'Soft' warm-up approach to next week's Low Carb Bootcamp!

[BIWI]

Official Bootcamp starts next Monday - here's the sign-up thread

But I know that lots of people want to ease themselves into it.

If you've never low carbed before, it can be quite a good idea to do this, and it can help minimise the chances of getting 'carb flu' - the withdrawal symptoms when you cut down on your carbohydrates.

So if you're interested, this where it starts!

My advice:

• make sure you've got rid of all your Christmas treats

• ... as well as other carb-heavy stuff like biscuits, cakes, etc

• start thinking about the meals that you're going to eat in w/c 13 Jan - write yourself a meal plan (and think about all your meals, including your lunches as well as family meals, etc), and then make sure you write yourself a proper shopping list

• have a look at hat you're eating on a 'typical' day, and see where you cut down/out on the carbs -breakfast is likely to be your most carb-heavy meal, so think about how you're going to cut the carbs here (clue that will mean ditching toast, cereals, fruit and fruit juice!)

• if your diet is heavily reliant on pasta and rice-based meals, start thinking now about what you're going to cook instead

• make sure you are planning meals for the whole family to eat - try as much as possible to make sure that you're all eating the same food, rather than having to cook separate stuff for you - the idea is that this is a WOE - way of eating - and not a diet. So for example, if you're planning on having meat and two veg, plus potatoes - have meat and three veg instead. No-one will die if they don't have potatoes on their plate!

• look at how much tea/coffee you're drinking; if you drink them white, you will be consuming a lot of carbs in the milk. See if you can cut the number of cups down per day. Try and drink them black or use cream instead of milk

• think about the fact that you will be starting to eat a high fat diet; if you have anything that's low fat in your fridge/cupboard, get rid of it! Butter, cheese and cream as well as olive oil are all now going to be key parts of your diet

• similarly, think about all the artificial sweeteners you're eating/drinking and get shot of them. Diet drinks are not allowed on Bootcamp, so cut them down/out as much as you can

• fruit will not be allowed on Bootcamp (for the first two weeks); if you like to snack on fruit, consider replacing it with veg, e.g. slices of cucumber and peppers

• read, read, read and read more about low carbing have a look at the resources on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness ; there's loads of good stuff here that will help you get your head around what low carbing is all about

• and have a look here some lovely recipes to inspire you

• and here is a link to Bootcamp rules ; make sure you are familiar with them by 13/1!!!

But above all, come and post on here with any of your questions, concerns and suggestions!

Good luck.

So, end of the working week for me, and since this time last week I have lost... drum roll please 8lb! 6of those we're just Christmas, but I'm thrilled! It fixed the wobble I had last night. Not an eating wobble, still sticking to bootcamp with very few issues, but watched supersize vs super skinny, and there was a lot about high fat diets clogging arteries. Can anyone point me in the direction of something to read to allay this fear? If not fat, then what does cause high cholesterol/blocked arteries?

Yesterday, my menu went like this:

B: eggs scrambled in butter with cheddar and spinach, and a splash of Tabasco. Swiftly becoming my brekkie of choice, completely delicious. May add bacon tomorrow as it's the weekend!

L: tuna salad drowned in ff homemade vinaigrette

D: pumpkin and halloumi omelette with salad. This was delicious, it's from a low carb recipe book, one of the bbc good food '101' range. Highly recommended b

Oops. Damn post button so close to the letter 'o'

Highly recommended book, just ignore the places it tells you to use low fat stuff and fry everything in butter!

Just about to do my online food shop. Can't believe how much butter and cream I'm ordering.

One question. DH lucky git is skinny as a rake and seems to be losing weight. He doesn't eat bread anyway, and I don't want to cook twice. What could I add to dinners to fatten him up?

Here's a link to some science, Gerry

why saturated fat isn't as bad as we've been led to believe

How about nuts to fatten him up?

Today is going well felt peckish and had a babybel.

gerry those eggs sound delicious. Might have those tonight for tea, I'll stop and get some spinach from Tesco later. How did you make your vinaigrette?

Oh, and it's probably been mentioned about 47229 times, but that Dr John Briffa book is good, the Diet Trap one? Definitely worth a read because of the case studies and sciencey bits.

calamity You're hot because you're burning fat :) You are fueling the engine and it's burning!

encyclogirl wow I never knew that! I thought I was working myself up for an illness

Bewitched yes constipation can be a problem early on, it was for me; it was only a problem early on and then my body must have got used to the different way of eating - and/or I got used to the fact that keeping the fat levels up and keeping the water levels up, helped.

Personally - if you are suffering with constipation - I would advise using a laxative tablet. I feel like some people might advise differently but that's what I did and I'm glad I did.

After that - keep it at bay with the fat and water!

The eggs really are delicious. Add the cheese and spinach at that point when your eggs are opaque but not set, and the Tabasco just lifts it, reducing the desire for ketchup which is what I always want!

Vinaigrette I make is really simple- 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp vinegar (I don't have any lemons at the mo) 1tsp Dijon mustard, good load of sea salt and cracked black pepper. I put it in a little lockable Tupperware thing and take to work, shake well with lid on then drown my salad with it. Delicious.

Oh and thanks all (hi plonky) for the info about sat fat. I will read the book and the article and be armed with evidence for doubters who try to offer me ryvita...

Tsk, just taken me nearly 2 hours to realise we're on page 2!

Thanks Eva, hasn't been a problem today!

