Week 2 - Jan '25 Low Carb (Dry) Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Morning

I know that for some/many of us, this is actually only week 1, but as there were some valiant people who started last week, it is now week 2!

As ever, here's the spreadsheet

Just a reminder that if you're using your phone/the mobile app, you'll need to download the Google Sheets app to access the spreadsheet. And when entering your data, only add your weight and - for fear that @FinallyHere will have a coronary, don't touch anything else!

Good luck everyone.

@Calyx72 That stuffed cabbage leaf looks like something we had on honeymoon in Transylvania 20 years ago! true story. Is it a European recipe? I'm sure it is very tasty.

@Gunnersforthecup I used this for ideas after someone on the thread mentioned cabbage wrapped sausage:

https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2017/02/tale-two-cabbage-roll-recipes.html

I just used cabbage, sausage meat, tinned tomatoes, salt, pepper, onion salt, garlic granules and cheese. It was delicious and filling.

Lots of water to tip out after cooking but it was great

The sausagemeat wraps sound nice @Calyx72, I'll try it next week.

I'm desperate to try the cheeseburger pie but struggling this week as I'm working until late most evenings. I made the mince base tonight and then I just need to add the topping and put into the oven tomorrow, hopefully making it quick enough to do after work. This weekend I'm planning to try a Beef satay style recipe with spicy cauliflower rice (the satay doesn't have peanut butter but does use lots of groundnut oil). I don't think I've ever cooked with groundnut oil so I don't know if it'll be strong enough in flavour but I'll try it. If it doesn't work I'll do a fajita spice type mix on the beef instead.

Interestingly my arthritis was a little better than normal today too. Fingers crossed the improvement is sustained.

Congratulations on 20 years and honeymoon in Transylvania sounds amazing 🤩

I've added my "recipe" (such as it is) for home made chicken nuggets to the Low carb Chicken/Duck recipes thread.

There used to be a pret chicken salad that was nice and low carb. I don't know if they still do it

@specialsauce I'm very sorry to hear your news. Quite understand falling off the wagon. We'll still be here for you when you're ready

@BitOutOfPractice Packets of ham/cold meats, lunch box sized cheeses, some supermarkets do small pots of salad - but beware they don't have pasta/rice/potato.

M&S is really good for deli bits that are bit more imaginative.

@ColouringPencils the RI children's lectures are on BBC iplayer. I started to watch the first one but it's was too basic for me. It was all about the digestive system which I know inside out at that level.

@Almahart offer to assist your friend and bring in a big salad - try rocket, feta, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers with a French dressing. You could add walnuts and beetroot when not on BC at this stage or lentils.

I watched the glucose goddess too so thanks for that @BIWI I took away the idea of the order of eating. I was a bit  that these people hadn't considered their diet properly. But I was so delighted for their improvement and it put a smile on my face. But their diets were very processed and carb heavy. It was like they never actually ate real food at all.

@Calyx72 that looks yummy

I must be a bit of a weirdo when it comes to artificial sugar.

I absolutely loathe the taste of it in anything it's in. Makes me feel bleurgh and my tastebuds are very sensitive to it

However re my coffee.

If I'm drinking instant coffee at work I can have it with no sugar or sugar substitute

If I drink filter coffee I may or may not have an artificial sweetener. It has to be a specific brand though and nothing else.

I also grind my coffee beans and use my espresso machine or stove stop espresso. For that I need a sweetener because it brings out the flavour in a way I like.

I don't have sugar in my tea ever. Yuk.

At the moment I'm sticking to filter coffee at home because that's ok without sweetener.

But my espressos need work

I also ajways have milk in my coffee and tea because in my mind it prevents my teeth from staining. Currently enjoying cream though in coffee so I'll try and wean myself off by substituting sweetener for cream.

I cut up my cold gammon earlier and mixed it with mayo and seasoning. It needed somthing extra so I chopped up some gherkins in it. Not sure they were allowed but I did it without thinking as they're green

I second the prawn cocktail suggestion

@Almahart given that she's come back to you and asked, I think you just need to be honest and clear!

