Week 5 - Pre-summer Low Carb Bootcamp - the end of the first half!

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness once again

A horribly busy week for me, so apologies if I'm not around quite so much

I hope the scales have been kind to you, but don't forget to take your measurements as well.

Hope you all have a good week

Welcome back woh, glad you are back and motivated.
Thanks for the herb ideas gcal. I got some mint on the way home. I didn't particularly enjoy chewing it, but it helped a bit. I couldn't find any fennel leaves, but there was a fennel tea, so I bought a box of that. It was surprisingly nice and has definitely helped with the taste in the mouth.
I've changed my mine about dinner, instead of salmon pesto we are going to have a salmon stir fry. All ready to go, just waiting for DH to get home.

I'm knackered! And still working - have an interview to do (via Skype, so at least I'm at home) at 7.15.

Then I'm going to have some Naked noodles, with leftover roast chicken, some shallot, garlic and ginger, with a bit of pepper, some peanut butter mixed into the sauce, with soy sauce, and - hopefully, if it's still in the fridge - some fresh coriander.

Enjoy you dinner BIWI, it sounds lovely. I hope you get some rest soon.
Don't worry about us, we are all behaving, honest!

DH has tried to tactfully mention my intermittent bad breath to me. Apparently it's particularly noticeable this evening - I realised why as I've hardly hard any carbs today. About to have some vegetables with dinner so hoping that'll help
Rather embarrassing.

Just checking in - this week has been rubbish for actual loss, but am trying not to dwell on that! Am on holiday in 6 weeks and would love to knock off 6pounds by then, but I know that means I'm going to have to be a bit stricter

Work has been manic so I didn't eat anything until lunchtime, when I had two Pret pots with egg , smoked salmon and spinach, and a bag of kale chips. I think they were carbier than I hoped though...

Had a bag of pork scratchings when I got home from work, then dinner was an impromptu hash of Brussels sprouts, bacon, mushrooms and and egg, all fried up in plenty of butter. Rather delicious - Brussels sprouts are a bit of a revelation and I've now eaten more of them in a week than the rest of my 42 years put together

Might have some Fage yoghurt and a few blueberries later. Need to be drinking much more water!!

Mary, have your drunk your water? This helps a lot.

laser I'm probably late and you've already had your take out but I've had curry itself as well as the tandoori stuff/mixed grills/panzer dishes. With the curries, I just don't have the sauce as its got onions and tomatoes so quite carby. I scoop out the meat or chicken and have it with a salad.

I'm sorry I'm not fully caught up with everyone's updates. I'm feeling pretty low today, and thinking I might have to just bow out from BC. I weighed myself this morning, and just seeing the numbers being higher than on Monday made me feel borderline suicidal and like selfharming, and like I need to do absolutely anything to make the numbers come down. So obviously that's ringing alarm bells for my ED and MH.

I suppose it's not an easy time. Trying to be healthy with the bulimia, going through IVF, and DH feeling very low. Maybe I'm just not in the head space to make this work for me. We went for a lunch out with DH today, since he's working from home, and I did drink a large latte and DH told me sternly not to feel guilty about it. We had a good chat.

Well, I've not felt like cooking anything complicated tonight, so I've just had a dinner of creamy scrambled eggs and fried tomatoes. I think I'm going to fade into the background a bit, and take each day as it comes, and concentrate on having as many healthy meals as possible, rather than my weight.

Sorry for such a self-obsessed post.

BursarFrogs. Sorry to hear you're not feeling good. It sounds like you're coping with a lot and maybe this is not the righ ttime for you. Eating healthily without concetrating on weight sounds like a good idea to me. Good luck.

Not posted food for a while but I've been feeling hungry quite a lot the last few days so grateful for advice?

early - 2 bp coffees
late breakfast - tomatoes, olives, blackberries, natural yoghurt
early lunch - salad leaves with feta
snack - guacomole, olives, celery, bp coffee
dinner - rocket, courgetti, prawns, cucumber, halloumi

now drinking tea but could eat something tasty - taking willpower not to!

Bursars

Not self obsessed at all. Sounds like you're having a shit time.

bursars good to take focus off the weight, LCHF is good for health overall, be kind to yourself

cider, so glad your treatment is over, hope you had a lovely day

BIWI that sounds like the most gruelling of schedules, it is no wonder many of us put weight on and struggle to lose it working such hours with no access to real, nourishing food so hats off for even thinking about cooking, your tea sounds lovely

well we all seem to be having a cabbage loving day, I had it for breakfast in butter with 2 poached eggs - I just LOVE having veg for breakfast

lunch out at a Greek place: pork souvlaki with salad

tea was chesters chicken from the recipe thread, celeriac boulangere (which DH thought was potato) and green beans BUT had choc today when I swore to myself I was going to be uber strict, hmmm

Bursars
Maybe the time isn't right for you just now, and that's fine. Be kind to yourself.

eleven I'm not surprised you're hungry - you're hardly eating anything!

Stop drinking so many BPC - you're essentially giving yourself the illusion that you've eaten, and just staving off the hunger. And if you're snacking on as much as you say here, then evidently you're not eating enough.

Have a proper breakfast, and eat more than Feta and salad for lunch. That way you won't need an early lunch, or a snack.

There should be more fatty protein at the heart of your meals - the proportion of yours is all wrong - you are eating disproportionate amounts of carbs - even though what you're eating is low carb - because there isn't enough protein or fat there!

eleven the other thing is, you've fallen into the trap of eating 'little and often', whereas you should be looking to have three proper meals a day, with no snacks in between. Every time you eat like this, you're provoking an insulin spike, whereas what we're trying to do is to keep things stable.

