2nd week of Lockdown Low Carb Bootcamp! But our third thread!

[BIWI]

This Bootcamp has gone crazy! I'm very hopeful that means that the results on the scales/with the tape measure etc will have been positive.

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I love this week. For so many, it's a total vindication as well as complete reassurance that this WOE really works!

I hope, very much, that the scales are kind to you and look forward to hearing everyone's progress.

Today’s lunch is FLGV:

We had a veg box delivery yesterday, so I’ve cleared out all the green things that needed using to make room for the fresh stuff.

Leeks x 2, celery x 4 or 5 inner talks + leaves, spring onion x 2 and 1 pak choi. Sautéed in plenty of butter and EVOO with white pepper, garlic granules and tarragon. Plenty of salt at the end.

Absolutely delicious!

Pelosi I haven't given blood since I went low carb but it is a question that pops up every so often on Bootcamp. You should feel absolutely fine but if you do feel a bit woozy the staff will insist you eat something before you leave so it's better to have something low carb than be forced to eat a biscuit. You'll need to replace the lost blood volume so make sure you have a drink with you if possible.

I'm thinking about bucking the trend and doing dry February next month nothing to do with it being three days shorter, oh no! DH and I usually do dry January but we didn't even attempt it this year as we could already see January was going to be a mess. I hope you lot aren't going to be tempting me with vivid descriptions of G&Ts or rum cocktails or lovely glasses of wine

Thanks for the liver tips StuntNun and Oddbutnotodd

I did do the peri peri liver recipe with cherry tomatoes added in and a fair few onions. It was good! Strange, but good. The texture really threw me. I had fed it to the dog before, raw I think, and I didn’t expect it to be so mushy when cooked! I can see why people turn it into pate.

And I do feel virtuous for having eaten it. When I ordered it a few weeks ago, I was craving it so I wonder if my body was low on something.

ChristMyArse - not if you want a hassle-free life! One of ours is 500 yards up the road and we look after that one ourselves, the other one is 20 miles away and the next-door-but-one neighbour has a holiday let changeover company, so she looks after that one including all the guest communications. That said, in three years we've not had a single bad review and I get a really warm glow when someone emails me to say they've had an amazing time and will be coming back again. But if I'm honest, running them as holiday lets was a means to an end to what my real passion is, which is bringing long-term empty houses back into use. Both of them took two years to renovate, one had been empty for nearly 40 years when we bought it. Next one is a joint project with a friend, a tiny listed 1840s fisherman's cottage that's been empty since the 1960s and is currently such a gutted shell that it doesn't even have a staircase.

I've got 18 sheep at the moment, but our little village of 28 houses has, at a rough estimate, around 400 sheep between us and then there's another 800 at the farm on the corner, but she has 6,000 acres of hill ground.

Just browsing the Idiot Proof Diet recipe book, after seeing the Corned Beef Cannelloni recipe, and came across this little explanation about fat, which you may find interesting:

A note on protein and fat

What happens to the fat you eat? Some will be used in the repair and structure of cell walls throughout the body, and to make vital hormones. Some may be used for energy. The rest is wasted. The fat you eat i broken down into fatty acids in the bowel, by the action of enzymes and bile. These fatty acids are absorbed into the bloodstream and taken to the liver, where they are further processed ... into ketones, and into other fatty acid components. Some of the ketones may be used for fuel. Mostly they are excreted in the urine, stool and breath (via the lungs). Unused free fatty acid components are also excreted. Why? Because once fatty acids are broken down into smaller ketone, acetone and fatty esterols, they cannot be converted back into fat. Without insulin, they cannot be forced into storage in the fat cells. So they are eliminated. This is what Dr Atkins refers to as the 'Metabolic Advantage'

The other question is: how does eating fat stimulate the burning of body fat? Well, it acts like kindling. It primes the liver into fat-burning and ketone-production mode, Once this ketone production is in full swing, and the dietary fat is used up, the liver starts looking for more sources of fat to process. It turns to your body fat stores, which is what we all want

@ShagMeRiggins and @nowlook for ceviche I would only used the freshest fish - usually sushi grade from the fishmonger. But then I'm lucky enough to live on the coast with access to lovely fish and shellfish.

