Week 7 - Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - the last 3 weeks!

[BIWI]

Eeeeek!

The Spreadsheet of Fabulousness is here along with The Weight Tracker

Here's to another good week.

Four weeks left, including this one, so chance to lose up to half a stone if you're really focused!

I'm glad to see that we're all thinking about Christmas and how we're going to deal with it. My own personal problem is that I find it too easy to let things slide - well, I've already had that, so I may as well have this as well - and before I know it, I've scarfed chocolates and eaten a sandwich and start to eye up the pasta as well ...

Other people are much easier to deal with than yourself!

Anyway, I have one social event this week to negotiate, but other than that all should be manageable.

Hope you all have a good and successful week

I can see why it is disheartening. We are around the same, I started in January and have lost 2 stone with 3 stone to go (I am sure that I should be aiming for less that what I'm going for but that is my starting point). I am also delighted with my weight-loss but sometimes wish it could be faster.

You have lost weight this BC and you know that it works for you, why not try avoiding the scales for a while....I will join you if you want?

What you are eating looks good to me but I am not really an expert, all I would say is maybe cut the dairy/nuts for a week and see if that helps?

Stuntnun did an egg fast at one point (think the thread is in the low carb diets section rather than BC) which helped her after a stall. She was very close to goal though and I don't know if that makes a difference.

Oh dear chester that is the problem, it can be hard to stop once you start. Hope you get back on track soon.

pole (do you pole? I do ) as bitchy said the rules are on the spreadsheet that is linked to in the OP of each weeks thread. BIWI will start a new thread on Monday. If you have any questions just ask and someone will try to answer them.

ready have a great day...do you not live near me? Shall I wander round looking for weddings so I can say that I went to a MNers wedding

best a two stone loss since January is a huge achievement - it means you've managed to keep the scales going in the right direction for almost a year. It must be frustrating to be having this stall.

chester I know what you mean. It seems one poor decision leads to another. But I think it's always what you do after that makes the difference.

Well, it's another weekend. I do struggle a bit more on weekends. I'm absolutely fine during the week, no cravings and can easily turn down all manner of carby stuff. But work is very hectic at the minute so I think that takes my mind of it.

Going round to my sisters today, there will be wine, I suspect. Plan of action is to get something low carb going in the slow cooker so that when I get in I can ignore the takeaway-demon that lurks on my shoulder and just dish out something hot and ready.

I'm 10lb off my goal weight (135 lb). This is the slimmest I've been for the best part of ten years...I am hoping to reach my goal weight by the end of February - I think over christmas I will concentrate on maintaining rather than actively losing.

Pole welcome! Have a look at the rules on the spreadsheet, but also check out the Bootcamp recipe thread and then tell me you think you're going to hate low carbing!

You should also read some of the resources (which are on the tabs on the bottom of the spreadsheet) so that you learn a bit more about low carbing, the science behind it and how it works, so that you know what you're letting yourself in for.

But one thing I can assure you of, you will enjoy your food and you won't feel like you're on a diet!

Yes, it will mean giving up bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and sugar (certainly in the short term while you're losing weight - you will be able to add them back in, gradually, once you've reached your target, albeit probably not in the same quantities I'm guessing you're eating at the moment), but you will be able to re-introduce fat to your diet, and you will discover how lovely it is to be able to eat full fat foods, cook with butter, make sauces with cream, etc.

Good luck and welcome to Bootcamp

Any questions, just ask here - always people here to help and support

Best

It's tough, isn't it? But my advice to you is to step back from the last three weeks and take a longer term perspective

Who was it coined the phrase "the trend is my friend"?

They were absolutely right!

Let's face it, in the great scheme of things, three weeks isn't that long. And we also know that weight loss isn't linear - it comes off in lumps when it feels like it! (Or that's how it feels sometimes )

Looking at your food, there are a couple of things that strike me - first, it could be that you're not eating enough fat. If you're eating a supermarket's own soup, even though I'm sure it's delicious and low carb, it's likely to be (very) low fat.

