Eating Cheaper on HE Diet
Updated 8-11-2018 The High Everything Diet and swaying blue in general, tends to be VERY expensive. Here are some tips to help save money.
:fami03:Stick to only the most necessary supplements.
Everyone wants the best sway possible but you’ll be getting a lot of nutrients through food. You just don’t NEED to buy every supplement you’ve ever read about.
Best supps for DW –500 mg fish oil or DHA, folic acid 2000 mcg a day, Vit. D to equal 1000 IU, Coq10 (ubiquinol is best absorbed but is VERY expensive – if you are under 38 or so you probably don’t need to buy ubiquinol, get the cheaper form) 100 mg a day, probiotic – while you can just eat yogurt with live and active cultures probiotic is better, and Robi/Muci (generic is fine). Other supps like pycogenol, lycopene, brewer’s yeast, are nice but not at all necessary.
AVOID royal jelly/bee pollen, EPO, flaxseed, wheatgrass supps, B Complex, bromelain, Fertile CM, and any other Chinese/Ayurvedic herbs without clearing them wtih atomic first. Some of these things have swayed pink, others have proven harmful.
Plus a good multi or prenatal vitamin – I like Women’s One a Day because it’s cheap, contains good amounts of nutrients, and is widely available. You can save $40-$60 over the cost of some of the fancier vitamins by using the Women’s One a Day (note – does contain calcium). PLEASE be wary with prenatals, many have megadose nutrients or herbs added to them that either may sway pink or can mess up your cycle drastically.
Best supps for DH – fish oil, Vit. D to equal 1000 IU, l-carnitine (do not use d-carnitine), coq10 (if he’s over 35, spring for the more expensive ubiquinol), l-arginine (l-arg can cause herpesvirus to flare up, so if your husband suffers from genital herpes or cold sores, it can cause flareups. This has actually happened to people on the Gender Dreaming website. Fertile CM also has l-arg so if you take it and notice an increase in flareups, it’s the Fertile CM (but please don't take it, it may sway pink and has really messed up people's cycles)
Plus a good multivitamin. I like Men’s One a Day 50+ because it’s cheap, contains good amounts of nutrients, and is widely available. You can save $40-$60 over the cost of some of the fancier preconception vitamins.
You DO NOT NEED megadoses of vitamins. If you’re paying an extra $40 because “Himalayan Miracle Conceptavite” has a kajillion units of Vit B374, it’s not worth it because we don’t even know that megadoses of vitamins are good for us. Megadoses of some vitamins may even sway PINK – our bodies don’t want those megadoses and try to get rid of the stuff. An adequate dose = good, a megadose = poison that our body has to work hard to get rid of. Also, some of the preconception vitamins for men on the market contain some unknown and downright crazy ingredients that are probably best avoided (powdered testicles, anyone??)
Do not have your husband take more than 20-25 units of zinc and you should not take more than 8-15 units. It’s not safe. I know it says to do this on Ingender but exceeding the dose of zinc is not a good idea and people have made themselves sick doing it.
I would not have anyone take supplemental megadoses of Vit. E. The One a Day vites have enough, and high dose Vit. E was shown to inhibit cell division – not what you want when trying to grow a baby or produce lots of high quality sperm.
Use iodized salt rather than sea salt, which saves you the expense of sea salt and also provides a good source of iodine without needing to take iodine supplements. But do please check with your doctor before taking iodine in supplement form (even just iodized salt) if you have thyroid issues because not everyone can mix thyroid trouble with iodine.
:fami03:Plan for a “boy blitz”.
Some of the boy beverages like coconut water (my fave brand is Taste Nirvana) and wheatgrass juice (fave brands – Bolthouse Farms and Naked) are pretty fast acting to raise potassium and pH, but are SUPER expensive. So starting a week before O, you can start pounding down the coco water and wheatgrass juice 1-2 times a day to make sure you have adequate potassium (if it even sways, that is) and higher pH. The hydration may even help make more CM. Both you and DH can do a blitz.
Do NOT replace wheatgrass juice with wheatgrass supplements. We have found disproportionate girl opposites in blue swayers taking high doses of wheatgrass supplements. If you want to include wheatgrass for alkalinity please stick with wheatgrass juice and only 2-3 times per week OR daily for a week prior to O. Not both!
If you keep an eye out, coconut water periodically goes on sale and you can save up to 75 cents a bottle by buying it when it’s marked off. Then just save it for your blitzes.
If you don’t care for green tea on a regular basis, you can include it in your blitz drinks as well. I do think it works best when drunk daily for a while, however.
The nutrient-based drinks like brewer’s yeast and gelatin drink, take longer to work and so they’re not suitable for “blitzing”.
:fami03:Get pregnant fast!!!
