Please help me with my diet - not getting enough calories and struggling to eat any more!

[atomic sagebrush]

I don´t know how desperate you are to get pink, but in your case starting off at 105 and BF-ing I wouldn´t do the LE diet, in my opinion you´re going to loose to much and become really underweight before 6 weeks are over. you might stop ovulating and you don´t know how long it will take to conceive, you might need to gain then.
I would try to really eat less meat, fish and eggs, cut down on fat and dairy and eat a lot of pasta, rice, bread, sweets, fruit, cake and drink pop and juice cake all day long. This way perhaps you would lose really slowly but your food would be more girl friendly. I don´t know if it is a good suggestion, just my personal thoughts. GL

If you feel that you cannot do the LE diet for the full 6 weeks, it's certainly not set in stone that you have to. The 6 weeks number comes from the FGD and is the amount of time it allegedly takes to alter your mineral levels. Feel free to do the diet for less time if you like. The LE diet is meant to be easy to do, and flexible, not difficult.

Also, please know that you have the option at all times to choose to eat more calories, more protein, or whatever, if you like. I admit that I don't think it will sway as effectively although less is always less, KWIM??? As long as it's less than you were eating before it will still sway for you. If you do go that route I would def. switch to a vegetarian diet.

If sodium is a problem, I really really doubt that sodium sways very much if at all because SO many people love salty foods and certainly aren't avoiding them, and still conceiving girls. So if sodium is one factor that is limiting yoru diet, I hope you give that one up before you give up lowfat/low protein.

[atomic sagebrush]

Aww Swish, I don't think there's a good answer is there? it seems impossible to meet the other criteria whilst keeping calories up if you don't want to lose weight.

I think Indira is right - something needs to be relaxed, but I'm not sure what that should be. Looking at Atomics list it seems that calories are most important, so I take that to mean eating more EVEN if it is higher in sodium/protein/fat...

Perhaps the way forwards for me is to simply stop counting nutrients? Pick the things that are lower in them, but not limit myself?
Who knows, maybe I'm losing weight simply because I'm eating less chocolate and cake now, things I used to eat probably twice a day. My DH says that usually the first weight to go is water retention and that after the first week it should settle, but I feel so bloated!

Eat chocolate and cake!!! Like I said above, I believe sodium to be far and away the least important. Calories are most important and fat/protein are a toss up. I suspect protein sways harder, but fat is easier for people to live without.

If you are eating lower calories, I would not stress too much over nutrients. As I've said before, when I say lower nutrients, I mean that it's much more important to avoid huge doses of vitamin pills and things of that nature rather than worrying over the Vit. C in an orange. ANYONE eating 1800 cals when they were once eating 2500 WILL have lower nutrients than they had before.

I suspect that it will take very little cals to set things right again.

You may have lost water weight because you're eating less sodium as well. your husband may have a point about the water retention.

[atomic sagebrush]

Marshmallows are ok? I was eating them a couple of months ago then noticed they have gelatin in them and stopped.

There is a very tiny amount, not enough to amount to anything (unlike with some gummies where they are like PURE gelatin.). Some brands have no gelatin in them. I wouldn't worry about it.

[atomic sagebrush]

Heavens - why did you stop eating cake? That's something you can have on this diet - especially when you're struggling with getting enough calories as you are now - I think you should still eat that as often as you used to. I also agree with swish that you should consider including juice or full sugar Coke for lots of empty calories.

I agree that maybe the LE diet isn't for you and I'd hate to see you lose so much weight you stop ovulating. I think as long as you follow a vegetarian, low sodium, low nutrient diet (choose simple carbs over complex carbs, etc.) you'll be swaying. What kinds of things did you eat in a typical day before the diet?

although I would like to see at the very least LOWER protein and fat intake than you had before.

I want to reiterate, that since you think a lack of cake and chocolate may be the issue, that you should continue eating the cake and chocolate!!! Of anything, cake and chocolate are not boy friendly foods! An afternoon snack of a candy bar is just fine for anyone who weighs 102 pounds (IF you are reading this and you weigh 130 lbs, do not take this as permission to eat chocolate and have afternoon snacks, this is strictly for people who are already on the very thin side.) Although I would avoid the nutty candy bars and white chocolate is def. better than dark choc, with milk choc. somewhere in between - I would say something like a 3 Musketeers or Milky Way bar, that has a skin of chocolate over a nougat or caramel center, would be idea. If blood sugar is your concern, then just cut it out for a few days prior to ovulation and then a few days after (Again, if you have weight to lose, it is best not to have snacks and also to avoid chocolate, esp. dark choc. Please be honest with yourself on this!!)

