Imune system and girl diet

[Celest]

Hi, I'm new to forums. I've been trying the girl diet for about 3 weeks (not 100% yet, only want to ttc in feb 2014), practising so long and have a bit of weight to lose before holidays anyway. My question is: what can you do do boost immune system without swaying blue. Before I was very strict on healthy eating, vitamins etc. (hence my beautfiful little boy) and with the shock to my body I've been sick ever since. I've been wondering if Ecina drops and or Reuterina drops would be ok as this is what we usually use and works for us. (I am from south africa so I don't know if you are familiar with these products, I can clarify if necessary). Or am I doing something wrong? Thanks a lot

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[maidentomother]

What was the shock to your body exactly? Trying out the LE/girl diet? Or what?

[Celest]

Yes eating only refined carbs, no protein etc. My diet usually consisted of mostly protein and vegetables and a fruit smoothie in the morning with a banana. So the fact that I suddenly didn't eat breakfast ( for literally the first time in my life), I usally have the smoothie by 7am, then by 10am eggs. So skipping 2 breakfasts and no protein or vitamins. I think maybe I should have rather eased more into it, than going cold turkey...

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[Celest]

O and I rarely ever eat refined carbs, only wholegrain and very little sweets etc. So the shock of basically changing everything my body knows?

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[maidentomother]

So you have cold symptoms? Feeling tired, sore throat, congested, headache, nausea....?

It seems surprising to me you'd react so strongly - and so negatively. Is it possible it's just a coincidence?

Regardless, easing into certainly can't hurt and IME that's generally the best way to approach any new diet. I felt pretty awful when I tried the Atkins diet back in the day...not sick, but tired and gross, for lack of a better description. I have heard many people say they felt like that on high carb diets, however! So I think it's completely normal to feel different, but not necessarily sick.

[Celest]

I had a stomach upset, then strep throat, then gastro and last night started with my throat again. I rarely get sick, so I thought it might be related, could be coincidence too. It was just weird because everyone also was starting to even ask my husband why I am so sick all the time suddenly.. confused ;)

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[atomic sagebrush]

I'm not sure if this is part of your question but did want to mention if you have been on the girl diet for only 3 weeks it's not going to have affected your immune system negatively. Your body stores months' worth of most nutrients and the rest are present in ample amounts on LE Diet. The odds are you just caught some viruses all right in a row just coincidentally.

Now, it is possible to feel cruddy when you start on LE Diet due to blood sugar fluctuations, and if you are not being very careful with potassium, that can also make you feel poorly. If you've had stomach problems you need to be very very very careful that you are getting enough potassium, drink coconut water or Gatorade or eat bananas and yogurt. You can DIE if your potassium gets out of whack.

I think a little echinacea or other herbal drops aren't going to hurt anything, esp. since you aren't even TTC till Feb.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes eating only refined carbs, no protein etc. My diet usually consisted of mostly protein and vegetables and a fruit smoothie in the morning with a banana. So the fact that I suddenly didn't eat breakfast ( for literally the first time in my life), I usally have the smoothie by 7am, then by 10am eggs. So skipping 2 breakfasts and no protein or vitamins. I think maybe I should have rather eased more into it, than going cold turkey...

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When you stop taking vitamins, you should wean off rather than stopping cold turkey.

And you realize you are supposed to have SOME protein, right??? It's LOW everythign, not NO everything. 40-50 g protein every day.

I think rather than skip breakfast, just start pushing it back a little bit. So eat at 9 or 10 instead of 7 and then when you're used to that, you can push it back a little bit more.

[Celest]

Ok thanks that helps a lot. I didn't know the immune thing. I don't think I get a lot of potassium and have been drinking my paw paw and banana smoothie for almost 6 months now. So maybe I will continue this later in the morning and I dont think the banana wouk make such a huge difference, I hope... ;)? As I really miss it. Thanks for all the great info!!

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[atomic sagebrush]

So you have cold symptoms? Feeling tired, sore throat, congested, headache, nausea....?

It seems surprising to me you'd react so strongly - and so negatively. Is it possible it's just a coincidence?

