Week 6 - Low Carb Bootcamp - We're Past the Halfway Point!

[BIWI]

Morning! In a rush, so not much time to post - off to Leeds today so have to go for my train.

Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Weight Tracker

Talk later ...

Yes! I think there's a correlation. If not enough food, body goes all protective of fat resources. Not daft at all, Piste!

Hi everyone, day 3 of übercamp. No snacks, no diary n loosely following the menu but being super strict with 3 BLack Farmer sausages for breakfast, a piece of mackerel for dinner and some meat with allowed veg / salad for tea. It's very restrictive but the only thing I'm going to change is having creamy coffees again in the morning.

Here's the good news, after STS for over 3 weeks, I am at my lowest ever after losing 3pds since Monday

Snowiebear I'm really sorry, what was meant to be useful turned out to be very unhelpful. It must be a very difficult road to walk. I hope that, if I'd carried on drinking, my DH would have left me. He is a caring man with rescuing tendencies but I hope he would have protected himself. Our life in sobriety is wonderful, while I was drinking it was terrible, for both of us. I think I've seen him have a drink about 3 times ever! So I hope the LA wine has some benefits to you and that if I could ever be helpful you just have to ask.

Piste I'm sure that's true - that the "starvation mode" theory of why low cal low fat diets don't work long term would apply if you ate too little on this WOE. I'm still not all the way thru Volek and Phinney so maybe someone more knowledgeable will confirm or tell me I'm talking rubbish.

Another day, food for thought on the way I thought, felt and what of my behaviour got me into the defensive place I ended up yesterday. Going further on public transport than I've so far managed alone today, keeping up the little steps is making them build!

and meant to say, Crabby I'm also very sorry if it seemed like I was badgering you - I guess I wanted to say that that wanting to get out of your head feeling - and I've definitely been there - does lessen, it too attenuates over time.

Deluding briefly - not running this week as its half term. And this morning the dc made me breakfast in bed of hot buttered toast. Haven't eaten that for a year now:)

I can feel a bit of a tummy bloat but that's ok, only to be expected this week. I miss running!

Am still ill with this virus but DH has just brought me a bullet proof coffee in bed.

Good luck with the interview Heir

I've had the lidl yoghurt and large tea for breakfast. Moussaka and cheesy coleslaw will be for lunch. Evening I have a peperami. I really don't get hungry on this diet. I'm going on the train on Saturday. That's making me nervous. I really love the ritual of going to pret and buying breakfast to take with me.

LittleMiss I know exactly what you mean, about talking about low-carbing once you know what you are trying to achieve. I tried to ask myself why I was so upset afterwards, and was it partly because I would like to persuade some of my relatives to eat like this - the evangelism thing. When I thought about it, I really have to let go of that. Then there is the correcting of annoying urban myths ("Dr Atkins died of a heart attack" is one I had last weekend (he didn't, I'm pretty sure)). I'd quite like to explain the fascinating body science behind it, I would have thought I'd have had a chance as my family are quite scientific... but no we got nowhere near that. Finally there is just the soothing of genuine concern, ie my mum is obviously distressed that I'm harming myself.

Crabby I like your card, but for my rellies - on point 3 "sugar is not a food group" I would have had a reply about "but what about wholegrains" or something. Also - its not just the carbs, its the fat too - people's panic about saturated fat.

Lookslikerain good luck with yours. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have led with "This Way of Eating is not dangerous or unhealthy". And then I would have talked about how, for ME (ie me, not you, not evangelising) I find carbs cause me to crave more carbs so much, that I can't do sensible portion sizes or low-cal or anything. That for ME, a breakfast of eggs and mushrooms is much better than one of muesli followed by toast followed by banana followed by fruit yogurt and finally managing to stop eating... just... for a couple of hours....

Suzymoo and Seri keep on, you WILL get to the BMI you want! Enjoy the trip down - I felt like it was all unchartered territory!

