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!

Hello all! We had a party last night and sitting in my fridge is almost a whole chocolate indulgence cake, plus the sum total of another whole cake from the leftover chocolate cheesecake, normal cheesecake and apple tart. I am going to take them into work tomorrow for everyone else but in the meantime HELP ME RESIST THEM PLEASE! I've been low carbing for months and can resist buying stuff like that but when it's in my fridge it's much harder. My normal go-to is a few nuts but no nuts on bootcamp!

Has anyone on this woe found an alternative to running on high blood sugars to allow them to work through a migraine? Cracking stress migraine yesterday, still there but less today. However, need to deal with the stress triggers for it to go away so need to function. Obviously don't want to resort to high sugar levels to permit it. Any ideas? Meds are not an option. Maxed out and they don't work on this type of migraine anyway. Ideas?

Haven't got scales so can't add my numbers but I am joining in from afar!

I'm not having too much trouble sticking to this WOE so far and have been really strict except for that one small glass of white on Friday. Plus I had drastically cut carbs for over a week before Bootcamp. I have been feeling carb-fluey for days, have upped my fat and water intake, and yet the scales have not budged.

Can you cover them with plates or foil? So you can't see them? I find that if I can't see stuff O don't really think about it - we have a carb cupboard that only open when I'm getting something for DS.

the thing is bullet eating chocolate for emotional reasons is a habbit that can be overcome. of course we all still crave things but not as much and personally I don't like the taste of sweet things as much now. In the same way I think bread, pasta etc is tasteless and stodgy.
I also agree with will I enjoy the taste of something as much as I like loosing weight, wise words from an old bootcamp member
Anyway I'm off clothes shopping for DC and perhaps a little for me

When I was calorie counting I made a real effort to stick to it. After a few weeks I realised how much I used to emotionally eat and I wasn't aware of it until I stopped.

With low carbing I can't just have a day off like I could with calorie counting so it is easier to stick to. I will have bad carbs again one day, but as a planned occasion once I have lost the weight that I want to lose. I know it won't do any harm now and again.

I think as well as being mindful with our eating we also have to be mindful of the effect our words can have on others. It is possibly not helpful to a newbie just starting out and trying to get into the way of eating listening to people justifying going off-piste.

If mindful cheating suits you, fine, do it, lots of us do but it is not ideal to post it on here if you are not asking advice or wanting to change it. Lots of us have all "failed" at enough diets before that the aim of establishing long term healthy eating is an important part of bootcamp.

I had the sweetest tooth you can ever imagine and have only discovered the psychology behind a lot of my eating (I am not a straightforward emotional eater) as I have persisted with low carb and dealt with those thoughts and emotions. If you do this well, you will find you don't need that stuff as you once did. I never believed it until it started to happen to me but if you persist with eating crap you will never get there.

The proof of how much of an addiction foods can be is that patients in the USA who have had gastric bands and bypasses with, I suspect, less counselling than in this country often lose weight but develop other addictions such as alcohol, gambling, etc to compensate

Bullet the other week I was going to have some millionaires shortbread (obvs pre bootcamp!), had one bit and it was so sweet I actually thought I was going to be sick and gave the rest of it away!!! I do find sugary things too sweet now to even bother with, and I am not kidding myself by saying that. Obvs savoury badness is a whole other kettle of fish... that requires the mantras of "I want to be slimmer more than I want these crisps"!!!

mrshp I love crisps too! I never craved sweet stuff often but chips and crisps I would. I'm happy to say I haven't had crisps in 16 days.

STUNTNUN:

We have a lovely coffee maker. I put approx one teaspoon of coconut oil in the coffee, briskly stir it and then add a bit of hot frothy milk on top (I need the milk, it doesn't stall me). Then I stir it quickly before every sip, and it's lovely!

I tried the butter & oil in a flask/blender, but the oiliness of it just made me gag. Now I'm still enjoying my coffee, and the oil definitely helps in keeping me full till lunch (I do eat brekkie too).

Stuntnun I put in a heaped teaspoon of solid coconut oil into a big mug of coffee (before shaking up in a flask). If I am adding butter too, tend to do a small teaspoon of each, ie not quite a level teaspoon. Any more and it is too much for me.

Crabby Been meaning to say, big congratulations for your BMI 24 success - that is amazing! I have still a long way to go to get to that! Do you still want to lose a bit more or are you now bootcamping to maintain?

