Week 5 - Leaving Lockdown Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Welcome to Week 5!

Here's the spreadsheet

Hopefully we can now put the horrible weeks 3 & 4 behind us, and get on with the serious job of shedding the pounds of fat

By now, hopefully, low carbing eating should feel like it's the 'new normal', and you should be getting used to it. However, there's also the opposite danger, that you're seeing carbs creeping back into your menus.

This is a good time to take stock. Have a think about the things you've been eating over the last week and ask yourself if they are really 'in the spirit' of Bootcamp. Are you really keeping your carbs low, and focused mainly on vegetables and salad? Are you really eating enough fat? And, perhaps most importantly, are you drinking all the water?

From now on, you should see the scales move again - albeit that the weekly loss should be in the range of 1-2lbs a week (possibly more if you have a lot to lose).

I really hope that you are finding that you're settling into this WOE, and that you're enjoying the food, not feeling deprived, and are seeing the scales/tape measure reflect your commitment.

At the end of this week we will be half way through Bootcamp!

@motherbuckets that is great that your dd went into school for a while and had a good time with friends that might make it easier for her to go in again. My dd2 also had a better day. I'm trying to get her to apply for summer work but she getting anxious about that, I feel it might help her to mix with different people but everywhere wants experience and how do they get experience if they don't get a first job.

Love all the book stories. I like romantic ones or family ones. Would Hamnet suit my taste.
I really need to do a big clear out off books now that I have wardrobe done.

Yes hamnet would. Its beautifully written.

Dh is more of a reader than me (because I usually end up reading books in a single go, I tend to read only on holiday.): Shuggie Bain was the first book I've read in years ) so I've asked him for recommendations.

Michael Connelly, Douglas Skelton, Alex Gray and David Baldacci are murder/whodunnits/psychological thrillers that he's read recently that he really enjoyed.

He also really enjoys the full range of Grishams. Plus C J Sanson for medieval thrillers.

In bathroom news: we've decided on the Linton Back to Wall bath (1500mm wide so the room is wide enough) across the end of the bathroom and the Lambra Indigo Blue 605mm wide wall hung vanity unit.

Glass walk-in screens for the shower (where the bath currently is) and on the other wall, a matt white ladder towel rail/radiator.

The bath will only be back in stock on 22 June. He's pencilled in starting to fit the bathroom (we'll strip it to as much of a shell as we can in advance ; he'll come to cap off the utilities beforehand to help us) on 21 June ... but he'll be doing plasterboarding and other stuff for the first few days.

....but the suppliers have said that if there's a delay in the bath, at a push we could get the display bath at their show room which I've already got into to see if it was ok

Bad news is that although internally he thinks it's all ok although at least part of the soil pipe is lead , the external /cast iron soil/waste water pipes are too narrow for modern day standards. He's got to go away and think about how to address it - but says that there will be a solution

Still to decide tiling, flooring and lighting. Wall on left and at end will be painted navy blue.

Oh lovely! I'm going to make a final lobby for underfloor heating (not expensive!)

And some framed vintage British Rail travel posters or similar on the long navy blue wall.

@prettybird looks beautiful!

I ate cake yesterday. Which was OK. But then fell into couple of drinks then dinner out. Dinner was tapas. I had mussels, some charcuterie, bit of steak and some salads, cheese. but one aranchini ball. But also then came home and ate more cake. Not good.

Back on it today, and using yesterday's weight if half a pound down.

L green soup and some ham probably.
D sausages, celeriac mash and green veg. Yoghurt.

Loving all the book chatter, another avid reader here. I loved the midnight library and have seen the Maggie Farrell book recommended everywhere so will give that a go.

Your bathroom plans sound lovely prettybird. Our soil pipe had to be moved slightly, I went out for the day and left dh and the plumber to it!

The last books I read were Klara and the Sun, which was really very touching and thought provoking, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which was absorbing. Before that I read a couple of Barbara Vine novels -- as for some others upthread, the lockdown has drawn me to explore crime fiction that is an easy read but not dumb. Perhaps I should try Karen Slaughter, who was mentioned upthread? I think my sister recommends her too.

During the first lockdown I did what a million other folk probably did too -- I read Camus' The Plague. It didn't really resonate with our corononavirus land, though, because his plague was a metaphor and our plague is just a plague.

Friday weigh in for me, disappointing 0.7lb off for me, but still down i guess so just hope for a whoosh next week. Got to cut down on tea (although I use lactofree milk to let me have one or two extra cups) and stop snacking on cheese, or snacking on anything really. But mainly cheese.

@prettybird your bathroom is going to look beautiful! Ours is on the list of jobs, DH did it when I was pregnant with DD who is nearly 16 so it's looking a bit tatty now

Karin Slaughters can be horrible. Just to warn you. Really exciting but I had to stop reading one as it was just horrible. Prefer a Val McDermid (although they can be a bit too).

