Summer 23 Boot Camp, Week 6: beyond the doldrums

[prettybird]

Here we are at Week 6 already, the one where - ideally - you get beyond the Weeks 3, 4 and 5 doldrums . And if, for whatever recent, you're not, then KOKO, drink all the water and maybe post what you've been eating so we can see if there is anything you can tweak. We're all here both to support and be supported.

@FinallyHere will be along shortly to post the link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness. It truly is fabulous to see the results coming in

There are a few newbies who have either only started recently or only recently de-lurked. Welcome . We're a friendly bunch and as long as you follow the Rules you'll see the Results And if you're not seeing the results that you'd like, then post what you've been eating on here and ask advice.

Remember, as with any healthy diet, weight loss will stabilise (after the initial whoosh) at an average of 1-2lb a week.

Hi @prettybird , thank you for the new thread.
Am 2lb down this week. Should have been a little more as I'd been hovering below today's level, but messed up yesterday with cake.
Back on the straight snd narrow now though.

Hope everyone has a good weigh in today

good morning, lovely boot campers and with many thanks to @prettybird for opening up the shutters again this week, here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness SofF

Morning bootcampers 💪

Good week for me with 4lb loss reversing my AI gains and still sliding in under the 11 stone mark.

17.5 stones lost so far since mid march. Looks like there are some other great losses on the SOF and I'm aiming to catch @venusandmars up as my target weight!

KOKO all. We can do it!!

One pound off. The elusive 90kg barrier within my grasp. With BC in pounds, my bathroom scales in kg and my life long dieting unit in stones, I'm now multilingual! Trip up north planned today. Will pack a BC lunch, dinner out and hotel breakfast tomorrow morning - just have to resist the toast and croissants!

I'm down 1.2 pounds. I'm very content with that. Slow and steady wins the race (so the tortoise and the hare story tells me!) and I loved the graph that @SummerSazz posted on the previous thread. Great progress and a reminder that it is not always linear.

I will be having a strict bootcamp start to the week - it is my birthday at the end of the week and I have dinner out on Friday, a sumptious breakfast on Saturday followed by a party with my dgc, then friends coming for dinner on Sunday. I know I'm in control of what I choose to put in my mouth but alcohol on Friday and Sunday will plus more food than I usually have. But this is (for me) a way of eating for the long term and we all have to accommodate birthday weekends. The main thing for me will be not jumping on the scales and getting despondant.

Anyway... food today:
Brunch - boiled egg mashed with butter, avocdo, coffee with cream (a small one as I'm finding that too much caffeine makes me shake)
D - smoked salmon and vegetable gratin, with a side of buttery cabbage

@venusandmars I've got rid of one of them already 😊, keeping them off is likely to be the thing................I'm not really one for sweet things and desserts so that won't be a temptation at either event, but alcohol is the big thing for me. Once I'm off it, it's fine but once I start it's very habit-forming to have a glass of wine while cooking or sat watching tv. Back to good habits at the moment, and I've found that since BC started my tolerance has gone through the floor. Also, if it's very hot when we're abroad I'll be less likely to drink at all apart from water, I'm not a beer person, prefer wine so that's something!

There's loads of bands I actually want to see this weekend, it's a festival we've been to a lot over the years and sometimes it's more about the people than the music but this weekend I definitely don't want to miss things while in the bar queue or nattering so should be ok. Weather forecast however is something completely different 😂😂😂

also @venusandmars (sorry for the spam we really need an edit button!) just read your other post and the salmon and veg gratin sounds lovely, could I ask for a recipe?

@TheOnlyMrsW it's sort of based on this recipe but I use a mix of chopped salmon fillets (not smoked) and diced smoked salmon. I add in other veg too - whatever is laying around - and I top it with acrumb of grated cheese, ground almonds and chopped parsely.

No weighing for me today as I'm away camping. It hasn't gone that well so far - torrential rain meant the tent leaked and we had to upgrade to one of those wooden hut things at vast expense. At least we're not paddling anymore!

Food went a bit wrong though - there was no chance to cook in amongst all the mopping up and moving so too much grazing and snacking!

Hopefully I'll get back on track now. Well done to all those who've stuck with it and seen the results they hoped for.

