Praying and swaying for a girl after 4 boys :)

[atomic sagebrush]

no there is a lot we can do to sway. CAn you please bump this for me, I am just doing short posts right now!

[Northernsparkle]

Wow really?! Thank you!

[Northernsparkle]

Bump - sorry only just found out what that means! I’m a bit rubbish with online stuff x

[atomic sagebrush]

Ok, thanks for your patience!!

You cannot even have rice on this autoimmune protocol? Usually they'll say you can have rice. I'm not saying that for swaying, I'm saying that because I am worried that will be a heck of a hard diet to stick to and that you'll lose a massive amount of weight on it.

This is all still a restrictive diet and can still sway pink. It's actually NOT as nutrient dense as you think it is because you're missing out on lots of foods that are packed with several nutrients so please put that concern out of your head now. You are almost certainly going to be getting less of lots of nutrients including calories overall and it will still be registered by your body as a decline in access to food overall. Do not try to stick in the limits for protein and fat. That part we aren't going to worry about. You're still eating a much more restrictive diet and your body will take note of that.

I am not a fan of organ meats, particularly liver/kidneys, for anyone TTC. They accumulate a lot of chemistry in them and liver and kidneys even get toxins in them so please avoid those. Also fish no more than 2x a week for the same reason.

I think you should focus on lean meats for reasons I'm going to expand on below.

So you're going to be eating mostly lean meat and fruit (please eat fruit because you are going to NEED the calories!!) and then fill in the blanks with the other stuff. Olives and avocados are fine for you to eat because you're going to need to be getting fat from someplace and it sways pink to have a higher intake of vegetable based fats anyway. I would also have you cook with lots of vegetable based fats such as olive oil as those may sway pink anyway. I know we originally thought that swayed blue, but it's been shown in lots of animal studies that getting a higher % of fat intake from vegetable based fats as opposed to animal ones sways pink. So that will be the trick we are going to embrace here - lean meats, with lots of olive and avocado oil not only for the sake of calories but also in an attempt to be sure you're getting more veg fats than animal fats.

I am very skeptical of all those herbs other than turmeric. If you're having an autoimmune system thing, the last thing you want to do is toss a bunch of herbs that you may or may not react to on top of that. The turmeric is fine. What about EPO (evening primrose oil)? That is often beneficial for skin conditions and I now believe it to sway pink so I would have you add that in if it's ok for you. It also counts as a vegetable based fat so will help you get more of those. I know that was once used for blue sways but it made so many opposites we dropped it.

I really do think you should consider TTC sooner. I do not think it wise to wait around for the LP to clear up - I mean what if it does take 18 months??? and like I say, that still is a restrictive diet and we'll exploit the vegetable fat trick to sway pink for us as well. As long as you have permission from your doctors I think it's fine for you to TTC on this diet.

Yes, do cardio if you can (sometimes exercise makes me rashy and itchy from sweat and I don't want that to happen to you!) We have to be quite careful, however, because you're going to be hard pressed to keep weight on, on this diet, I suspect. Lots of fruit, lots of vegetable based fats.

DH can take Olive Leaf Extract, smoke if he smokes (even if it's just on occasion), and jog or bike if he does that. I'd not have him do anything beyond that. Have him do regular release every 2-4 days and start off with the one attempt at positive OPK. I don't want you guys to do anything like douches or antihistamines or anything because I think it best for you to get pregnant easily and fairly quickly in case your cycle gets screwed up due to the restrictive diet.

[Northernsparkle]

Thank you for such a detailed reply and for reassuring me that there is no need to delay my sway. You have explained it in such a way that I (hopefully) am beginning to understand the principals of the pink sway diet much more! I agree we should TTC sooner rather than later. I also can’t help thinking that the discomfort of the LP is only temporary whereas the happiness of one final child is lifelong so I was wondering whether a kind of ‘lite’ version of the AIP diet would be a consideration to avoid the things which I know are an issue for me anyway and drop or compromise on other parts to help me actually stick to a restricted diet in the first place which is my biggest worry!

I’m probably missing some key factors but I was thinking along the lines of:

Sugar – I know have problems with sugar, in all of my pregnancies drinking full sugar drinks and eating chocolate would drive my skin insane, not LP or anything specific but lots of itching and general rashes. So I really think sticking to very low sugar would help me cope with the LP and also help with weight loss.

Dairy – this, along with fatty meats, has always been one of my vices and I’m convinced the reason I struggle to lose weight. Far too much full fat cheese, milk and butter and lots of creamy sauces! So if I stuck to the no (or very low) dairy part of the AIP and just allowed a little milk in my coffee and perhaps a very low fat cheese spread now and then would that seem sensible? Then increase my vegetable fats as you suggested?

Nuts and seeds – I don’t really eat these anyway so can easily avoid

Grains – I know that wheat makes me bloated and itchy so it seems sensible to avoid this as far as possible but what if I allowed some wheat and gluten free pasta and some rice just have a source of carbs to fill up on. Again I really think I’d struggle to stick to no bread, pasta or rice! Are there limits for carbs on LE or is the idea just to get most of your energy from them rather than fats?

Meat – I had already started to cut out meat prior to the LP developing and this is something I would like to stick too. I couldn’t bear to eat organ meat anyway and don’t like fish so dropping this part of the AIP diet in favour of my sway would be easy to stick to. Then concentrate on vegetable fats through olives, avocado etc as you suggested?

Does that sound like it would be a decent sway or am I going way off the mark by picking and choosing?!

DH smokes a couple of small roll ups most evenings so he will be happy to carry on with that!

The EPO and OLE sound great –would it just be the dosage suggested on the bottle?

One final thing – I had always had it in my head that I would go all out and give Clomid a try too – would it still be possible to add this into our plan and if so would you still recommend the one attempt at +OPK?

Sorry for all the questions….Friday is pay day and I am going to purchase my plan and fill out the questionnaires and am more than happy to wait for that rather than answers to all of this here if that’s easier! When do you think we could realistically start to TTC to allow for the diet to have enough of an impact?

Thanks so much I am so so so excited to finally be going ahead – I have already lost half a stone in 2 weeks 