchtime and I have started walking around barefoot in the garden on my evening inspection. It remains to be seen if this has any noticeable effect on my health or my sleep, but I am sure it will have an effect on my mood.

Tweak Week

The first day of anti-osteoarthritis week (or month or year, we'll see) went well.

I started off my day with an 8 am run, workout and walk. I haven't really done much training since I left Höö, so I figured it was time to get going again. Yikes. Five rounds of box jumps (thank you officer M), pull-up negatives, overhead squats (log included) and sit-ups left me pretty tired but satisfied.

This is where the fun began. Because after this, we all went straight to the garden to start a two hour session of digging. Let's just say things went pretty slowly, given that the sun was cranking up the heat by 9 and we were starting to get hungry... There was some whining (no names divulged, but it wasn't me) before we finally sat down for brunch at 11:30. Given that I've pledged to give up non-organic meat (no bacon for a while... oh the hardship), I went for a slightly odd breakfast option of salad, eggs and herring. Oh, and mamma's green smoothie made of weeds. :-)

Swedish Midsummer come early

Instead of the usual breakfast chaser of "egg latte" and nut & seed crackers with butter, I had two cups of egg latte with some additional coconut oil to set me up for more garden work.

Heaven in a mug

After the initial slo mo moments this morning, the rest of the day in the garden felt like any other day, i.e. pretty energetic. The bikini weather may contributed to it...

By the time 5 pm rolled around, we were all starting to feel a bit peckish, so we cobbled together some dinner. Given my self-imposed meat restriction, I had to dig through the pantry to find some more fish, this time tuna.

Tuna salad, crudités and Jerusalem artichokes (with a LOT of ghee and coconut oil added) 

Dinner was finished by 6 pm and given that we've got a few things to do before brunch tomorrow, we're probably looking at an 18 hour fast. I've said it before, more extreme fasting is probably not that great for women, so I will definitely not want to make that too much of a habit. Also, the point of  this particular exercise is not to lose weight (or get cranky), so I will want to limit it to 16 hours on most days.

Progress report to follow!

Tweak Tweak

Yup, time to make another tweak to the way I eat. As some of you will know, the resistant starch experiment is well underway. A few tablespoons of potato starch, the odd cold or grated raw potato, a bit of green banana, bigger helpings of raw cabbage/ beet root/ carrot, etc, etc. Sleep quality has been extremely good some weeks, then a bit intermittent. It seems like my belly needs a bit of time to adjust though, with unusual smells (euphemism of the day) and less regular bowel movements (there, I said it), but energy levels seem to have improved, so I will keep it up.

Anyhow, I am now considering making further tweaks as I think I am starting to develop what a number of my female relatives suffer from: osteoarthritis. The joints in my fingers have been a bit stiff and slightly painful a few mornings in a row. I have found myself shying away from shaking hands too firmly (oh how I hate limp handshakes...). I noticed my left hand feeling a bit weak while tying my shoe laces after a long cold walk. Sure, I have been using my hands A LOT more (milking is an interesting movement for office hands), but this development still worries me. Hence I've decided to make a few tweaks to how I eat to reduce inflammation and boost cell repair for my joints in particular:

• Fasting between early dinner and lunch the next day (should make 17-18 hours of fasting)
• Increased intake of organic vegetables and collagen-rich bone broth
• Focus on grass fed meats & ghee as well as organic eggs and fatty fish for protein (or go without...)
• Strict avoidance of nuts/ seeds/ seed oils, all dairy (apart from ghee), alcohol, grains and sugar
• Continue taking extra vitamin D and fish oil, add in a bit of turmeric
• Focus on other sources than potatoes for resistant starch

I know these are a lot of tweaks at the same time, but I figure I should throw everything I've got at it. Then I can always reintroduce some things at a later date to check if there is one particular trigger.

Laters!

