Low carb for those of us who aren't hardcore enough for Bootcamp/Atkins induction etc

[QueenStromba]

This is a thread for anyone who wants to eat fewer carbs but has either failed on plans than start out really low carb or just doesn't want to eat very low carb for whatever reason. I'm of the opinion that the high carb diet recommended by the government is the cause of obesity and related diseases and that any reduction in carbs will boost health.

While the Bootcamp threads are fantastic, I think a lot of people find it difficult to dive straight into eating very low levels of carbs which leads to giving up by day five. I did this myself when I first tried low carbing last April. I wasn't even trying to eat induction level carbs, just cut out the obviously high carb elements of my diet (rice, potatoes, pasta, bread etc) and I still nearly killed my housemates. It was about six months before I tried low carbing again and I went about it in a completely different way and have ended up eating induction level carbs through preference.

First I cut down my carb portions slightly in each meal, waited a week or two then cut down the portions even further so I was only eating about half the starch element that I had been in each meal. The next thing I did was completely remove the starch from one meal - I think it was breakfast I did first. I had been eating a poached egg on a slice of toast with a slice or two of lean bacon and some mushrooms or spinach - all I did was cut out the slice of toast and replace it with more veg or an extra egg depending on how hungry I was feeling. Once I was happy with that I started on dinner. Instead of rice I had cauliflower rice, instead of potato mash I had cauliflower, swede or celeriac mash and instead of noodles/pasta I had either shirataki noodles or thin ribbons of courgette. For the first while I still mixed in half a small portion of e.g. rice with my cauliflower rice. I normally made enough dinner to have leftovers for lunch the next day. I lost really well on that without worrying about how many carbs were in veg and I still had milk in my tea and berries with yoghurt. I also had a couple of beers a week and the odd slice of cake or whatever. I only went very low carb after doing a lot of reading and deciding that eating a diet very low in carbs and high in fat (including saturated fat) is the healthiest diet for us.

am doing the same as you JOLLY. Feel slightly more comfortable and maybe mood better but not a whole lot thinner at the moment. I am fine all day and eating similar to yourself. Have a need for banana and weetabix at night to help me sleep which ruins what I have done during the day. Have not been hungry all day and now I am thinking about bed I want my usual fix. If I don't have it I know I will wake up during the night hungry and then will be grumpy tomorrow and not want to do my run.
I guess you should avoid the wine but other than that you look like you are doing what JB recommends. Its difficult coe the book doesn't give you a whole load of iseas does it?

I am sold on the low carbs, is just the high fat content I am really struggling with and feeling guilty about! Can I possibly really lose my tummy eating cheese, butter, cream?!

jollymary you could always start with "healthier" fats such as; omega 3 in oily fish, omega eggs, extra virgin olive oil, rapeseed oil, avocados rather than cream, butter etc. You could introduce gradually. I don't eat loads of cream etc. tbh but we do have loads of salads with olive oil etc. Nuts/seeds oily too though omega 6 and a little carby. hth

Another 1lb lost for me and I have had pimm's, berries with fruit, dark chocolate and milky coffees too.

I made a vegetable frittata which dp and I really liked: eggs whisked with spring onions, celery, sweetcorn and cheese; baked in the oven. Was even more delicious cold for breakfast. Will be doing that again! With different veg...

We also had beef koftas with mince, mushrooms (hidden veg for dd2- bit watery will use onion/pepper next time) garlic, coriander, parsley, cumin, paprika, egg, lo salt. Wrapped round skewers and grilled.

quirkychick still loving your food
Have you got the recipe for the koftas please - think kids would love those .

Hi colette. Koftas were a bastardised version of a good food recipe iirc.

500g waitrose aberdeen angus mince 20% fat
100g (ish) mushrooms (made it quite watery so I would put in maybe onions/peppers next time)
1 garlic clove
1tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cardamom (change spices to suit yourself)
pinch lo salt
1 egg
fresh coriander and parsley

Turn on grill and soak skewers in water, if using wooden ones.
Blend egg, mushroom/veg, spices and herbs to make paste.
Mix thoroughly into mince with a fork.
Divide mixture into 8, oil your hands and take 1/8 make into ball and flatten. Place around skewer. Shape around onto foil on the grill pan, the kofta will harden onto the skewer as it cooks.
Grill until ready and cooked through.
Obviously you could make into meatballs, patties etc. Or barbecue. My kids like stuff on sticks. Be equally nice with lamb.