I would like to see all blue swayers conceiving within 3 months. Not only does it keep you from gaining too much weight while doing HE Diet, it also saves a ton of money on food and supplements. So let go of swaying strategies like timing where you have only one attempt at ovulation (lowers odds of conception) and methods of raising pH like baking soda finger and douching that are hard on sperm (stick with Preseed).
Use straight Preseed without added baking soda – it’s designed to maximize sperm survival to begin with and the baking soda may kill sperm. Have 3-5 attempts in your fertile window of O-3 through O day, focusing particular attention on the microwindow of O-2, O-1 and early on O day. You want max. numbers of sperm in your reproductive tract when the egg arrives – DTD before ovulation ensures that the sperm have time to make it to the egg beforehand and can lie in wait. Higher numbers of sperm = more boys, for reasons we do not understand. Limiting yourself to one attempt at O can reduce numbers of sperm that make it to the egg and really lowers odds of conception.
Lay flat for 15 minutes or even just go to sleep for the night after having intercourse. You DO NOT NEED to buy anything like a rubber cup to “hold sperm in place”. Sperm can swim and will be up inside the safety of your cervical crypts within 15 minutes after intercourse. The “stuff” that comes out after intercourse is just the semen – the little Elvises (sperm) have left the building (semen) already and you don’t need to keep the semen inside of you for the rest of the day.
:fami03:Buy online.
Things like OPK, pregnancy tests, herbs, and some of the vitamins can be found much more affordably online than in grocery or health food stores.
:fami03:Buy in bulk.
If you can afford it, a Costco or Sam’s Club membership can pay for itself with only one trip if you’re careful. Costco has things like large bags of walnuts and almonds and oatmeal, large containers of salsa, spaghetti sauce, coconut and/or olive oil (coconut oil is better for blue), juice, brown rice, frozen bags of blueberries and salmon, and good deals on dairy products and eggs in LARGE sizes so you’ll be sure to eat them regularly, all more affordably than grocery stores. Some Costcos have gas pumps with steep discounts on fuel. You can also pick up everyday things like batteries, laundry soap, and printer ink cartridges at good savings (which can help fund your more expensive sway supplies).
With the exception of their large bags of potatoes which are great and worth a trip just for that alone, I have NOT found that Costco is competitive on produce. The price is equal or higher, and the quality is not as fresh as I’ve gotten from my reg. grocery store. Their meat and bread is much more expensive. You also have to be able to check yourself before you wreck yourself, because I commonly walk into Costco to buy 3 things and come out with a full cart and $500 poorer. And since they don’t have some of the things that I need, I STILL have to go get groceries.
Aside from the membership stores, purchasing large amounts of things you’ll know you are going to need from your reg. grocery stores when they are on sale can really help. As an example, I know that when I shop at Safeway, they often have marked down yogurt first thing in the morning and they also have club soda that periodically goes on sale (well, of course I was buying Seltzer because I was swaying pink, but their club soda goes on sale at the same time!). So I would go Safeway early in the am and buy all their discounted yogurt , and all the club soda (or in my case seltzer) they had on the shelf, when it was on sale. I’d get a good deal and have the stuff on hand for weeks at a time. Whereas if I had just picked up a couple of yogurts and one pack of club soda a couple times a week, I wouldn’t be getting the best price and I’d be running out constantly, so it even saves money for gas.
Note – you really have to watch Safeway though, they’re sneaky. You can get great deals on markdowns there (Taste Nirvana coconut water, Larabars, and yogurt are three things you can get deals on there) but sometimes they mark things up and then put them on “discount”, so you need to know your prices beforehand to be sure you’re really saving money or if it’s a trick. They also sometimes have confusing pricing on items – they won’t list the sale price but instead just have a sign that says “Buy 5 get 2 free” so you’re doing a complicated algebra problem in a crowded grocery store while your 3 year old is hollering that he has to pee and the baby starts crying. :hair: (Boo Safeway!!).
Meat is something you can really save $$$ on if you are careful and buy in bulk. Family pack sizes are always cheaper than small packages. Then you can repackage them at home yourself into servings that you can use to make dinner. I’ve noticed that my favorite local store typically has one meat special per week on sale for $1.98. So I buy several of JUST that. I rarely buy any meat that’s more expensive than that "deal" price (steak tends to be more expensive but we never eat that LOL).
One week I buy 4 or 5 huge family packs of chicken breast at 1.98 a pound, and repackage them into smaller sizes more along the lines of what my family eats for a dinner. Then the next week, chicken is $4 but ground beef is marked off so I buy several of those and repackage them. Then pork chops, roast, etc. At first you’ll end up eating quite a bit of one thing vs. the other but over time you start to catch up with yourself and will always have at least a couple packages of different things on hand. I don’t even have a big freezer, I can manage this with just my tiny top-of-the-fridge one.
