Jan '23 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 7 - almost there ...

[BIWI]

Morning all!

As ever, here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

So we only have two weeks to go before the end of this Bootcamp. Still time to shed a pesky pound or two, especially if you're super strict. Perhaps for these last two weeks you might consider doing full-on Bootcamp, rather than Bootcamp Light?

And now for a challenge. One that I know that not everyone will relish! (Looking at you @venusandmars ). Exercise! This is main/partly for me, as I've missed several of my PT gym sessions over the last month - a combination of him being away and me having guests and/or social events. And I've been very lax about going to the gym during the week.

So the challenge - it doesn't have to be much, if you don't do any now, and it doesn't have to be every day. But see if you can fit in at least one form of exercise this week - be that a walk or an intensive HIIT session. For me, I need to get back to my deadlifts, as I'm working to beat my PB.

Therefore I'm going to get to the gym at least once, and I'm also going to get myself out and go for a walk. I love this time of the year when things are budding and starting to flower, and I have a few podcasts to catch up on too.

Good luck!

That tartiflette looks amazing @BIWI! No pancakes for us either yesterday. Smashed the exercise challenge with a 40 mile e-bike ride today (roughly equivalent to 30 miles without a battery). Egg for breakfast, a few nuts mid bike ride, picky lunch (streaky bacon, chicken, cheese, olives, yellow pepper) for very late lunch at 3pm, chicken curry and cauli rice for tea. Still terrible with the water intake 😬. So far today coffee, about 1/2L water on ride, massive starbucks coffee mid ride, glass of water, coffee, coffee, then will drink another glass water with dinner so estimating about 2.250L and thats a good day. How does everyone do it!

Exciting hearing about the exercise, well done to everyone. I need to make more of an effort. I like gardening for exercise but at this time of year there's not much to do, though hopefully in a few weeks it'll be time to start clearing out the old foliage that's been sheltering plants and creatures over the winter.

Also in the impromptu IF camp (but not because of the dentist @BIWI, how horrible for you ) because of a particularly busy day and not realising until 3.30 that I'd not eaten. Have since made up for it with a whole block of halloumi coated in tandoori spices and fried in beef dripping, served on a mound of buttery shoogled shredded cabbage and courgette. Opened a packet of 6 scottish oatcake crackers, had the first two (with lots of butter)...and binned the other 4 because I realised they weren't very nice (not my usual brand) and I wasn't enjoying them as much as I'd hoped/expected.

My plans to join in the exercise challenge (walking for me) have been thrown into disarray by a foot injury that's left me non-weight bearing on my right foot. Which is fun with a toddler who insists on being carried by mummy whenever I'm home...!

My husband is out this evening so I've used the freedom to batch cook a mega pork bolognaise (I reckon somewhere between 8 and 10 portions) and also cooked off the meat and onions to make the cheese burger pie tomorrow (again somewhere around 10 portions). Have never made either before so I hope they're at least edible given the quantity I've made 😉

I hadn't appreciated just HOW MUCH CHEAPER full fat mince is compared to the "healthy" lower fat stuff. I was going to do something with lamb mince but changed my mind when I saw the price. Then I wandered over to the minced beef "aisle" (I was online shopping) to have a nosey at those prices 😮I've never noticed before as I've always used full fat mince and tend to shop mostly from my favourites list first before searching for other items! But wow, the price difference between 5% and 20% fat is insane!!

@Skiphopbump how did you calculate the calories from exercise? The swimming doesn't sound right at all I'm afraid. I take all "calories burned" with a big pinch of salt and certainly don't expect to be able to eat the deficit but my leisurely half hour of breaststroke only burns (according to my Garmin) about 130-140 cals! That's swimming at one mile per hour (which is half or even 1/3 of what a competent swimmer would do in that time, though my heart rate is not getting very high at all). I use an 18m pool and do 45 lengths. It would be about 32 in a standard 25m pool.

In contrast running for me burns about 100 cals per mile. Very high heart rate. Generally under 300 cals for a 30 minute parkrun. If I use a treadmill the calcs come out pretty similar.

Obviously different size and starting point so there could be a good bit of variance but do be cautious. I don't think I could do 15 mins on a rowing machine so well done, it's all good for us and swimming is a great complement to bootcamp I think.

