Week 3 - Low Carb Bootcamp - which way will you go?

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the spreadsheet

So a few mixed results so far. Hopefully there will be some more good ones on the spreadsheet!

I suspect that what a lot of you are coming to realise is that this isn't a way of eating that can allow you to cheat or even to take your eye off the ball.

In this initial phase, while we're aiming to become fat-adapted, it's really important that you keep your carbs as low as you can (within sensible limits - this is not a a zero carb diet - you should be eating enough veg and salad to get good nutrition, which will mean you're eating carbs)

I know that sometimes it's impossible. I'm in a situation where tonight I'm being cooked for, by people who have no idea I'm low carbing, and who haven't asked if there's anything I can/can't eat - so I'll just have to accept it. But whilst it's within your control, you really do need to stay strong.

Now.

This is the start of the infamous week 3 (and next week, week 4) - and it's very, very, VERY common for weight loss to stop - or sometimes even for people to gain slightly, even if they're following the rules.

So. You can decide to stay on Bootcamp if you want to, to help deal with this, or you could move onto Bootcamp Light, which means you can start to add some fruit, some nuts and seeds and some alcohol back into your diet.

The operative word is 'some'! All in moderation - and not at every meal, every day - because this will mean that you won't see the weight loss you want to.

There are three options:

• stay on Bootcamp
• move to Bootcamp Light
• choose a hybrid - Bootcamp during the week, Bootcamp Light at the weekend

Whatever you choose, I hope that you have a good, positive and successful week.

Thank you for the McDonalds suggestions. It never occurred to me you could customise your burger! I had 2 burgers and cheese and lettuce and bacon and pickles and a side salad. I think I must have been the first person to ever order a salad because I said 'a shaker side salad please' (which is how it was described on the menu behind the guy) and he kept saying 'what flavour milkshake do you want'. We went round and round in circles like that for a bit and then I said I just wanted a salad and he said 'I don't think we have any of those'. A lady serving next to him said 'yes we do do salad' and he looked really shocked

Anyway we got there in the end. I Had a revelation while eating it too. I realised I don't hate McDonalds, I just hate the buns. I really enjoyed the burger today and usually I am forcing it down because I am just hungry and the kids have chosen there to eat.

As for the pork belly conversation. I like the squishy fat. But i do make it more crispy sometimes (often for breakfast). I don't roast it whole but roast it in strips low and slow for an hour so the fat renders out (I leave the strips out uncovered and salted to dry for a few hours first then sprinkle with whatever herbs I want depending on my plans for it). Then I put it in a Tupperware and pour over the fat and leave it to cool and put in the fridge. It's almost like a confit of duck. Then when I want it for breakfast or a stir fry, I shake it out of the fat and cut it into chunks/lardons and put the fat in the frying pan to melt. Turn it high. add the pork belly chunks back into the hot fat and crisp them up. I add veggies like mushrooms and leeks and courgettes too and maybe a green pepper and chillis and I might serve topped with a fried egg if it's for breakfast. It's a moveable feast but it is very crispy if that's what you are after and can adapt to what you want.

Indulged in a couple of glasses of wine this weekend, a glass of red with a steak is a thing of pleasure! But that's me done until next Saturday.

Menu for today,
Brunch: Fry up (Aldi pork sausages < 0.5g carb each!).
Dinner: Roast Pork,( ala BIWI!) with leek and celeriac dauphinoise , broccoli and just about to search the recipe sheets for something suitable to stuff large mushrooms with!

Oh, I love McDonalds SO much. I didn’t eat there for basically all of my 20s, and then had kids I’ve never asked for a bunless burger though, for fear of sounding like an arsehole. I just buy the burger and discard the bun, which is so wasteful.

I didn't consider for one moment that I sounded like an arsehole when I asked

You didn’t sound like an arsehole!

Arsehole free zone here.

Could be problematic later though 😃

I have come to the conclusion that part of the reason I am overweight is because I'm so lazy.

I love the sound of what MrsKoala did with the pork belly but I could never be arsed with that.

I'm always for the quickest easiest thing hence previously anything from a packet. I'm a very mediocre cook and whenever I do spend a few hours cooking I just think huh all that effort for 10 minutes eating.

Funnily enough I don't mind cooking the low carb stuff.

Breakfast was scrambled egg (less butter today) and avocado
Lunch was crab, lettuce, mayonaise and lemon
Dinner will be roast chicken and veg.

Cheese will be eaten at some point.

Thanks again for the love everyone!

I haven't done anything special at all, just started on the 15th October bootcamp weighing 18st 10lbs and followed the rules, losing 2st 2lbs. Then carried on over Christmas and New Year, stalled a bit, but lost another half a stone. Then joined this bootcamp and seem to be losing around 2lbs a week. The support on these threads has been so good for KOKO.

I'm doing Yoga and Pilates type classes at the gym and hope to progress to more energetic stuff as the weight comes down.

I have an awful lot to lose though and I've set my final target (131lbs) at exactly half my original body weight (262 lbs), but I've no idea how realistic that is, so set lots of little targets along the way.

Slinky do you reckon your self-proclaimed laziness is specific to cooking? Is it that you’re time poor or simply uninterested in food?

Did you ever learn to cook, were meals and food preparation/appreciation an important part of your childhood?

I’m curious, that’s all not making any judgments here—my cooking can be anywhere from full-on attempts at gourmet to ready meals, and mostly falls into tried and true cooking with as little chopping as possible. Christ, I have so many excellent gadgets to do that for me, because peeling and cutting is a complete waste of my life. But...I love eating and feeding!

