Chinese Accupuncture

[alison29]

I love that feeling of smugness after having resisted a day of cravings for food its the best the hunger feels good kind of once you know you made it to bed and you know you won't fold and eat.

I love milk too! I drink the almond mostly but ate too much cheese over the holiday. It is hard to avoid when visiting family and cheese and crackers are the main appetizer alot. I am avoiding the milk to help skin though. I am so jealous when i see my family gussling large glasses of whole milk everyday.

 

[alison29]

IT's hard to say about the gluten thing. I have heard a lot of mainstream health people say the same thing as you heard. I have read (on the internet not sure what sites though) about gluten intolerance causing immune response in people who do not test celiacs positive. Some say could contribute to Fibromyalgia type pain, joint pain, fatigue, etc. I guess it's up to a person to decide what they believe. My friend says gluten flares her eczema (which is really bad i have seen it) and i don't think she tested for celiacs though. There is a ton of info out there. I thought was getting healthier from being gluten free (did not have cold for eight months!) Of couse once i told my mom about it I have had two colds with in a eight week period now.

 

[Briss]

alison, I know! I felt so proud of myself last night  silly but so true. I had cappuccino for breakfast, fish +veg for lunch and a tiny piece of choc. I guess this is it until tomorrow… not sure if I can hold it that long

I still cant figure out what triggered my skin breakout but I do not think it's milk, I am having spots in most unusual places like eyebrows, it's ridiculous. something triggered it cos it happened all of a sudden 2 days after my first Czech egg collection and just would not stop.

they actually said that going gluten free is a major change to your diet so you should really be careful. but I agree you usually know if gluten makes you feel bad or not. and definitely if you know that eating gluten causes your immune system to attack your body you should stay away from gluten. but I do not think it's true for many people. I love bread and it agrees with me so I think I should be OK. I would be careful about foods which are labelled gluten free to make sure they did not add some nasties in it. I know they do with fat free foods.

I should stop talking about food I am so hungry and I had lunch less than 2 hours ago!

getting annoyed with the Munich clinic, they still have not responded. I need to book my scans and bloods and generally be more certain what we are doing next.

 

[Vonn]

Briss--Way to go with the fresh start to the new year! My suggestion would be to not try too many new things all at once. On fasting days, I would not attempt strenuous exercise, at least not to begin with especially if you haven't been exercising regularly. You'll not have the energy (calories) to complete it and feel good. It will probably make your blood sugar plummet and you'll feel famished and cranky. Save the exercise for eating days. Yoga, tai chi, or stretching would be better on fasting days, I think.

The other thing that increases metabolic rate 24 hrs a day is strength training. Muscle is more efficient and burns calories at a higher rate than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn all day and all night--while sleeping, while eating, while watching tv. And women should not really worry about getting too bulky. It would take a lot of intense weight lifting for that to happen. Ladies, get some hand weights or milk jugs and do some lunges, squats, bicep curls, tricep extensions, ab work!

(I say all this with a huge caveat: I currently do not exercise at all. I used to be an athlete. Since my thyroid got bad any commitment to exercise went down the drain. Now it's so bad that if I attempt anything strenuous I get a terrible return of symptoms. I believe it is because my thyroid cannot oxygenate my blood quickly enough to keep up when I exercise. It's really depressing. And to make matters worse, my DH doesn't really get it. He thinks I just need to exercise more and shames me a little for it.)

 

[Vonn]

Also, re: gluten and gluten free. My dr wants me off gluten. She says wheat is not what it used to be and many humans would do better without gluten, even those who don't have as serious a problem as celiac.

At one appointment I said something about how bad most of the gluten free stuff I had tried was and my dr looked at me horrified. She said not to eat gluten free stuff/substitutes for gluten either because they are all full processed crap and are bad in other ways.

