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Low-carb bootcamp

Join discussions about low-carb bootcamp plans, meals and progress. Consider speaking to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Summer 2023 Boot Camp, Week 1: Here we go!

487 replies

prettybird · 18/06/2023 22:54

19 June is just about upon us and here we are at Week 1 of a 8 week Boot Camp. Are you ready? Smile I'm posting this on the Sunday so that those of you who are early risers can get stuck right in Grin

I'll start a new thread every week.

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, nor a dietican. 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 or concerns, you need to make your own choices. You need to be particularly careful if you are pregnant or breastfeeding (in which case follow Boot Camp Light), diabetic or if you are taking any medication, as you may need to liaise with your doctor regarding dosage. I'll post a follow up post with more details.

The Spreadsheet of Fabulousness is here @FinallyHere is Spreadsheet Monitor and most weeks will post the link in one of the following posts after my OP as I usually post via the App and links can be a bit hit or miss. I'll do a link but it might not work for everyone Confused also, if you experience any problems with the Spreadsheet, tag @FinallyHere and she will work her magic on it! Grin

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 breakfast or another meal 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 originally came from www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/ but although the site is now defunct, there are other sources which advise similar quantities of water.

It does of course go without saying not to drink the entire amount in one go: you should spread it out over the day.

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 Wink

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.

That's us off and running. I'll follow up with a few Housekeeping posts but I think that's plenty to get started with. Grin

OP posts:
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28
Eanair23 · 21/06/2023 00:45

There's a familliar feeling to this thread - lots of veg with butter! Well done on geting started. I think I saw a potato mentioned - that is a big no no as far as I'm aware 🤐

B, Egg, Creamy coffee.
L, Fried pak choi with leaves, chicken and more egg.
D. Chicken with mushroom and cabbage.

My portions are pretty big. I think I had 5 eggs in total! And 4 chicken thighs between lunch & dinner. But I was out all afternoon and again this evening and I was not tempted to snack, so that was good.
ODAAT - One day at a time!

EvenmoreDisorganised · 21/06/2023 06:41

@prettybird I had already had eggs for breakfast, my lunch is usually a big green salad with either tuna, chicken or smoked mackerel mixed with a LOT of mayo and a "pudding" of olives. Could try more cooked chicken although not today as we haven't got any apart from what's already in my packed lunch. I like avocado but couldn't add oil to it, I have a real dislike of anything oily. I get you on the imposter syndrome, I have recently become a school governor and all the others seem to be such career high-flyers compared to me, I never thought they'd have me but actually it is fine and I feel I am holding my own.

@TheOnlyMrsW I am front-loading my water and drinking the bulk of it during the working day to avoid night time disturbances but am having to go a lot at work. Had to get up an hour ago due to my bladder telling me to but its fine at this time of year, I have been sitting in the garden for half an hour.

So today is more egg mayo for breakfast with some bacon bits, chicken mayo salad for lunch, followed by more olives, cold cooked gammon and some sort of veg for dinner.

Passtheturkey · 21/06/2023 06:47

Some very tasty looking food. Thank you for the inspiration!

@EvenmoreDisorganised do you think it’s hunger or habit linked with getting home? I used to always “need” a snack when I got home from work, now we’ve got a dog whose requests for a walk are noisier then my hunger I find I’m not hungry after the walk. Conscious one of the rules is to eat if hungry tho!

My aim for today is to stop the snacking. For me it’s habit rather then hunger so I need to stop.

EvenmoreDisorganised · 21/06/2023 06:53

It's probably a bit of both although I get hungry at that time of day regardless of whether its a home or work day.

Goodiewhemper · 21/06/2023 06:55

FinallyHere · 20/06/2023 20:15

hello lovely bootcampers

@Sunseed

@letitgoagain
@MyShinyThing

@mrsp1999
@Goodiewhemper
@moleeye

You have been 'sorted', in a mysterious process which may involve the Bootcamp sorting hat, you will find your record in the Weigh-in Sheet amongst the other rows, which are listed in in alphabetic order.

Thank you @FinallyHere and hi to all my fellow newbies. I didn't get to post yesterday but happy enough though wondering if I had a bit too much dairy though all were small quantities. Breakfast was a little full fat Greek yogurt and avocado and coffee with a splash of cream. For lunch I had a cloud bread sandwich with ham, egg and a side of rocket. Dinner was a chicken breast with skin on cooked in an olive oil, lemon marinade with a knob of butter and a tsp sprinkling of feta served with grilled courgettes and cauliflower rice. Today I do need to up my water intake - that's going to be my biggest challenge Have a great day.

