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!

MmeLindor (massive congrats on the book, btw) and others after packed lunch ideas - I like to make some thick fritattas and take a couple of slices with me.

I've done them with various combos of courgette, spinach, feta, decent chorizo or pancetta - you get the idea. I find they travel really well. BIWI's asparagus version in the OP of the recipe thread is great.

With the water - I get a bit intimidated by having a giant 2l bottle in front of me to work through so I just make sure I've had a tumbler every hour. I measured how much I was drinking and a 400ml glassful every hour for 10 hours gets me up to 4l a day

Plats du Jour chez Hoozami:

B: leftover cauli rice with extra butter
L: plan to raid Lidl for various cold meats
D: Pork chops with sage & mustard glaze w/ celeriac chips and shredded brussels sprouts

Morning all! Sorry I was a bit AWOL yesterday. Sadly my first day of Bootcamp was somewhat derailed by an evening out. I turned up at the Champagne bar and ordered water. Had two small bottles of water, another friend arrived and I was told in no uncertain terms that I was having a glass of Champagne. So I had two . But that was all. Went on for meal afterwards, and just drank water. So not brilliant but a lot better than it could have been.

Yesterday was like this for me:

• no breakfast (making it a fast day)

lunch - 2 Black Farmer sausages, two large chestnut mushrooms and two fried eggs dinner - parma ham, roasted peppers, mozzarella and a green salad with parmesan

2 cups of coffee, 2 glasses of Champagne and at least 2 litres of water.

How depressing is it that exercise may cause the lbs to go back on initially! Whoever said that, thank you for the advance warning - I will try to ignore it if that happens. How quickly will it wear off? FX it won't happen...

So far have consumed nothing - not sure whether to have Greek yoghurt or something that involves cooking for breakfast. I could do omelette, or perhaps scrambled eggs, bacon and mushrooms. DD can have toast - I haven't the energy right now for trying to make her eat something messy!

Just to clarify a few things:

• Re exercise - you can train and you can train hard if you're low carbing. However, it takes your body around 2-3 weeks to get totally into fat-burning mode, and during this period you may find your exercise routine a little more difficult. It may be a good idea to scale things down a little, until you're properly into low carbing (and then your body will happily burn fat for fuel rather than carbs). Total full fat yoghurt is also high protein, so is a good pre-gym food; eggs are also good.

• Yoghurt is allowed in Bootcamp, as long as it is plain yoghurt and as long as it is full fat. (But keep an eye on things as dairy isn't great for everyone - yoghurt is better than milk/cream, but just make sure). Don't put fruit or nuts on it.

• Green beans are fine

• Nuts are not allowed on Bootcamp They are too carby. Your carbs should not be coming from nuts

• Please make sure you are eating vegetables and salad with your meals - this is where your carbs should be coming from

• Eat your three meals a day, especially if you are new to low carbing. You need to do this to get your blood sugar under control, which will also then ensure you aren't hungry

• This is not a way of eating which is about eating tiny amounts of food, or restricting your calories. STOP COUNTING CALORIES!

• Eat plenty of low carb food, and eat until you are satisfied - do not restrict your portions. This is not how weight loss is achieved. Honestly!

• If you have done all of the above, and you are still hungry - ask yourself "am I really hungry, or is snacking a habit I am used to?". If you are genuinely hungry, then eat - but don't reach for the carbs! A (small) piece of cheese, a hard-boiled egg, a slice of ham, some cucumber, etc are all good snacks.

And a reminder - Bootcamp is meant to be strict! If you cheat, you won't see the weight loss that you want.

What a lovely morning

0.7 kilos down this am wooos!!!

Breaky will be bacon egg and mushrooms... Cant wait!

Made it through yesterday, although had slightly more cheese than I should have done. Went for a swim and had no problems with energy levels until the last few lengths, but am a bit out of practice so not necessarily down to the low carb. But today! I have a pounding headache and feel terribly shaky. Having done it before, I know this is just my body getting used to not getting lots of carbs. And when I've low carbed before I've eaten nuts so this is a bit more radical. Am in my running kit and planning to run when I've done a couple of hours work (I work at home). Not convinced I'll make it to the end of the street, but we'll see.

I concur on the training hard on low carb, tis absolutely fine, but you need to be well into it, I was training for a marathon row and stayed on low carb.

Forgot to weigh in but thank you to the lovely who put me on the spreadsheet

Take it easy dotty - just be prepared for it to be a bit harder for the next couple of weeks.

