Jan ’20 – Week 1 Low Carb Bootcamp – Here we go!

[StuntNun]

Welcome to the January 2020 Low Carb Bootcamp. I know some of you have already started eating low carb so please share your good experiences to give the rest of us some inspiration as we begin our weight loss journey.

Make sure you’ve read the ten Low Carb Bootcamp rules. There are some shopping list and meal plan suggestions on the preparation thread.

If you need recipe inspirations then there we have hundreds on the meat recipes thread, the poultry recipes thread, and the vegetarian recipes thread. Note that vegetarians may include small quantities of legumes, nuts and Quorn right from the start to make sure they’re getting enough protein. There is also thread of low carb products people have found in the shops.

We weigh in every Monday so add your starting weight to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness. If you’re on a mobile or tablet and can’t get the spreadsheet to work then please post your entry on this thread and someone will add it for you. Some people choose to record their starting weight as 100 if they don’t want to share their actual weight. I also urge you to make a note of your waist measurement as sometimes we can lose inches without losing pounds on this way of eating. Some people like to have a goal pair of jeans or a dress that they can try on throughout Bootcamp so see how the fit improves over time. Others like to take ‘before’ photos that they can use for comparison later on.

If you have any questions or concerns then please do ask. Bootcamp has been running for nearly ten years so we have lots of expertise to share with you.

Piss on your (low carb equivalent) chips . . I shall be stealing that saying Tenement

Teapot why do you think fat is bad for you? Consider where you got that idea from. The same government guidelines that we all followed for years and only managed to get fatter and sicker? Research shows that the UK population has been making the required changes. We cut down on saturated fat. We switched from butter to margarine. We are more fruit and veg and then even more fruit and veg when five a day hadn't fixed us. We lowered our cholesterol intake. We filled up on "heart-healthy" whole grains. And now we have soaring rates of diabetes and obesity. Go on YouTube and look at footage from the 70s, a concert or a football match. Everyone is slim! Yet just after that the low fat advice arrived and now we are, as a population, overweight. Do you think it's because we're more lazy? My parents and grandparents didn't live in some old-timey world where they had to haul coal and beat rugs to clean them. They had vacuum cleaners and TV and cars and desk jobs just the same as us. Yet people were generally a healthy weight.

The other factor for "fat being bad" is that it is more calorie dense than carbs or protein. As if we're simple eating machines that can't tell the difference between a block of butter and a packet of rice crackers.

You mentioned that you're having pork for dinner. Did you know that pork fat is the closest in composition to human fat in terms of the proportion of saturated and monounsaturated fats? We're expected to believe that lard is bad for us when it's almost exactly the same as our own body fat, and by the way contains more "healthy" monounsaturated fat (the type found in olive oil) than "unhealthy" saturated fat. Are our bodies trying to kill us because our body fat is apparently unhealthy? Or is it all complete bullshit?

Terpsichore and Tenement, you're on.

I prefer "don't rain on my parade", because then I automatically move into the Full Liza Minelli Belter...

... WHO TOLD YOU YOU'RE ALLOWED TO RAIN ON MY PARAAAAAAAAADE...

Another one agreeing with @prettybird
@Teapotdespot, my MIL is a slimming world leader !!!! imagine the crap I’ve heard ( my particular favourite, the fake ferrerara rocher made with Nutella and crushed ryvita .. just no )

Day 2 here , I’m having to bend the rules slightly as we have a funeral at 12-15 , about an hour from here , and then the wake in a local pub , which I’m pretty sure will be a carb fest

I had a late B , and planning an early D
B 3 egg omlette with butter and cheese
D sausages with broccoli, mushrooms , leeks and mushrooms
Snack ( if needed) cucmber sticks and Brie

Thanks Athelstane

A day late and a dollar short, but here I am.

B. Scrambled eggs and spring onions, coffee
L. Red peppers with feta/salad
D. Tbc

I'm in an all day conference. Stuck in a room which is bulging with biscuits, pastries, muffins and brownies.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk.

