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Low-carb bootcamp

Join discussions about low-carb bootcamp plans, meals and progress. Consider speaking to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Pre-Christmas BootCamp 2022: Week 1

491 replies

prettybird · 17/10/2022 01:02

While @BIWI takes a well-earned break from running BootCamp after many, many years of supporting people in this Way of Eating I have, for my sins, volunteered to run the Pre-Christmans BootCamp Shock. I'll admit to only doing so for selfish reasons: I needed the BootCamp in the run up to Christmas and the accountability of running it would in turn help me to be more accountable Grin

My Big Stick might not be as big as @BIWI's but I will do my best to channel her Wink. And with the support of all the other experienced BootCampers and @FinallyHere's help with the Spreadsheet, I am sure we will see a lot of success in the run up to Christmas.Smile

Here is the link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness You don't need to log your weight if you don't need to but within the various tabs of the Spreadsheet are The Rules ( very important), Vegetarian Rules links to resources that outline how and why this Way of Eating works, menu plans, veg carb counters and many other resources.

I'd strongly recommend that even if you don't weigh yourself (and even if you do), you should measure yourself at the start, especially your waist. That way, if your weight loss stalls, you may still see progress in other ways. BootCamp is very effective at reducing visceral fat, which will manifest itself in a smaller waist measurement.

Anyway, on to the important stuff: here are The Rules

1. Eat three proper meals a day.
You must eat breakfast. It doesn’t have to be a lot, and it doesn’t have to be absolutely first thing, but you must have something. For the rest of the day, if you’re eating enough food and especially enough fat, you shouldn’t be hungry between meals. But if you are hungry, eat something. (Hard boiled eggs make a great snack). After the first two weeks of Bootcamp we will relax this, but these two weeks are critical in terms of helping you switch easily to a low carb way of eating - and if you start to feel hungry, it makes things much harder! Eating this way will ensure that your blood sugar levels are kept stable, which will mean that you are much less likely to experience hunger. A typical high carbohydrate diet can mean that snacking is a routine part of your day. Once your blood sugar levels are stable, by eating low carb, you should find that you no longer want to snack. But the rule of thumb here is ‘if you are hungry, eat!’. (Just make sure you are only choosing low carb snacks, of course!)"

2. Avoid processed foods.
Focus on pure, natural protein as the basis for your meals - meat/fish/eggs. Things like sausages, ham, bacon, pre-prepared burgers etc should be avoided as much as possible. You can have them, but just not at every meal, every day.

3. Eat lots of fat.
Eating fat will not make you fat. Honestly! But it will keep your appetite satisfied, and it sustains your body’s energy requirements perfectly. Fat does not provoke an insulin spike, unlike carbs which do (a lot) and protein (a little). Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though, as this is too sweet), add mayonnaise where you can (just check the carb count on your mayo first). Eat fattier cuts of meat – e.g. pork belly, roast chicken with the skin on and/or eat the fat off your lamb chops. Absolutely no low fat/light/’Lite’ foods of any kind!

4. Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food.
"This is where your carbs should come from, and this is non-negotiable. But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list. Make sure that you focus on eating those vegetables that are under 5g carb per 100g, and this will ensure that your carb counts are kept low. You don’t have to weigh/count carbs – this is one of the great joys of this WOE (way of eating), but if you’re new to low carbing it can be helpful to weigh your portions of veg in the early days, just so that you know how many carbs are in the sort of portions that you like to eat.

The vegetable carb counter is helpfully colour-coded into green (eat freely), amber (go easy) and red (best avoided as much as possible), which will help you to make your choices."

5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited).
Dairy can impede weight loss for some people. If you are drinking tea/coffee with milk or cream, try to restrict yourself to max 2 cups per day. There are a lot of carbs in milk, so if you are having several cups of tea/coffee per day, you will quickly rack up your daily carb count (e.g. 1 medium latte contains more than 12g carbs!) You may eat cheese but again, don't overdo it. Full fat yoghurt is the best way to include dairy in your diet - but beware, it does contain carbs. You should choose one that’s 10% fat – most of the supermarkets have a Greek yoghurt in their premium ranges with this amount of fat.

