Oct '19 - Week 1 Low Carb Bootcamp - Here we go!

[BIWI]

Morning all! Very sorry for the late start. I set my alarm. Woke up. Wondered why I'd set my alarm and went straight back to sleep

Anyhoo.

Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

For those of us who are new, the spreadsheet is not only where you record your weight (if you want to - it's not obligatory), it's also where you'll find lots of other useful information. Look at the tabs at the bottom for the rules, a veg counter (that will work out your carb count for you if you're using it for a recipe), and lots of other resources to help you learn more about low carbing.

I'll be back to post more stuff later this morning, but for now just wanted to get the link out there.

If you're using your phone to access the thread, you will need to download the Google docs app.

Today's food:

B: smoked salmon and 2 eggs scrambled with butter
Snack of a small piece of cheese. My current favourites to eat on their own are Singleton Parlick and Manchego. Will be happy to go back to nuts in week 3 though!
L: Egg mayo with cheese and chives (2 eggs, about 25g cheese maybe) on spinach with olive oil, tomato and cucumber. I keep the egg mayo in a separate tub in the work fridge and plonk onto the salad when it's lunch time. Yogurt for pud.
D: will be swordfish (panfried?) with buttery sauteed kale and steamed leeks.

@BIWI Thanks for looking at my menu! Will defo get more green veg into the evening meal. Tonight is salmon so I will load up with lots of greens to go with it.

Really struggled this morning as I went to Aldi to get cold meat and cheese and they had a Christmas aisle full of carb-and-sugar-laden treats. Hung on in there though. This diet is really showing me how addicted to sugar I have been.

Gosh, absolutely stuffed after my cauli cheese soup! Was really thick and texturous (is that a word?!).

Having water with a squirt of lemon juice in today, super refreshing.

Keep at it, Losers!

Really must try some cauliflower cheese soup!

Just been to a cafe in town with dh for lunch. They do all sorts of lovely things on bagels or muffins so when I ordered mine without a bagel and explained why - they offered me halloumi instead. So had two poached eggs, spinach, mushrooms, halloumi and hollandaise, was amazing.

Lovely explanation re water and glycogen @venusandmars I'd add that water is important because if you have too high levels of ketones in your blood then the body stops burning fat to produce more ketones. So high levels of water spread out over the day to keep flushing.

I have two recommendations. I'm using the app Waterlogged to track my fluid intake. It's free, but not brilliant - better than nothing for me though. Second one is Ocado / Waitrose whole bag of frozen Brussels sprouts. Boil them up (overcooking is fine), drain, add a massive load of butter and black pepper, mash it up. I have it over two days. It's delicious and so convenient.

We had external guests who gave me a lemon cup cake which I sniffed (discreetly) then gave it to a colleague rather than eat it myself. Whoop whoop!

I've had Greek yoghurt, Thai green chicken with spinach and I'm not sure re dinner but maybe bacon and eggs. I'm ferrying dc around and fitting in a school meeting so won't be home until 7.30pm earliest. Must try to avoid bread!

I'd add in, but anyway, it works wink

prettybird, yep. But, ya know, science and all is apparently persuasive.

Re halloumi, it’s much more flavourful than mozzarella. Quite salty, in a good way.

Re ketone retention, I knew it was in those glyco stores somewhere!

I’m on a skipper breakfast, one tea, tuna salad with spinach, lotta water kinda day. Dinner will either be pork loin with broccoli/kale/more spinach, or marrow cheeseburgers with same (some potato for the children), or leftovers of sausage, lardons, cabbage with a shallot vinaigrette.

I feel as though I’m on the verge of succumbing to all the low-level viruses that have been whizzing round our home these past two weeks, and might not even make Book Group tonight. Feck.

TO ALL—especially in a now pissy day where I’m sitting—raise a pint of WATER WATER WATER and get it down you.

Yup - should have mentioned the saltiness of halloumi.

I love it griddled with a bit of lemon juice.

I can't seem to keep up with reading the number of posts here. Both kids are poorly at the moment and the last 24hrs have been pretty bad. (DS1 threw up all over his bed and the bathroom last night so I've been doing a lot of washing!).
Yesterday evening we didn't go out for my birthday in the end so we had a steak with celeriac fries (cooked with smoked paprika seasoning) and broccoli. We loved the Celeriac fries and I'd highly recommend them. I then felt pissed off that I'd not been outside for my entire birthday and DH had bought me one of those microwave chocolate puddings so I'm very sorry but I had that with a bit of ice cream (what was ridiculous was it tasted crazily sweet and I didn't even enjoy it that much so probably shouldn't have bothered. I also thought I might have a glass or two of wine but in the end only had 1 small gin and tonic!! I haven't lost any weight yet but after yesterday don't expect to have lost anything. I've also got my period - don't know if that has an affect on weight loss/gain.

