January Low Carb Bootcamp - the preparation and planning thread!

[BIWI]

Hi all

We have around 100 people signed up already for the next Bootcamp, which starts on 14 January.

Bootcamp is designed to be easy to follow - although it's not necessarily an easy experience (the clue is in the name!)

To ensure that you succeed, and can follow it for the full 10 weeks, preparation and planning is essential. The world isn't made for low carb eaters, so you do need to make sure that you've planned your meals and food/supermarket shopping in advance - but you can't do any of this without knowing more about how Bootcamp works!

So this thread will be a series of posts from me about things to think about, and hints and tips as to how to go about it. Hopefully previous Bootcampers will also chip in with their ideas and suggestions.

So here's the first post - what we do/don't eat on Bootcamp:

Foods we don’t eat at all on Bootcamp:

Pasta/noodles/rice (not even brown or wholewheat)
Bread (including wraps, pitta, bagels, crumpets, muffins, poppadums, naan bread – and anything covered in breadcrumbs or using breadcrumbs, e.g. stuffing)
Pastry
Sugar (which also means no honey, agave syrup, maple syrup)
Sweets and biscuits
Flour (including cornflour), so beware anything with a sauce that’s been thickened
Balsamic vinegar (all other vinegars are fine)
Potatoes (and also sweet potatoes and sweet corn)
Crisps/tortillas/salty snacks (of any kind or variety!)
Beer/cider/sweet liqueurs

Food that we do eat:

Any meat, poultry, fish and seafood (avoiding processed products as much as possible)
Eggs
Vegetables and salad
Cheese
Butter
Cream
Full fat yoghurt (natural only – nothing with fruit or sweetened)
Olive oil, coconut oil, lard

After the first two weeks of Bootcamp you can also re-introduce some fruit (berries mainly), as well as nuts and seeds, and also some alcohol – but all of this in moderation!

Sorry to keep asking questions but is Skyr allowed? I had a look at carb counts today and it looks quite high and it also says low in fat so I would have thought not, but it does also say high protein so I am confused.

Koala Skyr isn't great as it's low fat. Go for full fat Greek yogurt. Lidl do a really cheap one that comes in a huge tub and it's lovely.

Do I need to be concerned about proportion of protein to fat? I realise it's high fat but I think it would be easy to eat too much protein. Is there a percentage I should aim for? I am still tracking on mfp.

Can I sign up here or do I need to do it elsewhere?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3466783-The-next-Low-Carb-Bootcamp-starts-on-14-January

Sign up page

Thanks bandit34, now signed up!

I've signed up. I've never low carbed before but I'm experimenting this week after also toying with the idea of the Fast800/New 5:2 diet. The only rule I've broken so far is having a small amount of brown rice with a curry and on reflection could probably have just replaced that with green veg, so I think HFLC might work for me.

I work in a school and get free school lunches so that's a bit challenging. There is a salad bar everyday although sometimes the protein choice comes wrapped in pastry! There also seem to be a lot of green beans and unfortunately I see those are not on the green/go list.

I've signed up too. I'd like to lose about a stone to get into my Grandma's dress she had when she was 18, back in the 1930s.

I can't see any mention of pulses either on allowed foods or foods to avoid. Can you eat them?

@1stMrsF

Sadly, pulses aren't allowed on Bootcamp, as they're too carby.

Re the green beans, just because they're not on the green/go list doesn't mean you can't eat them - just eat them in moderation or occasionally.

And welcome!

As an example, 100g of cooked lentils is 10.9g carbs, and 100g cooked chickpeas is 16.5g carbs.

This also means that 10.6g of carbs per 100g, hummus is also out of the picture for now.

Sorry!

What is the best source of protein as a vegetarian? I eat pulses most days

Thank you BIWI that is a bit scary as I'd been eyeing up the vegetarian alternatives at school but I will have to find another plan!

As a vegetarian, you can get protein from nuts and seeds (which you are allowed on Bootcamp from the get go).

Interestingly, some vegetables also are a source of protein (I didn't know that!), including broccoli, spinach, asparagus, artichokes, and Brussels sprouts.

You could also include tofu in your diet.

It might be worth getting hold of this book

I have to be honest and say I'm not very clued up about vegetarian diets. I know it's not as easy to low carb if you're vegetarian (and I think it's even harder if you're a vegan!), so taking advice from an expert is a good idea.

The recipe book that goes with this diet has some really lovely ideas in it too.

Thanks BIWI for all the work you do for BC..It is very much appreciated .

I have eased into it this week on a' transition' basis from my Autumn/ Christmas overload and being 10lbs up from he end of summer BC.. having totally failed to do last BC after week 1 due to personal circumstances ..

