We are back with another interview of someone living the ketogenic lifestyle!
In today’s interview i would like to present Mikaela. She has been living ketogenic high fat low carb lifestyle for over 4 years and lost 44 pounds / 20kg.
So we can definitely learn a lot from her journey.
Please follow her on her instragram.com page I am looking forward to purchasing a copy of her eBook once it comes out.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hello, my name is Mikaela, I’m 26 year old from Sweden. I work in marketing but recently took a year of to follow my dream to live abroad for a while. Currently I’m living in Sydney and studying graphic design. I have an Instagram account where I post photos of my ketolife as @ketopower. When I’m not studying I like to workout. I lift weights and do BodyCombat.
I am a huge sugar addict. I always loved food but I could never stop, when my mom was baking cinnamon buns I had 10 of them in one sitting. TEN! It’s no joke. For breakfast I could not stop after one bowl of Special K with milk, I had 3 bowls. I had a few extra pounds that I wanted to loose and always felt like a failure because I new I needed to eat less, but I just couldn’t stop!
Now, I know that that’s because I’m a sugar addict, I just ate the wrong thing.
What moment or event started your weight loss journey?
I came across the low carb diet by reading about Atkins several years ago. Eating steak, cheese and peanuts? Heaven! I gave it a go but it didn’t quite work for me. I had a whole bag of peanuts and A LOT of meat. Today I know why it didn’t work, nuts trigger my sweet tooth and to much protein is also a no-no.
Anyway, about 4 years ago I started to experiment with the LCHF diet, which was very spoken about and controversial in Sweden at the time. I could never have imagine how easy it was to loose weight! My daily cravings were gone, I was never hungry and I had bacon and eggs for breakfast each morning. Who could have thought?
The weight loss was quite slow, I was out partying every Friday and Saturday and during Sunday my cravings was back and I had all the sugar I could find. After a couple of years I heard about Ketosis and found it very interesting. I realized that I had been going in and out of ketosis almost every week, and now I wanted to be there all the time!
Today, I eat natural food that I cook myself and it tastes wonderful! I try to stay away from dairy and nuts since I’ve noticed that they trigger me. But I do “cheat” sometimes with some sugar-free dark chocolate or a glass or two now and then.
What was your starting weight? What weight are you at now?
I actually don’t really know my starting weight. I remember when I was 17 and my mom asked me if I wanted to come to WeightWatchers with her. I did, and my weight was 78 kg to my 172 cm. I knew that I had lost a few kilos before that so I believe my highest weight would be around 80 kg.
Today my weight is very stabile at 59-61 kg. I am very happy with my weight today, I’m not aiming for more weight loss. I do work out and want to lose some fat percentage, and add some muscles and that’s why I don’t really focus so much about what the scale says anymore but looking at my body instead, how it feels and looks like.
How did you discover the Keto lifestyle and how has it affected you?
For me it was over a long time, I first came across Atkins, then doing LCHF with success. I heard about keto from a Swedish bio hacker blogger (martinas.nu) and then came across Stephanie Person on YouTube. They are both very inspiring to me.
There is so many versions of LCHF now, it just means low carb and high fat and people do this in different ways, which I think is great, you should always listen to your body. For me, the difference was that during LCHF I had low carb bars, dairy and a lot of processed food and take away. I found that I did eat low carb and high fat, but I wasn’t highly keto adapted.
When being in ketosis the biggest difference is that I went from being a night person to a morning person! This is fantastic! I wake up at 6 am and ready to start the day, just jumping out of the bed, earlier I was snoozing for an hour before I event went out of the bed.
But the most important difference to me is that it is the only way of eating that I find actually keep my craving and sugar addiction under control.
What is your favorite Keto recipe / food?
For breakfast or as a little something between meals I like to have an Avocado Smoothie.
My standard meal is omelette. My flatmate are making jokes about me only eating omelettes! But it is so good, using different fillings and it cooks so fast and it’s so nutritious!
Try to do a cheese crusted omelette, put shredded cheese in the pan and wait until it melts, then put the omelette batter on top and fry it a bit hotter than usual so the cheese gets nice and crispy on the outside.
Delicious!
A great snack that I also enjoy is also celery sticks with coconut oil.
My Avocado Smoothie
100g avocado, fresh ginger (as much as you like, I use about 5-10g)
½ squeezed lime, 10g coconut oil and water (just to make it able to drink out of a straw)
Mix it in a blender until smooth, this is delicious and has a lot of good fats in it!
For people currently doing Keto what motivational tip or advice would you like to share?
Follow people that inspire you on instagram or other social media. Keep a reward diary, where you set your goals and plan rewards when completing them, like no sugar for 2 weeks and I will get a pedicure, after no sugar for 4 weeks I will go on a dance course, or whatever motivates you. It should be something fun!
I actually calculated how much money I save by not buying sweets and take away/eating out and set my rewards to these values.
Don’t just depend on the scale! It doesn’t show how much muscles or fat percentage you have. Do a body scan to track your progress instead, or take your measurements.
If someone wanted to get into the Keto lifestyle what advice would you give them?
Read the nutrition on packages and calculate your foods! I use the app Lifesum to so this and it is surprising how easy the carbs can go too high. Do this in the beginning and every now and then, but after a while you will be able to know what and how much you can eat without calculating everything.
Try to avoid processed food and cook your own food. There is a lot of nastiness in processed food even if its low carb so try to avoid it.
Don’t rush it! A lot of people think they will loose a lot of weight immediately, but you didn’t get here over night, so you wont loose it over night either, it’s a process to change your eating habits and understanding what foods works for you, so let it take time.
Just start! There are always an excuse to wait, to start later. But is there ever a good time? No, you will always have a busy schedule and you just have to make the decision and GO FOR IT!
If I could do it, anyone can!
When you feel the awesomeness of being in ketosis you will regret you didn’t start earlier!
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