Week 8 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - two months almost done ...

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness once more

So the finish line is almost in sight. I see from the last thread that some of you have been struggling to stay on track - just three more weeks to go, so stay focused.

That 'it's only one piece of bread/one glass of beer' moment really isn't worth it. Been there, got the t-shirt.

If you're bored with the food - there are two things that could help you. Firstly, think back to the last time you were doing a low calorie/low fat diet - how awful was it to have to scavenge the shelves looking for something low calorie enough, and how often were you eating food that didn't actually taste that nice, but delivered only on the basis of being low calorie? Rice cakes that might as well be polystyrene ceiling tiles, for example!

And then go and read the recipe thread for some inspiration, and find something new to cook. There's nothing on there that's difficult to do.

I'd also say that I see a lot of you are trying to recreate things that are high carb - pizza or bread, for example. These things are very unlikely to be the same, or as nice, as the high carb versions. And all the time you're trying to recreate something you're missing, you're just reminding yourself that you're missing something!

So try not to do this, but focus on things that are beautifully low carb and that you can enjoy for their own taste and benefits.

Here's to a successful week for us all.

Delftblue love the new name and pleased you are feeling more positive, it's a pleasure wading through your posts so keep talking please.

Time I like to give the bunnies stuff to keep them occupied, veg wrapped in paper or stuffed inside cardboard toilet roll tubes, but stuff on string is definitely their favourite. Carrot and sprout bunting actually looks really on trend

I'm happy to report that Spug is doing really well he's started chirping and is now opening his beak when I uncover his box. He's able to fly a little bit so was probably out of the nest preparing to fledge when Elsa the pervert bird murderer caught him. I don't actually know how to sex a sparrow so I've decided it's a he but if I've given him gender confusion I'm happy to pay for therapy.

I've weighed this morning but strangely haven't lost any weight - last day of antibiotics today so expecting the water retention to improve. My output is definitely lower than my input in terms of water.

Off to the kitchen and then hospital.

C4 - I love the idea of the bunting, I may have to try that myself. I'm starting to have thoughts about Christmas decorations..... At the moment their run is full of hanging baskets which are most definitely out of their reach (though I think there are berries in a few which should fall into their run eventually), but I'm sure edible Christmas decorations would work at the end of the year. Let me know if you have any ideas!

And yes, bored bunnies are destructive bunnies. I moved all the 'furniture' in their run around last weekend, so hopefully that held their interest (for about 10 secs, at least!). At least with 5 of them there's always someone to play with or annoy, plus there are hens around their pen and the cat to keep an eye on. But it's always good to add something extra. Which reminds me, I really should fill their treat balls with food and see what they make of them. And I kept some wrapping paper tube innards from Christmas which I keep meaning to stuff and let them destroy. A plan for the weekend, methinks!

Glad Spug is improving! Has Elsa realised you've got him safetly hidden away yet?

Hey Delft - Sounds like you're having the shitty end of the shitty stick of a time of it. Hope you get the accomodation sorted soon.. Very stressful. Home should be a haven and restful. Not a source of more angst. Are you registered disabled? Can you talk to your GP about it if not? You could get an allowance for some help... (apologies if this is simplistic/preaching to the choir or something you already do). My mum has parkinsons so she uses her attendance allowance for a cleaner and a gardener and occasional taxi's.

Just found myself googling pressure cookers.... I AM NOT ALLOWED MORE KITCHEN GADGETS! And that is THAT.

C4 - We need more Spug pics please. Glad he's doing well.

L238 - we had goats cheese, pepperoni and a bit of sundried toms on ours. But rocket would be nice, chorizo, sausage, any cheese, oooooh how about spinach and ricotta.... (((drools)))

anyway - Just to clarify, I didn't eat Clerics last night, but celeriac... stupid fat fingers phone...

Today

B - sausages and bacon
l - leftover dinner
D - Steak, Halloumi Fries, mushrooms
S - cheese, cucumber...

KOKO #Namastebitches

PS: had a bit of a headache this morning (very unlike me) and feel a little not quite with it although the headache has eased. Drinking water like billyo...

I have been shopping for a posh frock for a wedding next week.
Opinions please. I am worried about my arms.

dust/delft so good to hear you being more positive! Here's to koko ing right back to it. I'll pm you

With these?

Gorgeous moist. Arms look fine to me. If it bothers you then get a little floaty jacket or shrug. In silver to match the shoes!

