Week 2 - July 22 Low Carb Bootcamp - our first weigh-in!

[BIWI]

Morning all!

As ever, here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Looking forward to reading how you all got on.

Hopefully it's good news, but if it's not what you expected then have a think about what you've been doing - read the rules again and make sure you know what to do.

If you're sure you've been following the rules, then post and let me know what your last 3-4 days have been like in terms of what you've been eating and drinking.

Shredded cabbage sautéed in butter with shallots and a splash of cream is even better!! I had bolonese with broccoli with grated mozzarella but creamed cabbage or leeks would have been better!

@prettybird well done on the loss - we've been on fairly much the same path since Jan bootcamp IIRC - I was 3lb down this morning and have finally hit 10 1/2 stone. 2 stone 1lb since Jan which I'm really pleased with. Id be happy to stay at 10.7 but want to lose a bit more to have some wriggle room

Loving the random NSV's . I've got any 'autumn' dress I really want to wear to a conference I'm presenting at in Sept so that's my next goal! Will post a pic when I can finally do it up comfortably!

@Lougle sorry about the kids. It is always the way- you’re only ever as happy as your least happy child.

@prettybird delicious sounding fry!

b- eggs and chorizo with cherry toms and some avo
l- kfc chicken tenders
d- ramen broth, boiled egg, greens

one glass of wine. I can’t lie to you guys.

we leave for our hols tomorrow so have spent the day packing and sorting and trying on clothes. Been happily surprised on the fit of some items. 😎

Just checking in as not posted for a few days, been v busy and off on holiday tomorrow. Did an early weigh in and am 2.2lbs down, which I'm really happy with as I haven't been 100% perfect. (I may have moved into bootcamp lite a bit early, but berries and cream have kept me off any major damage being done).

It has given me a boost for a week away in Italy that I can do this. Bring on the mozzarella and olives. Have a good weekend all!

WTF @Bunce1? KFC chicken tenders? With batter on? at 14g carbs per 100g? AND the wine?

Seriously - have you read the rules?

@Lougle sorry you're having a tough time. Glad you're sticking with it, because I know you know that it's working

Anything we can help with, even if it's just to vent?

On the food front, there's no need for it to be boring - although I understand that's probably just a reflection of the stress you're feeling! Shake things up a bit by cooking something new? Go and read the recipe threads for some inspiration. Or tell us what you've got in your fridge/freezer/cupboard and we'll make some suggestions for you.

Went to another 21st party last night (side effect of joining a rugby team with lots of young people ) and spent the night drinking water, having just a leg of chicken and a couple of processed chicken sticks and a single processed chipolata sausage and avoiding the sandwiches, sausage rolls and lovely looking cupcakes.

And for the 2nd week in a row I resisted having any of the birthday cake I have a particular liking weakness for birthday cake with fondant icing but I treated it like kryptonite

I'd also made another batch of tablet for the rugby team (there was a 2nd pre-season friendly last night before the party) and for the 2nd week in a row didn't taste even a single piece, not even the soft ball test which I did by feel and threw out

Spent the night getting up to pee (I think drinking so much over the evening gave me an irritable bladder ) so stood on the scales this morning in eager anticipation.....

.....to STS at 12st 10.25lb

Back from my week away
Am not going to weigh until next Friday to give it a chance to settle down
On the whole I'm really pleased with myself - was able to do boot camp light with not too much attention drawn to it but did have to have fish and chips - well I could have just eaten the fish without batter but you know what I really enjoyed it and some chips
Felt so bloated the next day it's so gross

What I didn't eat was loads - I'd normally binge on crisps / bread / anything carb heavy - so I'm really actually pleased with myself and don't want to ruin that feeling by weighing now as I know I'm still bloated - oh also daughter made bao buns and pork and she spent hours doing them - in that situation her feelings are more important to me so no issues eating them but again it was like blowing up a balloon
I want to feel how I felt before I went and I felt slim regardless of the weight as I had no bloat
I just think this woe is so perfect for me
Little hunger
Not starving so take time making really nice meals rather than stuffing bread and cheese till I'm not hungry anymore and fall asleep.

