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?)

Eggs, ham and cheese for breakfast and half a plain yogurt with flax seeds. Followed by a looong walk. Smoked salmon and mozzarella salad so big that I couldn't finish it. I feel like I've eaten a lot on holiday. I'm a long term bootcamper and don't usually have breakfast so a full breakfast and lunch leave me feeling very sleepy in the afternoon. This evening I am going to have 2 starters for dinner, one veg based and one with fish, probably scallop and cauliflower. It's a 40 minute walk to the restaurant, so step count will be looking good for today.

Thanks @Sunshine1606 for the pizza casserole recipe, I shall try it out next week! I'm also finding it hard to remember to drink water during the day and end up drinking most of it during the night when I'm up for feeds.🤣

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I think @BIWI meant to write really bloody thin!

Laughing at the image of carrots and potatoes looking sad knowing they won't be eaten.

Thank you to the person upthread who mentioned aubergine parmigiana... that's tonight's dinner! I've been drooling since it got mentioned.

I'm also struggling a bit with the water, and worrying about drinking it when the weather gets properly cold. It's much easier when it's warm.
I'm supposed to be on 3l a day.
2 is fine. 2 1/2 doable. 3 is tough.

I'm trying to cook more fish. Recent stories about the horrors of farmed salmon (and lice infestations ) have really put me off my usual, so I've been looking at other fish that isn't too expensive.

I really like cod, but in the supermarket it's increasingly difficult to buy it without skin - and it's being able to fry it skin-side down that really makes it tasty and helps it to stay together. But I've found a way of dealing with this, that might help others.

Basically you take a piece of greaseproof paper that's bigger than your frying pan; scrunch it up, which makes it easier to lay flatter in the pan, and then melt generous chunks of butter on top of the greaseproof and fry the fish on top of that. It really works!

Salmon is pretty much the only fish we eat here. I REALLY don't think I want to know about lice infestations 😱

I've been feeling off colour all day and am in bed. Food has been minimal but all LC and I've drunk 4 bottles of water plus quite a few hot drinks to try and get rid of the nausea. Hoping a good sleep will mean I'm back to my usual self in the morning.

I’ve been busy batch cooking lots of food that I can’t eat just to use the veg. My adult children are all getting shepards pie.

I also made a batch of crustless quiche and broccoli and cauliflower bake.

Who am I??

Sorry you are feeling ill @AllTheBlackCoffee - well wishes for tomorrow.

We love BIWI's cheese sauce here! (Many-carber visitors usually want the recipe.)

On its thin nature:
The good squeeze of lemon juice needs to be really good!
We also tend to let the cream 'reduce' by bubbling quietly for a while to steam away some of the water content .

(I say 'we' because although I started making this for me - now everyone is in on it.)

I think I need to do batch cooking too, I am having issues with evening eating. I always feel ravenous when I leave work, it is just habit eating but I always end up having a snack, I tend to go out for a while most evenings too so wouldn't eat a main meal till later. Then I don't feel like cooking or eating a meal, I'm always in one of those "there's nothing I fancy eating" moods. That's a definite downside for me, I kind of go off food because I never feel all that hungry. Taking packed lunches to work helps because I can just open and eat it so maybe batch cooking for the evening would help then.

Hi all,

B- cup of tea
L- mix of various cheeses- supposed to be in a salad but ended up a mini cheese board.
D- saag paneer and a lone chicken drumstick

Water intake back up but like a PP, I'm not yet managing 3l

@EquallyDetermined we eat quite late too and it definitely helps to have something that either takes 5 minutes or that I can reheat quickly.

I was up in the night with awful cramp in my legs! I did leg day at the gym but stretched lots after and haven’t had cramp after before. I think I need to up my salt.

My child you didn’t eat any fish started uni this year so I am loving cooking fish regularly for the first time in many years.
Had lovely prawn massamam during the week. Currently looking at seared tuna recipes.

Her twin didn’t eat pork or lamb so these are also making a come back.