6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day.
The more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink.

This is from www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/:

Water is essential to weight loss for those who follow a low carb way of eating. The minimum consumed in a day should be:
Your Weight.........Litres
140lbs............2.5
160lbs............3.0
180lbs............3.0
200lbs............3.5
220lbs............3.5
240lbs............4.0
260lbs............4.5
280lbs............4.5
300lbs............5.0
320lbs............5.5
340lbs............5.5
360lbs............6.0
380lbs............6.5
400lbs............6.5
"High levels of ketones in the blood stream can lead to a reduction in ketone production, therefore being well hydrated could aid in keeping the levels low and ketone production ongoing. Consuming enough water can have many other positive side effects, e.g. it aids your kidneys with the processing of protein, reduces the retention of water, helps with preventing constipation, and reduces the levels of ketones released by your breath, which in turn will reduce breath odour.

However, drinking a lot of water can mean that you also need to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance. You need to make sure that you are consuming sufficient sodium and potassium. On a low carb way of eating, we should eat more salt, so make sure that you are cooking with salt and adding salt to food, if you like it.

Good, low carb, sources of potassium are spinach (raw), avocado, mushrooms, courgettes and asparagus, as well as salmon and yoghurt."

7. No alcohol.
Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for the body to burn, so it will always use this first before it starts to burn any fat - which is why you need to restrict it, especially in the first two weeks of Bootcamp, when we are encouraging the body to stop using carbs for its source of fuel and turn to fat-burning instead. If you really can't do this - at least try and restrict it to the weekend. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine.

8. No fruit.
Really. Seriously. Honestly. None at all. Zilch. Nada. After the first two weeks of Bootcamp you will be able to introduce certain fruits, in moderation, but at this stage fruit is simply too carby. We are also trying to break the addiction to sweet things, so cutting fruit out is part of this process. If you are getting all your carbs from vegetables and salad, you will be getting all the nutrients and fibre that you need.

9. No nuts/seeds.
Although they are a good source of nutrition and contain lots of fat – which is great for us – they also contain carbohydrate and, because they’re so moreish, you can quickly end up eating a lot of carbs. When we move to Bootcamp Light, after the first two weeks, you can re-introduce these, but be careful and go easy.

10. No sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Sugar is an obvious ‘no no’, but artificial sweeteners are also an issue. One of the aims of this way of eating is to eat pure and natural foods, so including sweeteners is not recommended. Some people find that artificial sweeteners can impede their weight loss, and there is some suggestion that your body can respond to sweeteners as if they were sugar, by releasing more insulin - and therefore laying down fat. Given that the aim of Bootcamp is to help us lose our sweet tooth and addiction to sweet things, then it is a good idea to avoid sweeteners altogether in this first two weeks.

That's enough for now. I'll post more in the morning: in particular the disclaimer that I am not a medical professional and that if you have any concerns, you should check with a medical professional.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Skiphopbump · 19/10/2022 13:39

Your DH sounds lovely @ditavonteesed

Lunch - mushroom and cheese omelette
Dinner - chicken and chorizo stew and possibly celeriac

UnOeufIsEnough · 19/10/2022 14:07

Plan for the day to keep myself accountable!

B: boiled eggs with butter and roasted cherry tomatoes
L: low carb veg soup
D: pork meatball Thai curry
Snack: celery sticks and tuna pate

💦💦 2.5l down so far!

