My Last Supper

First of all, lets get a little housekeeping out of the way: I'm not pregnant. I know; I'm shocked as well. What this really means is this: I finally started a new cycle. Hallelujah! Sam said he's never seen me so excited to start my period! Haha! I really was so relieved! The good news is that I needed to start birth control pills by this Tuesday, and well, tonight with be pill number one... we made it! I'm still on track to start IVF THIS MONTH! It's kind of unbelievable and overwhelming! The closest thing I can associate it with was getting married. For us, IVF has been this long, long, crazy long journey of planning, saving, researching, and now that it's here... I can't really wrap my head around it yet.

The sad news about today, cycle day two, is this: I've had my last supper. Not literally, obviously. I do intend to eat dinner tonight, but for all intents and purposes, it feels like I've had my last supper. I'm not sure if I've ever even mentioned this on the blog before, but after doing a lot of research over the last few months, I've decided to cut carbs, sugar (I know sugar is a carb, but they are separate in my head), and caffeine as I prepare for and complete IVF. There is a lot of research out there that suggests that a low-carb diet can increase your chances of success... particularly if you have PCOS. Well, the verdict is still out on the PCOS debate, but I'm at least borderline PCOS, so I figure it can't hurt. Essentially, a low-carb diet helps to lower the presence of the male androgens in the body (like testosterone). Women who were able to lower their testosterone levels seem to have noticeably higher success rates... it seems to be an egg quality thing.

I admittedly have the taste buds of a twelve year old. You will never see me snacking on carrots, nope, just not happening. I actually only learned to eat salads within the last three years or so... yeah, I was serious when I said the taste buds never matured. As I've planned to cut the carbs from my life, I've noticed that I eat A LOT of carbohydrates. I mean I knew I was a big fan of pasta and rice and that I have a love affair with bread, but man oh man, there are a lot more carbs out there. So sad. No more pizza. No pasta. No chinese food because it's all rice and noodles. No mexican food because it's all tortillas. No cereal. No chips... and that's just the carbs.

I'm also cutting out all sweets. Lord, help me! My mom LOVES to bake, so I've grown up in a house where we constantly had yummy treats for absolutely no reason at all. She'll whip up a chocolate cake "just because" and never think twice about it. Now I don't like to bake, but I've definitely brought the dessert before after dinner mentality with me into adulthood. I'm not even sure I was really aware of the MASSIVE amounts of sweets I consumed until I started preparing to eliminate them... suddenly it seems like everything I eat is sweet. Ughhh!

The caffeine thing has more to do with Sam than me... meaning I don't really think cutting caffeine this early has any affect on IVF or pregnancy. Obviously I'd quit once we started IVF, but I'm cutting it out this early for two reasons. First, I don't drink black coffee, or coffee with cream for that matter. If I drink coffee, it's going to be delicious. (Thanks so much, Starbucks!) I have no desire to drink coffee that doesn't taste like dessert, so it's kind of pointless. My other caffeine friend is Diet Coke, and that relationship just ended (cue sad trombones) because of the artificial sweeteners. I'm also cutting caffeine now because I've asked Sam to do it. FIRM hasn't mentioned anything about eliminating caffeine, but I know CCRM occasionally requires it, so we're going with that in hopes that he'll have the best swimmers available in January (even if they don't have to swim).

In preparation for Prohibition of Yumminess, I've been consuming everything I love like a ravenous beast. I've drawn comparisons to hibernation... need to build up my stores of goodness before all the good stuff is gone. But like a bear, I'm pretty sure I've packed on a few pounds for the upcoming shortage. Let's agree to label this "IVF weight", okay? Seems fair to me.

So yesterday when I woke up to see that I had indeed started, I clued Sam into the end of all goodness. We had already planned to go out with a bang... I'm fairly sure we accomplished this. I went to a local Athens favorite with my small group of college girls that I lead. Mama's Boy did not disappoint my need for carbs and sugar.

Georgia Peach French Toast- yum!

I stopped after breakfast to get my prescription for birth control filled (free!) and decided that I needed just a little more Diet Coke before it was over... Sam and I have officially finished the two liter. Most delicious drink ever created! And for dinner, my request was pizza. I had originally intended to go somewhere downtown for some yummy pizza, but that was before I remembered why I hate my period. Blah... I spent the day in PJs, so we ordered pizza from Papa John's.

Papa John's Pizza- good bye carb heaven

And now the day of stuffing my face is over... the last supper has been eaten. If you can tell, I'm already lamenting the loss of every food and beverage I actually like. But if it helps in any way to improve my egg quality or raise our chances for IVF it will be SO worth it. At the very least, it can't hurt, and I want to leave Florida saying that I have no regrets and that I did everything I could!

Tomorrow morning I'll call FIRM to schedule my appointment and let them know that we are ready to move forward... it's getting real!