Week 7 - Low Carb Bootcamp - Where the End is Almost in Sight!

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Hope that you had a good week and that the scales are kind to you today.

Come and confess all on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness and/or on the Weight Tracker

So we have four more weeks left. A focused effort could see another four or even eight pounds disappear. Which would be 8 or 16 packs of lard!

Just to keep you focused on that, here's a picture of just one measly pound of fat. Imagine losing four of these - or how much eight of them might be

Well, in a way - if you want "puddings", the chances are they'll be sweet. Erythritol isn't really an artificial sweetener anyway (I accept that most of the stuff you buy is mass produced using artificial processes, but you can buy natural if that's the thing that bothers you/ others.)

Generally, I try and see a 'pudding' course as something totally absent from my daily routine and diet these days. So once every 3 months, eg. when pushed into cooking for ILs I don't know very well, or having afternoon tea to celebrate a friend's adoption (the two occasions I've made the things I mentioned above) I made something I could enjoy too - I'm happy with that.

I too love cooking, love creating new stuff, and the creativity makes me feel alive. Maybe a little unusual in a fussy eater - a control issue perhaps. I'm not a gourmet cook, but a creative, messy cook. I love an evening curled up with a cookery book from the library adapting things in my mind, etc. We've enjoyed a lot from that book.

Stamping out food=treat from thinking is such a tough thing though - I think the various low carb cookery books have the smallest sweet sections, thankfully. We're all trying to do this, in our different ways.

Have a crazy afternoon of small children - how kind of the excellent Eastbourne tennis final to finish in time!

When you low carb as a lifestyle you do need the odd pud or cake in your repertoire that will pacify others in the family but will allow you to join in the fun without knocking you too far off track. I can't use erythritol or stevia so I only have Splenda to fall back on if I want to make anything sweet. I find I can't eat a large serving of anything sweet anymore. Never thought I'd see that day!

Just popping in to say hi - I haven't posted for a few days so this had dropped out of my 'Threads I'm on' list, even though I check in often.

We had a lovely supper last night - I'm trying to do one new recipe every week as we seemed to be really stuck in a rut with menus. I made this and just adapted it a bit for LC, so no flour when browning the chicken, and swapped out the broad beans and sweetcorn for broccoli and chopped up green beans. I put in the new potatoes for the carb eaters but didn't serve myself any.

It was de-lish and went down v well with all the family.

BIWI your BBQ sounds fab. Can't wait to have one ourselves - my DH has been working abroad since March but is back next weekend so we may break out the barbie to celebrate

I keep a box of mini-Magnums in the freezer for occasions when everyone insists on a dessert. I seem to be able to resist ice-cream, and the mini ones mean that nobody is getting too big a portion of sugar.

DD likes to make chocolate dipped strawberries which aren't too

Right - all prep work done.

Prawns (to go on skewers marinading in olive oil, lemon juice, thyme and chilli
Chicken thighs (to go on skewers) marinading in olive oil, garlic, ginger, turmeric, paprika, curry powder, oregano and lemon juice
Aubergine slices marinading in olive oil and orange juice, sauce of yoghurt, garlic and orange zest made
Lamb marinading in olive oil, ras el hanout, oregano and garlic
Potato salad made (not for me, obvs!)

Merguez and Toulouse sausages that I bought from France are defrosting, and will make the burgers later, along with the lemon and coriander dressing for the Halloumi. Bags of green salad bought (lazy way of doing salad, but can't be arsed to do anything else!)

Bought strawberries, blueberries and raspberries for dessert, along with extra thick cream that I will whip up with vanilla paste, and also bought some Green & Blacks vanilla ice-cream.

Cheese - Roquefort, a mature cheddar and a goats cheese.

You're all welcome. Any time after 7.30.

We'll all see you later then!

Wow BIWI your bbq sounds fantastic have a wonderful time. Thanks for the tips everyone. I only started drinking BPC last week when I gave up milk,

Oh and well done lowcarb I wouldn't want the sore coccyx but you've obviously done fantastically well

I am setting off BIWI

good way of providing pudding is to put on the table few bowls with stuff in them which can be made into pudding by each of guests, yo ustick a tablespoon into each for self serving
I got this idea from work and used it at home several times.
For low carb I would serve:
strawberries
raspberries
cream
coconut cream

for the rest I would add few of those:
chopped brownies
plain yoghurt
chopped chocolate (milk and/or dark)
blackcurrant coulis or sauce
mini merengues

then everyone can serve themselves as much of anything as they want
I liked it also because it can be made in advance. I bet everyone will find something they like amongst those 10 ingredients

On my way!! Sounds amazing!!

Today, I got up too late for breakfast, dp away again for four weeks on Monday so making the most of him being here!
L - picnic today
Salad with cucumber and home made egg mayo with bacon bits
2 sausages
Yogurt with double cream and 8 blueberries
D - broccoli/cauliflower/spinach and Stilton soup
Portobello mushroom stuffed with Bolognese topped with goats cheese

Maybe 2/2.5l water. Not as much as usual but I'll hopefully catch up this evening

Thank you wombat! Have had weeks of stuck scales so know what it feels like. It's great, my love handles have started deflating. It's fun watching them go week by week.

Mmm that bbq sounds amazing! We had guests for dinner tonight too, first time since starting bc, I made chicken parmigiana (without breadcrumbs for me) with lovely salad and pots and bread for the carb eaters. For dessert I made a raspberry pavlova, I was meant to just eat the cream and mascarpone filling but ended up eating a bit of the meringue, was so sweet I couldn't believe it but nobody else said it was? then we had cheese and crackers, I just had cheese which was fabulous, I love cheese

Probably had too much alcohol but still amazed at my restraint, love not wanting to eat everything in sight!

