Week 1 Weigh-In - Little Black Dress Low Carb Boot Camp

[WillieWaggledagger]

i know you're all dying to get started on the low carb boot camp, and for those who haven't done this before, here is the link to the spreadsheet where you should record your starting weight for Monday 1st October in column c next to your name. Please don't touch any other columns for now

weight is recorded in lbs, so if you have problems converting from kg or stones, FiddledeFat made a handy widget which can be found in the tab at the bottom labelled 'conversion'

if your name isn't on the spreadsheet then you can add yourself by adding a new line and dragging the formulae down from an adjacent row, or just ask me to add you and I will do so as soon as i can

good luck with the first week of bootcamp!

Oooh, absolutely fine LF - I love that waitrose ready to cook stuff when I really CBA to cook. Lots of it is low carb and all of it is delicious.

Today:

• a cup of tea with milk - have decided I'm not giving this up this time! Have ditched the protein shakes for a while and gone back to a cup of strong tea first thing
• two slices of serrano ham filled with cream cheese and a few nuts
• dinner will be thai green curry made with prawns, veg and coconut milk. NO rice obviously!

Am not really bootcamping so feel free to ignore my food! But it helps to keep me on the straight and narrow by posting here...

Everyone's doing really well! Those of you with a bit of carb flu, do push on through because it's SO worth it afterwards. Paracetamol and a little nap will work wonders if you can manage it. Plus, don't forget to EAT - this is not a traditional calorie-restricted diet, don't be afraid to eat and eat fat while you're at it!

Hope today went as well as could be expected WineGless

Yes, you've been in my thoughts today WineGless.

Dinner is going to be cauliflower, broccoli and roast chicken in a creamy cheese sauce with lashings of melted mozzarella on top. Oh yes.

My dieting colleague will be having a cup a soup and 2 ryvita because she's "only got 100 calories left". Oh dear. I'd be sad for her if she wasn't the embodiment of evil.

BIWI
And thanks yes they are better. To be frank a mild tummy bug wouldn't be the worst thing to kick start a bit of dramatic weight loss

The trouble with starting a low-carb ready meals business is that the supermarkets would wipe you out in one fell swoop when they decided to do their own version of whatever it is you've worked so hard at.

I suppose one of those ready to cook dishes plus a handful of broccoli and cauli from the freezer makes it pretty much a ready meal.

Can't you patent/copyright recipes?

Tbh the yoghurt was only eaten because of sticking the must eat 3 meals. Was utterly exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open earlier, it was effort to even eat the yoghurt . Dreaming of crawling into my bed now.
I did stick alpro cream in the scrambled eggs and fried it in butter if it makes it any better?
Going to make homemade coleslaw tomo because really don't like the store bought ones. using helmans full fat mayo.

Where does stuff phillidephia rank for boot camp? in or out?

Right ds has instructions for bedtime, alarm for his bedtime has been set and he is currently munching his way through porridge (he had sorted his own tea before I had chance). I am going to find my bed. Night.

Wine - hope today went best it could.

Also not trying to starve myself of food geniunely not feeling hungry in my brain. It is only when my stomach protests that I realise I am hungry. I know i need to eat, but I am pushing food around my plate at meal times. Struggling to eat what is in front of me despite knowing i am hungry and should be hungry. I think this is probably part of the carb detox process for me as I am so used to literally living off carbs the rest of it doesn't seem like food in my head yet and my brain is struggling to adapt to the new way of thinking. I seem to remember doing this the first few days when I did south beach a few years back and it did get better eventually. Although that was pre ds and my memories of that time are rather foggy these days it was a long time ago

Today got off to a bad start. Due to a minor trauma first thing, I missed breakfast so had ro grab a sandwich at work. Couldn't have given my first lectures without food.

But I had a cesaer salad for lunch and am having chicken breast in cream and mushrooms with salad for supper.

Working from home tomorrow so can have a full carb free day.

gless - I hope today went as well as could be expected. You & your colleagues have been in my thoughts today.

Thank you to everyone for your comfort food ideas. In the end, I decided on emmental lasagna with a side salad dressed in greek yoghurt mixed with a tiny bit of pesto. Was delicious.

I've made the coconut cauliflower soup for my break at 2am and made a shepherd's pie with swede mash for tomorrow's dinner. I'm never in the mood for cooking after doing a night so at least I can avoid bad choices through laziness/tiredness.