Sorry I mean substituting cream for sweetener

And I meant I will only touch a specific brand of sweetener

Also since I stopped smoking years ago and drastically cut down on alcohol my hair started to grow properly long again past a point it never did for ages and got thicker

Also I notice now that when I do drink especially red wine I get huge dark circles under my eyes and look quite sallow and hollow. G&T not so much but happy with tonic and lemon

@MrsTerryPratchett thank you for the rec, I'll take a look

Feeling good today in energy but still craving things. I know that tomorrow will be easier though

B - 3 eggs in truffle butter
L - Caesar salad
D - Spicy chicken thighs, peppers and avocado

Plus MCT coffee

The cheeseburger pie is delicious, the recipe I use has chopped gherkins in the mince and a sauce made with mayo sugar free ketchup and more gherkins. I find they help cut through the richness

Am keeping on keeping on here. Decided to depart from the shakshuka plan and instead have Turkish eggs for dinner. Totally delicious and - with a lot of garlicky butter - felt very decadent!

This afternoon and evening will be challenging. The kids are playing at a friend's house and there are usually snacks (for adults and kids) and booze (adults). My plan is to have a late, large lunch and then deploy all of my willpower.

B: FFGY w cream
L: left over aubergine parmigiana
D: fish and seafood curry with spicy cabbage

Is the stuffed cabbage recipe gołąbki (pronounced 'gowumpki')? That is very big in Poland so I guess it would likely be in Transylvania too. I have a Polish relative who makes gołąbki (translation: little pigeons). It is very tasty but so fiddly to make, and very hard on your fingers, which have to fish the hot cabbage leaves from the boiling wter thand handle them immediately. I could never make the packages hold together firmly enough.

Someone upthread expressed concern about the carbs in tinned tomatoes and that made me worry that I am not being strict enough. I'm using tinned toms quite freely and I am also not checking the carb levels of the vegetables I'm flinging into everything.

I am avoiding the veg that I know to be relatively high carb (carrots, parsnips and of course potatoes and similar). But I have been careless about which other veg I use.

I guess I don't want to be checking too relentlessly as that starts to get a bit joyless and 'diet minded'. It might tip me into fretting about numbers and developing a sense of failure that will lead me to sabotage myself.

Good point @AlbertCamusflage re veggies I'm not really checking either but sticking to peppers and mushrooms for now. But have been adding left over carrots and parsnips to soup

I've been looking at a recipe of cottage cheese and Parmesan which is meant to be like a tortilla wrap once mixed and rolled and baked. Along with some other low carb recipes using slightly usual ingredients

I remember my DM making a stuffed cabbage meal but she used small metal skewers to hold them together so not hot to touch or fiddly to wrap. I used to quite like them baked in a tomato sauce.

And cloud bread made of cottage cheese, egg powder and water whipped up together and baked.

Hello

Mad couple of days so not properly updated…

Weds:

• truffle butter scrambled eggs (three) plus chard
• cauli cheese soup (homemade) with dollop of crème fraiche
• Chicken breasts with passata and onions, topped with cream and cheese in the oven with sugar snap peas

Thurs (commute day - hard as I’m out of the house for over 16 hours on those 2 days a week):

• packed breakfast of baked omelette with veggies ((courgettes and mushrooms) and goats cheese (batch cooked for the week)
• office restaurant lunch of salad plus skin on chicken breast, and I had what they called “creamy kale soup” (could have had a potato in I guess but that only occurred to me afterwards … it was green and creamy (they cook from scratch))
• dinner on train of (I left on time!!) grilled lamb and chicken Shiah (ie chunks) on lettuce and cabbage… Yes ladies, a kebab…. I think it’s ideal low carb when I have v v limited choice at a London train station and am exhausted and starving so reluctant to just have a salad (this is nearby). What do we think… ok?

feeling a bit disheartened as I think I’m pretty much doing everything right but zero Wright loss from 1 Jan to today…

Still 12st 2lbs, whereas the first time I low carbed (identical approach to this but I just applied a blanket rule of nothing more than 5% carbs (ie 5g carbs per 100g) and I did have low cal nuts and raspberries within that rule. I shed weight v rapidly but did start at 13st.

