Starting a low carb diet - anyone interested in going for it with me?!

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

I did this very successfully indeed for about 6 weeks in the run up to the summer break. I have been trying to lose weight for a while and was doing OK but then reached a plateau which was when I decided to try something new. And I easily lost a stone doing this.

It was hard in the beginning, for about the first week, then I sort of settled in to it and it just became how it was. And I like the rules of it, because you just can't cheat on it. But it was sometimes hard juggling what the family were going to eat.

I have been cutting down since Tuesday, but will be going for it completely on Monday 5th. I want to lose a stone. Is anyone interested??!!!

I should have started phase 1 of The Harcombe Diet today, but like someone else on this thread was a little hungover this morning and couldn't face starting the day without coffee!

So I'm doing my standard low carbing.

Today:

2 boiled eggs for breakfast
Lunch - 2 pork steaks with runner beans
Dinner - bolognese sauce with buttered spinach

a bit of cheese and some pork crackling as a snack when I got home from work.

Now drinking diet bitter lemon.

Hope everones still on the straight and narrow is anyone else feeling knackered with it? Or is that just psi psy pshyc psycholog in my mind?!

Custardo - hope your flu is going and you are feeling better so you can enjoy the Bath meet. I'm trying to organise everything so I can go to the Christmas one, and I'll tell you something, if I get there, I won't be carb free!

Am weighing every day. Not posting. Will do that on Fridays. Have a good day all.

Hello!

MUCH better today than yesterday. Quick weight in this morning and I am only 1/4lb up on Friday's weight - which is a miracle! I will try to be well behaved the rest of the week in order to keep up the good work.

B: plain full fat yoghurt
L: dunno but will try to be good, prob a salad of sorts
D: fish - I think it's sole but can't remember, plus brocolli, cauliflower and poss spinach.

Snacks: probably a bit of cheese along the way. Mid-afternoon is a current weak time.

Also need to go for lots of water as am still a bit dehydrated.

lost 2lbs from yesterday

Hello everyone

Can I join please? I have an eight month old I can no longer blame for my jeans not doing up! Weirdly when naked I SWEAR I look the same but my hips are wider now and I'm 10 kilos overweight

I have to eat breakfast as well as lunch at my desk - I do find low carb packed meals tricky.

Suppose I should do some pigging exercise too :(

today i am planning an italian sausage casserole that isn't a casserole.

brown sausage in a frying pan, add onion and bell pepper

in a seperate pan pour in a tin of toms, add garlic olive oil, oregano and coriander. also add 1/2 can water

add sausage and veg

put on lowest of low heat and leave to cook without a lid until completely reduced to a paste

the sausages are called:
GOOD LITTLE SAUSAGES fromt he good little company and they are 2.8g carbs /100g - 380g in a packet. = 10 sausages in a packet. just less than a carb per sausage.

serve with salad

I weighed myself yesterday on gym scales as opp to doctors scales.

doctors scales said 15st 4lbs last thursday...

....gym scales said 14.10lbs. refuse to believe I have lost 8lbs in less than a week, so will go back to the docs scales on thursday, which will be a fortnightly weigh-in. even if it is a lie, it's a good lie and is motivating me nicely.

breakfast - bacon and egg
lunch - pret chicken salad thingy - or tuna nicoise without the spuds
tea - steak i think.

Custardo - love the sound of that casserole!

Bigkidsdidit - I have to eat at my desk too. Have you thought of chopping cheese into cubes, grilling some bacon until crispy, chopping some cucmber into chunks and packing in a container with some tomatoes? Once you are in the habit of having something like that for breakfast, it does get easier, promise. I used to have a can of diet coke and a half a dozen at least couple of biscuits for breakfast, along with a couple of cigarettes.
Isn't it said that you only need to do something for a week to 10 days for it to become a habit?

custardo, that's almost what I had for dinner last night, but with courgette thrown in as well. mmmmhmm.

Snapespeare, I lost somewhere between 6 and 7 in the first week, so it IS possible :)

I keep skipping breakfast because I just don't feel hungry .. still fantasising about marshmallows...

Oh they're good ideas Emma. And I love hard boiled eggs. Will probably save a fortune not getting breakfast from cafe Nero either, that'll be brilliant :)

Right starting tonight making bolognese thingy with lots of veg in.

