Week 4 Low Carb Bootcamp - Keep on keeping on

[BIWI]

Morning.

I see that some of us are struggling.

I see that there is a lot of cheating.

Hmm. I wonder if there is a connection

Seriously folks, this is not a terribly forgiving WOE. The idea of Bootcamp Light was to give you a bit more flexibility, but not to send you spiralling into a chocolate and alcohol-fuelled frenzy!

Come and confess all on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness or on your own personal Weight Tracker

Remember that weight loss may stop in weeks 3 and 4 - sometimes 5. It takes this long for your body to become keto adapted, i.e. to switch fully from carb-burning to fat-burning.

And if you're continually pushing up your daily carb intake, all you are doing is delaying this process

Hope you all have a good week.

'Cos you're not a legend like me ElBom

Bootcamp Rules

Hello. I'm taking off my cloak of invisibility to say hi, though I've been lurking on the thread for a while. I have posted on the questions thread, and always meant to post here, just haven't quite managed to yet. You guys talk so much, I can only just keep up with reading it!

I've only lost 2 lbs since the start but I don't have very much to lose, though my jeans are definitely comfier, which is nice! For me, this is much more about kicking the sugar addiction and cravings, and I've really struggled with them. Still am, but a bit less so now. I don't have much weight to lose, thought I already ate a healthy diet, and had absolutely no idea I was a complete sugar/carb addict. I have done masses of reading and will be far more sceptical of what "professionals" say on diets/nutrition in future.

Really enjoying the food and haven't cheated. Mixing BC and BClight. The last couple of days have been tougher as my lovely DD (2yrs) is the worlds worst sleeper and LC and sleep deprivation do not mix.

I heard a guy on the radio this morning saying that obesity is all about exercise and we just need to move more. He said our average calorie consumption has gone down over the years, so it must be our lazy lifestyles that are making us fat. Nothing to do with what we're eating. He was definitely shouting his shit!

My MIL thinks I'm crazy and made a face at the fact I hadn't eaten fruit for weeks. Thing is, she thinks her and FIL eat really well, all home cooked etc. Except that includes huge portions, puddings everyday, fruit juice, fruit yoghurts, breakfast cereals, not to mention the odd choc or biscuit as they need a treat too, obviously. But you do need some carbohydrates blah blah blah. She means bread, potatoes etc rather than veg. She is lovely and I know she means well...

Inspired by the discussion of waitrose up thread, I'm off to plan a trip there this weekend for pig cheeks and other lovely things. I will be back to post again. You lot aren't that scary even BIWIs big stick!

Yer what?

MrsHuge, I used to have fat slices of butter on slices of cheese, liberally sprinkled with salt and pepper . Now the cheese is off the menu for a while, I might have to try the thin slices of raw swede with the butter/salt/pepper.

Precious come back! Most people here have had planned or unplanned cheats! (Not sure it helps to call them 'cheats' actually, because they aren't; it implies you can 'get away with it'. They're probably more 'relapses'.).

Hi, Looklsike. I'd agree, the deep sleep, better mood, ability to wake up (and BE awake) before the alarm in the morning, general chirpiness is all worth it in itself.

Everyone seems to react in their unique ways to this WOE, wrt speed of loss, amount of loss, dairy stalls etc. I wondered whether timing of meals made a difference as well BIWI - since I finally budged on the scales again it's also occurred to me that I've been going about 7 hours between meals (for work related reasons) and wondered if that was what gave my body time to finish what was in my stomach and start on the stored fat, rather than constantly have a replenished stomach to work on? True or bollocks, do you think?

Agghh, rapidly moving thread and no time to keep up! Going back a massive 12 hours or so now...

Crabby

I've read your rapid response and I think it's fine - it certainly gets the point across . What an utterly shit article. The artice I read wasn't a new one, in fact little miss signposted to it about four weeks ago and it's taken me this long to catch up. It's here . If you can't get the full content I can C+P and e-mail it to you.

Little Miss I live in Staffordshire and keep calling it the county that shops forgot but having heard your Waitrose woes I will shut up. I have three of them within a 30min drive (one is Sandbach which is useful if you're ever going down the M6).

