Week 2 - May '18 Low Carb Bootcamp - my favourite week!

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet

I love this week, seeing how much weight people lose, and especially as it's always such a surprise for newbies and those who feared that this WOE wouldn't work!

I hope you've all seen good results.

If you haven't - don't despair, but have a think about the week just gone. Look at what you were eating/drinking and consider how well you followed Bootcamp rules.

Any problems, as ever, post them on the thread.

Iamnotacerealkiller I think there are three sweeteners that seem o be ok. Stevia is the most natural, comes from a plant I think, and apparently has a slight taste of aniseed or liquorice and has to be added to recipes in tiny quantities or can be very overpowering. The other two are xylitol which I think is a sugar alcohol but it comes granulated and is very poisonous to dogs. I use erythitol when making low carb brownies and cakes and that works like for like instead of sugar and apparently is ok on this woe.

Time I think it was you last week sometime asking about cheese scone recipes. I have one (think I posted it once before ages ago) but haven’t posted I yet as we’re still in bootcamp. Happy to post if you still want it.

@wherehavealltheflowersgone, it was the realisation that, whilst fat is really important on this WOE & calorie counting is not important, LCing wasn't carte blanche to go mad. I'm vegetarian so nuts & seeds were allowed for me from the outset & I overindulged too often, thinking it'd be ok. Likewise with the double cream in my coffee.
So I cut back on double cream & nuts, introduced intermittent fasting & signed up to my fitness pal to get an idea of my calorie intake. As someone on here pointed out at the time, when your appetite wanes on this WOE then you need to capitalise on that, so to speak - as opposed to shovelling more double cream into my mouth because 'it's allowed' even though I wasn't remotely hungry.

It took me 2 months to get to that point so I know how incredibly frustrating it is to feel like it's not working when you're trying really hard.

Farine and Stunt thank you for the Wagamama's suggestions. I had the Pad Thai salad and t'was delicious.
Felt very virtuous come 3pm when colleagues were all drooping with the post carb slump and I was still perky
Love the fried hallucinations!

Tom Kerridge also uses inulin (as well as erithrytol) in his Dopamine Diet. It's apparently also good for your gut. It caramelises well, on, for example, low carb creme brûlée. I've bought (and used) both from Amazon.

However, these sugar substitutes are not an excuse to go out and eat/make loads of desserts. They are useful for the odd occasion - and, for example, you are wanting to make dinner for friends without going off-piste. And they are for Boot Camp Lite anyway - we are trying to train both our taste buds and our brain not to crave sweet things.

(hope that caveat is enough to duck under BIWI's Big Stick )

I use Splenda as a sweetener ( as recommended by Dr Atkins ) and I find it works well and is 0.5 gms of carbs per teaspoon.

I’ve managed to lose a whole pound so far. But at least it’s better than the zero from Monday. :)

Today I’ve had salad for dinner and lunch and egg for breakfast. The dinner salad was more exciting, with leftover roasted veg, avocado and chicken in it. The canteen lunch salad was fairly dismal, as they seem to be obsessed with putting pasta in most of the choices.

I didn’t have the pasta, btw. I stick to lettuce, cucumber and coleslaw, plus some olive oil. It was not the most interesting lunch I’ve ever eaten.

Agree prettybird with these being occasional treats. I have got into trouble with that already so now if I make something I freeze in small single portions as well.

I had pork belly for tea with a mustardy cream sauce and mashed swede and kale. I have realised I really do not like creamy sauces ( I feel satisfied but a bit sick) so from now on with meat and salmon I will use the garlic and herb butter I made to melt on top. I am going to try and drop cream I think. The only thing I really like it for is on berries or to make chocolate truffles neither of which I should even be thinking about at the moment!

Chicken drumsticks with roast veg here (broccoli, leek, asparagus, courgette and plenty of olive oil). I'm realising I need to cook ahead more. Otherwise I'm scouring the fridge for lunch and always fall back on cheese and rather insubstantial salad. Need more fish, meat and proper cooked veg.

Tracey there is often a requirement to use more salt initially and electrolyte imbalance is a common problem so there's certainly no harm in adding LoSalt and magnesium when going low carb (assuming you're getting calcium from dairy or another source). MCT oil isn't required and vitamins are a matter of personal preference.

Stop talking about puddings and sweet things!

I'm off tomorrow at the crack of dawn for a long weekend in the Land of Pasta. @AthelstaneTheUnready has kindly agreed to start the week 3 chat thread as well as monitoring the spreadsheet, for which I'm very grateful.

But don't go thinking I'm not watching you all

I'll have my iPad, so as long as there's good wifi, I'll still be on the case

Decided to capitalise on my lovely fresh baby aubergines and combine them with hallucinations & chilli flakes for a delicious dinner served with green beans in lime butter and a mushroom stuffed with shallots, bacon and a tiny bit of Stilton.
Yummy

seafour, that looks delicious

Aubergine with hallucinations! Wow! So I guess shrooms were involved!

I have a new measure of weight loss. Fingers in my watch strap - 3 as of today! (If only my upper arms would play along!)

Have fun BIWI

Just had the most DELICIOUS cauli cheese! My DP can’t get enough and keeps going back to the dish, shouting, ‘don’t worry, i’m Only eating the corners from where we’ve already had it. There’s still enough for tomorrow!’ Nicest thing so far on this WOE so thanks to whomever it was who posted about it. Just yum!

Is the recipe on here for the caulicheese?

seafour that looks delish, I'm gonna copy that tomorrow...
yarboosucks I hear you with the upper arms 😭

Wow I’m also after that recipe!

Today's food diary:

Greek yogurt for breakfast
Olives, chorizo, crustless quiche and one token strawberry for lunch
Chicken wrapped in prosciutto stuffed with mozzarella, with loads of salad, for dinner

Yum

thanks @BlackMozart and @prettybird

scone recipe would be much appreciated. i bought clotted cream today before realising i couldn't eat the scones with them :( sliced strawberries with it instead, lush!

i am (kind of) doing BC light as i'm breastfeeding :). its probably something inbetween. im not having the choc or alcohol but am having some nuts and berries.

anyone else breastfeeding at the same time? how are you finding it?. i am concerned about my supply as it is so have you found it has been effected?

Made a lovely deconstructed salad nicoise this evening. Ignore the potatoes (they were for dh and ds). The fine French beans and asparagus were both drenched in butter.

Mickeymacca slice aubergines in half lengthwise and score along the length three or four times, about half the depth of the flesh.
Drizzle with a flavoured oil, I used garlic and chilli, make sure it gets into the slits. Put into a hot oven until the flesh is starting to become soft, this depends on the size of your aubergine, mine was about 10 minutes.
Take them out and stuff the slits with whatever you fancy, I often use baby octopus or strips of tuna this time it was halloumi (because of all the hallucinations chat on here today) top with some fried shallot, chilli flakes and pop back in the oven or under a hot grill until your chosen filling is cooked.