@Rayna37 I’m using an Apple Watch but I’ve miscalculated 😊as I used the default 25m pool when in fact it’s 17m - I did think I was burning a lot! Shall set it properly when I go late…….

@OldandTired66 I use these litre bottles. If you follow the times on the side that’s 2 litres between 8am and 7pm. I usually start the day with two herbal teas, then chug through two of these bottles, plus more herbal teas in the even. To be honest if I fill these I tend to drink them before the times and can have a third but if I don’t fill these I tend not to drink anywhere near as much. Today it’s full of Bovril for my dog walk.

@NotDonna I'm the same, if I don't use my water bottle then I forget to drink water. Doesn't matter if I'm at home or work.

I'm off work just now so had a very odd but yummy breakfast. Salad tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil and salad leaves. All drizzled with olive oil and salt & pepper.

Lunch is a stir fry cooked in olive oil and tea is pan fried salmon with buttery cabbage and leeks.

Afternoon everyone! 🌻 Lovely sunshine here today, which is very much welcome!

Had breakfast today...not sure how I feel about it but will persevere for a while. Conscious that it may be better to stick with no breakfast/take the more strict fasting approach given my age! Will see how I do over the next few days to a week. I do also take quite a long time to adjust to changes in routine, so it could just take some time for it to feel normal and natural.

Small glass of beetroot juice with a teaspoon of potato starch. 2 egg omelette with butter. Decaf coffee with cream.

Lunch will be a lovely big tuna salad with tomato, cucumber, radish, lettuce, spring onion, capers, olives, parsley and vinaigrette dressing. Followed by a very small portion of peanuts.

Dinner will be chicken soup using the stock made with and meat from the roasted carcass I did after removing the breasts we had for dinner the other night (the legs were removed too and frozen for another time); with a bit of everything thrown in - off the top of my head I’ve got leeks, carrot, celery, curly kale, mushrooms, beansprouts. Will add pasta to DH’s portion.

Got up today and decided then that whilst I'm not being super strict generally (not much to lose) I was not going to have any bread today because I'd been a bit less strict yesterday and I don't want it to become a pattern. Fast forward to lunchtime and I had a big vegetable omelette and then thought "actually, a small piece of bread with butter isn't really a big deal at this stage, it'll be fine."

I've realised that this is what used to be the start of a slide back to bad habits. I used to kid myself that eating a small piece of bread was a reasonable choice and one I was making after consideration (ditto the second small piece!). I see now that if I start the day having consciously decided not to eat any, then persuade myself later that it's actually OK, it's just a loss of control. This is quite a new realisation for me.

Had a plum with some clotted cream instead and will KOKO.

I went back to the pool wearing my watch again, this time with the pool length set correctly- was surprised again by the mammoth amount of calories used! I’m just using it as a guide to know when to intensify or increase my work out.

Early start to take ds to the station, but time for a coffee before zoom yoga, today's exercise challenge. Off piste last night with two glasses of fizz but probably made the fluid intake target with a massive pot of lemon grass and ginger tea. Thanks @NotDonna for tips, I shall start carrying the stuff around with me, it's the only way 💧💧💧 😁. On the NSV front, found a collar bone 💃🏻.

Hello to old and tired’s collarbone 👋🏼
I had a hideous conversation with a deputy head at DD2s school yesterday. It didn’t go well. DD very upset and tearful - never cries. I had wine. Then couldn’t sleep. Awake at 3am with palpitations, hot sweat and big lump in my chest. My mind going over and over the issues Feel quite down this morning. DD2 couldn’t sleep either and it’s her final mock this morning. I’m meeting a friend for afternoon tea (with some of her friends that I don’t know). I’m going but I’m really not in the mood. I’ll walk the dog in a minute and hopefully that’ll help. Not sure how afternoon tea will work with BC 🙄

@NotDonna I’m so sorry to hear about the difficult meeting. A couple of years ago I was having meetings with DS school and the LA that left me feeling the way you describe, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I hope your DD does well in her mocks.

That sounds horrible @NotDonna . Hope your DD's mock goes OK.

