Week 5 - New Year Low Carb Bootcamp - We Reach the Halfway Point!

[BIWI]

Sorry for the late start to this thread. I had an appointment at my gym for an induction this morning.

If you haven't already, put yourself on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Good luck for the week!

OMG... can I really hope for toast?

Thanks Fatzak. Aldi do bags of ground quite cheaply. I say cheaply but as it's dh who eats the stuff, it's he who puts the bag in the trolley so I don't actually know how much it costs. Likely to be cheap though.

careful with too much flaxseed if you're trying to lose weight, i find it can stall me (this doesn't happen to everyone, you might be fine)

Thanks Willie - will do.

Must stop kicking myself and get on with it.

Keep on keeping on everyone who is struggling. I am more certain it is all going to be worth it!!

My day:

B: scrambled egg with spinach and chorizo and cream. Yum.
L: we went to Gabby's deli on Charing Cross rd in London, which I would highly recommend to anyone needing a meal in London. It is an old school type deli, family owned. Amazing salt beef (DH) and meatballs (me) with salad. Delish.
D: creamy chicken casserole with turnip, courgette, celery and a side salad.

Still trying to hunt down vanilla powder. Will you all lay off buying it for a week please as it seems to be sold out every where I try!!

Evening all, such inspiring posts at the end of the last thread and this one. And I don't really mean the losses ones, I mean the "fell down, but with support, have got back up, dusted myself off and am keeping on"

It was the support of the thread on the last bootcamp that kept me going, absolutely, and it's lovely to see the same happening here. It's such a change to our lifestyles and thought processes for some of us, it can be quite an adjustment mentally as well as physically (I totally believe in the mind/body/spirit connection and that your body reflects your mental and emotional state) and real time, here and now support is vital. So yay! To all of us, helping each other to help ourselves.

Btw I STS this week but I'm ok with that as am hoping the Whoosh Fairy will pay me a visit next week.

I do karate training 3 times a week - it's black belt training so pretty hard work. I went tonight and while the class was full on I felt like it had endless energy, definitely a new thing after starting this woe - I usually crawl out. Since I've got home I've had wicked cramp in my legs and feet, which isn't usual for me after training. My meals today

B. 2 eggs fried in butter and 2 slices of ham
L. Raspberries and double cream (yes, I know, it was what I had in the office...)
D. Chicken fajitas made with chicken thighs, shallots, fajita spice mix (carby but used about 10 grams), I had soured cream and cheese and used lettuce leaves for wraps.
S some salted nuts about 30 mins before training

Can the brilliant bootcamp collective give me any ideas what might be causing the cramps and how I can get rid. Btw I've also drank about 3 litres of water over the course of the day.

Tigglette = sounds like you need to eat more salt. Also, potassium and magnesium - avocado, spinach and salmon are all things to eat.

Lovely post Toomuch. I agree with everything you said there.

I think what is different for me with this WOE is that I don't regard it as a diet, I just see it as I am changing what is my "normal". The great thing about that is that if I do decide to eat something wrong, I don't think bugger it and inhale my own weight in chocolate and Haagen-dazs, I just go back to normal and carry on with no guilt. I have also left behind me the fixation on food and stress induced by diets like WW and SW.

I love the support on the threads and think that is what makes the difference for a lot of us as we all feel so positive.

I have had a couple of weeks off the wagon for various reasons and, in my first week back on it, have lost 5lb. Just have to make sure I keep going onward and downward now.

Thanks BIWI, spinach is on the menu for tomorrow night's dinner so that will help, I love avocado so possibly a salad for tomorrow's lunch...

Morning all

Brr it's a cold one. Luckily I'd zapped a couple of cooked LC sausages in the micro and wrapped them in foil before I left this morning.

There really is nothing like a handful of hot sausage to keep your fingers warm on a chilly winters morn.

Lol Noel you're like a miner being sent off to work with a baked potato in his pocket (or somefing)

Hi everyone,

Quick check in as man-flu DH today and still have v poorly DS at home so another week of no exercise... No doubt one will be getting under my feet and one will be in need of cuddles and a blanket...

Planning easy lamb breast roast for tea as I need a chuck it in the oven meal today :)) any ideas of what to have with it? Fancy braised cabbage but too much cream for the family!

Will catch up on thread today, have to say am struggling a bit... 5 weeks has gone so fast and I am only 5lb down... not bored, but it is usually at this point that I have a great big sod-it wobble...

morning all, hope you are still going strong
will pop back later for catch up.

Morning all!

thekitchenfairy - only 5lbs down? And eating lovely food? Are you feeling deprived? Do you really feel like you're on a diet?

Long-term, sustainable weight loss should only ever be 1-2lbs. That way you are much more likely to keep the weight off.

And you haven't got that much to lose, have you? So your rate of loss is bound to be slower.

Have you read Atkins? If you haven't, it's really worth it. He has a phase called Pre-Maintenance, where he recommends that as you approach your target weight, you deliberately slow down your weight loss. He says:

"Getting to your goal weight is not your ultimate goal; your real goal is to maintain that magic number indefinitely"

He says that you should slow weight loss down till it is less than a pound a week, and that this should be the case for as long as 3 months.

