Struggling to stay sane ttc a girl..!

Good evening, I’ve just come to rant because I’m struggling with sugar cravings and craving snacks in between meals.

I’m doing fine with a cuppa coffee no sugar for breakfast, then having an hour of fast walking and then my first meal of the day is 11-1pm somewhere between there which will be some berried fruit and some toast and cheese (just an example) sometimes a yoghurt too or a biscuit with another cuppa coffee.

DH likes tea 7:30-8 ish which i find late but for me that tends to be chicken and salad, or two veggie pizza slices and salad or some sort of vegetarian dish, followed by coffee again before bed (I still sleep like a log)

I’m finding it so hard not to snack in between and sometimes after my long walks (4 times a week for an hour-hope that’s enough)

Could sugar free Polos be an alternative to snacking or Diet Coke in between meals? I’ve always been a grazer and struggling with getting enough calories for one day from two meals x


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I’m very strict with

- no meat
- no breakfast
- no potatoes or bananas as I hate both so don’t eat them.
- Diet Coke daily
- three coffees daily
- fast walking 40-60mins 4 times a week
- we will be doing one attempt
- alcohol 2-3 times a week (I get drunk quick though so can have too much in one go on a week night)
- on bcp at the moment


Is it best to cut out white bread?
Is white pasta ok?

I’m struggling to find the balance of - I need enough nutrients to survive but not too many that I sway blue..

Do you think my sway is a good one?



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Hard isn't it i used to love snacking! Im a little and often eater! Diet coke i have read is fine for in between. I hate coffee but having it daily now. Are you leaving any foods out as part of swaying? ( read all foods ok on LE )

I’ve read everything is ok but low hence the name (low everything) diet - but am leaving our meat bananas and potatoes as I don’t like any of them anyway. I was veggie for years after having food poisoning from chicken as a child it made me sick for two weeks :( I had lots of tinned raspberries and fresh berries fruit when conceived my DD and think we only had one attempt BD. Coffee is the only thing that’s getting me through to lunchtime! X


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Balance is hard for me too! I’m ether super low or too high for my pink sway! It seems like most of us are grazers! I don’t have any tips but I understand your pain.:worry:

I need Atomic to pick me up when I feel like this... think it’s because I’ve had a bit of a cheat day.... :-( x


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I've given up red meat and cutting down on chicken. Are you taking fibre? Hope today is easier for you. when is your attempt and how long have you been on the diet I'm in the uk just woken up thinking of food and I'd love a cup of tea but don't think tea is good on the diet 😂x

Im in the UK too - Lincolnshire. I’m not a huge tea fan and have heard it sways blue - I have been swaying since August so not long about 6-8 weeks so far. Was going to ttc beginning of November but not sure if we should wait until after 12 weeks of this awful diet and exercise. Then it’ll be Xmas time and it’ll be hell watching people scoffing all sorts of bad foods lol! I’m not taking fibre no just folic acid. X


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So this is lunch.

My routine is 40-60 mins power walk each morning before any food at all (just have a coffee when I get up no sugar)


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Is that muller corner! Not very filling hey! I had a toasted tea cake :( did you get a personal plan? It's been really helpful but you already have a successful sway so you're a pro now! Oh xmas we would have to cheat a bit ;-) xx

My previous sway was five years ago and it was only a light sway and didn’t do it for long as I didnt know have the things about swaying as I do now. I’m going to try and be strong at Xmas. Diet Coke and coffee are my best friends at the moment xx


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Wish i liked coffee im managing two cups a day but hate it! Love diet coke though. How many calories are you having a day? It's the no snacking/breakfast i find hardest im not a big eater anyway so finding calories quite easy xx

I’m only tiny so eat about 1000-1200 at the moment definitely no more I don’t eat much anyway x


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1000 calories is not enough food! It's no surprise you're struggling so much with diet. Atomic never recommends anyone ever go below 1200 cals and usually even then she doesn't recommend that low. I'm tiny as well and had to eat 1600 to 1700 cals while swaying just to maintain my weight. Since you're exercising, your actual net calories is even less than 1000 so it's a starvation diet. ALL foods are allowed on LE! You can have meat within limits. The only food I'd say to stay away from are fortified ones like cereal. Please don't take the "low everything" literally. It just means lower fat, protein, and cals than what most of us boy moms are typically eating. What are your totals for fat and protein?

