Pre-Christmas 22 Boot Camp: Week 4

[prettybird]

Good Morning all! Sorry I’m a bit late - had a fabulous weekend away and will weigh in myself tomorrow after spending the day drinking a lot of water

Here we are in Week 4 already - nearly half way through , Remember that many of us experience a few weeks of doldrums over Weeks 3, 4 and even possibly week 5, where the scales will resolutely refuse to move —or even move upwards slightly . This is normal, so keep the faith, follow the rules , KOKO and the scales will move again. In the meantime, concentrate on the NSVs, like better sleep, better skin, more energy and/or looser clothes.

Remember that this is a marathon not a sprint, and try not to get too fixated on the short term.

I’ll get @FinallyHere to link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Here's to another good week

Also trying to do 10000 steps daily

First off: this is not a drastic diet Strict, yes, in the sense that you need to follow the Rules, but it works by stopping you feeling hungry. If you're hungry, you should eat - as long as it's low carb

If you're a newbie, I would recommend that for at least the first week, you try to make yourself have three meals a day. Just until you are confident that you're no longer hungry and can manage the16:8.

Follow The Rules, have plenty of fat (butter, oily dressings, fatty meat, full fat Greek yoghurt...), a FLGV (a Fuck Load of Green/Good Veg) and drink your water allocation

You should see a whoosh in the first week or two as your body releases its glycogen stores - but not everyone does (especially if you've been cutting back in advance).

Take your measurements. Do you have an event coming up that you have an outfit you need to get into which is why you're so desperate to see drastic results?

Yes I do have an event in January. Are the first 2 weeks stricter? Sorry haven't had a chance to read in full yet

Yes: the first two weeks are really strict - maybe go back and have a skim of the Weeks 1 and 2 threads

First two weeks are

• No alcohol at all
• No bread/potatoes/rice/carby veg like parsnips or sweet potatoes
• No nuts or seeds (unless you're veggie)
• No fruit at all
• 3 meals a day
• plenty of fat
• a minimum of 2.5l of water/day - probably more as it's a function of your weight
• Minimise processed meat
• No artificial sweeteners (various reasons but primarily you're trying to break the hold that sweet stuff has on you)

You're sort of swapping the "usual" proportions of lots of carbs, medium protein and low fat to high fat, medium protein and low carbs - but good ones from a FLGV.

After the 1st 2 weeks, you can go on to Boot Camp Light, which means you can add back in low carb alcohol (dry wine, certain spirits like gin, whisky or rum) in moderation, berries in moderation, nuts and seeds in moderation not all at once and not every day

What some of us do is stay on strict Boot Camp during the week and go onto Boot Camp at weekends

Welcome @DianaBarry5 !

Fasted today, then had some Greek yogurt and an avocado.

Dinner was chimichurri steak with red cabbage fried in butter/olive oil.....delicious!

Have been totally crap with water though so will try to get at least 2l down me before bed!

Hope you all have an enjoyable evening. Me and Iris have the house to ourselves and we're going to watch season 5 of The Crown

Shameless puppy photo ❤️❤️

Thank you ZiggZagg
Your pup is adorable!

Awwww puppy 😍

I've found a new favourite recipe this week. Haddock gratin.

1. Heat a good slosh 200ml of double cream, melt in handful of grated sharp cheddar, add squeeze lemon juice.
2. Open packet M&S smoked haddock fillets and put in gratin dish.
3. Pour sauce over and put into hot oven for about 10 mins until fish cooked.
4. Shoogle some green veg in microwave.

Ohhhh it was so good and quick. Very filling though, what I though was going to be one portion took me two nights!

I think a boiled chopped egg, or a handful of prawns thrown in along with the fish, would have been good too.

That sounds lovely @Baystard

I suppose we should explain to newbies that to "shoogle" is Scottish for to "shake": a sophisticated technique we use while microwaving veg, especially brussel sprouts

Went out for dinner tonight to celebrate buying our house. I had battered fish with no chips any mushy peas and salad. How bad do you think that was???

(It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed every bite)

Thanks, @StuntNun and @prettybird for your explanations re. body composition. One day when I've got free time I'll read more about it because that is fascinating (one day...).
The best thing for me that I've learned with this WOE is how much I LOVE fried veggies. I've never been a vege eater and it's been hard for me to get all my nutritional needs met because my eating has been so shite, but my OH just got back from the markets and when he emptied the bags onto the bench I said, "Oh my god that looks delicious!"

Honestly you have to believe, I have never said that about anything other than cake and chocolate before, in all my life.
We're moving house so I've had a few convenience meals that haven't been low carb (fairly mediocre pizza one night). But I'm looking forward to maxing out on the fried veges again.

