Week 3 Low Carb Bootcamp - Where we stand at the crossroads ...

[BIWI]

Morning everyone.

So, we enter the fabled week 3.

This week you have a choice. You can either continue with Bootcamp or you can move on to Bootcamp Light:

Rules of Bootcamp Light

Or you can do a hybrid - Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend. Totally up to you and what you find is working for you the most.

Don't forget to enter your weight on the weight tracker - today you should see your graph appear! Or if you prefer, here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

And now - a word of warning!

It is very, very, very common for weight loss to slow down/stop altogether in weeks 3, 4 and/or 5. This seems to be entirely normal. It's probably to do with your body adjusting to low carbing. You will have junked the glycogen stores and a load of water, and will now be burning fat. From here on, weight loss will - and should be - around 1-2lbs a week

Good luck everyone!

I really wouldn't get het up about the Horizon programme, it wasn't a fair trial. I expect low carb has been getting more press lately and Horizon cobbled something together quickly so as to be topical. If they really wanted to do a fair test then apart from doing their research more thoroughly the twins should have each tried both diets with a month between eating their normal diets. Also low carb - high fat diets are renowned for preserving muscle mass and are even know to increase it in some men people, that's one of the reasons why this woe is so effective.

I'm in the middle of reading Gary Taubes' Diet Delusion and from what he says there's a lot more to this woe than losing weight. This is a woe that could potentially lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, diabetes complications if you're already diabetic, peptic ulcers. And there is recent evidence at the moment that is implicating sugar in the development of Alzheimer's. So this woe isn't just about losing weight, it could dramatically affect your quality of life.

Good stuff, Helium. Staying off the sugar spikes can only help you cope with all this stress, without adding multiple wheeeeeeeeeeeee... crash to your day on top of everything else. to brighten up your house this morning.

Sorry I don't know how I posted twice there, my phone is playing up.

it would be really useful to see a programme with a variety of people with different lifestyles (active / sedentary), health concerns (good health / diabetes / HPB), body types or BMIs etc comparing their results with LCHF vs HCLF. it would still be individuals rather than a large pool of data, but it would be interesting to see how the different WOEs have more or less of an impact on health, weight, lifestyle and so on. it would be much more holistic and realistic

Can anyone give me any advice? I am screwing things up in great style with my emotional eating.

Yesterday we had some bad news so rather than have tea I had half a box of chocolates. I didn't enjoy them but was just stuffing them in like they were going out of fashion. And now I feel like a failure, yet again.

This is always a problem for me on diets, I have a few good days, full of determination, then something derails me and I end up back where I started. I'm sure I must be a joke to my friends cos I am forever on a diet but always fat.

I just don't know what to do. I am sold on this WOE and the thought of WW or SW or something like that does not appeal but I NEED to lose weight so have got to find something that works for me and at the minute LC isn't, or I'm not working for LC maybe.

I've been LCing since jan 1 and haven't lost anything since the end of the first week due to my going off the rails.

Help!

I watched it Horizon prog yesterday and also noticedthat low-carb guy actually eat no carbs. The high-sugar one didn't seem to eat any healthier; I do wonder how he felt at the end of the trial, when he cuts back on the sugar and feels dreadful.
The loss of muscle in the low-carb guy surprised me, and goes against everything I've read about this fat:protein:carbs WOE.

The bike ride annoyed me - of course the sugar-fuelled guy will go faster; I bet the lowcarb guy can go further tho, if they'd kept going for a few more hours!
And the Insulin response? Bollox IMVHO. How can the lowcarb guy be more at risk of diabetes? There are lots of diabetics on this WOE who have bloods taken regularly, and their bloodsugars are controlled beautifully.

Who drinks a sugary drink like that anyway, in normal life?

I will carry on low carbing but not quite as low as it was. Essentially I'm moving to bootcamp light which is fine cos I've done the full bootcamp for nearly three weeks now. I definitely feel better for it and have broken the habit of the lifetime of eating processed sugary crap.

chesterdrawers apparently the idiot-proof diet book is very good on emotional eating. you can get a copy pretty cheaply (it's often in charity shops) or from the library. might be worth a try if you haven't read it before?

