Week 7 - Leaving Lockdown Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Evening all. Starting next week's thread early as I still have family here and it's difficult to get away to the laptop. The only reason I can do it now is that I'm in bed, really not feeling too well

Anyway here's the spreadsheet

I hope everyone sees a good result.

Really interesting and insightful posts about cravings and comfort eating. I actually think this is what makes low carbing (or any diet, frankly) so hard. The relationship we have with food is such a complex one.

@MrsKoala that wallpaper is lovely.
@MotherBuckets any downward trend is good koko well done.
On the shape thing I seem to be holding onto my stomach but my boobs have all but disappeared.

See a few of you ladies have same problem as me. Stomach doesn't loose weight.
I have lost 10lb approx but must be all of my face. I have thin face si can't afford anymore loss of my face. But still not much off waist.
I need toning hints to help with stomach area.
Happy at the weight but just not the areas its sticking

I've lost quite a bit around my tummy, which I'm quite pleased about. I've recently noticed a loss of fat really low down in my abdomen, which I'm hoping is quite healthy, given the received wisdom about fat in that area being more damaging to health.

My thunder thighs are proving less amenable to reduction. They persist, like in the poem: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone".

My already tiny breasts are quite willing to shrink themselves further so I have to work even harder on my tummy, to try and make sure that my breasts protrude further than it does.

Chicken-wing arms are another recalcitrant area.

Interesting that you are vulnerable to losing too much off your face, Andi2020. I wish I could lose more off of my horrible ham face. I think that it has been improved slightly by a reduction in puffiness, but it could still do with some generous disappearing.

You so do not have a horrible ham face @Random789!

Today food.

B: 2 poached eggs green beans

L left over chilli salad green beans

D Moroccan lamb meatballs sauce cheese & sour cream

Water and No WINE

@ditavonteesed blimey that sounds awful!!!! What do you think caused that / how can you be sure it won't happen again??

@Rayna37 we've just had Turkish! Great for this woe - lamb kofta, huge plate of salad with olive oil, yoghurt and spinach thingy, halloumi, spicy sausage and shasuska thing amazing!!

@MrsKoala can you get to an M&S? Their tinned curries are really good and just add a pot of pre prepared green veg / cauli rice.

@Andi2020 I find side abs give the best visual improvement so side planks, hip ups, Russian twists - anything that works the obliques.

And I'm sorry I can't remember who recommended using a fasting app to reduce snacking... but I've started with Simple and I'm really impressed with how it's structured and the questions it's making me answer every time I eat!! Really helping to make it mindful.

I've been MUCH better with snacking this week.

And we had the above mentioned Turkish takeaway but I tried very hard not to overeat and was able to put half of everything I ordered back in the fridge.

Lunch: buttered egg, Caesar chicken and bacon salad
Cheeky cheese muffin as made a batch and couldn't resist!
Turkish takeaway
Mini bar dark choc

Great run this morning too and hoping to fit lots more in as mostly off next week.

Also spotted some questionable behaviour around food / dinner / panicking about eating too late but phoned my sponsor, fessed up and calmed the fuck down. Problem solved - head is calm and emotional eating can do one!!!

B: Coffee
L: salami and salad
D: chicken marinaded in yoghurt and spices , with salad.

Oooo can I have the lamb meatball recipe @ElasticFirecracker?? Got lamb mince in the freezer and need inspiration.

And I was going to ask for tulip advice!! They've all flowered and starting to look a but shit - what do I do?? I'm sure you tie up old daffodil stems should I do something like that??

I just nip the heads off and wait for the leaves to die down and then pull them off when they come away easily from the bulb. I’m pretty sure I got that from Monty Don.

Gah! I drank too much beer last night, and it made me eat too much. All healthy stuff but just too much of it.

Either the beer or the too-much-food made me very hot and restless in bed, and I feel a bit rough this morning. Good to have done it, though, for informational purposes! In the past I wouldn't really have noticed the relationship between drinking/overeating and feeling hot/sweaty and then slightly hungover, but now I have a good clean basepoint of healthy eating for comparison , and I can see the damage I do when things go awry.

Might avoid the weigh-in (again!) on Monday, as I am afraid of a demoralising result. On the other hand, perhaps I should just go for it, to try and overcome the fear of a bad result? I need to learn to take bad weigh-ins in my stride otherwise they will always trip me up and cause me to abandon healthy eating in despair.

Fusion, I have downloaded the Simple app, having read your positive comments about it. THe survey it takes you through at the beginning is very well arranged, I think (apart from the pages designed to trick you into buying the premium, when in fact the free version is available to you). I'm hoping it will be a good little tool for helping me pick up the reins again and get back on track.

BIWI, thank you for saying I don't have a horrible ham face.That is more than kind.

I feel exactly the same this morning Random! Book club at the pub last night and I also made some low carb crackers during the day, and a combination of sampling a few of those, plus three (all low carb) meals and then too much white wine in the evening has left me feeling rubbish (and 2 lbs up on the scales). I feel full of linseed and remorse (though it was lovely to see friends face to face and to be able to have that relaxed chit chat and laughter that you just can't have on a Zoom book club). Onwards.

Morning all, I am on my way home from hols on a long car journey and have just caught up on the thread. Quite glad I seem to have picked a quiet bootcamp week to go away .

I have had a lovely holiday but really struggled with the available food options and after about 2 days I just pressed the big fuckit button and decided to enjoy my holidays without tormenting myself. Part of the issue is that I don't feel like I'm on holiday if I'm cooking every day so like to eat out. I have never been to Devon before but it was like stepping back 20 years in terms of what's available on pub menus. Carb central. In a few places literally everything on the menu was based around chips or bread. Literally didn't see a salad on a menu at all this week.

