Week 2 - Pre-Christmas '26 Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Morning everyone!

I hope that the first week went well - and I see we have a few new recruits which is great!

Here's the spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gsWvWpGzTSJld1avBi9-uLJveFZes9Qa2ORKthPMl8E/edit?gid=352445486#gid=352445486

I see some good losses already, which is fantastic.

Have a good week everyone

Yes, I've got out of the habit too but I used to make stick blender mayo regularly. I am just finishing a jar of this which is lush and only 0.8g carb/100g

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/maille-dijon-mayonnaise/373479-1-2

Today’s main meal is bubble and squeak patties. Mash steamed cauliflower with cooked streaky bacon, whole grain mustard, spring onions, grated cheese. Shape into patties and bake for 25 mins at 200. Served with broccoli, asparagus, plus potatoes for other members of family.

Torturing myself by watching bread week on The Great British Bake Off - however my dinner of Shepherds Pie with a topping of celeriac and cauliflower mash was really delicious. I don’t think I’d have known it wasn’t potato if I’d been given it blind. Possibly because of all the cheese on top!

Tonight we had roast pork belly, which I roasted on a trivet of shallots and rosemary, with a bit of water in the roasting tin. Served with celeriac 'chips' and braised red cabbage. New potatoes for DH and DS2. Gravy made by blitzing the shallots and juices from the meat. And lots of lovely crackling.

I had stir fried king prawns and mixed veg with a coconut cream based sauce (stock, 5 spice, coriander etc). Was very nice. I bought a big bag of uncooked King prawns in Costco a while ago and while they are not cheap they are very handy to have in the freezer as they defrost so quickly.

Right - bit of a challenging evening today. Out with some friends who have chosen a Japanese restaurant. I don't know much about Japanese food, other than a) I don't like raw fish and b) sushi has rice so is to be avoided!

Any top tips?

I would normally have sashimi which obviously isn’t going work. Teriyaki? Or a soup but without noodles or they may have conjac? Hmmmmm. Think it’s going to be tricky. Eat first and just have green tea?

I’m so happy to be into the 2nd week and already feeling the benefits of less food noise and a notch up on my belt. I also navigated (as best I could) a 3 night weekend away. I’ll add my weight on Wednesday which is my preferred weigh in day 😊I am loving all your food ideas. I’ve kept it really simple so far, with being away and general busyness. Super tasty and satisfying though!

I’ve never really eaten Japanese apart from sushi, so not much help here.

We’ve had the salmon laksa tonight with bare naked noodles instead of cabbage otherwise DH wouldn’t have eaten it.

I’ve got a challenging weekend coming up in early Nov, a girls weekend away (about 20 of us in a huge holiday let). We are all sharing evening meal food prep but an afternoon tea is on the agenda too so going to be tricky but I do love ATs. There is talk of much alcohol too but I don’t really drink so I will probably take a few bottles of San Pellegrino.

Oh they sound delicious. I must give that a try.

@BIWIthank you for the link to the Srsly bread. Since Brexit and since the new charges for any goods bought outside the EU, unfortunately it is now too expensive to buy from the UK 😞.
There is a great local supplier for low carb breads and treats and I usually keep some of her baked goods in the freezer and some bread mixes in the cupboard. The bread rolls are so handy for a day when a sandwich on the go is needed.

I also make bread with almond flour. This is the recipe I gave been using recently and I usually add some seeds and nuts to it. I use olive oil instead of the coconut oil and it delicious tossted with butter.

The week has been going well.
Breakfast yesterday was my usual avocado, cucumber, spinach, mint and lime smoothie with unsweetened almond milk. Yesterday I tried the egg/cream cheese pancake again but this time I added a spoon of psyllium husk and it gave it more body.

Lunch was a salad with lettuce, rocket and a couple if cherry tomatoes with small chicken breast fried in olive oil and with a provolone cheese melted in top. Dinner was streak strips served with rocket, grated parmesan and a good drizzle of evoo and served with a side portion of broccoli with eevo. My usual coffee with a splash of double cream started the day.

Today's breakfast will be similar to yesterday's. Lunch will be homemade mushroom soup, zucchini baked in the air fryer with a little cheese and ham and a boiled egg of I am still peckish. Dinner this evening is polenta with Italian sausage in a tomatoe sauce for everyone but will be having mine served with cauliflower rice.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Apologies for all the typos which I spotted before posting on the preview but couldn't scroll through the post to edit where needed.

How was the Japanese restaurant @BIWI?
Well I clearly didn’t navigate my 3 night break as well as I could have, my days were all out. Weighed in this morning and chuffed to bits to see a 2lb loss, although strictly 8 days not 7.

