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 )

Thanks for the response, my original diet was sticking to under 130g of carbs a day and 1200 calories, I gave up potatoes, rice, pasta and bread but did have porridge and berries for breakfast each day, I also only have 2 meals a day so sort of combined with intermittent fasting, although I did allow snacks of cashews, almonds etc as long as within my limit. I found by stopping eating at 5 and not having breakfast until 9 it helped my digestion, I have followed this as was diagnosed with diabetes and followed the advice on the diabetes forum, which is a similar diet to this one, although not the first 2 weeks and I was allowed red wine and dark chocolate as a treat. So I am guessing I am sort of following a similar path but without the treats and porridge (now have yoghurt and no berries)

@UnfinishedBusiness the packs state new recipe! No longer carb free!

Thanks everyone! 😊

I think I was upset about the numbers since that was the only way I felt it was making a difference. I still feel quite bloated, and the clothes I'm hoping to get into still feel tight, so the weight going down (or staying the same), made me feel all the effort is paying off.

However, I'm completely over that, and carrying on with full trust in the process. Apart from everything else, this is the most amount of veggies I've had in a long time and I know everything I'm putting inside myself and that makes me feel so good.

I'm actually pretty much repeating meals everyday since it takes away all the stress of planning and shopping. I'll try new things on the weekends when I have more time and shop for the new week accordingly.

@Rayna37 30-40 mile leisure ride with coffee stop in the middle. I normally have a banana. Cheese is a good call, though. Will try that next time, thanks 🙂.

@Skiphopbump thanks for posting the pics. I wouldn’t have bothered checking it if I’d ordered some of those. Looking at these Thai ones I’ve got they were manufactured after the noodles you have, so maybe (she says with fingers crossed) they will stay with the old ingredients. Probably not though, so I’ve ordered a pack of 15 from Amazon. Will keep him happy a bit longer😂

B - coffee and cream
L - 3 egg & 1/2 avocado salad with drizzle of olive oil
S - 6 mini sausages
D - will be chicken breast baked in butter, stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in Parma ham. Served with buttery leeks and broccoli.

I usually drink 3.5 - 6 litres of water a day anyway so water consumption is fine for me. I’m making sure I have at least 4.5 litres a day at the moment.

@UnfinishedBusiness looking on the eat water website there are different types - some are zero carb and others aren’t. The description on Ocado state they are keto friendly but I would say the ones I bought aren’t.

Hello everyone, been lurking so far so thought I should join in. I have pcos and hoping this will help me loose some excess weight and kick-start my periods again so we can ttc later this year. I'm enjoying this woe and not missing the white carbs yet. I do miss fruit though and diet coke, but sparkling water is helping with that. Loving the meal ideas people have mentioned.

Today's meals:
B: Greek style yog
L: brocoli stilton soup
D: frittata using up christmas cheese and sad veg in the fridge

Can I ask if the mini sausages are the pre cooked party range, I love those but wasnt sure if anything is added to make them not suitable

@CarbyLite why only a 'drizzle' of olive oil?! And also, did you check the carbs of those sausages? Sometimes the mini ones are really carby.

Welcome @littleegghead, and thank you for not lurking!

Afternoon everyone.

Headache gone today so that's good. I got my period this morning so I'm wondering if my weight was so high on Monday because of that? I guess we'll find out on the next weigh in.

B: 10% yogurt
L: chicken ceaser salad
D: pork steaks with kale.

I was starving when I got in so had dinner early, I generally try not to eat after dinner but might have to have an egg later to tie me over.

Oooo Cheese snack for the bike ride sounds perfect - I'll try that too after a run as usually also one who grabs a banana.

Thai green chicken curry for tonights dinner - chicken breast, courgette, broccoli and mange tout. DH and the kids will have egg fried rice, I'll just have a bowl full of the curry.
Haven't hit my water intake target today, been in meetings so haven't had chance to refill so got 1.5l to go tonight now!

Trying kale sprinkled with oil and Chinese five spice and roasted for approx 7 mins til crispy ( it does say add sugar but I’m skipping that bit )
I will update later

i have just made a mushroom soup , it was delicious , as a pp said , I always forget how much I like home made soup
tbh when I have tinned soup I always feel awful afterwards

hi to all the delurkers ,
and to the pp who gets up due to insomnia in the night and raids the fridge , would a butter mint tea instead help you ?

Eaten yoghurt for breakfast today and had chicken with a curry sauce and lots of veg for lunch, will have some cheese for dinner. Black coffee and peppermint tea helping me through the day, oh and my fibregel :) I am expecting a weight loss this week from that alone

@FairlyOddmother if you're hungry then eat more! Your body is used to a frequent intake of carbs and it isn't getting that so it isn't really hunger so much as carb cravings. We do these two strict weeks to switch over to fat metabolism where you have free access to your body's fat stores and that's where the hunger will subside. When we eat a "normal" carb intake, our insulin levels are high and that shuts the gates on the fat cells and keeps the fat inside. When we eat low carb, insulin levels drop and the gates on the fat cells open allowing free fatty acids to float out into your bloodstream to be used as an energy source. But it takes time, days to a couple of weeks, to switch from carb metabolism to fat metabolism. If you're hungry, eat as many low carb snacks as you feel you need and wait for your hunger levels to naturally drop.

