Jan '20 - Week 7 Low Carb Bootcamp - The Last Month

[StuntNun]

You know the drill: weigh-in; update the Spreadsheet; let us know how you've done. Everyone fall in!

This is the first time ever I've stuck to the water part. Only 2l a day but this is the best first week I've ever had.

Shag - I make good scrambled eggs if I say so myself

The trick is to do them slowly and gently. Melt the butter (I have a nice heavy nonstick le creuset pan) over a relatively high heat. Add the beaten eggs and turn the heat down to the lowest setting (the smallest gas ring on my hob). Only stir occasionally.

When it is nearly ready, add some cream, season and switch of the heat then stir the cream in. It will finish cooking in the residual heat.

Afraid I fell head first into the carby twat club over the weekend and need to confess. First proper slip on food since 2 Jan so annoyed with myself for doing it but jeez feel bad for it physically as well.

Started with a thrust at me mini magnum with the chocolate eaten around the outside by my youngest & melting & in my mouth it went before it dripped on the floor. Tasted vile & really sickly (but used to love them) however that ruined my resolve not to eat some nice chocs still there from Xmas just as a scientific trial to see if they still tasted ok & erm 6 later yes they were. Also really enjoyed a pizza after.. Woke up though feeling v sluggish & all round bleugh. Just a little of x will be my downfall as it will lead to more once the resolve has gone so I know my (non) limit now at least.

Flight permitting to the Canaries tomorrow will try my very best to stick to this way of eating albeit with the addition of alcohol while on holiday & keep the water uptake going.

Great to read the successes & know I'm not the only one who is human. Koko will return with a vengeance in 2 weeks though, want to at least maintain in the meantime.

Onwards & downwards (even with a wobble in the middle)...

another twatty carb moment involving cake (Guides fundraising event with LOTS of cake) - and I am struggling with the water drinking big time. DD2 smashed my large flask (my former very effective herbal tea drining method) and I am waiting until payday to buy a new one.

Still 2.5lb down this week - I am 16/8 eating most days and have given up creamy coffee

Total of 12.2lb so far - I'm nearly back to my October 31st (Pre Xmas blow out) weight.

Only 50 or so more lb to go.

I would like to keep this WOE up and see the slow weightloss over the course of 12 months - after the last couple of weekends, I do wonder how realistic it is to keep on this WOE for a long period of time as I have a lot to lose just to get to even the top of the BMI guidelines. I have no problem sticking with this during the week - but going to friends for lunch/dinner etc is an issue I need to deal with better.

I have no problem sticking with this during the week - but going to friends for lunch/dinner etc is an issue I need to deal with better.

Clitterati Do they know you’re doing LCHF? I always find that helps. If not, what ideas do you have for dealing with it better?

I wrote a very very long post in reply to MrsBert’s post about hair-shirting and didn’t post it, but I’ll just say that—three years in and 56lbs down of the 91lbs I needed to lose to graze the top of Normal BMI, I’m finding this incredibly sustainable and have Clicked that this is my way of eating for life, and being a Carby Fucker is not my way of eating for life.

Prettybird and HerRoyal thanks for scrambled eggs posts.

Interesting post about hair-shirting MrsBert. That’s me thinking about it for the rest of the day, I’m big on “thinking” about this whole weight loss, mind/body/soul, patterns, relationships with food and self thing.

Well done on the water, Roz and Rodez enjoy the Canaries. Stay away from the sickly stuff!

@ShagMeRiggings good post. I've managed to pull myself back from more (but not all) fuckit carby twat moments over the last week. The two things that have helped me was a LCBCer (I think @venusandmars) who said to treat sweet/carby things like an allergy. Not "I can't have that because LCBC" but "I actually can't have it because it sets off carbytwatitis" (not a recognised condition but it should be).

The second was a cheesy poster at a leisure centre:

Erm. I really don't feel like I'm going to lose weight. I had my chicken salad for lunch, chucked a bit of cheese and cucumber in too.
I am stuffed. Didn't finish it all.
This is amazing!
I like this. I'm feeling really good about this woe.

Happy today to be 135.6 lbs which is great as I'm off on holiday in two weeks and would really like to be 133lbs. Feeling motivated. Am tired though and don't seem to have much energy, not sure what's going on there. I was away last week and did not drink even slightly near enough water (I was too scared of needing to pee incessantly) so maybe that has something to do with it. Back on the water wagon though!

Do they know you’re doing LCHF?

