Week 6 - Jan 22 Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

As ever, here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

We're now in the last three weeks. It might not seem that there's much time left, but there's still a chance to lose as much as half a stone if you're really disciplined!

Hopefully you've all settled into low carbing by now. People have been posting some really great recipes, which should not only be appetising, but also persuading us all that low carbing is a joyful and satisfying way of eating for all the family.

One of the things that always thrills me - genuinely - is how many other benefits (beyond weight loss) there are from low carbing. For me, it was the sudden absence of my IBS. What about you? How have you found that low carbing is helping your general health?

Next week's challenge is a bit of throwing down the gauntlet - all those of you who are lurking! Post something about how you're feeling about low carbing/Bootcamp. Anything!

I hope you all have a good week

Marking my place and off to the old thread to catch up a bit.

I was working the nightshifts, finished this morning so still a bit dazzled and confused about the time of the day 🙄 half term starts tomorrow here so will need to entertain the kids. Hope the weather improves as today it was absolutely rotten. Another day of howling wind and almost horizontal rain.

Health benefits? I haven’t touch bread for nearly 5 weeks now. I only eat my sourdough but I must have overindulged severely on it. I also almost stopped eating fruit-I admit pinching a couple of grapes from DS, finishing half eaten slice of watermelon and grating apple and carrot into coleslaw.Onion is guilty as well.

I’m not bloated anymore. I don’t fart like an old gas bag,not sure if it’s lack of gluten or fruit.
I’m eating less often.No grazing or snacking or quickly grabbing high carb snack from the cupboard.
Old habits die hard though and I miss my glass(or 2) of wine a week but then I would want to stuff my face with either pizza or doritos or whatever is available (high carb again).

I know I haven’t lost much weight but lost a bit of flab at the front. It’s easier to bend over and I feel less sluggish.Still haven’t finished the job of losing what I wanted to so I’m going to hang around.
I had a couple of slip ups. I’m trying to resist all temptations, hopefully will manage to achieve my goal.

Keep losing 💪

And thank you @BIWI for everlasting encouragement and everything you do here. Really appreciate it 🙂

I'm a lurker (sorry BIVI). Actually I'm probably a part time lurker as I haven't managed to read much of the threads either.

Here's a recipe for Cloud bread. I have this cookbook and have made this multiple times. Last time I used two of them to make a burger bun and had a cheeseburger - delicious!
www.flavcity.com/cold-keto-lunch-meal-prep/

I'm feeling less hungry and not as bloated. I've lost 9lb so far and could possibly have lost a bit more if I'd exercised more but the winter weather and working from home mean I have had weeks where I have only left the house two or three times in a week. Am so looking forward to lighter evenings and better weather!

I haven’t lost this week, but that’s okay. I’ve settled in and intend to be doing this for the long haul, which was what I was hoping for when I started.

I’m going to concentrate on salad greens and water this week.

Thanks BIWI.

I’ve been lurking throughout and really appreciating the threads. I’ve powered through the next stone barrier this morning. Still obese, but inching closer to the glories of just overweight.

NSVs for me in the last week have been finding myself running upstairs rather than my usual achey trudge. Am much less farty too. Now if I can just get to a point of stopping snoring… :)

Another quasi-lurker here, I've dropped into most threads but need to participate more. I'm new to all this and finding it amazing. I started two weeks early and have lost another pound this week, which means I've lost 18 pounds in total. I can't believe it.

Whilst I signed up to lose weight, it's the health benefits which are keeping me motivated and sticking with it. I feel great. My mood is lighter, I am more productive and clear-headed in all areas of life. I have the energy to exercise. I feel less exhausted and more capable. It's been really liberating.

Loving the food although I haven't really been challenged by social events yet. My target this week is to drink all the water as this has waned in the last few weeks.

Sharing this recipe which I made last week and was very nice. I went easy on the peppers.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-spanish-chicken

Hope everyone has a good week ahead and thanks to everyone who posts regularly & helps to keep quasi-lurkers like me on the straight and narrow. Thanks to BIWI as always.

4lb off this week, 17lb total, 6.64% of my starting weight.

Thank you so much for everyone's support.

I've made a commitment to myself to continue this WOE for a year through to next January. I'll continue to be strict for the rest of bootcamp, from then on I'll have carby items if it's what I really fancy, but as a weekly or monthly treat rather than 3 meals a day.

