Week 3 - Autumn Low Carb Bootcamp - The Crossroads!

[BIWI]

So we have reached the end of the first two, strict weeks.

Come and confess all on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

By now, if you have stuck to your knitting, you should be ketogenically adapted - which is to say, you should have switched your body from burning carbs to burning fat.

Hurrah!

You now have a choice. You can relax things a little and can include some fruit (berries) and some nuts/seeds - and a little alcohol in moderation The rules of Bootcamp Light are on the spreadsheet.

Or

You can stay on Bootcamp, if it suits you - as long as you promise me that you are getting your carbs from vegetables and salad!

Another option, which many of us adopt, is to do Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

The choice is entirely yours!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their food, which is the most important thing. And good luck for the next week.

Oh the dilemmas of whether to ditch clothing that is now too big. I like the idea that it subconscioulsy gives ou permission to go back to that size. But it is hard when you have spent good money on clothes you liked. Can fat clothes be taken in, d you think? or are the proportions just all wrong?

I do likethe fact I wore a work blouse today that I have not worn for about 3 years. I was dead cuffed to fit back in it, and at the end of the day I began to think it looked a bit baggy. Not that I had dropped weight during the day, I was just so elated to fit into it that I never checked how well it fitted. This is the kind of problem I enjoy.

I am currently enjoying putting my jeans in to the tumble dryer to make them a bit smaller.

Well done BIWI on your personal goal with the running.

I was not cuffed, of course I was chuffed :)

The thing I realised, when I had lost most of my weight, was that I had started to buy totally different clothes when I was overweight. I was buying clothes for a fat person - things that were voluminous/didn't cling/weren't close-fitting.

I had started to think of myself as a totally different person.

I still, almost a year later, take great pleasure in putting something on that I bought years ago, to find that it fits/suits me and isn't shapeless.

And that I can buy tight, body-hugging stuff and it suits me.

So that's another reason why I jettisoned all those clothes. I am not going back to being a fat person. (With obvious apologies to fat people, clearly)

Great to see all the positive stories.

I may be going to the cinema at the weekend. Im guessing salted popcorn isn't allowed hoping it is

Purple I take a packet of pork scratchings and a bottle of water to the cinema. It's a thrill sneaking them in in your handbag!

No, Purple, it isn't!

When we go to the cinema these days we are programmed to buy stuff to eat.

If you can't last for 1.5-2 hours without eating something, then eat before hand.

There is no need for snacking during a film

.... unless you own shares in Odeon of course

Damn. I knew that would be the case. Eating at the cinema isn't about being hungry - it's part of the experience! Never mind. I will just have to do without. Iddon't mind really but it was worth a try!

Good try ...

I need your help with some travel food ideas please. Im going to turkey in a couple of weeks. We leave home at around 8.30 so I can have yoghurt before I go. The flight at 1.30 and we will get to hotel at 9pm. So I need some food ideas to feed me for the whole day. I don't want to take anything too complicated like salad.

I thought I could do a big chicken frittat and chop it into bite size chunks, maybe a couple of baby bels and a couple of flaxseed muffins. But I have been avoiding flax as I think it may stall weight loss.

I only eat chicken and turkey. I can't cope with other meat and I love cheese.

Any ideas?

BIWI congratulations on doing 5K under 30 mins. That's brilliant! I am in week 2 of C25K so a way to go yet.

Can you tell me is it normal to stop wanting carbs and sweets. I don't mean not craving them but actually not wanting to eat them. I am not missing anything at all which I know is a good thing but it's freaking me out a bit tbh.

I went to get some bread for DH today and the bakery sells gorgeous cheese sticks. This morning they were fresh out of the oven and before I would have either felt very deprived or very smug if I hadn't had them but today I wasn't the least interested in eating them.

I'm the same with pizzas, takeaways, chocolate, pretty much everything. I am enjoying my bootcamp meals but I genuinely seem to have lost interest in any other food. I'm weird aren't I? This can't last surely.

It's great though, isn't it?

I have found that if I step off the wagon - say if we've gone to a particularly love restaurant - and allow myself to have a dessert, I find that whilst I am enjoying it 'intellectually', I'm not actually getting the physiological enjoyment IYSWIM. It's strange.

It stands you in good stead to be able to resist the carbs in future, so that you are in control. You will be able to allow yourself to decide if you want them or not, not get sucked in by the cravings.

Purple - will you be allowed to take food with you on to the flight? I thought that wasn't allowed?

You could try contacting the airline and see what special menus/diets they provide? There must be lots of people who can't eat wheat or dairy.

The only other thing I could suggest is that when you get to the airport you find somewhere that is doing breakfast and have a big breakfast.

Food is allowed on planes, just not liquid. The frittata is a good idea - an alternative is some hard boiled eggs. You could also take some cold roasted chicken - or if you want to make it easy, some of the wee M&S packs of various flavoured chicken strips (from memory, lime and coriander is good but it's a while since I had them).

I sometimes find Babybels a bit soapy. I prefer chunks of emmenthal (which you could pre-wrap).

Wrap your food in cling film/grease proof paper - some airport security guys get upset at "containers" that are larger than a 100ml even though you can larger bottles through security

It is strange BIWI - something that has been such a big part of me for as long as I can remember suddenly isn't there any more and that feels very, very strange. This morning I was staring at the cheese sticks and thinking 'Why don't I want to eat you? What's wrong with me?'

Do you find when you do have dessert now it can taste almost too sweet?

Purple - I think prettybird is right that food is allowed on planes but do remember to dispose of any uneaten food before you go through immigration at the other end. Many places will fine you if you try to take 'fresh' or unpackaged food into the country. It's about $200 in Australia.

I suspect it isn't that you don't enjoy the dessert BIWI, so much as you don't have an insulin-driven craving for sugar that is being satisfied. Before this WOE and for the first few months of LCing I would have craved crisps just before my period and I would eat two bags really quickly just to satisfy that craving. I'm sure if I ate a bag now I would still enjoy eating them but they wouldn't be fulfilling a 'need' for something savoury and carby. This might seem a weird way of explaining it but imagine the difference between going for a wee when you need to go and when you're bursting - the extra sensation of relief because you were desperate for a wee is akin to the sensation of satisfying a craving. In fact it is probably exactly the same thing - a positive feedback through the parasympathetic nervous system.

Thanks girls. I will look at the chicken strips. I know I will be ok up until tea time but I don't want to get hungry and end up being a carby twat. Especially as I will be wearing skimpy clothes for a week.

Purple - chicken strips, cheese strips, frittata all good ideas. Don't take eggs on a plane (smell!) and yes dispose of wrappings either on plane or before you get on. Eat a big breakfast before you go, or find a wetherspoons and eat it at the airport.

Turkey should also be great for low-carbing!

Yay!!!!!!!!! I'm a dress size smaller and they are comfortable not tight!

Made cottage pie for tea - did the mince and onion plus added a leek to bulk it out a little, then did mashed celeriac for the topping. DP's are here for tea and DM is coeliac with dairy intolerance so instead of butter or milk, I used a little coconut cream so hope it tastes good! Will serve with green beans, cabbage & carrots so to fill everyone up!

Lucky you going to Turkey Purple - Is it a holiday?

hi there
can i just ask if i should avoid the rather delicious total yoghurt if I'm prone to chub up with dairy like cheese?
tia

Yes highjinx it is. Going with a friend. Luckily DH encouraged me to go as I never get a proper break just relaxing.