This is an older essay I wrote ages ago on Gender Dreaming, before I wrote the High Everything and Low Everything Diets. It was really more about blending the various gender swaying diets together into one big diet. It’s still helpful for those who really want to blend the old school diets with the HE Diet, but do be aware it’s much more restrictive and harder to stick to.
updated 10-5-22
The “Bulk Up for a Boy” diet – This is the best diet choice if you are naturally on the slim side and you want a son (remember, this is old school diet + HE principles)
Eat a lot, of everything – we‘re talking above 2200 calories a day and the more, the better. The “You Are What Your Mother Eats” study done at Oxford found that moms with the highest caloric intake had 24% more sons than those with the lowest caloric intake. High carb, high protein, high fat. Whole grains (we have since found mixed results using whole grains only, mix whole and white grains as you prefer) fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats, and as wide an array of nutrients as you can. Keep your blood sugar consistently elevated by eating three meals a day plus snacks, including protein at every meal.
Eggs and/or meat should be eaten every day, make sure they are well seasoned with salt. Not only is high salt intake part of the traditional ttc boy sway, but the Oxford study did find a correlation between high salt and boy births. UPDATE – in the 11 years since I wrote this essay, we have all but proven sodium is NOT swaying in the ways the mineral diets claim and most of us, both pink and blue swayers alike, have given this up. But if you want to blend the diets together, you’ll want to keep sodium in the mix.
Remember that old wives tale about eating sweets for girls? Well, the second part of the tale is, “Eat sours for boys.” And what are sours, exactly? Pickles – which, back in the days before Heinz pickling vinegar, were made by fermenting vegetables in salty brine.
Another fascinating old wives tale is, “More boys are born in the year after a good nut harvest.” Nuts are known to raise testosterone and also have a great balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrate that will keep your blood sugar nice and perfect for a long time after you eat them. Have an afternoon snack of nuts every day but don’t go overboard, since we have found too many vegetable based fats like those in nuts may sway blue. I ate nuts with my 3rd and 4th sons but I was eating a lot of other things too. Be sure you’re getting a higher percentage of fat from animal and saturated fats than you are vegetable fats.
Fish twice a week without fail. Salmon is best. No more than 2x a week due to risks of mercury.
I know this is not part of the traditional sway, but I believe you should eat full fat dairy and lots of it – enjoy whole milk, cheese on everything, and yogurt with berries for snacks. (I eat tons of dairy and I got three sons doing so, and got my 4th son from a failed IG sway where I was taking in massive amounts of calcium and Vit. D, and the Oxford study found that higher calcium intake = more boys. ) Update – we have found that women who drank the most milk replacers had significantly more blue sway opposites than those who didn’t. Keep the milk replacers to 2-3 times a week only. If you can’t do dairy then please get calcium and stuff from vegetables and supplements instead of milk replacers!
If you are very thin, I would not do cardio at all. Focus on lifting weights instead. (see below)
The “Slim Down for a Boy” diet – If you are a bit on the heavy side to start with and you don’t want to gain weight but would still like to have a son, it makes sense to try a modified Atkins diet approach. (remember, this is mixing old school and HE Diet principles) Try to eat as many calories as you can without gaining weight – at least 2200 calories a day. If you gain quickly drop to 2000-2200.
Eat 3 meals a day, with lots and lots of fruits, vegetables, and lean animal proteins, (well-salted, if you are trying to increase sodium) and fill in the gaps with small amounts of whole grains, nuts, and full fat dairy. Do NOT cut out carbs completely. Do NOT try and lose weight, because this will acidify you and shrink your muscle mass. If you really have a lot to lose, it would be best to lose the weight, take a break, and then regain a few pounds. Give it at least 6 weeks after having dieted for weight loss to give your blood sugar levels time to normalize before ttc.
While you are in the 2ww, you should be sure to keep your blood sugar level in the boy zone by eating frequent meals, and be sure to have carbs at every meal to keep your glucose levels high and ensure the development of your male blastocyst.