Wow I'm hot too, my face and neck feels very hot lately

I've been reading a link from Plonkysaurus's link, about what DOES cause blocked arteries. www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Does-Cholesterol-Cause-Heart-Disease-Myth.html

A really complicated article. What I think I've understood is: atherosclerosis ("blocked" arteries") is caused by LDL particles (known as the "bad cholesterol" except its not cholesterol as such) oxidising. Why do they oxidise? It appears that all of the reasons why are not yet known - the article says: "The appropriate nutritional strategies for increasing LDL utilization (so that it doesn't oxidise) desperately need to be researched."

But it says the indications are that, the LDL oxidises more when you eat poly-unsaturated fat, and oxidises less if you eat vitamin K and E.

Here's part of that article I DID understand:

"A 2004 study from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health showed that in postmenopausal women, the more Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids they ate, and to a much lesser extent the more carbohydrate they ate, the worse their atherosclerosis became over time. The more saturated fat they ate, the less their atherosclerosis progressed; in the highest intake of saturated fat, the atherosclerosis reversed over time."

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think sunflower oil and vegetable oil and margarine are poly-unsaturated

and olive oil, coconut oil and butter are saturated?

Hello, I'm feeling very nervous. I have dieted all my life, successfully up to late 30s and then the last 18 years or so has been failure after failure. Oh, I lie, I once lost quite a bit on a VLC diet, managed to keep it off for a short while, and then put it all and more back on again.

Anyway, this is my main worry. I have been cutting down big time on the carbs since the beginning of the year & I have cut out alcohol altogether. You would think I would have lost weight, as I have about 3.5 stones to lose, but I lost 2lbs and then I have put most of that back on.

I know I am having a problem with eating all the fat I'm supposed to. I have been raised on the low fat idea. But looking at what some of you are eating, it really doesn't seem that much at all, and I'm wondering whether it is just a low calorie diet after all.

I guess I'm just after a bit of reassurance as I have read the book, the articles, lots of threads, but I still feel I am throwing myself off a moving train. I'm terrified of getting even fatter.

It's not really a low calorie diet, Hopeby, though I did find I wasn't eating as many calories on low-carb as I was on high-carb low fat (strangely enough).
It's just that the fat you eat REALLY fills you up and sustains you throughout the day, so your portion sizes are small anyway.
I have no idea why you haven't lost more weight though - I DO know that some people stall a little on the second/third week (is that right?) around about there, anyway. If it's only been a couple of weeks that may be it (or you may not be eating enough fat?)

Hope - list out your eating forthe past couple of days (everyhting, water as well) and let's have a look at your intake. Cutting 'down' on carbs may not be right - visible carbs are one thing but things like carrots, fruit, tomatoes etc are also high in carbs.

Good article about fat and colestrerol, v interesting.

Gerry - I watched supersize/superskinny and every time he says 'look at all the fat' you can gaurantee he's pointing to a table loaded with biscuits, burgerbuns, cakes, rice, takeaways, pasties. I dunno how he can't see it - it's not the fat, it's the carbs! (and portions sizes, in last nights) Eating a takeaway 3 times a day will put weight on, duh! (In past nights he said 'it's how I've always eaten, it's how mum fed us, I'm west Indian, we like our food' - like he's affronted, that should somehow 'allow' him to eat like that and not put on weight. )

Breakfast - Black rooibos tea with coconut oil, few spoon greek yog
lunch - bag salad leaves (waitrose - said 'inferno hot' leaves so was expecting rockets, watercress, mustard greens. Got a few leaves rocket and lambs lettuce. Inferno hot? Hah! ) with mackeral and mayo. Few more spoons yog.

Dinner will be sausages, with creamy kale and cauli cheese

Hope there are no carbs in painkillers, bloomin thriving on them at the mo, bastard carb flu!

Brilliant, gerry! Re your DH, it's sickeningly infuriating, isn't it?! I would suggest that he probably needs to be eating carbs with his meals.

Although on a low carb diet you shouldn't lose more weight than you need to, because you're only burning fat and nothing else - not muscle mass, like you would do on a low calorie diet - so, either he has a bit of weight he can stand to lose or he isn't eating enough calories, and is starting to lose muscle.

hope - I know exactly how you feel, and it's a big leap of faith stepping on the to fast-moving train that is low carbing! But it really does work - honestly!

Reading what you've written, I agree with captain mummy - it sounds to me like you're probably still eating a relatively high carb/low fat diet - which isn't what we're about at all.

As captain mummy suggested, list out for us your meals over the last few days and we'll see what we can diagnose.

Just had lunch. Not overly hungry so just had salad with Parmesan and Mayo. Salad had a bit of grated beet root in it and my god I never noticed how SWEET beet root is!

Now I have a problem - I'm going out for tea tonight (a friend is cooking). Is it going to sabotage everything?? Of course depending on what she's cooking I'll choose low carb where I can and I'm eating less anyway but if I have to pick at carby stuff to avoid being rude am I going to wake up tomorrow a zeppelin?? Will it completely undo everything?

I am not feeling sick today, so very relieved! I think having breakfast a bit later than usual seems to do the trick, thanks BIWI !

Today I've had:
B: Few chunks of smoked cheddar and large coffee with cream (a bit random but didn't have any time).
L: Asparagus with two poached eggs and I made a quick sauce by putting cheese spread in the microwave for 30 seconds. I know its processed but it was very yummy!
D: Will be pork stroganoff done in the slow cooker with mushrooms and lots of sour cream. Probably with celeriac mash.

Whoever it was that mentioned tabasco, what a good idea! I think that will help pep up a lot of things I often make.

Calamity I've had this problem before and if it is really carby just have a small portion, and avoid carbs if possible without causing offence eg no potatoes. Then lots of water and fat before and after.

Sorry, just realised how similar our nn's are. Just changed mine as had the old one a really long time and think I was probably becoming identifiable! Hope you don't mind, mine is inspired from Peppa Pig!