So this week it has been no alcohol (hard in itself!) ,with LCHF meals but plenty of veggies (probably more than is allowed) , but the plan is/ was to avoid carb flu and a cliff -edge change to my diet.. I have already lost 2 lbs in 4 days , so that's a good start to committing properly on Monday ....Looking forward to it ..

Ive also been stocking the freezer with cheap meat when I have seen it , to help budget. One thing I have found is that Sainsburys have been stocking mahoosive turkey legs really cheaply since Christmas , ( I presume because of all the turkey crowns sold) , so I now have a 'turkey octopus' in my freezer!

Also .. remember everyone...Water, water, water, and more water ........ Really important ..

at turkey octopus!

(and thank you)

@MrsKoala How have you found Tom Kerridge's Dopamine book? I was thinking of getting it, but noticed some reviewers said that it was impossible to get some of the ingredients, and was too 'cheffy' whatever that means.

I'm keen to batch cook too, and would like to find some nice recipes.

Have you looked at the Bootcamp recipe threads, @ElasticFirecracker? They're stickied at the top of the Bootcamp topic

I probably wouldn't recommend it unless you were a collector of recipe books like I am (I just sit reading them for fun!). If you are like me and use it for ideas and change things you want and skip or add steps then i'd say get it. If you like to follow a recipe to the letter then don't bother. The recipes are loooong and unnecessarily complicated (like roasting your mince before putting it in the frying pan )

Last night I made the curry I linked but I used pork mince, I omitted the desiccated coconut and the tin of tomatoes - I replaced the liquid with a can of water. I also added a packet of green beans. It came out really well and I got 6 portions from it rather than the 4 suggested. I think it will be nice served with chopped up boiled eggs or a couple of crispy fried eggs on top.

This is what it looked like. I’d say if you were looking for a good recipe book for boot camp the idiot proof diet one works well. I found it really helpful last boot camp I did (particularly the mousaka iirc - which I had at least twice a week!)

I’ve been looking thru my old delia books and have got some good meat ones from there and will just do puréed swede/cauliflower, dauphinois celeriac, etc instead of her suggested spuds.

@MrsKoala I used to love cooking and collect cookery books, but have just completely lost interest in food & cooking over the last few years. I would like to try to rekindle this interest, and to make some nice good food. If the recipes are over complicated then I'm sure that won't be good for me. I was particularly excited by the possibility of a dopamine boost which I think I am badly in need of!

I'm also really keen on batch cooking, there are some days that it's really hard for me to put a meal together, and having stuff prepared is a life saver.

@BIWI I hadn't seen the recipes, thank you. I'm going through them now.

I second the suggestion of the Idiot Proof Diet recipe book.

General preparation and planning

So this is the last weekend before we start! Time to make sure that you've cleared your fridge/cupboard of all those carby temptations. Hopefully by now all the Christmas goodies have gone ...

It's a really, really good idea to plan out carefully your week's food/meals, especially a) for the first week and b) if you're new to low carbing.

The world isn't very forgiving when it comes to low carbing, so meals 'on the hoof' that haven't been planned for can be tricky, especially if you're out and about.

So work out what you're going to cook and make sure you've stocked up on easy low carb foods and meals. Don't try to suddenly become Gordon Ramsay with your cooking! Keep it all easy to achieve - perhaps look at the meals you already make, and see which of those would count as low carb, or which could easily be made low carb.

Go and peruse the Bootcamp recipe threads for inspiration - they're all stickied at the top of the Bootcamp topic - and then go and do your shopping so you have all the ingredients to hand.

One other key thing is to try and cook meals that all the family will eat - you're much more likely to have success if you're all eating the same thing, rather than having to cook separately for yourself. And this will also make it feel much more normal and less like a diet.

At this stage, especially if you're new to low carbing, I'd advise against trying to find substitutes for too many things - for example, you'll never find a low carb bread that is really like the bread you enjoy now, and so you'll always feel hard done by if you're trying to find a substitute. If you have different meals where bread would never have been present, it will be much more positive and rewarding for you.

That said, there are some things that are as enjoyable - for example, mashed celeriac or cauliflower are great in place of mashed potato. They aren't the same, and don't have the same texture, but they are very tasty and can easily be used in place of potato. Indeed, sometimes people prefer them.

I agree about Tom Kerridge's Dopaime Diet book: it's a bit faffy

I'm a collector of cook books and a relatively confident cook, so I've found it useful for inspiration.

But for the rest of you, you can make use of his recipes vicariously as those of us who do have the book can post those recipes that do work on the recipe threads, suitably simplified and annotated