Swaying pink and TONS of questions!

Hey Atomic sagebrush and all you beautiful swayers,

first of all, thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into this website. It's a tremendous help and after lots of weird and clearly outdated advice on other websites, I feel I am finally getting it right!! :)

I'm in a somewhat difficult situation and hoping for your advice on my sway plan. Be warned though, it's a looooong posting which I have worked on and perfected over the course of an entire week (can you say overplanning boy mom??)! :D You know what, I'm splitting it to make it more digestible!

I'm in my mid-30ies, DH is in his late 40ies and we have a lovely son (almost 2) whom I conceived on a high-fat, high-carb, high-sugar, high-dairy, high-sodium, high-caffeine, moderate-protein, magnesium-supplemented diet (I'm 90% vegetarian with a veeeeeery sweet tooth, always snacking on chocolate etc) and quite an active lifestyle (no exercise though) and with one attempt (13th cycle day, time of ovulation unknown but likely on the 15th or 16th), using ph lowering jelly regularly - even just before the attempt if I remember correctly. Note how almost everything in my life was girl-friendly - jelly, 1 attempt, timing, our age, mag supplements!! and no boys born in my family for over 100 years!!! - except for my HE diet! That totally convinced me that DIETS SWAY and that my diet got me my little boy! :) (Although I think my mom and her sisters were probably the result of my granddad participating in cycling races regularly, but that's another story. ;))

Now I'd like to sway pink (TTC in 4 weeks at the earliest) - and I'm somewhat in a hurry given our age. I would love to get pg in the next 2-3 cycles. My cycle is quite regular (29 days) and I get a +OPK every time on the 14th or 15th day.

So a week ago I went on the LE diet, trying to keep my insulin levels on a steady low during the day, preferring whole grain options rather than refined. (I could absolutely not do the refined carb crashes, that would lead to big time cheating and snacking for me.) However I have lost 7 pounds already and have only 12 more pounds to spare. Would you recommend being less strict so I lose weight more slowly so I can stay on the diet and keep losing for longer? Ideally, I should be in the process of losing weight when I conceive, right? I'm kind of on the fence whether I should ttc in 4 weeks or stay on the diet for another month (would make it 9 weeks altogether before ttc) - but if I don't conceive then, I would have no more weight to lose and might even gain some back because of frustration with the diet :(
Besides, is it good when I'm hungry a lot (stomach growling, bad hunger pangs)? I could deal with this as long as my blood sugar doesn't crash but stays rather low so I don't get cravings.

Would a green smoothie for breakfast be o.k.? I make them from scratch with about 90% greens and 10% fruits - no avocado, no added superfoods, nuts, oils etc., so it's really low-cal, low-carb, no-fat, no-protein. I feel that it keeps my blood sugar / insulin on the low side for the rest of the day and helps me stay away from high-cal foods. (If my sway is successful, I'll share recipes with you - I used to hate them until I discovered a few easy tricks to make them genuinely DELICIOUS!)

Okay, here's my plan! ;) How does this sound for a pink sway:

- green smoothie between 8-10am

- peppermint tea (only up to O), coffee, chai tea (herbal infusion with lots of cinnamon)

- moderate-carb, low-fat lunch like pasta with a tomato/vegetable sauce (no garlic, onions, celery)

- low-carb, moderate-protein, moderate-fat dinner like salad with turkey/chicken/fish or legumes/almonds/eggs

- 80% vegetarian, no dairy with exception of some cheese

- no snacking, no juices

- shot of vodka right after dinner (only up to O, wouldn't want to hurt implantation)

- 60min of cardio 6 times a week from AF to right after O (so I don't lose weight too quickly)

And could you tell me which one is more imperative: sticking to the absolute cal/carb limits or losing weight constantly? Because with my insanely active metabolism, I could totally still lose at least 1-2 pounds a week on about 80-90gr of carbs. (I find it much easier to stick to the fat/protein limits.)

One more question about the effects of the diet: I've been feeling really good this first week and even my oily, acne-prone skin has cleared up. However, if anything, it looks like the diet actually increased my fertility instead of decreasing it. 4 days into it, I had a pos OPK and then I was in pain for about 2 days ("mittelschmerz" which I hadn't had in ages) and I had tons of EWCM, which I hadn't had in ages either. What does that mean??

There's something else I feel I need to mention. Our son was born with a minor, very rare congenital defect that had to be corrected surgically. I asked the surgeons how that could have developed and they very clearly stated that they don't know, that it might have to do with our advanced age, and that it should NOT stop us from having more children. I'm just mentioning it because you might have an idea what else I could to do make my sway safe except of course for folate and FR in hopes of healthy sperm.

Oh, re frequency: My husband only half-heartedly agreed to have another child (mostly because of our sons's condition), he thinks swaying is rubbish, and he most likely won't do the FR thing. We BD only about once a week, maybe twice a week (I'm positive he doesn't masturbate either, just really low libido), and I know that sways blue. :( Would 1 release and 1 attempt within 24 hours be okay? Any other ideas?

Also because of our son's condition and our age, I'm NOT planning on going very low-nutrient re vitamins/minerals diet-wise and also not on taking antihistamines. I figure that might hurt my chance to conceive too much, what do you think?
However, I'm looking into taking soy supps (100mg on day 5-9), would you recommend that for me?

Okay, so I'd love to think through and plan everything diligently and then let it go and just focus on sticking to the plan the best I can. (I am so, so Martha!! Even when I'm trying to relax, I'm trying reaaalll hard! LOL) Again, any feedback is greatly appreciated, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all of you get gorgeous, healthy babies, ideally of your dream gender! :)

Hi and welcome!!

Ok, since this is a wee bit long and I"m at the end of my day here, could you kindly bump this for me?? That way I'll be able to give you my level best answer instead of being tired out. :)

Thank you so much, Atomic, I will certainly bump it! Have a good day/night and I'm looking forward to your answer! :)

Bumping this thread up! :) Hope this is a good time.

Hi Atomic, hi everybody, after recalibrating my diet and reading even more of the amazing info on this site I've come up with a new plan, and a few new decisions! Please let me know what you think. :)

1) We'll skip the next cycle so I can be on the diet for longer - 8 weeks from now on. And if I don't conceive in April, even longer than that.
2) I dropped the peppermint tea and the vodka (too bad, was getting used to getting a little tipsy at night :bigsmile: ) because it might mess with O too much and I feel that at 36, I'm lucky to have such a regular cycle and regular Os and don't want to risk it.
3) But I'm def having my beloved green smoothies! :happy:
4) I'm still on undecided RE soy supps - what do you think? I'm def not able to get Clomid (from any legal sources, that is).
5) I'm having more wholegrain and vegetables than refined grains, meaning I'm going the PCOS LE diet route, but without having PCOS or insulin trouble. Do you think that hurts my sway? Wholegrain foods just fill me up way better and help me to not snack. I'm still losing weight, too, although much slower than in the first 8 days of the diet.
6) The hunger pangs and the growling stomach - is that good? Have it at least twice a day although I eat decent meals that do satisfy me. And when I get that huuuuuuungy, usually the next meal is coming up anyway, so it's doable without snacking. Sound good for a pink sway?

Again, thank you so much in advance, I'm looking forward to all your thoughts and advice!!

Thanks for your patience on this!

:agree: that your diet was swaying hugely and also that biking sways girl.

:agree: with doing whole grains, that is one thing that we're really not sure which option is best so it's always up to you.

Yes, you need to do what it takes to slow down weight loss now. Don't get too hung up on timing weight loss to be losing weight right when you conceive, that's backfired far more than it's worked (people end up losing too much or not enough and just very stressed about it)

The limits are what counts. Not the weight loss. We've seen unpredictable results with weight loss and I often have people exceed 1800-2000 cals when they can't keep weight on.

4 days on diet has not done anything. That's not what caused your mittelschmertz, some months are just like that (O Pain when you don't normally have it.)

Length of time on diet has been much better so I'd have you wait till 8-9 week mark.

Well, what the surgeons should have said was "we don't know" and left it at that. I find that doctors will often attribute any random act of chance to the most obvious cause, usually age-related, when in reality it's just sheer dumb luck.
I'm glad that your son is doing well now!

I would have him doing regular release every 2-4 days and then the one attempt. Do NOT have him release and then go again - that will be tough for him to do most likely and also really cuts odds of conception (and the way you were thinking of doing that would not help a sway anyway, as it's not enough releases back to back and it's too far apart to "count" for hurry up FR)

Antihistamines haven't worked anyway, getting neutral results. I have anyone who is the least bit wary leave them out.

I would not recommend soy supps as firstly we don't know how they sway, and more importantly we don't know if they're safe.

1)Oh perfect yes that's great.

2)Ok, although alcohol has been a good sway tactic for us

3)I'm ok with that but I would point out that if it has seaweed in it, I do not find seaweed to be proven safe and I'd have you keep those minimal, 2x a week max

4)NO soy supps - those WILL mess up cycles in addition to the reason I mentioned already

5)Yes, that's fine, just be sure not to lose too much weight as that diet can make weight fly off

6)I think it's good for a pink sway yes, as long as you don't get too hungry and end up overeating.

Oh Atomic, that's great, thank you so much for your replies!! I might be adding the vodka back in since you don't seem to think it would lower my chances to conceive too much :bigsmile: Anyway, I'll keep you posted! :happy: