Week 6 - Low Carb Bootcamp - Part Deux

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Here's the Spreadsheet

And The Weight Tracker

Up at silly o'clock to catch a train to Leeds so no time for anything else.

Hope your weigh-in brings you good news. But if it doesn't - don't fall into a pile of biscuits - come and rant about it here!

Soy milk doesn't count as dairy

I am struggling with food avoiding. I am hungry, I don't want to eat.
B:2 low carb sausages
drinks 1 1/2ltr water, 3 coffees

I don't want stuff I can't have, I don't want food.

Re constipation - it's a myth that eggs cause it. The expression 'egg bound' is actually something to describe a problem that chickens have laying eggs, not a description of a human being who is constipated because they have eaten too many eggs!

Things to consider:

• eat (even) more fat
• drink (even) more water

(well you knew I was going to say that, don't you? )

• a high strength Vitamin C tablet (try an effervescent one, it will have the added value of enabling you to drink more water as well!)
• cut out dairy
• a strong coffee
• drinking hot water
• doing some exercise - go for a brisk walk or a run
• cut out the laxatives - they can make your bowel lazy
• colon massage, by rolling a tennis ball around your abdomen:

To massage the colon, use your hands or, even better, a tennis ball. Place the palm of your hand over the ball and press firmly but not so much that it hurts. Then simply roll the ball in little circles, moving from bottom right of your abdomen, up, across under the ribs and down to the bottom left in a square, following the natural direction of the colon. Pay particular attention to the corners of the square as this is where matter can lodge. It may be a little tender at first so go gently, but you should find daily massage like this will gradually help. Any acute pain or worries, always stop and check with your health professional.

and if all that fails, I can personally recommend Thorntons sugar-free toffee. Just don't do what I did and eat the whole bloody packet. Honestly.

What's up Bitchy?

I feel like i have been hit by a truck, I have had less than 3 hrs sleep. fibro flare up and ds not well. Having big food avoidance issues I worry I am slipping back into the bad habits that nearly killed me. It could just be pain levels but there is nothing else I can take for it. I need to eat but the thought of sorting food makes me want to hide.

Thank you pisses, trash and BIWI!

Definitely going to up the water - I'd blithely assumed that 3L was enough, but what works for someone who's 5ft2 won't work for someone who's 5ft10! Duh. And I don't think I am getting enough fat either, to be honest. In the first couple of weeks I was good about eating a teaspoon of coconut oil after each meal, but dropped it as I was getting too full. Perhaps time to go back to that...

If that doesn't work I'll be getting the tennis ball and Thorntons toffee out

Can I just say, thanks so much for everyone's advice, this is NOT a topic I could bring up with anyone IRL!!

Galbraith, Romey, Trashy - are you all eating enough veg? I get bunged up if I don't eat enough veg on this WOE (and while I do appreciate BIWI's egg discourse, they really do make me bunged up if I have too many without counterbalancing with the extra veg). Water is of course really important too; but I find I have to have my sliced courgettes in with my omelettes to stop the bunging (makes them nicer to eat too - if I have one without the courgettes now I really notice and miss them!)
Doing the hardboiled egg in lettuce wrap thing just didn't cut it for the bowel motility - the courgettes are far better.

Can also suggest sugar-free blackcurrant Sula sweets (sweetened with sorbitol, mostly) to help - but again, not too many!! And the wind... oh my God. Maybe not.

Dinner tonight was white fish and prawns fried in butter with beans and broccoli, and home-made tartare sauce.

Those of you suffering a blockage, try adding flax to your diet. You can use the ground flax seed as a brilliant breading (mixed 1/2 with ground almonds and some herbs/spice) - it's great for getting things going.

thanks, ladies for the de-bunging advice

The only thing missing from Biwi's prescription is exercise (which I know I fail on) and the laxatives have been a last resort of desperation. My dairy is minimal as I am allergic to milk and only have some occasional cheese now.

Veg - usually spinach or courgettes go in my omelette and breakfast, to be honest; lunch includes spinach or lettuce and cucumber, and before I did a three day no dinner experiment , dinner was usually veg based (kale, cauliflower, broccoli, etc). The three day no dinner experiment was because it was too late to cook and as I am waking at 4am in the morning, I was too tired. Last night, I made green soup, though .

I am mainlining water and I have a coffee in front of me. I have stuff to do for work, then I am going for a walk (if it doesn't start snowing again - what is that all about??). Just realised I also have Berocca in my office.

B today was two eggs and mayo (I had to take HB to work as early start on Tuesdays)
L salmon flakes, cucumber, spinach leaves and mayo

galbraith, yes, I will share my high fibre/low carb breakfast ideas when I work them out!

Thumb I think I am.. I have a big salad with raw courgette and tomatoes for lunch every day (along with a bit of meat/fish etc), and I have a lot of veg with dinner every night - we're talking a whole bunch of spring greens or almost a whole thingy of brocolli each time. Practically falling off the plate, plus mashed swede etc usually. I don't have any veg with breakfast though, so there's definitely room for improvement!

Gcal Ooh, might try a bit of chicken rolled in egg and ground flaxseed, is that how you have it? Thanks! And for you - your pain sounds awful, really hope you can get it sorted soon.

Checking in for today.