And second, remember that the water does make a difference, and it's worth making sure that you do drink the necessary amount.

The other thing you could consider trying would be intermittent fasting - have you tried leaving out breakfast? By now, you should be well adapted to fat-burning, so your appetite should be under control.

Why not give that a go on a couple of days a week and see what happens?

Glad about the scan Bitchy but sorry about the CFS. I have ME/FMS so I know how truly awful the memory stuff can be and the days when you can't string two words together! As for sleep, well, I have forgotten what its like to wake up and feel ready for the day. Part of the trouble is the fact that we seldom reach the restorative levels of sleep. The only thing you can do is to try and establish some sort of pattern and work round it. One of the best things I've found for helping is this WOE. Wish I'd done it years ago!

Stood on the scales this morning just cos I know I won't have time tomo and I happened to have remembered. Down 1kg . Slowly going in the right direction.

Best these stalls are a total pain. I've been LC for a very long time now and I've had spells of no weight loss all the way through. It has been a steady down-trend though (except for a spell of trying 5:2 which was disastrous!)I still haven't lost what I put back in about 6mths of IF! The rest of the time, even if I've strayed into the realms of BC Lighter than Light , I haven't regained. Theres lots of stuff around about checking for carb creep and upping water/fat etc that's worth a look but its likely just your body having a rethink. Don't be too quick to look for a different sort of plan or you could be like me and undo a load of hard work. Fat is bulky but not very heavy. It takes time to register the loss on the scale and fat loss is easily blurred by fluctuations in fluid levels. Don't get too hung up with scales. Concentrate on how you feel in yourself.

I got a double whammy, I as already had a fibro diagnosis. A diet like this was actually recommended by my diagnosing specialist at the time. Although I haven't had a proper sleep pattern since I was 14yo and that was far too many years ago now. Glad this woe has helped you Miffy any thing that helps can make a huge difference even if the change seems small.

Must admit the weight loss is moral boosting, had really bad leg cramps last night and sleep was an issue. I suspect it is because of my insane decision to exercise but was it just potassium levels that i need to watch with this or was it something else too?

Sorry, I have missed Biwi's suggestion about IF. It was 5:2 I tried which is basically calorie counting and that is what shot me in the foot. Like Stunt, I do use a form of IF in that I now only eat two meals a day as I simply don't need to eat before about 2pm. I think that type of IF is viable and useful once you get fat adapted. Its the idea that you can eat 500cals on a couple of days a week and lose weight that messed me up!

Bitchy I take magnesium for the cramps. It helped me a lot. You do have to be very careful with exercise and just creep it up really slowly. I do feel better for it though and wish I had started it much sooner.

I'm the opposite way round to you in that I had the ME/CFS diagnosis first and I thought that had pretty well gone away but then the FMS popped up and it all went pear-shaped! (including me!) I went through millions of tests for various auto-immune things and ended up with the FMS diagnosis. From time to time they swap round as to which is more dominant. The FMS causes more pain whilst a CFS flare brings in more of the cognitive stuff.

Stick with the exercise as it preserves your muscle tissue. Bear in mind that there is research that suggests we have an abnormality of the blood vessels at capillary level. It affects the way that we get the exchange of nutrients/waste at cell level. If you go too giddy with the exercise you will get a build up of waste in the muscles and a lack of oxygen and nutrients so you get more cramps and will risk injuring the muscle fibres. Repair of any injury is slowed down too. Exercise gently and in short bursts with a good recovery time in between and it will pay off.

When I'm exercising, I tend to fast once a week. It really improved my performance, didn't use it so much as a diet tool. I seem to have much more energy when fasted and will probably reintroduce a fasting element when I'm off bootcamp - but sticking with LC, too.

Have done 5:2 before and that worked tolerably well but I just couldn't maintain it and it didn't fit into family life as well as LC-ing did. I do do IF, only eat in an eight hour period.

