Week 3 - Pre-summer Low Carb Bootcamp - the choice is yours!

[BIWI]

Morning all. Sorry for the later than usual thread, but I'm away at the moment/1

Anyway, here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

As we've now completed the first two, more strict, weeks of Bootcamp you have a choice. You can move on to Bootcamp Light, (rules are on the spreadsheet tabs), which essentially means you can add in a few nuts/seeds, and some fruit (berries, and strictly in moderation), and you can have alcohol occasionally.

However, if you haven't really done Bootcamp strictly enough, or you cheated, or just because you think it's going well, you can stay on Bootcamp. (If you do, though, please make sure your carbs are mainly coming from vegetables and salad, to make sure that you're getting a good balance of nutrition)

Alternatively, you can do Bootcamp during the week but Bootcamp Light at the weekend. The choice is yours.

However, there is one thing I have to warn you about. Weeks 3 and 4 are notorious for little or no weight loss. If this happens to you, please don't panic! Just keep on keeping on and things will start to move again.

After initial big losses in the first couple of weeks, you can't feasibly expect to see that continue, and you should that weight loss settles down at around 1-3lbs a week, depending on how much you have to lose.

Good luck all!

Wanheda Nearly black/brown/red/pink are all within the realms of normal for me

Ok, cool, nothing to freak out about then? Phew! Thank you.

wanheda, I can get very dark bleeding sometimes, very browny-black. And LCHF definitely sends things haywire for a while, I get lots of spotting when I'm strict low carb ! I would say if you feel otherwise ok it's probably not anything to worry about, but keep an eye.

Well, dinner tonight was a success. I sliced leeks and chorizo and put it in a roasting tin with a few garlic cloves and plenty of olive oil, then put two chicken breasts on top. Bunged in oven for an hour, then served on top of a pile of spinach with butter.

Here's the odd bit - 13-year-old ds loved it - and has now come back into the kitchen to say he can't decide whether to have almonds or Greek yoghurt with raspberries for pudding

He is skinny as a rake and definitely doesn't need to lose any weight, but am happy to see him eating healthy food with plenty of good fats. And spinach!!

Laser I forgot to wish you a speedy recovery

Think I've been pretty good today…

B: Coffee with cream. FF yogurt
L: Pan fried turkey breast on big green salad (lettuce, watercress and avocado). Mayo.
D: Home made carbonnara sauce over slim noodles
Snacks - 5 mini baby-bels and an Atkins cookies and cream bar (shhhh).

All this butter and cream - half expecting to balloon!

-titsalina would lactose free milk in your coffee be OK? You can get mini portions of that in plenty of super markets, it says 3G carbs, example here at ASDA but I have also seen them In tesco and waitrose
groceries.asda.com/product/lactose-free-milk/arla-lactofree-longlife-milk-portion-pack/910000392500
I am not a loyal shopper, can you tell?

Good day here, went out on a lovely day trip, had cheese salad for lunch in a cafe and got through 4 pats of butter spreading it on my cheese, lovely

B: Bacon and eggs, creamy decaff
L: Tuna mayo Lettuce roll ups and a few radishes
D: salmon, cheesy cauli mash, Spinach
S: ff yog, bacon, pork scratchings
H2O: 3 L+

Too many snacks. Half term so guess I'm a bit bored in the afternoons.

Out for drinks and dinner tomorrow. Will avoid cocktails and have a couple of glasses of dry white wine. Grilled meat and salad for dinner. Hope weigh in on Monday isn't too disappointing.

B - BPC
L - leftover butter chicken and cauli rice
D - tacos: mince with Linda's taco seasoning (googled it ) some shallot and red pepper, served in little gem for me and taco shells for DH. Homemade guacamole and salsa for a change and they tasted so much better than shop bought and no sugar of course.
S - piece of Brie spread with butter, coffee with cream

Managed my 3L of water much easier today but I was working from home so easy access to loo!

Breakfast coffee with cream.

Lunch left over corned beef hash

Dinner belly pork and green leaves.

