May '19 Low Carb Bootcamp - week 1

[BIWI]

So here we are!

Lots of us signed up this time, so inevitably the thread will move very quickly. Please, though, take the time to read the whole thread!. Although this is a place where you can post your daily menus, or your thoughts and questions, please don't just do this, but read what other people have posted too.

A bit thank you to the very lovely @AthelstaneTheUnready who has set up the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness.

The Spreadsheet

If your name isn't on there, don't panic! Just add yourself to the bottom of the list. Don't worry about trying to alphabetise it - that will be sorted out for you. (And if you're on the spreadsheet but don't want to be, don't worry - if you don't post on it your name will be taken off)

Here's a brief recap of the rules:

1. Eat three proper meals a day
2. Avoid processed foods
3. Eat plenty of fat
4. Make sure you are eating plenty of vegetables and salad
5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter which is unlimited)
6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water a day
7. No alcohol
8. No fruit
9. No nuts/seeds

10.No sugar or artificial sweeteners

The full rules are here . They're supposed to be stickied at the top of the Low Carb Bootcamp topic (along with the recipe threads), but for some reason they're stickied at the top of page 2!

Remember that after the first two weeks we can relax some of this, and move on to Bootcamp Light, which means that you can add some fruit (berries mainly), alcohol (in moderation) and nuts and seeds (again, in moderation), but the point of the strict initial phase is to help push your body into burning fat for fuel rather than carbohydrate.

And remember - if you cheat, you will only be delaying this process from happening!

Good luck to everyone. Any questions or problems, just shout!

Morning, I know I shouldn't weight myself everyday but it's a habit now, and the scales say I've lost 1.5lbs in 2 days ! I'm assuming that's just water loss or are my scales broken 🤣 !

Anyways last night I had roast chicken and fried courgettes, mushrooms, spinach and cauliflower, they were fried with curry spices to give flavour. My husband ate the same which was good so no double cooking and he's already cooked for the children earlier. It's so great to have his support, I know he loves me what ever size I am but I know that I am more comfortable with my self when I lose weight.

This morning I had left over veg with the scrambled eggs.

I prepared my lunch for work last night so hace chicken, salad, avocado and eggs. With cheese and celery for a snack if I need it.

I'm feeling really happy about the food plans, my biggest stress is bad breath ! I've got to work closely with someone on the computer today to show them how to do some stuff, but so paranoid about my breath! Is all chewing gum bad or is there one we could use ?
Hope everyone has a good day

I weigh daily, it sets my head up for the day, and means I can see the overall trend even when I get a round-up. If it works, I'd do it! If it doesn't, pack it in

That said, it is now 6 pounds down since I started last Wednesday.

Sneaks back in at the back of the room and sits down very quietly

Morning! Lots of lovely sounding meal plans here. Today I am going for:

B: Asparagus & feta fried eggs (I have a lot of asparagus to use up)
L: Aubergine & chorizo stew
D: Avocado & bacon salad

Hoping to fit in a swim and a bit of walking. Time to slowly start getting back into the idea of exercising.

I'm checking in. Have done bootcamp before and lost about 18lbs but just sort of stopped, although my way of eating is different and still probably lowish carb.

Might do bootcamp light, just so I can have a bit of fruit, and pepper.

Have about 30ish lbs to lose.

@3brightstars3
I know I shouldn't weigh myself everyday. Who says?! If it works for you, then go for it. I know that the minute I stop weighing daily it's because I'm taking my eye off the ball, and I'm much more likely to cheat!

Re the bad breath, this should be temporary, and you can use sugar-free gum in the short term. Drinking lots (more!) water should also help

@Nameusernameuser (and all those who are already on Bootcamp Light) please, if you're not following the stricter first two weeks, please can you not talk about eating fruit/nuts/drinking alcohol during this period of time? It can be very triggering for people, especially those new to Bootcamp. TIA

pretends not to see @prettybird

Checking in to say hello, a day late but better late than never. Last BC I signed up and almost immediately fell off the wagon and the wheels fell off - derailed and i gave up.

This one will be better, though. I did BC last year and loved it but found it hard when l experienced two family bereavements in close succession. My head wasn't in the right place for it and, unsurprisingly, my weight shot up. Back on it now, though, and committed.

Nice to see some familiar names on here and lots of new ones too. We can do this!

Day 1 for me and I've just had a (late) breakfast of eggs scrambled with butter and spinach, topped with smoked salmon. It was very tasty.

Still need to weigh myself - the machine at the gym kept rejecting my pound.

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal I know you mean your pound (money) but for some reason, I thought you meant your pound (weight) and I just imagined some Mumsnetter in a gym somewhere going, “That’s not what I weigh, you bastard!” at the scale.

I mean, of course, we all do that at the bastard scale sometimes...

I’m down a pound! I know it’s water weight but... still. It’s progress, even if it’s water. It means I did something intentional about changing my weight, even if it was drink the water and go to the loo eighty billion times, ha.

@TheWayofTheWorld well done! You will find that it gets easier to resist things like that. Eventually they become an interesting concept, rather than something you really, ferociously desire.

@MrsBertBibby doesn't look to me like you messed up! OK you didn't have breakfast, but that was a true 'life gets in the way' moment, which will happen to us all at some point. And the choices you made were all good ones, so I'd say 'well done you'. And you're 6lbs down already, which is really good

@ Doilooklikeatourist

Perhaps this is a good time to bring up takeaway options for when they can't be avoided?

For my curry needs i usually choose a tandoori dish (dry) like a mixed tandoori starter and have that with a cauliflower/mushroom bahji.

