Really confused about dh's diet while TTC girl???

[girly5533]

Hi all, I was wondering what diet DH should be on. I know it is not to be restrictive (so he does not loose weight), but should he do low salt, high calcium, ect.? Should he be carb loading with lots of sweets (to hard if restricting minerals)? We tried swaying a while ago, we both did the strict IG diet...now i'm not sure what is best for him while TTC pink. Atomic, what diet would you put your DH on? He is 175 pounds, muscular, and very lean. He is also very supportive...

Thanks a bunch!!!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

All he needs to do is cut out red meat or meat all together if he is willing. If he is willing tocut back on eggs, that's great too. Vegetarian guys have more daughters. I might consider feeding him more soy products if he would eat them.

The blood sugar stuff doesn't apply to him and nutrients don't really matter - what matters for him is lowering testosterone WITHOUT losing weight, so by cutting back on red meat/meat/eggs that will help a lot!

You can have your husband do minerals if you want to, but someone just went back and looked at the stats on IG between peopel where just the woman did cal/mag and both DH and DW did cal/mag - no difference.

[girly5533]

Thanks so much for the quick response!!!! Should I acually try to make him gain weight...high fat foods, carbs, and pastries? I thought soy in normal amounts was shown to raise testosterone? Not sure though...

[atomic sagebrush]

No, don't make him gain or lose weight (men often gain muscle mass rather than fat)

Soy lowers testosterone - there is one study out there that claimed to find the opposite but there are ALWAYS studies out there that claim to find the opposite.

[girly5533]

Thanks Atomic!!! I was wondering if you would look over my sway. My first attempt is going to be in about 6 weeks and have used the ig website for years to plan (DH and I did the whole nine yards last summer, but do to a bad reaction from too much cranberry, I ended up in the ER instead...now i'm back).

Little background: I have 3 boys: 4 years old and 2 year old twins. DH and I are both naturally muscular. I am 32 and he is 31. He is a solid 175 poounds, with no working out. I am 124 pounds 5' 7" and very slender, with no working out. When I did the strict IG diet for about 8 weeks in the summer I lost about 5 pounds...I looked REALLY thin. My stomach and leg muscles stay, no matter how much weight I lose. We concieved DS 1 without knowing it, basically with pre sperm...always used a condom at the end. We tried for pregnancy #2 for 1 month...and poof, TWINS!!! So, I do think I double ovulate often. I have a leadership, anxious-type personality (not good, I know). My libido is low (except around ovulation), and I can have a low mood often. My cycle is really consistent, I O on day 12 or 13 (pending on B6 consumption), and get AF 15 days later
After reading this whole site, I took many things out of my sway, like, B6, eating lots of dairy, DH doing the strict diet, ect.
Here's what I got:
My supplements...800mg calcium, 300mg MaG, 500-1000mg cranberry(my body seems to tolerate that dose)
DH's supplements are the same with possibly adding licorice root (it did show lots of opposites on IG though)
Should I add the b6 back in?

My diet consists of: white homeade bread (no salt), white pasta, white rice, peeled apple, peeled cucumbers with a dash of vinegar, some organic skim milk and yogurt (not much), strawberries, rice cakes, crackers, green beans, unsalted butter...and a few sugar candies
Why is a little sugar bad? Like a few skittles??

Timing: we are attempting 0+12 (I know you prefer cut-off) for many reasons. I have been testing this method for about a year, it is the one I am most familiar with. My CM is ALWAYS stretchy, 36 after my first +OPK, my CM does become less abundant and stickier. We are going to use lime 5 minutes after BD.
Do you think we should do abstinence or frequent release?
Is there any way to watch for double ovulation?

All that said, I seem to lose weight fairly quickly on these diets and will probably plataue at a certain point (or go into a weight category where people start saying I look sickly). I have been on the diet for 4 days and have 2 weeks till O. Should I go for it this month...or are minerals that important? I just don't want to lose all my weight, then get to a point were my body stops. I know the diet is huge for hormones but, how do you know if you are in girl mode anyway. My ph is 4.1-4.7 normally and may go up to 5.6 with abundant EW.

Any other advice?

Thank You sooooo much for any advice offered!!!!!!!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Ah, I found it! The first thing you might wish to read is here - it's a brief bit about how the views of swaying that I suggest sometimes differ from IG advice http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...sh-anyway.html

your sway is a very nice IG-style sway. I personally would tweak some things, but people have had success doing things the IG way and since you are comfortable doing that, then carry on!

Are you tolerating the 300 mg mag ok? That's kind of a lot - may cause diarrhea (which won't help with the weight loss!)

