Week 4 - Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - time to focus

[BIWI]

The Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Morning all. Sorry for the late start - had a bit of a bad night so slept longer than usual.

I hope that the scales were kind to you this morning, but please remember week 4 is notorious (along with week 3) in that you are very likely to have seen no loss, or even a small gain

If this has happened to you, DON'T PANIC!

This is your body adjusting to a new WOE, and from now on you should be burning fat. So don't change what you've been doing and things will get moving again; you should expect to see 1-3lbs losses each week (depending on how much you have to lose)

However, it's also important to be scrupulously honest with yourself. If you have had no loss, or seen a gain, go back over what you have been eating and drinking. Have you been following the rules? Have you been keeping your fat levels high? Have you been drinking all the water?

Good luck to us all for the following week as we go into lockdown once again. I know it's not going to be easy, and the lure of carbs (and all the alcohol) will be even more ever-present. Post here if you're needing support to stay away from them and together we can help each other. Remember, you're not alone!

No probs, BIWI I didn't take it that way, I just prefer not to mislead people on things. It's difficult enough to get facts right about food there's so many different sources of info and differing ways of calculating things that it can be a bit of a mine field, so didn't want to add to it!

@20bloodypumpkins 😂

I had a massive amount of veg with the curry today, I promise Biwi. Re, the chocolate, it's either one or two squares of the 85% stuff or one line of the chocologic (2.5g carb). It's not proper chocolate dairymilk. It does honestly help me to resist all the stuff I have to keep in the house for everyone else.
The bread is something I know I must have less of - I do find it difficult because I'm not historically a fan of 'proper' dinners. I would often much prefer to just eat a sandwich or some granola, pre this woe.
I do think I'm doing better though - I'm no longer eating whole bars of chocolate, not drinking alcohol at all in the week and not going mad at weekends, have cut out artificial sweeteners in tea and coffee and I am eating way more sprouts than I ever thought possible!
I did think I was pretty much following the rules tbh

I breakfasted on shoogled sprouts today

My obsessive watching of the US election coverage is playing havoc with my eating and sleeping. I've given up trying to IF during this interregnum.

I found a celeriac! At the veg stall. It’s the size of my head so I’ll get a few meals out of it. I’m thinking of doing fish pies tomorrow with spud mash for H and celeriac mash for me. I’ve never liked celeriac mash before but I may give it another go - if I zazz it up with some buttery leeks and cheese I might prefer it. It’ll be good if can acquire a taste for it as I miss mash on fish pies and I don’t think swede mash goes with fish.

Yesterday lunch was fried courgette, mushrooms, leeks and spinach with a tin of tuna mixed in then topped with cheese and grilled. For dinner I did some leftover lamb leg with garlic and rosemary, swede in butter and flgv roasted in olive oil and rosemary.

Today lunch was roasted kale, mange tout and green beans with 2 small fillets of smoked peppered mackerel and a dollop of Mayo. Dinner will be courgetti bolognese.

To those not sleeping, I’m the same on this woe. It’s not the frequent weeing for me but I just feel more lively and my adrenaline seems higher. Just way more pumped in a slightly manic way for a while till I adjust. I can get manic when I start a new project anyway, so it’s that as well as adjusting to ketosis I think.

@MrsKoala

I’ve never liked celeriac mash before but I may give it another go - if I zazz it up with some buttery leeks and cheese I might prefer it.

I've found that if you add thinly sliced leeks, that you've pan-fried in lots of butter till they go really soft, somehow it changes the texture of the mash and makes it much more like potato.

Dinner (pre-cheese)

Had pistachios and a few strawberries earlier, been a bit of a weird mood so this was my only real meal. Crispy kale done in oil, meatballs (1.5gcarb per 100g) done in lots of oil, spinach, garlic and tinned toms with cheese.

Another one glued to the election rather than working or doing anything else really! Haven't done too well on water this afternoon because of it so have downed a pint and will get another in before dinner.

B - black coffee and water
L - massive caesar salad w chicken, bacon and egg and lc dressing someone posted
D - chilli made with shallots and green peppers (no kidney beans for me) and cauli rice
All the water this evening to make up for this afternoon!

@lurknolinger great tips, thank you! I'll give it another go. I did use salted peanuts so I'll start there. I'm so rubbish at cooking i don't tend to deviate from the recipe, but maybe this time I'll have to rely on my taste buds! Thanks!

20bloody I see I’m in a long line of suitors, last on the queue, and my hopes of partaking in your anniversary tasting menu are dashed.

Absolutely gorgeous stiff.

Stiff? The typo stays.

