Last Minute LE Diet Questions

[hotlikemexico]

I'm FINALLY starting the LE Diet tomorrow (well really today, since it's after midnight, lol)! I've been reading on this site for months now, so I believe I have all the basics down. Just a couple last minute questions that I am having a hard time finding answers for while searching!

- What are the thoughts on kefir water and the LE Diet? And I do mean kefir WATER, not the milk version. I've recently come to love the KeVita brand kefir waters, especially the pomegranate type. It's only 50cals per bottle and 0 fat and protein. BUT, the whole point of kefir water is the kefir water culture and "live probiotics." Straight from the product description on the website: "Fermented with our proprietary water kefir culture, KeVita Sparkling Probiotic Drinks have billions of live probiotics." I know that probiotics are for blue sways -- but how about in drinks, like this? Is it okay because it's in a drink and not like a pill supplement form, or would these drinks best be avoided altogether?

- I'm a little confused on when to count nutrients in processed vs whole foods. For example: pasta sauce vs tomatoes. I saw in a post somewhere in the forums about NOT counting fat/cals/protein in pasta sauce?? I have no idea where or what thread, I just remember reading it somewhere. My thoughts would be to count all three, cals, fat, and protein, in pasta sauce, because it is a processed food and has other ingredients -- it's not just whole liquefied tomatoes. Is this correct? And is this kind of a general rule, as in once something becomes a processed food and not just a whole food, we would be counting all three? Another example, a can of refried beans. Do you follow the rule for beans and count only cals and protein? Or do you consider it a processed food and count cals, protein, AND fat?

- Kind of a blend of the above two -- what about kimchi? 1. technically it is a "processed" food because it is not just plain whole cabbage - but at the same time, there's really not much else in it. It's basically just salted cabbage, radish, water, and a crap ton of spices. The one I have is 10cals, 0g fat, and 1g protein per serving (2tbsp). Would I be counting the cals and protein, or would something like this be considered a "free food?" 2. it is a another fermented food (idk what's up with me and fermentation?! LOL) and the one I have says PROBIOTIC all around the top of it. Should this be avoided for a pink sway due to the probiotic aspect, or is it okay because it's a food source and not a dietary supplement?

- I want to be 100% certain I've got the fruit/veg thing down.
Fruit: count cals ONLY
High carb veg: count cals ONLY
Legumes: count cals and protein but NOT FAT
Low carb veg: free and unlimited
Is this all correct? Please correct me if I'm wrong on any!

- Okay, this one makes me feel dumb. BUT, what are some examples of high carb veg?! I know obviously potatoes, but... that's it!! A google search told me that corn, squash, and peas are also high carb veg. Is this correct? Any others? Maybe eggplant, is that considered starchy/high carb? I've literally never dieted in my life LOL so I'm super naive re: what's a carb!

- How about the whole "fruit vs vegetable" thing? Like scientifically, anything with seeds is considered a fruit. Example, tomatoes. That would mean counting calories, for fruit? But the USDA classifies tomatoes as a vegetable. I also saw a website list them as a low carb vegetable. That would mean not counting anything. Same for cucumbers -- technically a fruit because has seeds, would mean counting cals, but I would think of cucumbers as a low carb veg that would be free and unlimited. There are many other examples too. Any advice here? I'm probably thinking way too much into it, as always, haha

One last thing, that is not diet related. Is there a better way to search the forums? I tried searching for all of the above, but came up empty handed. When I try searching a term, I get a collection of threads where that term is mentioned at some point. No individual posts. But some of the threads are 50+ pages, and it's just not feasible for me to scroll through page after page looking for the search term. Am I doing it wrong? Is there a better way?


So that's all I've got for now! I can't believe the beginning of my sway is finally here!! So exciting I'm actually pretty excited to lose some weight too. I found out at my IUD removal appt that I gained 19lbs since quarantine life started in March... agh! Totally not intentional! There's definitely been a lot of stress eating during this past month and a half....