If anyone feels like they have a cold coming I can highly recommend a Zinc & Vitamin C supplement. Coupled with plenty of fluids it really takes the sting out - I can see the difference between me & DH who didn't bother with the supplements and is feeling awful at the mo.

I still wonder how much effort it would take to actually sell the concept of low carb ready meals (if they were explicitly marketed as such) to supermarkets as they seem very wedded to low fat low cal in this country. Though how they square it with aisles of sweets, crisps and cakes I don't know... But it's consumer choice innit (read: food industry lobby)

THIS consumer chooses low carb ( well on here anyway, I still haven't told anyone other than dp!)

Hugs to winegless on what must have been a very difficult day.

Hurricane...emmenthal lasagne sounds fantastic, do you just layer bolog and cheese or is there a sneaky pasta replacement too?

Tuna mayo salad for lunch here and bolognese on chopped white cabbage for supper (pasta for the family ) and have a vat of home made coleslaw with delouis mayo in the fridge in case of munchy emergencies!

I would love low carb ready meals willie- when I'm on placement I generally do 12 hour shifts which, with traveling can mean I'm out of the house from 5am till 9pm, so something I could just grab would be fab.

Willie - Yes, low carb is still a bit niche, I think. It would be brilliant if you could buy cauliflower rice in little frozen pouches, mashed celieriac and swede chips from the supermarket. But nobody would be buying the cakes and biccies, I suppose.

I've buggered up today.
Other half cooked up a delicious recipe from Jamie's 15 minute meals and I had to eat it (well I chose to eat it to show my appreciation) Chicken and asparagus with noodles (had coconut milk in it too). Delicious but well and truly off piste!

Was doing well too. Have weighed myself (I know, I know) and this morning I was 6 and a half pounds lighter than I was on Monday morning. Reckon I will put on another 2 pounds because of the noodles but determined to stay on track for the rest of the week.

BIWI are you doing Intermittent Fasting as well? I did this for about a month but felt like I was losing some good eating habits. Will try and return to it when I have lost the weight and will do it for the health benefits rather than as a weight-loss thing.

NotAgainandAgain - cauliflower cheese bake is fine as long as:

• there is no flour in the sauce
• you can cope with dairy (as I'm assuming you're making your sauce with cream/creme fraiche/fromage frais?)

There are no pudding substitutes at this stage - sorry! The closest you will get to it will be yoghurt with vanilla extract. And there is a sound reason for this - we are trying to break the addiction to sugar and sweet things.

cathy - I got the idea from someone here, but can't remember who. It's emmental instead of pasta, so I make a cheese sauce from cream, philly and cheddar/mozzarella and the layer bolog, emmental then cheese sauce.

The cheese keeps it's shape even when cooked so it works really well as a lasagne sub. It is very dairyified though, so if you find dairy stalls your weight loss it's best to avoid thus one, but I've loads to lose to I haven't found it's adversely affected me yet.

Mmmmmm....sounds way better than bolognese on white cabbage!

Think I may be upgrading our supper :)

Oh I agree it's a fab idea hurricanewyn, but I don't know how easy it would be to sell it to supermarkets because it is really going against current healthy eating doctrines. That's not to say someone shouldn't try though!

I imagine, it wouldn't need to be marketed as specifically low carb, that could just be a happy coincidence. Shepard's Pie with swede or cauli mash, chicken stuffed with cheese & wrapped in bacon with a side of cauli cheese (without flour), good quality sausages with spring onions &mushrooms in a low carb gravy - all delicious and with broad appeal I would imagine.

Are we writing a business plan here?

I think there's a market. I actually think the biggest market would be in on-the-go low carb products - sweet and savoury snacks. If they could be achieved without horrible, artificial additives that is.

I would deffo buy those BIWI.

I want someone to buy ME mml's book for MY stocking! Will drop some hints.

Man I want a glass of wine. Even just typing it has made my mouth water. Got a lovely bottle sitting on the side....the alcohol thing is the hardest thing for me by far.

Snacks: pork scratchings, 2 frankfurters.

Tea is going to be the salmon burgers someone posted a link to! Ta muchly!

Have been thinking of you today winegless. [hug]

Ah I see what you mean hurricane yes

And salads without sugary dressings or irritating croutons/sweet corn/little pasta shapes

Thanks for all your lovely messages. Not posting again tonight but it has brought comfort x