Hows does my diet sound so far?

[atomic sagebrush]

Msblakely, I like your diet! and I have seen many other ladies w/ similar diet,w/ few things different like adding a yoplait yogurt instead of cheese..but really doesnt make such a big difference..as long as we watch protein and fat intake .

I mean if you don't have much time to be on the diet, then it makes sense to 'sort of' starve yourself..lower your cals even more, b/c youré on a compressed time frame.3 wks on the diet isn't recommended, but if u dont have much weight lose, but in a hurry to get pregnant and trying to send a signal to your body that times are tough, then sudden and drastic change IMO is good..specially around ovulation, I have seen ladies go even lower around ovulation, like having one meal a day. they got their girls that way..

the diet didn't do anything to my cycles or ovulation..even though I was on it for 8 months. I was still fertile mertile. haha..so it really depends on your body.

yum, the mashed cauliflower sounds good!! will give it a try some time. ohh, what is the cinnamon spread?. where can I find it?

It DOESN'T ever make sense to starve yourself. Ever, ever, ever. Because if you only have a short time on the diet, your body goes into panic mode and will start making testosterone out of the last drop of your body fat if it thinks you need to fight for survival. Plus, whenever you drastically cut back calories, you risk your ovulation. Your body is like "WTH is going on here!?!" and shuts down the baby-making machine in favor of the keeping-you-alive machine.

Plus, then if you don't get pg you've kinda played your cards and the only place to go is up - you can't keep it up forever.

[atomic sagebrush]

OMG, Atomic! I really was putting myself in deprivation!! that's crazy. I thought 40 grams of protein and 25 of fat is just for 1500 calories..now that I think back, my sway had to have been a damn good one!. I am still confused about one thing, how in the heck did I ovulate each month, w/ so little food consumption?! I ovulated each month and conceived 1st month I went for an attempt.

Anyway, thanks for clearing that up for me!

You're lucky.

People actually CAN ovulate at low caloric intakes (after all, our ancestors subsisted on a rotten banana, a handful of termites, and a couple bites of scavenged antelope and still had babies) but it's just not a reliable thing, nor is it good for your health or the health of an unborn baby to do so.

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm not trying to sound stuck up or anything..but i was on the LE diet for 8 months...very strict, towards the end, where i just ate Rice and bland sauteed , cooked down w/ water peeled zucchini. I ovulated each month..didn't affect my cycles at all and I got pregnant the first time I decided to TTC (unfortunately had a m/c at 5wks). I know exactly what you mean, though..I appreciate your concern. Just saying that by eating more carbs like bread and rice I get moody. when i add avocados and eat lettuce and cheese i feel better..milk does not help me at all..it's the worse thing..my body doesn't tolerate it. I guess I can start with 1500 cals mostly veggies ..as I get closer to my attempt, I can aim for 1200.

Reminder - low carb veggies are FREE meaning you can have as much as you want. You don't need to count the calories in them, meaning you need to get calories from elsewhere besides veg.

[atomic sagebrush]

Wishing4Princess - I'm not a pro at this yet as I just started the LE Diet 3 weeks ago, but I'm aiming for 1200 calories (this is ONLY because my first attempt is next week so I wanted to drop at least a pound or two. I'm 5'6, and now 103 (lost 2 lbs) but if this cycle I don't get pregnant, I'm upping it to 1500) and I often don't understand how what I'm eating doesn't equal more. I've been charting EVERYTHING - probably a good idea because it really helps you see. (I use the MyFitnessPal App on my iphone and you can literally scan the barcodes of everything you eat and it charts it so you know all the amounts - so fabulous!)

I eat fairly similar to you it sounds...

Lunch: I have a pita with 1tbsp cream cheese, iceburg lettuce and cucumber. That's only about 150 calories.. so I often have a pience of weight watchers bread (I found it had the least amount of sodium and its 45 cals a piece) toasted with unsalted butter, sometimes this cinnamon spread that I buy and it's so good. I often then will have an unsweetened applesauce, or some rice crackers with a light babybel cheese.

Dinner: Rice with zuccini, cauliflower, green beans sauteed with lemon juice and some cumin. I started making cauliflower mashed "potatoes" and they are so good. Its just cauliflower, with 1 tbsp skim milk and I add a tiny bit of ricotta (parmesan would be so good) and it's delish - I don't even count the calories of the cauliflower because apparently we don't have to?! Then I'll often have another pieces of toast with butter, or some form of dessert/candy.

At this point - just like today because i literally listed everything for you - I have 400 cals left and I'm only at 20g protein, 500 sodium, 15g fat cals so I will definitely have some more dessert type snack around 9-10 as my last meal because I can never get enough

Basically.. if you feel comfortable with what you're eating (I'm nervous to go wild and eat everything in small amounts. I like to have the super bland stuff.. just makes me feel better about my sway) then always add one or two pieces of toast in there with unsalted butter and that will help kick up the cals and you're still TOTALLY swaying pink as white bread is so low nutrients.

Anyways, hope that helps.. sorry for blabbing on

Not to keep beating a dead horse here but PLEASE be sure you are getting 700-1000 mg sodium and 2500-3500 mg potassium a day. You can keel over dead, with absolutely no warning, from eliminating them from your diet.

You need more protein and fat, but those are cumulative things, whereas the sodium and potassium are very very very critical to be getting enough of daily.

[black&gold]

Thanks Atomic, I'm definitely getting 700 sodium for sure and I don't know about potassium because with myfitnesspal it's not always marked accurately. I'm definitely going to watch it more closely.. I never ever knew how much potassium I ate before though as I never charted. Maybe I'll have some banana tonight to help with that.

for example, today it says i've only had 20mg potassium. That's obviously not possible as i've had cream cheese, yogurt, pita, bread lettuce and cucmber. Obviously there is more than that because often people never write out the potassium when they record the food in the app. Anyways, I read to try and add raisins, banana, oat bran to yogurt and that bumbs you up to over 1000mg so I'll chose one or two of those options a day to help!

Wishing - the cinnamon spread is called Imperial Cinnamon Spread. I buy it at the grocery store right near the PB, Jam, nutella etc. I'm in Canada though so you may not be able to find it.. sooooo good

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, the tracking sites suck for potassium unfortunately.

Might want to give ye olde coconut water a try as well.