Week 6 - Pre-summer Low Carb Bootcamp - half way through!

[BIWI]

Morning all. Welcome to the first day of summer

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness once again, for you to declare all.

Thankfully a bit of a quieter week for me, once today is over, so I can concentrate a bit more on food and do a bit of cooking and meal planning!

Hope all is going well, and that the scales have been kind to you this morning.

Made a lamb shank/veg thing in the slow cooker with mint & rosemary, was very lovely!

Hello all!

I have been wondering or rather worrying about what happens after this boot camp. The littlest cheat seems to show on the scales so what's going to happen when we are all back on the carbs? If I have a bit of bread and show as 2lbs heavier I think I'd be really downhearted. Although I plan to eat like this for as long as possible I know that being lc 100% all of the time just won't be possible and feeling a bit worried about that. I've lost 4stone on a meal replacement diet before and put it all on (and more) so I guess I got that in the back of my head. Sorry for the rambling post!

B - ff greek yoghurt with whey protein powder, creamy coffee
L - avocado, hot smoked salmon and cucumber with low carb bread
D - cauliflower mash, a few green beans and salmon
S - chocolate coconut fat bombs, creamy coffee

One of the good things is that at least some of the time my kids are eating the healthy stuff too, e,g, cauliflower mash. Although sometimes because I'm cooking something for myself that I am convinced they won't eat, I end up just doing chicken nuggets or similar for them...

I've just updated the spreadsheet with mondays weight. I finally lost some after weeks of staying the same. I've now lost 6.2lbs on bootcamp (9lbs in total).

I'm not going to worry about sticking to the rules for the next few weeks, as I had an abdominal hysterectomy on monday, although I will try as I still need to lose lots of weight.

I'm wondering how long there is between boot camps. There's no way I'm going to be able to reintroduce carbs for the foreseeable future but will find it so much harder without the fantastic support from this thread

indiana you don't go back on the carbs! That's what you do the reason most of us need to lose weight in the first place is because we are not eating properly. It makes no sense to loose weight on a "diet" then go back to your old eating habits.

Most people find that after LCing for a while they can have the occasional carby meal but you can't add carbs back in everyday. I aim for LC day to day and carbs on special occasions/nights out (I don't have many of those though!!).

very there is usually an ongoing thread where we all keep chatting so there is always support here

Thanks SarryaT that's good to know

Dont do what i do and get demob happy at the end of bootcamp and eat a tonne of carbs. Then get fat, feel sick and waddle towards the next bootcamp! I have been doing this for 2.5 yrs and have only lost 1.5-2st, i could have been at goal weight twice over had i just been more moderate!

My goal between bootcamps is now to stay low carb - so no white processed carbs, potatoes, rice etc but maybe a bit more wine, more carby veg and the odd treat meal out. Wheat based stuff makes my ibs flair up something terrible. Hopefully i will learn this time! My taste buds have changed and i believe the science that this woe is better for our health but the siren song of carbs does grab me sometimes. The worst bit is i now love high fat foods so i do high fat, high carb - the worst possible combination!

Thanks Sayrra. I guess I have been seeing it as a 'diet' and although have gotten used to it somehow can't quite believe I will stick to it. I MUST GIVE MYSELF A TALKING TO. Mainly it's the learned pattern of dieting for years and breaking off. I guess if you allow yourself some special occasions off it should be do-able.

Yes very I would also need to drop in and out of a support thread like this to keep the motivation there - especially during this early period.

princess even though you've overindulged on the carbs it's actually quite positive for me to see that after 2.5 years you're still back trying this woe. There are some diets I've done which, although successful, I could only pull off once as just all consuming and unworkable long term.

I guess the best advice is our tag line KOKO!

I think I started in 2014 on lc eating, I'm taking the scenic route to weight loss!

I prefer a lc WOE and don't know why I ever allow carbs to creep back in.

Indiana - even when i succumbed to carby twattiness i still believe this is my long term eating pattern now. i dieted all my adult life basically and just got fatter! When it worked i lost weight but i piled it back on as soon as i stopped -classic yo yo.

This is a "way of eating" not a diet and its taken a real change of thought processes. It has turned everything i thought about losing weight on its head (not that it ever worked really). Until bootcamp i had NEVER eaten a full fat yoghurt now i wouldnt touch a muller light with someone elses!

I love the food and finding new ways of cooking. I have changed my favourite recipes and intend to teach my kids lchf principals - although they are very young at the mo so its all about avoiding sugar and processed food. Now if i could just convince them to eat eggs for breakfast.

I also prefer this woe and feel soooo much better within myself. My body did not agree with my old diet and i didnt realise how rubbish i felt until i stopped eating rubbish.

I often got the majority of my calories from toast and jam or bowls of cereal. I am a good cook that loves vegetables and cooks mainly from scratch but a quick, easy cheap carb fix was so tempting and filled a need. Now i low carb i dont get the urge. I had gestational diabetes and now i am no longer 20 i dont think i am going to live forever so i realise that i actually only have one body and i need to look after it. Its more about health than appearance now -although i wouldnt say no to size 10 jeans.

I really think i would have got diabetes and its an evil condition.

