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!

Wow @prettybird your hair looks fab, and you have so much of it! Mine is really thin these days, thanks to age & underactive thyroid. Glad of the grey coming in fast tbh as it seems a bit thicker and stronger.

I know I'm fortunate with my hair. It might be fine (and even finer post menopause ) but there is a helluva lot of it

Doing the foils takes a long time

Plus I've learnt to self-treat my seborrheic dermatitis/dandruff with a few drops of tea tree oil in my ordinary shampoo and my scalp is now completely clear, after years of suffering from a flaky scalp.

Now, if this pandemic would just disappear and we could have some nice formal events again, I could wear my Nicole Farhi dress and get my hair put up in a fabulous up-do

Has the dress made a recent appearance on the thread? It must be about perfect by now.

No - I'm waiting until I'm consistently under 11st (after my dip under, I've been hovering just over the 11st mark ).

I don't want to be tempted to wear it when the buttons are still under extreme pressure - there's already a small amount of damage from previous tight excursions of the dress

Rainy rainy saturday today. Bought a lovely mix of bedding plants to plant out on Tuesday (unless I get chance tomorrow)
Got some sausages to be eaten by tomorrow but really fancy a cheese omlette & salad for tea.
Also feel like I have been slipping this week and had a bit of a carb creep, i know not necessary on BC but I am debating whether to record everything for a few days to get totally back on track?
Me & DH also having a bit of a shopping trip Tuesday morning to get the kids kitted out for summer and our holiday on 14th June, going to a shopping centre so need to plan ahead to go somewhere for lunch that is BC friendly. Might have to be Nandos 🙈

Solidarity to those of you who have posted about stressy, carby lapses into the kind of eating that makes you feel less happy with yourself. Thank you for sharing. It has been helpful for me as I had a bad food day yesterday.
My weight had jumped up, and in the throes of disappointment I began to eat too much, just a little bit at first but then in the evening I had (in addition to a healthy low carb dinner of steak and cauli) two glasses of wine, a whole large pot of greek yoghurt and ... bread, for the first time in over a month. Not just bread but the most massive peanut butter sandwich. I was snacky, restless, staring at the fridge, etc, all evening. Horrible.

Perhaps I had let my carbs creep up too high even before the overeating. I did have some 100% choc earlier in the day, and I may have been having a little too much dairy.

I'm also constipated (sorry -- tmi) which means I feel bloated and demoralised even when I haven't been eating too much.

The upside is that I have absolutely shedloads of energy today. Mostly this is because I am fat-adapted, I think. But I guess the carb hit has given me an extra supply. I have been gardening all day. I kept being amazed that i still had the stamina to begin heavy job after heavy job. I haven't felt that strong for at least a year or so.

Haven't felt hungry yet today and have had nothing to eat. Hopefully that will have cancelled some of yesterday's excess.

BTW, how fragile is fat-adapted status, @BIWI? Can you blow it with one bad day or does it take persistent self-sabotage to reverse it?

Sorry for the epic post. @prettybird your hair is really lovely.

@prettybird loving the swishy hair

The hair colour and the lime green are just perfect together and look lovely for you, too.

Walk this morning. 3.5l water done by 5pm so I'll be bound to drink more before the day is out.

L: SLC rolls (two) bacon, avocado, lettuce and Mayo. Delicious

Coffee. Really fancied 90% chocolate to go with it but I've had some two days running which I suspect is the beginning of the slippery slope so decided against.

Supper will be roast celeriac (trying frozen for the first time, and roasting instead of boiling. Who knows what will happen), spinach and asparagus. Oh and Waitrose new pork stuffed chicken thighs.

Your hair does look lovely, @prettybird , and thanks for the teatree tip! I'll be trying that.

I'm having mine done on Thursday week: for the first time in seventeen months 😱

Saw this and thought it might help @Random789

@Andi2020 I could do with one of those this weekend!

@timetobuckup before I started this Bc I would have needed this note on every press that had food and breadbin and fruit bowl but today I couldn't even finish my curry

@Andi2020 I have been really good the whole BC but this weekend I am a bit emotional and am struggling.

I know it is my emotions
I know it won't actually help

However my fail has been 2 digestive biscuits. If I was doing low cal I would be face down in chips and dips by now so I can live with that. Not great but also (hopefully) not going to ruin my month.

@Andi2020 . I think need something fiercer than a sign. A savage little fridge beast to frighten me away! Can hamsters tolerate the cold, I wonder?

Actually, all is going ok this evening. I've had a mediocre but healthsome dinner. Afterwards I had a coffee with cream which seemed to pacify my inner fridge raider.

Lovely hair, prettybird! A mallen streak tends to develop- if one is born with it, it can often be as a symptom of Waardenberg syndrome, which is linked to Deafness and/or learning needs. I'm starting to go grey, but in a distinct streak and hope for a Mallen streak but suspect it will be much less elegant.

biwi I appreciate you checking in, thank you. My food has been v repetitive and tends to be:
Coffee in the morning, cannot face food. If am home, lunch is a one egg omelette with cheese or green soup and green salad with oil based dressing. Dinner is largely tofu with green veg stir fry, or cauliflower cheese with green veg or celeriac dauphinoise with green veg. I'm getting through at least 2 large bags of 450g spinach a week in addition to lettuce, plus a range of other green veg. I need to drink 3l of water a day but some days work means this is often only 2l. I was aiming for no dairy this week and 3 meals, however, am also in the mh issues with teenager gang plus dreadful work week, have failed on both those fronts. I do think I'm not eating enough; I genuinely don't feel hungry but my portions seem a bit smaller than others are saying. I'm KOKO though! Just checked in preview, apologies for essay!!

