To Cardio or Not to Cardio....

[Nessa84]

So I have been trying to take on the intense 6 days a week cardio program but I have recently decided to extend my length of time while on the diet and am seeing that it will no longer be realistic for me to do this. I know Its hard NOW to exercise 6 times a week (I walk) and I know it will be even harder to exercise in September when I am working full time, adjusting to DS in daycare and trying to juggle the household, plus keep up with marking and lesson planning as I am a teacher. SO.... I have been thinking that perhaps the best method for me is the couch potato method. However... i don't really understand this.

Could someone explain to me when and how I enter boy territory vs. girl territory with exercise?
I would normally walk, but I could cycle or go to Yoga. I could do these things now maybe 4-5 times a week. I don't think i understand what boy swayers are doing to understand my girl sway limits exactly. Would I be adding muscle mass through yoga or cycling? As a teacher and with a little one at home I am always up and moving... so could the couch potato even be an option? Any insight would be very helpful!

[ksmom]

For pink swayers, it's a 60 minute block of cardio 4-6x per week. It can be walking, running, cycling, dance cardio...really any type of cardio. I used my stationary bike because it was convenient for me since I could do it at home and it was also a form of exercise I enjoyed. Being on LE it is next to impossible to build muscle so don't worry about that. When I first started, I remember worrying that being on my bike so much was going to give me muscular legs but trust me when I say that now I just have chicken legs. LOL Blue swayers are doing weights to build muscle and exercising for shorter amounts of time so they're doing something entirely different. As a former long term swayer, I'm going to tell you this now: if you don't enjoy exercising and/or you know that you will not be able to consistently stick with the cardio then DON'T do it. It is much better to go the couch potato route in that scenario. Being on your feet at work and taking care of your child do not count towards cardio so without doing the exercise routine, it would count as couch potato.

[Nessa84]

So is it bad to start with intense cardio and then half way through my sway change to couch potato?
Does it have to be intense cardio? I've been leisurely walking for 60 minutes
Also, is 4x a week enough? Why not 3? I'm just curious. 4x is doable for me.

[atomic sagebrush]

Boy swayers are trying to lift weights and build or maintain muscle mass. They also gain a bit of weight on a higher protein diet. Some of them do have to do a smidge of cardio to prevent gaining too much, but it never exceeds 45 min. and it's 4-5 days a week MAX.

Girl swayers, you're trying to shrink your muscle mass a bit by overexercising. Exercising also reduces fertility a bit when it's done too much and with not enough food coming in, so we're really not quite sure what is actually swaying (may be some other thing entirely!) Since we're losing weight on a lower protein diet, this is actually easier than you might think and requires 60 min. of cardio (and walking is ok). 6-7 days a week is ideal but we've had good luck with at least 4 days a week. I do not think yoga cuts it for exercise, cycling does though.

Couch potato is NOT exercising and just relying on the weight loss and lower protein diet to shrink muscle. It is NOT, never moving off a couch and locking yourself inside like a hermit, it's fine to just go about your normal life with couch potato (it's just the words we use to describe not exercising) Mainly, you're avoiding that moderate level of dedicated exercise that may sway blue. Of course you continue to live your life as normal, chase your littel one around, etc. It has not gotten as good of results as the exercise, but many people have gotten girls that way. I got my girl with couch potato since I didn't have time to exercise, and I was moving around PLENTY with two little boys to take care of and a lot of business going on in my life.

[atomic sagebrush]

So is it bad to start with intense cardio and then half way through my sway change to couch potato?
Does it have to be intense cardio? I've been leisurely walking for 60 minutes
Also, is 4x a week enough? Why not 3? I'm just curious. 4x is doable for me.

If I had a time machine I'd go back and call the cardio exercise anything but "intense". I did not realize at the time that people would interpret "intense" to mean the perceived intensity of their exercise. I simply meant it was more in terms of time and days per week, than moderate exercise. Walking is fine for pink, you may want to push it a little more than leisurely if you can. It just needs to last 60 min. and more days a week is better than fewer.

3 days I do not believe is enough, because you then have a day of rest in between. Honestly, I do not think 4 days is enough either but some people have gotten girls that way so I allow it. The point is that you're working yourself really TOO hard and your body gently suppresses fertility and shrinks muscle as a result.