@Moonswimmer just scrolling through the spreadsheet, and see you've lost 30lbs! That's amazing

Morning all, and thanks @BIWI for the new thread.
A stone down so far but 2 more to go on my particular journey so will be carrying on after.
Been a bit lax this weekend when challenged by Worst Sunday Lunch In A Pub Ever but hey ho, damage would have been much worse if I'd not at least been trying. I know I did my best and these things will happen. It was a slightly awkward lunch anyway and it would have only been worse if I'd left bits or asked for unconventional combinations.
Have a difficult end of week coming with a parent coming to stay. Will likely want to eat my own weight in terrible food just to annoy him as he will absolutely definitely comment on my weight/lifestyle/children in all sorts of derogatory ways. HOWEVER I'll make sure I plan for all meals and snacks really carefully with plenty of choice as he's very much of the super low fat, low calorie eater, extremely restrictive and hyper controlled. As long as I can put out stuff he's comfy with hopefully there won't be too many comments about me eating cheese or eggs more than once a week (shock horror) .
The change for me is more revelatory than physical I think : I now understand why I was permanently, desperately hungry and obsessed with food as a child. There was no fat to speak of in our diet and the vast majority of carbs came from processed wheat so no satiety, and everything was incredibly rationed-sometimes literally counted, in our house....
Having said that, I also know mum was doing her absolute best with the scant resources and information she had....She hated white sliced seventies bread and started making her own, for example. We actually ate very little refined sugar. No treats in the house EVER and I can remember the awe and delight when we started to have a Penguin chocolate bar once a day after school when my dad changed to a shift pattern of work and his wage increased so we could afford them. 2 Penguin bars and a thermos of orange squash were left on the table for us for when we got in from school. (M & D would get back from work later.) If I got hungry before bed it'd be an apple, slice of bread, bowl of cereal etc but I'd have to sneak them out of the larder later. Carbs carbs carbs...
Anyhoo, a little trip down memory lane for you all. 😅

@Choux thank you for de-lurking

Don't worry too much about the exercise - it's really, honestly diet that will see the weight go. Dr Jason Fung, who wrote The Obesity Code, suggests that weight loss is 95% diet and only 5% exercise.

@HaveGogglesWillTravel that recipe sounds good - and even better as I was looking for more recipes for the slow cooker. Reading all the doom and gloom stuff about impending rises in electricity/gas costs, I realised that I use my oven an awful lot, so switching to the slow cooker would be a good idea.

Forgot to post up a formal recipe last week - will get it done this week.

Well done everyone who is KOKO 👏. Some fantastic results reported.

Another pound off for me this week. 12 in total since 10 Jan. I want to get to the stone!!!

SV - this week I didn't creep back up into the 12's once despite 2 nights out (no carby food but did involve alcohol)

NSV - my ring started to swivel freely on my finger last night

I am also finally able to walk a bit more and did 10k steps on Sat and sun. Hopefully my foot will hold up to let me continue this. No nights out this week planned so hoping for a good SV this week....... maybe the stone?? 🤞

Thanks for the new thread @BIWI. My NSV is improved mental health on this WOE.
Lovely to see all the delurkers and some great losses.

@Wilkolampshade interesting reflections on how childhood restrictions may continue to haunt us. The wierdest thing I recall from my childhood is that we had bottles of fizzy sweet drink delivered weekly like milk. Scotland in the 70s. I never drank water only these awful fizzy drinks which I loved.

3lbs down for me this week but only partly recovering the effects of a very bad week previously.

New cooker came yesterday so there will be a wider food options available when not cooking in nothing but a microwave. Still browsing air fryers……

B IF
L home made veg soup and cheese salad
D baked salmon with pesto and roasted veg.

Thanks for the new thread @BIWI, it's nice to start a new week and see all the successes both scale and non-scale. I have lost 2 pounds this week and am keen to keep making progress. I find the threads really motivating so thank you to everyone who posts.

I feel good about this woe, after the first few days or so I felt like I had a clearer head, my sleeping pattern has improved and, after years of feeling down about my weight, it feels so nice to feel like I might have finally found a way that works for me without feeling restricted or unhappy about food. Physically it also feels great to put on clothes that haven't sat quite right on me for some time (too tight!) and they feel and look so much better. I swim and have a very restrictive Speedo costume which is getting easier to get on each week - it really makes me smile!

