Week 4 - Low Carb Bootcamp - Coming to the end of our first month

[BIWI]

I know! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for your delectation!

Remember, week 4 is, like week 3, a time when weight loss tends to be pretty slow, if not non-existent. KOKO and persevere, and things will get going again soon.

But not if you cheat! Whilst many of you have been very honest about your transgressions, just remember that this WOE is not a very forgiving one. It's not like a calorie-controlled diet, where you can compensate for one 'bad' day with a 'good' one. As some of you have already found out the hard way!

DP and I were talking about what the problem with MiL is and DP I think has it nailed. This next bit is going to sound really big headed but it's the only way i can explain what he thinks is going on

MiL is the odd one out in her family. SHe's one of 4 and her brothers and sisters are all working class, very proud of that but they all come from nothing and have very little.

MiL worked her way up through the NHS and takes great great pride in being "the clever one" who got off the housing estate they all live on if that makes sense. She has always been revered by everyone she socialises with as "above" them in some way and she takes great lengths to maintain her reputation as an authority on most if not all things. DP was the first person ever in their family to go to University and is the only one of his generation to have done so.

I, on the other hand come from a family where both my parents went to Uni, my Mum has 3 degrees, 2 masters degrees and a PhD in biochemistry and my Dad was a university lecturer for the bulk of his career. Both are from working class roots but couldnt be described that way now and I was certainly brought up in a firmly middle class household.

I have my mums brain in my head so I love science, numbers, data and facts and when I was 17 (when i met DP!) until I was about 21, I didnt understand that challenging MiL when she stated utter shite as fact wasn't the best idea. So our early relationship was rough. When she was wrong I'd tell her she's wrong and did that a few times during family games of trivial pursuit etc. As a result, I'm now known as the clever one to DP's family and MiL isn't asked for information anymore, I am. .. recently one of DP's cousins needed help on her uni course and she rang me, not MiL. According to FiL, MiL was upset about that.

Now I'm a lot more placid than i was back then and I can keep my mouth shut, but I think MiL does still feel threatened at times. The daft thing is, we're really really similar in personality and I really look up to her strength and determination, she's a force to be reckoned with.

I reckon her issue with the food thing is that this is just something else I'm doing well that she struggles with. It's another thing I disagree with her on and she's choosing to view it as "jim thinks she's always right".. and my results are showing now so it kinda proves that in this case, I AM right.

I think she therefore sees my success at the moment as a reflection of her failure to lose weight, so the "everyone noticed" comment was probably more aimed at herself and her own insecurities.

I'm not really sure how to fix it. DP says it's not my fault, I'm doing nothing wrong and I just need to leave it and let her get over it in time. I hope she does because I genuinely love her to bits!

Argh. Bloody nightmare!

shitty titters 1.5 stone in 3 weeks is amazing

cabbage I would rather feel my clothes getting looser than worry about the number on the scales. I have been there. koko

1.5 stones in three weeks is truly amazing - but obviously not sustainable!

It's hard. One of my biggest regrets is that I wasn't nicer to my MIL. I wasn't horrible, by any means, but I was probably overly keen on boundaries that with hindsight didn't matter that much. I wish now I'd just eased off her, and now she's gone I do miss her a lot. It's tough finding the balance between not letting yourself be walked over, and letting them have their way on things that really don't. Although autonomy about what goes in your mouth is definitely a hard boundary!

Style and Cabbage if you were to follow this way of eating perfectly, drink enough water and get plenty of sleep and exercise then there would still be weeks where your weight didn't change. If the scales drop or your waist shrinks that's a pretty sure sign that you've lost fat. If they don't then it's meaningless. A weight loss stall is usually defined as being at the same weight for four weeks or more. This is one reason why weighing monthly would be more helpful than weighing weekly. In addition, when you're losing weight over a period of months to years then extended stalls are typical. I think of the body as having several preferred weights where it's easier to balance input and output as energy. When you reach one of these points then you will stick at that weight for a while because your body likes being there. I was 65kg for years in my 20s and early 30s. When I got pregnant with DS4 my weight jumped from 58kg to 65kg in a matter of weeks. I lost the baby weight again but last year when I was having a real problem with postnatal depression my weight crept up again to 65kg. It seems that my body likes being 65kg!

Very nice Chester. Now I want to know which very expensive shop has a sale on.

Can anyone tell me the best way to reload my gut bacteria? I've had five different antibiotics over a period of four weeks and I'm wondering if this is the reason my weight has stalled. I've also put on inches around my waist so something isn't right.

Berry omelette and cream who'd have thought it. Sounds and looks just YUM

It's Mint Velvet Flummoxed. I am getting far too old for regular high street shops now and all their stuff is lovely quality. There's no shop near me though so have to order online. This is clearly a good thing...kind of!

Afternoon all, very quick check in from me, will be back properly later.

Quick q: how on earth do you remember who has said what? When some of you post messages you respond to a load of different people - I'm lucky if I can keep one or two things in my head!

Having that, I am at Jiminny's posts at the moment, superb.

Yesterday:
B: nothing, fasting
L: went to a steakhouse, had mozzarella salad for starter, steak and salad (with lots of garlicky oil) for main. Was going to have strawberries and cream for pud but they add sugar to the cream. Why?! Had a small glass of delicious Malbec as well.
D: courgetti carbonara and 2 small squares of dark chocolate.

Today
B: none, fasting.
L: bit of a rush, salami, olives, ham and cheese and some extra thick cream for pud
D: going to make a fathead pizza. Thinking of trying to stretch the tomato paste a bit further by mixing it with mascarpone before spreading on the base.

