2020 Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp. The first week!

[BIWI]

Welcome all.

Well what a strange year this has been! If you're anything like me, food, meals and eating have been all over the place. And that's before we think about the booze.

I found lockdown an odd mix of feeling like I was on holiday but it was also the end of the world. So what was the point of worrying about my diet?

I am lucky, relatively, in that we don't have small children to worry about educating. We also have a nice house and garden, and as me and DH have recently retired, don't have to worry about work. So we were very much advantaged over many people.

But still, the diet/drinking was all to pot. And with the inevitable result.

So we're now in the run up to Christmas - traditionally a time when diets go out of the window, and we start to indulge ourselves. Who knows what's going to happen this year though?!

So with that in mind, it's a good time to try and be focused and aim to have a bit of discipline! This Bootcamp, as with most others, will last for 10 weeks, which will take us right up to Christmas week.

(I truly hope that we'll all be able to spend Christmas with our loved ones, but who knows?)

With grateful thanks to @AthelstaneTheUnready, here is the Spreadsheet of Exceptional Fabulousness .

You should find that you're on the spreadsheet. A couple of things:

• if you don't want to record your weight every week, that's absolutely fine. Just don't do it!
• if you're not on it, just add your name to the bottom - don't try and re-alphabatize it - we'll sort it out later

The spreadsheet isn't just a place to record your weight though - have a good look at it, and the tabs - there's loads of information on there, including a veg carb counter and lots of stuff about low carbing in general. You'll also find Bootcamp rules there.

I had a night of lurid and disturbing dreams, was almost glad it was morning. But I’m feeling good and ready to go. Already had two 500 ml mugs of mint tea. I’m not eating till 1pm but then there is a salmon fillet with my name on it. I’m just prepping a pork and chorizo casserole for the slow cooker, then I’m out of the kitchen till lunch time.

I agree about community helping - although funnily enough weight watching/slimming world meetings never helped one jot! My first two boot camps especially I lived with my phone in my hand I needed the support so much.

I should also point out, for the newbies, that the Big Stick is ready and waiting (and has already been deployed!)

Low carbing is not a very forgiving way of eating. You can't have a 'good' meal to compensate for a 'bad' one, like you could if you were counting calories or watching your fat intake. It's very simple - if you cheat, it won't work.

So this is why I am very direct when I respond to posts. If I sugar-coat things (and why would I want anything with sugar on it? ), then actually I'm not helping you.

People have taken offence to this before, and have flounced from the thread. But this is Bootcamp!. It's supposed to be hard, and because it is hard, it works. But it will only work if you put the effort in.

So I'll apologise in advance if people don't like this - but please know that it's done with the best of intentions, and to help you (and everyone else reading the posts).

This is me

Hi, thank you BIWI Athlestone stungun for setting up this thread. This is such a nice thread, it has taken me day 1 to get through it so that I can post 😀

I’ve done boot camp several times and had managed to keep the weight off until this summer and 2 weeks of quarantine, during which the extra few pounds from lockdown had another half stone added and all of a sudden I was back to where I was at the beginning. Sighs.... At the roll that now sits around my middle. I will take some photos this time as there is a real benefit to seeing the changes.

Inspired by the talk of winter stews I trotted off to Waitrose to buy Celaric yesterday and half expected to see a row of boot campers queuing up for it.

I have found in the past that if I don’t have enough water I tend to reach for snacks, so am going to work hard at getting through all those litres.

Reading the thread I am starting to pin point my weak spots, for me it’s lunch and 5pm munchies. I’m thinking of making extra of stews so that there is some for the next days lunch. I’ve also decided to bring our evening meal time forward by an hour to about 6:30, we have been getting steadily later.

Any other ideas for warm filling soups also gratefully received. I’ve taken to making a green soup with broccoli and a bag of frozen green beans. I fry some sofritto (frozen mix of chopped onions, garlic, celery and carrots) in olive oil, add the broccoli & green beans and stock, then blitz it with a stick blender. I tend to serve with some grated cheese melted in and/or a swirl of cream.