The point of this is to ensure that you have sufficient time to develop new habits, and to work out a way of eating that means you can maintain your current weight. This will then mean that when you reach your goal weight, you won't suddenly throw a party to celebrate and then return to eating what you used to before!

Sorry - I should say "Long-term, sustainable weight loss should only ever be 1-2lbs a week"

Tigglette - and salt - don't forget the salt. This is really important

Tigglette I posted something on last week's thread - i had the same 'unending supply of energy' feeling. I could feel the energy coming from all over me (including, strangely, fingertips). I haven't felt exactly the same feeling since, but I went for a run yesterday with DH, whined all the way through it that I was low on energy and running slowly and struggling and when we got home and checked Runkeeper it was one of my fastest times on that route. Not sure what's going on here, but it's an interesting process. Good luck with sorting the cramps out.

Is there another 'hump', or carb 'flu at week 3-5? Over the weekend I was feeling not great, like the first week, but exactly the same week one feeling came back - all clean and happy and energised.

Morning all

As Ive read about so many of you doing slow roasted belly pork and really fancied it, Im planning it tonight for tea. I have a piece that is 600g (? My weights and measures arent great but I think thats correct) and it says to cook for 1hr 45m. I wanted to ask if anyone would give me any tips - should I cook it this way or slower? (and how?) And anything I should add to it etc?

Sorry for the idiots guide request - I dont roast meat (dh does the sunday roast) so have no experience as yet, and I dont have time to go through the recipe thread this morning. I could google but Id rather go with a 'tried and tested' method by someone on here that knows it works! I hope thats ok.

Hope everyone has a great day, I havent eaten yet. My dd in reception is off on her first school trip today and I think I'll spend the day clock watching.....

They grow up so fast dont they

at 'handful of hot sausage'

I have tonnes of energy this morning, did a pre-work spinning class and have just wolfed down my breakfast yogurt. AND have managed to get pre-sale tickets to Fleetwood Mac which I am ridiculously excited about! Planning the braised cabbage and meaty sausages for dinner, yum.

Morning all. Didn't have time to catch up properly last night. But both yesterday and today the scales are showing Whoosh Fairy has delivered nearly another two pounds off for me after STS on Monday - now there's an incentive to stick to the WOE and try not to get derailed by alcohol at my best friend's 40th this weekend... And incentive to those who are feeling dispirited to stick with it and have faith in the Whoosh Fairy!

Am about to have haddock (baked in lactose-free milk and butter), buttery spinach and egg for breakfast (big breakfast as have appointment at lunch so it will be v late).

Yesterday:
B: FF total, berries, teaspoon of tahini, coffee with lactose free milk
S: My all-time favourite snack of the moment: cheese and salami with coffee and cream (was at friend's house and they were all tucking into "healthy" cakes of courgette, poppy seed, lemon zest and blueberry, so was v happy to have something delicious to munch on and resist - thanks again Novelty and Ewan!)
L: light late lunch and not v hungry because of snack - mug of soup - have made big vat of green soup (courgette, leek, broccoli, spinach, and a bit randomly, cucumber - as happened to have it looking floppy and needing to be used up)(had it yesterday with stilton stirred into it too)
D aubergine parmiagana - scraped off the tomato - and big leafy side salad

Likewise at handful of hot sausage!

Right guys missed yesterday as so busy but had a lovely warm tuna salad with shallots, baby leeks fried in butter and warmed little gem lettuce.
Spent yesterday in a combo of house hunting and Ofsted report reading whilst looking after kids. Then went to the gym and I'm hurting today!

JAC - I totally know what you mean about having choice in your clothes and not worrying what people think of you.

Weighed myself at the gym and I've lost exactly a stone since I stepped on the scales about four months ago. I think I could probably do with half a stone more but we'll see - I think I may have to really cut down to go further.
Just had scrambled eggs with Parma ham and soy milk tea.
Have a good day ladies xxxxx

Morning all!

Loving all your posts, this thread is so helpful at keeping me going. On nights at the moment and feel like i deserve a fricking medal as worked 2 nights surrounded by chocolate biscuits and didn't have even one! Worst i had was carrot sticks and a sneaky little dip of hummus. I crave carbs so much when working nights so finding this a hard few days. Feel like i deserve to have lost more weight! One more night to go.

Good point timidviper about making this our new normal, i'm nowhere nearly there yet but thats my plan too.

I've managed to wrestle another 1/4lb off this week

(I will beat my inner fatty into submission)

Guy - this is what I would do:

• take the meat out of the packet and put it onto a chopping board
• dry the skin as much as you can with kitchen paper
• salt the skin well and leave for an hour
• the salt will leech out more moisture, so an hour later, wipe all the salt (which will now be soggy) off with kitchen paper
• put the pork into a roasting tin and into your oven, at its hottest temperature (pre-heated oven)
• roast it for 15 minutes - this is to give the skin a quick blast of heat, so it becomes crackling later
• then turn the oven right down; last time I did it, I turned it right down to 100 and left it in the oven all afternoon

Keep checking on it, to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom of the roasting dish and burning.

You might need to pour some (boiling) water into the roasting tray - make sure this water doesn't touch the skin.

At the end of the cooking time - as long as you can leave it in - the skin is unlikely to be quite solid enough for crackling (especially if you've used water in the roasting tin), so put it under the grill to puff up. Watch it like a hawk as it will burn very quickly