Feel tired and nauseous. I think I might have overdone the dairy over the last couple of days, although I've tried to cut down, I have been having a dash of Lactofree cream in my coffees, and I drink about 5 or 6 coffees a day. I don't know if it the dairy, but it's a particular kind of nausea I've had on and off all my life (it comes on fairly quickly, but isn't the kind of nausea you get when you're about to be sick, I can't describe why though, it's horrid, but I am never sick - anyway, when I give up dairy and gluten it seems to go away, I haven't had any tests and haven't really even tested whether just giving up one or the other helps, but when I was younger drinking hot chocolate or hot milk used to make me feel sick too, so I think there might be a connection. GP is incredibly disinterested in testing, tells me it's depression - which I have too - and dismisses it).

The problem is, without dairy I find it difficult to stick to low carb WOE. But last night we had IPD moussaka, which has lots of cream and cheese. I've been having cream in my coffee and grating parmesan over my salad - not much though. Also had yoghurt with frozen raspberries on Sunday.

I guess the answer is just to cut out the dairy completely for a few days and see how I go.

Today I've had bacon and eggs for breakfast, chicken breast and salad for lunch, for dinner we're having something with mince, probably a sort of cottage pie made with mashed swede ..

I'm finding it really difficult to drink the water - I don't like water at all, usually just drink decaff black coffee (or with cream, when low carbing). I don't like fruit or herbal teas, apart from occasionally peppermint tea, which I'm drinking right now to ease the nausea.

Oh bollocks, i ordered too many avocados, not realising i still had some. So avocado will be featuring heavily in the next few days food

Are they freezable??

Feeling quite shitty, but on the plus side DH says my face looks thinner today :)

Another 1lb gone. That's 10lb in total. Very pleased with the way this is going, even if weeks 3 and 4 were frustrating!

You can freeze avocados, it makes them mushy but i use them for smoothies.
Scoop them out of the skin and place on a baking sheet and freeze. When frozen i pop them in a freezer bag. I find they keep for ages in the fridge. hth

Thanks BIWI.
I think I was viewing cheese as a source of protein - is that not so? And then I thought I was supposed to be eating plenty of low carb veg hence the mushrooms AND leek and then the now infamous portabello mushroom. I'll try cutting out the dairy and review the rules.
Thanks again.

just looking at the real meal revolution website, there's an online course for for low carb or banting as they call it for USD295!!!! Think I will stick with the great value MN Bootcamp, thanks BIWI and everyone else for sharing recipes and tips plus the support.

B - 1 buttery scr egg, 1 bacon, shrooms in butter, cuppa and a few sips of BPC as my container leaked in my handbag, arrgh going to smell lovely later isn't it?
L - cucumber, radish, romaine & little gem drenched in hm mayo ( god i am loving this, so much better than bought as I never really liked the taste or mouth feel but could almost drink mine from a glass), leftover lamb koftas and feta
D - will be IPD moussaka from the freezer with maybe some buttered green veg so we can stretch it to tomorrow.

Thanks galbraith, you've got the idea.
Ground flax/almonds in equal quantity (can add grated Parmesan too if you are doing dairy) and some herbs /spices of your choice (smoked paprika is gorgeous). I do egg, flax mix, egg, flax mix then fry. Goes really crunchy and brown.

Good on fish, pork steaks a (take out your aggression on the pork and batter it out a bit so it's thin like a schnitzel), or chicken.

I used to have flax/Greek yoghurt/ cream/ a few rasberries for breakfast but I've ditched dairy to try to kick start loss. I was missing the fibre tbh so I've come up with a good high fibre breakfast (non dairy option) 'coconut yoghurt' which I had today. I used thick canned coconut milk (unsweetned around 3g carb per 100g) I soaked 10g flax in 100g of the coconut milk over night. It kind of gels and thickens the coconut milk to a yoghurt like consistency. It's like the onken biopot in texture with the seeds in it which I like. I melted a heaped tsp coconut oil and mixed that in too. X

nowitsenough lactofree always used to be lactose reduce not 100% free and ds who is very much not good with dairy can't tollerate it. It makes him sicky and gives him a dippy tum. If you are still having the problems it might be worth a different milk alternative for a week or so (it can take that long for ds to settle after an exposure with a bad reaction)

My mother is nervous about something. When she is nervous she cooks. Apparently she has also been clearing out the freezer. I have just taken delivery of a plateful of cooked broccoli, cauliflower and some pork roast in gravy. Ds also got a plate but his had carrots and potato. This is hugely appreciated.

Ds' plate also had*

Thanks Bitchy. It's not so much a milk alternative, as I don't have milk whilst I'm not drinking tea. It's an alternative to cream I'm looking for. I can't get to grips with BPC, the thought turns my stomach. And I don't think coconut cream would be the same, plus the list of added chemicals on the packs worries me slightly

Ugh, hay fever has started. Haven't taken anything until I know it's ok to, so if anyone knows....

Odd day, felt like packing it in, for no apparent reason. Wasn't hungry, wasn't craving, nothing.
Reader; I didn't. I have stayed strong.

Ok, so today...

B; about 7 nuts and a BPC (I'm experimenting so want to be precise)
D; chicken salad
T; 2 sausages and roast courgette 'chips' and mushrooms.

Water done, sipping more now and will have tea before bed.

Love the idea of the flax seed coating - definitely will try that!

Today:

B: 2 eggs scrambled, BPC
L: Leftover pork, boiled egg, tomato, black olives, mayo, avocado
D: Beef stir fry, mascarpone and raspberries
2 x coffee with cream
E: Circuits class