@Jollyholibobs ah yes, pop. Down here in London I had a weekly, glass bottle of Corona, all bobbly glass round the top. Could return the empty bottles for their 5p deposit when we picked up the (wrapped in newspaper) block of ice cream for Sunday lunch pud. Simple things

I had a similar sudden disappearance of IBS to BIWI in my case it was wheat that was causing all my problems - who knew?! I'm actually fine with gluten but can't tolerate wheat in any quantity. But the bigger health benefit for me was the complete cessation of period pain. Before I went low carb I had to take ibuprofen religiously for the first three days of my period just to be able to function. Without it I wouldn't have been able to go to work and even with the painkillers I was still a bit of a wreck. After a couple of months of Bootcamp the pain stopped entirely and now, even at my worst, all I get is a vague heaviness in my abdomen like a mild tummy ache.

Attention Bootcampers I need help! I'm going on a camping weekend next month and my team has to cook two meals. The first is Sunday breakfast for nine people including "several hot elements" with a budget of £19.35. I was thinking something like a bacon, sausage and egg butty (I could take a Seriously Low Carb roll for me) and maybe some kind of campfire French Toast for the carb eaters. The bigger challenge is two hot courses for Sunday Lunch for 28 people to be cooked over an open fire with a budget of £105. I have to avoid cooked cheese, tomatoes, chilli, dairy and dairy substitutes. My first thought was chicken, chorizo and vegetable skewers but I'm not sure about what sides you can cook over an open fire. We aren't allowed to pre-prepare anything; it all has to be made on site. Does anyone have any suggestions?

"Barbecued"/griddled thick slices of courgettes? Or if you have metal containers, just cook chunks of various veg - a sort of open fire version of a vegetable tray bake. Wrap some cauliflowers in foil and roast them on the fire? caveat, no idea if that would work

Here's some more ideas https://blog.campingworld.com/at-the-campsite/cooking-veggies-campfire/

2lb down this week for a total loss of 10.5lb, plus another cm from my waist for a total 6.5cm off. Very pleased with that!

Some great SVs and NSVs here - KOKO one and all.

Off to France tomorrow (only 4 days late, thanks Storms Eunice and Franklin ) so we’ll see how well I fare. Staying with family who are broadly supportive, but there will be wine and bread. I’m taking a stash of seeded crackers and will do my best, but will definitely be BCL.

Will probably not be on the thread much for the next two weeks, so will pop back on for the last week. Au revoir!

@StuntNun how about corn beef hash made with celeriac? Tins of corn beef, fried onions, mashed celeriac, served with green beans and a big slab of butter just for you Broccoli, leek and chicken soup to start. With optional blue cheese to add for those who can eat it. Or is it a competition where you have to stick to the rules?

Oooh ooh ooh! I HAVE thought of a specific change, I don't have sock rings around my ankles anymore, well, not nearly so much. Used to lie in the bath despairing of my ankles. They used looked like a couple of rolled pork joints. Not no more!! 😊😊

My NSV is that I no longer get hypoglycaemic attacks and, no doubt linked to that, don't fall asleep or have a major energy dip mid afternoon.

I used to be notorious for drooping eyes in afternoon meetings

My NSV is that my blood pressure is so much more under control on this woe. On Saturday it was 128/74 which is great for me - a few years ago it was 'catastrophically high' and I would have been hospitalised if I hadn't responded pretty immediately to medication. The Dr's approach was not to worry if it rose again because there was more medication that I could be given. But I didn't want to live my life like that and made several lifestyle changes. Now I don't need any medication at all.

It's interesting, I've got 2 male colleagues who are both quite overweight - classic 60 year old males with large tummies. They've both recently had health assesments which have been a bit of a wake up call in terms of BP, pre-diabetes, metabolic markers. One of them had followed LCHF a few years ago and had lost 2 stone (most is now back on). I thought he would got back to that way of eating, but no, his Dr's advice was low fat, whole grains, fruit and veg, lean meat and fish. I see him eating (for example) chicken and sweetcorn soup with a slice of whole wheat toast with low fat spread, followed by an apple or a banana. Then for dinner he might have whole wheat spaghetti with low fat mince bolognese. He's struggling with sticking to it and feels hungry. But he feels he has to follow his doctor's advice.

I was out last week with both colleagues and they sat miserably looking at their grilled fish, boiled potatoes and veg while I tucked into a burger with crispy bacon, cheese, smashed avocado and a fried egg (plus some salad with dressing).

I’ve also been lurking on all the threads throughout. Need to be more sociable and join in! Thanks to all the posters and to BIWI. Lots of great losses. The chat keeps me motivated. I definitely have more energy to exercise and my skin looks better. Generally feel lighter in myself, in a NSV kind of way. Thank you!