I tried the muffin yesterday and the savoury version works really well as a bread substitution. I had a bacon and salad sandwich. Yum!
The only thing is that since you need to drink so much water with linseeds as they swell up in your stomach I was ridiculously full after trying to drink 3 cups of water with it to wash it down. - Think I will have to eat them half at a time.

Not sure what is for dinner tonight. The children both have friends over for tea and I have to cook for them earlier than I would choose to eat as a result. DH is out tonight so I need something very quick and easy for me.

Custardo - I got some Finest sausages from Sainsbury's on Saturday, they were toulouse I think and believe it or not had 0.3g carbs per TWO sausages! I don't think I have seen that before.

I'm at work until 8, and just had a few hunger pangs, so just nipped down to Tesco metro and bought a packet of ham.

Got the lowest carb one going (1.1g per 100g) The cashier gave me an odd look. 'Just the ham please' no, I don't need a bag thanks. The security guard was also giving me evils as I walked out with a packet of ham in my hand

I make broccoli and cauliflower soup -
chop onions, garlic and whatever herbs you like, fry in olive oil, add all the cauli+broccoli to it that you want to use, pour over some stock (I use organic powder for this) and boil to death, then zap with one of those magic wand things or put it in the blender.
return to saucepan, add creme fraiche.

No idea how carb loaded this is, but I like eating it and it doesn't have anything massively carb-filled in it..

I tried the courgette fake-pasta tonight, with a creme fraiche sauce, it was lovely.

I have my weigh in tomorrow at diet nurse. Hoping I have lost at least 1 kg since last weigh in which was 3 weeks ago.
But in that time I have had one wedding, one birthday and one anniversary party. So a bit more carbs and drink involved.

Still need to prepare more so that I have something available for breakfast and lunch.

Started c25k again after 6 months break due to Achilles trouble.

I want to lose about 35 kg in total and ideally lots by December as I have a family wedding and it would be nice to actually be able to get a photo done.

kotinka, one of my favourites is an Asian-y chicken broth. Make a stock from a carcass, then add soya sauce (Clearspring organic tamari is wheat free) lemon, ginger, garlic and chilli to taste. Add left over chicken bits. Honestly, it's amazing.

Right, I have just finished day one of the Harcombe diet phase one.

Oh. My. God. It's. Difficult! Huge cravings for sugar and caffeine, have felt weak and shaky all day and have been fantastically hungry and so really trusting the no limit on foods. I've polished off a whole tub of Greek yoghurt, a packet of nice ham, :) no fewer than SIX eggs, as well as a pork mince stir-fry and a beef stew. My dad (a veteran low carber) reckons that my body is so used to carbs that it isn't able to effectively process fats and proteins yet.

Quick question for BIWI and anyone else doing this diet - will you be doing the whole phase three carbs-ok-but-not-at-the-same-time-as-fat bit? At the moment I'm thinking that my phase three will be more of a lowish carb, real food diet. It just seems a bit . if anyone could explain the reasoning I'd be grateful.

spamspam - i can believe it, sainsbos do the lowest carb sausages ime - unfortunately for me - its out of my way do shop there.

also a good tip for packed lunches for work - is to make yourself a bit more for evening meal the night before and then stick the leftovers in a lunch box.

thats what i try to do - this does limit my use of garlic though

ratherbeonthepiste - are you on the list to come to the london mn xmas meet?

oooh low carbers do come, we can have LC quiche going on

i will be scoffing plenty carbs - i usually go for lovelly meal beforehand - pizza or pasta

Not sure yet Custy - will decide a bit nearer the time, if that's OK?

All going well here, although I know it's only day 3!

Yesterday:

2 x sausages and fried eggs for breakfast
lunch - two pork steaks and runner beans
dinner - beef casserole (beef, onions, garlic, carrots, spinach and tomatoes) with some cheese grated on top.

And I'm 2 3/4 lbs down this morning, which is very pleasing.

I am really frustrated, because I somehow gained half a lb since yesterday despite eating well and exercising. I even drank about 8 pints of water. :(

Don't worry - if you weigh daily you will see fluctuations like this. It's quite normal. (And 1/2lb isn't that much in the great scheme of things)

Just keep going.

As the Pig2Twig people are always pointing out, weight loss is not linear. And you can be losing inches whilst not losing weight!

Courage, mon brave!

Dear god I feel fecking awful. Got the runs now too (sorry tmi!). This can't last, can it ?