Starting today - low carb

[lasttimeround]

Right it's time to get back in the low carb saddle. I basically follow boot camp rules. That works very well for me. I find getting into ketosis hard so making my public declaration of intent here. Planning to weigh and measure shortly.

So I'm starting today. Whingeing about carb flu all the way. Join me

The dreaded sod-it syndrome is what I have to watch out for too, Notdead

I seem to be on a plateau - pretty much since before Christmas. I gained a bit at Christmas and have lost that, but here I still am.

Posting here to try and keep me motivated. I hate it when I'm not losing! Have lost 2st 3lb since beginning of last bootcamp. Have at least 3 st to go.

I am with you in terms of plateau, DearPrudence…. Lost the extra Christmas poundage, but since then nothing.

Hoping that it's just a case of weight loss being lumpy. Can't believe that I am making no progress given how much better my diet is now than during December (I forced myself to own up to all the scoffage over Christmas on MFP so there for me to analyse).

I have just over a stone to go so wondering if the reason that it's slow is that I am not far off target, but not much comfort….

Need to give myself a big kick up the arse as am going on a yoga retreat in March and don't want to look like a lardy lump next to the lithe lovelies.

Right - will shut up now!

oh dear. I went off piste massively. I was totally in the zone.... I don't know what happened. I've not weighed myself as I'm sure I'll have put it all back on but I need to get back on it. I went to buy a new bra today (after 1yr9 months of pregnancy and breastfeeding, I want an underwired bra and my old ones are too small) - and I was horrified in the changing room. I looked 8 months pregnant, my tummy looked enormous. Three days of bread and pasta does NOT agree with me.

So, here is me signing back on, chastened and saddened and ready to do it again.

I'm now down 8lbs since I started on 4th Jan which is pleasing. Ideally I would like to stay off sugar and bread permanently, so much of what I've been doing these last few weeks will be long term changes for me. The benefits are so much greater than weight loss alone. I feel brighter, happier, more in control, with more energy and greatly improved concentration. Joint and muscle pain much reduced also.
I'd like to be 12 stone eventually, planning on losing 1lb a week, hopefully without ever feeling that I am denying myself as this is a real mental issue for me.

I'm now just over 14 so quite a way to go yet!

Made an error with my shopping today - was tempted by a pot of soya yoghurt with coconut, thought it sounded lovely and lowish carb. Made myself a bowl with a small handful of berries for lunch, took a big mouthful, expecting it to taste delicious, creamy and coconutty... oh my god it was absolutely the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted in my life !!!! Bleurgghhhh!!! Had to have a strong coffee just to get rid of the taste!

I'm another can't stand coconut yoghurt too, it's vile. I've tried co yo and soya coconut. Eugh.

Day 11. Still waking with a headache first thing and I had lots of water yesterday but paracetamol does the trick so I won't complain.

I'm not keen on the coconut yogurt either but as I have a large and a small pot of co-yo in the fridge I'm going to have to get to like it. It's sooooo expensive.

B. FF yogurt and 2 coffees with cream
L. Chicken thigh, green salad, half avocado, small bit of pate, mayo
D. Pork chop, celeriac chips and broccoli cheese.
I'm already on water bottle no. 4

RupertsMum - if you're still getting headaches, I'm concerned that your electrolyte balance is out of kilter.

How much salt are you eating? If you're drinking lots of water, and keeping your carbs really low, then you need to make sure that you get plenty of sodium - so you need to cook with salt and put it on your food. Try drinking a hot drink made from Oxo or Bovril or Marmite.

You also need potassium and magnesium - good sources of these are salmon, avocado, spinach and full fat natural yoghurt.

How many g of carbs a day should we be aiming for?

I am aiming for under 20g carbs a day for the first couple of months. My background reading on low carb tells me this should get me into ketosis. Then I shall go on to "lite" which will be 20-50g carbs a day. Not as knowledgeable as BIWI so I might be wrong.

Food today -

B- leftover celeriac dauphinoise
L- coffee with double cream and 50g skyr protein yogurt
D- flaxmeal pizza base with homemade tomato sauce and pepperami/mozarella topping.

Hoping my low carb pizza will be tasty to stop me joining DP having normal pizza!

