Week 3 - decision-making time!

[AthelstaneTheUnready]

Welcome to week 3!

As BIWI's away, she asked if I would start the week 3 thread. I've stolen her words from a previous week 3, as it's such a good explanation of bootcamp v. bootcamp light.

Food today...

11:30am - 150g Greek yogurt
4:15pm - 150g Greek yogurt with 15mls double cream
6:15pm - 2 burgers, sliced gherkin, mayo, masses of salad with plenty of EVOO dressing, thin slice of spicy cheese.
About to have a creamy coffee for pudding.

Can anyone recommend a good low carb recipe book? I've got some amazon vouchers and they are figuratively burning a hole in my pocket.

I think @BIWI will be along with her stick shortly @TimeIhadaNameChange.

My dinner was delicious. I’ve never cooked sea bass before (because my ex was a fish refuser), but I’ll be doing it again soon. It was lovely with lots of ginger and lime butter on top.

@Gammeldragz I like the Rose Elliott one (but I'm a veggie ), the Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book and Keto Quick- I got them all from Amazon

I know. And I deserve it.

Hey ho.

I had a better day today as I remembered to liberally salt my avocado (essentially am going through keto flu again, due to French indiscretions).
B: avo
L: courgetti with bacon/feta/egg (like carbonara, but didn't have parmesan)
D: goat chops (yummy), HM cabbage slaw

French indiscretions are my favourite, FlowinElla

ragz, I use Real Meal Revolution a lot. Prefer it to the Dopamine Diet as I feel it's not always trying to do sweet workarounds.

In addition to the above:
The Sugar Free Family Cookbook by Sarah Flower
The Idiot Proof Diet Cookbook by Bee Rawlinson
No pictures in these two

Low Carb Express by Annie Bell

Other than that I just look in regular cookbooks to see what can be adapted.

Thanks Hefzi I've recommended the veggie one to my cousin as they wanted to do LC. I've ordered the blood sugar diet one and a different one by the same author as keto quick. I ordered the same one for a friend at year and remember it looked really good.

Has anyone used the idiot proof diet ones? Are they worth getting? Both?

Oops cross posted with Blackmozart. No pictures in the IPD ones?! I have to have photos... Ordered the real meal revolution for my BIL for his birthday as he requested it, will have a look at it next time I'm over there.

It's as more for motivation as anything, I think I got in a rut with LC and allowed too much carp creep so need inspiring books to get me back on track, even if I never actually cook the recipes! I'm a book person. Whatever the issue my solution is usually to buy a book on it...

Getting back into the LC way after my week away, and I'm nearly back to the weight I was when I left - hoping I'll be there by Monday.

B: two-egg omelette with mushrooms
D: big salad - half a bag of spinach with some blitzed celeriac, chopped up radishes, a small pot of green olives, some grated courgette and a bloody great dollop of lovely Stokes mayonnaise

Lots of sparkling water and mugs of Pukka green tea (lean matcha green, detox, three ginger and licorice & peppermint)

MyFitnessPal pal tells me that today I've had 86% fat, 10% protein and 4% carbs, I've had 6 units of insulin (back to normal, thank God!) and my blood sugar has been below 7 all day. I wish every day went like this 😀

ilovecherries I have the Dopamine Diet on Kindle but I wasn't thrilled by it. As you say, a lot of workarounds and cheats. Plus using protein powder and other wierd things.

abbey sounds like a good day, well done!

Is there a replacement for flour that isn’t nuts or soy? —dust?—

gammeldragz I love pictures too but I love both the Idiot Proof Diet book (I love India Knight’s writing) and the cookery book for really easy recipes that work. No pictures also usually means cheap!

I am addicted to cookery books though. Have just bought one - Mezze.

I tended to use the Dopamine Diet book for inspiration - especially the savoury dishes. The creme brûlée is good - but not so good for "training" you off sweet things Good for dinner parties where you feel the need to have a dessert rather than just a cheese board

@Gammeldragz

Why are you only eating yoghurt for breakfast and lunch? That's a lot of dairy, but also you're not eating much veg or salad!

@itchyknees what do you need a flour substitute for?

@oldbirdy:

I haven't gone off plan but I feel a bit disheartened. Here I am most of the way through week 3, and total loss as of this morning is 2.5lb. Other than a little vodka on Friday and Saturday nights I have been on plan. No wearing new outfits for me or people noticing I am losing weight. I am delighted for those losing the best part of a stone in the same time, but what am I doing differently? Other than being perimenopausal (48 in July).

Well, you have been drinking alcohol ...