[atomic sagebrush]

Re the kefir water - it is probably ok. Foods with probiotics, most of the probiotics are killed by the stomach acid (we still include yogurt, for instance) and never make it to the intestines like the pills do. We don't KNOW that it's ok, but I suspect that it is, if that makes sense. I just haven't seen anyone drinking it so I can see what the gender of their baby is!

You count protein, fat, and calories in pasta sauce. You count everything in refried beans. Once the food has had additional stuff added to it, you count it. So with the pasta sauce, you count it because it's had sugar and fat added, and the refried beans have had fat added. Count that stuff.

Let me explain the reason why we don't count the protein and fat in some things and you'll understand what to count and when. Fruit and veg have small amounts of incomplete proteins that are not really usable by the body. But the government requires them to have 1 g listed even when it's not present. So tons of fruits and veg on My Fitness Pal or whatever, will have 1 g protein and 1 g fat per serving listed even when those things are NOT THERE. This ends up with people getting 1/3-1/3 their "protein and fat" from foods that effectively have none, and then they're starving. So don't count those things because your body isn't going to be gleaning protein and fat, it's just a trick of counting that the government requires. Beans and legumes have no fat in them really so we don't count them unless more has been added, and in something like refried beans, it's been added in the form of oil or lard (which you do count)

Kimchee is free and unlimited unless you ahve the kind with oil in it. Same rules apply as the kefir water, I believe it's perfectly fine to eat but I don't have a bunch of people I can point to to prove that.

Yes, that's right.

High carb veg include potato, sweet potatoes/yams, corn, beets, winter squash, cooked tomatoes (like pasta sauce), taro. A couple things like carrots, are a little bit of a gray area. Some people count carrots totally, others only cooked carrots. I think either way is probably fine.

Peas are a legume so you count calories and protein.

Eggplant is NOT a high carb veg it's a low carb one.

When I say "fruit" I am using the good-sense human being definition of fruit and not the botanical description. So cucumber and raw tomatoes are vegetables. Apples, peaches, pears, are fruit. The difference is the level of carbohydrate in the food. Fruits have a lot of sugar in them, high carb veg have sugar/starch (both carbs) and so they're counted. Low carb veg are, well, low carb, and are thus free and unlimited.

I do think you're thinking too much. I have by far and away more concern about the level of detail that went into thinking of all this (control freakish stuff) than any worryign difference between cooked carrots and raw, if that makes sense. This is meant to be easy and intuitive, so if things are feeling NOT easy and NOT intuitive the odds are we're on the wrong track, and so start a thread and ask me! I love answering questions, even if I've done the same one in the past, it doesn't bother me at all.

I would go to the Complete Index here: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...ete-index.html This has most of the "main posts" by topic. Personally, I find that searching on a search engine like Google or Duck Duck Go for something like "avocado gender dreaming" or whatever (the words you're interested in, and then gender dreaming or atomic) gives better results than our search engine because you tend to get the more popular posts that way. Or, you can always just ask me, it's what I'm here for!

Re the quarantine weight gain - hey, I actually think it makes it much easier to sway when you have weight to spare. Makes it much easier to thread the needle when you don't have to worry quite so much about every pound of weight loss. For all we know, this is God/the universe's way of actually helping your sway to succeed!

[hotlikemexico]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This is all super helpful!

Good to know about the kefir water! That was my thinking too. It's rather expensive so I don't drink it all the time, but I've been stocking up when it's on sale. I'll continue picking it up when I can, as I used to drink a glass of milk with each meal -- I need something else to drink besides water, coffee, and alcohol all the time! LOL

And HUGE thanks for the processed food explanation!! That makes complete sense (obviously haha). That was exactly the kind of info I was looking for, and I get it now.

Had no idea that peas were a legume! And very happy to hear eggplant is considered low carb, love the stuff!

I completely agree that the whole fruit vs vegetable thing is control freakish! I figured you were meaning the normal definitions of fruits & veg, but I am very literal/scientific in all aspects of my life, so yeah, haha. I'd rather get the questions like that out of the way at the start so that my brain is not going "But a tomato is a fruit!!!" in the background any time I'm cutting up tomatoes for a salad or whatever going forward, if that makes sense.

