Ladies I'm sorry but you MUST TRACK

[atomic sagebrush]

You guys HAVE GOT TO TRACK PROTEIN, FAT, AND CALORIES.

Period, end of story. It is not open for a debate. I have already eliminated as much tracking as possible from the pink sway to eliminate control freakishness. We already don't track for timing, pH, etc. We've simplified swaying as much as we can.

The nutrient tracking of protein, fat, and calories (no other nutrients, just those things) is MANDATORY because the benefits of tracking them vastly, vastly outweigh any risk of control freakishness.

These things must be tracked, or you are not doing the LE Diet correctly. I am having far too many people (like seriously practically 100% lately, which is why I'm writing this) who are flat out refusing to track, as if it's impossibly difficult. It is not. It is quite easy, and you can learn how to do it in a a few days to a week - and you'll have the skill for a lifetime. You don't need a fancy app, all you need is a paper and pen and a calculator if you aren't comfortable doing the math. The apps are quite frankly harder to use, and are completely unreliable anyway.

Once you get a basic understanding of how much you are eating, then you can stop tracking and just keep a running tally in your head. But you can't start off with no idea of how much you're actually eating and just snarf some magic foods down.

Why is tracking nutrients so important? Because when people do not track the Big Three, fat, protein, and calories, not only are they running the risk of eating too much, but far, far more importantly, they are risking not eating ENOUGH. Not eating enough on the LE Diet is a recipe for disaster, because when you don't eat enough, you delay and even stop ovulation. You have to end up basically swaying blue just to get your cycle going again, and then you've sent the message to your body that times were hard, but now they're better.

Trust me, I say this after seeing into the tens of thousands of sways, both successful and not, if you want your sway to work, you will start off eating MORE than you think you need to, and then cut back as needed (or continue eating the correct amount, if you're eating the right amount to start off with). Eating too little and then having to add food in to restore ovulation is a recipe for a failed sway.

You cannot assume you're eating enough (because people nearly always err on the side of eating too little, not too much). 9 times out of 10, when finally I cajole people who aren't tracking into adding up their food intake, they are eating very much different than they thought they did - usually far less.

The Low Everything Diet is not and never was a starvation diet. Starving yourself is no way to get a baby girl, because even though you don't think this will happen to you, what will invariably happen is that people cut back too far, stop ovulating, then have to eat a lot to get/stay pregnant. And/or, you will panic after a few BFN or when your ovulation becomes spotty, and give up on swaying all together, adding a bunch of fertility boosters in, and end up with another boy. Your absolute best chance of a girl is a reasonable sway diet where you are getting enough food all along and then are able to get pregnant in a timely fashion.

Plus, I CANNOT HELP YOU IF YOU DO NOT TRACK YOUR NUTRIENT INTAKE. I can't look at a list of foods and know if you're eating enough because I have no idea your serving size. It matters if you eat, say, one rice cake, vs. ten. Telling me you eat "rice cakes" does not enable me to help you on your diets at all.

Even if you only add up one single average day I can help you. I can't help you off of food lists.

Just so everyone is aware, I will not, repeat WILL NOT, calculate your servings, look up the nutrient content of the foods you eat on Google, or add up your food for you. You have to do that part of it yourself. It makes no sense for me to spend my day being a Googling/adding machine for people, all of whom have the capability of adding things up themselves in a fraction of the time it would take me (since you already know what you ate!) Let alone that it would be massively time consuming for me to look up and add everyone's food intake.

What I AM happy to do is look over the foods you are eating and the nutrient content that YOU provide for me and make suggestions about things that may suit your needs better. That's always what I've done on here. But I can't do that with these vague lists of foods, because I do not know how much you're eating.

Please, for the sake of your sway, please start off eating the upper levels of diet, and tracking what you're eating.

[atomic sagebrush]

PS - there is an exception to be made if you're recovering from an eating disorder and tracking aggravates your ED. That having been said, you MUST take great caution not to fall into the pitfall of cutting back more and more without realizing it. There are many ways to have unhealthy attitudes towards food even without tracking, and I am seeing FAR more people who are not tracking and eating too little than I see people obsessed with tracking.

[atomic sagebrush]

bump

[atomic sagebrush]

bump!!! You guys need to track! It doesn't need to take over your life, you just need a ballpark ACCURATE estimation of how much fat, protein, and calories you're eating!

[atomic sagebrush]

bump