This is my PCOS Success Story

I am astounded at the amount of effect diet can have on one's health. WomanCode changed my life, is changing my life.

At 9 DPO I broke down and took a pregnancy test and there is a faint positive.

It's super early days, about three weeks, so the miscarriage rate is still high but still. I have never been pregnant before. To even know that it is possible is a miracle.

I have PCOS and now because of diet my cycles are normal and I was able to get pregnant without interventions.

The only thing I did special this cycle was take the Musinex stuff to help improve my cervical fluid.

I'm still kind of in shock. Will be taking more tests in the coming days! I also have been working on a video diary.

Cycle Day 27

Well, here we are at last. Poised on the day before the end of a two week wait. Tomorrow will be day 28 of the cycle that started when I began this diet.

Of course not all women have a normal cycle of 28 days, so it could still be fine if I don't get my period for another week.

I'm trying so hard not to get my hopes up, but it's not working. I'm super anxious and hopeful that I'll see my period tomorrow. (Or that if I don't it means I'm pregnant!)

My temperatures have remained high (for me) and I've never seen that before. Every other time I've tracked my temp would go up about the right time and then a few days later crash back down. This is a good sign. Although now I'm worried about the batteries in the thermometer and if it is giving me an accurate reading. I guess it's just another example of me being afraid to be too hopeful.

In terms of eating I've been saving money this week and mostly making things from what I have on hand. I thought I had asparagus because it was in the freezer but when I went to make my asparagus meals I discovered that it had gone bad (I'd probably had those bags for a couple of years!)

So I haven't been eating the proper foods for this cycle, though I have still been eating healthy. I do have a pile of sweet potatoes in the pantry and that is a food for this cycle so I think I'll see what I can make with those for today.

Meal Plan & Progress

So we ended up not even getting to the meals Wednesday to Friday of last week. Even though I should be doing Luteal phase meals now I'm going to still do those plans from last week.

I think that I might have a totally normal cycle this time! I'm on day 22 and yesterday I felt deeply sad for no reason plus I have a little tiny bit of acne developing. These things suggest to me that I'm in PMS, which would be just about right for a "normal" 28 day cycle!

This cycle I tried to use ovulation sticks but I can never seem to get a clear understanding of what's happening with those things. I really need to go back to taking my temperature. I did it this morning so that's a start. I just feel frustrated that I can't instantly have the temperature history to know what this morning's number means but that's entirely my own fault.

I still feel my hope and my fear swinging wildly back and forth. One moment I feel full of hope that we're are finally close to getting pregnant and I'm fixing all our issues. Another moment I feel the familiar despair that it's never going to happen and it's too late for me. (It's not. I'm 33, which is old but not too old).

It's Mother's Day tomorrow and it feels like a punch in the gut. My customers want to wish me a happy Mother's Day and so are more likely to ask if I have children.

But anyway, if I do get a period next week that will be pretty amazing and a great sign that I am probably ovulating.

From last week:
Wednesday  Sunday
Breakfast: graham cracker
Lunch: rajma and brown rice
Snack: lara bar
Dinner: grilled asparagus

Thursday Monday
Breakfast: graham cracker with nut butter, applesauce, and strawberries
Lunch: quinoa kale bowl with mushroom and asparagus
Snack: trail mix
Dinner: asparagus leek and green onion soup

Friday Tuesday
Breakfast: graham cracker
Lunch: breakfast for lunch: sweet potato hash browns and coconut "bacon" flakes, vegan pancakes topped with strawberries
Snack: lara bar
Dinner: Savory Asparagus Crepes with Easy Vegan Hollandaise Sauce

New meals (Luteal)

Wednesday

Breakfast: pumpkin pie parfait

Lunch: orange cauliflower and brown rice

Snack: oven baked onion rings with chia seed breading 

Dinner: Sanctuary Salad (ranch style) (afr book)

Thursday

Breakfast:

Lunch: lettuce wrap tacos with fake beef crumbles

Snack: girl scout cookie lara bar

Dinner: carrot soup

Friday 

Breakfast:

Lunch: stir fry with whatever veggies are left and brown rice

Snack: vegan cookie dough blizzard

Dinner: yam and blackbean soup with orange (afr book)

Grocery List:

pumpkin puree

walnuts

molasses?

romaine lettuce

boca crumbles

peanuts

vegan chocolate chips?

cauliflower

radishes

sunflower sprouts

cherry tomatoes

extra firm silken tofu

dill

vegetable broth powder

onion flakes

orange juice

A nice short grocery list means I have the chance to buy some extras that I have good deals for. Like claritin and nature valley bars. Maybe I can even buy that raspberry bush this week!

