January 2024 Low Carb Bootcamp - this one's a dry one!

[BIWIshYouAMerryChristmas]

For one month only - 4 weeks of strict Bootcamp, which means no booze.

If you want to, you can do Bootcamp Light, but with the exception of no alcohol.

All welcome! But please, only sign up if you are prepared to do the whole thing without alcohol.

Please can you add me to the spreadsheet. I weigh in at 130 pounds but would like to weigh 114 pounds. Really hoping I can do it with all of you!

Hi can I join please? Starting weight 161...aiming to get closer to 140 for my wedding in 3 months. If that doesn't kick me into action nothing will!

Massively productive morning here and feeling positive about the week ahead, despite going back to work tomorrow.

Christmas decorations are down and I've made:

Cheeseburger pie
Homemade coleslaw
Sloppy joe stuffed peppers for later
Tomato soup
Celeriac and leek mash
Pasta sauce for later in the week (I'll have mine with roasted veg or stir fried cabbage)

Food today:

Boiled eggs mashed in a cup with butter
Creamy coffee
Tomato soup with double cream
Stuffed peppers later with salad and maybe some of the mash depending how hungry I am

Also had a green tea and 2.5l of water so far. I've got loads to lose so have to aim for 4litres daily water which is a real struggle to be honest. But I will keep going at it, will be easier tomorrow when I'm at my desk

Can you please add me as well? I've gained terribly much weight and can't continue with the silly excuses I've been making.

Right - everyone should be added, and I hope I've managed to re-alphabetize the spreadsheet without mucking things up!

Quite surprised to weigh yesterday, have only put on a few lb over the break but feel very tired and sluggish, and have had an awful hangover-y headache for most of today. My goal is to lose another stone in time for a trip to Germany we have booked for early April so need to be well-planned and behave!
Will probably do IF as I tend not to eat until at least mid-morning anyway, do won't be too difficult to stretch that to 12.O ff this week and have a huge tidying/decluttering/general sorting list of things to do so hopefully won't have time to be hungry!!!!
Brunch today was leftover omelette with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, yellow cherry tomatoes and chorizo and dinner is chicken and ham pie with pasty topping for the carbies and cauliflower mash for me. Lots of veg too 😊. Trying to get back into the water habit which is the thing I always struggle with

@sheepdreams unless you’re a vegetarian no nuts allowed for the time being. Sorry! I love almond butter too.
@PurpleWhirple what are Sloppy Joe Stuffed Peppers please?

Thank you NotDonna. I will avoid the almond butter. It’s soo… nice too!

Oh the cravings! I’d kill for a big thick chunk of iced xmas cake at the minute! Have reached for the 💦 but it’s a poor substitute. Trying to visualise my new svelte self if I can stick to this woe! Sorry just needed to try and distract myself so I don’t cave. Ride the crescendo of cravings knowing it will pass🙄

Feel like I've been hit by a lorry today, so tired, achy and sluggish. Could be carb flu or could be the end of my Christmas Covid ( thanks Santa!)

Breakfast- spinach and cheese egg muffins
Lunch- cauliflower and kale soup with grated cheese
Dinner- pork and chorizo burgers, sour cream and green salad.

Been weeing constantly so hoping that's a sign of some whooshing.

Oh man the carb flu/ pepsi max withdrawal has hit me hard, I've had a low level headache all day and getting out of bed this morning was a killer. A sneaky look on the scales showed 2 pounds off. I know it doesn't mean anything but it was motivating.

Coffee with cream and Greek yogurt to start the day, didn't really eat enough for lunch but had hamburger patties with creamy tomato sauce and fried cabbage for dinner which was fab.

I feel like I'm continuously chugging down water but still not quite getting to target - it'll come. And I'm having to fight off my 3 year olds for the Greek yogurt and olives which is hilarious.

Morning all, I don’t drink anyway but need to get back onto a low carb diet after a 2 year —5 year— hiatus. I lost 5 stone in a year previously and got my PCOS and endometrial hyperplasia under control as a result of better controlled insulin resistance. Well now I’m bleeding constantly and being threatened with a hysterectomy aged 33, and I’ll be absolutely damned if they’re doing that to me before I’ve had a chance to get metabolically un-screwed first. I have a biopsy on Friday to figure out if my hyperplasia is cancer and if it’s not (yet), I’m seeing that as a massive sign that someone is giving me a chance to sort this myself first. If you’re not sure how a low carb diet can prevent you needing a hysterectomy then the basic answer is because hormones are arseholes and oestrogen can fuck off. It’s not quackery or new age bollocks either, it’s actually a thing and unfortunately, I’m metabolically buggered enough that I should really be resigned to the fact I need to be on a low carb diet for life. I’m ignoring that rather daunting prospect though and just focusing on one day at a time, and today seemed like a good day to find a community to lean on. So, if someone could add my 287lb self (yep, that bad) to the spreadsheet I’d appreciate it!

