Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - at last the finishing line!

[BIWI]

Isn't 10 weeks a long time!

The Spreadsheet of Fabulousness is here one last time

Although this is the last official weigh-in, this thread will stay up for general chat/support until the next Bootcamp - probably in October.

I hope everyone has a good 'final' result.

Every Bootcamp is different, but this one has, I have to say, been remarkably well behaved . I've lost the Big Stick somewhere in the back of a cupboard!

While I know you're all here and reading because I know people don't read all the posts if you want to take the opportunity to meet @ShagMeRiggins (and me) for a lighthearted Bootcamp style & beauty event probably with gin thrown in for good measure send me a PM!

@1stMrsF great photo and I have the same NSV with shorts.

It's a glorious day and I have just walked to the supermarket wearing shorts and a vest top It does help that I'm not long back from holiday so I don't have the usual grey / blue legs so common after a Scottish winter, but the biggest NSV is how different I feel about myself. 30 years ago (the last time I was this weight) I had low self-esteem and no body confidence, I wouldn't be seen dead in shorts, or baring my upper arms. Then as weight crept on it became worse. There are almost no holiday photos of me over a 10 year period because I made dh destroy them all.

Now, at knocking on 60, who cares?

Thanks to lchf approach I'm almost the same weight as I was at my booking in session for dc1 32 years ago, and the biggest plus is that I no longer need to take any blood pressure medication.

Yet, old habits and ways of thinking die hard. I still see a double chin in the mirror. I'm short and a natural apple shape and despite almost having a waist (hurrah!), I still look at myself and see a muffin-top and a round and sagging tummy. And of course I see all the other imperfections, the wrinkles, the big vein on my leg..... and so it goes on.

I've taken a couple of photos and yet I'm still prevaricating about whether to post them. So I'll be brave and I will. I'm wearing size 10 shorts and a strappy top that I've tucked in (just for the photo, I'd never go to the shops with it tucked in).

I'm pretty much at target weight so I'm also conscious of that. Some posters might feel motivated to know that this woe does yield results (3 stone in 2.5 years), but if you're feeing demotivated or struggling, then feel free to put two fingers up and spit at / ignore my next post.

ilovecherries I hadn’t realised you have no thyroid. Blimey, combined with your age, you are a walking, typing, poster girl for No Excuses. Hats off, babe.

Loving everyone’s photos because a) y’all look good and b) it shows your confidence to post them.

In this heat (I’m melting so fast I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West) PLEASE up the water even more. Please.

Oh, and really looking forward to those of you who are coming to the colour/style meet-up. I promise it will be fun and you’ll come away with something you didn’t know about how to look better.

I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare dream come true for people like you.

(With apologies to Liam Neeson.)

Since you are all being brave with your photos, here's mine. Sadly, my before picture wasn't my heaviest - I gained about another 1.5 stone after that. I need to go back to Grand Canyon and reshoot that photo - it was someplace I'd wanted to go for years, and it was horrible, I was so worn out by my weight in the heat. I'm also now about 9 lbs lighter than my after picture, mainly as I finally dealt with those K cups by having a breast reduction earlier this year.

First picture shows that the spacehopper apple shaped tummy has gone.

Second shows a gap between my thighs, NSV indeed. And no I don't have incredibly bandy legs

I’m loving all the photos!

Love seeing all the photos!

Hey all not been around much, have been busy with the baby and have had the decorators in (actual decorators, not a period euphemism!).

I'm 10lbs down since the start of june, but seem to be losing and gaining the same couple of pounds over the last 3 weeks . I know this is temporary, so I'm trying not to get too stressy about it

What's the deal with the whey protein shakes? I had one today made with soy milk and a bit of double cream - from the carb count alone it appears to be ok but is there anything I'm missing?

As part of the series of inspirational pictures, this is a picture of me from last year and the inset was taken almost exactly a year before that, when I was c4lb off my heaviest . There is 3 stone difference in the pictures (14st 11lb down to 11st 11lb). I'm about 6lb up on where I'd got to in that picture - but as it happens, I'm wearing exactly the same outfit today (minus the belt which means that my shorts are perpetually falling down without them ).

Wow....these pictures are all amazing!! What an inspiration you all are. Thanks for all the lovely comments.

I haven't dared to brave shorts yet, but you lot do give me hope that I may pluck up the courage next summer.

Keep going everyone. I can't imagine how many thousands of lbs have been collectively lost with you at the helm @BIWI (not forgetting @AthelstaneTheUnready as first mate), but it must be a mind boggling amount. Hats off to you!

