Preparing for Bootcamp
One of the key, most critical factors for success is planning and preparation. So this means:
- making sure you don't have low carb treats/foods to hand (as far as it's possible)
- planning what your meals are going to be for at least the next few days, if not the whole of the week. And that means all your meals, so things you would have at work as well, or on the go if you do a lot of travelling with work
- go and shop for low carb foods and make sure you have plenty of easy things to eat and snack on that are low carb
What vegetables should I be eating?
When I start the first chat thread on Monday, there will be a link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness, lovely and fantastically well created and managed by @AthelstaneTheUnready. At the bottom of the spreadsheet you'll find various tabs, all of which will take you to lots of great resources. One is a vegetable carb counter. Not only does this show you the carb count of various vegetables, it's also a counter - so if you want to, or need to, you can enter the weight of different veg you're cooking with, and it will work out how many carbs altogether.
I know that I say not to count carbs on Bootcamp, but when you're new to it, it can be helpful to do this, so you get an idea of how many carbs you're eating.
The carb counter is also very helpfully colour-coded - so anything green you can eat without having to worry about, anything amber is 'eat with caution/only occasionally' and red is - 'go very easy or avoid as much as you can!'
I've copied it for this post - the colours and formatting won't work on Mumsnet, for which apologies, but it does show you the carb counts of the different veg:
Vegetable Carbs per 100g
Mushrooms 0.4
Watercress 0.4
Spinach 0.8
Celery 0.9
Broccoli 1.1
Asparagus 1.4
Kale 1.4
Cavalo Nero 1.4
Samphire 1.5
Cucumber 1.5
Spinach 1.6
Lettuce 1.7
Fennel 1.8
Courgettes 1.8
Lettuce 1.9
Avocado flesh 1.9
Cauliflower 1.9
Radish 1.9
Turnip (white inside) 2
Pumpkin 2.2
Celeriac 2.3
Runner beans 2.3
Swede (orange inside) 2.3
Bean sprouts 2.5
Green pepper 2.6
Spring Greens 2.6
Baby sweetcorn 2.7
Aubergine 2.8
Leeks 2.9
Okra 3
Green beans 3.1
Cabbage 3.1
Tomato 3.1
Mangetout 3.3
Shallots 3.3
Brussels sprouts 3.5
Kalettes 3.9
French beans 4.7
Peas (sugar snap) 4.8
Yellow pepper 5.3
Carrots 6
Orange/red pepper 6.4
Ginger (peeled) 7.2
Butternut squash 7.5
Onions 7.9
Peas (garden) 9
Parsnips 12.5
Baby Potato 16.1
Potato 19.6
Sweetcorn (on the cob) 19.6
Beetroot 20
Sweetcorn (tinned) 20.1
Sweet Potato 21.3
As a rough rule of thumb, anything under 3 or 4g carbs per 100g can be eaten without having to worry.