If menstruation begins...
Day One:
Breakfast: I had such luck with pumpkin breakfast cookies, I'm going to try Cranberry Walnut Breakfast Cookies
Lunch: Wild rice pilaf with pork chops
Snack: buffalo cauliflower
Dinner: caprese salad (must use up some of my basil!) and black bean avocado brownies
Day Two:
Breakfast: toast with concord grape jelly and egg on the side
Lunch: rajma and wild rice
Snack: cheese crackers (made by cooking slices of cheese until crispy)
Dinner: Black bean soup and sweet potato flatbread and brownies
Day Three:
Breakfast: breakfast cookies
Lunch: I will attempt to imitate the amazing duck fat fries at Victoria's with sweet potato
Snack: deviled eggs
Dinner: mini pies with graham cracker crust and sugar free dessert pudding
I'm adding desserts to my dinners here because I know when I'm on my period I crave dessert a lot!
switching into follicular (may need to switch meals around based on work schedule and menstruation)
Day Four:
Breakfast: carrot cake breakfast cookies
Lunch: chicken with plum glaze
Snack: crispy garlic broccoli
Dinner: cream of carrot soup with sauteed broccoli
Day Five:
Breakfast: toast with avocado, cottage cheese on the side
Lunch: pan roasted chicken
Snack: deviled eggs
Dinner: spinach salad with artichoke hearts
(probably will have enough leftovers to cover the last couple of days. If not, will make more plans when closer)
Day Six:
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snack:
Dinner:
Day Seven:
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snack:
Dinner:
I was going to do a whole other meal plan for if my period doesn't start, but I'm getting really tired of the luteal foods and with the cramps last night, I have to count this as a change in cycle!
Grocery List:
wild rice
pork chops
duck
black beans
kidney beans
tomato
broccoli
sweet potato
avocado (2)
artichoke hearts can
spinach
bananas
dried cranberries
mozerella
parmesean
graham crackers
plum jam
apple sauce unsweetened
mild hot sauce
sugar free jello pudding
cocoa powder
eggs
heavy whipping cream
Showing posts with label alisa vitti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alisa vitti. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Grocery Shop Analysis
Just got back from the grocery store, let's see how I did!
I spent $53.20, which was higher than I wanted. But on the positive side, $50 is the threshold to get another ten gas points so I'm now up to 70 cents off per gallon next time we fill up. Also, more will come back to me from Savingstar.
$50 a week for the two of us is not terrible, but this trip didn't include any meat and so I don't think it's representative. A couple of things pushed the number up higher than I wanted. For example, I bought $10 worth of Redpack cans of tomato to get $3 back at Savingstar. I don't need those this week and that was a ton of diced tomatoes, but I do use canned tomato frequently and I always like to have it on hand.
My bread deal went through as I had hoped. Nature's Own 100% Wheat Bread was on sale for buy one/get one and I had two coupons (one for each loaf) for 55 cents, which doubled. $3.59 was the regular price ($7.18 for both) and I got two for $1.39! That is 0.69 cents EACH! I am SO happy with that one!
The cereal was good too. Would have been even better if it was on sale but oh well. It was $3.19 (I got a slightly smaller box which wasn't as good a unit price but it came with a Skylander's thing and no I don't have kids, but I love that game! lol). I had a Weis e-coupon for 50 cents, which I think may have doubled and I had a manufacturer's coupons for 50 cents, which doubled. I'll also get 50 cents back on Savingstar. So the box came down to 0.69 cents too (Or if the one didn't double it was $1.19)
I got the 18 count eggs which were a little on sale for $2.49 (usually $3.09) and I got a 25 cent employee discount because they were Weis brand eggs, so $2.24 for 18 eggs.
Two spaghetti squash and a basket of apples were expensive (though I had 75 cents off the apples with a store coupon) and so were a couple of yams that I forgot to put on my grocery list. Milk didn't have any deals on it. Slices of provolone cheese were expensive too. And the cauliflower.
I also decided to try using baby food pouches for snacks as suggested on FLOliving.com. They're easy carry packs and they're full of nutritious fruits and veggies! I got $1 off 4 Gerbers Graduates Grabbers but I still spent $5.76 on them ($1.44 each)
The only other thing was a tomato. I picked up the free Jiffy corn meal mix from Savingstar last night.
So I'm waiting on about $4 from Savingstar, which will make my total $49.20 (but if that had been my total in store I wouldn't have gotten the gas points!)
And I just realized that I forgot pepperoni. that could be expensive too.
And I just realized that I forgot pepperoni. that could be expensive too.
***
Now I'm cooking my bulgogi for lunch and I'm going to work on making the apple cheese snacks to pack in my lunchbox for work later (along with one of the baby food pouches and Waldorf salad)
Ramping Up To FLO Living
If you've read WomanCode, you may notice that my master meal plan list doesn't follow all the guidelines exactly.
I have started out with sorting meals by ingredient into the proper parts of the cycle. But that's just the first step. Over time I will refine and resort with other elements like type of cooking (certain cycle times are best for roasting and others for other types of cooking, for example).