Hi Everyone
Can I join you?

Thanks for all the fantastic help on this thread - especially QueenStromba's potassium advice. Just had Zero electrolyte drink and feel much better!

3 weeks low carbing so far and 7 lbs down -am following Dr Clark(ish).

Can anyone help re carbiness of olives, please?

hi
I am feeling a bit light headed today and a bit headachey. Also I have mouth ulcers - do you think I need buy some supplements? Is there a link with low carbing. Am craving cake today

Janx- re headachy a lot if us have felt that way and we needed to up our potassium (qs advice of course) a cup of hot stock worked for me.
I'm feeling much less hungry today, comparitively to how I usually am I'm living on air! I guess I must be in ketosis but that's hard to believe as the last few days have been higher in carb than I've previously aimed (50-70 unread of under 50)just checked and 5lb down. Yay!

quirkychick thanks for the recipe sounds good. Will replace mushrooms as they hate them.
well done pp!

Mouth ulcers usually indicate a magnesium deficiency.

Jolly...remember briffa says cheese and cream in moderation!!

Will up my magnesium - have always been prone to them when stressed and/or around my period. I too can't get used to using cream - had some last night and I felt really guilty. Managed to turn down a bar of chocolate last night but did have some wine

colette the mushrooms were completely disguised as I am the only one who eats them! Lots of liquid came out as they cooked, so less water content veg better. Dd2 veg phobic but loves meat, trying to sneak it into her diet .

I have just survived tea at mil's. She usually serves white bread sandwiches, biscuits and cakes! Takes personal affront at not eating her food - she is diabetic but ignores all advice, so mentioning food/insulin not very diplomatic. I arrived with a plate of houmous and crudites. I palmed off pizza on dd2, and shared a raspberry, cream and ice-cream dessert with dd2 (who had most of icecream). I was starving quite hungry when I got in, I have eaten a plate of mushroom scrambled eggs cooked in butter. Yum. Absolutely stuffed now.

I tracking my food on mfp, I am definitely eating less and I am less hungry. Lots of fat and trying to keep to 30% protein.

hi i'm thinking of joining in, I know if I eat less carbs my belly will be less bloated. I need to loose 1 stone. I tried low carb before and it was very hard, i caved after 2 days and was so upset.

So I think easing into it is a much better idea

So I'm struggling with meal ideas at the moment.

I alot of people on this thread is eating greek yogurt, is that low carb? I eat rachaels yogurt is that low carb?

I know for a fact i am not getting enough protein into my diet, is anyone taking protein shakes? If so what brand? As I might give it a go!

So breakfast will be egg and bacon. Are richmond thin sausages ok to eat?

lunch, soup or salad with meat or veg omelette

dinner same as above with veg. or curry with salad or bolanagise with salad.

what is everyone having for snacks?

also what happens if i cave and have a little chocolate? will it ruin all my effort?

Biffa says 2 squares of dark chocolate is fine. He also says that 2 small roast potatoes once a week is fine.

Movingforward123 greek yoghurt has less carbs (and more fat) than other yoghurt. Check the carb g per 100g on the pot. Same with the sausages: they usually have starch in, though.

I use www.myprotein.com for protein shakes. You can buy samples for 99p to try different flavours. But you don't have to use them.

Lots of links and ideas for low carb recipes upthread.

hth

I have been away for the weekend and....amazingly...I didn't cheat!
I had soup for dinner on sat, salad at the restaurant yesterday lunchtime, and ham and egg salad for dinner.
I coped by snacking on nuts and dark choc so I have had my choc allowance for this week!
I didn't notice that bit in briffas book!! I will have potatoes once a week in that case! I miss them :(
Am doing courgette ribbons instead of pasta tonight and meatballs.

quirky - I had a look on that website and now feel confused I have no idea which shake to go for, which one do you use? As the diet ones I looked at said they have low gi carbs in, but I'm looking for no carbs, or Sibi thought

Movingforward- re recipes, what I've been doing as suggested up thread is taking what ever I have and googling it with low carb.
For instance I picked up pork belly slices in the whoops isle yesterday , googled low carb pork belly and voila, behind me I have half a slow cooker full of Spanish pork belly and chorizo stew . THIs method has also led me to some good low carb blogs and such, and gives me loads of different ideas. Next time I do pork belly it will be marinated. In Chinese spices twice cooked and shredded in a stir fry.
Good luck its a great learning curve.

