Week 1 - New Year 2014 Low Carb Bootcamp - And We're Off!

[BIWI]

Morning all!

I see several of you have already weighed in on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

As of today, though, we also have our bright, shiny, new Bootcamp section on Mumsnet, including our own Weight Tracker, which will only show your own weight/progress.

You can either use the Spreadsheet as we have done before, which everyone has access to and can see, or you can go here and enter your weight.

Obviously you can do both!

When you're in the new Bootcamp, if you click on the tab that says 'more info' that will take you to a section which has loads of information about low carbing, as well as Bootcamp Rules

Before we get going formally, I have to make an important disclaimer:

I am not a doctor, a medic, a scientist, a nutritionist or a dietician. I have no formal training in food, dieting or low carbing. The information that I provide here is based solely on my reading on the subject, as well as my own experience. If you have any kind of medical condition and/or you are taking any kind of ongoing medication, you should consult your GP before starting a low carb diet

That done, good luck everyone!

gussiegrips

Sorry about it all Helium. You are seriously to be congratulated for sticking with low carbing when under stress.

Strangely I seem to get really really hungry just after I have eaten my evening meal. Perhaps because baby ds feeds for hours in the afternoon? I ate two sausages that were not low carb due to desperation, I am finding this really challenging without dairy as I would normally eat some cheese or yoghurt. But I will manage.

I didn't do shred today and am finally starting to wee out all this water. I have been most bemused by the fact that I am drinking about 3L of fluid a day but not particulary needing the loo - all that has changed today. Left to my own devices I don't drink enough water.

Cooked courgette by grating it, mixing up with melted butter and microwaving. Was good but would have been better with some cream and cheese!

To whoever was asking about cream - its important to keep the fat intake up. So a creamy sauce is one way of doing that. But it doesn't have to be cream with everything, and actually we also need to bear in mind the "dairy in moderation" rule. So probably some-meals-without-cream is the way to go.

Today's meals:

B: scrambled egg and fried mushrooms

L: Tuna mayo salad + coleslaw

S: Cheese (I'm not very good at this dairy in moderation thing myself)

D: smoked mackerel with cauliflower-with-a-cheese sauce (melted philadelphia)

I agree absolutely with the 1lb a week average loss thing. It will be a real fat loss each week. My skin has kept up with the changes. I've lost over 2.5 stone at the 1lb-a-week-average (and its very up-and-down not steady).

Its impossible not to think in days when we're having to make food choices all the time all day - but really it helps to view it a bit longer-term. (But also - good to notice when weight-loss slows and make adjustments, eg more water.)

I'm not doing well. Will have to start again tomorrow.

Humphrey I am always hungry after my evening meal. When I did SW I put it down to lack of proper pudding and would top up on fruit, now I'm not craving pudding and I know I am not properly hungry but I still want to eat. I don't think it's breastfeeding as I stopped around 23 years ago!

I drink a vast amount more than I wee. I often claim I only weigh 8 stone and the rest of me is fluid retention!

Hang in there everyone!

To cheer you up, here's a picture of the most beautiful egg cup in the world (this is relevant to LC'ing honestly)

I found it today in john Lewis (£3.50) and hope it will lure me away from dairy-based breakfasts

helium - big hugs . I have been there with OW trauma with my DD1 and 2 . It was teeth grittingly horrid to start with and I could cheerfully have poked her eyes out .... But stick in there and the novelty of a new person to spoil them quickly passes . Mummy will always be Mummy - I promise it will get better .

MyPreciousRing you've done fine, you haven't messed up at all!

Helium :( Biggest of big hugs x Please try your best not to worry about any 'mothering role' OW will be doing, even though it sticks in your throat it's better the DC like her and she will never be their Mummy, that's you and that wont ever change. Cut yourself some slack about being upset in front of them and whatever you said - there's a lot to be said for honestly over pretence - kids are small, not stupid. Here's to a better day tomorrow x

Water - I have a new method of getting a lot of water drunk :) very very very boring 4 hour meetings. 2l with no effort - something 'to do' Just about floated home!

Dear Heliumheart
I just got home and am catching up with reading posts - sounds really hard at the mo
There are a lot of people here offering their support.
Well done for keeping on track today.

I had a good day - am loving cream in tea now

helium . It's hard. I didn't have to deal with 'an OW' but it was sometimes hard watching my little ds fall madly in love with xh's girlfriend (and she with him!) I just kept telling myself that all I could hope was that ds would always be surrounded by people who love him and care about him, that that was A Good Thing, even if it made me feel a bit shit at times. It turned out, of course, that insecurity/worry was totally unnecessary - I am his mum and always, always will be, no matter how much he likes, or loves, anyone else.

Love the egg cup

Not a brilliant day today, could do with a bit more water and veg.

Breakfast: cup of tea, protein shake
Lunch: m&s tikka calamari and prawns with yoghurt dip (just over 2g carbs and sooooooo yummy), a piece of cheese dipped in the remainder of the dip. I also bought some Parma ham but wasn't hungry so will have it tomorrow.
Dinner: my mum invited ds and I round for chilli. Bless her, she'd done shredded cabbage for me to have with it instead of the mountains of rice she'd made for everyone else, but the chilli was full of kidney beans. I didn't have the heart to pick them out, so hoping it's not done too much damage, ketosis-wise. Came home and had a cup of liquorice tea and a small bowl of total with double cream. Added less than half a teaspoon of chocolate protein powder and it was tooth achingly sweet - will leave it out next time!

2 litres of water. Will try to drink a bit more before bed.

