July '22 Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Welcome everybody!

Here, thinks to @FinallyHere, is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

This Bootcamp will last for eight weeks, with (as ever) the first two weeks being the most strict.

I'll post again tomorrow, but just wanted to get things underway for now

Place-marking until I get my night shift finished then I’ll join in!

First day done ✔️ feeling a little hungry but keeping on with the water! Had some cheese and greek yoghurt as snacks to go along with my meals, hoping to cut the snacks out soo.

Also have a thumping headache - perhaps the lack of coffee? - so going to get an early night to avoid going off the rails already. Have prepped lunch for tomorrow as am in the office - ham and cheddar salad - and will get eggs for breakfast from the canteen. Need to keep focused on water tomorrow as I find it easy to forget when having a busy day of meetings!

Well done everyone for day 1 🙂

@BIWI and anyone else who can help - do I need to wait a few days to make sure I don’t get carb flu before doing hiit sessions at the gym again or does low carbing not effect exercise? Any advice would be helpful!
TIA

@greentrees9 you may find, in the first couple of weeks, that exercise is harder than usual. But it is only a temporary effect.

Thanks @BIWI - I’ll see how I feel on Wednesday when I have a session booked in.

chocosaurus, I’m also heading to bed with THE most banging headache. Have left DH to put the shopping away - was certainly easier to face Tesco while I was full though. DH says he won’t eat carbs in the house for the first month at least so that avoids temptation. He’s even said he’ll stop drinking to keep me company. Hopefully we will still find each other quite tolerable at the end of this!

Don't forget, carb flu is caused by lack of electrolytes - you need sodium, potassium and magnesium.

Sodium - cook with salt and add it to your food. Make a hot drink from Oxo or Bovril or Marmite.

Potassium - you can also use Lo-Salt.

Good food sources are salmon, full fat natural Greek yoghurt, spinach and avocado.

It might be worth getting a supplement as well, for the first couple of weeks - Zero by High5 is the one I generally recommend

I've only just managed to have supper .

Rugby training (strength and conditioning) finished at 8 (I didn't do the last 15 minutes "fun" as it was rugby tennis and I won't catch high balls while my finger is still healing from " chunk chip mallet finger") but dh was in a meeting in the club about girls' rugby that he said would only last another 20 minutes.... (I did manage to drink plenty of water while I was waiting )

We finally left after 9

But supper (home made shepherds pie base ragu on ribbons of courgette fried in butter) was lovely

Ds fortunately was also late in, having met his new bosses and colleagues for the first time (normally working from home - started 2 weeks ago and had been interviewed over Zoom) and going for a drink after work. 2.5 pints later.....

Today has been busy, as always.

B - Greek yoghurt with clotted cream
L - salad (lettuce and cherry tomatoes, run out of cucumber) with a splash of oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, plus some St Agur cheese.
D - BBQ: burger (Tesco's 99% beef burger, with the 1% being salt and pepper), two v.small chicken thighs, leeks and peppers.

Fluids: 2 cups of tea (600mls) and 4½ bottles of water (3400mls).

@CarpetMollusc you are my breakfast hero - paneer curry - oh how wonderful and delicious.

I am woefully unprepared for my day tomorrow. I will be out from 7.30am till 4pm. I have nothing in the fridge that is a useful low carb / high fat snack. No eggs (the veg box comes tomorrow). Nothing to make a cheesy coleslaw - well, I do have mayonnaise, but it would be better with some carrot / cabbage / grated cheese veg box comes tomorrow

I am also travelling and spending all day with 2 voracious carb eaters. They will want to stop for food, of the very carby type. I was so focussed on clearing out the fridge of carb things that I've missed a trick. Bit stupid really because I know how this works for me. If I had something with fat and protein before I left I know I'd be fine. Might be an ocassion for the bad old bullet-proof coffee...

However, in more positive news I do have 3 bottles of water lined up to take with me. I'll just have to make everyone stop at every second service station when I need a pee

Need to catch up properly with everybody, a bit hectic here (as usual)

@Strangerthings4NW hello fellow nightshifter 🙂 how do you eat on days/nights you’re working?

Hello @prettybird ,may I join you with some aches? Signed up myself to some sports locally, now I have sore places I would never imagined I have muscles. Enjoyed it though.

@CarpetMollusc paneer curry,oh yes. Morrisons didn’t have paneer and I still have sauce left over from weekend’s garlic chilli chicken. Might throw in some chicken tomorrow and that will be my lunch.

B:2 fried eggs
L: sorrel soup with creme fraiche and hard boiled eggs
D: a few cheese bites (wasn’t hungry)

I think I failed on waterfront today.

Stocked up on eggs in the farmshop and going to harvest my first courgette from the greenhouse tomorrow. Might stuff it with something.
Still waiting for Ninja Foodi ordered on prime,hopefully it will arrive soon as I have grand plans for it.

I forgot to post my food from yesterday.
B: Nothing as I'm a regular intermittent faster and have been Bootcamping for yonks.
L: Broccoli and Stilton soup courtesy of my lovely Ninja soup maker, plus a salad made up of courgette and chargrilled peppers, artichokes and sun blush tomatoes (heavy on the courgette and artichokes as they are lower carb) dressed with olive oil, sherry vinegar and fresh herbs from the garden. It was lush.
D: Roasted pork belly slices with courgettes fried in butter and green beans.
To drink: water, water, water and green tea.

