Week 1 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp starts here!

[BIWI]

Morning all! There are over 150 of us signed up for Bootcamp, so it?s going to be busy I think. If you haven?t already put your name on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness, here is the link so that you can add yourself:

Just add yourself to the bottom of the list and the lovely WillieWaggleDagger, our SpreadsheetMeister, will ensure that it is re-sorted to remain alphabetised. Don?t touch any of the blue columns!
We work in pounds, but if you are a metric person, there?s a tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet that says ?conversion? which will recalculate from metric to imperial.

It?s up to you whether you choose to enter your actual weight or to index it, i.e. you start today at 100, and for every pound you lose you drop by 1.

You will also see on the tabs on the spreadsheet the rules for Bootcamp, as well as rules for those of you who are vegetarian, and rules for Bootcamp Light, which you can move on to after two weeks of Bootcamp.

There are only 10 rules, and the thinking behind Bootcamp is that it should be as straightforward as possible to follow. If you follow the rules (yes, all of them ? and especially no 7!), you will lose weight.

The idea behind Bootcamp is that we have a strict fortnight of low carbing, to break the addiction that we have to carbs and sweet things. You are making sure that you are switching your body from burning carbs to burning fat, and you will go into what is called ketosis in these first two weeks.

All that this means is that you are fat-burning.

In the first few days of low carbing, especially if you haven?t done it before, you may feel a bit rubbish ? you may have headaches or just feel generally tired and achey. This is known as ?carb flu? ? and it means that you are withdrawing from carbohydrates. Sugar (which is essentially how the body views and uses carbs) is highly addictive, and your body will be craving it. Don?t give in! After a couple of days you will feel much better.

If you are feeling odd or ill, make sure that you are getting plenty of sodium, potassium and magnesium. Add salt to your food and cook with salt. Try making a drink from Marmite/Bovril. Good foods to include in your diet are spinach, salmon and avocado. Drink plenty of water and make sure that you really are keeping your fat levels up. Take some paracetamol if you have a headache (not aspirin or ibuprofen as these drugs can impede weight loss).

Sorry to hear that, BlackAffronted.

Not surprised about the weight as no doubt you have had far more pressing things to worry about recently. If you've been overdoing the carbs, then you should be able to get shot of at least 3lbs of that pretty quickly, as a return to strict low carb will see you using up your glycogen stores.

On it Biwi! I am so looking forward to eating better, I feel so ill :(

Morning all

Checking in
Just had a yummy cheese mushroom and spinach omelette

Those who are struggling around 4 pm, up your fat intake but also eat if you are really hungry. Try a pint of water and if hungry then have a low carb snack

Celery filled with full fat Philly
Cucumber with cheese on top
Pork scratchings
Parmesan crisps - grate and put little heaps on baking tray, bake until melted then allow to cool
Boiled eggs with Boursin or mayo
Ham rolled up withPhilly inside

I tend to have a cup of Bovril around that time - keeps my potassium levels up

attackofthefiftyfootwoman there is a celeriac crisps recipe on the recipe thread if you get desperate

Things I have learned: I cannot be trusted with nuts (I'm on week 3 bootcamp lite, started early!). I cannot do moderation with them so they have gone in the bin....

bleargh...not a lot of sleep last night due to stroppy four year old having the mother of all tantrums at 5am and I was working yesterday evening, so didn't get to bed till 1am. Today is going to be a struggle, but I'm determined, given my shaky start to the week!

did everything by the book yesterday*, bar one oven chip that was in my gob before I knew it (testing they were ready ). And I wanted to resist weighing and only doing it weekly, but I did this morning and am down 1lb. It's a start

*I'm struggling to give up on pepsi max, but have cut back to one can a day, and though I know it might impede my weight loss, I'm thinking for the minute, better to have one can, than to lose myself in a bowl or three of crunchy nut cornflakes

I know people have fallen off the wagon/cheated but if you are a carb addict, it is sooo difficult to give up, and this plan is (rightly so) quite strict. And, if you are an emotional eater, it makes it doubly difficult. I am, but am trying to find other outlets, so yesterday when I felt like caving, I stuck some lamb chops in the oven, then got my trainers on and started the couch to 5K programme! This is a Big Deal for me as I haven't exercised seriously in almost 7 years. Got back after 20mins to find nice low carb lunch waiting for me! I've also been using my knitting/crochet obsession to my advantage...ie I'll do a few more rows and if I still need carbs/sugar...I rarely do and end up engrossed in the yarn, forgetting all about carbs!

