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

Ouch @prettybird sounds sore, I still have scars from doing the same thing when I was early teens with a cup of coffee just out of the kettle.

Good couple of days, having the last of my omelette today with roast veg at lunchtime, and picnic tea as I'm volunteering.......planning rollitos, cucumber sticks, chopped peppers and hard-boiled eggs, maybe some pork scratchings if I need a bit of crunch. I prefer the pork puffs but our Tesco has run out and they're the only ones that stock them round here. Lots of herbal tea and water.

Going to look at cloud bread too - I have the ingredients to make "proper" LC bread but includes seeds so will wait for a couple of weeks for that. Also very envious of @LilianaVikavanovich's holidays - we have plenty of festivals booked over the summer (which are a minefield for LC) but no opportunity to go somewhere warm until DD flits off to uni in September 😪

Morning all

Sorry to hear that @prettybird.

I stuck to the plan yesterday, which was good.

Today I shall have a fish day, I think.

L: scrambled eggs, cucumber and smoked salmon
D: mackerel, roasted pepper and tomato, and salad
S: cheese pieces

Well then you're not sticking to Bootcamp are you!!!

No alcohol in the first two weeks

We are only on day 3, you really shouldn't be cheating at all, never mind this early.

Fell off the wagon on day one hence didn't post - having wild hormonal issues and fell into a pack of mini bars of lidl choc (after lovely day of hardboiled eggs and turkey chili with lettuce)

Yesterday: black coffee, hardboiled eggs, wensleydale with small amount lime pickle (8/100 carbs but less than a teaspoon), water, mint tea, white fish green beans and broccoli... cocoa made with pure cocoa, dash of potassium salt and dash of milk.

Not enough walking but endless dash round house. 30 mins pilates.

One pound ON this morning that'll be the lidl choc then!

I think I’m doing alright, maybe slightly cheating on the no processed food but mainly eating non processed food which is good. I’m definitely in keto when I did the urine test. Feeling good and not really hungry . I did have a splash of milk in my coffee yesterday which I’m not sure I’m allowed though but I did avoid having thefree cake that was literally shoved in my face. I have bought sugar free almond milk going forward as I’m not that keen on black coffee in the morning. Forgot to weigh, will go in Friday.

There are some great food ideas on here, thank you for the inspiration (off to make mushroom soup...!). I've stuck to all the rules (except breakfast, I've done IF for too long, and breakfast just doesnt work for me these days), and am finding bootcamp really motivating; thank you @BIWI and @FinallyHere for all of your time spent organising this! Can I please ask a carb question about coconut milk? I have one that's 1.86g per 100ml (planning to use 100ml for a sauce tonight); there's no problem with that is there? When you google coconut milk and keto, it can be a bit confusing, but I guess that's if it's been sweetened? Basically, does anyone else cook with coconut milk?!

You can have dairy milk in your coffee @headstone - just be aware of how much you're having, and therefore how carby it will be. There are 4.7g carbs in 100ml of whole milk - which is a 1/3 of one of those little mixer cans, to give you an idea of quantity. It's very easy to consume that amount over a few coffees/teas!

Are you talking about coconut milk that comes in cans?

Yes @BIWI

In which case, as long as you're buying the full fat ones, they are pretty low in carbs. The Blue Dragon one works out at 8.4g carbs for the whole can.

Great, thank you!

I use canned coconut milk a lot, in stir-fries. Partly because I love the taste and also because it adds fat - most stir-fries tend to be pretty low in fat.

I also usually add some konjac noodles (this is the brand I buy, from Sainsbury's) as this makes it more like an Asian-style soup.

I've been looking for those noodles in Sainsburys but not able to find them so far, I'll look again next time I go in, now I've seen a picture of the package they might be easier to spot.

If you can’t there’s a brand on Amazon called Emma’s basics that I’ve tried and liked, no Sainsbury’s near me and the Tesco is tiny, so Amazon it is!

Ooh those bags sound good, top tip, thanks!

And yes homemade mushroom soup is delicious 😋

Another soup I made was using leeks, celery, spinach and broccoli. With stock, herbs and cream, v tasty. And v nutritious!

If you have a Chinese/Japanese/Asian supermarket anywhere near you @EasilyDeterred, they're called shirataki noodles, or konjac noodles. You can also buy them from Amazon.

They're not cheap, compared with 'normal' noodles, but they are a very useful stand-by. You can sometimes buy them in a flat ribbon style, like these which is a bit more like tagliatelle.

OK I'm definitely sold on the mushroom soup idea!

On subject of coconut milk, I often make Thai cauliflower soup using cauliflower, stock, Thai green curry paste, shallots, and coconut milk - delicious and spicy but also very filling. The curry paste needs to be an expensive one IME to avoid it being mainly green pepper (rather than lemongrass etc). Great with a cooked salmon fillet flaked onto it as it's served up (or cooked prawns).

Hello, can I possibly join this? Stepped on the scales on Monday and realised that all the hard work I had done pre-Christmas is slowly getting undone… So I decided to get my act together and kind of started my own ‘low-carb bootcamp’. Stumbled upon this thread and, as there’s strength in numbers and I’d like some accountability, thought I’d join.

I’ve followed the rules so far already with the exception of eating fruit (apples and berries) and low-fat cottage cheese so will cut that out going forward! Lunch today was 2 eggs scrambled with butter, 1/2 an avocado and a roasted chicken breast. 1.5l water down so far as well, aiming for 2.5l per day.

You're very welcome @OpalTiger - I'm sure that @FinallyHere will add you to the spreadsheet, but that's assuming you want to be on it?

I have a subscription to Olive magazine, courtesy of DH, and I really love the fact that as well as the calorie info, they also always give carb counts for all their recipes. Often that means they're too high in carbs for us <Daily Mail sad face> but there are usually a handful each month that would work for us, and there are two lovely recipes with halloumi this time. One is a curry and the other is for chipotle and lime skewers.

HI, OpalTiger added to spreadsheet, confirmed OK to weigh-in and not veggie

Halloumi curry

Chipotle and lime skewers.

Personally, even though this is low in carbs, I'd leave out the sugar, as chipotle paste already contains sugar. (And obviously wouldn't be serving it with flatbreads!

Hey all - is mustard allowed? I’m trying to make a replacement coleslaw…