Vegan and we would love a daughter!!

[Shakti]

My husband and I have our hearts set on a daughter. I'm a vegan, which means that I eat no meat, fish, dairy, or eggs, though sometimes I will eat honey. My husband is a vegetarian and a huge coffee drinker. We both love our pastas and our curries.

I'm familiar with the timing methods, which we can of course use without altering. The dietary one however is a difficult one to navigate. Mainly we're curious about which vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, and legumes are good to load up on and to avoid, and if things such as tofu, coffee, and dark chocolate are more likely to sway girl or boy. I'm also a big herbal tea drinker, so info on how that affects things is always appreciated as well, though I'm happy to just drink raspberry leaf tea (which I've heard sways girl and helps with reproductive health) if need be. Other foods I consume enough of where they should be considered, and I haven't found any good solid info on which gender they sway, are quinoa, kale, ginger, many other spices, seaweed, dark chocolate, cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, and maple syrup. We also eat a lot of brown rice and wholemeal pasta, but are wondering if we should switch to the whiter varieties while trying to conceive.

As of right now, on the dietary front, I am thinking that the French Gender Diet, with rice milk substituted for cow's milk, is the way to go, as it requires little to no meat and fish anyway, and I can stay on it for a while if it takes a while to conceive. Though one thing we eat a lot of which it says is forbidden is tomato sauce. I know that the varieties sold in many countries have long ingredient lists, but we're in the Netherlands, and the tomato paste which we use LOTS of on our pasta has only 1 ingredient, tomatoes, so would this be OK to keep using? And am I on the right track with my idea of modified French Gender Diet? And are there any foods or supplements that would be good for my husband to take?

As for anything else that may affect the outcome I enjoy fitness, particularly yoga. I practice Ashtanga yoga 6 mornings per week, which I definitely need to maintain no matter what to keep my sanity, and I also do cycling for fitness most days, and the odd pilates or kickboxing class here and there.

Thanks for any help that you guys can give. We will let our child make their own choice about what she/he eats, I just don't want to compromise my principles concerning what goes in my mouth at any point.

[fish2012]

hi hun,

gosh you sound like a girl baby machine funny old world!

yes would switch to white rice and everything, count your protien perhaps you are getting lots and ditch the nuts I also know on french gender you should avoid pulses but not sure about on LE

I kinda think for everyone one variable is the important one, i think mine's diet cause i eat a boy boy diet, may be for you ph, cm or stress is more swaying or dh sperm count?

xx

[Shakti]

Oh, I read in one post about the French Gender Diet that walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts are OK as far as nuts go, nothing else. Though this was in another forum, and the most detailed summary of the French diet that I was able to Google. I would love it if someone could point me in the right direction of more detailed information on this diet. My English is fluent, though I doubt if I remember enough of the French I studied to be able to understand the original book!

Just curious as well how I sound like a girl baby machine, so I know what habits to keep up. I haven't measured mine or my husband's Ph yet, cm is a tough one to call because I'm still on anti-conception pills, and my stress levels do tend to be high.

We plan to start conceiving this coming March, so 7 months from now. Before I was on anti-conception, my periods were irregular. We know we definitely need to buy the ovulation predictor with the microscope, otherwise this could get expensive if we use the disposable ones. So either I go off the pill in March, use the microscope daily, and abstain on days where it looks like my body is getting ready to ovulate. Or I go off the pill a few months before, use a diaphragm as protection, chart my cycles, and hope that somehow my menstruation becomes regular again. And with the diet, I am incorporating elements of the girl diet right now and trying to minimize boy foods, then I'll switch to a strictly girl diet 3 months before we start conceiving.

Thanks again for your help!!

[Zivic-Bubac]

Hi and welcome!
As a vegan, you have higher chances for a girl
Im not an expert for pink sway, I wanted to ask you where did you find the info that raspberry leaf tea sways pink? I know it's a fertility enhancer as it helps with uterus lining etc. but I coudln't find anything about its pink effects?

The reason I'm asking is bcos I'm currently pg with failed sway (3rd girl) and I'm planning to drink RRL tea for my next blue sway in 2 years or so

[BabyGirl4Me]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I ate a vegan diet for years before I conceived my son. Just being vegan didn't get me the daughter I ache for so badly, so I'd suggest reading through the material on diet to conceive a girl very closely and following that, and perhaps adding a few supplements if you see fit. Stay away from avocados and foods that sway blue! I also ate a lot of tofu and soy meat alternatives so I think those foods sway blue for me and I think that's a big reason why I conceived a boy. I'm praying that I'm not gynxed and incapable of conceiving a girl...I guess time will tell when I do my sway. But being on that vegan diet makes me sooo afraid that may be the case for me.

Best of luck to you on getting your girl and kudos for choosing a healthy lifestyle that promotes kindness for animals and the planet.

[NCBeachyGrl]

I just wanted to add that the LE diet seems to be the biggest sway factor and that means eating no meat, low protein, low calorie, low fat, and low nutrient food, skipping breakfast, and only eating 2-3 meals a day. From what I have seen, eating vegan or vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean you are eating low protein, low nutrient foods as soy products, nuts, etc. contain a ton of protein!

