Week 8 - Low Carb Bootcamp - only 3 weeks to go!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Here, hopefully, is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness Let's just hope this one works

So we have three weeks left. Still time to see a good loss before our final weigh-in. This weather, I think, makes it all easier - so much easier to choose a salad when it's hot. And barbecues are perfect for low carbing (if you're a meat eater, of course!)

We had a barbecue yesterday and we had:

home-made chilli burgers (12% fat organic mince, chopped shallot, chopped red chilli, dried oregano and salt and pepper, whizzed up in the processor to combine). I had mine without the bun, obviously!

chicken thighs, skin-on, that had been marinated in a spice mix (ground cumin, ground coriander, ground ginger, turmeric, chilli powder, oregano, salt and pepper, all mixed in with olive oil and fresh lime juice to make a paste that was then rubbed all over the chicken)

coconut cod** - a lovely recipe I found in one of my barbecue books. Fish marinated in coconut cream, that had been infused with lime, garlic, ginger, shallot and lime juice - bring all that to the boil and simmer for around 10 minutes; cool and then use as a marinade for the fish, which you then cook on the barbecue in a foil parcel.

And sausages. Because you can't have a barbecue without sausages!

Anyway, plenty left over, so I'm taking chicken and sausages to work for my lunch.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Great to hear about your ideal blood pressure, @chocchip88!

Oh and another good, non-hungry day for me.

Breakfast: bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, avocado, coffee with cream

Wasn't hungry all day (unsurprisingly!) so just water then had a shake when I got in with unsweetened almond milk, double cream, frozen raspberries, protein powder, some raw cacao powder and a little vanilla and stevia.

Going to have a late dinner out with a friend. Italian restaurant so could be tricky - have pre-planned to have chicken breast with ham and cheese with spinach in butter and garlic.

Just had an omlette with onions peppers and broccoli fried in butter and topped with cheese. Dh is being polite as he's supporting my diet but I don't think he's overly impressed. Shopping is due tonight so it was a "finish stuff off" kind of meal.

@hopespringseternal18 I bought a set of plastic American cup measures years ago from the pound shop. Had barely used them up until recently but they’re getting loads of use now as so many of the online low carb/Keto recipes I’ve found are American ones. It’s so much easier using them than working out what everything should be in grams!

Today, breakfast - none (don’t usually have any). Lunch - Cajun chicken breast, huge salad, mayo and a small bit of coleslaw. Dinner - humongous plate of kebab and salad that was amazing. Ate far too much though! 😂

Good tip, Thanks!

Once you've learnt how much "sticks" of butter are (and cups), it's dead easy says I having forgotten

American measures have never phased me because so many of my mum's baking recipes when I was wee were in American cups.

And in today's Internet world, it's easy to google conversion charts

Good day marred by wine this evening...
Breakfast keto toast and peanut butter
Lunch pork chop fried in butter with courgette, pepper, and mushroom and 2 strawberries
Dinner beefburger with cheese and an egg on, in lettuce wrap, with coleslaw.

It's bloody hot. Hence the wine, first since boot camp started.

Hello to all the recent joiners and waving to redpanda too.
summer I am peri menopausal as well and struggling to lose but mostly because after the first 5 weeks when I was super strict following bootcamp rules I have subsequently been a bit lax and I don’t lose when I stray at all.
destinys 💐 I hope you do get to go to the festival.
I have looked at that Keto book but can’t decide whether to go for that one or others. There are so many!
Lovely day with family at eldest DD’s graduation today. Very proud of her 😊 She starts her new job on Monday, and moves into new house with her best mate next weekend. All change but I am so happy for her.

I took a picnic today at her request and I managed to stick to,cold meats, a bit of coleslaw, olives and a new sandwich filler from Waitrose - chicken, bacon and avocado - which is lovely and v low carb I think. A sip of champagne to toast her success, but a couple of glasses of wine tonight as a reward after a tortuous drive home round motorway at Friday rush hour. Note to self - find a different reward.

Just thought you might all appreciate the low-carb difficulties I ended up running into at the Italian restaurant...

Waiter was impatient and distracted and not looking at/listening to us while we ordered. My friend's a vegetarian so she had to ask what her dishes were cooked in, which, with some language difficulties thrown in, led to increasing frustration on both sides. She ordered extra potatoes which made things worse. Turns out the chicken with ham and cheese came with potatoes, so I said no potatoes - he thought I also wanted more potatoes so I had to say again 'no potatoes!' at which point he rolled his eyes at me! I then asked for spinach with butter instead. Meal came with no potatoes but no spinach - when I said to a waitress I'd ordered it, he shouted across the restaurant 'no she didn't, she said no potatoes!' We were giggling by this point...

Then ordered a dish described on menu as 'strawberries and fresh whipped cream with mint leaves'. When it came, the cream was clearly some kind of product with lots of sugar in, and the whole thing was covered in icing sugar. Felt I'd made a fuss by this point so ate strawberries and half of cream! Annoyed as I've had a really good LC run and a good loss already this week.

Food was lovely but the service was comical - can be hard to navigate the low-carb road sometimes!

@hopespingseternal, great story. It's like a sketch from Fawlty Towers - esp the bit about him rolling his eyes & shouting across restaurant. I think the carb intake, though frustrating, might have been worth the comedy

Sounds hard work hopes, but I’m glad the food was good.

@biwi @stuntnun & anyone else who has deliberately broken LC for a while.

Im going overseas for a wedding & will be eating more carbs. How do i do it? I worry that if I eat carbs on Friday & Saturday, I won't fit into my dress for the wedding on Sunday.