Chester - this WOE is great for weight-control, but only you can control your emotional eating! You need to work out your triggers, and acknowledge them So, if yoiu get bad news, ask yourself if you are going to make it even worse by eating chocs that you are not even enjoying.
Mindful eating - eat it if you must but at least be aware of it, and make sure it is what you want to eat, and enjoy. If it isn't what your want, or enjoyable, what is the point?

Get back on it, drink the water, eat good, clean food, and enjoy it. There will come a time when you look at a box of cheap chocs like it's the crap it is.

The important thing is nit to berate yourself. Today is a new day. Why not try to make sure you have some low carb treats in the house if you know you'll reach for food under stress. Maybe even have some c90% chocolate - you can only have two a square before it clogs your mouth up.

Also, if you're tempted, go and make yourself drink a big glass of water. And if you still need to emotionally eat, then allow yourself to do so but make it something worthwhile eating and slow down and appreciate it.

IPD also has some good stuff on emotional eating.

Chester I try to avoid having things like that in the house. For the kids I buy treats that I don't like: Cheesy Wotsits, Bourbon biscuits, etc. so that I'm not tempted. I also make sure I have low carb foods available so I can eat a handful of salted almonds, Peperami, Babybel, pork scratchings or a chunk of nice cheese. I also buy 85% chocolate for if I need a sweet treat as you can't really eat a lot of that at once. I have been know to have a few teaspoons of double cream in an emergency as well.

I found the Horizon programme deeply irritating. No one with the vaguest grasp of 'science' would take any notice of a trial run with two participants, for a start. There was no discussion of any of the actual evidence for LCHF, just telly-friendly soundbites. The exercise trial was completely unrealistic. The diet that Xand was eating seemed to contain no veg apart from a sad bit of boiled broccoli that he left on the side of his plate. And the conclusion of 'doughnuts are bad for you' was so mindblowingly obvious that I really wonder why they even bothered.

Won't be changing a damn thing about this WOE based on that pile of unscientific bullshit.

Chester if you are at home try cleaning your teeth before eating the chocolate

Dh happily telling me over breakfast about bloody horizon thing. Fuck!! I will stick to this woe though as it is the only fecking diet I have done in 15 years that I can actually cope with.

Anyway surely the fact I'm not eating any sugar at all is a bonus? I mean before I was properly addicted to it. Once my period has buggered off I will weigh myself and see how I'm getting on. Round my period I regularly weigh at least 2-3 pounds heavier.

Am having morning off today. Dh has taken kids to school so I've crept back to bed with huge water bottle. Had a crappy week as my dad taken back into psychiatric hospital. Spent most of the time in tears so got eyes like salami. Still feel guilty about going back to bed. Fuck off guilt and horizon!

TOTM is a definite bugger, I am at the same point and my norks are so bastard sore in bed. Heyho. Really hope your DD is better soon, bless her. I also hope for all our sakes there is some improvement in the weather, so grey and miserable. I also hear you on the 5am front. My DD rows at quite a high level, and her training is overwhelming. Three times a week, she has to do earlies, she gets herself there (mostly) but I do get up with her, so I'm seeing that 5am time too.

Athelstane - didn't you used to be a fucker?! You not a fucker any more?

The more I hear about the Horizon prog, the more I think I will give it a miss!

Chester I echo the advice about reading the piece about emotional eating. Hugs for you too.

Morning,
I didn't see last night's programme but judging by the comments, it's probably best that I didn't.

I am plodding along, trying to keep to the rules and drinking oceans of water. I shall weigh in tomorrow and see whether I have pulled it back from my blip on monday.

X posts with you there arightoldbag

There is no guilt to be had there, sorry about your dad, you need rest, go and sleep.

Breaking a sugar addiction is amazing, how fabulous you've done that. Brilliant!!

Oh my goodness I am overwhelmed at all your flowers and kind words. Too many of you to namecheck but you've brought tears to my eyes reading all this support this morning. You lovely lot of Bootcampers you! Sorry I didn't acknowledge the kind messages before my last post yesterday morning - I didn't read back before posting. I was too tired and emotional drunk last night to do anything except fall into bed so am just catching up now.

