Fertility Part 11

Today, Monday, is the beginning of another two-week cleanse (our fourth cycle). Two weeks ago we attended my aunt's wedding in Stinson Beach (Bay Area, Northern California), which I have written about in Fertility Part 10. One week ago, I attended my grandmother's funeral in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

For fitness, I've been trying to walk, bike and swim more than usual. At Stinson Beach, I tried boogie boarding for the first time. It was totally fun! I attended the Ride of Silence, honoring those who lost their lives due to cycling in the past year. I also participated in Bike to Work Day, even though I live really close to where I work. Normally, we participate in watching a stage of the Amgen Tour de California, but we just have too many other things going on right now. I haven't been doing much rollerskating, but maybe I'll go to Skateland for Adult Skate Practice tomorrow (10:30am).

It was a joy to be a part of these two important family events (wedding & funeral). I had not even unpacked from the wedding so it was no problem to pack very quickly and hop a flight to Nebraska for the funeral. It was tempting to eat in the airport restaurants, but I brought lots of food with me. On the way there, I had chicken and zucchini pesto and hard-boiled eggs. The hungover party animals in the Las Vegas airport were mystified when I pulled those out of my bag. On the way back, I had lentils and roasted root vegetables. I also had some dried peas and beef jerky.

It was hard to keep to the diet in the times of joy and sorrow, but we managed to celebrate Mother's Day with the most diverse and delicious buffet. My sister, Karly, made pulled pork and brought cocktail shrimp. My mom made a pear salad, Brussels sprouts and a celery salad. I brought a green arugula salad, lentils, roasted root vegetables. We had cole slaw and buns for people to eat the pulled pork as sandwiches and there were potato chips that nobody ate. For dessert, we ate sliced strawberries and yogurt with protein powder (for me) or Cool Whip (for everyone else) My sister, Steph, had just moved into a new house so it was good for her to just be there and enjoy the food and company. Cooking and baking are things we all learned from our mother and grandmother. 💓

Every day I was in Nebraska I had a smoothie, since my family was at one time on a NutriBullet kick, they each have one. I even thumbed through the NutriBullet recipe book for future reference. Lots of the smoothies on The IVF Diet follow the formula outlined in the NutriBullet nutrition plan. That's 50% greens, 50% fruit, some water, and a boost. The boosts include nuts, seeds and dried berries (superfood). I am so grateful to my family for taking this IVF diet seriously and making sure I had access to grocery stores and the tools and time to make what I needed to eat.

My parents even tried a high-protein pasta made with edamame. I thought it was good. It was definitely relaxing to be back in Nebraska. It was so much quieter than out here in California. I got lots of sleep (even though my FitBit died). I tried not to worry so much about losing weight and instead focused on spending quality time with family. In this time of hopefulness about the "AA" embryo, it is so wonderful to know that my family is 110% behind me and ready to help and support this fertility journey.

It also felt good to get back to California. It did take a few days to re-adjust. I got back on Wednesday. Immediately I went out for lunch with some of my female colleagues. It was nice to have some time to decompress and gossip a bit. Thursday I pretty much binge-watched Pose on Netflix. In the evening, we attended the candidate forum for LA city council district 12 at CSUN. Friday, we helped with the Chemistry & Biochemistry department graduation party. Saturday, my sister, Steph, came into town so we spent the day cooking and cleaning. I tried to finish my grading before she arrived so that I could go on some hiking and camping adventures with her and her boyfriend, Jeff. Unfortunately, it was not possible.

After sending Steph & Jeff on their hiking and camping adventure, we went to the Farmer's Market on Sunday morning. We found lots of great things including a European Sea Bass (Branzino). I had a bit of trouble removing the fins, but once baked it was pretty tasty. This morning I made another batch of Tumeric Seeded Bread. I decided that the one appliance we're missing (See Fertility Part 7 for the list) is a food dehydrator. I've been making kale chips and sweet potato chips in the oven, but they end up getting burned.

In conclusion, the IVF diet is working for me. My weight this morning was 195.5 pounds. I know that is still heavy, but sometimes when you get heavy, you start to think that there's no hope and nothing will work. I was tracking my calories with MyFitnessPal and attending HIIT workouts for a year and not losing weight. It was discouraging. But I am having success now that I've been following the IVF diet (loosely). I will admit I modify the diet plan to ensure that I am not getting more than 40% of my calories from carbohydrates and that I am getting more than 25% of my calories from protein.

Dear husband has come up with a system for pre-cutting the fruits and veggies. He finds this modular arrangement in the fridge to be less overwhelming. Another thing we have started doing is saving the containers from the commercial produce and refilling them with the loose items we get at the Farmer's Market. Hello Life Hack! And now, we wait for the next menstrual cycle to begin another round of hormones! As I stated in a previous post, my goal is to lose another 4 pounds before the embryo transfer (about 2 weeks from now).

Fertility Part 10

We have come through a full cycle from when we started The IVF Diet. We have done the two week cleanse entirely twice. I have had my second period after egg retrieval. Last weekend we attended a wedding in Marin County, north of San Francisco, on the coast. I thought it would be challenging to stick to the diet, but it was actually okay.

Sausalito, CA with Sister and Husband

Our hotel, the Fairfax Inn, was near a coffee shop, Coffee Roastery, which offered terrific smells as well as smoothies with an available protein boost. This was our breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. I felt that this was a good sign and that it would be good to trust the universe that the rest of the trip would be just as easy. Through this process, I am learning to let go, trust more, and worry less.

I brought with us some gluten-free baked goods, Nutella protein cookies (which we baked accidentally), sun-dried tomato oat crackers, turmeric seeded bread, and granola. On the drive up (6.5 hours) we had a super green flapjack bar, dried peas, almonds, hard boiled eggs, and beef jerky. I packed at least 3 liters of water, so we did stop about three times for bathroom breaks.

The first night was a BBQ, and I had a (bunless) turkey burger and a bratwurst. The second day, I had an open turkey sandwich on oat crackers. The second evening, I had a salmon salad with asparagus. I did eat a slice of wedding cake, but even doing so, my calories did not exceed 40% carbs. That day was very adventurous with lots of activity (wakeboarding, hiking, and dancing) which burned 3000 calories over 7.8 miles and 20,000 steps.

I read that the first period after egg retrieval is very painful, which it was for me, and the second period after egg retrieval comes very late. This was true for me also. My typical cycle length is 27 days but this past cycle (between the first and second period after egg retrieval) was 35 days. I had read that this is normal, not from my doctor, but probably on reddit, so I wasn't worried.

This post is for me to check in with myself. I feel sad because I have lost a bit of weight, but I am worried it will not be enough. A goal would be to get down to 191 pounds, to have a BMI less than 35. Hopefully, my sister will kick my butt into gear with her hiking adventures IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS and I can drop a few more pounds. Okay, 10 pounds is the goal.

We had a great tour of the Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. It was a fun and educational way to celebrate bike month. We also had a good time on the Blumenfield bike ride, which was on April 28th.

From what I read, again on reddit, the third period after egg retrieval is also late. So that may push things back a bit further. I am not really looking forward to hormone injections again. I am definitely afraid about the embryo transfer not working. But fear does not solve anything, so I am trying to stay focused on what I can do in the meantime (diet, exercise, weight loss) to create the best possible environment for success.