Week 5 - Low Carb Bootcamp - time to get rid of all the Valentine's treats!

[BIWI]

I rather suspect that a lot of us have been so far off the wagon this weekend that it's disappeared over the far horizon!

having to post on the spreadsheet may sober us all up, in more ways than one!

I hope any cheats were enjoyable. There's nothing worse than deciding to cheat and then not liking it.

But from now, it's time to buckle down and get back into the swing of things. If you did cheat, please don't complain that the scales aren't being kind to you. It's an inevitable consequence.

So let's focus on a really strict week, recognising that this is the end of our first half of Bootcamp.

Good luck to us all

Pork chops sound good Linda. Might do some next week. It's hard when the food I'm trying to eat isnt compatible with DH being vegan and then often cooking something for kids too!

Gah my DH is generally a good cook but sometimes he completely gets it wrong. Tonight he made chicken kiev and fried courgette. The chicken kiev is a bit carby at 13g per kiev but it's just about the only dinner that all four DCs like so we have it sometimes for convenience sake. The only problem is the combined total for one kiev and a portion of courgette is only 373 calories! I was so hungry after dinner I had to fill up on cheese.

Oneborneverydecade hope that you have been able to navigate the day as gently as possible and that your D.C. are okay. The first anniversary is really hard as there is something very difficult about moving into the next year and being a whole year away from your loved one.

Sympathy for you @cheeseisthebest. I’m also a binge eater. My tips:

1. Stay positive - I have lost and regained my mojo on this WOE, as I suspect have many others. Just stick with it and you’ll get back into the groove and this will be a distant memory.
2. Fill up on vegetables or other LC foods. As part of my daily routine, I eat somewhere in the region of 1kg of vegetables every evening (roasted - so they’re not 1kg by the time I eat them...) I love roasted vegetables and once I’ve eaten that, I’m full all evening. It would be hard for me to eat before bed and that stops me snacking in the evening.
3. If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. I am terrible for buying snacks ‘for a rainy day’ and then realising I have eaten them, and repeating it. I can have full sugar stuff in the house, no problem, but the second it’s ‘LC friendly’ like dark chocolate - I do eat it. So maybe you could take a hard critical look at what you buy in the supermarket? What can you leave in the cupboards, what can you enjoy in moderation, what will you eat all of?
4. Don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad day. I had quite a snacky day today - I ate 400g of Greek yogurt. It’s not great but it’s much better than having eaten an entire tray of Guylian which I could have easily done before.
5. Your body isn’t a dustbin. If you’re half way through a bar of dark chocolate and you don’t want to eat the rest? Throw it away. Honestly. Just bin it if you think you’ll end up eating it and you don’t want to. Or freeze it or something. You’re in control. If you don’t want to eat it, you don’t have to.

Good luck! It’s hard. But easier on this WOE than others.

My food today:
Breakfast: two creamy coffees and 200g of Greek yogurt
Lunch: bone broth and 200g of Greek yogurt
Dinner: chicken thighs with whipped bone marrow (turns out that literally goes well on everything), courgette, aubergine, tomatoes, shallots and roasted garlic

Athelstane I sense a name change in my future

Prettybird you look fantastic!

AwryGiraffe you'll definitely reach that target by the wedding! We're with you every step of the way.

Went to the supermarket today (I find it so bloody stressful at the moment) and found some Broghies they are less than 5g carbs per wafer .

I then ate two for lunch with some nice crab and mayo,salad leaves and cucumber. Probably should have only had one but it was nice to have some crunch. Not sure if they're available in the UK but will add a pic if anyone wants to look.

Dinner was a nice easy traybake. I chopped cauliflower , chorizo threw it into a roasting tin, added a pack of chicken thighs and some minced garlic. Roasted on 180 fan for an hour, gave it a few shakes to coat the cauliflower in the chickeny chorizo juice. It was delicious. Cooked some corn on the cob for family and I had some green salad with the juices from the tray on top. It was yum and really easy, everyone enjoyed it.