Sugar is fine to eat as long as you have good insulin response! IG doesn't understand the sugar thing and has a lot of misinformation on their site but that research was originally done by me when I was on IG, so please take my word on that! You want low BLOOD sugar for TTC pink - low blood sugar has nothing to do with eating or not eating sugar (except in people who are insulin resistant). When you eat sugar, your blood sugar rises but then drops often lower than it was to start with!! For lowering blood sugar levels, jsut be sure to skip breakfast if you can, do not snack, eat 2-3 meals a day and make sure you're hungry before eating again, and avoid big huge Thanksgiving-dinner style meals with thousands of cals and protein, fat, and carbs in abundance all at once.

I would not have you start up B6 again, I'm pretty convinced it sways blue and one of the pay-for swaying sites also dropped it from their supps because they felt it was contributing to opposites.

I would go ahead and give DH licorice root - there may have been opposites on IG but I doubt it was that the LR caused the opposites, more likely that guys who are really high sperm producers could just shake it off! I do think it helps tho esp for you guys having gotten pg from pre-ejaculate.

I strongly suggest dropping lime if you're doing O+12. it's going to be hard enough getting pg with O+12. Would you be willing to use RepHresh instead of the lime??

Since your husband is under 35, i would do abstain (esp. since you got pg before with pre-ejaculate.)

There's no way to prevent double ovulation or watch for it other than ultrasound, unfortunately. That having been said, I do think that with O+12, you are prob. going to reduce chances of twinning by quite a lot. If you do release 2 eggs, the odds will be that the first will be dead and gone and you'll have a shot at the second.

I personally think it's fine for you to TTC this month. But I don't believe in minerals - if you are a big believer in minerals, IG/FGD would have you wait 6-8 weeks before starting to sway. Blood sugar and pH can drop almost immediately (and your pH is fine already). Hormones do take some time to lower but the odds are you won't get pg this month anyway.

Will you be doing anything like Vitex and SP to lower hormones??

[girly5533]

Wow!!!! Thanks so much for all the helpful information. I have only been on cal/mag for a few days, should I take it out completely? It is powder form so I can tweek the doses any way I want.

As for LR, SP, and vitex...how long do all of these take to work on hormones?

I would love to use reFresh instead of lime. But, doesn't it take a long time to react with the sperm? I was going to do a little experiement on DH's sperm to see how long it took. We fell like we need a little something to slow those swimmers down once inside of me.

I also have the ovacue fertility monitor...do you know anything about that. Do you know how long it takes the numbers to go up after ovulatoin (right away, 5 hours, ect.)?

You are amazing with how much time has been given...Thanks!!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

I can't tell you what to do on the cal/mag, all I know is that ~I~ have major regrets taking it for my sway and I'd never take it again. Case against calcium is found here (3 part essay, links in the first essay to the other two, and the discussions afterwards, after the 3rd one especially, are also informative.) http://genderdreaming.com/forum/tryi...roversial.html

I like people to have taken 2 months worth (AF-O only) of the V, SP, LR before attempt.

We actually tested the RepHresh and found that it reacted with the semen immediately. Using lime after 5 min. will do nothing to slow down the swimmers, because a large majority of sperm has already left the VJ within 5 min. and this is esp. true with BD on O and O+12 because the sperm "hear" or "smell" the egg and are gone like a shot.

I have never used any of the fertility monitors so if you have q's on that, start a new thread and there will be a lot of gals who have used it and can be of help.

[girly5533]

Thanks...I think I am real close to finalizing my sway!

As far as the Cal/Mag, I think I'm not going to be taking it

I just started AF, and our attempt is next month. That would give 2 months of being on the supplements (or did you mean 2 months excluding attempt month?). Since we are not attempting this month, should we just stay on the supplements without a break after O?

Do SP and peppermint tea do the same thing? Which one do you perfer? I tend to have side-effects on many things, so I want to go with the one that is most tolerated but works well also.

As for the diet, I am taking most of the dairy out. Can I add more veggies like, carrots, mixed greens, and red peppers? Or will that hurt the diet?

I have taken out the lime and am going to do refresh before BD

Lots of thanks!!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

2 months INCLUDING attempt month - so AF- O of month before attempt month, then AF-O and attempt.

Whether you want to stay on V and SP all month long is up to you. Some people have done that and had good results. Be sure to use barrier contraceptive tho because SP can interfere with hormonal birth control. Your DH DOES need a 2 week break from the LR tho, he shouldn't stay on that nonstop.

SP and pep tea do the same thing and they both can cause side effects. I tend to prefer people go with SP because I think it's more effective (have seen many opposites with pep tea).

More veggies are allowed on LE Diet. When you can, try to choose the less nutrient-dense veggies, but feel free to include the more nutrient-rich veggies too.

Good luck!