Week 3 - Low Carb Bootcamp - Where We Have a Decision to Make!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Here's the link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

So we've finished Bootcamp! Well done all or at least to all those who are still with us

Now you have a decision to make. You can move on to Bootcamp Light, if you wish, which is more relaxed (to a degree). The rules are on the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet - sorry, I don't have time to copy/paste this morning as I have to get off to work about 10 minutes ago.

But essentially it means that you can introduce nuts and berries - in moderation. You no longer have to have three meals a day. If you're not hungry, then it's fine to skip a meal - as long as you don't then dive into a pile of carbs when you get hungry! And you can have alcohol - again, in moderation.

If you're happy with the stricter Bootcamp then by all means stay on that, but please, please, please make sure that your carbs are coming from vegetables and salad. It's important that you get nutrition from these.

Or you can, if you like, do Bootcamp at the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

However

There is also something else you need to prepare for, and that is the dreaded weeks 3 and 4 slowdown!

It's something that lots of people experience. The weight loss suddenly stops, for no apparent reason. If this happens, don't worry and don't panic that you're doing anything wrong (assuming that you're not, of course ), just keep on keeping on, and it will get going again - albeit at a slower rate.

From here on, you should be expecting to see a loss of 1-2lbs a week.

Good luck everyone!

Snack - spoonful of hazelnut butter and 1 pc 85% choc. Liquorice tea

blueberry

Just used my homemade hand scrub on my lips as they are majorly chapped. Main ingredients are olive oil and sugar. Didn't think, desperately trying not to let any go in my mouth.

How conditioned am I?

New course tomorrow and I am stressing out. I am live like a hermit. I go out literally 2 times a year and even then it's with people I know! I hate that I get worked up, but I don't know how to stop it.

This is another reason alcohol is my crutch.

I bet I'm the only sahm who last went to uni in 1997 and last took a course in 2005.
God! I still have a baby brain.

Piss off peony

Yes, what weight would you like added?

For hard boiled eggs, as long as you're cooking them for 8-10 minutes there's no way they will still be raw! Time them from when they come to the boil/you've turned them down to simmer.

Thanks Grah for the link, i did cautiously try coconut oil on my face ( very spotty in the past even well into my 30s) and it was fine so i think i will give that a try. Might be good for removing eye make up (just started wearing it again) and if it sorts lines even better! I am hoping no sugar will magically make me look younger as i am def starting to look and feel my age.

Doing this WOE is making me realise how much sugar my kids eat and i consider myself strict on sugar. They eat tonnes of fruit and whilst i dont want them to low carb (obviously) i have def relied on bread, cereals and pasta as quick meals. A typical day could be cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and pasta for tea - way too many processed carbs.

I have also used food as a treat and i want to stop this. I have fond memories of me and mum having a girls night eating cakes and rag rolling my hair and sweet treats when i was upset and trips to the cafe for tea and cake etc and i was (am?) a binge eater who uses food for comfort. Its a lot easier to control on this WOE. Luckily my kids are young and I WILL turn this around. I need to get myself out of the pudding habit, when my DD was tiny i did it to bump up her cals in the hope if she was really full she would sleep thru the night. My DD now wont eat as much dinner as she is waiting for pudding. Will have to be tough mummy!

Here's me:
B: egg butter and salt
L: sausage avacado spinach and bacon
D: steak green beans broccoli and mushrooms in a cream and pepper. Steak fried in veg oil, herb butter and coconut oil, clotted cream added to sauce, veg buttered.
W.2.5ltr

MrsK I am about to change your life... you can steam eggs. Just use a normal metal fan steamer that you would use for vegetables. Bring the water to the boil then put the eggs in and start the timer. 7 minutes gives a bit of squidge in the centre, 10 minutes gives hard 'boiled'. I find it so much easier than boiling eggs.

Omg I just had a treat pudding of warm cream poured over 85% cocoa chocolate. It melted it and I let it cool down. I can't believe I can eat that and still lose weight!

The rest if the day was
B black farmer sausage and egg
L beef stroganoff and salad
S cold sausage
D huge chicken and avocado salad covered in dressing

Wow, lots to catch up on here, looking forward to reading through the last few pages.

I don't think I have done so well today; it feels like I have eaten loads. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my most busy and stressful days at work and I kind of wonder how much is just self-medicating.

B- salmon and three eggs
L- chicken leg and coleslaw (tried to convince myself to have salad but felt overwhelmingly like coleslaw, it was 4g carbs per 100g
S at about five - a stick of cheese, some bacon bits, cucumber sticks with mayo (I think it was this bit which made me feel like my pre-boot camp self, I didn't wait for dinner)
D - more salmon ( it needed eating today), roast kale and spinach

But then I am also beginning to feel like, rather than see the losses, I am seeing what I still want to lose, rather than just enjoying this WOE and feeling the benefits skin-wise. Maybe because we are into week three and I can feel a stall coming on.