Trash what a nightmare with the dog! Pseudo my deep sympathies with the mastitis! Yuk, I remember that. Yes the answer is that the Bodypods they used can only measure Fat and not-fat. They can't measure muscle. So the non-fat he lost was probably water and glycogen. And I've never heard a physiological explanation of how muscle could be lost on a low-carb high-fat diet.

Trashcan and Humph I really came on here to say I've just done a level 1 shred! Thanks for the inspiration. I don't have any weights though so I just did it without weights, I'll have to get organised. Water bottles perhaps.

I'm happy to buddy but trash you have an injury and humph you're ill? Is this wise?

I'm now going to hobble and creak to the shower....

Eva, that is great. I am very up for doing shred, but not until the vile bug is gone. Everyone in our house is hanging

It makes SUCH a difference.

LittleMiss stop apologising!! If I hadn't wanted to answer your question/point then I wouldn't have - you weren't badgering at all. I'm very aware of the risks of using booze as a salve. My father was an alcoholic and it killed him. Alcoholism runs through his family and his brother is currently in end stage alcoholism - alcohol induced dementia, amongst other things. It's not pretty. My maternal grandmother was a pretty heavy drinker and my father ran a pub from when I was ten years old so I grew up surrounded by drinkers. It was incredibly normalised in my life, even my uncle's behaviour which was fucking outrageous (my dad was a pretty controlled alcoholic for much of his life, and a policeman for 25years where his drinking was nothing unusual at all!). I'm very aware that I have a genetic makeup that disposes me to depression and addiction, so I do keep a close eye on myself, if that makes sense. I floundered when I was in my twenties, to be honest, but am in the best place now that I've ever been, mentally. I don't ever get out of my head drunk, nor want to - it's all much too middle-aged-civilised, naice wine, sharing a bottle in front of the telly with DP sort of thing. But that wonderful alleviation of anxiety and tension that I get when I've been feeling so wound up all day and those first few sips of chilled white hit the spot and it all just sort of dissolves... well I wish there was just a button I could press and have that happen! The person that could invent that without it involving a potentially addictive substance would make a fortune!

Well, there's a big splurge of too much information to start the bootcamping day!

Heir good luck with the interview.

Pseudo have you been to the doc about the mastitis? That can be excruciatingly painful!

Lavender at 'deluding briefly'! (I know you meant delurking but it still made me ).

Whoohoo for your stone loss Precious!

Eva can you not just blind them with science? I find that when I get all technical people's eyes tend to glaze over and they change the subject...

Is bootcamp 8 or 12 weeks?

I'm off to the doc at 11.30 thanks Crabby and Eva
I haven't eaten yet, just 2 coffees with cream. I can't think of anything I want to eat, maybe because I'm feeling ill?

crabby i'm sorry those close to you have been so caught up in alcoholism, it must be horrible for you to have lived with and see now.

i have a relative who is a recovering alcoholic (5-6 years without alcohol now i think) and i have such admiration for him. on christmas day he runs a drop-in support group. he does now display addictive/impulsive behaviours with food though - his wife finds wrappers of sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits etc hidden behind furniture and stuffed under seats in his car. the behaviour is such a worry because it is secretive, and it is having an impact on his health, but it is of course felt to be better than the alcoholism for them as a family, which it definitely is. and anyway, in the same way as the alcoholism, what could they do if he weren't prepared to do anything himself?

Oh and Trashy what a nightmare with the runaway pooch! I'd have been beside myself! He must have been terrified to go so far, too. We walk my friend's lurcher on a Sunday and he's a serial absconder - it does worry me that he's going to cause an accident or something. The good thing is he's so fast that he can find you without any problem at all once he decides to. Glad you got him back and (but !) at him pissing on your chair when you got home!

Good morning everyone.

Ugh, BMI. The only reason I now care about it is because doctors care about it, and it’s used as a criteria for allowing or not allowing certain treatments. And it’s damn hard to get a new doctor to listen to you about any health issue if your BMI is over some magic number. Like my back and my hormones. I’ve had problems with both since my perfectly slim teenage years – but as long as I’m overweight, it’s obviously only caused by my being overweight as far as many HCPs are concerned.