Moist, you lo gorgeous. The way you talk about yourself I had a very different picture in my mind. You look fab.

8 minutes Heman!? I need that chilli recipe. Cooking is a battle in this household so I need to find some recipes I can make up in advance and dump straight in from the freezer.

Cherries I got the 8 litre Instant Pot because I'm greedy I have a big family.

You look lovely in the dress MOIST.

Wow Moist you rock that dress! And I love the shoes too. No idea what you are on about re your arms, they look great.

Moist - why are you worried about your arms - do they make innapropriate gestures or slap people ((( deliberately misses point for JOKES sake )))

You look GAWGUS. and those shoes are fab. How about a shawl/wrap to go with the shoes and you can a)keep warm if its not and B cover up if you're not so confident. I don't think you have anything to worry about though... :)

Time your bunnies sound as spoilt as mine

More Spug pics this afternoon

Moist dress is gorgeous all you need is a lightweight scarf/pashmina to drape over your arms.

Didn't want to be a toasty twat so had some courgette, mushrooms, halloumi fried in butter with some grilled streaky bacon and an egg. Forced it down with a creamy coffee. It stayed down for exactly 30 minutes and then came back up in a massive projectile vomit while waiting to have my finger looked at in A&E. I got seen immediately and nice radiographer was happy to do my chest X-ray at the same time. Waiting for a doctor who looks about 12 to put it back in.

@MOIST you look lovely in that dress, and I can't see any problem with your arms!

Ah you lot are so bloody nice.
I have ordered the shoes!

And will look for a shawly pashmina thing.

C4 - That's one way to be seen quickly, I suppose!!!!! Hope everything's ok and that you manage to eat something else soon (and keep it down).

Don't think my rabbits would agree they're spoilt - they're down to one meal a day in an effort to keep flystrike at bay (plenty of hay, but that's not the same, apparently) and their new pen is keeping them well and truly in one place, so no opporchancity to go running around the garden. Poor dears! And the guineas would tell you that only receiving two bowls of fresh fruit and veg a day is 22 bowls too few, and hope you'll be on the phone to the SSPCA to complain on their behalf.....

Anyway, hugs to you. Hope you're back home soon. x

MOIST. You look lovely.

time. My piggies are the same, there's never enough food! Yesterday I forgot to put the fresh food in the indoor cage before bringing them back inside for the night. One of them was weeking like he was totally distraught and absolutely starving as the fresh food wasn't there ( he had food and grass outside!). I love the greedy little buggers so much!

ASD what do you mean like he was totally distraught and absolutely starving - he WAS totally distraught and absolutely starving! There was NO FRESH FOOD!!! What was he meant to eat, air??? (Just because he HAD been munching grass all day doesn't count NOW!)

I had three boys before these girls and one was quite ill with an ear infection when he was a baby, and was never the same since - hyperactive and wobbly. Of course, he outlived his brothers, and, being the way he was, it wouldn't have been fair on either of them to get another guinea so he lived in my room on his own. If he heard me go into the room he'd run out of his box wheeking, so I'd often creep around the place. He was really clever, and would run over to his empty bowl, put his front paws on it and nod his head, to show me there was nothing there.

One day I'd managed to sneak a baby sweetcorn in without his knowledge. He came running out before I got to the door and wheeked at me whilst doing his "my bowl is empty" routine. But, of course, it wasn't, and I pointed out the corn to him. The wee beggar picked up the corn, dropped it on the floor, and then went back to pointing out his empty bowl!!!!! Cheeky wee lad!

You look amazing MOIST. The shoes are gorgeous too. Your arms are lovely. Mine are like Christmas hams .

I love piggies. I miss ours . Such cute little cob shaped bundles of loveliness .

I'm off to the dentist in a bit to have my tooth sawn off. I'm a bit wobbly with fright .

BIWI when I was in my teens I had a stomach ulcer. i knew i had a stomach ulcer but the doctor said no i didn't. i continued to go back over and over again but I was told that I was making it up or it was in my head. My mother made a list of how little I ate and was referred on to a psychiatrist for eating disorders. Apparently the pain I was feeling was in my head and my head was punishing me for eating.

3 years later i had a stand up argument with my doctor about sending me for a Barium Meal test. it ended with him agreeing to send me so he could prove to me that it was all in my head and that i really needed psychiatric help.