DD had a fantastic day yesterday with all her friends here. Quite a few adults stayed too so although it was lovely I was absolutely knackered by the time they left. I'm not good with noise and bloody hell it was noisy, but they're really good kids and they all shut up and listened when I went in to ask/tell them something. When I commented on that to the parents present, one of them said "that's because they're a little bit scared of you", which I feel can only bode well for me running the science club.

DD went off with her dad last night (very tearfully) and they're flying out today. I know she'll have a fabulous time and it'll go really quickly I'm sure. I always fret when she's so far away but it's no more likely that something awful will happen to her over there than it is here so I'll just keep telling myself that! I'm going to have a busy month and make the most of the free time. I'm going to focus on getting things organised for the science club I'm putting on for DD and friends and overhauling how we approach maths (which feels like banging my head against a brick wall most days). I'm also going to focus on my food blog and devising some new recipes and taking lots of pictures. If there's any time left over when I'm not on MN I'll finally finish decorating and deep cleaning the house.

Athel yay for your lovely new trousers!

Ewan at "come back and join in our buttery fun"!

Chester a 6am body pump class? are you insane??? I consider it a miracle if I'm even awake (other than insomnia) at 6am!

Pisci hope you're feeling better.

Chipping I have never been to NZ but this is DD's second trip. xDP took her two years ago for three weeks and I missed her terribly. She has a NZ passport and xDP is a NZ citizen and applied for one for her, so it's brilliant that she can spend some time in the country that she could live in one day.

Mercifully, she returned from the hairdressers with the same colour hair as she left with. She looked sooooooo grown up with her short, blowdried bob! I'd gone in Tues to make the appt. and decided to pay for it there and then and send DD on her own (it's only at the end of the road). I trust the hairdresser, thankfully, and DD was so proud to be going off alone to her hair appt!

Right I'll pack a case for me and the mad (yes of course she's mad - she's a cocker after all!) cocker and we'll be over directly. Yes why don't we organise a meet up for the Surrey area BCers. Are you over Blazingsmoke way?

Auntie Tea!

at Durham's "but I loved him..."
You do all realise that gin is not called mothers' ruin for nothing, don't you?! I'm a Hendricks and Bombay Saphire fan, but I don't often drink it as I try to stay off spirits and stick to the wine. Nothing I like more on a hot summer's evening than a long G&T with loads of ice and lime. Has to be Fever Tree tonic - much less gacky and sweet than most tonics - but even their slimline one is much too high in carbs so it's off the menu for me (that's probably for the best).

LittleMiss 19 months sober is a fantastic achievement. I couldn't even manage 19 days!

Lovecat I am thrilled to be partly responsible for your DH regarding you as a goddess! I should have a marriage guidance room in my low carb cafe showing people how to win over their partners with amazing low carb food! How very retro and 1950s - the way to a man's heart is through his stomach sort of thing.

Heir that looks delicious!

I recorded the Horizon thing and will probably post my own Trashcan style rant later after watching it.

Nell I'm sure you do not resemble pork belly!

God this post is epic and I still haven't finished reading the thread. Better post before I lose it all.

Pistey, yes I did use to be a fucker . AF helped me more than I can say - every time I started wandering off into justification or minimisation she brought me sharply back to the facts. This was many moons ago, and many name changes too - my ex used to trawl the boards looking for name changes and then be incandescent with rage about anything I said. More namechanging, more fury... I was convinced at one point he'd put a keylogger on my laptop as I couldn't understand how he knew it was me, or managed to get into my bank account and demand to know why I'd been in certain places at certain times. God, it was tiring. ANYHOO, AF helped me out so when the ban came along (at least we thought it was the time), I was gutted. I kept it for a while, as did some others, as a sort of camouflage so there wasn't a big 'ooooooh' when she did reappear, but it hardly seems necessary any more .

Hugh don't panic! I haven't seen it yet but physiologically there is no way I can see that a low carb diet can cause or worsen T2DM.

Pseudo Happy Birthday to your DS.

