Can't Sleep...

No word from me for days and then you can't get rid of me. Everyone is asleep here and I'm still up playing around on a TTC site and Google. I forgot to mention earlier that I'm giving organic coconut oil a try in place of Pre-Seed this month. It's so much cheaper and it seems like a lot of people have had success with it. Maybe I will as well? One can hope.

Right?

I've been trying really hard to switch to a cleaner lifestyle. I've done really well with eating only fruits, veggies, and seafood. That's great, but I really need to try to make the switch to all organic foods. We have a Whole Foods about 20 minutes away that I'm hoping I can start going to at least a couple of times a month. I've never been there but I'm hoping they have better deals on organic than Kroger or Meijer.

I already make my own laundry detergent, household cleaners, and I only use baking soda and vinegar for washing my hair. I also traded in my body wash for Yardley soap since it has no sulfates. And I only eat processed foods on very rare occasions now. Organics are long overdue. 

What The Duck??

Sooooo, I just realized that I'm working on cycle 30 of hardcore active ttc. I've been keeping track of months and years. Two and a half years of active and seven years of not preventing. Is this even real? How can it even be possible? Only six more cycles and I'll be at the three year mark, and about 4 of those cycles will be a forced break.

This sucks...

CD 14 & Zucchini Noodle Spaghetti Dinner

Traveling the same old road, in a whole new way. 

I may not be able to get off this road of infertility, but that doesn't mean I can't change the way I travel down it. I've been trying to maintain an endo friendly diet for several months now with success. I gave Vitex a try, but I ended up not keeping up with it due to the excessive spotting it caused before AF. Now, I've decided to forgo all tracking on my BBT chart.

I can't remember that last cycle I've had where I didn't stress during the entire two week wait about how imperfect my BD attempts were. So, I decided not to track it. I won't be temping this month either. If I don't know exactly what days we've BD, and exactly when I O'd I can't stress over it. Right? Makes sense to me. I've been doing my best to not even look at my chart to see what day I'm on for the past several days. I knew if I did I would just memorize what days we BD and guesstimate my O date. This would only lead to me stressing about the exact same thing I'm trying not to stress about.

It's crazy, I know, but so far it seems to be working. I'm on cd 14 and I've not worried over my BD schedule once.

I found a loaf of garlic bread from the bakery marked down at the store the other day. I wanted to fix it for the family before it went bad. For the hubby and daughter I made regular pasta noodled spaghetti with garlic bread and a baked potato. For myself I made yummy yummy zucchini noodles with veggie pasta sauce and a baked potato. I ended up having to slice up another zucchini for seconds. It was amazing! And it was so simple...

Zucchini Spaghetti

Traditional Spaghetti Sauce

Diced Onion

Diced Bell Peppers

Grape Tomatoes

1-2 Zucchini

**I used my spiral slicer to cut the zucchini into noodle form. I put it on a pan and broiled it until the small pieces began to brown. This gets out a lot of the water so it doesn't make your meal a soppy mess. For the veggie sauce I just cooked grape tomatoes, diced bell peppers, and onion in olive oil. I seasoned it with salt and pepper. Once the veggies were tender I poured on the sauce. I did add crushed red pepper to mine once I had it plated up.

The sister-in-law brought me this awesome drink jug for my birthday. I fill it up with water and try to drink at least half of it a day.I like to juice lemons, and sometimes limes, and add that to it. It's a lot of water, but I've been making it so far.

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised I'm sticking with this healthy eating as well as I am. I told some friends the other day, even if I don't get pregnant as a result of my health changes, at least I'll be healthier. I've not been happy with my body since becoming pregnant over 10 years ago, and now I feel like I can change that, for good.

Of course, I'm hoping my efforts result in #2. Sooner rather than later.

Catch Up & A Smoothie

This is from a few days ago, but I never got a chance to post it. The daughter's birthday was just a few days ago and things got pretty crazy as we tried to prepare, host, and clean up a party. It turned out great! We had a Minecraft pool party. It was her 10th birthday, no more single digits!, so the hubby and I really put some work into this one.

Anywho...

On the day of her birthday I always fix whatever she wants to eat for all of her meals. For breakfast she wanted a smoothie. I ended up making a banana, berry mix, spinach, coconut milk, and chia seed smoothie. At first I didn't make enough for myself, but after tasting it I had to make more. It was super yummy!

