Week 10 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - almost the end!

[BIWI]

Morning peeps!

Sorry for the late start but had to deal with builders/deliveries etc first thing.

So we have reached the final week. Here's the SoF for its penultimate outing

Hopefully it's a good result (well done @MrsBertBibby!) and hopefully we can pick up/get back the motivation for one last week, before our final weigh-in next Monday.

I was at my niece's hen do on Saturday, which started off with the most fabulous afternoon tea (Betty's in York) so it was a complete and utter carb fest all day after that!). But I have three weeks before the actual wedding, so will be back on it with a vengeance as I have to buy A Dress

Good luck everyone

Oooooooh Betty's!

Om nom nom!

I know! It was fabulous. There was no way I wasn't going to eat it

Here it is ...

Oh my!

Eeeeek. Almost as bad as the raspberry meringue adverts that keep popping up on the sidebar...

Not been around much as things gone atomic at work and at home - but as always, come running to the call! Will add some more columns on today.

I'm still persisting, but stuck on 8.13 for some weeks, so need to jolt something out of it's routine.

Ooh lovely BIWI

Am at 10 stone 10 (and a half!). My target for this BC was 10’7 or 8 so am quite pleased and reckon I will get pretty close this week.

I realise though as I get close that I really do have another half stone or so to lose, so am going to keep going until we go on holiday on August 16

I also think I’m going to find maintaining easier this time than I had previously, when I have had the odd crisp or whatever at a party I haven’t been that bothered

NSV - no idea if it’s really related but am going to claim it is - I’ve stopped biting my nails over the course of this BC

By the way

Don't forget that we're suggesting a Bootcamp style & beauty meet-up - where one of our Very Lovely Bootcampers will be talking about colour, and identifying personal colour styles.

I can't say more on the board, but if you'd like to come/want to know more, please send me a PM

Morning

BIWI. Betty’s is fab isn’t it! I took my mum there a few years ago when she was i we she was over for a visit. Thank god I live a long way from there!

I wrote a long reply to the on the week 9 thread yesterday but it hasn’t posted. I’ll re do it later

I made a veg curry last night it was really nice but it was 25g of carbs (for the whole thing) and I ate 2/3 as it was basically only 700g of veg plus butter & spices) but I can’t be doing that too often. I need cauliflower to be carb free!!

I had some cream and two squares of 85% chocolate later on too

Unsurprisingly the scales have been a bit unkind this morning up to 108.9 (yesterday 108.3, but mid week 107.5) hopefully a couple of days of keeping it lower & muttering kind things to the scales & they’ll find the 7’s again.

It’ll be good to end this BC IN THE 107’s (but still not great I was 103 this time last year- still not ‘good’ I should be under 60, preferably under 50! But it’s SO SO close to being back under 100... but I hit the carb slide & went for a ride 😳🙄

It was literally falling off me at that point last year, but it was severe emotional stress & it to be recommended. Normal stress doesn’t cut it apparently - I gain not lose.

I am going to do my final weigh in on Friday as I’m going away for work & Friday night I’m meeting up with a good friend & her kids and between us all there are so many dietary issues I’m not going to look at the carbs. We will probably end up ordering from the ‘Fish & chip shop’ as there’s something everyone can/will eat ...but I’ve ordered the ladder so I can climb down, not throw myself off, the wagon & climb back up again. I can pretty much cater for myself at work although with it being the holidays I know it won’t be 100%BC but I’m aiming to be ‘very mindful’

I’ve also bought the Fast800 book to read (though it’s just been sitting there glaring at me) so far

I joined in with another thread on here the other day ‘vegan dieters’ everyone is doing their own thing & it’s interesting & quite funny, but I’ll have to see how I go as I’m such a vocal low carber all of the ‘I only ate fruit today’ posts are hard to ‘walk on past’ & the idea is to support each other no matter which ‘plan’ people are choosing and I’m trying to keep an open mind (but low carbing just makes sense! ) & calorie counting & lie fat seems so ‘70’s 🤣

Plus they keep posting lovely food ideas that are NOT low carb.