And you've still lost 2.5lbs, which is surely better than nothing? It's not a competition, so don't focus on what other people are doing.

I also have the headaches each morning and the last two or three days, no energy at all: I could easily sleep 11 hours. I am on half term so some of that will be the crash.

This would suggest that you're still not fat-adapted, and also that you're probably not getting enough fat, and that you need to focus on your electrolytes, as @StuntNun has already posted about

Yesterday I was hungrier than recently
Breakfast: sweet omelette with 2 eggs, drop of vanilla essence, tofu and 3 raspberries, fried in butter and served with a dollop of cream.

Why a sweet omelette? We're trying to break the hold that sweet things have over us, so it would have been far better to have a savoury omelette, with ham, or mushrooms and/or cheese.

Lunch: halloumi and fried veg: courgettes, broccoli, onion and a little red pepper, plus green leaves.

First, ditch the onion and replace it with shallot - it's far lower in carbs. Hopefully you also had an oily dressing with your salad?

Dinner: fried chilli chicken and coleslaw made with red and green cabbage and a little onion mixed with mayo and Greek yogurt

Again, ditch the onion.

Snacks: 1 coffee with cream, I slice cheddar and five olives, 1 teaspoon of extra thick cream with 1 strawberry.

You're eating a lot of dairy here, which could be a problem for you.

@ajandjjmum you're losing well, so not really sure there's much of a problem for you! Please, please, please don't worry about the calories! Also, you need to know that in week 3 and/or 4, it's very common not to see any weight loss. So just KOKO.

@Rshard that's one of the key reasons why I don't recommend MFP. The counts vary widely.

To be honest BIWI, it’s doing my head in and I’ve deleted it!

today have been out most of the day with dgs at a forest adventure park, picnic lunch taken . but difficult to know what to take for me.. in the end i pumped for a sliced chicken breast and a piece of cheese (and bottle of water) ..
Since it rained all day and we had to sit in as small kids play hut (best shelter we could find at the tie!) to eat I was pleased I didnt take anything more as it was easy to eat whilst handing out sandwiches etc to Dgs and Ds

so am light on veg to day.
B 3 buttery eggs
two teaspoons of best olive oil as 'medicine'
L chicken breast lump of cheddar
D mushrooms and courgettes and 1 shallot cooked in evoo and garlic with sour cream and a little cold chicken on top.

I didn't drink enough water whilst out (but difficult to carry and loos few and far between)
so have tried to makeup for it this evening ,ill be up all night

I have a question ?observation.. so we no longer can get Total 10% (boo , but why have they done this?). I have found a good one in Waitrose to replace it but today , bought co op 'Greek style' one 9.8% fat , but the carbs at 5.3 are higher than the waitrose one at 3.4..

Anyone know why is this could be ?. they are both only made with f/f cows milk and nothing else.
Could it be that it is not strained so much? would that make a difference does anyone know?

BIWI to thicken sauces as a roux thing, and for low carb frittery things, if such a thing exists.

BIWI
Thanks for that. Why a sweet omelette? Boredom really! I thought I'd see if it was edible. No sugar or sweeteners used so not really "sweet". Tbh it wasn't great 😂

I didn't know onion was higher carb. I use my phone for internet and the spreadsheets are tricky to use on it, but my mistake.

I will try reducing dairy. I think most of my day has been cream, yoghurt or butter for frying. I will try some other stuff.

Today's menu:
Breakfast: fried bacon, eggs and mushroom
Lunch: hot smoked salmon with coleslaw and green leaves (pictured)
Dinner: chicken thigh with FLGV . The thigh is skinless though so I will have a bag of pork scratchings to make up for it.
No snacks today.

I got some of the zero electrolytes tablets. Is it one a day recommended?

Laska Greek style (usually in the tall pots) is not the same as Greek (usually lower fatter pots) and is usually higher in carbs, less thick and less tart nicer. Waitrose do sell an own brand Greek, it's 3.7g carbs.

I second/third that both the Idiot Proof Diet books are good, some really great recipes despite lack of pictures. You should be able to get them online second hand for £2-3. Eg Abebooks.

Still suffering with this cold, although it is receding, leaving me in "eat everything in the kitchen" mode.

I have managed to keep off the verboten list, but have had waaay too many peanuts and a she'd load of cheese. I took the boy swimming and watched him scoff lemon drizzle cake without so much as a lick, though, so I am not too bad. Cheese omelette for late lunch, and I will shortly warm up some cauli cheese. Maybe serve it on some leaves.

Low Carb is a bitch when you're poorly and just want toast. I'd normally have had a whole load by now!