Week 3 - May '24 Low Carb Bootcamp - Light or full-on?!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

This week sees the opportunity to add back into your diet fruit, nuts and seeds, chocolate and alcohol, by moving to Bootcamp Light.

HOWEVER!

All of the above in moderation.

Fruit - keep the focus on berries, and don't go mad by having lots of it, regularly. As with veg, there's a carb counter on the spreadsheet which you can use - just look at how few fruits are in the green section!

Nuts/seeds - there's a carb counter for nuts on the spreadsheet too (and when I get round to it, I'll do one for seeds. Again, go easy. While they're very good for us, they can get carby very quickly as they're so moreish.

Chocolate - aim for a minimum of 70% cocoa. You'll be surprised - if you've been avoiding sweet things for a while - at how easy it is to enjoy higher cocoa content chocolate. It's also actually good for us too. Lindt make a good 90% chocolate, but I prefer one that Sainsbury's sell, in their Taste the Difference range, which is a Ugandan one - https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-ugandan-90-dark-chocolate-taste-the-difference-100g

2 squares of this is very satisfying.

Alcohol - be very careful here. Partly because you'll find it has more of an effect on you if you're not eating carbs, and partly because once you start drinking you'll suddenly find yourself easily able to justify those crisps! But mainly because a) there can be a lot of carbs in it; b) all the time you're drinking alcohol, this is the source of fuel that your body will be using, rather than fat and c) even if you choose a spirit which has no carbs in it, chances are you'll be drinking it with an artificially sweetened mixer - and remember we're trying to avoid the artificial sweeteners.

lastchancesalmon I'll be food shopping, washing, unpacking and trying to get the mud off my poor docs! Absolutely love festival season but the aftermath is a complete pita!!!
Forgot I'm doing strict bc and had strawberries with my ffgy 🤦‍♀️, much better on water though. Salmon with roast veg for dinner later......

I have just bought lamb mince but you can use any meat. It also tastes great without the meat. I fry it with sliced leeks, diced aubergine and diced courgette. You can add some pepper purée or tomato purée. I love it with a spoonful of tamarind paste and a dash of pomegranate molasses (though this might bring out the big stick). Add some powdered garlic, cinnamon, ginger, ground coriander and a bit of chilli. Serve with a big dollop of Greek yoghurt. That sounds more complicated than it is. Put in whatever spices you have in the cupboard. Mushrooms also work and cauliflower. It tastes great the next day so make a batch.

2lbs down - despite the banana!
I have had to work hard for my weight loss this bootcamp though - I blame the menopause.

Bought M and S dark chocolate - two squares is enough and you don't want loads more (which I always do if I eat milk chocolate).

I'm a daily weigher so see fluctuations all the time. I do want to share my progress, as even though my weight didn't go down this week, it's trending down.
I'm close to my goal weight so it gets harder to lose. I feel slimmer though and clothes fit looser. I'm using my lowest weight of the week for the weekly weigh in this time.

Great chart @HazelNotHungryLC and probably what mine would look like since starting in January 2024. I was 12 stone 13lb back then, and now 10 stone 13lb, so even when my weight goes up, I know it's going to adjust again and keep going down. I'm never going to be skinny, I know that, I was a chubby baby and it's followed me through life! 😂

Signing in for week 3 and echo that being part of this online community definitely integral to my sticking to the low carb. Though somewhat disappointed that I’ve only lost 1/2lb last week when I was (so I thought) being so good! I’ll cut back on the cheese and increase the water this week. So far 2L today and already feel like I’m floating away 🛟 I’m keeping a jug beside me now and not just a glass.

Edited to add that I love the baby photo @MissBeck and your progress is heartening. I’d like that trajectory myself!

I've lost 3lb this week! Well from Sunday to Sunday. I went from 11st 12lb to 11st 9lb BUT I did weigh myself at 5am so can I ask BWIW what is the best time to weigh in the morning or at night? I am an absolute chocoholic and just can stop ! This 70% chocolate just doesn't seem to hit the spot and i end up eating more of it . I'm glad everyone else did so well x

Always first thing in the morning, naked, and after you've been to the loo.

Oooh the lamb recipe sounds yummy @Pleaseandthankyou
Love the baby photo @MissBeck and your loss of 2stone since Jan is flipping fabulous! Well done you! And obvs massive thanks to BIWI keeping us all in check.

Today DD2 & I visited WEST HORSLEY PLACE, a Tudor family home, where Henry VIII dined, was inherited by Bamber Gascogne (from a very very distant relative) and became a film set for the comedy series Ghosts (plus other things). We did a filming tour, all about Ghosts, which was fab! But lasted quite a while so had zero bfast, then lunch at 3pm of some left over chicken & veg, which was a bit pants! Tonight it’s a BBQ of more chicken & veg.
DD2 and I are heading back to her Uni town tomorrow as she needs surgery. We’ve rented a little apartment but I’ve no idea what pots & pans etc there’ll be. I’m taking up some foodstuff and we’ll have the car but needless to say I’ve not menu planned and hoping to wing it.