Lovely pictures. I'll post some when I get back from hols. Gorgeous cat PrettyBird - a Burmese or Siamese?

Oh, and cat aside, very impressive photos.

Love the Brooklyn Bridge photo 1stmrsf, we’re going in 4 weeks so I might try and recreate! Did you manage to eat low carb there?

The pictures are all amazing. And they're so much better that the typical "before and after" pictures. They're not just shiny pictures in a magazine, they feel like so much more. I think it's because I "know" you all, and followed your posts, it's not just "ta da, I lost all this weight", but I know each pound was hard fought, and I'm so pleased for you.

You all look fantastic, and happy and healthy.

And love the cat!

These are amazing! I wish I’d taken a photo when I started - I tried doing a muffin top one but was so depressed by it I deleted it!

So hot - but (NSV) I’m wearing an above the knee denim dress that I usually wear over grey skinnies - it looks fine.

Nigella - that was the lovely Cleo, a chocolate tabby point Siamese Unfortunately, she died in February (but she was 14). She'd have loved this warm weather - she was a sun seeking missile

We do still have two lovely lilac point boys (bought 2 years earlier to keep her company after her "brother" was knocked down).

Lurking away here
I've gained weight recently and used to LC. Started watching what I'm eating a couple of days ago and it's funny how quickly it comes back. I'm easing myself in so may be a little too carbs

B - boiled eggs x 2, homemade mayo, crispy bacon
L - chicken salad with olive oil and Parmesan
T - tuna salad with the rest of the mayo
S - piece of cheese

Ugh. Out for coffee, and entirely depressing discussion with a friend about calorie counting, and how weight loss is all a very simple equation. To think I used to let that shit rule my life. And she insisted that to lose weight most women had to eat less than a 1000 calories a day. I'm not talking about having deliberate fast days, or doing the BSD, both of which I see as different, but just endlessly counting every morsel, day in day out, and constantly being hungry. It made me want to weep for my poor younger self and what I put myself through, while getting fatter and fatter. I'm just having a moan really, it's odd how distressing I still find those discussions. And to realise that the fat gms and calorie count of every item of food is still indelibly stamped in my unconscious, even though this WOE is largely intuitive to me now, and I tend not even to look at or think about carby foods, my eyes just move right over them without registering. But still it only takes a calorie counting conversation and I can feel myself getting panicky.

It also explains why I can't/won't lose that last half stone I'd like to dump - because no matter what, I will not allow myself to go back to that entire scarcity/punishment cycle about food.

You’re 100% right ilovecherries, I was a slave to weightwatchers for years and all that endless tracking of points…much prefer this woe!

It's so sad and rage inducing isn't it ilovecherries

LCDs are just setting people up to fail - and to beat themselves up even more I have to bite my tongue when I see friends posting about struggling with their LCD and about not having energy.

Day two of my egg fast done and dusted. Have realised that I don’t like boiled eggs mashed with Boursin but also amazingly that I haven’t been hungry! I think you said that too *Was 1.5lbs down this morning so hoping for 4-5lbs overall.

Calorie counting for any drastic weight loss is pretty grim. The thing is, it is technically doable, I know many that have been successful losing weight calorie counting. I think that makes it worse, as if you can't do something as simple as just eat fewer (or is it less? Is there a grammar pedant on the thread?) calories, then somehow it becomes a moral failing on your part, because you're just not trying hard enough. If someone else can do it, why can't you? But spend enough time on these threads and you truly start to understand what sugar can do to people (I'm thinking of my own addict like behaviour regarding chocolate, literally rooting through cupboards for something I've missed), telling someone to eat less is like telling an alcoholic at a free bar to just not drink anything.

I'm actually just thinking about sticking to sub 1200 calories of food that doesn't actually satiate and thinking no bloody wonder I always failed at losing weight. It really does set you up to fail!

I don’t like boiled eggs mashed with Boursin

I can highly recommend 6 minute eggs mashed with a little grated mild cheddar and a slosh of double cream.

I can also recommend scrambled eggs made with butter and cream.

@prettybird what beautiful cats! Sorry to hear you lost their big sister, it's never easy when our pets pass on 

@ilovecherries you are so right about the calorie counting thing, it is just a hiding to nothing, as I've found to my detriment a million times. The moment you stop the meticulous counting, the weight piles back on. At least with this woe it's more instinctive and we're doing something to help tackle our sugar addictions. The thought of a cup-a-soup and its ilk bring me out in a rash.

Thanks notlost, that sounds tasty. I have had scrambled eggs twice today and an omelette with cheddar, which was oozy and lush!