Piste I’m also convinced the “starvation mode” is true, and you sometimes need to eat more to lose more! Also I think it’s widely underestimated what an effect low energy diets can have on your thyroid, which then can really affect your ability to lose weight.

Humphrey Hope you feel better soon. That’s good service, though. :)

MyPrecious Well done on the stone lost!

Lighthouse Pret has some decent things, luckily. They do different kinds of “protein pots” (at least egg and spinach) and some salad that aren’t actually full of pasta/rice.

LittleMiss & Eva Atkins death is an urban myth, yes. Robert Atkins died following slipping on ice and hitting his head. Must have been because of the lack of sugar in his brain, I’m sure… lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/atkinsdiet/a/dratkinsdeath.htm

Yesterday my energy ratio was 3% carbs, 13% protein and 84% fat. A bit over 4l of water drunk. I've peed a lot...

Today's plan is:
B: Fried eggs and coffee with coconut oil.
L: Green salad and tuna mayo.
D: I dunno... meat and veg... (must shop)

Everything's a bit crap at the moment. I'm really struggling with cravings, and weird and pointless cravings, too. Like plain white bread, which is hardly something I've ever really enjoyed. I know it'll pass, though. Something very minor happened this weekend past, and it's still secretly upsetting me, though it's ridiculous, so I wonder if that's why.

Thanks Willie. I haven't seen my uncle for ages and feel really guilty because I know that my aunt wants me to go and see him. It just brings up a whole lot of stuff about my dad that I'm really not able to deal with, so I've taken the coward's way out and avoided the issue.

Great kudos to your relative for getting sober. I agree that's worrying about the continuing secretive behaviour but as you said, the self awareness and wanting to change has to come from him. We can't impose it on anyone, as I well know from my own experience. There's no one so selfish as the alcoholic, ime.

Anyway enough of this. I have to decide what to cook today to thoroughly erase the memory of those carbs!

Morning losers, I'm off to the pub with former colleagues, including 2 other escapees, for lunch. I haven't seen them for a year so it'll either be a good catch up or boring as I don't know what they're going on about and all we had in common was working in the same place but the menu looks ok I just need to ask if they'll change the chips for mushrooms.

Eva well done on day 1, I've dug mine out ready for tonight well that's the plan.

Trash dogs - who'd have them! Psychopup's recall is fantastic even though all the books say they can't be trusted of the lead but then all the local dogs run to me as I'm the mad lady with a bag of meaty/cheesy treats. My last dog was a dumb as fuck himbo of a retriever who never mastered anything. He thought his name was E R cos we'd stand in the middle of a field shouting "E R Dog" trying to get him to come back .

crabby back on the wagon and be kind to yourself. Even though you know DDs having a lovely time you're bound to be missing her. Don't worry about the boobs they do grow back but in the meantime you can have some of mine cos I've got plenty to share

Elbomb that's a great result. I'm going to give it a go next week if I STS again.

LMD Glad the afternoon went ok, sometimes the imagining is worse than the reality.

Willie maggots and blue cheese - you really know how to tempt someone

Humph Get well soon. DH has manflu and is doing my head in. I'd put leftovers in the microwave to cool last night and instead of putting it in the fridge when he warmed his milk at bedtime the divvy left it on the counter and the cats have eaten it. He's now sulking because he's "not well" - well go to bed and die quietly like the rest of us do when we're sick the 's calling see ya later

warning, self absorbed whiney me me me post
I apologise in advance for being whiney and attention seeking, but I'm desperate.

I still haven't lost what was assumed to be PMT bloat and weight gain and I am now at that point of my cycle again.
I have not, at any point over the last six weeks cheated. I have been ultra careful, printouts of rules etc on fridge. I have increased my water to 4 litres instead of three to try and flush out the water weight, as recommended to other posters with PMT bloat.

I have lost 10 cm round my waist in those six weeks, which is good. I feel a bit healthier, which is good, these are the reasons I have carried on, but I need to lose at least 1 1/2 - 2 stone.

