Week 1 - January Low Carb Bootcamp: and we're off!

[BIWI]

Evening everyone. I hope you're all ready, prepared and raring to go!

Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness:

for you to enter your starting weight

Have a good look at the tabs at the bottom, as there you will find the rules, the list of allowed veg and lots of other really useful information.

I've also started the questions thread , so if you have anything you need to ask, that's the best place to ask it. The chat threads move really quickly in the first weeks, so this thread is the best place to ask your questions.

And this time around, I thought it might be useful to have a thread to post about good/interesting low carb products that you come across:

Here

Good luck!

Thank you lurking. I did cry a little bit, yesterday really was a crap day, and I'd run out of ADs so everything seemed worse.

MrsKoala how about roast chicken and broccoli cheese for one meal? Do they eat curries? If so you could give them normal rice and you and DH cauliflower rice.

I have the True Weight app and, while mI love the idea, it NEVER tells me I am lighter than my actual weight. In fact it usually tells me I am heavier So not that motivating for me and i usually jack it in after a few weeks.

This morning I really fancied a bit of a fry up but had no bacon so I fried a few five slices of prosciutto and it was amazing. Crispy and salty in about 10 seconds. Also none of the nasties of bacon, just pork and salt in my Aldi version. Definitely be having that again.

MrsKoala would they eat shepherds pie? I made one last night when my parents were round and I did one half potato mash on top and the other half cauli and leek mash - went down a treat.

Morning Mrskoala, i feel your pain my DC took it in turns keeping me awake and we are having probs with nightmares. I feel like i have sand in my eyes and two tired and grumpy children - its going to be a long day.

We had a similar thing with in laws last year so i made pulled pork, hm coleslaw with hm mayo (very smug and yet super easy), sweet potato wedges and corn on cob and dressed salad leaves. I didnt eat corn on cob and only had 1 sweet potato wedge. I did have a drizzle of BBQ sauce but teeny tiny.

Otherwise a cottage / shepards pie with a cauli mash topping - my hubby doesnt even notice its not potatoes.

In the past i have done beef stew, dodged the carrots and served with broccoli, cauli and home made bread - obv skip bread??

I made asian style fried rice with cauli instead of rice, it may be because i havent rice in such a long time i didnt miss the rice.

My hubby tolerates small amounts of carbs much better than i , he also doesnt have the same emotional attachment to food that i do so if i fall off i struggle to get back on where as he just does it and hardly gives it a second thought.

Its difficult, my parents are exactly the same. Will never forget the horror on my fathers face when i served dinner without meat!

Thanks for the suggestion Sore, but sadly no. They don't eat broccoli or melted cheese/cheesey sauces and if they have a curry they will want rice and naan and onion bhajis. And while i'd happily pass on the carby bits dh will defo not be able to. i think it's just impossible to make something which will fit the criteria.

Ha - Mrssteve, my dad just wouldn't come if we didn't have meat for dinner. He gets irrationally furious at vegetarians.

They's not eat a cottage pie on a weekend - that's a crap mid week meal to them and i think my dad would be furious at cauli mash and possibly storm out of the house! . i think i'll do celeriac dauphinoise and steak on sat night. Sunday they wont stay for dinner. So it's just Fri night to think about...

MrsKola - how old is ds1? My ds went through a spate of nightmares (worse than normal) at nursery age and it was hormone/growth spurt related. Corresponded to starting nursery which is a pain, also affected his sleep as he was constantly hungry for a bit and needed extra supper to get him to sleep a bit longer. Might not be as bad as you fear. Have you done the how was nursery. Boring conversation yet? Mind you iirc you can get more information at nursery age than at school age. Don't feel bad about nursery it is a big change and it can unsettle a lot of children. The majority will settle completely within a very short space of time and be eager and enjoy going. It gets easier as mum too. until the next stage. I will cry when ds goes to high school cos that is my baby. sniff

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled, 2 cups of coffee, and on my second 500ml water bottle.
Not idea what to do for lunch at tea as it is an awkward day for meals. thanks ds and your afterschool activities

maybe fajitas if i can get some low carb wraps for dh. i know you can get some online.

What about a big dish of roasted veg and just leave out the potatoes? I do a huge tray of button mushrooms, parnships, carrots (yes not ideal on bootcamp - i just don't eat them), swede, onion, leek etc tossed in oil and mixed herbs. And then shoved in oven for about 40mins Served with meat (varies could be a roast chicken with lemon and paprika, could be pork chops, could be fish). Most people don't notice there is no potatoes because there is so much else. Buttered leeks always go down well here too.

