Week 1 Early Spring Low Carb Bootcamp - at last!

[BIWI]

Evening all!

Just getting this out there, so that everyone knows where to go/what to do in the morning.

Here's the link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I'd like to say a massive thank you and to Sayrra and Wombattoo who set this up and maintain it for us all.

PLEASE don't touch anything other than the cell where you input your weight.

If your name isn't on the list, just add it to the bottom, and it will be magically re-alphabetised to include you.

It's called the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness because of all the information and resources that are available to us. Look at the tabs at the bottom - the rules are there, along with the veg counter, and all manner of resources for you to read up more about low carbing.

If you can't access it, or can't input your weight, just add your weight to the chat thread, and someone will do it for you. (I believe it's difficult to do it from your phone).

But more than anything else, a massive good luck to you all!

All I can say to you is follow the rules!

It does work, but only if you follow them.

Good luck everyone.

Wombattoo there are different kinds of magnesium and some are more effective than others.

Magnesium citrate should help in that department. Other forms don't have the same laxative effect.

An Epsom salt bath can be helpful too.

I know way more about this than I want to thanks to a keto DH

Good point Roly. Dd had the most incredible looking hot chocolate earlier.

Thank you play I'll keep an eye out for some of that

just had Black Farmer sausages - very good - taste like proper carby ones

Evening :)

I'm feeling pretty crap so I think I'm in carb withdrawal, mostly the lack of sugar I think! Just goes to show how much shit I must have been eating in weight watchers!

Dinner this evening was EPIC. Totally made up out of fridge leftovers from last week but basically:
5tbsp butter
King prawns
1 shallot
1 spring onion
1 garlic clove
1 sprig of lemongrass
2 birds eye chillis
5 asparagus spears
A handful of spinach
Lime

Melt the butter, add the chilli, garlic, lemongrass, shallot and spring onions then let that sit while you chop up the asparagus into 'noodles'.

Add the asparagus and 50ml water then stick the lid on and steam until the asparagus is softer.

Take the lid of, quickly ram in the spinach and close the lid before the steak escapes.

Give it 30 seconds, then whip the lid off, squeeze the lime in and serve straight away :)

It was like a Thai stir fry hybrid and was lush!

looks ruddy gorgeous hesdeadjim

I make ganache by heating the cream and pouring it over the chocolate. I wonder if there's a correct official method?

I've tried both ways StuntNun, and although I think it is correct to heat the cream rather than the chocolate, it produces quite different results when doing small quantities in the microwave - or it has for me anyway.

Heat cream, add chocolate - thin, runny (albeit nice)

Melt chocolate, add cold cream - thick and mousse-like.

It was a revelation when I tried melting the chocolate first

Looks brilliant!

Everyone sounds like they're doing brilliantly. Well done on those who avoided various pastries & chocolates!

Despite my good intentions I didn't quite stick to plan yesterday! There was far too much alcohol not all of which was vodka & soda as I intended. & then someone ordered chips & my will power escaped me. I won't even tell you what I had for breakfast this morning in my hungover state!

My mum cooked a brilliant low carb lunch for us all this afternoon though so am back on track.

I'm feeling a bit of an idiot today as well, while dicking about with DH I tried to kick him in the bum. Except my other foot slipped & I went strait over backward, smacked my head & my bum. Saw stars, made my ears ring & was very dizzy. Then today I can barely move my neck. So mild concussion, bruised bum & whiplash. Think I got a bit too carried away with the extra energy!

I had planned to start 30 day shred again this week but that's out the window now!

Sorry for epic post!

That prawn dish looks lovely and fresh hesdeadjim - I'd forgotten about prawns, will have to add some to the shopping list.

I spent the afternoon preparing food for the week ahead and also tonight's dinner (bolognese made with mince and finely chopped mushrooms, celery, leek, courgette, garlic and homemade chicken stock, plus a carton of tomatoes).
By the time it was ready, and I'd had a few small spoonfuls along the way to check the seasoning, I realised I actually wasn't all that hungry any more. So I just had salad instead and was perfectly satisfied (there's a sentence I never thought I'd write)

Sounds sore myshinything.

Sort of ok day.

B. Eggs, bacon and mushrooms fried in.butter.
L. Avocado and feta salad.
D. Duck breast and brocolli.

All going well until I stood at the fridge eating Rocky Road from the.baking tray .

But I have not had any alcohol this weekend which is unheard of. So not all bad.