NotDonna · 19/10/2022 14:17

Thank you for the shoogle recipe (aploligies as it had already been answered). I should have read the whole thread prior to posting. I had a lot of catching up to do as 18 hours travelling without internet! Now all caught up. I need a notepad whilst reading as so much info from everyone! Yesterday’s mega travel was a disaster in LC terms (alcohol and sarnies) but wiping slate clean and starting today! Won’t be easy at an all inclusive but… 💪🏼💪🏼

DearieMeWhatsUp · 19/10/2022 14:32

Can I ask, when you shoogle, do you add any water or just the butter?

ditavonteesed · 19/10/2022 14:37

No water just butter

MrsTerryPratchett · 19/10/2022 14:43

ditavonteesed · 19/10/2022 14:37

No water just butter

That's very close to the BC motto. All the water, just butter.

I've been tracking monthly using fancy scales at the gym at work which monitor amongst other things visceral fat, which so far has been going down faster than overall weight, which I think will be good for reducing insulin resistance.

This is great information so thanks. Nice to know the important fat is going more quickly!

agnesmartin · 19/10/2022 15:11

Lunch out wasn't too bad. Delicious cauliflower and Stilton soup (mum had my bread) and the prawn and halloumi skewers with salad. Unfortunately they'd drizzled sweet chilli sauce over the plate, mostly the edges so I could avoid most but not all. Will ask for Sauce/dressing on the side next time. No cake 😇 just watched Mum eat her's. Was quite content.

BIWI · 19/10/2022 15:27

I had a lovely dinner last night. In part, because I was on my own Grin DH and DS1 went to a gig.

I treated myself to a rump steak, which I marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and freshly ground pepper for an hour or so before griddling.

An echalion shallot, halved, and slowly fried in butter and olive oil till it browned/caramelised.

But, actually, the best bit - sweetheart cabbage, which I shredded quite thinly (so it would cook more easily) and then cooked on the griddle, with just olive oil, salt and pepper. Move it around, but let it sit between moving it, and the charring adds a lovely flavour to it.

Backstreets · 19/10/2022 16:07

Already dreaming about my celebratory two week mark cheeky glass of wine… pours another glass of water

prettybird · 19/10/2022 16:48

@DearieMeWhatsUp - you put a slab slice of butter in top of the sprouts before you start microwaving and then shoogle half way through. I just put a plate on top of the bowl so I'm not faffing around with cling film.

I was amused this morning to hear Nick Eardley (Scottish BBC Reporter) saying on BBC Breakfast news that Truss was still on a shoogly nail. The full expression is actually "his/her jaiket is on a shoogly nail" (ie his/her jacket is on a shaky nail): a euphemism for their job position is vulnerable Grin

OP posts:
Porridgeislife · 19/10/2022 17:01

Commiserations here @Chocasaurus as my daughter has hit the 4 month sleep regression, off the back of us all having Covid last week, so today has been testing my reserves somewhat.

Yesterday I had

B - boiled eggs

L - calamari as got caught on the hop at a pub unexpectedly

D - butchers sausages, buttered cabbage, carrots and a piece of roasted squash

Olives and BabyBel for snacks, 85% choc and Brazil nuts for dessert (am breastfeeding) plus 2.5L of water

Today

B - scrambled eggs and fried mushrooms

L - farm cafe with a very carby menu, even the salad! Ended up picking a meal that would have done well on my blood sugar monitor when I had gestational diabetes as there was truly nothing compliant - farm sausages with a small portion of white bean cassoulet, and I ate the sausages first (food order matters for my blood sugars)

D - will be baked aubergine with chermoula spiced beef mince and green salad

No snacks today but I expect the dark chocolate and Brazil nuts will make an appearance before bed. I’m absolutely knackered and really just quite proud that I didn’t crack and order cake at the farm cafe!

DurhamDurham · 19/10/2022 17:09

--I ate nine eggs in a day once when I tried the eggs fast! I love eggs but I probably wouldn't eat more than four in a normal day I'm not making any promises though

@StuntNun that's reassuring and impressive, nine eggs! Did you feel ok and did it put you off eggs for long?Grin

ZiggZagg · 19/10/2022 17:37

@DurhamDurham all I can say is I did a 3 day egg fast not long ago and still haven't eaten one since, I can't bring myself to do it Grin

Good day today, took my first Metformin and not had any nasty side effects. Did take them through pregnancy and they made me poop really bad haha!

