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

Welcome @anonly! Well you have taken the first step. And we are all here for each other.

Best bees that looks delicious. I forget who said it up thread Nigella is the worst for adding sweet stuff to her dishes! Was looking through my cookbooks last week and she puts so much honey, maple syrup, juice into stuff.

Lyrata your food looks yum too.

Today I had:

B: bacon, eggs mushrooms in butter.
No lunch wanted to go for a run. Managed 6k and struggled every bit of the way.

D: Lamb kofta with garlic yoghurt sauce, tenderstem broccoli, salad , pickled shallots and salad leaves.

Made some yum chocolate mousse for dessert, will post a recipe after I have children in bed

@buffy that sounds great! I love frozen veg for ease of use! And I’ve put all those things together many times and I think they work really well.

@bestbees yours looks great too! Tbh I think you can generally leave out juices et al and the balance will still turn out well - esp as our tastes change when low carbing and you tend to detect natural sweetness much more.

@Lyrata your food sounds fab!

Welcome @AnOnly!

Have a good read of the rules on the spreadsheet of fabulousness - you will need to complete the first two strict weeks to start with, to get things moving in the right direction!

Welcome @AnOnly. You’ll find lots of support here.

@Lyrata your food looks lovely. I’ve screen shorted for next week. Brûlée is really interesting.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously welcome back. Sorry you have had such a tough time. Hope your dad is on the mend.

@BIWI the recipe challenge is a stroke of genius thanks. We are those carrots between two by the way. Enjoying both been pushed out of my own same food every week rut and seeing everyone else’s lovely stuff. I have a celeriac the oven. Lovely vegetarian meal planned tonight. Should have read the recipe and planned to start about two hours sooner. I’ll post how it is probably about midnight at this rate!

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously sorry to hear things have been rough! & or as appropriate...

Hope things look up for you soon!

I will count my celeriac as my recipe challenge as hadnt cooked it before.

Evening all!

Just caught up! Your post about accepting the next size (whatever that is) really resonated with me Nink. Just not sure I'm in that mindset yet. Will reassess when I'm half a stone from my "happy weight". It might be a case of nice face or nice arse, but not both, as I get older 

Lovely, inspiring recipes. As ever, Lyrata's food sounds like it's escaped from a Michelin-starred restaurant! The top about frozen veg is brilliant, buffy.

 for MrsHunt and Badger

Welcome @AnOnly I'm sticking to the first two week rules all the way through, because I don't have a sweet tooth and nuts/berries are for squirrels. Also determined not to drink until I can do so in a pub 51 days down. Happy to keep you company.

Very productive weekend decorating and carpet cleaning here. Feel quite exhausted, but I would never usually have this amount of energy. Thanks to all for making it such a fab experience

Made roast potatoes for DH & the kids today and didn’t have a single one. They looked sooo good though
I added another portion of veg, so had the roasted pork with crackling, sprouts, tenderstem broccoli & a small spoon of carrots. I’ve missed breakfast last few days as havent felt hungry but had a bit of greek yog this morning to see if it would give my metabolism a jump start. Scales have been silly buggers last few days despite all good being on track. Even cut down to one cup of coffee with cream. Praying for a whoosh to get things going again

I'm 2lb off 60lb lost and I had high hopes for this week, but after dropping a lb midweek I think I'm going to STS. Trying not to feel too frustrated

All the food sounds delicious and I feel pretty inadequate as I haven't cooked anything for a year and am fairly sure I'd balls it up if I tried.

We finally tried celeriac dauphinoise tonight, they were slightly underdone but will be great tomorrow after 10 more mins.

Great whoosh @BuffyTheBuffetSlayer

Welcome @AnOnly

58lbs (and counting) is an incredible loss @Oneborneverydecade! You must be very proud of yourself.

Another one weighing in here (no pun intended) to say I don't find the chat about small sizes and low weights insensitive at all - it's actually massively motivating. I'm still morbidly obese but my BMI has reduced from nearly 47 to 43 in the 5 weeks since I started bootcamp. I'm fully intending to keep at it and ride out the inevitable plateaus on my way to being a size 16. Currently size 22 so we all have different targets

@ListenLinda How's it going with the sleep?

Thank you for the good wishes. My dad has had a stent put in and is home now from hospital. Am hoping everything is okay.
I have indeed been on the gin this past couple of weeks - the Gordon's alcohol free one! It's really not bad if mixed with a decent tonic. I like the fever tree light angostura bark one.

Thank you @nowlook I think it's going to take a while to get used to

@ouchmyfeet I can't wait to hear about your progress. I hope you've taken lots of photos? I didn't see the need but now I look back and find it motivating to see the changes

Thanks for the food compliments.

