Jan 2023 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 1!

[BIWI]

Welcome everyone! We have over 160 people signed up this time, so things are going to move quickly.

Here's the link to The Spreadsheet of Fabulousness which has been carefully and lovingly curated by the very lovely @FinallyHere

There are a few bits of admin that I need to post before we get going. The first of which is the usual disclaimer:

I am not a medic, a scientist, a dietician or a nutritionist. Everything that I post here is based on my reading and my own experiences of low carbing gained over the last 20 years. You follow the guidance here at your own risk - although I very much hope that there are no risks!

Very importantly, though, if you are on any kind of long-term medication, please talk to your GP/nurse about low carbing. This is especially important if you're on drugs for hypertension, cholesterol and/or diabetes, as a low carb diet should have a positive impact on all of those conditions, which would mean that your dosage may need to be decreased, if not removed altogether.

The second is about etiquette:

Please, please, please read all the posts on the thread before you make your own post. These threads work so much better when we're all here interacting with each other, as that means we can offer help and support when it's needed. Don't just jump on the thread to plop down your meals for the day, your weight that day and then just fuck off. That doesn't help anyone.

More than anything else, it's incredibly irritating when someone posts a question which has already been answered early in the thread. I, and lots of other Bootcampers, spend a considerable amount of time responding to people's questions and concerns, and it's pretty insulting when it's obvious that these haven't been read.

(Oh, and it's very obvious if you haven't read the thread, so take that as a warning )

@BountyMultipack shallots and leeks both make good substitutes for onions and I think are allowed.

Have just caught up. Have never worried about carbs in an onion actually shallots have less than half the carbs of onion. According to Sainsbury’s website per 100g onions 7.6g carbs and shallots 3.1g. Personally I’d favour shallots but wouldn’t spoil a curry by missing out the onion if I had no shallots. If the recipe served 4 day then only 1.9g onion carbs per person. Thanks for prompting this reflection. Shallots are on the shopping list.

Loving reading the thread. Food so far made a low carb vegetarian lasagna with courgette slices instead of pasta. Had that Sunday and leftovers Monday. Big salads with leftover Christmas cheeseboard for lunches. Office yesterday so Pret salad Nicoise. Made portobello mushrooms topped with tomato and mozzarella like a pizza and served with crispy roasted kale last night. Wfh today so back to eating up the cheese with salad at lunch and planning miso broth with poached egg, vegetable noodles and fried mushrooms and leeks for tonight. DH can have ramen in his.

Woke very early which is often a problem for me when low carbing. Wake up needing a wee.

Morning fellow BC'rs, I had really bad carb cravings last night. It was for the crunch of crisps or toast that I was craving! I didn't give in and had some cucumber instead! Today my meals plans are
B: Greek yoghurt and creamy coffee,
L: aubergine and spinach fried with garlic and chillies and feta,
D; bolognaise probably with cauli & broccoli rice with cheese.
I don't find I'm too hungry after eating but it's the habit of eating I need to break!
I also suffer terrible insomnia, years of bad sleep with kids plus anxiety so I need to think of some easy snacks as I invariably raid the fridge when I can't sleep. Thinking of pickled onions, cooked chicken in mayo, homemade coleslaw. Good luck today all!

Good morning

Feel exhausted today, I dont think its the diet as been on low carb since July but I have just got over Covid so think its more likely connected to that, I was given it as a Christmas present this year.

@Jollyholibobs - the cheeseboard was the highlight of Christmas for me this year, I love cheese :)

I am going to a lovely farmhouse in November with a group of 14 to celebrate my DS 30th, originally he wanted to go to Printworks in London, but out of all of us only 4 would have been up for raving, so a cottage with hot tubs and a games room for us all to hang out and have fun close it is in-between the Cotswolds and Bristol, will alcohol be allowed by the end of Feb on this diet, my DS, DW suggested pizza for the first night, so I will have to bring my own low carb version I guess.

Not sure why I said November its in February!

Everything is going swimmingly here and I'm finding joy in my meals and this thread. My struggle is tea and coffee without dairy. My normal is no breakfast and around 4-5 cups of brown beverages a day with milk which is far too much! I'm not into sweet drinks either. I knew I needed to nip this in the bud because that's about half a pint of semi skimmed.
I've been drinking various herbal, a nice one with turmeric, and black coffee. Onwards and upwards.

@earlyraisin I switched to unsweetened almond milk in my many cups of coffee and I love it. Dairy milk tastes too sickly to me now. I prefer the Alpro one, and the fresh version is even nicer but expensive (although down to 1.35 in my Sainsburys yesterday - I bought 6!)

If I have a cup of tea (maybe two or three times a week) I just have dairy milk)

@venusandmars completely agree, over the last 30+ we have almost all been on one WOE or another! they would not care if I just turned up and drank soda all night - I do fancy a night off cooking tho 😆
@BIWI I was just concerned any sauce - even creamy cabbage may have carbs. I am going to choose wisely though - maybe gammon egg and green veg. We will see how accommodating they are - not been there for years and its new management.

Day 3 here we go!

A Greek yoghurt ! - does everyone just have a bowl of plain yoghurt?

I have exactly 5ml of cow's milk in my 1 cup a day and then a splash of cream in coffee. Much prefer water with lemon in already and I never thought I would be into water?! I read the FAQs I think that mentioned trying different vessels to increase intake and it worked for me!

I have been stirring some turmeric into mine...

I was so zonked out on the sofa last night, slept from 8 while half 9! It was nice though, once I'd woken up properly.