I struggled with the same thing during my sway. I'm naturally a snacker/grazer, so the no snacking was brutal. I had a diet coke a day after my walk usually and it seemed to help. Good luck!

I’m not sure what my totals are ksmom I’ve not been adding them up but they’re very low. Probably lower than recommended. I’m just being brutal on myself - I’m struggling to balance things out - I’m an all or nothing person I struggle to do anything by halves....let alone this lol x


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Congratulations on a successful girl sway Raining. I have one DD and one DS but I’m desperate to sway pink again... although it’s been soooo long since my last sway I can’t remember everything I did but I didn’t do that much.. just a few things.... tell me more about what you did with walking Raining? How often and how long for? I’ve been fast walking for 40-60 mins with my daughter cycling 4 times a week I hope that’s enough and not too moderate. I have to stop now and again whilst on the walks if she gets tired but only for a minute at the most. X


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Originally Posted by ObsidianBlossom

Congratulations on a successful girl sway Raining. I have one DD and one DS but I’m desperate to sway pink again... although it’s been soooo long since my last sway I can’t remember everything I did but I didn’t do that much.. just a few things.... tell me more about what you did with walking Raining? How often and how long for? I’ve been fast walking for 40-60 mins with my daughter cycling 4 times a week I hope that’s enough and not too moderate. I have to stop now and again whilst on the walks if she gets tired but only for a minute at the most. X


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Thank you! I walked briskly for an hour 4-5x a week. Sounds like what you are doing is great.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianBlossom

I’m not sure what my totals are ksmom I’ve not been adding them up but they’re very low. Probably lower than recommended. I’m just being brutal on myself - I’m struggling to balance things out - I’m an all or nothing person I struggle to do anything by halves....let alone this lol x


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If you're not eating enough, then that's why the diet is so hard. LE isn't meant to be difficult to stick to. Yes I do understand it's hard to give up snacking (that was hard for me at first!) but I think if you're struggling that much, you need to start tracking your intake for a bit to make sure you're eating enough. Not getting enough cals/fat/protein can make it difficult to get or stay pregnant.

Do you have your protein and fat totals?? I suspect you are likely low in protein and fat and that's contributing to the hunger.

You can have 3 meals a day. Both 2 and 3 meals are allowed and acceptible. Some people feel stuffed pushing breakfast back then eating 3 times in 8-10 hours. Others do better on 3 (I always did 3 and got my girl that way). Both ways are fine, do whichever works better for you.

You can have anything very low or no calorie like sugar free gum/candy or diet soda. Totally fine to do that.

The white vs. whole grain issue is a big gray area. We originally started out thinking white was best but as more people have gone onto the alternate LE Diet (the one better for PCOS, blood sugar, egg quality) we have found they get just as good results if not better than those on the white grain version of LE Diet. But this may only be because they have PCOS-tendencies and it may not work the same for those without that going on. I am ok with you guys using either or even a combination becasue I honestly do not know what is best for people. So like, whole grain bread but white rice/pasta, or some other combination.

If you're struggling to find that balance, increase calories till you're able to stick with it first and then gradually reduce that over time. Starting off too strict is both harder to stick with setting you up for failure, and also sets you up to have to increase calories right before you're ready to TTC because eating too little can delay or stop ovulation.

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Originally Posted by ksmom

If you're not eating enough, then that's why the diet is so hard. LE isn't meant to be difficult to stick to. Yes I do understand it's hard to give up snacking (that was hard for me at first!) but I think if you're struggling that much, you need to start tracking your intake for a bit to make sure you're eating enough. Not getting enough cals/fat/protein can make it difficult to get or stay pregnant.

