June 2025 Low Carb Bootcamp Week 1

[Just4June]

Exciting title, I know! It's 1st June, and we're off (although I know many have been following bootcamp rules for a while).

Remember to use your new name, if you changed it=.

Firstly a disclaimer:
The bootcamp threads are a community effort. I, and any of the other MNetters who give advice here, are not medics and we are not qualified in nutrition or dietetics. Recommendations and support are based on our experiences and understanding of low carbing, developed over many years. Before starting, if you are on any kind of long-term medication (especially for high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol), please check with your GP, as the results of low carbing can mean you may need to adjust your dosage. And if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding, we suggest you follow Bootcamp Light. If you have a history of disordered eating, please consider very carefully whether or not this way of eating (WOE) will be in your best interests.

HERE is the new spreadsheet. Thanks @FinallyHere for taking on the technical role again.

If you're not on the spreadsheet and want to be added, message @FinallyHere or add yourself to the bottom of the list. Please don't adjust any of the other cells, except the one for entering your weight. You don't have to be on the spreadsheet to join in with the threads, and if you want to be on the spreadsheet bu don;t want to post your actual weight simply enter 100 in the first column and reduce that by the appropriate amount each week.

I'm starting today, since it's the beginning of a new month, and using this morning's weight, but some like to weigh on a Monday, or a Friday (before the sins of a weekend), or to enter the lowest weight of the week, or an average. Some people weigh every day (I'm a daily weigher), some people once a week, and some people avoid the scales altogether, relying on body measurements and general health and wellbeing.

It is important to be familiar with bootcamp rules, and to know the carb counts in various foods. They are on the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet. If you've been on bootcamps for years you might want to familiarise yourself with the information - I'd forgotten how carby some nuts are - and if you're new to bootcamp have a good look at all the resources. And ask any questions you want, someone should be able to give you an answer.

Good luck everyone. Here's to an excellent month!

Good luck everyone.

Water is always the first option. Sometimes that's what we need, not food.

I find myself opening the fridge/cupboards out of boredom. If there was a banoffee pie in there I'd eat it (and I don't have a sweet tooth and I don't like banana!) So having good grazing items (e.g. crudities and dips) helps. Or I set a self-imposed rule that the fridge is 'closed' until 4pm. Often by then I can hang on for dinner. Or if I feel snacky or grazy I follow a routine instead - www-w : a glass of Water, a Walk (even 2 minutes round the block), a Wee, and back to Work. Once I get into this woe I'm better, but those snacky habits can be hard at first.

I have a friend who pours a measure of gin into a glass, swirls it round, then pours it back into the bottle. She adds tonic, ice, lemon and angostura. She swears that the vague smell of the gin, plus the bitters, convince her brain she's had a proper G&T.

I’ve been wondering about snacks too. My general resort is cherry tomatoes, but my supermarket also does packs of snack peppers, snack tomatoes and mini cucumbers. Those help, sometimes with a bit of supermarket tzatziki or baba ganoush. I’m also a fan of cubes of cheese. And, when allowed, I’ll be right back on the small handful of nuts (mostly walnuts for me)

Morning all. WFH today which is always a snack challenge, but I'll be following the @Just4June 4W method today, which is a great approach!

Also remembering that I am allowed to eat on this WOE.

B: Scarmbled eggs.
L: Turkey steaks with homemade pesto and salad.
D: Not sure. DP out, just me and DS. He'll have a toastie or something easy, I might just have a plate of buttered asparagus!

Exercise today will be 30 minutes on the rower and a lunchtime walk.

Happy Tuesday!

12st 2 this morning 🙈 serves me right for a long weekend of overindulgence! But KOKO. I struggle with breakfast so it was a black coffee and a pint of electrolytes. Lunch is chicken, leaves, homemade coleslaw, with a boiled egg and leftover roasted veg. Dinner is pesto prawns and more leftover veg. Got my 2ltr water bottle at the ready!

