Week 5 - Autumn Low Carb Bootcamp - Almost half way through!

[BIWIZ]

Welcome to another week!

Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I have been a carby twat, I have to confess, but I've been making the most of my last couple of weeks without work. Tomorrow I start my new job, which will also be the first time I've worked for someone other than myself/my own company for over 16 years

So from tomorrow I will have to be more disciplined in all manner of ways - working out what to have for my lunch in an office, rather than just rummaging around in the fridge, planning meals that I can easily cook when I get home from work, etc.

There are now 6 weeks left of this Bootcamp (including this week), so I'm really hoping that I can jettison a good few pounds in this time.

However, firstly there is the matter of the works 'annual conference' that I have been invited to join. On Wednesday I'm off to Marrakech until Friday ...

It's a tough job. Obviously.

Good luck everyone for this week.

Good luck in new job BIWI - sounds exciting. And at risk of being very nosy, what sort of job/field where you get to go to Marrakech (jealous!)

Probably weighing in Tuesday here as early start tomorrow but couldn't resist being first post this week (unless someone's beaten me to it as I type!)

Good luck in the new job and have a fab time in Marrakech! Don't work too hard while there!

Am doing pretty good I think... still not weighed myself but comfortable having dropped a size and my rings are loose so aiming to stay at this level... keeping up with bootcamp so that I stay on the straight and narrow!

Marrakech!

Best of luck with the new job and have a great trip?

Good luck with your new job BIWI

Marrakech! Congratulations BIWI:)

Up way to early with ds and dithering about whether to weigh myself now or at dawn!

I have lost enough weight to need a new swimsuit:) the old one is too big everywhere and looks like someone else's!

For the first time in a long time I am keen to get on the scales:)

Another 1lb off for me, I'm very slow and steady! But an inch off my hips and 1.5 inches off my hips :) :)

An inch off my WAIST that is

STS this week but I have lost half an inch off my hips so hopefully there's still progress. I'm close to goal though so a slower weight loss is to be expected, indeed Atkins recommends a weight loss of 1-2 lb per month when you're 10 lb or less from goal.

V jealous biwi have a fab time.

Too scared to weigh today, v constipated, waiting for senokot to kick in.

morning everyone

hope your fist day goes well BIWI!

goodness - it's not that sort of job i hope!

FIRST day obviously.

Hee hee at fist. Good luck! 1.75lb off. Yay. Must drink more (some) water this week.

just updated- another 2.5 pounds off.. thanks again BIWI, Willi and all on the thread keeping me motivated:)

2lb off this morning, which I am amazed at as I was so sure I'd gained over the weekend.

Another 1lb off and really noticing that I look much slimmer. Very happy with that. I'm two-thirds of the way to my target.

Still being a bit useless and carby and on/ off. I really need hauling back onto wagon for significant amount of time. Main problem seems to be that when I break the WOE for a planned cheat, it all goes haywire and involves days of nonsense and uncommitted eating until I get back into the WOE. I am beginning to think, I just should not break the plan ever (like apart from maybe Christmas day!) until I have lost a chunk more weight. What does everyone else think, and does anyone have the same planned cheat=disaster situation too?

So no weigh in last week - too worried that bad weight would send me into a tray of cinnamon buns for comfort. But this week after 2 days absolutely 100% on again, am 1/4 pound down on a fortnight ago - I'll take that!

Good luck with the new job BIWI - Marrakech sounds like a good way to ease into the 9-5 (or 8-6 eek!)

Oh no! I have been hidden from spreadsheet for non-attendance!
Willie please could you pop me back on. Thank you!

No loss this week - what is happening?
Any quick checks I can do to see what on earth I'm missing here?

Confession - I fell off the wagon once when DD make some cookies ..but surely over a whole week that shouldn't halt all weight loss!

really disappointed - last time was easier!

Yes, good luck with the job!

This has been my first week back to bootcamp proper (held off until my holiday/carbytwat week) was over. Lost 7lb! Woohoo! I am 3 stone lighter than this time last year

Having started late I will be carrying on until nearer Xmas than the official bootcamp end date so will still do the full 10 weeks and if anyone else wants to join me I will be glad of the company.

negroni in a sense it's good that you recognise the pattern.

now that you're aware that this happens, do you plan for the 'aftermath' of the planned off-piste eating?

it's worth remembering that the more uncontrolled continued 'off-plan' eating after the planned detour is in major part a physiological response to the original off-plan eating - you have triggered an insulin reaction and restarted the high/low blood sugars cycle, so the carbs are more appealing to you.

it is really really hard, but if you are going to go off-piste (and nothing wrong with planning to stay on the wagon until christmas, particularly if you want to lose a decent amount, though life doesn't always make that easy!), you need to put strategies in place to combat the cravings that you KNOW will come afterwards. this is easier said than done, but if you can, go back to basics:

• plan for three proper meals a day
• plan your absolute favourite low carb foods and meals - these will help you feel less 'deprived' when the carb cravings hit
• get away from the carby foods, at least those that are most desirable to you - get rid of the leftover cake etc
• eat plenty of fat to make sure you feel properly satiated
• drink plenty of water
• do a bit of exercise if you want. i find it can help with the 'virtuous' cycle of not wanting to waste the benefits of exercise by eating badly. it can also help deplete your glycogen levels. HOWEVER, exercise, particularly if intensive in nature, can make you crave carbs and if you are in the post-off-plan-eating vulnerable stage this could make things worse as your blood sugar levels decrease! you know your own body and reactions so act accordingly

Negroni, same here. If I plan a cheat I really struggle to get back to eating sensibly. I've had a few stupid days of cake and alcohol due to having visitors and family get togethers and I've put on 5 lb!! I weigh more than I did when I started and I only had a stone to lose!