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:agree: exactly. If you are really, really miserable on LE Diet something isn't right and we need to get to the bottom of why that is. Because 99 times out of 100 when people are suffering terribly on the diet, it's because they're not eating enough.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianBlossom

I’m only tiny so eat about 1000-1200 at the moment definitely no more I don’t eat much anyway x


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ok that's the problem. Way too little food. No wonder you're unhappy!

Now, have you ever gone back and estimated how much you were really eating to begin with (in terms of calories?) You may be surprised that it was far more calories than you thought it was. Many of us with all boys easily consume 3000 cals in a day and stay slim doing that, and many many of us eat more like 2000 easily and it's not even that much food! (I am in the 3000 range normally and feel practically starvated on 2000 LOL - it is just hardly anything!)

So first thing, go back and think about a normal day of what you were eating before and add it up. You will very likely be surprised how many calories it was. Then come back here and update me and I"ll tell you what cal range to aim at. But under no circumstances EVER go below 1200, 40 g protein, 30 g for any reason and 99% of everyone will need to be higher than that.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianBlossom

My previous sway was five years ago and it was only a light sway and didn’t do it for long as I didnt know have the things about swaying as I do now. I’m going to try and be strong at Xmas. Diet Coke and coffee are my best friends at the moment xx


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You may be surprised about the holidays - I know people worry about them but actually, since everything feels like a treat, for many people it's actually easier to do diet over the holidays. The important thing is just to eat whatever it is you think you want rather than trying to be "good" and eating 732 rice cakes before realizing "OMGosh I just ate 5000 calories of rice cakes" and deciding since the diet is already ruined, then having half a Christmas goose, 40 candy canes, and the remnants of the Yule Log (is that something you eat? not really sure on that one). Just have the thing you want in the first place and you'll be surprised to find yourself satisfied, most of the time still well within diet limits.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianBlossom

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So this is lunch.

My routine is 40-60 mins power walk each morning before any food at all (just have a coffee when I get up no sugar)


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is there an amount of protein, fat, cals for this?

If it's very low fat it looks to me like it would burn off very quickly!

Thanks atomic - I’ve decided to eat more at lunch and tea and just have to two meals but plenty to eat 1500 cals. I’m going to keep skipping breakfast and have three sugar free coffee a day and have sugar free polo and Diet Coke in between meals if I desperate for a snack. I’m also stricter veggie than I was and am strictly having an hour cardio at least four times a week. We will dtd once when we try next month..... I’m wondering if next month is too soon as don’t know I’ve been on the exercise and diet for long enough yet.... :-/ thanks atomic your replies have been helpful x

What is the theory behind having just two to three meals and no snacking swaying pink? Why is it thought to sway? X


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Oh did I explain about the 2 meals already? Hopefully I am not repeating myself. both 2 and 3 are totally fine and acceptable. Some people prefer 2, others 3. We get good results with both. I had three. just push that first meal till 11 or so. I ate at 11ish, then around 5, and had a bedtime snack.

We have seen considerably better results with at least 8 weeks on diet and 12+ was best. But anything more than 4 weeks has been wihtin the realm of acceptible to me.

The idea of skipping meals and snacks is because a researcher named Elissa Cameron has theorized that blood sugar (and NOT blood sugar the number itself, but the complicated process your body goes through to raise low blood sugar into normal ranges) may be altering the gender ratio in animal. Researchers in Australia have at the same time proven that XX fertilized eggs develop better in lower glucose environmnets and XY develop better in higher glucose environments, and Shettles proved that there was glucose in the fluids in your repro tract. All this combined plus observations online and in real life where people who have a lot of boys are big eaters and people with a lot of girls were light eaters, led me to speculate about ways to lower blood sugar levels and so we skip one meal a day and avoid snacks. And we've gotten good results that way so I've continued having you guys do that. :)

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Oh did I explain about the 2 meals already? Hopefully I am not repeating myself. both 2 and 3 are totally fine and acceptable. Some people prefer 2, others 3. We get good results with both. I had three. just push that first meal till 11 or so. I ate at 11ish, then around 5, and had a bedtime snack.

