Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - our 8th week!

[BIWI]

Morning campers! And what a dreary, grey and foggy day it is here.

So we start the last fortnight of this Bootcamp today. Just two more weeks to go. Still time, therefore, to drop a few more pounds!

here's the spreadsheet once more

I hope everyone is staying well and that lockdown isn't too miserable

Good luck for this week

I make a stuffed dish with mine (in fact I think there's a recipe on one of the recipe threads).

Any mix you like - can be a whole load of chopped veg or something mince-based.

Peel the leaves off the cabbage, cut out the thick stalk, but leave the leaf as whole as you can. Blanch for a minute or two.

Drain and cool, and when cool enough to handle, place a good tablespoon of your stuffing mixture into the centre of the leaf, roll it up, tucking in the edges as you go. Then put seam-side down into an oven dish.

Then either cover it with a tomato or cheese or mushroom sauce and bake in a hot oven for around 20 minutes.

I use savoy cabbage in celeriac colcannon, or as the pasta sheets in lasagne. I also shred it and use it fried in butter as an alternative to spaghetti.

Nice one, Ifeelmuchlessfat! I'm interested to see how low my body wants to go as well. Last time I lost a significant amount of weight, which was doing the Harcombe Diet 10 years ago, I freaked out at 9st 1lb (BMI 21.1) and upped my carbs, but I have to admit that I'm curious to see if the upper 8s are a possibility, which I haven't seen since my very early 20s.

How tall are you VeryLittleOwl? I'm 5'6" and just under 9 stone is a good weight for me but I have a tiny frame.

@StuntNun

How tall are you VeryLittleOwl? I'm 5'6" and just under 9 stone is a good weight for me but I have a tiny frame.

5'5" and have tiny wrists, so I assume I'm pretty small framed.

Not a good day for me today, do dreading Monday. Had 2 glasses of red wine last night and then today I bought an orange hot chocolate (soy milk) and ate 2 of the mini Christmas cake bites from M&S. Am cross with myself. No more slips until Christmas! I don't even know why I did it really - I think I have this thing where I get to a certain point and then self sabotage.
Not sure what to do about dinner now - would I be better to do a fast tonight and then get back on plan tomorrow or eat a bootcamp appropriate dinner?

Just popping by to say hi.
I love savoy cabbage. I mix through some cream and mustard once it’s cooked and it’s very nice.

I’m struggling to get back into full bootcamp. I easily fast until lunch, but the Christmas treats are hard to avoid and any annoyance seems to send me heading for carbs.

VeryLittleOwl that does sound like you could aim below 9 stone for a target weight then. I was 8 st 10 lb at my lightest and I still had fat on my tummy. At that point I felt that I needed to put on muscle rather than lose any more fat so I took up weight training. So I think it's important to consider body composition as well as just weight as it's possible to end up "skinny fat" where you're at your target weight but your body fat is too high and your muscle mass is too low so you're slim but you don't have a good figure.

Interesting to see the chat between @StuntNun and @VeryLittleOwl
I'm about 5 ft 5 and at my best weight I was 10 st 4 and looked really good !
Last time I Bootcamped successfully , I was 10 st 12 and felt good , and got the nickname Slimline from a friend 👍
To be below 9 st would ( I think ) be way too low for me
I've just measured my wrists ( as I googled how to find out if you've a small frame ) and their 6 and 1/4 inches , and I can touch my thumb and for finger round them
But I can't possibly be small frame , as I have size 7 feet !
Or am I ?

I've just measured my wrist and it's 5.75 inches, so definitely small frame.

@VeryLittleOwl

I've just measured my wrist and it's 5.75 inches, so definitely small frame.

Ooh , I'm glad to read that ! I can definitely cope with being medium to large frame

I don't think it's that precise Doilooklikeatourist. I have size 7 feet but I can touch my thumb and little finger around my wrist. It's no fun having a small frame because you can't use the "I'm not fat, I'm big boned" excuse!

I don't think it's precise either , we just have to decide when our bodies feel right , and go from there
It's more personal than wrist and foot size

Evening all, really fancied a drink tonight so I have been extra cautious with the carbs today and limiting myself to 2 gins with diet lemonade! Hope it doesn't derail me!

I'm too far away to be thinking about my comfortable weight yet! I remember being 12st 7 when DD was born 14 years ago but have always been heavier for as long as I remember it's kind of scary to think that I could be lighter than that in a few bootcamps!!

After being stuck on 11'13 for weeks I've finally had two little whooshes and weighed in at 11'9 this morning. Hurrah!! Needed that little bit of motivation. And my engagement ring is now loose 😁

I'm hoping to get under 11'7 by Christmas.

Last night was a veggie mince cottage pie with cauli and broccoli mash with cheese on top.

I'm 5'5 with size 7.5 feet and wide hips and broad shoulders, so I think I have a large frame - I got down to just over 10 stone once and it felt like an impossible effort to stay there, but I'm hoping to get to 10 and a half and see what I think!

