In the start of July I saw a nutritionist for the first time. I've done my very best to follow all of her advice. I've eaten home cooked foods more, eaten more vegetables and even forced myself to remember to eat at least 4 to 5 times a day a small meal or snack. Despite this change to my diet and the increase in calories the pounds/kilos are just not dropping.
Now let me explain before there are loads of comments about not needing to increase calories to lose weight. Due to my attempts at self dieting I had cut back eating so much that I was consuming on a regular basis less than 1000 calories. This puts the body into starvation mode and thus it starts to keep all calories excess or not and turns them into fat.
I see the nutritionist again next week and I plan to ask her about this new diet I've heard a lot about, this fasting 2 days a week and eating whatever you want to on the other days. Fast days mean eating 500 calories a day for women and 600 calories for men. Jani is even considering doing this diet with me. It might be difficult but it seems to be effective from all the information I've read/watched on it.
I did have the idea to increase my caffeine intake, this has helped my energy levels and I really hope its boosting my metabolism but I'm not sure. Anyway its helping me to feel more and more like my old self, the less couch potato self I was two years ago. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be subjected to a battery of tests because the nutritionist mentioned that if this eating 5 times a day trial didn't show any results then they were going to look for a hormonal reason for the constant increase in my weight.
I guess all I can do now is wait and hope for better results.
26 September 2013
23 September 2013
Translational issues
Going to the dentist sucks for me in general. Slowly though I'm getting over my intense fears. However, today proved that I'm still having communication issues with the people in the dentist offices here.
Some background information, last winter I had 5 front teeth removed due to decay issues. I now have a beautiful partial denture giving me the lovely smile I've always dreamed of. I got this partial in January this year after lots of dental work to repair the rest of my teeth and get the denture made.
In June of this year I began to feel that the denture didn't quite fit any more. It comes out if I bite anything too soft, or eat anything remotely sticky with a sauce or topping on it. So I went to the dentist office and tried to get the receptionist (who speaks no English) to reserve a time for me with my regular dentist to fix this problem. She apparently didn't understand my problem and gave me a time with a new dentist in a different office. I accepted the time and of course attended that appointment.
That appointment was today. I went in and this dentist, unlike my regular one, doesn't speak any English either. Now my Finnish isn't terrible, of course its not fluent either, but I don't always have the words to explain things especially medical/dental things. But the short story is that the receptionist should have given me two times for this new dentist to be able to fix anything about my denture because she would need time to make a new relief of the inside of my mouth and send it off to the lab to get a new prosthetic made. Then I'd have to come back the next day or the day after to get it fit properly etc. Getting a new prosthetic is a process and I realize this. But the entire situation sucked because this new dentist didn't have any times free until December. So she couldn't do anything for me today.
Now I'm stuck waiting with teeth that come out and make eating almost anything in public more than a bit embarrassing. The new dentist is sending a message to the regular dentist and I'm supposed to wait until I get a call or a note in the mail with new times for the regular dentist or a slip sending me straight to the lab to fix this problem. So for now I'm stuck with teeth that don't quite fit right and the endless waiting game that is the dentist offices here.
*sigh*
Mel
Some background information, last winter I had 5 front teeth removed due to decay issues. I now have a beautiful partial denture giving me the lovely smile I've always dreamed of. I got this partial in January this year after lots of dental work to repair the rest of my teeth and get the denture made.
In June of this year I began to feel that the denture didn't quite fit any more. It comes out if I bite anything too soft, or eat anything remotely sticky with a sauce or topping on it. So I went to the dentist office and tried to get the receptionist (who speaks no English) to reserve a time for me with my regular dentist to fix this problem. She apparently didn't understand my problem and gave me a time with a new dentist in a different office. I accepted the time and of course attended that appointment.
That appointment was today. I went in and this dentist, unlike my regular one, doesn't speak any English either. Now my Finnish isn't terrible, of course its not fluent either, but I don't always have the words to explain things especially medical/dental things. But the short story is that the receptionist should have given me two times for this new dentist to be able to fix anything about my denture because she would need time to make a new relief of the inside of my mouth and send it off to the lab to get a new prosthetic made. Then I'd have to come back the next day or the day after to get it fit properly etc. Getting a new prosthetic is a process and I realize this. But the entire situation sucked because this new dentist didn't have any times free until December. So she couldn't do anything for me today.
Now I'm stuck waiting with teeth that come out and make eating almost anything in public more than a bit embarrassing. The new dentist is sending a message to the regular dentist and I'm supposed to wait until I get a call or a note in the mail with new times for the regular dentist or a slip sending me straight to the lab to fix this problem. So for now I'm stuck with teeth that don't quite fit right and the endless waiting game that is the dentist offices here.