We have seen considerably better results with at least 8 weeks on diet and 12+ was best. But anything more than 4 weeks has been wihtin the realm of acceptible to me.

The idea of skipping meals and snacks is because a researcher named Elissa Cameron has theorized that blood sugar (and NOT blood sugar the number itself, but the complicated process your body goes through to raise low blood sugar into normal ranges) may be altering the gender ratio in animal. Researchers in Australia have at the same time proven that XX fertilized eggs develop better in lower glucose environmnets and XY develop better in higher glucose environments, and Shettles proved that there was glucose in the fluids in your repro tract. All this combined plus observations online and in real life where people who have a lot of boys are big eaters and people with a lot of girls were light eaters, led me to speculate about ways to lower blood sugar levels and so we skip one meal a day and avoid snacks. And we've gotten good results that way so I've continued having you guys do that. :)

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Hi Atomic..such amazing info! Do you recommend cutting the sugary stuff..I use to sneak a donut, cookie, soda after my meal.

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Sugar with a meal is fine for anyone who doesn't have PCOS or tendencies that direction.

Let me explain how sugar and blood sugar even works.

Sugar in and of itself isn't any worse for blood sugar than lots of other foods. Any food with carbs makes your blood sugar go up. Then your body releases insulin to lower your blood sugar, because your body doesn't "like" having high blood sugar. Most of us have our insulin sensitivity system working just fine and our blood sugar will drop (exception being those with PCOS-tendencies who would be avoiding sugar anyway) Now, our body isn't very precise about insulin and often shoots out too much insulin, particularly in response to sugar and empty carbs like white refined grains. So after the insulin is released, we often have a blood sugar crash where our blood sugar goes super low and we get shaky and hungry and may even faint. If we eat, the carbs in the food we eat will raise our blood sugar again, hopefully into normal range. If we don't eat, our body STILL raises blood sugar to normal range by burning off stores of fat and to a much lesser extent, muscle. Our bodies don't like high OR low blood sugar and will always take steps to correct that. Our bodies want to be in normal blood sugar range as many hours out of the day as it can.

For swaying, it is not so much that we want measurably low blood sugar (because that isn't even possible anyway - our bodies will simply raise it) It is that we want to trigger that state where our bodies are burning off those stores of fat. It is appearing that is at least partially what is swaying, even though we don't know how. So for those with a normal insulin response, having something sugary will temporarily raise your blood sugar up but then it will drop very low and stay low for a while, triggering that burning off of the stores of fat. This explains the "patented girl mom diet plan" of a candy bar and a diet coke which is what many, many women with girls regularly eat for lunch after skipping breakfast totally!!

Anyone with normal insulin response can have sugar as a part of their sway diets (and that's the general idea behind the standard LE Diet plan) as long as they can stand the blood sugar crashes without snacking or having breakfast, that is. Anyone with PCOS or other insulin resistance (more than 30 lbs to spare, over 40, diabetic or history of gestational diabetes) can't have sugar because their body is not so good at responding to insulin and their blood sugar doesn't drop very well in response to carbs. For them, eating sugar is a recipe not for a blood sugar crash but for high blood sugar and so they need to skip sugar and eat whole grains, fruits and veg for carbs instead of white flour and exchange skim dairy for whole (skim dairy is the devil for insulin resistance).

So if you don't have PCOS or any other insulin issues, you are fine to continue eating sugar. It won't make your blood sugar go up any more than bread or pasta or rice does really (maybe a little, but it's also better for encouraging that overshoot of insulin)

And as you can see by the complexity of that explanation, this is why I generally just say "low blood sugar" and leave it at that for people even though it isn't strictly true. It's the truest short explanation I can give!

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That’s what’s in what I was eating and a handful of tinned raspberries but not sure what they had in them.

I’m struggling with the low fat low protein low sugar thing it’s hard to find anything tasty other than vegetables to eat which I guess are high in nutrients and could sway blue!