I also felt, on 5:2 that I was starving myself just so I could binge at weekends, which just isn't a healthy attitude for me and I was worried that I was getting over obsessive about food so dropped it. I didn't feel I was learning to eat healthily, just basically in a cycle of eating crap and then eating nothing. That way madness lies.

Not intending it as a criticism of 5:2 in anyway - I know some people who've done great on it and it really suits them, it's just not for me.

I couldn't do 5:2 because I ended up obsessing about calories, and that is something I always promised myself I would never do. But dropping breakfast occasionally is not an issue. Just follow the mantra - if you're hungry, then eat! (low carb, obviously )

Oh I only 3 did 3 plies and a couple of toe pointing exercises but spent Thursday in London so there was a lot of walking I forget as until 1 yr ago I used to do 20hrs training a week. Had to stop because my lungs forgot how to breathe. And that appears to be down to either the fibro or the cfs or some bad allergy to dust. However don't suppose having reynaulds is going to help with the waste removal process. Will look into magnesium thanks Miffy

Seriously, if I was an animal they'd put me down out of kindness In the meantime I have a 9yo to make tidy his room. That will surely burn a few calories

Yeah that's pretty much how I feel biwi.

It was getting to a stage where I was spending hours on a night working out meal plans for the week

Drop breakfast! It's the first thing I think of on the morning . I will read through everyone's advice and then have a think. I am not going to give up, I think I just need to change something.

Sometimes I just think of it as practice maintenance If I can STS then excellent news for when I get to goal.

Talk about socially obligated carbs... what do you do when your two-year-old is shoving crisps into your mouth saying yum yum yum and making train noises? I tried saying no thanks, turning away, closing my mouth and taking them to feed to him but he wasn't having any of it! My toddler is trying to ruin my figure again!

Don't buy crisps?

Oh dear!

I have just found a nice warming drink that I am going to share with you in case anyone else fancies it.

Almond milk (300ml)

BIWI but that's his favourite food evah! He frequently asks for 'pisps' for breakfast!

Bitchy good news about the scan not so good about the rest, I will try not to fall in Sayra's trap
I suffer from cramps with/without exercises and now drinking all that water I was worried it is going to be even worse. Bil buys some fancy electrolyte drinks for cyclists but they full of sweeteners or glucose. I managed to find electrolyte tablets with nothing but electrolytes, bought massive pot (you take one for an hour or activity or something similar) and take one or two daily. It does make a difference for me
BestIsWest it sounds scary this breakfast business but you may gradually postpone it till you manage to not eat before lunch or just try one day and you may surprise yourself. I was a proper breakfast girl like you but it is my second week without it and I am still alive not to mention didn't kill anybody around (my old gone hypoglycemic behaviour). Bullet proof coffee in the morning is my answer. It got weight moving down for sure.
Anyway the point is to eat only in 8 or less hours window in every 24 hrs so you may drop dinner instead or squeez 3 meals in 8 hrs.
Sayra drink sounds delicious but I just came back from the shop and I have only nutmeg, cinnamon and clotted cream at home

rybka - you're right about the electrolytes. But surely it would be better to counteract that by eating better? Sodium, magnesium and potassium are what you need. Salt (in cooking and on food,) salmon, spinach, avocado and natural full fat yoghurt are all good sources.

5:2 is popular amongst my friends and they all had good results which are now gone! Some of girls are heavier than before. I will steer away

BIWI I consume all of that in serious amounts (excluding yoghurt)! Plus magnesium and B6 tablets for mental reasons anyway. It was never enough to stop cramps

Has anyone here done an egg fast, out of interest?

I found this interesting link on the benefits of coconut oil for weightloss for those who'd like to read more:
authoritynutrition.com/coconut-oil-and-weight-loss/

It increases the number of calories you burn, decreases your appetite so you take fewer in AND has a specific effect on abdominal fat, apparently. How did I not know this?