 

[Briss]

Vonn, you are right re exercise, I just needed a distraction from hunger if I just sat at home in front of the TV all evening I'd definitely find it harder not to eat but I am completely exhausted today. I need to find a way to do Yoga, I just find it so boring and hard that I just cant motivate myself to do it. aerobics is fun and you immediately get feel good hormones released so you are happy about doing it. with yoga I have no feel good hormones whatsoever, it's hard work and I get most of it wrong so terribly frustrating and as a result harder to stick to it. I have a library of fertility and other yoga dvds but I just could not do it long term.

strength training is a good option actually, I have arms and ankles weight I can put on and do some exercises. J Fonda again my favourite has a lot of this type of exercises that I can manage but probably tomorrow when I can eat a bit more.

I actually know how you feel re thyroid, my mum had a very serious case of undiagnosed underactive thyroid but everyone was telling her to stop complaining and just get some rest and feel happy. Even some doctors thought she was making it up. people just do not get it, really frustrating. she was incredibly skinny and very active and very quickly turned into size 18- 20 and had T4 at 0. I was threatened by the words hormones and thyroid from early on cos I could see the impact it made on my mum.

 

[alison29]

Briss have you tried any new hair or comestic products recently this could cause a breakout?

 

[alison29]

You are right Vonn the gluten replacements have more calories and less fiber than actual gluten bread has so it is really easy to pork up if eaten as replacement. I buy some every once in a while though.. Things like waffles or pancakes yum! But yes all carbs and no nutritional value. Eggs would be a better choice. I am a carb addict. All that stuff is straight to sugar in our bodies.

 

[threebirds]

Hi girls, every so often I pop in to catch up on this thread. Its so hard to know what to try / what works. I tried: various supplements (preferred mix was: zita west pregnancy tablets, zw dha omega tablets & zw vit d nasal spray), chinese acupuncture & herbs, fertility hypnotherapy & reflexology, gf diet, calorie counting & exercise (couch to 5k) - i was doing all of the above when i got preg for the 4th time / i was LTTTC and had 3 losses before that, as well as 2 icsi cycles. I honestly feel that all those things helped me get preg & stay preg that 4th time (at 40/41!).

My waters broke at 34 wks and I had a c section. After my baby was born the surgeon had some difficulty with my uterus. It was v thin & lacked muscle in places (surgeon said he'd seen 700 wombs but never came across anything like mine!). This was something that wouldnt have shown up in scans or got picked up in normal tests. It was only discovered at this stage - but it is likely this caused at least some of my losses and was also why it was hard for me to get preg. So after spending £1000s ttc it turns out I had a physical problem all along. However, I do actually think everything I was doing did help & make the difference and maybe gave me those slightly better odds that brought success.
I had a good google and think that the womb / uterus problem might be adenomyosis. I ended up needing blood transfusions and was quite poorly. But believe me I know how lucky I am to have my baby.

I really hope you don't mind me posting here - I just want to offer encouragement, especially when it is so hard to pinpoint why ttc isnt working. Don't give up xxx

 

[Briss]

threebirds, congratulations! I totally agree that when it does not work there must be a reason and in most cases we just do not know what this is. In our case I am pretty sure it's the sperm but I have exhausted everything I could think of to improve it. I have to hope that natural IVf will get us there. Have you had a lap as part of your TTC efforts? Could this pick up the thin uterus issue you think?

alison, that's a good point, I might have stopped my organic shampoo and moved back to herbal essences but just cant recall when exactly this happened. as an experiment I will go back to organic shampoo and see if this makes a difference.

afm, I survived yesterday but just about. still had a cucumber in the evening and several times licked a spoon with bits of raspberry preserve … still it all adds up to just over 500 calories which more than I wanted but it was just too hard. the good news is that after these two fasting days being allowed 1200-1300 calories seems like I can eat loads! still, I am saving most of my calorie allowance for the evening cos this is the hardest time. To my surprise I found drinking sparkling water was really helping with hunger despite being cold, while my usual hot herbal tea were just making me ever more starving. I guess hot drinks works better when you add a tiny bit of choc but since I was not allowed any it just did not cut it.

I lost about a kg since Sunday but of course I know it's not a real weight loss, just water but it's really nice to see that change and even though I know it's not real it still helps my motivation to carry on.

Could not do the stairs today I just do not feel my legs and cant even walk normally even though I did not do any exercise yesterday. Will see if I can manage any exercise today but probably not yet.

