Week 4 (or is it 3?!) Jan '25 Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Morning all.

Whether it's 3 or 4, this is the point that you can switch to Bootcamp Light if you wish - which means allowing fruit (some - mainly berries), nuts and seeds (just be careful with the carb counts - check the spreadsheet/back of packet) and chocolate (some - at least 70% cocoa). But still no alcohol. Sorry!

As ever, Here's the spreadsheet

I was trawling for something different to cook this week, and there was a great recipe in The Guardian's Feast magazine on Saturday, for pork chops, with manzanilla-braised leeks. It's 100ml manzanilla between 4 people, and obviously the alcohol will cook out, so I think I might try that. (I was trying to find a link, but for some reason the recipe isn't online).

Anyone else cooking something new/different this week?

Thank you @BIWI they sound lovely, I tend to avoid fish sauce as I'm allergic to shellfish (probably very rare that shrimp go anywhere near it but being safe!!!) but will try adding Worcestershire instead. Disappointing about the recipe, it sounded nice and I love sherry!

I was also disappointed because I'd defrosted some really good chicken stock to use in it as well!

I'm in week 3 doldrums. Scales not shifting at all. This always happens to me. I'm going away on a retreat for the first two weeks of Feb where the food will be vegan and carby so just trying to hang on to my 6ib weight loss really over the next month then will be back on it with a vengeance from mid Feb

I fell off the wagon a bit last night. It was my delayed work Christmas night out, so I knew in advance I'd have a drink. Had planned to pick less carby alcohol options but ended up with a couple of beers (and a glass of wine over dinner). Which led to some chips (but not loads).

It could have been a lot worse so I'm not going to beat myself up too hard, as I had a good night and I don't go out often! But my goodness I need all the water today...

Water asides, planning to have some leftover mushroom and celeriac ragu for lunch, and then will make a coconutty aubergine curry for tea.

Because of the red weather warning, I can't get out to do my usual Friday shop today and Lidl has shut its stores anyway

So rather than making my home made chicken nuggets as planned, I'll just have to have shoogled sprouts for supper - and dh can have the "ordinary" chicken nuggets in the freezer.

Also in a red zone, so supermarkets closed until 6pm today. I dropped in to buy milk yesterday and you'd have thought that Armageddon was on it's way - people stockpiling toilet rolls, bread, flagons of milk... I guess too many people remember lockdown!

I know I am fortunate in having a freezer full of mostly unlabelled food, the soup alone would keep us going for a week. It must be hard if you've got young dc, particularly if they have challenging eating habits.

The man in front of me only had a few items: 2 white pan loaves, 3 x litre bottles of full fat coke and 2 x bottles of vodka. Guess he's not on bootcamp

@ReconstructionSite When I fell off the wagon several days ago I found that my body really helped me to get back on. My appetite settled back very readily into its 'good' regulated state because my earlier, compliant, days had taught it how to behave. So I hope you will soon be back on track. A key thing of course is not to restrict food in order to make up for the lapse. Tuck in to the good stuff!!

We've had some wind damage, to property and to me. Ridge tiles blew off our house and through our garage roof. When I opened the garage door to check on the damage inside a gust of wind caught the door which flew open and knocked me flying. Just minor bruises. Am counting my lucky starts because the tiles landed just a couple of feet away from my lovely sweet little VW Up. I have reparked it in the street which seems safer.

OPBS. Not the first time

Sorry to everyone in the red zone, I hope you all come through OK. @AlbertCamusflage you clearly got flung by the door because you are so waif-like from Bootcamp

Oh no@AlbertCamusflage I hope you are OK. I can hear our roof tiles rattling whilst I work and we're only on the edge of it.

Thankfully I seem same as you so far, post carb- encounter. I've not been ragingly hungry or craving anything I shouldn't. Currently bonding with a colleague who had also been doing Dry January and also has a horrible hangover off of only three drinks 😂

Ouch @AlbertCamusflage hope you're not too achy! Big shop done, slow cooker on and nice walk part-way to town (was getting the bus but it was running late so decided to start walking rather than wait in the cold). There are lots of bit of slate and small twigs around but sun shining too

@SemmaLina that pork dish sounds lovely!

@AlbertCamusflage sorry to hear about your accident - hope you're not too battered and bruised. Good idea to move the car.

@Almahart rest assured it's not just you who suffers from the week 3 doldrums! KOKO. You know the drill
Hope all of you in the red zone are OK. It's surprisingly quite in SW London - there was a report I was reading this morning saying that we might be in for tornadoes - thankfully nothing like that. (At least not yet!)

Although had a luvky escape - just seen on our local fb - that's where I walked an hour ago 😯

This is a couple of streets away from me - on the way I would go to get to the subway. Not that I'm going out at all today

The next street from there - which is a major route - also has a tree all the way across it. It will be a higher priority to clear.