I went out for a pub dinner last night and thought I had lucked out with chargrilled tuna steak on a bed of ratatouille with chorizo however the ratatouille had butter beans in it. That’s a new version of the recipe!

Morning, am having a good 1st week so far, I only started on Monday as was away last week, but have done this before. I already feel less bloated.

I have had a lot of oven roasted veg and chicken, in the evenings and eaten the leftovers for lunch the following day which has worked well so far.

I am going to make a cottage pie with celariac/cauliflower mash tonight with green veg with some butter or evoo added.
Have found drinking water much easier than I thought as have had hot water instead of tea.
Thanks for the thread it is so helpful to do this together.

please can you share the almond flour bread recipe?

Another lb down for me this morning. Last nights dinner was Alice Springs Chicken

1. Fry three slices of streaky bacon a head till crispy. Set aside.
2. Use the same pan to fry off a handful of mushrooms a head. Put with the bacon.
3. Butterfly a chicken breast a head. Using the same pan, adding olive oil if necessary, pan fry the butterflied chicken breasts till almost done.
4. Lay the chicken in an ovenproof dish that just fits them.
5. Put 3 rashers of the cooked bacon on each chicken breast and pile on the mushrooms.
6. Grate cheese over the top till covered.
7. Pop in a 180° oven till the cheese is melted and the chicken is cooked.
8. Serve with a low carb mayonnaise stirred through with Dijon mustard and honey (obvs honey can be omitted for strict low carbing we added 1tsp)

We had it with Celeriac chips and a big salad. It was really delicious and something we would have for a treat usually.

That sounds delicious @WinterfellsStarbucksConcession

@Goodiewhemper sorry to hear about the additional cost for the bread - it's expensive enough to start with! I'd also like the recipe for the bread that you make.

@PippasPantry well done on the loss! Japanese was very good and sort-of OK - except I hadn't realised that 'popcorn shrimp' was going to be battered. (I should have known really, if I'd thought about it). But for main DH and I shared a platter of skewers - two chicken, one beef, one pork belly and one asparagus. They were delicious, although I suspect that was sugar in some of the marinades used. But it was easy to swerve the rice/noodles etc.

@Jumperorcardi sounds like it's all going well!

I'm out (again!) tonight, but it's a place I've been to before, so know I can navigate the menu. But overall I don't think it's going to bode well on the scales

I’m pleased with my results so far, I’m 140.6lbs today. That’s the first time I’ve seen a zero there in a long time.

I’d also like the almond flour bread recipe please!

I made the salmon laksa earlier in the week, it was tasty, and I blended up the remaining sauce and cabbage into a soup for the following day’s lunch.

Had a sneaky weigh in today because I felt a bit trimmer and I'm now 7lbs down. I can't believe it!

I was feeling nibbly for sweet things last night and I ended up having FFGY mixed with a little bit of cream and I think because it felt creamy and a bit naughty, it got rid of the craving. That's the only tip i have so far....

FFGY this morning, salad with meat and eggs for lunch today and then salmon with a creamy mushroom sauce tonight.

That's brilliant @Lovelysnuggyjumper

I agree about the WOE cutting the food noise, it's not completely gone but drastically reduced. I had a bit of a slip-up yesterday, gave blood and gave into temptation with the biscuits afterwards but back to it today and haven't felt particularly hungry. I am enjoying my daily FFGY/cream breakfast, added a bit of homemade pumpkin spice mix today which was nice. Lunch was crudites with tzatziki, dinner pork ribs with salad and the rest of the tzatziki.

Just made some nice chicken wings for lunch. Marinated them in olive oil mixed with sriracha, worcs sauce, soy and cider vinegar for a few hours, baked at 200 for 35 mins, they were lovely served with salad.

So how's everyone getting on? We're almost at the end of the first fortnight, which means you can - if you wish - move on to Bootcamp Light. This means that you can add in (some) fruit, (some) nuts/seeds and (some) alcohol.

If you like, and if it's suiting you, you can carry on with Bootcamp. Or you can do a hybrid, so Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

Still here. I have noticed how much I want to snack in the evening, though luckily and interestingly I'm not interested in sweet things. I've realised I've actually been doing quite a lot of boot camp literally so am going to stick on the OG BC next week

I’m planning to introduce some seeds/nuts/berries to my FFGY breakfasts but leave the alcohol out, I don’t really drink much anyway, maybe once every few weeks so no hardship. I have let a bit too much milk slip back into my teas and coffees so trying to cut that back again, I don’t mind black tea, black coffee is harder but it isn’t really practical to take cream to work.