Kebab is also a good option. go for a shish lamb or chicken with salad and mayo/garlic mayo and chilli sauce.

Chinese is hard, best avoided- stirfry veg and plain meat
Thai is hard but doable - satay chicken, salads, aromatic duck minus pancakes and hoisin etc.

That is probably exactly what I would have done if I'd got the scales to work, @RightYesButNo!

Morning. Too much too soon at the gym and now I’m doing my best John Wayne walk!
Breakfast: Fage Total 5% yoghurt for breakfast with a cup of tea and splash of milk.
For lunch I’m having the Keto cauliflower cheese using the recipe on here. Thanks BIWI. I’ve added so much cheese though. Hope not too much.

Everyone’s posts are so motivating. Thank you!

Day 2 - some of you, especially those new to low carbing, and who may have had a very high carb intake previously, may now start to experience carb withdrawal, or 'carb flu' as it's sometimes known.

Here's a piece from The Diet Doctor (which is a brilliant website) that explains the whole thing.

The key thing to take away from this (apart from the fact that it's only temporary!) is that we all need more salt - sodium is one of the key electrolytes, and when we're drinking the amount of water that we are (you are, aren't you?! ) it's even more important.

So cook with salt and add it to your food. If you're really suffering, have a hot drink made from Oxo or Bovril or Marmite or bouillon.

Magnesium and potassium are the other key electrolytes, and you can get these from salmon, avocado, spinach and full fat natural yoghurt.

You can buy electrolyte tabs called Zero, made by High5. You can buy these from Holland & Barrett or Evans Cycles, or from the High5 website. They're zero carbs and calories (hence the name!). They do have sweeteners, but used over a few days to help reduce your symptoms, they will be fine.

For my curry needs

For some reason that turn of phrase tickled me. . And cerealkiller you’re right about Chinese, though our local restaurant offers chicken lettuce wraps, which seems to fit the bill. Hot & Sour soup also seems okay.

I have two eggs in the house and am eating mozzarella/tomato salad with slices of ham for breakfast. Perhaps I should go to the shop.

doesn’t give @prettybird a big smile and say hi

Thanks BIWI, I’m ok so far. I’m hoping the full fat yoghurt for breakfast will help with this. I’ll take heed and add salt when cooking my green veggies tonight.

www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/cauliflower-chicken-alfredo
Chicken Alfredo , a big hit in the tourist house hold , and liked on the last Bootcamp too
Pork scratchings , I really like these as I missed the crunch you get with high carb ( toast ) food

@Iamnotaceralkiler , thanks for the tips , I will have a good old look at the menu , Tandoori is a good suggestion 👍

I’ve been known to add pork scratchings to salads when I miss that lovely crunch of croutons...

Haven’t eaten yet - hoping I won’t get the big stick for this, but I don’t routinely eat breakfast and it’s a lot easier for me to stick to my routine. I have low carbed on and off for years so no breakfast is just normal for me now.

Planning devilled eggs for lunch. Not sure what we will have for dinner yet.

Are pork scratchings ok in the first two weeks? I had some as an emergency yesterday, but thought I should stay clear of them as they are just satisfying my cravings for sweet things, and I think I need to work through my cravings rather than succumb...

Anyway, I snuck a look at the scales and have lost a few pounds, that is likely just digested food versus undigested food on Monday morning as I was snacking up to midnight on Sunday night.…

Doing better today with water today, and breakfast was fried ham, mushrooms using butter, and scrambled eggs.

Went to bed 'early' yesterday to help stop the snack cravings. (Early for me, normal bedtime for most people!). That really helped and I feel better for it today. Probably a few other bad habits that need to be dealt with as well as the bad eating.

Low level headache has started, going to take the paracetamol (and will add salt to my meals, no need for the stick BIWI ). No point in suffering needlessly, would just make me dwell on it and so make it harder.

Hmm. OK. I'll rest the Big Stick if you're a seasoned low carber. Just don't go giving any newbies any ideas ...

Thank you BIWI!

I suppose I should have just been quiet about it... [blush

Morning Campers! I first did keto then LCHF a few years ago and loved it. Got a third of the way to goal before being rudely interrupted by Christmas/Birthday/holiday and never fully got back into it. Until now! I did keep a lot of the good habits i.e. swapping carbs for veg in lots of meals and generally being much more aware of empty unnecessary carbs, but otherwise the poundage returned and I have been bouncing up and down within about 10lbs of my heaviest weight ever since.

In March I sort of accidentally fell into LC again after a bit of fasting followed by massively reducing carbs. After a few weeks I decided to LC properly and reckon I’m on about week 5/6 now. I use MFP because I like to track everything on there from weight, activity and water, as well as food.

On 6th March I had 56 pounds to lose to get to goal weight, that figure is now 42. I’m not really sure what will suit me these days as I’m a good decade+ older since gaining the weight. Might need to be less (or more ) than that.

I am so bloody glad this BC has finally started because during an internet trawl for all things LC, I found the last BC thread and had been following it just as it was coming to the end! So I went back and started reading from week 1. It has been getting a bit thin on the ground for posts on the ‘End of the line’ thread!
So having felt massively inspired by you lot, and enjoying the company from a lurking position, I decided to dust off the old MN login and join this one.

Anyway, that’s my epic intro post done --see username--
Thanks again BIWI (and Athelstane and Stuntnun for all the science stuff) You deserve a medal for all that you do, not to mention not losing your shit with posters at times! Gold star for patience --never leave me in charge-- Best of luck everyone, and KOKO! [fatty cut of meat and a courgette]