Jan 22 Low Carb Bootcamp - the final weigh-in!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Here, for its last outing this Bootcamp is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I know the last couple of weeks have been a bit quiet, and apologies for Covid-related absence from me as well, but it looks like this has been a pretty successful Bootcamp, which is great.

I don't know when the next Bootcamp will be, but probably won't be till around May at some point. However, we'll keep this thread going in the interim.

Don't forget to have a good rummage around the other threads in the Bootcamp topic in the interim, especially the recipe threads, as there's lots of useful stuff there.

And thank you to everyone who has posted, helped to support other posters and even those who have just lurked at the back! I genuinely wouldn't have even half the motivation to do this without you. This is a rather lovely little corner of Mumsnet.

@BIWI thank you very muchfor all your help and encouragement aka big stick 😉
Also thanks to everybody who posted. It’s nice to see the weight loss,I think that everybody must have lost some weight.

Managed to get down from 67kg to about 61.5 (about a stone to imperial people). Feeling good but still have a few kilograms to lose.
Some clothes fit a bit better but still a bit stretched so going to give it a go.

@StuntNun I love lard. My fat of choice for frying eggs and what’s not.

@ShagMeRiggins you are so right about the crisps.I think this is what got me into trouble in the first place- one or two wine nights ( a bottle a week) with some munchies whether it’s homemade pizza or big bag of Doritos.Also portion size- I was eating insane servings or chips or roasties because I love potatoes.

I must say low carbing is good approach to regulate your appetite and amount of food- I found myself eating less because I was more satisfied with food and the frequency has changed- I started eating when I was hungry instead of set 3 meals and snacking in between.

Onwards and upwards 🙂

Downwards @FrenchBoule!!!!

I really can't eat big portions any more! My roast yesterday was lovely, but far too big. Mountains of veg, but my stomach afterwards was agony and took hours to feel even slightly comfortable. Still sore this morning. I used to be able to eat a LOT.
Lesson learned, even vegetables aren't good in huge quantities. Ouch

You’re right @SummerSazz downwards 🙂 weightwise

@RagzRebooted I don’t know what it is but it’s I call it “dog behaviour”. Eat until you burst. Very uncomfortable and ill feeling afterwards but eating feels sooo good. Stuffing my face with veg means the ill feeling will go away quicker but why is it there in the first place🤔
I still have a few kgs to shift so I’m going to tread slowly and carefully.Happy with the results so will KOKO 🙂

@RagzRebooted, I have that issue too. I had a small portion of keto cottage pie last night around 6.30pm, served with some sliced cucumber and grated cheese (random I know but no veg in). I was so full afterwards and still felt a bit full when I dragged myself to bed at 2.30am after falling asleep on the sofa! I can't eat shoogled sprouts (as much as I love them) as I get a really sore full tummy afterwards. I don't actually eat a lot now, compared to what I used too - having to fit all my food into 6 or 8 hours helps of course!

My weight is still dancing around. I'm wondering if I need some supplements actually as, although I feel thinner, my limbs and body feel much heavier - like I'm weighed down with lactic acid or something? A weird feeling. @StuntNun, any advice? I keep looking at supplements but then worry about money so put them back on the (virtual) shelf!

I'm out at the theatre tonight so having my main meal at lunchtime and I've just made it (benefit of WFH!) - keto chicken tenders and ranch dressing and salad, posted on a previous thread in this BC - one of my new fave meals! I'll then just have some Greek yog & cream before we leave at 5pm.

Morning all, back from la belle France and weighing in, dropped 1 lb which given the circumstances I am very chuffed with.

What was interesting was noting how few vegetables my inlaws eat! I knew they didn't eat many but this time it has really struck me. They eat well- MIL is a wonderful cook- but on the last day the only veg that passed my lips were some cherry tomatoes. Managed to swerve croissants, bread, puddings but had a couple of sugary yoghurts that weren't great and 3 small potatoes on the last night (there was nothing else served with the rather delicious pork cheek with beans stew). Thank heavens for the LC fibre bread I took with me or I would be in real trouble. As it is I came back feeling sluggish and bloated.