I've put on 1.5 lb since yesterday, which is my own fault but I'm still mad about it! Do have my period though so that probably hasn't helped.
Well done Giraffe - it's lovely when your rings get too loose. It feels like real progress.

Morning, fingers crossed for everyone weighing tomorrow morning. I feel like I’ve got the right balance in what I’m eating and drinking , it all feels sustainable in everyday life. The weight is moving downwards, so I am just going to koko and keep drinking lots of different herbal teas.

Today
B Greek yogurt, Tsp double cream & Tsp linwoods , 2 raspberries
L homemade cauliflower soup with grated cheese on top
Afternoon maybe 3 or 4 almonds
D Roast chicken & flgv
2 coffees with Tsp double cream

Of course the challenges will start when the Christmas food comes out .
I’m hoping to hold off until the end of boot camp

Spooks in my experience you need to be really, really careful over Christmas and New Year. First there's the constant temptation in the run up to Christmas. I'm very strict that Christmas Day is my one day off so I won't have anything off piste before that. Then my Christmas Day is planned around the foods I most miss: glass of Buck's Fizz in the morning; stuffing and a roast potato with my Christmas dinner; a small piece of my mum's homemade Christmas pud for dessert. I don't give myself a licence to fill up on mince pies or crappy chocolates; I make mindful exceptions to my usual way of eating and really make the most of enjoying them. However it's the period between Christmas and New Year that's most dangerous in my opinion. You've got leftovers and selection boxes and tubs of chocolates lying around and it can be hard to avoid picking at them and/or feeling like they've got to be eaten up. I've even heard of people deliberately eating all the chocolates so they won't be tempted later. I'm guessing that in the middle of temptation this rationale seems to make sense! But also, most of us will be planning to start dieting in the New Year, in our case this will be Bootcamp. Psychologically this can make you feel that it's okay to finish up the Roses because you're going to get back to healthy eating in January. But actually all that's going to do is add an extra 2 or 3 pounds on to your start weight. If you can avoid this seasonal weight gain then you're getting a head start on your next Bootcamp. It's really important to think about how the Christmas period is likely to affect you so that you're prepared. Most people don't like throwing away excess food but I believe it's as wasteful to eat food you don't need as it is to throw it away. Your tummy is not a waist basket, geddit?! I'm lucky in that I have two teenage DSs so unwanted chocolates are very easy to dispose of!

I'm definitely making changes this Christmas. Previous years have seen half a box of Lindor or Ferrero Rocher for breakfast most days from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day... I'll be relaxing my eating rules over that period, but it'll be one box of chocolates over the 10 days rather than five!

I'm rewarding myself for losing the Covid-19 weight with a bra fitting at Bravissimo. I seem to have gone from a 32FF to a 30H!

Thanks Stuntnun that's really useful. I've been thinking a lot about how to manage Christmas and your approach sounds sensible.

We've already started receiving festive baked goods and chocolates from friends and family. Thankfully DH works with a load of gannets, so I just send him into work with anything tempting!

Thanks stuntnun that’s really useful. I’ve had to be really organised for Christmas food as we are relying on online deliveries as our dd2 is Clinically extremely vulnerable, our dd1 won’t be back from uni until about the 20th, so that will hopefully keep pre Christmas eating delayed until she returns.

I’ve deliberately not bought huge tubs of chocolates for us, just for sending into dd2s college. We have got a Hamper of very Fortnum & Mason treats, that is a new Christmas Eve Tradition for us and the contents are lovely and not huge quantities. I will get as much pleasure watching it beIng unpacked as I would eating it, but again I have included boot camp friendly olives, nuts etc.

The other thing that I have done is bought lovely Organic meats, the Turkey and a small cheese online and have fresh veg etc being delivered, I’ve bought charcuterie and lovely olives, smoked salmon etc so all the stuff that is real food and allowed. We have got Christmas pudding, I will have a very small portion, but I’m actually planning on and looking forward to having some raspberries with mascarpone. 1 glass of champagne etc.

I totally agree that it is mindless snacking between Christmas and new year that can be a big stumbling block. Fortunately as we have a dog we also walk every day.

Fingers crossed that this plan will mean I feel treated through lovely foods

Oh FFS, just wrote a long reply about how I'll "manage" Christmas and MN ate it

I'll do it again later.

Really sensible advice about Christmas thank you. I want to loosen the reins a bit but not too much so I'm going to have a think about which bits are important to me. We don't have any family with us this year so I don't have to get in any particular extra Christmas yummy things, only stuff we will eat ourselves which helps. I definitely would like a Roast potato and Yorkshire and some yule log for pudding. I may allow myself some party food on boxing Day, but it will be a great achievement if I get to Xmas Eve evening without losing control and I really must remember ferrero rocher for breakfast is not wise, even if it does contain BC friendly nuts!