Bit of a berry crisis here. We have a fruit farm 2 minutes away from us and ds2 and I have been several time to pick strawbs and other lovely things (Loganberries are my favourite). I know I am eating too many but they are heavenly and it's such a short season.... That's my excuse anyway

Morning! All went well last night. I didn't make a pudding, but offered a bowl of mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) with cream, and vanilla ice cream. I stirred a large teaspoon of vanilla paste into the cream and it was fantastic. Makes a really good and, I should think, low carb option.

Shame my head is so sore this morning though

Have been MIA again most of this week. More struggles I'm afraid, although following bootcamp most of the time. I am the class dunce of bootcamp .

However I don't know if this is progress or self delusion, but I'm not beating myself up with the failures this week . I can't say too much as is very identifying but dealing with some major, life changing, incredibly horrible, family issues, which I can't do anything to help. Every time I think we have a grip on it more revelations come out! It's like being in some badly scripted melodrama. Eating ice-cream & drinking wine are not good, but they have got me through some awful days, and I will work on better coping mechanisms. We've been referred for counselling so hoping that might help. And, also, I know a lot of you have big issues you're dealing with too, so sorry for banging on.

So that leaves me with 2 and 3/4 pounds on from my weight on 2 June. I've ordered the book antimatter recommended on the other thread and I'm taking my anger & frustration out on the garden (which is a complete state) instead of 'eating it' while fannying about on the internets. Just need to keep posting here if you'll put up with me!

Of course we will, Locarblil! That's exactly the point of these threads. Sorry you're having such a horrible time.

Hello all.

Locarblil - I personally am happy with you posting here. That is the whole point of the thread, in my mind, so please post away for support. Not sure how others feel, but hopefully the same. It sounds like an incredibly stressful time, I hope you are ok and taking care of yourself?

BIWI - your BBQ sounds delightful, and dessert sounds amazing. I have to look for vanilla paste, I have never used that.

Yesterday was a bad day for me. A couple of food mistakes followed by bad choices at a party, where choice was very limited, and not drinking my water properly, have shown up as a jump on the scales. I need to get myself to the supermarket and stock up, as I have very little good LC food in my fridge and tons of bad stuff.

I will get right back on it today, after I have waved my baby ( ok, 9 year old DS) off to his first Cub Scout sleep away summer camp. He is going to be gone for 6 nights and I am trying to not worry about him.

Sorry you are having such a terrible time Locarblil. I think going through a lot of stress we do have to be forgiving of ourselves. Just get through things as best you can.

All chugging along fine here. Enjoy wearing new summer dresses, my legs are looking so much more like normal legs, it's great. I've finally had a quiet weekend too, so resting like mad to try to start catching up to normal energy levels. It always feels horrible when it's sunny resting; like everyone else is out having a wonderful time with their friends and families, but I know that isn't reality for many.

And it is amazing how just letting myself eat a little dairy has gotten rid of my cravings for sugar. I've found this all so much easier this week. The cravings were pretty monstrous last week.

My julienne peeler arrived yesterday so I made zoodles tonight. Wow, they taste so like spaghetti (or maybe it's just been months since I last ate spaghetti). Had them with some pesto and roast pork. It was scrumptious.

Locarblil just vent away - and good for you for taking it out on the garden instead of the biscuit tin

Roast lamb here tonight with roasted cauliflower and buttery leeks. Drool. Nearly ready….

Hoping for good things on the scales tomorrow.

Evening all

Locarblil - Hope it gets better for you, the gardening sounds fantastic, think I'm going to use the decorating in the same way. keep it coming, this is totally the place to air it.

I've been a bit off with it all this week really bad moods and last couple of days been snacking in the kitchen whilst cooking. An old and not very good habit (that i thought i had kicked). Its me hiding my eating away from anyone, sad thing is last week I would have spat it out.

So time for me to buckle back down and work harder at keeping on keeping on

Know the feeling Pisses - this morning I disgusted myself by polishing off DD's leftover eggy toast while I was clearing the breakfast things. Completely without thinking. An awful habit I hoped I had broken.

I need to get her to clear her own dishes.

Hi all. I'm here for advice and a moan I'm afraid.
Need a combination of reassurance, sympathy and BIWI's stick

Nothing has changed since week two. In fact over my TOTM around week two, I put a couple of cms back on around my belly. Fine, I though I'd lose it back off again.
But I haven't. The only cheat was a drink of iced gin last week, and then only one small drink. In all the weeks.

I don't know about weight, I haven't been weighing myself, but I daren't right now. Thing is, this hot weather makes me swell. Hugely. All over. So I'm now probably as big if not bigger than when I started. Again I'm not going to check. I can tell because of my clothes.

I'm so fed up and miserable. Sorry, first world problems and all that but I have come close to thinking, fuck it, I'm this big anyway I might as well eat the stuff I (still) want anyway.
I don't even feel better at the moment either, which is normally a huge part of this WoE.

Oh, FolknNorah, that sounds shit

The first thing that occurs to me, if you're having problems with the heat, is are you drinking enough water?

List out for me what you've been eating and drinking over the last few days and let's see if we can help.

B - fried egg
L - leftover Bolognese with shredded lettuce
D - salad, raw mushrooms, 2 chicken thighs and a couple of chicken satays. It's ds2's 2nd birthday so had a tiny bit of cake too

Loads of water so hopefully won't cause too much damage. Can't believe we're nearly on the 8th week! It's gone really quick