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!

I would love a heated towel rail! We had a towel rail that I angle by my storage heater! Not quite the same!

We have one in the en suite, but it only works when the central heating is on. The one in the kids' bathroom works with the hot water. Much better IMO. We have poorly aired towels all summer. Moop.

Our hot water only works when the central heating is on @MrsBertBibby. We sweat throughout the summer

Nooo! Can you get valves to turn rads to zero?

Valves?! The radiators are older than me and are much painted over. This is another thing on the list that never quite happens...See flooding cellar and missing roof tile for further and better particulars!

My bathroom radiator only comes on if the hot water is on. And I never turn the hot water on because the Aga heats that.

Equals fecking FREEZING bathroom in the winter, with boiling hot bath water. The extremes are probably good for you in some whacko Wim Hof way.

NSV: am back in my normal jeans. It ain't pretty, but it's not painful either.

back in my normal jeans.

Gratters, @AthelstaneTheUnready

My final target involves a pair of white Levi shorts... Ahem, there is some way for me to go yet.

I haven't worn shorts since I was about 8. Probably about time I worked on that self-esteem problem

My mental target (am relaxed about what weight gets me there), is to be floating* down the footpath by the side of Lake Lucerne, admiring the red geraniums, wearing my sleeveless summer frock WITHOUT fretting about the fabric flattening over a bulging stomach or flabby arms.

• not literally, obvs, but I've always wanted the sort of physique that floats, rather than stumps.

@FinallyHere

Lovely pix thank you *@VeryLittleOwl*

I can see how the pressure might build to keep just one on. Are you the person who does all the day to day work?

Yes, but it's not that - I can't keep just one. Once the lambs are weaned from their mothers the ones we keep go out on the common grazings within the village from September to April, where they learn a bit of road sense in a safe environment and how to look after themselves in terms of finding water, shelter and keeping themselves fed. The lambs stick in a group with their own flockmates, they don't mix, so one out on its own would be very vulnerable and I can't keep her in with my older ewes because they'll be being tupped again and by November she would be just about mature enough for there to be a risk of her conceiving, which would be a very bad idea. So if I'm keeping her, I have to keep at least four others. At the moment I have a dozen ewe lambs and if I sell them as a group with her included it HUGELY increases their chances of being bought by someone who'll keep them to breed with, even though they're crossbred, as that's a nice starter bunch for a small croft and they should all turn pretty colours as their coats grow (the rest were all born white, but I'm starting to see some markings come through as their fleeces develop).

@nowlook - well remembered, I'm the one with the holiday lets, but fear I would be a bad influence on @NigellaAwesome as I'm planning to rip out and re-do a bathroom that's only four years old in November! (Made the mistake of putting in a cheap shower tray and it hasn't held up well.)

Oh, me too @AthelstaneTheUnready. Willowy. Insouciant. I don't see many people aiming to be mischievous stumpy sprites

I am giggling at hairy big toes! Whatever will this chat stray onto next? bites tongue about issues with hair removal in 'other places' impeded by excess stomach I have about 8 hairs growing on each big toe and whenever I notice them getting long I have to razor them straight away. But other people are 10 times more likely to notice the rough skin on my heels/chipped nail polish than some random hairs.

Loss of 2.5lb today. Very happy

One of the things I want to talk to the bathroom guy (who put in our central heating and did a brilliant job) is a dual fuel radiator so that we use electric occasionally in summer to dry the towels. Not sure if plumbing it direct to the hot water tank is an option - but at least I know that he knows how the heating is plumbed as he did it all (He didn't plumb the kitchen though so is bemused by/going to look at why the hot water kitchen tap slows to a dribble if the bath is on ) Not sure we have the wall space for two towel rails, but I'm planning on a very tall ladder style radiator onto which we can fit 3 bath sheets (only really need 2 but until we do the bathroom upstairs, need to factor in the occasions when ds is home) and a bathmat.

Dh is currently trying to "break into" the corner boxed in section but it's taking longer than he thought.

I've lost 3.1lbs this week and I'm very happy with that, after a couple of weeks with no loss. Perhaps it is because I seem to have got past the carb flu: if my body has got good enough at burning fat to keep me feeling strong, then presumably it's got better at burning off the weight.