[zanacal]

Atomic, I love you really I do, but tomorrow is DS1's 6th birthday and I'm having a slice of the chocolate cake I lovingly made him for my lunch

I figure it's a one off and I'd usually have it for pudding AFTER my lunch!

[Mochagirl]

OF COURSE you should have that cake, Z!! And Happy Birthday to your ds!

atomic - so are you saying that the no snacking rule is really only important right before and after O? If you have no more weight to lose and watch your calories, could you snack regularly during af, for instance? What about breakfast? I thought it was important to watch our blood sugar for the whole month's cycle.

[atomic sagebrush]

Atomic, I love you really I do, but tomorrow is DS1's 6th birthday and I'm having a slice of the chocolate cake I lovingly made him for my lunch

I figure it's a one off and I'd usually have it for pudding AFTER my lunch!

Cake is ALWAYS allowed on special occasions, I am more concerned about the people who will turn around and justify cake every day because "atomic said it was ok".

Remember, I LOVE you guys too and only want for your dreams to come true. If I had a magic wand I would wave it and we would all get our DG easily but all I have is this d@mn diet to offer!!!

Happy birthday to your little guy! 6 is a magic age.

[zanacal]

Cake is ALWAYS allowed on special occasions, I am more concerned about the people who will turn around and justify cake every day because "atomic said it was ok".

Remember, I LOVE you guys too and only want for your dreams to come true. If I had a magic wand I would wave it and we would all get our DG easily but all I have is this d@mn diet to offer!!!

Happy birthday to your little guy! 6 is a magic age.

Thanks A - you know I was kidding right?! I don't think it's a d@mn diet at all, I'm actually wondering how I'm going to eat once I get pregnant because I finally have some healthier eating habits (ie. not stuffing my face all day long!!).

I didn't realise I was commenting on 2 different diet threads!

[atomic sagebrush]

OF COURSE you should have that cake, Z!! And Happy Birthday to your ds!

atomic - so are you saying that the no snacking rule is really only important right before and after O? If you have no more weight to lose and watch your calories, could you snack regularly during af, for instance? What about breakfast? I thought it was important to watch our blood sugar for the whole month's cycle.

There is a lot of wiggle room between what is BEST, or optimal, and what is acceptible and a lot of the difference is how good a sway you want and how much weight you have to lose.

It is best to not snack and skip breakfast throughout your cycle, of course. The reason I say this is because as you guys already know, XX blasts seem to develop better in low glucose and XY in medium glucose - no one likes very high glucose. (and this has been witnessed in the lab and is the one of the very few aspects of swaying that seems to have been proven beyond a doubt to be a real difference between the conception of boys and girls.) Glucose is present in CM and other fluids in your repro tract and varies according to diet (which is why eating a lot of sugar can make you get a YI.)

Now, it may very well be the case that low blood sugar is only of critical importance just prior to ovulation, during and immediately afterwards.

But, applying a dose of theoretical evolutionary biology to the whole phenomenon, because eggs are a lot more "expensive" biologically-speaking than sperm are (we only have a limited amount of eggs and a limited window of fertility - which prior to the last two centuries used to be WAY smaller, and our bodies don't "want" to "waste" them, unlike men and sperm who have many years of potential fertility and many more sperm to "waste") I strongly suspect/predict that there is some mechanism that takes note of blood glucose levels prior to conception and alters gender ratio on the basis of whether your body is able to sustain an XY or an XX.

Your body doesn't want to expend the time and energy making/growing an egg/bean that will not successfully turn into a pregnancy due to your diet/environment. It also doesn't want to "risk" having a miscarriage or even a chemical if it can help it because that is a huge waste of resources and also in less modern, hygienic environments women even died from miscarriage and that may be several months out of your fertile window, during which you can't conceive. So it is very likely that some mechanism exists that "notices" that you have low blood sugar BEFORE you conceive and helps control for the conception of the baby with the best shot at survival.

Now, I cannot PROVE that this mechanism exists, but I think it just makes the most sense to try and keep blood sugar on the low side in advance of the few days around O in the month you're planning to conceive in the hopes of harnessing such a mechanism to sway for us. Because whatever it is, that's at least part of Mother Nature's swaying strategy - not superhuge doses of cal-mag, not cranberry, not aspartame, not douching, because for the millions of years that humans and prehumans have existed, none of those things existed and yet baby girls were still being conceived.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thanks A - you know I was kidding right?! I don't think it's a d@mn diet at all, I'm actually wondering how I'm going to eat once I get pregnant because I finally have some healthier eating habits (ie. not stuffing my face all day long!!).

I didn't realise I was commenting on 2 different diet threads!

I do know you were kidding Zana! Me too.

I just HATE having to tell you guys not to eat this or that. I wake up at 3 am sometimes feeling bad over it! o.O If I wasn't so convinced that we are on the right track, I wouldn't do it!