Week 1 - May '24 Low Carb Bootcamp. And off we go!

[BIWI]

Evening everyone!

I'm starting the first week's chat thread this evening as I know everyone will be chomping at the bit to get going tomorrow!

First, and most importantly, here's the link to the spreadsheet

You'll see that it's now got a bit of colour coding going on. There are several posters who have said that they don't want to be on the spreadsheet, so they are on there, but greyed out - so I know who is/isn't wanting to talk about their weight.

If you're said you're a vegetarian, your row will be coloured green; this is important, so that we know how to advise you about foods (or rather, not to tell you off if you're eating nuts/fruit/seeds when you're allowed to, as a veggie!)

If you haven't seen the spreadsheet before - or even if you have! - have a good look around it. As well as Bootcamp rules, there's loads of helpful information on there (look at the tabs at the bottom). I've revised the vegetable carb count, which now includes some more veg.

If there's anything that isn't clear

I was thinking I might not be the only veggie on here 😁 But maybe I am in a club for one 🤣

Another good day. Probably not enough water though.
B - coffee with almond milk x1
L- stir fry veg & chicken (including skin & extra butter)
D- BBQ ribs, chicken, courgettes, peppers & feta
lots of peppermint tea but should have had more.

It’s youngest DDs bday on Monday and she’s requested sushi which I’ll make as it’s incredibly easy & the other two DDs are home and will probs help. But I’m struggling to think what I can have instead. I want to try the crustless quiche so maybe I make that for me. DH is making her a pavlova rather than an a bday cake. His pav is to bloody die for & I’m already worried about how incredibly hard it’ll be to resist.

@Lumpalicious no you're not the only one! If you have a look at the spreadsheet, you can see that we colour code all the vegetarians.

Just got home the concert was fabulous. We had lunch in Zizzi and I highly recommend the salads to which you can add chicken or prawn skewers and/or goats cheese for extra fat/protein. They have a qr code on the menu to get full nutritional information: https://www.zizzi.co.uk/propeller/uploads/2024/03/Zizzi-Nutrition-Guide-March-UK-2024-.pdf

I was very careful all day and then was totally sabotaged by accidentally consuming a full sugar coke because it had been marked as the diet one - I suppose I should have noticed but when you are expecting one thing... so that was extremely annoying. Can't do anything about it now though except KOKO tomorrow.

End of week thoughts:

*Happy with my weight loss this week.

*Stuck to the rules, except for one spectacular fail on Wednesday when I got home from work and was assaulted by the immediate, insatiable (and for me, hangry) hunger that others have talked about. Succumbed to noodles 😞

*Struggling with 'only eat when hungry'. My job allows me a 10 minute window to eat lunch and if I miss it, that's it until I get home. Now that I'm taking 'proper food' to work (not snacks or food that can be eaten really quickly) it's much more tricky and diificult to eat enough to be full in that time.

*The days I drink enough water are the days when it's easier to stick to the rules. I need to keep reminding myself of this.

I hope that everyone has had a positive first week and thank you to everyone who has posted helpful recipes 🤗

@TheOnlyMrsW can you give us your fish pie recipe please.

@NotDonna could I have your Tuscan chicken recipe please.

@Wallywobbles
https://downshiftology.com/recipes/creamy-tuscan-chicken/

I use a lot more cream & spinach than her; once I’ve seared the chicken I cut it into strips and add it to the sauce before the spinach as I like it cooked a bit longer & DD3 doesn’t like spinach so I can take her portion out before adding spinach. I also use oil from the sun dried tomatoes instead of olive oil - she says this if you read the whole thing but it’s not on the recipe card.

@Gingerwarthog 🤔

The shame..

I wobbled a bit yesterday. I was out for lunch and had what I thought would be fairly high in fat (something I'd had before and which involved a cheese and cream sauce) alongside a FLGV. At the time I thought it would keep me full all day and so I didn't plan supper but I was actually ravenous later and fell into toast. On reflection I don't think lunch was as cheesy or creamy as it should have been and that the restaurant probably substituted a cheaper roux based sauce.

My discoveries this week was how to make caesar dressing (3tbsp mayo, pinch salt, 1 grated garlic clove, 1 tsp Worcester sauce and 1tsp dijon mustard, and a big glug of lemon juice at the end to achieve desired consistency) and that hot smoked salmon freezes well.

The fish pie sounds lovely @sheepdreams, I really like fish pie and haven't had any for ages so this is a good reminder! I've also printed off the tuscan chicken recipe @NotDonna as it also sounds lovely.

@PunksVersusBrats if you only have 10 mins for lunch would taking a creamy soup work, maybe in a lunch flask so that you didn't even need to spend time heating it?

@PunksVersusBrats 10 minutes for lunch??? Is that even lawful?

@PunksVersusBrats baystard’s suggestion of a lunch flask is genius. They really do work as my youngest takes one every day to school and it’s still warm 7 hrs later. Heat it with boiling water first. Now the weather is getting warmer would you consider wraps made of omelet? I love a cold omelet wrap!