Lunch: roasted butternut squash with a few seeds and some feta, boiled egg.
Then went to a meeting that was catered and ate 2 cookies - why does my mind equal free food = no calories/carbs?!? What a prat. Luckily , catered meetings almost never happen (I work in a school).

Dinner: spinach cooked with butter, in a little baking dish, egg broken on top, creme fraiche, stock, garlic and cheese heated to make a sauce, then baked in oven. Smells good.

@OldandTired66 I think my go-to snack for a bike ride would be a chunk of cheese (Babybels or cheddar that comes in pre-packed chunks) and a Peperami or similar. The South African shop near me sells amazing biltong that would be perfect if you could get something like that. If you are buying biltong or jerky make sure to check the carb counts as they can be really sugary. My son makes his own jerky in the oven from thinly sliced steak and it's delicious.

@BIWI is cooking with alcohol ok as the alcohol would be burnt off. I saw this recipe while looking at the sausage mushroom recipe above

sweetcsdesigns.com/wp-json/mv-create/v1/creations/488/print?ajax=true

MEYER LEM

INGREDIENTS
1 small package, about 12-15 individual spears-
2 tbsp ghee, butter, olive oil or other fat
1 meyer lemon, sliced thin
1/4 cup dry vermouth, sub stock or ginger ale if you don't cook with wine
salt, pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat your cast iron on medium heat until warm.
Add oil/butter and heat until melted or shimmery, just a few seconds.
Toss broccolini in pan on medium high heat until it starts to soften and brown- about 5 minutes.
Salt and pepper liberally, add lemon slices- continue sauteeing while occasionally tossing to prevent from burning another 5 minutes.
Carefully add vermouth (there will be a large WOOSH of steam when adding liquid to the pan- be safe!) and heat, occasionally tossing vegetables to ensure they dont burn.
When vermouth has cooked off, remove from stove and plate.
Serve hot and enjoy.

@lbnblbnb just beware that butternut squash is in the red zone on the veg carb counter! It's 8.3g per 100g, so can get pretty carby pretty quickly.

@SpottyBumPony I think if it's only 1/4 cup, presumably between 4 people, that you don't need to worry too much about that

Thanks @BIWI I think I need to print the veg carb thing and stick it up in the kitchen.

@Jenasaurus & @BIWI They were Tesco Finest Pork Cocktail Sausages. There are 3.4g carbs in six of them. I won’t have them all the time but they are an easy snack to keep in the fridge that isn’t cubes of cheese or for when I’m not hungry for a full meal but could pick at a few things. I also hard boiled some eggs today for that reason too.

It was a biggish drizzle of oil on my salad - I’ve never had dressings or oils on salads so I’m still getting used to the texture of it (autistic here). I always had salad plain/dry.

One thing I'm finding hard to understand is how much the carb content can vary between different supermarket brands.
Edamame beans for example.. I was looking at a fresh tub in M&S today that was 2.5g carbs per 100g but at tesco they are 5.3g/100g.
And the frozen ones are 3.8g in sainsburys but 6.5g in asda for the same amount.
I mean, they are the exact same single ingredient so how can it differ so much?
Same with frozen butternut squash.
Asda 8.4g per 100g
Tesco 4.3g per 100g.
So that's almost half. Am I missing something here??🤔

That's interesting @MaryDoll84 I wonder if they're counting differently.

I felt much better today after feeling headachy yesterday. Ate a bit more fat and made my own lunch. I'd bought some quail eggs as a posh treat but if anyone has any tips on how to peel them, please share as they made me late leaving - definite first world problems!

Thanks also for the cauliflower soup recipes, am WFH for the rest of the week so am keen to try.

B: Greek yogurt with cream
L: mozzarella salad with quail eggs!
S: Babybel
D: sea bass with lots of veg

A bit headachey , so having another ( yet another ) glass of water
Mixed meals today , not terribly good , but the fridge was a bit bare of veg so made do
B Greek yoghurt with double cream and cinnamon ( was ok , but I felt something was missing , I know it will be better in a couple of weeks with the granola )
L Mushrooms with fried eggs and truffle oil
D Homebaked ham , celariac mash , leek , broccoli and cauli with the infamous cheese sauce

Can someone help with a recipe please ( I’ve looked through the recipe thread and can’t find it )
I was on a Bootcamp a couple of years ago , and there was a recipe for airfryer dirty celariac fries , I’ve got an airfryer now and want to try it !