Week 2 - Low Carb Bootcamp Jan 2014

[BIWI]

Wow! So much nattering that we've filled up the thread before the end of the week!

Here's the link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for tomorrow morning.

And, for the Weight Tracker I'm not quite sure what happens with this link I think that you will be asked to enter your weight for this week and then you will see your individual graph.

I hope you all had a good week last week, and very good luck for week 2.

Whereabouts in Tesco would those seaweed thins live, do we think?

I've decided to have a few gins and soda with lime instead. Hoping the water element will counteract the booze

Precious, Thumb, BIWI thank you. I went a bit off piste last night and dived into the white wine - always a dangerous thing for me as it slips down so easily and is so moreish that I've drunk well over half a bottle before I know it. I've been feeling so much better mentally since I started bootcamp, and I know that it's due to hardly drinking as well as the food. But this time round I'm feeling crap physically - had a virus that still hasn't completely gone, carb flu on top I think, my skin is fucking awful and my chronic back pain has been much, much worse than usual this last week and I just can't fathom why. All this combined with the fact that I was making fish stew and needed some white wine to go in it...

While I'm at it, I shall confess that on Thursday (family meal at MIL's) my food was fine (I took my own swede to have with the casserole, causing much hilarity ) apart from three tiny tastes of cheesecake - less than a teaspoonful in total, but when we got home I had clotted cream with about half a teaspoon of xylitol in. I was just feeling sorry for myself and in pain.

On the good side, the fish stew last night was awesome, really delicious, and I took photos so will put up a recipe for it on the blog when I've got time.

Steel that's a worry about the consultant! Do you have any idea what it's about? What were they testing for? (Obviously you don't have to answer my nosiness!)

LittleMiss hope your tooth is better and yes the breakfasts look fine and yummy.

Googoo thank you!! I will put up the recipes after DD goes and it gives me the excuse to make all these wondrous things! The berry 'ice cream' is dead simple and not ice cream at all, it just has the texture of it, imo. Get some fresh/frozen berries and cook them in a pan until they've broken down to a compôte sort of texture. You can add a bit of spice to them too; I like crushed cardamom seeds. Then stir into greek yoghurt with a generous splash of double cream, and stir in some milled faxseed/linseed - I'd use about a heaped dessertspoon/tablespoon for half a kilo tub of total, but it's down to personal taste. Stir it all together and put in the fridge. The flaxseed swells, softens and absorbs moisture, creating a thick ice-creamy consistency to the yoghurt. I did try freezing it but it froze completely solid. It's lovely straight from the fridge.

Trash hope your DS is ok.

Keep posting here Helium*, even if you haven't got time to keep up with the thread. It's really motivating and I find it useful to be 'accountable' to someone about what you're eating, if you know what I mean. Not that this prevented me diving into the white wine last night.

Thanks Ruby. The cake wasn't hard to do, just bloody fiddly - took me two days! I bought the different coloured icings and rolled them out. I think I combined a couple of colours to get the slightly lighter bits in the eyes. It was just a massive faff cutting the squares and sticking them on; no particular skill involved. The cake topper looks really good though, so I'll take a picture of that and show you how it looks.

Athel great news on your 12lbs!

Ewan today's menu sounds gorgeous.

Food the last couple of days...

Thursday
L - bacon, tomatoes, mozzarella
S - bresaola
D - pork casserole, brussels sprouts, swede mash
2 small glasses of red

Friday
B - mouthful cheese and a tomato
L - made a very lovely crustless quiche lorraine
S - more quiche
D - fish stew with swede mash. Gorgeous!
A bucketload of white wine and at least a glass of red (memory hazy by that point)

Today will probably we carby twatdom as we're going to a wedding.

SarahBeeny. Thanks. It went a lot better this week, 2 and a half minutes quicker than last week! Think I might finally be adapting. Why don't you try something gentle and see how it feels? Good luck!

Brave Sarah! I've decided I'm not touching any wine until at least next weekend, and that's that. At that point, I will probably make the same decision again for another week... My, better make a decision - yes, fuck it, or no, I'm a good girl, and then you can stop kind-of-hoping you might not and consequently feeling extra guilty if you do?

Sorry to hear everything's a right battle atm, Crabby; I keep thinking 'but when you are over the [insert malady here] just think what a wonderful state of health and weight you will find yourself in, as opposed to your 'normal' state of health/weight at the beginning of January'.

Hi all. Everyone seems to have lots going on!

Steely- fingers crossed all ok for you.

I gave in to wine last night. A weak white wine soda while cooking and then 3 largish glasses of red. We had steak so red wine was so tempting! Had celeriac chips, mushrooms and onion and leeks and greens with some cream. It was lovely but I am noticing I get full a lot quicker so I couldn't finish my veg. Did have some cheese later too.

Oh - I had a yummy dinner on Thursday - it was Cajun spiced chicken breasts from M&S - marinaded in oil with spices. Very tasty and fine for low carb. Had with fried leeks and greens with a little cream. Was so tasty. Will be buying them again. Handy for times when you don't feel like doing much.

I've been happily snacking on Yeo Valley original full fat yoghurts for three weeks, Then noticed last night they were 11.4 carbs per pot!!! Still lost 11lb though :)

Hi all I did slow cooked garlic chicken for tea last night, was delish!

