Week 3 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - we move on to Bootcamp Light!

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness once more

I hope that the scales reflect the efforts you've made over the last, strict apart from the cheating fortnight.

Now you have a choice. You can either move on to Bootcamp Light, which allows a bit of fruit (berries mainly), for you to include nuts/seeds - again, occasionally, and also a moderate amount of alcohol. Rules for Bootcamp Light are on the spreadsheet, but to make it even easier for you here they are:

1. Eat when you’re hungry - if you’re not hungry, don’t eat

In Bootcamp, you should have been eating three meals a day. The point of this being to ensure that you got used to eating proper meals, and so that your blood sugar is regulated and stable. Having achieved that, you can now relax this a little bit. If you find you’re not hungry - which often happens, because ketosis suppresses your appetite - then don’t force yourself to eat. But don’t let yourself get so hungry that you make inappropriate choices! Always make sure you have plenty of low carb food to access quickly, if you need to.

2. Avoid processed food

Focus on pure, natural protein as the basis for your meals – meat/fish/eggs.

You may include processed meats like bacon or (low carb) sausages, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, gammon - but please don’t have these at every meal or every day. As well as being highly processed they often contain undesirable ingredients, can add unnecessary extra carbs into your diet, and often include sugar.

3. Eat lots of fat

Eating fat helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer. Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though, as this is too sweet and has too many carbs), add mayonnaise where you can (just check the carb count on your mayo first). Eat fattier cuts of meat – e.g. pork belly, roast chicken with the skin on and/or eat the fat off your lamb chops. Absolutely no low fat/light foods of any kind

4. Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food

This is where the bulk of your carbs should come from, and this is non-negotiable. But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list. You don’t have to weigh/count carbs – this is one of the great joys of this WOE (way of eating), but if you’re new to low carbing it can be helpful to weigh your portions of veg in the early days, just so that you know how many carbs are in the sort of portions that you like to eat.
Beware that some of the veg on the allowed list can be surprisingly high in carbs once you make up a portion of it – this is because they are denser, and therefore you tend to use more – compare, for example, 100g of onion with 100g lettuce! Keep your focus on those veg which contain 3g carbs per 100g and use these as the focus of your meals. Use those over 3g per 100g sparingly.

5. You may eat some dairy

"You should aim to include plenty of butter on this WOE. Fry with it and add it to your vegetables. And if you know that dairy doesn’t impede your weight loss you may eat cheese, but don't overdo it. Full fat yoghurt is the best way to include dairy in your diet - but beware, it does contain carbs. Total Full Fat is the best.

If you’ve been cutting out tea/coffee, you can re-introduce this – but just be careful how much milk you end up drinking. You can end up adding a lot of extra carbs this way.

6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day

Even if you’re drinking more tea/coffee than in Bootcamp, this is still a non-negotiable part of this WOE. And the more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink. Water helps to flush out the ketones that your body will product – so flushing out the fat. However, drinking this amount of water can affect your electrolyte balance; you need to make sure that you get plenty of sodium and potassium. There is less need to worry about restricting salt if you’re eating a low carb diet. Good sources of potassium are salmon and avocado. You could also consider supplements if you have an issue with this.

7. You may drink some alcohol

But restrict this to once or twice a week max. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine. Absolutely no beer/lager, cider, liqueurs, cocktails or full sugar mixers. You can drink spirits with artificial sweeteners, but bear in mind that we are attempting to avoid all things artificial!

Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for your body, and it will use this over and above anything else that is available to it. Therefore, even if you’re following the diet absolutely to the letter, including alcohol can prevent weight loss.

8. You may eat some fruit

"Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and rhubarb are all fine. But please – only once a day at the very most, and keep an eye on your portion sizes. Just for information – these are the carb counts:
Rhubarb – 0.8g carbs per 100g (but don’t forget you will need to sweeten this – and not with sugar!)
Blackberries – 4.4g carbs per 100g
Raspberries – 4.6g carbs per 100g
Strawberries – 6g carbs per 100g
Blueberries - 6.4g carbs per 100g (although this is a bit controversial - I have had differing carb counts from various sources - some saying as much as 12g carbs per 100g)

9. You may eat some nuts/seeds

Nuts/seeds can make a good snack. BUT it is incredibly easy to overdo it, and you can end up eating your bodyweight in carbs. As an occasional snack they are great, but keep it occasional and keep the portions to a small handful at most.

Macadamias are not only luscious, but they are very low in carbs.

Here are some carb counts – BUT – check the back of your packets as I don’t know if these are for raw or roasted nuts:
Brazils 3.1g carbs per 100g
Walnuts 3.3g carbs per 100g
Pistachios 4.6g carbs per 100g
Macadamias 4.8g carbs per 100g
Hazelnuts 4.8g carbs per 100g
Pecans 5.8g carbs per 100g
Almonds 6.9g carbs per 100g
Peanuts 7.1 g carbs per 100g
Cashews 18.1g carbs per 100g

10. Avoid artificial sweeteners

The aim of Bootcamp was to help reduce the stranglehold that sugar has on us – and to curb your sweet tooth. But it does make some things difficult, e.g. desserts at a dinner party, and it is undeniable that it can be enjoyable – occasionally – to eat something sweet. However, restrict such goodies. For some people, artificial sweeteners can impede weight loss.