Thank you all eleven, clopy, lex and mook

Bursars sounds like you have such a lot to deal with right now, be kind to yourself

Food today:
B - 2 hb eggs, coffee and cream
L - sausages with leeks and mushrooms in cream
D - butter chicken with cauliflower rice
S - babybels, leftover cabbage and cauliflower with butter, coffee and cream
3L water

Bursar. What a lot to be dealing with. Please be kind to yourself. To eat healthily, as you suggest, is much more important than losing weight

Loving the cabbagey suggestions, might get some for this weekend.

Had an accidental carb disaster today! Was at all-day course with posh hotel lunch provided that was very limited on low-carb options, so had more carbs then than ideal at lunch. Was really then hungry after course and avoiding all cakes and biscuits during the day, and had to wait two hours to meet a friend for dinner, so stopped for a snack at EAT - and felt v pleased I found two 'good' LC options (cauliflower cheese soup, beef jerky) which turned out to be (after I'd eaten them both, probably unnecessarily) 31g of carbs between them! The jerky had 9g of sugar which is especially annoying as I gave up sugar months ago and should have spotted this . Lovely meal with friend at posh Japanese restaurant but was too full really - I just wish I hadn't had those bloody snacks.

B: cheesy, creamy scrambled eggs in butter, half an avocado, creamy coffee
L: bits of salmon in unknown marinade, few salad leaves stolen from garnish, goats cheese-mushroom slider (in breadcrumbs but avoided bun), mixed berries (bloody carby buffet - everyone else on mini burgers, sausage rolls, endless sandwiches and cakes!)
D: amazing crispy pork belly with watercress salad, Bootcamp Spritzer (small dry white wine with soda water)
S: cauli cheese soup and beef jerky

So, completely confused as I thought cheese and prawns contained fatty proteins, and that avocado and olives contained good fats. Is three coffees a day excessive? And should I not be snacking at all?

Bursar just want to echo pps and say be kind to yourself. It's really hard sometimes when you don't see the results you want.

It feels a bit of a slog at the moment. I haven't exactly plateaued but I would have liked to have lost a bit more. I know if I keep going I will and in a sense the hard bit is over: breaking the carb/sugar habit. My face is less puffy and I've cut down on dairy.

I just can't wait to be at a weight/size I'm satisfied with.

Bursars, so sorry to hear you are having such a hard time and agree you should take a step back from focusing on weight loss. I hope you find peace with yourself and feel better soon.

I had lamb palak. No obvious carby criminals in the dish so I hope there weren't a load of hidden ones lurking.

I am struggling with recurrent nausea - had it quite badly today. It might be in response to the painkillers I still need to take. My stomach cries out for dry carbs to settle it down and I'm finding that challenging as it makes it difficult to want to eat fat. I resorted to hazelnuts this afternoon though I don't think nuts really do me any favours with losing weight. Anyway, a handful of them settled the nausea and filled me up for hours.

B - Greek yoghurt and cinnamon
L - Bacon and eggs with fried mushrooms, another bowl of Greek yoghurt with cinnamon
D - lamb palak
S - chunk of cheese, handful of hazelnuts.
Two creamy coffees and I think only about 2l of water which isn't really enough. I didn't want a load of liquid sloshing about in my queasy stomach!

Feel I need to reign in on snacks and keep cheese and nuts to a more minimal level. I did very poorly on the vegetable front today as well - overall, not really a triumph!

eleven

So, completely confused as I thought cheese and prawns contained fatty proteins, and that avocado and olives contained good fats. Is three coffees a day excessive? And should I not be snacking at all?

Yes, cheese and avocado and olives are good fats - but prawns are very low in fat. In fact, your meals look like they're low in protein as well.

And at this stage of Bootcamp you really shouldn't need to be snacking - read the rules! - the aim is to eat three good meals a day (or you can drop to two if you're not hungry - but you're not there yet). Every time you snack - and especially if you're including carbs in your snacks - you're causing more insulin to be produced, which risks laying down fat.

Instead of the coffees I really think you should eat proper food. And you need to look at increasing your protein content as this, with the fat, will help you feel satiated. Three coffees a day isn't excessive, but they should be in addition to meals if you're still hungry.

Why bulletproof coffee is a bad idea

Eleven boot camp is low carb high fat BUT bullet proof coffee is just fat.

3 regular black coffees a day I don't think is excessive but 3 bullet proof coffees is a lot of fat without any other real nutrition. I sometimes have a BPC if I'm feeling dodgy and can't face food but other wise I have a mug of coffee with a little cream or black. I know a lot of people who fat fast and have a BPC instead of breakfast so that way they are keeping their insulin super steady but not feeling hungry but the way you are doing it you are having the BPC and breakfast so it sound like as Biwi says you are eating 'little and often' instead of a filling meal 3 times a day.

early - 2 bp coffees why 2? I would be no longer hungry after 1. If you are hungry maybe eat something with it?

late breakfast - tomatoes, olives, blackberries, natural yoghurt
could be carby depending on amounts of tomatoes and berries? If I was getting hungry I would suspect it was too much in the way of carbs and cut back on those and increase the fatty bits

early lunch - salad leaves with feta feta and salad is a good option but maybe add in a fatty dressing and have olives and avocado with it so you don't get hungry later and need to snack

snack - guacomole, olives, celery, bp coffee

dinner - rocket, courgetti, prawns, cucumber, halloumi sounds yummy but did you add a dressing or sauce? Maybe some butter on the courgettie or mayo on the prawns

Cheese has fat but prawns are not so you need to add it in.