I am a bit grumpy today. I just cannot find a place in my house where the scales show a consistent weight. I can't really keep the scales in one place permanently, due to children roaming about and us tripping up over them but whenever I return them to the same place to weigh me, they just seem to be all over the place. Ie am certainly feeling slimmer after climbing back on wagon but scales show 3 lbs up from yesterday and then I move them slightly and then they show 1/2 pound down from yesterday.

Obviously, I know it isn't sensible to get hung up on what scales say but just want to get a consistent result. Does anyone else have this problem or have you all found a proper flat piece of floor in your homes?

Could I put coconut oil in rooibos vanilla tea?

negroni I put my scales on a thick wooden chopping board to weigh myself. It is consistent wherever the scales are if I do that.

I just had the best roast ever: chicken with olive oil and salt on the skin (and I ate the skin :) ), mashed swede with black pepper, steamed courgette and creamy braised cabbage from the recipe bread which was DELICIOUS. Then cheese. Yum!

Thanks to CiderwithBuda's well-put motivational advice, and my offering to drive to the cinema afterwards, I didn't give in to a glass of red with lovely sirloin steak and homegrown runner beans with butter last night.

I had a sip of dh's white wine - I don't think I'll ever go back to white - even though it was 'dry', I found it unbearably sweet.

Out for brunch this morning and had eggs benedict without the muffin and ate dd's black pudding slice - no idea on how many carbs in black pudding, but i was going on the basis that it's mainly protein (I hope).

I've switched to decaf Anericano when I'm out, with cream. Zoe Harcombe (whose phase 1 diet is effectively lowish carb) reckons caffeine provokes an insulin response. My second cup was a mint tea - another coffee would've been too sickly.

Good luck everyone for weigh-in day tomorrow.

Weighed this morning, 3lb down. I have been low carbing for several weeks though so am on bootcamp light. Happy days...

Purple - I put a teaspoon of the (tasteless) ktc Pure Coconut oil in my plain rooibos and it sort of rounds it out nicely. It just leaves a layer of oil on the top that moisturises your lips as you drink it.

Be careful though - it holds its heat, so you can get a burnt tongue if you're not careful

So cross ! Weighed in yesterday 5lb down, TOM today 2 lb on. Grrr have rage

Trying so hard to be good today but its a real struggle. Have even frozen the blackberries we picked yesterday rather than use them in a cake or crumble as I would just have eaten it all.
God, I could chew one of my arms off....
Have had bacon and egg for breakfast, Greek yoghurt and cream and some coleslaw but want cake....!

Hello All!

Hope you don't mind a latecomer. Wanted to join at the beginning but ended up on late deal hol which resulted in far too much booze & piggage

Anyway on track today and going well. I don't feel hungry at least!

Also hopeful of the positive effects on PMS. Finally coming to realise it may be that rather than the fact I am just a raving banshee. Will be monitoring results

PMMummy at least you know underneath it all you are really 5lb down!

Secondsop good luck with the awful temptation. I think, if it comes down to the cake or nuts... Have the nuts! It won't be so bad. Yesterday the kids left half a cream cake and some chocolate buttons. Which were then just sitting on the side! aaaaghhh. I hid both in the fridge, at least then I didn't see them each time I went in the kitchen.

Kinky so sorry to hear about 18 days of TOTM! sounds bad. I guess its a sign you are melting away lots of fat though... saying goodbye to it forever.

I am sitting here in newly-bought size 14 jeans!! I haven't been size 14 for 10-15 years. So brilliant. This heralds being able to go to normal clothing shops again.

Dementedma

It is so hard but once you break the craving it's great. If you can dig in, it's worth it.
I am enjoying not feeling helpless at the thought of sweet stuff although three days ago I was finding it near imposible.
You can do it.

In my work I deal with smoking cessation and I have noticed the people who are most likely to succeed in giving up are those who set a quit date then battle the cravings to stick to it. Those who say that's too hard so try cutting down or allow themselves the odd lapse do sometimes succeed but not as often and they do seem overall to find it harder. I try to remember that when I have a craving for something non-bootcampish.

Lily huge congrats on size 14 jeans. Fab work. I too have not seen them for a while, I shall get there soon enough !

Demented, when I was giving up smoking, the only way I managed was by keeping very very busy, so I hadn't time to think about it. It helps with eating too Do something that you can't do at the same time as eating. Spoil yourself, have a lovely bath with a book, whatever you enjoy. You can do it