I'm still a bit gobsmacked at the difference in taste between bacon, egg, mushroom fried in butter, and 'lean' bacon, and a dry fried egg at what I missed and at deliciousness.

Are sweeteners allowed on BCL?

Just wondering if this chocolate is ok? It contains stevia which is a nutural sweetener, isn't it?

www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Carbzone-Low-Carb-Dark-chocolate-Hazelnut/248834011?from=trolley&parentContainer=BASKET

Nowwhatsthis. That one is 30g carbs per 100g so still high carb. I eat this one sometimes www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Cavalier-Dark-Chocolate-Bar/71406011
It's still 18g per 100g so not great but hits the spot when I just need chocolate! Lindt 85% has 19g/100g so would probably be better if you don't want to eat artificial sweeteners but does contain sugar.

I realise I'm probably going to get told off for eating any chocolate as it's not allowed on Bootcamp!

Thanks BIWI
I am eating enough fat. It's 70-80% of my daily breakdown. I suspect I'm focusing on calories a bit too much, and worrying when that's over.
The food is good, I do miss carbs though, I've always had an awful sweet tooth, the carb cravings are getting better though. The snacking is probably habit, I'm thinking of some intermittent fasting to address this.
The food is typical ish. I've been having more yoghurt and double cream for breakfast usually. My water is generally OK, though when it's hot I think I need more than the 4 litres the spreadsheet says for my weight.
Lots of fat in breakfast (80g of butter )and the aubergine curry (the sauce is oil based). The cauliflower cheese will have lots of double cream as well!
I am generally a very inpatient person. It's a bad trait for weightloss.
I'm also going to try some exercise. I think the improved mood will be worth the potential increase in appetite. I've also started making a pile of goal clothes

I'm still halfway through week 1 as I joined late. Is it normal still to feel utterly exhausted at this point? I just feel like I've had no sleep, constantly - yesterday I nearly fell asleep in my lunch. I had started to feel better but I've gone downhill somehow - too many carbs recently? Not enough water? Something else? I am struggling to drink the recommended 2.5l, TBH (I can but the one day I managed it I had no appetite as I was full, & felt sick from all the water). Can Bovril, decaff coffee etc count in my water intake?

Now they are in small quantities, but I wouldn't bother with that chocolate, it's still pretty high carb at 31g/100g.
Look at Lindt chocolate:
70% dark choc has 34g/100g
85% has 19g/100g (my favourite, but difficult to get)
90% has 14g/100g (what i usually eat)
Once you have been LCing for a while, the higher cocoa content chocolate tastes sweeter, so 85/90% does taste lovely.

Thank you BIWI. Really appreciate it.

And thanks ASDismynormality . No Lidl within roughly 100 miles, but DP could pop in to one at the weekend for me. Do you know what their rolls are called, by any chance? If not I'll tell him he'll just have to read the ingredients! Thanks for the heads up, though, and about the sausages.

Food for today

B: yogurt with a few blackberries
L: avocado and blue cheese salad
D: sausages, green veg, cauliflower mash with cream peppercorn sauce

I am thinking of adding some vodka to my online shop. It's not really my usual tipple. I can't do gin - makes me maudlin. Any recommendations? How about flavoured voddy? I believe vodka has about 70cals per 30ml measure?

Lego- I'm on week two, sonalso behind, but this time last week I posted exactly what you have today. I was exhausted. Day 4 I slept for 12 hours

I'm back to normal now, though I struggle to balance salt/ water so still have headaches sometimes.

B- pate in lettuce leaves

L- pork scratchings (this has to stop- I've had pork scratchings for lunch three days in a row but I'm on site and we don't have a fridge and have Always had food altogether as a team - either greggs, chips, McDonald's, greasy spoon - standard builders dinners really. But not low carb. It's proving my biggest challenge. Any suggestions welcome.

D- mozzella stuffed pork meatballs, with salad and tomato / pepper sauce

Morning all!

Ive been out to vote this morning, so have ticked that off my to do list for the day (literally - I've started a bullet journal thingy, which I'm really enjoying using. It makes me feel all productive and organised!)

Food today:

B 2 x buttered ham and cheese roll ups
L left over pork belly and roast asparagus with mayo
D lemon and garlic marinated chicken thighs, roasted with skin on, with roasted green beans and some salad with olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing

I cooked the pork belly in a different way last night as DD1 has a late swimming lesson and I wanted to make sure I could have dinner fairly quickly after getting home, otherwise it all gets a bit late. I put them in the slow cooker rubbed in a bit of olive oil for 3.5 hours during the afternoon then bunged them in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes when I got home, to brown them. They were delicious! Absolutely melt in the mouth and turned them into an easy dinner.

Lego yes sounds like you have carb flu, very normal for your stage. Just keep on drinking water, eating fat and salt everything! A cup of bouillon is a good idea, or bovril. I take a magnesium citrate tablet too. Plus get in lots of avocado, salmon, Greek yoghurt, spinach etc as they all give you the electrolytes you need.