First Reflections on Returning to Work

I haven't written any blog posts lately, as I have been focused on mentally and practically preparing myself to return to work. Now that I have been back at work for two weeks I want to share some initial observations:

1. There is a dress code in our office, which for example states that open-toe sandals are not allowed.  I have now noticed is that there is also an unwritten rule: you must wear at least one piece of clothing that is either black or grey (for men, a dark blue suit is also acceptable). I had completely forgot how dark and gloomy officewear is, although a look in my closet would have told me so. In order to cheer myself up, I add at least one bit of colour to my outfit every day. The easiest way is definitely by wearing my bright orange flats. They make me smile when I walk around the grey office.

Obligatory black trousers, paired with orange flats

2. Office workers eat a lot of junk food. People snack all the time and there are cakes everywhere. So far there has not been a day when there hasn’t been some cake lurking nearby. I am determined not to get (back) into bad habits, so I bring in a packed lunch and have coffee with cream if I fancy anything in between meals. 

Today’s excellent lunch was a tin of tuna in olive oil, a hardboiled egg, chard from our garden, sauerkraut, tomato and a bit of chopped up chorizo. So filling! But I have a slight suspicion that it may have smelled a bit. Hehe.

3. Chronic cardio, as coined by Mark Sisson, is alive and kicking in London. A few people in my team manage to squeeze in two gym sessions a day several times a week. I have a feeling that point 2 may be hindering progress somewhat. I hold my tongue about these observations and do the 'nod and smile' thing, as I don't want the discussion about food and exercise at the moment. I still need to work on my arguments against 'everything in moderation'. 

One Last WWOOF

Today is my last day at Höö. It's been intense! My body is clearly in need of a few days rest, but my head has definitely had three weeks off. Hard labour and fits of tired giggles are a great remedy for that last bit of office-itis. To be honest, I DO miss my London friends, but I don't miss any other part of my old life at all. Funny, who knew I'd feel so happy clearing out manure in a barn?

Unable to contain my excitement ahead of barn duty

Thrift (Or How I Gagged Over Rotten Goose Eggs)

One of the ultra aggressive geese laid a few too many eggs (like 20 extra...), so we got a whole bucket full of them to eat.

Mother goose got carried away

The only caveat was that they've been lying around for a while. This meant spending half an hour sorting the stinky ones from the fresh ones. More than once I felt the gag reflex kicking in, aargh, when yet another egg cracked to reveal ready-made scrambled egg. But I persevered and made it through the stinky mess to create pretty decent scrambled eggs with cheese and salad for the gang:

As thrifty as I'd like to be, I have to admit it'll be a while before I do this again. And someone else gets to empty the bucket of discarded egg shells on the manure heap, please. I'd like to take a looooong hot shower now. 

Reverse Ageing

I swear I'm reverse ageing - mentally... Hanging out with boys and animals (interchangeable?!) really brings out the child in me. And in my fellow farmhands:

Writing the shopping list quickly turned into...

A spontaneous dance to Happy, including an air guitar solo by Krille

There are fortunately no pictures or audio files of me belting out the middle son's version of Gangnam Style ("Hey sexy laaaaaaater") in a rainy potato field. Mamma and pappa might not want me back then.

Having My Portrait Made

K2 is a bit of a creative soul, so when the mistress of the big house asked him to make a scarecrow, he threw himself into the project. Creative counsel was kindly provided by the middle son:

Five years old and already too cool for school

The end result was truly scary, a mix of Templar knight, mighty carrot and killer bee. 

That is not hair on top. It is a golden helmet. 

Apparently I was the model for it. 

Bouncing Off the Hills

I wasn't going to do it, but then the fresh pack of organic coffee appeared on the steps, as if planted there by the caffeine fairy, so I made some. First coffee for two weeks, with fresh cream from Doris. (I was naughty and took most of the upper part of the milk, ie the cream... Heh, heh.)

Mine on the left, K2's on the left 

Me and the new wwoofer, Kristoffer (K #2), sat on the porch and talked about my favourite thing in the world (apart from my niece): clean eating. Poor thing. He couldn't get the lady to shut up, could he? Anyhow, by the end of it, he claimed to be a convert. It lasted until dinner time, when K1 and K2 shared a loaf of bread made by the mistress of the big house (I'm the mistress of the small house, no doubt). Oh well, they'll come around. I've promised them six-packs. 