I did also read through all the links in the complete index, huge help and thanks for that!! As far as the searching, I did try google searching as well like is suggested in the top of the complete index. I'm not sure what happened, but all the results ended up "redirecting" to other links? Like I tried searching tomatoes and pasta sauce (separately) with the site: thing in front of it, and the results all directed me to recipe links for things with tomatoes, and pasta sauce, lol. I'm wondering if maybe they were recipes linked in posts and google just redirected. I will try another search engine and see if that has better results next time. Happy to hear we can always fall back to asking you though I like to at least try to search first so it's not the same questions over and over again

Lastly, THANK YOU for pointing that out about my quarantine weight gain! I didn't even think about it like that, but you are so right. I'm gonna go with it being the universe's way of helping my sway to succeed. This past month and half have been trying in so many ways... my husband was unceremoniously FIRED from his job at the beginning of April, due to "company restructuring" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So on top of everything else, the kids being home, trying to home school the oldest, dealing with the pandemic and quarantine life... we had to worry about securing unemployment for my husband AND find him a new job/career. Easy to see why I stress ate my way to 19lbs heavier! BUT, everything seems to have fallen into place today. Today I officially started my sway, AND my husband also got offered the job that he just interviewed for yesterday! It's a GREAT job, a GREAT opportunity, way better than his job that he got fired from and we'll have (most) weekends off together for THE FIRST TIME in our almost 10 years of being together. Just craziness, so so happy, for him and our family. So for you to point out how my quarantine stress eating weight gain could actually be looked at as a possible sway benefit, on the same day that one of our biggest sources of stress was resolved, I dunno, I'm just feeling really good about everything right now! (Also I know that having weight to lose in no way guarantees my sway will succeed either!! Just happy to hear it can actually work in my favor.)

And for my first day on the LE diet, I ended up with 1440 cals, 46.5g of fat, and 50g of protein. I wanted to be at 1800 cals so I def fell short there -- the protein snuck up on me SO fast!!! I'm going to need to look for some higher calorie, higher fat options so I'm not coming in so low there. 1400 cals is WAYYYY less than what I was eating before. I don't want to stop ovulating! I'm also going to start adding in some alcohol tomorrow, so that should help a bit in the calorie area.

[atomic sagebrush]

It makes total sense and whole lot of us with boys are very detail oriented, want to be able to dot the i's and cross the t's and follow the rules perfectly, so we sit around thinking "but are tomatoes fruit" kinds of questions. Fortunately for all of us LOL life had beaten that tendency out of me by the time I started getting into this, so I'm able to sort of both understand the inclination totally but also help you guys to hopefully move past that for the sake of your sway!

Peas are not only legumes, they're quite helpful legumes for swaying as they do have some usable protein but it's not as much as in beans and nuts and eggs and dairy, and way less than in meats. They're sort of a good middle ground addition to soups and stews or stir fries where you get some protein from them, but not an overwhelming amount of them.

With the Google search, even just skip the : site and search the words you want, then add atomic or gender dreaming. I get pretty good results doing that. Or seriously just ask, I'm happy to reply.

Huge congrats to your hubby, I wish him great fortune at his new job!

Since you're a Dream Member (thank you!) you can access these two threads which will really help:

In this thread I go through and rank a lot of foods from A-F https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...ood-guide.html

In this thread I list some ideas for days you're short on one thing and have too much of another thing: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...disasters.html

[hotlikemexico]

Oh yes, I am 1000% boy mom through and through, reading that Maternal Dominance Hypothesis essay was very eye opening LOL! Detail oriented for sure. It is what it is and I've accepted it and it's helped me immensely in my job, so I really can't complain. That's why I wanted to read through everything I possibly could on the site these past few months, to get all of that out of me BEFORE I started my sway, and I'm glad I did. No more spending hours a day researching and learning and planning, I can just focus getting in my exercise and doing the diet (without hyperfocusing on the diet either, because I did all that studying already!)

