Jan '23 Low Carb Bootcamp: we come to the end of the first half!

[BIWI]

Morning campers

Here's the spreadsheet

So this week marks the end of the first half - doesn't time fly when you're having fun?!

Remember that this week is still renowned as a tricky one in terms of weight loss, so if things have slowed down or stopped (or even reversed) for you, don't panic. Just KOKO - remembering the water, fat and veg in particular.

Re the statins @MotherBuckets, I'm not a medic - so if your GP has advised them, it would be irresponsible of me to warn against them (especially with your family history). But as you say, it will be interesting to see what happens as a result of low carbing (although it will be difficult to attribute any improvement to either diet or medication, I suppose). And hopefully your results will be good @Jenasaurus

@JanieRead - apart from the noodles! - why don't you list out for me your menus over the last few days, and let's see if there's something we can spot that might help you

Thanks StuntNun I’ll keep doing what I’m doing then, sticking to BC.
I’ve suggested that DH and I go to a local Brazilian BBQ for valentines. Lots of meat and unlimited salad bar, thinking this will work on BC?

I love artichokes dipped into vinaigrette.

@katesbushh I'd go for all the mediterranean foods - anchovies, artichokes, lamb kofta with tzatsiki, sundried tomatoes with mozzerella, salads, olives, raisted vegetable, tortilla. Then a lemon posset. And a cheeseboard.

@pinknsparkly maybe suddenly stopping the caffeine is having an impact? A tiny expresso shot might help things along. Just once to get things moving again?

Food today:
B - coffee (late in the morning) with cream
L - lamb koftas with tsatsiki and salad
D - cod and chorizo bake, scallop wrapped in bacon with lemon, green beans, turnip and kale gratin/dauphinoise

Good day and looking forward to the weekend! Breakfast was FFGY with stewed plums again. Had some leftover curry sauce with mushrooms and eggs for lunch (bit random but tasty) then some yogurt and LC granola. Had meatballs for dinner in a tomato red onion and red pepper sauce with mozzarella and Parmesan- bought meatballs but made the rest, served in kale. Was lush!

Oh and 1/3 of a bottle of red wine!

@janasaurus you went from a size 24 to a 10?! You must be a dertermination / will power maven. Wow! May I ask how long it took / whether it was mostly LCHF that got you there?

@pinknsparkly when i was pregnant and having similar issues, my midwife recommended eating a kiwi whole, like an apple. It's really the skin that does it - i imagine all those little hairs like a brush for your insides. It certainly works. Only one kiwi shouldn't be too carby and the next day - wowza.

Odd sort of day today. My knees and feet are really sore and aching. I have arthritis but having lost (very nearly) 4 stone over the last year, it's been much better. I'm such BC has helped too to cut down the inflammation.

But today I'm sore and I'm not sure why. I haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary, or done a lot of exercise. Hopefully it'll pass soon! I'm hoping to go out cycling tomorrow 🚴

Today's food:
B: nothing
L: cheese omelette, lots of salad with dressing. A square of 85% chocolate
D: chicken with 'pizza' topping, asparagus, avocado, mushrooms fried in butter.

Water (glug, glug) 💦 all the water.

@StuntNun Thank you for recommending the magnesium supplements you used - they've arrived and I've just started taking them. I'm still getting the odd leg cramps so hoping they improve things. May I ask, if anyone knows, are the a sign any harm is being done vs. Just being a bit sore? They're not overly painful at all, I just want to check it's not anything damaging.

I should add, I've googled and doesn't really seem like anything to worry about. Good weekend to all. Thanks.

@mimosa1
Nothing to worry about in my experience.
I get them while swimming distances quite a lot. I eat a banana and/or take a vitamin pill and they go!

@mimosa1
I know they are a bit scary when you get them though!
My foot goes into some crazy shapes.

Morning, not posted much this week. My husband and I are off to Tenerife this morning. A whole week, just us! We've never done this before. We are all inclusive and I'm determined to stick to plan. I will be drinking alcohol but going to stick to white wine or gin. I sneakily weighed before I left the house and another lb off this week. Trying to remember to drink enough water will be a challenge for me.

Morning everyone, struggling with a real loss of appetite while still feeling hungry here. Just forcing down some yogurt and cream as I know I need to eat something but just don't know what. Going to see if a fry up will tempt me at lunchtime and lord knows what tea will be later.

