Thanks Sunflower for the words of encouragement. I've dusted myself off yet again and I'll be getting on to the GP tomorrow. Sounds like they've just rejected the referral completely as it didn't have all the right info. I get that but it would be nice to be told rather than having to do so much chasing myself.
I read Marilyn Glenville's book and she suggested dropping the red meat. Haven't ditched it completely as still like a steak every once in a while but we've made it more of a treat. We really were eating too much and didn't miss it as much as we thought we would. Everything you read is so conflicting, it's hard.
The problem with going completely dairy free is the chocolate and ice cream (OH is a bit addicted lol!). I think I could use dairy free at breakfast as I make porridges and stuff so don't think I'd notice the difference. I do eat natural yoghurt with berries at lunch so not sure what I'd replace that with. Cheese is the other one as although I've cut it back a lot, I think ditching it completely would be hard. OH loves pizza. Also butter as I do like to bake. Any tips would be great. I'm keen to give it a shot though as I hear it's good for skin as well.
I have tons of diary free tips as we are both massive foodies. We actually had homemade pizza at the weekend and I think Pizza Hut is trialing a dairy free pizza with vegan cheese. Cheese: Violife from Holland and Barretts is awesome. We use the mozzerella one. It's gross cold and needs to be cooked. Cooked we have fooled people into thinking it was cheese - had it on nachos. It melts just like cheese.
We don't eat soy but you can get soya yoghurt and icecream. We had some coconut icecream at the weekend and it was amazing...actually nicer than normal icecream. You can get coconut yoghurt too.
Milk-wise, we use almond, cashew, hazelnut (tastes like praline). It is expensive but most supermarkets put it down to a pound for a limited period so you can stock up when it's cheaper.
In cooking you can also use coconut milk and cream (avoid the coconut milk brands with caragineenans in as it's not good for you).
I have Tescos 85% cocoa dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is really good for you - especially woman as it's full of magnesium. I use to love white and milk chocolate but now I like dark better. Cocoa in general is very good for the liver - Bournville do just cocoa with no milk added. Raw cacao is even better.
(As you can see we're kind of health nuts! We're also gluten free so it makes life a bit challenging!)
Cashew and hazelnut milk are much thicker and creamier than almond, and would be really good for porridge.
My OH bakes and cooks a lot - he uses coconut oil a lot. Butter is hard to replace. There's loads of stuff online about dairy free cooking.
But giving it up totally is a bit of an ordeal - if you just want to cut down you can keep in the things that you would struggle without.
Hope the referral gets sorted. We've had problems with referrals just not being put through (not fertility but other stuff). You have to chase everything! Good luck with it! xx
stays away x x x