Followed the rules yesterday
B: shakshuka with sujuk
L: chicken Mayo w lettuce
D: cauliflower cheese w mushrooms and bacon

I've got a long drive today which is usually fuelled by supermarket sandwiches, so am planning to pack a picnic
B: FFGY w cream
L: chicken mayo, cucumber, tomatoes, babybel (avoiding wine gums will be a struggle)
D: pub dinner, probably steak

A question for the knowledgeable ones: I'm doing a 20+ kilometre walk tomorrow and would usually pack sandwiches and carby snacks for lunch and energy boosting. Can you suggest alternatives? Might nuts be a good idea in this circumstance? I just can't see myself tucking into FFGY at the top of the hill...

Bacon and sliver of cheese for breakfast, lunch out! And dinner out! Lunch will be non carb starter only as out for dinner - greek restaurant so low carb should be easy enough if I can keep my hands off the bread and wine. Had flu jab yesterday so a bit woozy this morning but paracetamol should kick in soon.

@RooRooCooChoo it's too early to know if you've fully transitioned into fat-burning rather than carb-burning, but I would say that if you can possibly avoid using carbs to snack on it would be better.

What time is your walk? Could you fit in time for a big (low carb, obvs!) breakfast, so that you have given yourself plenty of fuel? Something like a cheese omelette with mushrooms, spinach and tomato? Or bacon, egg, sausage and mushrooms? Plenty of fat and protein in both of those, to give you energy.

Instead of sandwiches, I'd take a packed lunch of (cooked) low carb sausages, a couple of hard-boiled eggs and some cheese. All can be eaten using hands rather than cutlery!

Oh, and yes - take some nuts for snacking.

If you really, really, really think you're going to need some carbs for energy then fair enough - but try not to use this as an excuse!

@Gnomegnomegnome if you're getting cramp, I think it's magnesium that you need - can you get hold of some Zero tabs by High5?

@EquallyDetermined I think batch cooking sounds like a really good idea. Knowing that there's something in the fridge/freezer that's Bootcamp-friendly will make your life a lot easier.

Similarly, a meal in the slow cooker (if you have one) can make the evenings a lot easier. One of the easiest meals I sometimes do is to just chuck some chicken thighs (ideally skin-on) into the pot, with a couple of lemons (juice squeezed into the pot first), salt and pepper, and just leave it on auto. No prep - beyond the lemons - and the chicken is delicious. Just serve it with some bagged salad and it's an easy and quick meal.

Hope you're feeling better today @AllTheBlackCoffee

Thanks, we don’t have a slowcooker but can cook slowly in the range cooker, it does take being organised in the morning but that’s not impossible. I am very much in one of those “don’t fancy anything” moods now too, all I want is toast because all the LCHF foods feel so rich after a couple of weeks of them. In your example I would badly want some crusty bread to go with the chicken! So not getting very far with my meal planning for next week.

@BIWI No intention of cheating. I was able to do up my walking trousers for the first time post-pregnancy, so still fully on board! Thanks for the tips. Apart from the evil hard boiled eggs, I will make a lovely picnic.

Well done RooRooCooCoo - I hope to follow in your steps to similar zip success!

Lemon chicken with salad is good! I like the traybake method more than the slow cooker for that though - the skin ends up crispier. (olive oil and chicken on tray - lemon quarters placed around them - more olive oil on top - then a sprinkle of sea-salt then 45 mins at 200. Fast food!)

@BIWI I already take magnesium before bed. I’ll check the dosage.

Oh yes, @LiesDoNotBecomeUs, don't get me wrong - crispy chicken skin is delicious! I was just giving an example of how easy/quick the slow cooker can be. (And I'd probably flash them under the grill anyway, to crisp the skin up).

Thanks @LiesDoNotBecomeUs and @BIWI am feeling much better today. I've not had much appetite over the last few days and I think I'd simply not eaten enough, hence sick and wobbly. I find it hard when I don't get the usual carb hunger cues and sometimes miss meals or just snack on whatever rather than eating properly (something I NEVER find when I'm eating carbs!).

So with that in mind:

B: Greek yog and the most amazing double cream from Longley Farm - I could eat the entire tub with a spoon.
L: omelette
D: we're out for pizza but the restaurant has a nice chicken, bacon and avocado salad so I'm happy to go with that.

There's a really interesting piece here about saturated fat and cholesterol, written by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. In fact, it's an appendix in his book Why We Eat (Too Much)

For those of you new to low carbing (and even those not so new) this is really worth reading, if you're still worried about eating fat, and your cholesterol levels