Week 5 - So-called 'summer' low carb Bootcamp - a soggy start!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Here's the spreadsheet

Hopefully we will all have successfully navigated the dreaded weeks 3 and 4, and can move seamlessly into week 5, where the scales should be set to be kind to us from now on. The rate of loss will be slower from here on, but a weekly loss of 1-2lbs should be achievable.

I have an interesting week, as our kitchen extension gets underway. At the same time, I have family visiting from Canada, so providing for them is going to be interesting! I suspect we'll be visiting a lot of local hostelries over the next 3 days

Anyway, good luck everyone, and hope this is a good week for us all.

Just logging food.
B: 3 eggs scrambled with feta and spinach
L: salmon with FLGV
D. Slice of ham and cheese. Pack of scratchings.

I cycled 30K this morning and my legs did not feel tired. Hard to know why as I've taken Berocca and magnesium for a few days, but I'm crediting last night's pack of salty scratchings.

DH wants an Indian takeaway tonight, what are good choices? I'm thinking a chicken bhuna or chicken dopiaza is probably the way to go, maybe with some saag paneer?

Been a bit AWOL , as we’ve been so busy ( summer season 🌧, wedding anniversary, and DD off to America )

I was convinced I’d had a gain ( as I gave into chocolate digestives and wine ) but I was brave and stood on the scale , and there’s a lb off

KOKO , and hope to be better from now on

Will read up on the thread tonight , so I can catch up on all the gossip 👍

Scales are staying at Sunday's weight which is good as I slipped with chips and hot chocolate on Monday at the concert. Hoping I've done enough for 1lb to come off by Monday so will koko. Park run is Saturday and going to be wet which is less appealing than usual. I really wish I could convince myself to love running.

to those struggling, I get it

verylittleowl chicken tikka, sag paneer with cut up cucumber in ff yoghurt is my go to Indian take away

Nearly at 11 stone which is astonishing - a stone off and it’s only week 5. Half a stone to go which I hope will be easily achievable by the end of BC

I feel extremely energetic and I have my cheekbones back

Wow almahart that’s fantastic! Puts me to shame though.
Clover thanks for your inspiring post, what an amazing achievement you must feel great.
I have nsv, yesterday I had to collect 3 large trays of over 100 freshly baked bread rolls & take them in my car, the smell was AMAZING! Not 1 bite passed my lips!
Food was taken on the run as busy & disorganised.
Bacon, tomato, poached eggs
Cafe ‘homemade garden veg soup’ which arrived & was clearly packaged with lots of lentil & beans, annoying.
Ham, coleslaw & an orange.
Piece of cheese, small glass of wine

@verylittleowl, I have found takeaway curries to taste very sweet now so be prepared for that! I usually go for more dry dishes now.

My local place does lamb kofte wrapped in omlette and tandoori chicken chunks with cheese so I usually have those with saag paneer.

Morning all, checking in for some accountability. I had a very testing day with my 3 year old yesterday alongside the ongoing period from hell resulting in emotional eating of carby food. I am so annoyed with myself.

Back on it today, lots of water and a nice lunch planned of leftover beef and celeriac stew to warm me up on this cold and windy summers day.

Oh and I also meant to say, thanks to all for sharing their challenges. It makes me feel like I'm not alone in life.

Clover thanks for posting your story, and great to know that you are maintaining your new weight and lifestyle.

Meal planning for the next couple of days (got grandchildren to stay and a barbeque to go to)

B - avocado
L - celeriac remoulade with ham
D - Thai fish cakes and salad, raspberries and cream

Tomorrow:
B - frittata with spinach and bacon
L - tuna mayonnaise, salad
D - BBQ (meat of some sort, I hope) I'm making creamy celeriac remoulade, and a rainbow coleslaw

Then on Sunday it is all change. I start my week of the Ration Challenge - rice, beans, lentils, chickpeas all the things that we don't eat on here. Thanks to generous sponsorship I have 'earned' 120g of protein, 170g vegetable and a luxury item (which for me will be full fat yogurt). There's a lot of bulk and calories so I won't starve but there is very little variety and it serves to underline how much I enjoy the woe that comes with lchf.

