Week 6 - Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Evening all!

Starting next week's thread now as I"m off to bed shortly.

Here's the SoF

Last week's thread - after the trolling - ended up a little quiet, so I hope people weren't scared off. It's always good advice to ignore the trolls! But also, if you have been lurking, please come out from the shadows and tell us how you're getting on!

This week is the last where we're doing a hybrid (you are, aren't you?), so Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light, if you want, at the weekend.

I realise that as we get nearer to Christmas, and there is more and more stuff in the media about Christmas cooking, that it is more challenging. But hold fast, and you will only benefit!

Good luck to us all

@Rayna37

Probably not helpful BIWI now but you know the metal filter thingy from the cooker hood extractor whatsit can go in the dishwasher?!

I think I maybe learned that from Mumsnet! still rarely actually do it though

I'm sure it could - except it was so horribly greasy I really didn't want to do that! Thankfully it does wash very quickly - it's more the cleaning of the inside of the extractor area that's the horrible job!

@BIWI I've been meaning to post this for a while and the above tart is an excellent demonstration of how your approach to cooking appears quite similar to me and my mum... I bought her this one year and it's had pride of place in the kitchen ever since...

yes @FusionChefGeoff that is exactly my approach too!! That me me laugh out loud - thank tou

Crazy busy today, running around like mad, fuelled by intermittent bites of cottage cheese/crab sticks/lettuce & dressing. I did have a handful of M & S oven baked mixed nuts ( 5.3 carbs). See if this throws me off. D chicken legs & 5 veg.
I got my SLC bread finally + brownies. Bread looks & smells good, so I I’ll have a bacon roll for my daylight meal.( I seem to eat once in the light & once in the dark ATM)
I had 1/2 of the SLC brownie -very nice & rich, moist also. 1/2 is plenty!

@Moanranger if this is your first time with SLC bread beware it does not keep well. Best to pop it strain the freezer.

I had a very interesting day yesterday practicing my new mind set. It was a day of client presentations with 4.5hrs travel each end. The client had laid on two coffee breaks with sandwiches and cakes each time. I had a salad in a box with me but didn’t feel the need to get it out. I used these breaks to network. I then ate my salad on the train on the way hom at 6.30pm. So I had effectively done a 22hr fast which because I wasn’t hungry was not challenging. My old mindset would have been derailed by all the carby food on offer. And I would have made excuses to myself like - it would be rude not to- or - I’ll be hungry if I don’t eat some of this.

Today
L left over cauliflower curry and cabbage
D courgetti and aubergine parmigiana

Have a lovely day everyone.

Good result @Jollyholibobs!

@FusionChefGeoff that's exactly my kind of response when reading ANY recipe written by Yotam Ottolenghi!

Mostly I follow recipes. It depends how experienced I am - so with baking, for example, I follow recipes to the letter because I rarely bake and don't have the confidence to go 'off piste'. But I made something recently (can't remember what it was now), and as I was following the recipe I was thinking 'this isn't right' - and sure enough it wasn't. I should have followed my own instincts!

This is where we're eating today, when we meet my DB/SIL from the train

Plenty of low carb options there!

Loving all the Thanksgiving chat, making me think about Christmas sides to have (brussel sprouts and pancetta I think).
Well done @Jollyholibobs on the long fast and swerving the cakes and sarnies - which I always find makes me really tired in the afternoon in these events.

Had the most lovely evening yesterday. Went to see Nigella on tour in Bath. City looking gorgeous and twinkly and took myself for a delicious dinner of tapas - jambon, olives, mushrooms and prawns in garlic. Treated myself to a negroni as well, for which I will accept the big stick.

Nigella talked about the ‘wrongness’ of a low fat diet - she was a big advocate of fat adding flavour and moisturising from within! And she looked so gorgeous and glowing that I definitely believe her.

Back from a lightning trip to london ( well , not lightning quick on the way home as the train took an hour longer than it should have , compensation applied for )
Lots of walking , saw both DC - which was the whole point of the trip and the Christmas lights
Need lots of green veg today , as that was a bit lacking
I had my oven cleaned recently , @BIWI , for the next week I kept putting the oven light on and looking at it in admiration 🤩

Loving all the recipes and menu ideas. I must admit that, although I love cooking, I rarely try new stuff. Just too knackered after working and being menopausal, plus two teenagers who are fussy eaters in different ways, I just can't be arsed to try new stuff so end up eating a lot of the same things. Currently no breakfast or just some Greek yogurt if I'm hungry, then mushroom & cheese omelette for lunch, or bacon, eggs & mushrooms at the weekend. Am having a thing for cauliflower atm so lots of cauliflower cheese, or curry with buttered cauliflower instead of rice.

Am happy enough with the limited variety, in fact it is quite helpful to me not to be thinking too much about food. What I'm eating is delicious but not a big focus. Trying to think of it as fuel rather than the treat / reward / compensation that got me to size 20 in the first place... and I totally swerved the birthday chocolate cake and it was surprisingly easy! Been rewarded with another lb off since Monday so worth it!