Eventually I have to start whittling down the amount of cheese and dairy in the master meal plan.
It will take some months for me to build each element of FLO living into my perfect master meal plan list!
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Good Choices Eating Out
Arriving at my parent's place, we decided to go out to eat that night. It was the first time for me going to a restaurant since I started this diet last week.
Usually the "health" options on the menu are not very appealing. Who wants grilled chicken with vegetables? Not me, anyway. It doesn't get more boring than grilled chicken in my opinion.
But this restaurant had a grilled salmon and that was a whole different story!
I happily ordered salmon with asparagus and grilled tomatoes and switched the broccoli side for cole slaw (I like broccoli but only cooked particular ways and I rarely like it at restaurants).
I avoided potato, breading, and we didn't have dessert. Though we did eat some dark chocolate cookies at home.
So that was a pretty good success!
The next day was a brunch and pot luck event. I didn't do quite as well there. Had some brownies. But for the most part I made good choices like wheat toast with almond butter and apricot jelly.
So far for this week we have the following meals planned that I'll cook for my family:
Usually the "health" options on the menu are not very appealing. Who wants grilled chicken with vegetables? Not me, anyway. It doesn't get more boring than grilled chicken in my opinion.
But this restaurant had a grilled salmon and that was a whole different story!
I happily ordered salmon with asparagus and grilled tomatoes and switched the broccoli side for cole slaw (I like broccoli but only cooked particular ways and I rarely like it at restaurants).
I avoided potato, breading, and we didn't have dessert. Though we did eat some dark chocolate cookies at home.
So that was a pretty good success!
The next day was a brunch and pot luck event. I didn't do quite as well there. Had some brownies. But for the most part I made good choices like wheat toast with almond butter and apricot jelly.
So far for this week we have the following meals planned that I'll cook for my family:
- Creamy grits with asparagus and poached egg
- Spaghetti squash with regular pasta sauce (my parents were curious to try the spaghetti squash)
- Butternut squash zoodle mac and cheese (I don't have a zoodle machine so I'll just be cutting small pieces of squash to be the macaroni noodles)
- sweet potato falafel (falafel is one of my dad's favorite foods)
- almond crusted chicken tenders (still need to get ingredients for this one)
Friday, April 3, 2015
What Happens If I Change Phases Mid-Week?
Since our meal plans are built around where we are in our cycles, what do we do if our cycle phase shifts while we're in the middle of a week?
I'm back to taking my temperature to get a baseline even though it doesn't currently tell me much about where I am in my cycle yet. Eventually I'll have more warning about when I am likely to switch phases (and exactly where the elusive Ovulation phase is). If this diet works, anyway. I expect to see my temperature charts make more and more sense as I eat with these principles.
In the mean time the only thing that will switch my meal plan for me is if I start menstruating.
Since that's only about three or maybe four days for me, what I will probably do is put the current meal plan on hold and freeze/store whatever I can for the next time I'm in Luteal phase. Then I'd make a quick meal plan and get to the grocery store that day (pretty convenient for me since I work at a grocery store!) Whatever I can't store for later I'll try to work into the new meal plan.
I'm back to taking my temperature to get a baseline even though it doesn't currently tell me much about where I am in my cycle yet. Eventually I'll have more warning about when I am likely to switch phases (and exactly where the elusive Ovulation phase is). If this diet works, anyway. I expect to see my temperature charts make more and more sense as I eat with these principles.
In the mean time the only thing that will switch my meal plan for me is if I start menstruating.
Since that's only about three or maybe four days for me, what I will probably do is put the current meal plan on hold and freeze/store whatever I can for the next time I'm in Luteal phase. Then I'd make a quick meal plan and get to the grocery store that day (pretty convenient for me since I work at a grocery store!) Whatever I can't store for later I'll try to work into the new meal plan.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Getting Started
Some basic principles for your diet from WomanCode:
There is a fantastic chart in the book that has a breakdown of each of the four phases of your cycle and what kinds of foods are best. It's divided by grains, fruits, meats, seafoods, etc. I have the Kindle version and the chart was hard to read for me. This may be a good reason to get the print version and copy the page for reference.
What I did to make meal planning easy for myself in the future is that I created a spreadsheet with a master meal plan list.
I have sections for each of my cycle's four phases and columns for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Then I started picking ingredients from the book's list and looking up recipes for them on Pinterest and Google. When I found a recipe that sounded/looked delicious and matched the principles, I added it to my master spreadsheet.
So now when I need to meal plan for the week I can look at what phase I'm in and pick meals from that section of my master meal plan sheet.
There's just one little problem with my system...I don't know what phase of my cycle I'm in!
This is one of the challenges of PCOS. I have about three periods a year at most. My temperature doesn't tell me anything useful (I learned how to monitor my temperature for signs of ovulation from the classic Taking Charge of Your Fertility, which is a must read for every woman whether she wants children or not!)
