Week 6 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - We've Passed the Halfway Point!

[BIWI]

Morning campers!

Lovely weather at last.

Here's the spreadsheet of fabulousness

Come and confess all.

The last couple of weeks have seen quite a lot of slippage and falling off the wagon - a euphemism for cheating! - so I'm not expecting that we're going to see many fabulous losses this week. Indeed, I think many of us are going to feel a bit downhearted when we step on the scales today.

BUT NEVER FEAR!

There are still 5 weeks left, which is plenty of time to get properly back on the wagon and shift a few more of those pesky pounds.

Good luck everyone!

I'm really glad to see that things are moving again for everyone! Those weeks 3-5 are bastards really, aren't they?!

B: 2 bacon, 1 egg fried in butter, fried mushrooms
L: no idea yet
D: spicy braised lamb shank and some veg/salad.

The lamb is in to cook, and will slow cook in the oven until dinner time :)

Moving is the right word biwi I've lost 4 lb this week!

Brilliant, Queen , and I'm glad that you've convinced your DH and that you've taken control of your own diet.

My name is Yoghurty and I am a sugary twat

No excuses- I just hate that I keep sabotaging myself. I only want to lose another stone (lost 2 on the January boot camp) but the closer I get to my target, the more I'm setting myself up for failure.

It's never bread or pasta or rice or potatoes, it's sugar, in any form. I love this WOE and don't feel deprived so why do I make such stupid decisions? I'm not bored or sad or angry.
Maybe it's complacency....

Just wanted to rant. Moving on! Chicken thighs and broccoli tonight

Yoghurty it is the power of not just sugar, but also of sweet flavours. It is believed that we would have historically been attracted to sweet flavours as they tend to indicate that a foodstuff is not harmful. However, sweet things like honey and fruits would have been harder to come by or only at certain times of the year (e.g. what is now harvest time, so prior to winter when building up fat stores would have been a good thing). Also, in nature, sweet flavoured (and high carb) foods tend not to be high fat. However, now we have easily accessible sweet flavoured things available all year round, 24 hours a day, in convenient form (v little preparation or equipment required to eat them) and many are sugary and fatty at the same time. It's no wonder that it's SO HARD to avoid sugary things, not only are we programmed to be attracted to them but they are also very readily available. By trying to avoid these things you really are swimming against the tide.

However, sweet flavoured sugary things aren't likely to go away any time soon, unfortunately, and as the government aren't likely to do anything about the current sugar-pushing it's really up to us to take responsibility for our own intake.

What I'm trying to say is that you're not mainlining sugar because you are a failure or have no self-control, it's totally understandable in today's society and with the food industry and policy the way it is. It's not just you sabotaging yourself on your own, it's also the influence of so many things around you. But you can overcome that! You've done it before and you can do it again! Be subversive and don't succumb to the marketing tactics and that Gollum in your head whispering "my precious [sugar]..."

Also remember the trick of asking yourself if you know what something tastes like and whether it's your first and last ever opportunity to try it. If the answers are yes and no respectively then you know you don't have to eat whatever it is RIGHT NOW and you can leave it and move on

Feel stuffed today -
Breakfast 2 eggs fried with mushrooms in butter, 1 slice bacon

Lunch - Iceland chicken 'trimmings', with mayo - I bought this yesterday thinking it looked nice, £1.75 for a big box of chicken bits. OPened it and it's vile - curiously sweet, salty, wet, tasteless. Could've been wet blotting paper. Don't buy!

Dinner - celeriac tartiflette - OMG i don't really like celeriac but this is truly gorgeous!

Evening and totally agree with willie about the sugar conspiracy around us, and how hard it is to avoid it, it's in just about every blasted bit of processed anything. Hence the bootcamp emphasis on clean, fresh, natural foods. Pom Pom waving for yoghurty keep going, tomorrow is a new day! I think if you are honest with yourself and admit what is happening psychologically, you are on the way to winning.

B 2 slices bacon, 2 sausages, 1 fried egg
L carrot and coriander soup (was out, best choice going)
S slice of ham with slice of cheddar
D meatballs in a chilli, garlic and tomato sauce served on a big plate of wilted spinach, with a bit of cheese grated on top.

Am running out of veg so off for a Lidl raid tomorrow. I really hope they have celeriac in stock, desperate to try this tartiflette!!

Ah Willie, thank you for your post. Interesting to know about our 'instinct' - I've never heard that before.

It's so silly, I do the 'have I tasted it before? will I again?' and since January I've been able to do that with all other things.

I gave up alcohol and feel no pressure to drink (nor any Gollum whisperings ) and I wish it was as easy as that with sweet things.

I think that I was so used to previously eating sweet things that sometimes I forget I don't do that anymore! I think that is what happened today- in Ikea, bought a coffee, picked up an apple Danish, ate half of it before I realised what I'd done. Mindless.

Feel back on track now thou- just had soy and ginger baked chicken with buttered broccoli and courgette.

I've had a lovely day - actually made it, with spinning wheel, to meet a group of friends to sit and chat while spinning.

I also noticed today that my thighs no longer touch! yay!

Habits are so easily made yoghurty, and so much harder to break, but you can do it

I've heard of today's western world described as an 'obesogenic' environment, as in you actively have to work against becoming obese given the available food, lifestyles etc. that is pretty shocking really

I don't believe my thighs have ever not touched. But I will be vairy interested to see if its possible to ever get to that point, on this WOE!

