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!

Trying really really hard to pull myself together today. I'm "mount" hungry/ragey. I am CHUGGING the water but I'm also flipping freezing which isn't helping.

I hope it doesn't take long for the sweet cravings to pass. So annoyed at myself. Feel like I'm right back at the start in terms of adapting again.

BIWI

Keeping myself accountable here x

@takingontheundead KOKO. I hate the tough days. I was freezing and miserable a few days this week. Could you have a hot bath?

You're having a blip but you're still 3st down which is a huge achievement and you know how to do this, don't be too hard on yourself

Well done takingontheundead Instead of sneaking off and eating carbs you are coming on here, keeping focussed and that plate of food looks delicious. You've worked so hard to get to this point. It will get better again.

I had tuna mayo on low carb bread for breakfast, then chicken Caesar salad for lunch on a huge bed of lettuce, celery and cucumber, topper with rashers of crispy pancetta.
Dinner is homemade vegetable curry.

Having fish tomorrow but lacking inspiration for the rest of the week. Will go a rumble through the recipe threads.

Checking in with today's food. B - leftover chilli cooked with lots of veg. Couldn't really manage a lot of it though. I don't think I'll be eating dinner for breakfast again although I have gone off eggs, so must come up with an alternative.
L Two slices of toast and Bovril/almond butter at about 2.30.
D chicken in a cream and pepper sauce, cooked with mushrooms, onion, spinach and cauli rice.
Lots of water, mint tea and coffee.

Leant on post button. Wanted to wish everyone the best of luck for weigh in tomorrow

@AthelstaneTheUnready

(I remember turning up for coffee with an extremely well turned out prettybird, and knowing enough to apologise for my clothing, but not enough to fix it! I blamed moving house, but really, it's just incompetence)

Don’t do that to yourself. We each have to define our style on our own terms, and that means learning what makes us feel great about ourselves.

That’s all I care about.

As for the election ticker, I can’t remember if it was here or another thread where one amusingly bereft poster asked, “What am I going to obsessively refresh now?” Made me laugh.

Tonight’s plan is—wait for it—fish finger sandwiches and chips, while watching homespun fireworks in back garden.

Don’t worry, Bootcampers, I have my own meal in mind.

I've just had celeriac chips for the first time. I liked them, they're a bit of a different taste than normal chips, but nice. Dh did NOT like them and left them all on his plate, so I ate his as well.

Just going through the BBC Good Food Christmas edition and thought this sounded nice, obviously minus the croutons. Seems pretty low carb friendly unless I'm missing something?

Good luck for tomorrow everyone! I'm expecting a slight rise, but only because I was so unwell last week that it gave an artificially low reading but I enjoyed it whilst it lasted

Only low carb friendly if you drop the cranberries and sourdough!

Another veggie side:

Pan-fried courgettes with shallots and lemon

2 medium-sized courgettes
2 large echalion shallots
juice of half a lemon
salt & black pepper
butter/olive oil

• top and tail the courgettes; cut each on in half across their width (rather than lengthways) and then cut each half into 3 lengths/batons

• peel the shallots and then slice

• juice the half lemon

• in a frying pan, melt a large knob of butter, with a good sloosh of olive oil and when it's hot, add the courgettes and shallots; season with salt and pepper

• fry on a high heat till they start to brown, then add the lemon juice

• turn the heat down and put a lid on the pan; let it cook on a low heat for around 5 minutes

• just before you're ready to serve, take the lid off the pan, turn up the heat and cook until all the moisture has evaporated

Just a quick food post.
B: Half slice toast before & protein ball during cycle. (3rd one this week. I am wrecked.) Tea.
L: 3 eggs with lemony spinach & feta. Yogurt with almond butter.
D: takeaway chicken salad. Dressing definitely had some balsamic ( tasted sweet) but loads of veg.
Mint tea with dark chocolate

Shag this is a lot for me, miles wise. I had gotten unfit, a little, but the weather here is fab this week, and next week could be Winter. It's 50KM, or 31miles.

Best wishes to all for weigh in. May we all be losers!

I said to my DH yesterday that I don't think I like pork scratching enough to eat them every day in December. Completely random comment, but I'd obviously seen an ad for a pork scratchings advent calendar.
His face dropped and he admitted he'd already bought me one. Oops
But now I'm craving pork scratchings

That will serve 2-3 people

I can't cope with pork scratchings. They're just too obviously bits of animal, and they smell weird. I bought some of the chicken crackling that someone recommended a few weeks ago, but they smell weird too, so they're likely to go to waste.

Not the best day here. The scales haven't moved for two weeks and I got so fed up I ate half a cheese and onion quiche for lunch - 38g of carbs thanks to the pastry. Back on track for supper with steak and cauliflower cheese. DH's last custard doughnut, which he didn't want, is in the bin rather than my stomach, which is a plus, but still disappointed with myself.

I'm feeling very pleased with myself that I haven't eaten any junk food for so long. I think this might be the longest I've ever managed without eating crisps, biscuits, chocolate, etc. I have to go for my diabetic review next week so I really hope my blood sugars show how hard I've tried with this!! I'd quite like to reduce my medication, but just getting down to acceptable levels with the medication would be good for now.

@VeryLittleOwl

Not the best day here. The scales haven't moved for two weeks and I got so fed up I ate half a cheese and onion quiche for lunch - 38g of carbs thanks to the pastry. Back on track for supper with steak and cauliflower cheese. DH's last custard doughnut, which he didn't want, is in the bin rather than my stomach, which is a plus, but still disappointed with myself.

Oh no!

Why did you do that though? You know it won't have helped you!

Drink lots of water, make sure the next few days you have plenty of fat and do lots of exercise, as well as keeping your carbs super low.

I know, I just got to the point where I didn't care - my weight wasn't changing, so I might as well eat things I like eating. Quite lucky it wasn't the spectacular amount of crisps, ice cream, chocolate and biscuits DH has in the house!

Not a good food day here. I didn’t have breakfast- kids were being dicks so we just put them in the car and went out for the day. Ended up somewhere for lunch that had only cheese and ham paninis. It was that or nothing and I had one. I didn’t even enjoy it :(

I’ve not been organised at all this week. I just can’t be bothered to think ahead. The amount of brain capacity food takes up is already at unsustainable levels. Going shopping in the morning. Not sure what I’m buying yet. Lots of veg, yogurt and cheese I suspect- and a ton of biscuits, bread and crisps for the others.

What is your 'protein ball' @Summery1 ? Is it 'bootcamp' friendly?
(The ones I can find seem to be artificial and/or carby.)

week 5 chat thread is here