Summer 23 Boot Camp: the preparation thread

[prettybird]

This is the prep thread for the new Boot Camp that will be starting on 19 June.

It will take me a few posts as I blatantly copy across from @BIWI ‘s excellent introductory posts and I’m doing this on the app which makes it more award.

First off the major caveat: I am not a doctor This Way of Eating works for me and has done for many others. I’ve followed BIWI on these Boot Camps for many years and there is a lot of support but if you have any medical issues, you need to make your own choices.

@FinallyHere - can you post a link to an old Spreadsheet of Fabulousness please . It will let people have a look at some of the resources on it. (It’s difficult for me to do it from my phone).

And so to the rules. These are the rules for the first two weeks. After that, we do relax things a little:

1. Eat three proper meals a day

You must eat breakfast. It doesn’t have to be a lot, and it doesn’t have to be absolutely first thing, but you must have something. For the rest of the day, if you’re eating enough food and especially enough fat, you shouldn’t be hungry between meals. But if you are hungry, eat something. (Hard boiled eggs make a great snack). After the first two weeks of Bootcamp we will relax this, but these two weeks are critical in terms of helping you switch easily to a low carb way of eating - and if you start to feel hungry, it makes things much harder! Eating this way will ensure that your blood sugar levels are kept stable, which will mean that you are much less likely to experience hunger. A typical high carbohydrate diet can mean that snacking is a routine part of your day. Once your blood sugar levels are stable, by eating low carb, you should find that you no longer want to snack. But the rule of thumb here is ‘if you are hungry, eat!’. (Just make sure you are only choosing low carb snacks, of course!)

Experienced Boot Campers may follow intermittent fasting (IF) (16:8 or similar) and therefore not have say breakfast but if you’re new to this Way of Eating, wait until you’ve got used to it before starting on IF.

2. Avoid processed foods

Focus on pure, natural protein as the basis for your meals - meat/fish/eggs. Things like sausages, ham, bacon, pre-prepared burgers etc should be avoided as much as possible. You can have them, but just not at every meal, every day.

3. Eat lots of fat

Eating fat will not make you fat. Honestly! But it will keep your appetite satisfied, and it sustains your body’s energy requirements perfectly. Fat does not provoke an insulin spike, unlike carbs which do (a lot) and protein (a little).

Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though, as this is too sweet), add mayonnaise where you can (just check the carb count on your mayo first). Eat fattier cuts of meat – e.g. pork belly, roast chicken with the skin on and/or eat the fat off your lamb chops. Absolutely no low fat/light/’Lite’ foods of any kind!

4. Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food

This is where your carbs should come from, and this is non-negotiable. But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list, which you'll find on the spreadsheet.

Make sure that you focus on eating those vegetables that are under 5g carb per 100g, and this will ensure that your carb counts are kept low. You don’t have to weigh/count carbs – this is one of the great joys of this WOE (way of eating), but if you’re new to low carbing it can be helpful to weigh your portions of veg in the early days, just so that you know how many carbs are in the sort of portions that you like to eat.

The vegetable carb counter is helpfully colour-coded into green (eat freely), amber (go easy) and red (best avoided as much as possible), which will help you to make your choices.

5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited)

Dairy can impede weight loss for some people. If you are drinking tea/coffee with milk or cream, try to restrict yourself to max 2 cups per day. There are a lot of carbs in milk, so if you are having several cups of tea/coffee per day, you will quickly rack up your daily carb count (e.g. 1 medium latte contains more than 12g carbs!)

You may eat cheese but again, don't overdo it. Full fat yoghurt is the best way to include dairy in your diet - but beware, it does contain carbs. You should choose one that’s 10% fat – most of the supermarkets have a Greek yoghurt in their premium ranges with this amount of fat.

6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day

The more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink.

This is from www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/:

Water is essential to weight loss for those who follow a low carb way of eating. The minimum consumed in a day should be:

Your Weight - Litres
140lbs - 2.5
160lbs - 3.0
180lbs - 3.0
200lbs - 3.5
220lbs - 3.5
240lbs - 4.0
260lbs - 4.5
280lbs - 4.5
300lbs - 5.0
320lbs - 5.5
340lbs - 5.5
360lbs - 6.0
380lbs - 6.5
400lbs - 6.5

High levels of ketones in the blood stream can lead to a reduction in ketone production, therefore being well hydrated could aid in keeping the levels low and ketone production ongoing. Consuming enough water can have many other positive side effects, e.g. it aids your kidneys with the processing of protein, reduces the retention of water, helps with preventing constipation, and reduces the levels of ketones released by your breath, which in-turn will reduce breath odour.