*sigh*
Mel
20 September 2013
Idea overload
It seems that recently I have this immense overload of ideas flying through my head. I can't always keep track of them all but I really want to follow through on all of them. They always seem like fabulous ideas when they first pop into my head. Here's a list of just a few that have occurred in the past few days.
Ideas:
1. start growing my own lettuce inside and possibly other veggies like carrots and potatoes. Also to start tomatoes and cucumbers at least in the spring so that Jani and I can start eating healthier and hopefully lose some weight.
Reasoning: I've read a lot about starting an indoor garden online in the past few days. Lettuce sounds like the most simple plant to start with, leafy varieties like arugula are easy to grow and are supposed to taste better than store bought lettuce. Also with the price of veggies being what they are its a huge money saver to grow my own veggies.
2. Start a home based business. A store on Etsy.com where I can sell crochet hats and scarves and perhaps some other things like snoods and blankets. Potentially a wider base of objects and potentially branching out into selling knit items as well.
Reasoning: I have been having a difficult time finding work here. I've sent out many job applications and done ten months of language courses. So in my spare time I've been crocheting a lot and since loads of people buy things on Etsy and everyone who has received crochet items from me as gifts has really thought they were swell. So I'm hoping that if I try to sell them that it will provide at least a source of some income until I can get a job or perhaps grow into a reliable home based business.
3. Crochet items: I had this really great idea to crochet a round hammock that we could somehow suspend from the roof of the ceiling of our patio. Also I want to make gloves and a hat for Jani to match his scarf that I made him last winter. I think these items will make good samples to post on Etsy if they turn out well. Plus I really enjoy making things for him.
4. Cooking ideas: I have all these recipes I want to try but somehow I just never get around to them. I hope to do more home cooking in the winter months. Hopefully I'll actually get around to making them and posting pictures of them here in this blog.
5. This blog: It was a random idea a way to document my life and a way to connect with people who I don't have daily contact with. Its turning into one of the best things in my life, its a great form of therapy. Getting all my thoughts down on paper and having other people read them. That is if there are any readers. But even if there aren't I will keep writing this blog and getting my thoughts and emotions down in type.
I hope to keep you readers updated with the progress made with all these ideas.
19 September 2013
Answers to Steph's questions
So in the spirit of answering all of my comments I'm making a post to try to answer all of Steph's questions to the best of my ability.So here goes.
What is a typical weekday entail?
For my husband a typical weekday entails waking up and going to work from 9 to 5. Its my observation that this is the typical for most Finnish people who are working. Although it might be more common to work from 8 to 4. One thing is for sure that during the week most grocery stores, department stores or cafes are not open past 21.00/9pm. So this means of course that most Finns don't work at all past 21.00. There are no 24 hour businesses in our small town and there are only a few 24 hour businesses in the bigger cities of Finland that I've visited.
After that we usually 2 times a week go to the grocery store and get basic supplies. This has to be done much more frequently than people would usually do in the USA because of the reduced size of fridges in Finland, and also because bread and milk only last a fraction of the time that those same goods last in the States. Then its home and dinner usually cooked at home. There is far more home cooking in Finland than I ever observed in USA. Perhaps that's heavily colored by my own bias and experiences.
Weekends?
Weekends for my household are generally spent at home spending time on our hobbies or watching tv together. Often we read a lot of books, or just go out for a drive to nowhere. At least once on the weekend there is sauna for all Finns. It is likely that many Finns also go to sauna at some point during the week as well as it is a huge part of Finnish culture.
Most young people or people of my age are not married and don't have kids so they spend lots of times going to the clubs and drinking on the weekends. This however varies by season, in the summer more people go to their summer cabins and cottages for the weekends and of course for the whole month that they have off from work. This means that they have a traditional wood fire sauna instead of the electric sauna that most people have access to in their homes.
What do most people do for entertainment?
Movies are probably the most common thing for entertainment outside of the bar scene. Finns are generally quite heavy drinkers and drinking is a large part of the culture especially among younger people. However, in our town of Salo, we have the most used library in the country. So we like many others in our town we visit the library and take full advantage of it. Barbecues and having friends over are also quite common as a way to entertain.
How different is it in a large city compared to a small town?
I don't really have any experience living in a large city, I mean as large as cities get here, you have to consider that there are only 5 million people in all of Finland, that's less people than live Philadelphia for example. But in Helsinki, the capitol, where we've visited many times the main things that I've noticed is the cost of things is much higher and traffic is far worse. At the same time there is a much larger public transportation network in the bigger cities.