Regardless, easing into certainly can't hurt and IME that's generally the best way to approach any new diet. I felt pretty awful when I tried the Atkins diet back in the day...not sick, but tired and gross, for lack of a better description. I have heard many people say they felt like that on high carb diets, however! So I think it's completely normal to feel different, but not necessarily sick.

:agree: I felt like living death on Atkins diet and fine on LE Diet. I think individual body chemistry has a lot to do with it. Try easing in more gradually and see if it is easier on you. Unlike with Atkins Diet, it's fine to do LE Diet less strictly, it still helps your pink sway. It's a radio dial, not a light switch http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-general-discussion/25293-three-essays-swaying.html

[Celest]

Ok great, because I was eating A LOT of protein, especially red meat, will do it more gradually, because we're going away on a family holiday over Christmas and they wont understand, then more strict in the 5 weeks before ttc when we are back

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[maidentomother]

I really do think it's mostly if not completely a coincidence that you've been sick. But definitely do take it more gradually, especially if it's such a big change for you. Maybe switch to chicken first before dropping meat altogether? I second AS's excellent advice about timing, gradually pushing back breakfast, etc. Good luck Celeste and feel better soon. :)

atomic, I'm so happy knowing I'm not the only one who felt awful on Atkins...you're the first (other) person I've encountered to feel that way! Everyone else seems to do so well on it and on extreme Paleo, too. For me even low-carb is rough but on no-carb diets I'm exhausted and gain weight like crazy, when I can burn through 4000 calories/day of mostly refined carbs without gaining a pound. When I tried Atkins I was running 30+miles a week and still kept gaining weight steadily until I gave up on it.

[Celest]

Thanks a lot will try that :)

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[atomic sagebrush]

Ok thanks that helps a lot. I didn't know the immune thing. I don't think I get a lot of potassium and have been drinking my paw paw and banana smoothie for almost 6 months now. So maybe I will continue this later in the morning and I dont think the banana wouk make such a huge difference, I hope... ;)? As I really miss it. Thanks for all the great info!!

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Yes that's fine, that would be a good source of potassium and will also help till you adjust to the skipping breakfast thing. Some people never do adjust and just can't skip it and some have still gotten girls, it's no magic bullet if you just can't do it.

[atomic sagebrush]

Maiden when I was trying the Atkins diet, I could barely function, had no energy, even my brain wouldn't work right, and lost absolutely no weight. I can also eat tons of carbs and not gain. So I think it's just a matter of knowing what works best - there seem to be people who are very happy on LE Diet and take the weight off easily and then others who need to up protein and lower carbs (while still doing lower nutriet) Thanks for sharing your experience!!

[Celest]

I can skip breakfast by about 3 hours now, so thats not a big issue. I also find not losing weight at the moment, on the 3 weeks with the stomach upset not losing anything so far. So wondering if I should also try less carbs and more veg and fruits?

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[maidentomother]

I've always been interested in nutrition and diet, so whenever I hear of a new diet for any purpose, whether weight loss, weight gain, health or other reason(s), I research it and read/talk to people about their experience on the diet.

I have observed a strong connection between metabolic rate and carb tolerance. Those people who seem to thrive most on low carb diets typically have slow metabolisms and have difficulty losing weight, even on calorie restricted diets. On the other hand, people with naturally high metabolisms who generally eat many more calories than they supposedly 'need', seem to do best when half or more of those calories come from carbs. Of course there are exceptions and not everyone fits neatly into one category or the other.

I suspect insulin sensitivity, hormone levels, glycogen vs lipid storage and maybe even skeletal muscle fiber type (whether slow or fast twitch dominate) are major factors which determine how each person handles carbs. I think these issues relate to swaying, too, though I'm not sure how. But it seems like boy moms often have high metabolisms so perhaps trying to slow the metabolism - which calorie restriction i.e. the LE diet, does - should be the goal when swaying pink. The wrench in that theory is that weight loss becomes more difficult with a slowed metabolism, so I wonder whether weight loss or metabolic rate matters more?

celest, I apologise for derailing your thread, I'm just so curious to understand how all these puzzle pieces fit together! Are you currently counting calories, and if so, how many are you averaging daily? What are your age, height, weight, and activity level? Do you know how many calories you consumed daily before?