Its not how many times you fall down but how many times you get up that counts - or something! Each bootcamp i learn a little more and it becomes a little more ingrained. Carbs do have a strong and evil hold, if you let them.

Personally, I maintained a good weight for a year after my first bootcamp and I reintroduced quite a lot of carbs. I would have muesli and yoghurt for breakfast, I ate brown pasta/rice and potatoes. I ate all kinds of fruit and plenty of it. For me, the weight went back in because pregnancy has a disastrous effect on me - I had hyperemesis and for months the only food I could eat was crisps or plain white pasta, I couldn't keep water down so could only drink full sugar lemonade or Coke. After DS2 was born he had some health issues which meant I didn't get more than an hour's unbroken sleep for over a year and I lived off sugar for the energy. I would eat whole packets of biscuits and drink sugary tea just to keep my eyes open.

So I'm hoping that once I shift this weight I will still find that I have a reasonable level of carb tolerance like I used to. Of course, it may not be the case anymore.

One thing I did learn is that my maintenance weight is higher than my goal weight was and it does put me at a BMI of 26 or 27. If I wanted to be slim, I would have to follow a much stricter woe on a permanent basis. But actually, I preferred the way I looked at a slightly higher weight to the way I looked at goal weight and I felt much happier with my lifestyle. It was a good compromise.

I have lost 1.5 stone since mid-April and would ideally lose three more stone. I'm prepared for that to take a year or so and for my weight to go up and down along the way. I'm in this for the long haul and I think I am prepared to go off-piste and get back on track a good few times. I'm trying to make sure that my deviations are planned rather than erratic and that they don't send me into a 'fuckit' state of mind.

Could someone remind me how to break a stall.

Thanks Laser that's really helpful to know that the good carbs might not be quite so disastrous and you were able to manage successfully before pregnancy hit. I will KOKO but was just anxious of what happens after boot camp when I've reintroduced some carbs.

very that's exactly how I used to eat - empty carbs. Sugar with more sugar. Since being on boot camp I feel like I'm loving myself and taking care of me for the first time in ages - it's a good feeling!

Sorry that was to princess

reader77, I think a stall is no weight loss for 6 weeks or more? You could try ubercamp, in the spreadsheet files. Never tried it myself have but have heard whispers of it

Im not planning on reintroducing carbs, as I presume it will just undo all the work I've put into Bootcamp.

I have a long term vision of no carbs. I have lost weight by low carbing before (Atkins and Duncan)and then put not all but loads back on. Bread is my main downfall I love it. There's no way I can stop at one slice. After the bread I go onto other things and end up eating loads with no enjoyment at all after the first few mouthfuls. These last five weeks have been the happiest I've been low carbing. So thanks you BIWI for putting this all together in such a coherent and doable way. I can honestly say I have had not one craving (not stupid enough to think I won't in the future though) and have enjoyed every mouthful of food I've eaten. I'm already looking ahead to the summer holidays and Christmas trying to envisage how I'll stick to low carbing, usually I'd be looking forward to not having to. Sorry I've rambled on rather. But thanks to all again.

I agree with the rest of you, I see this as a woe for life. I know I'll have blips, but I also know I will always have to be careful about what I eat. Slightly depressing, but better than doing what I have done in the past: lost weight, finished the "diet" and gone WooHoo and ate so-called normal food again and put it all back on.
Reader have you lost any weight on BC? If so, then I don't think you can really say you're in a stall. Remember, weight loss isn't linear. However, it is frustrating when the weight doesn't go as quickly as we would like. Being really strict BC, without any BC lite, or as Wan said, you could try uberBC to see if that speeds things up. And, of course, our mantra of KOKO. Hope you get the loss you deserve soon.

I struggled a bit yesterday. I was hungry when I got home from work and as I knew it would be a couple of hours before DH got home and we could have dinner, I had a snack of prosciutto, olives and halloumi. I wouldn't normally be hungry at that time.
Had a lovely dinner of garlic roasted cod and roasted veg, but again later in the evening, I wanted to eat. I wouldn't say I was hungry this time, just mildish cravings, I think because I was particularly tired last night. I had a square of 90% chocolate and that seemed to help curb things, so I escaped to bed without too much damage done.
Today, I feel fine. Not overly hungry (not eaten yet) or craving, so hopefully, things are back to my new normal now.

Today's food will be:
B - two creamy coffees
L - tuna mayo with salad and dressing
D - either lc sausage casserole or tuna fishcakes
S - spicy chai latte or two.

Indiana I can keep weight off when eating carbs - but only if I do 5:2 (or more like 4:3). Both WOE work, but you have to stick to them.

I'm trying more like a LC 5:2 at the moment, as I leave for work at 7am 2 days per weeks and it is easier to not bother eating until dinner time.

Thanks for the feedback Wanheda and Mookbark. I have lost weight so I haven't really stalled apart from the last two weeks. So I'm just impatient. I've decided to up my exercise...well, actually do some. I realised I find it hard to eat better AND do exercise, I either do one of the other!

Although this is the best diet I've ever been on I don't honestly think I could keep it up forever. I miss good bread, my baking and sushi. I don't really want to contemplate an existence without any of these ever again.

Not quite sure what I am going to do long term?