Not allowing me to post a picture for some reason but here's the Broghie website if anyone is interested

broghies.com/whats-a-broghie/

Hello! Got distracted by online scrabble type game and forgot to check in yesterday, so it took me hours to catch up.
for all those struggling with lost loved ones, difficult teenagers and the general drudgery of life. I have had 5 days off work and feel much better for it, really chilled out and didn't make myself do much.

Ate nearly a whole packet of pork belly last night, half I made into these
ketogenicwoman.com/air-fryer-salt-and-pepper-crispy-pork-belly-crack/
But I put too much salt (didn't half the salt and pepper, just the meat!) so they were a little too salty. I still ate them all then cooked the rest of the belly and ate most of that. Left 1 and half strips which I accidentally left on the side and apparently DCat2 was excitedly devouring them in DD's room in the middle of the night, while DCat1 tried and failed to get in on the action. Was a bit worried about the salt (made these too salty too!) but cat seems fine.

Today I've had a creamy coffee, DH's Thai green and red chicken curries (borderline, but OK carb wise) with sprouts and chocolate cream pudding - 1 square of 85% choco, microwaved with a dash of cream, stirred until melted and extra thick cream stirred through to make a thick, chocolatey creamy mess. Many many calories, I'm sure, but I hadn't been hungry all day and needed the fat.

Yesterday I had a salad for lunch, with chorizo (air fried), bacon (air fried), goats cheese and olives with homemade dressing.
Had low carb toast and almond butter mid afternoon.
The aforementioned pork for dinner, had intended to have veg with it but just kept eating it out of the bowl!

I really need to eat more veg! Did weigh today and 1.4kg (3lbs) down since Monday last week, 3.3kg altogether (started 17 days ago). Very happy with that.

Thank you lyrata that is really good advice.
I was hungry so had some ham, olives and cheese with a pint of water.

I've got a day off work tomorrow for the first time since Christmas. Homeschooling and working is so hard, feel so torn trying to do both. Didnt even get a chance to say hello to my daughter until lunchtime today as was in solid meetings all morning.

Hi, can I join in please? I tried to start this at the beginning of the year but slipped and had a bad few weeks. I need to start back up so from today, low carbs and 800 cals. I think being active on here will help keep me on track.

One question please, and I'm sure I saw a thread on this but can't find it, apart from a small amount of cheese or peanut butter, what do you guys eat for a snack if you feel hungry? I'm going to the shop tomorrow to stock up to help get this started 😊

@cheeseisthebest I said 'Good morning' to dh at 11.45pm, just as I was heading out. But then at 5.45pm we met up coincidentally as we were about 3 minutes from each other, and we walked home together. It felt like dating, from many, many years ago...

Had steak tonight with mushroom and blue cheese sauce, green beans, spinach, and left-over swede and cheese bake thing.

Tomorrow is lamb meatballs with tomato and veg sauce, spaghetti for dgc, courgetti for me, side of broccoli. Then dgc and dh will have apple and pear crumble (which they will make).

Dinner is asparagus, parsley, almond and manchego salad.

I know nothing at all about gel nails, or shellac, or anything like that, but today I've bought 4 different bottles of nail polish. NO, it's not am image make-over, it's a shell / stone / wood crafting project for dgc tomorrow

Venusandmars I love hearing about your projects with your grandchildren. How old are they? I bet they love coming to you.

@Athenajm80

Hi, can I join in please? I tried to start this at the beginning of the year but slipped and had a bad few weeks. I need to start back up so from today, low carbs and 800 cals. I think being active on here will help keep me on track.

One question please, and I'm sure I saw a thread on this but can't find it, apart from a small amount of cheese or peanut butter, what do you guys eat for a snack if you feel hungry? I'm going to the shop tomorrow to stock up to help get this started 😊

Welcome @Athenajm80!

But please note we do not count calories and we certainly don't recommend that you're as low as 800 calories!

Why are you considering that?