My bmi is currently 23.7, which I think is high for me (I know it’s healthy) so perhaps it’s just a slower thing within normal bmi range?? I’ll try to keep trusting the process!

@BIWI can it take this long? I am drinking water etc! Portion sizes are large though I expect…

For High Street grabs (sorry, can’t recall who asked!), I second pret’s chicken salad and also in Sainsburys etc there’s often a Greek salad in a tub (with feta, olives and a dressing) to which you can add a pack of cooked chicken. Plus grab babybels and have a couple and take the rest home. Also m and s do an amazing mozzarella and pesto pot.

Also thanks @BIWI for all the science I embarrassingly asked for!!

Busy couple of days here but clinging onto lc by the skin of my teeth it's so cold (-9 yesterday morning, -10 this morning) that I just want to hibernate and eat toast! Avoided that but really hoping that the predicted thaw arrives thus weekend........
Office yesterday which was a bit tricky as someone has moved my herbal tea stash in the Christmas "tidy-up" and I didn't fancy braving the cold again to go to pick more up, made do with hot water. Lunch was soup with the ends of the vegetables and some creme fraiche, and snacked on babybel and fridge raiders. Not ideal as quite processed but I do love them and chorizo for whoever mentioned it upthread. Last night should have also been tricky as DH is out and I normally watch TV with wine, luckily I felt so lousy from being cold all day that I just went to bed with the electric blanket and a book!
Lamb shoulder in the oven, we're having it with the kale bake and roast celeriac. I must admit to not being so strict with veg apart from potatoes as I've still got sprouts, carrots and parsnips from pre bootcamp.
Goodness that was long sorry all - happy Friday if you've got to the end 🤦‍♀️

Good result in the end, I explained a bit more and she had said she will do some tapas so we can all just eat what we like

@Almahart that's a good result! Tapas are excellent because you can eat all kinds of non-diet foods - cheese, hams, artichokes in oil, sun dried tomatoes etc and it doesn't look like you are being picky and nibbling on a solitary lettuce leaf

Loving the cabbage rolls recipe. My veg box only had a red cabbage in it, wondering if it can substitute it for the savoy? Or maybe wait until the veg box roulette brings me the correct ingerdient...

@AlbertCamusflage

I guess I don't want to be checking too relentlessly as that starts to get a bit joyless and 'diet minded'. It might tip me into fretting about numbers and developing a sense of failure that will lead me to sabotage myself.

Well, that's kind of the whole point of Bootcamp, that you don't have to keep checking and/or weighing!

Tinned tomatoes are generally fine - although the carb counts do vary, so always worth checking.

However ...

@KittenPause

re veggies I'm not really checking either but sticking to peppers and mushrooms for now. But have been adding left over carrots and parsnips to soup

Why are you not checking?! Carrots and parsnips are on the amber and red list respectively - you really, really shouldn't be relying on those. Have you not looked at the veg carb counter on the spreadsheet? Helpfully traffic-light-coded to make it easier.

(And you should be eating veg/salad more widely than just relying on a few - Rule 4)

@legallyblond that all sounds great - I know how hard it is to get food 'on the run' - the world is still a high carb place!

A couple of thoughts re weight loss - you've said your portions are large, so perhaps that's somewhere to start? You are also having dairy in most of your meals, so perhaps you have an intolerance to that? Try cutting that out/down for a couple of days.

You must be pretty tall, if your BMI is 23.7, so perhaps you don't have so much to lose?

Good result @Almahart - it's always important in situations like those to be upfront from the start. It gets harder and harder later on if you haven't. (Been there, got the t-shirt!)

@BIWI

My wording was a bit crap there sorry

I only used a couple of left over carrots and one parsnip when we first started on Jan 1 / 2

That came out wrong I'm definitely not just eating mushrooms and peppers as my veg at all. I meant veggies in that area ie not root vegetables. Not touched any root veggies or anything on red / amber list

Last night I had chicken, broccoli, red pepper, mushroom and courgette cooked in air fryer and eaten with mayo and seasoning

I ate FFGY with spoon of cream for breakfast and some baby bels later on and more FFGY.

Currently eating a couple of boiled eggs. Might need to make a couple more

Fair enough! [smiile]