I suspect there will be limited eating options as we'll be eating out & that is often tricky for me on LC cos I'm vegetarian (& will be in Italy so v carb heavy menus).

I found this article - www.livestrong.com/article/419904-how-to-cut-carbs-sugars-to-lose-weight-fast/ - and wonder if I should be increasing my carbs before I go to help? I am v LC at the moment so wondering if it might help ease my body into it, so to speak.

Would really appreciate guidance from those more knowledgeable & experienced at LCing than me. Thank you v much

There will be lots of salads and meat / fish in Italy so you probably will be able to be low carb if you still want to. I know it’s hard when other people are making the choices about where to eat but you will probably be able to be 80-90% on plan if you wish to. I would drink loads of water and make sure I was avoiding sugar (apart from maybe wedding cake itself!)

Argh missed the vegetarian but sorry. There’s a lot of cheese though!

Thanks @Nan0second. Yes, I was thinking cheese salads and olives would be my staples. Good idea about avoiding all sugar. If it's not rude, I'd forego wedding cake because I don't like cake much so it wouldn't be worth it. If I can't do it without being spotted, I'd eat it. Don't want to cause offence.

I'm going overseas for a wedding & will be eating more carbs. How do i do it? I worry that if I eat carbs on Friday & Saturday, I won't fit into my dress for the wedding on Sunday. I suspect there will be limited eating options as we'll be eating out & that is often tricky for me on LC cos I'm vegetarian (& will be in Italy so v carb heavy menus).

Leapin I would say stay low carb right up until you travel (and take low carb snacks on the plane with you if you can). Also resolve to get straight back on track when you get home - make sure you have low carb food and snacks available for straight away so you don't end up getting a takeaway and making it even harder to get back on track. While you're away make the "least worst" food choices you can. Potato is much lower in carbs than rice, pasta or bread so it's a relatively safe choice when food options are limited. I find that increasing my carb intakes leads to cravings and hunger so I would pack low carb snacks such as salted nuts and packs of olives in case you get hungrier than usual. I would steer away from alcohol as much as possible as alcohol will make it much harder to resist carby foods. I would also avoid sweet foods and desserts as far as possible. I'm not saying deprive yourself of enjoying the celebrations, more that you mindfully choose where you will depart from low carb. By all means raise a glass of fizz to the happy couple, or enjoy a desssert... but don't go crazy and dive headfirst into the alcohol and/or sugar. Honestly you will enjoy yourself much more if you are in control of what you eat and drink than if you think "fuck it" and fall off the wagon. The most important thing is for you to decide before you go what your limits are. If the decision is already made then you will be much less tempted by carby foods. So make a plan and stick to it, for example no more than 4 units of alcohol per day, and no more than one high carb food per day. And look ahead to when you come back from your trip. Aren't you going to be delighted to come on here and post that you were in a difficult position for food and you managed it really well. Think about how proud we will all be of you.

My favourite restaurant is an Italian and when I go there I have things like rocket salad with Parmesan, tomato and mozarella or prawns (not sure if you are pescatarian) with a special side dish of wilted spinach in garlic (can never do it at home as nicely as they do it )

I'd try not to worry too much - keep your water intake well up and even if you have some carbs, you should still be ok for fitting into your dress on the Sunday.

The impact of the carbs will probably take a few days to fully hit your body - so be ready to get back on the wagon when you get back

Welcome to those newly joining us-it’s great to see more people buying into (or returning to) this WOE.

Mini milestone for me today-I reached 30lbs loss since I started on 16th April. It’s not even half of what I’d like to lose but it feels like a substantial number and that I’m really doing it now if that makes sense. Very pleased and will spur me on over the weekend!

Happy sunny weekend all!

OMG Divette I think I've lost about 4lbs in that same time! Well done. I'm on the home straight though the charts on frame size and ideal weight over the last day or so confirmed I definitely want to reduce goal from 120 to 115 so bit more work to do.

Morning all, I just wanted to check in as I read the thread religiously but don't say much. I've found it such a support when struggling for meal ideas, before and afters and general 'is it just me?' type queries!
I've stuck it out for the full 8 weeks and really hope that something has changed in me. I do sometimes feel like I absolutely need to have a buttered crumpet or some other comfort stodge but I've realised that this is pure emotional eating completely tied into hormones/cycles etc. I had a Mirena coil removed at the beginning of BC and I think that may have muddled things up a bit.
But I've loved BC and feel slightly panicky about it ending!
And to all of you dealing with huge real life issues, lots of warm thoughts to you

Hi thing101. I think the recipe threads with the support are part of what makes bootcamp so easy and so successful.

We had low carb waffles for breakfast! They were lovely. I have only done one bit of low carb baking before and I haven’t “cheated” (except for 4 small ice creams in a 2 week holiday) in the whole 6 months of bootcamp. DH and DD also liked them
Recipe here (and I’ll add it to the recipes thread)
sugarfreelondoner.com/almond-butter-waffles-grain-free/

hope, yes, that book is US measures only. It doesn’t bother me as I cook by eye and taste anyway and never bake anymore, can’t stand the concept of low carb baking. But as others have said, a cheap set of cups is your friend, rather than doing conversions.

Don't worry thing101 - the final Boot Camp thread will continue as a general support thread until it fills up. And if that's before the next Boot Camp starts, another interim thread will be started.

This is a Way of Eating, not a diet, so we don't stop between Boot Camps

When is the next boot camp?