Girl attempt October 2021

Hi everyone, first time posting but been a lurker here for a good few months and have learnt so much! we are trying for our LAST baby later this year. We already have 2 boys who were conceived when we lived a VERY different lifestyle. I had my IUD out in February and originally planned to TTC April/May but life got in the way and I found this site and I got major stressy about all the things I could do but hadn’t. We have now decided to hold out until October. I am already vegetarian, I have been around 80% low everything since the April (the weekends ruin me) and I walk a lot. This is my current plan and any tips/advice is much appreciated but I feel I have picked a lot up from reading endless forums

Here is my plan -

I have signed up to a half marathon and now have a 16 week training programme that involves running 4x a week. I will walk at least another 2 of these days if not all 3 to make 7 days exercise, I do already run occasionally.

I am eating 50-60g protein 60g fat and trying to eat as much whole grain as possible.

I have been fasting for about 18 months now, just because I prefer it. I do 14-18 hours fast and have 3 meals a day, no snacking.

I am a big coffee drinker and have 3-5 cups a day I have this with barista oat milk.

I am trying to add the odd glass of wine in a couple of nights a week, red wine but not sure how much is enough? I’m thinking about 150ml-200ml 3-4 x a week is what I can manage.

I’m taking folate ONLY.

We plan on one attempt first try after hurry up frequent release, hot bath. If failed we will drop both of those and go for one attempt next month and go from there, I do believe we’re quite fertile.

DH also mountain bikes a lot and runs occasionally, also vegetarian has soy milk every day in porridge.

I am 59kg 5ft 2 and BMI of 24 so have some room to lose weight. I am sticking at 1800 calories and don’t want to lose too fast as I have already lost 10kg since January. Should I also add fibre? I’m not sure how this works or if I should try it too.

Anything else I should/shouldn’t add? Any comments on anything I am doing wrong? I like to eat lots of fruit and veg and a large variety at that. Am I spoiling my sway by doing this? With my boys I ate extremely unhealthy and never so much as looked at a vegetable but ate LOTS of fast/high calories/high fat food. I never exercised, not even walking. I had a very boy friendly lifestyle both times.

Any help or input greatly appreciated. Thank you

Hi and welcome out of lurkdom! So glad you found us!

I think given your exercise amount and that you're eating whole grains already, you should skip the fiber. Too little fat intake (because fiber can mess with fat absorption) will delay or even stop ovulating which will be a disaster, since then we have to basically sway blue in order to get you ovulating again.

However much wine is fine. If 3-4 times a week is what works for you, carry on.

Keep eating the fruit and veg! While we originally started off thinking that "all nutrients are created equal" over the course of the last ten years we've learned that it's really protein, fat, and cal content, plus highly fortified things like power bars and meal replacer shakes and breakfast cereal that really sways. The nutrients in fruit and veg appears to make no difference at all, and indeed seems to help keep people happy and satisfied on LE Diet (without resorting to that awful "chicken and gummy worm" diet that people sometimes fall into because they refuse to eat produce!) We are having great results with fruit and veg on the LE Diet so by all means carry on.

Don't worry about the weekends, remember the 80-20 rule: You get 80% of the results with 20% of the effort, and to get that remaining 20% results you have to expend 80% of the effort. When it comes to swaying, getting that 20% will often mess up your cycle and make you control freakish (which tends to sway blue anyway) so we are all about the 80% around here! :)

Everything else is lookin fantastic!

Thank you for getting back to me.

I am trying to follow the PCOS LE as much as possible as recommended by you via email (thank you) Just to double check I need to make sure that I need to include 1 serving of full fat dairy? I have been having no added sugar full fat Greek yoghurt or drinking no added sugar kefir. And I’m also good to add eggs a few times a week?

I’m not sure I’m totally eating right but doing what I feel is right, but feel I need to get my calories up and not sure how. So yesterday looked like this

First meal at 12:15pm
Whole grain bagel with cheese spread, 250ml kefir and 2 kiwis

Afternoon snack 4pm
6 whole grain crackers with hummus and 2 carrots

Last meal 8pm
Stuffed mushrooms, mashed potato and squash, cauliflower, broccoli, sprouts and peppers.
I then had a glass of wine about 9pm - should I be having this with my meal?

My total for the day was 1590 43g protein 65g fat 164g carbs. I do include everything I eat including fruit/veg which I know isn’t recommended but I struggle not to. I track on my fitness pal and this was something I did prior to finding this site as I just like to know what I’m eating and it’s habit.

I struggle to hit 1800 calories I sit around 1200- 1400 most days but not sure if am right by carbing up even in the whole grains? I just know when I start this running programme this week I will need more calories and not sure how it get them

As long as you're getting enough fat from SOMEwhere you don't need to add in the serving of full fat dairy daily (unless your cycle goes nuts.) But you absolutely CAN have full fat dairy daily, and please avoid skim dairy like the plague.

Eggs are fine within limits. Even daily if you need.

You are going to need to up pro and fat to compensate for the fruit and veg if you need to use the My Fitness Pal to calculate.

You NEED to get more calories so if that means more carbs so be it.

I would add in things like cheese, oil to cook the veggies in, nuts, butter in the potatoes, sour cream, that type of thing. Because you're counting the protein and fat in fruit and veg, you actually have a lot more wiggle room than you think on pro and fat. Increase servings of the kefir, the cheese spread, and hummus, that's another way to get more fat and protein and calories.

Technically the wine should be with a meal but that's not a biggie at all. Many of us, myself included, separated the alcohol from the meal.

So what veg would I count in my daily totals? So a lot of my other meals are things like 5 bean chilli, lentil bolognese, sweet potato & chickpea curry and I’d find it quite difficult to not add them as it’s my full meal. I’ve been trying to add less veg on my fitness pal, so the side veg I’m having. I have been managing to get my calories up which is good. I am already at my lowest adult weight and worked out I can lose another 7kg until I hit a BMI of 21. Is this where I then hold steady with it and possibly up calories?

I’m not always having the serving of dairy and not eating much dairy at all. I was already about 80% vegan before I started this, so I hope this is ok.

On the exercise front I’m not doing the over 60 minutes as I’ve started my training most runs are around 30 mins. I know they will increase over time but some days I will still be doing shorter bouts, is this going to matter? When I am walking in between that is always 60+ Minutes and I am managing 6/7 days.. My cycles are like clockwork the only thing they don’t do is come on the hour haha. So I can work out when I O from that and I have around 14 weeks from now.

Beans and legumes you'd count the protein and calories anyway so I'd be inclined to just add those dishes in since it's so complicated to break them down. Just boost the limit a smidge to compensate for the other veg in there.

Yes that's right once you hit BMI 21 it's time to try to hold steady, but if a small amount of weight sneaks off over time it's not a dealbreaker. 18.5 BMI is where to do anything to stop weight loss under any circumstances (and for many people going from 21 to 18.5 is just a few pounds!)

If there's any way to get up at least to 45 that's what you should aim at. 60 is best. This is because after 45 min or so, your body runs out of carbs to burn and starts burning off stores of fat. Something about this process appears to sway strongly pink. But it's a-ok to start off lower and work your way up. And walking is GREAT! You don't have to run at all.

.