B Greek yogurt, Tsp double cream, coffee
L either eggs or soup, will decide later
D Lamb & aubergine casserole, served with some celaric and oven roasted frozen green beans ( tip 1 pack of frozen green beans in a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and a generous pinch of sea salt, roast in oven for about an hour at 180c, giving them a stir every so often).

Water, water, water

Here's an example of how your period affects your weight. This graph is taken from the True Weight app which displays your actual weight as a dotted line and your moving average weight as a solid line. You can see in the middle that there's a big jump up in the dotted line for a few days at the start of a period and then when it's finished weight loss continues again. This is why I prefer to use an app for recording my weight, it's much easier to see your progress on the moving average line. Your weight can fluctuate by as much as 2-3 lb day to day and other things that can cause a temporary increase on the scales are salty food, too many carbs, or exercise, particularly exercise that leaves you sore for a day or two afterwards.

It's also worth pointing out that those daily increases will not be fat, but will be water retention.

And the best cure for water retention? Drink more water!

(Just don't forget about those pesky electrolytes)

Ah, I totally got on the scales out of newbie curiosity this morning, but in the past it's been so demotivating for me when there's no change, so will be putting them away today (and trying not to pay too much attention to the weekly weight). The dress is the goal! 💪

Thank you very much to @prettybird for the Ras el-hanout tip, I've now got some on order! And that spicy yoghurt thing will definitely get a try out too, it sounds lush. @Titsywoo - you are quite right, and that creamy mushroom sauce looks just like one that Strada used to serve, which I loved; on the list for next week

Today for me looks a bit like:
B: Coffee, milk, bit of smoked salmon & spinach
L: Leftover lettuce boat tacos
D: Chicken thighs with leeks and broccoli

I'm jealous of everyone who has done this before and has celeriac in the house! I'm having wild cravings after reading some of these recipes - must add some to next weeks order!

I love celeriac!

There are quite a few recipes over on the recipe threads as well - for those that haven't found them, they're stickied at the top of the Bootcamp topic.

We had celeriac 'chips' last night - cut the celeriac into chip-like chunks (like chunky chips, not too thin), coat well in olive oil and a good chunk. of butter, and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast in a medium hot oven for around 40 minutes, turning half way through to make sure they're all coated in the oil/butter.

Keep roasting until they're as brown as you prefer. They don't quite go crispy, but they're very yummy.

@Solongsugar I am glad to hear you are coming through the other side! I am grateful that at I have had an amazing recovery as I read so many horror stories.

@20bloodypounds

PaisleyCountry where were your vegetables?

I find it difficult to work vegetables into my diet. I have IBS and also I am coeliac.

I have to avoid cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and coleslaw. And limit Brussels sprouts, onions, shallots, leeks and asparagus.

Would probably be ok if slowly introduced green beans, spinach and courgette.

Hi! I'm glad to see lots of people here, and although I read everything, I have a terrible memory, and so I don't remember who says what. I'm so sorry!

The Period Bloat is something I get REALLY BADLY, along with OVULATION BLOAT and I can easily put on between 4-6 lbs overnight.
HOWEVER... intermittent fasting has really really REALLY helped with it. (I tend to do 6pm - 10/11 am).
Also my period pains etc are always more manageable on this WOE.

Hope everyone's OK?

Yesterday I had...
B- bulletproof coffee with salted butter (i prefer it, it takes away some of the bitterness) and a splash of cream
D- broccoli and stilton soup
T- melted cheese

I had 1 cup of decaff tea with a splash of lactose free milk (less carbs, lol, but I need it or my stomach hates me)
2 litres of water, which isn't quite enough, but OK. I'm aiming for 3.

I'm very interested in soups for this bootcamp, and have been copying out recipes and ideas.

Sorry for the shouting, but I'm just so happy to be able to control the bloat a bit

Take care today, and KOKO.
P.S. drink your water!