REally interesting to hear all the issues relating to the sale versus village grazing of the lovely little lamb, verylittleowl.

Oh the lamb is so cute @VeryLittleOwl, but sounds tricky trying to keep her. Love the sound of common grazing in the village, I'm very urban.

Excited to have lost 6lbs since I started 2 weeks ago, which is nearly halfway to my goal. DH has lost 10lbs! But also aware that I'm about to enter the tricky week 3 & 4 phase.

Can someone tell me about nut butter as I see it on here quite a bit. Do you need to check the ingredients? Is almond better than peanut?

B: Greek yoghurt & a few berries
L: olives, tomatoes, cucumber & some cream cheese to dip
D: roast veg, feta & cauliflower rice

Loving the chat about lambs, very cute photo @VeryLittleOwl - I’d no idea how much consideration you need to give to deciding to keep or sell.

I too am gazing at my hairy toes and contemplating sorting my feet out for summer. I bought a new summer dress 2 weeks ago and it’s rained steadily since so no danger of sandal feet here at the moment but maybe soon 🤔. Dress was a size 16 which, given I was a tight 20 after Christmas is very pleasing - I’d like the chance to wear it though.

If she was a pure North Country Cheviot with the badger gene I'd be keeping her, no question :) We'll see, I don't have to decide until August at the earliest. I'll see how they grow on.

I've realised I have half a celeriac to use up, so change of plan to celeriac chips for lunch :) They have another 15 minutes to go and I'm starving.

TheHoover -I've had similar issues with having to hold tummy flab out of the way for hair removal-

Oh God, what a time for strikethrough fail!!!!!

@VeryLittleOwl

What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over and all that.

Well done on the summer frock @Jellycatspyjamas- sorry you haven't been able to swish around in it yet.

@Stokey always check the ingredients and the carb content with nut butters as they vary a lot, even the smooth and crunchy from the same nut and same brand will be different. Generally almond butter has fewer carbs than peanut but cashew is (delicious but) quite high. You need one that is 100% nuts in the ingredients- no palm oil, no sugar etc. I always have the Aldi foodie market smooth peanut and crunchy almond butter in. Meridian is one of the best widely available brands I think.

Thank you for the update @VeryLittleOwl

I'm now excited for someone to start their own flock with such a cute little one.

*haven't worn shorts since ....

@AthelstaneTheUnready The pair I use to measure progress are one of the few things I have that are not stretchy at all so that they provide a harsh but fair check.

Good to read about your NSV @Jellycatspyjamas I too was a tight 20 around the Christmas hols, doesn't it feel good to have moved away from there.

@Figrus2 if it was me, you're absolutely right and thank you for mentioning it. I didn't fully think through how others may react and I'm so sorry. I can see now that I overstepped a line in what is appropriate for this thread and I hope you're ok.

[quote FusionChefGeoff]**@Figrus2 if it was me, you're absolutely right and thank you for mentioning it. I didn't fully think through how others may react and I'm so sorry. I can see now that I overstepped a line in what is appropriate for this thread and I hope you're ok.
[/quote]
Or it may have been me.

Fusion, I don't think you overstepped a line, whoever it was.

I totally sympathise with @Figrus2 - it is hard enough struggling with issues as it is. But I'm uncomfortable with the idea that therefore no-one else should be mentioning theirs.

With no idea who may be reading, who may be enduring what, most topics would have to be off limits.

These threads would be substantially lesser, and less human, if they were simply lists of what people had eaten that day.

They are for support - and tackling eating gone haywire is inextricably tangled up with emotional support.

Back from my hysteroscopy with cautious good news. It all looks ok up there but they have taken a biopsy to double check.

Felt a bit wobbly after but having nice lunch so should feel ok soon.

FWIW, I’m sure we’re all wondering what we could have posted that might be triggering. If it’s me talking about a cancer scare then I am very sorry but I also need the support from the thread especially as my issue might be caused by this WOE.
Are we saying that we should keep these threads light hearted and limit topics to food, bathrooms, eyebrows etc?

If so would it be an idea to have a separate thread for more serious issues?