@MrsKoala I can recommend a celeriac/cauliflower mash for a fish pie topping - did that at the weekend and it worked well.

I'm planning a large stir fry this evening. I find them a good way of getting a shedload of vegetables in. Tonight's will feature chard, cabbage, aubergine chunks, radishes, and a couple of tiny carrots. I was planning to add some bacon, which is very non-trad, but I have some which needs to be used up. And whichever soy sauce is in the cupboard...

Lunch fail today. I just haven't been hungry all day so I grazed on cheese and pork scratchings . I also struggle to motivate myself to cook when it's just for me.

Dinner was chicken with cream cheese wrapped in Serrano ham, creamy leeks and salad. I feel like I'm having a lot of dairy so I think for next week I'll see how I can change that.

I've got a KIT day at work tomorrow so water will be tough but I'll do my best. Also a teacher so I can't just go when I feel like it, especially with double lessons now for Covid.

OMG how did I miss all the tasting menu craic?! Love the idea... Drooling at those descriptions 20bloodypumpkins

Loving all the tasty recipes and tasting menus (it's going to be a long time before I see the real thing again)
I had prawns at home today for the first time in years. I eat seafood in restaurants but very rarely ever cook it. Prawns cooked in butter, garlic and spinach for lunch and then salmon, olives and more spinach for dinner. Very samey but I actually like that. Also keeping babybel to nibble on if I feel the need but I am definitely feeling the need less. The over eating though has left a gap in my life (which is good) what ill advised sweet junk food to have next took up far too much of my thoughts to be healthy.
Tomorrow is Friday so I will also myself a glass of wine and some cheese as a pudding to celebrate the end of the weekend.

MrsHunt you are doing well, in the sense that you’re doing better. And well done. Honestly.

Thing is, I don’t know your goals here so any reminders or information that come from BIWI or anyone else are always directed toward keeping you on bootcamp, with the end result being health and fabulousness.

KOKO, baby.

That tasting menu looks great. Dh wouldn't eat all of those courses, but I'm sure we could think of suitable substitutes. The biggest problem would be that I'm a crap cook and dh likes simple and low faff cooking, so he wouldn't bother for just us.

Food for me today has been rather good.
B: Greek yogurt
L: creamy mushroom soup and some corned beef
D: leftover broccoli Bolognese from yesterday (there's a ton of courgettes, peppers, mushrooms and green beans in the Bolognese sauce too, as I have trained dh to put as much veg into meals as possible)

Cheers @BIWI that’s what I was kind of thinking in my head. It’s not so much the texture of mashed celeriac, it’s the slightly sour/bitter taste which makes it taste like mash which has ‘turned’.

@MaudesMum I like the sound of it with cauliflower, do you do 50/50?

It’s weird because I like celeriac dauphinois, but not any other way. But then again dauphinois socks probably taste good!

Thank you ShagMeRiggins.
I am trying - used to be a total sugar fiend and have gone from every meal being carby and constant chocolate eating to what I am doing now.
I do seriously need to lose weight though. That's my aim for bootcamp along with eliminating the desire to eat sweet things all the time. Will up the veg tomorrow. Thanks again

I may be partaking of a glass of wine tonight if the results fall the right way

And a bottle if they go the wrong way?

Just catching up on all the chat and some fab meal ideas. Also was wondering about wine. I mean with this lockdown and everything it’s pretty hard to resist. Then up popped a skinny booze advert on my Facebook just as I was pondering wine generally (which was weird) but anyway it reckons it’s about 0.25g carb per glass.
www.skinnybooze.co.uk/collections/white-wine/products/painted-wolf-sauvignon-blanc?variant=37050590396604

Anyone tried it? Could this help me through lockdown?

@MrsKoala Pretty much 50:50, yup!

I now have tingly lips, because I put a fresh chilli in the stir-fry and it was rather vibrant. I've been growing some this year, but there was a bit of labelling issue, so have no idea what strength I'm eating until its too late!

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously

Thank you ShagMeRiggins. I am trying - used to be a total sugar fiend and have gone from every meal being carby and constant chocolate eating to what I am doing now. I do seriously need to lose weight though. That's my aim for bootcamp along with eliminating the desire to eat sweet things all the time. Will up the veg tomorrow. Thanks again

Just remember—everyone is here to help.

You’re doing well but—apologies—I believe it would be better for you to step it up a notch.

If you’re not able at this time, we all understand.

What’s the next bit—one step at a time—you can manage? More water? Less chocolate?

What can YOU do?

@MrsKoala

And a bottle if they go the wrong way?

I don't even want to think about it!

I think I've done really well since Tuesday night not to fall into comfort eating. Shows I'm in the Zone