Week 2 - May 22 Low Carb Bootcamp - our first weigh-in thread

[BIWI]

Sorry for the late start.

Here's the spreadsheet for you to confess all!

A quick peek shows some really good early results, with @UnOeufIsEnough and @loopylou3030 both hitting the half stone mark. Brilliant!

@prettybird that is a fantastic loss, and your outfits sound lovely. I should really pick an item out of my vast array of clothes that are too small to check my progress.

Breakfast today was a LC roll, which I don't really love, but makes a great carrier for bacon, spinach, drippy egg fried in butter, and mushroom ketchup. When only a stonking fatty butty will do!

Still stuffed though, so lunch may be a tad small

X Post on the low carb rolls!

Thanks for the tip, I may try the SLC ones whilst on offer. The ones I have are from the Low Carb Co, and I find them a bit squidgy and tasteless at times

Sorry - that is a mistake on my behalf; I had coffee, & greek yoghurt with cream (same every monring, trying to type too fast). Looking forward to having raspberries and seeds on week 3

Plan for the day:
B: scrambled eggs in butter
L: smoked salmon and avocado
D: two chicken thighs with big salad, homemade guacamole and salsa

Doing well with the water 💦 🙌🏻

Good luck on the outfits @prettybird

@prettybird the recipe is on the vegetarian thread. But here it is:

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

@prettybird as a mostly veggie (also eat bit of fish) I have had great success with celeriac steaks for impressing guests. Secret is to slow roast whole and it takes a good 2.5 hours but can be done earlier in the day. I use an Otelenghi recipe (I know everyone groans expecting 36 obscure ingredients but bear me out) where it is suggested you prick the celeriac all over 40 times with a fork coat in quite a lot of salt and olive oil. You end up with a slightly caramelised goo. When baked slice into steaks and grill coated on the goo. Serve with a creamy cafe de Paris sauce. The Otelengi version has from memory a million ingredients. Thought it might be good for Wednesday night . And good luck with the dress.

Thanks @BIWI and @Jollyholibobs

BIWI - do you think it would work without the peppers fruit of the devil ?

My Lidl has unfortunately stopped stocking celeriac but I could always take a walk along to the greengrocer.

@prettybird yes it would work without the peppers. But surely you must be the only weird one who doesn't like them?!

I don't really use a recipe for cabbage carbonara @heliosfountain not sure if there is one one on the recipe threads? BBC good food has one though which is useful perhaps for quantities but I don't boil the cabbage as they suggest, I sort of half steam/half sauté it in a very big pan with butter and a bit of water. I add bacon and sometimes shallot that I've cooked separately and then stir through some cream or Philadelphia, or even creme fraiche if it's hanging about, and finish with Parmesan and lots of black pepper.

I'm mindful that I usually eat too much of this and that while absolutely within the rules of bootcamp it's quite a treat and not as conducive to weight loss as other "piece of meat/fish with veg" options; it's pretty calorific.

Works as a fancy side dish too with or without the bacon.

I might be weird (and I have come across others like me ) but it's visceral

The awful thing about peppers is that they infuse everything "This piece of meat on my kebab was cooked next to a pepper"

Mushrooms I can cope with - I can just pick them out - but peppers. No, just No

....dh enjoys me making Greek salad, as I'll put peppers in his salad but keep them out of mine (raw, they don't infuse in the same way). He also gets all my peppers when we're in Greece

Hectic here as I’m preparing for an event this weekend, so I’ve spent the last two days reverting to no- brain minimal cooking meals.
Pan fried salmon, avocado salad
pan fried chicken, avocado salad
prawns, avocado salad.

im single handedly subsidizing an avo farm somewhere! Drinking tons of water though due to the constant running around being hot and bothered!

Today:
B - bacon, fried eggs, pan fried asparagus
L- chicken breast, salad, avocado
D- Tonight will be whatever DH forages from local shops.

Hope you dress zips up @prettybird, that’s an impressive loss. Your back up outfit sounds fab tho, love purple.

Away from home at the moment so having to buy meals to takeaway or eat in restaurants. This is taking a lot of preplanning time unfortunately. If only sandwich shops sold low carb food!

B: hard boiled eggs, black coffee (because they had no cream)

L: Pret A Manger smoked salmon protein box - this was amazingly delicious and only 4g carbs. Salmon, avocado, spinach, egg, edamame beans (beans not perfect I know). Lots of oily dressing.

