Week 8 - Leaving Lockdown Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Our last 2 weeks!

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Only two weeks to go!

I'm feeling that a lot of us are struggling. But it's all about how to integrate what we're learning about low carbing and how that fits with day to day eating/meals.

Above all, though, who could possibly say that the meals we're eating could not be the mainstay of family meals?!

Let's see this last fortnight as a challenge: what's your most enjoyable/family-friendly meal, that they would never realise was a 'diet' meal?!!!

@FusionChefGeoff - excellent. Thanks for reporting back. Still haven’t got the almond flour as don’t have H&B near by. Maybe I could just grind the ground almonds?

Loving the flower pics all. The iris’s are stunning. Alliums lovely too. My roses are just starting to flower & my french lavender is really pretty. Finally found a spot it flourishes!

We went to a bathroom shop and talked to a guy there who said bathrooms were on average £12k. We were thinking less than half that. We decided it wasn’t so bad painted, got a new shower & a few accessories and that will have to do for now. Our focus is the kitchen now which is way beyond new doors, paint etc. It will be lovely and make a big difference to us but not cheap!

....so, the consensus to be that given I have quite an up-market spec, £11-12,000 isn't actually too bad

Picture shows the current state of the bathroom . We can't go back now

NSV: can now just wear my favourite summer skirt: a ankle length silk one that mum had made for me in Thailand (to replace a much-loved Monsoon one which had worn out) Have also managed to find a replacement off eBay fit my Susan Wolff sleeveless linen shirt, which was quite literally falling to bits and was almost transparent, it was so worn out. I'll steal the pretty mother of Pearl buttons off it (slightly larger but they'll still squeeze in to the buttonholes) and put them on to this one.

Evening all! Just back from lovely Welsh Wales. Also, just seen this beautiful dish on Twitter and thought of you: Roast halibut with Iberico lardo, piperade, charred baby gem and saffron mayo

@nowlook

Evening all! Just back from lovely Welsh Wales. Also, just seen this beautiful dish on Twitter and thought of you: Roast halibut with Iberico lardo, piperade, charred baby gem and saffron mayo

That looks nice. I feel drunk on sun, been outside all day. Also have feeling/pain in my stomach muscles from a few pathetic sit ups yesterday. No real insight into bathrooms, floors, gardens or cars but I have read everything!

Looking very lovely @prettybird!

@nowlook

Evening all! Just back from lovely Welsh Wales. Also, just seen this beautiful dish on Twitter and thought of you: Roast halibut with Iberico lardo, piperade, charred baby gem and saffron mayo

Wow! That looks fantastic. I'm sure we could copy that ...

I meant flowers not floors!

So now I've properly started IF I'm on an 18/6 window and struggling to get it right - any tips?!

It's really helping my snacking which is good and it means I'm nicely hungry at lunch.

However the window is so short that at dinner 'time' (5.30 / 6.00) I'm not at all hungry and don't want to miss out before my window closes so end up eating for the sake of it.

I try really hard to have smaller lunches but I think I've got such a good handle on the high fat concept now that they just keep me full for ages!!! Plus I love my lunch I always have loads of salad leaves and low carb veg with a protein so it's really wholesome / nutritious.

Will I just need to shrink my lunches to make room for dinner?? Or should I go back to 16/8?

I even had dinner on a side plate yesterday as I was trying to acknowledge how unhungry I was! Still polished off a bowl of gk yog and some dark choc though didn't I. Woops.

I'm not really losing anymore but don't want to gain either.

In my quest for iberico lardo, I've found an authentic and compliant piperade recipe @BIWI

piperade

I might give this a go. Imagine going to a restaurant and finding such a perfect BC dish on the menu. A rarity, sadly.

Very sorry to hear that you have neither bathrooms nor floors nor cars nor gardens @cheeseisthebest.

I love that skirt @prettybird and it makes you look at least 5' 6" 

There's a thread run by StuntNun for those combining fasting with BC @FusionChefGeoff. They'll definitely be able to help!

piperade

@Random789 oh does everybody have the manly brown allium leaves? I thought it was my personal failing. I'm going to have to move some of mine because I've accidentally planted some roses in the same place!

[quote ElasticFirecracker]@Random789 oh does everybody have the manly brown allium leaves? I thought it was my personal failing. I'm going to have to move some of mine because I've accidentally planted some roses in the same place!

[/quote]
No - it's a shortcoming of alliums. But easily dealt with by underplanting. I like hostas or ladies mantle (alchemilla mollis).

@MrsBertBibby I planted those exact same irises in the autumn. How tall are yours?

Mine are quite short, which surprised me, and I thought I might have to move them to make them more visible. But maybe it's because it's their first year.

I also read that they need a lot of feeding of else they fade away. Have you had yours for many years?

@prettybird thank you so much for ladies mantle, the colour is great and I'm going to get some of those.

