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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.

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Thread gallery
7
Skiphopbump · 17/10/2022 09:26

Pretty cats @prettybird !

Backstreets · 17/10/2022 09:27

Socialising is really my only concern for this, good luck with the family wedding @AlhambraQueen - plan your meals and be upfront and hopefully they'll all support you :)

One friend cancelled our hangout tomorrow (he forgot that was his wife's birthday... jesus) and while I'd looked forward to seeing him we always end up getting pastries so a bit relieved too.
I'm seeing another friend Thursday but have already scoped out the restaurant menu and found a nice salad option, I'll load it up with oil dressing and should be fine.

prettybird · 17/10/2022 09:28

@AlhambraQueen - try s as ne have plenty of cooked breakfasts (eg bacon and eggs) while you're away. Even volunteer to make it Grin

But it's even more inpuu ou étant that you enjoy the wedding Smile

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prettybird · 17/10/2022 09:31

Oops - my Duolingo French typing option mucked up the autocorrect there Blush but I think the sense is still obvious Grin

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2ButteredOvarysPlease · 17/10/2022 09:31

Morning Everyone. Signing in with a start weight of 10st 7lb . I've lost a pound since I signed up. Started in July at 12st 2lb . I'm fat adapted , so would like to continue IF if that's ok . My current weight was my target but now that I'm here I would like to get to 10st 4lb . I think this might take a while, but not bothered by slow progress. Was a lurker on previous threads , but found you all so helpful and supportive that I thought I'd de-lurk. Meals for today are . B - IF. Egg salad with loads of salad, oily dressing, and homemade mayo for lunch. D- Prawn salad loads of salad , oily dressing and homemade mayo. I work 4 days 12 hour shifts in the community so have no access to heat any meals , so lunch & dinner is salad on these days . I'll be drinking my 3 litres of water which I must admit I'm finding difficult in this cold weather. Sorry for long first post 😵‍💫 and thank you for all the hard work that goes into this . Is anyone able to add my starting weight , I've no idea how to do it .

prettybird · 17/10/2022 09:35

@Skiphopbump - indeed. People often worry about this WoE being expensive but I find that because it reduces snacking, so you don't need to buy biscuits and other snacks and stops you buying expensive sweets every time you fill up (or is that just me Blush) the effect on the overall budget is neutral - or even saves you money Shock

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prettybird · 17/10/2022 09:39

Welcome @2ButteredOvarysPlease Flowers Glad that you've de-lurked.

If you're fat adapted and an experienced IF, you're fine to continue with that.

Re the water, in winter I drink a lot of rooibos (reddish tea) which I can tolerate without milk, plus a lot of herb teas (Buttermint is a particular favourite). Plus water every time I go to the loo which becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy Wink

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StuntNun · 17/10/2022 09:41

@Motherofalegend I spent a long time dairy-free because I was breastfeeding my DS4 who was allergic to dairy (and eggs and soya and coconut.) There are plenty of non-dairy fats: lard, dripping, duck/goose fat, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and nut oils such as walnut or macadamia. Try not to use the highly processed vegetable oils as they are pro-inflammatory. Some people who don't eat dairy can tolerate ghee as it has such a tiny amount of dairy protein in it.

agnesmartin · 17/10/2022 09:44

Thanks so much for doing this prettybird and finallyhere. BIWI, have a fabulous break!

I have weighed myself. 🫣 Need to take a couple of measurements. Period due plus have been indulging the last couple of weeks so hungry caterpillar is ... hungry, but have fed him some yogurt and cream for breakfast. Could only find 5% FAGE yogurt in Tesco (none of their own brand) so added cream to up the fat content. Have some 10% yog coming in a food order on Tuesday.

Meals will be a bit snacky today as we have workmen in just about every room of our house (inc kitchen) but have plenty of cheese and ham and salad so that will see me through. Should be calmer tomorrow - just one room being worked on.

Am not going to worry about eating too much dairy for the first couple of weeks - I do suspect I have a slight intolerance - but for now its more important to conquer the sugar/carb cravings.

Have drunk 2 pints of water already and have legs crossed as I type this!

Looking forward to all the delicious recipes that people come up with and the before, after, during photos!

Good luck everyone.

