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!

Hope this doesn't break some kind of rule... I've started a new thread here hoping to stop losing all those great ideas for good lc products to buy

The most raging thirst going on here. Practically a drought.

My dh is doing bootcamp too and he's weighed this morning and he's lost 11lb since Monday I don't even know how that kind of loss is possible without amputating a limb or having a baby.

I've lost 6.5lb and am feeling much better this bootcamp than I did last time, I fact I feel completely normal.

Wrt the wine. I look so much better when I don't drink and definitely a lot younger. Alcohol makes me look puffy. Shame as I bloody love it!

Thanks Fluckety. Considering how much I normally drink, five days off it should surely mean that I look like a dewy faced 18 year old, rather than the pasty, sallow forty year old I see in the mirror!

Methe well done on your and DH's losses, although I think I'd want to slap DP if he'd lost that much this week. Mine does the low carbing but in a fairly half hearted way (very happy to eat low carb high fat meals in the evening but still eats carbier lunches, muesli for brekkie, dark chocolate in the evening and drinks beer) and the bugger still loses weight on bootcamp! He does go to the gym 3 times a week though.

He has a lot to lose tbh and we were both complete gluttons over Christmas and drank a lot so I expect a lot of it is water weight. He's also a huge sugar addict so I should think even if he wasn't low carbing he'd lose just because he's stopped filling his face with Green and Blacks at every opportunity. 11lb is a huge amount though, isn't it! He is rather pleased with himself.

Thank you for the flowers

Morning everyone,
I feel ok this morning. Hurrah!

I made the taco gratin from the Low Carb High Fat Scandinavian Cookbook last night and it was absolutely wonderful, I can't recommend it highly enough - I was tempted to eat beyond my new found satiety level but did stop (DH finished it off! I don't think he ever feels full!). Wonderful, will be making it again.

I'm a recovering alcoholic, and far enough into recovery that talks of wine etc don't bother me, but make me think back to how it all started with "needing" a drink after a stressful day, with a full time professional job and a small child. And on it went to terrible consequences which I won't go into (this is my anonymous name change!) but I think the reason that alcoholism is so insidious and so common amongst women is that we become conditioned to "deserving" or "needing" a drink, it's a suitable reward and if you don't feel that way you're a bit odd.

Like most addicts I shifted my addiction in recovery, fortunately to something a bit less harmful - which I am now in recovery from for a week, thanks to the encouragement of this thread.

This morning is the challenge of cupcakes - out of the house by mid afternoon and not even a lick of buttercream!! I don't feel tempted to be honest - 6cm lost off my waist in the last week - I'm not undoing that!

Just a quick good luck to all for the weekend ... ( is it just me that finds the weekends the biggest challenge )

Also a dire warning ..... Keep off the carb temptations ladies . DH has been loving all my fabulous recipes at home - but has just stepped on the scales and has GAINED 6 lbs ... He then admitted has been carbing up all day at work to 'prepare ' for a carb free evening meal !!. Silly devil !

I agree that weekends are the hardest as it's when I'm most likely to fall head first into a bottle of wine. I'm resisting getting on the scales until Monday morning, so that should spur me on.

Breakfast - up too late to bother but will have coffee with double cream in a minute.
Lunch - Home made curried cauliflower soup
Dinner - the Moussaka from the recipe thread (will have to nip out for Feta though)
Snacks - Hopefully none, but a lump of cheddar if I get desperate

Morning folks!

LittleMiss That sounds like a cookbook I want! Who is it by?

I spent a lot of last year alcohol and caffeine free for various reasons, and real coffee feels all indulgent now. I have one or two mugs of it now every day - anything more and it's decaf. We went through a lot of wine and bubbly over the holidays, but it's not really part of my normal routine, so it's easy enough not to have any now. Still, I'll probably have a glass (or two) of red wine once the two weeks are up. :)

I'm stuggling to mealplan, trying to write a shopping list. I think I've kind of lost my appetite, and reading the recipe thread and other sites isn't inspiring me. Even with things I know in theory I'd probably really like, I just keep thinking "Meh, don't really fancy that..."

Today I've just had a late breakfast of a couple of fried eggs and an extra yolk, half a romaine heart lettuce and coffee with coconut oil.
The rest of the day's foods will depend on what I drag home from the shops.

LittleMiss - I'm glad you are feeling much better today :) Are there many (any??) non egg vegetarian recipies in your new book?

littlemiss is this the book? www.amazon.co.uk/The-Low-Carb-High-Cookbook/dp/162087783X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390048970&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Low+Carb+High+Fat+Scandinavian+Cookbook

Another day done! Not quite so good today:
B: hot chocolate as mentioned above, and a protein bar that only had 2g carbs in it. It wasn't nice and will probably not be repeated (I got it as a freebie from a heath food shop)
L: cheese and mushroom omelette - this is rapidly becoming a staple - with 2 eggs, garlic salt, loads of butter and a dollop of double cream.
D: (I blame DH, it was his turn to cook) - Chinese take away, stir-fried duck in plum sauce (prolly a little sweet) with veg, but I did eat all the duck skin which I wouldn't normally; and beef with vegetables. No rice, or crackers, of course.
S: fried haloumi slices with homemade tzatziki again.

