Week 7 - Low Carb Bootcamp - doesn't time fly when you're having fun?!

[BIWI]

Here's the SoF

Morning all.

So we enter the last four weeks. Still time to drop half a stone, if you can make it 2lbs per week.

A super strict week for me as I'm off to a Christmas piss up lunch on Friday and have to find something in my wardrobe to wear!

Off to Leeds today, so will start with a yummy egg pot from Leon at Kings Cross (poached egg, ham hock and truffled Gruyere sauce - with an extra poached egg for extra yumminess). Lunch will probably be something from M&S; I'm off to see my dad (who's still in hospital) after my meeting, so usually take him some tempting goodies from there, and I'll pick up some bits and pieces for me too.

Dinner tonight will be roast chicken with roast veg and salad.

Good luck to us all!

[BIWI]

soundedbetter - if you're doing Bootcamp then almonds aren't allowed in the first two weeks.

The rest sounds fine, but just make sure you're getting enough fat - cooked chicken and Quorn will both be low fat. And did you have an oily dressing and/or mayo on your salad?

[Gcalgske]

So I managed to make a creamy coffee in my flask and smuggle it into the class. Wolfed a no drain can of tuna with 20g of olive oil mayo and a chunk of cucumber after the course and a chunk of cheese whilst travelling. I had a couple of debbie & Andrews 97% sausages and a dab of mustard now. Drank a LOT of water and tea but also a cheeky Pepsi max before Pilates as needed caffeine not bad for an unplanned day really but need to try better tomorrow. Just at home tomorrow with my daughter so will make better choices!

[ChesterDrawers]

Sounds good to me Gcal, sometimes you just have to do the best with what you have available.

Well I am sticking with the dairy free and this morning the scales were at their lowest yet, and by that I don't just mean this BC, I mean for YEARS! I did have some wine and chocolate last night, which I really must try and stop, but if I can get away with that and still lose weight by ditching the cheese, I think that could be a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Today's plan:
B: eggs, butter
L: tuna and avocado salad, HM Mayo
D: LC sausages, swede mash with butter, roast brocolli

Might try a BPC this eve to break the wine/choc routine I'm in at the minute. More fat and something a bit nice to treat myself. I know I shouldn't use food as a treat but as a huge comfort eater/binger for most of my adult life, I see this as a huge step in the right direction.

[WhiffyBiffer]

Yesterday eating pattern was a bit chaotic and suffering from terrible pmt & feeling very unsettled and stressed. Fought hard with my normal strategy of making myself feel better by overeating but found it very difficult.

Had:
Coyo, ff natural yog, creamy coffee, leftover hm moussaka, cheese, marmite drink, 85%!dark choc, 1 glass prosecco and the only bit I really regret and was impulsive rather than planned - one of those small 18g bars of dairy milk choc. Did I feel better for it? No!!!

[LexLoofah]

B - fancied a change from eggs so had 2 slices bavarian ham with a nice fat strip, chunk of brie and an avocado
L - small rump steak, green beans, broccoli all slathered with a compound butter including cream cheese, avocado, garlic and lemon then some dark choc with a creamy coffee
D - will be a butter on cheese type of snack as DH and I off out to the cinema later

[NigellasGuest]

Hello, I've been mainly lurking but just popping in to say that Waitrose are selling rice that claims to be very very low carb.

Also, has anyone tried baking with coconut flour? I made coconut bread, and as long as you tell yourself it's not bread but cake, it works really well! I've also made coconut flour flatbreads. They actually turn out like scones, and are delicious warm with butter on.

[soundedbetterinmyhead]

Thanks BIWI but Gah! No almonds? Today I had

B: An avocado and a few of the forbidden almonds (won't do that tomorrow)
L: Ham salad with spinach, green pepper, mushrooms (packed lunch)
D: Mackerel fillets with whatever I can find. Will probably be mushrooms and spinach again though, so might do salad and have mayo with it.

It's tricky here as the rest of my family are vegetarian, so I'm buying in the meat specially for me and apart from chicken and ham, haven't bought meat for years as just haven't bothered.

It's all good though - I used to eat at least 5 slices of bread a day and haven't touched it since Sunday.

[BIWI]

Read Bootcamp rules, soundedbetter!

[Wombatinabathhat]

Nigella the rice sounds interesting. I may look into that. I have always avoided 'baked' goods when on bc but I know others use coconut flour. Have you looked on the recipe thread?

[BIWI]

How can rice be low carb?!

[Gcalgske]

I think I heard that waitrose were starting to stock konjac noodles/rice (bare naked brand) that might be the Rice nigella?

[Gcalgske]

Thanks Chester,
I know it's hard not to use food as a treat, I have no suggestions. I would say to use non food things like clothes but I'm skint so can't really.
I've baked a bit in the past (been an off and on low carber since 2002) so I've tried most things. Coconut flour is a tricky beast but I like it in some things. Takes a lot of moisture/eggs though.

[Gcalgske]

Food today;
B: creamy coffee
L: most of a pack of streaky bacon (was going off tomorrow) with courgette roasted in the fat
D: aubergine slices deep fried till crisp, used to scoop up baked feta with shallot, tomato, oregano and olive oil
I had a small chocolate mousse. Was yummy.

[BIWI]

Last night's dinner:

Roast chicken - I mixed up some moroccan spices with the juice of a lime and some olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and coated the skin with that, then roasted the chicken with lots of water in the roasting tin to make a 'jus' (or gravy!)

Unfortunately I couldn't get the skin as crispy as I would have liked, so there was obviously too much moisture in all of that - I could have faffed around grilling it, but DH complained about having to eat the skin anyway! I should just kill him

Served it with cauliflower couscous - blitzed in the processor, then wok-fried with shallot, chilli, garlic and leftover roasted peppers, with fresh coriander.