Yes please! I've got pork mince in the freezer and my usual recipe is a Vietnamese one that involves adding sugar and caramelising it, so no good 🙈

I've bought a burger patty maker so I fancy a pork (and apple?) type of burger.

I made lovely pork burgers yesterday (which went very nicely with my tzatziki).

500g pork mince, a finely chopped shallot (2 if small ones), some finely chopped sage (optional), a few crushed/finely chopped cloves of garlic, an egg, a generous slosh of olive oil, an even more generous slosh of Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 teaspoons of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Mix together well and then form into 6 patties. Leave in the fridge to firm up (an important step).

When frying, use a generous amount of oil in the frying pan and leave to cook a while on one side before turning them carefully as they can be quite fragile until they firmed up from cooking.

Signing in for Week 3 with a kofte recipe we made in our pizza oven, but they'd be grand on a bbq.

uk.ooni.com/blogs/recipes/turkish-kofte-with-mixed-meat

I left out the pine nuts because we'd run out and I added an egg. They were delicious with salad and a SRSLY wrap.

Stayed the same this week, which is good, because for weeks I've been going up and down by 1lb, so I feel this is a step in the right direction. Bootcamp has been just what I've needed to get out of a rut re food etc; I look at what you lot eat on a daily basis, and feel very sorry for my family with what I dish up...! This week I'm planning to swap the snacking on cheese for nuts instead. Am going to stay off chocolate another week too (I think!).

@MissBeck that is an amazing achievement, well done! And what a gorgeous photo!

A total first for me today - came home from work and felt a bit peckish but couldn’t quite decide what I wanted. Spotted a broccoli and thought ‘that’s it’! So I was munching away on broccoli even though we have 85% chocolate, nuts and cheese at home… I’m amazed at it myself!

You were a very cute baby @MissBeck 😁

Could someone update the spreadsheet for me please? 169.4 this morning. I was a pound less on Friday but really struggling with my water intake at weekends.

I'm now at Center parcs until Friday - going to be a whole other level of challenge while everyone else is tucking in to “holiday food”!

@NotDonna we did the Ghosts filming tour last summer, it was fabulous! I booked it for DH’s birthday as he and DD are huge fans, I had never seen it myself so binged the first season before we went and now I watch it over and over, have listened to all the podcasts, everything about it is wonderful. It’s amazing how the story of the house mirrors the storyline of Ghosts, I had no idea about the Bamber Gascoine connection till then.

I’ve done OK today, poached eggs for breakfast with mushrooms. Lunch was snacky, ham, cheese, salami, celery and just done a big stir fry of prawns, salmon and veg, with sauce made from stock, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, a bit of tahini for texture (I’d usually use cornflour) ginger and chilli. Will have FFGY and berries later I think as the meal was low in fat I might get peckish.

Hi everyone, I'm back from my trip and will stand on the scale tomorrow to see what the damage is. Getting right back on the wagon so posting for accountability and off to catch up with the thread.

Well done to everyonefor their losses! It's great to read eveyone's stories!

@NotDonna @EasilyDefined I've never heard of 'Ghosts'. Will have to look it up now! Hope the trip goes well @NotDonna

@PunksVersusBrats Ooh, Pork and apple burgers! Fantastic combination.

@prettybird I've screenshotted your recipie to try

@mimosa1 welcome back!!

Didn't get to try clothes on in the end. I did a load of ironing instead!

B: Coffee with Double cream & chunk of cheese
L: Ham Salad with cheesy coleslaw
D: Minty lamb chops, sprouts and cabbage

I do ‘wraps’ that I tried to copy from my visits to Vietnam many decades ago- pork mince, finely diced carrots, finely diced celery (and any other veg - never very Vietnamese!), fish sauce, bit of sliced chilli, sir fried, and all wrapped in lettuce. They used a leave that was kinda in between sweet heart cabbage & iceberg lettuce. No need for any sugar!

Checking in.. I'm down 1.7lb which I'm very pleased with as have had a couple of lapses this week including yesterday when we had a family Vietnamese lunch funnily enough. I avoided any rice or noodles but did have a summer roll and some salt & pepper squid that must have had flour on it. Hoping the copious amounts of veg would have countered it.

Inside out cheese omelette for supper tonight which I found from these threads.

I don't really eat mince so won't be joining the recipes this week.

Well done everyone who's KoKo. Half term here which can be a struggle.

@MissBeck it’s the same team as did Horrible Histories (BBC) its on Iplayer and also UK Gold at the moment.

I have bought pork mince in anticipation of the recipes 😀

Oh @MissBeck Ghosts is funny. There’s now a US version but try find the Brit one. As said above it’s written and acted by The Horrible history ppl who are genii! I thought it was going to be like that awful programme I avoided as a kid ‘rent a ghost’ but not remotely similar. It’s clever humour. Hear a photo if ‘Button House’ as it’s called in the programme.