Feel like I'm not eating enough, but am just not hungry.

mypreciousring

You haven't totally messed up - it would be easy to turn that into a good day ...

(B - three slices of bacon) Do you like spinach? Easy to cook quickly, lovely with butter.

(L- small vegetable soup with shredded ham added in) more processed meat isnt so great - maybe tuna? chicken? instead and what was in the soup?

(D- pork chop, fried egg, mushrooms, slice of bacon, square sausage and a tea spoon of chopped tomato) Fried courgette would go well with this or butter cooked brocolli?

Quite a lot of processed meat in there - probably good to cut it down if you can :)

I nearly made the Emlea mistake once, just assumed it was ordinary cream, but luckily there was another one and I was just checking to see which was the lowest carb, if it had been the only one I wouldn't have known until it was too late - easy mistake.

Whitener not great - but there are worse 'sins' you could have committed. Onwards and upwards :)

Holger - anything we can help you with?

Pistey - you asked about family meals. Personally I have always taken the view that if I'm doing the cooking (which I always am) then they get what I want to cook. Which means stuff that works for me. So dishes that are based around carbs like lasagne or risotto are simply off the menu.

The only time I've made dishes like that has been when I know I'm not going to be in to eat them.

MyPreciousRing You haven't messed up at all. I'd say you'd had a good day actually.

My day:

B - Total with a spoon of flaxseed mixed in. Tea with splash of milk
L - huge green salad with creamy dressing and some left over roast chicken.
D - Smallish bit of steak with celeriac (fried and mashed with garlic and tiny amount of chilli) mushrooms fried in butter and a pile of broccolli.

Snack - baby bel cheese.

1.5 litres of water.

You could have had more veg, but you haven't really messed up - just re-balance things a bit tomorrow.

What I need to do is think this through long term. WOE and all that.

That's the trick. It also helps you make allowances for times when you can't low carb - 'cos sometimes you're in situations where you just can't.

Thanks so much to everyone here for such words of wisdom. It really does help to know that you get through this bit. I am having such a painful divorce from a nightmarish and controlling H, and just when I think I am coping, something else hits me. I had a great day yesterday and like somebody else mentioned, seem to be full of energy and attacked the house, achieving loads. Then today - nothing. Just awful feeling of misery and depression. In theory I'm fine with it, it's just these dreadful bombshells the children themselves drop, in all innocence, and I realise I'm just not okay with it at all. I need to learn some responses to say when they talk about her and her child.

Will be back tomorrow and hopefully a bit more cheerful!

Hello
Just signing up for the new bootcamp. Feeling better already after my Christmas binge. Am trying to hold my stomach in whenever i remember so that the wobbly belly does not dominate...

So sad for you, helium! That would be my worst nightmare, I'm a dreadfully jealous sort of person and even get the (mild) hump when DS1 goes on about how much he loves it at grandma's and he wishes he could stay there all the time. But as everyone says, in the end when the chips are down, YOU are their mummy and she is just their Dad's girlfriend; it's GOOD that she's being super-nice to them just now, better than the alternative of course, and they're too young to "take sides".
- although obvs virtual! :)

I posted this on the warm-up thread after CalamityKate had a wobble, and it has been suggested I re-post it here for info. Hope it's useful for some of you, especially to use against the doubters and wobbles.

My nanna was told to lose weight because of a heart valve issue in the 1970s. Guess what she was told to cut out - that's right, CARBS. Not fat.

Any health risk from low carbing really comes from no-carbing, where you eat no veg or fruit at all; because it creates an imbalance in electrolytes in the body - and may cause problems with calcium being pulled out of bones to address this, and because you may miss out on some vitamins and minerals.

The current food pyramid model is so far wrong it's not funny. I don't honestly know WHAT they were thinking when they produced that, unless it was from an economic point of view, when grains were a lot cheaper than other food types.

YEARS ago I saw a documentary on the tv about heart disease. Apparently in 1972 or thereabouts, there was a Report done on reasons for the increase and four food substances were accused - salt, sugar, cholesterol and saturated fat. But according to this documentary, Mr Tate of Tate & Lyle, who was a big political subscriber too, managed successfully to get the sugar part suppressed!!
Of course, since then it has been shown that increased cholesterol intake does NOT directly or necessarily lead to increased blood cholesterol, as the body makes and recycles about 80% of its own cholesterol.
There is some evidence that increased saturated fat --> increased blood cholesterol, but that was before people started differentiating it into LDL and HDL - if it's HDL that increases, then that's a GOOD thing (although LDL should not be demonised - it's essential for carrying out body repairs. We'd all fall apart without cholesterol, it's the glue that binds every cell together).

Do you know that sugar is completely unnecessary as a food stuff? Some carbohydrate is useful, in that it's the easiest way to get the glucose the brain likes to function on, but it's better taken from complex carbohydrates, which also have the added benefit of feeding the gut bacteria and keeping them healthy too.

But the point about this WOE is to start off by killing the sugar craving - not to remove carbs completely - so any discussion of no-carb diets won't be relevant. :)

Evening all. Looks like interesting and useful chat today. So sorry as I don't have time to read through now - will try and come back tomorrow. So just checking in with my day to keep the routine going:

B: 2 eggs, butter
L: Leftover bolognaise from yesterday evening with lettuce, pepper and cheese on side.
D: A sort of chicken carbonara thing with bacon and mushrooms, served with cauli rice. Was lovely.

I will admit to having 1 teaspoon of peanut butter (no sugar, but obviously carby!) when I was making the kid's tea. Sorry . Almost enough water.