Jan '23 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 2 - how did you get on?!

[BIWI]

Evening all! I'm posting the week 2 chat thread this evening, as I know how keen everyone will be to post tomorrow. As I'm retired now, I no longer have to set an alarm to wake up, so I don't want to keep everyone waiting tomorrow morning to post.

I love this week. It's when we see how much people have lost, and it can be a significant amount. It can be a real leap of faith for anyone who hasn't low carbed before, and all those who really don't believe you can eat that much fat and still lose weight!

I'm really hoping that you've all had a good first week, and that your commitment 'to the cause' has been rewarded with a good result - be that on the scales, with your tape measure, or the currently-too-tight clothes that you've been trying on.

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I hope very much that you've had a good first week, and that you're feeling supermotivated for the rest of Bootcamp.

However - if you haven't lost, or you have even gained, please don't be downhearted. We're all different, and there may be lots of reasons why this is the case for you. It's also really important to note that it's not a competition. We all lose at different rates - plus, anyone who is bigger will lose more/faster than someone who is smaller.

Hopefully there are other benefits to this WOE that will keep you on track - at the very least, I hope that you have been enjoying the food, and that you don't feel deprived, like you would be on a low calorie/fat diet.

It's a revelation, isn't it @OldandTired66? So nice not to feel controlled by food/hunger.

[ducks @BIWI's big stick] Those that are triggered by bread, look away NOW.

I think it was @mimosa1 (apologies if it was someone else) who wanted to see how the scoring was done on my bread. These are before and after shots of the loaf I baked this morning. I score the oval and the dividing line twice to make it deeper and then snip with scissors all the way round the edges and snip a few times "into" the leaves. I have a lazy Susan (turntable) that makes it easier.

Over Christmas I made chocolate mousse with 85% Lindtt chocolate. It doesn't melt in quite the same way and has a tendancy to go hard when you add the egg yolks. But the end result was lovely. And it is very rich, so the quantitiy for 4 served 8.

Had crispy bacon, eggs, mushrooms for breakfast and will have mulligatawny soup for lunch actually just last night's veg curry blitzed up with some stock Going to the cinema later and then to my favourite restaurant. PILs are going through very challenging period, very old age is rather rubbish, so dh and I are very much in a phase of live for the moment, hence the cinema and restaurant trip on a very ordinary Sunday. We've also got lots of holiday booked over the next 18months - some together and some separate (he doesn't fancy a week of yoga and meditation, and I'm not keen on vertiginous trekking in Nepal). Carpe diem and eat all the fat!

I've saved the bacon fat from breakfast to use in cooking. I remember my mum had a little pot by the stove that all the fat went into.

@venusandmars - I also keep a jar into which to pour fat

I have a set of lovely lustre-glaze coffee (espresso) cups which I use for chocolate pots. I also have lovely really small coffee spoons (with a coffee bean on the end) which are perfect for eating them. They also look good for dinner parties, with the spoon on the saucer

Interested to spot the 4% of children obese in 1975. I was one of those children, our house was overloaded with sugar and chocolate, I can't explain why my parents did this.

By the 80s, I was a committed adolescent dieter/ calorie counter, aided by the aerobics craze and being autistic (I love numbers)

So, 50 years of a very complicated relationship with sugar and carbs, from when I was too young to make choices.

This last 2 weeks is the first time I've ever been "carb free" or rather low carb, not seeking food because of its starch content.
It is somewhat amazing that I can do without it, that I can learn to do without it. I'm learning complete new habits of shopping and cooking.

I got weighed this morning, because I'm not around to do so tomorrow, only. 0.4 lb gone, but previously this week I got weighed Wednesday, so it's only half a week. 7.2 lbs in total.
We're heading on holiday to Spain, self catering so I should be OK. Eating out, I tend to live on omelettes or goats cheese salad there anyway, good vegetarian choices.

It's cold there as well next week, maximum 10 degrees in the daytime, hard work as our apartment there isn't designed for cold weather. I think we'll be having the heaters on all day!

@BIWI I find this massively frustrating too, especially as they teach ‘carbs are king’ in the food pyramid they learn at DS’s primary school. He’s a stickler for rules, so we’ve had a few heated convos where he’s adamant we should eat more carbs and less protein / fat, especially as ‘all fat is bad’

I had a terrible relationship with food growing up, so have been determined not to pass that on, or body shame by talking fat on body = bad, but it’s a constant minefield! We try and couch it in keeping fit, and you can’t eat more than you burn in a typical week.

He knows im doing low carb atm - I basically told him I couldn’t do my trousers up any more due to Christmas food, and when you get to my age, it’s harder to burn off the excess energy (cake) so this helps kickstart it. To him that makes sense, and he finds it highly amusing that if I don’t my trousers may fall down as I can’t do them up (7 year old humour..)

@BIWI some people, like your trainer just cant be converted from their own way of thinking, hasnt he noticed the results in your own experience since following this path that backs it up? I have tried loads of diets in the past, calorie controlled, Low Fat, High Fibre, fasting etc and this is the only way of eating that actually works for me and is sustainable as a lifestyle choice, ignore him and keep on doing what you are doing, he may not listen to you, but all of us are x

Oh he knows all about me and low carbing and Bootcamp! He just doesn't really buy it, and I can see him glazing over whenever I start to talk about it

He doesn't really need to worry about his weight - although at times when he does put some on, calorie counting is what works for him. And he only has to do that very occasionally, so I sort of get it. His wife is a long-term Slimming World advocate, so they're both indoctrinated in the 'carbs are good' mindset.

