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

Thanks @BIWI & @NotwatchingSpooks. I'm still a bit shaky, but actually I think I'm more scared of having caught it at the vaccination centre! This will pass.

I'm definitely up for a recipe challenge. Currently going though all my old Good Food magazines, ripping out recipes.

Dailytowelhandwash out freezers are rammed, and also need defrosting, so might take a leaf out of your book.

Thank you @venusandmars

I'm in @BIWI! I'll be making venus' meatloaf as I've never had it before and mince is my level of expertise!

Great idea @BIWI. I have a riverford autumn book so will search for some inspiration for yummy sides to have with meat/fish.

Ooh I love the idea of a recipe challenge. I try and do something unusual most Sundays to keep myself motivated and stop naughty thoughts creeping towards baking...

Thank you for all the pork chop recipes!

Dailyhandtowelwash I am afraid that your pork/tuna recipe does indeed terrify me! I can’t imagine how it would taste. But perhaps that’s a sign I should try it.

nowlook That’s not boring at all - actually I never ever use tarragon in my kitchen so to me it sounds like quite a new idea! I don’t know why I don’t cook with it but I do now want to give it a go for that reason. I had a similar situation with dill last year where I had a whole unexpected dill renaissance and put it on everything.

The same is true for caraway, Ninkanink - I never use that! I’m a big paprika fan and I do love Eastern European food on occasion. I also love love sour cream.

So many good ideas! Now I wish I had more pork chops. I will definitely do either the tarragon or the paprika depending on my mood on the day. The big question is whether these count as my recipe experimentations or whether I need to come up with something on my own...

This bootcamp thread has moved very fast and I’ve been having a bug job trying to keep up reading everyone’s contributions, so I’ve not written as much as I’d like. It’s been lovely to read everyone.

2lbs off for me this week. So I’m now down to 9st 3lbs. I’m delighted with this.

I started shifting my pounds in the summer at just over 13 stone. I’m really enjoying this way of eating. And, as I’ve seen the pounds melting away, I’ve gradually started feeling more at ease in my re-found shape and size.

Well done to everyone who’s got rid of extra weight this week, to those who’ve stayed the same, and to everyone who’s made choices to manage their food in ways that suit them whilst still aiming for their goals to improve their relationships with their body and size. All the best for this next week.

Special well done to @CisMyArse and @Dreamqueen . Wishing you both well in your recovery.

@BIWI

OK - I think it's time for a challenge!

Many of you are probably like me, with collection of all manner of cookery books. I've had some of mine for many years, and have also got a handful I inherited from my parents.

I'm also betting that many of us tend to cook the same things, just cooking from a familiar, easy-to-remember repertoire.

So this week, let's try and find at least one recipe that is either low carb or that we can adapt to fit Bootcamp, so we can shake things up a bit.

Who's with me?

Yep. I'll go for this.

@WitchWand that’s so inspiring! At 9 stone 6 and so keen to see 9 stone 3!

I made a ham and cheese toastie with the lowbcarb bread this morning. Brushed both sides of each slice with butter and air fried (just because I can). Lovely but too buttery, next time I won't put the butter on the inside as well! I did one slice of ham either side of the cheese so the cheese didn't leak out as the bread is quite porous.
Will have to make up for the lack of veg this evening.
I will try to find a recipe for something that the whole family can eat, rather than constantly making myself something different. If like to try that butter chicken, or the meatloaf, but will keep an eye out for an original contribution.

No weighing for me today, as I mentioned on the last thread but will do it when I'm back at work on Thursday. I'm not taking photos either because I still have the ones from last time! Just going by clothes for now and the kilos every week at work.

@Lyrata caraway goes beautifully with pork. And tarragon too. I love using tarragon with chicken as well, such a classic combination. Any fresh tarragon that I don’t manage to use gets chopped up and mixed into butter with garlic and salt, then frozen to use at a late date (most other herbs get used up quickly enough that I don’t need to do that).

OK - this is what I'm going to try tomorrow - Duck Cottage Pie, from Rick Stein's Secret France book

I have some confit duck legs in the freezer, and tbh was getting a bit bored with always serving the same way, so this looks great. I'll use celeriac instead of potato for the mash, and will have to find some Comté cheese (apparently Gruyère is a good substitute if I can't find any)

Looks delicious @BIWI

I will try this tomorrow from the riverford book, replacing potatoes with swede.

Oh I like the sound of that! I've got sausages ordered in my next week's shop.

I’m up for the challenge! I’m always complaining i’m bored of the same meals 😁

Just checking in, will catch up and read later.

NSV today, I can see the ghost of a collarbone reappearing. They're there properly if I lift my shoulders by an inch or two, but I can see a very, very faint outline with my shoulders relaxed now. The lard is slowly receeding like the tide going out

The sheep are back out. I had to collect them from my field at the far end of the village, put their mineral lick into a rucksack (22.5kg when new, there must have been a good 80% of it still left), lug that and a few kg of sheep feed for 2 miles into the hills whilst being followed by 15 ewes all going 'Baaaa we nearly there yet?' until we got to the valley they like to settle in, and then do another 1.5 miles back home, albeit considerably lighter. Back out again tomorrow morning to make sure they've stayed put - hopefully they won't wander too far from the block, because if they drift back in a mile to where a neighbour is putting hay out for his sheep and get mixed up with his, I'm going to be unimpressed with them!!