However, drinking a lot of water can mean that you also need to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance. You need to make sure that you are consuming sufficient sodium and potassium. On a low carb way of eating, we should eat more salt, so make sure that you are cooking with salt and adding salt to food, if you like it.

Good, low carb, sources of potassium are spinach (raw), avocado, mushrooms, courgettes and asparagus, as well as salmon and yoghurt.

The water is really important - any time I’ve noticed myself stalling, I’ve noticed that my water consumption had dipped. I like to think of it as helping to pee the fat away

7. No alcohol

Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for the body to burn, so it will always use this first before it starts to burn any fat - which is why you need to restrict it, especially in the first two weeks of Bootcamp, when we are encouraging the body to stop using carbs for its source of fuel and turn to fat-burning instead.

If you really can't do this - at least try and restrict it to the weekend. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine.

8. No fruit

Really. Seriously. Honestly. None at all. Zilch. Nada. After the first two weeks of Bootcamp you will be able to introduce certain fruits, in moderation, but at this stage fruit is simply too carby. We are also trying to break the addiction to sweet things, so cutting fruit out is part of this process. If you are getting all your carbs from vegetables and salad, you will be getting all the nutrients and fibre that you need.

9. No nuts/seeds

Although they are a good source of nutrition and contain lots of fat – which is great for us – they also contain carbohydrate and, because they’re so moreish, you can quickly end up eating a lot of carbs.

When we move to Bootcamp Light, after the first two weeks, you can re-introduce these, but be careful and go easy. On the spreadsheet, you'll find a nut carb counter, which illustrates just how much they vary in terms of their carb counts.

10. No sugar or artificial sweeteners

Sugar is an obvious ‘no no’, but artificial sweeteners are also an issue. One of the aims of this way of eating is to eat pure and natural foods, so including sweeteners is not recommended. Some people find that artificial sweeteners can impede their weight loss, and there is some suggestion that your body can respond to sweeteners as if they were sugar, by releasing more insulin - and therefore laying down fat.

Given that the aim of Bootcamp is to help us lose our sweet tooth and addiction to sweet things, then it is a good idea to avoid sweeteners altogether in this first two weeks.

As well as following the rules, you need to know which foods you won't be eating during Bootcamp. These are:

• pasta/rice (of any colour or type)
• bread, in any form
• pastry
• biscuits/crackers
• sugar (which also includes honey, agave syrup and fruit sugar)
• flour
• cakes
• full sugar fizzy drinks, and squash/cordial
• fruit juice
• potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweetcorn, beetroot
• balsamic vinegar (all other vinegars are fine)
• grains/pulses/legumes (which includes peas)
• sweets

For the first two weeks of Bootcamp, you must also exclude:

• all fruit
• nuts/seeds*
• all chocolate
• all alcohol

*if you're a vegetarian there are different rules for you, and you can include nuts and seeds - in moderation, being careful which ones you choose - from the start

After the first two, strict weeks of Bootcamp, you can add in:

• some fruit - berries are the best
• some nuts/seeds - in moderation, and choosing them carefully as the carb counts can vary dramatically
• some chocolate - dark, high cocoa-content chocolate only
• some alcohol - dry wines, clear spirits and only occasionally!

Foods you can eat and enjoy :

In the main, things you generally can't eat on any other diet! Low carb means high fat, so you will be able to enjoy things like:

• butter
• cream
• cheese
• mayonnaise
• full fat yoghurt

No light/lite or low fat anything

• all meat/fish/seafood (although keep processed options to a minimum); fattier cuts/types of fish are encouraged
• eggs (no restriction on how many per day/week)
• oily dressings (especially using extra virgin olive oil/avocado oil)
• lard/coconut oil (as well as butter) for frying food
• LOTS of vegetables and salad

A bit of background from @BIWI

First, a little bit about Bootcamp, for those who don't know the history.

Back in 2011/2012 I was on a series of low carb threads, but was getting disenchanted with my own commitment, and lack of progress.  I decided I needed something a bit stricter and more structured, so I came up with the 10 Bootcamp rules.

For me, the key was to make it as easy as possible to follow - albeit within fairly strict guidelines.  <strong>And that meant no counting of carbs, or calories.</strong> Bootcamp rules have therefore been created with this in mind - based on the idea that if you just follow the rules, that you should lose weight.

Second, as well as wanting to lose weight, I also wanted to ensure that Bootcamp was about eating good, healthy and satisfying food.  Too many times, on previous diets, I&#039;ve sat with a plate of only boiled celery, because that was all the calories I had left for the day, or horribly artificial &#039;foods&#039; like instant soups or Muller Lights. I didn&#039;t want weight loss to be at the expense of health.

And this is why one of the rules of Bootcamp is that the majority of your carbs should come from vegetables and salad.