BIWI/SayraT do we have bootcamp friendly slow cooker recipes? I have decided that I am going to get one and it will make things easier in a lot of situations (eg monday time when there is no time to cook, wednesday when meal times are odd). I have some nice recipe saved but somehow I suspect that stuffing is on the banned list?

I do fajitas and i serve them with iceberg lettuce leaves as wraps, i actually prefer them that way now. Thai curry with normal rice for them and cauli rice for you and hubby and glare at him if he ventures over to the wrong bowl?

With my hubby i just explain it to him (why he should have avoided the muffins at work meeting) then be sympathetic when the next day he is complaining of being hungry and having carb flu - with a knowing smile!

It is slowly sinking in but i realised i cant be responsible for his weight loss i can only give him the tools. After all i wouldnt expect him to be responsible for my weight loss.

He has resisted the last few boot camps but lost weight even though he had sarnies for lunch and cereal for breakfast (the git,ha).

He has started training at the gym and is disappointed his weight isnt shifting so is FINALLY giving the woe a proper go. Having said that he didnt bother making breakfast this morning so will be starving by lunch - sigh.

Other slightly sneaky option is to do a very small portion of carbs so parents dig in and even if hubby has some there wont be much there to do a damage? Obv serve with tonnes of low carb veggies, swimming in butter, yum.

Oh that's a good idea bitchy. I might do a few spuds for M&D and then dish up in the kitchen - dh probably wouldn't notice he didn't have any. I will roast a chicken with it then do them some gravy and we can have mayo (dh actually prefers that anyway).

I do almost all my dinners in the slow cooker. Yesterday i did a spanish pork belly stew. If you are buying a slow cooker get one which you can brown the meat in too. Mine is a 'sear and stew', it saves time and washing up.

I cant discuss this WOE with my parents as they are die hard WW fans, they have done well, my dad is late 50s and has a 30 inch waist -same as when he was in his 20s!

They are convinced i am on the road to heart disease and obesity (more). In all fairness my dad only eats 1 proper meal a day and doesnt look good on it!

They dont understand green smoothies, BPC or LCHF. It hasnt helped that i am still 14 st ish but have normal blood sugars now so thats worth it on its own. Still cant wait to be thin and then that will show them - passive aggressive rage!

It's really worth browsing the recipe thread for some 'family-friendly' ideas.

How many meals do you have to cook for them?

If you have breakfasts to do, then you could do something simple and lovely like bacon and eggs, as long as that wouldn't send them screaming out of the house because of the fat!

But scrambled eggs, or an omelette of some kind would work well - and if your DH ends up having a slice of wholemeal toast with his, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

For an evening meal, I'd do something like steak, celeriac dauphinoise, asparagus, and a big green salad - seems special, celebratory, appropriate for a Saturday night.

And you could do a big roast on Sunday, if that's what they like? Only do lamb/pork or chicken, so you don't have to do Yorkshire Puddings. If they complain, tell them that it's against the rules to have YP with anything other than beef! Re the veg, make sure you do lots of low carb veg along with the roast potatoes, and make sure that are really only enough potatoes for your parents - plate up in the kitchen rather than in serving dishes, to stop your DH diving into them. I'd do:

• leeks or cauliflower, or leeks and cauliflower, as they go well together, in cheese sauce (300ml double cream + 125g grated cheddar, heated up together and seasoned with black pepper

• brussels sprouts (with butter for you/no butter for fat-watching guests!)

• mashed swede (you could always put a bit of carrot in there if you want - as long as it's primarily swede, it shouldn't be too carby)

• broccoli

HTH!

Ha! MrsSteve, my parents follow me round the kitchen/when i'm eating saying smugly ' that's NOT diet food' and 'i thought you were trying to lose weight' I have explained this woe so so so many times they just pretend not to remember

MrK is a pain with his weight. He went for a curry last night and had all the trimmings including lager. I said to him i don't care if he wants to eat like that and balloon even heavier than he is now (tbf he doesn't look 17st at all) but what i resent is him asking me to spend hours doing his food then eating it all and going off and filling up on carbs AS WELL. His weight loss is up to him and i'm willing to help, but i wont spend fortunes on extra snacks for him and totally waste my time (which with a baby and a toddler is pretty precious). i've said if he cheats again he can go back to cereal and sandwiches.

honestly, he'd lose weight if he just had muesli/toast and sandwiches and fruit in the day. Which i may suggest if he can't stick to this. Then he can just eat my bc dinners.

Could you do little ramekins of dauphinoise? You and Mr K have celeriac and they get pptato?

Maybe a yummy 'posh' fish stew?

