Jan ’26 Low Carb Bootcamp - week 3 - full-on, light or hybrid?

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Spreadsheet as per:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gsWvWpGzTSJld1avBi9-uLJveFZes9Qa2ORKthPMl8E/edit?gid=1415293539#gid=1415293539

So as I posted in the last thread, you now have a choice. You can move on to Bootcamp Light, which means you can add in:

Some nuts and seeds
Some fruit - mainly berries
Some chocolate - 70% cocoa (and higher)
Some alcohol - clear spirits and sugar-free mixers, dry white/red wine.

… all in moderation and not at every meal time! Try to avoid the sugar-free mixers as much as you can, if you’re drinking spirits, given how artificial they are.

You can stay on full-on Bootcamp if you want to, or if you feel you’ve been slipping a bit too much recently - as long as you make sure you’re eating plenty of vegetables and salad, for good nutrition. You may, though, want to consider a hybrid - Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

It’s up to you.

Just remember though, that weeks 3 & 4 are infamous! It’s not at all unusual to see weight loss slow or stop. If this happens to you, don’t panic but just KOKO.

Good luck to us all

Moussaka with cream/cheese sauce instead of bechamel went down well tonight and lots of leftovers in the fridge.

@tinyspiny of course! Thanks, DD likes it there too and good for gluten free also, thanks!

Finally ate dinner... turkey burgers, Mediterranean inspired, was lovely. Found this website for some more reasonable priced dinners. Made 6 of them and froze the rest. No bun! Lots of yoghurt dressing and salad. Do feel better.

https://www.budgetbytes.com/greek-turkey-burgers/

@TheghostofchristmasarseI generally IF around 14:10 and have been focusing on getting dinner in earlier and making it 16:8 on BC. I find LC makes it much easier - I’m not so hungry.

A stupidly busy day, WFH full on plus I squeezed in a Drs appointment and had school drops and pick ups to do. I’m proud of myself for arranging the appointment because I usually put off tasks for my own health. Seems my sciatica is most likely poor strength/flexibility and sitting too much rather than a bulging disc or whatever so that’s good news. Also that they will prescribe some stronger NSAIDs as I’m finding ibuprofen just not cutting it. Less pain hopefully will enable more movement and a full recovery. Amongst this chaos I didn’t really make a proper lunch - leftover roast lamb and sprouts with a spoonful of curry sauce (plus some chunks of lamb and a babybel in a gap between meetings!) so could have been worse. Dinner was hm Moussaka with dressed leaves and I’ve hit 2.5l of water, remembered my vitamins and no wine even though the frantic day made me want to.

@TheOnlyMrsW tbh I've never got an energy boost that made me want to do laundry. And thankfully that is all dh's domain.

@RightTurnClyde a wee bit of black pudding is always going to be good for your iron levels!

@Theghostofchristmasarse that sounds hard. If evenings are difficult can you front load your meals so you have an easy breakfast and lunch that are full of protein. Your turkey burgers (already prepared - eat them for breakfast). A salad with pepperami or tuna or boiled egg for lunch (with mayo). And plan a veggie dish that you can eat with a fork or sppon while you are sitting with dc in the evening - soup, oven roasted veg with halloumi.

I suggested the jinger. It IS spendy. But less spendy than my wine habit!

@InMyLowCarbEra "leftover roast lamb and sprouts with a spoonful of curry sauce (plus some chunks of lamb and a babybel in a gap between meetings!)" in what way is that not a proper lunch? Protein, veg, for fats... We don't have to have a sandwich replacement. Lunch is whatever we eat at lunchtime.

@Jumperorcardi think I had halloumi & avocado at Giraffe last time I was in T5. Good luck!

@BIWII know the mint is ok but I didn't think I could have lime juice in the first two weeks of BC!

I had mystery soup out of the freezer for lunch yesterday. I think it was quite carroty though so might have been a bit carby.

Dinner was sausages, red onion, red pepper, broccoli and halloumi all roasted in the oven with a bit of balsamic vinegar drizzled over. It was really tasty.

I’m off to boil some eggs to take to work with me.

@Goodiewhemper it’s ok to used slices of lemon / lime for flavouring drinks .

@biwi,what’s your take on Kombucha? I have a bottle in the fridge that I keep looking at but it feels like it should been on the forbidden list.

Yes, I've been wondering about kombucha too, also kefir drink which is a milk/kefir mix. I have been having the odd small glass of the latter but have left my kombucha in the fridge since BC started. I drink it in cafes sometimes instead of standard soft drinks.

Thank you and yes I do add lemon/lime slices to my watebr or tea but to balance the flavours in the smoothie it needs a good squeeze - I usually use half a lime. I would have thought that too much!

I had a lovely meal out with friends last night - rather spenny restaurant, but there were lots of low carb options. Ended up having king prawns, followed by pork belly with red cabbage and superb crunchy crackling. Mmmm, one of my favourite things. Just a single small glass of wine <polishes halo>

Today I threw myself straight into work, and I just realised I somehow forgot breakfast.....Brunch it is, then.

I've bookmarked those turkey burgers - look good with the addition of feta.

The lamb burgers look lovely, also interested in the answer to the stilton question for the cheeseburger pie - I love all cheese but smelly blue ones are my favourite!!! Whenever I see kombucha it makes my stomach turn a bit, I'm sure it's good for us but still 😂

@BIWI possibly not enough fat if I'm honest, I do normally concentrate on losing the carbs and veg. Yesterday I had pork scratchings, a piece of mature cheddar (no appetite again), then for dinner I made the sausage and vegetable bake but no halloumi this time. A good squoosh of olive oil in the bake, and I've had no appetite at all again today. Have just made an omelette with cherry tomatoes, frozen peppers, spinach, mushrooms and chorizo fried in butter and halloumi on top. That will probably be me for today, I have a 4-hour long call this afternoon to 5.30 , at which point I'll have to leave for my volunteering gig and won't be back until after 8pm. I'm making another bake with chicken thighs, broccolli and cauliflower roasted in pesto but when I get back it's likely to be too late for me to eat even if I do feel hungry tbh.