Hope everyone is doing well

1lb down this week, which isn't too bad considering I was on my period. busy at work at the moment so won't be checking in much, but I'll keep on keeping on.

Haven't caught up properly, very busy day so sorry if I'm missing anyone's news...
Just want to log food
B: 2 hb eggs, mayo, coffee with cream
L: St Agur, ham, avocado with vinaigrette
S: coffee with cream, macadamia nuts
D: salmon with celeriac and cauli mash and buttery spinach

Nowhere near enough water today - must go and rectify that now. Tomorrow bit challenging as we have INSET and a catered lunch. I will take something as back-up in case there are no lc options.

Stunt I discovered the beauty of steaming eggs last week and they really are life changing aren't they? Especially for a low carber! I haven't done in a steaming basket but will try that, I did in a pan with about an inch of water so they still steam rather than boil. The centers were perfect, still wet but not runny, yes squidgy is the right word

mrsk just going to throw another ethid into the mix that works for us. Bring water to boil. Put in egg (lower in on slotted spoon). Leave boiling for 1 minute. Put lid on saucepan and remove from heat and leave for 6 mins.

I also find that whatever method you use, as soon as the time is up run them under cold water to stop them coming further! I have convinced DD that poached egg is much better (and easier and quicker for me) these days!

chipping right I am back on it with you..... Let's do this!

CharlieSierra you wrote in the bc phase it is quite restrictive and it would be a lot easier to deal with that if the results were reliable
The results are reliable, they just aren't consistent from week to week. Weight loss never is. Our bodies are desperately trying to maintain the same state and will resist change until it cannot be avoided. This is called homeostasis and while it confers many advantages it does make weight loss a PITA.

1-2 lb a week on average is fine, buggering about losing and gaining the same 2lb for several weeks is soul destroying
It really is Charlie and it's the same for everybody. A lot of people tweak their diets and use methods such as carb cycling, carb refeeds, fat fasts, egg fasts, calorie counting, adjusting their macros and intermittent fasting to try and get the results they want. We try to keep things simple for Bootcamp but if you look at Mark's Daily Apple then you can find other things you can try if you want to or start another thread if you want to pick other people's brains.

I often find myself looking at my food and thinking surely there must be far too many calories here for weight loss - so do you think you can eat more calories and still lose on this woe, and also is it common place that people who have a tendency to overeat (like me, I need to lose 3 stone to be a 'healthy' weight), find it difficult to self regulate and need to be given guidance? I read on here what people eat and still lose and I wonder what I'm doing wrong, are their helpings much smaller than mine? I don't think so looking at the pictures, but I don't know. I don't pig out, I only eat until satiety, but maybe others are satisfied on less.
If you're worried by how much you're eating then log it in My Fitness Pal or a similar app. The quantity we eat is dictated by factors other than hunger, for example the portion sizes we are used to, whether we are particularly enjoying the food, whether we're worried about being hungry later in the day. Personally I found that if I followed the Bootcamp rules and used intermittent fasting (basically skipping breakfast) a few days a week then I could eat in excess of 1800 calories every day and still lose weight. Some days it would be over 2000 calories and some days under, but that's because I was eating according to my hunger. It took me a good long while to learn to recognise my body's hunger and satiety signals after years of being made to clean my plate as a child. At first all I did was to recognise the satiety signal, it took longer before I was able to actually respond to it and stop eating before my plate was empty. Another problem I had was serving too big portion sizes because I was used to eating a certain amount at 160 lb and I didn't need as much when I was 126 lb. It seems obvious but it took a while for the penny to drop.

We had cottage pie tonight with sprouts, it was lovely and there's a helping left for lunch tomorrow.

I've had no snacks today and just had a drop off cream in my coffee once. Also had a good walk with the dog.

Sending to Mrs K
Sayra, still here but don't need to be on the spreadsheet for your spreadsheet dealings.

Today 2 x hb eggs with butter
Small pot of baby spinach, two tins of tuna, two hb eggs and large blob of mayo, for lunch sat in the car, just after Chiro appointment today.
Dinner was left over mince in a tomatoe style sauce, I fried mushrooms in garlic and butter, put in the base of dish, spiced up the mince with chillis and peppers, put that on the mushrooms, then a thick layer of spinach and topped with a cheese and cream sauce, lovely.
2litres of water, small glass of wine and pain killers for horrendous back pain.
Reasons for BC
Over the last two three years my back has deteriorated and therefore no exercise, some days even walking is a bugger, so weight has piled on, comfort eating whilst feeling crap over my back, then getting down about the no prognosis and weight gain and there's the full circle etc etc.
So this is the year I get my back sorted, new private Chiro, visits twice a week, sort out some exercise, I can cycle as long as I am sensible, so now to weight.
LC is great I feel more alert and alive!!

