Week 4 - Low Carb Bootcamp - how much chatting?!

[BIWI]

So much chatting, I've had to start a new thread.

here's the Spreadsheet of Absolute Fabulousness

Remember, this week (like week 3) is notorious for seeing little or no weight gain, so please don't panic if the scales aren't moving for you - always assuming, of course, that you have been following the rules 100%!

Also, the Very Amazing @StuntNun has started a thread about fasting. Fasting isn't a regular part of Bootcamp, but it's a tool that you can use in your weight loss 'journey' (sorry for the cliché!)

have a look here, and think about if it's something you might want to incorporate into Bootcamp

I hope very much that things are going well for you, and that you're into the swing of things low carb by now; but as ever, post any questions/issue here and let's see if we can help.

Sorry, have been a bit AWOL recently.

Just to pick up on some posts from yesterday/today (with apologies if I'm repeating other people's advice!):

@Frty

Love your sauerkraut recipe! Please could you add that to the recipe thread? Also:

fry the bacon in the lard (yes, this is a German recipe)
Absolutely nothing wrong with cooking with lard - it's perfect for Bootcamp

Welcome @MadamBuxton! And great progress so far. Can I ask you, though, why you're not doing full-on Bootcamp? I hate to have to tell you but if you keep on drinking the milk and the booze, then the rate of loss will be much slower. If that suits you though, that's fine - just don't expect to see 6lbs off each week! (If only ... )

When we're not Bootcamping, there's always a chat thread going on. Some people continue, some relax things - it just depends where they have got to in terms of their own weight loss. No reason why you can't continue on it, if it suits you/you need to lose more weight. It just means I can relax a bit and don't have to try and herd cats police things as much!

Also, it is really important to understand how low carbing works, so make sure you check out the resources on the spreadsheet. Any questions, just fire away here

@RagzReturnsRebooted

How can I make the tuna steaks less fishy? I'm thinking I need a nice fatty sauce!

After a year in the freezer I'm not sure how good they will be, to be honest! But I would deal with them this way - defrost and then marinate for half an hour in lime juice and black pepper. Then flash fry so they're still a bit pink in the middle, slice thinly and serve as part of a salad.

@Definitelymaybeee hopefully something in Rose Elliott's book will inspire you - have you also checked out the vegetarian recipe thread at the top of the Bootcamp topic?

@cheeseisthebest

After a rubbish week 3 the weight is just falling off me this week. Cant quite believe it, eating delicious food and not missing out on anything. Wish I'd done this years ago

Well done! Just keep things in perspective and remember there will be times when the weight loss does seem to stop. But I'm really glad it's going so well for you

@Onelittlepiglet Thai food is difficult because it's often sweetened. Without knowing the recipe they use for their sauce, it's hard to say! My go to is chicken satay as a starter, and then Crying Tiger as a main. But if you're making other, low carb options to go with it, and it's a treat, then go for it - just see what kind of impact it has.

@Sulusu

What frozen green leafy veggies do people find good? I find frozen spinach and cabbage no where as nice as fresh, but I only get a shop once a week so its a bit tricky with the fresh stuff

I have frozen whole leaf spinach in my freezer, always, and it's fine - much better than frozen chopped spinach. I defrost it and then cook briefly in garlic butter. Or, I chuck frozen cubes into a home-made curry if I'm running out of fresh veg,

Frozen broccoli and cauliflower is OK as a standby. And I have a bag of frozen Mediterranean veg which I use from time to time. I've really stocked up on frozen veg with all the issues about supply at the moment!

@ChristMyArse

Hope things are going better for you/your family. Glad your weight is going in the right direction - don't let the ructions interfere with what you're doing!

@Oneborneverydecade

My muffins didn't look at tasty as yours @BIWI (oo er). I used almond flour by mistake, do you think that's it?

What did they taste like though?! I would have thought almond flour would give a slightly lighter muffin than ground almonds?

@Dreamqueen

I think, as you've posted, you'll find you've signed up! You're very welcome, and I'm glad it's working so well for you

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch great news re the vaccine! I had a text from our GP surgery today, for mine - on Saturday. As I'm in group 7 I hadn't expected to be getting it till mid-March at the earliest, so I'm very excited!

