Week 2 - pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Morning campers!

This is my favourite week of a new Bootcamp. Because for all those new to low carbing, and especially those who were so fearful about the amount of fat they're supposed to be eating, this can be a real revelation.

It's often a real leap of faith to commit to a way of eating which is against everything we've been told, for the last 30 or 40 years, is bad for us. And yet, all the recent science confirms that lowering our carbohydrate intake can only be good for us - and that embracing fat is also good too!

Here's a link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I look forward, very much, to seeing results of the first week. Somehow, from what people have already posted, I think it's going to be good!

Just place marking for tomorrow!!

Woo hoo!! Week two!!

Place marking. Scales will arrive this week. Nowhere to hide!

Just checking in for now, been such a busy weekend!
3lbs off for me, very happy with that as I had my period all last week.
Haven’t been very good with my water over the weekend so must do better today!
Hope everyone has a brilliant first weigh in!

1.4lbs off for me which is really great as am on the last stretch and the weight is sticky! If I could do that every week that would be amazing!

Eggs etc for lunch, will try to make hollandaise I think, chili later with the beans added as an extra for kids.

Morning

Exactly 3lb off this morning! Very happy with that.

Todays plan is

scrambled eggs for breakfast
tuna with cream cheese salad for lunch
burger and halloumi fries with big green salad doe tea.

First run tonight and a walk to the further away park this morning.

Good result @fluoropostit, i love seeing the long term results. good luck everyone!

2.8 off for me ... better than expected given where I am and how close to target. 😃😃😃

Not expecting it to carry in at that rate but it's broken the stall/gains/bad habits that were creeping in after holidays etc...

Good luck with the run @Glenthebattleostrich! I'm going out in a few minutes...

Good luck for weigh ins everyone and congrats @fluoropostit - great start!

Morning, just checking in.

2lb off for me , which I’m delighted with

Morning all!

2.2 lbs off, which I am happy with. I have had an awful cold all week, so exercise has been at minimum (I also already ate in a low-carbish way, so this drop is good!).

I really need to reign in snacking before dinner, that is my dowfall -and a challenge for this week.

Checking in but haven’t managed to weigh this morning. Congratulations to all the losers!

Half term here and off work all week - yay!

Morning all. Congratulations for the weigh ins and good luck to the new runners.
5.8lb off this week! Very happy with that. Not always easy with the food planning and choices- but definitely easier when I see results. Onwards

Oh wow, well done everyone, some brilliant losses and really impressed with the morning running.

I’m starting today, so nothing to report from me - fingers crossed for next week. I’ve begun the day with black tea and a big glass of water, so a good start!

3lb off which I am pleased about , the weight I am now is a weight I stick at for ages , so hoping this week pushes through that ,

Well done to everyone !

Morning all! While I haven't reported a loss, I'm happy to say that I am maintaining like a champ which is my current ambition. I jumped the gun & started boot camping a few weeks earlier and cannot begin to describe my delight when I weigh (I'm a daily weigher) and see that my new normal has shifted down by 5 kilos. I want to lose more but not a lot more.. at 57 I have no ambition to be skinny and am focusing on building muscle which is going surprisingly well!
So, I'm with you all in spirit but am doing more of a bootcamp lite (which I'll keep very quiet about .. don't want a big stick coming my way!) and I just wanted to give a huge endorsement to this way of eating. I'm feeling great, looking great (if I may say so myself) and want to make it a permanent part of my life. Thanks for all the inspiration on these threads!

5lb off for me. Am very pleased as I also have my period this week and am in the first month of HRT.

Hope everyone is motivated by their losses (and those of others). This is the start of another great week!

My food today includes eggs, salad, chicken, green veg soup.

Some great losses here already! And especially from @Sheepdreams who is keeping very quiet about their 7lb loss

For this week's recipe challenge I was going to post the recipe for celeriac boulangere, but as lots of people have reported problems getting hold of celeriac, here's something different.

This was posted by @ouchmyfeet:

Oven Baked Ratatouille - adapted from a recipe in The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer.

The only change I made was leaving out the breadcrumbs that are supposed to be on the top

The trick with this ratatouille is to cut the courgettes really thinly, so they absorb all the flavours from the sauce (I use a vegetable peeler). This is lovely on the day it is made, but even better the next day, warmed through in the oven, so if you’re in the mood for a spot of batch cooking for the week ahead, this is your dish.

