For people that want to record what they are eating (to help be strict!)

Oh come on Purplepoet, do tell!

I've decided I won't be testing pH again either. I have a couple of types of strips and can't for the life of me figure them out. The colour never seems to change from one time to the next! It's just giving me something to stress about so I'll leave it.

swish - how many calories are you eating? It doesn't seem like you're eating much at all! I can't imagine you're eating too much fat even if there's a fair bit in the butter and you're being careful with that anyway.

Thank you mocha, I'll try and work out my fat tomorrow
Rainbow, I don't test ph either, I didn't want to waste money on the expensive kit plus it sounded complicated and my test strips don't really change colour either!!!
Zanacal, I have no idea how many calories I eat, I just eat practically the same thing every day as I find it easier to control! I'm now down to 7 stone 9 which is seriously low for me and definately my lowest pre conceiving weight so now I think I should maintain my weight but I've no idea how to do that without messing up the protein thing. It hurts my head to think about it so I just stick to eating the same things, if only we were allowed chocolate!!!! The weirdest thing is no-one has noticed which is odd as in the past if I've dropped a tiny bit people have tried to stuff me with chocolate and this is what i was dreading but it hasn't happened! Maybe I don't look different, who knows!!!!!

Ok you ask for it... zanacal!

Up at 6am...
from 7-8am 2 cups of coffee like normal...

9am - diet a&w with a large poppy seed bagel and 2 servings of whipped cream cheese
11am - almond butter sandwich
11-3 about a cup of pasta sauce, had to taste it to make sure it was safe for the family ;)
3pm - 2 servings of buttersctoch brownie :oops: again had to make sure it was good tasting to DS1
6pm - pasta sauce on noodles... I will limit it to 1 1/2 serv of noodles and sauce but no sausage.


Tomorrow I am eating nothing but salad... the weekend is going to be hell we are going to Las Vegas Thurs night until Monday afternoon. I know we will be eating buffets, Thai, pizza, and a ton of crap. Maybe I ca control myself only a few weeks until we TTC.

I don't know why I'm so hungry today! I JUST finished eating quite a generous supper, and my stomach is still growling! Here's how today looked:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup coffee then a cappuccino with a friend
Lunch: low-salt bread with unsalted butter, strawberries
Snack: I had a few strawberries here and there as the day wore on since everyone else was eating cookies. I also had some peppermint tea to try to stop my stomach from grumbling
Supper: about 2.5 portions of regular pasta (I actually thought I needed the protein today because I only had 6g during the day) with commercial low-sodium tomato sauce (I had lots of room in my daily sodium allowance for this and I wanted something tastier than the usual) + parmesan cheese + a handful of fresh green beans
Snack: probably more strawberries, though I'm sooooo tempted to have one of the Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches I have in the freezer.

I'm also starting to worry that I'm not eating enough calcium. I've virtually eliminated milk from my diet because I found it impossible to limit myself to keep to 40g of protein while including it. Some days I have yogurt, but didn't today. According to Fit Day, I've taken in about 537mg of calcium today + 1000mg from my supplements - I know this is within the RDA for calcium, but I can't get past the thought that every other girl diet out there includes tons of calcium. Some days I feel great about not including milk, other days I second guess myself. Anyone else out there conflicted about this?

Calories: 1087
Fat: 22.7g
Protein: 40.3g
Sodium: 560.4mg

That Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich I'm craving has 140 calories, 1.5g fat, 3g of protein and 100mg of sodium in it - I'm already slightly over both my fat and protein allowance for the day, so I'm going to try my hardest not to have it, but it's so hard to ignore the fact that I'm soooooo hungry right now and it's only 7:40pm!

thank you for your replies! I've been having trouble with the strips too, but found a cheap digital ph tester on ebay (£16 - this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260500704845 ) so I've ordered one just to try... if it fails I can always use it in my fish tank lol

will be interested to see how diet/supps change things if it works

Hi mocha, I'm also really conflicted about calcium, I've stopped taking the supplements as I feel if I am going for lie everything it doesn't make sense to take the supplements. I am nervous about it but I do think it's the right decision for me!!! I hope so!!! I have a yogurt every day and occasionally a glass of milk but I would say my calcium intake is probably lower than before. Aaah!!! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed now!!!!

I feel the same way, swish - conflicted. Atomic's theory about calcium totally makes sense to me (and I think her research is sound), but it's sooooo hard to ignore the fact that calcium has been a big part of every other sway for a long time. If you go to IG they're all still talking about drinking milk and eating yogurt all day long, so it feels weird to go a whole day with not one yogurt or glass of milk. Oh well, if I've managed to get over my fear of potatoes and tomatoes, maybe I can get over this too.

I've actually stopped looking on ingender as for some reason it made me feel really anxious and stressed out! I'm going to trust my instincts but it doesn't stop me worrying and of course you still never know what's going to happen!!!!

