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.

Wotcha, Venus! (as Vulcan never said, I'm sure)

Wine has contributed nearly all of my gain, so I sympathise. At least yesterday I had my tiny glass before a long walk in the evening, and so nowhere near the lovely fatty dinner. Both together is just disastrous.

hmm, salmon, that's a thought - I have loads in the freezer.

Xenia, it's surprising how many people do discover on this WOE (not you, sounds like you already knew) that dairy doesn't always agree with them. I can't lose weight if I'm eating 'normal' amounts of cheese, or even small amounts of cheese. And I wake with a stuffed nose in the morning. Butter, however, seems to be my fat-loss accelerator - the more I eat, the quicker I lose.

As for the overweight - well, it's usually better not to be in any case, but I do remember seeing somewhere that the amount of under/normal/over/obese people in ITU pretty much matched the proportions in the general population. It wasn't until you got to the seriously (morbidly) obese that it seemed to make much difference, and that seemed to be down to the effects of the weight (metabolic derangement and organ compression) rather than the weight itself, iyswim.

Oh boy this lockdown business is hard isn't it . I didn't do too bad Friday/Saturday as the weather was nice. But didn't cope so well on Sunday and Monday. The weather was crappy and I missed the routine of work (even WFH). I moped. I didn't exercise. I fell face first into any carb I could find. I'm paying the price now. But back on it since yesterday.

What's the deal with comfort eating?! So many of us do it. It's not really comfort though is it. And then we feel worse having to deal with the after effects. Is there a way to turn off this as a coping mechanism?

KOKO folks and hang in there

Yep. Another one here who can't eat diary and lose weight.

I meant to get back on it, but not having food in meant I got sick of eggs.
I'm going shopping today though so I can stock up.on plenty of low carb goodness.

Hello everyone - well I missed the last week of BC due to corona/lockdown/kids everywhere induced madness.

I've falled back into my old carby ways and have missed you all. It started with the baking of a gigantic comfort carrot cake and went downhill from there. My life has become once twatty carb meal after another.

I'm now eating more with the DC and they are very carb focused (one doesn't eat meat all all) and it was too much to think of non carb meal planning etc - blah blah blah - all excuses. Life sent me a face plant.

I've not weighed myself but I'm not feeling great on this so I want to head back to the low carb side of the bridge and soon. DC are going to their Dad's for a week on Friday and I am using the time to get back into the LC WOE. I did so well for 9 weeks!! I know what to do. I can do this.

Hope you are all well - I'll read the thread properly & catch up later.

@BrassicaBabe I hear you. Absolutely been "comfort eating" and want to also do "soothing baking" with the DC. Feeling all the worse for it

How are you feeling Brassica? Bit better today I hope?

I think comfort eating works as comfort because it is, in that moment, a very primitive physically rewarding feeling of 'plenty' plus a whole load of learned behaviour kicking off in your brain.

Consequences? Not important in the moment. It's hard to overrule one's lizard brain sometimes .

Still, like any habit, persistence improves reactions over time.

I have just finished work and am battling my inner lizard over wine. Off to sort some broccoli, butter and pesto out instead.

Lizard brain is a perfect analogy/ description 😬

It's not mine!

It's a (outdated now I think) description of what the amygdala developed for (when we were really primitive) - sex, food, fighting urges. Part of the brain that deals with reward/fear responses to strong desires or fears.

Basically, it's the part of your brain that says "GO FOR IT! WHEEEEEEEE!"

Lizard Brain! I'll go with that! There is definitely something deep going on when comfort eating kicks in.

I'm back in "strength" mode. I've made the most amazing toad in the hole for the family (pimped the sausages by turning them into pigs in blankets!). I had one sausage sans batter along with cod fried in butter. And there's enough toady holiness that I don't need to cook tomorrow. Bonus! It might be a bit soggier I guess but that's tough.

Piled on about 5-7 in CV craziness. Knocked off 2 yesterday.

At the moment I'm choosing to restrict food cals a little to allow for wine. Sorry, but that's just the way it is at the moment

B - creamy coffee
L - egg and avocado salad
D - I've just discovered that our local fish shop has re-opened so I'm off on a walk there. I think a lovely fish and mussel stew with garlic and saffron mayonnaise...

And tomorrow I think it will be a creamy, coconut fish curry.

What's the deal with comfort eating?! So many of us do it. It's not really comfort though is it.

Some of it may just be boredom.

Glad I’m not the only one actively cultivating a tan. It feels a bit indulgent but it’s not like I’m overwhelmed with work and my teens don’t need me for homeschooling so there’s certainly spare time here and there.

I’ve gone almost completely off eggs except for hard boiled. No idea why, they’re delicious and it’s not as though I was overloading.

Keep the posts coming. Much of this amuses me!

Well, re the 'comfort eating' I do think that there is something physical about it that offers real soothing.