So where do I start? I decided that I'm probably/possibly in the Luteal phase because I'm experiencing intense nesting urges and I'm doing more cleaning and organizing than I have all year! Although that could also be that the weather is finally turning spring-like after an intense winter.
It's all I have to go on unless I want to wait possibly six to nine months to get another period and know for certain I'm in the Menstrual phase. So I'll start there and see how it goes.
I've been on the diet plan for one week so far and next time I'll give you a summary of my meals for this past week!
- Only complex carbs and natural sugars
- Avoid all carbs and sugars for dinner
- Make lunch the largest meal of the day
- Focus on protein for breakfast
There is a fantastic chart in the book that has a breakdown of each of the four phases of your cycle and what kinds of foods are best. It's divided by grains, fruits, meats, seafoods, etc. I have the Kindle version and the chart was hard to read for me. This may be a good reason to get the print version and copy the page for reference.
What I did to make meal planning easy for myself in the future is that I created a spreadsheet with a master meal plan list.
I have sections for each of my cycle's four phases and columns for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Then I started picking ingredients from the book's list and looking up recipes for them on Pinterest and Google. When I found a recipe that sounded/looked delicious and matched the principles, I added it to my master spreadsheet.
So now when I need to meal plan for the week I can look at what phase I'm in and pick meals from that section of my master meal plan sheet.
There's just one little problem with my system...I don't know what phase of my cycle I'm in!
This is one of the challenges of PCOS. I have about three periods a year at most. My temperature doesn't tell me anything useful (I learned how to monitor my temperature for signs of ovulation from the classic Taking Charge of Your Fertility, which is a must read for every woman whether she wants children or not!)
So where do I start? I decided that I'm probably/possibly in the Luteal phase because I'm experiencing intense nesting urges and I'm doing more cleaning and organizing than I have all year! Although that could also be that the weather is finally turning spring-like after an intense winter.
It's all I have to go on unless I want to wait possibly six to nine months to get another period and know for certain I'm in the Menstrual phase. So I'll start there and see how it goes.
I've been on the diet plan for one week so far and next time I'll give you a summary of my meals for this past week!
Monday, March 30, 2015
What is FLO Living and Can It Cure PCOS?
Welcome! I'm Carolyn and I created this blog mainly to document my meal plans as I rework my diet to the principles found in the book WomanCode by Alisa Vitti.
WomanCode was recommended to me by a friend because we both have PCOS (polycystic overaian syndrome), a leading cause of infertility. While she was able to quickly conceive naturally and recently gave birth to a lovely girl, my husband and I have been trying to conceive for two years without luck.
PCOS has caused my cycles to be very unpredictable and at this point I may not be ovulating at all. The author of the book also has PCOS but got the symptoms under control and a regular cycle back by eating to support the endocrine system.
At first I was reluctant to buy the book but then I realized that I was looking at having to spend thousands of dollars on infertility treatments, so why not spend $10 first and give this diet a try?
Besides, it also helps regulate blood sugar and PCOS has links to diabetes. I'm dangerously close to pre-diabetes at this point and getting my blood sugar levels under control is important no matter what else is going on in my life.
Ms. Vitti calls her method FLO Living and has a website and a consultation service as well as the book.
She teaches us how to not only get our nutrition on track but also how we can support our body with different types of foods and nutrients at different points in our cycle to keep our hormones balanced.
I will be creating meal plans for myself each week based on where I am in my cycle and what foods Ms. Vitti recommends. I'll post pictures, recipes, and results for each meal.
Along with that I will also have posts about home improvement, DIY, and suburban homesteading. We just bought our house five months ago so we're just starting out on all these things but homesteading has been my dream since long before I knew the word for it!
WomanCode was recommended to me by a friend because we both have PCOS (polycystic overaian syndrome), a leading cause of infertility. While she was able to quickly conceive naturally and recently gave birth to a lovely girl, my husband and I have been trying to conceive for two years without luck.
PCOS has caused my cycles to be very unpredictable and at this point I may not be ovulating at all. The author of the book also has PCOS but got the symptoms under control and a regular cycle back by eating to support the endocrine system.
At first I was reluctant to buy the book but then I realized that I was looking at having to spend thousands of dollars on infertility treatments, so why not spend $10 first and give this diet a try?
Besides, it also helps regulate blood sugar and PCOS has links to diabetes. I'm dangerously close to pre-diabetes at this point and getting my blood sugar levels under control is important no matter what else is going on in my life.
Ms. Vitti calls her method FLO Living and has a website and a consultation service as well as the book.
She teaches us how to not only get our nutrition on track but also how we can support our body with different types of foods and nutrients at different points in our cycle to keep our hormones balanced.
I will be creating meal plans for myself each week based on where I am in my cycle and what foods Ms. Vitti recommends. I'll post pictures, recipes, and results for each meal.
Along with that I will also have posts about home improvement, DIY, and suburban homesteading. We just bought our house five months ago so we're just starting out on all these things but homesteading has been my dream since long before I knew the word for it!
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