My oven is due a clean too, but I'm just pretending it's fine for now

Next oven you buy make sure it has a self cleaning option. You just switch it on, leave it for a few hours. Open it up and wipe away the dust.
That’s my Mrs Hinch tip for today.

@BIWI

This is where we're eating today, when we meet my DB/SIL from the train

Plenty of low carb options there!

Ooh, I love the Camino at King’s Cross. Not been to the other ones but never had a less than happy experience. Great vibe, great selection, great people watching.

The area was an absolute shithole when I moved to London and it’s a pleasure to see it so vibrant.

Also, I’ve realised that my eating out pattern seems to be heading toward tapas all the way (also my eating in pattern, now that I think about it).

I use tapas to mean a few starters or small portions with a variety of tastes and textures (not using the specific Spanish sense). It feels more exciting—much more exciting that a huge meal of pasta, where regardless of the great flavours each bite feels the same as the last.

Also memorably had a “Yorkshire tapas” in Harrogate and a “Mexican tapas” there as well, August 2020.

I still don’t cook that way at home, mind you, because it’s a fair bit of work. Just reminds me how much I love “small plates” and mixing complementary dishes throughout a meal.

Anyway, enjoy. And drink loads of WATER WATER WATER!!!

@Pleaseandthankyou yes my ovens are supposed to be self-cleaning. Every now and then they bleep at me to tell me to clean them but it actually never seems to make any difference. They lie.

Low Fat High Carb Diets are Like Self-Cleaning Ovens— They Lie (the Chronicles of BIWI)

Coming soon to all high-quality booksellers...

My oven needs cleaning. Im going to buy a new one!

Weighed myself this morning and I'm at 10lb off this bootcamp. Wanted the motivation as I'm at a Christmas market with Macdonald's lunch with DD and her friend as it's an INSET day.

I have had a salad with a cheeseburger (no bun, literally just the burger, cheese some bacon and tomato with a side salad. Didn't even steal a chip! And I have a water. Feeling positively angelic 🤣😇

@ShagMeRiggins

Low Fat High Carb Diets are Like Self-Cleaning Ovens— They Lie (the Chronicles of BIWI)

Coming soon to all high-quality booksellers...

The one domestic task I enjoy is cleaning the oven. I’d happily pop round and do anyone’s. This does not extend to other parts of the house.

When would you like to come over? 😁

I'm a rush for lunch and I just had a very nice tinned carrot and coriander soup that was only 3.7g carbs per 100g. It just goes to show how important it is to read labels as that was the lowest carb soup on the shelf despite being carrot-based. I did add some butter into it to make it LCHF.

Jolly thanks for the tip; half of the bread is in freezer & rest + brownies are in fridge.
I ate one roll today, couldn’t detect much flavour, but I made a BLT + mayo so maybe masked the taste. At some point I will just make some toast.
As a vehicle for sandwich filling, it works fine.
My daytime meal was at 2:30, not v hungry til around 1:30.

@StuntNun

I'm a rush for lunch and I just had a very nice tinned carrot and coriander soup that was only 3.7g carbs per 100g. It just goes to show how important it is to read labels as that was the lowest carb soup on the shelf despite being carrot-based. I did add some butter into it to make it LCHF.

Thanks for this, StuntNun, I’ve been thinking about it as well while making yet another big pot of chicken & veg soup.

Also thinking of coleslaw from a shop. Also thinking about salads on a menu, stir fry, etc.

The GREEN/Amber/Red system on the spreadsheet tab is clear and useful. Especially for new people who simply don’t know that, for example, root vegetables will almost always carry a higher carb content than almost anything green.

I do worry—though I don’t think it’s happened this Bootcamp—when someone self-flagellates for having a salad with a few thin strips of carrot in the mix.

No, we don’t count carbs on Bootcamp but, yes, we are aware of carb counts. I really hope everyone understands that (it can take some time, I’m not judging anyone here)!

But I’d rather see someone “breaking the rules” with a carrot than a piece of shortbread. Roughly equivalent in terms of carbs per 100g. One has nutritional value, the other not so much.

WATER WATER WATER

Just a public service announcement: regularly recommended on here, the Jason Fung Obesity book is just £2.49 on kindle today.

Evening all. Been a busy day and managed to grab a cauli and kale soup for lunch. Which was actually rather nice.

@Jollyholibobs I love it when you can just go nearly all day without hunger. It just goes to show how efficient our bodies are when using fat as energy.

I am recreating my menu from the pig the other day- my celeriac remoulade is chilling in the fridge and my soft boil own hen egg is cooling. Didn’t hot smoke the salmon though

recreating my menu from the pig the other day- my celeriac remoulade is chilling in the fridge and my soft boil own hen egg is cooling

Well this sounds impressive. I’m making burritos. Not quite the same...