Within hours of having the test i was called in to say my stomach resembled a string bag as all my stomach was just one ulcer after another. given the removal of one ulcer was only 60% survival rate at the time (I don't think it is much better nowadays if you go down the surgery route.) i was given 6 weeks. I was 14.
However i could become a guinea pig for a new drug. it was the foullest stuff I have ever tasted. When you opened the bottle you had to hold it at arms length or it would sting your eyes. i was given a small bottle which i had to pour the medicine into and top up with water. and drink 20 minutes before eating anything, it coated the stomach so you could eat without aggravating the ulcers. It was a life saver.

I tend to diagnose myself as doctors haven't a clue. You seem to have to fight for any type of diagnosis. Dp is paying the ultimate price because the doctors he saw several times each refused to send him for any test for bowel cancer despite him exhibiting all the symptoms and having had his father die of it. Finally diagnosed in A&E when he had got to the stage he hadn't got the strength to hold himself upright.

I have not had a formal diagnosis of having an allergy to wheat or dairy only I know it I eat either I end up with my neck going red and itching like crazy within about 15/20 minutes or eating anything. I went to the doctors yesterday to find out about having some form of allergy test and the doctor I saw said none existed. Now I know there is and I am sure you know there is but trying to get this woman to admit to it is something else. i am now looking on line to go private.
The previous doctor I saw said that wheat and dairy wouldn't cause skin irritation and if I was going to try proving that wheat and dairy was a problem I should go 2 weeks without wheat then 2 weeks with out dairy then 2 weeks without eggs. i had already had a fortnight without wheat and within 10 days of cutting dairy out of my diet my scalp and skin were clear. I suddenly found myself going to itch my head then finding there was nothing to itch. I had a lifetime of itching my neck head back and face to stop.

I could never go back to eating meat in any shape or form. Firstly I am not a fan of meat and secondly i used to get stomah ache and indigestion after eating it. I gave up eating meat over 35 years ago

Yes time, he hadn't had any food in the two minutes it took to transfer him between cages - he was starving! He's such a big cry baby, the other one likes to play it a bit cooler. Lol at your boy and the corn, they have big personalities for such little creatures.

I would love to say that I can't believe your GP told you there was no test for food allergies or that they couldn't cause skin irritation. Unfortunate having run the food allergy gauntlet with DS3 and DS4 I can easily believe the ignorance of the average GP about allergies. I was written off as being a mad mother with Muchausens by Proxy for insisting that DS4 was allergic to dairy and eggs even though his skin tests were negative. I was informed that non-IgE allergic reactions were vanishingly uncommon so there was no way he could have them. It was also remarked upon that I was unnecessarily still breastfeeding my six month old baby - I'm clearly an awful parent.
I dread to think how many children have to live with unpleasant symptoms of allergies because their parents believed the doctor.

olivers. That's awful, I recently had blood and stool samples tested for intolerances so of course it can be done!

I was looking though my photos and finally found a full body length of me at my heaviest - so here is a photo pre bootcamp and 5 st later (excuse the was on floor )

I hear you stunt and oliver. Doctors can be so ill-informed it's dangerous. Allergies can EXACTLY cause skin problems as well as digestive ones. A well informed doctor of my DC who runs the hospital paeds allergy clinic told me that basically the skin inside your guts is not dissimilar to that outside your body. So if one is affected by an allergen then chances are the other will be too. It makes sense. That's how you can do a simple test for allergies by rubbing milk, egg or whatever on your skin first. It is non invasive.

I had the equivalent to cradle cap running in my scalp, neck, ears, face and down my back for my whole life. All doctors seem to want to do is get me to spend £xx each month on prescriptions for hydrocortisone cream and Betnovate which gives me clear skin for a few hours.

I do wonder if I have an allergy to something that is keeping me from losing weight.
If I hear about calories in and calories out again I will go bananas.

Wednesday I had 2 cups of coffee made with soya milk and 2 tspns xylitol and some strawberries, plain.

Yesterday I had a sandwich, made up of 2 rounds of wheat free bread 2 hardboiled eggs and some mayo and a cup of coffee.

Weight gain since Monday .5lb

I am feeling really down about my weight. I can't see an end to it. It is not as if I am feeling particularly hungry.

I know it is something to do with something I eat as when we go on holiday to the US the weight melts off me with absolutely no thought. I am eating Breakfast Lunch and Dinner with pudding. i drink cola all day (the full sugar type) and have the odd lolly. I can lose 1/2 stone in 2 weeks without trying. I don't eat their bread, it tastes too much like cake and the dairy but I don't eat those things at home anyway