I'm worried about the cheating chat... I haven't been cheating but I have been doing BCL and trying to sort out my stupid rash on my face. (not working however).

Today:
B: 2 eggs scrambled in butter
L: Sardine salad with artichokes in oil, mascapone, vanilla and 10 pistachios
S: veg bouillon as a drink and a square of 85% lindt pre-run
D: much awaited curry. All the meaty bits and some of the sauce from a few dishes - paneer saag, tandoori chicken, capsilla. caulifower. A gin and slimline .

Drink: 1 caf coffee with cream, 1 decaf with cream (1l in total) and 4,800ml so far in fruit tea and water.

Hi Lookslike Don'tcha just love MIL? (says one who will hopefully be a MIL one day)

B - pack of organic ham
L - bacon and cabbage (but I burnt the cabbage. Tried to eat most of it anyway.)
D - 2 chicken breasts stuffed with mozzarella and wrapped prosciutto, and asparagus.

It may have been too much to have 2 chicken breasts but I was really hungry. And being hungry is bad for me, it's when I start pining for salted caramel cookies and chocolate digestives (which we have), so I think it was best to eat more, to be on the safe side.

I'm going away next week. I'm nervous about food options. I'm sure the hotel will do bacon and eggs in the mornings, and I expect I can find chicken/salmon salads in the evenings, it's lunch I'm concerned about. It's the kind of trip where you are picked up after breakfast and you're off with a coach party all day. I'm not quite sure how I'll manage that yet. I know I don't want any slip-ups though.

MrsHugh on upping butter you are already doing well having it with veg. Cooking with it (eg chicken or fish); mashing loads of it into swede... my favourite: frying mushrooms in butter as they seem to soak up loads of butter.

BIWI every morning has me getting our biggest chopping board from the kitchen so I can put my scales on a hard surface!

I'm sorry NotTwit. Hang in there.

Monkey top marks for having (cauli) pizza for breakfast! What style. Get well soon.

Rusmum quick breakfasts - leftovers? Boil eggs the night before - maybe mash with butter in the morning? Make frittata beforehand and cut a slice? Ham and cheese? Total greek yogurt? Avocado with mayo? Would scrambled egg & mushrooms take too long?

Gatorade that's a tricky one! Can you talk to the travel company beforehand and pretend you have a wheat intolerance and therefore need a packed-salad for lunch? (Do they give you packed lunches, or is there a stop where there's cafes and things?)

Otherwise I might be tempted to pilfer items from the breakfast/dinner buffets - take some breakfast sausages for lunch, nick cheese, nick a packed-lunch box of salad from the dinner? without looking like the mad biddy

They won't provide lunches, but there are food places on the excursions. I think I will try and source a supermarket near the hotel and go shopping when we get there. Supermarket salads, babybels and packet ham will probably see me through!

It's weird because food is usually a highlight of a trip for me - but I just don't want to see these weeks wasted. Diet fail weight gain gets more brutal for me each time!

Oh yes, and stealing from the breakfast buffet! My Australian friend says they have a saying over there, that they're taking the food for Ron - as in 'later ron'!

BIWI - when I had to use my scales on carpet, it invariably made me heavier than weighing on non-carpet, because the carpet would push up against the bottom of the scales and increase the pressure (that's what I guessed, anyway) - so a 3lb loss weighing on carpet is excellent!

Today I've struggled to even eat.
Didn't have to make sandwiches, ergo no breakfast.
DH bought me a hot chocolate = badness.
L - 2 cold sausages, a babybel and a couple of mouthfuls of tinned mackerel (all that was left after making sandwiches for DH and baby)
s - another babybel
D - will be mince thing with veg and will therefore include onions and carrots because the others have to eat it too, but will also include lots of butter, oil and Boursin; courgettes, mushrooms, mince and possibly swede. The boys will have it with pasta; I will have it on its own.

1lb lighter this morning, which is odd as I had a bit of dairy yesterday. Maybe I NEED it to lose? Or perhaps I was due a loss anyway? Am not complaint that's for sure!