@MrsOmelette I switch between stones, pounds and kg, and BMI, to get some nice round number mini-goals too.

Oh littleowl that sounds delightful.

Once this ketone production is in full swing, and the dietary fat is used up, the liver starts looking for more sources of fat to process. It turns to your body fat stores, which is what we all want.

So my visualisation of self-cannibalisation is not far off the mark

Oh @VeryLittleOwl, that really does sound lovely. I'd love to do that, but don't have the eye or the talent. Or the budgeting ability. Or the project management skills. It's taken be a hundred years just to decide on bloody wallpaper. Probably another hundred years before it makes it to the walls. Can we live vicariously through your renovations?

@venusandmars I don't know what I thinking with the fish. Always try to run before I can walk. Lousy cook. But I'm the sort who will enjoy smoked salmon at Christmas and then immediately google "costs of building own smokehouse in garden". Useless.

Today I had 2 pork chops with crackling, mashed turnip, fried mushrooms and creamy leeks. Same as yesterday basically . Probably an omelette later

Fighting emotional eating this afternoon...heard the PM’s announcement of lockdown until at least early March and walked straight to the fridge. Went for a stick of celery with cream cheese, then made myself an espresso and came here to whinge about it! Drove home the emotional side of eating for me, where feeling strong negative emotions just makes me want to stuff my face with junk! This is where meal planning comes in for me - I know I have some nice salmon for dinner so I’m concentrating on looking forward to that (instead of ordering dominos, which I would have done two weeks ago!).

Well done captainobvious be in control of things you CAN be in control of.

I've got a big birthday in the summer and we've booked an amazing self-catering house for a few days, for 15 closest family (booked last summer when we thought we were over the worst!). We're having a catered dinner on the evening of my birthday and today I was discussing the potential menu with the chef (from one of my favourite local restaurants). It feels wonderfully optimistic to dream and plan ahead, yet I'm scared to become too attached to it in case my dreams are dashed - again.

It was great fun discussing the menu though - nicest thing I've done this week. Chef has to cater for an allergy, and a couple of non-meat-eaters. But then he asked about my preferences. "Heavy on the butter and cream, light on the refined carbs, nothing based on risotto or pasta, and don't bother with a pre-dessert" Poor guests don't know that they're missing out on an extra pud!

I've got a ham hough on the boil for some lovely smoky, meaty stock. Celeriac, turnip swede, leek, garlic, a little carrot, all standing by, ready for a great winter warming soup.

Just catching up! Loving all the chat!
So far today I've had boiled eggs with butter and ham, some leftover tofu stirfry for lunch and got salmon with FLGV for tea.
I'm normally very good with water but havent been today. Will go and have some now.
I dont really drink so I'm ok with no alcohol. I am craving toast though, might have to get some of the low carb bread.
Will post my chicken tray bake recipe later.

argh the lockdown stuff is so shit. It seems to me as though 8th ,march for schools is basically based on the fact parliament is on recess over half term, so he can't present the plan to the house until 22 feb earliest and then promised 2 weeks notice after that for schools..... can't these MPs just scrap their recess or otherwise cant Boris present the plan without them like he has for so much else? Maybe I am misunderstanding....
So three kids for many weeks more despite fact it looks like rates will be well down and vaccinations to plan...great..

Anyway I can confirm that the Ikea meatballs recipe works fine without the breadcrumbs and with the sauce I used some vital wheat gluten instead of flour and it was fine - a little runnier than usual which meant it didn't quite cling to the meatballs but it was still good and went down very well....thirds have been requested....there goes tomorrow's lunch....again....(also I never use the exact meat ingredients and today used beef mince and turkey thigh mince instead of beef and pork) and was fine.

Anyone else starting to get a horrible taste in their mouth? I can't get rid of it all day, any tips?

@flossiegrippiter that's a good sign! It means you're in ketosis, so definitely burning fat.

Drink lots (more?!) water. It should pass.

In the immediate/short term, if it's really unbearable, you could have some sugar-free chewing gum.

Hi everyone! So much chat I can't keep up.

