Week 4 - Low Carb Bootcamp - where we're KOKOing!

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for you

Just a reminder to you all that week 4, like its evil twin week 3, can be a difficult week where weight loss is likely to be minimal or even non-existent.

Please don't despair if you don't see any movement on the scales - this does appear to be quite normal at this point in Bootcamp.

Keep going, keep following the rules - stay away from the chocolate and bread! - particularly make sure you get enough water and fat - and you should see things get going again very soon.

Here's to a good week for us all

ilovecherries thank you!

@aangstinabaggyjumper You (and your DH!) are very welcome to join Bootcamp.

Well done on the weight loss so far. If you've read the threads, you'll have seen my warnings about

a) weeks 3 and 4
and
b) the perils of weighing daily!

You're doing really well. Just KOKO (keep on keeping on) and you'll be fine. It's obviously working for you both!

@mooncuplanding thanks for your posts - really, really insightful and helpful

"I think although scales are the most common tool people use for weightloss... They most certainly don’t measure your worth."

I love this quote Cherries. We're all worth the effort of eating well to achieve good health and a healthy weight. My own weight loss journey seemed up and down as well but added up to 1-2 lb a week for five months. If I had known at the start what I knew by the end then I would have lost weight even faster instead of being discouraged by the number on the scales resulting in not sticking to the rules as closely as I might have done.

Just to add my two cents to the discussion - scales are a particularly poor way of measuring fat loss. If you're following the rules then you should be drinking at least 2.5 litres of water a day which is 5.5 lb of weight fluctuation just from your water intake. Add in all the other factors such as water retention due to salty food or exercise, the weight of food itself, whether or not you're due for a poo, hormonal changes due to menstrual cycle, etc. then it's perfectly possible to gain 3 lb in a day without having gained any fat whatsoever. I suggest measuring your waist as well, if not your hips and bust as well, since weight loss will often show on the measurements before it does on the scales.

Goldilox - will you have a refrigerated minibar in your room? If so you could at least store things like Babybel etc in there so when you come to eat them they'd only be out of the cold for a few hours.

The other thing, in combination, possibly, would be to buy a PackIt lunchbox and ask the hotel to put it in their freezer overnight. It's basically a coolbag, but the cool stuff is in the lining so food doesn't get soggy. Of course the easier version of this would be to take some cool bag freezer blocks and ask to put them in. I'm sure they would.

Definitely agree with ilove about being assertive about catering for your needs even if they are outside caterers. They would have to do it for someone with coeliac or other intolerances/allergies so you have every right to ask. I am often away in hotels or running stuff with clients that needs a lunch to be brought in. I always request a salad and have never been refused.
Lots of breakfast in the hotel to keep you going too and if dinner veg options are too carby I just request salad and cheese for pud even if they aren’t offering it. Never been refused yet.

Thank you for all the congratulations 🙂🙂

Happy anniversary BlackMozart!

Do you know what the worst thing about low carbing is? Bastard shallots. My nearest Tesco is massive but doesn’t sell the echalion shallots (at least not in the last 6 weeks) so I bought a bag of the little ones. I’ve just peeled and chopped NINETEEN of the buggers to get a grand total of 245g to go in the curries I’m making later. Definitely off to Asda tomorrow! 😂

Thanks for all the suggestions.

It is difficult because I am a lowly person in this line of work and have no contact with the caterers at all. The food is treated as an optional extra - one we are free to reject.

No fridge in the hotel room. It is a big and busy economy sort of place.

The sausages look like the very cheap cereal filled ones - so I was going to avoid them. (Breakfast will be eggs and bacon and tomato)

@clare8allthepies that made me chuckle 😂 🥘. Enjoy your curry 😊

I was away at a hotel at the weekend and made the best choices I could but at breakfast all I could eat was ham and cheese. ( everything else was basically sugary stuff ). They did ask when we booked in if I had any dietary requirements and I said no as thought I could manage. However on reflection I was wondering whether you could say you were diabetic and therefore more able to demand certain foods?

I'm out. Went to a consultant about very low blood pressure & he told me to stop the low carbing ( or any dieting really). I'd lost half a stone. Damn.

Aw pebbles, but important to sort your blood pressure out with Gp help.

I've had an odd day. Couldn't get to sleep last night, largely due to a pain in my lower back, right babe side. Wasn't hungry at breakfast time, had a baby bel and some chicken Sakai for lunch. Dh was making burgers for tea, I had mine in lettuce leaves.

My back is still sore and I can't work out if it's a muscular thing, or an internal organ.

Meanwhile, I'm experimenting with a dessert of psyllium husk mixed with coffee and cinnamon, currently in the freezer. I'm hoping it will be a sort of granita.

