Week 3 - Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - 'full' or light?

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Here's The Spreadsheet as per

Hopefully you've had a good second week, and have settled down into Bootcamp ways by now, and any trace of carb flu is but a distant memory.

By now, if not already, you should be well into the switch from burning carbs to burning fat. You should be finding it much easier to go between meals without snacking, and should find your energy levels picking up, maybe even feeling like you've got more energy than you had before.

So as we start week 3, you have a choice: you can continue on Bootcamp if it's suiting you, or you can move to Bootcamp Light, which means:

• you don't have to have three meals a day
• you can have some fruit (berries)
• you can have some nuts/seeds
• you can drink some alcohol

Please not the use of the word some! This isn't carte blanche for you to go mad. Just remember, all these things will add a lot of carbs quite quickly - so it's very much in moderation.

You also need to know/remember that week 3 (and 4) is infamous for being the point at which weight loss slows - sometimes even stops - so this is another good reason to go easy when you relax things

A good compromise is to stay strictly Bootcamp during the week but Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

Whatever you choose, hope the results this morning are positive, and wishing us all good luck for the week ahead.

@StuntNun that's very useful to read. I haven't found anything yet that I miss that couldn't be made low-carb friendly so I'm hopeful that once the right mental processes are in place this is for life. It's so nice not feeling sluggish and in a carb coma after a meal.

@Rayna37 interesting. I think, like you, that I'm unlikely to ever not like sweet foods, but I'm going to try to limit to occasional treats and make them low carb. In maintenance I would like to see if I can tolerate some carbier veg but otherwise would like to stick to bootcamp lite as far as possible.

@plumstone that's a pain, travel for work is always stressful by itself without worrying about what you can eat. I'm sure you'll be fine, just do your best.

I made 'chaffles' for lunch using egg and grated mozzarella- they were fabulous and I used them as the bread for a sandwich of leftover pork, spinach and garlic mayo. Relish!

Planning more leftover pork with cauli cheese and broc for dinner. Happy Friday everyone!

@Jdhshekr

And I would have thought that crispy duck would be fine as long as you avoided the pancakes and hoisin sauce. The duck itself never tastes sweet when I eat it so should be safe.

But then we’re left with shredded duck, cucumber, and spring onions. Maybe make thin pancakes from an egg mix and dash on a bit of soy or teriyaki (still some sugar but not nearly as much as hoisin).

For Chinese I tend to go with the lettuce wraps—usually chicken and veg bits chopped finely and wrapped with my least-favourite-but-very-dependable iceberg.

Also satay skewers always good, and hot&sour soup doesn’t taste sweet to me, though I’ve never checked the ingredients.

When my husband and I were dating he used to laugh at me for meticulously removing all peas from hot&sour soup before eating. I wasn’t even low-carbing then; I just dislike peas.

A Tesco car park lunch of rollitos and bits of chicken - I can't believe how much my eating habits have changed over the past three weeks. Last month that would have been a falafel wrap, a large bag of Kettle Chips, a 120g bar of Dairy Milk Oreo AND a 4-pack of Tesco Finest Triple Choc Chip cookies. (Sugar addiction at its finest, ladies and gentlemen...)

For supper I'm turfing DH out of the kitchen and having my first go at making cheeseburger pie. Oven chips for him, celeriac chips for me. The unfortunate bit is that (a) I forgot I had a Zoom meeting at 7 and (b) the organiser has just emailed to say she's upgraded the account because we're definitely going to need longer than 40 minutes, so I think I'll have to prep it beforehand and then tell him to stick it in the oven about 7.45!

(I've just worked out the old lunch is a smidge over 3,000 calories...)

I ordered hot and sour soup a few weeks ago because google told me it was low carb, but when I tasted it it was ridiculously sweet. I had to leave it because it must have been packed with sugar. It must vary between restaurants.

plumstone I travel a lot for work too. I went to Moscow a few years ago and am very envious - it’s a lovely city. Also easy to keep on track there as they love their fatty meats and salad. Just watch out for the vodka 🤣 The only Russian I remember is “Choo choo” - just a little bit - for when the creepy tee total Russian I was working with was trying to get me pissed.

The best advice I can give is to start off strong - take plane snacks and drink plenty of water and this should hopefully help. I think my worst one was accepting the fizz as soon as I got on the plane and moving onto the cocktails.... let’s just say that that week I didn’t just fall off the wagon, I burnt it to cinders. The only place I struggle is East Africa - everything is carbs and it does seem really churlish to fuss about food when most people are hungry. Plus the stringy looking creatures walking around the dusty fields don’t look very appetising to eat!

NSV this morning - accidentally put 11 year old DS jeans on and they fitted (though they are too short in the leg and the bum!). Yesterday’s good news is that I made the cheeseburger pie for the first time and everyone in the house loved it - result. Bad news is that today we’ve been contacted by track / trace / test and need to isolate ☹️

I'm having a really really difficult time right now. Have spent most of the day in tears from just stress overload. I feel like im drowning.

I've been so so good, even with 2 meals out etc.

Somebody sent the kids a huge thing of sweets ib the post and broke into them during a work call. I just lost my shit after another "computer says no" call and before I'd honestly even realised what I was doing I'd been shoving the sour sweets in my face.

So annoyed as i don't even like sweets. They give me a belly ache everytime and there's so much else I'd have rather cheated with... but i didn't want to cheat anyways!!!!!!

