Trying for pink, but need advice!

I am trying to sway pink this time (we have 26 month old and 11 month old sons!), and have been doing lots nd lots of reading over the past few months. Now that I have weaned the baby, and will ovulate today or tomorrow, and then *hopefully* will get my period back in a couple weeks (it's been a LONG time!! I got pg with the baby 2 weeks after I weaned our oldest, before my period returned).

Anyways, originally I thought I would do the FGD, but recently, reading this thread, I'm thinking the LE diet is much better. I had already cut out the big "no-nos" for the past few months to prepare, like salt, potatoes, bananas, meat (all of which were HUGE staples in our diet before). However, now I'm thinking that may not be enough? My sodium falls in the 1600mg range most days (it used to probably be 4x that - I loved salt!!), and protein intake is about 80g/day, and I eat about 2000-2500 calories daily and do a lot of running (I run half marathons now). I find with two little kids, it is hard, bordering impossible for me to lower my caloric intake because I get really shaky, and REALLY irritable! I also don't have much weight to lose - I am already on the low end of the weight scale for my height. I'm at a lower weight now by a 5-7 pounds than when I conceived my boys, and in much better physical shape. So I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions??? I really really want to do what I can for this one to be a girl!! Oh, and we are using Sylk this time (used preseed last), and no Evening Primrose, and abstaining 7+ days.

Thanks!!

welcome! I have a baby about the same age as yours :)
lower is lower (weight, and sodium/protein/etc. intake), and that can only be a good thing. you could have a look into low sodium salt if you really can't give up the salt itself

I'd try and make your diet as vegetarian as you can, and see if you can lose even 1lb as the loss itself seems to sway no matter how much you actually weigh.

do you have regular cycles? will you be having your attempt on OV day?

I haven't had my cycle back since the baby was born last February! So, we're going on 11 months here. I have been using OPK's this time though, because I got pregnant with this little guy precisely 2 weeks after weaning my older son, and before having my first postpartum AF. Anyways, we are precisely 2 weeks post-weaning now, and surprise surprise, I got a positive OPK today! Because Christmas has been difficult to do anything diet-wise, I hvae been staying 10 feet away from DH ;) LOL. I am also really hoping to get AF back this time, as it has been THREE years!! I guess I will try to do low everything and see how it goes. I am going to go investigate the fake salt too while we're still in the US (I live in Canada, and it is so hard to find any specialty products there! US has WAY more than we do :) )

Would you recommend attempting on O day next cycle? With my two boys, we DTD every day from 3-4 days before O and 1 day after....so I thought abstaining might be better this time??

And thank you for the welcome!! So nice to see so many wonderful and supportive ladies on this board :)

you could still abstain and DTD on OV day :)

you've just jogged my memory about your other post, yes you did say that you got your cycles back quickly. Lucky you!! lol

Hi and welcome!

Yes, I would be a little worried with your nutrient profile. The standard recommendation I give for LE is 40-50 g protein (with occasional increases to 50-60 for people who are very tall, have PCOS, or breastfeeding) and no more than 2000 cals. I think it's best for most people to go for 1500-1800 but at least below 2000.

Is there any way you can kinda ease into it? People have a lot more success making gradual changes over a few weeks rather than diving in headfirst.

If you can't do any different than what you're doing, then you are certainly better off in terms of weight than when you conceived your boys so you may just want to stick closer to other sway tactics and give yourself a bit of a break with diet. I do agree with Rainbow tho - if there is any way to go completely vegetarian, even if you can't change anything else, that can only help.

I'm not convinced I think salt matters much if at all but since it's an easy thing for most of us to cut out, 700-1000 mg of sodium is what we generally aim for - if you gotta cheat on something tho, make it salt.

Re the fake salt - I believe one of the most commonly sold salt replacers is potassium based, which you may not want either!!

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Originally Posted by rainbowflower

you could still abstain and DTD on OV day :)

you've just jogged my memory about your other post, yes you did say that you got your cycles back quickly. Lucky you!! lol

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Yep, seems my body only needs 2 weeks to get back into action! LOL. That we will have to watch out for when we are done having kids ;)

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Hi and welcome!

Yes, I would be a little worried with your nutrient profile. The standard recommendation I give for LE is 40-50 g protein (with occasional increases to 50-60 for people who are very tall, have PCOS, or breastfeeding) and no more than 2000 cals. I think it's best for most people to go for 1500-1800 but at least below 2000.

Is there any way you can kinda ease into it? People have a lot more success making gradual changes over a few weeks rather than diving in headfirst.

If you can't do any different than what you're doing, then you are certainly better off in terms of weight than when you conceived your boys so you may just want to stick closer to other sway tactics and give yourself a bit of a break with diet. I do agree with Rainbow tho - if there is any way to go completely vegetarian, even if you can't change anything else, that can only help.

I'm not convinced I think salt matters much if at all but since it's an easy thing for most of us to cut out, 700-1000 mg of sodium is what we generally aim for - if you gotta cheat on something tho, make it salt.

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Whew....ok, this is going to be a challenge! I am still adjusting to the post-breastfeeding diet (when I was breastfeeding I could eat anything and everything...and would eat anything and everything in sight! LOL). I did notice that eating 2500 calories a day made it so so difficult to keep sodium levels low, simply due to quantity of food. So, less food should make this all easier!