Quick recipe: I adapted the one in the mumsnet recipe section: bottom of dish put 1 chopped onion (or shallot or few spring onions), some chopped celery, 1 chopped pepper and some chopped mushrooms (i did add a chopped carrot for the carb eaters and avoided those) plus 3 chopped garlic cloves. Then on top put 10 chicken drumsticks and as many whole garlic cloves as you wish (you can avoid eating but gives a fab taste). Season with black pepper and parodies plus salt if you use. Cook over a low heat for 6-8hrs. About 20 mins before serving, pour in some cream and let it simmer.
I ate it like this & did rice for the carb eaters. It was yummy and we've all said we'll have it again but only if we know we are staying in for the night!

Planning celeriac chips & ? for tonight's tea plus have a food delivery coming so curries, meatballs, roast chicken on next weeks menu.

Parodies is supposed to say paprika!!!!

GermanGirl I'm not sure what an edemame bean is but all beans/peas/pulses are too carby for bootcamp. So the green beans are not helpful either. It probably depends on your personal carb thresholds. But an experiment I unwittingly did on myself this week: Very small helping of dahl (lentils) - 1lb on the next day. Yesterday's egg, fat and water fest (after feeling so sick I just drank water all evening) - 1.5lb off this morning.

Also - muscle weighs more than fat and you are obviously busy at the gym so it could be a factor?

I won't have time to put the full fish stew recipe up on the blog yet, but I based it on a Rick Stein recipe and here are a few pics I took last night.

Eva I thought green beans were ok as they are green and veg-y rather than like the starchy beans?

I won't tell you what I ate last night as it was horrendous, in low carb terms it was a Texas Chainsaw massacre of a meal. It was a nice evening though and I am back on the wagon today

I have put my foot down and insisted that DH and DD cook one meal a week each rather than me doing it all but what a palaver trying to get them organised to do it, it's hard work but I will persist

Whoever asked about the H&B noodles I buy Slim noodles, pasta and rice. They are like those white, rather rubbery Japanese noodles; totally tasteless and a bit of an odd texture. I use them in smallish quantities to bulk out a meal a bit and they need to be flavoured well so e.g. I will use a pack between 3 of us in a stirfry with meat, veg and soy or other sauce or mix a few in with lc spag bol but would not use them where they were a main component of a dish like pasta carbonara if that makes sense.

Daisychicken that sounds yummy I think I'll try it - but 6-8 hours sounds a lot for drumsticks??

MyPrecious - do what feels right. If you can enjoy a reasonable glass or a gin or a vodka and get back to LC with no guilt and that one treat keeps you on the straight and narrow, then do it. If you'll be wracked with guilt for half of the next week then no treat is worth it!

(I'm drinking with my oldest friend tonight and we haven't been drinking together since before my children- my eldest is 3! Time to let our hair down I think )

On a different note; the only thing I'm really missing is coffee. Proper coffee (although decaf) with lots of milk. It my treat to get through long days at work. Do I need to investigate bullet proof coffee?

It's (grr, stupid fingers)

Sarah I am just drinking my first ever bullet proof coffee and can report it's really nice. I used instant decaf and put in two teaspoons of unsalted butter and two teaspoons of coconut oil. Then I whizzed it up with the milk frother thingamy and it's really good. Will definitely have again.

Go for it, I say.

Today's food:
B: poached eggs x2, bacon x2, a few mushrooms fried in butter
L: broccoli and Stilton soup
D: Crabby's belly pork, celeriac dauphinoise, asparagus in butter

Out for lunch tomorrow. Hoping I can navigate my first LC meal out without doing too much damage.

Weekends seem to be a difficult time for me - need to break the picking and snacking habit that just doesn't happen any other time.

Id usually head out for a walk but dd2 has chicken pox and isn't up for much except sleeping.

At least I'm picking at LC stuff!

I've just set the record button for Horizon BBC2 9pm. Twins, one on a month long high fat diet and the other high sugar. Should be interesting.

That last post should have said it is on Wednesday!!!!

Afternoon.

Weekends are, I find, the hardest part of Bootcamp - it's much easier to be Bootcamp Light.

GermanGirl your trainer is, I fear, speaking nonsense! But you know that. However, as all personal trainers all think they know everything, the only way to counter it is to make sure you really understand what low carbing is about, and to argue your point with evidence. Or, just ignore him, whilst silently chanting to yourself "oh no, that's wrong you silly man"

You might like to read The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance to bolster your arguments!

Suzy I thought it seemed a long time as well from the recipe but the SC was on low and the meat was falling off the bone and really moist... mine was in for about 8hrs by the time we'd got in from afterschool stuff & I cooked the rice/added the cream. You could always do it for less though!

Thabks

sorry - shakey post run fingers!

Thanks for the well wishes. 20 miles completed in a rather snappy 5 1/2 hours (well for me anyway).

sarahbeeney i've found training hard. this is the end of week three for me and running low carb still hasn't clicked - my legs feel heavy. that said i'm managing 2x3 miles and 1x5-7 miles on a normal week, it's just not as fun as it was. if i wasn't training i'd probably stick to the shorter runs.

myprecious i have never once done anything approaching a decent handstand. not even in the swimming pool. combination of crappy coordination and lack of balls.

lovecat i am indeed training for THE marathon. if it was any other marathon i would have quietly given up by now, but i'm so lucky to have got a place for london. and i started with c25k!