I really don't talk about it much outside of close friends (& nothing beyond simply mentioning it with them) - personally I think there is nothing more tedious than people talking about what they do/don't eat and so many people do like to go on & on & on about it. It's like a modern disease we are afflicted with and in a way I feel like a huge % of the population are on the verge of A) an eating disorder or B) mistakenly believing anyone gives a single fuck about what they eat. Talking about food/diets/etc is super super tedious (outside of this group of course ).

But maybe I will have to come up with something for future meals out along the lines of "I'm on an anti-inflammatory diet which means I'm not eating carbs. Sorry if that is a PITA - I'll work with what you've got."

I feel bad for people who are brave enough to invite others around for a meal these days - once you've dealt with the gluten free & vegans, there's not much left to go on.

My issue really is I really really love cake & biscuits - and need to avoid being close to them.

@HerRoyalFattyness I am also astonished at how my appetite has reduced. My portion sizes are pretty good now.

Late lunch of asparagus and eggs cooked in butter with a bit of cheddar.

I'm roasting all the lingering veggies in the oven now along with some crackling.

Hoping to make the butter chicken for dinner.

@TheClitterati I feel your pain. I am also a cake and biscuit lover. And I live with genetically skinny people who can eat as many cakes and biscuits as they want without putting on any weight

But I am slowly changing. I look at biscuits and imagine all the ingredients individually. All the sugar. And think about my end goals. It is working with increasing reliability, nowhere near 100%, but I am undoing a lifetime of crap eating habits, it's not going to click overnight.

I had a meal at friends of dh and SIL last night. It was a fairly last minute thing, so I felt I couldn't impose my eating requirements on them.

She had made enchiladas - so I just had to open them up, eat the tomatoey chicken inside and the cheese from on top. Plus some sour cream and chive dip. Also had a very small slice of a flourless chocolate torte (just chocolate, egg and icing sugar ) with a chocolate ganache and raspberries piled on top. Didn't have the ice cream she served with it - and tried to have extra raspberries

Fortunately, this WoE means that you are rarely truly hungry

Only had 1.5 small glasses of wine, which was fortunate as we got a flat tyre on the way home (SIL was driving - and the garage we stopped at, just off the motorway - as the flat tyre happened on the M8 beside the airport where there is no hard shoulder - said that people regularly stop there with blow outs; there was another car there which had also just had a blow out ) and because the side wall was ripped, the puncture repair kit, which is all her car has, wouldn't work, we had to call the AA. Dh and BIL stayed behind while SIL's (lovely) FIL cam and picked up SIL, her ds and me. I then got called later to go and pick up BIL and dh from the garage (owned by a friend) where the AA had dropped them, having lent them a skinny tyre.

So I felt very

(SIL was going home to work on a job application, which is why they rang me).

Hi 194 for me, 1lbs down , not much but every little helps.
However, I'm 13 cm down on my waist, 2cm on my thigh. Crazy!
My clothes are fitting better already and Jean's that I couldn't fit into before Christmas ate now fitting

Cheddar This weekend I went one better than imagining the ingredients to literally reading them all to talk myself out of eating cake. DH who works in a bloody cake factory had collected a couple of enormous boxes of free "treats" to take to his DD in halls. If I just read the nutritional content it's easy to think, one small cake, 10g carbs, that's not so bad, but when you read all the crap that's in there, it really puts you off!

I am a one for bending the rules and moderating rather than abstaining for the long hall, but it needs to be quality food eaten mindfully such as a nice homemade cake or occasional restaurant dessert; and not cheap processed cakes and biscuits eaten in volume. I've been doing much better at this in 2020.

I am undoing a lifetime of crap eating habits, it's not going to click overnight.

Absolutely!

I should say I know exactly what went into the cakes as I made them - for a cake bake sale, and then DD purchased one of the entire cakes, and we got to take leftovers home too.

I should stick to only making cakes i don't like, but really there aren't any. Best to avoid them entirely. I did avoid making cakes that needed icing.

We have set the wedding date! It's for the end of October so all steam ahead and I'll be bootcamping until then!

A quick question, does LCBC roll over after week 10 into a new week 1 or is there a gap?

A gap. May is usually next start up but that’s for the thread runners to decide.

optimisticsix sometimes life is just life. No matter what you're eating or doing or how much you're exercising, there are little bugs or viruses that our bodies are dealing with. Sometimes it all just makes us feel sluggish. Especially when it's February, the warmth and sunshine feel like forever away and we need vitamin D! So just accept it. Treat yourself as though you might have a cold. I made a vat of stock with chicken bones and have added leeks, spinach, butter and cream to make the most delicious velvety darks green soup I'm not letting dh have any of it more of that story later!!