It all went a bit wrong for me yesterday - I found my lunch almost inedible and ended up getting some Tesco's cocktail sausages to fill up on. 13g carbs per 100g and I ate the entire 100g! Gah.

Then we went out for dinner and I had 4 prawn crackers, thai calamari (they assured me it wasn't battered, just deep fried, but I'm sure I detected a fine layer of flour..), stir fried brocolli and beef with ginger and spring onions. No sauce on the beef luckily but still... I don't know what I was thinking. At least I didn't have any booze!

So today I'm going to be extra strict and have the following:

B: Egg, feta, spinach 'muffins'
L: Homemade mushroom soup made with lots of EVOO and a slosh of double cream
D: Courgette noodles with avocado, prawns and EVOO
'Pudding': tsp of coconut oil and a cup of chamomile tea

Anyone else gone a bit wrong already?

Mrsstevejones, what do you put in your green smoothies? I have an avacado left and fancied doing one for my lunch...

I was thinking spinach, avocado and coconut oil, with maybe a drizzle of cream too? Does that sound right? Would have to make it with water as dont have any fancy liquids

P.S. Mrsstevejones I'm totally nicking your fajitas with lettuce wraps idea, do you make them with meat and shallots? What 'extras' do you have with them? Homemade guac and cheese? I'm guessing tomato-y salsa is out?

Bit late hello everybody. Everything in my life seems to be beyond control recently so no time to read new thread. I am glad to see (???) some old faces and so many new bootcampers. As I never left BC woe since last BC no carb flu for me this time. I may cut down my occasional handfull of nuts or desiccated coconut or 85% choc to be very BC because I hit plateu and weight stays annoyingly the same for a month now. Of course not eating enough, not drinking enough and most importantly not sleeping (DS being pain in back..) may have smth to do with it. Stress, did I mention stress? My weight can change 3-4 lbs daily with being 100% good LC.
Anyway. Good luck to all bootcampers and stay strong

Morning all.

The carb flu hasn't hit yet.

I had field mushrooms fried in olive oil & butter with scrambled eggs (3) made with cream and done in olive oil & butter for breakfast.

I have to squeeze in lunch because I work from 12-2 and then am not home till near half 3 cos it's easier to stay that way to pick my son up from school.

Will have some chicken breast, Brie and olives for lunch.

Snack later could be HB eggs, olives & feta.

Am doing steak for dinner. Dh will have mash with his (I'm not keen on mashed potato anyway). Will attempt to do something with the celeriac win my steak.

Bloody hell koala your parents sound like hard work! As does your DH. You have enough on with the toe smalls without all of this fussing about 3 grown adults acting like fussy toddlers!

Beyond, i only ever use water, almond milk (unsweetened) is nice but would rather save the albeit small amount of carbs for something else.

I do whatevers in the fridge or freezer. Currently kale, avocado, fr spinach blocks and cucumber with coconut oil. Its nice with something frozen in. On BCL you could add a few strawberries - they are nicer with a touch of fruit although my taste buds have altered so i tolerate no fruit ones better. Drizzle of cream would be nice i imagine.

MrsK, dont do it then. My hubby eats what i make him or he fends for himself - i am a hard ass like that! (terrible wife). He lost last time as we didnt snack in the evenings and he didnt bother if i wouldnt join him - took tremendous willpower on my behalf however. I am lucky he likes lc food so that helps. Has he got into ketosis yet as not feeling so hungry really helps.

I have similar aged children and i dont make food esp for DH, i just make enough of what i am going to eat. I also feed my children according to WOE but i serve them nice bread, fruit and frozen mash. DD also eats at grannys and nursery. They have puddings and porridge for breakfast so they still get good carbs.

Perhaps try not to over think it?

galbriath, today is another day so don't beat yourself up about indiscretions yesterday! I find it takes me a while to really get my head into the 'zone' of LC, iyswim - I eat or drink things without even thinking about them and then realise that, oops, carbtastic!

Eg: have just remembered that last night I had a (tiny, in my defence) glass of apple juice at my rehearsal - didn't even think about it at the time, had completely forgotten about it this morning. But hey, it's done, all you can do is be more mindful next time

Am sitting here slurping coffee with cream and crunching pork scratchings - what a diet

Yep make them with shallots, meat and loads of green pepper (only tastes nice really well cooked imo) plus anything else in fridge. I do coriander creme fraiche. Not keen on guac but would be nice. I also make salsa but make it really fiery and limey so you only need a small amount - tomatoes at 3.1g / 100g right?????

Might do them tonight, making myself hungry.

Best dash baby stirring x