Pre-Christmas 22 Boot Camp Week 5: in the 2nd half

[prettybird]

Here we are into Week 5, the 2nd half . Hopefully you’ll have got beyond the “Stall” period of Weeks 3 and 4, but be aware, it sometimes it lasts into Week 5.

Keep the faith, keep focussed, keep drinking the water and you will see progress. Remember all the other benefits you're enjoying

The challenge this week is to start doing little things in preparation for Christmas . That way, we can relax when Christmas arrives as we’ve got every ready in advance in our dreams . If you don’t want to do that yet because it’s too soon, why not do something that has been on your list of “To Dos” for ages and you’ve procrastinated so never quite got round to it. You’ll feel so much better once you’ve done them

@FinallyHere will be along shortly to link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness and also to the sparkling new thread that links to all the recipe threads. There are sooooo many tasty recipes, so we can enjoy our food

@ListenLinda Sorry to read you have a cold, hope it clears up and you feel better soon. It astonished me to notice just how prevalent sugar or artificial sweeteners are in any cold remedies.

I found tea made with fresh ginger & hot water also chicken stock very comforting drinks and an easy way to keep up with water targets. Hope you find things that help for you, too

@FinallyHere thank you. It’s the cotton wool head that is the most irritating.
I have some important calls to make at work and the thought of trying to have an actual conversation with someone feels like a big task right now.

I have all the water though.

Hope you get through the day @ListenLinda Here's a nice head-clearing cup of tea (ginger is good!)

Re "set point" weight, it's something we've discussed before. I think the answer is "it's complicated" : a mix of hormones and eating habits and it varies as to how important each is.

I found this blog https://blog.nasm.org/set-point-theory which was interesting. Also found another proper medical research one which as far as I could understand said that hormones were involved but there were lots of confounding variables, so it's difficult to say which is the most important

As BIWI says, it could simply be the Weeks 3, 4 and/or 5 doldrums. Also, venusandmars posted up a good diagram of the effect on cells of releasing their water and the refilling process.

Plus on occasions we self-sabotage - I know I'm guilty of that whenever I get close to my target

The key thing, whatever the reason, is to KOKO. Enjoy the food you can eat and you will see the results

The issue of a set point is discussed in this book, which I highly recommend. It's very easy to read and explains things clearly.

I’m currently making a beef casserole that requires several tablespoons of flour (shoukd make a lot of portions) so all things considered won’t be much. But would you use something else or omit or just not worry?

I don't include it - but then I'm never bothered by thin sauces.

You can put in some onions/carrots if you want and then whizz up the sauce a bit if you want to thicken it (relatively easy if you have a stick blender). Or (depending on the casserole) adding some cream and boiling it down a bit can work.

Still maintaining my "bed before midnight" .

Have done a bit more tidying in the bedroom and my main Christmas task for the day is getting down the Christmas wrapping, cards and crackers so I can work out what more I need to buy

One of the things I like about this WoE is that it helps me feel more in control of my food - which then helps me feel more in control of my life as a whole, which then feeds into a virtuous circle of more energy.

@NotDonna 'several tablespoons of flour' suggests a lot of liquid! Either I'd use less or, when the meat is cooked to your liking, drain off the liquid into a small saucepan and boil to reduce it.

Or use @prettybird's suggestion of whizzing up some of the veg

Thank you ladies I’ll do a mixture of reducing water, using cream and whizzing up some veg!

just catching up with the thread. This week is going well so far and drank 3L of water yesterday and day before. Heating ON and mild weather is definitely helping with that, when it’s is freezing I struggle so much, only think I haven’t tried is herbal teas so far
also I have a question about being in ketosis, please let me know ( I haven’t had any Carby food at all) Even though my weight going down, very slowly, I don’t seem to be in ketosis. So I was wondering if you guys track that,is that something everyone does? does it help with weight loss?
my pee stick is very old as well, but would only buy new if we follow that :)

@Newlease - with the amount of water you're drinking, ketosticks don't really work (as your pee should be so diluted) and we don't encourage their use.

