Week 6 - Autumn Low Carb Bootcamp - and we head to the finish line!

[BIWI]

Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Hopefully the scales are moving for us all now, albeit rather more slowly than they were to start with. And this is good. Honestly!

To keep weight off, it's much better to lose it slowly and over a longer period of time. Remember, despite how people may talk about low carbing, this is not a crash diet. It's a way of eating designed to allow you to switch to fat-burning, rather than carb-burning, which will therefore allow you to lose weight - and which brings with it a myriad of other health benefits.

Please share with us your successes as well as your frustrations. Even if we're struggling, which all of us will do from time to time, and it might be galling to read that others are doing well, ultimately it's important for us all to hear the successes because it helps us to (continue to) believe that this is a WOE which can work for us.

And PEACE AND LOVE!

Hope you all have a good week.

[Ohfuckohfuckofuck]

Hi!

Well done on the bake off competition TooMuch frittatatastic!

Congrats to MrsHP ! Hurray, desirable weight gain here you come.

I have been a very good girl. After my Pizza Express salad, I've been out last night to pub with a ct friend. 2 glasses of red an said no to crisps. Drank water in between. Managed not to be a CT this morning,even feeling a touch ropey, as I'm a complete lightweight not to stuff my face with toast. I had a coffee with cream then did school run, tesco & lidl. I was soooooo close to a bite of ds's pastry cheese twist.

But held on until just now and had a rather opulent lunch of 2 slices of streaky bacon, fried duck egg & cabbage fried in farmhouse butter (spent too much at farmer's market yesterday!).

But Sod's law and totm will work against me on Monday!

[LilyAmaryllis]

well done Ohfuck excellent willpower there!

[NewStartNewStory]

crabby I shall see you all on wednesday. My food it out of my control until then. Many adventures though. And I am really looking forward to proper lc food

May you all have wonderful weekends and the woosh fairy visit you over the weekend!

[Purple2012]

ziggie we used Broadway travel. Hopefully they will deal with our complaint

[CrabbySmallerBottom]

Thanks Lily & Willie.

Please my last test was apparently in 2010 (I thought it was ages ago) and my total cholesterol then was 6.9, so it's gone up a bit.

Stunt that's brilliant information, thank you. That seems to be the conclusion the GP came to as well, thankfully... that my test results don't equal a significant cardiac risk at the moment. That's very interesting about the different sized LDL particles - I need to look into that further. The LDL levels are a bit of a worry, I must admit, but I can't afford to get anything tested privately. I remember that on previous tests my total cholesterol has been high, but it's the HDL which is always particularly high, which I found reassuring. My TC/HDL ratio in this test is 3.0, which is good apparently, and I just read that triglyceride levels should be below 1.7 mmol/l, which mine are.

I'm going to stop worrying about it and keep on keeping on. My levels have always been high, even when I was a thin young thing. I'm healthier now than I have been for a long time; I,haven't smoked for years, have cut my drinking right down, my BMI is in the healthy range, I don't eat sugary shit all the time, I've even reduced the medications I take. I'm not going to fret about my cholesterol!

Now, advice please, if anyone can inspire me with an idea. We have a veggie friend coming for dinner tomorrow as it's her birthday. I want to stay on plan with the food but still make something delicious. Any ideas for a special occasion meal? Can't contain aubergines or peppers. I thought I might do a tapas sort of thing with mini quiches or something. If it weren't going to piss down tomorrow we could go out mushroom hunting.

[CrabbySmallerBottom]

Food today
L - few spoonfuls philadelphia with ham and little tomatoes
S - rasher of bacon fried crispy with bubble and squeak
D - pork belly and prawn stir fry with oyster mushrooms, pak choi and fennel. I used the rest of the hoisin sauce I made a while ago to go with duck. It was bloody lovely!
P - berry crumble with clotted cream
No wine!!

[LilyAmaryllis]

No wine??!!

Your mini quiche idea sounds great. Other ideas are cauliflower cheese, roasted veg (these could be things to go-with the mini quiches).

[LilyAmaryllis]

or some sort of veg curry?

[BIWI]

The Pecorino and tarragon tart from the Rose Elliot book is lovely (I think I might have posted it on the recipe thread), and could be adapted to make individual tarts if you wanted?

[BIWI]

Have a look at this

It's 45 minutes long so I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but it sounds interesting

[BIWI]

And this blog is worth a read too!

OK, that's your homework for this morning. I'm off to my Chinese class now!

Oh, and I'm 1.75lbs down so far this week - hopefully I can get another bit off before Monday's weigh-in.

[BIWI]

Crabby - sorry to hear about your cholesterol. I stumbled across this link this morning

Don't know if that will help or hinder!

[CrabbySmallerBottom]

Thanks BIWI, that's kept me occupied while I drink my morning tea! Lots of interesting info there. I think I just need to keep reading and get as well informed as possible on the physiology and research on it all. I know I feel better than I have done in years, so I'm not too worried at the moment, especially as my GP is being so fabulous.

The pecorino tart sounds great - I'll look up the recipe on the recipe thread.

Thanks for those suggestions Lily, I'm thinking maybe goats cheese and caramelised onion (in butter and the tiniest smidgen of pomegranate molasses) mini quiches. The above tart. A nice salad. We're off foraging for mushrooms this morning, and if we can find some parasol mushrooms then I'll serve them as the centrepiece, breaded (will use a bit of wholemeal bread for texture, but bulk it right out with ground almonds) and fried. I'll put a little kamut/spelt/rye loaf on this morning so I know that the breadcrumbs are as low gi/carb as possible.