I'm very interested to hear about low ground cover plants, particularly ones that are low maintenance and create a great deal of interest all year round.

I've been reading about the large garden projects with interest. I took on almost .5 of an acre some years ago and I'm just about now turning the corner and some of it is looking really good. I've made many mistakes. I'll try and take some pics and post about it.

I'm really battling the weeds this year. No. 1 weed is the buttercup, no 2 is dock leaf and no. 3 is couch grass. I find it's different every year. As I defeat one, another takes its place.

Just be warned - it self seeds everywhere Dh hates the fact, I love it

You can also cut it back hard part way through the summer and it will regrow and give you more fresh lime green growth.

Left hand half of the garden is ours (up to the weeping flowering cherry in the middle). Right hand half is our neighbours. Our half used to be a mirror image of theirs: a long straight border down the side in from of the high wall and a slope of grass. Dh extended our area of flat grass (used to stop ti the right of the rose arch), digging out the strange raised bank that was between the flat area and the slope down each side. (We think the garden was host to a big water storage tank during the war, hence the flat area with the banks around it).

We had the patio built about 15 years ago. Where the raised beds are now was the drying green but we took out our two poles (and put up a whirligig when required) so that I could put in the raised beds. Everything on our side, bar the big pear tree at the back and the smaller Victoria plum tree to its left (and some raspberry canes below the patio but they're not in shot) is "new" since we moved in c20 years ago.

Neighbours had tent up in preparation for her 50th birthday party. You can't see it but dh cut a big 50 in the grass beside the tent for her (by lowering the lawn mower blades) Apparently pictures of it went all around the world to their friends and family

I'm also battling the creeping buttercup (but at least it's green ) and the couch grass. I did manage to get rid of the ground elder that the garden was infested with when I moved in although I've noticed a wee patch re-emerging up at the back and now also down at the front of the drive way, where I transplanted some snowdrops from the back

I've finally managed to get rid of some marestail/horsetail in a patch in front of, and in , the patio, but that had taken over 15 years of pulling out every spike that reared its ugly head as soon as I saw it but it seemed to have a perception filter and I would often miss a spike even after an inspection

Geraniums are good groundcover - just check the height of the variety.

The iris (Tigers Eye?) Is around knee high, and it was planted 6 years ago ish, it's not a huge bearded iris, I think it's a Dutch iris but could be misremembering. There are a few scattered about, the survived a massive digging out and reordering of the bed they are in, they don't seem to increase, but are very reliable.

Lovely garden, Pretty bird!

Neighbours huge iris I snapped walking home yesterday evening, after the rain. Lush!

Oooh thanks @StuntNun can you link me to the IF / BC thread pls?

Massive NSV this morning, dragged all the summer clothes out and every single thing I tried on was big enough to be really comfortable and some possibly too big!!

Here is the thread for people combining intermittent or extended fasting with Low Carb Bootcamp if anyone else is interested.

Just sitting on windy Camber beach while the kids do a last bit of sand sledding on the dunes then off for a potter round Rye. I’ve just had some feta stuffed mini peppers and some salted spiced nuts to stave off any temptation at the inevitable ice cream stop. Will join in the plant chat when I get home.

Weighed yesterday and I was back to 11st 12 so I’m going to stick with Friday weights I think.

What a beautiful garden, prettybird. And I love the idea of the mowed-in '50' for the birthday. How kind of your DH.

Some neighbours further along in our terrace have the same 'open plan' arrangement as you (ie no boundary between gardens). It seems very lovely and sane and wholesome in lots of ways, especially for children, who have lots more roaming space. But I must admit that I quite like having castle walls of privet all around our garden. I'm not gregarious enough to cope with open plan! Do you enjoy it?

NSV for me today: My tummy has slimmed down so much that I can wear the kind of crop-top sportswear that reveals a couple of inches of midriff. I would never wear that sort of thing except for sports purposes, but it is really nice to have the extra coolness and freedom of a nudey tum when working out -- and with (almost) no muffin-top folds of flesh splurging over my waistband

I have to admit that when dh extended the "flat" area of our lawn, it was in preparation for us putting in the patio and raised beds and if our previous neighbours had objected, we'd have put the left/right boundary up (there apparently used to be a row of leylandii separating the top part of the garden that the previous neighbours persuaded our predecessor who was apparently never here anyway to take down).

As it happened, they didn't make any objections - but did move out shortly afterwards

We get on really well with the neighbours and the adults tend to keep to our own halves as we each have our own patios while the kids (ds obviously less so now ), all boys, enjoy being able to play football/rugby/cricket on the grass. We don't intrude on each other.

These houses had to have 7 foot high double skinned brick walls built before the houses were even built, so the gardens are lovely and sheltered And it's a conservation area so the walls can't be taken down nor the gardens built on