Just keep on following The Rules and the weight will continue to come off. Slowly is good All safe diets, after the initial whoosh, will average 1-2lbs a week. So sometimes less, occasionally more).

Good evening campers!

Good day food wise today.

For lunch, I had a mystery stew that has been in the freezer some time it was really nice considering I didn't know what it was until it was cooked (I did know it was low carb though, beefy, veg and a tomato-ey sauce)

Chimichurri steaks with salad, cheese, pickled onions and hot sauce for dinner.

Posted too soon

Nearly there on my water!

Cannot find a vet who does vaccines that are compatible with the one Iris has already had so we're having to start again

This means I can't have my long autumn walks until at least 14th December now. She is keeping me on my toes and I have noticed my step count has increased already

Thank you so much for this @BIWI .
I've bought it and I'm really intrigued to find out more.

Thanks too @prettybird .
Just closed the kitchen and sitting down to read the blog and your other link. I'm really interested in this and am adding it to the book that @BIWI suggested.
There's been no sabotaging on my part. And I found @venusandmars diagram very helpful to see how water retention is paradoxically helped by drinking more water.
What I'm curious to understand better is the 'fixed point ' business. That's because the weight I was stuck was a same weight I'd been at for almost a year ( before I started regular silly eating and going beyond it).

Hope you don't see this till the morning because you're already tucked up in bed.

Low carb naan...

Low Carb Naan:

168g grated mozzarella
15g full fat greeek yogurt
1 egg
84g almond flour
5g baking powder

mix the mozzarella and yogurt and microwave for 2-3 minutes
mix almond flour and egg and baking powder
Knead everything together
Cut into naan shapes and cooke for 11 minutes..

That looks delicious @venusandmars

Just popping in with today's food. I seem to be having some indigestion problems the last few days. I don't think it's this WOE that's caused them, as I've been eating low carb (and basically the same food) for ages. But I am avoiding spicy stuff for the time being, and caffeine. I can't really avoid fatty food though!

B: nothing
L: boiled eggs, low carb toast and butter
S: cucumber, cheese
D: bolognese sauce on shredded cooked cabbage

Lots of water. I'm trying to learn to love green tea, but it's not working so far!

what did you think of the naan @venusandmars ? I made it a few weeks ago, not convinced it goes with curry but was nice as a pizza base.

@Skiphopbump tonight we're having the best of all food worlds - naan-izza which is a cross between a pizza and an indian. Naan spread with a tomato masala paste, some grated halloumi then topped with lamb keema / chicken tikka / spinach & cauliflower curry. Its a family dinner catering for low carb (me), a gluten free child, a lactose free child, a veggie adult.

Keeping on here. Life is incredibly busy and stressful and I had a little cry at work this morning. Food wise I'm doing ok though. When life get likes this I need to make sure I'm eating enough- it's very easy to say I'll just skip dinner or have an omelette instead.
B- 2 eggs with butter
L- yogurt blueberries walnuts
D- don't know yet- possibly a kebab and wine 😬😬

Bad day yesterday, was absolutely exhausted and realised I haven't done a carb load for ages (thyroid thing not general bootcamp thing) anyway I didn't do it in a controlled way once I started I couldn't stop, ate everything in site. 1.4lbs up this morning.

I've been to the gym and really pushed myself and back on it now. Yesterday evening I felt gross, bloated and uncomfortable and just generally annoyed with myself. Anyway hoping the exhaustion should get back under control now and I can koko. I have been restricting my calories for the last 2 weeks and I wonder if that's not actually so good for me. Was nice to see the scales moving again though.
Now water water water to wash all that shite out of me.

@venusandmars that sounds delicious
@debka sorry things are stressful. 💐
@ZiggZaggi feel like we haven't seen Iris for too long, she must be growing (I know it's only a few days but puppy pics please).

Much obliged @ditavonteesed , she is just lovely 🥰 This is how I managed to do some work yesterday when she just wanted to be with me 🤣