Tips

I’m trying to figure out how to get back to the weight I was (just saying eat less run more doesn’t quite solve it). But these are all great tips, I agree with most of them…

http://likes.com/beauty/how-to-keep-the-weight-off?pid=78191&utm_source=mylikes&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ml&utm_term=25791015

When it comes to weightloss and actually keeping the weight off, we all have to realise it’s about changing your life for the better – which means “sacrificing” laziness, fast-food etc.

I wouldn’t want to call it “sacrificing” it is more of a “trade” for the better :). But – changes in your daily life are unavoidable, walking more, less screen-time, eating differently (both in terms of what and WHEN). Then there are the small things.. like – not wearing baggy clothes. It is really important! Think about it! When wearing clothes that would fit even if you grew two sizes or more – how would you realise you did before it is too late?

When it comes to food – after all my diet-adventures i cannot find anything positive with artificial sweeteners, they are so much sweeter than real sugar, honey or syrup, they don’t taste as good and, from my experiences with aspartame, sugar-alcohols like Erythitol and so on, I’ve learned that they give you more of a sweet-tooth! You eventually get used to the super-sweet flavor! Stevia which is a natural sweetener, is also very very sweet compared to normal sugar. And also, many of the artificial ones have been reported as harmful…

Junk-food is just a no-no, of course you can eat it once in a while – but NEVER make junk-food, candy, ice-cream, soda or any other unhealthy food a habit! Especially not latte’s haha

You should, however, make water a habit, even an addiction if you can. Staying hydrated will make you look more awesome, your thoughts clearer and your belly quiet :). But don’t drink too much, (it can make your braincells explode and well… kill you).

I’ll just add: EXERCISE! Run, jog, swim, jump rope, dance – AND just move around throughout the day!

The bottom line – Calories is not something I think is good to count, once you develop this habit it is easy to slip into an unhealthy behavior like, say “a McDonald’s burger is just 500 kcal, I’ll eat this for breakfast and I’ll have 1500 kcal left, I can three bars of chocolate” NO! It will eventually make you eat more, get fat and perhaps even develop an eating disorder! (trust me I know)

However, it is good to know what foods are high in calories (like mayo, butter, nuts, some seeds, olive oil etc.) which ones are low (watermelon, leafy greens, shrimps etc.) so that you know what you can eat little and much of. It is also good to know portion size, but I highly recommend to stop eating right before you feel full. It is not easy to do this, but with the right portion size, you’ll manage 🙂

~Yours, Sockfusion

Bokskogen – Beech Forest

So, (most boring way ever to start, think It’s even kinda illegal… In typing-world that is) but – (ok I know, also boring). Anyhow… (naah, I don’t like that), however (that’s it! I feel like wearing a moustache!), I’ve been having quite a lot to do the past days – I’ll tell you!

Monday, I went to the doctor. She was Finnish and very rude (I think there’s nice Finnish people but it seems like they’re hiding). The nurse who took the blood sample was really bad at it. First she tried my left arm, twisting around the needle trying to poke the vessel. It didn’t work and eventually she gave up and tried my right hand instead. Now I’ve got a big bruise on my left arm AND SHE’S GOT… (some of) MY BLOOD!!! Vampire…

Tuesday, was exhausting. I went to ‘bokskogen’ (beech forest) together with the people in my class, BY BIKE. The fastest way to the forest is about 16 km , but we had to go on smaller paths and stuff. We at least traveled 40 km, that much I know. I’ve been biking over 70 kilometres some days, but then – there weren’t as much wind.. and HILLS!!! That combination folks, that combination…

Farm…

This does NOT look like Sweden, but it is Sweden

Wednesday, (which was yesterday), I did two out of four parts of the Swedish national exam in English. Reading and Listening, I’ve already done the writing-part, so what’s left is Speaking. It makes me a little nervous, since I know that I speak a bit slurred when I’m under pressure, since I’m nervous and I am NERVOUS!!! Eehh… Vicious cycle. What I can do about that is; run. So I did yesterday – 35 minutes constantly running took me 6,3 kilometres away. 🙂

It had just stopped raining, the air was fresh and the sun started to crawl out of the clouds…

Thursday, which is today (for me at least), means homework and rest. Homework since… since… (ok I don’t know exactly why, I just do it) and rest, because of tomorrow.

Friday, which is tomorrow, I’ll run five kilometres (PE) in school. It’s an annual thing we do every spring but this time will be my last. I’ve decreased my time markedly since the first time and… my teacher uses me as an example when speaking about improving ones condition (I’m proud!). Therefore (and because I hate loosing, it would be a loss to not get a better result) I have to get a better time tomorrow!

