Low Carb Bootcamp - our final weigh in (but ongoing chat thread)

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Another wet and dreary day. What happened to summer?!

Anyway, for its final outing, here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

It's not the end, of course - and I know many of you are keen to keep going until whenever the next Bootcamp starts. So post here for all the usual chat, banter, recipes, etc.

I had my first riding lesson last night. I'm still overweight at 12.8 (supposed to be 12 stone ) but they didn't say anything and it was just a one off to see where to put me. Lessons properly start in September so I should be 12 stone by then. It went really well, I had a few bad habits but felt a lot more confident than I thought. Also, the jodhpurs I'd bought were far too big so I'll be ebaying them and buying a new pair for September. Thanks for the support I thought of you all as I was trotting round the arena!

I have to say I don't agree with ending Bootcamp earlier for Christmas. There's just too much temptation and for a lot of people it will end up being mince pies in the run up to Christmas, a massive feast Christmas Day and then scoffing chocolates until New Year with the plan to start losing weight again in January. I know I would easily gain a stone doing that. I've been following this Way of Eating for eight years and for me Christmas is a single day off - and even then I don't go carb-mad, I just add in the bits I really miss. There was one January Bootcamp where everyone was talking about eating up all the Christmas treats before Bootcamp started and it completely derailed me. Some of us, probably most of us, really need the strictness of Bootcamp and the threat of the Big Stick as well as the loving support of our fellow Bootcampers.

@FusionChefGeoff

So, due to various holidays / festivals I won't be fully in control of food and have decided to take some non BC friendly shortcuts to massively reduce stress!! Plus my garden is producing some irresistible produce which is on the naughty list

Nothing to stop you doing this, occasionally. I'm sure you're not going to be at festivals/on holiday all the time? However, it sounds to me like what's in your head is more about abandoning low carbing principles.

I totally get that there are certain circumstances where it's impossible to low carb successfully - festivals is almost certainly going to be one of those, as everything seems to be in a bun/flatbread/pitta/wrap or on rice of some kind! But on holiday you should be much more able to stay in control of what you're eating/cooking.

Also, why are you growing things if you know they're too high in carbs?!

I'm interested to know if all of my little shortcuts / planned garden and festival indiscretions add up to a LC disaster - and I'm better off just maintaining with old fashioned calorie counting for a bit or not?!

Yes, it could easily become a disaster. You're likely to set off the carb cravings, which make it much easier to rationalise eating carbs rather than keeping them under control.

Please don't revert to calorie counting - that really doesn't work! Please buy/read this book Why We Eat (Too Much), which will really drive home why calorie counting doesn't work.

I'm worried that I'll tip over and then be snacking on cheese / mayo / high fat generally when I should be accepting LC is off for a bit and going for carrots / rice cakes / apples (all of which I adore and miss desperately so are 'non deprivation' but lower calorie snacks if NOT low carbing)

Why should you be 'accepting that LC is off for a bit? Again, sounds to me like you're actually planning to go completely off piste.

Does that make sense?!?

No!

home grown beetroot added to my salads

Beetroot is 7.6g carbs per 100g, so not too bad. To put that into context, that's less than blueberries (which are 9.1g carbs per 100g). So as long as you're not eating masses, at every meal, it should be OK. Plus, of course, beetroot is really good for you!

shop bought coleslaw / dips / sauces / curries when camping so fundamentally not high carb but definitely over normal BC advice

Be very careful with these, as they can become very high in carbs, very quickly. Coleslaw varies enormously depending on which brand/type you buy. Why not make your own? There's a recipe on the vegetarian recipe thread that's very easy to do. Similarly with dips - you could easily make your own too. Lots of these things have sugar added to them, which can rule them out.

the occasional ice cream (once a week?)

Fair enough - try to reduce the impact by avoiding syrups and sauces though, as well as flavours that would obviously be very high in carbs, e.g. salted caramel. Can you keep it to once a week though? Genuinely?

A classic chocolate Magnum (as an example) is 24g carbs. A salted caramel one is 30g carbs.

the odd portion of chips (ideally not on same day as ice cream?!)

Again, occasionally, fair enough - but definitely not on the same day as ice-cream! For info, a 100g portion of McCain Home Chips (oven baked) is 31g of carbs. (I have no idea how many chips you'd get for 100g, but I suspect not many)

low fat (yuk but not my house!) Greek yoghurt and mayo / dressings

No, no, no! Avoid low fat things as much as you can. And salad dressings too - they again usually have sugar added, as well as all manner of other ingredients.

What would you advise??

Sorry, but I feel that you need to take a long, hard look at what your thought processes are here. I get that you see occasions where you will want to eat higher carb foods - absolutely! It's called 'Real Life'! But the danger with how you've explained what you're thinking is that you will go totally off piste and abandon the principles of low carbing.

It's true to say that maintenance is about learning what you can/can't include in your diet. But it's also true to say that there still needs to be an element of control. Obviously none of wants to feel deprived - but just remember that the high carb 'treats' are the things that led to the weight gain in the first place.

Sorry if this all sounds harsh. But you did ask!