Woolfey it's rotten when they're ill and you're housebound. Next time you wake up feeling heavy, don't jump on the bloody scales! When you wake up feeling light and slender, that's the time to weigh yourself.

Helium hope the court case goes ok next week. At least you know you're moving in the right direction and will soon be free of him.

Willie Now that would be an interesting programme if they did it properly. The standard of science and reporting in most documentaries drives me fucking mad. I've no doubt I'll be shouting at the tv later when I watch the Horizon thing.

Chester can you not have this stuff in the house so that there's nothing to turn to when you're having a weak moment? I find it very difficult to resist something when I know it's there, as evidenced by my complete failure to resist the cake mix/cake yesterday. Generally I'm not an emotional eater, but definitely an emotional drinker - any stress, pain, illness, shitty day whatever and I find myself thinking 'ooh I deserve wine for getting through this'. Not good either. Food wise, I find it helps to have a delicious low carb thing like berry crumble always on hand so I can have a few mouthfuls if I'm craving something sweet.

Arightold so sorry about your dad. Bed with a hot water bottle and MN sounds exactly where you should be this morning. Hope he improves in hospital. Channel all the sadness into anger at Horizon for doing such crap unscientific nonsense then you can explode at DH with a withering critique of it if he mentions it again.

My food yesterday... Well let's just say it's probably best to draw a veil over that and start afresh today. Dinner was ragu, supposedly with courgette strips but I was so knackered and in so much pain with my back that I just plain could not summon the energy to do the prep. Also xDP was eating with us and there was only enough courgette for DP and me. So we had spaghetti with it. God it was tasty.

What I've learned/been reminded of over the last couple of days is that lack of planning scuppers my good intentions, and that this WOE is hard to stick to if you haven't planned ahead. When I'm hungry, stressed and busy, it's so tempting to reach for the carbs. It's paramount for me that I have tasty low carb food to hand and that I don't let myself get hungry, or my willpower ends up in my boots and I go for the simplest option.

Thanks for all your kind words of advice and support, this thread is great for that.

Willie I read IDP a long time ago, looks like I need to dig it out again.

Captain am back on it already, which is good cos in the past my emotional eating would derail me for days or weeks. I’m not great at mindful eating, something I need to work on. I think if I had done that this time, I would have stopped after three chocs.

Stunt I don’t usually have things in the house, but we still have tons of stuff left over from Christmas. I have asked DH to put them in the loft but he is worried about attracting mice . It all started with a bag of pork scratchings, I wasn’t hungry for tea so didn’t bother then NEEDED something.

Woolfey thanks for that, will have a read in a bit.

Please ewww!

Pistey thanks for the hug, much needed.

Crabby I’m also an emotional drinker! Lost cause, me

Anyway, I have decided that I am going to carry on with this WOE, I really can’t see any other way. I will try to get a grip on my emotional eating. In fairness it has been loads better and I am finding it easy to stick to most of the time.

I have, however, given myself permission to have tomorrow night off . It’s DHs birthday and we have a VERY rare night out and a night off our non-sleeping DS. We are going for a meal at a lovely restaurant where I won’t get to go for ages. I know I will give in and eat carbs drink my body weight in wine so am hoping by allowing myself a night off, I will be able to overcome the usual guilt and then find it easier to get back on it.

I will stock up on stuff for a hangover busting breakfast and get something nice and LC in for tea too.

Sorry for the essay. Self-indulgent whine over!

chester this WOE won't cure emotional eating, but it will help stop the physical blood sugar highs and lows that make it harder to resist the lure of the junk, so good for you for persevering (i can't word that so it doesn't sound patronising - it's not intended to, sorry!)

obviously there will be times where the stress/emotional response is such that the lure of your usual crutch will be too strong. it happens. hopefully over time it will lessen, because some of it will be habit, and get easier. as you say, you have to just try to avoid feeling guilty and hop back on the wagon at the earliest opportunity

sounds good for tomorrow. enjoy every mouthful, stop if you're not enjoying something (don't think 'one night only, must stuff everything in!'). have lots of low carb stuff in just in case the off-plan eating triggers cravings, drink plenty of water the next day

sounds like you are in the right place, though