@StuntNun and @BIWI Thanks for the advice. It was a real eye opener! I thought I was doing so good but seem to have slipped back into my old thinking. I used to do ketogenic and it never worked out that well. Fatballs are in the bin! I used to do egg and fat fast for days and thought if I add a few green bits it will be good.
Unfortunately I didn’t see your message until now so breakfast was the same as yesterday!
I will re-read the files and plan accordingly. Thank you for your subtle telling off!

Can I join? I lost half a stone before christmas, had 2 weeks of work and put it all back on. Starting weight is 168 lbs. Anyone else following this thats not eating meat?

Hi everyone good luck with your diet

I am here because I have changed jobs and now I'm sitting at a desk all day instead of on my feet. The weight i lost in bootcamp 2017 is creeping back on

I haven't exactly prepared for this WOE yet, just improvising at the moment.

Today's meal:

B: 3 peperami and a coffee with double cream.

Not sure about lunch. I am at work so I'll be nipping to the aldi next door. Maybe some cheese and strawberries? Odd combination i know!

Dinner will likely be fish and some vegetables cooked in butter

You're on, Angel.

Cheese and green leaves, Speckled! Strawberries are great but not until after the first two weeks.

Or maybe an avocado.

or a pot of coleslaw.

Veg!

Hi all. Sorry to hear about mils being dickheads.
I find that eating as many low carb snacks and food as I 'need' really helps me adjust during the first week or so of bootcamp. I also get the munchies in the evening and at various times during the month, but as long as they're low carb, occasionally stuffing my face hasn't stopped me losing weight.
I also drink water, find something to do to take my mind off food, and clean my teeth if I feel like eating a carby fucker.

I'm EXTREMELY interested in salt and vinegar pork scratchings.

I stuck to my food plan yesterday, although I also had three (3) bags of pork scratchings .
For today I will be eating...
B. Ham and cheese, tea.
D. Broccoli and stilton soup with smoked salmon. (Left over from yesterday)
T. Pork belly, spinach and mushrooms cooked in butter.

I may have a decaf bulletproof coffee, if I feel like it as well, and 3 to 4 litres of water.

Good luck everyone, and keep drinking your water.

It's tough here ...

Hi @BIWI - you're like a little fairy godmother! I hope you're enjoying your holidays.

@Teapotdespot your soup sounds like a bowl of nutrition - how can that be unhealthy? I lost 1.5 st with Slimming World - over an 18 month period, so €€€. My own fault, many there lose a lb or 2 every week. Moderation was my problem. I plateaued at 12st and was paying €12 a week to stay the same!! Again, my bad. Eating Magnums at night was not in the plan! I started BC and lost 5lbs in 2 weeks, and 10lbs in the 8 weeks I did BC - and felt great. High energy, once I got over the carb 'flu'.

I haven't done any Joe Wicks stuff. but looking at his programme this week, his meals are low carb. Ditto Tom Kerridge.

I've heard of an experiment where they gave lab rats unlimited sugar - but they didn't get fat. Same thing with unlimited cream. But when they gave them unlimited sweetened cream (icecream) - they got FAT. The combination of carb and fat seems to bypass our satiety.
When we talk about wanting carbs, we really want that carb/fat combo. Buttery toast or dry toast?

I have high cholestrol. It is familial. It has dropped with this WoE. My GP is fine with this.

B: mushrooms, tomatoes, fried kale & spinach, 4 eggs scrambled with cheese, chives basil and parsley. Creamy coffee.
A bit big but I'm going out for a few hours, and don't want to be hungry.
Picture to follow.

Breakfast.

@BIWI it's 5' here. Feels like 2. 100% precipitation and low UV index.

Still the dog got her walk!

@AthelstaneTheUnready noted 😀 I'll leave the strawberries. Glad the cheese is still okay

@tartantroosers, we seem to have overlooked your hello—you didn’t request being added to the spreadsheet, would you like to be added?

As for the rest of you, too many laughs to respond to, but keep ‘em coming, and KOKO.

Am jealous of those temperatures BIWI!

