Inbetween BCs Thread #2

[SayraT]

We filled up the last thread and we still have 3 weeks to go until the next official BC so here is our new inbetween BC thread.

Link to previous thread

So, I was good yesterday and now all of my confessions are lost on the previous thread but I am going to carry on with daily weighing and food recording so this morning I weighed 225 lbs.

Thanks for that Sass, that's interesting. Blimey that's a lot of poorly kids to deal with!

Romey as Sayra said, in past BCs there have been some really interesting discussions about body image and things like emotional eating. usually once the mad chaos of the first few weeks dies down, I think.

Peony welcome back. I also dropped out a few weeks in on the last one or several. In fact it was the May BC two years ago when I first joined and lost a couple of stone, and have bounced between low carbing and being a massive carby twat ever since then. I haven't put all of the weight back on but not very far off.

Peony I haven't been blogging but I am thinking about starting it up again for this BC. I need to get excited about my food or I won't stick at it, so trying and sharing new recipes and blogging them is a good motivator. It's bloody time consuming though.

Right, I'm starting BC proper today, so off to look through recipe books in search of inspiration.

Hi all,
I haven't posted but have been keeping on LC-ing quite well since my 'almost' fall off the wagon on Monday. Yesterday was:

B: 2 flax toast with cream cheese & peanut butter, small bowl of FF yog, berries & cream.

L: quarterpound burger, cheese & bacon, salad & coleslaw

D: roast chicken dinner (minus roast potatoes/yorkshire pudding) Loads of good veg. Didn't even have gravy, just melted butter.

S: mini baby bell and handful almonds

I have also switched to decaff tea and coffee. Not sure how much difference this makes.

Weight loss has stalled and I appear to have gained but it's TOTM so I don't think I have really.

Another positive is after dreading telling my Mum last weekend, she is now totally converted and is actually suggesting recipes to me . We had a brilliant long chat about the Wheat and Diet industries and how we have been conned for so long. She's got a huge shopping list full of coconut oil, cheeses etc.

Hello everyone, can't believe I'm now on day 10 and still fully sticking to it. Am going to be severely tested over the next few days though.

Currently doing my online tesco order including all the food for my eldests 5th birthday party (about 20 kids plus adults) and its the least low-carb friendly spread ever! Plus I finished a week long course of abs the other day and that has made sure I've stayed off the booze but I suspect over the weekend I may hit the wine!

Made a Thai green curry last night and used a carton of coconut cream rather than coconut milk as the label said it was lower carbs, 1.9g/100g so just under 5g for the whole carton! About 3/4 made it into the curry and I may have eaten the rest with a spoon! I hope the label was correct, it didn't taste like something with so little carbs!

I am keeping on and feeling pretty good and non-deprived which really does amaze me considering I am actually losing weight / changing shape! It's taking a while to get used to not reaching for cereals for breakfast but actually I think I am starting to get used to everything which I am so pleased with.

We have friends coming for dinner this weekend and I was thinking of this as a meal plan - it's more BClite, than full on BC, but what do you think (it does seem very 1970s but I don't mind that!)

Asparagus with smoked salmon and hollandaise
Steak with herb/garlic butter, celeriac dauphinoise, green veg
Chocolate mousse (made with eggs, v dark choc and maybe a dribble of booze) with whipped cream and berries

I know I will be drinking (red wine) but if that's my only slip up for the Saturday night I didn't think I would be doing too badly?

I also discovered this yesterday - Pret a Manger coconut yogurt with cocoa nibs and coconut pieces. Again, I know it's lite (I did try and pick out the pecan pieces) but it was flipping amazing. Am I right thinking this is OK as an occasional treat? I am going to buy some coconut yogurt and cocoa nibs to try and recreate it if so.

