Week 7 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - Hurtling to the Finish Line!

[BIWI]

Morning everyone. Hope you all had a good weekend and that there wasn't too much cheating!

Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

So we have four weeks left. Time to shed a good few more pounds if you stick to the rules

I go on holiday in less than three weeks, so it's nose to the grindstone for me from now on.

Well done Cider, Chipping, Sam on your multi-stone losses. It is really inspiring.

Not so hungry today but made mushroom omelette for breakfast as otherwise I'm sure I would start to crash as the morning went on. Lunch sardine & salad+mayo, Dinner feta & salad.

It feels I'm eating "healthy food" (as compared to a boring sandwich-and-not-bothering-with-salad) but I'm guilty of getting a little stuck in familiar food ruts so I will have to go and have an inspirational look at the recipes page.

Hello everyone! Having bit of a random eating day involving Greek salad, prawns with mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter, small amount of natural yoghurt ... raspberries and cream. Would love it to have been raspberry ice cream though. In some kind of weird logic I decided that hand whipping the cream, with a bubble whisk counted as major exercise session which should be rewarded with generous portion.

All a bit random as was out with DD1 at 2 back to back children 's parties. First one ok as was a drop off party so no food to avoid apart from birthday cake which DD1 does not like (hard to believe she is my daughter) but second one was full on pizza, crisps, fairy cakes, fizzy drinks fest that all children and adults eating plus adult only food of samosas and pakoras. I drank 3 glasses of water so once got home had weird peanut butter, raspberry and cream party of my own.

Welcome SamJ - 2.5 stones loss since Jan is amazing!

Now must drink some water!

Evening all, hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday. Thanks black for the blog link, I will buy aubergine again tomorrow.

Can I join the middle aged jeans mafia please? I also have a pair of M&S Marilyn jeans! Size 12, black. They are a good fit but i was a bit disappointed that the colour has faded so quickly after a few washes.
And today I bought a pair of Next high waisted "slim and sculpt" (or something like that) slim fit size 12. They are a great fit, and I love the way the high waist contains my tummy and gives me a "no back fat hanging over waistband" look. Their skinny jeans are ridiculous though, couldn't even get them past my knees (depressing). Boyfriend jeans made me look like a sack of tatties (also depressing).

I am 5"8" with most of my height from my legs and loooong pelvic bone (midwife said this was why I had a 30 hour labour, ouch) so I very rarely find jeans/trousers that actually are high enough to sit on my waist, I had hipsters before they were known as hipsters! So I am hoping I can now wear some shorter summer tops with my new jeans and not be constantly hoiking them up to cover the gap.

Thanks Maid, unfortunately I lost my willpower and whilst I had steak and salad for my main course, I then spoilt it by having three (small) scoops of ice cream. Also had small glass of red wine and a bottle of Becks beer. It was a thoroughly lovely evening though, for my son's birthday, and it is my first slip up in ten days.

I wear New Look jeans. I like their skinny jeans as they basically aren't that skinny - unlike all the other skinny jeans you cannot get to go beyond the knees.

I checked out the M&S jeans but sadly they don't do a pair for the cursed apple shaped!

Feel weird eating dairy again. Guilty even. Keep thinking am doing something wrong. Will see what scales have to say come Monday.

Cider - amazing losing 3 stone and also Chipping for being 25 % of way to goal - hope I have got that right.

@ middle aged jeans mafia!

Didn't have a great night's sleep last night so not feeling 100% this morning.

Hope you all have a good day today. Slow roasted pork belly on a bed of fennel to look forward to here.

Crabby that sounds lovely

Hello everyone . What sort of weight loss are you all averaging per week on this low carb diet malarkey please?

missalien - I don't think any kind of weight loss is linear - so it's hard to say on a 'weekly' basis, especially as it really affects your insulin level (which as you probably know is a hormone) so it varies a lot through the month.

Boring answer out of the way :)

On average 1.6 lbs, but some weeks 2/3 other weeks 0. You can't be discouraged by the 0's as you still seem to lose inches :)

It's really interesting , thank you chipping in . There seem to be many health benefits , as listed on another thread.

Does anyone else find that M&S jeans shrink lengthwise.

Thank you MaidofMuss, Lily & Negroni :)

Missalien there are lots! and no downsides. I started doing this, not for my weight, but because my blood sugars were way too high (diabetes scare) and this brought them down to 'within' normal within a few weeks :) Now I'm doing it to keep them that way and to lose weight. I haven't been able to lose weight any other way since I was ill really, so this has given me hope again. I actually believe now that I can get to a healthy weight.

Yes Crabby that sounds lovely. Very envious of those who seem to have more organised proper meals. I just seem to be more of a look in the fridge and hunt desperately for low carb options. Everyone talking of pork belly is making me very tempted to pop to butchers tomorrow to buy some.

Just survived father's day breakfast of croissants, plain and chocolate, baguette, jams etc. I just stuck to cheese, cold meat and coffee plus an additional portion of natural yoghurt and raspberries. V happy as had no crazy urges to eat the croissants but did feel a bit wistful for breakfasts past when I would have been happily chomping on a chocolate.

missalien - I lost a few 3/4 pounds in the first couple of weeks, then only a pound a week for a few weeks with the odd. cheat. Now had a strictish week and hoping for a good loss. BUT the main benefit of this way of eating for me is not being a total slave to carbs, constantly feeling hungry and chomping mindlessly on chocolate bars or toast. If I stay on track it is a pretty painless way to lose weight.

Crabby et al - thanks! Can't actually believe I have gotten to the elusive 3 stone mark! I got to 33lbs down at my best last June with WW but then faffed about and lost and gained the same half stone from September to starting boot camp.

