Week 6 - Low Carb Bootcamp - the second half starts here!

[BIWI]

Morning all!

I would normally drop a link to the spreadsheet here, but for some reason I've had to request access to it

So until someone else - or @AthelstaneTheUnready - can sort this, I'm afraid I'll just have to start the thread without the link.

It's true that cravings diminish. On my second day of this boot camp I was at a training day with millionaires shortbread and brownies and I SO wanted some. In the end I had a tiny taste of each to avoid going off the rails completely. This week I have had a work meeting where a friend always bakes wonderful cakes, and an event in school where normally I would have had a cupcake. No interest at all, not even an "I wish..." Feeling!

abbey congratulations on the bra victory and yes it's definitely a treat for you to feel lovely in!

Not eaten anything yet today, not hungry either. But I have been food shopping so I have stuff to eat now!

Thank you for the lovely welcome. I've just had a massive salad with boiled eggs and tuna for lunch so feeling full.

Friday and Saturday I ate so much crap (went to see Ed Sheeran so road trip sweets followed by hangover food) so feel very focused today. The thing that won me over is that I can still have cheese! I love cheese more than bread 😁

Feeling positive!

Reporting back from the dark sides HDU, full of steroids and antibiotics to get rid of pneumonia. Managed to avoid hospital food thanks to DH and DS. Have gained a stupid number of lbs but have been attached to a drip for the best part of three days being pumped full of fluids to try and support a non existent blood pressure so I'm hoping it's temporary. Have to go back later today for IV antibiotics and stay overnight to have ventilator monitored but they are happy for me to be home during the day as long as I'm oxygenating ok.
I absolutely love my HDU second home, they keep me alive and understand my need for independence.

All good except for being diagnosed with skin cancer while I was there!!!!! Feeling numb is an understatement especially as I have repeatedly asked my GP about the offending lesion on my nose that has been growing and spontaneously bleeding for five years.
Dermatologist tomorrow to check for more - hospital dermatologist found three basalcell carcinomas and two that look in his words "more sinister". I need to make a decision about treatment and attending the wedding with a disfigured face and my respiratory team will need to get involved because although I can use a nasal mask to ventilate while I'm awake, at night I have to use a full mask that sits on the bridge of my nose and surgery will rule out using it.
I also won't be able to wear my glasses and can't see a thing without them.

Eldest DD is coming from NZ for DS2's wedding on 14/7 and she has been thrown by a horse and torn three ligaments in her knee, she can come as long as she delays surgery until after her trip.

Come on life lets have the third thing and get it out of the way before the wedding.

Am busy rtft to catch up.

My brassica bed Lots of good low carb veggies to come from it

(The chicken wire is to protect the row of beetroot seedlings from the cats who just love cleared earth )

Ah seafour I'm gutted for you
, maybe though it's been a blessing in disguise that you ended back in HDU and the skin cancer was found sooner.

I hadn't realised the severity of your issues until you posted about the gym a few days ago. Did all this start with a spinal injury?

Welcome motherofdragons

Super NSV abbey!

Blimey Seafour, glad your feeling better although skin cancer - wtf??

I’m helping out at a swimming gala and have avoided all the sweeties and biscuits that come round. Although it’s not hard if you think how many sticky sweaty hands have been in there already tbh. Lunch was very good for this woe, cheese cold meets crudités so I was happy

Lonesurvivour yes, broke my neck in a surfing accident in 07 but walked away on the day appeared to be fine, gradually lost the use of my right arm while a dick of a spinal doctor "investigated". 25 months after the first sci I suffered a second in my lumber spine which put me in the wheelchair, it was two years later that my very broken neck was finally spotted and repaired. I had lots of strange symptoms like extreme fatigue, repeated pneumonia, an inability to stay asleep for more than 20 minutes and in 2014 it was acknowledged that the neck injury had weakened my chest muscles and I was only breathing into the top two inches of my lungs. I began using something called lung volume recruitment to support my breathing but detailed investigations weren't done.
Last year I had major spinal surgery and had problems with oxygen dependence during recovery, which meant the second stage of the surgery couldn't be done.
Finally a respiratory professor rocked up next to my bed and broke the news that I had survived for ten years with a paralysed diaphragm. I was rushed back to itu but went into complete respiratory arrest while they were getting ready to move me.
Enter the ventilator, which I thought would be an easy thing to get used to but my carbon dioxide levels were so high that it was a very long drawn out process and very difficult to do non invasively and I repeatedly refused a tracheotomy on the basis that I had survived without ventilation for ten years.
It took a long time but once my consultant got to know me and they worked out a way of giving me complete ventilator support (my ventilator takes over my breathing completely) and getting me to breathe independently when it's switched off. There was a lot of heated discussion about me ever being discharged because my respiratory failure is so severe and my medical needs so high and eventually a compromise was reached. I'm never discharged from HDU, my name is always there on the board as an inpatient currently at home, if they are full they will always make space for me in a treatment room or somewhere else, this has worked brilliantly except for one ten hour wait in resus.
The difference the ventilator has made to my life is incredible, I no longer need to sleep for eighteen hours a day in twenty minute snatches. My hair, skin, eyesight has improved I no longer want to die and I'm now fit enough for the second part of my surgery.

Sorry that was so long, there is no quick way to explain it.

