Week 9 - Low Carb Bootcamp - the last fortnight is here

[BIWI]

Good morning all

I see from the end of last week's thread that some of us have been struggling with various demons.

We only have two weeks left, so time to gird your loins (however you do that!), and plough on.

Hopefully the snow has gone, or is disappearing rapidly, and that there's enough appropriate food in the shops. At least our problem is not being able to find what we want - I saw a very sad piece in the news yesterday about a dairy farmer, who was having to throw all his milk away, because the tanker couldn't get to his farm to collect it. So days' worth of money for him gone

Anyway, here's the lovely new thread, and with the fantastic Spreadsheet of Fabulousness.

Good luck this week. Stick with it and keep the focus.

Back at 147 after my triumphant mid week 145

Totally my fault though. Basically willpower goes out if the window after a glass of wine. Therefore need to cut out wine

Chucked out the not very nice chocolate I’d been eating too

Breakfast was bacon and scrambled eggs

Another one up for an interim thread after boot camp finishes, it will keep me on track.

I'm 7lbs down from original start weight which is great. The downside is I'm so constipated, I feel ill :( and think I look a bit ill too, my eyes have dark circles, when I first started I looked and felt quite healthy.

I drink 2.5-3 litres of water everyday (right for my weight of 142lbs, more if exercising). I've introduced oils to my lunchtime salads, introduced Brazil nuts over the last week, reduced dairy, I've tried movicol and still not had a good bowel movement for nearly 2 weeks. I've been going but only little hard pebbles (sorry!) My stomach is so uncomfortable now.

So not feeling brilliant really

It's weird some folks get constipated on this diet, I get the opposite, regular as clockwork. Are you eating vegetables, I notice you say you've introduced lunch time salads. What's your typical daily diet?

On a side note, as we are over sharing, my bras all fit me again. Which is actually a bit of a result....

Venus, you could try a nice, long walk? Occasionally I find I'm a bit stuck, and a morning's walk in the fells tends to get things moving in the abdomen. remind me never to tell you about the time in Scotland on a three-day ridge walk where I had to poo the last few weeks' food out behind every single summit, my how my companion thought it was hilarious

In the spirit of oversharing, Bluntness, I too am delighted to be fitting into my old bras (mostly), because I seem to have lost the knack of buying them, and haven't been able to find a single comfortable one in the larger sizes.

Despite my disappointment at not losing any weight since the initial few weeks, I am going to carry on with this. During my cat-sorrow binge week, a couple of recent burn marks on my hand became distinctly redder and more inflamed. Now I'm back on the plan, they are fading rapidly again. Clearly too high sugar/carb in the diet is inflammatory for me, and that goes for the inside as well, not just the visible bits on the outside. I do want to lose this weight, but I also want to be healthy, so will persevere.

Yes I’d like to stay with you all between boot camps. I have 4 stone to shift and expect it will take me all year to do it and that’s only if I can get it moving again rather than going up and down. Even on my birthday I had no desire to eat real bread, or have naan/rice with my curry which is sign of things changing in my head too. I need to stop with the low carb baking for now and add in some fast days and/or 16:8’s but I’m in for the long haul.

Hello losers - I am STILL stuck at just over 12st. Unbelievable - I just can't seem to break through it! I know I'm still 7lb down on where I started but I NEED to get through that mental barrier so I don't do again what I did tonight - whole glass of red wine (admittedly spritzed with fizzy water) which then led to a total collapse of willpower and the inhaling of a creme egg

That's it though. No more cheating. Fingers crossed it doesn't have an appalling effect tomorrow!

Dr Axe's website just had an article saying women may need a more alkaline diet for keto to work for them as without the alkaline some get constipation fatigue etc. So lots of green veg avoid processed meat products and diary, have apple cider vinegar.
Also Dr Atkins recommends a fat diet for a few days if no weight lost.
Maybe worth considering if stalling for a long time.

oh venus you have my sympathies.

Just browsing the website of my local paper and spotted a story - Engineer loses 5 stone eating bacon. I wonder what woe she's been following????

I can’t remember who the spreadsheet queen is, I think I’ve broken it .

I was trying to add @GuyMartinsSideburns weight, and it’s not updating in columns AH and AI. Can’t believe I broke someone else’s line🙄 Mine is fine...

zxy sorry, 'alkaline' diets are rubbish and have no affect on your body!
pH is very tightly regulated, an increase in alkaline substances would be excreted pretty quickly.

I am back on bootcamp after a 3 week absence relating to the evident crumbling of my marriage. Not going to dwell on that here but suffice to say my eating has been all over the shop and despite an initial weight loss I was turning to loads of crap to make me feel better - which it did not!

