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

@catwithflowers I sometimes go hiking with a friend who confuses large steep hills with slight inclines!

Today i had an amazing breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage and mushrooms. I was so full i ended up only having some cheese and salad bits for lunch. tea will be spinach stuffed chicken breast with buttered green beans. Lots of water and a couple of cups of tea!

I have prepared lunches for next week, some spiced belly pork in the oven, a chicken mushroom and blue cheese crustless quiche, some tuna in cream cheese with salad (hate mayo) and boiled eggs all cooked and boxed up in the fridge. Went to lidl for Halloween treats for the children this week and wasnt tempted by the fresh bread or biscuits. DD commented there was no wine in the trolley 😳🤣

Weighed this morning and am 3.5lb down!

@Dellabob123 I have both a prescribed pessary type device and period pants for anything that escapes that. Pelvic floor is under women's ohysio at the moment but this works fir me so far.

I'm definitely cracking out a corned beef hash and ratatouille as soon as I can be arsed to track down celeriac.

Did a lunch run with a friend as only time available I hate lunchtime runs! Fasted until just before leaving then had couple of spoons of peanut butter and some chicken in Mayo.

Not hungry now but looking forward to lamb leg steaks with cauli cheese (Aldi frozen one) red cabbage, celeriac mash (frozen leftovers) and whatever else veg I can find in the freezer.

Theme this week is to empty the freezer in case the dead one can't be repaired!

Lunch , hard boiled eggs
Tea chicken , and sprouts with bacon, cauliflower cheese and roasties added for Dp
No wine 😇
Water only

Successful afternoon- drank litres of water as we were in an open plan kitchen-living area with one of those fridges that does cold water from the front: just kept refilling. Picked at cocktail sausages and a couple of chicken nuggets and a crisp were the extent of the carbs consumed. Lovely to see friends and properly catch up. DS and I split the cheese and pineapple in stocks according to both our preferences!

Chunky Pork chops with celeriac chips, Brussels, carrot and spring greens cooking now.

Good luck for all the weigh-ins tomorrow morning everyone!

My dh's favourite phrase (started when on long hill walks with the dc when they were little) - "it's all downhill from here..." It never was!

Last time we were on bikes together I was muttering under my breath, and close to tears: "I hate cycling! I hate cycling!" and that was on an electric bike

I was at a wedding yesterday and the meal (early afternoon) was a dreaded afternoon tea. I forgive the groom who has terminal stomach cancer and can only eat tiny amounts, it was the perfect choice for him. Meanwhile I ate all the pigs in blankets and snaffled the smoked salmon and cream cheese from the blinis. Not a single piece of cake.

Great prep for next week @Glenthebattleostrich. That's the way to do it.

These 'slight inclines' have made me laugh! I grew up with a father who couldn't tell the difference between crossing a "wee burn" with wading through a fast-moving knee deep river on a family stroll

Decent day today:
B: scrambled eggs with mozzarella and avocado, creamy coffee
L: post-cinema Five Guys...bunless cheeseburger with lettuce and mushrooms and WATER
D: roast chicken, leftover cauliflower cheese and buttered cabbage

Anybody else's toes hurt when they're doing strict low carb? Mine woke me up last night. I know this happened to me last time.

I watched a really interesting video here I don't know if the link works or whether you have to sign up to see it.

It's about 'Wildfit' which is lchf approach, eating natural food, limiting proccessed food, a way of eating for life. Lots of similarities to what we do here. However it costs $895 for the 90 day programme. Thank you @BIWI for saving each of us that much! Obviously I've not bought the programme but I do have access to some of their useful resources, particularly around the psychology of eating.

For example, they identify 6 types of hunger:

• empty stomach (which almost no-one in a western culture really suffers from)
• thirst (the obvious answer is WATER, WATER, WATER @ShagMeRiggins )
• nutritional, where we feel hungry because we're lacking in an essential nutrient
• emotional (no need to say more)
• low blood sugar (the big problem of a carb rich diet)
• variety, where our food choices become monotonous over the long term, often because modern food availability means we don't eat seasonally and can have our favourtie things all year round.

@PastramiNoRye sounds like my dad who would take us out for family walks and get us all lost. He called it a mystery tour. My sister and I referred to it as a “misery tour”.

@QueenDanu not my toes but I get cramp in my calves and sometimes my whole leg. I’m now taking a High5 Zero electrolyte tablet daily, which really helps.

Lunch - Greek yogurt
Dinner - chilli pork belly strip with sprouts and greens fried in butter. I think this is my favourite meal. It was delicious!

Ha ha @VividImaginationAgain - that sounds about right!

Had duck breast for dinner , with loads of stir fired greens
Really lovely
Went out for a long walk today , weather dodgy at home , but we went for it , only one shower and had to take my coat off at one stage as I got too warm
And even with factor 50 face cream on , I’m glowing this evening !
Will be a proper beetroot face after the first C25k tomorrow . 🏃🏻‍♀️

Hi all, just found this thread and hoping to join a week late if that’s okay.

