Week 3 - July 22 Low Carb Bootcamp - full-on or Light?

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Some good results already I see - which is great.

Here's the spreadsheet

A warning about week 3

We now have the choice. You can either stay on Bootcamp, or move to Bootcamp Light, which allows some fruit (mainly berries), some nuts/seeds (although check the carb counts, as they vary hugely) and alcohol in moderation.

However. Week 3 (and 4, and sometimes even 5) is notorious for seeing a change in the rate of loss. You may not see any loss, and you may even see a slight gain. If this happens to you, DON'T PANIC! It's totally, totally normal. As long as you're following the rules, and KOKO, things will resume. It's all about your body adjusting to this new regime.

So bearing this in mind, you may decide to stay on 'full-on' Bootcamp. Or, as some do, a hybrid, so Bootcamp during the week and then Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

Whatever your decision, I hope you have a good week.

@BasiliskStare eating sushi isn't 'introducing a few carbs' tbh. It's stepping off the wagon. Sushi has between 25-30g carbs/100g and we're aiming to stay under 5g/100g.

Could you try eating small amounts at a time if you're too hot to have a full meal? What are you having for breakfast and lunch?

@Lougle - so here's the thing I'm not really eating breakfast and lunch at the moment ( which is why I say I am worried I am just not eating enough. ) I wonder if I bought some smoked salmon and rolled up some avocado in it and chopped into pieces I would feel like I was having sushi but without the rice. I suppose one of my thoughts was is my lethargy 1) the heat 2) not eating enough or 3 ) few carbs. I am drinking as much water as I can get though .

Thank you for your reply though - may be just some little bits through the day would be better than feeling overfaced with a meal.

Why aren't you eating breakfast and lunch? It's one of the first rules of bootcamp (unless you're an experienced intermittent faster, which it doesn't sound like you are?).

You are starving yourself. You are literally not consuming enough calories to function. This has nothing to do with carbs, tbh.

@BasiliskStare @Lougle is right - you really do need to eat more. You talk about feeling lethargic - which will be partly to do with the heat, but also because you're not fuelling yourself properly.

Can you not face a simple salad at lunchtime, for example? e.g. a hard boiled egg, a tomato, a few slices of cucumber and handful of salad leaves, with a vinaigrette dressing. Nice and light and refreshing.

Please don't fall into the carbs - it really isn't worth it! And I don't understand why you would think about eating carbs, but not eat 'properly' instead?

It's DD2's birthday tea today. Very carb heavy. I have made some chicken, cream cheese and spinach ballotine, and stuffed mushrooms to bring along.

Thanks for the welcome back @prettybird and for adding me to the spreadsheet.

@bella1426 gosh I'm in awe of your enthusiasm for a 2 day hen whilst recovering from pneumonia. If you've not been eating artificial sweeteners recently though I'd maybe avoid them, they're not great for gut flora and after abstaining for a while it might give you a dodgy tummy. What about the fruit teabag in fizzy water idea (from @stuntnun I think)?

@Lougle that looks super 👌

@PennyPinkPineapple and @BIWI controversial admission ...I also not a fan of chicken thighs unless roast or fried - something about the texture. The nutrition and domestic economy parts of my brain want to love them but I just can't.

@BasiliskStare could you have covid? When I had covid I was lethargic and my appetite just evaporated. For several days, I ate very little. I don't think that you'll come to any harm if you have a few days of eating relatively little (assuming you don't have a history of disordered eating and you're not underweight) because of the heat and/or illness. However if you don't see your appetite picking up again over the weekend, and you've tried @BIWI's good suggestions (I'd add chicken or beef broth to the list), then perhaps try eating a little healthy carbs to see if that helps get things going again (definitely not highly processed white carbs like sushi rice, white bread etc). E.g. half a slice of well buttered wholemeal toast with a boiled egg or some salmon. However if, on the other hand, you suspect that you could easily hoover up a platter of sushi and it's only LC food that is lacking appeal then I'd agree with @Lougle and @BIWI that you need to persevere and try to find LC things to tempt you while your body adapts to LC woe.

@Baystard - I check my temp regularly because Ds who lives with us can't go into his office if anyone in the household has covid and my temperature is fine - but we do have some testing kits so I might try one. Good thought. I don't think I have but will check. I am definitely not underweight & have no history of disordered eating. But thank you for that steer.

@Lougle that looks delicious!!

@BasiliskStare I currently have
Covid and struggled to eat yesterday - managed a bit of yoghurt/cream/berries, a few peanuts and 3 meatballs. Plus lots of drugs.

