They blamed the muslims

One week after the terror in Oslo I finally find myself able to write again.

76 people died and there is massive damages to Oslo city centre and the government buidling after a mad mans doings one week ago. The most schocking thing is the majority of those who died were youth, who were dedicated to keeping Norway an open and peaceful, multicultural community.

They blamed the muslims. WE blamed the muslims. Just minutes after the boms went off my facebook feed was full of the accusations. No more than 1-1,5 hours later the shootings at the youth gathering at Utøya started. My fear that those who blamed the muslims were right, came to an end. It was a blonde, blue eyed man, dressed as a police man. He was Norwegian. He was my age.

He said, "Come to me, I have some information", he lined them up, he executed them. He shot those who threw them self to the ground. He shot those who ran. He picked them one by one. He shot those who tried to hide. He shot those who threw themselves in the water, trying to swim ashore.

They blamed the muslims. I saw a muslim woman on the news. She thought it was islamists too. She dreaded the times to come, where she knew all muslims in Norway had to carry the blame. She was wrong, they were wrong, he was one of us.

Some months ago I had a blog post on my Norwegian blog. It was about everyday racism, and got more than 200 comments. More than half of these comments were hateful and agressive. My post was about friendship, kindness, openness towards others. More than 50 of those who answered could have been the terrorist, I have read through it all again... He is not alone. We must never believe he was the only one out there.

The Norwegian people have reacted with sorrow - and with love. The terrorist wanted to stir up hate and anger. But there is a wave of care and solidarity and togetherness that washes over Norway. A wave of compassion. An ocean of roses. Many of you have also shared your feelings on my facebook wall.
Oslo and the rest of Norway flows over of meetings over the borders of ethnicity, language, age, origin... One of my friends was deeply touched that a veiled woman had put her arms around her and called her "sister".

Those lives that are lost can never be replaced. We shall honor their memory and remember their ideology.

Islam was not our enemy.
Hate and fear was.
We will never, never allow it to win.

I love dieting..!

... What a strange thing to say, don't you agree??
After a Gastric bypass surgery nine months ago I've now lost more than 30 kilos, but I still need to lose 20 more. I am not used to so sweet and fatty foods as before. The healthy foods taste more and better to me now. And as I've lost weight being active and excersising is much easier than before.

But still - surgery does not "fix" everything. I still need to watch my diet and see to that my body is active, to lose more and to keep the weight off. That was demonstrated during the christmas week! Probably due to the aquavit and Norwegian christmas beer I drank - I gained 2 kilos in a week and was shocked! Isn't it strange how we are soooo surprised by this, although the math with the calories is so easy?


Christmas gave me a wonderful opportunity to start: My boyfriend looked at himself in a picture and said: OMG, I need to lose weight!! I was so happy to hear that - it's so much easier to lose weight with a team mate. Now we have used the first month in the new year to establish good habits - smaller meals more often, choosing healthier foods like fish, white meat and loads of greens.
In addition to this we go swimmong three times a week. Maybe not the hardest form of exercise, but it is a lot more than we used to do!

The weight from christmas is gone, and three more kilos with it. And I never thought I'd say this - I love every moment of it! It is so much fun, being a chef I always loved cooking, and specially varying with fish is a fun challenge. It's amazing what tasty veggies and herbs can do - Try for instance baked cod with cherry tomatoes and leek, or salmon with paprica sauce! The other day we had grilled halibut with chili and lime with salad and mashed potatoes. It's delicious!

If we continue like this, I think we are facing a long and healthy life. After all it's not so important what you eat between christmas and new years, as what you eat between new years and christmas!!