Also, once you're fat-adapted, which should be around two weeks after you've started, you really won't need to snack between meals. (And peanut butter isn't allowed in the first two weeks anyway)

@Athenajm80 hi, and welcome. Just to let you know that on bootcamp there is (in general) no counting of calories. We follow the bootcamp rules about eating healthily with relatively high levels of fat, moderate amounts of protein, and low-ish amounts of carbs (with most of the carbs that we do eat coming from fresh green/red/orange vegetables)

If you are eating enough fat and protein, then after a few days you might find that you're not hungry and don't feel the need to snack (although the habit of snacking can be hard to break, even when you don't need it). Other things you might try for snacks are full fat yogurt (try and find one that is 10% fat), of a hard boiled egg, or a cheese and ham rollito, or a few olives. Avoid the peanuts for the first couple of weeks.

@cheeseisthebest if you could have captured us in a moment last week at 11.45am, when one dgc was sitting in the snow, crying, refusing to move because we'd not seen any fairies in the wood, other dgc was flapping and crying because a bird had looked at them with ORANGE eyes, and I was almost weeping trying to get them back home before lunch burnt in the pre-set oven - you'd not have thought us so idyllic then!!

Haha!! The joys of small children!

May I join in please? Started low carb on 8/2 at 83.9 kg, my heaviest ever. Weighted myself today and I’m 77.4kg, 6.5kg down.
Apologies for not RTWT, but has anyone watched Dr. Eric Berg on YouTube? I’ve found his videos quite useful. He is all about keto and intermittent fasting.

Struggling to catch up today. Have read through but apologies for not commenting.

L - cream of celeriac and leek soup (just about to check the recipe threads and if nothing similar will post as it was delish)
D - at DMs - so grateful for the change of scenery - Cottage pie topped with swede and ts broccoli

It's hard at the moment, life is so joyless at times.

That’s true for me as well, cheese. Life is a roller coaster and lockdown makes it the best roller coaster ever!!. But that’s not always fun, is it?

Stick with it. Stick with us.

Wifr awake after almost 2yo DS decided to wake up and scream the entire house down. So thats every night this week. And the little monkey ensures he does it just long enough to make sure i’m fully wide awake and no going back to sleep for me, i’m at my wits end with it and i’m fairly sure it’s messing with my body and mind i.e need coffee to keep going so have another cup instead of water

@ListenLinda you poor thing! I had two terrible sleepers and was up every night for years (with DD1 she woke every 45 minutes for over 6 months as a baby....). They are both great sleepers now and have been for years (age 10 and 7 now). It will get better (although that doesn’t help much now!). Be kind to yourself and hope you get a break today.

Does anyone have any tips for mashed celeriac? I have made it before and it’s been ok but not great. Last night I boiled the celeriac for ages as it was quite hard and it went a bit of a grey colour and was still not that soft. I added butter and a tiny dollop of cream and tried to mash it and it was just a bit rubbish. Still tasted ok but if anyone has any tips to make it lovely, please let me know!

@1stMrsF I would love your soup recipe please!

@ListenLinda big sympathy here, my youngest gets me up for the day, every day, by 5am at the latest and I constantly feel like a zombie.

Today I am planning on being positively productive - going to plant new star jasmine, honeysuckle & Virginia creeper and also clean the windows. Food: L - mackerel & salad, D - big slab of roasted veg quiche & salad

@ListenLinda you poor thing. Will you get a nap in the day?

My no snacking mindlessly late afternoon went ok yesterday and I felt much better for it. Hope others were similarly successful.
Plan today
B black coffee
L avacado, cheese, shreddded veg salad with Mayo, watercress. Greek yoghurt
D aubergine parmigiana with courgetti

@Jollyholibobs i don’t usually nap in my lunch break but i will today i think!

I’m just getting seriously fed up at the minute with his sleeping and its affecting me a lot more than I realised. He always wakes up still atleast once a night. I could probably handle that if it wasn’t for the screaming and crying while trying to settle him. I never thought we would get to the stage with DD where we just put her in her bed and leave but we did, can’t wait for this with DS!

I’m just glad that its coffee i’m reaching for rather than chocolate for the sugar, which would of been the norm three months ago!

@ListenLinda
’m just glad that its coffee i’m reaching for rather than chocolate for the sugar, which would of been the norm three months ago!

That’s a positive at least. No advice on your little one I am afraid. Is he in pain or frightened / having a nightmare? It’s so difficult when they are so little and struggle to communicate what they need. It will pass.