Have got a new fitness tracker/GPS tracker and took myself off for a 5k run this morning, which I really enjoyed. Worried I have overdone it though as my calf seems a bit twingy...

chester they had some lovely lightweight jackets in Mint Velvet when I looked at the beginning of summer. I keep waiting to see if they go down in price, then I might snap one up.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I definitely won't give up as I can see it's working for others and the food is fab! Had courgetti carbonara for the first time this lunch and I really wasn't expecting to like it very much and it was bloody gorgeous- there just wasn't very much of it as I'd underestimated how much it would reduce during cooking.

I will investigate Gillian Michaels then. I recall someone posting the other week after they'd done the video that it was the only timed they wished they lived in a bungalow!

Thanks all

jiminny. It's lovely to hear that you do love your MIL. Hopefully you can find around way this. My MIL is passive aggressive and will never talk openly about issues. Last weekend she wanted to come over so asked by texting me, I offered a time we were free which was in the morning. MIL then sent the reply via email to both DP and I - think she was hoping DP would offer a different time more suited to her or wanted to show I was being mean by not letting her choose the time!

BIWI & STYLE I can't miss carbs on Sunday as we have an afternoon tea planned. There is no way to avoid this as I am there with my mum. How long for me to get on track after this 😕

way of the world. I recently discovered that on the mobil app I can write a comment, not post, return to the thread, open it again to answer another question etc. Mind you usually by the time I've caught up and posted the questions been answered several times already

So the work friend who is dragging me to her gym tonight has been sending me gym related death threats via email all morning

I had a chat with her about it over lunch and there's a program at the gym called "transform". Apparently each of the trainers is able to take on 3 gym members per year to mentor for free. That means they take a special interest in your progress, do nutrition plans if you need it, personal training sessions and they'll come and work out with you at classes etc. It's basically personalised training on a sort of "giving back to the community" style program, and they tend to take on the very overweight or medically unfit. You can express interest in the program at reception, but if you're chosen and then quit you have to pay for all the PT sessions you've had up to that point, up to 10 sessions which would be max £500 . My work friend got chosen and in 6 months she's gone from 14st 11lbs down to 11st 10lbs and is incredibly toned. She looks incredible. She had just come out of a long term relationship when she joined the gym and was taken on because the trainer empathised with her situation and wanted to help her get her self esteem back.

Am I mad to be considering signing up for it??

Friend says I'm very likely to be chosen because of my weight and the fact I've got a clear goal (wedding), so if i do sign up I'll then have to do a PT session tonight with one of the trainers so they can assess me during the group class. I've been looking at the before and after photos of some of the alumni of the transform program and they are massively inspiring but I'm so worried about failing.

Help?

Do it Jim!

Go for it Jim. You are so focussed with such a lovely wedding goal.

Do it!! I'm suee it would be amazing.

C4 your quilt is beautiful. I have attempted a quilt but it's sitting half finished in a cupboard.

Jiminny that must have taken a lot of strength not to have just a bit of fish and chips and cheesecake. I find social situations very difficult. My head tells me i'm already different because of having a disability and being overweight and not joining in eating anything and everything means people will think i'm boring and not want to be friends with me. I think it is quite a big thing for me still to crack really.

Today i feel a bit of a whale. I feel cross with myself that the last month is pretty much wasted. None of my cheats were worth it at all. I would far far rather be sitting here half a stone lighter. So i'm sitting here feeling sad and cross. I know it's because of fopd addiction but how is it possible to want to be slim so badly and yet keep sabotaging oneself and eating crap? The pleasure from food lasts a good minute if that. It makes no logical sense.

Breakfast today was eggs and salad and monkey nuts
Lunch was thai fish curry with loads of cabbage plus a handful of pork scratchings
Supper will be haddock and salad and strawberries.
Might nibble some butter as a snack.

If I have time, sometimes I open MN in another window, and do what an earlier poster termed a 'super post'

But these threads are moving so fast that it's harder and harder to do that - plus the fact that every time I come back on to the thread someone has answered the one I was thinking about anyway!

I think this Bootcamp must be one of the biggest, and certainly the most active that we've had for a while. Usually by now it's dwindled down to a hardcore of only a few. It's really great to see how many people are sticking with it, even if there are challenges along the way

@JiminnyCricket - you should definitely go for it!!!

@littlebillie - if it's afternoon tea, with scones, sandwiches an cakes, then I can't really see any way around not enjoying yourself

However, I would suggest that for damage limitation you do the following:

Make sure you have a good, low carb breakfast - a fry up would be a good idea (but avoiding carby elements, so keep it focused on bacon, eggs and mushrooms)

Then also have a good, low carb lunch - keeping your carbs really low - possibly a cheese omelette?

This will mean that you shouldn't be hungry when you go for afternoon tea, so you can enjoy drinking your tea and being with your mum, but keeping the carby elements to a minimum, whilst also knowing that your carb intake for the earlier part of the day has been very low

And then make sure you're super strict for the next couple of days and, if you can/are able, do some extra exercise to use up the glycogen

jiminny go for it!

@Stuntnun - thank you thank you thank you!!!!!
You've just posted (about extended 'stalls') exactly the answer to something I've been fretting about. I seem to have been stuck at the same weight for ages, after nearly a year of low carb. It was all going so well, then - stuck! I've been diligently sticking to the rules, trying intermittent fasting, small plates, but seeing other people post of their 3 meals + snacks + alcohol and I'm beginning to feel really ! I'm guessing it's just a case of KOKO?

Jiminny go for it! Think of the wedding dress!

Forgive me bootcampers, for I have sinned. I ate a banana. We were at our friend's house and her son was having a banana, so DD2 asked for one, I peeled it & gave it to her, but she rejected it. Felt bad chucking it away somewhere else, my friend & her DH already had one. So I ate it. It was bloody lovely though. I won't be having my planned gin tonight as punishment.