Have put this morning's weight down on spreadsheet. 11stone 1lbs. That's down from 12 stone on the 2nd of September, when I began low carbing.

I'm really pleased, particularly as the first three weeks I wasn't being strict. I was still having sugar in my coffee (bad!), and drinking a lot of tea with semi-skimmed during the day. Also not drinking enough water. Or exercising.

But I'm hoiking my diet pants right up now and intend to do this thing RIGHT.

I'm loving it that I'm not massively bloated every day by 7pm. I work some evenings and it's been a nightmare trying to find something respectable in my wardrobe to wear that doesn't make me look like a barrel.

OK, off to peruse the recipes thread.

Can I eat beans, not Heinz obv, but chickpeas, cannelloni beans, lentils etc?

One thing I'm really happy about it making the change to no sugar in my tea. Over the last couple of years (since I was pregnant) I've gradually cut down from a heaped spoon to less than a quarter. Finally taken the plunge yesterday and it's fine, hardly noticeable. It's only a small change but that's probably a kilo or 2 of sugar over the year!

I'm going to make an omlette now and then get started on a beef soup for lunch, with or without beans. Do I also need to keep an eye on carrots & pumpkin? As I have both in the fridge.

Dinner is going to be slow roasted lamb shoulder and I'm going to do the creamy celeriac, yummy!!

No pulses etc lavita i made that mistake on last bootcamp... If u want to aboud BIWI'S stick i suggest u step away haha!

*avoid!

I am inding it so hard to resist the varbs in the evening, say 7pm - what can I do?

no beans on bootcamp, Iwould eat cooked carrots either and be careful of pumpkin.

weighed this morning... will add to spreadsheet.

Could someone please enter my figures on the spreadsheet, I am on my IPad and I can't do it properly. I weighed in yesterday 147lbs my goal is 130lb

carbs obviously, not varbs!!

No beans, sorry LaVita. They are little nuggets of carb

Am trying to disabuse myself of the idea that the dry chocolate cake from last night will probably be loads better if I douse it in double cream this morning... Obviously a couple of weeks of slipping off the LC wagon have bought those sugar cravings back with a vengeance, grrrrrr.

I am starting properly today Dp made lentil soup last night as he didn't know I was low carbing so I ate it! No bread though and rest of day ok so scales looking good this am Eggs today!

brought not bought

They're on to me!!!

Just had my lovely low-carb Ocado delivery and someone has clearly noticed the absence of bread/pasta - they've given me lots of little lo-carb 'tester' products! (little handbag-sized portions of cheese and a sugar substitute)

Feeling pleased and stalked in equal measure

Morning all and Well done NMP

Congrats on the book Mme

Had bacon, egg and mushroom for breakfast and 2 pints of water.

Home made burgers and salad for lunch and roasted belly of pork with veg for dinner.
Have a great day ladies.

Well Day 1 was ok, although i find the weekdays easy enough as so busy. Friday night will be hard, usually my reward for getting to the end of the week is a large glass of wine and lots of snacks - sad that i can't think of non-food ways to reward myself, how sad is that!

yesterday
b. Vanilla protein shake with water
l. Failed to bring packed lunch. Had a salad from a local sandwich shop and just hope it was ok - leaves, chicken, cucumber, tomatoes and a pesto dressing.
d. Tarragon chicken and mushrooms

EwanHoozami i love the sound of your dinner. Pray tell me more about a sage and mustard glaze and also celeriac chips please!

This is a really helpful site for carb counts - although it is Norwegian, and sometimes references domestic products

I would avoid carrots, but pumpkin is OK.

catstail - what is it you're craving? Are you really hungry or it is just a habit?

If you're hungry then eat something. But make it low carb. One thing I love is to roast a piece of belly pork and make sure that you get the skin really well crackled - keep the meat for meals during the week, and then chop up the crackling for snacks. You don't need very much at all for it to be really satisfying

Good morning all - I was on a long shift yesterday & exhausted when I got in, so apologies for not signing. I was here in spirit though!

I'm on my phone now - could my weight of 198lbs please be added to the spreadsheet?

Yesterday I had :
B-Scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms & tomatoes
L-Salad leaves with smoked salmon, king prawns & mayo
D-was too tired to cook properly so had 2 slices of roast beef, two slices of roast pork & a slice of chorizo from the deli counter

Today I've had an omlette for breakfast, tuna steak and salad for lunch & I'm not sure what for dinner. Am nighta tomorrow so need to think of what to have then & on Thursday