We only had the amber warning ( south Wales ) but there’s trees down and power cuts , was stormy last night and calmed down now , luckily

Food been ok today , probably not enough water , but I’ll have a glass now

Had smear taste today , and was weighed 🤣 fully dressed ( well , I took my shoes off ) and after lunch I was 11-06 which is what I weighed on Monday before breakfast and in my nightie , I’m pleased about that

in light of comments about cholesterol up thread, I’m now booked in for bloods and a well woman MOT in March

Following on from the concern about NAFLD, this might be useful (from a Google - it's an AI result):

A FibroScan score is a numerical value that measures the stiffness of your liver, which indicates the amount of scarring. A higher score indicates a stiffer liver and more scarring.

What is a normal FibroScan score?

A normal FibroScan score is usually between 2 and 7 kPa
The average score is around 5 kPa
What do different scores mean?

5–7.4 kPa: Minimal fibrosis
7.5–9.4 kPa: Moderate fibrosis
9.5 kPa or higher: Severe fibrosis or cirrhosis

When I had mine done, my score was 2.75. Hopefully that should be reassuring!

The pork dish wasn't great, probably hadn't spent long enough in the slow cooker but really liked the flavours so will try it again. Making Balmoral Chicken this evening with cream sauce, aware that haggis isn't especially bc compliant though so hoping that lots of veg will balance that out. Cauliflower and broccoli instead of neeps and tatties, then cheese to finish - I'm not a sweet person so DH is happy to go with cheese as dessert most of the time 😊

@TheOnlyMrsW I should have thought of Balmoral chicken! I just accepted an off plan evening with haggis, lots of neeps, and a teaspoon of tatties.

dh had sticky toffee pudding and custard. I'm not a sweet person so usually have no problem with that, but for some reason tonight I was so, so tempted. The smell was tantalising and I nearly had a spoonful. But I got close to it and it just smelt very sweet and very artificially sweet. Phew! Missed that by a narrow squeak.

I've been feeling quite hungry in the mornings (only have breakfast once or twice a week) but a 10.30 coffee with cream has completely satisfied me, and kept me going till lunchtime.

My Burns Supper has been delayed until tomorrow night as an old school friend of ds wanted to meet up with him tonight.

I'll be preparing our usual menu: a stack of creamy celeriac purée, Stornoway black pudding and seared scallops with crispy streaky bacon, followed by the M&S Heritage haggis and loads of buttery mashed neeps (for me) and mashed potatoes ( not for me don't like mashed potatoes anyway ) and then my low carb version of cranachan: a mix of whipped cream, whisky, raspberries and toasted flaked almonds.

I've bought a veggie haggis for ds's girlfriend and I'll also make her "fake-on" with strips of carrot and spices instead of the streaky bacon and will do some halloumi instead of the black pudding (she's now pescatarian so will eat the scallops).

I've been drinking since Thursday (in the evenings, not continuously) and I've put on 2lb.
No need to say anything, I know.

Starting again today.
I'm not planning to finish BC this week anyways. I'm going out for my friend's birthday on 15th Feb, and I break up on the 14th, so I'm planning to be dry (again) until then. And I'd like to stay dry until mid March (DH birthday), but we'll see.
Sorry to let the thread down, but I know it's me I've let down the most.

I made the pork and leek dish last night (despite @BIWI's reservations).

Used a chicken stock cube (as I couldn't find the chicken stock in the freezer ) and the end of a bottle of Fino rather than manzanilla. Rather than finding there was too much sauce, I actually had to add some water when I put the pork steaks into the oven as the leeks were catching Maybe I hadn't put the foil on the top tightly enough. It was tasty though I'd halved the recipe but (not the liquid as the roasting pan was quite large) so used one large leek, which I quartered and one smaller leek, which I halved.

Don't beat yourself up about it @RockyRogue1001 - shit happens, as they say! Plenty of other occasions to be dry.

@prettybird I wonder if it was so wet because I used larger leeks instead of small ones? They do exude a lot of liquid. I have some pork shoulder steaks in the freezer, so might try it again but with smaller leeks - seeing as I now have the bottle of sherry in the fridge! (And would definitely prefer the steaks rather than chops, which everyone here found a bit too difficult to eat)

This dropped into my inbox this morning, so may be worth a look. We're mid-celeriac season too, so should be easy to find them in the supermarket.

There was also a lovely-sounding recipe in the Guardian's Feast magazine yesterday, for a one-tin roast cauliflower and paneer curry (a Rukmini Iyer recipe). I can't find it online, although it is on the Feast app, if anyone has that. I'm going to try it next week, so if it's successful I'll post the recipe.

Maybe quartering the big leeklengthways was the magic trick? - between the two, they covered most of the base of the roasting tin. I also cut and added the "going green" bit of the leeks, so as not to waste any

Yum! Always interested in a new celeriac recipe. Thanks for sharing.

My period must be due because I'm absolutely starving and pasta is looking very appealing 🙈

Duck breast, celeriac and swede mash and cabbage for dinner tonight.

I've randomly put on two pounds for no reason

I'll join you on the bench...

I like the look of this, from today's Observer Food Monthly. Celeriac and Sausage Remoulade