... but I don't see all these people eating lots of yogurt and milk churning out baby girls! Some do and some don't - if it seemed to me that more did then I would care about it more. It just doesn't seem, to me, to be the secret to a girl pregnancy :D

I agree - adding tons of extra protein and fat to your diet through dairy doesn't seem to be the answer, especially, as atomic points out, because much of the world doesn't or can't eat dairy, yet they still have lots of girls. I'm starting to suspect that losing weight is going to be the biggest factor. My weight this morning was 120 - nearly 10 lbs lower than my weight when I started this diet! That weight changes depending on what time of day I weigh myself, but that's definitely the lowest I've seen it since I was maybe 16.

Well done Mochagirl! You guys are all so slim to begin with :D How did you eat before the girl diet?

Today I've had:

Skimmed milk for coffees
Lunch: Wrap with extra light cheese spread and cucumber, Viennese Whirl!
Dinner: GF Pasta with extra light cheese spread (this was so boring I couldn't even finish it!). Apple and blackberry pie with squirty cream :D
Snack: Strawberries with WW vanilla yogurt

1280 cals, 34g protein, 680mg sodium, 25g fat

I was worried about too much fat (I forgot to check before I had the Viennese Whirl and the pie and cream!!) but I found a calculator for how much fat you should consume - you take the calories x 0.35 / 9. So for 1200 calories this would be 47g and 25g is definitely much less than that!! Any idea whether we should be watching saturated fat or just fat overall?

I've started to worry that 20g of fat isn't enough to stay healthy. I did some googling, and found lots of articles that said 30g is a good guideline if you really need to lose weight, but that 20g isn't enough. I don't know about saturated fat, but I imagine we want as little as possible. I don't want to reduce my fat so much I don't ovulate! I already noticed my period was waaaaay lighter than usual this cycle, which worries me. Atomic - if you're still checking in on this thread, can you advise us on a good target for fat intake?

My diet before this was lots of treats - pizza, pasta with fatty sauces, salty snacks, and lots of chocolate, but I've never eaten steadily all day. I might have one HUGE meal a day (that probably had a full day's calories, fat, etc. in one meal), but would have smaller meals and fruity snacks throughout the day. My weight has always hovered around 130 lbs when not pregnant, but I've also been nursing steadily for 4 years between my twins and ds3, so that's probably helped control my weight. I gained 75 lbs in my twin pregnancy and about 40-45 lbs with ds3. I've never dieted and never really exercised, other than lots of walking for fun.

Oh mocha, I've also really started to worry about not ovulating after a post today, I don't know how to increase my calories without increasing protein, did you have any joy with that? Also if we can increase fat, what should we have? Cheese?
Zanacal, before ttc girl I ate whatever I liked and always stayed between 8 stone 4 to 8 stone 8. I did have a naturally healthy diet but just snacked whenever I liked and ate quite large meals - a complete mixture of pasta, potatoes, chicken, fish but not much red meat and lots of cheese!!!! Looking back I think it was quite a high protein diet. Oh, I can't wait to eat normally again..I've made dh arrabiatta fir dinner and it smells delicious!!!!!

I have posted a separate thread in the main bit for atomic about fat as I think she's more likely to see it there!

You beat me to the punch, swish - I was going to do the same thing. That same post scared me too! Atomic never responded to my post asking that question in the private members area, so maybe she'll see your post instead.

The more I think of it, my diet was probably high protein too. I have always eaten lots and lots of cheese - for almost every meal.

It's tricky to add calories without messing up the other parts of our diet. I've started eating a lot more real sugar - candy, sugared fat-free yogurt. I think I might try some low-fat low-sodium baking to see if I can come up with some recipes that will add calories but not protein or fat. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.

All diet product treats seem to fit the bill - this is why I've been eating things like Weight Watchers cakes. They don't have much fat and barely any protein or salt.

Zanacal - I need to check out those Weight Watchers foods - that sounds like a great idea!

I'll do that too!
Today was pretty much same as always, I did have a larger bowl of pasta and more Parmesan but I don't know if that's a good idea!

Ok, I've been to tescos and bought some weight watchers cakes, I also found Ben and Nereus frozen yogurt, it is not too high in protein and has some, although not a lot, of fat.

I think the dairy theroy is mixed up.... the cows were not given milk they were given calcium supps, a big difference!

Depended on the milk you get and what the cow ate - you either get a boy friendly milk or in some cases a girl friendly milk. Also dairy products have added things in it like when Atomic said to find out what is in your milk. Certain fruits, veggies, and grasses have a high amount of different vitamins but also very high amounts of Vita D. If the cows are eating grass which I know they are it has tons of vitamin D (during warmer mths) they will have less if the cows were eating grass during the winter mths. Even if you got unfortified milk it will still have vita/supps from the food or fed that the cow ate.

