New Year Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWIshYouAMerryChristmas]

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that Santa brought you everything that you deserved!

By now, I'm guessing that many of us will be rather tired of chocolates and stodgy food. Mince pie anyone?

So. The next low carb Bootcamp will be starting on 7 January. It will run for 10 weeks, which will take us to mid-March. The idea of Bootcamp is that we have an initial strict fortnight, which will see a significant amount of weight loss, followed by a more relaxed 8 weeks.

Overall, if you follow the rules, you can expect to lose anything up to 20lbs in this time period.

So who is in?

If you want to join us, add your name to the list and tell us what your aims/objectives are.

I will start ...

Oh please someone add me in or I shall go in a huff!

Coco wrt the too early to face food and making stuff. I thought that but actually on the days when I start at 4am and that will be three days a week as of the 7th I find throwing a few eggs in a pan and scrambling them (eaten on own or with a few other bits thrown in) will actually see me through until about 9am whilst undertaking intensive training and without snacks being needed. A gallon of water is always required though. figuratively not literally

For those of you doing intensive sports it is possible without the carbs but you do need to make a few slight variations to make it more manageable and assist with the weight loss. However, I found that doing this after bootcamp, whilst making bootcamp harder in the short term (because actually most advise you to reduce your expectations of what you can achieve in training slightly and that isn't possible for me) i had no cravings by the end of it and inclusion of the tweaks after this didn't result in me slipping completely off the wagon. I suspect I wouldn't have hit the wagon properly if i had included the adaptations immediately. However, all are different. And what ever you do it really is planning that makes the difference. Most people end up cheating as a result of poor planning. I know i have.

Once you get your head around the Woe (way of eating) it is brilliant but the hardest bit in my opinion is getting the thinking changed. And for me it is not a diet. It really is just a way of eating. And it suits me. Skin is clearer. Migraines virtually none existent. Fluid build up in joints less painful.

Cocolepew - breakfast ideas: make breakfast frittatas and keep in fridge to eat on the run or unusually just chop up bacon and mushroom and fry it then fry an egg to serve over the top takes about 10 mins max.

Cooking for family: we have lots of casseroles and DH and I just don't have the rice that DD does. Or spaghetti bolognese - we just don't have the spaghetti etc. Many of our meals are meat and veg eg steaks, salmon, low carb sausages, chicken etc. then loads if green veg just no potatoes or rice or pasta if that makes sense. You can make cauliflower rice too though or celeriac mash as substitutes if you want. We haven't found it requires any separate meals anyway is the main thing!

Lastyear - budget wise if you aren't buying rubbish high carb foods I found the food bills stayed the same - we spent more on meat but less on crisps etc.. I can highly recommend a slow cooker - really cheap bits of meat taste delish when cooked all day long.

This diet is just SO expensive. Ive done it before and it cost a fortune. I just spent £50 in Tesco rather than £20.

Meat is so expensive.

It would make a difference if I could eat cheese or eggs.

Thats why Im planning on doing this for just two weeks before I calm it again. I'll probably add quinoa or brown rice to meals afterwards.

Until the, just eating meat and vegetables costs a bomb. (Where as pasta, potato, bread and rice is far, far more affordable.)

Arf ...Meat can be expensive if it's fillet steak all the way...but cheaper cuts can be great if cooked slowly (lamb neck, pork belly etc) and Lidl are brilliant for low carb stuff and I've found you pretty quickly need less to satisfy you...I reckon I save a fortune on the latte/ choc/crisps etc and vegetables tend to be much cheaper than fruit. So it can really work when you're in the swing of things.

You can eat eggs? Where does it say you can't?!?

You can also eat cheese. It slows down some people, but not others so you might want to experiment with that but you can eat it.

It can be done cheaply, I know others on the bootcamp thread have done it. You can buy the really cheap cuts if meat if you can cook them slowly over a long time. We batch cook and freeze portions as well. I think if on a budget you have to plan as well and find the bargains in the shops. I think Lidl have good value meats.

