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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:
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AlhambraQueen · 23/10/2022 13:07

Hi everyone,

Yesterday journey was OK. Made good choices where I could but wasn't 100% BC. I've avoided all the sweets and pastries which are my nemesis. We didn't eat a proper meal till 8pm so I was ravenous. I made the mistake of not eating breakfast as flight was too early and inevitably delayed with fog.
Weighed myself on fri morning so 5 days bc and I had lost 2.5 lbs. Was a bit disappointed but then remembered all the fat I have been eating and still lost. What is the average lbs lost in first week of bc?
We did an asda shop at the holiday home so being good is quite easy. Will be the wedding tomorrow so will eat a good breakfast and try and be strong for the reception. It will be indian menu so will need to resist the rice as much as I can.
@prettybird I am also still breast feeding so what allowances do I get?

prettybird · 23/10/2022 13:16

@AlhambraQueen - breastfeeders are allowed to start/stay on Boot Camp Light which is what the rest of us can think of moving onto after the first 2 weeks.

Essentially you're allowed to add nuts and seeds in moderation Wink, berries in moderation Wink, dark chocolate in moderation and (you may or may not be interested in this one Grin) low carb alcohol (essentially dry wine and certain spirits) in moderation Smile

OP posts:
debka · 23/10/2022 14:03

@prettybird and @FinallyHere thanks for the advice. I've not actually eaten the chicken yet but will have the skin and add cream and cheese to the cauliflower. I've just had a bowl of Greek yoghurt as well. I think I need to plan a bit better perhaps and try to increase fat.

@AlhambraQueen that sounds so stressful, these things always happen over the weekend as well 😩😩

debka · 23/10/2022 14:04

Oops @prettybird not @AlhambraQueen

AlhambraQueen · 23/10/2022 16:09

@prettybird aah fab. Thats makes those strawberries I ate yesterday not to bad then

Canthinkofaname79 · 23/10/2022 16:38

Ob pretty bird what a nightmare!
Can I ask for some dinner suggestions please.
I've got some cooked chicken thighs and cooked roasted veg. Can I warm up the chicken or would it go really chewy?

Baystard · 23/10/2022 17:05

How do you stay so calm and collected @prettybird Shock , I'd be up the wall if I were in your shoes. I hope your DPlumber gets you sorted out swiftly and smoothly.Flowers

I'm hungry, for lunch I had 12 slices of thin chorizo topped with cheese and roasted in the oven. Absolutely delicious and lots of nice fat, but I'm starving now. Pork loin roasting in the oven with veggies, can't wait.

Anyone else noticed that sprout quality isn't the best this year? I've had UK sprouts from M&S and tesco this week and both had, erm, extra protein in them (though I reckoned it was a sign of less pesticides so probably not a bad thing, and I ate them along with the passengers I'd missed whilst washing anyway). Grin

ListenLinda · 23/10/2022 17:05

@Canthinkofaname79 I find that if you warm them up the skin goes lovely and crispy. I love a good chicken thigh, they are a staple of my BC diet!

Canthinkofaname79 · 23/10/2022 17:19

ListenLinda · 23/10/2022 17:05

@Canthinkofaname79 I find that if you warm them up the skin goes lovely and crispy. I love a good chicken thigh, they are a staple of my BC diet!

They are skinless sadly! What's best way to warm them up? Oven, hob or microwave? I think microwave might make them inedible!

ListenLinda · 23/10/2022 18:07

@Canthinkofaname79 oven definately!

Canthinkofaname79 · 23/10/2022 18:26

Thank you

Skiphopbump · 23/10/2022 19:25

@prettybird I hope your plumbing issue is sorted quickly.

L - steak and Brie salad
D - haddock curry, salad, Greek yoghurt with peanut butter

UnOeufIsEnough · 23/10/2022 19:41

Need to up the water today! I've had 1.8l so at least 2 to go!

B: boiled eggs with butter and roasted mushrooms
L: lettuce wraps with roast chicken thighs, cheese, mayo and cucumber
D: leftover slow cooked pork, salad of tomatoes, spring onion and coriander, raita with lots of cucumber, lettuce
Snack: some of the kids' gammon

Minkyscamp · 23/10/2022 19:48

Late to the party, but we had a long awaited trip to London planned so decided not to start on boot camp 'proper' until Friday.

L bacon, eggs and mushrooms
D keto cauli cheese, pork belly slices and stir fried greens

Alllll the water. I feel like I'm spending the whole time in the loo!

ZiggZagg · 23/10/2022 20:19

Evening campers!

Hoping everyone is looking forward to weigh in tomorrow?

I've had some help from Metformin this week (not great on the tummy Confused) but I'm starting to feel the switch to fat burning, increased energy, less hunger. So lots of little NSVs as well as (fingers crossed) an SV too Grin

L was celeriac, leek hash brown type thing with chicken sausages.

Dinner was just cauliflower and broccoli cheese with cheese sauce and more cheese on top, but only because I've forced myself to eat it!

I might have some Greek yogurt with cinnamon before my 16 part of 16:8 starts!

Sunsnowsun · 23/10/2022 21:05

@prettybird i hope the plumbing gets sorted soon, what a total pain for you

BIWI · 23/10/2022 21:15

Here's wishing everyone good news tomorrow, when you step on the scales/wield the tape-measure/try on that too-tight dress!

pinknsparkly · 23/10/2022 21:25

@prettybird - what a nightmare! Hope you get it solved quickly!! As PPs have said, you sound admirably cool, calm and collected!

Today could have been a bit of a disaster food wise.... went to an indoor event where you couldn't take your own food. Then they served absolutely nothing that I could make low carb (other than getting a jacket potato with cheese and only eat the cheese). I'd not had time for breakfast. But I got through with a diet coke (I know that's also against the rules, but I needed SOMETHING and this seemed like the lesser of the various evils). When we got to the car afterwards, I had a car waiting to take my space while I inhaled cheese and veggies 😜 dinner was then mackerel with mashed Swede and shroogled greens. My toddler even ate the mackerel and asked for more which I wasn't even remotely expecting as she's usually super fussy with fish/meats. She'll eat the occasional sausage but that's about it.

Lucienandjean · 23/10/2022 22:33

Sundays are always tricky days for me on Bootcamp, because I'm busy all day and have to eat very early or late, and then I end up snacking. They might be low carb snacks, but it's still food I wouldn't eat if I could have meals at a normal time!

Brunch: sausage, mushrooms fried in butter, scrambled eggs
Snack: cheese, cherry tomatoes, Serrano ham
Very Late Dinner: low carb chilli left from yesterday, avocado, sour cream, salad

LiesDoNotBecomeUs · 23/10/2022 22:57

B Egg and ham and spinach for breakfast
coffee and cream

LPork scratchings

D Cauliflower and haloumi curry

Strangerthings4NW · 23/10/2022 23:11

Hi I didn’t realise this had started! My daughter turns 21 in January and we have a bid surprise party planned, I’d like to look nice in a dress. Can @prettybird please add me to the spreadsheet, starting weight 179lbs

NotDonna · 23/10/2022 23:24

O what a nightmare prettybird fingers crossed all sorted very quickly, easily & cheaply!
Pre-prepared chicken Caesar salad ok?

FinallyHere · 23/10/2022 23:43

Sending good vibes to everyone for tomorrows weigh in and especially got @prettybird 's plumbing to be resolved.

FinallyHere · 23/10/2022 23:53

Welcome @Strangerthings4NW you have been added to the spreadsheet.

Enjoy.

Strangerthings4NW · 24/10/2022 00:07

Thank you 🙏