See if you can find ways to make the water more appealing to you, like keeping a jug in the fridge with chopped up cucumber, mint, lemons etc, so it is nicely flavoured. Or others have recommended infusing with a fruit tea bag.

@GoodBadOrIndifferent

In which case, definitely think about the electrolyte issue.

Sodium, magnesium, potassium.

Salt, Lo-Salt, salmon, avocado, spinach and full fat yoghurt are all good sources.

@Nowwhatsthis - read the rules! Look at the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

But for clarity, we aim to avoid artificial sweeteners as much as we can - partly because we're trying to eat good quality, natural foods but also because we're trying to break the hold that sweet things have over us. (And there is also some suggestion that the body responds to sweeteners like it does to sugar, so they are best avoided)

Chocolate, generally, is OK in small amounts, and if it's very high cocoa content. Your taste buds definitely do change on this WOE - if I have chocolate, I prefer Lindt 90% cocoa now - but I honestly couldn't have eaten it pre-low carbing!

I'm having a bit of a problem with eating--I have all the right foods in but no appetite. The last few days I've been managing dinner only, but mostly will have a babybel and maybe a few slices of salami throughout the day beforehand.

No problems drinking the water, and notnfeeling bad. Just can't be areas to cook (or even assemble!) meals for myself.

Can someone tell me if less food slows weight loss? Perhaps my body is retaining fat as it thinks I'm starving?

Particularly interested in science-y answers.

ClearEyesI don't have a science-y answer, but I'm rapidly losing interest in food as well. Have loads of nice things, love cooking, drinking plenty, not snacking etc, but my (previously enormous!) appetite has gone awol. I'm not sure if what I have left is in fact a 'normal' appetite, or if I should be concerned. I'm usually hungry for lunch (haven't had breakfast), but no appetite or interest in dinner.

Time. They are called high protein rolls and contain 8.5g carbs per 100g. I have attached a picture

Omg are those rolls allowed? Maybe every now and again! What are they made of?

For those not interested in food: Yo've lost your unnatural hunger cue. On a high carb diet, bodies recognise hunger as a drop in blood sugar. If you're on a low carb diet, your blood sugar never rises far and so doesnt drop after meals, hence you dont get that hunger feeling.

It's a good thing. A drop in blood sugar isnt naturqlly our cue to eat something, it's an emergency response. You should start to recognise hunger as a feeling of tiredness or a feeling of "i could eat something", not as "omg if i dont eat right now im going to eat my own legs"

I've been on this WOE since Feb 8th (4 months today!) and dont really experience hunger in the same way i used to, but I do still get peckish. It's not that bitey, almost painful hunger though it's more like a nudge from my brain that says "oi, about time you had some scran". I've learned not to ignore those nudges, but right at the beginning because i didnt have the bitey evil naw a leg off hunger, i used to genuinely not feel like eating and therefore didnt eat an awful lot because i hadn't learned that the "oi, eat something" nudge was actually what hunger feels like and that my previous feeling of hunger was a massive body overreaction to the drops in blood sugar. Because the nudge is less immediate feeling, it can be easy to ignore!

My hunger is definitely much less on this woe but i'm still always rather jealous of people who go off food and only want to eat 1x a day. I suspect i am just a bonafide greedy piggy.

Good day today. Eggs and bacon and some pork scratchings for breakfast. Chicken and veg and some butter for lunch.

I was going to weigh today to see wgat damage my saturday binge did. But have my period so not doing to do that to myself. I know it will automatically read as being a bit higher and i feel good right now. I don't want anything buggering that up. I'll weigh next week.

I have screenshotted this. I want to look like this. I want jeans and that top so much I'd sell my loved ones to be able to be able to wear them
I keep looking at the photo and it's so motivating. I will get there!!

By the way why is dehydrating placemtas a hobby? I need that one explained.

Well done BIWI sticking out your tough week. And yes week 1 exhaustion = carb flu. It passes.

Yes am still wondering what you use dehydrated placentas for - a kind of Hannibal Lectorish vitamin tonic or plant food??

Holy fuck.
I decided after about 3 years of no exercise to do level 1 of the 30 day shred. I can't move.
Please send butter, and double cream.

And bovril

Thanks, illvecherries, even without the science.

I think perhaps I'm feeling a bit low lately, somewhat anxious, and that might account for loss of appetite.

I'm not one to complain about lack of weight loss as I see this as a lifestyle and health change, and am a firm believer in low carbing (more like the evils of processed sugar).

Anyway, posting has made me rustle up a small mint lamb burger (plain), two hard-boiled eggs, and two Laughing Cow triangles. No beg, but I'll have a salad loaded with vegetables (and bacon and bleu cheese dressing) later this afternoon or at dinner time.

Onward and downward, etc...

Right, I've had a big old salad with halloumi, avocado and two fried eggs. Plus two cups of tea with almond milk (loving that stuff now) a creamy coffee and three large glasses of water.

I feel like a human being again.