Yesterday I had:
B - coffee, boiled eggs and smoked salmon
L - Pret chicken salad (very mayonnaisey), left out the tomatoes and red peppers, Pret coconut yogurt
H - another chicken salad, this time homemade, including blue cheese, avocado, olives
3+ litres of water

Today:
B - coffee, FF greek yog, a bit of double cream to loosen it, 5 blackberries
1 litre of water so far

Claire8 (I think I recognise you from an antenatal thread - Mar2010 or Dec 2013?) - I know exactly what you mean about planning an online shop - I am doing the same and it is very hard! I am choosing loads of LCHF options to keep me sustained but I am also well aware of the fact I am also buying loads of other stuff to keep everyone else happy.

In fact I have been meaning to ask, how do people reconcile this WOE when their friends / family are obviously not also adopting it? I have tried to be quite matter of fact about it, but also don't want to introduce any food issues to my 5yo so wondered how anyone else had tackled questions from children especially?

Love the blanket Sass. I crochet a lot. I've recently got back into knitting having discovered square needles! I hadn't been able to knit for ages due to the steady progression of the arthritis in my hands but I am well impressed with the new needles. Certainly keeps me off the nibbles in the evenings.

I love doing weights. My son got me into it. The temptation with FMS is not to move as you are awfully sore a lot of the time but the truth is that you are going to be sore anyway and doing weights with care doesn't make the pain that much worse. You can choose to be weak and sore or strong and sore! I started off as low as 500g and slowly worked my way up using your method of progressing to failure. Its really altered my shape a lot. DH is well impressed. It has made life generally easier in a lot of ways and, given that my balance is totally shot, I now have the strength to get up when I wobbly over! Actually, it has helped with the balance too as it does strengthen everything. I don't know what weight I'll end up lifting. Looking as though I may be coming to the end of my capabilities given that my hands are fragile. I just invested in some weights with a narrow grip area and some decent lifting gloves which has helped.

Hi Lisbapalea it was Dec13 (though my eldest is may 10!)

We often eat at different times to the kids and the small ones can be so fussy that eating different things isn't unusual, we both love spicy food for example. I know what you mean though about not passing on food issues, I make sure I never talk about diets, 'good or bad' foods or people being fat etc around my girls.

Blanket is fab Sass
miffy Square knitting needles?! I am currently swearing at my latest project (arm warmers) as there wasn't enough stitches to work on a circular needle even with the magic loop method so am currently trying to learn to work with 5 double ended in a square.

Lisb - I live alone which helps on this. However when I go and stay with My Dad, he I have to say is amazing about stuff like this - so supportive and bulks buy LC friendly food - I eat really well when I am staying with him, and he loves the challenge, and trying out new recipes - for a 75 year old man he is awesome - very much a fan of non processed food and cooks everything from scratch - he does have a lot of time, but is so understanding about my weight - not adverse to telling me I am "putting on the beef" but the first to acknowledge that I have lost and always really pleased for me when I do as he knows my weight and how I look is very important to me - shallow!!!!

Friends and everyone else however are very much the "oh well you better just eat what your allowed" attitude with a raised eyebrow and not that supportive. They do spend all the time we are together watching to see if I pick at a crisp or sweetie and are very quick to comment on what I pick from a menu - but hey thats them and I love 'em!!!

Plum your Dad sounds great! My Mum is a bit complicated on the subject of diets; while I have memories of her being a great cook when I was growing up in the 80s (and she is still a great cook now), she was and still is very much part of the 'low fat' brigade, dieting throughout the 1980s using things like weird shakes (Complan?) or just adopting weird rules which meant she made disgusting fatless sponges, which were basically like very eggy meringues. Bleurgh. Now she will often eat a 'normal' dinner, but make a real fuss over how enormous her (entirely normal sized) portion is, refuse potatoes, or have no rice with a curry, as if she was doing her own low carb plan, but then eat a whole packet of biscuits in an afternoon, or eat a load of chocolate in front of TV. Very mixed up.