I keep thinking about the little "shots" of sugar I would normally have - ketchup, cranberry sauce etc. Or the fruit squash with artificial sweeteners in. I'm not craving, just more aware of how often and how much food I look for the sugary boost during the day.

I'm feeling so calm. Off to do some yoga now anyway, I'll feel even more calm! 🧘‍♀️

Yes for me it's the habit of eating... I have been just appalling during the Xmas time... packets of crisps in twos... and chocolate. No wonder I am such a porker... have over two stone to lose so it's a long road.
My h has given the chicken I was going to have for lunch to my dd but we are at super market this morning

I sometimes have a fried egg on top of my greek yogurt!

A word of warning about using an item of clothing as a way to measure your weight loss. I had a really lovely pair of jeans that I bought just before my first pregnancy that were my "goal" trousers but when I reached my goal they were too big!

I did think that was some impressive forward playing @Jenasaurus

Last night, tea ended up being really late so I snaffled a packet of pork scratching and some Cheesies to keep me going. It worked but something I'll try not to make a habit of. Overall not a bad addition to the first day of TOTM and much better than my usual choices!

Need to do a quick top up shop today as we're powering through all the fresh stuff. Plan is:

B: Greek yog, cream, cinnamon
L: tuna and avo salad with olive oil
D: chicken breast stuffed with soft cheese and tonnes of green veg.

Already through my first bottle of water after a sweaty strength session this morning.

That courgette lasagna sounds delicious. I actually just ordered a julienne peeler from lakeland last night so I can attempt making courgetti. The proper spiralisers looked too much of a faff to clean.
Plan for today:
B: chunks of cheddar (not great but I'm out all morning so eating on the run).
L: spinach omelette,buttered greens
D: homemade burger and greek salad
Snack: ff yogurt

Going really well here I think - I sleep so much better with no bread in my diet.

Todays's menu is:

B - courgette soup (went down quite nicely)
L - salmon with avocado and salad
D - beef curry with cauli rice and cabbage

No snacks planned - I haven't felt hungry.

I gave in and weighed myself this morning. Had planned to keep off the scales til Monday but they looked at me and I had to step on them! 5lbs down though so delighted with that!
I have been struggling a bit with passing by the sweet treats. Work have a load of cakes and chocolates in and they are right beside me at my desk so very tempting. I’ve managed to resist so far though!

@DontGetEvenGetEverything

break the habit of needing sweet foodstuffs

I do agree.

One of my favourite things about this way of eating is how it has broken the hold sweet things used to have over me. My strongest motivation to not eat sweet stuff is how I'm going to feel after I've eaten it, both immediately and for the next day 24hrs.

Eating sweet stuff does still seem to awaken the sugar craving dragon within me. It's so much more peaceful to not eat the first bite of sweet stuff.

The first bite is always the easiest to resist. Even the second bite is significantly more difficult to resist and bang there is the sugar craving back.

Sigh but pretty powerful motivation.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions re onions. I might leave them in slightly bigger pieces and get shallots this weekend. I'm sure I saw some at Tesco.

Slightly demotivated this morning. I've been LCing since 1st of Jan and started at 116kg and till yesterday morning reached 111.4kg
Everyday was a loss or the same weight, but this morning it was 111.8kg.

I always get obsessed with numbers and then get demotivated. I need to stop weighing myself a few times everyday. I need to move the scales so I can't see them and weight myself only once a week.

I had a bad day yesterday, it was raining and dark outside all day. I was tired and had a headache.

Electrolytes, paracetamol and an early night where the solution. I was tired on waking today but its lifted as the morning has gone on.

Greek yoghurt with a splash of cream
Mushroom soup with parmesan crisps
Green Thai chicken curry with green pepper and cauli rice

BIWI can I please come to your house for dinner? Everything you make sounds so yummy.
@BountyMultipack you’ve lost 5kg in 10 days that’s 11lbs (I think), that’s a pound a day! That’s a flipping huge loss. That’s 4% of your body weight already! Don’t worry about minor fluctuations and focus on the big picture and trend. Have you the ‘Happy Scale’? I’d highly recommend it as it evens out these anomalies. I’m a daily weigher and it can be up and down but overall there’s a definite decrease and that’s what matters. You’re doing brilliantly!

I’m a daily weighed and happy to report that the scales are heading in the right direction.

I didn’t realise that onions are so carby. I use them quite a lot in my cooking - if I reach a point where my weight is stalling I’ll switch to shallots.

Most of my clothes are too baggy now but I don’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe as I have so much to lose. My size 18 jeans are all too big. I have two pairs of size 16 both Fatface Chesham girlfriend but different colours- one pair starts to fall down after a few hours of wear the other is too tight to wear all day but I know will be fine in a couple of weeks. I also have two pairs of the same fit in size 14 which I bought in the hope they would fit at the end of this bootcamp but who knows as the sizing is so inconsistent!

That is the nature of weight loss @BountyMultipack and your weight will go up as well as down. Your weight fluctuates by up to a couple of pounds every day due to water retention and this can hide the actual day-to-day fat loss that is occurring. Exercise, eating too much fibre and your time of the month can mask your weight loss. It's also common to stall for several weeks and then lose two pounds seemingly overnight. This is a graph of my weight loss when I started Bootcamp in 2013. I lost about 30 lb in five months and I have stayed in the healthy BMI range since then. Honestly, if I had known then what I know now, my weight loss would have been even faster because I would have trusted the system rather than second guessing myself every time the scales went the wrong way. Bootcamp definitely works and it will work for you. I prefer to use a weight loss app that averages your weight loss over the week, such as Happy Scale or True Weight as it makes it easier to deal with the inevitable ups as well as downs.