Day off exercise here too which is most welcome. I'm really achy this week but determined to keep going with C25k (one run left of week 3 for tomorrow).

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend, bit grey looking here but definitely getting lighter and not feeling as cold. We're off to visit PILs this aft so will need to avoid the inevitable sea of cakes and biscuits. I swear they think I'm a terrible wife and mother for starving their poor boys of sugar

Very inspired and motivated by the huge weight losses, @Lucienandjean and @Jenasaurus and really beginning to believe I can get there with this WOE. Imagine 4 stone lighter this time next year! Breakfast was a boiled egg, lunch plan is red pepper and tomato soup with a swirl of cream and a side dish of chicken thigh fried to crispy skin-ness. Dinner, chicken tandoori, experimenting with bombay potato, replacing potato with swede and steamed vegetables. Crispy kale for snacking. I leave a bowl on the side and pick at it it all day. Keeps me out of the fridge and biscuit cupboard.

Morning all.

Came across this link today, for a load of slow cooker recipes.

Like many, I'm trying to use my oven less and my slow cooker more, and some of these recipes certainly look worth a try.

(They're not all necessarily low carb, but might inspire you to create something that is low carb)

Also to share another favourite of mine, which I've enjoyed over the last couple of Covid-filled days, as it's a very comforting dish. It's a sort-of take on Eggs Mornay, which is very much a 50s/post-war favourite - something my mum used to make a lot when I was a child.

Baked, cheesy eggs
Serves 1

Ingredients are straightforward - 2 hard-boiled eggs, full fat Greek yoghurt or full fat cottage cheese, grated mature cheddar

• peel and halve the eggs, and place them yolk-side up in a small baking dish (a terracotta/tapas-style one is perfect)
• dollop a spoonful of yoghurt or cottage cheese on top of each egg, and spread out to roughly cover the surface of the eggs
• season with freshly ground black pepper
• cover with a generous handful of grated cheddar
• put under a hot grill for about 10 minutes, until the cheese is browning nicely

I like the sound of baked cheesy eggs @BIWI, thank you. Our hens are laying well and I'm struggling to keep up with them so any egg recipes are particularly welcome!

I might not weigh in on Monday but I got on the scales again today. I'd been feeling like I'd stalled (and this isn't week 4 for me as I stayed LC between bootcamps this time). The scales are moving, however, so I think it's just the loss is slower now that I have less to lose and my mind is playing tricks on me. I've lost alot of hair recently and my hairdresser suggested I have my thyroid checked so whilst I'm waiting for a test I've decided to ease off a little bit on some days only. Is there any advice about how frequently is best e.g. a slight increase every day or a less frequent but higher (healthy) carb day every couple of weeks?

That sounds like an interesting recipe @BIWI I used to hate egg mornay, but probably because there wasn't very much cheese in it. I will obviously rectify that when I make it! I do like cheese stuffed eggs. It was the first dish we learnt to make in cookery classes at secondary school.

Boiled eggs, halfed. Scoop out the yolks and mash with grated cheese and mayonnaise, put the resulting mix back into the hollow of the eggs.

Of course it was the 70's when I learnt, so the recipe used salad cream rather than mayo, and it was piped back into the eggs, lightly dusted with paprik and garnished with a sprig of parsley. We know how to cook for a dinner party in those days 😂

My local fishmonger had cod roe, so late breakfast was cod roe, bacon and scrambled eggs (another dish from my childhood).
Dinner is slow cooked lamb shank with celeriac and leek mash, green beans and turnip-and-kale-cheesy-bake.

Went to a community meeting about a local flooding issue and I resolutely avoided all the home made cakes that people had brought.

Devilled eggs was something else my mum used to make - it's a very similar recipe to yours.

You mash the yolks with mayonnaise, curry powder and mango chutney. Then dust with either cayenne or paprika.

(Mango chutney isn't especially Bootcamp-friendly, but you don't need to use a lot)

BIWI I love my slow cooker so will definitely check these recipes out, thank you for the link

Devilled eggs always look so fancy, especially when they're piped, but I've never made them. Deffo going to give them a try at some point.

Quiet on here this weekend - hope you're all behaving And remembering to drink all the water!

I've been ok but did end up drinking an entire bottle of wine last night for the first time this year. I was only going to have a couple of glasses then one thing led to another... Food was all on point though and thankfully I'm not feeling too bad this morning.