Although everything is ok on the LE diet I’m not eating before 10:30 and am trying to have two meals one at around 10:30 (yogurt and fruit) and not eat again until around 3ish where I’ll have a piece of toast or a sandwich then a vegetarian meal around 7-8pm (we eat late unfortunately as DH works late and he doesn’t like me to eat without him) is eating late bad?

Thanks so much for this wealth of information atomic you’re amazing! I find the theories and studies absolutely fascinating to the point I’m nearly obsessing!

Also the exercise- 1 hour fast walk/jog combined 4-5 times a week usually in the morning before any meals.... is that ok? I’m worried about the testosterone levels raising - are there any foods that raise it or lower it or any ways of monitoring what my own levels are? Thanks so much xx


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The hardest thing is turning down cakes and choccy with a cuppa coffee. I guess am best having my treats with my meals ? I’m thinking about fasting I’m guess two big meals would be better than three and the longer between meals the better?


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So here is my tracking of my (almost) daily fast walk/steady jogs for around an hour each day does it look enough for a pink sway.... its usually 50-60mins per session no less than that.


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I don't want you to measure the distance you've walked or the calories you've burned or your heartrate or anything like that. That's the exact type of attention to details we DON"T want for pink. Delete that app from your phone or just stop using it for now and go out and walk for 45-60 min and leave it at that.

ok - can you bump this for me? The q's on the other page are more time consuming and I have had a super hectic day, just dashing through whatever shorties I can right now! Thx

I eat a chocolate bar some days with my lunch maybe you could do that too? i skip snacking and breakfast ( or really delay it until 10/11) cut back on meat ( no red meat )i have never ate a lot though so 1500-1800 calories that you're allowed is loads for me. Maybe you could eat more at meals times? Hope we both get our girls 💗💗

bump ... thankyou. I’m sticking with an hour no less if possible for my walks atomic I hope that’s ok x


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Tonight’s offering ...... does it look girl friendly? Xx


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Originally Posted by ObsidianBlossom

bump ... thankyou. I’m sticking with an hour no less if possible for my walks atomic I hope that’s ok x


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:agree: It's great, I just don't want you to get too heavily into counting stuff, that's all. :)

In regards to diet. I use to eat a lot of meat. Like, a LOT of meat. I have cut back for ; months now. Limit red meat to maybe once every other week, and have either a small amount of chicken, pork or fish every night with dinner but just veggies for lunch. I use to have eggs every morning, lunch meat every afternoon and eat mostly meat and veggies for dinner so since I have lowered my meat intake, is that enough to sway or do I need to cut more out?


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I’ve cut meat out apart from chicken once or twice a week. I’m having brown bread and brown pasta and brocolli plenty of x


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You don't have to do low fat, low protein, low sugar. You are supposed to be getting either 40-50 g protein and 30-60 g fat, or 50-60 g protein and fat. So if you're eating less than that, increase it and you're going to find the diet much easier to stick to.

While we originally started off concerned about the nutrients in vegetables, over time we've learned that it's really the heavy hitters that matter - protein, fat, calories, and fortified foods/vitamins that sway and the minuscule amounts of nutrients in fruits and veg don't seem to matter. low carb veg are free and unlimited. higher carb veg and fruit are free for protein and fat but you count calories. We have people right now eating the most fruit and veg ever in the history of the site and our results are better than ever before too.

You don't need to monitor your testosterone levels. We don't even know that testosterone sways. Please just do what has worked for most people, most of the time (diet, exercise, one attempt) and don't get hung up on stuff like that since we don't even have any info about what the levels would even be, or even if testosterone matters one bit!

Eating late is not bad. As long as you go 12-16 hours for one time per day that's all you need to do. I always ate at 11ish, 5ish, and then had a bedtime snack.

Both 2 and 3 meals are perfectly fine and allowed. 2 is NOT better than 3. Some people prefer 2, others 3. I always had three as I described above.

yes best to have treats with meals if possible. But if you really can't make it through, it's better to add in a 4th meal rather than resort to the all day snacking that a lot of us boy moms are prone to. Go to 4 meals or even 5 (although that's really a last resort!) rather than munching all day every day!