Have restarted strict boot camp now I have control over my food for two weeks

Oh and on the tummy issues - me too but stopped after around 3 weeks and now lovely and regular - sorry tmi

@Lougle sorry you are not feeling great. I find your posts are always so motivating and helpful.
Nothing like issues with kids to cause stress. Most of my weight gain was down to emotional issues when one of my DDs was very unwell for a few years.
Got back from centerparcs yesterday and thought I would notice on the scales this morning as I had stuck to BC while away. But only half a pound down. Oh well koko.

i have found low carb products difficult to get in Ireland. I ordered some LC bread and rolls but they do not look good. I have not tasted yet.
I have put an order with a keto baker who will deliver LC bread once a week so will try that.

Has anyone tried pasta made from hearts of palm?

yesterday food
B-omelette with chicken, pepperoni, meatballs, cheese, spring onion and jalapeños. Topped with sour cream and salsa served with a side salad. (Only ate half as it was ridiculously large)
L-small amount of Greek salad
D- Cajun chicken & veg stirfry with cauliflower rice
snack- cheese and olives
i only had a snack because o got hungry sitting up late waiting for family whose flight was delayed and missed a connection so needed somewhere to stay.

@ChimneyPot the bare naked noodles and rice are not too bad but you do need to rinse them well and dry them off as they hold a lot of water

@bluefortheready well done on your week away, it's tough to keep 100% on track but having been low carb since Jan it's really clear how small indiscretions hamper progress. As a one off they are ok but I find they can then creep in too regularly. My DC cook a lot and now know that I have to say no to carb cooking and don't get pissed off with my lack of participation in eating them! They are actually very good at being creative to help me with this woe

@bluefortheready it's interesting/scary to see just how addictive carbs can be for some people - I'm regularly amazed at how powerful the drive to eat carbs can be despite how awful they make me feel.

@ChimneyPot I've made LC bread before with psyllium and ground almonds and whilst it's not something I'd say was a direct replacement in a sandwich it was delicious sliced and toasted from the freezer and really helped me steer clear of real bread. I need to make more but it takes ages to bake and I need to wait until I'm ready to do a big batch casserole day since it costs so much to run the oven these days.

Thanks for all the encouragement. KOKO! I'll check out the recipe threads. Just so easy to get stuck in a rut.

Hi everyone, struggling today with a chronic pain flare up 😔 really not hungry so just a coffee (with generous splash of milk) for breakfast. Just had a light lunch of ham, a little cheese, tomato and a spoonful of Greek yoghurt. A bit down on fluids too at the mo, but time to catch up. DH is making my fave chicken curry for tea which is thankfully BC friendly. Will have courgetti instead of naan bread, or just the curry.

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday 👍

@SummerSazz and @Baystard

Thanks both it's good to get understanding and experience here

Is anyone else just not hungry?

I had a coffee with cream and a sausage at 10am. A pepperami at about 2pm and I've just had beef curry with broccoli and cauliflower.

I haven't been hungry enough for a proper breakfast or lunch. Is that OK or will I not be getting enough food/fat?

Argh migraine this afternoon hasn't done great things for my appetite today. Had a small supper of slow roast ham, boiled eggs, green beans and cheese sauce which was nice enough but didn't really enjoy it a much as I'd hoped and inexplicably I'm a bit bloated.

Do you think it's the weather, @Baystard ? I have had a string of migraines this week. I can't work out whether it's the weather or stress. I am a chronic migraineur but I thought my Ajovy injections were going to reduce them hugely and it's more hit and miss than that.

B - greek yoghurt & clotted cream
L - mushroom, goats cheese and bacon omelette
D - leeks and spring greens in a creamy sauce with lamb burger

Fluids: 3.2 l

So just to say - I went out this evening for a special meal for DH birthday with some other guests , It was a steak restaurant , so I had steak , spinach with butter and a rocket salad . I also had two G&Ts and I do know you are not supposed to have any alcohol but I googled & a Gordons London dry Gin & a schweppes slimline tonic is 0 carbs - so I allowed myself that on a festive occasion . But my point is I went out and did not have any wine / chips etc but I just felt it was all OK & thoroughly enjoyed it whilst sticking ( mostly ) to the rules & did not feel like the spectre at the feast - Let us hope Monday does not prove me wrong.

@BasiliskStare it's often the sugar replacements in the tonic which can be problematic as the body thinks it's getting sugar and can give an insulin response.