The great thing about our coffee break was the insane boost I got from it. I actually started trotting around and ended up spontaneously sprinting up a hill. Great reason to pick up my coffee habit again.  Good thing only the cows could see me. 

Newbie Frustrations

Today was one of those days. The flow from previous days was gone and the whole day just went staccato. S.t.a.c.c.a.t.o. Stop, start, stop, start. It just wore me down.

Barn duty was pretty dire, given that we are now just two, after Aurelie's departure. Plus Kai is suffering from hay fever, meaning that I am doing all hay and straw handling. With the calf that needs feeding, it took us around two hours to get out of the barn...

The tasks that I then had planned for the rest of the day just didn't pan out. At all. The boys left me with mainly rotten wood. I couldn't tell pine from birch. I don't know how to use the chain saw to get more wood from the fallen trees. I couldn't find the axe. I cut off a chunk off my finger (milking was painful...). I still couldn't screw on the electrical fencing. My "fashion wellies" are making my knees hurt.

That's milk on the left and manure on the right.

To top it off, I had the barn all to myself at the end of the day, all two and a half hours of manure and runaway calves. And the silly cow whose calf needs feeding has learned to dodge being tied up, meaning that I couldn't feed him.

Frustration! I am used to being efficient and taking responsibility for my work, but I find I am so dependent on other people to teach and show me. And they are not always there. Or they assume that I know everything or can read between the lines. Maybe I should take it as a compliment, being seen as little miss capable Arbeitsleiter, but today it just made me want to cry. I know, how silly. I obviously just need to chill and relish being the newbie.

I guess I am tired as well. I am not used to physical labour eight hours a day and it is taking its toll. Thank goodness we've got a new wwoofer coming on Thursday. He's so being put on hay and shit and milking duty. Mohahahahaha....

Cows with Attitude

I have now spent two and a half days at Höö and I've already made some friends as well as enemies. My fellow wwoofers Aurelie from France and Kai from Sweden have been here for a bit longer and have kindly showed me the ropes. Lovely people and great company in and out of the barn!

Viking Kai with his second breakfast

The cows, on the other hand, have the attitude to go with their heritage pedigree. One massive thigh bruise (and a smaller one on my arse) from a horn and I have learnt my lesson of not trusting them. We're obviously going to have to learn to get along, or otherwise milking is going to be veeeery tedious in the next few weeks. Three litres isn't impressing anyone.

If you squint, you can actually make out the squirt of milk...

What is impressive, however, is the wide range of poop art produced by the cows. Here's a selfie with poop from little miss priss (Doris), before I milked her. Enjoy!

Really, you should be impressed, cause the boys produce something veeeeery different

My First Week of WWOOFing

I have now spent a whole week at the farm in Höö. Farm work is definitely full of routine, but also some surprises.

In terms of routine, shovelling shit is numero uno. All days start and end with manure in some way, shape or form. At 8 am and at 6 pm, we feed the animals and scrape/ shovel/ push/ lift/ wheel out the massive amounts of dung onto a giant heap of poop and straw outside. I never knew manure could be so... unwieldy. So unpredictable. You think you know how to approach it, you think you can handle it with a certain movement, only to find out that it's a wet one and it is intricately entwined with the straw and other dry matter and refuses to budge until you find a FORK to dig it out. Training in the gym doesn't prepare you for this...

So much shit, so little time

Once the morning barn shift is done (1 - 2 hours depending on how many people are involved), we help out with anything else that needs doing, such as preparing the kitchen garden (more manure), checking fences (loooong walks in the forest), harrowing a field (first time on a tractor, first time harrowing, yes, I'm impressed with myself) or clearing shrubbery.

I had machine envy. Aurelie really rocked this one. 

Before lunch, I go for my first swim of the day (second one at dusk, of course!).