Morning All - Very inspired by the recipes - added celeriac to the shopping list. I am moving mid December and would really like to walk off the plane in my Levis - bought for my 30th Birthday many moons ago and worn twice, yep saved for them, worked out and ate so healthy to wear them twice - I want them to be the go to jeans in my wardrobe. The go on, they do not zip up and if I exhale they may rip over my arse!!!!

Today:
B - Greek Yogurt
L - Spinach and pepper omelette
D - Roasted cod with Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts lots of butter

Can someone please tell me if Sun-dried tomatoes are OK - I add them to pretty much every creamy sauce I make?? better to find out now if they are not going to assist weight loss!

Have a great day everyone!

What’s autocarrot prettybird? Made me chuckle though

Cheesies are great, but this chicken cracking is heaven...

I'm trying to resist all snacks for the first 2 weeks of BC. I've got into a bad snacking and grazing habit and I'd like to change it pronto. I know I'm not even hungry, I just have a bored mind and bored mouth.

Will be iced water instead!

Celeriac chips are also really lovely with a paprika seasoning and a large dollop of Delouis mayonnaise to dip them in.

Forgot to add pics of the chicken crackling..

Autocarrot is what I now type instead of "autocorrect" - in fact, my phone now prompts me with it, I've used it so often

Can't remember how it started

Good morning all.
Just wanted to add that if anyone is struggling with the bitterness of coffee without sweeteners, the 'Little' brand flavoured instant coffees are nice. They don't have syrup in or anything. My favourite ones are the walnut and maple flavour and the hazelnut.

Hi there
@AthelstaneTheUnready please can you add me to the spreadsheeet? At62.1lb yesterday morning.
Really pleased to have discovered this thread yesterday, I've been meaning to go low carb but it's a struggle getting started. Thanks to you guys I decided to eat an avocado for breakfast and managed to stay off carbs during the day. I even looked at the rainy day stash of chocolate and wasn't remotely interested!
And all of these recipes are making my mouth water. Off to get some kale for kale chips later!

@Paisleycountry1985

I find it difficult to work vegetables into my diet. I have IBS and also I am coeliac

Hopefully low carbing will help you with at least the IBS. It was certainly an unexpected bonus for me when I first started low carbing.

But you really do need to work more veg/salad into your menus as this is where your carbs should be coming from. This isn't a zero carb diet.

Oh God, I discovered those Cheesies recently and they are like crack to me. I am a massive cheese addict and they reach the places that nothing else will satisfy. sidles out of thread rubbing thighs

@Twit

Yesterday I had...
B- bulletproof coffee with salted butter (i prefer it, it takes away some of the bitterness) and a splash of cream
D- broccoli and stilton soup
T- melted cheese

And again - where are your vegetables? And why only cheese for your dinner?! Rule 4 of Bootcamp is about getting your carbs from veg and salad.

Overall it also looks as if you're not eating much at all, which is not great.

Lady with IBS - I also suffer plus am actually allergic to a few fairly low carb veggies so it makes it tricky, but I find that kale doesn’t set anything off at all and can be shoved into anything. I steam it and have it on the side with steaks or chicken breast, I bake it with olive oil for a crunchy snack (which my child robs most of) and I wang a handful into omelettes. It keeps my veg count up and doesn’t hurt my tummy or cause any bowel issues.

@plumstone

Can someone please tell me if Sun-dried tomatoes are OK - I add them to pretty much every creamy sauce I make?? better to find out now if they are not going to assist weight loss!

I'm afraid not - they are really high in carbs, coming in at anything from 17-23g carbs per 100g!

@20bloodypounds

Forgot to add pics of the chicken crackling..

First, where did you buy those?!

And second, do you think you could add the pictures to the thread about low carb products? It's in the Bootcamp topic.

TIA

@BIWI - thanks - the current Jar was finished - the new jar has been deleted off this weeks shopping list!!!