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

How was the butternut squash puree with pasta? Might try that one!

Quick question as I know you ladies are taking saw palmetto. I haven't taken it up until now but now I'm wondering if I should be. It's probably last minute panic!!!! Do you think I should take it from now up until I ovulate or just forget about it this cycle and take it next if we don't conceive? I think I'm just getting nervous now and everyone seems to be taking it so I think maybe I should too!!!!! I know there's always going to be something you're going to feel you didn't get quite right but this is easy to change. What do you think?

I only added Saw Palmetto about 2 weeks ago when ds weaned himself. I also recently added Vitex because of some last minute panic just like you - I realised everyone else was taking it. I agree that we'll constantly second guess ourselves, so do whatever feels right for you - you'll have an awesome sway no matter what you decide.

Ok, here's today:

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: low fat cream cheese and steamed broccoli in a no-sodium corn tortilla, apple with the skin off, 4 gummi worms (candy)
Snack: Decaf coffee, 4 marshmallows (I saw these in the grocery store and couldn't resist. Do you think they're ok? They have pretty much no protein or sodium, and add some extra calories which I often need)
Supper: Saag Paneer (spinach dish with a small amount of fresh cheese), Brinjal Bhaji (eggplant curry), basmati rice, 1/2 Naan.
Snack: Strawberries

The Indian food was a big cheat. My intake amounts for today are really ballpark figures since I have no idea about the nutritional content of these dishes at this particular restaurant - I just searched online for general info on these dishes. I have a feeling sodium was a lot higher than I have since the Saag Paneer in particular tasted salty. I'm feeling very guilty about eating this stuff so close to O-day - Indian food isn't even my favourite thing, so I could have just gotten it for dh and taken a pass. Oh well - it was yummy, I'll admit.

Calories: 1162
Fat: 32.1
Protein: 29.5 (at least I kept this low today, even if my other amounts aren't accurate)
Sodium: 510 (as I said, I'm sure it was much more than this)

The Indian food was a big cheat, but I tried my best to keep to girl-friendly foods.

Thank you, mocha!! And DO NOT feel guilty about the curry, you have been doing brilliantly with the diet and this one little thing will not affect your sway!

swish, did you see the thread I started on Saw Palmetto? I really want to do all I can regarding the testosterone aspect, which is why I'm taking it. How many children do you already have btw?

Mocha, that's amazing that you were able to still stick to your daily limits yesterday with your father's day curry. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

Today I've had:

Skimmed milk in coffees
Lunch: Cheese sandwich, 2 caramel rice cakes, ww toffee yogurt
Dinner: GF pasta with butternut squash puree and parmesan, jam tart (yum!)
Snack: 2 custard creams, a small glass of milk, 3 Fox's glacier fruits

I'm really getting into the swing of this diet, I hope I'm doing it right, feels like I have too many naughty sweet foods - but I suppose they can't add up to much given that I don't snack and stick to a very low calorie diet. Weigh in again tomorrow, hoping for a good weight loss this week :D

Oh yeah swish, the butternut squash - it doesn't taste of a great deal (needs black pepper!) but I prefer it to everything else I've tried (except the tomato sauces) and is even better with parmesan. I just bunged a whole, cut up squash in the oven when I had it on at the weekend and pureed a little bit for my pasta and put the other cooked chunks in the freezer.

Hey ladies - it's too early in the day for me to post my daily menu, but I thought I'd let you know I finally tried that Shirataki pasta we were all talking about a while ago. It does smell fishy when you open the package, but I rinsed it and boiled it and the smell was almost gone. I put some tomato sauce on it and it tasted just like regular pasta though with a slightly odd texture. It has only 1 g of protein and about 20 calories per serving - even with the commercial tomato sauce I used, my calorie total was something like 100 as of mid-day - it would be a great product for people having trouble keeping calories low, but for me it's not so great since I have so much trouble adding calories. It was nice to have a filling lunch that had pretty much no protein in it, though. Now I have to think of a calorie-heavy supper to make up for it...anyone know of any 1400 calorie meals that are low on protein and sodium? :bigsmile: (just kidding)