A water tip - if you're struggling to drink enough water, try putting a herbal teabag such as Sour Cherry or Raspberry Lemonade into a two litre bottle of sparkling water. It's virtually carb free and will keep you going all day. You don't need to use the cold brew teabags; normal ones work too.

A food tip - make sure you've got access to low carb snacks. It's much easier to avoid "bad" food if you're full of "good" food. When I first started Bootcamp I kept an emergency pack of Peperamis in the car. Sometimes you won't even need them, just knowing they're there and available keeps you away from impulsively grabbing something carby.

I solved my poor food planning by getting some soup out of the freezer (I had that insipration at 4am!). So at least I won't be hungry during the rest of my trip

So:
B - broccoli (and other green veg) and blue cheese soup
L - water! plus whatever I can find at a service station - if there's an M&S shop it will be much easier
D - shakshukka

@FrenchBoule if I can't find paneer, I use halloumi instead. It's got a different texture but it holds together in the same way.

Thank you for these ideas, I'm going to stock up today and will be boiling a few extra eggs with my breakfast.

I powered through last night with creamy decaf coffee but went to bed hungry. I have a real sweet tooth so even when I'm not hungry the want for sweet things is very strong in the evenings. Just need to carry on and break the habit I think. I've done it before and can do it again.

@venusandmars some services have Leon too which has a low ish carb hot offering. I think it's harissa chicken with vegetables or something like that

As I suspected I woke up this morning 4.4lbs lighter! That’s all water retention and bloating from flying - I feel so much better already!

The food everyone posted yesterday sounds delicious - I am making notes for next week.

Yesterday for me was Greek yogurt and cream, mushroom and cheese omelette for lunch and then baked aubergine with chicken with fajita seasoning, salad, tomato salsa and (homemade) lemon yoghurt for dinner. The rest of the family had it with wraps and no aubergine.

Today will be the same breakfast, lunch I’m not too sure - maybe another omelette or perhaps halloumi salad. Dinner is homemade lamb burgers which I’ll have with a pile of roasted veg.

and WATER of course!

I bought myself a 1.5litre pretty water bottle as a starting boot camp treat and some zero tablets. Drank it twice yesterday. Plus a couple of big cups of camomile tea.
Yesterdays food, breakfast eggs
Lunch pork chop and to stay and mozzarella salad
Dinner more pork chops and leaf salad.
@greentrees9 I only started exercising heavily since low carbing so I don't know about at the beginning but I've never had any problems. Pt session this afternoon.

Back to work tomorrow which will be a shock to the system after a lovely 3 weeks off. Need to do some serious food prep today to avoid the office crap food that's always hanging around.

Morning!

I was so hungry last night after I exercised but don’t have my Thai curry. Instead I had 2 tomatoes and 4 spoonfuls of orzo pasta (I know I know!!!) salad.

but no alcohol which is a win as I do like one glass of wine of an evening when it is warm like this.

@Onelittlepiglet that's impressive, I'm trying to flush out the weekends booze then hoping for the same in a day or two. Think my body is currently clinging to all the water just in case I abuse it again.

@Bunce1

Why did you have the pasta? Yesterday was only day one!

This WOE is not a forgiving one, and if you cheat, then it won't work for you.

Tomatoes and pasta are not low carb.

Posted on old thread in error, so pasting.....

My flabber is definitely gasted. Having plateaued for a few weeks it has fallen off again. After weigh in this morning, I am now starting this BC at 23lb less than I was at Easter.

I honestly haven't felt hungry. I have missed crisps and biscuits and pasta and chips but not enough to push me off the wagon.

I think what has helped the recent drop is that I haven't been hungry in the mornings, so have been eating breakfast around 10/11am. It seems to be helping!

@BIWI can you clear up the tomato thing? I was told tomatoes are not low carb last bootcamp by someone, but on your spreadsheet they come in at 3.6/100g-3.8/100g, which is in the green zone. (I understand that adding pasta knocks it out of the park, I'm just asking about tomatoes).

@comfortablyfrumpy it's great that you've found what works and is sustainable for you. I think that's the key.

My Dad made some char sui bao buns at the weekend. He's a bit of a foodie and goes through fads. I happily helped him make them for the family but said 'you know I'm not going to be trying this, right?' He finds it really hard that I'm not eating carbs because it's 'no fun'. I'm learning to just be really blunt and say 'they don't make me feel good.'

Good Morning everyone, I've been lurking since this boot camp was announced and would like to join you. I've added myself to the spreadsheet, I hope that's ok.

I'm actually weighing in on Thursdays to line up with when I go back to school so will be a tiny bit ahead of you and hope that's ok too.

Today I'm having a mushroom omelette for breakfast and rump steak with creamy trimmings later on.

Have a great day everyone.

I know @Lougle! For ages we talked about tomatoes being too high in carbs, but actually they aren't at all.

Sainsbury's 'Classic Round Tomatoes' and their 'Plum Tomatoes By Sainsbury's' are 2.9g carbs per 100g, and their own brand cherry tomatoes are 3.4g. (I'm guessing the cherry tomatoes are higher because they're sweeter).

I wonder if the myth comes from the fact that tomatoes are, in fact, a fruit?

Orzo, on the other hand, is 34.1g carbs per 100g