Ah, bliss. If I hadn't burnt my bum in the sun...

But certain days are a bit more special. Like this morning when the little spotted calf was out gallivanting in the barn. Or when we had to chase down the ponies that had escaped through a broken fence. Or this evening, when another the little calf needed force feeding and his mother wasn't having any of it. Now that was interesting! Aurelie and I managed to get him out of the pen though, with me holding him between my legs and Aurelie feeding him. Fingers crossed he makes it.

Stronger than you think. Even took a kick to the head from mommy cow. It was meant for me.

Rediscovering Your Inner Child (Moose on a Stick)

I don't remember the last time I built a campfire. And I haven't felt the urge to build one since childhood either. So when Aurelie and Kai suggested we get some moose meat out of the massive chest freezer in the cellar, buy some wine and go build a fire somewhere, I wasn't really too keen. I just wanted to sleep!

But I got my ass in gear and marinated the meat, Aurelie sharpened some sticks and Kai organised the wine, and we set off after clearing out the barn for the evening. I didn't think I would have any wine, so Aurelie kindly filled a thermos with water. "Unfortunately", we needed the thermos to carry lake water to contain the fire, so I had to wash down the moose meat with wine anyway, what a chore! (Not)

Posing with meat on a stick

In the end, we spent a fantastic evening by the fire, consuming a helluva lot of moose (all 3 courses consisted of moose on a stick) and an awful lot of wine. Some of us are paying for it today. Funnily enough, not me! :-) Maybe because I consumed the most moose? 

Organic Shopping in London

Internet shopping is great, but sometimes I just want to see, touch and smell what I am buying (and I don't want to wait a few days until it arrives by post). Bumblebee is a great find for all my organic needs: vegetables, herbs, nuts, fruit, dairy, eggs, random beauty products and even refill for my washing up liquid.

Yesterday, I found organic potato starch in the shop, so I have started my own resistant starch experiment. Exciting.

Possibly my favourite part: loads to spice up my food (life)

Satisfaction of "Proper" Work

It's my last evening with my parents before I head off to volunteer at the organic farm in Småland. I've been in Sweden for 3 weeks now and time has flown by! First a visit to foodie Lund, then the low carb cruise, then almost two weeks of hard labour in my parents garden.

Ok fine, after spending most of the last 12 years in an office chair, anything that involves a spade, an axe and a sledgehammer is likely to feel like hard labour. Especially since my pride wouldn't let me stop until I finished the project that Cat and I started... Ta-daaa! (Try to contain your excitement.)

The wonder of Skummeslövsstrand: I shall be charging tourists for a glimpse

Lovely brother-in-law Si thinks our terraces look like something from the Tough Mudder obstacle course. Oh well, let's see what magic mamma can work while I'm away. Strawberry plants are a good start.

Digging holes, shifting sand to and fro and picking fights with never-ending root systems has been hard work, but also a surprisingly enjoyable experience. I don't think I've ever willingly exhausted myself like this before and actually enjoyed it. I've enjoyed getting dirt under my nails (and in my hair, eyes and down my cleavage), getting progressively stronger, more stable, more nimble, feeling the sun and wind on my face, hearing the birds and bumblebees around me, seeing my work result in something useful.

Maybe the latter is what brings me the most joy. Being useful. Producing something tangible.

Resistant Starch Experiment

This is something that hasn't been sighted in the Paulsson household for years. Gasp, p-p-p-potatoes!

Scary Mary

I would normally avoid potatoes for their blood sugar spiking properties and their antinutrients, but I have decided to start a little experiment alongside my low carbing paleo house deity, Mark Sisson.

A little while ago, the idea of resistant starch started making the rounds of the paleo community. Anecdotal evidence of better blood glucose tolerance, sleep, digestion and body composition popped up on various blogs (Free the Animal seemed to be one of the more vocal/ slightly obnoxious ones), but it took a while for Mark Sisson to jump on board. And for me. Low carbing has been a way of life for almost three years now, why would I want to introduce starch again? But although my low carb version of paleo suits me really well, I am always open to new ideas and ways of tweaking my diet. Especially as I sometimes wonder if perhaps long-term ketosis may not be the cure-all, especially for women. 

