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).

just checking in after delicious breakfast of 2 fried eggs, half an avocado and some grated cheese, cuppa tea (is caffeine really out?) bought full-fat milk but it tastes yeuch, cuppa coffee with cream...

not sure what's for lunch, probably a salad with smoked mackerel and mayo, is that ok?

anyhow, this morning i appear to be FIVE POUNDS LIGHTER than on monday!! i hadn't intended to weigh myself til next week but was curious... so am certainly feeling better now than i did yesterday! i am finding it so encouraging reading everyone else's posts, still hope i'm doing everything right though.

like you lackaDAISYcal, i had a chip in my mouth (in IKEA - took the DC for dinner there as we were running late) before i realised what i was doing - and unceremoniously spat it out again

BlackAffronted, i hope your DS makes a speedy recovery, wishing you all the best. it's hard trying to do something like this when life gets in the way, isn't it?

will save the links for viewing later, off to catch up with the rest of the thread!

MaryBeard thanks for that - i really hadn't realised you needed to cook swede for so long so mine was a rather unusual texture

I've got IPD on my kindle!

thanks for the link Xenia

Hope DS is on the mend blackaffronted, poor thing

yay on 2lbs lost getorf!

I've not had any carb cravings at all today! I guess this is progress?

just about to have avocado and prawn salad for lunch, with a dollop of delouse mayo and some oil laden home made dressing .

Dh works for a food retailer and was at a suppliers yesterday and came home with half a dozen avocados and about two dozen apples and pears I am tucking onto avocados, whilst the children eat the "real" deal in pears. I prefer the avocados tbh

My DS is in Year 6 and they are about to have a height and weight check at school. He came home with the letter about it and a "healthy eating" factsheet which advocates low fat across the food groups. I plan on ignoring it and continuing to give them full fat milk, cheese and yogurts. They are basically eating the same as me, but with added starchy carbs.

God I love swede. LOVE. The trick with swede is putting pretty much half a pound of butter in it and half a grinder full of black pepper.

You do have to cook it for longer than you think, but then it can become watery, so best thing is when you have drained it put it back on the heat and stir it to dry it up before mashing.

I find though that it is a vegetable which is a bit strange when frozen - the texture changes. Which is a shame as chopping swede is a bit of an effort.

Well done twinkle on 3lbs loss and BLOODY NORAH 5lbs ruby!

BIWI I've got to thank you for the link about the emotional eating - I have printed it out for DD as well as myself - she's 16 and reaching for the crisps and pepsi as a result of exam stress. Not a good place to be!

I did well yesterday, no slip ups, and intend to carry on today. No discernable weight loss as yet but I think I have a weird TOM bloating thing going on....

We had mashed swede last night.

Boil until tender - can take longer than you think, as already posted!

Add massive dollop of butter, sea salt and black pepper.

Slice some shallot finely and fry in more butter until nicely caramelised. Season with salt, pepper and chilli flakes.

Stir into swede and devour!

You can buy pre cut shallots in Waitrose which you store in the freezer. They are great, fry from frozen. Because who can be arsed to chop shallots, fiddly little gits.

Thank you BIWI - sorry thread has moved on a bit. I had to go and sort out the kids (off school due to polling day). DH completely changed his way of life following the heart attack. Stopped smoking, overhauled his diet, took up serious exercise. He looks better now than he did when I first met him 20 odd years ago!

What the kids eat worries me greatly. I think its going to take a great deal of effort to wean them off the rubbish.

I wonder if you could make bubble and squeak out of leftover swede and cabbage. I bet you can. Served with a fried egg.

OR potato cake things out of swede.

Hi all! Wow, well done on the losses.

I too have sneaked a peak as with 3 whole days of being on this low carb, I am amazed with how I have stuck to it :-) I am known for going for it, for a whole day or two and then coming off track!

Sorry for tmi, but with my 'monthly' arriving today, the scales still report a 3lb loss in as many days

Enjoying cooking in butter and adding mayo, eating ff total yoghurt, I had seriously forgotten how nice food should taste!

I am sticking to Low Carb, LOVE it!

A little bit of cumin added to your buttery peppery swede is lush as well!

wow ruby, 5lbs Well done.

...and at least you spat the errant chip out. Unfortunately, I'm more of a swallow type of girl

What is the thought on lemon juice? I've just made a marinade for chicken that has the juice of two lemons in (for a meal to feed five) Is that a bit excessive? the chicken should be grilled and continually basted, but I was going to roast it instead, so that'll get rid of some of it?

It is hard to get used to eating more fat, I am so used to always looking for low fat foods. But I am feeling fuller after eating, and already finding I don't even think about snacking between meals.
So far today I have had
B: scrambled egg and a black farmer sausage
L: green salad (baby spinach, rocket & watercress), cucumber, olives, couple of slices of ham and a piece of feta.

.... and plenty of oily dressing and/or mayo on that salad?

As I started properly on Thursday I'll post my official week 1 loss on the sheet today 4lbs down (the scales dipped down to -5lb on Tuesday but have been on -4lb for the last 2 days). Hope next week goes as well :)

I am so happy it's bootcamp time, loving this supportive and informative thread.

biwi amazing loss of 1.5lbs - I know you have only a small amount to lose so that it really impressive

to all the daily weighers who have lost loads already

B: 2 hb eggs with loads of butter
L: breakfast meatloaf with buttered spinach and veg doused in boursin
D: will be chicken and leek soup

Carb counts for lemon/lime juice:

100ml lime juice 8.77g
100ml lemon juice 8.9g carbs

Thank you, Marybeard!

interesting piece on the John Briffa blog about 4pm cravings blog

I use extra virgin olive oil on my salad. Is that ok?
Wish I had done this before. Its great having the support and advice from everyone on this thread. And I find it very useful to log all that I am eating.

It is so good to break the snacking habit.

You read very much that it is preferable to have snacks. It just used to mean that I ate constantly. I think it is a lot better to have fixed mealtimes. And if you eat well you won't get the low blood sugars etc which make you feel light headed and feeling that you need to eat.

Getorf frozen shallots!!! That will change my life, I fricking hate, HATE, hate peeling and chopping those pesky little shallots...

Just enjoying my lunch of roasted round of goat's cheese, avocado and lettuce - it is seriously delish!

EV olive oil is perfect, dawn!

look hercule www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-58663-Waitrose+Cook's+ingredients+chopped+shallots

Also they do frozen chopped garlic which is GREAT. No more chopping. It is far better than the frozen garlic in little cubes which I have tried (it is rank) - it is in seperate tiny chunks so you can use very little if you need. Also can be used from frozen. And I loathe chopping garlic and getting smelly fingers so these two ingredients are really useful.