zanacal - I think I want to try the squash with pasta too. I remember reading a long time ago that a similar dish is a typical first finger food for babies in Italy - pasta with squash puree and parmesan. I made it once for ds3 and I recall it was quite yummy! Oh, and I think you're doing a great job with the diet, by the way. I'm adding lots of sugary treats lately too since it's the only reliable way I've found to add some calories. Besides, treats help keep us sane on such a boring diet!

Hi girls,
What time is it where you are, mocha?
Zanacal, I have 2 sons, they are 2 and 4, I'm pretty sure this will be our last one!! I love big families so I really wouldn't rule out 4 but dh wants to stop at 3. I'm eating lots of sweet treats too, the ww cakes are a great find, there's nothing in them!! Today went like this for me:
Breakfast usual
Lunch usual and ww carrot cake (yum!)
dinner gl pasta, courgette, mushroom, leeks, butter, Parmesan. Strawberries and frozen yogurt. Also had free from White chocolate buttons.
Oh dear, looks like a lot of treats when it's written down, might try to stick to one a day!!!
Will you guys find out the gender of your bubs at 20 weeks or have a surprise?? X

Oh blast, I meant to get some of that frozen yogurt today but I skipped the frozen food aisle and forgot!

We were sure 3 would be our limit too and, if I'm honest, I wouldn't want another if it weren't for wanting a girl and DH is only doing this for me. I can't actually believe he's agreed to it! We don't really have the room in our house as the biggest boys already share a room but I hope that one day they'll be glad to have lots of siblings and won't care so much that they didn't have much privacy as teenagers :D

I will definitely find out the gender this time - maybe even before the 20 week scan. We had a surprise with DS3 and it was lovely but I couldn't do all this swaying and not know, no way! How about you?

Oh, I just don't know!!! If I find out, I will tell everyone else I don't know as I can't be doing with the pity and rude comments!!! I agree that all this effort does make you kind of need to know. I know in the long term I won't have bad gender disappointment but there will definately be a period of disappointment after all this effort. I will have to hide it from dh as he would be really upset if he knew I'd be disappointed even for a second.

I hear people talking about rude comments all the time but I really don't recall ever having any! Many people ask me if I ever wanted a girl or asked if I was hoping for a girl when pregnant but I didn't see it as rude and was probably just honest about it and said yes - it's true afterall and, I think, a logical question to most people! I kind of have in mind that I'll get a gender scan at 16ish weeks and not even tell anybody I'm pregnant until then so I'll already know. In reality, the latest I've ever waited to break the news is 9 weeks so it's probably unlikely!!

That is actually really good to hear, strangely I've never even thought of being honest and saying yes I would have liked a girl! I just always say,you get what you're given and that is that! Will you pay for a private gender scan?

I'll certainly be tempted!! DS2 said to me today that he thought I should have another baby and make sure it's a girl this time - spooky until you realise he's been playing with a 2 year old girl at his childminder's today. DS2 really should have been a girl!

PS I LOVE having 3 boys and wouldn't change that for the world. This so isn't about not wanting what I have - but you know that :D

swish - we're 5 hours behind the UK here. Right now it's 5:52pm, and I just finished eating supper.

zanacal - I'm in the same situation as you. 3 kids was dh's max - he even said no when I asked him if we could try again, and only after several months of seeing how sad I was did he change his mind. Our twins share a room, and the baby and ds3 will likely share a room. We technically have 4 bedrooms, but dh uses one of the rooms as his home office (he's a professor and works from home a lot), and it was only when I promised he wouldn't give that up right away that he agreed to #4.

