Week 3 - Back-to-School Bootcamp - Introducing Bootcamp Light

[BIWI]

Morning campers!

Here's the link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

... where I can see that already we have 7 Bootcampers who have lost half a stone or more! That's really amazing.

It's not a competition though so don't be downhearted if you haven't lost as much, or if your rate of loss is slower. We all start from different places and rates of loss vary from one to another.

If you've been reading my posts (you have, haven't you?!), you'll know that week 3 (and sometimes 4, even 5) can see a sharp slow down in the rate of loss. This is because by now, you've lost initial water weight and you've used up the glycogen - made from glucose, aka carbs - which is stored in your liver. And you're burning fat. The transition from carb-burning to fat-burning should now be well on the way and this is why it's now particularly important that we keep our focus on low carb foods, and resist the temptation to cheat.

It's easy to become complacent, but remember we're trying to create new habits here, and the general consensus seems to be that it takes 66 days to create a new habit. Today is day 15, so we have a way to go!

If you're struggling, post here. Ask for help. It's so much better when you know other people are going through the same thing.

While you're around, @BIWI , please could I ask about the almond four in the recipe for flax bread upthread?
(I did ask before, but totally understand you might have missed it).

The flax bread sounds delicious, but aren't almonds very high in carbs?

Sorry @Rogue1001MNer I didn't see any post from you!

Ground almonds are actually only 6.9g carbs per 100g, so really not that bad, especially when you know that they're replacing flour, which is 71.7g carbs per 100g!

@BIWI Not at all thinking of cheating. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm trying to think about how I can integrate this into life post-bootcamp, so it's really useful to understand the mechanism. The cheating was just an example to explain my question.

Unfortunately I'm somewhat all-or-nothing so have a tendency to, say, eat one fish finger (both points above noted!) and then think "f-it, today is ruined" and then eat a loaf of bread. It's therefore helpful for me to understand the process. Thank you!

Really behind with the thread so will hopefully catch up later but just jumping on to say my Srsly bread order just arrived and I've just had a ham and mustard roll - utter bliss. Perfectly timed as I've been in meetings all day and had a 15 min gap. Happy tummy, I have.

Hope everyone is ok, will catch up later but in the meantime KOKO and drink your water!

Sandwich day here too. 😀

Red bush tea and water

-FFGY with spoonful of Keto granola
-Low carb bread with butter tomato and smoky cheese.
-baked fish and herb butter with veg

I've just bought a small lidded roaster for chicken. I like the ones cooked in bags but don't like using plastic. Here's hoping I can get results and reduce rubbish.

Struggling a bit on holiday. I'm often I/F so don't have breakfast but here I feel the disapproving eyes of family upon me (all a bunch of skinny runts!) so I've been having egg or greek yogurt, but I feel in general that I'm overeating. Lots of water as it is hot, but also cold white wine which I know won't be helping.

Some lovely seafood though...

@RooRooCooChoo

Not at all thinking of cheating. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm trying to think about how I can integrate this into life post-bootcamp

Glad to hear it! And this is a really smart idea as well.

Very jealous @venusandmars that looks fantastic!

Oh I know I was being unreasonable about the weight loss @BIWI . I weigh daily because I know as soon as I stop I'm hiding from the problem but I know it's also an unhealthy habit! I did see another 1lb off this morning though.

I've attached picture of the restaurant menu, it's pages long so I've just picked out the chicken and veg bits. All the chicken seems to be available as other meats too.

Takeaway I think will be curry or kebab and I'm quite confident on those. Lamb tikka & aubergine bahji or chicken shish with all the salad but no pitta.

No idea what a dickens balb is!

Diclan balb even! I haven't worked out how to edit yet

Well Google doesn't know what diclan balb is either!

Is that a photo of the actual menu? Do you have a link instead? Sometimes it's a better option to have a two starters rather than a main, so would be useful to see the whole thing.

Absolutely starving today. Had a sausage and seed crackers with butter for breakfast, a massive bistro salad/rocket salad for lunch with basil olive oil and rollitos plus a few squares of very dark chocolate.
Made almond muffins and had 2 with butter and the rest of the packet of rollitos just now! No idea what brought this on.

Yes that probably would have made more sense! Hopefully the link works, I'm never sure on here. A brief look shows a lot of carb heavy starter options unfortunately.

tongxinrestaurant.co.uk/menu/

Actually I think there's quite a lot there you could choose - some of it is impossible to know without a description of the dish though.

So from the starters:

Japanese style mixed vegetables (but you'd need to check these aren't tempura/battered)
Satay chicken

None of the Dim Sum as they're all battered or in buns etc

From the seafood:

Most of those dishes look OK - except for the sweet and sour prawn dishes, and the deep fried golden prawns (which will be battered)

From the BBQ roast:

Avoid the Peking duck and the crispy aromatic duck, and the honey roasted pork, but the rest sound fine. The Hakka chicken sounds amazing! (https://thewoksoflife.com/salt-baked-chicken/)

From the chicken:

Avoid sweet and sour and lemon chicken - and the Diclen balb (whatever that is!) as that will probably be battered.

All the lamb dishes sound OK, although XO sauce is probably going to be sweet

With the beef dishes, avoid the crispy shredded beef - I'd probably also swerve the beef in BBQ sauce as that's likely to be sweet.

From the pork:

Not sure about most of these - I'd probably avoid all except the salt & pepper pork chop, as they could be sweet

All the Sichuan dishes sound OK as do the Tofu ones

From the vegetarian dishes:

Avoid the sweet and sour option. But the lettuce wraps sound good - I'm surprised they don't have a meat version of this - it's a bit like crispy duck, except you get lettuce leaves instead of pancakes.

So overall, plenty that looks OK! I think when you're out, you just have to accept that sometimes you'll get something carbier than you were hoping for/expecting.

Hi everyone. I had a difficult day today. Technically I stuck to it, but ended up having a whole packet of rollitos for a snack. I think my problem was that I had a late night and am really tired today and that makes me hungry. Also it is really hard to drink enough water on days I am not working.

What's the problem with that though @Frumpyunicorn? if you were hungry, then you needed to eat. This WOE is not about deprivation!

And your choice was a low carb one - you didn't fall face first into the biscuits, did you?

I've just been catching up with the thread, so great to read everyone's posts. I have KOKOd all week, keeping to the rules and drinking all the water. Not sure whether this will register on the scales, but I feel SO much better in myself.

I am sticking to full boot camp for the time being. I'm not wanting anything chocolatey or boozy, and as I have found that for the first time ever, I have stopped snacking, I think that starting to eat nuts would feel like I was being given permission to snack.

I am very tempted by the low carb bread. But I also know that bread is my absolute downfall and I worry that if I made the bread I would have one slice, then another, then another and I think I would quickly be back to the beginning again. So safest not to.

Just for the record:
B FFGY with sprinkling of soaked chia seeds
L Omelette with cheese, lettuce, tomato and sauerkraut
D Fish cooked in butter, little portion of cauliflower cheese, cabbage and broccoli
3l water

Today I have had

Lunch: scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes
Dinner: Mexican Takeaway - naked chicken fajita
Snack: greek yoghurt, cream and a handful of raspberries

Well I’ve had a truly shit couple of days but despite having a bit of a mental breakdown I haven’t cheated on the diet front.

Today I had:

B - Babybel and an apple (was running late for an appointment)

snacks: some dark chocolate, little bit of grated mozzarella.

L - lots of berries, FFGY and chia seeds

D - paneer curry and cauliflower rice, with a tiny bottle of extra dry Prosecco.

Also went for a run today, now on week 4 of C25K, it was tough going as 5 minutes seems like a bloody long time to run without stopping, but I did it! Measured my waist today and I’m now 2 inches down. Also wore a t shirt that I bought on holiday a month ago without trying on first, when I did try it on it looked awful as my belly was just too fat for it. Now it looks fine, in fact I was thinking perhaps I should have got it in a smaller size.

I am quietly following bootcamp in the background this time so forgive me for intruding! I had a good week, but fell off the wagon last night having dinner at a Japanese restaurant. They only had one absolutely tiny sashimi plate and everything else was non compliant unfortunately. Short of spending £40 on 3 tiny serves of sashimi, I had to make do.

However, I did want to share this fab breakfast I made this morning! I have a love/hate relationship with cured fish but this was truly delicious and perfect for boot camp (obviously, no toast).

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/smoked-mackerel-spinach-baked-eggs

Doing Bootcamp light and weight has stayed static this week so far.

Yesterday
B FFGY and strawberries
L Home made creamy veg soup
S Cheese and chorizo slices
D Chicken and Palma ham baked in leeks &
glass of wine

Parma ham!

Don't panic @PowerTulle - remember what I've posted about week 3 (and 4!)

I’m holding fast BIWI!

Sympathies @Porridgeislife - and thank you for delurking!

Best advice in the future is to check out a restaurant's menu online, so you know what you're going to able to choose. And if there isn't anything truly low carb, to plan your best strategy.