I'm glad someone is listening to me though

I hate slimming world with a passion; all that complicated crap with hex a's and b's and having to count 'syns'. It seems to make people obsessive. I remember working in an office in my early 20's and there was a group of 7 or 8 women doing SW and it was all they talked about. For lunch, they'd bring in these cereal bars and cup a soups and I'd be thinking to myself Where's the protein? It just didn't seem healthy at all. And none of them managed to lose any significant weight in the 3 years i worked there.
Sorry if that seems like a really judgey post. I'm sure these sort of diets DO work for some people, but I seriously question the long term sustainability and how a diet that allows umlimited pasta can really be healthier than a diet based around unprocessed food.

Oh yes, I agree @MaryDoll84! And it always seem so unnecessarily complicated.

Lunch was disappointing. I went for the sea bass with hollandaise sauce and asked for extra veg instead of the potatoes. I didn’t feel weird as our friends also dieting (slimming world )…..but the food was tasteless and the fish dry which annoys me when paying. Oh well walk was lovely.

Find your full fat yogurt soul mate here http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/lowcarbb_bootcamp/4718643-find-your-full-fat-yogurt-soul-mate-here

This thread should help! I'm not sure I have a definite answer but there's definitely some at 10g fat and 3.7g of carbs as as benchmark.

@DryWhiteagainW Tbh we never go out anymore for that reason*. So much of what you get just isn't worth the money! Especially if you're a reasonably good cook.

*Well we do, but we tend to go out once, maybe twice a year. Spending a lot more in one go for a much higher grade experience is the only way we find it worth it, these days. Appreciate that we're out in the middle of nowhere so it's not like we have London choice...

Lots of time on my feet this weekend which has been good. I've not eaten any bread/potato/rice or any pudding/cakes etc, and no alcohol! I did eat fairly freely at the Chinese last night though (with the exception of no rice) so not expecting miracles tomorrow. Smoked salmon/eggs/avo for breakfast and some lovely pork/mushrooms/eggs for a very late lunch so hopefully that will do me, maybe a bit of yogurt later if I'm hungry when we eventually get home.

The pool is closed at my gym this week for repairs disappointingly, should try to fit something else in.

Everyone looking like they have really gotten into it now!

@prettybird that bread looks divine!

I fell off the wagon temporarily due to feeling really awful the last few days. Felt a bit better today so took Iris for a walk on the beach when all hell broke loose.... she ran and jumped in a lake, I panicked and ran after her to save her, slipping and landing on my back. Stopped breathing and lost consciousness for a short period and frightened the hell out of DH and DS! I'm ok now but very achey and stiff!

I'm completely drawing the line under this week and forgetting it ever happened, for my own sanity!

Onwards and downwards from now on🤣

Tangled I agree. Feel sorry for the hospitality business though, it’s been so tough over the last few years.

Yes that’s my one reservation, pardon the pun. I do feel a bit bad that we’re not putting money into the local economy that way. But with everything else, including eggs/milk/dairy delivery and all of our meat which comes from the farm shop, plus small gifts for nieces/nephews/daughters/ILs from local independent shops, we do.

The thing I have noticed about Slimming World (the one diet I have never tried) but my friends have in the past. I see their certificates for losing weight and hitting targets, they look good, and then a few months down the line they are back on it again, now I know that happens with all diets but isnt it supposed to train you to eat better for ever more, allowing the odd treat but on the whole managing and maintaining your weight. LC is the only eating pattern that reduces cravings permanently and easy to follow, all be it by ensuring your main bulk of intake is protein and green veg, or berries instead of bananas etc, once you get the removal of cravings and hunger for the wrong reasons, then snacking will cease and over eating will stop, I am still new to this, (nearly 7 months) but I have not been on any other eating regime that has left me happy to continue indefinitely before.

@ZiggZagg that sounds awful! I hope you’re ok now.

I did SW, successfully in so far as I lost weight while on it. I think if you follow the broad intention of it, it’s quite good. Focus on lots of veg, good amount of protein and dairy, admittedly more carbs than we would think appropriate, and a controlled amount of “other”. But the culture is all about finding loopholes, over eating, relying on processed food (especially brands which pay for features in the SW magazine…). Nothing about learning about what food does to you, cooking, examining your relationship with food, controlling your hunger and portions, etc.

@ZiggZagg
What!
Horrific!
Give Iris a massive cuddle and take it easy.

OMG @ZiggZagg that sounds awful. Not surprised you're feeling a bit achey.

Today was weigh in day for me and I’m exactly the same as last week and the week before. So no loss for three weeks. Feeling a teeny bit demoralised now.

@ZiggZagg oh my goodness how terrifying!!

With regards to Slimming World. I did it nearly a decade ago and the amount of muller lights, pasta and sauce eurghh the processed stuff they push is horrible.

I don't know if this is a keto thing or coincidental but I've had terrible pain over my sternum area the last couple of days.
Tender to touch, sore if I cough or breathe in.
I'm a hcp so I know it isn't cardiac related.
At the moment I'm torn between I have a chest infection on the way
Or gallbladder potentially.

Has anyone ever had gallbladder problems switching to high fat?
I'm off to the GP tomorrow (if I can get through on the phone gah) anyway, just pondering.

Oh no @ZiggZagg that sounds so scary! Take it easy!
I have managed to convince DH about low carb over the years, but not his parents or mine. I'm always gutted when I visit and there's margarine and low fat yoghurt in the fridge and cake on offer even though at least one out of both sets of parents has type 2 diabetes and problems with feet/eyes.

Take it easy @ZiggZagg !