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!

good trick BIWI
yes, yes MrsSJ to being easily offended. This makes me think too deeply about how what i might say could offend the other person; so I usually decide it's better to say nothing at all than risk offending them...makes for very dull conversations

I think your "marmite" approach has a lot to recommend it!!

Can't really talk as I'm on my way out. to those with social problems.

I analyse everything. To death. IG I was to use 2 words to sum me up they would be a procastinater (phone says that's not a word) and Ruminator. Do says psychology was the worst degree I could have done.

I use to agonise over everything I said and be mortified if I said anything to upset someone.

Now I don't. I can shrug. Hitting 40 has helped.

I don't make new friends easily, but I can do it. I'm very chatty, and nice but not very friendly- in that I stand away at the school gates or turn up at the last minute. I'm suppose the word isn't really not friendly, more like not very sociable.

I have bad nerves from a previous physically abusive relationship and still after 13 years get shaky and stressed out. I use to be 100 times worse though.

Well, off I go.

bitchy and lurking I make coconut porridge quite often but mine is different to beyonds

25g ground almonds
25g desiccated coconut
100ml coconut cream
dash of double cream

Just warm it altogether in a pan on the hob, I think (from memory) that is works out around 5.5g carbs but I might be wrong so best to check yourself. I think it would work fine with almond milk though it won't be as creamy.

Thanks sayra and Beyond that sounds delicious - going to have that on Saturday morning with some raspberries stirred in. I wonder if the DC will eat it?? They love normal porridge.

Chipping and MoJangled thanks I'm definitely through the worst of it.... I have shed a couple of lbs since Monday, and I'm hoping to be back on track by next week.

I feel much better in myself.

MrsKoala so sorry about your lovely MIL

Also, I'm really glad I now know the olive oil trans fat is bullshit. My mother is a really fanatical weirdo about, well, pretty much everything, and she spouts so much crap I never know which bits are true or if it's all bollocks (she's of the 'doctors cause more problems, fluoride in the water is nuclear waste, all the govt are lizards brigade')

Now Sayra a quick run down of my motivations before work...

I am six foot tall, with uber long legs and massive eyes. I should basically be a supermodel, except, well, my face joins my neck with no gap, and I have an even cladding of lard about my whole being. Jumbly legs and back of arms....

I am often mistaken for Miranda Hart (pre her weight loss) which is infuriating cos I have thick thick long hair..... hers is short and thin, but apparently it's my mannerisms (I have a friend who supposedly resembles Gary Barlow, and we were both accosted at a party by some one who was utterly convinced we were celebs - to the point where they took photos and everything)

I want to get married (okay, he hasn't actually proposed still yet, but it's definitely going to happen he says) and I don't want to be large in my wedding photos

I have been many sizes, from an 8 to a 20, and I have so much more life and vigour at size 8.

The biggest and most important reason for me is this though.... As some, or most of you know by now, I had cancer in 2010, and I was at that point, a body hater. I have the most distinct memory of the moment that changed forever for me.

It was 7.30 on a Monday morning and I was taking a bath. I was over twenty stone at that point. Simply huge. The phone rang, and one of the dcs answered, and called through to say it was the doctor. I had been waiting for test results, and when they asked me to come into the surgery that morning, I knew it was serious. As I walked back to the bathroom, I caught sight of my enormous body in the mirror, and I had this revelation, that my body was my vehicle through this life, and that someday, I would die in it. Not being morbid, I just understood that I was in this body and one day it would 'run out' and at that moment I felt such a huge sense of gratefulness to my body, for allowing me to be here, I vowed then and there I would never say a bad thing about it ever again, and I would cherish myself totally utterly and completely til the day I left it behind.

And I want to look good in skinny jeans

Lurking, my boys (2 and 4) love it, they whinge any time i have it and they dont

Beyond and Sayra, the coconut porridge sounds amazing, I'll try that.

Where do you buy coconut cream? The only sort I've seen is in the supermakets, the Dragon something I think, but it seems to have additives? Also any particular dessicated coconut or just what I can find in a supermarket too?

Feeling quite positive today. I took my dog to the groomers and popped into town until she was ready. I went to Peacocks and found a pair of black straight trousers for £9 which fit nicely in a size 16. I don't want to be a size 16, but at the moment I have no trousers that fit at all, so these will be great until I can get back into a size 14. Also picked up a knee length grey cardigan in the sale for £12 I love long cardigans

For breakfast I had 4 rashers of bacon and 2 fried eggs with an extra knob of butter melted on the egg! Lunch will be the remaining cottage pie (made with swede and leeks yesterday) with a spinach salad. I'm not sure what we're having for dinner yet ...