Think that’s all ;P

~SockFusion

Hiking in Rain

I wanted to post this when it was still fresh, smoking hot.. no wait, literally that would be – soaking wet instead…

This weekend I went out hiking with my scout patrol. The weather was nice when we left but half an hour after we started walking… the rain came. Pouring down, cats & dogs, sheep, flamingos – everything. The hood on my jacket saved me from drowning and I had a cover for my backpack (Granite Gear Vapor Meridian Ki) but… there was nothing shielding my legs from the rain, since I was wearing jeans. I was soaking wet, as the bandage on my knee.. that unexplainable wound, hm. Several kilometers of walking , up hills and down the hills again, later we ate lunch under some fir trees* the others ate tortellini and me and a friend had some goulash soup with macaroni :). Eating outdoors is always so different from eating indoors, especially if you’ve been working/walking/running etc. – you have more appetite, also things taste better. Could be something with all the oxygen in the woods, I don’t know :P.

We continued our walking and eventually we arrived at the place where we were going to sleep. Now, most people probably think of tents when sleeping outdoors is mentioned. Now, that is too much indoors for a scout. We sleep in “vindskydd“, “weatherbreaks” which is “half a tent” you could say, it protects us from the rain and the wind as well (if it’s positioned correctly). We find fallen trees, preferably very thin (no more than 20 cm diameter, base) and tie some to trees we’ve chosen (I can’t explain the construction since it’s something you learn from watching). Then we throw a big piece of tarpaulin over our “vindskydd-skeleton” and tighten it up (so that rain-water can’t make seas and lakes in sinkages). One side is wide open, this is how we sleep.

We were walking somewhere near “Romeleåsen”.. or perhaps even on it! More pictures below!! 😀

Of course we have inflatable matresses, pillows and sleeping bags. But, it is still cold outdoor air we’re talking about and we’re in Sweden – so temperatures can sink pretty low. This time, april, it got down to about 3°C or almost 0°C. It was cold, REALLY cold. I know, because my sleeping bag isn’t working. I lied there, keeping myself awake so that I could keep on moving my toes about** and stretching my legs.. I got terrible cramps since I couldn’t stop shivering. I sound querulous, don’t I?

Well, when it was about 5.20 I got up and went to the “vindskydd” where my little sister was sleeping. Luckily, her sleeping bag was big enough to contain us both (and she’s nice enough to let me sleep there). Thank you Selma! :). Later on, we woke up and made breakfast. I cooked some oatmeal and put a package of chocolate oat milk in boiling water.. it was wonderful***… I also ate three sandwiches with jam and.. salami? Well, they had no butter and no cheese… so I pretended the salami was cheese. It worked XD. (marmalade or jam + cheese = awesome).

We packed our bags and left the place, heading towards a place where we could eat lunch. This time I ate some tomato-soup… while almost drowning in my own jacket. I was so damn WET and COLD. Could. Not. Stop. SHIVERING!!! However, the warm soup made me feel a little better and we continued walking towards the place were we got dropped off the other day. Eventually we got there and met up with our parents (now I sound like a kindergarten kid).

So, why do I do this? If I get all wet, walk all day, work like a maniac just to get shelter and almost freeze my toes off, why do I do this? Well, when doing this together with some of my closest friends and many other nice people, helping each other – all those things above are nothing. Of course, freezing isn’t something I’d gladly do – but I still had lots of fun. When people reach my age, they hang out with their either friends in school or at parties. I’m not a party-animal (nor human), neither are most of my friends, so this is what we do instead. We train leadership, teamwork, working together with people you don’t know, a lot of important things – while having fun 😛

Some say best friends last forever (nothings eternal though), but I’ve seen how so many people betray each other, how they do not care for each other. I might now know about how the future looks, but what I do know is that, my friends are not the kind of people who’d ever let me down. That much I can tell, when we suddently fit four people in a tiny tiny wooden shelter which probably was made for two, or when we’re the slowest patrol, since everyone waits for the injured. That much I can tell, which probably is a lot more than what the party-animals know about each other (nothing bad about parties).

* They don’t spread their roots as much as deciduous trees, therefore they stand closer to each other and work as.. a bad umbrella… but still an umbrella! (Not a sprinkler, at least).

** Last time I used this sleeping bag, my toes got really cold. When I woke up I couldn’t feel them anymore and they were all blue. Pretty scary since I was hiking a bit alone that time.

 *** This is what I’m talking about when I say difference between eating indoors and eating outdoors.

Some strange thing.. 

There were LOADS of these.. and I don’t even know what they are!

Commonly found in swedish fir tree-woods…

DO NOT touch toad… or lick on them (I didn’t) just don’t…

// Yours, sleepy SockFusion ^______^

Spring = Run

Know what Spring means to me? It means RUN!!! … it actually does, really – in swedish, spring = run. But it’s the season where I have to/can get out running as well. It is also the season where I, as many other people, prepare for the summers beach life.. by training.

So that’s what I’m doing now, I am training every day, measuring every calorie and so on. There is one thing I’m appreciating enourmously because of this, it makes my training much much easier. Because when it comes to weightloss, training is one of the three obligatory parts. An other is sleep and the third is the food. Eating the right things is one of the basics (for most things actually) – if you eat too much you wont get anywhere no matter how much you exercise and if you eat too little, you wont be able to go on training – (you’ll at least get bad results and feel all gloomy). (We’re talking calories here – energy) Keeping track of how much you eat and what you eat – is the key to successful training. Some foods are stuffed with carbonhydrates and you wont realize that you’ve eaten way too many calories because such foods generally doesn’t make you feel full. (I’m talking about crunchy muesli, juice, candy, raisins etc.)

