Summer Low Carb mini-Bootcamp - week 1

[StuntNun]

Welcome to the 2021 Summer Low Carb mini-Bootcamp lasting for the next six weeks and run by myself and @Oneborneverydecade. If you're an old hand at eating low carb then please do chip in with your experiences to help motivate our newbies. Every Monday is weigh-in day and you can log your weight on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness to keep track of your progress. If you can't add your weight for any reason then please post it on here and someone will add you to the spreadsheet.

Make sure you've read the ten Low Carb Bootcamp rules on the preparation thread either for strict Bootcamp or Bootcamp Light depending on which one you choose. There are also some meal ideas and shopping suggestions on the preparation thread if you need some tips. As always, if you have any questions or concerns then please do ask. We have lots of experience between us.

A quick reminder of the rules for strict Bootcamp (first two weeks):

1. Eat three meals a day (plus snacks if hungry)
2. Avoid processed foods
3. Eat lots of fat
4. Eat plenty of vegetables and salad
5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter which is unlimited)
6. Drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day
7. No alcohol
8. No fruit
9. No nut/seeds

10. No sugar or artificial sweeteners

And for Bootcamp Light:

1. Eat when you are hungry
2. Avoid processed foods
3. Eat lots of fat
4. Eat plenty of vegetables and salad
5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter which is unlimited)
6. Drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day
7. Alcohol is allowed occasionally
8. Up to one portion of (low carb) fruit per day
9. Nut and seeds in small quantities

10. No sugar except dark chocolate, and limit artificial sweeteners

@Daveggie1 Yeah to the beansprouts!

In the end I had a good day
L 2.x chorizo Heck sausages, scrambled eggs, spinach
& chicken curry made with cream, spinach, cauliflower rice
Snack a Spoonful of almond butter

First day back on has gone well, apart from excessive toilet stops!

Brunch: spiced egg scramble and a big salad of spinach and rocket and mushrooms
Dinner: braised beef with cauliflower and broccoli
Snack: beanies coffee with cream
All the water!

@venusandmars have to give it to the neighbors then 🤣🤣

I’m in bed already, absolutely shattered. Can’t remember if I was like this the last time or not.

I’m already thinking about grilled squeaky cheese with olives for a long car journey on Sunday though. Fail to plan and all that! (I adore squeaky cheese…)

Had quite a good week considering how much temptation has been thrown in my way. Lots of preschoolers leaving has meant the appearance of cakes, doughnuts, chocolates and wine all week from lovely parents! The chocs and wine I've hidden for Christmas, the cakes I've forced myself to say no thanks to..
Today's food
B yogurt, cream and raspberries
L chicken tikka and salad with mayo
D traybake of chicken thighs and veg (mushrooms, broccoli, courgettes and a few cherry ttomatoes )

Morning all, my fears about MIL's food have been proved correct. Yesterday she was preparing for a family gathering today and was boiling up a pot of water and sugar to make a syrupy sugar water. I asked why and apparently it's to pour over the fruit salad . So my plan for today's carb fest of a buffet is just try to eat as little as possible. It's all sandwiches, quiche and cake, with a "healthy fruit salad".

Apparently the plan is to eat out this evening so hopefully I can hang on til then but knowing their choices as I do I expect it'll be a bread and chips with everything style pub....I will have to embrace my "awkward DIL" reputation and ask to swap chips for salad or something.

Had my first service station Leon yesterday and it was gorgeous. Paprika chicken with roast veg, I genuinely wasn't even slightly jealous of the McDonald's that everyone else had.

Im another who drinks too many hot drinks in a day to just use normal milk. Since starting this WOE I have swapped a lot of my tea drinking to green tea (no milk) as I don't like almond milk in tea. I drink quite a bit of herbal tea too and have about 3-4 coffees a day (mostly decaf so I count them towards my 4l of water) with either a dash of double cream or almond milk. Surprised myself with how much I enjoy green tea, and now I just have a very occasional mug of regular tea with cows milk and really enjoy it when i do!

B: creamy coffee
L: Leon paprika chicken (9g carbs apparently, lowest I could find without ordering a plate of aubergines, really not my thing)
T: potato waffles with breaded fish and baked beans. I managed to decline MIL's revolting trifle

Had a sneaky weigh in before leaving yesterday and I was 3lbs down since last Sunday (despite having gone up by 2 initially) so 5 off since Wednesday morning, a big whoosh for the first few days. Don't hold much hope of hanging on to it till Monday given the absolute shit I am eating here but it will go again easily enough next week when I'm back in control

Hope you all have fabulous weekends. Mine will be a challenge (not just food wise) for the next 36 hours but it needs to be done...

Forgot to say @KateF I'm very impressed with you managing to decline so much cake and stashing the choc and wine

Morning. Going to a friend's tonight for her birthday. She messaged yesterday to say it was pizza and prosecco in the garden.

I hate prosecco and can't eat pizza. So I'm thrilled. Without wanting to be a grumpy bitch, I'm going to drive so I have an excuse to swerve the prosecco and I think I'll just eat lightly today or tomorrow? Will try and eat the least amount of pizza possible. Argh.