This week has been great. I think it's cutting back on the dairy and running.

Food yesterday
B - Greek yoghurt , blueberries and flaxseeds
S - slice of cheese
L - salad with egg mayo, coleslaw, ham
D - pork chop with a cabbage and bacon thing from M&S and some leeks and other greens fried with chorizo
NO wine!

Today - just had a huge bowl of raspberries, Greek yoghurt, cream and flaxseeds. Will be cutting back on dairy again tomorrow
L - will be salad and egg mayo and chorizo pâté
D - roast lamb, mashed turnip, asparagus and leeks

I have just made 3 lots of cheese on toast for DS, DH and our decorator and wasn't even tempted by the toast. I can't believe I am finding this relatively easy. Wine is the hardest for me to resist but I have decided to avoid alcohol until first glass of champagne on flight to Las Vegas on July 4. And as dairy is obv a bit of an issue for me I will be really watching my dairy intake.

Happily chomping on a chocolate croissant - that was meant to read - though I probably would have been happily chomping on a chocolate or 5 for breakfast too!

Miss alien - like Negroni I had a good loss - 5 lbs first week but then messed it up with a boozy weekend and set myself back quite a bit. It took a while to get the loss really going again. Since then it has been a pound a week which I was a bit disappointed with although I know I shouldn't be as it is a healthy loss and a loss is a loss after all! However BIWI pointed out I was eating a lot of dairy so I cut that back this week and it has really boosted my loss. I'm hoping for a good official loss tomorrow. And as others have said even when the scale doesn't move I feel so much better and slimmer. Not bloated. More energy. Wake in the morning feeling so much better.

Yep Chipping.... m&s jeans always seem to shrink..... that is why I ended up changing.... am currently wearing peacock jeans but the local peacocks had closed down so don't know what I'll get now......

I feel like I've put weight on today.. am feeling flabby round my waist...... think I'll be cutting out the yoghurt & getting very strict with myself for a couple of weeks....

decaffwithcream

I went to Lidl today and I think I found the correct yoghurt in the bucket that you mentioned being really creamy and lower carb than Total. However it has a carb count of 3.2g and I thought Total Yoghurt was only 2.8g and Alpro plain yoghurt 2.1g?

Didn't manage to find the sausages :( The lowest carb ones I could find were plain pork ones that were 8.6g per 100g. I did find some carb-free mini bratwurst though :)

Nappy total is about 4g per 100g iirc - certainly a 170g pot is 6-7g

Oh perhaps it was 3.8g then not 2.8g

New and Negroni the pork belly smells absolutely amazing - it's worth making just for your house to smell of glorious roasting meat and fennel all day. Also it gives fantastic leftovers for days afterwards. I don't like fatty meat, but when you slow cook this all the fat just melts and you end up with this amazingly tender, almost gelatinous meat.

Chipping I can easily link to each blog entry, but don't want to shove it down everyone's throat! The post for last night's slow cooked squid alla puttanesca is here and you can get to the courgette 'pappardelle' from there too. If you click the 'follow' butto, you can receive notifications of new posts by email that you can click straight through from. I'll post the pork belly one tomorrow, as that seems to be whetting some of your appetites!

Miss I've lost a stone in 5 weeks, but one week was a gain because I took the weekend off and ate lots of carbs for my 40th. It averages at around 2-3lbs a week I think.

Tell me something... do any of you find this WOE harder to do when you have your period? Yesterday and today I've been feeling really quite ill - nauseous, achey, tired, weak and dizzy. I'd assume I was going down with something, but this is exactly how I felt last month on the first two days of my 'proper' (ie really heavy after a week of intermittent spotting. Tmi, sorry) period. I'm wondering whether my body is having trouble coping without carbs as an easy energy source when I'm bleeding heavily?

I really am a pratt!

Gave in to sugar and have put back on 5 lbs!

So, am back, loads of water, fat and low carb veggies.

Am going to up the exercise too and more water.

Ruprekt, don't be too hard on yourself. I had a few days off the wagon at half term & put lbs on. I climbed back on & lost it in a week.

I definitely crave sweet stuff during the first couple of days of TOM crabby I have always lost my appetite completely except for sweet stuff when I'm 'on' because I feel so ill. So yes, that's when my resolve fails! At least its only once a month eh?

Hi all
Yes Ruprekt - should hopefully be able to lose it quickly if you are bootcamping again this next week. Go for it!
I was okay out last night ? just one glass of wine and absolutely no desire to ask for a spoon to dip into daughter's huge ice cream sundae. Had steak, salad and a side of sauteed mushrooms and felt pretty full.
Today has been:
B strawberries, spoonful of linseed and Total
L tuna and mayo in iceberg lettuce leaves
D pot chicken (in slow cooker with shallots, carrots, swede, bay, thyme, bit of white wine), which I ate with roasted cauli and buttery green (beans and long-stemmed broccoli). Others had mash which I ignored, - though cauli or celeriac mash would have gone better than my roast cauli - and I thickened up their gravy from the pot with cornflower.
Glass of white wine

I am also in the process of cooking a beef dish for tomorrow eve (Mondays always rushed and was in the mood to get something sorted) - chunks of stewing steak with shallots in red wine [OK ignore the red wine bit!]
Not sure what to put with it yet but rabble will have pasta or rice.

misalien, for me my weight loss has been between 1 1/2-2 lb pw on average. Some weeks no movement on the scales whatsoever, the first week something like 5lb I think. The whole point, I think, is that it's doable and being able to eat rich, tasty food doesn't make you feel utterly deprived and miserable like most diets.