NotDonna · 17/10/2022 09:47

I’ve just added my name & weight on the spreadsheet at the end. Is that ok? I don’t want to mess up @finallyhere ‘s techy work.

JudyBlumesBlubber · 17/10/2022 09:52

I did the same @NotDonna as it didn't let me add it midway alphabetically. I'm sure it's okay as it is.

agnesmartin · 17/10/2022 09:53

agnesmartin · 17/10/2022 09:44

Thanks so much for doing this prettybird and finallyhere. BIWI, have a fabulous break!

I have weighed myself. 🫣 Need to take a couple of measurements. Period due plus have been indulging the last couple of weeks so hungry caterpillar is ... hungry, but have fed him some yogurt and cream for breakfast. Could only find 5% FAGE yogurt in Tesco (none of their own brand) so added cream to up the fat content. Have some 10% yog coming in a food order on Tuesday.

Meals will be a bit snacky today as we have workmen in just about every room of our house (inc kitchen) but have plenty of cheese and ham and salad so that will see me through. Should be calmer tomorrow - just one room being worked on.

Am not going to worry about eating too much dairy for the first couple of weeks - I do suspect I have a slight intolerance - but for now its more important to conquer the sugar/carb cravings.

Have drunk 2 pints of water already and have legs crossed as I type this!

Looking forward to all the delicious recipes that people come up with and the before, after, during photos!

Good luck everyone.

Realised the photo comments sounds like we all have to do pics - we don't, don't worry! Poor wording. 😉

But

If you have an item of clothing that is too tight right now that you want to use as a benchmark it can be really inspiring to show the change in shape (even if there is a lag in the scales).

prettybird · 17/10/2022 10:00

Wasn't sure if you could add your name to the bottom of the list (sometimes it's locked) but @FinallyHere will periodically do her magic and re-alphabetise the list.

@agnesmartin - the Lidl full fat genuine Greek yoghurt is 10% fat and is lush Grin IMHO it's better than their Greek style yoghurt. Be careful though - they sell it in trays mixed in with the zero and low fat versions Hmm so you need to look for the one with the dark blue on the lid, not the pink or light blue Confused

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TaffyandTeenyTaffy · 17/10/2022 10:01

Hello fellow bootcampers. Think I have added myself to the spreadsheet. I have been doing something similar for a while with a PT online - but have stalled and got in a bit of a rut with what I eating, so need a bit of a new focus. Would love to lose between 10lb and a stone by Christmas.

ShineOnYouLikeMorningStar · 17/10/2022 10:21

I've updated on the spreadsheet. I've already lost about half a stone over the past month on LCHF, but I'd ideally like to lose another 20lb ish. I'm only just over 5'2" & quite a small frame so 139b is still rather overweight. I tried to do LCHF previously but it made my migraines a lot worse, I think I've identified the problem now so hopefully I'll be ok this time round. Today's menu:
Rolled omelette with cheese & a tomato
Smoked mackerel with salad
Miso soup with prawns, egg & vegetables, stir-fried shirataki noodles

I have a diary - must use it to meal plan a bit ahead so I can ensure I'm not just getting really repetitive. I sometimes find food a bit of a chore TBH. When I was doing Dukan I had the soup & noodles combination a lot (& TBH I think that's why I lost so much weight so quickly) but it got a bit boring. Must eat more lamb, various seafood, maybe try some pork recipes (I really don't like chewy animal fat but it's ok if it's crispy or been cooked down into a sauce or stew).

I have two questions:
Water - does it have to be just plain water, or do other drinks count too? I don't drink caffeine (due to the migraines) & I know you're not supposed to have artificial sweeteners. Do herbal tea, black coffee etc count?

Missing a meal/eating snacks when out: due to quite strict dietary restrictions (for migraine control) I wouldn't just be able to grab a pre-prepared meat portion or buy a snack from a cafe if I was away from home longer than expected. Would I be better to buy one of those keto type bars (which usually have sweeteners in), eat something like some almonds/brazils, or just miss a meal?

Buttercream22 · 17/10/2022 10:23

Morning Bootcampers!
I hope everyone is having a great morning.

I've put my starting weight on the spreadsheet (fingers crossed I've done this right). I don't have lots to loose, only about 13lb to get to a healthy BMI. I'm 9.13lb but only 5ft so very much in the overweight category. I also had gestational diabetes in my last pregnancy, so I know this WOE is extra important for me.