Last night I made chicken liver pate and roasted a chicken.

This morning I whipped up a prawn cocktail for my lunch whilst cooking an omelette for my breakfast.

I feel like Mrs Padmore in Downton Abbey.

Hope you're all doing well.

I'm managing ok here. DS broke my scales so can't get stressed about weight loss anymore!

I just want to say thanks so much queenstromba for your really good advice to us all.

Do any of you take supplements? I don't at the moment, but am going to get some vitamin d3 as advised by dr briffa (on his website), and am considering green tea extract. Is it all bollocks or worth a few quid? Any experience?

Just had my king prawn and avocado lunch. Bloody lovely!

Keeping in the 1970's theme I'm going to enquire as to whether any of my colleagues would like to partake in some post lunch swinging.

I take:
A multivitamin and mineral.
Vitamin B complex for tiredness and fatigue which used to be a problem before low carbing - I still have some of a 300 tablet pack left so I figured I may as well keep taking it.
Vitamin D3 because we can't make it for half of the year because the sun is too weak and for a lot of the rest of the year because there is no sun.
Fish oil for the omega 3 to help with my omega6:omega3 ratio.
Magnesium an hour or so before bed to help me sleep - normally not a problem on low carb but I've been pretty stressed lately.
Milk thistle for when I've been overdoing it on the vodka and soda.

I blame Dr Briffa for most of that!

I did really well yesterday but then woke up hungry at 2.30 and had banana and weetabix.
Been good today so far,
berries and G yogurt
nuts
feta salad
think am going to do chilli for tea (?brown rice) or I may wake up hungry today.
Think I am doing something wrong as I still feel FAT!!

Hi Movingforward123. Total full fat Greek yoghurt is about the lowest carb yoghurt you can buy and it has the benefit of being really filling which makes you less likely to eat lots of it. If you have a Lidl near you then they do one that is even lower in carbs. I'd avoid any flavoured yoghurt because they're normally full of sugar so it would be better to just add a few berries to some of the plain stuff.

Most sausages have wheat in them which is a worse carb than sugar in most respects. Have a look for gluten free sausages as they are normally very low carb. Even though you're cutting down slowly you may as well try and avoid carbs in things you won't even realise are normally quite carby and try to avoid wheat because it tends to drive a compulsion to eat more than you need to.

As NCIS said, a bit of very dark chocolate is fine. Since you're easing into in gently I'd say start on the 70% and gradually go for darker and darker. I eat 90% Lindt now which has only 14g of carbs per 100g bar so on the very odd occasion that I go a bit mad and eat most of a bar instead of the 2-4 squares I planned then it really isn't the end of the world carb wise. 14g per hundred would be pretty high for something you're likely to eat a lot of but 90% chocolate is not one of those things.

As for protein shakes, they tend to be full of artificial stuff particularly artificial sweeteners so you probably shouldn't make them a major part of your diet, particularly if you want to get rid of a sweet tooth which makes low carbing a lot easier because most cakes and desert type things just become too sweet so even if you do cave you just have a spoonful and realise that you don't particularly want it. It's actually very difficult to not get adequate protein while low carbing - you'd have to just be eating veg and butter all day. When you cut out the high carb stuff it means that the amount of protein and fat naturally increase to compensate. As long as you are eating eggs, cheese, meat, fish or veggie protein at most meals then I'd be very surprised if you weren't getting enough protein. Also, once you stop eating loads of carbs, your body gets much better at being able to tell you what it wants so if it wants more protein you'll find yourself craving steak.

As for snacks, I think the 40g packs of Brazil nuts they do in Tesco on 3 for £2 are brilliant. I'd easily eat my way though 120g of Brazil nuts in a sitting but if they are in three separate packets then I'll just have one packet and about ten minutes later I get the full signal from my stomach. I like the almonds in that range too. I'm an absolute bargain whore and hate to pay more than I need to for anything but I really do feel that buying nuts in small packets is worth the money.