So I woke up in the middle of the night feeling terribly sick and unwell, lay awake for a while wondering if I would actually BE sick, and then went back to sleep. Feeling a bit queasy still this morning so I think, sadly, the battered fish was a bad idea. Can't face breakfast this morning and I'm working till 1 so plenty of water/coffee for me until lunchtime when hopefully my tummy will have settled.

@SerenWantsItAll vegetables are so much nicer when they're drenched in butter, right?!?!!!

@debka that's not good Lots if sympathy.
@SerenWantsItAll maybe it's my tired head but I'm tying to picture fried veg. I'm what way are th3se veg fried (mainly cause I would like to try them).
Dh wanted to go to the pub last night as it was such a lovely night, I had a soda water. Scales have paid me this morning with instant scale karma which is very kind of them.

I have keto breath this week, I can taste it and I could smell it in my mask at work. What do people do about it, I've brushed my teeth a million times just to mask it.

@debka - so I don't need to get the Big Stick out, as your body is giving you its own message

@ditavonteesed what exactly is keto breath? I mean how do I know if I have keto breath or it's something in my sinuses (I get a funny taste sometimes but I've only really noticed it in the morning and assumed it was a morning breath or sinus thing)?

Oh @debka that sounds horrible, I'm having indian takeaway tonight and am debating whether to risk a pakora for the same reason. Hope you feel better soon.

@SerenWantsItAll I know what you mean about the veg. If I'm in a carb binge mode then veg has zero appeal. When I get off the carbs I find veg looks amazing and very appetising (especially drenched in melted butter!).

@Baystard it's hard to explain sort of sweet and a bit acidy. Just not what my mouth normally tastes like.

Would eating something parsley help @ditavonteesed ?

I know that's supposed to help with garlic breath (never actually tried it as all my friends and colleagues eat garlic too )

Morning all and congratulations @debka on buying your house 🎉

I am very pleased to report that the scales are moving downward again, hoping for a loss this week. I am setting myself a goal of 3lbs more by the end of this bootcamp.

I have been reading all the Christmas chat, still thinking it over, but I think for me it is the length of the festive period, so am going to think about which days I have off.

I like the idea of picking some specific days @Sunsnowsun

As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to treat the Festive Period as a period of maintenance and then got stuck back in in the New Year, with not too much damage done

Tonight I'm making cheeseburger pie. I've even bought a jar of gherkins so I can thinly slice some and put them in a layer between the mince and cheese topping. I'll pad out the mince (and add to the veg count) with a soffrito of onions, carrots and leeks that I'll blitz in the food processor and fry off.

What I love about this WoE is that, contrary to some people's perception, I find it a cheap WoE. I'm eating the same amount of meat as before but can choose the cheaper, fattier cuts. So for example, the mince I bought was the cheapest 20% mince from Lidl.

Plus I'm no longer snacking on sweets and crisps - which aren't cheap I used to spend at least £1.50 extra every time I filled up as I'd buy a couple of chocolate bars . Now I can walk past the rows of sweets and not even notice them

I'm only just feeling human after my stomach bug last week, even well after the er, physical effects, my stomach was in pain and I felt totally wiped out. Lost 3lbs in the end but couldn't recommend it. Eating gently still now. Currently hovering around 11st 7ish.

Can anyone recommend any decent slow cooker recipes, ideally child friendly or adaptable? Got a new one and so far made a beef stew (too salty) and a spag bol. Need inspiration!

Also - I again managed to get to bed before midnight last night.

@DearieMeWhatsUp - glad you're starting to feel better

There's a recipe for Armenians lamb that was on one of the Boot Camp threads that would work in a slow cooker. I think it's also on the meat recipe thread. It was very tasty.

@DearieMeWhatsUp I've started to try and use my slow cooker a bit more, instead of the oven, and the last meal I made was really lovely (if I do say so myself!)

I had a pork loin joint - took the skin off (try and do it in once piece as you can make this into crackling next time you use the oven - freeze it in the mean time), season lightly with salt/black pepper and then fry on all sides to give it a good browning.

Slice and onion or some shallots and put those into the base of the slow cooker, and then put the pork on top of them. I also added a couple of sliced lemons, and some fresh thyme and rosemary. Then add a splash of white wine. Not too much liquid, as there will be plenty from the veg/fruit and the pork juices.

I cooked it on auto for around 6 hours, and it was just about holding together when I served it, so I was able to slice it. It could easily have been pulled, if that's what you prefer.

@prettybird yes I love Lidl fatty mince too, it's about 1.79 a pack and being fatty makes wonderfully moist burgers, and very tasty mince dishes.

I did Lidl today, got some smoked salmon trimmings which are 1.79 but delicious. I once looked up which factory they came from and discovered it's the "offcuts" when posh smokehouse is preparing the regular slices that they sell for a fortune.