@FusionChefGeoff

In other garden news I have a tonne of kale I'm slowly getting the hang of and a load of chicken and streaky bacon to use up which all feels like they should be culinary friends - *@BIWI* as the impromptu recipe queen what would you conjure up if they were in your 'green pepper' bag on Ready Steady Cook??

I'd cut the chicken open, stuff it with something like soft cheese, some sage leaves perhaps, and then wrap it in the streaky bacon and bake it.

The kale would go in the bin, as I can't abide the stuff

I think @MrsKoala and @StuntNun that if you're pretty much at your target weight, and/or you're maintaining, it's a very different place to be in, compared with those who still aren't there yet.

Having Bootcamp run up to Christmas is a way for everyone to keep things more under control, and to learn how to deal with low carbing during this period of time. (As well as preventing more weight gain!)

The support of people here definitely helps people to resist the lure of the carbs, or to find strategies to deal with them. What you describe:

Xmas festivities usually start (mid November!) beginning of dec with weekend Xmas markets etc and I like to join in with my kids

... would be a recipe for disaster for many of us!

I bet you're enjoying your new/refreshed bathroom Rayna37

We bought the dark blue paint for ours yesterday. Dh has done the mist coat so now it's the difficult stuff that needs us to be careful The onus is now on us to get that done as quickly as possible so that the bathroom fitters can come back and finish the job.

@FusionChefGeoff

I find that I can maintain better, and manage the odd indiscretion, if I am eating strictly to bootcamp rules the rest of the time. So lots of fat, and I/F where possible. If I leave that all behind I flick a mental and physical switch. Physically I start to feel hungry and I'm more likely to be tempted so ice-cream / chips / snacks become an every day thing. Mentally, once the switch is flicked I find it hard to avoid pizza or things fried in batter, (even though I don't actually enjoy them) and I indulge my crisp habit. Then I feel bloated and unwell and stop enjoying my holiday.

With regards to your questions: I LOVE beetroot (especially roasted in the oven) so I do add it in to my diet sometimes. Same with a few lentils.
For shop bought coleslaw, dips etc be meticulous about reading the labels and set yourself a strict limit (e.g. 4g carb/100) that you won't go above. Also limit the quantities you eat. Buy creme fraiche or sour cream or ff greek yogurt to mix with dips or coleslaw to up the fat content and dilute the carb content. Buy individual sachets of mayonnaise to take with you.
A once a week ice cream what's a holiday without it? but have a tub rather than a cone. Enjoy it and savour it.
Occasional chips. Do you have to eat them all? I find the first ones are lovely, but I try to notice when that feeling stops and almost never finish a whole portion.
Low fat mayo / dressings in other people's homes: as above, can you add sour cream, take your own sachet of high fat mayo?

Good luck!

Re Christmas. I am probably going to eat a couple of mince pies. Probably 2. I'll probably eat a handful of chocolates. I might have one plate of cheese with a few oatcakes. I'll have two slices of turkey and cranberry pie. Everything else will be lc. Luckily I actually don't like potatoes!

And I've just realised tgat I've done exactly what I asked people not to do. Please totally ignore me 😐

@Bryonyshcmyony!

But you have made a very important point, and one that should be highlighted when we start Bootcamp. Talking about cheating can be every triggering for some people, and it should be avoided as much as possible.

@BIWI

*@Bryonyshcmyony*!

But you have made a very important point, and one that should be highlighted when we start Bootcamp. Talking about cheating can be every triggering for some people, and it should be avoided as much as possible.

Absolutely. My personal view on cheating is save it for a day when you absolutely can't avoid it, until then just don't do it!

Tbh I'm not sure I'm going to do much cheating as this WOE has completely cured my indigestion

Cheating for me would be not so much a slippery slope as a precipice.
I know that once I give myself permission to have an ice cream that would be it. This WOE works but only very slowly for me and any deviation would completely derail me. Been there.

@BIWI

Wow - I obviously didn't explain very well!

I am talking about a 5 day stint at a festival and a 7 day camping holiday. When I go to the festival / camping, I may buy coleslaw / tsatsiki instead of making my own for obvious reasons surely?! I only have a little cool bag and no electricity plus I don't want to be tied to the tent cooking / making things.

I may have a portion of chips at the seaside.

I may have tinned curries at the festival but am taking frozen cauli rice.

The low fat stuff is what will be provided when I go to stay with my Mum for 2 days. I feel a bit rude tipping up with my own greek yoghurt / full fat mayo.

Noted re: low calorie - I guess I'm just nervous that this woe feels very ON or OFF and, due to reasons very much beyond my control, I may be forced into OFF so wanted some advice on how best to deal with that.

I put the talk of cheating on this thread and NOT not on the bootcamp thread for this very reason.

TBH a life without every even thinking about the possibility that I might be able to have a flipping ice cream isn't one for me!

Feels a bit 'frothy' here today..

Obviousy might just be me so apologies.

I've got 3 back to back holidays to pack and plan for the whole family (terrible scheduling due to COVID rebooks / family invites etc.), 2 of which are in a tent plus an incredibly amount of work to do in the next 4 day. The amount of brain space / stress that is currently directly tied to the question "And how can I make sure I maintain LC at all times" is just too much and for my own sanity.

