2021 Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Welcome to the last Bootcamp of 2021!

This Bootcamp will last for 8 weeks, which will take us up to Monday 13 December.

It's slightly different from other Bootcamps - firstly because it only lasts for 8 weeks (rather than 10), but also because there are going to be different stages.

So ...

Weeks 1 and 2 will be, as ever, strict Bootcamp.

Weeks 3-6 will be strict Bootcamp during the week, but relaxing into Bootcamp Light at weekends

In weeks 7-8 you will have a choice - either back to strict Bootcamp or full-on Bootcamp Light for the last fortnight

My obsession for today is to find celeriac! The supermarket I walk past on my way home didn't have it so I'm going in to nearby town now to hunt down celeriac. Thanks for posting biwi's recipe newlook

Anyway, good morning campers!

Fasting this morning, taking DS to MMA and will have a cheese and veg omelette for lunch.

Don't know what dinner will be but probably chicken curry and cauliflower rice (just from looking what I have in the kitchen )

Enjoy your Saturday all

During the first two weeks, it's all about getting your body ketogenically adapted and about weaning yourself off sweet stuff. They're strict to make it easier for you in the long run.

Drinking alcohol will stop that process as your body will use the alcohol for fuel rather than adapting. So you are making things more difficult for yourself. Once it is adapted, then you can have the odd low carb drink but need to recognise that it will impact your weight loss if that's what you're following this WoE

Berries are also verboten in the first two weeks because you're trying to wean your taste buds off sweet things. Ditto with diet drinks which have the added issue of provoking an insulin response.

Nuts (unless you are vegetarian) are off-limits because until you're properly ketogenically adapted and learning to follow true hunger cues, it's too easy to eat too many, which can result in too many carbs (nuts might be lower carb but they're not no carb, especially peanuts and cashews) which then inhibits your ketogenic adaptation.

Talking of hunger cues, that is one of the good rules. This WoE Is not about feeling hungry. If you're hungry, eat Just make sure that it's HFLC. And drink the water (often we're not hungry, we're actually thirsty ). And make sure that you're eating enough fat.

You need plenty of fat. The simple way of visualising it (or it helps me at least ) is that as long as your body has a surfeit of fat coming in, it pees it out rather than stores it and uses the your fat stores for energy instead. Which is why drinking the water is important - and only eating if you're hungry

So there are sound reasons for the Rules - and sound reasons for abiding by them

Private Message:

Righto, Miles. Certainly wouldn't want to embarrass her. We'll just keep it between the two of us.

I have to learn to give myself special dispensation to not berate myself for the middle path!!

I'm all in, or all out. Never on the middle path, til now. And right now, I'm all in. But I really, really need to get ready to be self-compassionate to myself when I ''fail'' to be 100% all in.

Morning everyone

I agree with @QueenDanu. It's voluntary to keep the rules, but if you want to lose weight you do have to keep them. Equally, breaking them the odd time shouldn't lead to punishing yourself psychologically. You just have to get back on track but it's more a reset than a big stick for yourself (sorry BIWI I like your big stick - it's not the same).

To those struggling, I can offer this encouragement. I was on bootcamp about 6 years ago. After it had finished and lost weight I kept on my own low carb ish maintenance diet (which wasn't strict - just avoiding the worst beige food almost all the time) and I kept the weight off for four years no problem at all. Then I started eating carbs and in two years I've put on 14 kilos. Once you've lost the weight, you can maintain really easily I've found. It's not worth going back to the standard way of eating in this country.

I'm a kilo ish down today. Happy with that. DH has now tested positive for COVID too so not too hard for me not to drink as I have to be on alert (and I love my red wine on a Friday night-and not just a glass when not on bootcamp) Five more kilos to go to meet my target. Happy Saturday all.

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You know @Allycott, Bootcamp was designed to be as simple as possible to follow.

At its heart are the key principles of eating well and enjoying good, nutritious food, while keeping the carbohydrate intake low.

To encourage our bodies to switch into fat burning and away from carb burning as swiftly as possible, we have two, initial strict weeks.

If you don't want to follow the rules that is, of course, your prerogative. But why sign up to something and before the first week is even over, start a conversation about not doing it properly?!

There's a very specific reason for not drinking alcohol during these two weeks, which PP have explained very well.

Of course the rules aren't set in stone. I haven't manacled you to a chair and forced you to take part! But if you don't follow the rules, then it won't work for you as well as if you had done.

Private message to MNHQ:

^Can you have a look at a couple of posters please? @nowlook and @MilesJuppIsMyBitch. I really think their posts are NITS.

TIA.

To pop my serious hat on for a moment, (it doesn't fit very well), this bootcamp works.

