Week 6 - May '24 Low Carb Bootcamp - getting back on the wagon

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Seems like a bit of slippage all round - and I include myself . So let's draw a big fat line over last week, and start afresh this week!

There are three weeks left, so time to undo any damage and drop a few more pesky pounds. Perhaps consider going back to strict Bootcamp for this week?

Anyway, hopefully we all have a good week. The weather - at least here Darn Sarf - looks a bit brighter. Possibly even warmer! Well, at least it's not raining ...

As ever, here's the spreadsheet

Good luck to us all

@gingerwarthog have you read the allowed lists of foods on the spreadsheet? Rice crispies and muesli are rather carby. And falafel

At the risk of adding to the list of issues @Gingerwartho I'll just comment that Skyr, although lovely, is very low in fat (but high in protein). Why not have Full Fat Greek Yoghurt instead? Both Lidl and Aldi do good 10% fat versions (make sure to get the Authentic Greek yoghurt, rather than the Greek Style yoghurt in Lidl can't comment about Aldi ) as it's so much better (creamier and thicker).

(I'm susumu up my large type of Greek style stuff that I had to buy when they were out of stock of the Authentic Greek yoghurt to make tzatziki or to marinade things )

It might be that counter intuitively your diet doesn't have a high enough proportion of fat . I can recall people who've stalled who've upped their fat intake and started losing again

Thanks all for your advice.
I have just had full fat Greek yoghurt and strawberries for breakfast.
So, I need to ditch the cereal, wine and limit the oat milk (I hate the taste of dairy milk and it affects my skin). Let's see how that goes.
When I swim a lot (especially outdoors) I want cereals and will look at alternatives - so any suggestions gratefully received e.g the low carb granola. No excuses but I suppose like a lot of us I don't have much spare time and can end up grabbing the kids rice crispies because I'm hungry and in a rush.

@pangolinfan @PunksVersusBrats thanks for good wishes for DD, exams are done so now we wait! Both firm and insurance are fab campuses in new places to us, and I can't wait for her to go and have the best time 😍. 6th form has been very tough for a number of reasons and have high hopes that she'll find her tribe and start to thrive! And she's the big carby so I can only cook once 🤣🤣🤣

@Gingerwarthog : I love my FFGY with strawberries (or raspberries I've just started picking them from my canes ) and a wee bit of double cream, mixed together with some cinnamon, for breakfast/brunch/a snack

Aren't there some almond milks that are lower in carbs if you don't like dairy milk? (sorry, I don't use them so don't know)

Sympathy re uni open day difficulties with eating, we have done a lot over the last few years (DS just finished second year and DD is having a gap year and applying this autumn so we have done a trickle of them with her over the last 18 months after doing a lot in a post-covid rush with DS) it does seem to mostly be sandwich bars everywhere. I had a day out in London yesterday and had to eat standing in a crowd so caved and had a sandwich but didn't enjoy it very much. Didn't have enough water either but at least I managed several hours without needing the loo, sometimes it is unfortunately necessary to think of these things. I did drink lots when I got home and I am not going to beat myself up.

Thank you @prettybird

My strawberries were home grown too - excellent crop so far. I also have gooseberries! I love the idea of cinnamon stirred into yoghurt and will try that too.

I don't like almond milk (but thanks for the suggestion) but I'll just cut down on the oat milk.

I think the biggie is cereal!

If you keep eating cereal then you aren't following a low carb diet. It's your prerogative, obviously, but it's not Bootcamp!

I think I've got the message.

Thank you so much @Gingerwarthog for prompting discussion of the low carb granola - I'd forgotten all about and have already made and eaten some this morning - it's delicious. On the rare occasions I get to go sea swimming I am completely ravenous too, so I get that.

@NotDonna I first 'discovered' low carbing back in around 2002/3 - and flirted with it for a while. I was doing quite well until a family holiday (post bereavement) threw me completely off course. Catering for a tricky family member, as well as two different families, saw me go completely off piste, and for some time I reverted to eating a 'normal' diet - i.e. back to a high carb approach. Sporadically I went back to calorie counting, but nothing really worked, and I found that I couldn't sustain a low calorie way of eating.

Eventually, the inevitable happened, and I'd ended up putting a lot of weight back on. One Christmas I was trying to buy a 'little black dress' for a party, and realised that even a size 14 wouldn't fit me comfortably. As I'm only 5ft 2in, that was a lightbulb moment for me that it really was time to do something about it!

By this time, I'd read a lot about low carbing - and, importantly, its benefits beyond just weight loss, so that's when I re-started seriously. I'd been on a number of low carb threads on MN, but decided it was time to really focus - and that's when I started the first Bootcamp thread - I think it was around 2012. I'd worked out the ten rules that I felt would work for me, and started a thread asking if anyone wanted to join me - and was gobsmacked when around 80 people signed up!