@CheddarGorgeous there is a gap between each Bootcamp - but there's always a chat thread that we keep going, so you can always rely on people being here for help and support (as well as general gossip!)

Thanks I'm going to keep logging my food, water and weight as it's really helping and then start again in May.

clitterati I'm sort of yes and no with you! No to the pita people who demand vegan food then scoff a bacon sandwich (yes Monica, I'm looking at you ). No to people who talk incessantly about their food / exercise regime without listening to anything others have to offer. But Yes to being assertive about what works for us individually, and what contributes to our long term health.

I have a close family member with a nut allergy. They have no choice about the care with which they choose foods and I am happy to diligently scrutinise every food label before they visit. I also have a friend who has a long-term health issue which she manages through her diet. I am happy to accommodate whatever she is eating / not eating because I know how important it is to her. But I also have a friend who tries, and sabotages, a new 'diet' every couple of weeks. I can't keep up with the changes and if I make x for everyone else and a special y variation for her, she'll end up 'being naughty' and eating a bit of the x anyway!

I know that how I eat is a choice. It's not forced on me by a life-threatening allergy. If I accidentally ate an after-eight-mint it wouldn't put me in anaphylactic shock. But I take my long-term longevity seriously. There are too many days, tea-breaks, moments when 'just one wouldn't hurt' add up monumentally and do in the long term adversely impact my health.

I was at an event all weekend. Numerous times there were offers of chocolates, sweets, jelly babies, cake. I was with two colleagues, one is t2 diabetic, the other has a rare blood disorder. My diabetic colleague declined saying "oh I'd love to but my doctor said I can't eat sugar". The other said "thanks but I don't eat sugar". I sort of experimented with both phrases. "can't" felt a bit like an external imposition where I was being deprived, whereas "don't" felt like an assertive choice.

venusandmars I understand what you are saying.

IME however its people who are always on a diet, fay vegans and people looking for the new fad who bang on and on tediously about food. I've done it myself over the years ** and I really try not to do it now.

The friends I have with diabeties, or who are actual vegans or vegetarians, or are coeliac or have other allergies, well they don't tend to talk about food/their diet much at all - they just get on with it.

So, yesterday dh and I had a falling out about food.

I'm the food person in our house. The chooser of food, the buyer of food, the menu planner, the cook. I love food, I love cooking, and even if I say so myself, I'm pretty good at it One of the things I enjoy about these threads is that people are posting what they're eating, and suggesting scrummy recipes, and showing photos of their food. I love it all.

Dh is a pampered man. He's easy going and eats whatever I serve without a complaint. He is a companion foodie in terms of eating out, quality restaurants, etc but he doesn't have culinary skills and he doesn't understand any of the most basic facts of nutrition. I think he views it as my hobby and has learnt as much about it as I have about any of his particular hobbies.

So this last weekend I was busy away from home and he offered to get food ready both evenings. Saturday night was good - butter chicken (homemade from the freezer), lots of veg, and he got cauliflower rice 'because he knows I like it'. Sunday he said 'I've got you some noodely stuff'. I was expecting pre-prepared courgette or squash noodles, turned out it was M&S Singapore Noodles! I picked out a few buts of chicken, a few bits of veg, tried to shake off the sickly sweet sauce. Left the actual noodles.

Dh was irritated by the food waste and pissed off that he'd tried to do his best and I'd somehow scorned all his hard work.

Four years! Four frickin' years I've been eating like this. When did he last see me eat a noodle?

So the argument arose (stemming from and tired venus and a disappointed mrvenus) where he declared he hated 'faddy eaters' and it would do me no harm to be gracious and appreciative of his efforts, and I declared that he was an inobservant ignoramus who paid no attention to whether I lived or died (OK, I know was a bit extreme, but I was very tired).

Anyway, I'm just sharing my ultimate frustration that I'm 3 stones lighter than I was in 2016. My blood pressure is in a healthy place. My dh eats like a king at home (meals full of butter and veg, with added carbs, just for him). I find it mostly OK to be assertive and in control of what I eat when I'm out MIL is a gracious exception And still my dh thinks I might be a faddy eater. Grrr..

Ah I feel your pain. Why couldn't he eat the noodles?
Anyhoo 3 stone down is brilliant - focus on that.