Apparently however I managed to put 6lbs on overnight . Hoping the scales were just having a funny morning.....

@Baystard not sure enthusiasm is the right phrase there! It will be mostly contained in a big house we're staying in so I can sneak off to bed and let the party people party on! No way would I be up for nightclubbing or any nonsense like that 🙈🙈🙈 good advice on the sweeteners, in between all the antibiotics and probiotics I am striking a delicate balance regarding all things gut! Was thinking a sugar free red bull or two might be needed to keep up some energy with the drinkers but I'll see if I can go without 😉
In between the stupid heatwave and the stupid super moon my sleeps been all over the place but at least don't feel like eating crap in this heat, just lots of lovely salads

For dinner I had a salad with salmon, avocado and lemon flavoured olives. Made a delicious dressing with ff Greek yogurt, chilli and garlic flavoured olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper....Yum!

@Lougle I had to Google ballotine, that sounds amazing how did you make it?

It's been a bit of a challenging week for me food wise. I'm off work and we've had lots of days out so lots of temptation.

I have stuck to low carb though. Slightly carby dinner. My lovely dad made a coleslaw so I wasn't just having frankfurters and salad but it was quite oniony so higher in carbs than I would have liked.

The heat and my period have gotten the better of me this week so I've only worked out once. Not sure I'll hit my 2lbs goal by Monday but we'll see.

Happy weekend everyone!

I haven't felt very hungry today either and I'm really sweating. I know it's hot but it isn't particularly hot in my house and it was running down my face into my eyes and mouth. Yuck.

Anyway...

B - two eggs scrambled with butter (they were Burford Browns and they were amazing!) with leftover roasted cauliflower and broccoli

L - an avocado, a beef tomato and a ball of mozzarella

No snack today and I don't know how much I've drunk but it's over 3L of sparkling water

D - I haven't started cooking yet because I haven't got much appetite/cba but when I do it's a sirloin steak, creamed spinach and tenderstem broccoli

Friday evenings my husband and I always share a bottle of wine so this is going to be HARD.

@PennyPinkPineapple it's really easy!

500g chicken mince
1 pack Philadelphia
150g spinach
1 egg
Seasoning.

1. Mix egg, chicken mince and seasoning.
2. Put mince mixture between two pieces of cling film and smooth it out with a rolling pin into it's a rough rectangle of even thickness.
3. Spread Philadelphia over the top (give it a mix up first to loosen it)
4. Wilt the spinach and spread in an even layer on top.
5. Use the bottom piece of cling film to roll the mixture tightly into a roll.
6. Wrap the whole roll in cling film, twisting the ends to close. Then wrap it again, with the seal downwards this time, so that there is no risk of it opening.
7. Bring a large frying pan of water to the boil, then turn it off.
8. Put the roll in the water for 30 minutes (turn it part way through if it isn't completely submerged).
9. Remove the roll from the water. Let any juices out.

10. Fry the cooked roll in oil to brown the outside. 11. Chill and slice.

@PennyPinkPineapple those eggs sounds lovely, I love how the simple things can be wonderful. Could you try creating a new Friday night habit, some posh cheese or something (your DH could still have the wine)?

@Lougle that sounds sooo good, and a great thing to put in a packed lunch! I'm definitely going to try it.

@Baystard They were so lovely. I'm so used to eating eggs mixed with fat free greek yogurt and loads of seasoning when I'm being "good". Not awful, but not exactly delicious. I'm really enjoying how tasty everything is when it's roasted in olive oil too.

@Baystard and yes that's a good idea, thank you 😊

You'd think that everyone would be very skinny in Mediterranean countries, given how we're all reacting to the heat 😂 I'm feeling similar and eating out of necessity rather than desire.

B - Greek yoghurt & clotted cream with a few raspberries
L - a cheeky slice of ballotine.
D - chicken ballotine. Bacon and St Agur stuffed mushroom. Raspberries and cream.

Other than seed crackers does anyone have any good ideas for a base for carrying cold salted wonderful butter? Every time I open the fridge I look longingly at the butter but can't work out how to have it, it needs a bit of crunch. (I need to make keto bread for this purpose but I'm waiting to do it on a big batch cooking day which won't be for a few weeks.)

Celery? Cucumber?

@Baystard parmesan crisps?

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/parmesan-crisps-recipe-3381387

@BIWI not sure about something watery (and celery is the devil's spawn ) but I'll give the cucumber a go, thanks. Do you think that deep fried potato skin would be low carb? I peel potatoes to make DH chips but I wondered if I could just fry the skins as a crunchy snack.