Also, exercise is extremely important for you – more so than in the other two ttc boy diet groups. Cardio will really help you to burn off some of the extra calories you will be consuming in the boy diet, so even though your weight will stay the same, you are getting those additional nutrients. And do not forgo the weight training – if you are building muscle, even if your weight stays exactly the same, you will be reducing your body fat. And muscle will also help burn more calories than fat does, even when you’re not exercising. (see below)
Update – we have found that women who drank the most milk replacers had significantly more blue sway opposites than those who didn’t. Keep the milk replacers to 2-3 times a week only. Plus, the carbs in milk replacers can really, really make it difficult to lose weight and also make it easy to gain more than you should. If you can’t do dairy then please get calcium and stuff from vegetables and supplements instead of milk replacers!
The “I’m a Vegetarian but I Want a Boy” diet – Continue your vegetarian diet, with an emphasis on dairy, eggs, beans, and nuts. Eat as wide an array of fruits and vegetables as possible. Limit your soy intake to no more than 2-3 a week (more about soy below). Aim for 2500 calories a day (yes, this is more than the other two diets). In the 2ww be sure to eat frequently and keep your blood sugar on the higher side!!
Again, if you are thin as many vegetarians are, do not do cardio. Be extra diligent about your weight training, however. (see below)
If you’re a vegetarian you will want to eat a lot of coconut oil since it’s the only vegetable based saturated fat that there is and it is probably excellent for your sway.
Update – we have found that women who drank the most milk replacers had significantly more blue sway opposites than those who didn’t. Keep the milk replacers to 2-3 times a week only. If you can’t do dairy then please get calcium and stuff from vegetables and supplements instead of milk replacers!
For all three TTC boy diets – The quality protein contained in nuts, eggs, dairy products, and meat should be eaten as often as you can. Fish is great but of course when we are ttc we should only eat it twice a week due to the mercury. Aim for 9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, in a rainbow of different colors – one way to help you remember how many servings you’ve had is to buy 9 cheap rubber bracelets at the dollar store, put them on your left arm when you wake up, and then every time you eat a serving, move a bracelet to your right arm. By bedtime, you should have all your bracelets on your right arm. Bananas are cheap and an excellent source of potassium, and I would definitely eat them every day if I was ttc a boy (they can make you gain weight though) I am also a big fan of V8 juice and I drank tons of it before I conceived DS 2 and 3, you can buy it in big packs at Costco and drink at least one a day.
You should be gaining at least a little weight as you conceive – but you don’t have to gain tons of weight. I suspect that 3-5 pounds of muscle mass will make all the difference – however, very thin people and vegetarians should gain more like 5-7 lbs of muscle before ttc, because they tend to have a bit less muscle mass to begin with. I don’t think you need to begin the weight gain until right before you ttc, but you should begin eating more quality protein and fruits and vegetables in the months before you begin to ttc. Do not gain more than 10-15 lbs anyone if you can at all help it. We have seen poor results with those who gained much more than 15 lbs.
In terms of supplements, take a prenatal vitamin, preferably one that includes minerals in the formulation, and of course your folic acid/folate. No megadoses or vitamins with herbal additions to them. I would also take extra Vitamin C, D, E and calcium (though I know that many people may choose not to take the calcium and D). There are also pills out there that include micronutrients like lutein, beta carotene, lycopene, etc. Although it is far, far better to get these micronutrients through your food, if you can’t eat 9 servings of fruits and vegetables, these types of supplements might be worth looking into. If you are a vegetarian, you should take extra Vitamin B12.
I would take the Enfamil Lipil DHA supplements or no more than 500 mg fish oil supplements. But be very careful, because these essential fatty acids can cause your blood to thin. NO evening primrose oil or flaxseed oil, we saw lots of opposites with these supplements and additionally flaxseed is proven unsafe when you are TTC and pregnant.
If you are taking baby aspirin (take only on doctor’s orders) or are at all prone to bleeding or heavy periods, take a smaller dose of fish oil (250) or use a DHA supp like Expecta.
About soy – many blue swayers are taking soy to increase their CM. I think this is a questionable practice. Not only does high intake of soy reduce testosterone levels (potentially swaying pink), but it may even cause birth defects in the genitals of baby boys. I think taking soy is so risky that I won’t even take soy to ttc pink. Soy is powerful stuff – I know we all think that they eat tons of it in Asia so it’s safe, but actually they don’t eat it every day. Soy is just one of many things included in the Asian diet, maybe with the frequency that we might eat hot dogs or tacos. Do not take soy supplements OR eat soy foods (you or DH!) more than 2-3 days a week.
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