Got back on track with no cravings today

B - strawberries with cream
L - mozzarella, prosciutto, tomato, basil and avocado with mayo dressing and some extra olive oil
D - tuna pasta - courgetti with some diced onion, tinned tomato, yellow pepper and tuna. It was ok but bland. Have leftovers for tomorrow but will need to spice it up a bit.

Morning, checking in but feel rather frustrated on two fronts - had a mid-week weigh in as I've got some new scales (the old ones gave different readings within a matter of seconds) and I've gone up 3lbs
These new scales do put me at 0.5-1lb heavier than the old scales but even so. My body fat percentage is lower though and my trousers were loser yesterday.
I've had mostly around 18-24g carbs (yesterday was unusually high at 28g). I'm probably not managing the full 3 litres of water a day (although it feels like I'm drinking loads) and it's possible I could have had more vegetables the last couple of days.
I will KOKO and try not to get disheartened - this is only my 2nd week as I joined late so I wasn't expecting a slow down just yet!

Hi all,
I've been away for a holiday since tuesday (visiting friends/family) & returning to the UK tonight. I did very well overall BUT last night I went out for a meal with a childhood friend at a really lovely restaurant & didn't really follow rules.
I didn't drink alcohol as I'm not too bothered by alcohol anyway but did eat some carbs & sugar. Not good. Anyway, generally throughout the whole BC I've only had 2 meals where I fell off the wagon, one 10 days ago which didn't have an effect (was minimal) and this one yesterday which was worse & quite disappointing.

Thanks Saffy, I will keep an eye on it but hopefully its just a sign I am emptying fat cells!

Laser, hope your recovery is going well.

Cider, a bit of smoked paprika might make your tuna dish a little bit less bland?

Mary, I dropped 2lbs during this week and they have gone on again already! I am at the end of week 5 though. My weight bounces up & down all the time however.

still, hop back on and drink lots of water and keep strict today, hopefully that will minimise damage.

Morning. Just had a yummy breakfast of leeks, celery and a little bacon, all fried in butter and finished with a dash of cream and a bit of nutmeg. Heavenly! And now I'm stuffed!
Shake it off and climb back up on this wagon stillloving!

MaryThorne if your trousers are fitting better and your body fat has dropped, then it's definitely working!

I doubt very much that you've put weight on, it's just the different scales. It's not the actual weight on the scales that matters so much as the difference each week.

Don't be disheartened at this early stage - things are obviously going in the right direction for you.

still have a couple of super strict days, and make sure you drink lots of water - and make sure you don't let carb cravings tempt you back into the dark side!!!

I know I wave my big stick around and don't pull any punches about cheating. I know from personal experience how easy it is to drop like a stone off the low carb wagon!

However, it's also important to recognise that we do have to exist in Real Life. And sometimes it's beyond our control. You get invited to dinner at a friend's, and she's cooked your favourite pasta dish, or she's baked a special cake for you. Or you're staying with friends who have a low fat/high carb existence.

In certain circumstances there's often very little choice. In which case, give in with grace and just enjoy the ride!

But when you are in control, and can make the choice - well, that's down to you. If you choose to go off piste, do it mindfully. Enjoy it, but acknowledge that you're doing it, and then get back on track as soon as you can, with a few super strict days, and lots of water.

One of the things I'm fairly certain that you'll find is that the things you think you miss are actually quite disappointing when you try them again!

