October 8, 2008

Starting the PKU pre-conception diet

By KateW

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and a lot has happened in the last month and a half. The biggest thing is that I got married! My husband and I had a lovely wedding in Australia and spent three weeks in South East Queensland having our honeymoon.

 

The next big thing, and the most relevant to this blog, is that I have started the pre-conception diet. I had my clinic appointment on 1 October – just four days after landing back in the UK from our wedding and honeymoon. I spent the morning seeing doctors, having blood tests and learning about what the preconception diet involves, then spent the afternoon in the hospital’s metabolic kitchen sampling the latest new products. We decided not to actually start the preconception diet until after the weekend, so I could have time to be adequately prepared.

 

So, on Monday I started the preconception diet with a baseline blood level of around 1400 (well, the proper blood test said 1400, but the blood spot said 1300). After an initial chat with my doctors and dietician it was decided that I would start the diet on only 8 exchanges per day – a cut of 7 exchanges! This was the bit that worried me the most, because I’ve just spent a month travelling and not following the diet all that much (mostly due to lack of access to products etc).

 

Well, I’m glad to say that three days in I’m going strong and I feel quite happy about things! It’s no-where near as hard as I expected, which is rather nice, I must say! I spent part of my weekend cooking and freezing foods – I baked raspberry muffins, cooked a ratatouille and a sweet potato curry and baked some low protein bread – and I’ve decided that the key to being successful on such a restricted diet is preparation. I have to say, knowing that doing this properly means we will be able to try for a baby once my levels are below 300 is great motivation, too!

 

I will admit it’s hard work – for the first time in my life I have a food diary which I am using religiously, I’m carrying scales around with me for the first time since I was a little kid, and I’m weighing and counting every single little thing that goes into my mouth. But, to be honest, the food isn’t bad and I’m not going hungry. I was always convinced that I’d pretty much starve on the pre-conception diet, but there are some great products out there that make adhering to such a strict diet so much easier!

 

At the moment I’m still waiting on a lot of products to arrive, so hopefully I’ll be able to expand what I eat a bit more soon. On week one, day three, on the pre-conception diet, this is a typical day for me:

 

Breakfast: 1 weetabix with a carton of Sno Pro, five raspberries and five strawberries. One pouch of Lophlex LQ and a glass of juice.

 

Snack: Three Loprofin chocolate chip cookies

 

Lunch: 2 slices of PKU bread with free roasted vegetables and salad OR sweet potato curry with 2 exchanges of flour tortilla (about half of one), a can of Sainsbury’s diet cola and a pouch of Lophlex LQ

 

Snack: One packet of walkers crisps OR a raspberry muffin

 

Dinner: A selection of free vegetables with my remaining exchanges used up in potato and a pouch of lophlex LQ.

 

I also snack on free fruit throughout the day if I get hungry.

 

So really, it’s not too bad! I have to do my first blood test tomorrow morning, and for the first time in my life I’m actually excited about doing one! I can’t wait to see how much my level has dropped and the only thing that stopped me doing a test today is that I know that if I wait 24 hours I should get an even better result.

 

I’m not really feeling the benefits of being on such a restricted diet yet – then again, to be fair, we’re not sure if 8 exchanges is going to be right for me! I am feeling very tired and extremely emotional – a bit like a rollercoaster actually – but then again, I always feel like that for two days when I tighten up on my diet.

I will continue to document my experiences of the pre-conception diet and throughout pregnancy, so watch this space…

Topics: Thoughts on PKU, metabolic awareness |

One Response to “Starting the PKU pre-conception diet”

1. andrew - October 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am

   
   

   i have been back on the diet for 6 months now and is has got easy and i am finding a lot of the food that i eat when i was younger i am falling in love with agian

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