Anyhow, I am now experimenting for a month with cooked cold potatoes as well as green bananas (plonked into unsweetened smoothies of avocado, avocado seed, spinach, coconut cream, lemon juice, cinnamon). The theory behind resistant starch is that it passes through the digestive tract to be broken down further down the line, feeding not your blood glucose depots, but rather certain beneficial gut bacteria that would otherwise get starved on a low carb diet. 

Watch this space. Or should I say "smell this space"? A week in, I have noticed two things. Amazing sleep quality (and I mean sleeping like the dead) and, on the flip side, pretty grim fartage. Let's hope that the latter is a passing thing...

The Lowdown on Lamb Offal

Well, the butcher did ask us if the lamb kidneys, liver and hearts were for the dog... I now understand why. Sort of.

The reason we got lamb offal was simply the short notice we gave him. And since we're generally feeling pretty adventurous, we said "why not?".

So what was the verdict? Not too favourable, I'm afraid.

• Lamb kidneys behave like little bouncy rubber balls and taste of barn. A barn full of sheep. Pooping sheep. 
• Lamb liver tasted plain weird. The pâté tasted as if a whole bottle of shampoo had been dropped into the batter. Lil T didn't seem to mind too much though. 
• Lamb heart stuffed with lamb mince and wrapped in bacon was a winner though. Tasted of lamb, yet not too strongly. The free anatomy lesson was a bonus. Let's just say that some parts are easily recognisable. 

Anyhow, next up is organic, free range beef offal. Lamb was just a bit too weird.

Instead of a Workout

We're still knackered after the CrossFit workout, so Cat and I skipped the morning run. Weaklings, I know. Instead, we spent most of the day working in the garden. Raking grass, cutting branches, lifting roof tiles, digging holes, refilling holes, playing with daddy's axe...

Posing with weapon

As pappa is still recovering from his surgery, he had to resort to giving instructions. More difficult than you think, as he'd rather do everything himself. Cat put him in his place though.

Always a pleasure to boss your dad around 

I have a feeling we'll be sleeping well tonight. And probably aching some more tomorrow. 

Checking Out Swedish CrossFit

Today Cat and I checked out our first Swedish CrossFit box, making friends with some lovely ladies in Ängelholm. Coach Kitt (the deceptively sweet-looking lady in the middle) showed little mercy to the newbies, testing our thigh pain threshold... Oh yeah, Cat and I will be doing some rather awkward walking tomorrow.

It's called the "red face gene", be proud 

An Average Thursday Menu II

The great thing about paleo is how easy cooking has become. With some simple prep, good quality ingredients and plenty of good fats, it is difficult to make a mess of it. This is what we ate yesterday.

Breakfast: Spiced banana scrambled eggs with bacon and blueberry "sprinkles", served with egg latte.   Lovely, as usual, but Cat and I both got a bit hungry by 11, so had another "latte".

Lunch: The usual lunch at Casa Paulsson is leftovers. This time it was ox heart stew with a bit of extra stock added. I chopped up a bit of cauliflower, tomato and avocado to "line" the plates and then added the stew. Served with a dainty side of avocado/green banana/spinach/coconut cream smoothie. Cat and I were quite active yesterday, because we had to have a snack of pâté and salad a few hours later.

Dinner: Fish curry with cauliflower "rice" and sauerkraut salad. The curry made mamma break into a sweaty rant about who put too much spice into it, ha ha. If she wants me to cook, she better get used to it. 

Excursion in Search of More Offal

Cecilia and I made a little excursion to a local farm and butcher shop this afternoon. We were looking to find a supplier for high welfare/organic offal. Turns out Lindegrens is the place, but we need to order in advance.

We did however meet two great characters: Cecilia the pig and Peter the butcher.

Cecilia is making friends with her namesake

Peter is showing us where all the meat comes from