So I'm going to weigh in on Sunday morning, then I'll not be around for the rest of the week, don't think I want to read all the delicious food choices that you are all making!!

Thanks :) I'm not keen on their Tandoori chicken tikka or shashlik, which are their driest dishes, because they smother them in mushrooms, which I hate, and they come with a curry sauce which I think is thickened with a lot of potato. I've just spotted a chicken passanda, 'A mild rich dish cooked with butter, ground almonds and fresh cream', which sounds like it might be quite good, so I'm going to try that, I think.

@MrsKoala I have a selection of fussy eaters combined with dietary needs, and I usually end up making 4 different meals which are often a variation on each other. What I find really helps is making large quantities of things and keeping them in the fridge in glass Pyrex storage dishes. I am famed for my neatly stacked glass dishes in the fridge and this is therefore probably quite outing. It really helps, as it is more a matter of just serving up.

Was a couple of days ago now but well done wasgoingmad on swerving the carbs Hope your big meal on Sat goes LC smoothly.

BIWI - as always, you are so right.
Thank you SO much for your endless support and encouragement on these threads. I’m sure if every poster/lurker said it as often as we think it, the threads would be back to back thanks/compliments. I don’t know what you did in a previous life to deserve all of us, but we are very grateful

Nink I have been thinking about you and also missed your posts. Hope the cloud lifts soon x (hug)

I couldn’t find the bloody cheese crisp things in my Sainsbury’s Maybe we’re not deemed a refined enough local demographic to stock them? There is another slightly larger one nearby, will try there. Failing that will move.

I did look at the website of the company who makes them and they do free delivery on over £15. They have other LC friendly snacks inc a selection for £17- just feels like a bit of an indulgence for what still looks like a fairly small quantity of food. Might be worth a punt once though. For research purposes.

Greebol and Leelaseye

Well done on what must be a tough week Nigella!

If we don’t see you again before you go into radio silence mode, good luck for next week Venus! I don’t envy you and the farts but am well impressed, and sending you lots of virtual sponsorship.

And now for some very British chat... it’s bloody feeezing here! I am in layers, and under blankets. Was going to make soup for lunch but too cold to motivate myself, lazy moo that I am. So it’ll probably be a reliably quick omelette/frittata type affair. For a change...

Am sure the lack of sunshine is prob contributing to lower mood levels for posters too. It def swings the odds of feeling a ‘lift’ when it’s sunny. Where has the fair weather gone? I can’t remember the last time it was consistently this dull and cool through spring.

Mind, you could bet your house on it that if it were warm right now, I would be the one complaining about the brightness and heat

This time last year it was glorious. I was on a sailing course ⛵️ in the Isle of Wight and also doing boot camp. I brought tonnes of avocados and cheese with me. My shipmates were a bit

verylittleowl - I find that the ‘creamy’ sauces from Indian tend to taste very sweet. Agree with previous poster about sauces in general tasting sweet, I was shocked when I had a veg madras(!!) as a spicy/saucy side recently.

Having said that, I’ve been giving it some thought and I think worst case scenario, based on personal cooking experience, there isn’t going to be a huge amount of actual sugar in the recipes. A tsp or two? And we all know that our tastebuds register things as much sweeter after doing this woe for a while. So my thinking now is, as long as the rest of the ingredients aren’t obviously high carb items - potatoes etc, then as long as you can trust yourself against the potential calling of the carb creep, and you’re not having them everyday, it probably isn’t that bad.

Certainly weighing up the pros/cons, it’s better to enjoy a slightly sweet tasting sauce now and then, than to get fed up and bored with lack of choice and think fuck it entirely and face plant a peshwari naan and a bag of popadoms??...

*disclaimer: I know nothing and stand to be corrected/sticked.

Our local does a brinjal bhaji which is a dry-ish aubergine curry and not sweet. Delicious and tastes really satisfying in a fatty meat type way.