So I am now resolved to not make myself feel even worse with crap food choices. The challenge is that I am now cooking for one which I find more difficult, and takes some of the joy out of food prep (I usually love cooking) but it's something I need to get used to!

So my weight is now 13.2 (managed to get down to 12.11 in the height of my appetite loss - was so good to see a 12 on the scales even if it was short-lived!) but determined to keep on bootcamping for as long as it takes to get sub-12 stone.

Today's food....

B - greek yog, berries and flaxseed
L - roasted veg (aubergine, green peppers, shallots and one tomato); avocado, mozzarella, evoo and spinach salad
D - TBC but will prob be something pre-prepped from M&S as I don't know what I have at home...

oh, lisba, so sorry to hear that

Cooking for one only need be as different as you want it to be. At first I found I was looking for 'one person' style meals, before realising I could just make slightly less of whatever it was I normally liked to cook.

Some of us are continuing to BC past the official end date, so we'll all still be here with you.

Sorry lisbap about our tough times.
Emotional eating is a tough one to break.
I’m down 300g this week to 64.6kg. I’m planning to continue bootcamping until I’m down at target (60kg). I am having a tiny amount of hazelnuts / pecans / berries (think 4-6 at a time in yoghurt maybe 3x a week and 10-15g v dark chocolate 5x a week but otherwise no carb creep, almost no alcohol and would consider myself still on boot camp strict really.

Also in the spirit of over sharing, my irritable bowel seems to have disappeared on this woe. No cramps or diarrhoea at all for 7 weeks.
B creamy coffee
L 2 fried eggs and a piece of bacon
D left over roast chicken with flgv (need to get some extra fat in)
W trying as usual - have bought some herbal teas to encourage me

Your not our in the first line. Bloody autocorrect

lisba I am sending hugs as well. 💐Well done for putting yourself first now.
I guess you could also cook enough for two which would give you leftovers. Always useful when you don’t have what you need in the fridge/larder etc.

Hello! Is it possible to start a bootcamp when you're all in your last fortnight? I really need to get a fucking grip and stop inhaling every sweet thing in sight.

I'm now 2 stone [weeps] heavier than I want to be and I can't keep ignoring the size of my stomach, I'm dreading someone asking when I'm due. I'm not pregnant, just greedy!

2 weeks is better than nothing though and it'll see me through the strictest part of Bootcamp so can I join you all at an unrespectable 12 stone 13 pounds?

Of course you can, @ConspiracyWeary!

Ah ha! I've worked out how to add myself...so I have

I'm not alphabetical though but I'll leave that alone...no one wants to be the new girl that breaks the spreadsheet

Thanks BIWI

Thanks all for the kind words.

Yes, I think I do just need to re-think the batch cooking and just freeze smaller portions when I pack it into the freezer. It's stuff like fancy salads (sounds ridiculous but that's how I always describe my favourite food - stuff with lots of interesting veggies, herbs and dressings!) that seem like a faff for one but reasonable for two but really it's no different and I can just make the same amount of dressing and just make it last two nights. Will not use this as an excuse for self-pitying and crap cookery!

I did go to M&S and picked up some keralan chicken curry with cauliflower and chickpeas ready meals for tonight - my Mum is coming over to join me so I thought these looked the best bet (and they were reduced). I will just pick the chickpeas out when I eat mine!

Also bought some strawberries, raspberries and double cream as a treat pudding.

@lisbapalea - so sorry to hear your news. You know we're all here for you, I hope?

Oh lisba - sorry to hear about your marriage. But maybe you can look on it as losing 20 stone of useless flesh? Depends on whether it's too soon for jokes (probably) and whether or not you were the instigator of the crumble. :(
I know when my first engagement broke up, I lost 1.5st in 4 weeks due to lack of eating anything, pretty much - plus the (in my case) 9st of useless flesh. Very glad to have got rid of him in the end, despite it not being my doing.

Huge (((hugs))) for you - feel free to rant away.

Ha - jokes are fine - probably the best way to deal with it all! I am the instigator but still not what I had hoped for.

Will prob keep the ranting offline but lovely to know the support is here if I do decide to vent!

lisba - sorry to hear about your marriage crumble (sounds like something a Masterchef wannabe might serve up...), but putting a positive spin on it, it's a good diet boost. I've done the divorce diet twice now and if I hadn't then taken to lasagne and Maltesers, I'd be in much better shape, but hey ho. Boot camp is more fun.

ThumbWitches - I feel your pain - I've been banging my head against the 12st barrier and thought I'd cracked it (the barrier, not my head) this weekend when I saw 11.13 twice....then this morning, back up to 12 again. So annoying.

I hope the threads do carry on between boot camps - I'm certainly going to be carrying on until I get to my goal.