B: bacon, eggs, mushrooms, sausage, oopsie roll
L: out so probs just a coffee with cream
D: steak, garlic mushrooms, roast cauli

Wow, I had one glass of wine last night and I woke this morning feeling like I'd drunk the bottle. It was a small, planned glass with dinner and I enjoyed every mouthful, first glass since new year. Non-sleeping DD and early-rising DS haven't helped my head this morning. Interestingly, if I'd had a glass too many before BC, I'd have woken craving toast. Today I wanted fat! Hopefully it's a sign that something's changing in my body.

Thanks eva and athelstane - I have picked up some lovely salty crusty butter from waitrose and I am a butter girl today !
athelstane - I think you may have something there .... Now I am passed the initial BC , if I miss breakfast ( not by design - more madhouse circumstance ) the scales seem to twitch down a tad .

It's definitely like learning a language - it's a complete learning process . Everyone needs to be kind to themselves - it's difficult learning a new language , especially in 10 weeks . As my DH says and mostly he talks bollocks - it's a marathon not a sprint ...
Have a great weekend everyone !

Thanks yogurt sounding an
Option

I was doing really well, lost about 7lbs, not cheated at all. Today i have regained 4lbs!!! I am due on my period today/tomorrow but that seems a lot just for time of the month? The only different thing i have had this week to previous is pork scratchings but they are low carb so though that was ok. Is it definitely the case that calories don't matter? In all circumstances? I absolutely have not cheated at all but know the scratchings are high calorie so thats all i can think of? Or should it all go again after my period? Feel very down today now :(

Happy I'm sure that the pork scratchings are fine, I definitely think that the calories don't matter. I have been eating all sorts of high calorie things as have loads of people on the thread. I'm sure one of the LC gurus will be along soon but in the meantime they are bound to ask you if you have been drinking enough water?

How much do you normally gain at TOM? I can easily gain 5 lb at that time so quite likely its that, especially if you've not cheated/gone off bootcamp.

Weighed today at 13 lb down I am going to get my OH to take some pictures of me today and then again every month so that I can look back and see the changes. I wish I'd started pictures in January, has anyone else taken photos?

It will go again HaPPy8.

Do not despair.

HaPPy it will be TOTM, I was exactly the same, once it was over I lost all those extra pounds very quickly, do not despair!!

Hold the front page! If anyone can't decide what to have for dinner tonight, I'm going to put up a lovely recipe for fish stew on the blog today. If you fancy that, you'll need:

Roughly a kilo of fish (I used 1200g including a huge ray wing, and that made enough to feed an army... DP and I had it last night and there's enough for at least 1, probably another 2 nights worth).
Some frozen prawns/shrimp if you like, and whatever else you fancy in it.
Fish/vegetable stock cubes, or liquid fish stock if you can afford/want it
A leek
Bulb of fennel/another leek
A couple of large escallion shallots or equivalent
Thyme
Smoked paprika (pimenton)
White wine

Some aïoli/alioli - garlic mayonnaise. I make it myself and it isn't hard, but you could buy some (a proper on not helmans).

I serve it with mashed swede and stir fried broccoli.

What you choose to do with the rest of the bottle of white wine is entirely up to you of course.

Thanks everyone. I hope you are right. Will make an extra effort to drink lots of water today too as that might be factor. I don't have any of the sweet cravings i normally have this TOTM so that has to be a good thing.

Just had dinner. Mince thing as described above, but decided to do a swede and leek gratin. CBA to follow any recipe that suggested a cooking time of 1h+, so made my own:
1 small swede, shaved/finely sliced
2 leeks, chopped in rounds
half a pot of double cream (100ml?)
about 50g boursin garlic
about 150ml milk
A largeish amount of grated cheese
marjoram

Boil the shaved/finely sliced swede for about 10 mins.
Fry off the leek rounds in about 2 spoonfuls of butter, also for about 10 mins until soft. Add garlic salt while it's frying.
Blend the double cream, milk and boursin - you could add the marjoram to this if you feel like it.
Butter an oven dish, then put a layer of softened swede in the bottom, followed by a layer of leeks and cover with grated cheese.
Then top off with another layer of swede (I sprinkled the marjoram over it at this point), and pour the milk/cream/boursin combo over the top, making sure everything is covered.
Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top and stick it in the oven at about 200 deg C for ~25 mins until the cheese is nicely golden brown all over.
YUM!