I’m pleased I found a version of the creme brûlée thing I liked. It’s a sweet version of the Chinese steamed egg I posted about a few weeks ago (www.theworktop.com/breakfast-brunch-recipes/chinese-steamed-egg/).

It’s been a Goldilocks experience. I tried it for the first time with just milk and vanilla (no sugar) and it was bland - sort of comforting but not a pudding. Then I added the 5g per portion of sugar syrup but switched from whole milk to almond milk to cut the carbs - and that was unsatisfying; it tasted like diet food. This time, with the milk and syrup both, it worked. I wouldn’t serve it at a dinner party but it wasn’t far off. Maybe at a dinner party of low carbers.

60lbs is a real achievement Oneborneverydecade! Well done.

Welcome @AnOnly. I would do lots of reading of the rules, meal plan meal plan meal plan and don't be scared of fat!

I feel a pang of jealousy at anyone with a 9 in front of their weight, but it's definitely motivational. Just got to think of it as journey. My BMI has gone from 29.3 to 29.6 and I'm within half a stone or so from being in a healthy weight category so I'm hanging onto that!

Today I had spinach and cucumber salad with mushrooms, halloumi and shallots. Dinner was soya tikka strips, roasted asparagus, cauli cheese and fried pak Choi. Very nice too. Also did a 30 min yoga with Adriene (ow) and a kettlebell work out as I really want to get my core strength up to functional!

26.6 BMI I mean!

Just caught up on the thread and I’m another one saying the Seriously Low Carb buns are terrific.

They’re not the best buns in the whole wide world, but they are proper buns and I will happily pull them out of the freezer (carefully stored as per StuntNun’s suggestion) next
Time we have burgers.

This photo was Friday. Marrow burgers—DIVINE—with Ragz’s celeriac Dirty Fries (lush, but the eldest Hormoaners went amusingly apeshit when he realised it wasn’t potato), and there was a leafy green salad on the side with a few bits of other veg.

I’m proud my burger was assembled with fried mushroom, cheese, sliced Hamisha pickle, and truffle Mayo.

The whole thing was so rich I ate half and had the rest for lunch on Saturday.

Wonderful, incredible, satiating healthy fat.

WATER!!!

Photo attached this time.

Tonight I’m doing the gel nails. It’s been a small adventure. Will report back.

Chocolate mousse (serves two greedy gooses)

180 ml double cream
1 tbsp cacao
2 squares dark chocolate ( I used Linda 85%)
Raspberries ( I had some frozen raspberries, I crumbled up around 12 of them)

Pour the double cream into a mixing bowl. Add the cacao powder and whisk on a low setting for around 4 minutes, keep an eye that the cream doesn't over whip. It should look mousse -y but not too thick. If you like it thicker whisk some more.

Finely chop the dark chocolate, add to the mixture. Fold it in gently with a spatula.

Divide the mousse into a nice bowl or glass if you're feeling fancy. Use the spatula to scrape every last bit out of the mixing bowl - remember , we are greedy geese.

Sprinkle the berries on top. Worry that it is not a very large portion because we are greedy geese indeed.

Eat and be astounded that the mousse is DELICIOUS and rich and satisfying.

I put this into MFP and it comes in at around 6g per portion.

I'm sooo trying that tomorrow Bustle once I've weighed in and don't have to face the scales for a week because I am likely to eat both portions

Grr, wrote a long post replying to various people and it got lost. Short version, you're all fab and well done and hugs to those having a shitty time.

Made the ratatouille posted by @ouchmyfeet it was definitely the best I've ever had, excellent texture but tastes quite sweet to me, which must mean my tastes are dramatically changing as DH and DS1 tried it and didn't think so. DS1 said it was so good he'd rather have had than the chips and beans he had with dinner and has claimed a portion for dinner tomorrow. He said it's like magic how you can't taste the vegetables! Will definitely be making that again.
Had it with DH's famous Chili Omelette (leftover chili, kale, bacon, chorizo fried and egg poured over then topped with tomatoes, chillies, soured cream pockets, mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan) as pictured which is a family favourite (except DS2 who claims omelettes are too eggy but will eat boiled eggs ) and happens to be low carb. Some leftover that I'm claiming for lunch.

The ratatouille was a recipe to me, the keema curry and crunchy pork bites (both posted earlier in the week) were my new recipe contributions for the week. Not sure whether I can post them on the recipe thread as it's just links to websites and I don't know the rules re copyright if I copy it out?

@MarmaladeTeepee I make the thin omelettes in a small non stick pan with a bit of oil. Whisked 3 large eggs with a splash of cream made up to 200ml and used 100ml per wrap. Cook until firm then flip and cook for a little longer then remove and cool slightly before use. Photos attached out of order for some reason.