Week 8 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - Only 3 weeks left!

[BIWI]

Morning campers.

Come and confess all on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

So only three weeks left. I know that things have been moving quite satisfactorily for some of you, so hopefully these last three weeks can see a few more of those pesky pounds disappear.

I had a bit of an altercation with some sticky toffee pudding this weekend (at the PILs) so I've got my work cut out over the next few days to undo the damage!

Off for a run shortly ...

Hi Chipping! DS won a prize for having progressed so well this year. The school are food with prizes and 3 out of every form/class get a prize as well as more specialised prizes. We moved back to uk from Hungary and moved him into year 6 two years ago and he really struggled. Hated it all. But thankfully this year (year 7) has been much better and he is like a different child. He goes to a Prep school and they do school on Saturday anyway from year 7 so Parents Day on a Saturday makes sense really.

No idea what I will have tonight. Haven't been for ages so no idea of new menu.

Molly - welcome! TBH the easiest way to deal with cravings for bread etc is to cut carbs out completely. The cravings go after about 3 days. I am a total bread fiend. At least I was! I have to say that even though I have fallen off the wagon on bootcamp I haven't been tempted by bread at all. Even fresh baguette. Even though I can smell it. It's the one thing I can take or leave now.

I think I will just have to bite the bullet and not have any bread then. I guess when I start seeing results I wont want to have bread if it causes weight gain again. I don't eat a lot of food in a day....probably about 1500 cals and sometimes less and people keep saying I don't eat enough. But in my head I cant get that! To me the less I eat the more I should lose.....but no.......it doesn't happen. My metabolism must be in pieces. BIWI....have you found that you can eat non wheat oatcakes and still not gain?

Lily...

feastwithoutregret.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/low-carb-cauliflower-cheese/

Molly - one thing I find useful is saying 'I'm not eating bread for now' 'for now' seems much more do-able than 'I'm never eating bread again'. I haven't had any bread for 5 months, until last weekend when I was away and I chose to have 1/2 a piece of ciabatta (under a pile of lovely mushrooms) and the next day 1/2 a piece of sourdough (under a pile of vegetables). Oat cakes are high in carbs too. I just eat cheese by itself now and in salads, in sauces etc - just not 'on' bread or crackers. So - is it just bread coming between you and adhering to the bootcamp rules? It is better to give up the bread and properly low carb, then you don't crave the carbs most of the time.

Rup - well done :) I've lost track again!! How far away from your goal weight are you?

Lily - how did you make your cheese sauce?? These days it's sooooo easy... butter, cream, cheese. YUM. (sometimes mustard if I can be bothered).

Cider - that's a great prize to win! You must be very proud of him :) School on Saturday as well - such cruelty!! How long did you live in Hungary? What was it like?

I may have just ruined my woe with half a bottle of white wine but ten nights of poor sleep have got the better of me. Maybe DS3 will sleep tonight

B: strawberries and Greek yoghurt plus five almonds and an espresso con pans
S: mini Peperami
L: tuna mayo and salad with homemade olive oil and cider vinegar dressing
D: roast chicken with a tiny smidge of roast potato plus roast butternut squash and courgettes fried in butter along with the aforementioned white wine

DH is still wedded to two boiled eggs for breakfast. I keep telling him suggesting he should mash then with lots of bitter but he can't see why.

Thanks Chipping. The oatcakes are 4g each of carb and they help me to not eat bread. That's one of the reasons why I want to ease in at first cause I don't want to just go to 20g straight away as I want to avoid carb flu and major cravings as I then get derailed and eat carbs. I think its that I am sooooo anti diet that causes me to be this way. I was brought up by a mother who dieted her entire life and would not allow me to eat anything unless she gave it to me...so to deny myself for the sake of "diet" goes against the grain a bit IYSWIM and causes food issues to resurface. That's why I want to start slowly. I appreciate that maybe this thread is not the place for me as I don't want to go against everyone else and cause problems. I need to lose about 2 stone.

I've decided to übercamp from Monday to get things moving along again on the scales (hopefully) I think I may do the fish one from the spreadsheet.

But tomorrow I may make one of crabbys fab recipes. The kashmiri chicken sounds lush. I am now officially stalking following you!

Popping in to record my meals..

Yesterday
B celery with cream cheese (not as good as when with PB & not as filling)
L bacon, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms
D salad with quiche, avocado,mayo and a smidge of tuna mayo (DH & kids had on baked pots with salad so I nabbed a bit)
S 20g nuts & something else but I can't remember

Today
B 2boiled eggs mashed with butter - never had before but OMG yumtastic!
L bacon, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms
D chicken and spinach curry (from blacks link ( www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_print.php?id=10106 ) I think that's right) & green beans
S small piece Brie and 20g peanuts

The curry is v low carb, I added in yoghurt and spinach to up the carbs might add pepper(s) next time as well.

BIWI what carb value would you add for spices and leaf coriander? I think spices are trace and couldn't find a value in my book for leaf coriander - I chose to add 1g/c to the total carb count of the curry....

Crabby - I'm following you too! Will be making that chicken dish as well!

molly this thread is exactly the place for you. I'd say try ditching the oatcakes and see how you go, you can get lots if carbs from veg and you certainly don't have to go down to 20g. If you look at bootcamp lite rules that might suit you better to start? Also not everyone gets carb flu, or feels rubbish I never have!

Well thank you Mrs thought I might have been told to go .....ha ha!! Could you possibly link me to the bootcamp lite rules or tell me where it is.

Boiled eggs on their own are fine, StuntNun - just make sure the rest of his day has a bit more fat in it!

Molly - I don't eat oatcakes or anything grain-based. I love cheese, but am happy to just eat it on its own. Sometimes if it's especially runny, like a really ripe Brie, or a lovely soft Roquefort I might have it with/on celery. But otherwise, I don't have anything else with it.

For me, the key has been reading up about low carbing and its health benefits - that has what has helped me to - mostly - stick with it.

I do fall off the wagon every now and then, like everyone else, but I find it's less and less likely to happen these days, unless I have no choice - like if I'm invited to dinner and I'm served up something carby.

I love good bread, and I love potatoes. Potatoes dauphinoise would be my idea of heaven! But I am so used to eating like this now that I don't very often think about it.

If I go 'off piste', I do it very mindfully. Christmas was a good example - but the downside is weight gain that can take a very long time to get rid of. And so I know it's not really worth doing that often!

Don't worry about calories. And eating less does not help you lose weight! Would your car go further if you put less petrol in it?!

Molly this is exactly the right thread for you! We are just trying to help - feel free to ignore us :)

4g of carbs for an oatcake - that's a lot. There are so many other things you could have for 8g of carbs (assuming you'd normally have 2).

If you 'ease in' you wont be benefitting from your body burning fat.

I don't restrict myself to 20g of carbs - I have no idea how many I eat now. I was on about 30-40 when I first started and was logging everything - now I have no idea and much less care :) I never got carb flu and the cravings will go when you cut out the carbs, eating 'carbs' (of the processed variety) just makes you crave them more. Honest.

I was very anti diet too - I had decided that I was never going to diet again, that I was going to let my body decide what I needed. It needed Yum Yums apparently - but seriously, I had decided that too, but had to adjust my mind set to 'way of eating for life'. I can totally understand why you have that mindset :( and you must do it whatever way is acceptable to you.

Please stay :)
x

Thankyou for all your advice. I will jump in with both feet and take it one day at a time.

Molly the rules are here www.mumsnet.com/health/diet-and-fitness/low-carb-bootcamp and they are also on one of the tabs of the spreadsheet in the OP. I loved bread but doing this has taken away all the cravings I used to have. In fact it is a way of eating that is not about "denying yourself" because one rule is that if you are hungry you should eat. Being hungry on this way of eating is probably because you haven't eaten enough fat (I think).

Crabby that is brilliant! and spooky. I'm even following your blog and I hadn't spotted that recipe, maybe I started following after that date. I see now that I must buy some cream cheese. I had actually put in a tiny bit of mozzarella but I need to use quite a bit more.

Chipping the make-it-up-in-hope-cheese-sauce-of-shame involved cream, greek yogurt, tiny ball of mozzarella and grated cheese. It was quite thin and not really a "sauce". Your version with butter, cream and cheese, how do you make sure it isn't too thin?

Dh made the most amazing curry FEAST!

Dried shredded curry chicken
Smoked aubergine mash
Chicken korma
Fried cauliflower rice (to die for)

daisy - I wouldn't bother counting herbs/spices - their carb count will be negligible.

And I can't be naffed with counting anything! (Which is sort of the whole point of Bootcamp - that you don't have to .... )

Lol! I agree but.... I do find it makes me concentrate otherwise I go "oh that's ok" etc and then I find I'm eating way more than i should! Also seems to help me focus on stopping the nibbling (I know I'm not hungry but I want something..) and drinking more water...! Once I'm in the swing of it a bit more, I'll stop & just focus on the rules!

That curry is even mega low carb then! Was totally yum! Wholeheartedly recommend it, DH & Dc's loved it too (they had rice).

So.....I have started.
Chicken curry with a pile of fresh coriander leaves and mint leaves. No rice. All homemade.
Yay!!!
Very full and don't want anything else even though it was a small portion. I don't tend to eat a lot but will make sure I don't go hungry.

Lily I put in enough cheese Lots of cheese then add cream/cream cheese until it's the consistency I want. I make mushroom sauce a lot too - fry off a TON of mushrooms & sometimes onion, then add cream & ground pepper. Yuuuuuum.

Rup - sod going out to eat, I'm coming around to yours!!

My pleasure!

Well done Molly :) Definitely don't go hungry and it's important to ditch the 'eating less is better' mentality. It is hard and I still struggle with that one - even though I know from the significant weight I have lost that it's not necessary or desirable... nor is counting calories. It's hard to get your head around it though.

Thanks Chipping.