Do you have any advice for a casual sway? Is this possible?

[casualsway24]

Hi! My husband and I will likely start TTC our second this summer, and I'm hoping for a girl. I have a little boy (who I love dearly!), and I realized I think I kind of unintentionally swayed blue with him. Mostly for fun, I'd like to try to sway pink for our second.

But, I have a really obsessive personality (part of the swaying blue! haha), and in the past that has led to some unhealthy behaviors, particularly regarding food/exercise. I'd love to casually sway--making girl-friendly decisions where I can--without getting into tracking, because I think that could quickly turn unhealthy for me.

Are there any "casual" ways I can sway? I was thinking: drinking 3-ish cups of coffee a day (already doing that! my little guy doesn't sleep!! haha), having a glass of alcohol at night, skipping breakfast/snacks, limiting meat and sodium, and doing one attempt for frequency (switching to every 4 days after a few months if that doesn't work). Does this sound reasonable? Are there any 'big things' I'm forgetting? Or, alternately, is doing something casually like this kind of pointless?

If it's possible to do a casual sway, I'm not sure what to do about exercise. My BMI is around 19-20. I'm tall and thin. I try to exercise 3-4 times a week for 20-30 min at a time, and alternate cardio/weights/yoga. I'd love to continue exercising as it helps relieve stress, but don't think I can fit in the 60 minutes recommended 4+ times a week. Can I do any exercise in a casual sway, or should I remove it entirely for the TTC period?

Thank you for any input!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, it's absolutely possible to sway casually just like you're saying and it may be wise to do exactly that. Not pointless at all and in fact we get better results with this sort of approach than for the people who allow swaying to consume their every waking thought.

I would have you do everything you're mentioning BUT you may just want to go fully vegetarian rather than limiting meat, and please DO NOT limit sodium. Sodium has not worked for swaying (the science that claims to support this concept is completely biological nonsense and there's more about that here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-a-girl-best-practices/62533-le-diet-faq-2-mineral-madness-edition.html) and virtually all of us have given up on it...and our results have only gone UP since we did. It also makes it much easier to stick to the diet without obsessing if you don't worry about sodium. Sodium restrictions take a LOT of thought and planning!

The reason I say go vegetarian rather than just limiting meat is because we have had good results with that approach and it's been shown in studies to sway pink as well. I find limiting meat just tends to make people think about it more and it's probably best to just aim at being a vegetarian with occasional meat cheats when you can't avoid them.

Couch potato has not gotten great results. Personally I'd have you do what you're doing while erring on the side of cardio and dropping anything potentially musclebuilding.

[casualsway24]

Thanks!! This is helpful and reassuring :) I've been wanting to go vegetarian for a while now, so this is a good excuse to do (mostly) that.

And YAY about not needing to worry about low sodium! I honestly wouldn't really know how to go about that anyway (aside from like, avoiding chips or pretzels), so that's one less thing to stress about.

[atomic sagebrush]

I know, right?? I don't know how people manage it! Even eating low sodium products the sodium very quickly exceeds the suggestions of the mineral balancing diets