2lb down this morning (I know this is water probably so not getting too excited but nice to see!), yesterday's food was a bit haphazard but as well as weekend shenanigans it's also totm so I never have much of an appetite. Lunchtime snack of ham, emmenthal slices, 2 eggs microwaved with butter and crudites, dinner was steak cooked in butter with roast veg and creamy mushrooms.

Weather is back to abysmal here today so have a pork casserole in the slow cooker which we'll have with broccoli and cauliflower cheese, not massively hungry but on my 2nd big cup of herbal tea then will switch to water.

Snacking is a big issue for me - I wfh permanently and have a habit of eating out of boredom a LOT sometimes. I try to mix up my weeks by working from coffee shops for a morning/afternoon but that's not great for LC so hopefully this reset will help. I do try to go for walks etc but very much a fair-weather outside person!

Also seeing the half term weight coming off in a whoosh!

Some nice foods on here, I could maybe do to accept I’m going to want snacks so buy something in.

Yesterday:
B: scrambled eggs (2) and asparagus cooked in butter
—totally forgot about asparagus wee—
L: Chicken Caesar salad, lots of nice veg involved, bit of kefir for pudding (must buy some good yogurt)
D: pork steak, mashed swede, lots of purple sprouting, bit of carrot.

half an hours swim

Bit of a different bootcamp for me as I’ve been made redundant and so navigating the kitchen always being open at home. Work generally was simple as if I didn’t take it, I couldn’t eat it and I had a good routine of boiled eggs eaten mid morning and a big salad with some sort of protein for lunch.

One of the things I love about bootcamp is seeing what everyone is eating. I get inspiration from new things and I'm reminded of old favourites. Thanks everyone 👏

@Rayna37 sorry to hear about redundancy, have you got anything new lined up? Navigating the kitchen is hard, the number of times I open the fridge and have a look around is astonishing just incase a magic fairy has filled the fridge with tempting delights

Got evening activities today so tea will be early, and I've gone for a 2 meal day.
Brunch - coffee with cream, mixed salad with tuna mayo and avocado
Tea - vegetable and cheese frittata (lots of good stuff in the veg box this morning). I'll make a big frittata so there's some left for tomorrow too.

Off to drink some water.

I'm shamelessly adopting this brilliant idea! (My brain is easily fooled.)

@CrystalTits apparently it makes a bottle of gin last a long, long time. Double benefits!

Sorry about the redundancy, @Rayna37 - hopefully something will come along soon. I've been there and it's so stressful.

I've managed 2l of water all before 12pm today! Can't believe I didn't suss doing this before...will gradually increase to 3l+ over the next week, which is what I should be drinking according to the rules.

@TheOnlyMrsW same here on the ghastly weather. I did manage a 30 mins row at lunch time, and I'm booked in to swim again tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great evening.

FFGY plus cream, and a slice of ham for breakfast, green salad with chicken breast for lunch, spag bol without the spag for dinner, as well as a caprese salad. I've been using Waterdrops to flavour my water - they claim to be sugar and carb free, but taste suspiciously sweet, enough to curb the wee craving I had this afternoon. However, the small print ingredients are really bloody small - going to have to get out the magnifier app on my phone to find out what they really contain.

Day two of new job and so far it’s going well (apart from never felt so tired!)
Yesterday had broccoli soup and ham salad for lunch and bolognaise with courgetti, ts broccoli and dressed leaves for dinner. Today chicken curry, green beans and salad for lunch. Salad bar at work is great so I think it’s going to be doable. I can’t be totally sure that soups don’t have potato or sauces don’t have flour, but I think on the whole the balance is right and I can avoid obvious things. Not sure what’s for dinner and hoping someone else at home has thought of something!

@lastchancesalmon I kind of dream of a salad bar put on by someone else - one of the (few) drawbacks of working from home

Impressive @lastchancesalmon on holding it together whilst starting a new job! Not sure I'd be as committed!

Chicken curry going on my menu this week!

@Quashsquash me too!