Had a new friend and her dd over for afternoon tea (met her via MN ) and made ds' favourite light fruit cake. Decided I needed to make something for myself so I made a hybrid of "Hannah's Low Carb brownies" (found via a Google search) and Nigella's cream cheese brownies.

Essentially it used almond flour (I used ground almonds) and coconut flour with coconut oil and eggs, with cocoa and erithrytol, and then put half into the baking tray, then a tub of thinly sliced cream cheese, then the other half of the mix, topped with plain chocolate chips and then baked. It worked well! Cut into small gooey squares

Food today:
B: 2 eggs scrambled with butter then a 7 mile run with the buggy. Furthest since Oct 2016 according to my records!
L: a salad (spinach with oily dressing, tomato and cucumber) hm coleslaw and "deconstructed" devilled eggs. There's no way I'm getting a piping bag out just for me but I'm currently obsessed with boiled eggs with the yolks mashed into grated cheese, mayo and chives so just dollop it on top!
D: Thai green fish curry containing FLGV and cauli rice huge portion. Sort of home made but using bought curry paste.
No snacks! One tea with milk, might have a coffee once the baby's in bed.

No B
2 buttery eggs for lunch
D is turkey mince fried up with courgette, mushrooms, garlic chilli and lime juice and served with with rocket and watercress...also a smashed v ripe avocado stirred in that i dropped getting out the car (a surprisingly nice addition)

3lb on this morning - no apparent reason - maybe I should stop the daily weighing as well...

B: omelette with Cheddar
D: made a salad of all the odds and ends in the veg drawer (Sainsbury's delivery tomorrow) - blitzed celeriac, diced cucumber & courgette, spring onions, finely chopped french beans, fennel and some capers, all mixed with mayonnaise and served on top of raw baby spinach leaves. It was lovely and there's enough for tomorrow as well, so that's a bonus.

Sorry to hear that pebbles, hope it improves really soon.

Those brownies (and the other cake) lovely prettybird

Well done on the long run rayna

I made celeriac gratin tonight adapting a recipe from bbc good food as a base, was lush. I’m actually trying to resist eating the way of it.

Obvs mean the rest of it

Leaves, artichokes, pine nuts and mozzarella with garlic oil for lunch.

Leaves with insalata tricolore and basil oil for tea.

Bit of a mozzarella fest but himself really fancied it. A day without eggs! I think that's the first since I started this!

Sorry to hear that pebbles but well done on that half stone.

Thank you clareateallthepies

So in the end my DS who was supposed to be babysitting his younger sister forgot and went out instead. However he is going to stay in tomorrow evening instead so we’ll have our curry then.

I have had a good day food wise (thinking I was going out) but luckily (maybe my unconscious knew he would forget) I had bought some sea bass, Bok Choi and I nice pre made coconut and lemongrass sauce 5.2g per 100g) along with English champagne on offer in Waitrose at the moment; so we had a lovely dinner followed by cheese. I am suitably sozzled and trying to stay awake !!
Not enough water though and I think I need it 😊

I wouldn’t, Destiny, for three reasons. First, I’ve had so many serious things wrong with me, I feel a bit superstitious about saying I have something I don’t. Terrified karma will bite my (almost bony) ass . Second is I think it’s really important not to mess things up for people who DO have an illness or allergy. I have friends who run a small coffee shop. When someone says they have, say, coeliac disease, they need to scrub clean a part of the kitchen for prep, keep all that persons food separate etc, have separate cooking utensil etc. They need to take it seriously. But my friend told me last week about a person who carried on about her allergies and intolerances with the main course, but then had a bite of everyone else’s desert. Friend rushed over in a panic, as the cake had eggs, flour and possibly nuts in it and the customer went oh, I don’t really have an allergy, exactly. I just didn’t fancy xyz so if I say that I’ve got a problem, loads of places will cook off menu. Friend says this happens so often she’s at the point of saying she just can’t cater for anything off menu. Thirdly, I think LC eating won’t ever be normalised if people don’t ask for it. I tend not to labour the high fat bit, as I can always ask for butter or oil at the table, but I do ask for low carb options. If asked what that means, I say I don’t want any grains or flours, potatoes or sugar. As I said up thread, I don’t stress about higher carb veg when I’m out.

Just ad to post a picture of my dinner, crispy belly pork, fried greens and bc cauliflower cheese.

My kefir grains arrived today so I have two jars brewing, one made with cows milk and one with almond milk, I will report back in a few days.

Had not ad

I want to be clear I agree with you ilove. I always say I am not able to eat certain carbs and wouldn’t ever pretend I had coeliac. My post above wasn’t clear enough, sorry.

Yummy tea tonight of baked salmon wrapped in foil with slices of lemon and butter, with asparagus, sprouting broccoli, baby corn and mange tout. All steamed and then shitloads of butter over. DH and kids had new potatoes but I honestly didn't even miss them.