Week 2 - Back-to-school Bootcamp - our first weigh-in!

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

... for you to confess all. (Although I notice it seems to have gone a bit awry - some of the rows don't line up, so hopefully @FinallyHere will be along soon with her tool kit.

Good to hear from the end of the last thread that there are some good results. But also, there was a fair bit of slippage, even though it was only week 1. You need to keep an eye on that, as it won't be helping you in the long run.

@EquallyDetermined - please don't worry about seeming 'whiny' (which you weren't!). That's exactly what these threads are for. I was a bit puzzled, though, as to why you aren't enjoying the food, given how many lovely things we can eat. What have been typical meals for you? Can we help in any way? (And have you had a look at the recipe threads, for some inspiration?)

Awful weather today.

Just catching up and I also had a very upset tummy at some point last week but seemed to have been a one off and no issues since.

Yesterday
B: coffee
L:ughhh had a meeting where food was provided. I requested a shish chicken on salad. Opened the box to find it was in rice with a small amount of lettuce on the side. I ate all the chicken and left the rice, the chicken was lovely tbf.
D: veg soup and salad (this is my go to right now and I love it. Really filling and I change the protein in the salad daily from eggs, to meat to cheese.)

Today:
B:coffee
L: soup and salad
D: Marry me chicken. I didn't add flour to the recipe. It was creamy and felt very indulgent. 😍

Hi, day 3 for me and seem to be doing OK so far. I do feel a bit peckish tonight.
Breakfast: omelette
Lunch: chicken salad
Dinner: salmon, hollandaise, fennel, onion and green beans

I'm finding it harder to drink all my water now the weather has changed.
But have switched to herbal tea and keep topping it up with hot water from my 1L flask to make sure I drink all the water.

B - FFGY and cream
L - left over butter chicken with cauliflower rice
D- 'Fake Nando's' - chicken thighs marinaded in the Nando's sauce, oven roasted with tender stem broccoli thrown in for the last 15mins, served with paprika swede fries - it was really tasty and hit the spot 😋

I think an okay day for me. Had seed crackers (very low carb) and Philadelphia cheese, plus one sausage for breakfast. Dinner was roast chicken salad with lots of crispy chicken skin and mayo. Snack was a coffee with whipped cream and a small amount of dark chocolate.

Plenty of liquid today as well.

Feel totally exhausted though - don't know if it just totm, or if my iron has gone low again. Am taking vit b complex and an iron pill just in case, but generally just really tired and stressed.

In good news though, I'm not feeling very hungry.

Welcome @MonkeyToucher glad to have you join us.

Buttered spinach in place of toast works well for me. Helps keep me ahem regular, too.

green beans and salt, must be fine

Sorry bout that. @VeryGoodVeryNice

I'm inspired to try the green beans in our delivery this week in the air fryer and see how it goes. Never usually know what to do with them. Shall 'report success'

Ooh that’s a good idea @FinallyHere, I have two air fryers and they both have a dehydrator setting, not that I’ve ever used it. Let me know how it goes.

Yesterday was good, food wise, but I had a few glasses of wine with old friend. Feel quite shoddy this morning and the kids woke up super early, so I feel like I've already had my big stick showdown

B: cold cuts, cheese, peppers and cherry tomatoes
D: steak, celeriac and leek mash, salad w vinaigrette
S: cheese, cold cuts,

Today, the challenge will be avoiding my usual hangover eating of lots of carbs
B: fry up
L: scrambled eggs and salad
D: cauliflower cheese, mushrooms and bacon

Good day yesterday - chocolate temptation came again around 9pm but I brushed my teeth and abstained which I'm feeling ridiculously proud about 😂

B: FFGY
L: scrambled egg, smoked salmon, avocado
D: buttered shredded cabbage & bolognese w/ grated cheddar
S: pepper sticks, cornichons, pastrami, babybel, cherry tomatoes

@lurknolinger that looks delicious. I might try a veggie alternative.

All is well here although my period is on its way and that’s normally a carbtastic few days for me. That mixed with going on holiday tomorrow is going to be very trying! I will refrain!
I only managed a 40 minute gym session this morning as I have a banging headache.

Still plodding along. Scales a little down this morning.

Logging on here reminded me that I haven't drunk any water yet this morning! Off to get some now.

Morning all. Its lovely reading how motivated everyone is.

I haven't checked in for a couple of days because I haven't had much to say. Been sticking with the programme and mostly feeling pretty good. Still getting chocolate urges, in particular immediately after lunch, but I'm keeping in mind that emotional eating discussion right at the beginning of boot camp and literally saying to myself "Rogue, you can FEEL your tummy feels full, you absolutely don't need it" and I cope. Funnily enough, I don't even have a sweet tooth. My excess weight is purely savoury snacks n booze!

Last night for dinner we had that nigel slater recipe someone posted. The courgette and aubergine one.
A couple of comments on it for anyone else who fancies it...
It was v nice, and well have it again, but

• It was v liquid, almost a soup (like a minestrone), so recommend less stock than described.
• it was like moulten lava!
• I think it will taste nice cold/room temp, which is how I'm going to have the leftovers for lunch
• the flavours weren't especially strong (may come up more if its not so hot???) So beef up the preserved lemons, which we could only taste v subtly and the chilli couldn't taste at all. The basil drizzle bit was gorgeous, so go heavy on that!
• it's a source of amusement to us that in every nigel slater recipe there's either an ingredient listed which doesn't make it to the method or an ingredient in the method which isn't listed in the ingredients (does that man not have an editor????). True to form, in this one the chopped garlic listed in the ingredients isn't mentioned again.

The recipes on the last thread were very helpful, especially as someone who has mostly eaten salad but is looking for something more substantial now the weather's changing, so I really appreciate those being shared.

