Jan '20 - Low Carb Bootcamp - The finish line!

[StuntNun]

We've reached the end of the Low Carb Bootcamp so how did you do overall? Add your weigh-in to the Spreadsheet and let us know your plans. Would you like to keep losing weight over the coming week and months? Are you thinking about giving weight maintenance a go? Have you considered introducing intermittent fasting? This thread will continue until the next Bootcamp starts so there will be plenty of support for you.

Ah that clarifies that then - thank you glitter and BIWI

Great job, glittercandle. There may be a long way to go but it’s always good to find the set of numbers that keeps you motivated.

If it’s not the stones, it’s the pounds or kilos. If it’s not the scales, it’s the inches/centimetres. If it’s not those measurements, it’s the BMI. If it’s not the BMI, it’s the dress size. If it’s not the dress size, it’s the number of days without alcohol...

I think y’all get my point. I’ll shut up now, get out of my “good bra,” and sunbathe for 15 minutes. is it too early for a vodka/soda?

Well?
Well?
Well?!

How did it go? Is everyone swishy and properly dressed?

Switching to the inside... today I am mostly full of pork belly and broccoli. But I have just had a very bad pastry thing, and a glass of wine (Friday! just finished work!), so not all great.

Looking forward to the 25th and the Big Stick.

I’ll email, Athelstane. Tomorrow soonest.

Boiled artichoke dipped in crystal salted butter for dinner tonight. Bliss.

Loads of water this afternoon, not so much in the morning.

Teens kicking off a bit—everything they take for granted has been removed and they don’t know how to cope. Their brain development doesn’t help at all!

I need a great film, something to take me away to a different life.

Brassica your posts are so honest and give me much amusement!

Hello all! I enjoyed reading your posts yesterday in my break at work, kept me amused!! Had a really rubbish day at work. I’m only in on a rota but it’s always Friday and I seem to get the end of the week madness! Had a headache all day, didn’t have my morning cuppa or breakfast as couldn’t sleep night before and felt meh. Had to go to shop on way home and brought wine and crisps. The rest is history. 😳 I feel like a bit of wally. I was doing well and had got over the carb flu thing and now just have to do it all again.
I suppose I have learned how tied to my feelings that sort of drinking and eating is - I wanted to ‘get away’ from the crappy day!
Onwards and upwards and hopefully eventually downwards.

@AthelestsneTheUnready - some of us me hadn't done their homework and were woefully unprepared.

I'm definitely inspired to get back in the Zone for the new Boot Camp.

First I'm going to enjoy a mostly low carb celebratory weekend (22nd anniversary today). Dh and I should have been en route to Oz with ds Instead, ds is up in Aberdeen on his own - but we'll still have a nice meal here, plus lots of some bubbly and good red wine

@athelstanetheunready - I learnt a lot from the amazing @shagmeriggins I'd done this work on myself 30+ years ago and it dug up some ancient memories. Still haven't invested in the eyebrow pencil or the belt, but I will...

B - avocado, creamy coffee
L - left over vegetable curry, cauliflower rice
D - a meal of two halves....

dh has taken it upon himself to learn to cook and has bought the Jamie's 5 ingredients book. So far we've had some great fishcakes, an amazing chicken recipe, and tonight we're having Italian beef salad. All good. However dh returned from the shop have also bought plums, pastry, maple syrup and ice-cream for the plum tarte tatin. Arrgghhhhh….. I don't even like puddings at the best of times. I'll need to take the tiniest portion, then hide it in my napkin when he isn't looking . Or I might take the tiniest portion and drown it in double cream, eat all the cream, and somehow miss the actual pud...

happy anniversary @prettybird

Or just tell him you’ll have the cheese platter for dessert, venus?

My husband went nuts over the Jamie Oliver book, and there’s some good stuff in it, but do keep an eye on carbs ingredients. It seems most cookbooks feel a dish isn’t complete without rice or noodles or potatoes or root vegetables...

Having said that, I’ve still been making the cherry tomato and beetroot salad with balsamic. Have kept to a small bowl from each batch of it, but it is so amazingly fresh and tasty that allow myself that much at least.

And yes, Happy Anniversary to *prettybird!”

devon you might not get carb flu at all or at least not as bad as last time. Remember that generally you’ve been eating far fewer carbs than the last time so your body isn’t making such a massive adjustment. It could be a case of right back on the wagon, no problems!

Tonight we’re doing leftovers because my husband—and I’m grateful—has been doing loads of cooking but he does full on massive vats of beef stew, full lamb roasts, stinking stir fried veg with marinated tuna steaks, all the potatoes for jacket potatoes rather than just four for them, etc.

It’s great, and I can always find a way to eat LCHF with most of his meals, but the fridge is heaving and I’m not cooking another family meal until there’s space for Tupperware!!!

Tomorrow night is Mexican (possibly my favourite), ShagMe style.

And finally, made a Greek salad, a tricolore salad, butternut squash soup, and will make some chicken soup during the week. All as “go to/fuck off/get it yourself” standbys for the family next week.

Lockdown is just a massive pile of endless catering.

Stinking stir fried veg?

No idea what I meant to write but I assure you his stir fry does not stink.

Ps—tonight would have been Eurovision. Call me crazy, but I love it, and we’ve had a massive party most of the past 5-6 years with a marquee in the back garden.

We’ve even had friends dressed in a national costume and bring a national dish for their assigned country.

I’m sorry, but I’m missing it and have nowhere to hang out our custom order of ALL the European flags. Plus Australia.