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs
Lunch: Tuna and cheese salad
Dinner: Chicken Stew (minus the potatoes) just need to check what veggies I can have.

And lots of water. I'm working from home today so planning on getting out for a walk at lunch time too.

What's everyone doing for exercise (if any)? I really used to enjoy working out, but haven't been motivated for months now.

ShineOnYouLikeMorningStar · 17/10/2022 10:26

Ah - I think my question regarding the water has been answered. I agree about the Buttermint tea, it reminds me of Murray Mints... Grin

prettybird · 17/10/2022 10:58

@ShineOnYouLikeMorningStar - if you're going to be out and about, take a babybel or a Pepperami or a chunk of cheddar. Much better than the keto bars Grin

@Buttercream22 - I do the Jillian Michaels DVDs (alternate between Ripped and The Shred) 3 days a week, plus I'm trying to get back into running (currently only about 3.5km). At the moment I'm on Level 2 of The Shred Smile Also, for my sons, I started playing rugby about 2 years ago after years of watching ds Shock so go to training once or twice a week but I'm technically not allowed to do contact so can't play games as the SRU says I'm "too old" Hmm But I do that more for the social aspect Wink

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FinallyHere · 17/10/2022 11:03

@crazyone84 @Rshard @LesLavandes @NoraEphronsNeck

All added to the spreadsheet

Welcome one and all. Yes, guilty as charged 😀 I add always people in the 'right' place and now shall defend to my dying breath the right of those who prefer self realisation and add themselves at the end of the sheet.

It's good practice for me to not get hung up on some unsorted names. To show willing, I've added a few more spare lines

Many thanks to @prettybird for this bootcamp very welcome in run up to Christmas and to @BIWI for the very existence.

If I've added you in error to the spreadsheet please just ignore.

NotDonna · 17/10/2022 11:42

Given I’ve stumbled on this thread today I’ve done zero planning! Breakfast was 2 scrambled eggs and a few cherry tomatoes. I’m now wondering if tomatoes are allowed in first 2 weeks as they’re technically a fruit?
no idea re lunch, but thinking I can rustle up butter chicken with peppers for dinner, kids & DH can have rice and I’ll just have more peppers.
Have a 10 hour plane journey tomorrow and really not sure what to do about plane food. I doubt the airport will have much either. Any ideas?

prettybird · 17/10/2022 11:50

Welcome @NotDonna Flowers

You're ok - cherry tomatoes are fine Halo. In fact, iirc, we've moved tomatoes "up" in the veg table in terms of the carbs so they don't need to be treated with as much moderation.

For your flight, why not take some babybels and Pepperami for snacks? And drink plenty of water (although I realise that means braving airplane loos Shock. If you'd had more time to become ketogenically adapted, you could have treated it as a fast Grin Personally, I always try and sleep as much as possible on flights (fortunately am able to do so) so never feel hunger pangs Grin

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Rshard · 17/10/2022 11:59

thanks @FinallyHere . I just need to get dh to put a new battery in the scales tonigh. I'm not completely useless - as well as the usual cover, there's a tiny screw - which I did try and tackle with a couple of knives, a random screw I found....

ditavonteesed · 17/10/2022 12:31

@Buttercream22 I'm a gym addict, see a pt weekly and then do a mix of cardio and weights in the other days, usually go 4 it 5 times a week. Challenged myself to try some classes soon as I've always been to scared in the past.

Zambarau · 17/10/2022 12:41

Hello everyone! I'm starting at 11st 5.8lbs with no goal as I'll see what feels right and feasible (perhaps the 10 st 7lbs mark or less???), depends on how I feel in my clothes. Good luck everyone! I'm here for accountability, mutua support and getting ideas around this WOE.

UnOeufIsEnough · 17/10/2022 12:58

Hello all!

Good start to the boot camp with 2l of 💦 down! I've got a stinking cold so hoping the water will help flush it out!

B: scrambled eggs in butter with fried mushrooms
L: neep and cabbage soup with cumin and butter melted through, skin-on chicken thigh
D: prawn curry with low carb veg in it.

I don't do very well with dairy...I can tolerate cheese more than I can cream, which is very sad as I love cream in coffee!

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