I started the very first Bootcamp thread asking if anyone wanted to join me, and was gobsmacked when 80 people signed up <img loading="lazy" class="inline-flex mumsnet-emoji" alt="Smile" src="https://www.mumsnet.com/build/assets/smile-iCO8d7ST.png"><img loading="lazy" class="inline-flex mumsnet-emoji" alt="Shock" src="https://www.mumsnet.com/build/assets/shock-7MJQdU1X.png"> At that point, I hadn&#039;t thought any further than the rules, and had no idea how it was going to work/be run.

But we quickly settled into a routine, with Bootcamps running initially for 10 weeks at a time - we&#039;ve now reduced this to 8, to ensure that we keep levels of enthusiasm/compliance up.

@Random789 - spices are your friend if you're wanting easy but more satisfying, stronger flavoured food.

For example, I use a lot of ras-el-hanout. An easy meal (especially good in this sunny weather when we can have barbecues) is lamb kebabs: cut some lamb leg steaks into a big chunks. Chuck them into a bowl with a generous amount of ras-el-hanout and a good slosh of olive oil and maybe a squirt/squeeze of lemon juice. Leave for a few hours (or not, if you don't have time ) and then thread onto skewers and cook, either on a griddle or barbecue.

I serve them with home made tzatziki (grate cucumber, salt and drain in a sieve for a while, before mixing with a generous amount of crushed/finely chopped garlic, full fat Greek yogurt and a wee slosh of olive oil and a wee squirt of lemon juice. A wee time in the fridge helps. If you don't have time to make that, Greek yogurt mixed with crushed/chopped garlic works found that out when I forgot to buy a cucumber

Does anyone have some recommendations for shortcuts/"pre-prepared" foods that they find particularly useful for LCing? I'm happy to cook/do cook, but very short on time between working long hours alongside pregnancy exhaustion and a highly demanding toddler!

I've got a freezer full of things like bought grated garlic, ginger, chopped onions, shredded cabbage, cauliflower rice etc. I highly recommend frozen chopped onions in particular!! But am always on the look out for more ideas to save time in the kitchen if anyone else has any great time savers they've found 😋

Here's a link that will direct you to the various recipe threads

Links to the Boot Camp Low Carb Recipe threads http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/lowcarbb_bootcamp/4676617-links-to-the-boot-camp-low-carb-recipe-threads

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/lowcarbbootcamp/4676617-links-to-the-boot-camp-low-carb-recipe-threads

I've tried posting it two different ways, but if it still doesn't work for some of you, can someone on a browser do the necessary

@pinknsparkly - I think this is the company that @BIWI mentioned.

https://seriouslylowcarb.com/collections/ready-meal

Their bread and rolls are apparently good albeit expensive but need to be kept in the freezer as they go mouldy quickly.

Not sure if many/any of us have had any of their ready meals.

Thanks for the ras-el-hanout suggestion, prettybird. I will try that. I think I need to throw out all my aging spices (lost amongst each other and losing their flavour) and start again with a capsule spice rack.
@ladybiker Lovely dog! Looks like he is doing well on the raw diet.

I've been so proud of my balsamic vinegar salads :(

I will have to find an alternative.

Thanks @prettybird , I'll take a look at that website. I've dine a few LC bootcamps and never actually taken the plunge but think this time round it might be sensible!

I've been looking at the spreadsheet and can't find any information about pregnancy and bootcamp. I remember that if breastfeeding, you should follow BC lite, is the same true for pregnancy or are there some different rules again for that?

@ThatFraggle - I make a simple dressing that is just EVOO with some apple/red/white wine vinegar whichever one is closest and a very wee teaspoon of grain mustard (and salt & pepper), which people have said is nice

There's another dressing that I use for an avocado, almond, cucumber, tomato and cheese salad (a Robert Carrier recipe: I've posted it on the veggie recipe thread) which has a wee bit of tomato purée, garlic and some Tabasco I should try it in other salads.

Hello. I've LC at various points and found it to be the only way I really lose weight and don't want to snack lots. But I've never actually done the boot camp and I'm really nervous of making it work with my family eating normally around me. Usually I rely a lot on eggs and courgette!
Hoping joining you all will give me the support I need to throw myself in.

Thanks!

There have been a few BootCamp pregnancies - @StuntNun springs to mind and is very knowledgeable.

From memory, you're right: follow Boot Camp Lite and be aware of your body.

When I had ds (albeit he turns 23 in September ) I had "leaky kidneys" (as my GP described it): a few ketones and although my blood test didn't show gestational diabetes, my GP told me to stop eating sugar. So Boot Camp would've been ideal

(That was to @pinknsparkly )

@MilsonandJim - I find it works ok with making meals for dh and ds (although on this occasion dh is mostly joining me although he's still drinking wine in the next two weeks ). I just do meat and plenty of veg for me and do extra chips/boiled/roasted potatoes/pasta/rice for them.