I genuinely feel like I can't tell her what I am doing as she would baulk at the high fat aspect and wouldn't be prepared to listen to the sciencey part. Instead I am just being quite blunt with her and saying "no thanks, I am trying not to eat cakes/treats/chocolate" for a while and leaving her to ponder...

The attitude you describe of friends watching for you to cock up, or scrutinising every menu choice also sounds familiar!

That all makes it sound like my Mum is my enemy and she's not, I love her to bits and we're very close, but food has always been a problem area between the two of us, so I tread very carefully around her when it comes to the topic of diets!

Clare8 - I have a just turned 6 year old and she is quite inquisitive as to my new eating habits. Her and DH are still eating carbs and I am trying to have the same meal just without the carbs and with extra veg. She does ask why
"Mummy isn't having bread/pasta/rice" and I just say very matter of factly that "Mummy just isn't having any at the moment".

She then tends to ask "Is X healthy for me?" and I am being very careful to say "Oh yes, X is very healthy for you dear, it's just that Mummy isn't having any at the moment".

Important to keep it all very light, and move on with a nice conversation about something else! She isn't especially fussy, but does take things seriously, so if her teacher for example, said something was "bad" she wouldn't want to eat it. I'd be interested to hear how other people deal with it.

Clare8 - glad I had remembered correctly! That antenatal thread for Dec13 wasn't the busiest but your name must have struck a chord!

My two are also girls and I do feel an extra responsibility not to fill their heads with ideas of 'bad' food, especially after my experience with my own Mum, who still insists on saying things around them about her own 'fatness' (she is probably about 2st lighter than me, and the same height)....

Sorry, that was to Lisbapalea ... I can't keep up!!

Day 2 of egg fast going ok. I think this works because you just can't face any more food . I'll just do it for one more day, see if anything happens.
sass thanks so much for the gym info, Ive tended to do a bit of cardio even though I massively prefer weights so I'm going to take your advice and go for it. I've always done lighter/high rep.
Might even have some dusty ones in shed....

I've also got girls, they are a bit older than yours, they didn't notice for a while as I tended to have cauliflower mash/other substitutions. Now they are pretty knowledgable that carbs aren't the best, especially for adults.
One dd is a carb addict (teen) and I can see she has gained a bit lately. I'm not saying anything (at all!) but the temptation to say 'stop, don't let it get out of control, look at our family, just be a bit cautious' but the relationship between teen girls and mums is a very scary one (for me)
I so didn't want it to be an issue.

Lisb - my Mum was the same however failed at every diet going remaining a confident size 18/20 her entire life However she passed away about 17 years ago and Dad bless him, has taken on a combined Mum/dad role (he spent months trying to understand the leg lengthening benefit of heels and boot cut trousers, and the volume of sanitary products he felt obliged to include in the first weekly shop after her funeral was stupidly funny - he didn't know what I would need, but knew I would need them so must of bought every type going - my mother hadn't bought them for me since I was about 15 - he said and I quote: "now pet the ones with wings seem the best for security" - to this day he still laughs about it) Now if my mother was still around - well lets just say I would be a regular contributor to the stately homes thread and would have gone NC years ago - but thats a whole other thread. .

I have found saying that I am trying to reduce my sugar consumption helpful, as most people accept that but question LC

Dark! They are Knit Pro Nova Cubics. The shaft is actually square and they remind me of those hexagonal pencils as they do have a sharp point. The Nova ones (as opposed to the rosewood ones) have a very sharp point. They suit me as I use mostly 3 & 4ply. I'm not sure I would like them in thicker sizes. They might feel odd but they have made a huge difference. I could still use the old style needles but not for long and certainly not to make anything to give away as my tension was all over the place with the needles slipping. I can't cope with knitting in the round now. I have some circulars but they are for doing larger items and I use them to knit in rows but spreading the weight better. I wish you luck with your 5DPNs! I remember once doing a huge fair isle yoke on two sets. Never again!

Welcome back Peony, of course we remember you!

