Low-Carb Bootcamp - Ongoing Support Thread

[StuntNun]

That's it! We made it to the end of our mini Bootcamp. How did everyone do?

The marvellous BIWI always keeps a support thread going so if you have any victories, questions or low carb conundrums then please keep posting here. And don't forget to check out the Recipes thread for some cooking inspiration.

Add your final weigh-in to the Spreadsheet and to the Weight Tracker.

Hope you have a straight forward trip Biwi. Isn't there a problem with Italian air traffic control at the moment? Hubs used to work as a chauffeur for several local businesses taking staff and guests to various airports. The general consensus seemed to be that it was far from exciting as they only ever saw the airport and a hotel! They were au fait with airports world wide but had seen little of the actual country! I would hate it!

Oh BIWI that does sound rubbish. I'd venture out and have a slap up meal somewhere instead, but if you don't like eating in restaurants alone then that'd be no fun. Especially not with an early start and very long day ahead.

Miffy pretty easy, though it took me a while to get my head around the instructions. You put in your data, so gender and height, under a number (person 1, say), then when you want to weigh, you turn it on, wait for it to go to zero, press the No.1 button then pick up the handset. Get your grip right, then step on. Your weight flashes twice and then you bring your arms out straight in front of you and it measures all the other stuff. It then records your measurements and you press the relevant button to see your current and last measurements.

Thanks Crabby Sounds as though I could retain that much info!

Hope the trip goes ok BIWI, sounds like hard work!

I found an interesting article about not going too low carb and the importance of exercise in becoming fat-adapted.

That's very interesting reading Stunt.

I have Sophie Hexburg's book and she advocates dropping carbs slowly if you have been eating a lot of starchy stuff. She doesn't knock the cold turkey approach, but says that for anyone struggling to stick with it the slower track might be better in the long run.

I also picked up that it goes against Zoe Harcombe's idea of eating carbs but virtually on their own. It states categorically that any carbs eaten should be part of a meal that includes protein and fat and not eaten alone.

There are some other bits there that I'd like to check out but, as you know, I don't retain info so I will go back to it again later for another browse.

Am here, working hard. Hotel food really good from a low carb point of view - but had already had plane food which was all carbs! Working at the research facility all day, and have had sandwiches for lunch ... (bloody lovely Italian sandwiches they were - beautiful bread with parma ham, mayo and lovely fresh buffalo mozzarella)

Ah well.

Sounds as though you'll just have to force it down Biwi

Well all the apples in the orchard are ripe and the cox's orange pippin we put in is bearing for the first time and I am planning to eat one tonight

Enjoy it Humph! i don't think the odd apple is going to do any harm, unless you're strictly bootcamping. I had half/a whole apple with a slice of really strong, crunchy cheddar quite a few times last week and still managed to lose 4lbs.

4lbs!! that is brilliant!

Thanks Humph, it was my first week of Start Anew September after a year summer of carby twatdom, so it's nice to see a bit of a loss to make up for the shock to the system.

Hello
Haven't been on here for a while so hope you don't mind me barging in but can anyone point me in the direction of a simple low-carb courgette cake? All the ones online I found are american and impossible for my bird brain to translate. Thankyou.

Haven't posted for a while but have been behaving I promise
Need to get back to trying to catch up every day. Can't wait till the next boot camp!

Thanks for the advice on scales Crabby. My nice new scales arrived from Amazon yesterday and I was relieved to find that they weighed around the same as my old set. I was nice not to have to take an average of about 8 readings to get them to settle though!

Its cheered me up no end being able to check my body fat levels. As you know, I've been stuck at the same weight for months but I have kept at it and kept up with the weights and yoga. I looked back in my book to the last time I got a body fat reading before the monitor broke and, even though I weigh a bit more than I did then, my body fat is a nice bit lower so I feel as though its all been worth it. My skeletal muscle reading was better than I thought it might be too given my health probs. Its left me feeling a whole lot perkier!

its the end of week 18 or 19 for me and i'm hacked off. Everything says this WOE is fantastic, working so well but its still a stinker of an afternoon for me. Made bread and cake today and licked the spoon, just ate a bit of cake and have massive cravings for gin.
Silly I know but this is not a planned excursion and so I'm looking to cheat myself and its pissing me off, I don't want these bad habits back. If I can't be honest with myself then why play the pretence through ...arghhhhhh!

Sometimes it just gets you that way Pisseslikeahorse. Sorry it is so hard today but if it makes you feel any better I am having a day like that too. I am blaming my hormones, it always happens when I ovulate and when I am premenstrual.

You may slip up tonight or you may not - but if you do, the key thing is going back to it tomorrow. I have eaten a lot of 85% chocolate tonight, NOT part of the plan but I won't do it again tomorrow.

Its catching! I'm really struggling to keep off the sweet things tonight. Its a long time since I've struggled with it this much. Went to Asda earlier and hubs was buying sweets! Hes on dangerous ground now because I'm really peevish after watching him stuff his face while I make do with an emergency sugar free jelly and some cream!

How did things go last night Pisses? I've been trying to reintroduce carbs and it's a minefield for me. I've been adding in sweet potato, some more fruit and rice but it doesn't take much to push me over the edge and I'm back to craving bad stuff. And then if I give in then my IBS comes back straight away. Whereas before I had a nice balance. But you don't have to get things right all the time. Have a night off then get back on the wagon the next day. And call it a carb refeed.

good morning and thanks for the comments.
Didn't go over the edge just had a bit of a sulk on the sofa and realised being tired is a major trigger for me. But it helped so much to say it out loud ,well online
The issue is I'm stuck, numbers in say I should be going down but scales say NO and visually is all very flabby like a dumpy pug dogs face. So with my serious Sat morning face on I'm going to try a carb reefed next week, keep my running up and look towards the next bootcamp.
Stunt - have you thought about reintroducing one at a time, see which one sets you off

Pisses - you've done so well so far, don't sabotage all your hard work! And there will be times when things just slow/stop for no apparent reason. You know the drill - keep on keeping on! Try and find yourself some new, low carb recipes, to keep things fresh. Make sure you're really enjoying what you eat.

Make sure you cook yourself something truly indulgent, so you feel treated - why not cook yourself something like a fillet steak with celeriac dauphinoise, with a green salad with a lovely garlicky oily dressing, for example.

Glad to help Miffy and well done on your body fat/skeletal muscle balance going in the right direction. That's what I'm hoping to see happen, if only I could get off my fat lazy arse and do some proper exercise!

Pisses would that help you do you think - to get your body fat/muscle ratio measured so that you can see that things are improving even when the scales aren't budging downwards.

DP has been doing my regime with me this months (and lost 7lbs already the jammy fucker ) and he was whimpering, actually properly whimpering last night whilst watching Gino cheffy bloke on the telly making gorgeous creme-filled pastries in Florence. He wouldn't even be mollified by my berry crumble.

Pisses it may be little consolation but there is something to be said for having a pause in your weight loss in that it allows your other tissues, especially skin, to keep up. You do a lot of exercise which will really help but at the end of the day you don't want to be left with loose skin from losing weight too quickly. You come across as being so committed and doing all the right things, the weight loss will happen in time. It's human nature to want it to happen right now but slow and steady is what your body needs. I'm all in favour of tweaking and experimenting to get a boost but at the same time please recognise that you're doing everything right and you will get there. If you think you can stick it then why not give the egg fast a try? Three days of eggs, eggs, eggs? As you're exercising you would probably need to boost your protein intake with low carb protein shakes but it could really work for you. Whatever you do, please remember that you're an inspiration and I for one really admire your determination.