Also with a few more pet purchases I should get the $7 back coupon that's advertised at Weis this month.

Meals this Weekend and Mood Changes

My Sunday meals did not get done at all since I didn't get all my grocery shopping done in time and we had a friend in town visiting. I ended up making the sweet potato hash browns with coconut bacon and vegan pancakes. I threw in an egg because we still have some to use up.

The pancakes were phenomenal. Very light and fluffy. Super easy to cook. I like them better than my standard pancake recipe.

The coconut bacon also turned out great. My husband says they taste like a mixture of coconut and bacon and he likes both those things.

The hashbrowns were not as much of a success. The idea of cooking them in a waffle iron sounded so awesome. But it did not work at all for me. Despite using up all the rest of my paper towels (I usually use cloth paper towels), I couldn't get enough moisture out.

This morning I woke up at 5:00 am to get lunch finished before my husband left at 7:15. I just barely made it! I'm really glad I got a new food processor because I used it for four different things this morning: bread dough, pesto, mousse, and diy lara bar.

This is portabello mushroom burger (marinated in balsamic) on whole wheat bun (actually mixed flours because I ran out part way through!) with a home roasted red pepper and homemade pesto. Avocado chocolate mousse (I forgot to add the strawberries for hubby's lunch!). And a homemade version of an apricot almond Lara bar.

I'm on day 17 of my cycle and my mood has been really bad. It feels like nothing is going right the last couple of days. I feel like sleeping until it's over. It's PMSy feelings but it's far too early to be getting PMS, I think. 

I'm recording it on my fertility tracking app and waiting to see what it might mean.

Meal Plan 5/3/15 to 5/9/15

As I use up the meat and eggs and milk that I have at home I am moving into the vegan change to my diet. I won't be buying more of the meat and dairy.

Also I should be in the ovulatory phase around now so I'm going to do those foods this week.

Sunday
Breakfast: brussle sprout sweet potato hash (minus the eggs)
Lunch: portabello mushroom burger with roasted red pepper and pesto Make these rolls
Snack: lara bar apricot almond
Dinner: strawberry spinach salad (afr book)

Monday
Breakfast: graham crackers with nut butter, apricots and chocolate chips
Lunch: quinoa with roasted red pepper sauce
Snack: avocado chocolate mousse with strawberries
Dinner: strawberry spinach salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: lara bar
Lunch: "b"lt with eggplant bacon and shaved brussle sprouts (afr)
Snack: almond apricot trail mix
Dinner: red pepper soup (afr)

Wednesday
Breakfast: graham cracker
Lunch: rajma and brown rice
Snack: lara bar
Dinner: grilled asparagus

Thursday
Breakfast: lara bar
Lunch: quinoa kale bowl with mushroom and asparagus
Snack: trail mix and mousse
Dinner: asparagus leek and green onion soup

Friday
Breakfast: graham cracker
Lunch: breakfast for lunch: sweet potato hash browns and coconut "bacon" flakes, vegan pancakes topped with strawberries
Snack: lara bar
Dinner: Savory Asparagus Crepes with Easy Vegan Hollandaise Sauce

Saturday LEFTOVERS
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snack:
Dinner:

Weis is selling raspberry bushes right now! I really want one. Even though I've never been a fan of berries. It seems like a great easy plant to have for a food garden. And I can learn to like raspberries (my husband already likes them). I have to see if I can fit it into my food budget.

Grocery List:

staples
olive oil

produce
brussle sprouts
sweet potato (4)
onions
portabello mushrooms
red bell peppers (6)
strawberries (bogo, so get two)
dates (whole foods?)
dried apricots
small eggplant
avocado (2)
baby bella mushrooms
asparagus
kale
carrots
spinach

other
pine nuts
almonds (whole foods)
quinoa
tahini
vital wheat gluten
nutritional yeast (get at Wegman's) 5.49 (or whole foods?)
liquid smoke
coconut flakes
vanilla extract
almond milk and soy milk (whole foods?)
agave nectar

Weis has many of the vegan friendly food options. I've been amazed by how many vegan and gluten-free options there are there! But I think Whole Foods may be cheaper for certain things. I also was not able to find nutritional yeast there.