I would eat before you go @Bryonyshcmyony , far easier to resist temptation if you're not hungry. Good plan to drive, I hate Prosecco too, really don't understand the appeal

I would normally eat befire I go but there aren't many of us so it's going to look bizarre if I don't eat anything at all

@Bryonyshcmyony could you offer to bring a big salad to share. Eat before you go so you are not hungry. Then you can load your own plate with the salad and swerve the pizza.

@ouchmyfeet - I feel for you. It's hard when you're with people who are making such different food choices. I find that it's the combination of carbs and fat that really do the damage for me, so if I'm in that kind of unavoidable hell I go traditional low fat / low calorie where possible, so no cream with the fruit salad either that or ditch the sandwiches and the fruit and just have a bowl of cream

But I wonder what makes us so hesitant about exerting our choices... When I first had high blood pressure, everyone was really respectful about not cooking with salt etc. or understanding if I took my own food. But now I feel less assertive and end up eating around what I'm given, making the best choices I can. At least at MILs I bring the food and do the cooking as she is increasingly frail.

Brunch - mushrooms, spinach, egg, crispy pancetta, and a coffee with cream.
D (out) and will most likely be langoustines in garlic and herb butter with rocket salad, followed by halibut with turnip, girolles and chicken butter sauce. Or maybe seabass with courgette, peppers, broad beans, spring onion and tomato saffron broth... And a side of wilted greens.

Loving the sound of your dinner @venusandmars.

Apologies for my absence @StuntNun

My 14yo DS was selected for a regional England selection camp in his sport last Saturday. The event was yesterday. Without realising it, it was taking up lots of brain space and making me feel quite unsettled. I have had a great week but also not the worst (discounting yesterday).

I'm going to try and catch up now and pledge to do better at checking in this week

I know what you mean @venusandmars , I can be assertive in lots of places but everything is such a bloody drama here that it's just easier to suck it up. Having now seen the full spread there are some babybels and everything else is either bread or pastry (or drowning in syrup) so I'll stick to original plan of grazing today. Have checked menu for tonight and there are a couple of fish based low carb options which will be perfect for me.

I know I'm a bit late but could someone add my name to the spreadsheet pls, I'm rubbish at technical computerish stuff so don't know how to do it myself

Or another way of looking at it (as one Boot Camper's boss had once pointed out to her - I always forget who it was blush) is that even if it [whatever your goal is] is going to take a long time, in a year's [insert time period of your choice] time, the time will have passed anyway, so why not be a little further along the path that you want

@prettybird I remembered this from a previous bootcamp and said it to my daughter to help motivate her to stop smoking. She's doing amazing, 1 week down and not caved in to cravings!

I also started LC 1 week ago so using her strength as my inspiration to not give in to my own cravings!

I started LC last year at 16st 4, got down to just under 14st but stopped after a family bereavement and struggled to get back on it since. Just got my 3 DD's b'days out the way plus my 40th so I'm ready now! Last weighed a couple of days ago and was 14st 7.

Oooooh DP bought me a treadmill for my 40th so no excuses on the exercise front. I promised it wouldn't turn into a very expensive clothes horse lol.

I have genetically high cholesterol and really REALLY need to be good and stick to LC because after bragging about this WOE to my Lipid Dr he wanted to measure the damage to my lipids after a sustained period of time but soon after I fell off the wagon and set it ablaze. My appointment is in October and he is expecting to be able to see how I got on

That sounds very exciting Oneborneverydecade I bet you're all delighted for him.

Hi everyone I am here, I am reading and I am doing bootcamp but have been rather busy with our new arrival. He's absolutely gorgeous!

@ouchmyfeet I feel your pain about being assertive with family at gatherings. I've got a family gathering tomorrow, with 20+ of us all bringing something for a BBQ (first time I've seen most of them since Christmas 19). We normally have a very beige, carb heavy buffet, so I'm thrilled that it's a BBQ this time. I'm taking chicken and vegetable skewers, dd1 is bringing salad stuff, dsis is bringing dips and stuff, as well as the traditional sausages and burgers (I might have one without the bun). The problem will be the cakes. I'm making a cheesecake this afternoon, and have found a recipe for a low carb cheesecake so will make that as well (there are 7 diabetics amongst us, so low carb should be the accepted woe for all of us).

Hi all. Feeling quite good about all this the last couple of days, I don't feel as if I'm depriving myself at all which is a new feeling for me on any 'diet'! Weighed this morning (out of curiosity) and I'm down 6lbs from Monday, I'm shocked it's that much. I do have a lot to lose though. Today's food was/is:
B: yogurt
L: stir fry
D: omelette and veg

Thank you everyone for the inspiration, I'm finding it really motivating to keep coming back to this thread and reading all your updates!

Hello!

So sorry to be a pain...I've just seen this new bootcamp. Would someone mind adding me to the spreadsheet?

Thank you! I'm a bridesmaid in 8 weeks and I need some non scale miracles!!

B - Greek yoghurt
L - egg mayo with avocado
D - fajitas without the wrap bit and whatever veg is in my fridge.

Looking forward to weighing in on Monday, hoping to hit the 12st or slightly under mark.

Hope everyone manages to stay on target as possible with families, sending strength!!

@TidyDancer well done on your loss
@Oneborneverydecade well done to your ds proud mum
@Bryonyshcmyony hope your dd is having a better day and results for your dd1 are what she wants
My dd is going into final year of A level in September and dd2 for GCSE so busy school year ahead.
I read the thread but don't post my food as on maintenance.
DH struggled through this week.