In the first 2 weeks of bootcamp I went from 11st 2 to 10st 6 ( I think, maybe 4) which was an incredible amount. I fully expected to gain a couple due to PMT, but then lose them.
I was completely ready to STS for a few weeks after the first two.
But, I then put on about 1/2 a stone the day before my period arrived, was shocked but confident it would go. I also felt more bloated and sluggish, which I figured would also go away with my TOTM.
But it hasn't. I have weighed in, since then at 10st 9/10 I think, and today I have put on a couple of pounds (TOTM) and am 10 st 12.

I'm getting a bit about it all now. I feel a bit 'what's the point?' TBH right now. I know there are a lot of posts for the experts to get through but can anyone help?
Pretty please with butter on top?

Twit - list out your meals? Let's see if there is anything obvious.

Are you exercising? On medication? Half a stone overnight is not probably fat; much more likely to be water. What do you weigh? Sometimes the water does get held onto, so as to keep fatcells the same size (for later, when you put it back on ) and that can be for a few weeks. Also, oestrogen is being released from the fatcells too, which can disrupt and confuse your cycle.
Don't give up - this WOE is not only best for weigh control, but for health too. And taste! Why anyone woul go back to eating carbs (pastries, chips, crisps, biscuits) when they are so bad for you is beyond me.

Ok, my meals which are the same each week;
Breakfasts - BPC, decaf. Then when I get back from the school run, if I'm hungry, buttery eggs or yoghurt with cream and flax seeds (twice a week at most).
Lunch - belly pork slice(s) buttery spinach/ cheese and mushroom and leek omelette / roast chicken and swede / belly pork slice and dark salad leaves / fish and the leaves or spinach.
Tea - pasta sauce ( mince, leeks, mushrooms and a smidge of sauce for taste) cheese on top with courgette ( if I have any)/ one of the above lunches. Roast chicken with broccoli & cauliflower.
I add butter to everything and cook with butter etc. I might have a fry up at the weekend.

I eat when I'm hungry, which isn't often anymore and when Stop when I am not hungry anymore. I drink all my water and don't snack, except on a Saturday evening when I will have 4 Brazil nuts and 6 almonds.

I do a lot of walking, up and down hills and to shops etc, never drive. I am aiming to start up Callanetics when I feel better ( knackered all the time due to badly sleeping two year old) after having lost a bit as I feel physically tired due to being overweight too. I can't do running or anything more strenuous because my SPD hangover won't allow me. (I'm not pregnant or ill or on medication).
Today for example I'm not at all hungry having had a (caffeinated) BPC with added splash of cream.
Sometime later, I will have omelette and mushrooms, which some spinach mixed in, say 4 frozen bits, if you get me? Tea will be belly pork and cheesy broccoli / cauliflower with lots of butter.

I don't seem to have problems with dairy as I did three/four days no dairy which changed nothing, although I'm careful not to have too much.

Thank you for replying so quickly

NotTwit, is there any chance it's muscle gain that's causing your weight to increase? Other than that, I have no useful input, sorry. :(

Sorry to hear of people's relatives still being PITA about this WOE - this is nothing like Atkins etc., where no veg or fruit is allowed in the first phase. (I couldn't live with no veg - no fruit was bad enough but no veg would about kill me.) Trouble is that the BDA and various self-styled "quackbusters" have put about that eating anything other than BDA recommended style = faddy and therefore Bad For You, so people with limited analytical faculties will take that on board wholesale and just regurgitate it as gospel truth, which is bollocks.

I have not been posting my food because it's not changing much - still having 1-2 slices of cheese for breakfast on a weekday, not managing anything at the weekend; lunch is even more hit and miss than it used to be and my evening meals are meat or fish with veg and swede in some format.
I'm having the occasional glass of spritzed wine (1 a fortnight, roughly), and occasional chocolate when I can't bear it any more.

And despite that, I have finally broken the 12st barrier and weighed in this morning at 11st 12. Yay! Might be because I had my period, and it's just about finished now, but still - yay!

I'm still in a bad place moodwise though - even more snappy and irritable than normal - anyone else suffering like that or just me?