It's definitely a Mallen streak as my thick "blonde" highlight went as far as my roots, despite not having had my hair coloured since last September

I weighed this morning as I’m away with family this weekend so am not in complete control of my food. I thought I had lost weight but I’m the same as last week 😂 I feel thinner anyway. I’m away until Tuesday and hoping I don’t go massively off track. Might pop to Sainsburys tomorrow to get some low carb snacks to keep me going as I’m hungry right now and no good options.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Oooh lovely do @prettybird I’ve always fancied a sleek bob but I don’t think I have the face for it. I’m currently in back and forth negotiations with my hairdresser to get mine done, but as I have different stylists for colour and cut trying to synchronise their diaries is ridiculous. I’m currently down to 3-9pm on Thursday 3rd June but now have to find childcare for after school otherwise it’s back to the 18th June as the next availability.

Spent 4 hours sorting paperwork which hasn’t been done since lockdown 1. Not cleaned yet, that’s for tomorrow. But it’s all filed and tidied away at least.

Had Chinese takeaway as a treat. Spare ribs and chicken in blackbean with cauliflower rice and stir fried broccoli in ginger. Very nice but I feel quite bloated and windy so I suspect something a bit too carby in there.

I changed from Greg, the main guy/co-owner for my cut and a different women for my colour to getting her to do my cut and colour when Greg wasn't available he might have been on holiday I've never gone back to him

My hair goes up and down like a yo-yo, from a really short pixie cut to quite long - but this is the best attempt at growing it that I've had for over 20 years.

My face having slimmed down this Boot Camp has also helped Dh rather meanly describes my face on occasion as a wee baw face

H has always described me as a little round bee face. He says all the kids take after me and we are just 4 perfectly round faces looking back at him.

This is my passport photo (it’s a toy he bought when we were first together as he thinks it’s the image of me! Not quite the sexpot look I was going for!)

Morning all - see, I said I didn't want to risk stepping on the scales and now I wish I hadn't: 3lbs up!!! No obvious excuse eg period / long run so am gutted as was feeling great.

I've definitely over eaten the past 2 days - all BC allowed but just lots and lots of it. I've had my mini bar of dark choc Fri and Sat night so maybe need to knock that on the head. That's the only carb creep I can think of. I think the rest is just quantity.

My new found love of rhubarb and whipped cream is probably a bit decadent every day as well. Water hasn't been as good as usual this past week so will also try harder on that.

I will KOKO just in a bit of a dejected way probably. If the "allowances" I've made are too much, I'm not 100% sure I can stick to strict BC long term and that's the only thing that seems to work.

@prettybird love the hair.

Sorry to hear you're feeling dejected @FusionChefGeoff. The water makes a huge difference and is very easy to let slide. How much have you been drinking?

Lovely dinner last night of Fajita style chicken with lots of veg including baby corn which I don't normally buy and enjoyed, with cheese and sour cream.

Great week, finding fasting really impacts the scales so aiming to take breakfast to work to eat late morning more often than not now. Friday was the first day I didn't last week and I was hungrier after eating breakfast at 7am than if I hadn't had any at all! Also first small gain of the week despite a good day so as I've seen before, a definite link.

Bit picky/carb creepy yesterday overall though and it's my period now so may not be great for tomorrow's weigh in.

I love Leon, fortunately there's one at a shopping outlet nearby and I had the new(ish) aubergine plant box which I loved, more great low carb choices there. DS3 had the GFC and I'm hoping has so many of these over time that he's completely revolted when he actually inevitably gets a McNugget one day!

DH away much of next week too but have managed a slow run on Friday and a swim yesterday, hoping to get out on the bike today.

Lovely hair prettybird DH has a Mallen streak, less obvious as he's greyed but one eyebrow is blonde and half his beard and moustache too, should he be able to grow them. I have an old, verging on elderly neighbour with a still thick swishy bob I envy! Fine but lots of it like you, but my texture is a bit weird so looks pretty average unless carefully styled.

Enjoyed my clothes and making just slightly more effort with it all last week; even tried a ShagmeRiggins inspired French tuck on Friday.

Sorry that you're feeling fed up @FusionChefGeoff. It sounds to me, though, that you've identified all the possible issues yourself!

You really don't have much weight to lose, at just over 9 stone - so I'm afraid that weight loss will be slow and easily impacted by the things you've talked about.

And, sorry to say, calories do come into play as you get nearer your target - over-eating will definitely not be helping.

If you can up your water that should, hopefully, compensate for the larger portions, remembering that thirst can manifest itself as hunger.

But - you also must understand that our body weight does fluctuate quite naturally on a daily basis, so that comes into play here too.

@Random789 sorry you had a bad day too. I don't think one day should have too much impact, especially if you were doing so much energy-requiring work afterwards! Be super strict and make sure you keep the water (and exercise) up and all should be well.

@nowlook usually 2l minimum but then I also run quite a lot so there's presumably an extra requirement just to get to zero if that makes sense?

I've also been a bit wary of over drinking as I seem quite sensitive to electrolyte imbalances and heart palpitations. Psychologically I find it uncomfortable to be drinking salt water (which does help if I've gone over) so frequently as I'm so hard wired to see it as dangerous from a heart perspective!