I will be sticking around for a bit, another 5 or 6 lbs to go ideally but really I just like eating this way. I've just ordered the Keto Kitchen cookbook recommended on here for some more inspiration.

We're away again at the end of next week on a Nile cruise (eek!) so I'm going to have to plan a coping strategy. It will be harder I suspect; hotels might be okay but the actual boat I would imagine will be a limited menu, it's only a small boat so there won't be huge amounts of choice. I got some keto bars from Ocado at great expense which were okay as an emergency back up on the plane so I may get some more of them.

That salmon recipe up thread sounds delicious and I have salmon planned for tonight. I have all the ingredients apart from lemon but I do have half a lime. Wonder if that will work.

Forgot to say thanks BIWI, your patience and goodwill astonishes me.

Two inches off my waist and under boob this boot camp, a total of five since I started and at least 1 off my stubborn hips (four in total). I am now looking more like a pear than a blob. I’ve definitely lost weight off my legs too.

Forgot to say that I did eat a packet of crisps last week and I had the most horrendous indigestion afterwards - felt like someone was stabbing me between the shoulder blades. It will be a lesson to me I think.

I really like the Keto Kitchen book, and will probably buy her other two as well (Lazy Keto and Budget Keto).

But the thing that I noticed is that there are very few vegetarian recipes in there. Not sure if there are more on her blog though. I noticed it because I'm trying to cook more vegetarian meals, and I was getting a bit bored of always cooking the same ones!

Anyway, last night I cooked this:

Pesto Halloumi and Roast Veg serves 4

Ingredients:

First, heat the oven to fan 200C/non-fan 220C

1 cauliflower, broken into florets
1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and cut into eighths
2 courgettes, cut in half lenghtways, and then those cut into shorter pieces
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into long batons probably a bit carby but they needed using up!
1 onion, cut into thick slices
1 bulb of garlic, with cloves separated (leave the skins on)
2 long red chillies ^optional if you don't like chilli*
large handful of cherry tomatoes
2 packs full fat Halloumi, each cut into 8 slices
2/3 jar basil pesto I used Aldi's Specially Selected green pesto, which is 2.9g carbs per 100g - the whole jar is 190g
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put everything except the Halloumi, pesto and tomatoes into an oven baking dish; season well with the salt and pepper, and drizzle generously with the oil

Bake for 20 minutes, then stir everything round, put back into the oven and bake for another 10 minutes till the veg is starting to brown

Add the Halloumi and tomatoes, and then dollop spoonfuls of the pesto on to the Halloumi slices; season the cheese with more black pepper

Bake for another 10-15 minutes till the cheese is starting to brown

@RagzRebooted and @FrenchBoule I don't know if you're the same as me but I've found I can't tolerate a lot of fibre any more. I can only eat relatively small amounts of fibrous veggies such as celeriac and cabbage, also nuts in quantity, or I feel bloated and unwell as if I've eaten too much.

@queenofcauliflower I'm not really sure what you mean by weighed down with lactic acid. I am a big fan of supplements though. I regularly take magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc and vitamin B6. I also eat fermented foods and unpasteurised dairy to improve my intake of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K2. I definitely think it's worth examining your overall health and investigating whether supplementation is required. It's nice to imagine we can get all the micronutrients we need from a healthy diet but it's also unrealistic. At the very least, everyone in the UK should probably be supplementing with a high quality vitamin D3 and a bioavailable form of magnesium such as glycinate.

@StuntNun I think you're right, I had mashed swede, cabbage, sprouts and leeks. It's a lot of fibre, especially as some days I only manage one portion of veg. My weight was up 2lbs today! Hopefully it will settle back down after my poor stomach has recovered.

@StuntNun since I started the bootcamp and completely cut out bread and fruit(which I didn’t eat much anyway).
The only bread I had is home made sourdough. I haven’t eaten bread for 2 months now.

I was always bloated and like an gas bag. So embarrassing. Since I stopped bread and fruit- nothing. One of my favourites low carb meals are parboiled sprouts fried (on lard) with pork belly and mushrooms. Not a peep from my backside 🤔

Cabbage- I don’t really like steamed veg as I find them too bland. I come from Poland where boiled winter veg are usually served with helping of butter,flour and lemon juice/citric acid.
Cabbage is served the same way with dill- no farting.
Here eating some plain steamed cabbaged has my backside working overtime for 3 days.