It seems to affect different people in different ways. I seem to be ok with it so do drink sugar free squash, occasional Diet Coke and slimline tonic. I've tested this over many months though and so this is for me to maintain long term LC. Also alcohol is often the gateway drug to carb snacking!

I've stopped drinking so much and now have 0% tanqueray or Gordons with slimline tonic and a dash of grapefruit if I want 'something' to drink in the evening but not a cuppa! You can now get 0% gin at lots of pubs and restaurants too

Happy birthday to your DH!

@prettybird you will get your reward though - you know that! Well done on resisting so much

@bluefortheready I think what you're experiencing will be absolutely spot on for maintenance - there will always be times when higher carb options are on the table (literally!), and on those occasions it's far better to enjoy them gracefully. But what you've also learnt is that such foods don't necessarily agree with you - in which case, it should be easier to resist/refuse quite legitimately (should you want to)

@CleanQueen123

Is anyone else just not hungry?

It's a key benefit of low carbing! It means that your key 'hunger' hormones (insulin/grehlin/leptin mainly) are well balanced. Hunger, for us in the Western world, isn't about empty tummies, it's about your hormones/blood sugar.

Fasting is perfectly OK, but I would suggest that you drop only one meal and not two, to make sure that you get sufficient nutrition. And make sure that your carbs are from veg/salad in those two meals. (As well as keeping the fat levels up, of course!)

Sorry to hear about the migraines @Baystard and @Lougle - I only ever suffered from them in my first pregnancy, and I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy

Hope that you're recovering from them soon.

I know that you probably don't want to hear this, but if you're bloated, try drinking more water ...

From next week @BasiliskStare artificial sweeteners are OK (as long as not too often), so I think you made a good choice there. But bear in mind the point that SummerSazz makes about the potential insulin response.

I do find that - alcohol aside - it is generally much easier to eat out at restaurants when you're low carbing. Certainly much easier than if you were trying to be low fat or low calorie.

@SummerSazz what are the 0% gins like? Do they really taste like gin? I'm tempted to try them, but they're very expensive to then discover that they're nothing like gin!

Lidl do a 0% alcohol gin for £9.99 that I'm tempted to try. Next time I'm in, I'll get it - purely for research purposes of course

I'd been resisting as the Lidl equivalent of Fevertree light tonic still has a few carbs - but now that we're coming to the end of the first two strict weeks.....

Bit of an indelicate topic for Sunday morning, but here goes. Has anyone else not been keeping a regular poop schedule? I seem to have slipped into a 2-3 day apart regime and can't understand why as I am eating according to the rules and generally drinking 2-3l water. Is it possible to eat so little that I've stopped working properly

Thanks @BIWI. I'm really trying to get out of the habit of eating just because it's a meal time. I'll add lunch back in. I've never been much of a breakfast person but low carb seems to then stop me stuffing my face on rubbish at 10am because I'm starving.

Speaking of alcohol, can anyone recommend low carb drinks that aren't gin based? I'm not a massive drinker anyway but it would be good to know what's "allowed" for work nights out etc. I'm usually a dry white wine kind of person or red in the winter.

@cupcakedaisy as long as you're not having problems when you go, i.e pain/straining, then a reduced frequency is fine. Just make sure you're eating plenty of veg/salad as this is getting fibre into your system.

@CleanQueen123 I like to drink rum and sparkling water, with lots ice and sliced lime. Mount Gay Eclipse (a golden rum) is my favourite, and I can pretend I'm back in Barbados when I'm drinking that! It has the advantage of being both carb-free and sweetener-free

@Lougle I think it's hormonal, I had problems this time last month too (and the carb cravings after sumatriptan were a factor in my falling off the wagon then). I'm in peri though and have long spells of not-cycling and no migraines, then my body wakes up and starts cycling again for a while and the migraines return.

@BasiliskStare I love a gin and tonic but as @SummerSazz says people respond differently and for me sadly it often precipitates a carb binge. This might be in part because I only drink tonic water with some carbs (because I don't touch aspartame, the sweetener that allows Schweppes to be zero calorie) and it triggers me, rather than the gin itself. I tried @BIWI good suggestion of having with soda but it's not the same and I prefer just to abstain during BC.