I think the best thing is to get calcium from supps. A nursing mom needs a min of 1200mg a day the same that a women would need if she was TTC or already preg, I am taking 2,000mg a day.

Here's today's menu:

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: 1/2 bagel with 1/2 tbsp low fat peanut butter, Activia non-fat yogurt, strawberries - I was very excited to discover that Montreal-style bagels, which are much smaller and sweeter than the standard NY style ones have only 80g of sodium in them! Having half a bagel with peanut butter felt indulgent and made me feel more full than I usually do at lunch, but it fell well within the diet.
Snack: strawberries
Supper: portabello mushroom burger with provolone cheese and mayo on a low sodium bun, a warm salad made with roasted sweet potato, baby spinach, goat cheese and balsamic vinegar. For dessert I had some homemade strawberry crumble (made with a bit of unsalted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and oats) with some low fat ice cream. Yum!
Snack: surprise! More strawberries (good thing they're my favourite fruit and they're in season right now!)

Calories: 1060
Fat: 35.1g (oops - not a great fat day - I blame that strawberry crumble!)
Protein: 39g
Sodium: 538.5mg

The great news is that was the last meal I have to cook for the in-laws - they're leaving early tomorrow morning. The bad news is, my Mom has decided to visit next week right around ovulation time! :suprise: Now, don't get me wrong - I LOVE my Mom and even told her a little about my diet, but she doesn't know the extent of it, so I'm no doubt going to end up cheating a bit while she's here. Also, it's going to be tricky to dtd nightly when she's sleeping down the hall! Here's hoping the Vitex doesn't delay O and it comes on time on June 21st. If that happens, O will be done before she gets here and I can loosen the diet somewhat because it will be the 2WW (yes, I know that blood sugar is still an important factor in the 2WW, and I think I can still manage that part of it with her here).

Mochagirl your supper and that strawberry crumble makes me want to have breakfast! That´s sounds really yummy.
Congrats on your in-laws leaving lol, since your mother knows somewhat about the diet I think you are going to go well, you did a great job with the in-laws.

Ooh Mocha, what a yummy sounding day!

I had:

Skimmed milk
Lunch: Cheese and cucumber sandwich, toddler sweetcorn crisps!
Dinner: 3 mini pitta breads with houmous, cucumber and peppers, followed by a Viennese Whirl
Snack: 4 Ryvita crackerbreads with sugar free jam and a glass of milk

1030 cals, 38g protein, 900mg sodium

Yay, mochagirl! Glad you've got your kitchen back to yourself!! Zanacal, you've hardly had anything today! My day looked like this:
Breakfast peppermint tea
Lunch actimel, toast and jam and thorntons diabetic fudge bar - this was seriously delicious, I did share it with ds2 (reluctantly!!!)
dinner vegetable curry and rice, strawberries, cherry and dark chocolate frozen yogurt (yum!!!)
far too many treats today!:bigsmile:

I'm amazed how un-hungry I feel on this diet (once I'm past lunchtime of course!). I'll think of something exciting to treat myself with over the weekend to make up for it :D

What do you mean when you say Actimel swish? Do you mean a little probiotic drink?

Yes, fat free actimel, they are really nice and I think they keep me feeling ok all round! There's not much in them, bit of protein. I always have one at 12 on the dot then I don't feel too bad if I have to wait another half an hour for lunch!

Ok, here's today:

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: 1/2 Montreal-style bagel with low-fat peanut butter, rice milk, and 1/2 small chocolate chip cookie a friend baked for me :oops:
Snack: strawberries (only a few here and there because they smelled so yummy and I kept passing them while cooking supper)
Supper: Orzo pasta mixed with zucchini & leeks sauteed in unsalted butter + parmesan - I ate quite a bit of this - probably at least 2 servings, Pop Tart, Crystal Light
Snack: MORE strawberries

Calories: 1434 (Yay- getting a lot closer to 1500!)
Fat: 33.1g
Protein: 44.4g
Sodium: 580.5mg

Sounds great Mocha!

Here's my day:

Skimmed milk in 1 coffee and 1 tea (it's sooo long since I've had a nice cup of tea :D)
Lunch: Wrap with low fat cheese spread, a ww yogurt and a peeled apple
Dinner: Spaghetti with 1/2 jar of kids ready-made pasta sauce (mainly pureed veg and very little salt!) and parmesan, a slice of jam roly poly (cake!) and a meringue nest with pineapple and squirty cream
Snack: 1/4 packet of tutti fruttis (sweets/candy)

Really enjoyed my food today and it's still all within the limits of the diet :D

Breakfast peppermint tea
Lunch toast and jam, weight watchers carrot cake, strawberries
Dinner gf pasta with boiled leeks, courgettes, aubergine, lemon, butter and parmesan (that mum bought me back from Italy so a real treat!!!) strawberries and Ben and jerrys frozen yogurt (can't recommend this enough it is delicious!)
protein 29g, cal about 1100, fat 30g- thought I'd work this out today and I cannot believe how much fat is in butter - wow!!! I've always spread it on REALLY thickly!
Also had quite a few sugar free sweets which also contain a fair bit of fat!!

swish and zanacal - all your treats sound great! I'm going out to a movie tonight with a friend and told her that we could go for gelato afterwards since I'm fairly sure I can eat that within this diet. Of course, I'll want to get the chocolate, but I'll try to be good and get the raspberry or strawberry....