@Ninkaninus Oh god I may succumb and buy some for the cupboard. But if they're in there can I trust myself?! Argh I have no will power!!

Don’t do it! They’ll still be in stock once BC is over!

But if they're in there can I trust myself?! Argh I have no will power!!

That's what's weird about this WOE for me. 'Willpower' like I'd need on a diet isn't required. I find it massively easier to just know I absolutely cannot eat something than I can have a small bit (I can't have a small bit).

Mind you, butter and mayonnaise are my weaknesses so the fact I can have an unlimited supply is great.

I've made a bloody delicious (but soo summery) salmon, dill, mayo and cucumber 'salad' for myself today. I was wondering about herbs. I assume sage, dill, basil etc. are basically 'green leaves' and therefore make no difference no matter how enormous the amounts... In which case fry sage leaves in butter until crispy, have on salmon, steak, old shoes, a spoon...

Going to catch up on the thread now but just throwing my daily food up to stay accountable

B: ff Greek yogurt
L: Halloumi, butter fried courgette ribbons and broccolini and half a cooked chicken breast (yum!)
D: Planning on garlic butter stuffed chicken breasts, with green veg and potentially celeriac chips if I can figure out how on earth to cook them/find the recipe. The celeriac is a new one to me (I utterly hate the vicious fight that is trying to chop a swede and this looks similar so I've always avoided in the past )

Off to go catch up on the thread now!

Throwing the menu up on the message board that is. Just realised that sounded completely different when I reread!

@Ninkaninus don't worry - I think I am essentially too lazy to go out in this cold weather to get them! 😀

Also Happy Birthday @rosesandsunflowers. 🎉🎂Sounds like you had a fairly miserable day so congrats on being so strong despite it all!

Wibbly - I use a big knife and don't try to "peel" either swedes (neeps ) or celeriac. I'll cut c1.5 cm slices (thicker if I'm going to making a dauphinois) and then just chop the edges off. Dealing with flat slices makes things much easier

Summery salads are all I can think of, so much easier than cooking really. I've got to choose the simplistic meals or l will fall off the rails (again, already!).

Think I've got carb flu today. Headache, a bit fuzzy feeling. Tired.

Must push thru! My belly bloat is already less.

Happy birthday, roses

@PrimaDonna123 - Ive put the meatball recipe and the cauliflower recipes on the recipe threads!

@MrsTerryPratchett LOL sage on old shoes and a spoon! This I have to try!

I have a celeriac... may have the meatloaf with "chips" tonight!!!

B - Egg muffin and some bacon
L - big salad, garlic sausage (no whisky)
d - Meatloaf with stroganoff sauce and celeriac chips

I've been eating well for 3 days now... WHY am I not a waif yet???

(((Stamps Foot)))

Today's food diary:

B: eggs, bacon and neeps cooked in butter

Lots of coffee but lots of water too

Lunch: chicken breast marinated in piri piri sauce and FF yoghurt, mozzarella, lettuce and cucumber with olive oil

Dinner: pan-fried salmon with buttery courgettes and tenderstem broccoli

Has anyone got a good low carb pastry recipie?

There are quite a few variations on google but just wondered if anyone had a tried and tested one?

Ive used fathead dough for sausage rolls but wanted something more suited to a pie/quiche. Thanks

Great idea about the soup, thank you venus - but I got so delayed on a site visit today (bumped into my roofer, who I hadn't seen for months, so that was 2 hours gone) that it's not fair on the dogs to leave them alone for a further 4 hours this evening (DH is away with work), so I'm staying home tonight. Didn't get lunch until nearly 3pm and wasn't that hungry when I did - love being back in the zone with the low carbing :)

Hello! Haven't read the full thread yet but I will do soon

Today I have had:

B: 2 devilled eggs with mayo, 2 cups of coffee with full fat milk
D: Salmon infused with red thai marinade w/ baby leaf salad, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions and a cup of full fat milk and another coffee. Oh and some cheese.

I realise that might not be enough so i'll snack on some cheese and cucumber in a bit

Good luck everyone!