Trashcan you've made me cry at my desk. What a fantastic way to live I love it.

I am six foot tall, with uber long legs and massive eyes

Bitch.

Your legs are probably longer than I am tall . Still, I try not to complain, as my Dad would say, 'they reach from the ground to your bum, what more do you need?' Men.

chipping my dad use to say ducks disease.

Arse too close to the floor.

Im jealous of your long legs too trash lovely story. So sorry to hear you had cancer, but I'm glad it helped you to love/like yourself.

I'm currently on the train. Running late because I got on the right motorway, just in the wrong direction.

Ditz personified.

Coconut porridge sounds fab. Will have to try it and give it to my picky DCs!

I had a bad day yesterday and it's made me realise how much I'm still eating out of habit. I skipped breakfast as I was in a rush then basically grazed all day, but to excess. I then scoffed half of a full recipe of the IPD moussaka and inhaled a load of cheese.

I think I need to try harder to listen to what my body is telling me to eat.

It's tough though as DH and I live our food and enjoy the meal time process... But I'm loving my new found trimness and really want to loose the rest of the weight.

Have just treated my self to some new makeup and of for a haircut to keep me feeling positive. This time next year I will be unrecognisable

BIWI thank you for your support.

I started eating paleo/primal about a year ago due to autoimmune inflammatory disease, I had been in a serious flare for over 18 months and was so ill I was considering giving up work, I had become clinically depressed because of it and for instance when my Dniece announced her wedding date my first thought was how on earth could I get through a whole day at a wedding, I was too exhausted to even contemplate something like that.

Eating that way made an amazing difference to my life, I will never go back to bread, pasta, cakes etc. but having said that I have never been someone who habitually ate rubbish, I have always eaten 'real food', although in the past that would have included pudding!

I lost weight immediately I changed my diet, but this leveled out since I was eating starchy veg and some fruit, and dairy in moderation (although not milk, I switched to Almond) - I wanted to carry on losing, so then I found your wonderful bootcamp and signed up last time - I lost 18lb, which no one could complain about, I absolutely know that. I maintained (lost a couple of lb) until the start of this one, which is great, Christmas and all, and here I am again. Struggling to get started although I'm not going off plan.

I think in answer to the 3 questions I'd have to say 'sometimes' to all - but nothing worth having comes easy, I know that, I guess I just worry I'm doing something wrong - and I wouldn't get downhearted if I knew I'd sts or gained because I'd gone off plan for some reason, it's just when I know I haven't. I'm being impatient I know - it's good to be part of this and get some perspective on it, I really appreciate it.

Sayra. Please feel free to delete me off the Spreadsheet. I'm not bothered about it as I keep my own weight tracker and frankly, it's no incentive to anyone else!

sass. Ok, you can have reprieve, but only because you don't know what vile thing you are trying to recreate. Just have a spoon of pb and later on a piece of chocolate. Reece's...Bleurgh. Bleurgh.

You are very brave doing the course given all that . Perhaps it's the start of a new you?

Baring your soul, if you can't do it here, then where? Mine is spread all over MN. X

It's better for me if I eat less frequently, so if I want something like yogurt I'll have it with a meal or as a meal. I try very, very hard (when I'm being 'good') not to eat after dinner as I think it's better to go to bed with lower blood glucose readings. I don't suppose it affects non diabetics as much, but even so, the more recent studies do seem to show the 'old fashioned' 3 melas a day, no snacking, does help to keep you trim and I think that really is the insulin spikes, not what or how much you are eating as such. (So obviously there's an impact from what you are eating, but in addition, even if it's the same amount of 'good' food eaten over the course if the day or only over 3 meals, there's a difference in losing/gaining/maintaining weight).

Olive oil as a vegetarian, it's really the only option when you can't use butter, so I just go with it. I use butter as much as possible, but needs must sometimes.

Chester. Try reading Briffa again, it's surprising how much you miss or forget.

Thumb. How long are you back for at Easter? I won't mention the fact that crime eggs taste the same to me

MrsHP. I totally understand the stupid/hate/stop stuff:(. I've renamed the bench. It's now the 'BGF Bench' Better Going Forward. Everyone welcome! This WOE is 'Forever because we must' for us, at least the vast majority of the time. At least it's nice food hey.