Right off for a nap, and have had 2 fried eggs this morning and a few cheery toms so that should keep me going till mid afternoon!

Thanks williewaggle I bought quite a few celeriacs yesterday so I have some I can experiment with

I know it can be hard, LackaDAISYcal, and it's hard because sugar is so addictive. It really is addictive, by the way - it's not just a turn of phrase. But that's also why we have to go cold turkey on it.

If you are an emotional eater as well, which a lot if not most people/women seem to be, then it's an additional problem to overcome.

I am sympathetic. But I also have to keep you all in check/on the right path!

Herding cats would probably be an easier job

See Wiki for sugar addiction

here's a really useful piece about how to identify and overcome emotional eating

thanks for the links BIWI, especially the emotional eating one

Also, have you read The Idiot Proof Diet? Some really useful stuff in there about emotional eating.

Down to 10.4 today (it flickered on 10.3 the bastard) so that is 2lbs since Monday.

Yay!

But I haven't been to the loo for ages

That is the only thing which gets me on this woe - constipation. But I didn't eat very much veg the day before, had a massive load of greens yesterday so hopefully that will help. I am sure you are so delighted that I shared that info.

Yay! Well done Getorf

I can highly recommend idiot proof Diet regarding emptional eating.and in fact am off to reread a couple of chapters to kick my arse

Once you have broken the sugar addiction life is so much easier and if you do try something ie Pepsi max again after a few weeks it tastes FOUL

Oh yes

And drink lots of water - that will also help. You'll be half a stone lighter by tomorrow!

This Radio 4 programme was on this week www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01s4g7v/Constant_Cravings_Does_Food_Addiction_Exist/
It is worth listening to, but in parts it does not seem to agree sugar is an addiction (and I know it is) so I was not that happy with it. However at least it does give more publicity to the issue that certain foods (eg sugar) can be addictive.

Good luck to everyone losing weight here. I eat paleo/primal pretty much all the time and am virtually never ill so I recommend it.

3lbs down this morning and my lowest weight of the year so far! (Have been on and off a diet since new year!)

Menu

Sausages

Salad

Stir fry

All the things beginning with S!

Everything going well here. Hopped on the scales this morning and I have lost 4.5llbs since Monday!!!

I enjoy the food with this WOE - but I'm suffering from headaches, which is very unusual for me. I know it's sugar withdrawal causing it.

I do have a problem with cooking for the family, as DH will only eat low fat stuff, having had a heart attack a few years ago. This WOE makes perfect sense to me and the food tastes better, but I'm not going to try and persuade DH to do anything other than what he's doing now, as he is fit and well, and doesn't have a weight problem. I'm truly baffled as to what I should be feeding our kids!!

Well kids need fat for their development. They also need/can cope with more carbs than we can for energy purposes - although they do not need a high carb diet.

So I would give them what you're eating, with the addition of some potatoes/carrots/sweetcorn, for example. They can have bread/pasta/rice, but just not at every meal. Avoid breakfast cereal like the plague, and don't give them fruit juice.

I would also encourage you to read up on fat and the relationship (i.e. lack of!) between fat and coronary heart disease - and your DH as well, if he wants to. Otherwise, I'd just quietly do my own thing.

I have a friend who had a heart attack a few years ago, who is very overweight (with other associated problems), yet she is adamant that she must follow a low fat/low calorie diet. It patently isn't working! However, given that she is under the care of the hospital, obviously I don't try and contradict what they are telling her.

Oh, and well done on the loss so far!

The thing with following this way of eating is that you notice what bollocks the usual dietary advice is. Say in trashy magazines you have nutritionists berating people for eating something which is high fat, and recommending trash like cereal or whatever, and following the low fat path. It really is insidious.

And what is annoying is that when you tell people that you are eating like this they immediately think it is unhealthy and faddy. What is faddy about eating meat and loads of greens - people have eaten like that for donkeys years!

Well quite!

There was a piece on the One Show last night about sugar in drinks. (Sugar is clearly being singled out as The Devil's Work, now, which is a step in the right direction), yet the dietician who was talking about it still recommended that people drank fruit juice or a smoothie because they had fibre in them. They may do - but they still contain huge/most amounts of sugar! So sugar is bad for you, but less bad if it has something 'good' in it?

I know BIWI, I had a right shout at the telly when she said that.

At first I thought; kudos to them for making the point that your body treats sugar in the same way whether it's in a Red Bull or a fruit smoothie. Definitely progress. Then she said that!