Hope everyone has a good Final ‘BC SUMMER 2019’ week!

I’ll definitely.be here after - ‘KOKO’ until the next one xx

Lost a lb , so I’m at 11-02 , only lost 2 lb this Bootcamp ( actually I’ve lost about 8 lb , but it’s the same 2 lb 4 times )

Thanks @BIWI , for the Bootcamp , I’ve been pretty rubbish , but the weight is going down 👍

Glad to be back from holiday and in charge of my own food again.
I was pretty good on holiday, nothing sweet and no carb-fest, but I found it really difficult to enough fat. I made good choices but logging everything on mfp showed a much higher proportion of protein than normal on this woe, and a lower amount fat.

The fats that were readily available all seemed to come intimately bound with fries, potatoes, or bread, or with sugar (donut stops every 10 yards all with a hundred ways of adding extra sugar – rainbow sprinkles, cherries, dried fruit, caramel, maple syrup etc). We often had picnics during the day but even pre-prepared salads often included sweetcorn, croutons, or dried fruits so I was raking through them and leaving little piles of unwanted goodies at the side of my plate - my dh declared that I had become quite picky! Avocado on sourdough without the sourdough was my staple breakfast. Plus nearly all the ‘good’ fats were then messed around with to create ‘healthy’ low fat dressing or low-fat cheese.

I really noticed that without the high fat I felt hungry between meals which then made it more difficult to make the right choices or resist the bread bowl. It was also a challenge to get lots of healthy lc veg (not sweetcorn or beetroot), so home yesterday for a delicious lamb and spinach keema curry with butter roasted cauliflower and beans, followed by rhubarb fool. And I’m relieved to be back amongst familiar lunch or snack options at M&S.

All in all, I’m pretty delighted that after 2 weeks of mostly eating out I am only 0.5 lb up on my weight when I went away.

I’ve got a challenging week for the final one, with 2 work-related meals out and SIL’s birthday afternoon tea (the worst thing for lchf options). So today is the egg-based approach:
B – creamy scrambled eggs with bacon
L – boiled eggs with butter
D – cheese and spinach omelette

Being on holiday with limited options for any kind of self catering made me think of you BIWI with your kitchen renovations and wonder how you’re doing with the combination of disruption and this woe, or have you done it for so long that it is easier to make the right choices afternoon tea at Betty’s aside ? I remember how dispirited I was when I was getting a new kitchen. It felt grubby washing up in the bathroom sink, and toast or a take-away always seemed the easy option. Well done for keeping us all going, and thank you for all your work and support on bootcamp(s).

Shagme - from the last thread x

I'm +1lb this morning, which is annoying because I've stuck to the rules all week, but it went on on Tuesday and stayed, so I'm guessing it's a hangover from the bad Sunday. KOKO and it will go again.

I did find that I started eating less to try and shift it, which only made me ravenous and meant on Saturday night supper ended up being (1) leftover sausage casserole from a couple of days before, (2) the remains of DH's curry, (3) a big bowl of strawberries, blueberries and double cream. All on plan (the curry was a healthy one and he likes to dip naan into it rather than have rice) and the scales didn't move, but a lesson that my body will start demanding stuff if I don't feed it properly.

Morning all Got lots of catching up to do, it’s been a manic weekend after busy week. Slipped up a bit over weekend with carbs creeping in here and there, unsurprisingly it is reflected on the scales with a couple of pounds gain so this morning I’m reporting in at 163.2 up from 161.something.

Back on it today properly and will KOKO.

Have my creamy coffee and 750ml water bottle at my side. Eggs have been consumed.

@venusandmars well done on avoiding all those temptations!

I think occasions like that, when you're out of your normal place and routine, really highlight how the current world revolves around carbs. Everywhere on the high street is a coffee shop or a gelato now, or some kind of takeaway that is carb-focused. And worse, the fatal combination of carbs and fat!

Kitchen renovations are going OK although we hit a snag at the end of last week (week 5) because dry rot was discovered under the stairs, so that has to be dealt with somehow.