I don't know whether or not I'll find out the gender this time. We didn't with our twins, and I'll always regret the small twinge of sadness I experienced when they announced "It's a boy!". I did find out with ds 3 and I cried for 3 days straight, but was able to pull myself together, enjoy the rest of the pregnancy, and fall in love with him immediately when he was born. I'll probably find out since I can't imagine myself being able to wait so long without knowing. I think this time I'll have the u/s tech write it down for me to read later though - it was embarrassing breaking into tears in the office.

Oh, and I'm always honest and tell people that I love my sons to bits but I want to "try one more time for a girl". I find in general people are very understanding. I think almost everyone who has had babies has felt that way at one point so they can relate.

Here's today:

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: 2 servings Shirataki pasta with 1/4 cup low sodium tomato sauce and a bit of parm
Snack: Gummy candies, dried apples
Supper: rice pasta with 1/4 cup low sodium tomato sauce and a bit of parm
Snack: low fat vanilla ice cream, raspberries (I haven't eaten this yet, but am about to)

Yes, a boring day - I pretty much ate the same thing for both meals. I had the kids out all afternoon and couldn't be bothered to think of anything more interesting to make for supper since I only had half an hour before dh had to leave for a baseball game. Blah. I think I need to make something yummier tomorrow.

Calories: 1066
Protein: 33g
Fat: 20.2g
Sodium: 676.3mg

So nice to chat to you girls! I totally understand, zanacal, and of course wouldn't change a thing about whatever I end up with and I know I'll be fine as I do genuinely believe you are blessed to have them at all, I, as I'm sure you do too, know many people who can't conceive at all or have gad real difficulty. I didn't have gd with my boys as I was ecstatic with the outcome , it was only recently that I started to think I might never get my girl! If I got my girl I would have my perfect family, which to me seems therefore even less likely to happen!!!!! Weirdly ds1 constantly asks if I have a bBy in my tummy and he says he wants a sister!! I think it's because everyone we know keeps having baby girls. Lunchtime here, I'm seriously struggling with depriving myself now!!!!!

Woo hoo, another 5lb off this week! That's 13.5lb in 3 weeks :D I've done some pretty hardcore dieting in my time but I'm sure I've never lost the best part of a stone in 3 weeks.

My food for today:

Skimmed milk for coffees

Lunch: cheese and cucumber sandwich, grapes, Organix carrot sticks
Dinner: Rice with butternut squash puree and parmesan, Mr Kipling blackberry and apple pie with squirty cream :D
Snack: Meringue nest with raspberries and ww vanilla yogurt

That's awesome, zanacal! Congratulations! I was just saying to a friend of mine that now that I know I CAN stick to a strict diet like this, I might use it to get rid of the baby weight once I'm done having babies. I like the fact that my stomach is flatter than it's been since I was in my 20s....

You just reminded me that I wanted to try the squash pasta. I think I have a squash kicking around my pantry somewhere, maybe I'll put it in the oven while ds is napping.

Thanks mocha. I'll be glad not to have squash tomorrow - I only pureed about 3 chunks and it made 3 meals!

Wow! That's brilliant, well done!

Here's me today
Breakfast usual
Lunch usual, yogurt, strawberries
Dinner mushroom and leek risotto with Parmesan. Frozen yogurt
Quite a good day!!

Lol swish - I often think of writing 'usual' for my lunch! I love that sandwich though :D How did you make your risotto - sounds fancy!!

Definately not fancy but it was quite nice,i'm so sick of gf pasta now!
I boiled one leek and kept the water for stock. Fry the arborio for a minute until it starts to go translucent, then add stock a bit at a time until it absorbs. Takes about 20 mins! Fry some mushrooms, add to rice with leeks, squeeze of lemon, dab of butter and Parmesan. Very filling and the same protein as gf pasta:happy:

Swish - you're so good making your risotto with leek stock. I was naughty when I made mine and used no salt added chicken broth!