Hi all,
as I am a newbie and recently come out as a de-lurker I am happy to report a 7 lb loss after my 1st week (or your 5th week !) of bootcamp. Yay! Could someone kindly send me instructions on how to upload my number on to the spreadsheet please? Someone previously did at the very beginning but I’m afraid I’ve lost that link, sorry.

and just a note to congratulate people on their honest struggles - it does soooo help doesn’t it when you don’t feel you’re on your own, so a HUGE pat on the back to the poster who mentioned they’d been gaining - you’ll get there! Channel your inner bootcamp! as another helpful post said.

I'm enjoying being home alone for a few days so I've just been eating up what's in the house and garden

B - coffee with cream, FFGY, salami, cheese
L - Bacon and eggs
S - apple
D - coleslaw with walnuts and pumpkin seeds with lettuce from the garden

Yesterday

B - coffee FFGY salami, cheese
L bacon and eggs
D - courgette from garden with baby potatoes (convinced myself they were part of using up what's in the fridge).

Todays food was B - creamy coffee, one egg on low carb toast.
L - chunk of feta, a few olives and 3 cherry tomatoes. 2 sq dark choc.
D - butter and olive oil fried leek, mushrooms and cabbage ribbons with a couple of slices of corned beef.
Snack - 3 teaspoons of pumpkin seeds.
Hope this is all okay. Am wanting to get into a size 14 rain coat that I have packed away, by the end of bootcamp. It's too tight to wear at present, so this is my aim.

Today I’ve had:
B: coffee with cream
L: salad with egg mayo followed by some Greek yoghurt with double cream & a few strawberries. Coffee with cream.
D: chicken thighs with salad & feta style cheese.

Still have a couple of glasses of water to go.

Found you. Only 200gr down this week but I had a bit of a rough one last week so happy that there were no gains. Last Wednesday my tyre burst, courtesy of a fairly large stone where it shouldn't have been, resulting in me losing control and ending up in a ditch. Significant damage to the wheel but not a scratch to the body. More importantly I walked away a bit shaken but absolutely fine. These things can be very unnerving but the fact that I managed to deal with it without consoling myself in the biscuit tin is a massive win. I didn't get to track and watch my food though and might have had a few too many carbs as I let DH (who is an amazing cook) cook for me for the rest of the week. I avoided the usual carb suspects but perhaps overindulged on the non green veg. I have my car back and am now back on the road and hopefully back on track. This week I am going to keep an eye on portion size which I should be reducing and watch for hidden traps.

Yesterday I had:
B and mid morning - two coffees with splash of double cream and FFGY
L - small tin of tuna with mashed avocado, three cherry tomatoes and cucumber. Slice of low carb bread (made by local artisan keto baker).
D - slices of fried aubergine with fresh tomato sauce and grated dry ricotta with a slice of spiced beef.
Tea and a little dark chocolate.

@FinallyHere could you please add my weight to the spreadsheet for this week. I weighed in yesterday at 79.2kg.

Have a great day everyone.

Congrats on all the losses! A 4 pound gain for me! I had a restaurant dinner I couldn't get out of and though I tried to be careful and resisted all the rice, bread etc, I ended up having had 2 small sweet cocktails, a creme brulee and some battered calamari. Apart from that I have followed bootcamp all week,

I'm not sure how much of the 4lb gain will be down to replenished glucose? I'm hoping having my 3 litres of each day will get back to the pre-dinner weight in a few days.

B: Scrambled eggs, grilled mushroom, half tomato, spinach
L: Salad with cucumber, half tomato, feta, 1 spiring opion, sea bass protein
D: Will likely be a stir fry with a sea bass protein

@Goodiewhemper that sounds terrifying! Glad you are ok.

