Week 1 - Autumn Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

So here we are! Over 160 of us signed up!

Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for you to enter your first weight

If you aren't on the list for any reason, just go to the bottom of the list and add your name - the lovely Willie will sort out the alphabetisation later.

From experience of previous Bootcamps, the chat thread can move very quickly! So, if you have a specific or particular question, please post it on the questions thread I will do my best to check it as often as I can, as will other seasoned Bootcampers.

If you have a really burning issue, please feel free to PM me and I will do my very best to help you as soon as possible.

And if you're looking for inspiration for things to cook, here's the recipe thread

Here is a brief reminder of the rules:

We do not eat any of the following during Bootcamp:

bread
rice
pasta/noodles
potatoes
flour
pastry
sugar
chocolate/sweets
biscuits/cookies
crisps

And here are the ten rules of Bootcamp:

1. You must eat breakfast.
2. Avoid processed food
3. Eat lots of fat
4. Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food
5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited)
6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day
7. No alcohol
8. No fruit
9. No nuts/seeds

10. No sugar or artificial sweeteners

More detail/explanation of these rules is on the spreadsheet ? look at the tabs at the bottom.

One final word from me ? the disclaimer! I am not a doctor, a scientist, a dietician nor a nutritionist. The advice that is given here is based on my own experience of low carbing, as well as the reading I have been doing over the last few years.

If you have a medical condition, or you are taking long term medication, please take advice from your GP/consultant before starting to low carb.

Good luck everyone!

Actually starry - one thing that occurs to me, when you talk about your wee smelling, are you drinking enough water?

Good luck, Crabby. Sorry you're feeling anxious about things. Don't feel you have to explain or justify what you're doing to anyone - but make sure you get all the information that you need to decide what you want to do.

Corrie - ketostix aren't that reliable, and if you're drinking plenty of water (usually!), then they won't show a dark pink anyway.

Did salt and pepper squid last night using coconut flour - it worked really well. Rough recipe for anyone interested:

Put some coconut flour in a bowl and season with lots of salt and pepper (more than you think you'll need....quite a bit usually ends up left in the bowl, some falls off during cooking etc).

In a second bowl lightly beat an egg.

Get some squid....we open out the big tubes (bought frozen from the local chinese supermarket), lightly score in a criss cross pattern and then cut into triangles 2-3 inches on each side. But you could use tentacles as they are, or cut the big tubes into rings.

Dip each piece of squid into the egg and drain off excess. Chuck it in the seasoned flour to coat, allow excess to fall off, and put on a plate ready to cook.

Get enough oil for deep-ish frying fairly hot....chuck in a tiny piece to check it bubbles and foams straight away and starts to brown fairly quickly. I fried in lard (because I'm not paying coconut oil prices to deep fry!) and used one block of which obviously there was still lots left in the pan. I had to chuck the squid about a bit as wasn't that 'deep' for deep frying but worked well enough.

Fry the squid in batches for a couple of minutes each, moving it about a bit every 20-30 seconds if like me you didn't really use enough oil for deep frying. It should cook quickly and be golden - if you cook it at too low a heat or for too long it will go rubbery. Remove with heatproof slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper, keeping it warm whilst you cook the rest.

Whilst the squid is cooking, stir a chopped shallot or couple of chopped spring onions with a chilli chopped into rounds (no need to deseed) and some oil in a small pan for a couple of minutes but don't allow shallot to burn.

Sprinkle the chilli/shallot over the squid to serve. We had it with salad.

That sounds lovely! (Wish I liked squid). Would you mind putting it on the recipe thread, please?

Are most people working out how many carbs they are eating at each meal? I have been following the rules but not actually writing down the amount of carbs in everything. And if I did work it out I'm not sure I know how many carbs I should be having each day.

Elmlea Single Cream

Ingredients: Buttermilk (85%), Vegetable Fat (9%), Vegetable Oil (4.5%), Buttermilk Powder, Stabilisers: E412, E410, E407, Emulsifier: E475, Colour: E160a.

Nutritional content compared with normal single cream, per 100ml:

(sorry formatting doesn't help this, but there are two columns of info to look at)

Elmlea single Single Cream
Energy 640kJ 798kJ
150kcal 193kcal

Protein 3.0g 3.3g

Carbohydrates 4.0g 2.2g
of which Sugars 4.0g 2.2g

Fat 14.0g 19.1g
of which Saturates 9.0g 12.2g

Fibre 0.2g nil
Sodium 0.1g trace
Salt (based on sodium) 0.1g

Not only is Elmlea processed, it is more carby than real cream.

Thanks BIWI and Lily xx I've no idea why I'm feeling quite this tightly wound; there seems to be no rhyme or reason to my neuroses. Must keep chanting... This Too Will Pass!

No need HighJinx - Bootcamp has been designed specifically so that you don't have to! But some people like to log their food with things like My Fitness Pal. I never have because I can't be arsed

If you follow Bootcamp rules, and stick to low carb veg, you will keep your carb count sufficiently low such that you will lose weight.