WitchWand what a great weight loss in a very decent amount of time. I mean, four stone in six or seven months? That’s impressive. Do you drink alcohol at all?

midlifemission you came through on whoever it was who said they’d have to quit their job to keep up with the thread! (Sorry it didn’t work out, but you sound okay. Hope you are.)

Lyrata do you have a pressure cooker? The absolute best pork I’ve ever eaten (that wasn’t made by a professional chef**) was cooked in a pressure. I have a recipe for porc aux poireaux, which is a dish basically perfect for Bootcamp: pork, leeks, lardons, olive oil, chicken stock.

Went to look it up from my French cookbook for cocotte minute recipes (the cocotte was a wedding gift from one of my mother’s school friends so all instructions have to be translated ). Anyway, caught sight of a recipe for Canard périgourdine and went down an absolute internet rabbit hole for making sauce périgeux surgelée, which led to Madeira sauce which led to the depths of home made Brown sauce and homemade Espagnole sauce to make a demi-glace and—well let’s just say a) I’d have to set aside an entire week on the kitchen to make these things, and b) I’ve already lost an hour of my life reading about it!

If anyone’s still reading this, I’ll be joining the recipe challenge and will more than likely go to my obvious love of French food and sauces. So Julia Child and Michel Roux Jr, come to mama... or maman

**The beat pork ever was at the restaurant in the Oxo tower. The rest of the meal was just okay and overpriced but the pork was amazing. It was a pork loin with a very structured glaze on top, so not a sauce. Incredibly savoury and delicious and incredibly shiny so it looked like a chocolate brownie with icing!

Oh, that's what I actually came here to ask you guys about (memory like a sieve...) - clothes! What's everyone doing about clothes whilst still losing weight? Most of my stuff that would currently fit me is summer stuff, but I'm a bit reluctant to buy much when I know I've got a stone to go until my initial target and probably another 7-10lbs after that. Normally I'd hit up the charity shops, but obviously they're all shut, and eBay gets expensive with the postage.

Oh, you’d think I’d have run out of words by now, but no.

Wanted to add that pork chops cooked with a glaze of Dijon is lovely, especially if combined with a mushroom/shallot/cream sauce. Maybe a bit of garlic if you’re feeling fancy.

I love this...

Stuffed Pepper Bake
4-6 green peppers
1/2lb / 250g minced meat
3/4lb / 350g sausage meat
1 large courgette diced (optional)
1 egg (optional)
3 dessert spoons of thick cream
4 dessert spoons olive oil
6 echalottes
1 cube of concentrated meat stock
thyme, basil, marjoram or tarragon
2 dessert spoons soy sauce ( optional)
salt, pepper
grated cheese ( optional)

Method
Wash the peppers, cut off the tops and put to one side. Clean out the insides removing the seeds.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. They don’t need to be cooked before adding to the peppers. Fill each pepper with the mixture. Once the peppers are full, sprinkle grated cheese on and put their tops back on.
Place in an oven proof dish and cover with foil. Cook on the middle shelf of the oven for 1 and a half hours at a temperature of 180° C / 350°F / Gas no. 4.

Note
I don’t bother with the egg because I prefer them without. However, the egg will bind everything together more when they’re cooking.

I don’t eat with any other side veg. There’s a lot of juice released, so I have a soup spoon ready for that. (I do follow this dish with a rocket salad – just because I like it.)

[quote Lyrata]@WitchWand that’s so inspiring! At 9 stone 6 and so keen to see 9 stone 3![/quote]
Lyrata . Thanks for saying that. I'm not used to getting much positive feedback about this. I'm getting more comments from people almost telling me off to be honest. Consequently, I don't feel very comfortable telling many people around me what I've done. Mostly I don't talk much about it.
My H knows how I eat. We eat together so he would.

I'm so glad I've inspired you today. I've just kept on doing the LCHF thing and gradually it's moved. We're on this same boat together. Great to share the journey.

@Bestbees

Looks delicious *@BIWI*

I will try this tomorrow from the riverford book, replacing potatoes with swede.

That looks lovely BIWI. Thanks

0.75lb on for me, I definitely haven't been drinking any enough water; I've been having mostly hot drinks as it's been so cold.

NSV at the weekend - took DD to a different playground with a taller slide. She got to the top and froze, so I went down the slide with her. Just jumped on and slid down. I'd never have done that at my biggest. Definitely feeling more sprightly!

...and another 25 minutes spent googling pork recipes.

We do not have any form of pork in the house at the moment. Someone does not want to work today.

ShagMeRiggins, thanks for your kind words. It has been fast. I've really stuck to my goals. I want to be able to get to spring to wear the clothes I used to be able to get into. I like them. And it will save me money. To be honest, my wardrobe had been reduced to a handful of clothes that I didn't even like. It's lovely to see that I get back into clothes that, at one point, I really thought I'd have to part with.

I don't see the point of drinking much alcohol at the moment. It was my birthday last week and I did have a glass of bubbly then. Saved the bottle and had another for Valentine's yesterday. It will wait in the fridge now. I'm going to make a commitment to myself to having the next glass once I've reached my goal. Hopefully it won't be too long.

Really looking forward to reading your French recipes.

Hopeislost (and no, clearly it isn’t), that is a lovely NSV. The rewards of a lighter body create joy as well as health.

Also wanted to mention CaptainOmelette’s bathtub NSV. I had the same a few bootcamps ago and it made me laugh! I actually used to deliberately sit in the bath and let the water out to test if I was still a human dam, as you put it. Because my god, back in the day, sometimes when I stood up there was a mighty body of water released! Very motivating to KOKO.