[NigellasGuest]

Morning everyone - I will now attempt to upload a photo of the low carb rice. It says "as seen on Dragons Den" - I don't recall seeing it on the show though.

wombat I've mainly looked online for coconut flour recipes - you have to use loads and loads of eggs so it's not a case of just replacing normal flour with coconut flour in a recipe and carrying on as normal so it's a bit trial and error.

[NigellasGuest]

Gcalg yes it is the same brand!

BIWI I don;t know how it can be. Probs tastes horrible- I will try using it later and report back. BTW I made your moussaka the other day and it was fabulous.

I'm down 2lb since starting bootcamp on Sunday. Have been eating almonds though - forgot that's not allowed. I will cut them out!

[LexLoofah]

B - 3 streaky bacon (about to expire so needed using up), 2 fried eggs
L - ham spread with butter, bits of cheese spread with butter, olives and a wintery coleslaw of pointy cabbage & fennel with hm mayo & caraway seeds - I love a winter salad, would be nice with a wee bit of apple and some walnuts - hoping Santa brings me a mandolin thingy so I can do shaved salads
D - going out with a few Mums from school, thankfully we ordered meal choices in advance so no last minute being tempted: I will be having beef carpaccio, seafood broth thingy and cheese board for afters, will see if i can get some butter to add to each of the courses

slipped up mid-morning, no idea why not even hungry just could not get the idea out of my head: a few slices of malt loaf (with loads of butter), arrrgghhh , I had a sneaky weigh yesterday and was down a lb so hope that hasn't gone back on

[ChesterDrawers]

Had an odd experience at breakfast today. I made scrambled eggs with butter and avocado as I do quite often. I had some HM mayo in the fridge that needed using, so I added that. All fine, tasted yummy, until I stumbled across a HUGE chunk of raw garlic that hadn't chopped up when I made it. It was disgusting. I can still taste it now and am sure I must stink.

I've not helped matters by having cheese and onion sandwich filler with crispy bacon for lunch. My colleagues must love me

Tea is better - salmon wrapped in parma ham, mashed swede and other veg.

Would love to go to the gym at some point but goodness knows how I am ever going to fit it in. I think I will go tomorrow on my day off but once every two weeks is not good enough. I'd say I need an extra hour in the day but no doubt somebody would fill it for me before I got to do anything I actually wanted to!

[BIWI]

Bleurgh. Conference lunch today:

Sandwiches
Crisps
Samosas
Chicken wings slathered in sweet, sticky barbecue sauce
pizza
cup cakes

[LuluandtheNightshade]

Sorry to butt in..... but I was wanting to have a look because I've been on a self-designed (with the help of my son) low carb diet since mid Sept which seems to be doing the tirck but I am intrigued by the amount of fat you guys are eating!

My diet is low fat and low carb - but not so strict as to restrict what I eat eg some olive oil to cook up evening meal but only low fat cott cheese, 2 % yog, no processed food, nor butter cream etc , not fatty meat ( so I eat bacon medallions 5 % steak mince etc...), have cut down on fruit. No sugar but I do have concentrated carbs on one meal a day eg either muesli for brek usually or maybe rice/spuds for supper. Do eat lentils and beans etc. Loads of veg eg soups. Quite high protein ( as long as low fat)

Please can someone tell me the reasoning behind the high fat approach because I don't think it will work for me as I only have/had about 10 pounds to lose?

My son does weights and looked it all up and so I follow his suggestions which was mainly cutting right down on fat, carbs and sugar - but OK vegetable fats eg avocado, coconut etc. I have been trying to build muskce at the same time as losing fat to help increase my metabolism.

Sorry if I've posted in the wrong place - I'm new!

[BIWI]

By the sounds of it Lulu - and welcome, by the way! - you're not really eating a terribly low carb diet, if you're still eating fruit, muesli, lentils, beans etc.

If you cut out carbs, and also cut out fat, it means you're eating a very high protein diet - which may be why your son recommended it. Is he a trainer or body builder, by any chance?

How much have you got to lose, and how much have you lost so far?

[BIWI]

This might help explain the basics of LCHF (low carb high fat) which is what Bootcamp is based on

Fat doesn't make you fat - carbs make you fat.

[Wombatinabathhat]

Nigella I have had the Bare naked noodles before. They are made from Konjac. Just to warn you, when you open the pouch, the noodles/rice smell awful, really fishy. I put mine in a colander and rinsed them really well in running cold water. I used mine in a home made soup and quite enjoyed them.

I'll def try the rice.

B: Ham and mayo
L: Chicken/courgette curry
D: Shepherds pie with swede/carrot topping

DH made dinner and it had bits of potato in it. He admitted he'd used a veg pack in the mince not knowing about the potato

I feel bad for eating it

[BIWI]

I feel awful now, after eating that 'banquet'. Bloated and really windy. Horrible. I'm really cross that I didn't think to take something with me. I really thought there would be something other than carbs, as I'd paid a lot of money to attend the conference, and didn't expect such basic food (at myself)

Especially as I passed on the breakfast on the train, because it was also all carbs - bacon roll, sausage sandwich, granola bar, fruit yoghurt, etc etc.

So by the time lunch came around I was really hungry. I couldn't even pick stuff out of the sandwiches as it was all mushy stuff - egg mayo, tuna mayo, grated cheese and pickle ...

And tomorrow I'm off to a Christmas do that I have nothing to wear, because I can't fit into my slinky party dress. No chance of it now as I'm so bloated!

[Gcalgske]

Another warning to add about konjac, it can be very very (painfully) bunging. I thought I was going to have to go to a&we the last time I ate a whole pack in one sitting. Exercise caution with portion size!!