Charlie. I totally sympathise. I know I keep going on about it, but as a non egg eating vegetarian, it's bloody hard. It's harder to get fat & protein and your carb intake is higher because of the extra veg, but you have to eat something. It's hard and it's bloody frustrating when you don't lose weight. However, keep the faith. Know your body is 'doing stuff' inside and often actually shrinking, even if the fucking scales are staying the same. You just have to stay strong and keep going. If you are really at your wits end, try BIWI's Uber Week.

Lurking. 60cm box jump? Holy crap. I am seriously impressed!!

Blueberry. LOL at you 'stalking' me . Thanks for the reminder of what I said about the yogurt. I won't bother trying the other brand again! I'll 'test' again with the total, but maybe not today, it's all gone a bit arse up with having to work late tonight and have dinner at work (at a pub). I'll eat low carb, but won't be taking yogurt!

Soup. Just add cheese, butter, cream, olive oil. I don't have any recipes, I just chuck in whatever us in the fridge. It's always pretty good! I don't make soup often though as it destroys a lot of the fibre in the food and I eat way more than I would if I was eating 'food'. I don't feel like I've 'eaten' (especially without bread) either. So tend then to eat nuts or something after. All around it doesn't really work for me.

Everyone else [Grin] :( 'congratulation etc as appropriate x

Sorry for the mammoth post! I'll try to keep up now!

Sass. It happens to the best of us! Hope you aren't late.

Moo. I'm a bit confused. You eat meat don't you? Why aren't you loving the meals and the process?

Charlie. I didn't mean to imply you are vegetarian! Just that I know how hard it can be sticking to it, and not seeing results.

sass love that quote! I am definitely also a procrastinator and a ruminator. sorry to hear about your past relationship, but great that you were able to get out.

dixiejo I am exactly the same. I really struggle to talk to people too. I get myself so worked up about talking to people I often decline invitations which only makes things worse in the long run.

trashcan what a brilliant story. So inspiring thank you.

Chipping I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't like eggs really. Now I'm finding I can't cope with yogurt I'm bloody sick to death of avocados for breakfast, and in return for putting up with them I'd like to see results!

Posted too soon

Coconut porridge sounds delicious. I could probably get away with using almonds. DS had eaten curry with almonds in and marzipan prior to his allergy diagnosis.
Feeling crummy today, stupid cold which seem to go straight to my sinuses since I had sinusitis in the Summer. It's freezing cold and I'm aching terribly from the shred. I couldn't do it this morning as had stuff to do in town that was easier to do with 1 DC. I might give it a go this afternoon though. I might as well ache from doing it than not.

Charlie. Me too! I don't eat meat or eggs, I try not to eat too much yogurt, leftovers are fine, but as my meals are so limited I don't really want to be eating pretty much the same for breakfast & dinner pretty much every day. The answer, I suppose, is to learn to love cooking so that my evening meals are more varied and thus left overs less repetitive. fat chance I used to love avocados, but I barely touched them when I was off the wagon as I was so fed up of them. And almonds. I still can't face them now. Could you try the breakfast muffins? Cloud rolls?

Notso. I'd be very very impressed if you managed it this afternoon!

I may not have made sense! I think that I habitually eat more at meals than I actually need -because we love eating, and sitting down to eat together. So last night, I ate 100g of cheese, just because it was there and DH was having some. I'm loving the food all a bit too much!!

Phew, after a marathon reading session I've now caught up with the thread!

to everyone for their amazing stories and inspirations (MrsSteve your list mirrors mine hugely!) and extra for StuntNun with the science stuff. It helps me so much to understand the whys and wherefores, plus you explain it so clearly and succinctly - better than Britta!

My system finally seems to be coming right after my bug, but I can tell things aren't 100% yet.

Today has been:

B: bacon and eggs with mayo
L: celeriac and spinach soup with parmesan grated on top, and some spicy pork scratchings
D: will be pan fried salmon fillet with either mashed swede and spinach or cauli cheese and spinach, depending on what most takes my fancy at the time.

It is my birthday this week and as one friend cheerfully texted, only one more year till the big one. And in fact that is one of my other motivations - I will be back to being slim, trim and healthy again by the time I turn 40!

Oh I see

Well, yes, you do still need a modicum of self control

However, you can help yourself by eating breakfast and not grazing.

It's hard when you are sleep deprived (which given you have a baby I assume you are!) as you also 'eat to keep yourself awake/feeling less 'half dead').

I'll lend you my diabetes for a bit if you like, it's brilliant to stop you snacking!

As for dinner. It helps being lazy. I try to make something to do two nights, if I over eat the first night there's not enough for the next night so I'll have to cook again! Really helps.

Try the smaller plate thing too.

40 & fabulous! A great goal :)

Oooh Chipping I'm going to have to do it now!