Onwards and downwards, thanks to all the great support, information and fantastic recipe ideas.

StuntNun thank you for replying. I don't want to make it complicated, just feeling fed up as there is so far to go and it just doesn't seem to work for me unless I am uber strict, definitely no dairy, no nuts, no fruit, no alcohol....it isn't simple, clearly I need to do some more research and rethink my strategy.

sass I x-posted with you earlier. Everything you said struck a chord with me, although for me it's not just sweet stuff but food in general. Virtually all my happy childhood memories seem to involve food.
I've been trying to break my food habit for nearly 14 years now. This is probably the longest I've not binged on crap for in that time. Even when I lost 3 stone on slimming world I saved my syns for one big blow out and would eat 'free' carbs until I felt sick.

I struggled today. Had an offsite meeting all day and thought there'd be salad at lunch. There wasn't. I had to have 1 quarter sandwich and 1 tiny wrap as otherwise would have starved. I then made it all much worse by having one of the children's chocolate biscuits when I got home. Was feeling really down about a couple of work things. Am v annoyed with myself (for the latter in particular) especially as I know I wouldn't have had the same reaction last week. I need to get back in control.
So:
B: Egg, green pepper and spinach muffins
L: a (small) crayfish sandwich and a (small) veg wrap. Poo.
D: Sea bass and various roast lc veg.
Snack: a very stupid biscuit.

Gah. Better tomorrow.

sayra I think I detect that much looked-forward to supermarket shop - but I am particularly impressed that they sold DH2O!

Waaaah I've been deleted from the spreadsheet!

I have weighed in each week so must have been a mistake but don't want to tinker with it myself by adding myself back in - could you do it Sayra please and thank you - I'll put my weights in if you make me a line?

notso

It's hard to break really entrenched habits. I read a quote once, that both made me chuckle and made me sad (for myself).

"Don't reward yourself with food. You are not a dog"

That's great, sass!

Charlie I know it's hard, but the best thing to do is to take a long term perspective on all this, and to understand that by eating low carb you are eating better for your health and not just helping your weight.

I don't know what your eating/dieting patterns were before, but perhaps your body just needs a period of consistency?

Ask yourself the key questions:

• are you enjoying your food?
• do you feel deprived?
• do you feel like you're on a diet?

and importantly,

• can you see yourself eating like this in the longer term - albeit a more relaxed version of Bootcamp?

What would the alternative be?

Personally I'm never going back to the misery of low calorie eating - obsessing about every last calorie and feeling hungry all the time. I remember once when my dinner was a plate of boiled celery, and nothing else, because I didn't have any calories left for the day. What enjoyment is there in that?!

We're on a 10 week 'chunk' of our lives at the moment. But very few of us is going to be able to lose all the weight we want to in that period of time, so it's important to have a longer term view on the whole thing.

When I first started seriously low carbing, it took me around 10 months to lose 2 stones. At times it was seriously disheartening. But I was tracking my weight on a spreadsheet, and it was easy, when I had a look at that, to see that the trend - overall - was downwards. Sometimes I was losing as little as 1/4 pound a week (and obviously some weeks I was gaining), so it was a long slog at times. But overall, it worked. I just had to be patient and stick at it.

The proof, for me, was knowing that the weeks when the weight went up were weeks where I had gone off plan.

The other thing to point out is that there are going to be weeks when things go off plan - life is like that! So we go on holiday, or for weekends away, or we're invited out to dinner or we have a work function - things/events where we either can't control what we're eating or simply want to have some time off. It's all part of life and you need to give yourself permission to do it, and to accept that it will happen.

I know it can be tough. But keep on keeping on - we're all here for you

Morning campers

I do exactly the same Sass in fact my adult ds knows to pop round the coop for a nice box of choccies or ice cream if I'm upset

Food when I'm sad food when I'm hurt food when I'm happy.
I've had cbt and more but it's entrenched.
Hopefully I can balance these triggers within this WoE.

Shitty migraine last night so skipped dinner.

Today will be B. Eggs.
L. Avocado and cheese salad.
D. Leftover oxtails stew.

Have a good un

Yes, I'll sort it tart definitely a mistake as I've not deleted anyone yet!