Ah thanks. Good tip. I think I'd rather stay away from anything too horrible. I can't bear to listen to the news these days and about 50% of tv /netflix dramas I watch end up making me feel too stressed or angry or depressed to stick with them.

Oh, I did read Klara and the Sun @Random789. I'd been listening to the Radio 4 adaptation. I think that's exactly what I mean about my mental capacity over the past year: I took the story at face value rather than bothering to think about the allegory etc. Just a waste of a good Ishiguro in my hands! It reminded me of when I read The Mouse and His Child aged 11 because my teacher thought I was ready for it. I was not.

Still a loss @MotherBuckets! Well done!

I’m not on the spreadsheet and can’t remember last week’s weight but today is definitely lower. BMI 25.2 which the NHS calculator keeps rudely pointing out is overweight. Blood pressure on the lower side of the normal range. KOKO.

Films we've watched recently and enjoyed on Amazon Prime:

• Green Book
• Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri
• The Help

And last week, on Netflix: Eurovision: Fire Saga . Such an affectionate piss-take of the contest and a good feel-good, funny movie. Maybe helps that I know and love Iceland Good to have watched in advance of taking the puss out of the real contest next week

Any other recommendations?

@Pleaseandthankyou

I’m not on the spreadsheet and can’t remember last week’s weight but today is definitely lower. BMI 25.2 which the NHS calculator keeps rudely pointing out is overweight. Blood pressure on the lower side of the normal range. KOKO.

Have you tried adding half an inch to your height? like pretty bird does

@TheHoover 😆

go fu...I mean reconsider their perspective

I've made a note of that. I do tend to get incoherently cross when even thinking about the damage we are encouraged to do to our feet.

@prettybird. Loving those bathroom plans.

Busted

Oh, I loved Fire Saga But, then again, I adore Eurovision

Did you watch the Personal History of David Copperfield @prettybird? That was glorious.

Also enjoyed the new versions of Alan Bennett Talking Heads on the TV side.

@prettybird I love your bathroom ideas. I absolutely love love love that darkest blue accent paired with a sophisticated paler blush pink. I know it’s not everyone’s taste but it actually can look quite masculine if executed in a modernist contemporary spin on deco glamour. I particularly love those skinny metro tiles done in a herringbone pattern. I’d go full ice cream parlour with pale pinks and peppermint green accents and use the dark blue as an anchor. I’d also do brass/gold as the metal. I’d mood board a 20s decadent vibe. I think the bathrooms at Eltham Palace may be similar to what I’m thinking. I’ll have a look. Give me a min as I’m on hold (number 16 in the q) to the dr as ds1 has woken covered in hives .

I’ve had a bit of a whoosh, 4lb off and my pyjama bottoms actually fell down when I got out of bed this morning.

Loving Bookcamp!

I'm also a massive crime fiction reader. Currently reading the last 2 in the Karen Hart series, by D. S. Butler.

Can also recommend Helen H Durrant.

For a lighter read - in the sense that there's very little blood/gore etc - I'd recommend the Dales Detective series, by Julia Chapman. She set her books in the Yorkshire Dales, with some bits on Leeds, and I was thrilled (easily pleased!) when part of the action took place on the street I used to live in!

She also wrote a lovely series called The Fogas Chronicles, which was set in the French Pyrenees (written under her other name, Julia Stagg). There are 5 books in the series, and each one focuses on a different village member. They're funny and very engaging.

And definitely recommend the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, aka J K Rowling.

I read mostly on my Kindle, because I read very quickly and tend not to re-read stuff - if it's worth re-reading, I'll buy a physical copy - but it does also mean that I read a lot of trashy stuff . I found in the initial lockdown that all I wanted to read was schmaltzy romance stuff. All utterly predictable, but somehow very comforting at that point in time.

I've just bought a copy of The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, which has been adapted into a TV series - about slavery in the US, so am looking forward to getting stuck into that.

I read on my kindle too BIWI, it's just easier. Louise Candlish is a good author, Our House is her best.

Not watched that @nowlook - and given that David Copperfield is the one Dickens book that I hated, I have no desire to watch it

@MrsKoala : I'm going to keep it simple and just contrast with white paintwork, radiator and the sanitary ware. I have some existing aqua and blue trinkets that I may incorporate. But that can be done after it's finished and we decide on what should go back on.

As well as the tiles (floor, splash back and shower), I still have to decide what material I use for the open shelves (which will be above the loo/across the end of the bath). I'd been thinking terms of rustic wood but am now pondering plain white (the IKEA ones that are ended with/supported by metal fixings).

Have you tried adding half an inch to your height?

I have actually reduced my BMI by improving my posture.. I was never sure whether to put 5 ft 5, or 5 ft 6, but I've worked hard on my spine and core muscles since I saw a physio last year, and feel taller. So now I always put 5'6". Easiest weight improvement ever.

I have to confess that, despite being an English Lit graduate, I have never read any Dickens . And also despite having the entire set of books, which I got from my grandad!

But I loved The Personal History of David Copperfield @nowlook