I think it's a mental attitude - I 'punish' myself a lot if I go off plan and therefore create a ridiculous amount of stress buying special pop up lunch boxes, spending £40 on deli bits in oil, ordering special nuts from mail order that are low carb and spending hours meal planning to the nth degree to work out how many salads I can take with me to the festival. I also had a to do list about prepping / freezing food that was as long as my arm, completely not achievable in the time I have left / work pressure I am under so I 'released' myself from that by accepting to take some shortcuts.

So I already had a massive amount of 'guilt' around gong off piste but I needed to - so your words probably hit me far more than they really should have.

@FusionChefGeoff

Obviousy might just be me so apologies.

I've got 3 back to back holidays to pack and plan for the whole family (terrible scheduling due to COVID rebooks / family invites etc.), 2 of which are in a tent plus an incredibly amount of work to do in the next 4 day. The amount of brain space / stress that is currently directly tied to the question "And how can I make sure I maintain LC at all times" is just too much and for my own sanity.

I think it's a mental attitude - I 'punish' myself a lot if I go off plan and therefore create a ridiculous amount of stress buying special pop up lunch boxes, spending £40 on deli bits in oil, ordering special nuts from mail order that are low carb and spending hours meal planning to the nth degree to work out how many salads I can take with me to the festival. I also had a to do list about prepping / freezing food that was as long as my arm, completely not achievable in the time I have left / work pressure I am under so I 'released' myself from that by accepting to take some shortcuts.

So I already had a massive amount of 'guilt' around gong off piste but I needed to - so your words probably hit me far more than they really should have.

Can you just stick to really simple hflc foods for a couple of days? So you don't have to think so hard about it?

Sorry I didn't mean for the festivals I just meant at home. Sometimes I find myself shopping for all kinds of expensive lc things and that's usually a sign that I have to simplify things a bit

@FusionChefGeoff I have in the past invested in sachets of full fat Hellman's and also olive oil so that I can add fat to my food without requiring fridge space. Surely your mum wouldn't mind you turning up with a bottle of salad dressing? Some shop bought Caesar salad and vinaigrette dressings aren't too bad from a carbs point of view. You could always say you really like it and you thought she might like to try some.

[quote FusionChefGeoff]@BIWI

Wow - I obviously didn't explain very well!

I am talking about a 5 day stint at a festival and a 7 day camping holiday. When I go to the festival / camping, I may buy coleslaw / tsatsiki instead of making my own for obvious reasons surely?! I only have a little cool bag and no electricity plus I don't want to be tied to the tent cooking / making things.

I may have a portion of chips at the seaside.

I may have tinned curries at the festival but am taking frozen cauli rice.

The low fat stuff is what will be provided when I go to stay with my Mum for 2 days. I feel a bit rude tipping up with my own greek yoghurt / full fat mayo.

Noted re: low calorie - I guess I'm just nervous that this woe feels very ON or OFF and, due to reasons very much beyond my control, I may be forced into OFF so wanted some advice on how best to deal with that.[/quote]
Sorry @FusionChefGeoff but I gave you advice, as you asked for some, based on what you had written.

The details you've just posted are clearly different from what I understood.

I disagree, however, that it's either ON or OFF. There is always a middle way. Just like you taking frozen cauli rice! That's the middle way.

Similarly, as StuntNun says, I can't see why you couldn't take your own yoghurt/mayo with you to your mum's. Would she really take offence at that, if it's something you like/prefer?

@FusionChefGeoff

I put the talk of cheating on this thread and NOT not on the bootcamp thread for this very reason.

TBH a life without every even thinking about the possibility that I might be able to have a flipping ice cream isn't one for me!

Feels a bit 'frothy' here today..

... and nobody said you couldn't have an ice-cream!

I just tell everyone I'm on a "weird diet" and take my own things. I'd rather be slim than not offend anyone 😅

Sorry, @FusionChefGeoff was it me mentioning not having ice cream? If I caused offence or upset you then I apologise.

FusionChefGeoff I also put myself under a lot of stress when holidays are looming. Earlier this year I had, for various reasons, 3 weeks holiday in a 5 week period (including the infamous sailing holiday). As well as stressing about getting my work done, I was completely overthinking how I would manage the various eating / cooking scenarios.

The obsessive planning helped in some ways because I took a few options which worked well but in reality I found none of them as bad as predicted. And I mastered the art of saying 'no thanks' to proffered cakes and biscuits.

Fusion I think you will be ok, I really do. Don't put so much pressure and stress on yourself and just make sensible choices.

We went out for end of term dinner and I made good choices even though food was a bit disappointing. Seafood Caesar salad (prawns good - rubbery squid rings / mussels not so much) and a side of deep fried halloumi cubes. They had sweet chilli sauce annoyingly on top so note to self ask in future - but DH has the top layer and I had the non sauced ones.

And they had cheese on offer for dessert!!!!! The actual desserts did look to die for and I was very jealous but back home with my decaf coffee and mini bar of dark choc I know I would feel a million times worse now and for the next few days if I'd crumbled