Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - the final weigh-in!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for its last outing

I hope it’s been a successful experience for you all - and that the shorter Bootcamp has worked.

It's taken me all the current Boot Camp but I think I've finally broken my snacking when not really hungry habit again

Even if the snacks are low carb, too many of them don't help the weight loss process

I've lost 8lb despite a 4 week exercise hiatus. Thank you @BIWI.

....and in even better news, I've finally got back to a "3 main digit" weight: 11st 9.25lb

Only 2.5lb to go to get to my revised target, which was where I got to 2 years ago.

I doubt I'm going to get to where I'd got to last year by Christmas, which was 11st 2.75lb - but there again, I didn't have Covid during last Christmas's Boot Camp

For the simplest vegan recipe in the whole wide world, open a tin of asparagus, drain, plop into a bowl, then add salt, pepper, and a red wine vinaigrette to your taste.

I do somewhere around 3 parts excellent quality olive oil plus 1 part excellent quality red wine vinegar, salt & pepper, and a teaspoon of either Dijon mustard or sometimes Ancienne (country) mustard.

If my family were more French, I’d do 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, but I do like to cater to their tastes so they will eat the good stuff, such as salads, pot au feu, steamed artichokes, etc.

If you’re happy to take this from vegan to vegetarian, add some shaved or grated Parmesan cheese.

Please drink some WATER.

Someone sent DH a box of carbs for Christmas!

That's brilliant prettybird,what a great achievement.

I'm having a revamp of all my old clothes and discovered Trinny ( from years ago ☺) YouTube videos. I'd never have thought tucking jumpers into Jeans would look ok but it really works. Also combing colours and what works with them.
I'm feeling confident in myself and so much healthier than where I was early September.

Thanks to everyone whose posts have kept me going through bootcamp, especially to BIWI of course! I've mainly lurked and just posted a few times but you've all spurred me on to step away from the carbs and pick up my glass of water

I did have a bit of a tumble off the wagon last weekend with wine leading to other banned foodstuffs and Monday's weigh in was bad but have weed it all out again and have kept a whole stone off since bootcamp started. Just going to keep on as best I can over the holidays. Wine is a killer but as long as I factor in a few dry days I reckon it'll be OK

@StuntNun

Someone sent DH a box of carbs for Christmas!

Bread and crisps for Christmas? That’s a new one on me, I’ll admit.

We had one tiny slice of Veda bread the carbiest bread in the world each then bunged the rest in the freezer. DS1 will eat the rest of the bread and the crisps when he's home for Christmas. The younger kids don't really remember living in Northern Ireland so they don't miss the food.

@minkymoo74

Scraped another half pound off so v happy. Really want to make sensible choices and not undo all this good work. Need to remember, as yummy as it all is, it's JUST FOOD and I don't have to eat it all in one day...

Eg had chicken & cauliflower alfredo for tea yesterday and only started to feel hungry around 2pm today. Had 2 eggs sort of poached in butter (really yum) and that'll do me till dinner time. Bunless burger with celeriac chips. Will be cracking open wine and proving what willpower i have to avoid crisps.

Just don't buy the crisps! Especially if you need willpower to avoid them!

Forgive me campers, for I have sinned. (But I planned my sin, and sinned well.)

Now to catch up on today’s WATER!

I no longer need to worry about a carby dessert at my dad's on Sunday as he had to change his travel plans at short notice: was due to go to France on Tuesday (to my brother's) and had to bring forward his plans yesterday at short notice to leave today

I knew about it (8.06: Adam Fleming on BBC Breakfast) before my brother and warned dad at 8.07 - who then messaged my brother to see if he knew anything about it. He didn't believe my dad initially.....

Frantic search for different flight options and LFT tests resulted in Dad booking a double-legged flight (Glasgow-Dublin, Dublin-?Bordeaux) which has cost Dad a whole lot extra as he was taking checked in luggage

Anyway, he's got to France safely

Also had a carby lunch. Christmas lunch with my colleague and ended up eating bread. I can never get over how sleepy it makes me feel.
But we were too full for dessert so at least I avoided that.
Going to make a curry and cauli rice for dinner. I might not fit them in tonight but the leftovers will be nice for tomorrow.