Paying Attention to Poop

Gross out alert! I hate talking about poop. I hate thinking about poop. I don't want to know those details about anyone's life, even my own!

However.

It is an important way that we can know how our bodies are functioning. I have learned from WomanCode that higher levels of fiber are necessary for women with PCOS because when we don't eliminate often enough waste estrogen gets reabsorbed into our bodies (and I've seen that information confirmed with several PCOS experts). That makes our imbalance of hormones worse.

Since I don't like to think about these things, I haven't been paying any attention to how often I poop. I read somewhere once that everyone has their own schedule and there is no normal so not to worry if you go twice a day or once every other day.

But WomanCode explains that you should be using the bathroom within twenty minutes of getting out of bed in the morning with only the help of water (not coffee). You should go again in the afternoon.

Once I started paying attention for it I discovered that I was definitely constipated. I hadn't noticed because I didn't have any pain associated with it (I did when I was a pre-teen and had to go on suppositories for a while. Yuck!)

Even now that I've increased the amount of fiber I'm eating and taking Metamucil pills most days I still struggle to use the bathroom twice a day.

This is another way I'll be able to tell if the diet is working. It's one of the few daily signs that can be observed.

Meals 4/27/15 and 4/28/15

Breakfasts:
Oatmeal Bars
I don't like these very much. They're edible but I don't love them. I put some honey on them yesterday and that was a little better. But this morning I had an avocado with balsamic vinegar for breakfast.

My husband likes them, though, and he's impressed by how filling they are.

I also attempted the chia seed banana bread muffins. I didn't have arrowroot powder, though, so I just used corn starch. I probably should have looked up what conversion rate to use. They ended up pretty bad. Didn't really cook through. The glaze was good, though. I may try this again when I have all the right ingredients.

Snacks:
Trail Mix
Yum yum yum. This is tempting to eat every time I'm hungry. I mixed cashews, walnuts, craisins, raisins, and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips with some salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Good stuff but I need to make sure I'm snacking on enough fruits and veggies and not just nuts and bits of dried fruit.

Baby Food

This was a good suggestion. I got a great deal on these on-the-go applesauces (which are not billed as necessarily baby food but have the same concept as the baby pouches). The only issue for me is that I am sensitive to food texture and I don't like things that are too smooth. So rather than eat this straight from the pouch, I spread it on a graham cracker and sprinkled with raisins. Delicious!

Baked Fried Pickles

I love fried pickle chips so when I heard that you can make breading out of chia seeds I wanted to try it with pickles. 

It worked fairly well. Next time I'll use more oil for the pan and not try to put wax paper down (oven temp is so hot that the paper burned). The one side of the breading stuck to the paper pretty badly.

I tried some with just gelled chia seeds (mixing chia seeds with water and letting sit a few minutes) and others with a mix of that and flaxseed meal. The mix worked much better.

With a dollop of ranch dressing these were quite yummy.

Main Meals:

Carrot Noodles
I don't have a veggie spiralizer yet so I sliced the carrots with a mandolin slicer. The sauce is very flavorful and intense so it goes perfectly with some brown rice.

Egg Salad on whole wheat toast for lunch. I'm really going to miss egg salad a lot when I go vegan.

Caprese Salad with a homemade pesto using cashews in place of pine nuts. Regular salad on the side.

Meal Plan 4/26 to 5/2

Day One:
Breakfast: Basic Oatmeal Squares (with raisins and chocolate chips added)
Lunch: egg salad with relish
Snack: homemade trail mix featuring cashews
Dinner: caprese salad and cashew pesto

Day Two:
Breakfast: chia seed banana bread with nut butter
Lunch: stir fry with brown rice, carrots, broccoli, snap peas
Snack: baked fried pickles with chia seed breading
Dinner: carrot pasta with creamy zesty garlic sauce

Day Three:
Breakfast:
Lunch: egg salad
Snack: trail mix
Dinner: lima bean and sugar snap pea mint salad

Day Four:
Breakfast:
Lunch: stir fry with carrots, broccoli, and snap peas
Snack: deviled eggs
Dinner: avocado with balsamic vinegar

Day Five:
Breakfast:
Lunch: avocado almond butter sandwich
Snack:
Dinner: salad with artichoke hearts

Day Six:
Breakfast:
Lunch: dijon pork chops and sauteed broccoli
Snack:
Dinner: broccoli cheese soup

Day Seven:
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snack:
Dinner:

Grocery List:
lettuce
avocado
chia seeds
carrots
broccoli
brown rice
tomato
raw cashews
frozen baby lima beans
chocolate chips
(shallot)
(mint)
tahini
pickles

dog food

Meals 4/21

I was going to make carrot cake breakfast cookies but I forgot I needed bananas and I sent my husband to work with the last of them. So I made the cookies the next day. They are very moist with the mashed banana, applesauce, and fruits. I left out the pineapple. I'm not crazy about them but they are okay.