FinallyHere · 21/06/2023 07:07

Thank you for the reminder about water gouging @Goodiewhemper

I usually start as soon as I open an eye in the morning and plan to finished early evening to minimise ahem nighttime disturbances 😁

Had been distracted by the excitement of checking in on line for my flight tomorrow. Now I've snagged my favourite 1C and all is right with my world, I'll get on to the serious business of sipping water.

SummerSazz · 21/06/2023 07:17

Sounds all good and delicious @Goodiewhemper

When you first start this WoE it is most important not to feel hungry so fat is good. Doesn't sound like dairy overload at all. As you progress you'll work out what your body processes and anything you need to limit to keep it going down but for now just eat what's on the list and drink your 💦 💦 and all will be fine.

I'm the lowest weight I've been this year today 💪. As you can see, lots of fluctuations but the trend is my friend 😊

Quiches cooked - just eggs, water, chives, black pepper whisked up, put into a 6 muffin tin with a dollop of butter, ff Philadelphia and some smoked salmon

Summer 2023 Boot Camp, Week 1: Here we go!
venusandmars · 21/06/2023 07:19

@Rogue1001MNer the hellman's 1000 island looks OK but I'd mix it with regular hellmans mayo to increase the fat content

@Eanair23 don't worry about portion sizes at this stage. I find that as bootcamp progresses I get less hungry and I find myself with lots of leftover to have the next day for lunch.

@Goodiewhemper your food yesterday sounds just perfect! And well done on the good selection of salads and veg throughour the day. Some people need to watch the amount of dairy (usually not butter) because it may cause an insuin response, however this is something to consider in weeks 6 or 7 if you are following all the rules and weight loss has stalled. For now, just carry on as your are. We have had so many years of the 'health police' telling us that fat is bad so it can take a bit of getting used to when other food is made delicious with cream, olive oil, butter, cheese. In my experience this is what makes this way of eating (and losing weight) sustainable in the long term - not feeling hungry, not feeling deprived of nice things to eat, not suffering from sugar-crashes every few hours.

I was up very early with a sore face post-wisdom tooth extraction so my diet today is likely to be interspersed with pain killers! It will also be less than usual, soft and easy to eat foods. Won't be fasting this morning - an early start often seems to make me hungry - and I'm off to make a cup of coffee with cream.

B - boiled egg mashed with butter
L - mashed avocado
D - tomato and fennel soup (mashed) made with duck stock

Hoping to revert to normal tomorrow as a neighbour has invited us to our favourite local Nepalese restaurant.

SummerSazz · 21/06/2023 07:31

Quiches 😋

Summer 2023 Boot Camp, Week 1: Here we go!
ItsAsIfWeWereThere · 21/06/2023 07:38

Morning.
mI’m another one who is enjoying coffee and cream a bit too much. I’ve started to measure it out rather than pour (very!) liberally, and to switch to black coffee after 2 (I drink a lot of coffee!)

Todays menu is
B: cheese and ham
L: mushroom soup (it contains both butter and cream)
D: (probably) bunless beef burger and roast broccoli.

The crustless quiche looks lovely. I think I’ll make it for my lunches next week.

Random789 · 21/06/2023 08:01

Morning all. I feel completely shattered today. Not carb flu -- no sense of weakness. I just feel sooo sleeeeeepy.
I have a suspicion that eating well improves my sleep. I think that when I eat badly there is something inflammatory going on in my body that increases aches and pains, thus inhibiting deep physical relaxation.
So I'm wondering if the sleepiness is just a hangover from a very deep and satisfying sleep.

Bit worried that I will slip today, the novelty of virtue having worn off a bit. So I will firm my resolve by stating here that I WILL it my three planned meals, drink 2.5l and do a small yoga session. If tempted to eat something more I WILL wait 15 mins and reassess.

EvenmoreDisorganised · 21/06/2023 08:03

The high fat aspect is definitely harder than the low carb for me, its the feel of oily food, so cheese is essential for me, I definitely wouldn't be able to get enough without it. Annoyingly there are lots of oilier foods which I do like (eg avocados, smoked salmon) but without bread or toast they are far too rich and oily. Once we are on bootcamp light I will probably make some seed crackers.