D: Nando's butterfly chicken with the skin, mixed leaf salad and broccoli. Probably not enough fat in this one but it was the best I could do.

Not enough water drunk - mostly because I was worried about being able to find loos when out and about. On the positive side, I've been walking miles...

Off to the theatre now!

Sounds like you're doing the best you can @Lucienandjean! Enjoy the theatre.

@prettybird I'm sure you'll look lovely in whatever you wear.

Just checking in:

B: greek yog, coffee & cream
L: leftover roast chicken thighs, loads of sour cream, cheddar, homemade salsa & guacamole and lettuce leave
D: had already planned to have the roast veg, haloumi recipe @BIWI posted above. Have it is cauliflower rice with more pesto

I live greek yoghurt and normally have every morning at work even when not on diet but getting bored of it without the fruit/seeds so think I will mix it up next week and bring in hard boiled eggs and other bits
Lunch was lovely but spilled all over my bag which now stinks 🤪

Drank all my water today, its been v hot here so easy enough today. Friday night with DH and I is usually crisps and wine night when kids to to bed, so going to put my fizzy water in wine glass tonight and see if that tricks me 🤞

I saw there in m&s today I think it was less that 1g carbs for packet (although was in a rush so maybe check in case) It might be good to know of you are stuck when out and about/ need something quick. It was on offer with other bits like marinated artichokes/ olives which were also low carb

My day is done. A very busy day and quite stressful but I didn't have to worry about being hungry.

B - Greek yoghurt and double cream
L - salad: Italian strong leaves, cucumber, baby plum tomatoes, olives, avocado, 1 slice belly pork.
D - left over spring greens, courgette, baby plum tomatoes, fried in butter. 2 slices belly pork.

Fluid: 5 cups tea with almond milk, one with full fat milk. 3 X 750ml water.

@prettybird wow serfs that's quite a loss. Are you going to share pics in whichever fabulous outfit you end up in?
I also bout those roll It’s's today, they look yummy, treated myself to a ton of M&S food for the weekend.

Great SV and NSV @prettybird your outfit sounds lovely!

Pesto halloumi sounds fab @BIWI I'm going to try this (was your trip nice btw?)

@TheRealShedSadie I'm envious about the avos. I've opened two this week which were rotten inside despite being a bit hard and green outside, Lidl ones which are normally pretty good 😔

B- black coffee
L- a slither (<1/4" thick) of fairly stale home made brown [very] seeded bread and a hunk (also 1/4" thick!) of butter.
D- cabbage, peppers, cheese and steak.

I've already beaten myself about the bread🥊 I'm feeling rotten with the cold today and no real appetite but just wanted to eat something to see if I felt less sick possibly having had decongestant on an empty stomach. I did feel a bit better afterwards. Turned down a gin and tonic tonight though so I feel a bit more virtuous now!

I promise, I will share pictures of me dressed up in whatever I go to the ball in.

Yes - great trip. Couple of nights in Portland, Dorset, courtesy of my lovely SIL (Christmas present).

@IveNeverTriedThisBefore - I bought those cheese chorizio things yesterday in Asda and I thought they are really good

Today =

2 x Boiled Eggs

Lunch OUT to a farmshop cafe - so, a little test for me, but so pleased with myself as had a massive plate of Bacon Ceasar Salad and I asked for no crutons (I am aware the ceasar sauce could be maybe 9.1 carb / 100gr?? but I don't truly know)

Friend had a massive slice of Victoria sandwich and I just had a coffee

Chicken Tikka on Cauli Rice

The coffee with greek yoghurt was a fail earlier as the yoghurt curdled - so I need to perfect the technique.

Looking forward to the dressed up pictures @prettybird!
Love that part of Dorset @BIWI, spent some time that way on our honeymoon, so happy memories.

Today’s munch:
B - Rollitos
L - Chicken, bacon and avocado in mayo
D - Pulled lamb, broccoli, green beans and cabbage cooked in butter with tzatziki

Had a couple more rollitos, a handful of grated cheese and some chorizo as an afternoon snack - which wasn’t particularly great. Maybe need to be thinking about having more at lunchtime (and trying to get more green veg into breakfast and lunch) 🤔