Have a good night Mocha.

What flavour Ben and Jerry's are you eating swish? The chocolate fudge frozen yogurt is to die for but I'm guessing it's not that!

I only had 17g of fat today - I think that's almost entirely because I didn't have any butter! The jam roly poly I bought was very low fat (Tesco's!) and tutti fruttis have no protein, no sodium and only a tiny amount of fat - plenty of calories though :D

It's cherry, it only has 4 g of fat and 4 g of protein for a good size portion:happy:

Hey gals, I thought you might be interested to read this response from Atomic as I asked the question on the 'boy' forum so you may not have seen it. First of all I asked whether sugar was ok and Atomic said yes but not chocolate, then I read that too much sugar can increase estrogen so I asked about that and this is the response:

'Yes, it is possible but if you're eating 1500-1800 calories a day on 2-3 meals, with fresh fruit and vegetables, and are either not gaining or else losing weight don't worry about this.

There are some overweight people like my MIL who eat nothing but sugar and simple carbs all day long, every hour or two she snacks on something sugary. She eats toast with jelly for breakfast, fat free cookies, Slimfast shakes, juice, Coke, Pringles, pasta, etc. She is heavy and and has eaten this way for many years and when she puts on weight it is ALL estrogen producing fat rather than muscle. She does have estrogen dominance issues like fibroids. But for those of us who are swaying for a few months, we can easily withstand a few months of more sugar than we should eat in the long term, esp. since we are eating lower calories overall.'

Hi guys - I got home late last night, so I'm only getting a chance to post yesterday's food now. Thanks for sharing that sugar info, by the way, zanacal - good to know since the only way I'm managing to add calories lately is with sugar.

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: Activia fat free yogurt (by mistake I bought one with muesli added - it was nice and substantial, but probably not great for the girl diet), frozen corn (ok, I'm weird - since I was a kid, I like to eat sweet corn, or maize as I think you call it in the UK, frozen. My kids love it too. I only recently realised that it was probably acceptable on this diet)
Snack: 2 gummy worms (candy)
Supper: orzo pasta with unsalted butter and parmesan, steamed broccoli, skim milk to drink and a digestive biscuit for dessert
Snack: strawberry and vanilla gelato (I went out with a friend and this seemed a fairly girl-friendly cheat), strawberries (I brought these to the movie theatre and ate them there so I wouldn't be tempted by popcorn)

Calories: 1,214
Fat: 20.7
Protein: 44.5
Sodium: 363.4

I need some advice, ladies. Today is Father's Day, and I promised DH he could have his favourite Indian takeaway for supper. I'm wondering if I stick to a couple of vegetarian dishes if I could still keep within the diet. I was thinking maybe Sag Paneer and an eggplant curry? Thoughts? Would a naan bread push my sodium over the edge? I'm just looking forward to eating some real food! I'm going to try to keep protein and sodium really low for the rest of the day so I can indulge a bit.

Hi ladies!
Thanks for repeating all that, zanacal, it is good to know it is ok to eat sugar as it is getting me through this diet!!
Sunday so always my most difficult day!
Breakfast peppermint tea
Snack rice milk, cucumber
Late lunch - 4 roast potatoes, carrots,peas, vegetable stuffing (this tasted quite salty!), a tiny bit of gravy! 2 biscuits with a little cheese and a handful of maltesers
Snack 1 piece of toast with jam, no butter as I think my fat is probably really high today! And 3 ryvitas cracker breads with cucumber. Might have some strawberries later
No idea about cals etc today!!!!

Mocha, probably too late but I think if you're having a curry those are good choices. It wouldn't be great regularly but is fine as a one off! Enjoy, sounds delicious, I love sag paneer!

Sundays really are difficult aren't they? I made my gang a cottage pie for lunch today and they had take away pizza for dinner - I didn't eat either! Here's what I did have:

Skimmed milk
Lunch: GF pasta with butternut squash puree and parmesan
Snack: Organix sweetcorn rings and a glass of milk
Dinner: Toast with unsalted butter and sugar free jam, a WW white chocolate ice-cream and more tutti fruttis!

Good for you for avoiding all those temptations, zanacal! I'm just about to order the Indian food for dinner. Boy, am I excited to have some food that tastes like something!

Enjoy some for me!