I struggle because I'm not a good cook really and run out of ideas and get bored of the same things easily and am also on a tight budget

Anyway, back on track today and will try and stay away from the alcohol. At least the cake has all gone!

MOSD the 5lb will almost certainly be water weight and glycogen stores being replenished - i'm afraid this is what happens if you go off-piste from low-carbing.

on the plus side (as timidviper's post demonstrates) once you get back on it that weight can fall off within a few days

give us an idea of what you're eating and hopefully we can come up with some simple ideas to add variety so you're less likely to get bored. do you have a slow cooker? i find it really helps with costs as i can get really cheap cuts of meat and they turn out beautifully in the slow cooker, and i am not a very accomplished cook

I have no idea why I ended my last post with a question mark. I must have caught the habit from DD, who we've noticed has started putting that upward inflection on the end of every sentence when on the phone to her friends, a la Darcy Bussel in Strictly, or everyone in Neighbours/Home and Away, or all posh teenagers in Surrey.

I'm amazed and happy to report that I've lost 4lbs this week, taking me under 11stone for the first time in two years. I think the whoosh fairy has visited me at the same time as the totm fairy, hence the sudden loss. I've found the last week really hard, too - had a virus giving me a constant headache, feeling shit, wanted comfort food, no appetite for anything I was allowed to eat, etc etc etc. I almost caved in and went for a curry on Thursday (there would have been rice, and cider!), I'm glad I didn't now.

I've had a few off plan moments this weekend, too - bottle of prosecco to cheer me up on Saturday, red wine last three nights, a few squares of 85% chocolate and the worst... A few roast potatoes and some breadcrumbs mixed with ground almonds to coat the parasol mushrooms we picked yesterday. Only had a few as a starter though, so probably about a third of a slice of wholemeal bread.

Now that I've confessed my sins, I can enjoy the whoosh. It's been a while coming - 7lbs loss the first week and then nothing; sts second week and then gained a lb in the third. Glad I kept the faith and stayed on plan, and this has refocussed me now.

Some stats for anyone needing some convincing that this WOE works...
Weight on 7th May when I joined the last bootcamp... 177lbs
Weight at the end of summer Bootcamp... 160lbs
So a loss of 17lbs or 7.7kg
Starting weight for September Bootcamp 163lbs (after an August which included a trip to Cornwall with cream teas, ice creams etc )
Weightloss so far this bootcamp 10lbs.

So a total loss of 24lbs or almost 11kg in five months!

And that includes drinking wine at weekends once on bootcamp light, eating delicious food that I can get excited about cooking, still having treats (DP made a special request for my berry crumble made with almonds last night!) and feeling calmer and healthier than I have done for a very long time (not this week, I've felt like a big sack of bollocks, but overall. ).

Mont importantly, I feel that I've changed my mindset so that I'm automatically thinking in a low carb way now. That doesn't mean I don't still want to be a carby twat sometimes, but I know that I can do that for special occasions and then I'll be happy to climb right back on the wagon and get 'back to normal' with food I enjoy and don't feel deprived with. It is hard sometimes, especially with lunches or if I haven't planned ahead, but it's becoming second nature and the benefits are huge.

Also, and this is a big benefit for me personally, I find it much easier not to give in to the temptation of drinking wine every night when I'm low carbing. I think it's because I'm less ruled by blood sugar highs and slumps, and when that late afternoon malaise hits, I can distinguish it as hunger rather than an unfulfilled need for chilled white wine! I find I can just accept not drinking Mon-Thurs now, whereas before I always had that wheedling little voice in my head going 'well just a glass or three won't hurt'. Better for my waistline, complexion, mental health and my liver.

People keep commenting on how much weight I've lost.
So keep the faith, anyone who's feeling despondent on the scales this morning... slow and steady is the way to go and the weight will come off if keep on keeping on!

And to BIWI and Willie for running this thread, I certainly would not have stuck to this without your support and that of all you lovely Bootcampers!

Come on you can do it!

I know what you mean as I'm a person of excess, and certainly in August when I decided to have a couple of weeks of eating what I liked, knowing I'd be starting bootcamp again in Sept., It rapidly degenerated into a carb fest, almost as if I wanted to cram as much in as possible while I had the chance. I agree with wise Willie about planning being key. If you know you're going off road then you need to have a plan for afterwards - get rid of all temptation, get your favourite low carb foods in, plan plan plan ahead.

Timid 3 stone since last year!! Well done you!