Not sure if it’s fibre job or something else 🤷‍♀️

@ShagMeRiggins thanks for the mum pep talk gentle reminder

Yes, it’s a slippery slope and one that’s hard to negotiate. I often find myself thinking that fruit is the healthy option (as a child, we never had puddings but the fruit bowl was always available) but like the people @RagzRebooted meets, it’s easy to overdo it.

Taking it slow to see how I get on and avoid any burn-up on reentry - I clearly remember messing up following a similar WOE years ago. I was still very sporty and coach told us all to carb-load before a race. I thought I was being smart having a bowl of spelt-pasta and actually ended up missing the race entirely due to violent cramps

So far so good on the maintenance front this time - risked a few scant sweet potato fries with my chicken and FTGV dinner, and have been eating a few more berries in my morning yogurt. Let’s see how long it continues…

Morning everyone.

Day 1 of low carb was a reasonable success. I did completely forget and ate an orange. Oops!

What does everyone have as snacks? Or do you not snack?

Morning everyone! Slipping in very late to report a loss in the final week. However, this may not be due to low carb so much as covid.... my husband had recovered, and I was starting to shake off the heavy cold my daughter brought home from nursery when I went down with covid. Since I've always had the option of being able to work from home, I almost never take sick days (except when having operations) but I've been off sick all week and barely able to get off the sofa! I've been not wanting to eat and having to force myself to have something in the evening just to make sure I have some nutrients!

@Bookaholic73 - welcome! With time you may find you don't need snacks, lots of people on this thread don't snack. I must admit I'm still a snacker though I find snacks are my downfall... I come home hungry and fall face first into the fridge. It REALLY helps to have things pre-planned and ready to go. I do things like: cheese, cocktail sausages, hard boiled eggs, cold meat (I'll often cook a tray of chicken for example, half for dinner and half to keep in the fridge for lunch and snacks), salad vegetables, peanut butter (though peanut butter isn't allowed on bootcamp strict if you're following that), fresh coconut. I also like a cup of decaff coffee with a bit of double cream.

@pinknsparkly thank you so much. I have to do my food shop today, so I’ll add some of those to the shopping list. I love all the food you just mentioned, so that’s a bonus.

Yes, I really must start planning a bit more in advance. I was supposed to do some meal planning yesterday, but didn’t.
I think I’ll plan for the weekend today, as the weekends can be a bit tricky. My number one weekend slip up could possibly be a few glasses of wine. So I’ll make sure to plan a way to avoid that.

I have my fasting HbA1c test next week, so that’ll be fun. Fasting for 12 hours might actually give me an insight into how I’d cope with intermittent fasting. Does anyone here do IF? I’ve heard wonderful things about it combined with LC.

@ShangPie I was always told that fruit was a healthy option too. I spent a few years eating plant based, so heavy in the fruit, and felt pretty shitty. Now I know it was because of the amount of fruit I ate. I instantly reach for fruit as a snack, so I must remind myself that I don’t eat it anymore!

@Bookaholic73 a lot of us do intermittent fasting and some extended fasting. If it's something you're interested in trying then you can aim for short fasts at first, say 12-14 hours and work your way up to 16 hour fasts. You get used to fasting extremely quickly. You will feel hungry at your usual breakfast time but once that passes then the hunger will subside again. It's not something you need to do every day either, there are health benefits from as little as three 14-hour fasts a week. And remember that a 14-hour fast is only from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. which isn't that difficult. Also you can still have three meals during your fasting window although most people eventually drop down to two meals a day or two meals plus a snack per day. I intermittent fast every day except Sunday when I always have breakfast.

Wow I missed so many posts, I've been caught up reading the Maya Forstata threads.

19lb off for Bootcamp although STS the last week. People are noticing and commenting that I look like I've lost weight. I've taken up yoga, go to class once a week and try to do 2-3 sessions at home. I have a sponsored walk in September so am doing around 8 miles walking each week in preparation.

