Cali Sweden's Diary

I'm sure you'll do well on Thursday Plum :)
 
I had an appointment at the hair salon today. Since I was in the town center my guy asked me to pick up some Swedish cinnamon rolls from the bakery for my guy and his coworkers for fika (tea time), and I picked out a carrot cake for myself. It was much much smaller than the cinnamon roll, and I thought maybe better for me. I had a half cup of tea with my cake, the cake was really tiny, it was ok but it wasn't the best, and not much carrots in it either. I ended up taking off half the cream cheese frosting as it was too sweet.

I also find those salt and vinegar crisps evil and yummy. I had a few handful of them again today. My inlaws stopped by for about an hour late this afternoon, so they had fika with swedish cinnamon rolls, but this time I made myself a knäckebröd with peanut butter and jam. So I guess that's one point out of minus 2 points for me today. A good positive is I got my mother inlaw curious about the stuff I eat. She also decided to try my snack, since I was talking about how yummy the knäckebröd with the peanut butter and jam are, and she was curious of peanut butter. Peanut butter isn't big here, I guess it's still a very American thing. I was telling them how you can eat it with so many things :)

Breakfast: Oat porridge with fiber, strawberries, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, soy milk and agave syrup.

Snack: A handful of salt and vinegar crisps.

Lunch: Chicken and broccoli leftover, with red lentil and quinoa mix.

Snack: half cup of tea with possibly the world's smallest piece of carrot cake and the thing was expensive too. I could have easily ate it in one bite. I'll pass on it next time, as it wasn't worth the sin points.

Snack: Knäckebröd with peanut butter and jam.

Dinner: Last night's leftover grilled steak, corn on the cob, red lentils and quinoa mix, and a nice serving of spinach, tomato, cucumber and feta cheese salad. 1 piece of dark chocolate.

Exercise: It's rained all day today so I wasn't able to go for a walk. Pushups, crunches, and 60 minutes of yoga.
 
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Thanks Cali, not so sure though as monthly water weight seems to have started already! Sigh.


I hear you on that one. I'm having cravings like crazy. So I know that means I'm going to tranform into a waterbufflow soon. :(
 
Thanks Cali! Shame IKea dont sell it! LOL Love IKEA!!!! xxxx

You're welcome.

Yes shame on Ikea :) I have a love hate relationship with that place. I love it because there are so many nice and inexpensive things, but I hate it because there are so many nice and inexpensive things. I always end up walking out of there with something, even if it is just candles or something >_< It brings out the shopaholic in me :cry:
 
I'm with you about IKEA, Cali. It's a blessing for our bank balance and cluttered house that the nearest one is over an hour away! I do love to stock up on their frozen salmon portions though, really good quality compared to most UK stores!
 
Oh yeah, I forgot that the ones in other countries sells a lot more foods. The ones here in Sweden don't sell that much foods, just some candies, jams, cookies, and crisps. But it's nothing compared to the IKEAs in the states, where they had a whole bunch of groceries. But I guess it makes sense, because in Sweden Swedish groceries aren't exotic >_<

I live about 45 minutes to an hour away from IKEA, and about an hour away from another one. It depends to who is driving, if I'm driving it's a good hour, if my guy drives the time is shorter.

My guy has to yank me out of IKEA, or else we'll be there forever. Last weekend when he went, he told me "You promised we'd be in and out within an hour." Boy was he wrong :p
 
Hehe sounds familiar, Ikea really sucks you in. Of course it makes sense about the Swedish foods! I really love lingonberries and the different crackerbreads. :)
 
I absolutely love lingonberries. Too bad I can't find any lingonberry jam/preserves without added sugar :( People think I'm crazy for liking lingonberries so much. I gross them out because I love peanut butter and lingonberry jam sandwiches. I used to eat them in the states, and do it here because I like it and the fact that i can't find grape jelly. :)

If you ever come to Sweden, you should check out the grocery stores, I know the ICA stores have HUGE selections of the crispbreads. You'd fall in love with them :)
 
My OH refuses to set foot in IKEA anymore :D
Peanut butter and jam together - u really are from the states aren't you :D:D - the only other times I've ever seen them eaten together is in amercian movies :) But don't they call it peanut butter and jelly?
Our video shop has a big crate of American sweets at the counter- hershey bars, milk duds etc, and I saw they had a big squeezy bottle of Reese's peanut butter topping - looked vv yummy, but I'm guessing the GI is probably around 1000+ :D
 
You're correct Ruth, it is Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches. We have jellies here in Sweden, but they're aren't grape jelly. So since I used to eat peanut butter sandwiches with lingon jam in the states, I decided to just continue doing it here.