I made some good choices where I could, and didn't drink much alcohol, but quite honestly I enjoyed a few days of chips and bread and will take the consequences when I get back on the scales tomorrow morning. I'm going to aim for a couple of weeks of strict bootcamp (like @Oneborneverydecade??) and see if I can muster a decent loss in the last few weeks.

I too transgressed last night. Was out for a Malaysian meal with friends, planning to stick to protein but some of the curries were really hot and I needed a bit of rice to soak it up. Not too bad on the alcohol front with 1 G&T but also sampled some spoonfuls of random Malay puddings which were undoubtedly high in carbs & sugar.

Woke up at 3 in the morning with stomach cramps and still feel bloated now. So will draw a line and resume.

@FusionChefGeoff

Here is the Leon meatball recipe. I normally make a lot and freeze.

Meatballs: I use some ground flax instead of the flatbread for binding.

Sauce: it is carby but if you don't have rice you only need a smattering.

Saturday morning humour, saw this and thought photo 2 would be me.
I will go now and read thread.

Morning all!

Joining the ranks of the disappointed, I'm afraid. We had a curry last night. I ordered the saag paneer which tasted exactly like rice pudding, so God only knows what was in it... Starving today as a result and very cross about it.

There's nothing worse than an inadvertent transgression.

@Random789

Might avoid the weigh-in (again!) on Monday, as I am afraid of a demoralising result. On the other hand, perhaps I should just go for it, to try and overcome the fear of a bad result? I need to learn to take bad weigh-ins in my stride otherwise they will always trip me up and cause me to abandon healthy eating in despair.

I know you're not looking forward to it, but don't avoid the weigh-in again. Try to see it as a scientific experiment, so that you get a real feel for the outcome of the beer/food. (Beyond the hangover/sweatiness!)

@ElasticFirecracker I make meatballs frequently, and I don't use anything to bind them. First I process whatever veg I'm using in them, which is usually shallots or onions, with garlic. Sometimes a pepper, sometimes a chilli. Once that's chopped really finely, then I add the mince (and lots of seasoning) and process again. Then roll the combined meat/veg into meatballs. I then bake them in the oven, drizzled with olive oil, till they're cooked through.

(That sauce uses a lot of tomatoes! 1600g for 6 people? I'd expect to use half that amount)

I don't use anything to bind meatballs either and they always turn out fine. The lamb ones sound lovely, I might try them without the flatbread and with a lot less sauce.

I sometimes make lamb burger with lamb mince, feta cheese, blitzed up shallot and lots of mint.

I made cheese and almond muffins this morning. I usually make mini ones but made larger ones this time. I forgot they were large and had one with melted butter straight out of the oven, then with my creamy coffee I had one with peanut butter. I feel stuffed and won't be having any lunch!

Interesting discussion about shape. I was on a walk last week and was behind my SILs, who are twins (not identical). One is long-legged and lean but with wider hips, the other twin is shorter and rounder even though she is also not overweight. One bemoans the size of her bum, the other the size of her tummy.

Making beef rendang to take away on next week's trip, and also some very green soup, so it's a busy day in the kitchen!

B - coffee with cream, 2 cheese and almond muffins
L - nothing, but probably a wee taste of the green soup
D - salmon with FLGV

Hello lovely people.

Thank you @venusandmars for the lamb burger suggestion. I love lamb, that sounds easy and delicious.

I'm slinking in through the half open door. Have kept to the rulz but.... allow myself two days off, on actual Christmas Day and actual Birthday day. Yesterday's birthday leeway was a delicious lunch out: first time inside, crab and lamb and veg with a glass of the local white wine fizz. Then home for ice creme and cherries and sour creme.

Today I woke up with sinuses streaming and a distinct feeling of hangover. The whole day is now a constant battle to draw a line and get back on the waggon while something very powerful in my brain tried to suck me back. At every turn something suggests itself to me just one praline chocolate, just one cracker.

Goodness, why do I think ice creme is such a treat when it appears to have woken the giants of addiction? The cherries snd sour creme by themselves would have been a lovely treat without possibly the hangover and cravings.

KOKO lovely people.

I made lamb meatballs this week too and also don’t use anything to bind them. I put some cumin and garlic and coriander and chilli in as well. I like the idea of adding blitzed peppers to the shallots, will definitely try that next time.

Interesting reading about how we are all different shapes. I am 5’10 and have always been a pear but the last few years have put a lot of weight on my top half. Post menopausal I suppose. I can see the fat disappearing from my shoulders, neck and bust now. My shoulders are quite narrow so I look a bit like a triangle. I ordered a couple of raincoats from Seasalt this week in a 20 and they were perfect on the hips but massive around the shoulders.
When I was younger and weighed 11 stone 4, I was a 10 on top and a 16 on the bottom half.

Pokes head around corner, embarrassed

Fell off the wagon, following a bit of an argument with dh and some resulting emotional eating so easy to fall into . As a result I've put c6lb back on. I'm mostly back on track but I'm struggling to get back into the habit of drinking water

I'll catch up on the thread later but at least I've marked my place on it and stopped sticking my head in the sand avoiding it

Have a braai (bbq) planned for tomorrow night as the weather forecast is really good: tzatziki with lamb kebabs marinaded in ras-al-hanout and homemade pork burgers plus salad, followed by berries and cream. Tonight is steak and asparagus.

@prettybird

tzatziki with lamb kebabs marinaded in ras-al-hanout and homemade pork burgers plus salad, followed by berries and cream. Tonight is steak and asparagus.

Sounds sooo delicious. Why would I ever want to eat off plan?

Sorry to hear about the fall out with DH, @prettybird.

However, as you well know, the only person you have hurt with the emotional eating is you!

You'll soon get shot of those extra pounds.