Jan 23 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 6 - just three weeks left!

[BIWI]

Morning all. Sorry for posting the thread late, but I slept in this morning. The perils of being retired!

As ever, here's the link to the spreadsheet

I hope you enjoyed the vegetarian meal challenge - I certainly did, and I loved making the aubergine, spinach and paneer curry inspired by @mimosa1.

So now we're in the last three weeks. Hopefully things have been going well, since we left behind weeks 3 & 4, and you've settled into a good routine, and have found different ways to deal with the temptation of the carbs.

This week, I'm after fish recipes. We don't tend eat much fish, which is something I feel bad about - but it's driven mainly by a poor choice in our local supermarket. So I tend to fall back on to salmon - which is fine, but I need a bit more inspiration. We do have a Waitrose not too far away, which has a fresh fish counter, so will look forward to any ideas!

Good luck for the next week

Morning all, thanks for the support yesterday when I was having a wobble. I didn’t give and feel much better already this morning.

Been for a run (wk5 run 2 of C2 5K - which I’m amazed I’ve stuck with!) and am at my desk. Off for a work lunch this afternoon too which I’m looking forward to.

Have already chosen my food in my head so no chance of getting swayed and have some chicken thighs in tomato in the slow cooker for tea to stop me from swinging by the co-op later for Friday night junk. #onit

I've been struggling with cravings a bit this week too, caused by being pre-menstrual, DDs eating lots of sweet stuff on half term, and not eating enough. The last is key though. I've realised that if I have yogurt for breakfast and salad for lunch, normally with cheese and salami, I'm hungry by late afternoon. So will be having an omelette for lunch today.

In other news, I cooked the aubergine & halloumi recipe that @DryWhiteagainW looked at the end of the last thread here. I don't have a frying pan that you can put in the oven so used a casserole dish instead. I think I should have left it a bit longer to really brown the halloumi but it was yummy.

Trained this morning. Full hour in pool - about 2.4km
Followed up session with cheese omelette and hot chocolate.
Feeling much better and less cravings!

@TheExistentialistCafé - thank you for all that information on statins, really appreciate it and all makes a lot of sense. I have researched the portfolio diet and sort of follow a lot of it already, have nuts and plant stenols but not in the quantity mentioned, eg, 25g nuts rather than 45g a day. My weight seems to be stable, not moving either way but I am in a healthy weight range, although according to my body composition scales I still have fat (which I can see on my stomach) its gone from 49% to 34% though and my visceral fat has gone from 16 (excessive) to 6 (adequate) I am not sure how my scales ready this though!

Im off for my weekend away in Bristol for my sons 30th, we are staying in Wick, a lovely farmhouse with the whippets, we are doing a 90s type of theme party tomorrow night, so went for the double denim look, complete with bucket hat (see cringey video of me below :) )

www.tiktok.com/@jennybreeden3/video/7200800621543410949

a bit late joining in this week ,
my fave fish meal is cod wrapped in Parma ham and fried in butter , delicious and easy with flgv

Loving the style and the dancing @Jenasaurus Yeah, that's very much my era, had a start of recognition then a sigh when I remembered it was 'fancy dress'. Sigh.

I am a bit older. I was born in 1965 but these clothes were an outfit treating on ASOS and I love them so will probably wear them. Maybe not together but I love the waistcoat and tried it on with my black trousers and a black t shirt under it and loved the look. I’m growing old but still love fashion xxx

Sigh. Was all set to have our fish meal tonight (after monthly grocery shop) but Storm Otto is having none of it! Not a chance that we’ll be going out in this carnage.

Love fish most when it’s done very simply as pp have already described, fried in butter or baked, but for a challenge I always feel like I should try a recipe I’ve not done before...

Also love fish stews/soups/tomato based dishes, have a favourite one from Two Hungry Italians (I think? It’s been a while since I’ve made it). However that one’s best had with freshly baked crusty bread so I definitely won’t be making that one just now!

Ought to check my Rick Stein books, and my Italian and French cook books too.

Realised I haven’t been posting food for quite a few days now! Generally keeping it light for lunch and a bit more substantial for dinner.

Yesterday’s lunch was Korean broth with mushroom, spring onion, Swiss chard and fluffy egg (plus chilli flakes, sesame oil and sesame seeds).

Dinner was a little heavier on the carbs but done mindfully for various reasons and will be my Lite day this week - two homemade falafel (about 5g each), plus a few small slices of roasted butternut squash (about 10g), some tahini yoghurt sauce and a little bit of leftover lamb. Had with a salad made with grated orange and purple carrot, cucumber, radishes and spring onion dressed with lemon and olive oil (about 10g), and a Turkish pickled chilli.

Not the best photo but it was a very pretty plate of food!

My favourite dinner this week was roast chicken leg in a Jerk marinade, had with stir fried veg (including a very small handful of petit pois which I had because I’m low on veg and had what I could find in the freezer to supplement scraps of veg in the fridge).

Loved it @Jenasaurus!

Getting older is no reason to give up loving clothing/fashion!

I’ve had to give up my very high heels for good as I just didn’t want to wear them anymore now that they’re no longer comfortable for my 47 year old feet; I do still get the odd pang of sadness when I see a glorious pair of heels...but I’m certainly not going to stop enjoying beautiful footwear or beautiful anything else, tbh!

Can i ask about carbs in veg?
I'm at the start of week 2
Should I be counting them?
Or not yet?

