Jan '20 - Week 4 Low Carb Bootcamp - One month in!

[StuntNun]

Well done for sticking with us for four weeks! You are fat-adapted now and getting the full health benefits of this way of eating. Add your weight to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness and let's see how everyone has done. Don't forget that it's typical for weight loss to pause at some point in weeks 3-5 but so long as you are following the rules you are still losing fat!

I know a few of you have been missing meals, whether by accident or design, so I'd like to start talking about intermittent fasting this week if anyone is interested? It's completely optional so don't feel that you should fast if you don't want to. I still think it's worth finding out more about intermittent fasting, how it works, when and why you might want to introduce it, and what it feels like to fast... spoiler alert it doesn't involve feeling hungry!

Yesterday I had a bit of a wardrobe tidy put. Threw out (to the clothes bank) several items that are way too big.

Harvey this might sound ridiculous but try to eat the peanuts one at a time and give yourself a pause between each one. Maybe 30 seconds? And drink a glut of water between each one as well. They’re salted after all!

Definition of restraint? The ability to eat one peanut!

There are things I won't have in the house. Not because I don't like them. But because I have no restraint. Peanuts and peanut butter are definitely included in that list 😩

Loving the “thin clothes” success and loving the giving away of “too big clothes”—great NSVs.

Brassica there wasn’t much you could do about that meal other than what you did, so good for you, seriously. Hard when faced with a festival of root vegetables.

Re Harvey’s tomato query, I’ve just made a Greek salad with beautiful farm tomatoes Because I really fancied it to dip in and out of this week, very busy. Three quarters already gone as my husband had it for lunch and my eldest son had two bowls at lunch .

Point is, I’m not going to worry about the tomatoes because I’m the days I have that I’ll be sure to have loads of above ground green vegetables to even it out.

It’s worth being aware of carb counts but nobody wants to get back to a “counting” way of eating—god forbid—generally I try to get in fresh, healthy meals and in the long run it works.

WATER!!!

Definition of restraint? The ability to eat one peanut!

Yes, ha ha! But trying a mindful snack as an experiment could be a great learning experience?

All Bar One at the airport this morning had an egg breakfast bowl: smashed avocado, topped with poached eggs and chorizo. Bloody delicious. And sour dough toast was £1.50 extra so that was money saved.

Good idea @shagmeriggins Crisps are (were) my vice whereas peanuts are just a nice to have so reckon I could do that if I make a point of being mindful. This little LC birthday tea just went down well with the kids: chicken drumsticks, swede chips in garlic oil and yoghurt/ mozzarella/ lemon/ mayo dip with cucumber. They followed it up with cake mind you but not me of course

Food today :

B - boiled eggs w 2 slices LC toast

L - at a carb fest restaurant. Started with a bowl of ricotta with quince slices but it was very sweet - they'd mixed honey or syrup in it, so had a plate of bacon

D - sliced steak on a bed of rocket, pesto, pine nuts and Parmesan

Snack - square of dark choc and a few rasberries

ALL the tea and water to cure my hangover (2 glasses of red only I hasten to add!!!) . DH has carb flu so between us, we've been feeling rather fragile. I'm never been a big drinker, but since having children, it's just not bloody worth it. 6am wake up and middle age don't agree with it. On the plus side, I don't fall face first into carbs ! Fingers crossed I'll be rewarded tomorrow! Good luck all.

Food: chicken soup (thank you, historical me for putting it in freezer)

Brain neurone activity: zero

*ahem, fall face first into carbs when I'm hungover!

God bless my lovely parents

It’s my dads birthday today so we went round for dinner, and bless them they’ve read all about low carb eating while they’ve been on holiday in Greece and tonight they put on an absolute feast of Greek food for me and my sister who’s eating keto for epilepsy. She started eating keto 3 months ago and hasn’t had a fit or a migraine since

Dad is a phenomenal cook and I think quite enjoyed the challenge of it

We had:

Belly pork stuffed with a sun dried tomato and garlic tapenade

Crackling crisps off the top of the belly pork

Massive Greek salad complete with loads of olive oil (huge step for my mum to embrace fat like that)

Halloumi wrapped in aubergine and grilled (these were awesome, stealing that idea!)

Huge bowl of olives

Chicken kebabs

Roasted Mediterranean veggies

We also had a pumpkin spiced pudding for pudding, which my mum made with double cream, egg yolks, a bit of sweetener then cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg etc, it was really light and lovely to actually have a pudding.

It was by far the nicest meal I’ve had on this WOE and the fact they tried so hard to accommodate us was just so lovely. My dad said he’d actually really enjoyed cooking it all and he didn’t miss the rice or potatoes he’s have served it with normally. I think it was a bit of an eye opener for him.

I drank FAR too much last night and I’ve been hung over all day and not able to eat much I weighed this morning and there’s a new number at the beginning on the scales I’m down from 20st to officially the 18’s now

Ok I'm actually beginning to think I might manage some IF even on workdays...I've only eaten ONE meal today!
Decided to skip breakfast as we ate so late last night and have had a lot of imperfect choices this weekend, so just had one lovely roast dinner out at 2pm! It was huge and I ate some but not all of the carbier elements but feeling quite pleased with myself. Scales could do anything though tomorrow.

Teapot that sounds a fantastic meal!

How lovely of your parents Teapot! Would love the recipe for your mum's pumpkin pudding.

... and I'd like the Halloumi/aubergine recipe!

How fantastic. And how wonderful your results are

Yum @Teapotdespot , all round to your parents next Sunday !
Well done on getting into the 18s

@Teapotdespot that sounds amazing!

Just text my dad for the recipes

The aubergine halloumi wraps were thin sliced aubergine, covered in oil and grilled in a pan then the halloumi lightly grilled at the same time. Then wrapped the aubergine around the halloumi and baked it in the oven for a few mins.

Mums sending me the keto pud recipe in the morning :)

@ Teapotdespot that’s brilliant! Well done you and well done your Dad, lots of changes adding up to something really good there

Hi @Mimosa1, out of interest, what do you use for your LC toast?

Hmmmm
Had a cold end of last week so wasn't as focussed as I have been and there was a bit of cheating - the odd bite of pasta, and one glass of wine on Saturday night.
Yup it wasn't not forgiven, up 0.7kg this morning from Friday. Well reining myself in this week; had a "Halfway" goal I wanted to reach next Friday but I don't think it'll happen now

Teapot that's really lovely of your parents. Mine would never do that!
Congrats on the 18s, and think I'll try the pumpkin pudding too...

It's Monday again, and time to move over to the Week 5 Low Carb Bootcamp chat thread.