Bootcamp Week 11 - Two Thin Ladies!

[BIWItheBold]

Well some of you are, clearly!

And I notice more talk about maintenance, which is evidently a very good sign.

I think the best way for maintenance is to gradually increase your carbs until weight loss either stops or you find that you're putting weight back on.

Don't rush out and fall face first into a plate of pasta, though! Start with fruit and veg (be careful with which fruits and how much), and possibly some legumes - e.g. lentils, or beans - i.e. we're looking to add 'good' carbs into the diet, rather than rush straight into 'accessible' carbs which have an immediate impact on your blood sugars.

Today is Day 1 of Week 1 in my 'let's get that last half stone off' before I go on holiday. (Except that last night's meal, plus a bit of 'eye off the ball' time, means it's more than half a stone now ...)

I thought you had to have that to work at MNHQ

... or is that just the dictatorial bit?!

Hi All

Had a fab tapas meal out last night, its great food to have on this WOE.

quick help from anyone please?

I'm making pavlova for lunch tomorrow - family coming over hopefully with tons of presents - shall I use a sugar replacement for the meringue part or is that worse than sugar? I was planning on not eating any of the meringue myself but if I can find a low carb way of making meringue maybe I can treat myself....

Nigella, I had a terrible reaction to artificial sweetners the other day. Some people are very very sensitive to them (I can smell aspartamine on people's breath)

Why ruin a perfectly good pavlova

Maybe just have the strawbs and cream with a few crumbs of meringue yourself?

mumyduff - tapas sounds wonderful :)

yep I think you're right Betty - will just use the normal sugar. I wonder how much meringue I can eat without triggering an insulin release. perhaps I will not even have a few crumbs and just stick to the fruit and cream (I'm using rasps and blackberries instead of strawbs - I find sharper fruit contrasts nicely with the merignue)

Nigella - when my dad makes pavlova he always makes a normal one for everyone and makes me a mini-meringue with splenda instead of sugar. Remember though to use their guidelines for baking, basically volume for volume rather than weight for weight as a rough guide and I think if you cook it at an even lower temp you get a better result. However, they do tend to be much crunchier and browner than proper meringue and tbh if I were you I'd enjoy the fact I could eat lots of the cream and have a few strawberries with it instead!

Nigella have you tried Stevia as replacement sugar. It is a plant extract and not artificial? Maybe worth trying next time?

Mad day at work today so have only just got home. Staff dropping like flies from mysterious lurgy so was left to handle all today's diary on my own - knackered! And it'll be the same tomorrow. Ah well, only 5 more days of my 11-day stretch to go and only 7000 more words of my essay to write too - the joys of the NHS...

B- protein shake, coconut oil
L - half a bag of almonds (approx 50g I reckon)
D - will be chicken wrapped in prosciutto with asparagus. Will try to resist the wine...

studying - the best booze is gin/vodka and slimline tonic, or very dry white wine, or dry red. I usually go for the latter

BIWI thanks so much for your help.
Shopping done and all ready for low carbing. This evening I'm planning prawns with a green salad and have filled the fridge with lots of meats, cheeses (although not the biggest fan) and salads. Am thinking that a week of eating little and often of these foods should set me off on the right track and get my mind in the 'zone'.
How does coffee fit in? My lovely DCs wake around 6 and I find this is the one coffee I can't miss!
Thanks all, have a lovely evening.

Well I managed to steer friend to nandos instead of pizza hut, subway or the American diner. Had chicken with salad and mayo and olives to pick at. Also resisted all sweet stuff in cinema, just drank a litre of water!!!

My gorgeous cottage pie is cooking, I have eaten the freezer portions. My favourite dinner on this.

Hi chullah and welcome! Don't forget to add some mayo or an oily dressing to your salad. Caffeine can be a mixed bag for some I think although i always have two coffees a day and don't find it a problem. With splash of double cream is best but I opt for full fat milk as don't really like coffee with cream. Good luck!

ooft,rather large hangover today - but I have to say the tapas we ate was mostly low carb. I had veggies, tuna, beef, crab and err lots of dry rose wine.

sorry, I will be back to proper bootcamp as of Monday. Pinky promise.

Hercule - what a lovely dad you have! However, I'm not so sure about Splenda for me - I'm trying to eat as natural as possible. Perhaps Stevia is worth investigation, Sharon ... I bet there's something wrong with it though knowing my luck. I have made the meringue part of the pavlova now, with good old caster sugar, the devil I know! I will stick to the cream and fruit, I will I will I will!

SingingTunelessly -
thanks for that, about being worried about being in starvation mode. I will look back and try and find the posts you refer to - can't believe I missed that, because I get this quite often. I have had dinner tonight, (just now) but didn'nt have lunch til 7pm!

Have you all seen the John Briffa webchat coming up?

Fab! Bloody brilliant! Thank goodness I'm free - MNHQ didn't exactly give us much notice of it, did they?!

I am shamelessly butting in and joining your thread as I could use a little motivation and chat with the type of people who like to bore other's senseless with their cream-laden, protein-rich menus.

I've lost 17kg low-carb and have finally got off my GFA and gone to the gym a couple of times this week for weights & HIIT. My iPod has died though and I must be strong and not use this as a crap excuse not to go because I believe it is possible to exercise without music...

Spent all bloody night icing a cake for my 2 year old's birthday today - so am not quite sure how that's going to work out.

Good morning!
Well my planned dinner last night of prawns and salad turned into just prawns and cheese - after a week's break our house resembled a launderette, so it was a grab it and crack on dinner!
Breakfast this morning boiled egg, mayo and handful of prawns (need using!) - which I really enjoyed.
Just need to up the water intake and we're looking so far so good.

Oh and shameful starting weight - 15 5

Testing name change

Success. Was chullah then realised posted weight and name was highly recognisable !

Oh, I feel your pain AlpinePony - not with the gym as I just don't do gyms, but with the cake. My DS's 4th birthday party is tomorrow and I am just about to start frosting a rainbow layer cake. Eeek!

I will absolutely and definitely be going off plan tomorrow. I'm baking way too many goodies to be able to resist. But I've been good for 10 weeks now so I think I deserve it. (Maybe.)

And hello and welcome to chullah too. Do either of you wish to record your weight loss on our spreadsheet? Just post yay or nay...

I'd love to fiddle but I'm "ashamed" to say that my goal is higher than some people's starting weight. As far as the cake goes - I'm going to go mental at the gym today and then eat the cake - I mean it's filled with berries & mascarpone so is "half" low-carb.

welcome to the newbies and happybirthday to the kiddies - enjoy the parties :)

im off to the first of 8 training days; im not sure ive they'll provide lunch so ive brought an egg and avacado salad plus some babybels. if they have provided lunch its probably sandwiches and biccies so hopefully i won't look too weird eating my own :)