Munich finally responded so we can plan this cycle. I can already tell it's going to be far more expensive cos they want me to start scans from day 8 which means there will be more scans – more costs + they want 3 hormones traced and not two (+ progesterone) so again more costs.

 

[threebirds]

Thanks Briss, we had sperm problem too & had been told we had pretty much no chance of gettin preg without donor egg icsi - but somehow we managed it. Actually 2 of the 4 times i did get preg we had used diy turkey baster method (coz we just werent up to dtd every cycle on demand), using collection cup, oral syringe & preseed - that might have helped his swimmers...

We are not actually ttc, just tryin to throw in anything that might be helpful to others. I know how frustrating it is when you feel like you've tried everything but that its worth keeping going xx

 

[alison29]

Congrats 3 birds! I agree with that theory too that they just can't figure out what the problem is because maybe the disorder is not a text book case or the dr is not asking the right questions for diagnosis.

Briss , I recently went to the derm and used the cetaphil cleanser they recommend which gave me 5 inflamed acne lesions on my forhead where i never breakout I was so embarrassed to have anyone look at me..Now i use grapeseed oil with touch of castor oil to cleanse and spritz off with spring water (i think even a wash cloth would cause breakouts to my skin). UGH I guess my skin is super sensitive. I guess with our skin less is more (at our age) the places where i never do anything like my back have perfect skin. I have to take makeup off somehow though. I think the sunscreen moisturizer was breaking me out too.

 

[Juniperjules]

Hi girls! Sorry I haven't been in here since I last posted- have worked right thru Christmas & new year & also trying to clean & set up our new house were about to move into... I'm mentally and physically exhausted! But I just quickly read ur post Briss & wanted to mention a couple of things..

Your fast days can be back to back or totally separate- it's entireky up to you. EVERY female regardless of ur current weight can have up to 500 Cals a day- you CAN have less, even none if u choose to make it a comete fast- but the book says that up to 500 is fine for every woman, (600 for men).

Also it Is fine to exercise on a fast day. Infant Dr Mosley advocates for it based on the research he did. Obviously don't overdo it at first if it's been a while since you've exercised- but I actually like exercising on a fast day- I did a 20km bike ride last week on a fast day.

I also drink sparkling water in fast days bcos it's easier to drink that normal flat water & does fill u up. You'll find that after a few weeks, u won't feel as Hungary on fast days- like ur body/ brain gets used to it.

Am glad ur trying it out- 1/2kg a week is great when u still get to eat normally on other days. If u do it right u don't actualky even have to exercise, you'll still lose..exercise is a bonus!

Hopefully I'll get back in here asap.. Just a quick post..

 

[Juniperjules]

Ps.. Excuse the ridiculous spelling mistakes (ie 'Hungary')!! I've tried to correct but I keep getting error messages!

 

[Briss]

Juniperjules, thank you!

Thinking that I can do less than 500 was overly optimistic! but I am getting the point of having fast days – after being on 500 calories it seems like you can eat anything you want on a non fast day! I had lunch with fish/veg and dinner with grains and milk and lots of berries and some choc and did not even get to 1000 calories! and it was not hard and felt like I ate all I wanted. I think fasting days help you realise you can happily live on less food. obviously too early to make any conclusions we will see how I am doing in a couple of weeks. at the moment I am happily substituting choc with complex carbohydrates likes grains + whole milk in the evening. previously 50% of my diet came from choc and now it's down to 10-20%. I am happy that I can do that because it's obviously much better for the egg quality. still the strategy is to save most of my calorie intake for the evening as that's when I struggle most.

I was not able to exercise at all yesterday but I am feeling back to normal today, did my stairs and am hoping for some more aerobics in the evening.

 

[Vonn]

Briss--way to go! I hope this works for you so you can lose while still TTC.

Juniper--be good to yourself. TTC can be stressful enough & it sounds like you've got other stressors going on too!

Hi Alison, nobump, threebirds, and Blythe!

I had a crazy strong secondary estrogen surge this month, but at least my temp recovered this morning. I always have a noticeable temp drop 6-7 DPO, but the last two months have been extra low. Maybe related the ovidrel? It seems to keep my temp from jumping as high as it usually does & I know it does mess with temps. Since I'm into the second half of the TWW, of course I am starting to over-analyze. Rein it in, woman!