I don't lift to failure when I do weights, I just try to keep progressing to heavier weights. I find free weights much more beneficial that using machines, especially the Smith machine. I tend to stick to the big compound movements so it's all bench press, squat, deadlift etc. for me. To be honest I think most people wanting to do more exercise (that aren't already working out) would do best with the 30 Day Shred. It did wonders for toning my arms, bum and legs and even managed to improve my tummy.

I quite enjoyed the egg fast Natural. My DS2 still tells people that mummy once ate 23 eggs in three days! I wouldn't do it again though because I think it is too low in protein and I have discovered that you can replicate the macros without having to follow the rules so strictly. Maybe I could come up with some kind of modified egg fast and call it SuperUberCamp.

well last nights dinner of minced beef curry from the recipe thread was yummy, proper comfort/nursery food type stuff served over defrosted cauli rice re-fried in lots of coconut oil, perfect for the rainy weather here. DH and I both commented on how a portion much smaller than pre-BC portions filled us up,

B - spinach in butter and cheese, 2 scr eggs in butter, cream & cheese, cuppa
L - peppered beef spread with butter and wrapped around dill pickle x 3, leaves, hm mayo, mini pepper, celery. As suspected it is totm so will have a sq of dark choc later
D - will be lc sausages (waitrose thyme chipolatas), swede mashed with butter, broccoli with butter - hmm might need to go and buy some more butter tomorrow ...

romey hope the dark cloud has lifted

Thanks Miffy and dark dp thinks it might be old fashioned!!!

I prefer free weights too stunt but for a back squat I end up using the smith machine, purely because I can back squat heavier than I can actually physically lift over my head iyswim?

I was a bit to the 30 day shred. I took one look at the mamby pamby weights and thought, what they hell are they suppose to do! But then again, I am use to Shaun T! and my favourite workout ever was a circuit class with a guy called Andy, where I tripped over my own feet walking out because I was that exhausted. so I obviously like to feel the pain.

But for a beginner it is probably OK. Although i m not sold on them weights.

We can freeze cauli rice? Cooked/uncooked? Also, how do you know when it's ready?

Dinner tonight is courgette spaghetti with lardons, spinach, garlic and a shallot with creme fraiche for sauce.

sass your dp knows nothing . I have made many crocheted baby blankets recently, which have all been appreciated greatly. Although I will confess that I have used blended colour wool rather than different balls of different colour ( this kinda mixed colour ball principle ) but that is because I hate end fastening. That style of grannie square is particularly good as it is cellular which prevents the over heating in tiny ones. The colours you have used are bright and very practical. Loving the fact that it is not baby blue or pink. It will be fabulous!

Miffy I made the mistake of cabling for my pattern. I have stopped swearing, avoided throwing it at the wall but have had to fix several rows where i forgot to cable because i got carried away . On a plus note it is tight enough to not need elastic to stay up but lose enough first time so didn't have to unpick and tweak the no of stitches.

Stunt I would be very interested in your Superubercamp! Have done a few fat fasts and any variation would be good as it does get a little dull.

I hate end fastening too. I hate joining also, and love graduation colour wool (I have a lot of them but none suitable for a baby)

If it was my choice I would have done primary colours, I bloody HATE blue for boys and pink for girls. But I'm mindful that someone else might not.

I love cables but they are a pain in the arse, if you are like me and forget all the time. I love crochet but I moan all the time how much concentration it takes and I'm often frogging. I have made a mistake on the blanket and will have to frog it back 2 rows. Grrr.

I have done so much crocheting in the last few years that I don't even think about it any more and only make mistakes when i do patterns. I made some blankets for Christmas which each contained 250 crocheted 4inch squares, all the fastening ends and joining nearly drove me batty so am taking a break from the last use up of the wool stash blanket. But needing a project or 4 on the go, I decided to tackle improving my knitting. Next on the hit list is finishing a jumper I started 10years ago and learning to turn the heel on proper warm winter socks. Should probably finish the knitted blanket and the matching pair arm warmer too typical crafter