3.5 stone to lose, so looking forward to seeing if I can get a good start over the next 7 weeks. Fantastic resources on all the bootcamp threads, been having a good read and really grateful for all of the info that’s been shared. My plan for tomorrow is:

Breakfast: Mushroom omelette
Lunch: Prawn and avocado salad
Dinner: Cod wrapped in Parma ham, spinach, green beans and braised fennel

Had some fennel in the veg box this week so made a lovely fennel and courgette gratin: sliced fennel brought to the boil and drained; thinly sliced courgette; mix with 200ml double cream, 70g parmesan, 50g grated cheddar; lots of freshly grated nutmeg and salt and pepper. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes - glorious and delicious.

@Frenchpoodle welcome! Your food for tomorrow looks great. Don't forget to add fats to your food - maybe some cheese in your omelette, mayonnaise with your prawn and avocado, olive oil in your braised fennel (or see my fennel gratin recipe posted above), butter on your spinach... and remember to drink lots of water. Have you low carbed before?

Had a good day. Went for a long walk this morning. Food was 2 creamy coffees for breakfast, rollitos and avocado for lunch. Dinner was Szechuan pork with shallots and peppers, with fried cauli rice with a dollop of creme fraiche. Had another couple of creamy coffees this evening and a brewdog nanny state 'beer' and a zero alcohol gin with fevertree tonic.
That sounds like a lot written down!

Started on Tuesday and had to attend an all
You can eat buffet at Pizza Hut Friday!!! I was good and chose unlimited salad and three meat/cheese starters instead.
I have around 3.5 stones to lose- or rather I should say HAD. I get too sad weighing in stones and pounds so weighed in kilos instead and have amazingly gone down by 6.2 kg since Tuesday!!! I know a lot is the fact that I was bingeing on beer and carbs the previous week! But it’s just the kind of start that I needed to my journey. 🙏🏻

Ooh that sounds gorgeous venusandmars, I never know what to do with fennel apart from roast it, I'm going to try that.

Done a lot of batch cooking this afternoon. I now have in my fridge a celeriac dauphinoise, cheeseburger pie, cauliflower cheese and a boiled ham ready to slice and eat cold.

Had a good first week overall, not perfect but I rarely am. Have been focused on water and that is really helping me make decent choices. I ate a few chips today - I wouldn't have ordered them, I was in a place where literally everything on the menu apart from pizza came with chips. Ordered my burger without the bun and gave the chips to my DS after I had nibbled a few. I've realised that perhaps I wasn't as far off the low carb bandwagon as I though, it's been quite easy getting back on it this week really. I was expecting carb flu and a few days of cravings but it hasn't been bad really and no major signs of carb withdrawal.

I weigh daily and my weight this morning was back up near my starting weight from Monday but it has been a good 3lbs lower during the week so I'm not too worried about it.

I also sometimes get cramps in my lower leg overnight on this WOE. I've also been having a zero tablet each day and haven't had cramps this week so far.

Good luck on the scales in the morning folks

That's amazing @LowlyTheWorm - well done!!

Ooh, thanks @venusandmars - will have a go at the fennel recipe, sounds lush. I haven’t low carbed before, am getting my head round adding fats and have got my water bottles filled up! I’ve read the info and I think I get the science, but need reprogram after years of advice to avoid fat - feels a bit counter intuitive at first

@LowlyTheWorm 6.2kg is amazing, well done!

@Frenchpoodle and @ouchmyfeet thank you. I think working three 12.5 hour busy shifts in that time have helped enormously. Both in the exercise way and in the unable to miss food way. I need to plan food better as today I ended up eating a few slices of cheddar at work on my break as I didn’t have a plan b. I had eggs and bacon at the canteen one day and eggs boiled and mixed with butter the other two days so I think that protein fat combo sets me up nicely for the day. Then a salad with meat at my second break. And then I need a small but healthy low carb snack for third break…
Is guacamole any good? Could do carrots and guacamole? Is there a low carb hummus?
Onwards and downwards…

@venusandmars that gratan sounds amazing. I'm adding fennel to my shopping.

My water bottles are in the fridge for tomorrow so all ready to go. I still wake in a cold sweat when i hear the words slight inclines although my friends tell me my Facebook rants were worthy suffering 🤔

@LowlyTheWorm do you like celery? cucumber? radishes? all those are great as crudities. A guacamole dip is excellent, so is blue cheese with cream cheese or this , or a low carb nut butter (once we're into week 3...) or olive tapenade. If you're puying ready made you just have to be assiduous about reading the labels to check that a) it's low carb; and b) that it's minimally processed - i.e. not full of palm oil, sugars and loads of chemicals

Hummus is based on chick peas, so too carby...

I am ashamed to say, I have only just realized what a crudités is 🤣🤣

Just checking in very late - about to post tomorrow's chat thread. Apologies for not replying to posts but will deal with that later!

Week 2 chat thread