And while the daughter enjoyed a nice steaming plate of french toast drizzled in sugary syrup and scrambled eggs, I had a sensible bowl of chopped apple topped with cinnamon, honey, and almonds along with an avocado seasoned with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Yep. Sticking to my endo friendly foods. And I'm so close to being out of the 180s for it!

I wish that I could just take a peek inside my abdomen and see what my endo is doing. I'm still doing well at managing my pain. Still have yet to feel like I'm going to pass out or throw up. My hope of having an HSG in April isn't looking so hot anymore. We had to push back surgery for the daughter because she caught a cold within the 6 week period before surgery. It really sucks, but I guess I get another cycle to TTC before I have to leave.

Not sure if that's good or bad?

Happy Breakfast & Dinner Last Night

Before I wake up the daughter, at 11:30!?!, I figured I'd go ahead and do another post. I really want to share what I had for dinner last night. It was so yummy :) Above is a picture of my brunch. I woke up several hours ago but got busy getting some cleaning done and updating this blog while she's asleep. I just had breakfast a minute ago. I know I shouldn't do that, but I do from time to time. I'll have to make sure I snack often today so I don't binge tonight.

On to dinner! Excuse the poor picture quality. I snapped a quick picture last night and devoured my food before I realized the picture was blurry. We had sweet potatoes, I put honey and cinnamon on mine, steamed broccoli with salt and pepper, and Old Bay seasoned salmon. I was kind of iffy on the salmon since the last time I fixed it I found it to be disgusting. However, after last night I'm pretty positive it was the lemon pepper I seasoned it with. I may be having this again tonight. It took about 11-12 minutes from frozen under the broiler on high.

I never would have guessed that eating endo friendly could be so tasty :)

Catch Up From Yesterday

I know I've been MIA, but I promise that I've been doing really good while away. My pain levels during this past AF were dramatically reduced again. I was able to manage what cramps I did have with generic ibuprofen. Not once did I feel like I was going to pass out or throw up. Also, I joined a support group on Facebook and decided to ask how many others had problems with passing out or throwing up. At first I thought there were none by the lack of responses, but then a few girls commented to let me know that they to suffered from the same problem. It feels so good to know that I'm not alone. It's never happened but one of my biggest fears is passing out or throwing up while using a public restroom. One girl suggested it could be Vasovagal Synscope.

I don't plan on rushing out to the doctor to find out because those pretty little green babies above are helping me control it! I only recently discovered my love for plain avocado. I've always loved guac, but for whatever reason I'd never tried an avocado. Now, however, I can't seem to keep them in the house!

This week has been a chili week. Mostly I have it for lunch and sometimes after dinner. It works out to keep me from munching on some snacky food with the hubby. Despite that and not counting calories I'm still losing weight. This morning I actually weighed in at 184.5. I can't believe how close to the 170s I am! I've been trying to add in a little exercise to help bust this fat. Fat is terrible for increasing estrogen, which I have been so blessed to have an overabundance of. Yippy.

This was my breakfast from the other day. I cooked kale, grape tomatoes, and jalapenos before adding in one egg. Eggs are supposed to be a no-no food for endo but I've found that it doesn't really affect me. I'm pretty sure that dairy is the worst for me. I react to that stuff almost immediately. I typically start swelling within 15 minutes of eating even the smallest amount of dairy.

Universe, please let my tubes and ovaries be clear of evil endo. Thanks.

I'm Still Here!

I'm still here!

Sorry I went MIA for so long. After my last post the hubby and I decided on a new couch and love seat for our Christmas. Once we got it we decided it was too pretty to just toss into our living room. So, we painted. In one weekend. Without stopping. It sucked! But we got it done. Pay no mind to the carpet, the smidgen of kitchen, and the wooden door. We'll get to that later.

Quick update...

AF came. yay. I'm on cd 4 of a new cycle. Both the hubby and the daughter ended up catching a cold so the daughters surgery is going to be rescheduled for around the middle of February. It's terrible, I know, but I immediately check the calendar to see if I would get an extra cycle. On one hand I was exciting to get another cycle to try before a forced break, but on the other hand I was kind of looking forward to the forced break. I think I need it emotionally and mentally. Desperately.

I do have some good news. I've been eating pretty well for the most part and I'm keeping my weight down. As of this morning I weighed in at 186.5. I'm beginning to think that dairy is the worst food for me. I swell up like crazy with that stuff.

Anywho...Looking forward to getting back to updating.