'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.

And we're off!

Yay!!

The new page looks fab!

Elbombero I posted this upthread...
feastwithoutregret.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/low-carb-cauliflower-cheese/

Betty I don't know, sorry - can't find it listed on waitrose or sains websites.

Eva - I've read through the whole thread since you asked this question:
"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?"
and haven't seen anyone answer it (Ok, I didn't read thoroughly) so I will - sunflower and vegetable oils are mainly comprised of polyunsaturated fatty acids, yes.
Coconut oil and butter are mainly comprised of saturated fatty acids, yes - coconut oil is primarily medium chain fatty acids, butter is primarily short chain fatty acids.
But olive oil isn't - it's >75% monounsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid), which appears in an awful lot of fats, including all animal fats.

As an aside, and this isn't at all gloaty because I really need to lose my fat tum and about 3st, I'd just like to say that I have never bought into the low fat bollocks, partly because I have a degree in food science and know what they do to that shit; and partly because I was involved in teaching nutrition (Not dietetics) and so have more complementary medicine views on nutrition and how it works. As a result of this, I eat a lot of butter already - and cheese, and full fat yoghurt (albeit with fruit in) - and my last cholesterol check showed that, while it was technically "high" at 7.2, my RATIO of HDL:LDL showed that I had more HDL, and therefore my GP told me that whatever I'm doing, keep doing it.

I'm late joining this. Only just decided to do it, so I hope I can catch up :)

Loving the new spreadsheet- thanks willie!
I have put on 6 lbs over Xmas. I am a greedy piggy. Ah well

HELP IM HAVING A WOBBLE!!! :(

Don't get me wrong - still loving LCing. Really enjoying meals and have stopped panicking about being hungry. Losing weight, less bloated etc BUT-

been stupidly reading articles on the dangers/cons of LC/high fat diets. There seem to be as many studies/articles in favour as there are against.....well how so I know which to believe???

Also keep getting headaches. Any advice? Thanks in advance!

How do, not how so.

I don't tghink you n eed to worry at all. In my view the scientists I trust are into LCHF and Sweden is officially moving to it too. Half of silicon valley eats paleo because it works and makes us all feel good. Look at sites like paleo hacks and reddit keto which I think are good ones.

Also if in doubt follow nature - for a million years mankind ate like this so not surprisingly it's what was are adapted to eat. It is only more recently we've loaded up with carbs and junk and that has hardly done us any good, has it? Even childhood epilepsy is addressed with LCHF diets these days and eliminates fits in 30% of children. Also 50 years ago LCHF was the diet for those with diabetes before we started medicating everyone and that worked then and works now too. the few decades when we stupidly went for eliminating healthy fats were a small blip.

calamitykate there's also evidence to suggest that mankind actually shrank by an average of 2 inches once they started eating bread. Primal man was taller apparently!! I mean, for a food product to actually shrink people?! How can that be healthy?

Also check out the evidence for Alzheimer's being the new Type 3 Diabetes. That's really interesting too.

CalamityKate - have you read "Escape The Diet Trap" by Dr John Briffa? I really, really recommend that you do. Or "The Diet Delusion" by Gary Taubes. There's more evidence in that book than you will ever need!

My nanna was told to lose weight because of a heart valve issue in the 1970s. Guess what she was told to cut out - that's right, CARBS. Not fat.

Any health risk from low carbing really comes from no-carbing, where you eat no veg or fruit at all; because it creates an imbalance in electrolytes in the body - and may cause problems with calcium being pulled out of bones to address this, and because you may miss out on some vitamins and minerals.

The current food pyramid model is so far wrong it's not funny. I don't honestly know WHAT they were thinking when they produced that, unless it was from an economic point of view, when grains were a lot cheaper than other food types.

YEARS ago I saw a documentary on the tv about heart disease. Apparently in 1972 or thereabouts, there was a Report done on reasons for the increase and four food substances were accused - salt, sugar, cholesterol and saturated fat. But according to this documentary, Mr Tate of Tate & Lyle, who was a big political subscriber too, managed successfully to get the sugar part suppressed!!
Of course, since then it has been shown that increased cholesterol intake does NOT directly or necessarily lead to increased blood cholesterol, as the body makes and recycles about 80% of its own cholesterol.
There is some evidence that increased saturated fat --> increased blood cholesterol, but that was before people started differentiating it into LDL and HDL - if it's HDL that increases, then that's a GOOD thing (although LDL should not be demonised - it's essential for carrying out body repairs. We'd all fall apart without cholesterol, it's the glue that binds every cell together).

Do you know that sugar is completely unnecessary as a food stuff? Some carbohydrate is useful, in that it's the easiest way to get the glucose the brain likes to function on, but it's better taken from complex carbohydrates, which also have the added benefit of feeding the gut bacteria and keeping them healthy too.

But the point about this WOE is to start off by killing the sugar craving - not to remove carbs completely - so any discussion of no-carb diets won't be relevant. :)

OMG I am SO happy! I mean almost tearfully can't-quite-believe-it happy!

Last Monday - 11st 13lb.
Saturday - 11st 10.5
Today - 11st 7.5!!!

Effortless. Full. Sugar cravings gone. Headaches gone. Full of beans (not literally; too carby) and thrilled!

Great thing is I started looking and feeling thinner very quickly - I'm assuming that this is due to A) Far less bloated even after a good sized meal and B) Fat started melting off straightaway rather than water??

I even had a little blip on Friday and it didn't make a huge difference - don't worry though I don't plan to get complacent and make a habit of it....

Thank you so much BIWI and everyone else for all the advice, reassurance and encouragement

Yay Calamity!

Great post Thumb.

Did you mean to post these here though... this is last week's thread.

TBH, Crabby, I'm getting a bit lost between the 3 different threads - the main one, the questions one and this one! So it would probably have done better on the main one, I just got confused.

Should I repost it, do you think?

Although it was in response to the wobblers who were doubting the safety of the low-carb WOE.

It was right to post it here, given you were answering the wobblers, but it would be fantastic if you posted it on the main chat thread too, Thumbwitch!

It also makes the point about the influence of food manufacturers too, which I think is really important.

Where's the main chat thread?

It's here

No worries, I'll copy it across. :)