@ShagMeRiggins and @StuntNun I was reading excerpts from a book about stevia (frustratingly I can't remember what it was called/who wrote it, but I'll try and find out), talking about its dangers. And as it's usually presented as 'natural' the worry is that people are fooled into thinking it's 'safe' or better than sugar.

just caught up - work is irritatingly busy at the moment - goes for a few weeks of very little, then its full on for a month or so. Never any notice to either, it just sort of happens.

Oh well - @VeryLittleOwl i have friends who are currently psyching themselves up into lambing. Apparently those on hill farms, its bacon, eggs and mushrooms (omit the toast) before heading out, but when you do take a flask of soup - consume before coming off the hill - keeps you warm till lunch apparently! Good luck I know a lot of multiples can be both good and not so good!!

Today has been:
L - mixed spinach and iceberg lettuce with olive oil S&P with fried halloumi. Large mug of green soup
D - King Prawn Stirfry with peppers, thinly sliced courgettes, leeks and caul rice.

The weather here is my favourite - biting cold with gin clear blue sky and sunny - just wish I had some time to go out for a walk - instead I a standing with balcony doors open and deep breathing in fresh air - its not the same.

@Justcallmecaptainobvious

This morning I found DH cutting the fat off my bacon

Obviously I am getting my ducks in a row to LTB immediately.

Obviously!

Thanks for the welcome @BIWI

As you could probably have predicted, my excited declarations of a 6lb loss have turned out to be a bit premature and I immediately bounced back up a bit. I'm currently at a 5lb loss though, which I'm still delighted with given that I'm only 10 days in and have been slightly bending the rules (worried I'm risking the Big Stick I've heard so much about!). I think I'll see how I get on over the next week or two but if I lose slowly whilst keeping my cups of tea and very limited booze then I'm OK with that I think.

5lbs is great MadamBuxton!

I’m struggling a bit recently - think my carbs are creeping up (mostly via this brunost cheese I’ve started making which I suspect might be quite carby) and other general dairy products.

I feel quite snacky most of the time! Luckily I have a meat delivery coming on Saturday so I will try and shift my diet to that rather than the huge quantities of dairy.

If it’s proper Brunost then yes, it’ll be carby...

Haven’t had that in years since I lived in Norway at 13 years old. An acquired taste but quite delicious!

I decided to take the time to make myself an actual lunch today...

Boiled eggs, plus a lovely bowl of buttered sprouts with garlic granules.

Glorious weather here too plumstone I went for a big snowy walk this morning and tried to pretend I was on holiday in the Alps. The crisp snow, the icicles, the sun warm on my face. Just missing the Glühwein

What craziness was going on here yesterday? Was too busy to join in, so another case of FOMO here, and not rectified by getting a veg box or robot vacuum cleaner.

B - long walk in the snow
L - creamy coffee, left-over sausages, butter mashed turnips, buttery cabbage and green beans
D - sort of kedgeree with cauli/cabbage rice (can you tell I got a HUGE crisp cabbage in my veg box?)

I'm finding this lock-down particularly hard because there doesn't seem to be a route out of it. I thought that the vaccines were supposed to reduce death, severe illness, and pressure on our health service, and that then we would have to learn to live with it. But our glorious leaders, especially here in Scotland, are ultra, ultra cautious. There is talk of tightening the tier restrictions, so even if we move back into a tier system there won't be the same 'freedoms' as last year. I work in the wedding industry and the frustration and disappointment for couples is huge. Not many want to have aa wedding with only 3 guests (currently maximum 5 people allowed). It's almost impossible to plan anything, and my work and income has been decimated, for another year.

Ah well, almost time for another walk in the snowy sunshine to lift my mood again!

@Ninkanink - I’m not sure if it counts as proper. I made it with milk, leftover whey from making mozzarella and double cream. I think about 1l of whole milk, 1l of whey and 400ml of double cream makes about 500g of it. Hmm. I think perhaps the rest should go into the freezer. Oops.

[quote Onelittlepiglet]@Ninkanink 😂 at ‘the WOE’! My phone has some very odd autocorrect phrases and words....my least favourite is when it corrects a particular swear word to ‘duck’ which makes me even madder....![/quote]
onelittlepiglet, for you.

Oh it won’t be as bad as the real thing then, I don’t think.

But might be better as a weekend treat every so often...

I was all excited to give you a suggestion (I think it was you who asked about food projects?) for something to get stuck into...

Until I realised that sourdough bread was not a good suggestion!