We went to the Cezanne exhibition at Tate Modern yesterday, which was great (apart from too many other people!), and had lunch afterwards. Although I'd checked the menu beforehand, it was slightly different when we got there, which was a bit irritating.

Starter was burrata with walnuts, medjool dates, and salsify - I was a bit disappointed when I checked the carb count of salsify to find it was actually quite high - at around 8-10g carbs per 100g. It's a very bland vegetable, so I made the (clearly wrong!) assumption that it would be lower. I knew that the dates would be higher - there's a reason they're used in Sticky Toffee pudding - but there weren't many of those.

Main course was beef shin daube with bone marrow, roscoff onion, gruyere, chard and polenta. I managed to swerve most of the polenta so overall it wasn't too bad.

But it was a good way to finish the exhibition visit.

My brother and SIL arrive this afternoon, staying till Sunday, so there's a lot of eating out to be done. Hopefully I can navigate those menus well/better!

Happy weekend everyone

A walk in the forest has helped me shake off some of the negative energy. I’m now making shakshuka with spinach for DD1 and I before I get showered, changed and the train into London to meet my friend.

This is where we're meeting my brother and SIL today:

The Parcel Yard

What's really interesting is that as well as calories on the menu, which restaurants over a certain size are now legally-bound to do, they also show the carb counts - which makes for some very interesting reading.

It illustrates just how difficult it can be to guess at how many carbs things have in them. As an example:

Buffalo Chicken Wings, BBQ sauce - 32.8g carbs per serving
Korean Chicken Wings in a sticky sauce - 84.4g carbs per serving

I forgot to say thank you ladies.
BIWI that sounds like a really fabulous day out! What’s salsify?

Wow!! You’d think they’d be very similar!

@NotDonna

From BBC Good Food:

What is salsify?

A root vegetable belonging to the dandelion family, salsify is also known as the oyster plant because of its similar taste when cooked. The root is similar in appearance to a long, thin parsnip, with creamy white flesh and a thick skin. In the same way as many root vegetables, salsify can be boiled, mashed or used in soups and stews.

You rarely see it in the supermarket. I have to say, I wouldn't have known that about tasting like an oyster, as it was really bland - although possibly that was the way it had been cooked. (And good job too, as I don't like oysters!)

Sounds like a plan to swerve it @biwi

Anyone hit me with a recipe for shallots, aubergine, mushroom and mozzarella?

Had a really good afternoon/evening and off loaded my woes to friend et al. Had a couple of slimline G&Ts, had Japanese rather than afternoon tea, which was pretty carb light (no rice etc). Went to see Book of Mormon which was fab and thoroughly cheered me up. Nowhere near enough water but a really lovely day! 😊

Made a nice kebab style meal last night: lamb and halloumi in some shawarma paste I spotted, with some some shallots and mushrooms, on lots of romaine lettuce, some tzatziki and some sour cream/yogurt/garlic/lemon sauce. Olives. Very good! Steak night tonight, celeriac chips and treated us to some bearnaise.

Not being as strict as I could be but also focused to keep on after the end. I've certainly stabilised my weight and lost the real excess I'd gained last year. Wore some maroon "pleather" trousers on Thurs night which had never really fitted before which was a great NSV.

@NotDonna glad your outing was good, it sounds like it was needed.

@Rollerbird I can't call it a recipe but I'd roast the veggies on olive oil then cover with shredded mozzarella and put back in the oven to brown. Ideally I'd have a tomato, pepper and courgette in there too! Plus some Italian herbs and a few chopped black olives are good too. I'm not very imaginative though and doubtless others will have more interesting ideas.

I'm expecting a gain as I have gone up since Monday. I'm eating loads of butter and dairy (and everything) so I need to cut down.
Weather is promising today so it's making me think about the summer clothes in the wardrobe!

I’m in need of the big stick. I fell well and truly off the wagon yesterday. A health scare for DH combined with having a flu type thing myself and I turned to all the junk food. When things calm down I need to do something thinking about why I turn to carbs for comfort and plan some none cooking heathy food I can have in for when I’m too shattered to prepare food. I’d fasted on Thursday as an answer to the too tired to cook issue but didn’t have the willpower for a second day.

Clambering back on the wagon today and trying to cling on.