Fucksake. I'm so angry with myself and the world today.

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a bad day Taking. What have you got planned for dinner? Anything nice to look forward to?

Having my first gin after 3 weeks of no alcohol. I feel pleasantly squiffy
Had boiled eggs and deviled mushrooms and a few cherry tomatoes for breakfast. One square of dark choc and a packet of port scratchings for lunch. Dinner will be beef chilli with a ton of veg.
Looking forward to the weekend even though Wales is on lockdown and in reality, Saturday is no different to any other day of the week!
Did manage 2 walks and pre ordered my turkey for Christmas. Feeling cheerful because of the gin

VeryLittleOwl I don’t know what kind of work you do but I’d refuse a 7pm meeting request on a Friday night unless I’m the Prime Minister.

Talk about getting work/life balance wrong for employees.

That said, I have an 8pm Zoom with a client this evening, but that’s different; that’s me being an accommodating business owner.

WATER!!!

MrsHint I am also enjoying an afternoon tipple, vodka/slim in my case. I’ve barely eaten today—by choice, just not hungry and big meal planned for later—so the vodka is coursing through my veins in an extremely pleasurable, relaxing manner.

Which is nice because it usually takes 2-3 drinks for me to feel anything. (Bit of alcohol resistance built up, I’m afraid.). This has been a welcome reset.

Nothing, I'm heading out to work for the night. Not been organised, haven't stopped all day so I'm running on sweets and bbq graze packet atm! Fecking nightmare

takingontheundead I'm sorry to hear you've had a shit day. You can definitely get back on the wagon. Just own it and move past it; don't let it beat you!

Is there anything you could do to cheer yourself up that isn't food and drink related?

takingonntheundead ah sorry, I didn't see your latest post.

ShagMagicRiggins - it's a local charity that's wanting my advice about something, the committee's all volunteers and evenings are the only time they can do. I don't mind :)

I decided to cook the pie and DH can stick it in to warm up again as his chips finish later (I've decided to have FLGV with mine) - it's got 5 minutes left in the oven and is smelling great.

I'm enjoying my first small glass of wine for two weeks and 5 days and a small bowl of peanuts in celebration of Friday night and the good progress that had been made on replacing our central heating. Another one, maybe two days and we'll have a toasty house and we'll be cracking open the Cap Classique bubbly

Supper tonight is going to be shoogled sprouts Need to catch up on the water after having the water cut off for most of the day.

Today I have eaten a pig. Well not really but sausages for lunch and pork for dinner so it’s been piggy heavy. Lots of lettuce, cabbage and a lone sprout to go with it though. I’ve never eaten so much cabbage in my life.

Hope you start to feel better soon, takingontheundead.

@Takingontheundead sorry about your shit day, I hope you have an easy stress free night at work

I've had a funny day today with food. I think my stomach is shrinking, like not losing weight, but capacity shrinking!

I broke my fast with an amazing cheese and ham chunk sandwich, with lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, jalepenos and FF mayo on seriously low carb bread and I only made ONE. Usually I make 2 and devour both then lick the crumbs off the worktop don't judge me, but i was actually satisfied with one. It's a first

Dinner was fried pork chops, topped with mushroom, dijon and peppercorn sauce with buttered veg. Again, small portion and totally satisfied! Maybe I'm ill

Can I join in please? I didn't do the original BC but 'BC-light' is what I'm aiming for at the moment.

ShagMagicRiggins - it's a local charity that's wanting my advice about something, the committee's all volunteers and evenings are the only time they can do.

Fair enough!! Lovely of you to volunteer.

@takingontheundead sorry to hear you've had a rubbish day. You know that the sweets are just a blip because you've proven you can do this

@20bloodypumpkins thank you for the kind words

@plumstone I know you're not looking forward to it but honestly as a sahp a work trip to Moscow sounds glamorous. Are you able to say vaguely what you do?

My DH made cheeseburger pie tonight after I've mentioned it several times! It was delicious and a hit with 4/5 of us. Had mine with roasted cauli

Then whilst they feasted on cookie dough pie I had a teaspoon of Meridian coconut and almond butter - tasted sweet enough and only 5.7% carb

My loss has stalled this week

Evening all. Hope the shitty days end soon for everyone.

I ordered the Chinese, got the shredded chicken smoked in garlic and it came on breadcrumbs....I thought I was gonna cry.

DH said it was lovely and it was also full of chillis which weren't mentioned at all so wondered if they'd given us the wrong dish.

I've had the deep fat fryer out today to make fake-KFC for my DCs not one morsel of which passed my lips even though it looked delicious so I went full-on Bootcamp and made duck breasts deep fried in lard for my dinner accompanied of course by the, now ubiquitous, courgettes. I can't believe I used to eat skinless chicken breasts and cut the fat off bacon - what a waste!

Thanks all, i got to work and my clients were so pleased with my work they'd bought me a fancy pulled pork scotch egg and a brownie from my favourite bakery. I wasn't remotely hungry despite only eating sweets today but they were so sweet and impressed with themselves for remembering my favourite bakery from a conversation many moons ago that I dutifully ate. It was lovely.

But oh my, even just a couple of hours later and my tummy is groaning and gurgling.

Tomorrow I'll pull it right back. I went through some terrible stress last bootcamp and I kept on keeping on. I will not fail myself now.