For lunch I did a pan fried chicken and crispy garlic broccoli. It was delicious! My only caution is watch out for the steam. That oven is super, super hot. I got a painful face full of steam.

I went to work with some rice crackers for a snack. I came home so exhausted that I couldn't stand the thought of cooking my dinner. I convinced my husband to make me "cream" of carrot soup (really milk of carrot soup). He had never made soup that wasn't in a can and he was really nervous, but I talked him through it from the living room and he delivered a delicious soup that was way better than what I would have finished with (I tend to cut corners a lot in recipes).

I didn't get a picture of that one but it was great.

Meals 4/20 & Super Simple Rajma Recipe

I had the cranberry breakfast cookies again.

For lunch I did rajma, which is an Indian dish of red kidney beans. I make a super simple version of it...

Rajma

• sautee onion, garlic
• once those are really sizzling, add a few diced canned tomato bits
• add a rinsed can of kidney beans and about a cup of water
• add sprinklings of turmeric, cumin, chili pepper to taste
• cook until a lot of the water cooks off
• serve with rice

For dinner I was supposed to do duck fat fries but I wasn't able to find duck at the grocery store either in the meat section or in the frozen section (pig's feet? yes. cow tongue? yes. gizzards? yes. duck? no.)

I ended up eating some tomato soup I had bought at work a few days ago and never finished. Then I made the cupcakes you saw in the last post. Happily that kept me from eating the mini cadbury eggs that my husband had!

When I told my friends that the avocado black bean brownies hadn't worked for me, one suggested this recipe, so I'll be giving it a try at some point: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2014/02/amazing-flour-less-brownies.html?m=1

We Have Blood!

Day 48 and I am officially in the menstruation phase. I may be the only woman trying to conceive who is thrilled about that, but I am.

That is shorter than the 60 to 90 day cycles I have been having (and many of those periods were brought on by outside forces like medication to force me to ovulate so they could check me for PCOS).

It is said that 28-35 is a normal length of cycle. But I'm pretty sure my friend who has two children has a cycle that's usually in the 38-40 day range.

Plus I only started the diet part way through this cycle. I'm pleased that I think I pegged where I was in my cycle pretty accurately based on emotional cues.

I'm not going to go back to taking my temperature quite yet. It stresses me out and makes me frustrated when it isn't what I want to see (it's very low all the time, never seems to rise).

I will see as I continue my diet how long my next cycle is. After a couple of cycles in the realm of normal then I will start taking my temperature and using the ovulation test strips that a friend sent me to see if having a period means that I'm ovulating.

Meal Plan Sun 4/19 to Sat 4/25

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

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!

Garden Update and Misc

Yesterday evening I created a great snack! I took a whole grain graham cracker and spread almond butter on it, then put some dark chocolate chips on and microwaved 30 seconds. I smeared the chocolate over the top and sprinkled on walnuts. Delicious and satisfying!

I tend to have super vivid dreams that are very realistic. I dream living my life: going to work, making dinner, playing with my dog, etc. Last night I dreamed that my period had started. I was so elated. Then I had to wake up.

It's a little weird to be elated about your period when you're trying to get pregnant, but for me seeing it would be a sign that I'm getting better and that I can actually ovulate. I'd like to have a few cycles that are in the realm of normal before we start trying to time sex again.

Anyway, I was going to tell you about my garden plans today!

I have two areogardens and I love, love, love, love, love them. It's the only kind of gardening I've done since I've lived in apartments since moving out of my parent's place fourteen years ago! Now I have a house and a yard and this is our first spring.

But I'm still using my areogardens!

I have one of them set up in my living room growing basil and flowers. The other is in my kitchen and I got a seed starter set for it.

This allows me to start my seeds indoors with all the benefits of the aerogarden and then transfer them outside once they are growing.

