Week 3 – Keep celebrating the scale and non-scale victories!

[BerylStreep]

Hello Bootcampers and welcome to week 3. Thanks so much to PrettyBird for the previous threads – I hope I can live up to the high standards this week.

Hopefully this WOE (way of eating) is starting to feel easier for you, and you will have seen some good losses in weeks 1 & 2. The exciting thing about week three, is that for those who want to, we can tentatively move into Bootcamp Light.

The key changes are that you can add in some carbier vegetables in moderation, although it is best to stick to those that are 3g carbs per 100g or less for the majority of your vegetable intake. You can add some fruit in the form of berries in moderation, have nuts and seeds in moderation, and can have some alcohol – you guessed it – IN MODERATION. Vodka and soda, dry white wine, or red wine are the best choices. The rules for Bootcamp and Bootcamp Light, along with fruit, veg & nut carb counters are in the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness, kindly organised by SayrraT.

The good thing about Bootcamp Light is that it opens up your menu choices, and hopefully feels sustainable for a lot of people. However don’t be tempted to view this as a free for all – if you suddenly start eating loads of roasted butternut squash, followed by bowlfuls of berries all washed down with a bottle of Prosecco and packet of almonds, it will stall you.

Lots of people find that sticking to Bootcamp during the week, and Bootcamp Light for the weekend works well for them. Others find that they need to stick to Bootcamp in the main, either because their metabolisms can’t cope with the extra carbs (me) or because psychologically they are in the ‘abstainer’ camp (also me) rather than the ‘moderation’ camp. Just do whatever works for you.

Some people find they stall in Weeks 3 and 4, and the initial whooshes of weeks 1 and 2 can quickly become distant memories. Just KOKO (keep on keeping on), celebrate non-scale victories, drink plenty of water, and trust that this will work. Weight loss isn’t always linear, and there are loads of posters on here who have had amazing losses over the last year who are testament that this works in the long term.

So after what feels like an epic OP , good luck on the scale and non-scale victories this week!

whokmows the thing that really helps me (I have fussy dc too) is always cooking more than I need so that i have something in the freezer I can microwave. I relIed on fatty meat and green veg on my first bc and found it really hard.

I find sour cream and coconut milk good ways of cooking with fat that don’t feel greasy

Wanted to emotionally eat last night so had a treat of berries cream and almond butter all mushed up. Bit carby but still bc lite. Avoided temptation of wine after v difficult evening with dc (one of mine has asd too)

Morning everyone, checking in with meals for yesterday

D - hot chicken wings at an American style diner
L - Mexican salad of pork belly, cheese, salsa, avocado, green peppers
S- a handful of raspberries

Far too many milky teas though - I've got a horrendous sore throat and I suppose it's better than falling into a lack of biscuits but frustrating as I'm stalling and it's only the second week for me so I was hoping for more whooshing. The good news is i know what I need to do to to tackle it, and although I'm ill, I feel a lot better about doing something that is keeping my weight going down however slowly, rather than up rather quickly!

Black I'm pleased to hear your son is feeling better

A bowl of spinach for me this morning, yes, me the person who about two weeks ago would have vomited at the thought of it. I did have a couple of bits of blue cheese chucked in & then had some Total
too which rather undermined today's intention of not much dairy. Plan is to have smoked salmon & avocado for lunch and then duck for supper.

Well fasting blood sugar is 5.8. Also consistent with pre diabetes. Need to get on with low carbing!
(I'm going to get my GP to do a HBa1c to make sure I'm not actually diabetic)
I've been reading the research this morning, now is the time for lifestyle interventions!

Headoutofthesand my favourite breakfast is spinach, egg and cheese done in the microwave on low power. In fact I'm just about to make some.

I do a lot of batch cooking in advance, and have lots of rectangular glass dishes of loveliness all stacked up and waiting in the fridge. I find it also really helps with the issue of having 4 people in the house who have different tastes fussy eaters. It means it is easy to just reheat a portion of whatever individual people want.

I am dying to make the fathead pizza, but I have loads of dishes already made, so it will probably be the weekend before I make it.

GrandOldDukeOfPorkiness that's a great victory!

BadlyParkedRangeRover. There’s something called the dawn phenomenon where your glucose is higher in the mornings- this is what I found as after food mine were actually a very good level.

Morning everyone, I'm so impressed with all who have to deal with fussy eating DCs and DHs- I feel very lucky that it's just me and DP and he will eat anything (except tuna weirdly but I'll let him off!). It must be so difficult to plan numerous meals but sounds like you all have ways of doing it.

Had celebration dinner last night of fillet steak and creamy mushroom sauce with broc. I did have two glasses of champagne and some oppo ice cream, as well as some incredible Brie with truffle. Can honestly say no cake could compare to that!

Craving freshness today after all the rich food so planning roast chicken with a big salad for supper.

When I went shopping last week I discovered that Bare Naked have launched a spaghetti product, to complement their range of noodles and rice.