Lunch was beef tomato with shoogled green beans. And extra butter 🤤

Just had a couple of chunks of cheese and will be having soup for dinner with a SLCR.

Half way through the water 💦

prettybird · 19/10/2022 17:46

Re weighing: just to demonstrate daily fluctuations, I was up 1.5lb today. So I'm making an extra effort with water today Halo

OP posts:
prettybird · 19/10/2022 17:51

Like @StuntNun , I seem to cope/positively enjoy eggs.

I regularly do an egg fast and cope with c.6 eggs/day for 4 or even 5 days Shock (transitioning back to "normal" HFLC food on the final day or so)

On Boot Camp, I often boil 6 eggs and have 4 of them on the "first" day (2 hot and then the next two as a snack at some point).

OP posts:
Mercedesbenz2022 · 19/10/2022 17:51

Is butternut squash allowed ( to go in soup with red pepper ?
I can’t find the details about it

Lucienandjean · 19/10/2022 17:56

First day back on BC and I'm trying to keep it simple. I'm 2lbs up on what I was before my holiday but I have no regrets! It'll come off easily enough now I'm off the carbs again.

B: nothing - I'm a long term intermittent faster
L: salad veggies, grated cheese, full fat cottage cheese, a spicy chicken homemade kebab, mayo
D: roast chicken with crispy skin, carrots, Brussels sprouts in butter.
S: not had it yet but might have some full fat yogurt later if I'm hungry.

Water? Oh. I forgot the water. 😳. It's amazing how quickly we develop bad habits. I'll drink as much as I can this evening.

LiesDoNotBecomeUs · 19/10/2022 18:09

Dental treatment day (a cracked tooth) :(
Better in reality than in worries beforehand.

Greek yogurt and cream
Tried a fine drizzle of sugar-free mock-maple-syrup. (It was there - I didn't mean to when I started serving.) It looked pretty but had a yucky after-taste so I'll happily stick to bootcamp toppings from here. I intend to keep surfaces clear of temptations for future mornings.
Water - a litre by lunch

A treat lunch of avocado, crisp salami and bacon and mayo with cherry tomatoes
(So good!)
Coffee and cream x2
Another litre of water so far this afternoon

Meaty sausages and roasted veg tonight.
A litre of water tonight. Some will be fizzy - a treat.

Sunsnowsun · 19/10/2022 18:21

I’m starting late as have been on holiday, got back yesterday, but it’s taken me this long to read the whole thread. Thank you for running this.
So sorry to hear of the sad losses and funerals. Hope those who are ill start to feel better soon.

Iheartgeraniums · 19/10/2022 18:31

I am away and can’t weigh myself, but have been SO good (cheese, tinned sardines, eggs with hollandaise, pate on celery, having fish and creamed spinach tonight) I can already feel my dreaded stomach flattening a bit!

FinallyHere · 19/10/2022 18:33

@Mercedesbenz2022

Sorry, butternut squash is marked on the 'red' list. In the spreadsheet, from the tab 'veg carb counts' at 8.3g carb per 100g

Mercedesbenz2022 · 19/10/2022 18:37

Thanks @FinallyHere
dp will have to eat it then

humancalculator · 19/10/2022 18:41

Shoogled for first time. Impressed!

RuLu · 19/10/2022 18:57

@ZiggZagg I had GD too & remember Metformin well!!
I've been out of the pre-diabetic range since Feb but I have been doing Keto since Sept 21. My Hba1c was higher in July than it was in Feb despite no more than 20g carbs a day so I know T2 is on its way....I just need to prolong it.

RuLu · 19/10/2022 18:57

I love an egg fast! (Well....the results!)