In all honesty if you are going to reintroduce pasta and the like after two weeks then perhaps low carb isn't for you? It simply won't work to eat high fat and carbs...

No, I said it would be easier if I could eat eggs. Bf ds is anaphylactic to milk and eggs.

I think I need to get a new slow cooker and get those cheaper cuts. You're right, thank you.

Also, I didnt say I had any intention of reintroducing pasta.

I said quinoa and possibly brown rice.

Sorry Panda I misread that in my head and you did mention it earlier in the thread sorry! We also bulk our meals out with whatever veg was on offer, there is always something reduced, two for one etc... That can help too. Also keep things like the broccoli stalk ad make it into soup - sounds horrid but is delish, boil up with some stock, whizz up and add dash if cream. Yummy!

arf you can buy the cheaper cuts of meat (breast of lamb, pork belly, fatty mince), and due to the controlled blood sugar levels I find i often just need less to eat anyway

admittedly the first couple of weeks may well be more expensive as you can find you eat more while you combat the carb cravings and get into ketosis. but once you're in the swing of it i find our food budget is the same if not less than before

(and that is with dp still eating carbs too)

introducing quinoa/brown rice will add bulk and may well work fine for you, but the danger is it will reignite carb cravings so do be careful

Thanks again, I did try greek yoghut a few weeks ago, but hated it! I might give mayo another go.

I've did my shopping and I'd forgotten how hard it was to find cooked ham with sugar or dextrose added .

Went to have a look in Iceland and got a few bags of frozen veg. They even do a beansprouts,and peppers one. Their cheese coleslaw is only 75p a tub. Good offers on cheese as well, if you're on a budget.

I've just had, lettuce, cucumber,cooked ham and cheese coleslaw for lunch.

We usually have meat, roasties and veg for our dinners, so I'll just not have the spuds.
Lamb chops tonight, without the mint sauce

I also got a battery for my scales

Well done coco - that sounds like a great start!

Thanks, you're all helpful.

Last time I did it for 2-3 weeks but stopped because I realised in the second and third week Id got it all wrong!

My son was bf a LOT then, he doesnt feed anywhere near as much now so my hunger generally is far less, that should help.

Soups are a good idea, I didnt make soups last time (love soups as well!)

Can I ask, WRT bolognase, how do you make it? I cook from scratch most of the time but bolognase I never managed to make tasty enough, so cheated and used Dolmio. And I assume Dolmio is a no-no.

Also, where do I find cheap cuts of lamb? I only find extortianate cuts of lamb in Tesco...

Thanks for all the tips so far, I added my name last night but not aims/objectives ;
I want to lose about 12lbs as I am 5ft 3.5 it really shows, glad to see there are other shorties
keep going with meal ideas as I will need to stock up , dd is presently making rocky road

Asda is very good for decent meat at a good price (well mine is). Definitely look at Iceland for their frozen veg, really good variety and a good price also.
The price of cooked chicken is ridiculous, I'm going to buy one and roast it myself. Sainsbury's do a medium chicken for £6 and its lovely, lots of meat on it too.

i get breast of lamb in sainsbury's

Ooh and shin beef (heaven) in sainsbury's too - it's taste the difference but about £2.50 for enough meat for two meals for us

I did celebrity slim before my wedding last year, that was a low carb diet with two shakes as well. It worked really well, I lost a lot of weight quite quickly. Since then I've slowly put the weight back on (moved abroad with DH and I'm currently unable to work due to visa restrictions). I seriously need to do something, my body is so unhappy with my current diet. I am clearly eating too many carbs, which makes me sluggish. It's going to be pretty damn hard on an extremely tit budget, but it has to be done!

I make this one here after making her multi mince (recipe on same site). The key is cooking it for a long time so the mince is nice and juicy I think - I know others that use a slow cooker for it too.

I bought cooked chicken today, another rookie error!!!

I cant get meat from Asda, nearly all of it says 'contains lactic somethingorother' its bound to be dairy related and a risk I cannot take with DS.

However, there are some great ideas that I have now to make it less costly.
thank you

Can't believe my iPad auto corrected tight to tit.....