Agree with everyone about the relentless Ness of lockdown. I have a evc husband, I am a senco supporting vulnerable children. In school full time plus 7 year old twins!
However at least this woe is keeping me on an even keel which is great, and the food is luxurious so it's something to look forward too.

Managed not to eat until lunch, but did have a coffee with cream to keep me going. Also upping the fat again with a piece of cheese post dinner to really try to focus on 2 meals a day. Fasting experts does coffee with cream stop the fast as much as eating a meal does?

@flossiegrippiter have you had all the water? If not that might be why. Could also be due to having too much protein compared to veg & fat.

Our dinner for tonight was a recipe I tried for the first time and it was very tasty, we’ll definitely have it again:

Chicken wings and potato, sweet potato and celeriac wedges (the former two for DH and the latter for me) in a chipotle, coriander and lime glaze, plus the leftover glaze from the pan, with a salsa/pico de gallo/salad and a yoghurt, lime, garlic and herb sauce for dipping! 😋😋

I have been on this thread on and off today but I'll read in more details in bed tonight. @flossiegrippiter the bad taste and whiffy breath is ketosis I believe.

I made the chicken biriyani with cauliflower rice last night for today's lunch and it was decadent. We had it with a full fat yoghurt raita with as many salad veg as possible.

B: smoked salmon and boiled egg
L: Chicken biriyani and raita
D: Chicken wings and cabbage sautéed in bacon, curry powder and butter

Oh yes forgot to mention it’s not a bad thing, really (I’m always secretly pleased when I hit keto-breath stage 😏 as it’s a great sign that things are working as they should)!

Checking in. DH and I have nearly made it to the end of dry January and we're now thinking of continuing to the end of lockdown. He feels really great not drinking and has lost some weight, I think most of my benefits are more from going low carb because I didn't drink as much anyway. The talk of different drinks does sound tempting though...
Today's meals were
L- mushroom baked with loads of cheese, salad with cucumber, olives and mayo
Creamy coffee
D- chicken leg, aubergine fried in what seemed like a bucket of olive oil, tomatoes.
Now drinking teapigs chocolate and mint tea, which is my new favourite!

Am trying to remain untempted by the alcohol talk. I am not a 'small glass of a nice red' drinker by nature. Much more of a 'what's the point of drinking if you don't chuck the first straight down and keep going?!' type. Not willingly, I should say, just more often than not it kicks off a thirst for more that I find much harder to restrain than any mere carb or chocolate.

There are some glasses I like simply for themselves - the fat red with roast beef, or a really really dry chablis with seafood. But I'm best off avoiding those too in case they also turn out to be 'we're off!!' glasses...

A lot of sprouts in my future this evening. Am too lazy a cook to do any shoogling, so for fellow-slobs - 4mins straight in the microwave will do it.

Well done @Justcallmecaptainobvious - that’s awesome. I notice a similar thing; that when I get stressed I suddenly want to eat. It makes me realise how much our body (rather than our conscious planned choices) drives our food choices.

Reminds me of the elephant and the rider - we (the conscious, thinking rider) can direct the elephant but ultimately when the elephant wants to go on a rampage, we can’t do much to stop it.

I think that’s why fat is so important. I feel like it controls my elephant.

On that note, no snacking today. Very proud.

Breakfast: bone broth and creamy coffee
Lunch: peri peri chicken livers with onion and tomato and double cream
Dinner: beef shin and oxtail stew with courgette, aubergine, tomatoes and a green pepper.

I have a cheese making kit for this weekend! @Oneborneverydecade could you try something like that with your kids? Low carb friendly. I’m not sure how much making there will be - it might be more of a waiting game - but it’s something to try (£25 off Amazon).

@Ninkanink yes it might be too much protein, I'll up the others and see how I get on thank you, hoping it's a sign of ketosis too!

Sounds like lots of good smelly breath!

I would like to have the odd glass of wine as if this diet is meant to be mentally easier if we’re not depriving ourselves of nice things it will help me stick to it longer term, even if it slows weight loss. That’s my rationale and I’m sticking to it!

Today’s food:

Lunch, was out, so an M&S random collection of rollitos, salad with a creamy chive dressing, spicy prawns, and olives and feta.

Dinner: cheeseburger pie, roast cauliflower, and fried greens.

Snack: creamy coffee