A few niggles?

Hi ladies, I just wanted to ask a couple of things Im not so sure about!

1. I remember reading on IG that tomatoes are a NO! but on here I have heard people mention tomato sauce on pasta? Is this ok? as long as its low sodium?

2. What consitutes low sodium when looking at a label? Ive been trying to find a bread/butter and pata that are low sodium but im not sure how low is low enough? any UK girls have any suggestions?

3. I wanted to start ttc August/ Sept so I was going to start the diet this week so that I can complete 6 weeks before ttc. However, I have noticed a lot of people starting thie diets much earlier than 6 weeks? Why is this?

Hi ThinkPink

I think the reason for avoiding tomatoes is their potassium content. On the low-everything diet they're allowed and because we're sticking to pretty low limits in terms of calories/fat/protein/sodium/nutrients it's unlikely that we'd be having too much potassium, it wouldn't be possible with those restrictions. I think that's the correct explanation - I'm sure others will chime in!

Low sodium is 700-1000mg per day (careful, most labels are in g so you need to multiply by 1000!). I'm eating Warburton's small loaves of white bread (400g) which 100mg of sodium in a slice (you need to watch protein with bread too!), Lurpack unsalted spreadable butter (not more than once a day as it's quite high in fat) and your standard pasta only has a trace of salt in it. A few of us have discovered that Gluten Free pasta (Tesco Free From etc.) is lower in protein and tastes the same.

I had only planned on doing the diet for 6 weeks but I'm pondering waiting an extra month because I want to lose more weight. After 6 weeks I think I'll still be heavier than I was when I conceived at least one of my boys. I guess others are on the diet longer because they don't get a BFP straight away.

If you become a Dream member there's a really detailed explanation of the low everything diet in the private section.

HTH x

Hi think pink, not too much more to add, check out the uk ladies thread as this has some products we've found useful. In reference to the bread, quite a few people make their own as then it can be salt free! Six weeks is fine for the diet as long as you can lose enough weight. Good luck!

Thank you ladies, I will check out the UK thread for some ideas!

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Originally Posted by ThinkPink

Hi ladies, I just wanted to ask a couple of things Im not so sure about!

1. I remember reading on IG that tomatoes are a NO! but on here I have heard people mention tomato sauce on pasta? Is this ok? as long as its low sodium?

2. What consitutes low sodium when looking at a label? Ive been trying to find a bread/butter and pata that are low sodium but im not sure how low is low enough? any UK girls have any suggestions?

3. I wanted to start ttc August/ Sept so I was going to start the diet this week so that I can complete 6 weeks before ttc. However, I have noticed a lot of people starting thie diets much earlier than 6 weeks? Why is this?

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Ok, first off just know that I don't necessarily agree with the advice as given on IG which is a big reason why I am no longer swaying mod there, it just made me too insane telling people things that I did not believe in 110%. So some things that I suggest are not always going to mesh with the IG advice. That doesn't mean that I am right and they are wrong, just that I think the data points in a different direction than they do. A lot of people have gotten their DG following the advice from IG.

1)I think tomatoes are fine for a girl diet so long as you are following a low fat, low protein, low calorie, low sodium diet. Tomatoes are high in potassium not to mention other nutrients that prob. sway blue, but on a diet of 1500-1800 calories a day, you're still going to be swaying pink and I think including some tomato products can help people stick to the harder parts of the diet. Even on IG they advise 2500-3000 mg of potassium a day, and tomatoes can be one way for people to achieve that goal without going overboard on fat/protein/sodium. There ARE no magic foods that cause one gender of baby to be conceived/not conceived. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/show...he-magic-foods

However, I don't think anyone should just follow their regular diet, and say "Atomic says tomatoes are ok" and include them, and then pop a couple cal-mag pills because that is not going to work at all.

2)You can't tell low sodium just by looking at a label, it has to be in the greater context of your overall diet. You have 700-1000 mg of sodium a day to play around with, and you can "spend" this sodium however you like. Personally I think it's next to impossible to find low-sodium breads in the store and it's best to make your own if you can. Most pasta IS very low in sodium, just be sure not to salt the cooking water. Butter is easiest of all because (at least in the US) unsalted butter is sold in the grocery store right alongside the regular butter.

3)The reasons why some people choose to start the diet earlier than 6 weeks is firstly because it takes 90 days to form the egg, and if there is anything to the idea that an egg may actually "choose" the sperm that fertilizes it (I do not believe this to be the case, but better safe than sorry), then it may be a good idea to be on a diet for 90 days. Secondly, testosterone can take some time to lower, so if a person is very high in T (or has a good deal of weight to lose) it may behoove them to start the diet sooner rather than later to lose as much weight as they can. Losing weight will also help reduce estrogen, which may sway blue as well.

I don't advise people to start the diet this early as a general rule though, because I think 6 weeks is prob. enough to affect things like pH, minerals, and CM, it still works to lower estrogen and testosterone, and a lot of people will run out of weight to lose by that point. If people don't get pg that first month (which most don't, due to the use of jellies/douches/antihistamines/timing/lowering sperm count) then that becomes a very very long time to stick to a difficult diet and they may waste away to nothing.