Wow, seafour, what a tale of the triumph of mind and spirit over body. That’s amazing.

And I’m sorry about the skin cancer and the inconvenience as well as everything else it will cause. And your daughter’s accident.

My adored aunt broke her neck and it was a long time till the air ambulance could get to her. They said she’d always be paralysed but with determination equivalent to yours she walked down the aisle at my lovely cousin’s wedding. The spirit is amazing in what it can overcome. Strengthening, supportive thoughts to you.

Wow Seafour that is all very tough. Great to hear you daughter is coming out to see you all (with an injury and all that) and your news - wow that’s hard tho. You’re doing very well through it and yes have a strong spirit!
Food update: I have had an okay week. Upped my water intake (although still struggle some days to really jam it in, its increased a lot). I am making sure I just get lots of water in the house - so that was a big hurdle for me to just get over. That’s made it easier. Still can’t drink tap water which is annoying but a small problem really. I am not missing grains or sugar. Occasionally when cooking for family I would typically taste a cake mixture or base or something I am cooking which I realize I can now no longer taste - I ask others to check if it tastes ready/ok. I had pancakes galore recently, and birthday cakes for parties and was very good and ignored it all. I realized when I think of food now I do think in terms of this way of eating which is huge for me. I have eaten out also and realized a low carb lettuce burger can work really well and I don’t miss out. I am really enjoying vegetables and not missing fruit (fruit was really hard initially for me). So I think it’s going well. My clothes all fit better. I don’t have weight dropping off but I am feeling different in my hair and skin. So all very positive. I look forward to the next weigh in no matter the result. I hope this info helps others to see the reality of what we are doing and maybe it encourages someone to keep going.
Also, I am trying to set myself up as this being a permanent way of eating (I know it is for many of you and I have seen your amazing success stories and pictures). I will probably adjust it slightly after this bootcamp, but not much. I joined this BC wanting to ditch grains and sugar as part of my realizing I’m getting older, my weight and early menopause has not been fun and I need to make adjustments. I want to be healthy and active as I grow older - so that’s my long term goal here. For me it’s not about being skinny (that was my old way of thinking and no I am not putting out excuses to be overweight I want to Sri a lot of excesss weight) but it’s more about fitting my clothes. It’s also about wanting to go out and not hide, to be present in photos and not absent. I also want to see my kids grow up and their kids enter the world and have the energy for them (as much as I can play my part in my health with eating and exercising I mean).
Anyway just thought I’d put that there as that’s why I’m doing this.
Wishing you all well.
Let’s KOKO.

seafour to say you've been through it really is an understatement.
I hope you're improved soon and able to enjoy the wedding and your dd two.

We've just booked a short shopping trip in Liverpool in August with our teens. We're in Ireland so it involves a short flight, my carry on bag will be almost empty this time as I plan on shopping too instead of standing on the side lines watching or acting as a clothes rack carrying all my dds bits

Thank you for the kind words and support, it means a lot. Checking out until tomorrow after enjoying the football with family, haven't eaten much at all, someone's stolen my appetite.

Flipping heck seafour, that’s more than anyone should ever ever have to contemplate in a lifetime! You sound so strong!

Am making bread again. This time by my calculations the entire loaf will be 7g of carbs.

5 eggs, separated, 50g fiberflour(which is oat bran and linseed) 50g butter, big dollop of stevia, and baking powder. It’s in now, I will report back.

Just wanted to say, having a soda stream made drinking tap water much easier and nicer for me, fizzy water feels like a treat!

I'm 10 stone 2 today, was 11 stone 12 beginning of Jan, so v happy with that especially now it's summer and I can fit into loads of things that didn't fit before and I just feel sleeker than I was before. I was v strict at the start but now have a few carbs at the weekend when I'm with DP which seems to be working well. I don't want to be thin as don't think it would suit me, just not podgy! 😀

Also, someone was looking for low carb ice cream recipes up thread, here's some to try, I've made the coffee one and it was lovely! My DP has an ice cream maker which helps tho.😀

www.ditchthecarbs.com/best-low-carb-sugar-free-ice-cream/

Wow seafour, I've just caught up on today's postings, and I have to say how inspirational you are. You've always put such a cheerful face on when you've posted on here, I'd no idea how many obstacles you've had (and still have) to overcome on a daily basis. It must be so hard, but it puts stuff into perspective. I hope the second part of your surgery will bring some more improvements for you.

Seafour sorry to read about your recent diagnosis.

seafour blimey woman, you couldn't just have a nice quiet rest in HDU! Sorry to hear of all the stresses, massive well done for koko despite all that.
mummyofdragons welcome to bootcamp.

Had leftover curry with spinach for dinner, not a huge portion but couldn't finish it. Really can't handle the portions I used to...

Does anyone have advice re children. They are not on the diet obviously but tonight we had chicken and loads of green veg but I was so wrapped up in me that I forgot I meant to cooked them rice. They loved dinner and had sandwiches for lunch so they're not carb free but how much carbs do children need? I don't want to mess up their health trying to sort out mine!

Dc are 6 and 10. My 2 6yos are average but dd1 boarders on underweight (her build is bean pole - she eats well).

Morning all

Week 7 chat thread is here

@m0therofdragons I'll answer your question over on the new thread!

Hi Folks

Hope you’re all enjoying the smashing weather we’re having.

149.4. Ba humbug