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.

I'm feeling pretty happy today :)

I went away for the weekend and had a few planned 'off road' moments. Yet my blood levels remained 'good' (concerns about diabetes) and I'm down a lb on Friday's weight (which was down a lb or two from the previous week).

I had a rum & diet coke, a vodka & diet pepsi (wanted the coke not tonic/soda - first since New Year), a small teaspoon of someone else's pudding, a small slice of freshly baked rye bread and about 3 bites of a piece of ciabatta over the course of 3 days.

The ciabatta was under some amazingly lovely mushrooms, followed by the most amazing Haloumi salad known to mankind!

The rye bread was under some spinach homous/aubergine/courgette/mushroom/pesto ensemble - amazing.

So - it was lovely to eat out, have the odd nibble of 'off piste' food and a couple of drinks without my blood sugars shooting up OR gaining weight. It is starting to feel like there might be life after this weight loss/diabetes scare :)

I have also dropped the very naughty latte's totally and am having black coffee & cream and I have cut back on the cheese - which as a non egg eating vegetarian is quite hard - but the weight seems to be moving, which is good. I just wish it was easier to determine which food affects me and which doesn't. Sigh.

Back to 100% today - avocado and seeds for brunch :)

Ooh chipping I love halloumi. Is it a salad one might be able to recreate (in an amateur fashion?)

halloumi (like avocado, butter, and the fat on meat) is something I alway thought I didn't like until this WOE. I am even coming round to almost liking olives (they are now just 'ok' rather than 'vile'). I am educating my palate!

crabby I am struggling to adjust from the constant localised pain of bad back to the entire all over pain of the fibro. The quality of sleep has been greatly affected since the fibro appeared and I find i need more and am greatly limited in the amount i can do before I hit burn out. I know it is going to take me over a week to recover in energy and pain wise because I know that this weekend is going to be another busy one. All my social events have fallen consecutive weekends and whilst they are lovely and a lot of fun they have been fairly late nights and required more energy then i have. But because they are one offs I have pushed my self past the ideal into burnout to enjoy them. I am still trying to find the balance between doing and resting. I suspect I will get better as I adjust to the fibro but it is new to me and i don't know my limits yet. Suffering from a hideous migraine today. Couple hours sleep has helped but not much.

Food
b: scrambled eggs
couple of cups of coffee (sweetner and milk)
about 1 1/2 ltrs water
L:migraine tablet and some chocolate to stave off shakes and raise bloody sugar sufficiently to drive home safely. Not ideal but safety over woe. Ideally i wouldn't have been driving at all but would have been stranded if i hadn't, and needed my bed.

I have updated my weightloss chart on my photos.

I find it really useful to show me the overall downwards trend, and to ignore the daily fluctuations.

I reckon if I follow the trend I will be down to 89kg by end of June.

I'm so excited about my dinner creation! It was spag Bol on the menu and I took my portion and put it in a baking dish, then a layer of spinach, and a layer of fried aubergine. Then I've topped with a cream/egg custard and topped with fried leeks and courgettes (in case BIWI is veg watching) and grated mozzarella. I can't wait for it to cook- who needs pasta?

I'm always on #vegwatch, couch25cakes That sounds lovely!

rubybricks - I reckon Lily has it exactly right. And yes, you will be knocking yourself out of ketosis, because you will have to switch to carb-burning every time you over-indulge like that.

chippingin - that sounds very encouraging

newstartnewstory fibro is a pig for making you pay for days in pain and fatigue for any exertion you 've made. I spent 4 hrs chatting with friends on Saturday and don' t think I'm over it yet. Muscles still sore and not firing properly.

I've just had a lovely curry with chicken, musselman paste, coconut milk, small amt frozen shallots/ garlic and added tin of spinach. Was delicious - as good as what I used to get from Indian and took me less than 15 min.

Really need to get some more greens in tomorrow. Everyone will be thinking we've got a rabbit colony amount I've been eating last few weeks. Yay for asparagus season, I say.