And good to know about peas!! I do like them, but no one else in my house does, so I haven't had them around in years. I might grab some on my next grocery run now, I'm thinking they might also be a good addition to salads too! I need some other things to throw in there besides beans and cheese, since those will quickly fill up the protein again. Good middle ground like you said

Thanks for the google tip, I will try that too! I didn't even think to search with your username either. Though I do remember you saying somewhere that's a good option too since it's an uncommon name and will reduce a lot of hits.

And thank you, thank you!! We are still kind of in shock about his job offer, haha. Getting fired from his old job is looking more and more like it was a blessing in disguise.

And finally THANK YOU for those links! I actually have screenshots of the food grades saved in my phone for easy reference if/when I run out of food ideas. But I was looking for that food fixes post last night and couldn't find it!! I was searching for "rescue foods," I think that's why. I started to scroll through the complete index trying to find it and then decided not to stress about it and just take what I was at for the day, and try to do better the next day. I am bookmarking that post now for quick reference though so thanks again!

Of course, I opened the fridge today and the container of strawberries was just staring me in the face... I was like DUH, I could have just had some strawberries for added cals with no fat or protein! Big facepalm, haha. I won't forget that now. I'm sure the whole diet thing will just get easier as I go, though!

[atomic sagebrush]

It absolutely does get much easier! And strawberries are always an excellent option to add some calories

If you Googled those posts they won't show up since they're in the Dream Members section.

I"m so happy I was able to help - please let me know if you have any more questions and sending you tons of pink dust!!

[hotlikemexico]

It absolutely does get much easier! And strawberries are always an excellent option to add some calories

If you Googled those posts they won't show up since they're in the Dream Members section.

I"m so happy I was able to help - please let me know if you have any more questions and sending you tons of pink dust!!

It’s already getting easier! Adding in wine with dinner and fruit with lunch helped me up my calories without going over on protein or fat. I also figured out if I halved the serving of cheese crisps I was using for salads it significantly reduced the protein while still being enough of a crunch element in the salad. I’ve even been enjoying my meals and haven’t felt hungry or like I needed more food at all, so I would say so far so good!

Only one other question that I have since come across - if the nutrition label says “less than 1g” of protein per serving, how do we count that? I have been counting it as 0, as I’m assuming there’s not enough in there to count. Is this correct?


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[atomic sagebrush]

Great! Keep up the good work!

Yep that's what I did too with the 1g < but be careful because some people don't realize that if you eat a LOT, it will still add up. I remember for a while that people used to think Butter Flavor Pam was a free-for-all because it had "less than one g". The hot diet tip was "spray your popcorn with Butter Flavor Pam, it has less than one g of fat" only people were spraying much, much more than the serving size and eating gobs of fat! Long story short, if you're eating 10 servings you will find that the protein adds up!

[hotlikemexico]

Great! Keep up the good work!

Yep that's what I did too with the 1g < but be careful because some people don't realize that if you eat a LOT, it will still add up. I remember for a while that people used to think Butter Flavor Pam was a free-for-all because it had "less than one g". The hot diet tip was "spray your popcorn with Butter Flavor Pam, it has less than one g of fat" only people were spraying much, much more than the serving size and eating gobs of fat! Long story short, if you're eating 10 servings you will find that the protein adds up!

Awesome, thank you! And thanks for the heads up! I’m not sure that I would ever want to spray Pam on my popcorn in the first place LOL. But I get what you mean. The only place I’ve seen it so far is on the protein content for the salad dressing I’ve been using, which I’ve only been doing one serving (two servings one day when I was low on fat) anyway. I will keep that in mind though if I come across the “less than 1g” elsewhere too!


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[atomic sagebrush]

It was at the height of the low fat diet craze (back before I was doing gender swaying, I was just super into health and nutrition and read a lot of books then) and a surprising number of people would have happily eaten toxic waste as long as it said fat free on it, LOL. People would never eat nuts or avocado, but would eat 4 million calories of pasta at one sitting!

I think you're doing a great job! Keep up the good work!!!