Stressing about my pink sway PLEASE HELP

[Emdy09]

You advised me to eat more but I genuinely believed I’d be fine as I felt fine and better than ever energy wise. I like to track fruit as I’m really into gut health and getting enough fibre so I’m going to aim for 70g of protein to cover it.

In terms of cinnamon I genuinely only have it for flavour and when I eat oats and I normally have maple syrup too so I think that will have counteracted the low sugar effect. I will probably eat far less oats now we are hitting summer in the U.K. as i prefer not to eat hot food for lunch.

I swapped to black coffee in the mornings to start as I wanted to stay fasted fully until lunch. We then got a coffee machine at Christmas and they are like 90% milk and 180 calories so I only have one every so often, plus it was costing a small fortune with barista oat milk. I just learnt to like black coffee too.

AF finally showed up today but quite light and not convinced I have ovulated at any point. I have been off the diet about 4 weeks now, I’ve had days of being back in it but had lots of events/holidays. I think I’ve gained about 3kg and only ran twice in 2 weeks. I don’t know how my cycle is going to go now so regardless of what’s done I think I will leave the waiting and go from here as could still be months away with my cycle messing up. I will be making sure I am eating enough though

[atomic sagebrush]

Ok, then if the cinnamon is a reasonable normal dietary intake carry on.

So think of it this way - going to black coffee is simply another way for you to be unnecessarily restrictive. You do not need black coffee. If you prefer it, that's fine, but I don't like the vibe where someone who has been too restrictive on diet is STILL looking for and finding things to restrict themselves on. Add the milk back in, I think it's fine to have that, and a little milk has not disrupted the fast for people. We virtually all had some sort of whitener in our coffee.

The good news is that a light period tells us what happened LAST month, not this one. Even if this is just a breakthrough bleed, it will still act as a reset on the cycle, kicking off a new one. Let's go for June/July!!!

[Kazzzz]

My stress just really seemed to disperse after I got a BFN my first cycle trying. I had built it up SO much, kept pushing back to ‘perfect’ my sway when it hind sight it was 95% full on. I’ve been reading a book and it seems as atomic warned me, I’ve stopped ovulating as my body has gone into starvation mode.. I was running distances of up to 20 miles in one go and not refuelling properly on purpose. Some days I was having 30-40g of protein and included fruit and veg. I thought as my weight was ok and still at BMI of 22 I was ok. Seems not!

So prior to this I stuck to 2 meals a day sometimes have a smaller snack at some point and mostly eat things like this.
Lunch - almond butter and jam on sourdough, fruit. Porridge oats with almond milk, mixed seeds, cinnamon, peanut butter, blueberries, mixed beans with rice, quinoa with chickpeas, sweet potato.

Dinner - butternut squash and chickpea curry, lentil bolognese, mixed bean chilli, black bean fajitas, pizza with veg, pesto pasta with feta and spinach, beans and egg on sourdough bread, baked potato and cottage cheese, pasta with veg and tomato based chilli sauce, veggie burgers, veggie Thai curry, noodles with eggs.

Snacks - hummus and pitta bread, fruit smoothie, Greek yogurt and fruit.
What kind of things do you eat? I always find it helpful to see what others are doing too.

I drink oat milk in coffee but have recently swapped to black coffee 90% of the time. I have red wine occasionally, less often these days. I always skip breakfast and have for over 2 years as I prefer it. I’ve also been veggie on and off since 2018 and been fully veggie for 18 months bar the odd bit of fish. I’ve gone off it again after eating some weird king prawns. Hoping to get back up and running this week with diet and exercise.

Good to see you've had some type of bleeding that's a good sign i guess.
As far as what I'm eating its pretty much the same foods every day. I eat
Breakfast
Stir-fry vegetables with sour cream mixed in delicious by the way and I'll have a pitta bread or 2 and coffee with almond milk.
Lunch will be breakfast again or soup an 2 wholemeal bread again with coffee and almond milk or if I'm in a hurry i find two toasted pitta or wholemeal bread with peanut butter sooo delicious an good if your in a hurry.
Dinner is Stir-fry veg with a tin of sweet chilli chicken or tuna and brown rice an cheese or sour cream if i have protein an fat left over I'll have a cheese onion an tomato toasted sandwich with dinner aswel. I like to make dinner my biggest meal so i eat a ton for dinner. Then I'll have some sugar free ice-cream or Greek yoghurt with fruit if i have numbers to use up still. I finish my dinner with 1 or 2 vodkas or wine. Since my periods still haven't come back I'm very driven to hit 60 protein 60 fat and 2000-2200 cals everyday. My dinners have been running late not sure if thats an issue but normally start at 8pm an finish at 9pm then breakfast starts 10am or 11.30 depending how hungry i am but my little one goes for a nap at 11 i like to try wait till he's asleep to eat in peace lol.