Congrats toot that’s incredible!

tootstastic well impressed!!!! And well done!!!!

Anyone else drinking a couple of gallons of water in advance of tomorrow's weigh in? I've been rubbish at drinking water this week and I feel a little like I've not done my homework and BIWI is going to give me lines.

Well done @tootstastic must feel amazing to know you've lost such a significant amount 👏🏼

I've only managed 3L of water per day so far, is that really poor?

shagme (but please respect me in the morning)

I love food, love restaurants, love eating, love watching cookery programmes, isn't much I won't eat. I can cook I'm just very middle of the road. Mostly self taught (baking was encoraged at home but meals were very much my mother's domain and school was useless). I could bake cakes/biscuits til the cows come home but tire easily of cooking dinner. Strange because I prefer savoury over sweet. Cooking dinner is so boring.

I think if I was an amazing cook I would have more oomph for it but I am just average so after an hour of prepping and cooking I want more than a 10 minute average meal.

Also, I have been very spoilt as husband is brilliant cook and I've just let him get on with it.

Sometimes I enjoy it. Cooked a roast and it was lovely. It's just the night after night after night monotony of it all (husband only really cooks at weekends now due to job).

Thanks tools very inspiring!

Oh and as to lazyness? I'm both lazy and not lazy if that makes sense. I'll have blocks of time when I'm very productive, everything ship shape and in order and then blocks of time that I can just about do the bare minimum. Funnily enough these producive times coincide with when I am taking better care if myself, eating healthily, exercising and drinking less.

I didn't consider for one moment that I sounded like an arsehole when I asked

And I wasn’t insinuating that you did, so there’s no need to be offended @MrsKoala

But I rather suspect that if I asked for a bunless McDonalds burger, in the Essex town next door to mine (because, unlike me, my town is too middle class for a McDonalds) the staff would have never been asked that question before, and would look at me like I had two heads. So I’m too self conscious to ask. That’s all!

Ha, I'm not offended. I'm just such a bossy bitch I would never feel like an arsehole for asking for things the way I want them. I'm pretty sure no one has ever asked for a bunless burger here either and as I said the guy didn't even know they sold salad and I had to keep asking

Today
B - fried pork belly and mushrooms, broccoli and courgette
L - 2 burgers, cheese, bacon, lettuce, cucumber
D - roast chicken, cauli and leek cheese, and green beans
I had pudding envy and hand a few raspberries, a dollop of yogurt and some flaked almonds.

Thanks to whoever recommended asparagus tips in soft boiled or coddled eggs. Inspired!

Have to say the celeriac and leek gratin was lush and easily made up for missing out on roast potatoes, plus there's enough left over to do tomorrow, result!

Cauliflower waffles I might try it just to support the cause.

Does anyone have any decent coconut flour recipes? I bought some last year when I wanted to try Keto “muffins”. They mainly contained egg and coconut flour. They tasted like coconutty egg. I was so disappointed! I mean, I shouldn’t have been disappointed, knowing what they were made from, but I was so hoping for better.

So now I have a bag of expensive coconut flour and I’d love some tried and tested recommendations. Any sort of bread substitute would be great - as long as it doesn’t taste of coconut eggs

Sounds like you'd need more sweet recipes for that flour, Haworthia.

Today I had water for breakfast, haha. And herbal tea.

L: Salmon baked with frozen spinach, leeks and cabbage, plenty of butter and a dollop of mayo for dipping
Snack: 2 celery sticks with a smear of peanut butter, bowl of tomato & cream soup
D: roasted broccoli with butter, melted cheese on top (mostly cheddar but some blue cheese as well)

I could only eat a small amount of the broccoli, it was very rich. Good, but shockingly satiating.

Nervous/excited about weighing in tomorrow. I have had a few NSV this week - wedding rings fitting again, legs easier to cross. But I have no real idea if that will show up in numbers.

Haworthia I've borrowed a keto cookbook from my in-laws which has a couple, I'll have a peruse tomorrow. Only one I've tried has been a tuna pastie thing, using a dough made from coconut flour, cream cheese and mozzarella. Think the tuna cancelled out any coconutness. Whole thing tasted quite alright, but such a faff to make.

Perusing the cookbook for these recipes will be good, as like you, I also have a bag of expensive coconut flour only once used!!

I'm not expecting to have lost anything tomorrow as I've got the cold and that makes me retain water so that'll screw with the scales, but I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else does. I get quite motivated by others successes!!!

Haworthia - those flat breads I mentioned earlier (I posted the recipe in the pinned veggie thread) use coconut flour and don't taste coconutty (I don't actually like coconut )

Urgh have gained a pound this week

However, I thought I had gained 2lb, but when I went to put it on the spreadsheet it was only a one. . . this reminds me that Monday is always my heaviest day and it's not as bad as I thought.

I can see where I went wrong, but nevertheless I have spent the week turning down sweet treats and denying myself so it's a kick in the shins.

Oh well! Koko and all that. Hope you guys have better results!

@BalloonSlayer

I've also gained a pound since yesterday. I've eaten well, but I haven't had enough water, so hopefully easy to correct.

I am losing inches though and have developed an obsessive habit of trying on my smallest clothes at least daily.

NSV It'll be a good while before my white jeans fit comfortably, but I now know that if I were a fella, I'd dress to the left.