“I realized that you can really unlock some great superpowers within you with this way of eating.”
Meet Camilla Henriksen, the lovely superwoman behind the Instagram page @swedishketo and founder of The Friendly Fat Company. She shared with us her personal journey on keto, including challenges, benefits, what she eats in a day and her all-time favorite keto recipe that left us drooling all over the screen. Plus, a bonus tip to incorporate meditation into your daily life!
Hi Camilla, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you started The Friendly Fat Company?
My name is Camilla Henriksen and I’m 33 years old, born and raised in Stockholm Sweden where I currently live. I have a masters in economics and marketing and have been working as a marketing manager for some years until 1,5 years ago when I finally got to a point where I couldn’t see the meaning of being a part of this career climbing rat race. I was always being super stressed which started to get physical and I just felt that this is not the life I want. I wanted more freedom and to be able to follow my own flow and creativity. So I quit my job to figure out how I could create my life in a way that was more meaningful and sustainable to me.
About 6 months before this, I had been trying out the ketogenic diet after my boyfriend had been doing it for a while. I had a real struggle to find keto-friendly snacks on-the-go for busy days when I just didn’t have the time to prepare food at home. Everything in the stores is just filled with sugar, crappy carbs and additives and I wanted none of that. I also noticed that a lot of people in my surroundings was doing or talking about the keto diet so I was starting to form this idea in my head of some kind of business around super clean keto snacks. But I kept it lingering in the back of my head for some time and then the week after I quit my job I randomly mentioned this idea to my boyfriend's cousin at a family gathering and he just loved the idea and the day after we started working on it.
I’ve always been super into health and nutrition and exercise of different kinds and studied nutrition way back, so from that day 1,5 years ago I created my dream job on a mission to unlock human superpowers through nutrition. This summer we launched our first product which is a super clean C8 MCT-powder with acacia fibre.
How long have you been on Keto and what motivated you to start this woe?
I've been doing keto for about 2 years now and I’m doing more of a cyclical ketosis where I’m in ketosis for 1-2 weeks at the time. It was my boyfriend who introduced it to me. He was getting really good results from it, like increased energy levels and mental clarity and not being hungry all the time and I wanted that as well!
And what has changed for you since you started?
When I first got into ketosis I just loved that feeling! I experienced how I got more energy and became super productive and clear-minded. But I also felt so much more joy and positivity and I felt like I could conquer the world, haha. I realized that you can really unlock some great superpowers within you with this way of eating. That’s the main reason I got hooked on Keto, not to lose weight even though you do feel less bloated and slimmer which also is a nice feeling.
Another great change was that my eating became more intuitive. Before I was always thinking about food and what to eat next, always feeling a little bit hungry. I’ve always been eating a pretty healthy low carb diet but wasn’t eating so much fat, yeah I was one of them thinking that it would make me fat, haha. But a low carb diet with small amounts of fat just makes you think about food all the time because you don’t get satisfied for very long and are always craving something. But now I feel so much more satisfied and just eat whenever I’m hungry like the body got back to its natural self regulating state.
Another thing that’s really changed for me is the clear skin from adding all those good fats and cutting the carbs. Wow, that Keto glow is for real!
Yes, that glow is real indeed! But besides the good stuff, have you experienced any challenges down the road? How do you deal with it?
Oh yes! The first 6 months was a real struggle. It was like I couldn’t take the decision to fully commit which just makes the process of adapting the body to burning fat much slower and you don’t feel that the diet is working for you and then you start doubting even more if it’s really for you and on it goes...
It took me a while to feel really good on keto. I could get a lot of headaches and feel like I was about to get sick all the time but eventually, I realized that I was drinking way too little water. I’m one of those weird people that don’t like water but now I’m just forcing myself to drink all the time and always carry a bottle of water wherever I go.
Social situations and eating out could be a bit complicated as well in the beginning before I became comfortable with being the most difficult person in the room. I’m fine with that now and I think you have to be to succeed on keto :)
From all that you have said, what are your most and least favorite things about Keto?
Definitely the great energy and mental clarity but also all the delicious foods you can eat, fat is so good! And there are so many great keto alternatives for your favorite carbohydrate foods if you enjoy cooking at home.
I love having something sweet with my afternoon coffee and I don’t always have time to prepare snacks, so the least favorite thing is the lack of great keto snacks where I live. That’s why I love companies like yours which makes keto life a little more enjoyable.
Yaaas, we are on a mission! You also have an awesome IG page with tons of delicious keto recipes. Have you always been passioned about cooking? How do you get inspired to make these goodies?
Thank you, guys! Food is definitely one of the greatest joys in my life, haha and I’ve always LOVED baking. When I started doing keto I got more and more into cooking food as well since you kind of have to prepare your own food to succeed. I get my inspiration from the foods and sweets I normally love to eat and try to make keto versions of them. I’ve realized that you can make almost anything keto-friendly so you don’t have to miss a thing.
Do you have an all-time favourite recipe from all those delicious one you’ve made? If you can pick one…
That would no doubt be my Keto Chocolate Fudge Peanut butter Caramel cheesecake bars.
When you can hardly fit all the flavors in the description you know it’s gonna be good. I always have a batch of these in my fridge.
Guess what we are gonna try soon?! ;) Can you share a bit of what you usually eat in a day?
I do intermittent fasting so I start my day with an MCT coffee and have my first meal around 12-1 pm. My favorite quick and easy go-to lunch is usually fried halloumi cheese with avocado and a spinach salad with tomato and feta cheese.
In the afternoon around 3pm, I have coffee and a homemade keto snack or some nuts. Then I have dinner around 8 pm and it’s normally some kind of meat with a salad, always organic and often wild-caught. Other favorites are Bolognese with zucchini pasta, or a piece of beef with celeriac fries and bearnaise or just an oven-baked salmon filé with salad. Some evenings I enjoy a keto snack again for dessert.
We can’t resist a little sweet snack after dinner sometimes either… we feel ya!
We see that you often talk about meditation. Taking care of the mind is super important. A lot of people find it hard to make meditating a habit. Do you have any tips for someone who wants to incorporate meditation in their routine?
I know the struggle! It’s hard to find the calm to sit down and focus on nothing when your mind is used to being constantly exposed to input and distractions. My best advice is to just start from the point you’re at.
Even if that means just 5 minutes a day or 5 minutes a few days a week that's progress from nothing. And then you will gradually increase from that. Don’t think that you have to start with 30 minutes every time if you’re not used to meditating, progress is the only thing that really matters.
The key is also to let go of the pressure, there is nothing like the perfect meditation. The point is not the result, but the practice of meditation is. Even if you feel like your thoughts are all over the place every time you sit down to practice is progress for your mind.
Meditating is a way for me to get better contact with my intuition and my creative flow and living a more balanced life. It's definitely our greatest tool for overall wellbeing. For those who have meditated for a while and want to take their practice to the next level, I can really recommend going to a 10 day Vipassana silent meditation course. It’s life-changing! 
And what's the biggest message you would like to share about healthy fats and the keto lifestyle?
Healthy fats have had a bad rep for way too long and that’s such a waste of health and I recommend everyone to question all the bad stuff you’ve heard about fat while growing up. I’m not saying that everyone should follow keto and even if you don’t, you will enjoy lots of health benefits from adding a little more healthy fats to your life! A great way to do this is to boost your mornings with an MCT-coffee and boost the afternoon with some funky fat chocolate :)
Thank you for sharing your story with us Camilla!
And you guys don't forget to use the #highfatstory on Instagram if you also want to share your journey with us!
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