Food/cooking has actually been OK. It's been helped by us being away for a couple of weekends, but also I've taken charge of the cooking. I've been reading up on the Fast 800 and have been trying out some of the recipes from the latest book - they're nice and simple recipes, but are all carb-counted (as well as calories, given the premise of the diet!). The key thing for me is that it has to be something that I can cook with just one hob, or using the microwave.

@VeryLittleOwl - it's very easy to slip into that mind set, of eating less, isn't it? What I've found when I do that is I start to jettison the fat, and that really doesn't help.

Portion sizing - aka calorie counting! - is definitely something to take into account if the scales aren't moving, but it's important to keep the macros in proportion - so it's still high fat, medium protein and low carb, but just in a smaller plateful.

@ShagMeRiggins My weight gain (and alcohol problem) started when I was in an abusive relationship. Secret drinking was my way of putting 2 fingers up at him, my way of exerting control in a sort of ^"ha ha! You don’t know what I do behind your back and you can’t stop me"^ way. It began with a sneaky can of lager and ran into a much-more-noticeable ‘sneaky’ bottle of vodka. I thought it helped me deal with the situation, but it only made me oblivious to it. Plus I was ‘munchy’ and ate mountains of crisps, nuts, toast, bread and cheese (because they all go well with a ‘vair nice bottle of wine’) then a big Mac, fries and coke to deal with the hangover the next day!

I got out of the relationship, but had a new controlling master in the form of booze and self-loathing.

Every step on the journey out of that has been positive, even the ones that seem to go backwards for a while, they just cover ground that I really needed to learn properly. It took a health scare to make me realise how much my body and soul wanted to live, and it’s taken a long time to get to this point of loving to see a plate of healthy greens or a colourful salad, to delight in the joy of a walk with the wind in my hair and fresh air in my lungs, and to be able to look at my aged, wrinkled and quirky body with appreciation for all it has survived.

@venusandmars

for venus. That's how my problem started too, except it was a way of not being present. My lightbulb moment was when I realised that 'not being present' was the same as wishing I wasn't alive anymore, and that realisation scared the pants off me.

Low carb allowed me to break the physical habit SO much more easily than previous attempts.

Shag, big boisterous hug for you.

Oh! Should say! Finally crawled out of the relationship 8 years ago now and still blissfully happy about that achievement. Booze-free tends to be an on-off success, but low carb really helps with that, and since I did my first BC some years ago I have NEVER gone back to the bottle-a-night oblivion. Very occasionally slowly slide into a couple of bottles over a week, but never let that continue for more than a couple of weeks at most. At present, booze free entirely* for the last 3 weeks and not missing it at all. Quite a common occurrence now.

• except for the half bottle that went in the casserole a few days ago. But the other half has been sitting on the side ever since and I'm not remotely interested.

Thanks, BIWI - these BCs absolutely adjusted my attitude to food and drink.

Woohoo - a big whoosh finally , thanks to 3 days of egg fast which stopped me snacking and loads of water. Down 4 3/4lb on last week to 12st 5.25lb Only 5.5lb to go to get back into the 11st somethings.

Like MrsBert I'm pleased with that and will gloss over that I'm still about 10lb more than I was this time last year - that's 9.5lb this Boot Camp

STS, which is fair enough as I had such a big whoosh last week. And have had more post-show booze than is probably recommended.

My mental maths is crap - I'm down 3 and 3/4lb Still dead chuffed though

Ok, so I was tearful reading the end of thread nine and now I’m just sobbing. Have just caught up having not rtft since Wed. You gals are all amazing and I am so, so, so grateful to you all for sharing. It’s so bizarre when that weird phenomenon happens whereby you suddenly find yourself in the company of a group of people with whom you can completely identify. If not through exactly the same shared experiences, then certainly similar enough in terms of impact and outcomes. Right place, right time. That whole people coming in to your life when you need it thing.