One other question though, is this net calories? I run 4 times a week, for about 90 minutes each time (14km or so), so I'm burning at least 1000 calories right there. I think this has a lot to do with my appetite. Would you cut out the running, or would you eat a bit more to make up for it (or would that defeat the purpose??)? Thanks!

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Re the fake salt - I believe one of the most commonly sold salt replacers is potassium based, which you may not want either!!

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Also good to know. Thank you!

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Originally Posted by jazzers

Whew....ok, this is going to be a challenge! I am still adjusting to the post-breastfeeding diet (when I was breastfeeding I could eat anything and everything...and would eat anything and everything in sight! LOL). I did notice that eating 2500 calories a day made it so so difficult to keep sodium levels low, simply due to quantity of food. So, less food should make this all easier!

One other question though, is this net calories? I run 4 times a week, for about 90 minutes each time (14km or so), so I'm burning at least 1000 calories right there. I think this has a lot to do with my appetite. Would you cut out the running, or would you eat a bit more to make up for it (or would that defeat the purpose??)? Thanks!

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The prob with the cals is not the "net" or "gross" cals, it's that there is X amount of nutrients in X amount of calories of food and you are trying to reduce nutrients overall (jsut like your point about the sodium). So even if you DO burn a lot off, your body still digests and has access to ample amounts of nutrients present in the greater amount of food, KWIM??

People conceive baby girls every day of the year doing things that are NOT the LE Diet - it's just that I believe for optimizing results, the LE Diet guidelines are best. Gotta do what is right for you tho.

You might want to read the exercise thread here - http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...h-genders.html

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

The prob with the cals is not the "net" or "gross" cals, it's that there is X amount of nutrients in X amount of calories of food and you are trying to reduce nutrients overall (jsut like your point about the sodium). So even if you DO burn a lot off, your body still digests and has access to ample amounts of nutrients present in the greater amount of food, KWIM??

People conceive baby girls every day of the year doing things that are NOT the LE Diet - it's just that I believe for optimizing results, the LE Diet guidelines are best. Gotta do what is right for you tho.

You might want to read the exercise thread here - http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...h-genders.html

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Thank you! That is very interesting. At this point, I think I am just trying to do the exact opposite of what I did to conceive my boys. I have always had a quite varied, and nutrient rich, high cal diet...so I think the LE, lose a few pounds, lower blood sugar diet should help. A question about the LE diet though - can I eat anything? I know I must keep sodium under 1000, potassium 2500-3500 and protein 40-50g. But outside of that...? I guess that in itself does nix a number of foods anyways ;) Can't keep sodium under 1000 eating pizza!

Oh, and one more question! This has been weighing on my mind a bit today ;) I mentioned I got my first positive OPK this morning. Well, (I'll save the story about why we haven't been using any contraceptives, but the point is we haven't...) and we did DTD Wednesday night. We then spent Thursday afternoon at an amazing hot springs here in town (we're still on vacation!). That would put it about 5ish days prior to OV. Now I'm worried that we might have messed up and gotten pregnant anyways! Do you think the heat from the pools at the hot springs (we're talking like 104-105F!) would have killed any sperm that made it into the cervix? Probably unlikely that I'm pregnant?? Hmmm....

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Originally Posted by jazzers

Thank you! That is very interesting. At this point, I think I am just trying to do the exact opposite of what I did to conceive my boys. I have always had a quite varied, and nutrient rich, high cal diet...so I think the LE, lose a few pounds, lower blood sugar diet should help. A question about the LE diet though - can I eat anything? I know I must keep sodium under 1000, potassium 2500-3500 and protein 40-50g. But outside of that...? I guess that in itself does nix a number of foods anyways ;) Can't keep sodium under 1000 eating pizza!

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Yes, you can eat anything you want on the LE Diet http://genderdreaming.com/forum/scie...gic-foods.html BUT there are some choices that are better than others. Like, there probably isn't anything magic about meat, but skipping it can't hurt and may help, and we can live without it, so why not. Same with nuts, avocado, olive oil, etc. Limiting healthy fats :agree: On the other hand, I think potatoes/tomatoes/bananas are such a dietary staple for people PLUS low fat and low protein PLUS great sources of potassium, which people are struggling to get, that it makes sense to include them because the benefits are SO huge and I don't think there is any risk to eating them whatsoever.

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Originally Posted by jazzers

Oh, and one more question! This has been weighing on my mind a bit today ;) I mentioned I got my first positive OPK this morning. Well, (I'll save the story about why we haven't been using any contraceptives, but the point is we haven't...) and we did DTD Wednesday night. We then spent Thursday afternoon at an amazing hot springs here in town (we're still on vacation!). That would put it about 5ish days prior to OV. Now I'm worried that we might have messed up and gotten pregnant anyways! Do you think the heat from the pools at the hot springs (we're talking like 104-105F!) would have killed any sperm that made it into the cervix? Probably unlikely that I'm pregnant?? Hmmm....

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Oh, you def. could be pg and I would hold off doing anything too extreme with swaying until you are sure you're not. The good news is, the heat from the hotsprings would have swayed pink for you (sounds like a nice time!!!)

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Oh, you def. could be pg and I would hold off doing anything too extreme with swaying until you are sure you're not. The good news is, the heat from the hotsprings would have swayed pink for you (sounds like a nice time!!!)

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Well, that would sure make things interesting! Thanks Atomic :)