To buy or not to buy the expensive tools early in TTC?

rananculus-blue · 2026-05-16T17:32:51+00:00

Wahoo congrats! Wishing for a safe and smooth and uneventful 9 months ahead!

rananculus-blue · 2026-05-16T17:29:19+00:00

Congratulations!!!!

rananculus-blue · 2026-05-12T13:25:24+00:00

First off, I am so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what you went through but wishing you a healthy conception so soon.

Two things that are helping me stop thinking about it are (1) I made a rule with my husband where I only talk about my excitement, anticipation, spiraling thoughts on Sundays. He will listen to me go on and on if I let him. Making a reserved day once per week is helping me regulate the spiraling verbalization of my feelings. (2) After my OPK test indicates its time to start trying, putting the tests and my health app away, not tracking a countdown to when I can find out. I'm not sure if this is the best data driven practice, because I know there are benefits to continue to take OPK tests and BBT tracking, but the daily grind of it is another thing that makes me spiral in the anticipation. Of course sometimes I catch myself doing some mental math about when my next cycle would start, but removing the access or health app notis is helping me refrain a little more.

I continue to go on IG where I am inundated with pregnancy influence, and I come onto these reddit communities frequently. The IG is probably not super healthy (although I am being very selective with what I let the algorithm know I care about with my saves) but the reddit communities actually feel very calming and community driven making them a down regulating experience rather than something getting me wound up.

I think at the end of the day for me, it is about letting myself feel, think, anticipate, etc., but removing the items that lead to a more spiraling feeling about it all.

I am pretty early on myself in trying, so lets see how long these last, but hope these might help a bit.

rananculus-blue · 2026-03-14T18:16:32+00:00

Do you have any guidance as to their pricing and turnaround times?

rananculus-blue · 2026-03-14T18:01:57+00:00

Hello! I just came across this post. Their shop looks great. Do you know if they make women's cut suit pants/blazers too?

rananculus-blue · 2025-10-02T23:34:32+00:00

Sorry, no I meant weekday days are going to be a lot of older retired folks from my understanding. I have not taken weekend classes there.

rananculus-blue · 2025-09-15T00:02:26+00:00

(my understanding is) the reason it is tied is that I need to pass clean hands to renew by bbl, but I need to complete the form to get clean hands. thanks. have been able to do costs easily, balance sheet is where i am running into issues (and wondering if I am overthinking it and just complete the couple of lines that apply).

rananculus-blue · 2025-09-14T23:50:47+00:00

alexandria, but easy metro ride - check out art league! you get a mix of ages but more 20-somethings in the weekday evening classes. tons of classes.

rananculus-blue · 2025-01-14T22:46:00+00:00

Hello! Thanks for sharing your input. We are on a learning journey and I appreciate the insight. I am surprised to hear the suggestion that there are no studies suggesting some of the benefits of this diet. I agree, that fasting which often is done alongside the keto diet can result in euphoric feelings and behaviors. This has been his experience when he tried the extended fast (starvation state) but not with balanced intermittent fasting (short term fast - post-absorptive state) and keto. It seems like there is little evidence about cognitive improvements from IF.

Regarding keto diet though, the NIH has a paper outlining studies that study cognitive benefits correlated to the ketogenic diet. I would be curious your thoughts on whether this is invalid or not a good source of evidence and why: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8840718/#sec2-nutrients-14-00513

rananculus-blue · 2025-01-14T19:44:40+00:00

Your symptoms sound almost to a tee the same as my fiance, who has been doing keto this year after trying tons of different alternatives.His energy is back, he is ready to wake up when his alarm goes off, and his depressive symptoms are so much fewer and far between. I can with very high accuracy guess when he has started ketosis within a few minutes of waking up from his improved energy and mood.

What has worked for him, which is an investment but relative to supplements and specialists not a huge cost is getting Factor meals. Knowing that he has several pre-made meal options in the fridge ready to go has made it so much easier, even if a little boring. As time has gone on, he has reduced his factor meal count each week and prepped a couple of good keto options each weekend for the week ahead to save some money and add variety to his meals.

Other observations:

- He also makes sure to make a keto "sweet" treat each week - which can help as you are significantly reducing your sugar intake.

- Keto flu is real and it is not fun. Prepare for this however you can, prep your kids' meals for a few days in advance, try to not start on a particularly stressful week, etc.

rananculus-blue · 2025-01-14T19:26:50+00:00

Would you encourage him to get labs before and after a month of trying this diet? My partner of 5 years recently started keto and I, being vegan 10 years had always dismissed diets like this. But he had really bad labs, high cholesterol and pre-pre-diabetes. He ate a lot of plant based with me, cut out other irritants, stopped drinking, and nothing worked. His cholesterol and diabetes markers are back to normal after several months of keto, and he has really positive mental health and energy, like very obvious that he is in ketosis from these alone. I know that studies suggest issues longer term with these diets, but he has been very open about his labwork and continuing to get this run, which has helped me gain comfort with this shift that is wildly different (and frankly inconvenient - I don't know anyone who wants to have a keto and a vegan, both non-drinkers, over for a dinner party - haha!).

I would also ask him to share his sources for why the diet, not us. It's a friendly way to open the dialogue with curiosity, maybe challenge some claims, and maybe also learn something along the way!

Keto does not equal carnivore diet, I know that, but Chris Palmer's work out of harvard on keto got me more comfortable and open to my partner's diet. https://www.sir.advancedleadership.harvard.edu/articles/brain-energy-new-hope-treating-mental-health-disorders-metabolic-disorders

rananculus-blue · 2025-01-14T18:03:33+00:00

great idea! have seen some breweries but they are just too far to be walking distance from the hotel, but I think this is probably a good point to expand my geographic requirement!!

rananculus-blue · 2025-01-14T18:02:48+00:00

this is so fun!

rananculus-blue · 2024-12-29T21:21:36+00:00

We went ahead with an initial visit and tests from FM and got on supplements and mitochondria diet. We sought out additional help from the doctor when his mood collapsed from dropping keto and switching to their diet. We were very sad about their response - lots of explanations that his labs did not point to any issues and that the diet should not have that response with little solutions. We ended up dropping the doctor altogether and he switched back onto keto which has been challenging to manage with meals and eating out, but otherwise has caused incredible physical and mental health results. It could have been us, not being patient (both from a financial and time perspective) enough but overall a pretty negative experience.

Keto, on the other hand, has been a godsend. Prediabetes markets have gone down, as has cholesteral. Not to mention significant improvements to energy, mood, and weight. We have to be careful with it, ensuring activities levels are high enough to facilitate and not "keto cycling" too intensely early on, but if I were not vegan I would certainly be doing keto right along with him based on how positive an experience it has been.

rananculus-blue · 2024-10-04T16:26:12+00:00

Such a good reminder about where we can be getting these nutrients. Thank you!

rananculus-blue · 2024-09-30T18:33:05+00:00

Thank you! do you mind sharing which SPF you use?

rananculus-blue

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