So the seeds are sprouting (well, the carrots and broccoli are. No sign of the bell peppers yet)

I've been hardening them off by moving the bowl outside for periods of time. I think they are ready to be planted.

Rather than dig in our yard and deal with a bunch of not very fertile soil, I bought a fabric "raised garden bed." All I have to do is lay out this round fabric and it becomes like a large pot. I will add a mixture of potting soil and the compost I've been working on since we moved into the house in October.

Tonight I'm getting the soil with a Home Depot gift card (thanks to MyPoints.com!) and then tomorrow I'll work on getting it set up and plant my very first garden!

Is It Working?

This is the big question.

I'm motivated to stick with this diet because of the hope it gives me that I might cure my pcos. The only indication I'll have that it's working is if I start getting my period more regularly. So I'm eating right as much as I can and I'm waiting and watching for my period.

I'm on day 41 of my cycle now. My last period was March 1st. I'm at the higher end of still a normal period if I were to get it today but my hope is fading fast. Normal cycles are usually between about 28 and 35 days. I saw some signs that it might be coming, like a lower than usual mood and some breaking out on my face. But it doesn't seem to be leading to anything.

Still, I've only been doing the diet a week so it will probably take more time to heal my body.

I have to keep at it for a few months and see the overall results.

I really hope this works. It helps me to feel like I'm doing something to help myself. I've gotten on medication for my low thyroid so the doctors are doing their part. And I pray, so the Gods are doing their part. But I want to be doing something too to move me in the right direction.

I have to keep at it even when I haven't seen any results yet.

Surviving Eating Out

We ate out a lot more this week then I expected to. We were visiting family and there were so many people to see. They all wanted to go out to lunch and dinner with us!

So I only ended up cooking two of my planned meals.

For the most part, though, I was able to make good choices!

Friday night we went to The Ninety-Nine, which I already told you about. I had grilled salmon with cole slaw and grilled asparagus.

Monday lunch we were at the mall and we got sushi. Pretty good choice, though there was white rice in it. I stayed away from my favorite deep fried rolls!

Monday night I had an epic fail. We went to my favorite Chinese restaurant from when I was a kid. I told myself I would get their shrimp with snow peas, which I love. But I was unable to resist the buffet and I loaded up on dumplings, lo mein, scallion pancakes, sweet and sour chicken, and then a sampling of all the desserts like puddings and brownies. Terrible.

I recovered Tuesday with a lunch cooked by my cousin: chickpea curry and aloo gobhi. There was potato but I ate mostly the cauliflower and curry. Also, she made brown rice instead of white just for me.

That evening we had snacks at a friend's house. She was supportive of my diet and put out apple, carrot sticks, and veggie chips.

After that we stopped for dinner on the ride home and we went to Applebees. I got a wedge salad and a cup of tomato soup. The dressing had plenty of fat but low on carbs! It had bacon pieces and roasted pecans. I was craving dessert so we shared a hot fudge sundae in a shot glass. That way I only ate a very little of the sugar.

Wednesday we went to lunch with my brother and his girlfriend. They took us to her favorite Mexican place. The tacos there could be ordered with a lettuce wrap instead of tortilla so I did that. They came with Mexican rice (which I love) but I asked if I could sub black beans for it. The waitress told me no and I resigned myself to eating the rice, but then when she brought the plates she had switched it for me! I was tempted to take a bite of my husband's rice but I resisted.

Then we got stuck in the rain in mid afternoon and ended up at a Starbucks. I almost told my husband to get me something bad for me like a cheesecake brownie, but I actually ended up getting the fruit and cheese box, which had apples, brie, nine-grain crackers, and a cranberry nut mixture. It was delicious and I felt good about my choices!

In the evening we had dinner with my sister- and brother-in-law. They took us to an Indian place. I got chicken tikka masala and instead of naan I got paratha, which is a whole wheat bread. I still had white rice and I wasn't supposed to have carbs at all for dinner, but I did what I could to stick with it.

Today, Thursday, we're heading home and back to an environment I can better control!

Meals 4/5/2015

Sunday April 5th, 2015

For breakfast I made creamy grits with poached eggs and asparagus. It was very mild. Grits are mild, asparagus is mild, egg is mild. We had some leftover smoked salmon so I had some of that with it. I don't think I'd make this one again.