Just waiting for my shopping to arrive and will then head out for a walk with the pooch, swirly followed by my last C25K run of the week. Any remaining cobwebs should be firmly blown away after that!

Food plan - might finally get to have shakshuka for lunch after putting it on the menu a million times recently and never having time to make the sauce. Tea will be pulled pork, HM coleslaw, salad

Oh I love devilled eggs, used to have them a lot back in the day! Thanks for reminding me, I might have some today. No one mentions the egg in a cup thing much anymore - mashed up with butter or something like that.

We had a lovely day yesterday, went to see PIL and B/SIL and ended up going out for a late tapas lunch. I had two glasses of sangria which wouldn’t have been the best from LC perspective but not the worst either. Otherwise everything was great for this WOE - a very tasty warm winter salad with a gorgeous beetroot purée, hake and vegetable stew, pickled sardines, charred pardon peppers, and one little potato croquette.

Dinner was Japanese chicken broth with cabbage, carrot, spring onion and two eggs.

Had a glass of wine, a small piece of chocolate and some peanuts in the evening. Won’t have any more alcohol for a while now, and will drink lots of water today!

Have a happy Sunday everyone! Hope you’re feeling better @BIWI!

@TangledWebOfDeception I love egg in a cup with loads of butter. It's a real comfort food.
I'm feeling very pleased with myself. All inclusive holiday and I've not touched any bread/chips/pastries or anything sweet. I did have one tiny potato last night as they looked so good. Lots of salad with every meal, including breakfast! My only concern is the tonic isn't low calorie so I'm counteracting it with being very strict with my carb intake through food. Lots of water too! This is the first time ever I've stuck to a diet on holiday and it's so easy!

Another fan of eggy peggy egg in a cup mashed with butter. Just what's needed today after a very poor night's sleep.

@BonnieBairn well done on sticking to this woe on holiday, I'm off in 2 weeks time and will to the same with the aim of returning home lightly tanned, well rested, and svelte! In general I find that boot camp rules make eating out so much easier, there are always lovely things that can be eaten so there's not a feeling of deprivation.

@TangledWebOfDeception sangria, potato croquette, beetroot, wine, chocolate, peanuts - all in the same day? I know from experience that my body (yours will of course be different) doesn't tolerate that much deviation very well, particularly if everything else I'm eating is high fat. I often prefer just to stick with strict bootcamp because I can so easily find the things we can have 'in moderation' creeping in immoderately.

B - Eggs mashed in butter
L - Muligatawny soup with left over lamb
D - Portobello mushroom pizza

I'm also going to make cheese and almond muffins to have throughout the week.

I’m pretty good at judging what I can cope with. Firstly because this isn’t about weight loss for me but about long-term low carbing for health reasons.

My yardstick is that anything vegetable/legume I will have a little bit if I’m in a situation where it’s a one-off: potatoes/lentils/beetroot/whatever.

Tapas comes in tiny portions and the croquette was a hollow fried ball filled with a tiny amount of mash, about teaspoon sized. The beetroot purée, again, was less than a tablespoon’s worth, a little of which I had as a dressing on a few bites of vegetable salad. The nuts were about 30g, and the chocolate was two squares, mostly hazelnut. Given that DH and I go out to eat once, maybe twice a year, I’m not going to not have a little bit of perfectly healthy things I fancy.

I don’t eat fruit/nuts daily or have a daily square of chocolate or anything like that so on days where I go Lite I’m happy that overall it will balance out. I don’t see having a very small portion of something like potato as falling off the wagon by any means. Falling off the wagon, for me, is anything like baked sweets, pasta, pizza, bread, rice, sugary things.

Perhaps I’ll show a gain or STS on the scales tomorrow. But given I’m eating this way for the rest of my life that’s really neither here nor there!

@BIWI if that’s too much carbs in one day for me to be able to still claim BC ‘membership’ I’m happy to bow out as I certainly don’t want to influence others negatively to not follow the rules. I post here because it keeps me on track but perhaps it’s taking others off track?

@venusandmars thanks! I've not felt deprived at all which is great. The veg is all so fresh a delicious as well so loading up on salad feels like a treat!

@BonnieBairn your holiday sounds fab! LC really does lend itself well to holiday eating. Well done on swerving - it does still take an active choice!