First day nearly done. I did a killer pilates workout this evening and I've managed not to have dairy today. Cream and cheese becomes a bit of a crutch on this WOE for me and then it stalls my weight loss so I need to keep an eye on it.

Well, I’ve achieved my first relatively easy target: to get under 12.5 stone I was 12 st 6.5lb this morning

My target for this month long Boot Camp is to get under 12 st. It might actually be achievable

Yesterday I had creamy tomato and shallot scrambled eggs for supper. I was better on the water - had a few large glasses of sparkling water infused with a sliced strawberry. It does mean that I’m breaking the Boot Camp rules though as at the end of the day I eat the slices of that single strawberry that has worked so hard over the day

@Quashsquashto be fair it is an amazing perk of the job to be provided with lunch everyday and I do appreciate it. I would never chop up such a variety of salad for myself!

@50FootWavethank you 😊

@prettybirdwell done - small steps add up to big goals!

How on earth did you manage no dairy? Both cream and cheese figure regularly in my LC meals as ‘rewards’ for no biscuits, toast, cake etc. But think they do probably stall weight loss.

Edited to say I love cream in my coffee ☕️

I don't avoid dairy completely but I do try to limit it to one meal a day and watch how many cups of tea I'm having. If I don't watch out I spend all day living on creamy coffees and pepperamis and then fall into a massive pile of cheesy, creamy dinner in the evening. I'm on a study day WFH today though so I suspect a few cups of tea will creep in.

Tomorrow's dinner is aubergine lasagne, so all of these cheeses 😁

Good day yesterday, managed to eat lunch - cherry toms, chorizo, mushrooms and spinach fried in butter with poached eggs and smashed avocado. Dinner was slow cooked pork casserole but with plain broccoli and cauliflower, the casserole was quite "wet" and didn't fancy other wet things with it but was very nice all the same. Managed 3 big pints of herbal tea yesterday along with a ltr of sparkling water, 2 normal cups of herbal tea and a single lonely cup of coffee so just about scraped the water/liquid requirement!!!!

Couple of spoonfuls of leftover casserole which I'll have for lunch with scrambled eggs then spag bol for dinner - proper spag for DH & DD and roast cauliflower for me, still not much of an appetite but doing my best. I'm not a natural morning eater so find that a late breakfast between 10.30-11.30-ish keeps me full until dinner time.

Supposed to be at least dry today so will go for a walk at lunchtime to get a break from my desk and remove myself from the temptation of the toast/cracker/crisp cupboard.

@prettybird congrats on the first target! @Rayna37 hopefully redundancy will work for you rather than against (apart from the kitchen temptations).........

Have a good day all

@CleanQueen123 love the sound of aubergine lasagne! Do you have a recipe?

Day 4, feeling OK! Swam this morning and 2l water down the hatch.

B: FFGY
L: Baby cukes, avocado, 2 boiled eggs, mayo.
D: Chicken Thai curry, no veg!

Will catch up properly later.

@50FootWave- there’s a recipe for low carb lasagne on the recipe threads (uses ricotta/cottage cheese with egg, mozzarella and Parmesan instead of a white sauce). Instead of pasta lasagne sheets, it uses thinly sliced courgette - but I’m sure you could use aubergines if you prefer them.

In fact, I bought mince at the weekend (currently in the freezer) as I was thinking of making some (although I’ve still to buy the mozzarella and the cottage cheese) in the near future (ds and his girlfriend come over for Sunday supper once a fortnight). I make it 2/3 with lasagne sheets for dh and ds and 1/3 with sliced courgettes. Last time I made it, I even made a mini one using quorn mince for ds’ veggie girlfriend

Just ordered a tomato and mozzarella salad and it was drenched in a balsamic dressing. Diligently scraped it off each tomato slice…🙄

@50FootWave I haven't made it before so I was going to Google it but @prettybird has helpfully pointed out there's one in the recipe threads so I'll have a trawl through those. It was an AI suggestion for my June meal plan!