Another with a MIL who is a slave to weight loss meetings and suspicious of this woe. She’s been going to WW since her son (my dh) was 6 months old. That baby is now 46 years old and she’s gained and lost weight over that time period! She must have paid them thousands of £’s!

Found some old sprouts, shredded them and cooked them up with a snipped up bacon rasher.
Added a dollop of Boursin - gorgeous.

Took a photo of me in my fave denim shirt for reference/motivation. The poppers were almost popping!

@Teapotdespot I found it helpful to read around the subject a bit. Last January, I was willing to give BC a try since I was desperate to find a way of losing weight, but I was also a bit sceptical at first. In the first few weeks, not only did I lose loads of weight, but I also read some books, written by doctors, that were recommended by various people on the threads and this gave me more of an understanding of the science behind this WOE. You could try:
'Why we get fat and what to do about it' by Gary Taubes
The Diabetes Code by Jason Fung
The books by Michael Mosely (e.g. Fast 800 diet) are what got me interested in low carb in the first place. (It isn't LCHF like BC, but there are some similarities in terms of managing insulin resistance)

I have a rare day in the office & nearly forgot to have breakfast.

Question - why are my teeth feeling furry? Though I started bootcamp yesterday I havent had any sugar/refined carbsfor 9 days now (only high carb food I've had is lentils). Is the furry teeth related to low carding. I've been brushing extra well and flossing but a couple of hours later they now feel furry again.

I went along to a SW meeting before trying this bootcamp. I read the diet and the recipe books and listened to the menus . It was impressive to see successes. However, the need for so many processed /flavoured foods repelled me. It was much the same with Weight Watchers. You needed to take up eating special 'diet' food regularly. How can you keep doing that after you've lost weight?

Clearly different things work for different people. To me it looked like being poor and pretending to be rich! (Everything seemed to be 'just like' or 'just as good as'.)

I realised that I'd not be able to sustain that for more than a few months - and anyway, none of my (slim) family would want to eat the foods with me.

I read some of Michael Mosley's findings and thought about LC for the first time.

BIWI's bootcamp just looked fun. I didn't think it could possibly work because of this - but gave it a go. Everyone liked the new menu. (Their carb eating has gone down - because of the better choices on offer.)

It worked for me. I lost weight - slowly but surely (apart from the first week which was FAST) . I felt satisfied.
This WOE is sustainable and enjoyable.

Taking time out to taste treat foods over Christmas (this year and last) did not lead to any desire to go back to regular carby eating.

I've since followed up on the reading suggested by StuntNun and others. It all make sense.

I am eternally grateful.

Day 2 and have turned into a Hobbit.

First breakfast: Avocado, handful of baby spinach, drizzle of walnut oil and 1/2 packet of Biltong (will knock the Biltong/Jerky on the head as it is made with sugar 3.5g carbs per 100g)

Second breakfast (husband wanted to take me out for a late breakfast): grilled halloumi and an avocado. One cup of tea with a splash of milk. A tiny nibble of husbands hash brown (they were calling to me like the ghosts of Christmas past).

Started on the sparkling water. Aim is 4l today.

Dinner will be brussel sprouts, mixed mushrooms (chestnut/wild/shitake) mixed cabbage (red/white/savoy) cauliflower and baby spinach cooked in butter and walnut oil. Salt, fresh garlic and smoked paprika for flavouring. Maybe some roast chicken.

Snacks - maybe olives and mini-pepperami.

Excercise: Deep cleaning housework.

B Creamy coffee
L smoked salmon, ff cream cheese, boiled egg, steamed cabbage and broccoli, green beans and mushroom salad (a slightly random combination of protein brought from home with school dinner veggies)
D Fish/prawn curry with cream and spinach and roasted broccoli

My must-read book recommendations are The Big Fat Surprise: why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet by Nina Teicholz and The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes. Both are journalists specialising in the dietary fields, they aren't trying to sell you something, they're meticulously researched and referenced, and they will both make you very angry at the state of modern dietary recommendations.