Ingredients

2 large courgettes, very thinly sliced
1 large aubergine, sliced into 5mm half-moons
2 red peppers, roughly chopped
1 red onion, roughly chopped you could use 2-3 echallion shallots to reduce the carb count
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 heaped tsp sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
25g fresh basil, roughly chopped
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes go for the lowest carb count you can find
30g Parmesan, grated

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/gas 6.
• Mix the vegetables, garlic, oil, salt, pepper and basil in a medium-sized roasting tin or lasagne dish, then top with the tinned tomatoes
• Smooth the tomatoes over the vegetables, then transfer to the oven and roast for 30 minutes
• After this time, remove the tin from the oven and increase the heat to 200°C fan/220°C/ gas 7
• Give the vegetables a bit of a stir, then top with the parmesan and return to the oven for a further 30 minutes
• Leave the ratatouille to cool down for 10–15 minutes before serving

Don’t panic if it looks like there’s too much liquid in the tin after the first 30 minutes; this absorbs perfectly by the end.

Checking in but not with my weight yet: still to do the Shred and maybe go for a very slow and relaxed run

I very pleased with myself last night :dinner at my dad's and we had roast lamb with leeks (I was happy to forego the roast potatoes which my dad has finally perfected after years of soggy ones ) and salad and then I sat and watched dh, my brother and my dad eat double portions of my dad's excellent signature creme caramel

My brother was over from France so it was nice to catch up and have some mutual rants (we are very vocal and politically aware family) about BJ, Brexit and Covid deniers.

Because I wasn't drinking either, dh kindly didn't take over a really good bottle of wine and instead took a wine that I'd already tasted.

Loving this week's thread already! I'd got the feeling there weren't so many newbies but some fantastic updates here already.

I will also add a huge endorsement for the Green Roasting tin book, so many great easy tasty veg-packed dishes, lots of which can easily adapt if not already low carb. Possibly not in the spirit, but many make a great side to a chunk of meat or fish!

3lbs down for me which I'm very happy with; I've seen lower during the week but I've not been entirely compliant (even by my historically poor standards this was a bad first week) so a great result.

Busy weekend so doing the big shop this evening but I've written a great menu plan and shopping list.

30 minute swim and a litre of water already under my belt for the week! Good work all.

Well done everyone, exactly 3 lbs lost for me, happy with that, just need to keep going. Did my first run (a lot harder than it was 3 years ago) and off to orthodontist with kids now.

Re tinned tomatoes - the carb counts vary a little bit. Per 100g it doesn't look like that much, but when you work out the carb count per tin it can make a more significant difference.

Using the Sainsbury's website, the lowest carb count per 100g I found was their own brand So Organic chopped tomatoes, which are 2.8g carbs per 100g.

The highest carb count was their own brand of chopped tomatoes, with added basil and oregano, which comes in at 4.8g carbs per 100g.

The former works out at 11.2g carbs per can, whereas the latter would be 19.2g carbs per can.

Most cans of tomatoes are around 60-65% tomatoes, the notable exception being the Mutti brand, Polpa, of finely chopped tomatoes, which is 99.8% tomatoes. (Although you clearly pay for this - they're £1.20 per tin!)

Anyway, here are the different options and their carb counts per 100g:

Sainsbury's So Organic chopped - 2.8g
KTC chopped/KTC peeled - both 3.0g
Sainsbury's So Organic plum - 3.1g
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference peeled cherry tomatoes 3.1g
Hubbards (Sainsbury's basic brand) chopped - 3.1g
Mutti Baby Roma - 3.3g
Napolina peeled plum - 3.4g
Sainsbury's chopped - 3.5g
Napolina chopped - 3.6g
Sainsbury's Italian plum - 3.8g
Sainsbury's premium peeled plum - 3.8g
Mutti finely chopped - 3.9g
Sainsbury's Italian chopped with basil & oregano - 4.4g
Sainsbury's Italian chopped with chilli - 4.4g

Sorry - the carb count for Sainsbury's with basil and oregano is 4.8g, the one I've listed by mistake there is their can of Italian tomatoes with garlic, which is 4.4g.

Well I got my trainers and running gear out of the cupboard and charged up my headphones. Whether I’ll actually put them on remains to be seen.

I don’t weigh but will measure in a bit.

6lb down and now feeling very light hearted :)
The tin tomato information is very interesting BIWO - they look so much the same. I'll be visiting Sainsbury's asap.