Aside from meat there are lots of things you can pop into your freezer for later use – butter is something I often buy and then freeze – Costco has good prices on butter and it comes shrink-wrapped in plastic, which protects the butter from developing off flavors in the freezer.
Plus, planning ahead in order to stock up on essentials you’re going to use a lot, can really help up your testosterone levels and help your blue sway. There’s a feeling of accomplishment that comes with getting a good deal and that’s the kind of thing that raises your T levels!
:fami03:Be willing to travel a bit (within reason) and plan ahead.
You may have already noted that some stores you frequent have better selection/price on some items than other stores do. Before you start your sway, you may want to make a mental note or even a written plan, of which products you tend to like from each store and about how often they go on sale and for how much. It can really help save you money if you’re willing to split the shopping into 2 or 3 trips and even hit them all in one day to be sure to get the lowest price.
Driving all across town to save 62 cents is obviously not a good idea because you spend more on gas than you save in groceries. If you can, try to find a location in your city where the stores you like are all close to one another.
As an example, I have things I prefer and are cheapest at three particular stores, so I go to the nearby town where all three are within a block of one another. I will hit all three stores (with the help of my intrepid older sons who are shopping superheroes) in one day. When I was TTC there was even a dollar store in the same neighborhood so I could run in and get cheap pregnancy tests (and OPK too altho I never bought those, some people swear by them). If you have a drugstore near your grocery store you will probably find Preseed and vitamins there much cheaper than at the grocery or health food store.
If you keep an eye on the grocery store flyer you can really get bargains that way. One store may have a deal on General Mills cereal while another store may have a deal on Quaker, the very same week. Then the cereal may not be on sale again for another month or more. If you have the room to store them, buying a good supply of BOTH types of cereal can help you save money and avoid monotony – if you like both Wheaties and Life, you don’t NEED to limit yourself to just one, you can have them both.
Also, there is a yearly cycle of when grocery stores run sales, so if you know it’s, for example, Frozen Food month you can cheaply lay in a supply of frozen peas that will last for months. There’s a good list about this cycle here: Grocery Sale Cycles – When Do Things Go on Sale?
Some people swear by couponing – I’ve never gotten into that so I hope that anyone who has done this will chime in. I hear that you can find a lot of good coupons online but I’m not sure what sites are the best – anyone??
:fami03:Buy less preferred cuts of meat or discounts, and repurpose cuts for different dishes.
Chicken thighs and legs are often cheaper than breasts are, and whole chickens are the cheapest of all (even taking into account that you’re paying for the bones). Dark meat is better for your sway anyway and I often buy whole chickens and debreast them (it’s easy) and then use the rest of the chicken to make soup or casseroles. You can also roast a whole chicken, let it cool in the fridge, and then pick off the meat for use in recipes.
Ground beef and roast are typically more affordable than steaks. Ground beef is a no-brainer but a handy tip with roasts, is don’t feel that you’re locked into just serving them as roasts. When roast goes on sale, I will buy 2-4 (depending on size) and cook them all at once. Then once they’re cool I remove the meat and use it in recipes. Roast is often sold quite cheaply because people view it as just one meal, but there’s generally a LOT of meat on a roast. A 3 lb boneless roast can make 2 meals for a family of 4.
World’s easiest recipe for whole chickens/roasts – after cooking and letting cool, remove meat from bones or shred roast and mix with your favorite BBQ sauce. Cover and reheat in the oven and serve on wholegrain buns with sautéed onions.
:fami03:Storebrands save money.
Most grocery stores carry their own storebrands which are virtually always cheaper than the name brand items are. With very few exceptions, these products are of equal or even greater quality than the name brands are. Both Costco and Safeway have some very good store brands (Kirkland from Costco is very high quality and Safeway has several store brands that are great, like Lucerne, Eating Right, and Open Nature). I also like most of the Western Family products carried in some smaller chains, altho these are a bit more hit and miss in quality. In fact, the savings on storebrands is often so great that often I will even have a coupon for a name brand item but the store brand is still cheaper.
This can be a hidden cost at Costco because many of their items are name brand and more expensive than you can get at a grocery store, so be sure you’re somewhat familiar with prices on the things you buy frequently and don’t just assume that if it’s at Costco, it has to be cheaper.
:fami03:Go vegetarian when it is possible to do so.
While most blue swayers like to chow down on red meat, there’s no law that says you MUST eat meat at every meal. If meat is out of your price range, you can go with eggs, tofu, beans, and dairy – all are excellent sources of protein along with lots of other nutrients. Combine these with whole grains and they pack even more of a nutrient punch.