FinallyHere · 21/06/2023 08:11

avocados, smoked salmon) but without bread or toast they are far too rich

@EvenmoreDisorganised

How does wilted spinach or any other green leaves, or broccoli or cauliflower work for you instead of the bread?

I get that it needs something to cut the richness. Touch of butter and nutmeg on the green leaves is delicious, too

Eggs Benedict works well for me with spinach wilted in butter (instead of the muffin) then ham or smoked salmon. It's a really easy dish to order when out for breakfast. Most places are geared up to offer spinach, ham or smoked salmon variants, so will happily swap spinach for the muffin

LittleMy77 · 21/06/2023 08:16

6am wake up here (thank you Ds!) so peloton class done and a breakfast of ffgy, water and now an iced coffee

lunch will be chicken leg with salad and avocado, dinner is salmon and I think roast veggies

I wfh and mindlessly snack, especially when it’s a stressy day (most are) so that’s a big habit to try and crack

EvenmoreDisorganised · 21/06/2023 08:47

@FinallyHere they don't really work, I like wilted spinach and will have it with eg scrambled eggs but nothing cuts the richness like bread does. I did discover that I can manage a small amount of smoked salmon with salad if I use soured cream and dill instead of an oily dressing though, it is oiliness that's the problem. I will keep on experimenting. I do wonder if it is a bit psychological with growing up to think of fat as basing bad, having said that I have never used low fat spreads, cheeses, yogurts and cope with the full fat versions of those just fine so maybe it is just the oily texture thing.

YappyCamper · 21/06/2023 08:49

I wfh and mindlessly snack, especially when it’s a stressy day (most are) so that’s a big habit to try and crack

Me too. Have snacked more than ideal the last 2 days, although mostly allowed foods. I'm working on clearing out the carby snacks via my kids then I'll only buy them things I don't like after that. I used to find losing weight so easy when it was just me. I lost 5 stone at weight watchers once and I'm sure being single and not a parent was why I was able to do it. I had time and energy and I was only cooking for myself!

Random789 · 21/06/2023 08:52

All of you who are managing to do this with children and teens in the house that you need to shop for have my massive admiration.
It is so much harder when you have to have carbs around - and when you have the stress of childcare and smaller amounts of me-time in which to care for yourself,.
It is awsome of you all to be managing so well.

Random789 · 21/06/2023 08:54

I used to buy jammy dodgers and haribos for the kids because they are among the (very few) sweet things that I could not bring myself to eat even when the cravings were upon me.Grin

prettybird · 21/06/2023 08:57

@Eanair23 - you're right, there was a mention of a potato and I was going to mention it but I forgot Blush Can't remember who it was though, so they escape the Big Stick Wink

@EvenmoreDisorganised - how about some "rolitos" of smoked salmon spread with cream cheese? (Which reminds me: I bought some cream cheese on Friday for just that purpose Wink)

Just read your later post - so crackers once we're on Boot Camp Light it'll have to be Grin

Most Many of my snacks are habit or boredom related Once I'm a few weeks in (after you lot have finished the strict 1st 2 weeks ), I'll do the occasional extended fast (usually after having our fortnightly Sunday supper at my dad's Hmm), which help me prove to myself that it's a long time before I feel true hunger and also helps break my snacking habit Shock

@Goodiewhemper - as others have said, don't worry yet about the quantity of dairy. It's only something you should look at later in the Boot Camp if you've stalled. For the moment, eat what you want from the allowed foods and make sure not to feel hungry. Smile

@SummerSazz - your graph is inspirational. I'm going to visualise seeing a similar "lowest weight this year" in August which will be tough but I think achievable Smile

The quiches look fab Grin

@venusandmars - I hope the pain subsides soon Flowers. I had all 4 wisdom teeth taken out at once in my mid 20s but I was fortunate that they weren't impacted and there wasn't too much pain (plus I had them done under general as they were doing all 4 Wink)

OP posts:
EvenmoreDisorganised · 21/06/2023 08:57

Yes, that is a problem here too, teens and a DH who eat carbs freely and I do most of the shopping and cooking. Also we have very differing tastes, there are only about 4 meals that we all like and they tend to be the ones with integrated carbs eg pizza, enchiladas, lasagne. Increasingly we cook and eat separately which is fine but it still means there are temptations such as bread and ice cream in the house. I couldn't have done this when they were younger and reliant on me to do all the cooking. I also have to be mindful that one DC could easily slip into proper food issues, so I try and keep the changes I'm making low key and not talk about it too much. I am determined though!