The small town we live in is very much ideal for us because there are bike paths and bus lines that can get you pretty much anywhere in the main part of town that you would need to go. But really for most people in our town a car is still needed due to the fact that many smaller outlying towns have been incorporated into our municipality in the past decades so actually Salo spreads across a great land area with long stretches of road through the country between the populated areas.
I'm really sorry that I didn't address Sweden at all but as I haven't actually stepped foot in Sweden I don't have any real experience as to what life is like there. I hope this post has answered some of your questions and please feel free to ask more. This was a great bunch of questions that I really enjoyed answering.
What is a typical weekday entail?
For my husband a typical weekday entails waking up and going to work from 9 to 5. Its my observation that this is the typical for most Finnish people who are working. Although it might be more common to work from 8 to 4. One thing is for sure that during the week most grocery stores, department stores or cafes are not open past 21.00/9pm. So this means of course that most Finns don't work at all past 21.00. There are no 24 hour businesses in our small town and there are only a few 24 hour businesses in the bigger cities of Finland that I've visited.
After that we usually 2 times a week go to the grocery store and get basic supplies. This has to be done much more frequently than people would usually do in the USA because of the reduced size of fridges in Finland, and also because bread and milk only last a fraction of the time that those same goods last in the States. Then its home and dinner usually cooked at home. There is far more home cooking in Finland than I ever observed in USA. Perhaps that's heavily colored by my own bias and experiences.
Weekends?
Weekends for my household are generally spent at home spending time on our hobbies or watching tv together. Often we read a lot of books, or just go out for a drive to nowhere. At least once on the weekend there is sauna for all Finns. It is likely that many Finns also go to sauna at some point during the week as well as it is a huge part of Finnish culture.
Most young people or people of my age are not married and don't have kids so they spend lots of times going to the clubs and drinking on the weekends. This however varies by season, in the summer more people go to their summer cabins and cottages for the weekends and of course for the whole month that they have off from work. This means that they have a traditional wood fire sauna instead of the electric sauna that most people have access to in their homes.
What do most people do for entertainment?
Movies are probably the most common thing for entertainment outside of the bar scene. Finns are generally quite heavy drinkers and drinking is a large part of the culture especially among younger people. However, in our town of Salo, we have the most used library in the country. So we like many others in our town we visit the library and take full advantage of it. Barbecues and having friends over are also quite common as a way to entertain.
How different is it in a large city compared to a small town?
I don't really have any experience living in a large city, I mean as large as cities get here, you have to consider that there are only 5 million people in all of Finland, that's less people than live Philadelphia for example. But in Helsinki, the capitol, where we've visited many times the main things that I've noticed is the cost of things is much higher and traffic is far worse. At the same time there is a much larger public transportation network in the bigger cities.
The small town we live in is very much ideal for us because there are bike paths and bus lines that can get you pretty much anywhere in the main part of town that you would need to go. But really for most people in our town a car is still needed due to the fact that many smaller outlying towns have been incorporated into our municipality in the past decades so actually Salo spreads across a great land area with long stretches of road through the country between the populated areas.
I'm really sorry that I didn't address Sweden at all but as I haven't actually stepped foot in Sweden I don't have any real experience as to what life is like there. I hope this post has answered some of your questions and please feel free to ask more. This was a great bunch of questions that I really enjoyed answering.
18 September 2013
The Purpose of Starting this Blog
The idea for this blog started from a feeling of loneliness and disconnection from friends and people in general. After my friends from England visited in July it hit me just how isolated I am here in Finland. There is no fault to be put on anyone. I do see my loving husband everyday and I see my in-laws once a week or so. But due to lacking language skills on my part and fear of speaking English on the part of others there is a real lack of any true friendship feeling here for me in Salo. I have some very dear friends who do willingly speak English and who are willing to put up with my not so polished Finnish skills they just do not live in Salo. So as an attempt to reconnect with those friends of mine from the United States who I communicated with on a regular basis before I moved to Finland I decided to start this blog. It also has the combined purpose of giving me a place to vent my feelings and experiences and tell about what is all going on with me. Not just for old friends but also for new friends I've made through the internet and Facebook in the time since I moved to Finland.
It is my hope that this blog will give my friends, family, and other concerned parties a window into what is going on in my silly, complicated, loving, amazingly awesome life here in Finland. I also hope that it gives me a better sense of community and friendship and a chance to reconnect with the people who are important to me.
Feel free to comment and ask questions. But please try not to judge too harshly.
Mel
It is my hope that this blog will give my friends, family, and other concerned parties a window into what is going on in my silly, complicated, loving, amazingly awesome life here in Finland. I also hope that it gives me a better sense of community and friendship and a chance to reconnect with the people who are important to me.
Feel free to comment and ask questions. But please try not to judge too harshly.
Mel
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