A few questions for my girl sway

[SummerHope]

We are trying to sway for a girl, and are finally hoping to start TTC in December. After starting and stopping atleast 3 other times this year due to health issues, surgery, and just general chaos in life I have finally been doing LE and sticking to it for a little over a month now.
Now that I've been tracking consistently for several weeks I'm just wondering how to get enough calories because I'm struggling. I am able to get the fat grams and protein pretty easily but it seems like every night when I calculate I've only eaten 800-1000 calories so then I have to drink soda and eat candy, jello, and popsicles to get up to 1500 calories. I don't particularly love pounding all this sugar every night LOL but I'm not sure what else to eat that contains calories but no fat or protein and am looking for suggestions/advice.

Also wondering about exercise, due to working full time and general craziness of life with a 3 year old I find it very hard to find time for exercise. That being said I do plan to start waking up extra early before work and exercising in the morning atleast 4-5 days a week here soon...just wasn't sure how soon I needed to start the exercise before TTC... I know with the diet 12+ weeks has best results but couldn't find info on how many weeks of exercising is best and I wasn't sure if that needed to be 12+ weeks also (I am also already pretty thin not sure my exact current weight as my scale ran out of batteries and I haven't made it to the store for a new battery yet lol, but my BMI is between 19-20 so I dont really have any weight to spare).

My last question is about Olive Leaf for DH. We found Spring Valley "Olive Leaf 150mg" at Walmart first off I'm wondering if this is the correct thing for him to be taking and second of all the package says to take 1 a day so that's what hes been doing but I was wondering what would be the appropriate dose for swaying purposes?

[atomic sagebrush]

Please tell me what you're eating to get up to the protein and fat limits.

I suggest going up to 50-60 g protein and fat and be SURE you aren't counting the small amounts of protein and fat in fruits and vegetables. (low carb veg are free and unlimited, have as much as you want, don't count anything. Fruit and high carb veg like potatoes, count cals only, not protein and fat

6 weeks is enough for exercise. Given your BMI we are going to have to up cals even MORE to compensate for the exercise so please let me know more about what yo'ure eating so I can help you, because it's not going to work to add in exercise if you're not even able to get to 1500 cals.

1 a day is fine. The trouble with all these various products is different companies measure and formulate them all differently so one company's 150 mg may be another company's 500 mg. So I suggest using the company's dosing guideline on the bottle because it's very likely it is the same as in what we call "500 mg" just that they use a different way of calculating that. 1 a day is all he should take.

[SummerHope]

Sounds good, thank you, I will have DH continue with just 1 of the Olive Leaf pills and he is also doing 12ounces of soy milk with dinner every night (can't convince him to do anymore than that as he doesn't particularly like it but he's willing to do the one glass a day)

I have been using the My Fitness Pal app to track and right now I have it set to be aiming for 30-40g of protein and fat so I will definitely increase that, looking back at my logs it does look like the app tracks fat+protein in fruits and veggies so I will start paying more attention to that and making sure to subtract those from my daily count.

My typical day is coffee with just a small splash of fat free creamer for breakfast, then lunch time I usually have a greek yogurt, fruit (usually always an apple and an orange and sometimes I will add some berries also), usually 100 calorie "bagel thin" with either a small amount of whipped cream cheese or smart balance margarine on it, and sometimes I will add a weight watchers protein bar or mini snack bar if I need something sweet. Dinner varies quite a bit but usually it's whatever I can convince my hubby and son to eat lol, common meals are rice or pasta dishes, veggie stir fry, homemade pizza, veggie burgers or other vegetarian "fake meat" items and usually I will also add a small side salad and I've also been adding a full sugar soda with dinner just to up the calories.

I will plan to start exercise 6 weeks prior to our first attempt, probably walking (as weather permits) and doing elliptical. For people looking to maintain their weight and not lose anymore do you typically recommend increasing calories when starting the exercise or should I just closely watch my weight and adjust calorie intake as needed if I start losing too much weight?

[atomic sagebrush]

30 g protein is below the amount of safe and healthy prepregnancy diet anyway so no less than 40. I would still prefer you at 50-60 g to be sure we make up for the time when you weren't getting quite enough.

Overall you're eating the right kinds of foods, I would def. suggest doing something with fat in it for cream, full fat cream cheese on a half a bagel (not just a bagel thin), dressing with fat on the salad, cheese or nuts or seeds on the salad, small amounts of meat in the stir fry to get some more protein. These things are ok. It's the limits that matter most and it's ok to have fat and protein in those limits. You can also add in a 3rd meal if you need to. Both 2 and 3 meals are fine.

I DO recommend upping calories when starting exercise, even if just temporarily. We don't want to risk too much weight loss. YOu can possibly cut back over time, or you may even need to increase calories more. But it's better to do that than to lose a ton of weight very fast and end up having ovulation stop, then pretty much having to sway blue just to get your cycle going again!