My point is – if you want to loose weight, keep track of what you eat (and of course keep in mind what it is), because at the end of the day, what matters is how many calories you’ve eaten minus how many calories you’ve burned. If the answer isn’t negative you wont loose any weight (except in fluids perhaps, but we want to burn fat right?). If you have an iPhone (or other smartphone), you wont be disappointed with my tip. Because, there is an easy way to actually keep track of almost every little calorie you show into your mouth. Ladies and gentlemen.. I give you..

The DailyBurn Tracker (Click the picture to go to Apple & Download it)

With this app, you can search the whole worlds food list, add what you’ve eaten, how much and it will keep track of how many calories you’ve munched! ;P You can also add your training, how much weight you’ve lifted, how far you’ve been running/biking/walking etc. etc. and it will calculate how much you’ve burned! You write in your weight as well, which as nutrition and exercise can be seen in a nice little chart! (I like it because it’s fun to see the history and how far you’ve come. For me, who likes things clean and structured (I’m a pedantic virgo) it is an excellent way to loose weight. I think more about what I’m eating and how much, also how much I’ve exercised – because I don’t want to miss my nutrition goals.

Though – you have to be mature enough not to put too low goals, if you do you’ll just turn out gloomy and fail completely because you wont be able to exercise and eventually you’ll become hungry as well.. and when our bodies are hungry because of too little food it wants SUGAR FAT SUGAR FAT SUGAR FAT!!! which results in you gaining weight. That’s the opposite of your goal – too few calories isn’t a good idea, is it?

Yes, that’s probably my most used app.

And now we switch from appreciation to *complaint.. (can’t be too happy can we?). Because last morning (I know why am I still irritaded?), I was weighing a piece of bread, to you gifted, people reading this I probably wont have to explain what I was doing if you saw me weighing a piece of bread. But to my stepfather I had to explain. He came to the kitchen and asked “What are you doing?”. Sometimes I might expect a bit too much of other people (usually in intelligence) so I answered the obvious – “I’m weighing a piece of bread”. He then answers.. “Uh, I don’t understand”. I explain further “Well I’m interested in how much it weighs so that I know how many calories it is” (pretty simple huh? You guys understand me right?). Guess what insulting answer replies with.. “Uh, I don’t understand”. What the hell is wrong with people!?? After that he kind of criticized me by saying something like “yeah if you want to count every single little calorie…”.

Yeah, dear stepfather – you won’t be reading this (there’s a minimal chance but it is so tiny it barely exists) but it doesn’t matter because you’ll probably wouldn’t understand anything (as always, now here’s a big chance!). IF we could talk properly I’d say – stop being so damn jealous of my successful weightloss and start being proud of what I did, because I did it myself. Then stop munching chocolate, cheese doodles and ice cream almost every day and start exercising for real. I know you g swimming, but you wont get anywhere if you stuff yourself with unhealthy crap in the evening…

He’s an example that reminds me of why I’m exersicing.. his belly puts fear in me XD (Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate on people – I hate hating on people). But he has become really mean sometimes, towards my mum as well (not that he hits her – it’s just psychological terror..). Today he threw her out of the bathroom because HE wanted to be there.. and yesterday when I told him not to destroy the bread by squeezing it.. he stares at me like “Did you say something you disguisting little creep??” after that I told him again and he just pointed at the pile of dishes (I know completely out of the blue) saying “why isn’t it done – you’re home aren’t you?”. That was because I’ve complained about how my sisters just run away from the dinner table on weekdays, when I’ve cooked dinner which means that I’ll have to take the dishes as well. I have plenty of schoolwork already – I don’t need anymore exhaustion… So one weekday I came home later with mum, (my sisters cooked dinner themselves) and the kitchen was a complete mess. So I told him (bit proud because both mum and him was surprised seeing the mess and it was a proof of what I’d told them before) that “It doesn’t look like this when I’m home. He ends the conversation by saying “Don’t try to be important”.

(To you stepfather:) Well, I’m NOT trying to be important. I AM important, all I’m trying to do is SHOW you so that you’ll finally UNDERSTAND. Just as when your alarm clock rings 30 times and I get up in time even though;

• I’ve studied late and
• only slept 5-6 hours (as usual)

just to wake you up so that we don’t get late. You never understand that do you? You never understand, how it feels when you do stuff and you don’t even get a “thanks” or “good job”, nothing. All you do is keep on working without any appreciation, because if you stopped.. THEN oh.. then.. then they’d be COMPLAINING!!

Seriously.. uh.. Perhaps, I expect too much of people… >_>

* Sometimes I have to write about this stuff, just to keep myself from exploding. I’ve tried to talk to him calmly, but as he says.. he doesn’t understand. He probably never will either.

// SockFusion