KOKO everyone, and happy Thursday

Ooh @lurknolinger paprika swede fries look amazing! That’s definitely going on my meal plan.

Exciting times in the Coffee house - I've had a 2lb whoosh overnight!! I didn't dare weigh when I started back but am reckoning I've lost about half a stone since the end of august and I'm now 5lbs off my lowest weight this year before I fell off the wagon in the January bootcamp. I'm certainly feeling better anyway.

Fridge is looking a bit bare so breakfast and lunch will be a bit random but I've got chicken thighs in tomatoes, with mushrooms, leeks and courgettes in the slow cooker for tea so at least that's sorted as we've got various after work/school commitments later so easy to give in to the lure of the beige!!

KOKO everyone and keep chugging that water 💦

Yay 2lb whoosh for me too since yesterday, which I wasn’t expecting after the patatas bravas incident and also because I’ve been losing and gaining the same 2 lbs for the last 2 weeks. So now 9lbs lost since I began at the end of August 😊.

Morning!

Well done everyone. Tough day yesterday. I was at a conference all day.

I'd managed to sneak in some M&S tapas but had to show willing on the buffet. All carbs so the best I could get away with was half a scotch egg and an onion bhaji. Not great but could have been worse.

I did not eat the brownies or the mini muffins.

Then in the afternoon we all adjourned to a cafe and the organisers ordered everyone a piece of cake.

Readers, I did not eat mine

Nor did I have a glass of wine.

Got home at 8:30 to some leftover bolognaise.

toughest day so far but I'm very proud I stayed sugar free.

A moment of inspiration yesterday. I peeled the skin of a cooked chicken breast and put it in the breville toastie machine for a few minutes. Hot, crispy chicken skin snack for the win. On the down side, I seem to have developed an aversion to eggs. I've happily had a soft boiled egg for breakfast since January. But in the last week, although they taste fine, they seem to not go down as easily and makes me gag. Really weird. I switched to omelettes but same thing happens. Different egg box so don't think it's the eggs. So am going to try FFGY tomorrow. Or bacon. Breakfast was an omelette. Lunch chicken salad, dinner pork chop, mashed swede, brocolli. For completeness, most days include 2 or 3 cups of coffee with cream and a snack, rollitos or babybel. And water of course though I don't think I've ever managed the full amount.

Well, I survived the lunch out, it was a very special occasion, but pre-ordering helped. I did have two small glasses of dry white wine (I virtually never drink during the day and rarely have the opportunity because I drive everywhere but didn't have to so gave myself a free pass) but did my best with the food. I will whack myself over the head with the pointy stick today.

In general there are non-BC things that I like but aren't the reason for me being overweight so that's alcohol and sweet stuff, I like both but am capable of only partaking occasionally. The reasons for me being overweight are bread, crackers, crisps etc so those are the ones I really need to be more disciplined about and find alternatives to as once I start I can't stop. Next week I am going to make a batch of seed crackers.

@Rogue1001MNer I’m another that doesn’t usually have a sweet tooth that is craving something sweet.

I’m waiting for my shopping to come but had a veg box yesterday. I’m hoping to make a broccoli and cauliflower bake tonight so need to find the cheese sauce recipe. The potatoes and carrots are looking at me sadly because they know that they will have to wait for Dh to eat them.

@Gnomegnomegnome

Cheese sauce

• 300-600ml double cream (depending on how many you're cooking for. If 2, then just 300ml)
• For 300ml cream, at least half a pack mature cheddar, grated
• juice of half a lemon, black pepper

Bring cream up to the boil then add the cheese and stir till melted. Add lemon juice and pepper

Pour this over your (pre-cooked) cauliflower/broccoli, sprinkle with more grated cheese and then bake in a hot oven till the cheese on top is melted and going nicely brown

NB - the sauce will be quite thin

Thanks @BIWI ! Saves me looking later! I’ve taken a screenshot.

I am KOKO.

I did a special trip to M&S for snacks stuff yesterday and they didn’t have any of the bits like the ham crisps I was looking for.
I did get clotted cream though which is difficult to find locally and really noticed the difference having that in my FFGY this morning rather than my usual spoon of whipped cream.
I played 9 holes after FFGY and clotted cream and had a coffee when the others had tea and scones and didn’t feel hungry or deprived.

I tried to make a blancmange (sp?) yesterday with sugar free jelly and double cream. Don't know where I went wrong because it separated in the fridge, so I had a blancmangey top layer and a jelly bottom layer. Tasted okay though and took the edge off the totm sugar munchies. The cat approved - she loves a bit of jelly and cream!

Think I'm going to do a chicken curry later with cauliflower rice to soak up the sauce.

Yesterday:
Babybel
eggs scrambled with smoked salmon and spinach
Bolognese sauce with more spinach and cheese

Lots of water and buttermint or Redsbush tea

Today so far:
After regular woodland walk I swerved my usual carrot-cake in the cafe (gold star please :) ). I took double cream with me in a tiny flask and had that with coffee. (It was treat enough so I probably didn't suffer enough to deserve the star!)

The week's plan was to include seriously-low-carb bread... but although I ordered fast delivery last weekend, nothing has yet been delivered. That sort of let-down can lead to carb-eating!

(DH says that low-carb-bread must be just the air usually found with risen dough and that I've just not noticed the delivery.)

I do feel a bit cheated on the more expensive postage and irritated with the mess the failed delivery has had on my week's eating plans.

I look forward to hearing how your yogurt batch went. I'm going to eat a little of the kefir yogurt each day and hope for the best.

It sounds as if it is good for encouraging back bacteria lost to illness, antibiotics and poor eating (covid became pneumonia for me earlier in the year). I'd like that to be true!

Low carb bootcamp is great for feeding such bacteria with green things.