Definitely dive into the all the research atomic has done and find a plan that works best for you! Good luck!!!!

[Shakti]

Thanks guys for your replies. I know being vegan makes a girl more likely, but definitely not guaranteed, plenty of vegans have conceived sons. We haven't conceived any children yet so can't really comment, but a daughter is very important to us for personal reasons, and chances are we're only going to have 2 children, so my husband made a good point that if we sway now, the chances are extremely low that we'll have no daughters after having 2 children.

There are plenty of items such as soya milk, bananas, avocados, salty food, orange juice, etc. which are vegan and sway boy, I've also heard that meat replacers are a big one as they're often high in protein and sodium.

As for raspberry leaf tea, I do remember seeing that on another forum, I can't remember offhand where though. I would like to know if there are any herbal teas I can have though, peppermint tea isn't so easy to find here in Holland, though I've never looked for it before. Mint tea however is very easy to find.

And vegan certainly doesn't equal low protein, as any vegan who has been asked the "Where do you get your protein?" question can attest to! I get the impression beans are out, and as the quinoa I asked about earlier is packed with protein, I get the impression that one is as well, but would love to know for sure. Also curious now about spicy food, something else that came to mind that I eat a lot of.

Another important variable that I've noticed as I lurk through these forums is that the health nut top notch organic food vegan lifestyle does tend to sway boy, while the more basic and maybe more unhealthy vegan lifestyle tends to sway girl.

Babygirl4me, congratulations yourself on choosing this lifestyle, it's very rewarding!! :-)

[Yuzu]

Isn't tofu high in protein as well? If so, it would definitely sway blue.

[Shakti]

Tofu is a soya product, which I know sways boy, but it's also a fermented food, which I've heard mixed reviews about.

[Shakti]

Just to update with the results of my research so far, I'm now thinking that a good short food list that I should definitely try to include regularly are frozen strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, apples, kiwis, white grapes, mushrooms, carrots, aubergine (aka eggplant), cooked tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, asparagus, capsicum (aka bell peppers), kale, any and all leafy greens that are also good for my sway (help????), rice, pasta, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts, strawberry jam, and any and all herbal teas that are good for my sway (again, help????? Very important, as herbal teas are something I practically live off of), and tons of rice milk.

There's also some other foods that I'm fond of that I can't figure out whether they're OK or not. Kale I'm still not 100% sure on, also quinoa, seaweed and other sea vegetables, lemon and lime juice, aniseed/licorice, coffee, dried cranberries, raisons, Thai curry paste, vinegar, yam (sweet potato), onion, corn, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, olive oil, and multigrain bread. Also, what herbs and spices tend to sway pink vs. blue? What are some other good vegetables to include? Does seitan sway pink or blue? Also, my husband and I have a tradition every Saturday where we make pancakes with flour, sugar, baking powder, rice milk, and sunflower oil, with our choice of fruit and maple syrup, is this a tradition we can still carry on with?

On the exercise front, I practice Ashtanga yoga 6 mornings per week first thing, and I do wish to carry on with this regardless of which way it sways. I plan on going for my yoga teacher training shortly after I have this baby, so I need to keep up my practice. I also have a gym membership, and I do group classes on most days, usually spinning, zumba, tae bo for cardio, and pilates or XCO for strength. I don't think XCO has spread that far outside of the Netherlands or Europe, yet, its basically a class that strengthens the core without bulking up. None of the strength training I do uses actual weights as resistance. If the weather is nice, I often take my bike for a long ride. My husband and I also try to go to the pool and swim laps together whenever we can. The group classes at my gym all go for 45 minutes each, where I read that 60 minutes of cardio 6-7 days per week is best, so would I also need to go straight to the treadmill after the class in order to make the 1 hour of cardio? That, or, Ashtanga yoga is often light cardio and all of my practices are at least 1 hour, so is that enough for my 60 minutes per day? Finally, should I cut any of the exercises I mentioned in this paragraph out when we're trying to conceive? Still trying to get my head around the best plan as far as exercise goes.

As far as the baby dance itself goes, my husband and I feel that we still want this sex to feel enjoyable and special considering what we're creating, not like a chore. So we'd rather try to have sex every day untill I'm 3 or so days away from ovulating than do anything that requires abstaining. I did read that hot baths or showers for the man do help for swaying pink, how true is that? If that is true, we could easily have a ritual of "warming up" in the bath or shower first before making love. :-)

Thanks again for you guys' help. As an interesting side note, my husband works in IT, and all of his collegues who have kids are men and have only daughters except for 2. Of course they're around computers all day, which boosts positive ions, and he says they drink LOTS of coffee, which I read raises estrogen, not such a good thing for the mothers to be who want girls, but definitely good for the fathers to be.

That, and we've been in love with the name Estella for our future daughter ever since we met, hopefully this will work to bring Estella into our lives....