For pudding I thought I'd do an almond sponge and do the little heart shaped 'scones' again with jam and cream (just berries for me) which I could put candles in. Or maybe a chocolate mousse, but that'd be more carby wouldn't it.

I think there will be mucho vino, so it's a good job I managed to resist temptation last night!

Happy Saturday everyone!

[captainmummy]

Crabby - from what I've read about cholesterol, it's a whole big scam, whipped up by the statins/drugs companies! My Exdh went for a cholesterol test ages ago (partof company insurance medical) and it came back as 5.something. They then said it was 'high' and he was advised to eat oats/benecol/high fibre stuff. A year later they'd changed the goalposts and it read 8.5. He has it done every year and every year the readings change, and seem to get worse, although he is very healthy and fit. (He's not on statins yet, as there is a risk of memory loss/joint paint/muscle pain from taking them - and I don't think his doctor even believes in them! )
have a look at this this - women may not need them at all, even in high-cholesterol cases.
Also from what i've read, the readings of HDL and LDL are nonsense - it'sthe vLDLs that may be attribbuted to heart disease/heart attacks. BUT there is no way of measuring the vLDLs as yet, so no-one knows.

[toomuchicecream]

Feeling very grumpy. Am hungry, despite having just eaten a bowl of creamed leeks & bacon, and a lump of cheese. Dinner out last night was a case of ordering the least damaging thing on the menu rather than something I actually wanted to eat. Have had chocolate in house all week (DS related reasons) and haven't eaten any of it. Ditto biscuits, crisps etc - normally I just don't buy that kind of stuff. AND I HAVEN'T LOST ANY WEIGHT FOR 2 WEEKS, despite sticking 99.9% to Bootcamp not bootcamp light. AAARRRGGGHHH.

That's it - just wanted to rant. And the woosh fairy had better be along soon.

[AuntieMaggie]

crabby what are these cakes and scones you speak of?

[LilyAmaryllis]

I'm sorry its feeling tough too much. Keep drinking the water. I carefully measured my 3 litres yesterday and had fluctuated downwards in weight this morning. But today I've been less good at the water (going out and about never helps), so not really taking my own advice.

Off to read all the links BIWI posted!

[whodunnit]

Evenin' all

I am sitting here with a right rumbly tum. Went shopping to a big place (woowee very exciting for me) with a Boots (double woowee) and bought some diabetic caramels. Completely forgot the laxative effect and wolfed down the pack in two hours. Rumble, rumble..... Also felt pretty crap tonight for the first time in weeks. Think it must be related to the synthetic shite in diabetic food. I did Atkins about 11 yrs ago and seem to remember that this was how it ended. I need to remember to eat veg and avoid the synthetic shite Had a stir fry & bolognese sauce for supper so am still on track there.

Very sad that the blackberries are over now as the witches have spat on them. But there is always next year....

Anyone else thinking about Christmas and whether it is possible to have the willpower to forgo all that nice food? I have to or will not have clothes to fit in, but it is hard to visualise complete abstinence.

It all comes down to the fact that this is a WOE and not a diet. I was thinking the other day that I might not lose any this week an wondering how sad I would be. But I don't think I woudl be too sad as I don't actually feel deprived and I have eaten quite well and happily (yeah I know .. ask me on monday after the weigh in..

[whodunnit]

I also had the biggest temptation today. I worked on the tea n cake stall at a local event for 2 hours, and the cakes were a zillion different types and looked so tempting. I did not touch one, but it ws tempting. And there were so many left that I brought some home for the DC and still have esisted. It is the fact that I know one cake will set me back 3 days while I get back into ketosis (by my reckoning) and I have not yet seen any cake that is worth 3 days.

Yet........

[LilyAmaryllis]

Well done whodunnit!

I think Christmas might involve a slight (temporary) step off the wagon! But I don't want to go mad stuffing chocolates in my face. My Xmas treat is going to be toast with jam trying to say that quietly so as not to put anyone off as we're only mid-October!

[bigkidsdidit]

DH and I are both low carbing and we are going to guilt free est whatever we want on Christmas day, boxing day, and new years eve dinner. It may be we don't want carbs, but we can eat roast potatoes if we do want to and a pint of baileys We'll just have lots of water!

[HansieMom]

TooMuch, something with three layers I used to make was called Fudge Bar. It had a brownie first layer which you bake not quite done. Next you put marshmallows on top, put back in oven til soft, then spread them around. Lastly you put on a fudge frosting. It was very good but I think could be much better with a more sophisticated brownie recipe. Which I'm sure you could do.

[bigkidsdidit]

Do you think there is anything remotely low carb in wagamama? We need to eat lunch out and can't think where to go.

[googoogoggles]

Hi everyone
Hv had a crappy week - not been a complete CT but a just busy / issues with work /dashing around all over the place and not in control of cooking - think I said up thread that I ate one of those Atkins bars in desperation and felt like whodunnit said with the diabetic fudge - really gurgling stomach and just odd/bit spaced. Also had a couple of glasses of wine on Friday eve after hardly drinking for last 6 weeks (just the odd G &T) and had the same sort of reaction and felt bit down on Sat - Do you think it could be the sugar?
Am off again this eve, so will prob weigh in on Wed. Am gearing up to sts as find it hard to drink 2.5-3 litres when I'm not working from home... Will prob also be eating too many nuts to avoid the whole pastry/rubbish food usually on offer! Hope everyone's doing okay. Trying to keep the faith here!

[QueenQueenie]

There are a few things in the firdt section of the menu I think, a raw salad, some grilled chicken. .. or some mains yoh vould have without rice maybe. I do think a lot of the sauces are very salty and sweet though. Good luck!