They're very slightly more carby, but seemed OK. Not sure quite how different they are from the noodles - they're slightly yellower, so they do look a bit more like spaghetti! But they made a very acceptable 'pasta' lunch yesterday.

ASD I also did an unofficial GTT yesterday. It was also consistent with impaired glucose tolerance. I had gestational diabetes with pretty high insulin requirements so I knew it was likely at some point! I found my response to carbs was much worse in the mornings too when I had GDM.

Just popping on with the last 2 days food as been busy with work before I go back and catch up with the thread (I've bookmarked at 9pm on Wednesday so have a lot to catch up on!)

Wednesday
B - 2 babybel, cheese cabanos sausage
L - sandwich fillings picked out from work lunch, added olives and sausage I brought myself
D - ham 'carbonara' Made with courgetti, egg yolk and parmesan
S - more babybel
W - 3L plus drinks.
Gosh that looks like a lot of babybel and sausage and no veg...

Yesterday
B - tea and soya milk, creamy coffee
L - LC sausages, 2 eggs
D - 2 eggs, with mozzarella melted in the pan
S - babybel, sausage, broccoli (kids refused to eat it with their tea)
W - 2L plus 1L fruit tea

Right, off to catch up with the thread you chatty lot

I haven't posted for the past week or so as I decided, that due to my thyroid condition, I would just do a light version of bootcamp...and didn't want to put others off. But, I'm still plodding on - have lost 4.5 lbs and and my clothes are feeling looser!
I can totally empathise with those of you who have fussy children - my son is terribly fussy and it's the absolute bane of my life! I'm finding that I can adapt a few meals to suit us all; a couple of times a week I just make my DH and DS something different and I have something quick like scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (that's what I'm doing today as they want pasta); and a couple of times a week I end up relaxing the rules a little. One meal that has been a hit is cottage pie with celeriac puree topping, which we all think is far nicer than with mashed potato!

Alma - ww nearly always end up with more than we need as usually only 2 or 3 people like a particular meal and we cook for 4. So leftovers do get kept but then quite often the person who did like it doesn't want it again the same week and they tend to get lost if they go in the freezer. I am trying to improve my freezer habits though and get more organised. I've never been one for batch cooking, a lot of what we eat isn't really suitable (stirfries, pasta etc) but I do batch make tomato pasta sauce which is useful for lots of things. It's also finding time, I don't mind doubling up on something I am cooking already but I don't have much free time to cook specifically for later in the week. I counted recently and between the 4 of us as well as work and school we go to 17 different sports and activities a week in term time.

I'm glad it's not just me with fussy children, it makes it more bearable knowing others have the same issues.

ASD that’s amazing- we’ll done! Prettybird - love your black dress.

I have been eating more fat so feeling a bit better with KOKO

NSV went to the cinema with friends - has a couple of sips of Prosecco before “losing” my glass and took some 85% chocolate and had a couple of squares of that - before would have probably had a couple of glasses, popcorn & Maltesers

Made a lovely creamy tikka masala yesterday as I thought I could have some for lunch but my family finished it all 😡. Got celeriac chips cooking instead

Any ideas what I can do with some casserole steak? I've had some in the freezer for ages, as DP doesn't like red meat, but he's away this weekend so I have a perfect opportunity to make something with it. The problem is, my usual casserole would include potatoes, carrots etc. Any ideas?

Oh, and I've finally given in and added celeriac to this week's order. I'm dubious, as I hate celery, but I'll give it a shot.

Time how about a stew with olives, crushed tomatoes, olives and silverskin pickled pearl onions? The Jamie Oliver 5 ingredient book does one with lamb and those 5 ingredients and it's delicious. I've made it with beef as well and it's really good.

Time what about slow cooked curry with cauliflower rice?

Thanks, Mimosa, that sounds perfect! Now I've just got to remember to get the beef out tonight!

Beryl - that's tempting too...

TimeIHadANameChange - I hate celery too - both raw and cooked unless it has been pulverised so small in a soffrito that you can't taste the individual bits - but I love celeriac

Feeling great this week, hoping to have a good loss before I start stalling at that TOTM

I made a lovely snack I wanted to share. A whole courgette finely sliced, drizzled in olive oil, rock salt, lake pepper, then just a few minutes under the grill. If you slice v finely then you don't need to grill both sides.
You can also fry it.
Then pop in a plate and grate Parmesan on top. If you can't tolerate too much dairy then this is quite good as you don't need much and Parmesan has a strong flavour or like me you can pile it on

Feeling great this week, hoping to have a good loss before I start stalling at that TOTM

I made a lovely snack I wanted to share. A whole courgette finely sliced, drizzled in olive oil, rock salt, lake pepper, then just a few minutes under the grill. If you slice v finely then you don't need to grill both sides.
You can also fry it.
Then pop in a plate and grate Parmesan on top. If you can't tolerate too much dairy then this is quite good as you don't need much and Parmesan has a strong flavour or like me you can pile it on

Oops sorry it kept telling me it wouldn't post!

*black pepper