Plus, it's only two weeks.

@BIWI

Private message to MNHQ:

^Can you have a look at a couple of posters please? @nowlook and @MilesJuppIsMyBitch. I really think their posts are NITS.

TIA.

Do I put spinach in a soup near the end or at the same time as everything else? Does it matter if it's all getting whizzed up?

I've found corned beef! And I have celeriac!
Corned beef hash for tea!

I've warned my dad (whose turn it is to cook Sunday night) that I'll not be having any dessert on Sunday - not will I be having my usual glass of wine (I drive home on a Sunday).

We'll be having roast lamb (at least, that was dad's plan as my brother is over from France), so dh is going to take over a bottle of wine. Not too good as I'm not drinking any

I love that DH is cracking out the Blue Nun in support @prettybird

Public Service Announcement: Sainsbury's currently has shoulders of lamb on the bone (the tasiest lamb especially if you slow roast it) at £8/kg.

I've bought 2 for me and put them in the freezer as my back-up plan for Christmas - and one for my dad. I might go back and buy another one to have some time in November

@nowlook - lamb, dear girl, lamb It has to be red

It's probably be Vergeonoegd Runner Duck Duck Red - a blend of Portuguese and French classic red grapes - one of the "every day" wines that we sell .

He had apoplexy at the idea of Blue Nun and says, "We sell wine"

Semi-serious question @prettybird- wasn't there some movement a decade or so back where certain nouveau oenophiles decided that none of the old rules applied? We were all to whack a bottle of red in the fridge and glug it with fish? Might have dreamt it...

MerylSqueek sorry to hear about Covid husband—hope he gets through it quickly.

ZiggZagg delighted to hear your celeriac success story and my word nothing beats a gorgeous corned beef hash (with shallots I hope) and a fried egg on top. Especially in grey weather. Bon appetit.

If others are struggling to find celeriac, I recommend ordering the frozen version in your online shop. The quality is great and the little bastards have already been peeled and cubed for you. Wouldn’t recommend it for chips, though, because the shape doesn’t work. Everything else, lovely and easier.

WATER WATER WATER!

@nowlook

Semi-serious question *@prettybird*- wasn't there some movement a decade or so back where certain nouveau oenophiles decided that none of the old rules applied? We were all to whack a bottle of red in the fridge and glug it with fish? Might have dreamt it...

I thought it was more publicity about matching the wine with the sauce rather than just the meat or fish.

I know only a little about it but love the whole culture of wine making and the pairing of perfect wine to dish. It’s one of the reasons we go out of our way to find restaurants with taster menus and a wine with each course.

Weirdly, after all that wine, we never get sozzled—when it’s done well it’s a great experience.

Obviously not when seriously bootcamping, but I don’t see the harm doing that kind of thing a few times a year.

Further thinking aloud here...

This weekend is a big birthday celebration with the family (80 years, wow!) and what I love about being in Bootcamp is having so many ways to manage my food while still thoroughly enjoying and partaking in the event. Sometimes a bit of planning is required but it soon becomes second nature to look at a menu or scan a buffet and instinctively know what will work.

Love this way of eating because I absolutely love real, fresh, homemade/restaurant food. With lots of fat and butter and flavour. Mmmmm...

We'll have red wine with fish or chicken/turkey on occasion, depending on how we're cooking it. And some red wines can indeed be lightly chilled.

Last weekend we had turkey parmigiana (with a low carb coating) cooked in roasted tomatoes and mozzarella. We had a Reserve Red from Leeuwenkuil (a South African version of a Rhône blend) and it was lovely

And (finally) I was thinking about Allycott’s question and it did occur to me that if I wanted I could probably live on a diet of vodka soda, water, and maybe a chicken Caesar salad daily, or a single meal of oysters and lobster, or a steak & asparagus— all while staying under 50g carbs, and lose weight.

This fantasy enticed me for approximately 30 seconds.

I mean, one could eat that way, and it could be pleasureable—is that even a word?—but why would I want to do that to my body?!

@MerylSqueak wow, four years is a long time. You can do it long term. I literally veer between thin and plump all the time.

Thank you for the public service announcement 📣 I love a lamb shoulder. I will definitely make a trip there next week.

I’m nearly 3lbs down since Monday, despite my slip up , which I have also drawn a thick “sharpie” line under 🤭

In a moment of garden fantasy, I bought about 500 bulbs online 😂 of course you need to plant said bulbs or they will not grow. However, it is a bit like bootcamp, if we put in the work now we will all also look so much lovelier by spring 💐🌻. Cause and effect. At the moment I look enviously at my next door neighbour’s garden ……..

Have a good day