I wanted to say to all you thirsty people, a reminder to keep drinking more than you would have done normally! Its my understanding this doesn't work if you're not drinking lots. Plus drinking lots is also one of the ways to avoid constipation.

Found your post really interesting Willie thank you

Stuck with it again today with
B - mushroom omelette and asparagus
L - tuna mayo salad
D - broccoli and stilton soup, strawberries & greek yog

undone it slightly with a big snack of cheese!

Thank you to who ever added weight to spread sheet this week, can't seem to do it on phone.
Scales seem to be slowly moving in right direction this week(down 1lb since Mon)
Investing in a hula hoop on Monday, I have a friend who makes them and it was quite easy when I tried it out, should be good for waist, I hope.

Hello, may I please join?

Course you can Molly! Welcome.

Well I succumbed to wine tonight. Rather a lot of red wine. Really enjoyed it though! I figured one night a week can't be too bad.

And better tonight than tomorrow night.

Did I mention it is my parents 50th wedding anniversary today? And we forgot? All four of us. My youngest sis texted me last night to ask if it was 50th. Other two sisters knew it was anniversary but not focussed on how many years. Feel dreadful. In some mitigation my mum is in a home due to dementia but my dad knew and remembered. I think iphe was a bit hurt that we forgot. But it is hard to know what to do with my mum the way she is.

I am celebrating that Hungary's Got Talent and am off to bed. So Igen! For Hungary. (means yes)

Thankyouuuu!!

I don't eat a lot.....seriously....I really don't but the older I get the harder it is to shift the weight. Its only a stone and a half that I really want to lose and ive been trying for 4 years. I can exercise and run and do weights and I eat mindfully. I don't diet but I don't eat unless im hungry and then I stop when Im full....so it just frustrates me that I stay the same. I never gain weight either. My daughter who is 23 eats a lot of food, again, when shes hungry not just for the sake of it. She never gains weight and she is size 8 . Im 16 and would love to get down to a 14 then a 12 but I don't want to take forever either. Someone mentioned I might be insulin resistant( which Is not connected to diabetes I believe) as I am fine healthwise. And it was suggested that low carb would get me losing weight. What do you think ladies?

hi molly and welcome. From everything I've seen insulin resistance is related to diabetes. However, people with PCOS can be insulin resistant without necessarily becoming diabetic. I'm no expert though, so please don't take my word alone for it!

Oh and FWIW I think it's worth giving low carb a try - I've been trying for ages to lose weight. It took me nearly two years to lose 1.5 stone. Since going low carb I've lost nearly 1 stone. 10lb of that since I've joined bootcamp with biwi. It's worth it and it's the only thing that's given me decent results.

Yesterday's menu:
B: Greek yoghurt with berries and a small piece of cheese
L: bacon and eggs
D: nutty chicken curry with green beans (plus rice & carrots for carb eaters)

Today's menu:
B: -
L: tuna mayo with salad
D: bacon pasta (courgette ribbons as pasta for me)
S: Greek yoghurt & berries, couple handfuls of peanuts (I just wanted something to nibble while everyone else had chocolate or biscuits during our film)

Molly - the closer you are to your body's natural weight, the harder it is to loose weight but it can be done!

I'm finding I'm not hungry but have an urge to snack or after a meal I want a sweet fix (blame my DM for that habit!) - savoury snacks just don't cut it it takes willpower to not snack or choose a low carb option but has anyone found any good low carb sweet snacks??

Welcome Molly! As we say to all newbies, please go to the spreadsheet (link in biwis first post at the start of each thread) and read the bootcamp rules, allowed foods etc in the tabs at the top. It explains what we are doing here. We are on week 6 of this bootcamp but everyone is welcome anytime! Recipe thread, and Lowcarb recipe section in Food also good for inspiration for meals.

Please also take the time to do some reading about how low carb works, if you understand the science, it really sticks better. Dr John Briffas "escape the diet trap" is the usual starting text, Idiot Proof Diet also a good read.

And ask any questions!

Thankyou ladies. Tomuch ...
I bought the John Biffa book last week....will get reading the thread info too.

Whoops....Briffa.

Are we newbies allowed to add ourselves to the spreadsheet and if so do we jut add ourselves at the bottom under everyone else?

Welcome Molly and thebest. Yes I think you just add yourself to the spreadsheet at the bottom and then Willie works her magic and puts you in the right place.

Molly I'm afraid insulin resistance is very much related to T2 diabetes. Have a read here...
diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/insulinresistance/

daisy I also have the urge for a little bit of pudding sometimes. I've been having my total greek yoghurt "ice-cream":
Big handful of frozen berries (mainly red and black currants but also black and raspberries) in a pan, heat until simmering and the berries are breaking down a bit.
Add that into about two thirds of a tub of greek yoghurt.
Add a big slosh of double cream, two or three tablespoons of milled flaxseed and plenty of grated vanilla.

You can eat it there and then, but if you put it back in the fridge, overnight the flaxseed swells and softens, absorbing some of the moisture so that the resultant texture is similar to ice cream. It bloody lovely.

I've been using a vanilla pod grater I got in Waitrose for £6 and it's absolutely delicious - it's expensive but I've been using it for weeks and haven't even used half of it. I couldn't find it on their website for you yet as I think it's a recently added product...
www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/ambient/grocery/waitrose-lists-organic-vanilla-bean-grinder-from-rh-amar/343316.article

Just bear in mind that flaxseed, although it has a low carb content, does seem to stall some people, and berries aren't strictly bootcamp.