Goodiewhemper · 21/06/2023 09:08

@EvenmoreDisorganised would something like cloud bread help? It is just eggs and cream cheese and definitely works for me instead of regular bread.

venusandmars · 21/06/2023 09:15

@Random789 I sometmes think I'm hungry when it's just that my mouth is a bit bored - too used to having something in it - or that I'm trying to satisfy some other need.
So am I thirsty? Drink water, herbal tea etc. Spend ages making an iced lowcarb drink (hot herbal tea with ice cubes and fizzy water)
Is there some mood that can be changed? Listen to an uplifting podcast. Chat with a positive friend. Meditate.
Is it something physical? Exercise, go for a walk, do some housework, empty your wordrobe and sort out your clothes.
Or if it's bored mouth? Do some dental hygiene - floss your teeth, clean them for a long time. Or do face yoga, sing or whistle.

By the time you've been through all of that list, either your hungry feeling will have gone, or at least time will have moved on and you might be closer to an actual meal time. Or maybe you did need something after all - olives, pate on cucumber, a boiled egg, a small bit of cheese?

TheOnlyMrsW · 21/06/2023 09:17

Spoke too soon on the nighttime visits - yes that was me at 4am!!! I did try to frontload my water yesterday, had most of my 2.5l of water before 2pm but then on the drive home felt very thirsty so more herbal tea in the evening, hopefully after a few more days it will calm down.

Finished my omelette for breakfast with some strong cheddar and extra salt and pepper - it was tasty but glad I don't have any left for tomorrow as a bit bored now.........I need to be organised so as to not to fall into toast as a quick breakfast but maybe will try to change it up a bit. Huge (0.5l) cup of peppermint tea to go with it.

I hear you @EvenmoreDisorganised - DH is a complete carb monster and has a really sweet tooth, DC is very fussy and will only eat things like tacos, potato wedges, pasta, curry & rice with poppadums etc, also plays football 4 times a week and has a pretty active PT job so needs constant fuelling with snacks in between and toasties the second through the door or hangry teen emerges........I don't really like sweet things but crisps, crackers and toast are my downfall normally during the day on my own.

Think I may need a new set of scales, I don't want to be an obsessive weigher but thought I'd have a little look this morning as my tummy looked much less bloated and the first reading was 1.1kg up from Monday, checked again an hour later and it was the same as Monday and just now 0.2kg down 😂😢😕

prettybird · 21/06/2023 09:21

Had a major crisis last night: during another biblical deluge (the same one that forced the Scotland game at Hampden to be suspended Shock), we noticed that there was water flooding in from under the skirting board Shock - right beside the electrical points for the TV, BT Box, Alexa cube and lamp Shock

The thing is, we live in an upper conversion ConfusedShock ie, we're on the first floor! ShockConfusedShockConfused

Checked with downstairs and their boy (the parents were out) had noticed that there was water running down the wallpaper in their living room Shock

The joys of living in a Victorian house Hmm

Dh had to crawl into the eaves and confirm that it was the gutters tipping inwards so pouring water down between the (3 foot thick stone) walls and the plater and lathe walls Shock

We only had the roof repaired and the guttering and soffits sorted last year Shock

Dh messaged the roofer last night and he called this morning and will come round this weekend. For the moment, we have old blankets and towels trying to create a dam to absorb/re-direct the flow if we have another deluge.

OP posts:
venusandmars · 21/06/2023 09:23

@EvenmoreDisorganised Once we're out of the first 2 weeks I sometimes buy THIS protein bread. It is dense, a little like rye bread and one slice has less than 4g carb. It is good with smoked salmon, cheam cheese, capers/gherkins. Or as a base for scrambled eggs when the smell of dh's toast is driving me insane! Unopened it also keeps out of the fridge for weeks, and for a week in the fridge once opened.

Also, once we get beyond week 2 the almond muffin recipe will be your friend Grin

https://groceries.asda.com/product/seeded-grains-bread/schneider-brot-protein-bread/910003058887