Tomorrow is the office so I'm planning on having tonight's leftovers for lunch and avoiding all of the other temptations (have another stupidly busy day so that should help in theory). Gig with DD Friday which will have more of all the tempting things - Mexican food beforehand and beer (but bouncing does help to counteract that!)

I'm ok with the energy just a bit jealous of others as permanently tired pigeon is pretty much my default setting nowadays, but I am a bit concerned that if I lose because I'm not eating a lot that I'll put weight back on more easily even on LC once my appetite returns. Have to trust that this works (I know it does). Doesn't help that we have had a couple of busy weeks where we're a bit like ships, busy weekends, and a festival next weekend to negotiate too! Planning happens but then tends to go out of the window a bit depending on diaries...............

I’d say kombucha is OK, as it is very low in carbs - just check that it hasn’t got artificial sweeteners in it @mumsandaunties

Kefir is a different thing @SprinklesofRain, and generally (from the brands I’ve seen) not really Bootcamp-compatible as it is much higher in carbs. Just check the back-of-pack nutrition to see. Anything more than 4 or 5g carbs per 100g is probably not a good idea.

@TheOnlyMrsW

do normally concentrate on losing the carbs and veg.

Well, ‘yay’ to the first but a big ‘boo’ to the second! Rule 4 of Bootcamp is that most of your carbs should be coming from vegetables and salad - so I’m not sure why you’re losing veg. Clearly you need to make sure you’re choosing the right kind of veg (look at the traffic light-coded table on the spreadsheet for help), and you’re losing stuff like potatoes/sweet potatoes/sweetcorn/beetroot/squash/peas).

Carbs are our main source of energy, if you’re following a conventional UK diet - but when you cut them right down, you need something else to replace them, so you get the energy that you need. Hence why this WOE is a high fat one.

Sorry BIWI didn't explain myself very well - that should have read losing carbs and upping veg 🤦‍♀️. I mainly use peppers/broccoli/cauliflower/courgette/tomatoes and give DH potatoes if he whinges too much!

Ah - OK!

Roast pork tonight, along with various veg that seems to have accumulated in the fridge! Will probably be leeks in a cheese sauce (not made with flour, obv), and I might experiment and make a celeriac and swede mash, seeing as I somehow have managed to buy 2 swedes.

I have the end of a bottle of white wine, so I’ll chuck that into the roasting tin (along with the trivet of shallots) to make a lovely gravy.

And crackling!

Thanks @BIWI .The one I've got is Yeo Valley natural at 5.7g carb so not too bad, but I'm only having a fairly small glass (maybe 150mL) about 3x a week and have almost completely eliminated milk so I think I can probably keep that in. The other thing I can do is water it down a bit as it's quite thick then I'll drink less. Make it into a lassi style drink.

@LCagain thanks for the suggestion. I was really not hungry when I needed to eat before my flight, but knew that I needed to eat something. I ended up eating the filling from a Pret chicken and avocado sandwich- I threw the bread away. Anyway I’ve now landed and down the new finger print stuff required for entering the EU, so all good.

1/2 a pound off for me this morning, which I’m delighted with as I know that it all slows down in these weeks.

I think I’ve got chicken breast with goats cheese and Parma ham for dinner, husband is cooking and I’ve asked for green veg and lovely french butter 😀.

Ooh, I forgot to say I made your Cheeseburger Pie, @BIWI and it was very tasty. I have a portion to microwave for tonight's dinner.

In the interests of gut microbiome I do try to include some fermented foods, kimchi, kombucha, kefir wine . I sometimes grab a new brand of kombucha and almost spit it out because it is full sweeteners and horribly, horribly sweet. I add a bit of kefir to my chia pudding along with ffgy and some frozen berries (I make a big tub and take a little over several days). I'm maybe hoping that the kefir will interact with the berries and make a little alcoholic cocktail for my breakfast

L - left over omelette with salad
D - left over chilli on a bed of broccol and cabbage, topped with ffgy, grated cheese and smashed avocado

@InMyLowCarbEra sciatica is the worst, sorry you're going through that, I've had it since my early 20s, it's come back badly just recently..not found much that helps.

@venusandmars I can't really eat breakfast so its tricky, I'm up at 6, I try to eat at my desk before I start teaching at 8.30, but often I'm just not hungry and it has to be quick. Black coffee until about 2pm works for me I find. I'll see how I get on and then I might be able to get back into it and eat more in the evening.

Currently making a spag bol for later in the week, and laksa for tonight, too many steps though for me, I'm now bored halfway through!

Haven't eaten much today, not very hungry again..had two scrambled eggs this morning and then went on with my day, got to two pm and realized I hadn't eaten, found a bag of pork scratchings in the car so had some of those..

Nearly finished my bottle of jinger which has gone down very quickly, and considering making my own, want fresh tumeric though, so might have to order that. I read reviews that said people found it helped with inflammation, I've just realized my fingers (arthritis) haven't been hurting as much this week, usually I can barely move my little finger...but then it could be the reduction in alcohol that's done it.

@Theghostofchristmasarsethere will definitely be others on here with more science knowledge but pretty sure this whole way of eating is better for reducing inflammation.

Just digging through my spice drawer to check i have the ingredients for the pulled pork recipe.... do you think I need to buy a new jar of Allspice? 😳Yes, that does say Best Before March 2008.