@Rollerbird As long as you follow @BIWI’s rules to the letter you don’t need to count at all. The plan is designed to be very easy and stress-free and do all the hard work for you.

I loosely count if I’m eating going off piste/having some of the higher carb veg (orange/red on the veg list) as it’s easy to go over sensible amounts. It’s important for me as I predominately eat LCHF to manage blood glucose levels as I’m diabetic. I also can’t/don’t want to be all that strict on what veg I eat for various reasons, so I don’t always follow BC rules exactly (but I’m not doing this for weight loss so there’s a bit of leeway).

Two weeks in you need to follow it strictly to get into/stay in fat melting mode. However even if you switch to lite there is no need to count carbs as long as you follow the rules.

HTH!

@Rollerbird - you don't ever need to count carbs on this WoE

What you do need to do is check on the appropriate tab on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness and concentrate on having the veg that are in the green category, green, with a moderate amount of the ones in the amber category and avoid (unless in very small amounts) the ones in the red category.

So from memory, things like spinach, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, avocado, brussels, swede, celeriac are all ok but sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, peas, parsnip, beetroot are not.

When you're out and about, sometimes you have to be a bit pragmatic about what you have, but at home concentrate on a FLGV (Fuck Load of Good/Green Veg)

@Rollerbird What ^^ they said!

We don't count carbs (or calories) on Bootcamp - and it's not a NO carb diet, it's a LOW carb diet. You should - as per Rule no 4 - be getting the majority of your carbs from veg/salad.

@Jenasaurus I'm ahem 1960 vintage

A great year, maybe just a bit slow in the fashion front 😀

Did anyone find it hard to get used to eating to appetite ? I'm not hungry, even a bit full feeling but I just want to put food in my mouth and enjoy the eating the taste and texture and process of chewing and swallowing.
Does that sound normal!?
Anyone else experience this? And how long does it take to go away?

Happy Friday night, all!!

Going to spend mine chilling in bed with DH.

Food today:

Lunch was a little bit of diced pancetta fried with lots of spring onion, mushroom and sprouts, with a fried egg.

Dinner was roast chicken with roast veg: purple and orange carrots, red onion, sprouts and radishes.

Going to have a decaf coffee with cream in a little while.

I made a fry up with white cabbage, leek, and mushrooms. I added 4 whisked eggs and made a frittata. Half for lunch. With mayo.
Had too much cheese snacking at work.
Loads of coffees with cream and about 4 pints of water

@Rollerbird

Anyone else experience this? And how long does it take to go away?

One of the breakthroughs in perception I had when starting bootcamp properly was how seldom I ever experience actual hunger.

Once you are through the first few weeks and know that you are burning fat rather than carbs, it's fun to just see how long it actually takes for true hunger to show up.

I had to laugh at all the 'reasons' my monkey brain could come up with, for eating.

Oops posted without actually including the useful info.

For me, 'how long it takes for 'fake' hunger to go away depends absolutely on how often you reinforce the feeling of 'hunger' by eating. The sooner you feel comfortable to notice that feeling of discomfort without satisfying it, ping. It's sorted.

Comes back in different circumstances but once you get the hang of sitting with the feeling it just gets easier and easier.

Yh @Rollerbird my mouth is often bored but tummy rarely hungry, but I do give in to the bored mouth when it nags and nags and nags. I need to ignore the nagging more often!

@Rollerbird appetite control/suppression is one of the greatest benefits of low carbing. When it first happened to me it was a massive revelation - the realisation that I no longer had to rely on willpower to stick to it was amazing.

And suddenly realising that people who 'fail' on their diets, being criticised for their lack of willpower, have simply been eating the wrong foods to try and lose weight. i.e. carbs. It's the carbs that - through the interplay of various hormones, most specifically the increase of insulin - that make us gain weight.

Morning all, off out for another meal
tonight. I know the restaurant well though and they do a fab steak which I’ll have with salad. If there are no LC starters, I’ll pass but I will have some wine and possibly a brandy coffee if others are having dessert. Love how this WOE is so easily navigated once you get your head round it.

It's been a busy week and haven't posted much, but have kept up with the thread and find it gives me a little motivational boost every day. Love the recipe ideas. Made a massive aubergine parmigiana this week which contributed to several meals and thinking it would work equally well with other veg replacing the aubergine - courgettes, leeks, even swede - parboiled or roasted first and cut into lasagne like slices?
Yesterday was boiled egg for breakfast. I continue to be amazed how satisfying it is compared to my old breakfast of muesli and FF milk - I was always starving by 11am. Now I often last til after 1pm. Lunch was cream of chicken soup and a chicken thigh, pan fried. Dinner, pan fried cod, last of the parmigiana, swede fries, broccoli and a glass of wine.
For the first time in ages, we're down to just me and dh at home for the weekend so we're planning a massive spring clean and fridge clear out. We know how to live in our house!

I came across this recipe today, by Marcus Wareing:

Mushrooms baked with eggs and tarragon

... which sounds worth a go!

Glad to be getting yet more inspiration from your recipes. Fish week has placed fresh tuna on my shopping order for a nicoise, some mixed fish for either a swede topped fish pie or a Mediterranean fish stew and oddly, as I don't normally like it, some lamb kebabs. Today I am making a keema curry with kale which is currently bubbling away. There will be cauli rice and some ffgy to go alongside. The red meat craving is currently real and unusual.