(I got DH a sourdough/baking kit for his present to celebrate our anniversary this month...so now I’m going to have to watch him make and eat lots of —yummy goodness— I mean, awful carby bread!! Didn’t think that through very well )

Lyrata I think the process concentrates the milk sugars giving it it's sweet taste. If you're using 2.4l and concentrating it down to 500ml, that's a lot of sugar left per 100g (probably about 20g)... Norwegian's using one of those cheese slicers and have it in tiny quantities (or maybe they have big chunks of it too).

Yes it will be condensed down to quite a dense carb content actually, thinking about it, so it might end up being about the same (I think the traditional process used condensed milk). I looked it up and it’s 43g per 100. So if you assume it’s about the same, you’ll be having almost half carbs every time you eat some...sorry!

I want some now.

You’re right, I only ever saw it had in thin slices. And that’s reminded me I’m supposed to be getting one of those cheese slicers! A vintage one from eBay. But...no fripperies this month.

I didn't post my food for yesterday my phone was on the blink.

B:avocado and Greek Yoghurt.
L: soup, greens with eggmayo and ham
D: chicken curry with roast broccoli and cauliflower

Cheeseisthebest mine are similar ages, 8 and 11. 11 year old is very cooperative but he is an introvert and finds lockdowns easier. 8 year old is so sociable and really misses friends. They will give school go every day but 8 year old needs supervision and cajoling. And when I'm on nights he doesn't get that. I'm taking two days annual leave to sspend more time with him this week. It's so hard though, isn't it. Is there any end in sight to lockdown where you are? Im in Ireland so it's possible schools will go back end of March. We've been off since Christmas.

Venusandmars that is so tough about your job. My friend works in the sme industry and has been off too, I really worry about her.

Making Nigella's greek lamb stew for today because I'm back in for first night shift tonight. I normally throw a large glass of white wine in, would that be ok? Generally serves 4 or five people. Going to cook carrots in too for the family (big chunky pieces) and just not eat them myself is that Ok too do you think? The recipe is a family favourite and so easy for busy days. and dont want to mess with it too much.

Omg what! The recipe I followed didn’t mention anything about thin slices.

I never got round to asking whether anyone was planning to buy either the M&S or Waitrose Valentines meal deal, and then went and bought ours this morning. I can list out what we've bought from Waitrose if anyone else is thinking of it.

@Ninkanink I remember thinking the brown cheese and rye for breakfast in Oslo (we stayed at The Grand no less) was odd, nowadays I'd be v happy

...nobody tells me how thin or thick I can have my cheese.

But just in case it might be worth cutting down just a little bit - it’s essentially caramelised so i guess it would be high in sugar for its weight. I’ve really got a craving for it now!

Haha @Lyrata

@BustleInYourHedgerow mine are 9 and 14. We're in England and the hope is for March I think. My 9yo needs a lot of support, my 14yo thinks he can watch Netflix all day whilst in live lessons. I think some schools have issued school reports which seems unnecessary and unhelpful

@Oneborneverydecade it took me a while to get used to it (we don’t really have it in Denmark), and it’s been so long now I don’t even know if I’d still like it!

I could definitely eat some Danish cheese on rye bread though. Sigh.

Forgot to share my food plan too.
B olives at about 10.30 when I got hungry
L veg curry cooked with plenty of oil and butter
D sausages, fennel and leek gratin and cavalo Nero in oil.

I was going to do a meal deal @Oneborneverydecade but have steak in freezer so will do starter of garlic butter prawns or mayo prans in lettuce, steak with blue cheese and mushrooms and salad. Dessert will be chocolate mousse someone posted previously.

Got a steak for tea tonight with lots of lovely fat all the way through 🤤 debating on making a creamy sauce to go with it alongside my asparagus and leafy salad!
Had a slice of cheese as a snack today and not sure why, bored eating I think today. Will have to keep an eye on that, as would like a small loss again with it being week 4 and hoping for a whoosh!

@nowlook I meant to say that sofa does sound like a bargain! I hurriedly recycled the Loaf catalogue earlier, ikea is definitely more my budget

@venusandmars sorry your livelihood is being impacted that way.

@Bestbees that sounds yummy. I'll investigate the chocolate mousse too. I bought profiteroles knowing the kids will eat them.

@ListenLinda definite yes to the sauce

www.delscookingtwist.com/dark-chocolate-mousse-the-one-and-only/#tasty-recipes-23005

@Oneborneverydecade