I have a work hen do lunch today, sandwiches, scones and cake. Luckily the Hen is a good friend and she's been all over the shop with Paleo, Herbalife, Atkins, calorie counting and many other diets so she won't mind me picking at it and then eating my rolitos and veg at my desk

This will be my first cake since starting with you guys - a massive change in diet for me

I've just hit another 1/2 stone milestone and gone down to the next BMI bracket which feels good. 15lbs off so far and 11lbs to get out of the overweight category so I'll still be here a while!

Attached is my graph from my Fitbit which might give @Bookaholic73 some inspiration! As you can see it fluctuates a lot but the trend is good.

Re alcohol I've switched to 0% tanqueray and slimline tonic with a dash of grapefruit rather than wine and it makes a great substitute.

I IF between 7.30pm and 11/12 so 16 hours - it's not a completely clean fast due to drinks but works well for me. Agree that once that initial 'it's breakfast time' notion has passed it's fine.

Well done @SpottyBumPony and it's nice when people notice - yoga will be fab for toning. I'd like to get back into Pilates and some running but my foot isn't yet healed so frustrating on that front!

I'm a surprise convert to IF @Bookaholic73

Very surprised indeed, as eating used to be a recreational activity for me. Once I started low carb in earnest with the help of this bootcamp and the very lovely and knowledgable people who are here, IF just seemed easy for me

Eating high fat, low carb, after a few days of really quite seriously strong urges to eat sugar and eat it now, those raging urges just vanished. A week or so in, even though I had planned really delicious breakfasts, I found myself groaning at the thought of eating again.

With encouragement from @Stuntnun I starting skipping breakfast, being careful to not increase the other two meals to make up. Now, so long as I am drinking my water as set by Bootcamp, I never really think about eating. I eat a main meal at lunchtime and something lighter in the evening.

So long as I am occupied I never think of food. Or if I do it's an obviously inappropriate 'wouldn't it be lovely to eat that sticky cake'.

If I'm travelling or otherwise out of reach of good food, I find just drinking water is no issue for at least a day. Haven't tried it longer yet but it seems relatively straightforward. Still find it a bit odd that I used to eat all the time but always in response to an urge to eat rather than actually feeling hungry.

Started a week before this boot camp already regifted the jeans I was wearing which were tight and fit easily into a pair of jeans from my someday pile. 😀

I had a scone and cream at the lunch do. Omg I am ruined now, feeling so tired

Hi, I’m just dipping in here. Been toying with this WOE for ages having 1.5 - 2 stone to lose. I’m 5’2” and (incredibly to me) post menopausal 😵‍💫 at 53 yrs of age. It all sounds awful written down like that. Anyway I’ve gradually implemented all the required stuff and eliminated all the required stuff too. I do need to drink more water but would be really chuffed to lose 1.5 stone by summer. It’s the belly really 🙄 and TBH I can’t believe it will ever go. Words of encouragement from anyone in a similar position would be very welcome.

Morning!

Thanks @SummerSazz for that photo, you’ve made amazing progress! I’m currently about 12 1/2 stone and am aiming for around 10.

Like you @Cancancannon, it’s my belly that is my ‘problem’ area. I’d be reasonably ok if my belly disappeared and the rest of me stayed the same…although I could do without the chub rub too.

Is it possible to be seeing a difference already? Only on day 2, but I swear my belly looks a little less bloated! Not a huge amount, and certainly not that anyone else would notice, but I can see it.

I’m the same @SummerSazz I feel like my belly is a little improved - nobody would notice but me. Though I’m doing this just for me so yay. I haven’t weighed or measured myself - I know it’s recommended but I am so aware of how my clothes fit that I’ll know if it’s working abd don’t need discouraging by (albeit naturally) fluctuating numbers. The squadge (is that a word?!) around my middle already feels a bit less solid. And looks even more unattractive as a result but I’m hoping this is a passing phase…🤞🏻

I went to yoga class despite feeling tired after eating the scone. I felt less strong and was very unbalanced. I was struggling to decide what I wanted for dinner, but had an epiphany and realised that was because I wasn't actually hungry

So no dinner last night and woke up feeling good with a healthy appetite for breakfast. Had Scrambled egg, bacon, asparagus and tomatoes.