Although I've mostly, over the years, eaten a low carb diet, the last couple of years have not been great (from a food point of view). Combination of early retirement, the pandemic and then a bereavement all disrupted things, hence me starting again with this and the last Bootcamp. A recent health scare has also prompted me to really focus on getting back into it properly. Thankfully all is fine, but the issues I was having have all confirmed that a low carb diet definitely works better for me - and not just from the perspective of my weight.

@pangolinfan
It really is acute hunger isn't it - maybe cos we get so cold?

@Gingerwarthog

Here's the low carb granola recipe:

Rose Elliott's Low Carb Granola

I made this yesterday as I have guests coming to stay, who like good granola. I wasn't planning on eating any myself, but it smelt so lovely that I couldn't resist it grin

I made it with slightly different quantities, so not exactly sure what the carb count would be, but it seems low (according to the counts in the book anyway)

RECIPE BY ROSE ELLIOT
Makes 8 servings at 4.4g net carbs per serving
55g unsweetened desiccated coconut
85g chopped brazil nuts
85g chopped walnuts
85g chopped almonds
85g sunflower seeds
I had a 100g packet of all these nuts/seeds so just used the whole packet, and then whacked in a bit more coconut too
115g melted butter*
1 tsp of cinnamon
I used slightly less than a flat teaspoon, as I'm not greatly fond of cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
Some stevia to sweeten
I used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extra and stevia - it contains sugar, so stevia isn't necessary, (as well as being artificial). I used probably a tablespoon of this
85g flax seeds

*vegans can use coconut oil instead of butter

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Put the coconut, brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds into a large bowl. Add the melted butter, cinnamon and vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract & stevia if you're using this) and mix together.
3. Transfer to a baking sheet/tray and bake in the oven for approx. 10-12 mins, stirring a few times, until golden brown . Keep an eye on it though as it'll burn easily.
4. Remove from the oven and immediately tip into a bowl, to prevent the mixture continuing to cook on the hot baking sheet, and stir in the flax seeds.
5. Once it's completely cold transfer the mixture to a storage container.

@BIWI
That looks great! Will give it a go - thanks.

Evening.

Great to hear all the Uni plans going on! At The Autism Show yesterday there were lots of colleges there, but a lot were residential and didn't do performing arts so DD wasn't impressed. 😂

@SpellitwithaY Well done on the restraint at the cream tea!

@Gingerwarthog Hope you find something you can eat and enjoy! I really, really miss by bowl of Sultana bran every morning. I just go without now cause I couldn't get on with GY no matter what I added to it. I find it gross! 🤐

I currently have a lamb shank in the oven and my mouth is watering as the smell is divine! Having it with buttered brocolli, cabbage and cauliflower.

Had a lovely keto lemon posset tonight, served with a few home grown raspberries and a couple of strawberries and wild strawberries (divided amongst 4) (there were more raspberries yesterday but the pigeons must have got to them )

Ds' girlfriend absolutely loved it - as did dh.

It's from this recipe https://queenketo.com/keto-lemon-posset-with-italian-cantucci-biscotti/ : I made double and it still only made 4 small portions I'll add it to the recipe thread, together with my comments.

Thanks @MissBeck
Back to the yoghurt and berries tomorrow and KOKO. Not much to lose - more a case of toning up.

Had a very chill day with DD1 after the others finally left the house for their flight. Even managed to sit in the garden and have our lunch together. I had left over sea bass with peppers, spinach & courgette. For dinner we had steak (not a good cut at all - the dog had most of it🙄), creamy garlic mushrooms, courgettes and peppers, plus sweet pot fries for DD1. I also had some olives and a handful of cashews as still peckish after dinner.
Both wfh tomorrow so will do us chicken Caesar salad for lunch & a prawn feta thing for dinner - I’ll do hers with crusty bread to dip in but still wondering what I’ll have. Not sure cabbage & leek mix from the fridge will work that well 🤔
edited to change to ‘peckish’ from ‘and lush’ - wasn’t eating olives & nuts bc I felt lush!!

@BIWI what happens after Bootcamp is finished? Is the idea that we’ve switched to a low carb diet on a permanent basis? Have to say that I’d miss the threads! Encouragement and food ideas have been crucial. I’ve upped my fat and dropped some of the cheese and am dropping again albeit slowly. It’s been a pleasant surprise not to be acutely missing all the carbs.

@NotDonna just beware of the cashews - they're the carbiest of the nuts at 18-19g carbs per 100g

@DrBlackbird when these 8 weeks are finished, we always keep the last week's' chat thread going. There's always somewhere to chat, ask questions, moan/vent/whinge!

Week 7 chat thread is here