[4blue2pink]

i got all my kids 4 blue and 2 pink not doing any work-outs, exercise-wise i was simply getting on with my day to day life..

i know the 4 blue part of that wont be what you want to hear so i will add that my normal eating pattern is very boy friendly, i dont like big meals but i pick at food all day long so my blood sugar never really drops (and our bd pattern at the time was also very blue friendly) things were different diet and bd wise when i conceived my 2 girls and i tried to change things up again this time (gender not currently known) by doing LE with one attempt etc..

when i think of the all-girl or majority-girl mums i know in real life they either seem to be total cardio addicts obsessively running, biking and swimming like crazy or they dont do any kind of work-outs at all, none of them work-out in a moderate way its very much all or nothing..

as atomic says nothing doesnt mean you dont move its just that you dont do any sort of intentional exercise or "work-outs" on top of living your daily life, dont let needing to run around after your little one stress you out! good luck with your sway and i hope you get your little girl :)

[Georgia_Peach]

So but within our stats here on GD what is the higher % of success. High cardio or couch potato method? Just out of curiosity.😊

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[squigglepink]

Following x

[amelia10]

Also following because I'm opting for couch potato!

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[ksmom]

The spreadsheet says 68% success for exercise and 60% for couch potato.

[Georgia_Peach]

Thank you for the info. I tried looking for the link for spreadsheet and couldn't find it. 😊

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[ksmom]

If you click on the "TTC a Girl" forum, there's a section at the top titled "sub-forums" and there's a link that says "current results data for ttc a girl." That's the link to the spreadsheet.

[atomic sagebrush]

So but within our stats here on GD what is the higher % of success. High cardio or couch potato method? Just out of curiosity.😊

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Cardio by far.

[atomic sagebrush]

The spreadsheet says 68% success for exercise and 60% for couch potato.

And that is just a SNAPSHOT frozen in time of what the stats are THIS month. Over the course of time the exercise has consistently been above 70 and even 75% for months/years at a time and I highly recommend it.

Please don't take our stats too seriously. They are practically for information purposes only and they truly are just a moment in time. I have the ability to see past the stats as they sit in June 2016 because I've been at this for so long and take many, many observations into account - including the blue sway results where a significant chunk of opposites were in exercise freaks that did not stop doing their extreme cardio.

Here is an indepth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the stats http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-general-discussion/43555-thoughts-stats.html

[oxox2013]

Not to hijack your post Nessa but this really got me thinking. I have been trying so hard to fit in my cardio and I just went through my Fitbit app to mark on my calendar when I have actually gotten the full 60 minutes in one setting in. Turns out I have only averaged 3 days per week. I only made it to 5 days ONCE. I really thought I was doing better than that! My attempt is supposed to be coming up in 2 weeks and now I am not so sure I can even count my exercise as part of my sway. I am a nurse so I am on my feet all day and have the hardest time coming home and getting cardio in on days I work. Should I just hit it hard the next two weeks or do I really need to push my attempt out longer? This is my last hope for a girl so I want the best possible chance!


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[Georgia_Peach]

Great question!
I will wait for atomic's response for sure.
For me I rem with my last sway I was doing cardio then stopped the week before and during my attempt. It was to hard to maintain. I got my girl but I rem being worried about that!

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[atomic sagebrush]

Not to hijack your post Nessa but this really got me thinking. I have been trying so hard to fit in my cardio and I just went through my Fitbit app to mark on my calendar when I have actually gotten the full 60 minutes in one setting in. Turns out I have only averaged 3 days per week. I only made it to 5 days ONCE. I really thought I was doing better than that! My attempt is supposed to be coming up in 2 weeks and now I am not so sure I can even count my exercise as part of my sway. I am a nurse so I am on my feet all day and have the hardest time coming home and getting cardio in on days I work. Should I just hit it hard the next two weeks or do I really need to push my attempt out longer? This is my last hope for a girl so I want the best possible chance!


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I want you to go ahead and TTC this month. As a nurse you are almost certainly getting MORE than enough exercise just from your work and any cardio you've tacked onto that will only help.

[atomic sagebrush]

Great question!
I will wait for atomic's response for sure.
For me I rem with my last sway I was doing cardio then stopped the week before and during my attempt. It was to hard to maintain. I got my girl but I rem being worried about that!

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If anything we could do for a week mattered to a sway in any appreciable way, we'd only sway for a week. :)