Son has covid so is isolating until Wednesday,I had my booster and felt awful for two days but still had an appetite and have woken to a two pound loss today. 10 stone 4. Very strange as I felt sorry for myself and had hugh amounts of coffee and cream,salted peanuts and a small mince pie. I wonder if something boosted my metabolism.
Sausage casserole with buttery cabbage for myself and my boys later,they will have a baked potato with theirs.

@kerkyra it can happen that a carby meal causes a "whoosh" on the scales. It seems the carb refeed triggers fat cells to shed stored water. Alcohol can do the same thing. We don't recommend it because you can't be sure when you're due a whoosh, the weight would have come off anyway (because you've already replaced fat in fat cells with water) and it's likely to trigger cravings. But it is a recognised phenomenon.

Hi all,
Well I'm still sticking to this, although I have had berries and cream for breakfast two mornings in a row! Which although technically allowed on bootcamp light isn't something to be done frequently iirc. Think it's my desire to 'start' Christmas, mixed with not wanting to crack open a chocolate log just yet!
But all other meals are in keeping with this woe and I'm still off the alcohol, so on the whole I'm pleased.

I find this week (the one before Christmas) the most difficult. I am planning menus and shopping, filling the house with treats, anticipating good things. And good wine. And I want it NOW! And I want crisps.

I'm trying to avoid that sprial of thinking and I'm just about to make squash and coconut curried soup, which will be preceded by chicken and avocado salad.

I've got one meal out next week (to a lovely fish restaurant, so some lovely easy choices), plus a pre-Christmas present swap with dgc where I can ignore the nibbly food. But it takes planning - eggs with butter before I go; cauliflower cheese bake ready to pop in the oven when I get back; a few macademia nuts in my pocket in case I get 'nibbly'.

Good news is that I seem to have, fingers crossed managed to avoid catching anything from being with nephew and neice-in-law who both tested + for covid. They had -ve LFTs that morning, one was positive by evening, the other by the following morning!

That is very good news @venusandChristmars

We have one more social event before Christmas - a dinner party on Monday which has replaced a much bigger drinks party. All 8 of us will use LFTs before we go. All 8 of us vaccinated/boostered, so fingers crossed all will be well, before my BIL arrives (along with DS2 coming home) on 23/12.

I have one more shopping trip to do - either today or tomorrow, can't decide which is likely to be less busy! - and then I'm not leaving the house again!

Ds is home now (dh went up to get him rather than risk public transport and he claimed still to be feeling rough after his booster on Friday ) and hopefully hasn't brought Omicron with him - either from Aberdeen or from their stop for some food at Morrison's in Dundee

Technically I can't take LFTs at the moment as I had Covid at the beginning of November and you're supposed to leave it 90 days. But I've experimented when I was feeling particularly well (ie no cold type symptoms) and it returned a negative result I got dh to do one too and his was also negative . It means that now if we do get symptoms (which in our experience were just like a cold with extra sneezing ) we can take an LFT for a check rather than isolating for 10 days every time.

Earlier this week I made the first 39 of my mince pies this festive period - and so far haven't had a single one

I'm so disappointed in Leon. I was on the road today so stopped at a motorway services and ordered their paprika chicken roasted veg salad. Anyway the box I got just had chicken and rice and nothing else so I paid £7.25 for a tiny amount of chicken. Complete waste of money.

So far maintaining. I am no longer strictly LCing but I am eating less & generally have long periods between eating. I had only 1 Xmas meal, with the other cancelled. (The cancelled one was the smoked mackerel pate + cassoulet, which I was NOT looking forward to.) The Fri night meal was one of those deals where you order your courses in October.By the time of the actual dinner, I have forgotten entirely what I ordered, so I ended up having a duck salad followed by duck roasted! V few carbs, tho. Pudding was cheese, only a blue of some kind which I found too salty, so I left most. Definitely did not overeat. Has 1 cocktail & 2 glasses of wine.

That should read “had”