Ok so I am coming in too high then.

Today:

B mashed hardboiled egg with 1 avocado and 3x salami cream cheese roll ups

L scrambled egg, plain

D spring greens sautéed in butter and garlic, tuna mayo made with ff creme fraiche

Snacks 2 babybels and 1 35g milk choc
Also had 4 cups of tea with milk

So according to MFP I am coming in at 55g carbs. Choc was 18g carbs and tea 16g.

Flaxmeal pizza base not to my liking, hoping the flax bread is a lot nicer. Ended up just eating the toppings. Think I shall just stick to meat & veg, and not try to recreate high carb meals using low carb ingredients.

I might be wrong on those figures Bible I think 50g carbs is still classed as lower.

BIWI good point. I take magnesium daily and eat a fair bit of avocado and yogurt but I don't use a lot of salt so will try to do that. I'm not keen on Bovril but will get some and give it a try. I have previously had leg cramps with this WOE but not too bad this time.

I have no idea how many carbs I'm eating I'm just sticking to the 'allowed' list. Only time will tell if I'm eating too much.

AF is on its way so I'm struggling to resist the sugar

There's no daily amount/limit, bibble.

Generally, if you eat 100g carbs or less per day, this counts as a low carb diet. Dr John Briffa's guidelines are to stick to 30g carbs max at each meal.

But those are still fairly generous amounts of carbs if you're wanting to lose weight. Compare it with Atkins' induction levels of 20g per day!

So if you're wanting to lose weight, then you need to look at carb consumption at significantly lower than those counts.

However

Everyone differs in terms of their carb tolerance. Some people can lose weight at relatively high levels of carb intake, others have to go really low. The only way you can find out is to experiment.

For Bootcamp, if you follow the rules, you should be eating a sufficiently low level of carbs that you will lose weight.

But if you keep on eating chocolate and drinking milk in your tea, such that your carbs are coming mainly from these sources, this isn't good!

Your carbs should be coming mainly from veg and salad.

Yes BIWI but without the choc and milk I'm good right?

sorry that sounded curt, it wasn't meant to!!

I estimate if I hadn't had those teas or the choc I would be coming in at 30g which I suppose would be ok...not sure how much lower I could get really.

Think I've had a reasonable day. Breakfast was 2 small pieces of low carb bread and butter with 2 slices of rosemary ham.
Lunch was leftover shepherds pie with small amount of buttery butternut squash topping and 1 square 90% dark choc.
Dinner was chicken salad with mayo and olive oil/lemon dressing.

Where I am falling down is having a sweetener in my mint tea (and I am drinking about 6 mugs per day).

Am staying away from cream and raspberries and cheese today - think I am sometimes too heavy on the dairy and am trying to save fruit for when I feel I really want it, rather than an everyday thing.

It's OK - I didn't think that was curt!

Yes, without the tea and chocolate that looks fine

Today I had bacon and fried eggs for breakfast, cold roast beef for lunch and chicken and vegetable casserole with mashed swede for dinner. A snack of half a mug of butternut squash soup (3.5% carbs) and lots of black decaff coffee and lemon and ginger tea and water. Think I'm doing OK. I'll weigh myself Saturday morning, really hope I've lost at least a little bit.

I did better yesterday

Out at meeting and forgot to take lunch so mornings and early afternoon was water black tea and coffee, unthinkingly put milk in one of the coffees but avoided the delicious looking selection of cakes.

I had dinner mid afternoon when I got back. Left over chicken in tarragon and cream sauce, with creamed celeriac and cauliflower.

Then supper was a sandwich made from the flax meal bread and chicken.

It doesn't agree with me to eat late anymore though. I used to eat the majority of my food during the evening pre BC. These days I rarely eat after 6pm and my digestive system argues with me when I do.

What are people's thoughts on this edamame 'pasta' - has anyone tried it? Ocado do a Liberto Gluten Free Organic Edamame Fettucini and Spaghetti which has 15g per 100g of carbs (9g of which sugars) - this should be suitable for BC light, right?

Ugh I have got no energy at all. This can't be good for me, I feel like I'm wading through treacle.

Which day are you on Bibble?