This bootcamp has been exactly what I needed, but in so many more ways than I thought or expected. I was here for the moral support to ditch the carbs and body fat but in many ways it’s been a bit like going in to therapy and realising/facing all the mental and emotional stuff too.
It’s not that I wasn’t/am not aware of the links between diet/drinking and mental well being/stress; I know how I got fat, and I know when and usually why I’m being unhealthy and unhelpful to myself. BUT, I was so focused on losing the fat, I guess I didn’t expect to be inadvertently facing and thinking about the emotional links quite so much. Almost as though it was all about the willpower and dietary changes alone.
Throughout this bootcamp I have been humbled by campers honesty, and I really appreciate everyone taking the time to share their experiences. And yes, the rawness of some of it is so powerful. I can identify with many of you in different ways, from the (lighter - albeit not stress free!) house renovations/sale stuff, the complicated relationship situs through to the childhood trauma, depression, the adult drinking issues/self medicating and the obesity (obvs).
I lied a bit earlier when I said I was awol because of work and manic weekend. Well the manic bit was true, but was more a reflection of my mental state! It is also true that things have been busy, but mostly I’ve been having a wobble (not helped by blob hormones) and had a case of the fuck it’s and a bit of ‘fuck you’ at life - drinking and eating. Not completely off the rails, but more rabbit in the headlights ‘I just need to get through today in one piece mentally’ sort of stuff.

Started this morning (with eggs ) hoping to wipe slate clean and have a calmer, better week. Then caught up on thread and it’s been like a big, mental and emotional release to read. Whilst I’m so sorry for the pain any of you have/are going through, in a selfish way I feel so relieved and grateful to not be alone in my battles and ‘failure’ to cope with life. And I know it’s wrong to use the word failure - but that’s what it feels like, hence the speech marks.
And I know I’m not the only person on the planet to have/have had problems (me me me), and to struggle with life, but it’s so easy to feel like everyone else is better at ‘life’ than you are. Or more to the point, that you (me) are crapper at dealing with life than everyone else. Me me me failure. Even in misery I like to feel special!
It’s just nice to not feel alone. I don’t feel as shit about myself when I’m reminded that it’s just human and ‘normal’ to not feel normal and to not cope.
So to massive hugs and snogs to ShagMe and to Venus and Athelstane and all other campers who have commented.

Well done Prettybird! You’ve got me convinced. Egg fast for me from Wed. Got some salmon and meat in to use up first. But then am on it!

By the way, Venus your dh deserves a promotion or at very least a pay rise for that ‘you’re slimmer and fitter than your dsis’ comment. Unprompted! Taught him well, you have
They’re not all useless sods, all the time eh?

And BIWI what all the others have said about the threads. You truly are a legend
And about that fridge freezer combo... may I ask, what was reason for two separate appliances rather than one? I’m in the market for a large American style fridge freezer, or so I thought, but now I want to know if I’m missing a trick on separate gadgets? Thabka for ice dispenser tip. Admittedly it was big motivation. May just look at chilled water options instead. And a hot water tap if it’s not squillions.

Oh god 18pages you’ve got me welling up now too. I agree with everything you’ve said. It’s not just the food is it - for me this BC has really been about confronting my relationship with alcohol. And I’ve also been wrestling with my spending/ hoarding- I am always afraid of things running out, so out food cupboards are bulging, if I find a t shirt I like I buy two or three but I have so many clothes I can never find what I want to wear. I know why this is but have been distracting myself - the distraction is getting harder for me

Thank you all for all your company and support and obviously especially BIWI

I’ve been doing 12:8 fasting with some success and am thinking about maybe doing a form of lchf 5:2 for the next few weeks. Am getting into exciting territory of getting properly slim which I haven’t been for decades

What a lovely post, 18 pages. You're not alone. We've all made bad, terrible, uninformed, or just plain nasty decisions in our time. And that's fine. It teaches us to try not to do it again.

Forget that wrinkled old smugtwat Yoda, with his pompous "do, or not do, there is no try". Halfwit. Trying is fab; journeys can be better than destinations; striving is more satisfying than inertia; trying is living! A 100% success rate in everything in life would be a different experience, but would make for a very one dimensional personality I think. And a lack of connection to the rest of the human race that must be mentally quite close to insanity.

I could pom-pom a bit longer, but I hear the cat yakking on the kitchen floor so better be off...