 

[Blythe]

Briss - i made these earlier today - they are my second batch and are really delicious. Im guessing probably not a low cal option but something to keep in mind....

https://justalittleorganic.com/2014/05/oh-glows-classic-glo-bars/

you mentioned shampoo earlier...this one is sold in H&B and is the best shampoo every...i also use the conditioner and notice my hair is much better for using it.

https://www.biggreensmile.com/produ...ecdNdjJ5uxxcWsBtNgba46Fqsa2DEk_jlUaAmU_8P8HAQ

Inspired by your posts i too brought some sparkling water today and you are absolutely right - it was very filling. A secret weapon on the war against fat!

I was reading an e-book on the tube this morning about being happy and was nodding away when reading about 'Defeating Faulty Thinking'...its all very obvious stuff but worth repeating. She speaks about "our thoughts being shaped by what we've been in the habit of thinking about in the past. The pathways in your brain become more established each time you go down them, and the ones you don't use fade away....Each time you think about something, you're reinforcing that path in your brain."

Obviously its difficult to be positive about TTC when trying for years but i am determined to stop my negative thoughts around it dead in their tracks and start really believing this will happen for me again. i even purchased a prenatal and i think i may stick with it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamin-Co...8&qid=1420743922&sr=8-2&keywords=prenatal+raw

Vonn - i stopped temping a few months ago as i remember the daily obsession about it. I was looking at your chart yesterday and thought it looked like a good implantation dip but you say you had similar dips in previous months...odd! Anyhow, having obsessed over others charts for so long there is sometime no rhyme nor reason and the craziest charts end up in BFP. I will be watching your chart with everything crossed for you

 

[alison29]

Blythe i can't hear the positive thought self help enough. I am listening to one now about how if a thought makes you feel bad then you need to reword your thought so that it brings on a positive emotion or relief.

e.g:bad feeling thought: my kids are driving me crazy, they never stop bickering at each others throats every day.

better thought: the bickering is allowing them to blow off steam, they don't seem bothered by it why should i be? No one is getting hurt, they will grow out of it.

 

[alison29]

My friend at work is having her IVF egg retrieval friday. There are 4 mature follcles. I thought this was very crap considering she has had four mature follicles at each IUI with a ton less medication. I guess they were trying to slow down one ovary and gave her (centrodide ?something like that a gonal f antagonist) sounds like they really screwed her over because there were 12 on one side and 4 on the other developing until that medication. I pray it works for her so bad.

 

[Briss]

Vonn, I like your chart! so hoping it's good news.

Blythe, they look really delicious! I opted for porridge for dinner, basically I got different grains and make myself various types of porridge like millet porridge every evening, it's a lot of calories between 350-400 per portion with 1/2 pint of whole milk but it's so filling and unlike chocolate your stomach had some good food in it so i am set for the evening and do not feel hungry. it's 10 pm and I did not even get to 1000 calories yet and i feel full.

I will try your shampoo, looks good! thank you.

On fasting days, sparkling water is definitely my friend from now on interestingly I somehow and not intentionally cut down most of my choc! It's amazing really I am down to something like 20 gm a day which is nothing. with no effort! it just happened on its own. something to do with these fasting days I think

I like your prenatal vits. i stocked up on solgar's

alison, I do not think cetrotide has any effect on follicle grown, it stops LH from surging (although it does not in my case). you start your cycle with lots of follicles but most will never grow even with stimulation but I agree it's strange that she got the same number of follicles on higher doses of stims.

afm, I was offered to spend a week in Egypt - business class all around and every expense paid and with not a lot of work but it's next week and i had to say no depressing and a very wrong career move but what else could i do, i need to be in London for scans and bloods and may need to fly to Munich on thursday/friday. i think the partner was a bit shocked I refused to go and asked why. I was not prepared to discuss it and mumbled something about appointment in Munich luckily he did not ask any more questions but it all does not look good. it;s not the first business trip I rejected in the last 2 years but this is the first time the trip was more like a reward than work.