I liked lingon jam so much back in the states, that I figured it'd probably taste good with peanut butter :)

Ohhhh I never seen Reese's Peanut Butter squeeze topping before! That sounds yum, but like you said really high GI.
 
Peanut butter and jam is lovely! Although in our house we actually always had peanut butter and jam instead of pb & jelly, my mom was a bit of a health nut and thought jelly was far too sugary without any fiber from the fruit. We always had reduced-sugar or no-sugar jam instead. So to me pb & j with jam just seems normal! :)

Ohhhhhh... Ruth... you had to mention Milk Duds, didn't you! :D

Cali, the lack of grape-y things is one regret I have about living in Europe, although we can buy them at an inflated price from a couple of UK shops that import American products. I hate blackcurrant-y things (very popular in the UK) and I'm sure it's partly because I have never forgiven it for masquerading as grape (ie purple). Purple should = grape. End of. :D
 
Hehehe we have a lot of black currant preserves, jams, and jelly here too. The worst is that when I first moved here I thought they were black grapes, because they're called svart vinbärs, which means black wineberries. They're okay now, but it took me years to finally accept them :)

Buying anything American imported things here will cost an arm, a leg and maybe even the other leg. I once found and bought a Reese peanut butter cups 3 pack for about $5-6 here. I took each bite slow and carefully, trying to enjoy every moment of that super expensive candy.

The best salt and vinegar crisps I found here was at that same store. They were from England, and that little bag was about $5. I don't get why groceries from other EU countries have to cost so much here in Sweden. Well but then again some foods from other EU countries are really inexpensive.
 
To be honest the cost of things are all a big mystery to me! It really seems to vary and I'm sure there are reasons but I don't know what they are. :)

I still have a can of grape soda in the fridge that I bought quite some time ago. Now that I'm doing GI/GL I have a very dubious relationship with that can of soda. If it was any other flavour I would tell my husband to drink it all but because it's grape I can't bear the thought of not having any of it. So it just sits there undrunk! LOL!
 
I have a couple of things in the cupboard that are waiting for me. I have a box of American style cookies (choco chips, pecan and choco chips). They don't expire until January or was it March so I'm hoping I'll able to eat at least 1 type of cookie each oneday.

I also have a 1.5 l of smultron (wild strawberries) soda too. It was a limited edition summer flavour, so I bought it for oneday. Maybe around Christmas time, I might just go for them, since I'm already planning to be naughty then anyways. Or hopefully by then I'll be much closer to my goal weight, so I can actually eat them.
 
I think it's good to save them for times when we feel a little bit rebellious or naughty, that way at least the naughty treat(s) we have will be something we really enjoy and appreciate. There's nothing worse than the feeling you have after you eat something you shouldn't have and it wasn't even really that nice!
 
Yes, I agree if you're going to sin, you might as well make it worth it. I know yesterday's carrot cake was not worth it at all. I should have just had a chocolate milkshake instead :p
 
Goodness, I can't believe it's the end of Thursday already. Sort of scarey how time is just flying by, next thing I know it'll be Christmas. Hopefully by then I'll have lost a lot more weight.

I'm getting better at my walks, I can walk fast now even without the black rain clouds as a threat over my head. It doesn't feel like I'm walking fast anymore, which is a nice thing. I check the stopwatch two times during the walk to time myself.

Food wise I'm having a naughty streak, I'm having cravings of chocolates and sweets. But I've been trying to keep it in check. Though I do have to say darn those salt and vinegar crisps, oh well, I blame myself because they taste so good :( I'm really hungry today too, but I'm trying to keep it in check, all my meals today I felt like I could have ate a lot more, but didn't. I thought to myself don't let mother nature make you gain 3 lbs.

I decided to experiment with dinner tonight. I wanted battered fish, but I didn't want to use wheat flour, so I used wholegrain spelt flour instead. It turned out really yummy, and my OH enjoyed it alot. I also tried experimenting with my carbs by making 1/4 quinoa, 1/4 oats, 1/4 barley, and 1/4 basmati rice. It turned out really nice, it was very similar to rice, but low GI :)

Breakfast: Oat porridge with fiber, raspberries, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, soy milk and agave syrup.

Snack: 1 piece dark chocolate.

Lunch: 1 slice rye bread with avjar and several slices of wood smoked ham. Had several handfuls of salt and vinegar crisps.

Snack: Cottage cheese with pumpkin seeds and a peeled apple. 1 piece of dark chocolate.

Dinner: Pan fried Alaskan Pollack, barely/basmati rice/oats/quinoa mix, and spinach and tomatoes salad with lemon. 1 piece of dark chocolate.

Exercise: 27 minutes fast long walk, pushups, crunches, 32 minutes of yoga.
 
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