Hi Suxeed, here is the link to the page. I see your name is laready in there (row 82). You just need to enter your weight, the file will save automatically.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-rBSRgexwWV_BIF6-nakA6U9buIFsgl2XU8tdYG5xOM/edit#gid=1892381976

Hi
I’m back from my festival camping weekend having had a great time. I managed to stick to plan reasonably well, although there were a few less than perfect choices and resulting carb creep. There was a stall that sold lovely duck salads which were fairly LCHF (especially when after my first one I had without chilli jam which I’m not a fan of anyway), I also ate lots of haloumi fries, a burger with the bun replaced for my own low carb version and steak. I bought my own olives, seeds, mini chorizos and cheesies. I did eat too many nuts though. I missed coffee with cream so much! I think they’ve really helped keep my sugar craving at bay and I wanted biscuits this weekend more than I have so far on bootcamp. Think the other reasons for this was that it was cold and wet and also I got my period (unexpectedly early!). Anyway I didn’t crave other than the nut eating.
I weighed myself this morning and am 1/2 lb down which is great.
I think I’m going to do strict bootcamp until the weekend now just to reset myself. I also need to up my water intake now I’m back.

@Goodiewhemper that sounds terrifying! I’m glad you’re ok.

@Goodiewhemper well done for not piling into all the sweet stuff after that shock. Glad to hear you were not damaged.

My lovely friend brought round gooseberries and rhubarb from her garden so stewed them up and have mixed them with whipped double dream to make a very tart tasting fool. I mixed dh's with custard so his is much sweeter.

Late morning - coffee with cream
L - cold chicken, salad; rhubarb/gooseberry fool
D - cheese and vegetable frittatam made with shallot, cabbage, green beans, broccoli
WATER, WATER, WATER

@Coffeeandcherrypie thank you

@Goodiewhemper done

@Goodiewhemper that sounds very scary, glad you're ok. @ItsAsIfWeWereThere we're off this weekend to a festival and the weather isn't looking great.............we've managed before with a day here an there when it's been cold/wet but never the entire weekend, hoping we get a miracle before Friday!!

I had my menopause review with my Drs surgery this morning - apparently I'm 2stone down since cutting out sugar and starchy carbs. That was probably around 6 months ago. Still got a long way to go but lovely to know that change is happening in the right direction.

I'm still working my way through the Chris van Tulleken book on UPF and it's shocking reading about how these foods alter your brain and what they are actually made of (despite the flavourings that make them taste nice). He's ruined Grenade Carb Killas for me
And that these things are made to make you crave them. In addition there's a genetic component to wanting them. I think this book should be issued to all adults tbh. It explains why so many of us struggle and that our weight issues are not our fault - we don't lack willpower!

Also illuminating is that a lot of our govt health policies have been informed by studies with links to UPF manufacturers.

This woe is having the massive advantage of seriously reducing the amount of UPF we are all eating, which can only be to the good. I must admit I'm struggling to give up all the artificial sweeteners and dark chocolate but my diet is do much healthier than it used to be.
Years ago I did lose loads of weight doing calorie controlled/low fat but I was still eating a hell of a lot of UPF. Reading this book, it's not at all surprising that I put all that weight back on again and that this is the pattern of my friends who did the same!

@venusandmars sorry for my slow reply on last week’s thread to your offer of help with ways to make this as easy as possible with my fatigue/long covid. Yes, I need to do things that use the smallest amount of energy/are very simple.
I use my freezer a lot for frozen veg, etc and some extended family sometimes cook & drop off meals for me to put in the freezer.

@LadyBird1973 that sounds like a good book. I am keeping m10yr old to min PF, for summer, I told him yesterday. His tummy is very bad, not sure if its of the climate or what he eats. He had the same last year in summer as well. I bought a bread machine ( with me trying LC) as he eats a lot of bread every week. This is something that would help me conclude I think.
Finally I got my grocery delivered, fried some chicken and made cauliflower cheese. I used to just chuck some boiled cauli into cheese sauce. but made it from a proper recipe tasted so different :)
Any ideas to finish off the feta I have in fridge?
didn't weight in, but did a scan on the app and lost over all really well. Seeing the image itself is worthwhile. 25% if my goal is achieved so far based on the measurements I have set as goal :)
KOKO.. water intake is very bad, ordered lemon and ginger tea, so taking that, plus very diluted squash sometimes. I guess it would do good, than NOT drinking any water

@TheOnlyMrsW fingers crossed for you! I was at Glastonbury ‘97 which was notoriously muddy and wet, but other than that I’ve generally been lucky with the at festivals. Friday was nice enough weather, Saturday absolutely awful and Sunday was all over the place. Packing up on Monday in heavy rain wasn’t fun but the rest of it was enjoyable. So much washing though!!! I hope you have a great time.