As your appetite reduces, you don't feel deprived

I can even do carbonara for everyone: do the pancetta/garlic/cheese/egg separately and add to spaghetti for them and pre-cooked (in microwave) buttery sliced cabbage (savoy or white) for me. I used to use thinly sliced courgette but someone on here mentioned using cabbage and I found I preferred it.

I have a lovely lasagne recipe (on the meat recipe thread) where I do 2/3 of the lasagne dish with ordinary lasagne pasta sheets and 1/3 with thinly sliced courgette. So again, we're all eating together

@MilsonandJim - some people don't use the spreadsheet (by that, they just mean the Weigh-in sheet) because they find that weighing themselves can become triggering/obsessive/de-motivating.

Some of us choose to weigh daily as they can cope with the normal daily fluctuations because otherwise they're sticking their heads in the sand about falling off the wagon looking at myself

Others weigh weekly or monthly.

We're all different.

What we do recommend for everyone is to either take measurements or have an item of clothing that is maybe too small/uncomfortable against which you can measure progress

Thanks very much @prettybird, glad I'm on the right lines! I do also have gestational diabetes so added incentive to stick to bootcamp!! I will definitely be eating more cheese than is usually considered polite on bootcamp though 😅 I swear this baby must be part cow at this point in time based on my dairy consumption.....

And your salad dressings sound fab. Much more interesting than the "squirt of mayo" I've been resorting to!

Thanks @prettybird that's so helpful.

@MilsonandJim , exactly as prettybird suggests I essentially cook a low carb dish and then add carbs to my toddlers meal (and husbands if he wants them, though he is increasingly choosing to eat low(ish/er) carb too). But critically I also add salt to the low carb plates after dishing up (mixed through dish if possible or sprinkled on top). Particularly because I cook with zero salt for the toddler, but also in my experience you really do need the extra salt when low carbing.

Half and half lasagne sheets/veggies is a great idea that I've never considered and should try. I would instead have served everyone with the veggie version and added garlic bread to the side for the carb eaters.

The carbonara suggestion is a great idea! I've had demands for macaroni cheese this week and assumed I'd have to miss out but actually might give prettybirds suggestion a go!

Hello where can I find the Bootcamp Lite rules? Interested in joining but I'm breastfeeding.

@LadyMcLadyface you can find them on the spreadsheet, there's a tab called bootcamp lite. In short, we're allowed small quantities of:

• low carb fruit (ideally berries)
• nuts and seeds
• dark chocolate

But not all at once and not in huge quantities! Having done BC while breastfeeding, I would recommend you really focus on your water intake as that's always affected my milk production more than any dietary changes. I'm intending to use the next week to up my water intake in preparation because I'm very hit and miss. I'm either a 2-3l a day girl, or nothing beyond a few cups of tea!

Not for the first two week of bootcamp and then only occasionally....

but I am going to do my next lc bread order from these guys. Looks slightly less processed. Will report back Bread – The Low-Carb Food Company (lowcarbfood.co)

This prep thread will help people - especially newbies - understand what is required, get used to drinking more water and menu plan and shop for the following week when we start Boot Camp properly.

Feel free to ask questions and share experiences.

@pinknsparkly I tend to spend a bit of time on Sunday afternoon chopping veg and doing a few other bits to help me make better choices during the week. So I'll normally make a big Tupperware full of chopped salad (peppers, cucumber, carrot, radish, tomatoes, fresh herbs) and that just about lasts all week. It's only lettuce that goes rank in a salad and I'm not keen on lettuce anyway so I either skip it or add it on the day if I fancy it. I'll also make up some salad dressing (2 parts oil to one part red wine vinegar plus a little bit of mustard and plenty of salt and pepper) and leave that in the fridge too. I'll make egg mayo, fry some chicken thighs, and sometimes have in cooked prawns from M&S. If I'm working away from home I'll take some of my chopped salad with the extra protein and a tiny pot of dressing to add just before eating. If I'm WFH I might add avocado too.

Hard boiled eggs in the fridge is a good one too.

And not strictly bootcamp but sliced apple dipped in peanut butter is lovely.

I would really love to find a bootcamp friendly smoothie recipe. I'm not adverse to green recipes, I don't need it to be very sweet, but everything that sounds good has very carby ingredients in there somewhere (bananas, oats, juice). I can substitute almond milk for regular but just can't seem to find a low carb smoothie/shake that I like and I'm trying to eat cleaner so don't really want to go down the protein powder route. If any bootcampers have suggestions I'm all ears