Morning, to all that would like them. I think we need to ask MN for a big stick emoticon as well.
I've not posted for a couple of days - Tuesday was an absolute carb disaster for no other reason than it was half term. So, I shall draw a veil over it.
Was expecting yesterday to be really difficult, but am pleased with how well I managed. I was on a crochet workshop for the day. So, breakfast was two creamy coffees in the car on the two hour journey there. Had lots of water and too many black coffees whilst there, but I avoided the chocolate biscuits on the table in front of me. Lunch was provided, so I had the insides of the sandwiches (poached salmon, smoked salmon and beef, so rather nice) with quite a lot of plain green salad. I didn't have any of the four puddings, and tbh, wasn't too bothered.
Was hungry on the way home, so bought a pot of pimento stuffed olives with manchego from a Waitrose at the service station. Managed to eat the whole pot! Then had peppered mackerel with roast veg for dinner, but only had a small portion as wasn't all that hungry after the olives.
I've promised to take the DC to the cinema and McD today. Will happily have a black coffee at the cinema, not sure whether to eat with them at McD - probably their lacklustre chicken and bacon salad - or wait until I get home. DH is off practicing after work, so doesn't want dinner, so haven't got the incentive to wait and eat with him. I'll wait and see how I feel later, I think.
Koko everyone, me included.

Really liked that post, BIWI. I am loving this WOE (and have been surprised by how fine I've found it), but it's been easy for me this week because I've been away with the kids for half term so can totally control food.

I think if you're at someone's house and they've made something special then it's pretty rude not to eat it so agree with your advice to 'give in with grace and enjoy the ride'.

BTW - realise protein shakes aren't ideal, but on the occasions when one is in massive rush and there's nothing suitable, was thinking they could be good. And in which case - what would be best liquid to use? Water on its own is gross. I normally use unsweetened soya milk or almond milk, but was wondering whether a water and double cream mix might be better?

Can I suggest that everyone has a look at the recipe thread, and chooses something new/different to cook this weekend? There are some really delicious recipes on there which should serve to remind us all how lucky we are on this WOE!

(And if that doesn't work, just have a read of any of the low calorie threads - people living on instant soups and high processed things and wondering how to stop being hungry all the time!)

Shuffling back onto the thread hanging head....

I've been on holiday for a week, back last night and I fell spectacularly off the wagon. Back on bc now. Looking at the positives I'm still lighter than I was when I started bc and if I stick to plan I could shave another couple of pounds before weigh in on Monday.

I need to go shopping because I'm lacking food. Started the day with a creamy coffee and a chunk of cheese, eggs for lunch and lc chilli for tea.

Wanheda A good fennel substitute is a sprinkling of fennel seeds and a couple of sticks of celery, cut into big chunks.

Well, my little DS did bring me a pain au chocolat this morning - he'd planned it, chosen it in the shop with dh yesterday and came up with it for me in bed so it would have felt pretty churlish to refuse. I ate it, enjoyed it, gave profuse thank yous and now will be back on the wagon again. I couldn't agree more about the low calorie threads, BIWI, this way of eating is so delicious and satisfying. The thought of a Muller Light yoghurt could not be a more depressing prospect!

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone .

Definitely BIWI! I started 4 weeks ago...I can now get on trousers that didn't fit when I started. I decided to have a Sprite Zero as a 'treat', it tasted awful. I honestly think my taste buds are changing!

I'm enjoying cooking from scratch, I'm using my slow cooker a lot. Highly recommend lamb shanks in the slow cooker, the meat just falls off!

So I had two beers last night...22g carbs! But in my defence, I was trapped on a boat for four hours at a work-related event and needed to make constant small talk with sixty 18-21 year-olds who were drinking rather a lot more. So I 'needed' a drink to lubricate the social occasion - the boat didn't do any food and the options were beer or spirits, and I knew I needed a long drink that wouldn't go to my head (esp after not having a single alcoholic drink for nearly three weeks). But, I was pleasantly surprised, normally I can knock back alcohol fairly quickly, but I really could only sip it and I couldn't finish the second one. And I drank lots of sparkling water.

Plus I knew in advance there would be no food, so I planned and took to work both lunch and dinner to have beforehand, and I wasn't hungry at all, so I'm pretty pleased how I handled the food side. But should probably have at least a light thwack with the stick for BEER (which I'm not even a massive fan of!).

Hi everyone :) I have lost 2lb from Monday. breakfast bpc with an egg blended in
Lunch pate cloud bread
Dinner . Slim noodles with chicken tika