When we are anxious it is really easy for us to be 'in our head' - thoughts tumbling around, those turbulent worries stimulating adrenaline, feeding the whole system. We breathe faster, and more shallow. Sometimes we feel dizzy with it all.

Finding a way back into our physical bodies can help against all this anxiety. Touch is often a part of that. Touch grounds us, stabilises us, connects us to our limbs, skin, muscles, and maybe to nature. And yet in these current weeks we can't touch one another - the comfort we might offer a grieving friend is denied. A handshake or a hug, not possible.

So we do what we can to comfort ourselves. Anything physical works. Hug a tree, roll on the ground and smell, feel the grass, play the piano - connect your fingers with the music; find a somatic meditation programme - stroke your own fingers, be conscious of your breath in your body.

But also eating and drinking is part of that somatic, physical comfort. Food connects us with our environment, our house, our plate, our sensations of taste and smell and feel and sight and sound.

If we don't have any other way of being grounded and connected then food and drink is an easy way in, maybe the only way to soothe us out of anxiety and worry.

So... don't stress if you are comfort eating. In a difficult time there are many ways in which eating and drinking soothe us. However... HOWEVER...

Don't let eating and drinking become your only source of comfort. What else can you do that touches your senses? Smell the wonderful spring flowers, or bathe in your favourite perfume; Look at photographs of beautiful places - feast your eyes on buildings, animals, scenery, mountains..; Listen to birdsong, or distant conversation, or the familiarity of household noises like the washing machine; Touch yourself, or someone you love - hold your own hand, hug yourself, be gentle; Eat a tiny morsel of something delicious - half a strawberry, a crumb of cheese, a bite of celery - focus on the delight of that individual taste.

And if your eating was just boredom, then doing all of those might just have taken up a wee bit of your time..

Yup!
Eating = Comfort... even when you know the consequences and don't need the extra food.

I can see it as a lizardbrain thing, and the way that the very first solution to our personal pain and distress was sucking sweetness from our mothers.

If things carry on the way they are, I'm going to have to take up thumb-sucking ... or seek out wine dummy.

Or roll in the hay...

The fish shop had langoustines (now they are not all being shipped to Spain and France) so lunch changed to langoustine salad (with egg mayonnaise to keep the fats up).

There is currently a big pan of roasted langoustine shells making stock - loads of butter and cream to be added later. YUm!

Bless you Venus. That's such a lovely post 💕💕

Bless you Venus. That's such a lovely post 💕💕

Hear hear. ‘Night ‘night. (As though all y’all are four years old!)

I’ve been coronavirus comfort eating ( actually , said to DH , we need to stop treating this like an all inclusive holiday )
We’re self employed , and can’t trade because of the lockdown ( holiday cottage and cafe ) so the stress levels have risen considerably
My husband has lost 3 lb , ( the git ) I’ve , obviously , put on 6
Will try and get back to basics , not putting any more weight on will be my target at the moment
Luckily we live rurally so as @venusandmars said just looking and listening to nature is so lovely , my swallows arrived back this week I love listening to them , and watching them swoop round in the sky
Water is going well , just need to lay off the wine 🍷💦

oh, I miss my housemartins and swallows! This house doesn't have any eaves, so although I do see some kicking about in Summer, they're not living very close.

I was another lb down yesterday morning, but tripped over the comfort step and not only had rice with dinner, but wine too. May not weigh for a few days now...

Not sure what today's is - finally running out of fridge bits, so will have to investigate the freezer.

I'm loving hearing more birdsong now that the traffic is quieter. Dh and I were out on our morning walk and there was hardly a car around. No-one driving their children to school! Our local road is usually rammed with giant range rovers all trying to park as close as possible.

B - creamy coffee
L - avocado, mozzarella, tomato, olive oil
D - Tom Kerridge's monkfish coconut curry, although I'll omit the lentils and of course I'll use full-fat coconut milk / cream (wish Tom K was here to make it!)

Water and a lovely long rainy walk
Boiled Eggs and butter coffee and a small slice of
almond 'bread' toast for dipping
More water

Leek and celeriac soup if hungry

Bolognaise in slow cooker for tonight - probably with buttered Swiss chard from veg box. Perhaps with courgettes (batoned - dipped in egg and ground almonds - then baked in the oven)

All going fine here. I weigh myself once a week on Saturday so we will see if this week has worked tomorrow.

Bit of veg envy going on here - my nearest supermarket is 24 miles away. There's a local shop in the nearest village, but it's very much the sack of potatoes, two leeks and a parsnip sort of a place. I've done quite well with pot luck the last few weeks, but missing a wider range.

But. In exciting news. My new raised bed kit is being despatched today! I've all sorts of chard, spinach, perpet. spinach, leeks, kale, onions, spring onions, dill, parsley, celery, lovage, sprouting away in the potting shed. Timing will - I hope - be perfect! Just have to sort out a few 1000 litres of filling...

Willing a loss for you, Xenia!