That recipe looks great @AIBConsiderate, I will be giving that a go sometime.

@NotDonna sloppy Joe stuffed peppers are one of the few meals that everyone in my house is content with. I switch the low fat turkey mince for 20% pork mince and use full fat cheese. The others have wedges but I skip them.

realfood.tesco.com/recipes/sloppy-joe-stuffed-peppers-with-wedges.html

I started yesterday and so far I’ve eaten:

1st jan:
breakfast - I do 16:8 fasting because i prefer it, but try to have 20g of clear whey protein in my first litre of water of the day, which I drink throughout the morning and try to finish before lunch.

lunch: chicken and paneer butter curry made with ff yoghurt and cream

dinner: cheese and broccoli bake with streaky bacon

2nd Jan:

breakfast: 16:8 plus protein

lunch: left over curry

dinner: prawn satay stir fry (this had a tablespoon of peanut butter in it but will do 2 portions)

Today's summary:
1 gallon water (almost done)
2 espresso with cream
Breakfast: 4 eggs, 4 bacon, 30g Stilton, 30g wensleydale with cranberries, large dollop butter, more cream
Through the day: 3-4 tea with semi milk, 3 strawberries
Dinner: 1.25 quarter pounder, 100g mature cheddar, 1 courgette

Totals about 2300 cals, 21g carbs

Very little movement, not been out as floods all around us

@PurpleWhirple ooo those sloppy Joe peppers look divine! I’m going to make them tomorrow …

Well at last my assortment of festive house guests - expected and unexected - have left. The left-over foods are finished (with the exception of gifted Christmas cake, honey/nut/date oat bars, and shortbread - none of which I will have, I promise that to myself).

Today plenty of water has been consumed.

To aid the dry January I bought a really interesting concoction called Sentia. It's an alcohol free spirit containing 'a blend of funcional botanicals' including rose, geranium, aronia, tulsi (whatever they are!) with a taste of bold bittersweet spiced berries. 1.7g carb. Tonight I'm having it long with soda but over Christmas I had a small glass when others were having red wine. An interesting experiment, but expensive so not for everyday.

All set for 100% compliance with strict bootcamp. And boy do I need it...

Hi I would like to join.Will add myself to the bottom of the spreadsheet if that's ok.
Will try and post from time to time, although the thread moves to fast for me to keep up at the moment. I promise I read it all at my own pace @BIWI and I find it really helpful.
I like the idea of the dry one.
Hoping to loose around a stone and a half although I am not that far(less than a stone) from a healthy BMI
I find it more difficult to shift the weight off now I am entering the perimenopause...

@AIBConsiderate - laughing at you fighting off your 3 year old for the greek yogurt and olives as I'm doing exactly the same!! Mine wanted 'sgetti hoops on toast' for tea and then pinched half of my random meat and vegetable picky plate 😁

@magneticmoon you need to step away from the Wensleydale! Adding cranberries to the cheese makes it a whopping 13.4g per 100g. Whereas without the fruit, it's less than 0.5g carbs per 100g!

Hallo gang!

Great to see the lovely recipe suggestions coming in. I'm going to boil lots of eggs tomorrow for snackage.

Controversially I quite like the fevertree slimline not being totally LC because otherwise they might go down the route of aspartame, which is bad for gut biome.

Naked burgers, lots of cheese, butter and salad today.

Have some leftover cream to use up so tomorrow will make cheese sauce and have a mash-less fish pie for supper (with a couple of boiled eggs added). Does anyone have experience of freezing LC cheese sauce please? I fancy batch cooking LC lasagne but haven't tried freezing the LC cheese sauce.

Yep - I freeze it sometimes @Baystard.

@venusandmars and @alwaysclockwise you're on the spreadsheet

And @Metabolicallycomplicated so are you, with your weight. And the only way is down

I've been experimenting a bit with 0% alcohol (and also trying to make sure it's zero/very low carb, which isn't easy).

So far, Brewdog's Nanny State IPA is a definite winner. It's nicely bitter and a satisfying drink.

I've also tried Captain Morgan 0% spiced rum, which I've mixed with low cal tonic - it's OK. No idea how it compares with the full alcohol version, as I've never tried it, but I like rum generally, so this is an acceptable substitute. I'm going to try it with sparkling water as I'm also keen to ensure I keep artificial sweeteners (in the tonic) to a minimum.

Today I bought Tanqueray 0% gin, so we'll see what that's like.

It's an expensive business though, as they cost (almost) as much as the full alcohol versions!

0% booze is expensive or at least the good stuff tends to be. They’ve either used lots of fancy botanicals or made it with alcohol initially and then removed it.
I’m not keen on the Nanny State IPA as it’s tastes too wheaty for me. I like Moretti and Heineken and because both come in bottles it feels like you’re drinking. I often put a tonic with no gin in a nice glass albeit I’d like to find some slimline drinks without aspartame!
Any recommendations for encouraging gut biomes? I’m not keen on yoghurt.