Going to an island and finding the solution

2012 was a big year for our family. We made the move from our safe and stable life in Norway to try our luck in the New World. Australia was going to be our new home.

In order to make it work for everyone, we decided that I should stay at home with the kids the first year. After working full time since I had my kids, I was looking forward to what I could do with this time. In the begging my 5 year old daughter and I ate and drank our way trough "The Foodies Guide to Melbourne 2012" and had a great time! After a couple of months of living like everyday is a holiday, I needed a kick in the but so I signed up to do a Boot Camp. 4 mornings a week at 6 am, rain or shine.

This helped me getting my mind back into what I've always loved. Training and staying active. It created the habits of getting to a workout, but the results were not as good as I had hoped for. And I hated the cardio Fridays! Running has never been a favorite of mine. Bad knees, bad back and
basically hating running has kept me away. Last workout I did in the Boot Camp was a 5 km run and I can back feeling I was 10o years old and everything was hurting. It put me off working out for a while. Then I discovered CrossFit.

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program. It is "constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity". Meaning you work really hard and intense for a short period of time with functional movements like picking up something heavy, climb a rope, stand on your hands or do sprints. It looks intimidating the first time you see a WOD (Workout Of the Day), but the kick you get from finishing something that looks almost impossible, is what makes everyone come back for more. That and the great results you get!



I was fascinated by the CrossFit community, workouts and athletes and I wanted to learn more and find a way to become as good (or better!) as the people I met in my "Box". Wherever you read about Crossfit, you are almost always bound to read about Paleo and the lifestyle of eating lean meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. No grains, no dairy, no sugar and no vegetable oils.

Earlier I had read the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis. A cardiologist working to improve the health of his patients by removing wheat products. This book talks about how wheat has changed over time and what it has become in our industrialized world. It goes on to explain how wheat in our diet is the cause of many of todays epidemics like obesity, diabetes and other lifestyle illnesses. I found the studies and information in the book to be intriguing and it all made sense to me. But when it came to the "how to do this" chapter, I gave up. How was I supposed to cut out all of this food that was staple in my diet? Especially coming from Norway where we have bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was no way I could manage that! So too bad, the wheat belly had to stay. Besides I loved my cake with my coffee in all the great cafes in Melbourne more then I was willing to sacrifice for a beach body! My motivation just wasn't there.

But then along came Paleo and it all started to make sense.

"I'm sorry, mummy is too tired. Again...."

I was so fed up listening to myself saying this and seeing the disappointment in their eyes. My kids wanted to play, to go out and run around on a playground. But all I wanted was to pull the covers tight and go to sleep on the sofa. I'd made it home after a day in a project with some new client and they had gotten the best part of me. The little energy I managed to have. Now I had nothing for nobody and least of all my kids.

I was used to feeling like this since I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2005. It's a condition in which your thyroid gland doesn't produce enough of certain important hormones. The symptoms of this chronic condition being fatigue, memory loss, depression and weakness. No doctor could ever tell me why I'd gotten this. Apparently it's common in women over 60. I was 29 at the time... But I guess I never really questioned it ether. Having a condition, an illness, being sick with something just seems like the norm. Everyone's got something, so I got hypothyroidism. Deal with it. I was just happy I had a diagnose and something that could be fixed. It wasn't all in my head and it wasn't just a matter of getting my act together. After being on medication for some years I'd gotten better, but the lack of energy was alway dominating my life.

I tried everything that had worked before. Going to the gym. Sleeping extra hours in the weekend. I was blaming everything and everyone, my job, my husband, my kids, for the way I felt. Finally I realized I needed help. I couldn't manage on my own. The support I got from my employer and family and friends really helped. I was on sick leave for about 3 months and this time was spent on finding my self again, as well as starting the journey to where I am today.

I couldn't just sit around and way to get better, so my way of being proactive was to educate myself. This meant reading a lot about food, health and a happy mind. I started buying organic and locally produced food. We cooked more real food and got rid off all processed food and ingredients. Slowly I was getting back to my old self again. Not great, but at least not worse.

During this period the teachers at my son's kindergarten informed us they were a bit worried about him. He was not running around and playing like he used to and was lying around on the ground a lot. This is particularly alarming when the kinder is in Norway and it's in the middle of winter! After a visit to the doctor, it turned out he was very low on iron. No one could explain why and how that can happen to a 4 year old who eats meat, vegetables and whole grains. We tried minimizing his dairy intake, after learning that calcium blocks the intake of iron. We didn't want to give him any supplements to correct this. It would be better if we could figure out why his body didn't absorb the iron in his food. Slowly his levels where rising and he was as active as never before! Why hadn't anyone told us about this when they teach us what kind of food kids should eat?! Still his levels wasn't where they should be, so we knew we needed to focus more on this.      

I was slowly starting to realize the impact food has on our lives and our health. I thought I was doing a good job, but I had already failed on several major areas.