Myshinything people think I'm virtuous at work avoiding chocolate and pastry, but it's more down to lactose intolerance and general fodmaps issues. Realised of course that's why my body likes lc.

Urgh I've had to come to bed, I feel awful

Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow brighter, convinced this is carb flu and it sucks :( ah well, more motivation to stick to it and not kick myself back out of ketosis I suppose, don't want to go through this again!!

Not bad today:

Breakfast - scrambled eggs and smoked salmon

Lunch - tuna mayo and carrot and spinach

Snack: small bit of cheese

Dinner- salmon, cauliflower rice, corgette and mushroom

Dessert ff yoghurt with cream

Feel pretty rough though and thirsty all the time
BIWi when does the carb flu lift?

Someone above asked about cocoa powder. Just had a look at the details on my "tin". 19 g carb per 100g, of which 0.5 g sugars. However, since the suggested serving size is 4 g (I guess a level teaspoon? or less? I use 1/2 to 2/3 tspn when making hot chocolate for my kids) - there's not going to be much carb in 4 g!

I opened a tub of plain unsweetened soya yoghurt this morning. Didn't get along with it particularly, but having tasted a bit of cocoa from an empty tub I was rinsing out, I'm going to try making a paste with cocoa and boiling water (really develops the flavour), then mixing a little of that with the yoghurt. Could be delish ...

BIWI how do you get your crackling like that!? I made roast pork tonight and mine was now where near that good. I put it in the oven to make pork scratchings

I feel like utter death today, I have a horrible cold and ache from over doing it at the gym yesterday.
B: mushroom &a leek egg muffin
L: salmon with hollandaise and broccoli
D: tiniest portion of cottage pie with Swede mash and kale.

I have no appetite and I don't know if that's because BC is working its magic or if I'm too ill to find food appealing. Could have quite contentedly gone without dinner. I have been terrible with water today and have only managed 1.5L out of the 3.5L I should drink. If the scales aren't in my favour tomorrow I intend to blame it entirely on this.
I will try and manage another glass or two before bed but I don't want to be up in the night every hour.

This weekend has taught me that weekdays at work are far easier to manage in terms of water consumption.

And tisk at all the talk of ganache, I'm still in week one so can't have don't trust myself to have chocolate yet!

Very much looking forward to making some with some added orange oil on BClight 🍫

3lb down in total this week - onwards & downwards!
I think with all the money I'm saving on not going out on a new mattress - this whole sleep thing is becoming one of my favourite things about this WOE, and I want a super comfy mattress to be doing it in, dagnamit!

This week, and for the next few weeks, I'm going to have to walk quite a bit, as there are roadworks that are going to bugger up the town going on over the school holidays. Hopefully the weight I've lost will mean that my feet don't cause me too many issues.

I just weighed myself and nearly passed out from the shock

I started this WOE on Friday to get a jump start on carb flu so in a grand total of 3 days I've lost...

8LBS.

WHAT. ON. EARTH.

I checked it 4 times.

I've gone from 18st 5lbs to 17st 11lbs in 3-freakin-days.

HOW!?!?!? I've eaten nothing but butter and had double cream in my protein shake for gods sake!!

6lb off! Quite pleased, although I had lost another two during week so have put those on again- I suspect cos I've missed my water targets for the last two days. Big focus on water today!

Almahart I make crackling by starting out with the skin dry - if the joint is in plastic then take it out the day before and pat the skin dry and leave it exposed to dry thoroughly. Before you start cooking sprinkle the skin with salt then just before you put the joint in give it another a sprinkle of salt and get it into the oven as fast as you can. The oven needs to be hot, around 230. The last minute sprinkling of salt draws water out of the fat and the hot oven boils it off to get the crackling really dry. After 20 minutes you can turn down the heat. If it still isn't crackly enough for you then you can give it another blast of heat at the end of the cooking time.

5lbs lost

I'm very happy with that. I've really struggled with the water target and haven't met it once. I do try but I can feel it sloshing around inside

Off to a theme park today with a backpack full of chicken salad and a thermos of coffee.

Go week 2!

Well done jim

See, we told you that this WOE works! That's a fantastic loss

Well done everyone especially Jim that is incredible.
I've lost 3lbs which I'm pleased with, as I said earlier I never get amazing results in the first week even on lc it's usually only 1lb or 2 so that's good for me.
Aim for the week is to keep on the wagon and try harder with the water.
No signs of carb flu but definitely disturbed sleep which is uncommon for me and frustrating but at least I'm not nodding off while reading bedtime stories now