If eating vegetarian meals worries you, remember, there are no magic foods – you’re going for nutrients overall, not must-eat foods. One can easily conceive a boy on a totally vegetarian diet, so no one needs fear having to limit meat due to expense.
:fami03:When possible, make it yourself.
Some foods like beef jerky and granola can be prohibitively
expensive when purchased at a store but can be made at home for a lot less. Wheatgrass can also be grown at home and juiced yourself inexpensively (how to is here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-...ass-juice.html)
Homemade soup and chili, applesauce, salsa, french fries, guacamole, iced tea are also things that can help save a bit of money and may help your sway.
It’s certainly not a make or break thing, but if it sounds fun, taking on new projects while swaying blue can help raise testosterone levels.
:fami03:Buy produce in season and from produce stands.
There are NO magic foods that guarantee you will conceive a child of a particular gender. So if you go to the store and bananas cost an arm and a leg, no worries. Get oranges instead if they’re cheaper. The point is to get a lot of fruit and veg – don’t get so bogged down in the myth of the magic foods that you end up buying less overall because you feel like you HAVE to have the “magic foods” – you DON’T.
Produce stands oftentimes have farm fresh fruit and veg in season for less than the grocery store. If you buy a lot of it, sometimes the guy who runs the stand will cut you a good deal – one time I got 20 lbs of asparagus because it was on sale and I wanted to freeze it, and then guy gave me !!!! 40 !!!! OMGosh that was a lot of asparagus but I froze it all and ate asparagus for like 6 months after that.
At the same time, don’t overbuy produce because if you’re like me, my eyes are sometimes bigger than my stomach at the grocery store. Then I have too much produce and it ends up going to waste. There’s nothing wrong with buying frozen versions of things like spinach and berries – you don’t HAVE to have fresh produce. Frozen can be cheaper. Some produce spoils super fast (avocados, I'm looking at you) and you're better off buying only the amount you'll eat before it goes bad, otherwise you're just tossing money away.
Remember, stores run sales cyclically as well, putting various items on sale by month. Grocery Sale Cycles – When Do Things Go on Sale?
:fami03:Check out your local discount stores.
ESPECIALLY the discount bread store. Most metropolitan areas have at least one discount grocery or bakery store. I go to the discount Franz/Snyder bakery and also the discount Entenmann’s bakery store in the city near where I live. I save between 50 cents to $1.50 per loaf of bread, and they also have bagels, buns, dinner rolls, tortillas, and so on. This is a great way to be able to include the highly expensive specialty wholegrain and nut and seed breads that otherwise you may not be able to afford. The bread stores also have good deals on other things including as milk, Bob’s Red Mill products and Pacific products both of which are great for a blue sway.
If you have a chest freezer (I don’t unfortunately) you can really save on gas money as well, because you only would have to go to the store once a month – bread freezes very nicely.
:fami03:Check out WIC
WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) is a neat program here in the US that helps lower income families get healthy foods (and it's not even that low - lots of people qualify for it even if you're middle class, if you have several kids).
Every month, for any mom breastfeeding a baby up to 12 months old, and every child under the age of 5, you get milk, cheese, peanut butter, tuna, cereal, juice, and produce at no cost to you. If you're bottlefeeding, they help you with formula. It is limited in quantity but you still get a LOT. If you're struggling with feeding your family or just need a little bit of help to fill out your grocery cart, it is def. something to look into.
WIC
:fami03:Focus on the BEST foods to get the most “bang for your buck”.
Instead of eating a diet of Rice Krispies with rice milk, ramen, and hot dogs, you need to focus on the most nutrient dense foods. You want to buy the best foods you can for your money. Don’t waste money on foods that are terrible for blood sugar and/or have more chemistry than actual food. Choosing an iceberg lettuce salad over spinach because spinach may have a miniscule amount more calcium is a bad trade because the spinach has a LOT more nutrients.
VERY IMPORTANT!! DO NOT under any circumstances waste money on milk replacers. We have seen a very strong trend where the women drinking the most milk replacers having the most girls. We believe this is because animal studies have shown that vegetable oils are swaying pink when ingested in higher amounts than animal-based fats, and milk replacers are loaded with vegetable oil. Or, it may be some other thing entirely. Either way, please avoid milk replacers for blue or limit them very strictly. Full fat dairy ONLY for blue swayers and if you really must avoid calcium foods, please have fruit juice instead and do not load up on milk replacers.
If you are a Dream Member I have an essay entitled “Eating Smarter, Not Harder for Blue” available for Dream Members that addresses this topic specifically and you can read that here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-...rder-blue.html
:fami03: You don't have to go bankrupt to sway blue - I hope these tips help a little bit!!:DS::DS::DS:
