2 Boys & Hoping to sway pink this summer!
Hi! :wave: Not sure how active the forums are, but wanted to say hi and introduce myself anyway. :) My name's Alyssa, DH & I are both 30 (soon to be 31 this spring), and we have two amazing boys: Jullian, who just turned 7 the week before Christmas, and Kylo, who is 3 and a half. We would absolutely love to add a little girl! We have always wanted a bigger family anyway (DH is the oldest of 4), and so far the only the only thing holding us back has been $$! Having half of my maternity leave unpaid for our second took us YEARS to recover from. BUT! We live in Massachusetts, and starting January 2021, we get paid maternity/family leave! SO wonderful and exciting. So we got to talking and decided that a Spring 2021 baby would be perfect! I'm going to get my IUD out after my birthday in April, start tracking my ovulation again, and start the LE diet May 1st. We plan to start TTC in August, so that puts me at 13 weeks on the LE diet as of August 1st. :)
I actually have been a lurker since October, when I first started researching gender swaying. The first thing I came across was the FGD, but then I stumbled upon a thread thing on IG I think it was, about the Trivers Willard Hypothesis, and that lead me to here. I am very pro science and work in the medical field (medical coding) and reading about this stuff is fascinating! I've been reading up on everything I can on the forums about swaying for a girl and the LE diet. I just got my dream membership today and going to read up on everything else! I want to have all the knowledge and get everything ready to go before I start the diet on May 1st.
Things I've read already: LE Diet Nutshell version, LE Diet FAQ, Guide to Cheating, Fasting/Fiber/Folate, Vices of Swaying, and am currently working on Maternal Dominance/Privileged Daughter Hypotheses essay. Any other important threads I should check out? Please send them my way! Much appreciated. :)
I don't really remember my diet with my oldest; I was 23 and basically ate whatever I wanted, but still stayed thin as hell! Ahh, the good old times, lol. I've *always* been a big snacker, eater, just a foodie in general. With my second, I had been at my new job for a little over a year when he was conceived -- and I had put on 15lbs in that one year! Unfortunately my job is a 40hr a week desk/computer job, and when I started it I *literally* started to eat continuously. I laughed out loud when I read in one of the threads on here, describing the boy moms as Hobbit eaters or something, that was completely me! First breakfast, second breakfast, I don't do LOTR so I don't remember the rest LOL but it was me to a T. DH used to make fun of me actually, saying that I had an appetizer, entree, and dessert for dinner every night! :giggle: SO, the LE diet will be a HUGE change for me. I'm also going to up the exercise a ton -- I did virtually zero exercise when both boys were conceived. I actually go to Zumba twice a week now; I'm going to keep that up and add in either speedwalking for 60mins or an hour of playing the Ring Fit Adventure Switch game, if the weather is crappy and I can't go walking.
How does all of that sound so far? :eek: Like I said I'm going to read everything I can, but I'll add in the questions I have so far, in case anyone can help.
RE: Coffee!
This is the only thing I've seen as a pink swaying thing, that I've done with my boys. I've always been a huge coffee drinker. With my first son I only worked 24hrs a week, so I only had a medium iced coffee 3x a week when I went to work. When I started my job I'm at now though, I switched to a large iced coffee (32oz) EVERY DAY, lol. I was drinking a lg iced coffee DAILY, for a YEAR, before he was conceived. And I've continued that trend, so that won't be hard to keep coffee around for my girl sway. The only real difference I can see, that would maybe have swayed blue, is what I put in it? I always got a large iced coffee from Dunkin', with skim milk and three splenda, BUT I also always got four pumps of a flavor swirl in it, which is looooaded with sugar. The main ingredient is sweetened condensed milk, lol! I'm completely eliminating that to sway pink, though. I got a cold brew coffee maker for Christmas, and I've been making my own at home. I found no sugar added flavored coffee grounds to use in my cold brew maker, and they are amazing! Just add a 1/4 cup of skim milk, three splenda, and 28-32oz of my no sugar added flavored cold brew coffee. So, the questions:
1) I usually make my coffee first thing in the morning, and then drink it throughout the day -- in place of or with breakfast, with lunch, and finish it up before dinner. Is this okay to do, drink it through the day like that? Or would I have to drink only a cup with/in place of breakfast, and a cup with lunch? I know there is no snacking allowed on the LE diet. Is drinking my coffee continuously through the day considered snacking, and therefore a no-no? OR, since I'm only using splenda and skim and the flavored grounds are no sugar added, is this safe/not considered snacking? I would greatly prefer to drink the same large one throughout the day, but I also don't want to ruin my sway by "snacking" on my damn coffee, lol. Help!
2) Is this really going to sway pink for me, since I drank coffee daily anyway when my second boy was conceived? I think it will, since like I mentioned I'm completely cutting out the sugar loaded flavoring. But I'm still a little nervous about it, and would love some reassurance, lol! :D
RE: Folic acid!
I've read the thread on folic acid already, I know the recommendation is 1200-1600. I guess my only question is, does it matter 1200 vs 1600? The prenatals I take have 800 in them. I know not to take prenatals until I get a bfp. Should I just add a 400 on top of it once I get a bfp, or should I do an 800? How about while on the diet, is only 1200 okay, or should I stick to 1600? I'm a big couponer and want to buy up my stock of folic acid soon -- I'm really just trying to figure out if I should be buying more 800s or 400s. Thanks :)
RE: Exercise!
So I mentioned above that I go to Zumba twice a week. It's actually a great cardio workout! HOWEVER, my instructor switched to Zumba Toning classes every Monday night. Zumba Toning is definitely not "weight lifting" BUT, we use toning sticks (1lb weights) in the dances, and it's supposed to "tone" our arms. Again, toning is not weight lifting by any means, and we are still dancing and getting a cardio workout (I leave just as sweaty and tired from a toning class as a regular class!). But I'm a little nervous about it maybe swaying blue? I know building muscle mass is a blue sway and for a pink sway we should focus on cardio. My arms always kill me the next day after a toning class. I'm thinking I should drop the toning class, and replace it with walking or RingFit, and just go to the one regular Zumba class, once I start my sway and TTC. Any thoughts on this?
RE: Timing!
This is the one thing I haven't gotten to read much about on the forums here yet. I briefly saw something about only ONE attempt for swaying pink? Can anyone point me in the direction of more info on that? I know timing itself has been proven NOT to sway (Shettles, etc) so I guess I'm a little confused on how only one attempt does. I use the Fertility Awareness Method to track my ovulation, with temping, and I know exactly the day I ovulated with both boys. And we BD every night for like 5 days up to and including O day, for both boys. I want to start reading up on this so I can see what I should do differently!
WHEW! Okay, that was a lot! I apologize for the book! :rofl: I didn't mean to get so carried away... just wanted to get it all out, I guess. Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far! Looking forward to meeting some awesome people, and hopefully making some friends through this journey! :D