Low Carb Bootcamp challenge - lose half a stone before Christmas

[BIWI]

If we start next Monday, there are 6 weeks leading up to Christmas.

Hopefully that means that we can drop 7lbs in those weeks - but only if we're properly strict.

It's entirely up to you if you want to do strict Bootcamp, or Bootcamp Light across those 6 weeks, although I'd suggest that if you haven't got too much to lose, you veer towards a stricter approach.

It's also, we need to bear in mind, a more difficult time of the year to think about losing weight as there are likely to be more social occasions, so a stricter approach around all of those events is probably a good one!

Who's in?!

I should post my usual disclaimer now:

I am not a medic. I have no training as a dietician or nutritionist. I am not even a scientist. All the posts and/or advice here is given based on my own experiences with and knowledge of low carbing, gained over the last 20 years.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you're advised not to do strict Bootcamp, but to do Bootcamp Light.

If you're on any long-term medication, especially for conditions like hypertension, diabetes or cholesterol, please consult your GP before you start - low carbing is likely to have an impact (positively!) on these conditions, and therefore your dosage may need to be reduced.

If you are suffering from, or have in the past suffered from, an eating disorder, please be very, very careful about joining in. If you do/did, but still want to go ahead, please PM me so that I am aware of this. And if you're still in treatment, please let your medical team know what you're doing.

<Amen>

i weighed in and am up 2.5lbs in the last week which is very disappointing.
I did not go carb mad but had too much food and too little water

I an drawing a line under it and refocusing. I gave a really busy time between now and Christmas so need to do my best with BC lite.

I am unfortunately travelling for another family over the next two days, then a long away girls weekend this weekend and then my oldest children are home from the US for Thanksgiving.

Can I join 🙏 I've been planning to low carb from today but not sure how strict I should be doing it. I've not weighed this month but since having coil put in I've gained lots and approx 82kg from 73 in may. My usual calorie deficient high protein isn't working with walking and lifting so need to try something else, getting coil removed in November too so hoping this helps

When you post your disclaimer, BIWI, I feel like you should get us all to dance and jump about and fling glitter etc, like they do when the terms and conditions are read out in Strictly Come dancing .

@thehoundschicken you're very welcome!

If you've never low carbed before, can I suggest that you start with strict Bootcamp? If you do that for the next two weeks, that will push you into fat-burning, which is what we want to do, to lose the weight.

Tonight I'm cooking cauliflower cheese (making the sauce with just cream, cheddar, lemon juice and black pepper - no flour in sight). Along with the cauliflower in my baking dish will be some browned shallots and some smoked bacon lardons. Will probably serve it with braised or charred sweetheart cabbage.

I'm doing strict BootCamp after tonight (when we have ds and his veggie girlfriend over, along with my Ozzie cousin who is currently house sitting my dad's place). We normally have the family meal on a Sunday night but ds' girlfriend was supposed to be working (although her shift got cancelled), plus dh's niece wanted us to go and support her boyfriend who was down from Aberdeen playing an ice hockey match (they won convincingly )

So, I'll have a glass of wine and a wee (low carb) chocolate pot before knuckling down to be really strict.

I've made my mum's lasagne, which uses cottage cheese, mozzarella and Parmesan instead of a white sauce, two thirds with lasagne pasta sheets and one third with thinly sliced disks of courgette. The recipe is in the meat recipe thread.

And being extra domestic goddessish I've also made a separate veggie lasagne using quorn mince for ds' girlfriend

Now off to drink some more water

Yes I'll have a look at that thank you , I know we don't need to track but what amount of carbs in grams is the limit for veg etc?

If you check out the veg carb counter on the spreadsheet, you'll see that it's colour-coded with traffic light colours - focus on eating the green ones, less on the amber ones and avoid the red ones (the only exception being onions, as they're so integral to so many dishes - although you can use shallots instead, which will more than halve the amount of carbs)

Sounds lovely @BIWI I've also found that adding loads of parsley to the cauliflower cheese makes it even more delicious!

My lasagnes ready to go in the oven

Wow @prettybird that looks amazing!!!!

Oh no @Carrierbagofseedsandstars! Parsley is one thing I'm really not keen on. That would ruin my dinner!

Joining in. Had a very traditional dinner of mince with onions celery a bit of carrot and gravy but had mine with celeriac and roast savoy cabbage rather than potatoes.

eggs and smoked salmon for brekkie, cheese and some nuts for lunch.

Super strict from tomorrow!

love everyone’s recipes and meals. Going to make instant pot cauliflower cheese soup this week.

@prettybird Cheese galore! Looks amazing! What did you use in place of the pasta?

That sounds gorgeous, BIWI. I may do a much smaller portion of that for tomorrow's lunch.

Had a chicken salad for lunch, and dug out my old Atkins Quick and Easy cookbook for tonight's tea, which was duck breast (on offer in Sainsburys!) in a red wine and shallot sauce with green beans fried in the duck fat. I'm stuffed.

To misquote Airplane, looks like I picked the wrong week to start low-carbing... everyone celebrating Diwali brought in a ton of sweets and rice-based food, then a parent brought in homemade brownies as a thank you, AND DD brought in chips then left half of them 😫. I resisted temptation (this morning's weigh in was a shock to the system!) and am feeling virtuous. Just half a pint of water to go to make 3 litres... <sloshes>

The lasagne sounds nice @prettybird I made a similar one at the weekend but with slices of griddled aubergine instead of the pasta.

Hi everyone

I make a version of lasagne where I use halloumi instead of pasta too. Today I had ham for breakfast, baked cheese with veg sticks for lunch and so.e pistachios, and roast veg with baked feta, olives and pine nuts for dinner. So too many nuts really but OK apart from that.

Hi all. Hope everyone had a good day. I weighed in this morning at 79.2kg which is about 1kg up from the last time I got on the scales. I need to add it to the spreadsheet. I would love to get to 75kg but with my trip away in early December that might be too challenging. Still, no harm in aiming for it. Today I had:
Breakfast - FFGY with a little protein powder and a coffee with cream.
Lunch - two eggs baked in ham with a little cheese, green salad, a couple of cherry tomatoes and avocado.
Dinner - slow cooked beef broth with meat from the bone, pak choi and a tsp of grated pecorino and fried green peppers.
I managed about 2litres of water. Happy enough with my day. If I can get over my addiction to coffee with a splash of cream first thing I would love to try a little IF this time.

Joining in. Good start everyone.

@N2022 - I used thinly sliced courgette (on the diagonal) instead of pasta.

This was the end result. I always end up overfilling the dish - but at least I now know that and cook it on a baking tray to catch the spillage

Had to make sure I served everyone else from the pasta end but my courgette end was lovely and there are at least two more portions for me to have another night

Ds' girlfriend enjoyed her veggie (quorn) version (in the smaller dish) and has taken away the rest of the dish for them to have later this week. I want the dish back though

Bit late to the party but I’m definitely attending!

Back up a pound after the weekend (I did have a McDonald’s on Saturday though which I think was the culprit), but back on the wagon and ready for the Christmas challenge.

One thing I’ve noticed now I’m 2.5 months in to this WOE is that my appetite has decreased massively, to the point where I’m only really eating one proper meal a day most days, so a breakfast around lunchtime (usually berries and FFGY) and then something for dinner, and not getting at all hungry or snacky in between. Is this something to be worried about, or is it fine? No idea how many calories as I don’t take any notice of them. I’m taking it as a positive as I hate the ballache of sorting food out so if I don’t have to then that’s a win.

Another great Monday from everyone: successes in weight loss-successes getting over a 'blip'- successes in the kitchen (yum to lasagne!)

I have lost inches round my hips in the last 8 weeks and about 16lb.

This does work for me. Other method's don't. I just have to stick to it and live this life as I mean to when slim.

Thankyou BIWI and all who have posted on low carb boot camp.