If anything I'm finding the evening cravings are getting worse :( - I just want something SWEET! It's driving me slightly mad.

It's my first full day today

B - Scrambled eggs and bacon
L - Ham salad
D - Cod fillet and veg

Not very exciting, but I'll get more ambitious as I go along, I'm sure!

I want to try a wedge salad soon. I looked it up after it was the cause of an argument on Modern Family It's a quarter chunk of an iceberg lettuce, with red onion and bacon sprinkled over, and a dressing made from sour cream, shallots, mild blue cheese, mayonnaise, garlic, red wine vinegar. I'm going to give it a go once I have the ingredients together.

Oops, posted too soon - on the plus side, I appear to have lost 4lb since Monday (avid over-weigher but realistic about it) which is great! Belly appears only 6m pg now instead of 7, definite improvement. I look forward to not looking pg at all again!

Oh well done Thumb!

Blimey, forget drought, I'm crawling through the bloody Sahara now. Can't seem to stop being thirsty, even though I'm SLOSHING.

Pistey, you know the drill, you are probably low on your salts if you have this much thirst, so get a cup of buillion, some salt on your food, have salmon and spinach for the minerals etc ... You will be washing out electrolytes with upping your water so you need to rebalance your salts.

Yes it is http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Low-Carb-High-Cookbook/dp/162087783X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390048970&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Low+Carb+High+Fat+Scandinavian+Cookbook here is the link if anyone else is interested. It has loads of pictures, very much about the 'way of life' which was useful starting from nowhere, but I've found far more recipes that I want to try from Low Carb Gourmet, which on the whole I think is much better.

I've made oopsie rolls this morning - they were very soft though. Since I was baking for a children's group, I thought I'd bake for me. Had them with smoked ham and rocket and dressing and a coffee with cream.

I've pushed myself to my limit today - really in pain from my foot and ankle. Well, it's ok to find your limits eventually. Once cakes are dropped off, I might be crawling back to bed for a rest! But generally I am starting to feel good. I'm very thirsty - really can't face drinking bouillon, sorry. Am supplementing magnesium. Salty lunch, tick. Had spinach last night. Oh well. Should I stop at 3L even if I'm still thirsty??

bloomin' link

Yesterday's food:
B 2 fried eggs, 2 bacon and lots of mushrooms all fried in butter.

I have breakfast around 10-10.30 am usually as I just drink water before school run/dog walk and eat when I get back to the house, so I was so full I didn't have lunch.

Early D before work: steak in a mushroom, mustard and cream sauce with creamy leeks. Yummy.

I was working last night and the lady at the meeting had provided a full buffet! She pressed and pressed me to have something (jacket spuds, crisps, sarnies etc) but I was saved when they brought out the veggie "moussaka" which was all veggies and using aubergine as the "pasta" replacement for the layers. There were possibly some less LC veggies in there but it was def the best option! With a bit of side salad and olives to fill up my plate and a few bits of cheese from the cheese board for afters, she was happy and so was I!

Anybody that gets pressured at work to take a bit of cake for a birthday etc, and don't want to cause offence, I have found I can take the cake, ooh and ah over how pretty it looks, casually put plate down to chat, wander off, come back later and pop cake surreptitiously in bin or through to kitchen area etc. I am a LC ninja but really I've never found anyone stood over me to check I was eating it! Once you take a bit, they are off doing other things.

LittleMiss - bloody good for you.

I'm not sure that sugar is an addiction in the same way as booze is. But, I have certainly NEVER been able to resist any form of the white stuff.

Ever.

So, imagine my surprise when this weekend's kid's birthday party passed without me eating a SINGLE cake/chocolate/haribo item.

Not once have I cheated this week. Not once.

Check the skies for a flying Horseman....surely this is a sign of the End Of Days?

So, LittleMiss - you have my utmost respect and best wishes for your continuing recovery. Sugar's been hard enough of a habit for me to get around to trying to break.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend? I just wanted to run a menu past you for comment if possible. I've got some veggie friends coming around for brunch tomorrow and want to keep on track as possible.

• Frittata (with spinach and mature cheddar)

-Roasted small tomatoes in olive oil and herbs

• Creamed mushrooms
• Radishes with butter and salt (mainly clearing my fridge out here!)

I'll be providing bread too for those who want it and cooking some sausages for the meat eaters...

What do you think? I wont have the bread, will have only a few tomatoes and mainly fill up on frittata.

Betty - that sounds perfect!

Phew. Thanks captain.

I can see that the Scandinavian low carb cook book is popular. Not sure if you are aware but the Swedish government food and health guidelines has been changed to high fat low carb diet. We are the first country to change our guidelines.