Phew that's a relief BIWI. I can't stand all that weighing, measuring and recording. It seems to take the joy out of eating for me.

Need some inspiration campers. Have eight people for lunch on Saturday, need a veggie option too. Was thinking that could add carbs on the side for people but completely lacking inspiration of what's easy to throw together. What do you think?

I'm a bit confused by flax / the odd coffee stalling weight loss, and the comments that one slip could prevent loss. How does this work with boot camp lite?

Me neither. I vowed I would never count a calorie ever, ever again. I only weigh my food if I'm putting a recipe together, or working out whether or not a recipe is sufficiently low carb, and that's a faff too far for me.

bigkids - after the first two weeks of Boocamp, because we have been so strict with carbs, you will have switched your body from carb-burning to fat-burning. So you should be more able to deal with a slightly higher amount of carbs. But at the beginning it's important to ensure that you do really 'force' that switch.

Ah! Thanks

Morning all. A bit hungry today. About to make a. Big pot of cauliflower soup and cook some sausages to fuel my day. Too chilly for salad which is just as well as I don't have any!

Had a pot of tuna pâté for breakfast but was still hungry so had two slices of turkey breast with some cheese deli filler thingie.

Did a C25k run first thing and am on my third glass of water. Sneaky peek at scales and seem to have dropped 4lbs since Monday! Not going to look again till Monday.

Crabby - hope doc is receptive to low carb. Some are I think.

betty how about doing a roast chicken, with a whole load of roasted veg? Courgettes, cauliflower, shallots, aubergine, pepper all roast beautifully.

Then serve with a big green salad, and some nice bread for the non-low carbers.

Add a cheeseboard to that, and you would have a lovely and suitably low carb meal for you. You could serve that with crackers and celery.

Betty - a curry? You can do rice/naan/poppadoms for the carby-twats and some cauli rice (or just veg) for you?

Problem with my fitness pal is that the information isn't always 100% accurate so even if you do log with it it is very hard to know exactly what you have had. I like mfp to give me a guide of whether or not i am eating enough fat and i like to see how much i can piss it off by the high fat low carb figures Mostly i use mfp to track how my exercise i am doing to ensure i don't get obsessive about it and blow it out of a healthy level. The friends bit on there is great as it allows the very select few i have given permission to see it to shout at me when i need someone other then BIWI to twat me with a bigstick to get me back on track.

Tried bullet proof coffee this morning. yeah not a fan i like my coffee to taste of coffee, it tasting of coconut whilst not unpleasant was slightly unnerving. Plus as I am trying to stick to just one or two decaff/per day meh.

Not quite managing to drink enough water and feeling tired and achy but there could be several reasons for this:

1. carb flu
2. back to school germs from ds who is poorly
3. physio exercises working muscles I didn't know existed until they started complaining
4. it is getting cold at night and my muscle get quite stiff when i sleep and take a while before they warm up and function normally.

Feeling focused, and currently working through my list of things that need doing that I have been avoiding for ages. You know those jobs that need doing but are either a pain in the ass or you just hate.

That sounds great, thanks BIWI! The veggies will be happy with that too. x

Good morning lovely Ladies :)

This thread is moving so fast which is a good sign, it seems a lot of us got into this WOE.

I do know how easy it is to lose motivation if weight is stalling. When I started (end of July) I managed to get rid of 4 lb on the first week and then I struggled. I went back to eating carbs and put the weight back on. I am not weighting myself now as I am not that bothered about weight anymore. One thing that I really like on this WOE - I do not feel bloated.
I am still struggling to eat meat every day but I just stopped worrying about it. I tried different flavours, eating spicy food which I like and drinking a lot of water. I feel full and happy. And I stopped snacking as I do not feel hungry. I think sometimes we just put too much pressure on ourselves and thinking about food too much.. I realised I need to relax and go with the flow. And only think about what I am putting into my mouth when I eat :)

Good luck to everybody.

Keep smiling :)

It's interesting: I've seen some people mentioning (can't remember who it was) that they're not so keen on the taste of coconut oil in bullet proof coffee/cooking etc.

I don't know whether it is the particular coconut oil I'm using (HTC Pure: only £2.55 in Sainsubry's) but I've always remarked on how neutral it tastes and that you get no taste of coconut off it.

To test this, I've just taken my cup of rooibos tea with spoonful of coconut oil through to dh and asked what he can smell off it. He is currently studying to be a Master of Wine and has a trained nose . He said it smells like a kind of softer, rounder rooibos - which interestingly is almost exactly how, a couple of nights ago on here, I had described what coconut oil in herb tea tasted like.

What you do need to watch is that the oil seems to make it hotter, so be careful when sipping it and/or leave it to cool down a bit, otherwise you get a burnt tongue.

I agree, prettybird - the HTC tastes of nothing.

Of course it could all be in my mind and I just expect it to taste of coconut. Not too worried will use up what coconut oil i have and then just leave it.