How have you been going? I also started worrying about milk in my morning coffee and also told myself I'd just have black from now on but after reading atomics response I'll try not to stress about tiny amounts of anything lol

[Emdy09]

Good to see you've had some type of bleeding that's a good sign i guess.
As far as what I'm eating its pretty much the same foods every day. I eat
Breakfast
Stir-fry vegetables with sour cream mixed in delicious by the way and I'll have a pitta bread or 2 and coffee with almond milk.
Lunch will be breakfast again or soup an 2 wholemeal bread again with coffee and almond milk or if I'm in a hurry i find two toasted pitta or wholemeal bread with peanut butter sooo delicious an good if your in a hurry.
Dinner is Stir-fry veg with a tin of sweet chilli chicken or tuna and brown rice an cheese or sour cream if i have protein an fat left over I'll have a cheese onion an tomato toasted sandwich with dinner aswel. I like to make dinner my biggest meal so i eat a ton for dinner. Then I'll have some sugar free ice-cream or Greek yoghurt with fruit if i have numbers to use up still. I finish my dinner with 1 or 2 vodkas or wine. Since my periods still haven't come back I'm very driven to hit 60 protein 60 fat and 2000-2200 cals everyday. My dinners have been running late not sure if thats an issue but normally start at 8pm an finish at 9pm then breakfast starts 10am or 11.30 depending how hungry i am but my little one goes for a nap at 11 i like to try wait till he's asleep to eat in peace lol.

How have you been going? I also started worrying about milk in my morning coffee and also told myself I'd just have black from now on but after reading atomics response I'll try not to stress about tiny amounts of anything lol

I have to be honest and say I’ve almost all but given up swaying. I just can’t do it anymore. There are still factors that were already there before I even started. I’m exercising the least I have in 18 months and not really watching what I eat or tracking. The only things that are consistent are no breakfast/long fast, coffee and some running still but no more than 1 hour at a time. My cycle is crazy and I’m never going to get pregnant this way

[Emdy09]

Ok, then if the cinnamon is a reasonable normal dietary intake carry on.

So think of it this way - going to black coffee is simply another way for you to be unnecessarily restrictive. You do not need black coffee. If you prefer it, that's fine, but I don't like the vibe where someone who has been too restrictive on diet is STILL looking for and finding things to restrict themselves on. Add the milk back in, I think it's fine to have that, and a little milk has not disrupted the fast for people. We virtually all had some sort of whitener in our coffee.

The good news is that a light period tells us what happened LAST month, not this one. Even if this is just a breakthrough bleed, it will still act as a reset on the cycle, kicking off a new one. Let's go for June/July!!!

So I got AF bang on time this month, but after 5 days of continuous spotting. Seems proper this time but also didn’t get pos opk again or any signs of it. We dtd twice over what would have tied into ovulation. So 13/15 days before AF.

I feel I am so done swaying. 4 months in and I’m fed up and unsure where to go now, suppose it’s my own fault for not listening to advice and postponing for so long. So realistically I’m more 17 months into it. I have no chance at a girl as it seems I have no chance at a baby! So I think we are just TTC with no sway. Some factors still stay as they were my life before such as fasting, veggie, coffee, running.

I went for bloods done last week to check testosterone, b12, iron, folate, sex binding hormone, Tyroid. Still waiting on results and just finding this process very frustrating

[Emdy09]

Bloods came back and I have abnormal prolactin levels, which seems to tie in. Not ovulating no period or irregular. Everything else is fine, guess I just need to work on my health for now and hopefully don’t sway too heavily boy

[atomic sagebrush]

So I got AF bang on time this month, but after 5 days of continuous spotting. Seems proper this time but also didn’t get pos opk again or any signs of it. We dtd twice over what would have tied into ovulation. So 13/15 days before AF.

I feel I am so done swaying. 4 months in and I’m fed up and unsure where to go now, suppose it’s my own fault for not listening to advice and postponing for so long. So realistically I’m more 17 months into it. I have no chance at a girl as it seems I have no chance at a baby! So I think we are just TTC with no sway. Some factors still stay as they were my life before such as fasting, veggie, coffee, running.

I went for bloods done last week to check testosterone, b12, iron, folate, sex binding hormone, Tyroid. Still waiting on results and just finding this process very frustrating

Well, keep in mind this is not a light switch, but a radio dial. It's totally possible to have a girl still even without that overly restrictive sway you were doing. Keep me posted and let me know how I can be of help.

[Emdy09]

Hi, just wanted to get your opinion on opk this month. It is the darkest it’s been in 3 months but not quite sure it’s positive? This was last week and we didn’t dtd. I was hoping it would get darker but it faded out the next day and we were in the middle of the most horrendous heatwave in the U.K. and run off our feet finishing up for school hols, so neither of us were feeling it! Let me know your thoughts please, hopefully my cycle is trying to get back up and running!

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[Emdy09]

Also to add next month the plan is to just do e4d as previously mentioned. I wasn’t dead set on this month as potential due date would have tied in with a close friends wedding. If we are thinking the opk was leaning toward positive it ties in to my usual positive at CD10. I don’t want to get too hopeful but I’ve had nothing but faint lines since TTC in April. So thinking to get in attempts CD9/CD12/CD15 next month to try and cover all bases.

[atomic sagebrush]

I would have had attempt rather than waiting for it to get darker. The % given on the apps are really meaningless, and that darker strip may actually have been positive (and counts as a positive) if it was. Plus, if you were hot, drinking extra water, could have made a test that was actually positive register as negative.

You can get pregnant from an attempt too early, but not one that is too late. It simply doesn't pay to wait for a true pos if you think it's possibly maybe going to come, because you can often end up missing the surge.

def. go to e4d then we don't need to worry about this sort of thing.