For lunch I ended up eating some of a dish my uncle makes called Lazy Lasagna. It is noodles and ricotta cheese and sour cream. It's one of my favorite things. I need to check what the noodles were because I think they may have been egg noodles, which wouldn't be as bad for my diet as regular simple carb noodles.

For dinner I cooked my family "mac" and cheese where the noodles were replaced with baked butternut squash.

The recipe calls for one of those vegetable spiralizers but I didn't have one so I just sliced it up into little squares.

It turned out delicious but I think it would have been better and tasted a lot more like mac and cheese if I had used a spiralizer/zoodle maker. Will be making this again for sure!

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:

• 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)

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.

Meals 3/27/2015 to 3/29/15

My first week!

Here was the plan (Luteal phase):

Fri 3/27/15
Breakfast: Sweet potato with cottage cheese and rasins
Lunch: Lettuce wrap beef and brown rice tacos with turnip homefries
Snack: Hummus and rice crackers
Dinner: Cauliflower pizza

Sat 3/28/15
Breakfast: Sweet potato with cottage cheese and rasins
Lunch: Mini meatloafs and roasted parsnip
Snack: hummus and rice crackers
Dinner: Spinach salad with cucumber

Sun 3/29/15
Breakfast: Baked eggs in avocado
Lunch: Sweet potato pumpkin leek soup and broiled sesame cod
Snack: Green apple and almond butter
Dinner: Broccoli bites

So how did it go?

Day One:

I like sweet potatoes and I like cottage cheese and I like raisins, yet somehow this combination was disgusting. Perhaps it was the heat of the potato against the cold of the cheese that I didn't like. I don't know. But it meant that I pushed up the avocado breakfast by a day because I was not going to eat the sweet potato one again.

The tacos with romaine lettuce instead of a shell was delicious. I liked that a lot. I wasn't even missing the shell part at all. I put some brown rice in (I always disliked brown rice before but it turns out I wasn't cooking it right. Have to put in twice as much water and twice the cooking time of white rice!). I seasoned beef with taco seasoning and then I put shredded cheese on top. An excellent meal.

Brown rice redeems itself

For the snack, for some reason I couldn't find rice crackers at the store. So I got seed crackers from the gluten free section instead. They are really good! I ate them with hummus and cucumber and it was the perfect snack.

(I was at work over snack and dinner time so I packed one of my bento "laptop lunch boxes" I love these things! The mix and match inner containers fit into an outer lunch box shell.

Dinner was pizza made with pureed cauliflower as the crust. This is something I had seen on Pinterest for a while and I wanted to try it. I'm not sure how I like this. First off, I accidentally left the egg out so that may change my results significantly and I'll have to try it again. I also really need a new food processor because mine broke and I used our little blender for this. Not ideal!

It was soggier than it should have been (so hard to get all the water out!) and it tasted odd but not terrible. Definitely want to try again with the egg in the recipe.

Day Two:

Went for the baked avocado and I hated that too! I love avocado. And I love eggs. And look how gorgeous it turned out!

What should have been the perfect breakfast!

Yet it was awful. Maybe I should have used Haas instead. Florida avocados may be too sweet for this recipe. But I'm not willing to waste expensive avocado to try again.

Lunch was mini meatloafs which are an old stand-by in our house. I don't even remember where I got the recipe anymore. You just take beef, an egg, some breadcrumbs, and chopped onion and green bell pepper. Mix together and add to muffin tin. Bake until done and eat with ketchup. They are cute and yummy! This time to extend our beef I put grated carrot in as well and I used crushed gram crackers for the bread crumbs. Both added a sweetness that enhanced the meal. My husband and I both loved the update.

I roasted parsnips but then I was reading that parsnip may be just as starchy as regular potato so I don't know if it's the best choice.

Dinner was super simple (my husband ate the lunch meal for dinner, of course). I had leaf spinach with veggies and olive oil as dressing.

Day Three:

Having no more plans for breakfast ideas, I ate leftover mini meatloafs.

For lunch we had soup and fish. The soup was really good. Again I need a food processor! Unfortunately I discovered that I don't like cod very much. Even just the smell of it cooking was off-putting to me. My husband loved the meal but I don't think I'll be doing sesame crusted cod again.

Dinner was a similar situation. I made these cheesy broccoli fritters and my husband liked them while I didn't. They also had breadcrumbs which kind of ruined the "avoid carbs at dinner" rule. 

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Sunday I planned and grocery shopped and started a new meal plan for Monday. More on those meals next time!