[Celest]

Ha ha no problem, I am just as interested. I am 31, 132lbs, 5ft 3inch. Calories 1500 a day, but a lot less for the days I was sick. Not really active at the moment.

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[Celest]

O and I lose weight very easily when I drink a smoothie in the morning, followed by eggs later, then crackerbread with cottage cheese and protein with salad in the evening, even without exercising at all.

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[maidentomother]

O and I lose weight very easily when I drink a smoothie in the morning, followed by eggs later, then crackerbread with cottage cheese and protein with salad in the evening, even without exercising at all.

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This sounds pretty low cal...this is what you ate typically BEFORE starting the LE diet? If so it sounds like to me you weren't eating that many calories before so going down to 1500 might be not enough of a decrease. So maybe try 1200 cals on the LE diet?

It's also possible being sick so much slowed your metabolism (especially if you had GI issues) and in that case, you should just ignore the time sick and see how you do after 2-3 weeks on LE diet (@1500 cals, no lower) now that you're feeling well again.

Eating too little (such as on the days you were sick) can slow your metabolism dramatically so I really think that is a strong possibility in your case. I have seen people (including myself) eat under 1000 cals daily for weeks and even months and fail to lose weight bc their bodies freak and go into starvation mode. Almost no one can lose weight that way. From my understanding, it's important not to trigger starvation mode on the LE diet.

edit: If my two-part answer was confusing, let me simplify. Either you were eating too many cals or not enough; both can prevent weight loss. If you weren't eating many more cals before, you probably need to lower your caloric intake. If you were eating 2000+ cals before, you probably just didn't eat enough while sick, and should stay at 1500 cals. I hope that makes sense, and surely AS will chime in too.

[atomic sagebrush]

:agree: I really want most people to stick at 1500 cals and see what happens. The number of people who should drop to 1200 are only a very small % of swayers. I think the first step for anyone not losing weight on LE Diet is to drop empty carbs all together, limit grains overall to 2-3 servings of whole grains, up protein to 50-60 g, get more of their carbs from fruits and vegetables, and switch from skim dairy to full fat. Do these things before dropping calories and see if it helps.

[atomic sagebrush]

I've always been interested in nutrition and diet, so whenever I hear of a new diet for any purpose, whether weight loss, weight gain, health or other reason(s), I research it and read/talk to people about their experience on the diet.

I have observed a strong connection between metabolic rate and carb tolerance. Those people who seem to thrive most on low carb diets typically have slow metabolisms and have difficulty losing weight, even on calorie restricted diets. On the other hand, people with naturally high metabolisms who generally eat many more calories than they supposedly 'need', seem to do best when half or more of those calories come from carbs. Of course there are exceptions and not everyone fits neatly into one category or the other.

I suspect insulin sensitivity, hormone levels, glycogen vs lipid storage and maybe even skeletal muscle fiber type (whether slow or fast twitch dominate) are major factors which determine how each person handles carbs. I think these issues relate to swaying, too, though I'm not sure how. But it seems like boy moms often have high metabolisms so perhaps trying to slow the metabolism - which calorie restriction i.e. the LE diet, does - should be the goal when swaying pink. The wrench in that theory is that weight loss becomes more difficult with a slowed metabolism, so I wonder whether weight loss or metabolic rate matters more?

celest, I apologise for derailing your thread, I'm just so curious to understand how all these puzzle pieces fit together! Are you currently counting calories, and if so, how many are you averaging daily? What are your age, height, weight, and activity level? Do you know how many calories you consumed daily before?

:agree: I think we have not even begun to properly guess at the stuff that really actually sways gender (well we have LOL, I mean the traditional old-school sway stuff). People got so hung up on calcium and timing and pH when really it's metabolism and the body's natural methods of preventing and allowing conception that sways gender.

The good thing is that we don't need to have a handle on how it works to emulate it, if we can just decline our conditions a bit the body should know what to do all on its own!! :)

[Celest]

I didn't really count calories before but if I had to guess I would say I consumed average of 1800 calories in the week and sometimes a lot more over weekends. I think I am going to see what happens this week if I just eat less carbs in the evening before going to bed, with more fruits and vegetables and see how it goes. Thanks for all the suggestions! Will let you know how it goes ;)

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