@Baystard thanks for the Caesar dressing recipe. I’m saving that one. Do LOVE this thread and all the idea swapping.
Enjoy sunny Sunday!!

In theory I have half an hour but I work in a school. I've been taking this sort of thing (so no heating) but things that I have to chew properly (and I have a child-sized jaw, which doesn't help 🤣) take so much longer. Maybe the answer is to take more time for lunch, but it never happens 🙈

Im loving reading this thread and getting everyone's thoughts and ideas. It's my 7th day and I have my first little craving tonight for a bit of chocolate but I've got myself a cup of tea and I'm ignoring it. Will try brushing my teeth if it persists.

I was plateauing for quite a while on low carb but this has seen me do a proper downward shift.

I find that I'm fine by myself but when I others are around, despite telling them I'm being really strict on food for two weeks (v low carb, no sugar. No upf) , I'm constantly getting offered cordial, strawberries, alcohol, sugary yogurts. It's like people just can't get their heads around it 😁 I think it's quite telling in how far people are removed from thinking what's actually in food. One person was suddenly worried I'd devolved an eating disorder!

We break up from school in 5 more days and are going away to the seaside. I've been stressing on how will I do a picnic until it occurred to be I can cook before I go out and eat it cold from a tub.

Will look forward to a g and t on holiday.

Keep it up everyone!

Im getting a lot of satisfaction from my weight loss graph on the free version of my fitness pal.
(I think the earlier triangular shaped dip was a inputting error)

(Sorry can't add the graph for some reason)

I felt very last night

We had supper with our downstairs' neighbours (a "thank you" for our patience while they remodelled their kitchen which involved 6 weeks of banging and drilling as they put a giant window into a 3 foot thick wall and moving an internal door). I picked at 2 almonds as part of the pre-dinner snacks (avoiding the crisps and cashew nuts) and drank water while everyone else had wine. I then had the lamb burgers and sausages without the brioche buns and a few pieces of tasty paneer. Couldn't avoid the sunflower seeds in the salad and don't know what the carb counts of the burgers and sausages were but they were good quality from the local "Locavore" grocery store.

I then watched them eat a selection of good quality ice cream while I drank more water.

Today I've made tzatziki, a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad (with plenty of olive oil) and lamb and shallot kebabs (marinaded in olive oil and ras-al-hanout) plus some asparagus. Unfortunately they're taking forever to cook on the braai.

That sounds delicious, @prettybird. I'm a sucker for that kind of food.

I bought DH an Ooni last Christmas and I thought I might be destined to watch him and the kids eat pizza but I discovered the Ooni cast iron sizzler pans and I made lamb kofte. They were delicious and DH looked a bit envious

Oh those recipes sound delicious. I love lamb.

I've got a sore throat and am
Feeling a bit sorry for myself but haicnf lots of hot drinks. I've discovered unsweetened vanilla almond milk which tastes amazing, and Lorna real treat in coffee.

Bfast - slc roll with egg and cheese
Lunch - sashimi and edamame beans with a tiny bit of rice from a single piece of sushi
Dinner - slc roll with ham and lettuce
Snack - kind bar (am doing BC lite). Trying to break the habit though. I think might not be eating enough. When I feel like this, I want all the comfort food though :(

See you all on thread 2 tomorrow for the first week's weigh in.

It has been a good day today. Chicken and salad for lunch with mayo and olives.

Made hassle backed chicken breast stuffed with halloumi slices and done in the air fryer, with roast veg. The veg was out of a packet and had butternut squash in it, but I didn't have too much.

I did a cooking marathon this afternoon. In addition to the roast veg and halloumi stuffed chicken I made coleslaw, a huge vat of egg mayo, coriander and lime dressing, braised fennel, sautéed mushrooms and riced some cauliflower for later in the week.

I posted a bit too soon - good luck to everyone for tomorrow morning for those who are weighing in then

We had duck breasts for dinner , really lovely
The best part ( almost ) cauliflower purée , cauli just boiled , mashed with oodles of double cream and butter , then blended with the stick blender , black pepper and a drop more cream
I’ll be making that again !

Quick rant now … olive oil has gone up in price so much , just the basic Tesco olive oil is nearly £8 a bottle and the posh stuff was more like £15 ( I bought the basic )

weather was lovely and sunny , we went out for a walk , then flopped about on the patio

todays 😇moment , I really fancied a brandy this evening … I had a lavender and camomile tea

DDs bday tomorrow and she’s asked for sushi. I’m also doing bao buns and gyoza (but not making those). Not sure what I’ll have whilst they’re tucking in. Has anyone made cauli rice sushi?

@prettybird is your tzatziki basically yoghurt cucumber & lemon? And your lamb & onion kebabs, a skewer of (marinated in ras el hanout) cube lamb, shallot, cube lamb, shallot etc? I’m so doing this! And can add flatbread for the DDs.
@NigellaAwesome would your Halloumi chicken work in a normal oven. Because there’s 5 of us I’ve not bothered getting an air fryer.
Shout out to @Baystard‘s Caesar dressing - amazed at how well it turned out without anchovies. Was fab on my chicken salad at lunchtime!