Weep for me, Bootcampers. Weep for me.

I'm weeping

😂 you’ve cheered me right up
@ShagMeRiggins! And not just with the Eurovision weeping! I hope I won’t need to suffer the dreaded carb flu again - thanks for your positivity ❤️

I avoided the worst best of the plum tarte tatin, and tucked into some cheese instead, but I don't want to discourage dh by being critical or refusing his creations. I already have to sit in another room while he is cooking to avoid telling him off for using the wrong chopping board or not resting the meat enough or putting my favourite Sabatier knife in the dishwasher (I quietly rescued it later).

Brunch - creamy scrambled eggs, crispy pancetta, fried mushrooms
D - left over slow-cooked lamb, courgetti, left over cauliflower rice, buttered spinach

water, water, water

or putting my favourite Sabatier knife in the dishwasher

Thank god you were there to rescue it!

I feel your pain venus. I can't watch my DH in the kitchen. How it's it possible not to know how to chop an onion?! It's like watching the muppets' Swedish chef!! I have some beautiful knives with polished wooden handles. He does know that they go nowhere near the dishwasher

I saw a 2020 low yesterday of 10.1. Suspect that was wine dehydration though 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣 Today 10.3. But that gives me hope for the week ahead. Going for OMAD today to counteract the imbibing of Friday and Saturday. But DH is downstairs doing bacon and eggs which smell amazing!

brassica the worst thing is that when I'm giving him advice telling him off I sound exactly like my Mother - transports me back 45 years to when I was a teenager: "Venus! why can't you clear things up as you go?" "Venus, don't put the steak on until you've at least started boiling the potatoes." "Venus, you can't wash the glasses in tepid, scummy water." "Venus! Your caramel toffee is completely burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pan, that's a whole pound of sugar wasted! What do you mean you were just finishing your book?"

+A 'ShagMe Mexican' sounds amazing!

Ah, mother's voice sneaks into all sorts of situations doesn't it.

@StuntNun a little techicnal convo for a Sunday evening before new BC?

So oil. I stoped using olive oil for cooking after reading about low smoke point and carcinogenic qualities when taken to a high heat. THEN I read that even for cooking oils which didn't need to be pressed (those being veg, rapeseed, sunflower etc) were better for us so I switched back to Olive oil. Do you and other BC experts have a take on this one?

Then SALT. So we've seen the low fat theory debunked. I have been reading a little which also suggests the same for low salt. This is backed up by keto running groups etc who add what the normal person would consider a lot of salt to replace salt lost in exercise. Do you guys have any thoughts on this one too?

A bit heavy for a Sunday evening?! Sorry, but I've been meaning to ask for a while

brassica I stopped using sunflower oil after reading about polyunsaturated fats (but can't remember any of the detail except it makes it unstable so oxidises easily on heating. Some types are hydrogenated and have trans fats too). Less harmful to have saturated fat - butter, cheese, beef fat etc or mono-unsaturated like avocado, coconut, olive. I think a few sunflower seeds on a salad are great but not highly processed sunflower oils.

On salt. I had massively high blood pressure and so classic advice was to cut out salt (and many other things). I followed all the advice, lost weight and reduced my blood pressure, but what really cracked it for me was lchf. And reading up around that approach (and avoiding the standard advice), had lots of studies showing that salt was not the baddy it was made out to be. I think the truly awful combo is hidden fat, hidden sugar, hidden salt in something that might look otherwise 'healthy' like a chilli with beans.

All just my opinion.

@BrassicaBabe if you're drinking the amount of water that you should be on LCHF, then you need MORE salt - it's a key electrolyte.

The Diet Doctor is good on salt

Brassica when you look up the smoke point for olive oil it isn't actually all that low. The heat when sautéing is about 120C and even extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of 160C which is well above that. Ordinary olive oil has a smoke point of 200C or higher which you won't commonly reach while cooking. The other factor is the number of double bonds in the oil structure. Saturated fats have none (hence their name as they are saturated with hydrogen atoms.) Monounsaturated fats have one double bond. Polyunsaturated fats have more than one double bond. The fewer double bonds, the less likely the fat is to oxidise. When fats oxidise they produce free radicals which are damaging to body tissues. That's one reason polyunsaturated fats in vegetable oils cause inflammation. The other factor is that our diet needs the right proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 and switching to vegetable oils has heavily weighted that proportion away from the "actually are heart-healthy" omega-3 fats.

I personally don't use any vegetable oils such as sunflower oil or corn oil. I only use animal fats and monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado oil and nut oils). Coconut oil and cold-pressed rapeseed oil are also okay.

In terms of salt, reducing salt intake is proven to reduce blood pressure. Just not by very much. If someone is taking medication to reduce their blood pressure and they dramatically cut down on salt... they're still going to need the medication. What we do see on low carb though, is people's blood pressure rapidly reducing to the point where they can lower their medication dosage and often stop it entirely. Again, for my personal approach I salt food liberally now, which I never really did before I went low carb. Both my parents have high blood pressure and my salt intake doesn't worry me in the slightest.

However, this is going completely against the mainstream dietary advice to avoid saturated fats, embrace polyunsaturated vegetable oils, and limit salt. I would advise anyone to do their own research and come to their own conclusions as I could be any random Internet conspiracy theorist telling you the government advice is wrong. When you do start looking into it, though, I can promise it's going to piss you off to find out just how flimsy the "evidence" is for the healthy eating advice that's somehow managed to make us all fatter and sicker than we ever were before.