The day isn't quite done yet, but here's what I've had:

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: Montreal bagel with low fat peanut butter, strawberries, CL
Snack: fresh peas (I know these are on the restricted list, but they are in season and I bought some at the market, and I couldn't resist joining my boys in eating them straight out of the pods)
Supper: pasta with unsalted butter, butternut squash puree and parmesan. Yum! What a good idea, zanacal! My whole family loved this and there were no leftovers from the whole squash I baked!

Snack: I haven't had anything yet since we just finished supper, but I'm going to a friend's house to watch a movie tonight, and I'm planning to bring low fat ice cream and strawberries with me to snack on.

Calories: 1259
Fat: 33.3
Protein: 46.7 (oops - I shouldn't have eaten a whole bagel, but it was soooo yummy!)
Sodium: 417mg

Evening :D Today was DS2's 4th birthday! He had a little tea party and my parents came too so I made sure I included lots of foods I could eat but I didn't have time to plan it very precisely and forgot to take my Chitosan. It didn't work out too badly though:

Skimmed milk for coffees
Lunch: cheese and cucumber sandwich, grapes, Organix Sweetcorn Rings
Birthday tea!: 1 pitta, roasted red pepper houmous, cucumber and pepper sticks. 4 white chocolate fingers. 4 mini meringue nests with strawberries, raspberries and pineapple. Slice of birthday cake!

1440 cals
33g protein
812mg sodium

Hello! Happy birthday to ds2, zanacal!
Breakfast usual
Lunch usual, actimel, strawberries, ww carrot cake
Snack cucumber, a couple of boys chips!!!
Dinner butternut squash risotto - really delicious!!! Yogurt, more strawberries

Happy birthday to your son! My ds3 is turning 2 on Saturday!

Now that I know O is finally about to come, I'm contemplating cheating a few times in the 2WW. Do you think it would be the worst thing if I eat a little more salt and protein than a few times as long as I continue letting my blood sugar get low between meals? I have my Mom coming for a visit tomorrow, and a birthday party on Saturday, so it's going to be really hard to keep 100% on the diet.

Hmm, I read somewhere about not worrying about sodium in the 2ww I think - I'll see if I can find where I read it!

I'm sorry, I can't find it and I have a feeling it was in a bit of a random place! The thing which would worry me would be not getting my BFP that month and therefore cheating really close to my next attempt iykwim.

Thanks for trying, Zanacal. I'll probably keep to the diet most days - I'm not going to go crazy until I get my BFP, but there's no way I'm not going to eat ds's chocolate birthday cake, and if my Mom wants to take us out to dinner while she's here, I'm going to order real food. You're absolutely right about the cheats being close to my next attempt, but I've been such a good girl the last few weeks I think I need to have a treat or two! Besides, we're ALL going to get BFPs our first month, right? :wink:

I do hope so :D :D

Ok, here's today:

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: 1/2 bagel with 1/2 tbsp of low fat peanut butter
Supper: portobello mushroom burger and sweetpotato/spinach/goat cheese salad
Snack: 4 marshmallows, a handful of fruit juice gummies, strawberries (I'm having trouble stopping eating, as you can see!)

Calories: 974
Fat: 31
Protein: 32.5
Sodium: 652

My mom arrives tomorrow and is staying for 2 nights, so I'm sure my diet won't be wonderful for the next couple of days.

I finally tried those weird noodles, they don't really taste of anything, think I'll go back to my toast and jam usual tomorrow!

Lol, toast and jam definitely sounds more appetising than weird noodles!

The weird noodles were ok with tomato sauce on them, but I imagine they'd be a little gross plain - especially because it's impossible to get rid of all the fishy smell they have.

Lol, yuk!!! They do smell!! I had them with butternut squash puree. I am starving now and had to have 4 of the boy's White chocolate buttons!!!! Dinner is not for another couplle of hours!!!:sad:

I hate when I feel starved by mid afternoon! That happens to me all the time - by 3 I'm watching the clock praying for 5 to come so I can start cooking supper! I'll admit that once in a while (esp while af was here) I have a small snack of fruit to keep me going.