For halloumi lovers, I have a fabulous recipe for it which works beautifully on the barbecue. You can griddle it instead of barbecuing it, but the charcoal adds that bit more flavour:

Grilled Halloumi with lemon and garlic vinaigrette

1-2 packs Halloumi (this amount of dressing actually works with up to 2 packs of Halloumi)

Dressing:
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 garlic clove, chopped very finely
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 rounded teaspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Whisk all dressing ingredients together

Cut each cheese into 8 slices

Barbecue/griddle until nicely charred on the outside, pour over the dressing and serve immediately, whilst it's still lovely and soft (and before it goes tough and squeaky!)

From "Barbecues" by Jim Marks (pub. Sainsbury's)

Well my creation was amazing!! Enough for a couple of lunches too :) I had it with cabbage-which I love now. I'm also out of veg now so need to stock up.

Big well done to all those amazing losses! at crabby's celebratory music on the Wii.
negroni and cider and anyone else on ultra-camp - sorry, failed again today. Had a busy day at work and wanted something tasty tonight so I did mayo/parmesan topping on chicken fillet to go with my buttery courgettes...
nappy - wasn't me on the grass-fed lamb (though did buy some from Sainsbury's yesterday). Someone who posts on here has bought it though and am sure will come on and report
Like the sound of your dinner creation couch may have to try that ? and BIWI's halloumi dressing...
Today:
B 2 scrambled eggs
L cafe in between meetings ? chicken skewer with salad
D parmesan/mayo topped chicken with courgettes
NOT ENOUGH WATER! A LOT of black coffee

I'm freshly stocked up on veg now. DP ordered a veg box from ocado and then was very when I added some extras. he wanted to take the box off the order. managed to convince him not to. I don't think he quite gets just how much veg I'm eating these days. It's fab - I love veg, so I'm not complaining at replacing my starches with more lovely veg. I actually think it's quite hard to get your five a day when you're trying to have starches making up 60% of your diet.

I made Nigellas meatzza today and it was yummy. I can thoroughly recommend. Tastes like a proper pizza.

Kids fighting. Back in a minute.

5 a day is a marketing construct ...

see here

Another suffering Fibro sufferer..... my parents are down from thurs to fri and I'm dreading it.... I'm shattered & sore now and when they are here I get no break, I love them lots but having them here from 9/10am till 7/8pm is just too long... I'm dreading next week trying to recover.....

Today's meals:
B: Greek yog with berries and piece cheese
L: asparagus quiche with salad and mayo
D: tomato & basil soup with 2 slices instant bread
S: plain yog & nuts

Sounds yum Couch!

Biwi - what does halloumi taste like? Is it a cheese??

Halloumi is like tasty salty rubbery polystyrene. Seriously, it squeaks on your teeth.

It is heavenly. I fry mine in olive oil and chopped red chilli.

It was me with the grass fed meat.

this is the place we ordered from. We got one of the 'monthly boxes'. The only thing is that they don't always put in the box exactly what's on the list, which we weren't aware of. however their customer service when we queried this was really top notch.

The meat is lovely, but I do think the chicken is overpriced and when we order again we'll specify not to put any chicken in the box I think. The meat is lovely though. Very tender and loads of flavour. I've noticed the biggest difference in the steak I think.

Evening all. I have had two very stressful days and it feels like it should be Friday.

Anyway, I'm going to shower and then curl up in front of an episode or two of House.

You all seem to be doing well which helps. Keep up the good work guys.

Delias summer collection halloumi dressing is lovely too. It's quite similar to BIWIs but is lime zest and juice, oil, capers, whole grain mustard, chopped coriander. I love halloumi.

I was just thinking I'd love a bit of halloumi with roasted peppers, garlic, onion and olives. Mmmmmm.

Another halloumi fan here. I fry it in chilli oil.

I'll have to investigate halloumi but I cannot imagine eating rubbery polystyrene!!!!

Daisy, honestly, you should try it - it's in the cheese section at the supermarket.

I have taken the liberty of adding some of the gorgeous recipes here to the low carb recipe section.

BIWI's tartiflette
Middleagespread's Hollandaise
QueenofDream's Eggs in clouds
and my own stuffed baby peppers