That reminds me, I never did find that avocado

As a non swimmer, terrified of the open sea, I can’t think of anything worse! But I’m very impressed by that, and your dedication to BC. Does prove that it can be done. Us land dwellers have no excuse!

It's Friday in the office and there's cake everywhere! Honestly it's ridiculous. I work in health care! You feel guilty saying no as if you're criticising someone's baking skills if you don't eat.

Thanks all for the tips. I'm trying to get a bit more organised and have dug out the Dean Edwards cook slow book which has a few nice recipes which are suitable or at least easily adaptable. Today i'm trying the chicken thigh curry which is smelling nice and bubbling away already. The problem with curries and bologneses or things you normally have with rice and pasta is I just feel so deprived with cauli rice (which imo is nothing like rice not remotely the same texture or sauce absorbancy) and courgetti/veg. I look at dhs plate with rice and naan and poppadoms and mango chutney and then look at my sad bowl of chicken curry and cauli rice and after I feel so unsatisfied.

I know what you mean about curry @MrsKoala

I feel smug about most food (ha ha I get the yummy bits and you bulk with carbs) but curry is supposed to have a naan FGS. Pasta, I can live with courgetti or just extra cheese on bolognese, but curry is hard.

I was at a conference yesterday and normally I eat like a pig. Free cake. But yesterday I had the cooked breakfast, lunch was the inside of sandwiches and salad. I got a few knowing looks form (I assume) fellow lo-carbers) who saw the pile of bread.

It's made me realise how much sugar I actually eat. Everyday, not so much, but at a conference I would have had cake, I also would have availed myself of the vending machine in the hotel for some chocolate. I think of it as a one-off but I travel for work a lot. Add to that wine at conferences... and juice, which I never have at home. That's a lot of sugar.

BIWI - as always, you are so right.
Thank you SO much for your endless support and encouragement on these threads. I’m sure if every poster/lurker said it as often as we think it, the threads would be back to back thanks/compliments. I don’t know what you did in a previous life to deserve all of us, but we are very grateful 

I absolutely agree @18pagesfrontandback

Thank you!

When I started Bootcamp the idea was to create something more strict for myself. I was on a long-running series of low carb threads, but just wasn't getting anywhere - fannying around, cheating, sometimes being good, so decided to give myself something more structured.

When I posted about it, asking if others wanted to join in, I thought there would be a handful - ended up with 80 straight away, which was a bit of a shock!

I had no idea what I'd created

For the most part I really enjoy doing them - although it was sometimes very testing when I was working full-time, especially as my job often involved travel and was very full on.

Each Bootcamp is different, which is what keeps it interesting and, it has to be said, some are more challenging than others! There was one Bootcamp where I almost walked away from it in week 1!

I feel like this is a little corner of Mumsnet which embodies the values of Mumsnet when it was in its heyday (as sadly I think it's a shadow of its former self now) - in other words, a real community of people who are here to help and support each other. And I love being a part of that.

But none of it would work if it wasn't for all of you who take part and contribute.

So thank you all

Thank you all for your kindness. 🌷

And absolutely, thank you to BIWI for the hard work and commitment you put into this year after year. 💐

Yes MrsTP, steak and pepper sauce and anything which I still get a 'carb' component replacement like roast meat with celeriac dauphinoise, or gammon with cauli cheese bake, sausage and mashed swede etc I am fine with, but anything with rice replaced with cauli and pasta or noodles replaced with courgetti and I feel cheated and unsatisfied.

I have high hopes for todays curry however as the recipe has spuds in instead of serving it on rice and I have replaced the spuds with swede. DH can still have his naan but as least I get something which replicates carbs a bit. If it's nice i'm going to try it with lamb breast as it has star anise, cloves and cinnamon among other things and I think lamb would suit it better maybe.

And thanks BIWI. This morning I was despairing of my wardrobe and lack of clothes. In desperation I tried on a t-shirt dress that I hate. Turns out I hated myself in it, not the actual clothing It now looks quite nice.

That's you, that is. Without these threads that would not have happened. So thanks for my NSV. You and my running group leader, who also does it for free, for years.