What Are Your Fertility Foundations?
Here are some healthy foundations to move your fertility in the right direction. Check and see which ones you are doing and what needs some work.
Start the morning off with room temperature lemon water. Ice cold water is harder on the digestion. You can also use a little apple cider vinegar, (Braggs is a great brand) in a small amount of water. Take note of what your habits are like first thing in the morning. Do you automatically reach for your phone and start scrolling on Instagram? Or do you start the day by checking work emails? This automatically stresses your body out and sends it into fight or flight mode. Instead can you imagine waking up with the sunshine, hearing the birds chirp, hydrating your body, ( which has been without water for 8 hours) with a full glass of water or even two! After drinking that delicious water perhaps you make a cup of herbal tea, get in some gentle movement like cat/cow yoga pose and have an amazing bowel movement! Your body would be so thankful and ready for breakfast, which would include plenty of protein, good fat and fiber to set your blood sugar and mood up for an energetic day. Does this happen for you?
Before each meal, try digestive bitters taken neat and if that's too strong add just a bit of water. You don’t want to dilute bitters with too much water in order to get the best effect. I like the brand Urban Moonshine. They also have small carrier spray bottles that you can take with you and spray in your mouth when traveling. Bitters are a great activator to stimulate your digestion. These tips will help to activate the digestive juices, wake up the liver and get things moving for you! Lemon water works really well when done before each meal. It’s important to not drink a lot of water while eating as that dilutes the digestive juices needed to break down your food. If you need to drink while eating, try 4oz of water or hot tea with a meal.
Getting a little movement first thing in the morning is an amazing habit to get into. Just some simple stretches first thing will loosen up your body, help with digestion and get oxygen flowing to your brain for a great start to your day. No need to do an intense workout, just start with 10 minutes of stretching. Yoga is amazing to help with balance and put you in the right mindset for the day. When you brush your teeth try the tree pose for balance. When you are able to attach a new routine to an old habit, like brushing your teeth it makes it easier to stick with. Make it a point to add in ten minutes of walking after each meal. Not only does this help with motivation but it greatly enhances your insulin sensitivity. It allows your body to use the glucose (sugar) from the food you just ate to go towards energy needed for walking instead of stored away as fat. When you use your muscles your cells absorb sugar from the blood for energy. Otherwise if you just sit around after eating, that glucose is stored away in fat tissue creating more added weight and also must be processed by your liver which puts extra strain on the liver. Just this tiny bit of extra time will help to regulate your blood sugar and insulin levels. It’s incredibly beneficial to aid against diabetes and metabolic disorders. Just think about it...3 square meals per day and 3 small intervals of walking equals 30 minutes of exercise per day!!! That would do wonders for your health.
Sleep is so crucial for fertility and overall health. It not only matters for women but for men as well. Studies show that not getting quality sleep can decrease testosterone levels in men and increase testosterone levels in women. Sleep is when our body works on healing. Think about when you get sick, you mostly want to sleep a lot. This is your body's way of shutting down digestion and everything else so it can just focus on healing your body. Aim for 8 hours of quality sleep per night. Sleep habits are just as important as your morning routine. Turn off the TV, phones and other electronics at least one hour before bed and consider wearing blue blocker glasses if you are watching a show or on your phone at night. Sleep in a dark room and allow it to be a little cooler at night. Your bedroom should be for sleep and lovemaking, not binge watching Netflix.
Breakfast can be very helpful for women and fertility. Think about it like this, if you don’t put any gas in the car it won’t start, well the same is true for your body. Your body has been working hard all night while you slept and has been fasting for 8 hours, it needs to be refueled. If you just do coffee in the morning, that will cause a whole plethora of side effects; from cortisol spike which puts stress on the body and disrupts hormones to blood sugar deficiencies. Coffee is fine in moderation with a meal and is especially well handled with good fat like quality cream as it's not so acidic on the stomach and slows the absorption of caffeine. Coffee is much improved after you have had your lemon water and goes great with your breakfast. Try to eat a nutrient dense breakfast between 7am-9am and within one hour of waking. You need to be getting in enough protein, (think palm size amount) as well as fiber and around 2 Tablespoons of fat per meal. This will fuel your body and set you up for the day so you are not on the blood sugar roller coaster with constant lows and highs. Eating a balanced breakfast will also keep your hormones stable. If you are not a breakfast person, work your way up to a full meal. In the meantime just make sure to have a cup of nourishing bone broth or a handful of nuts with one piece of fruit or a meat and cheese roll up. Leftovers from dinner are also a quick and easy way to have an instant breakfast.
Sugar is what causes added weight as well as inflammation. . Remember that sugar is the culprit of added weight, not quality fat. Sugar causes your stress hormone, cortisol to spike and is a stress on the body.
Good fat is essential to our body. Essential Fatty Acids are found in quality butter, like Irish grass fed butter, which also contains Omega 3. EFA is also found in olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil. Make sure with each meal you are having around 2 Tablespoons of good fat. So have half an avocado on your salad or with your morning egg. Saute your veggies in grass fed butter. Dollop a little butter on your steak, chicken or pork. Drizzle olive oil over your salads, shrimp and pasta salad. Eat quality nuts for good fat and good quality full fat yogurt. No more low fat products. Low fat items are filled with sugar, as they have had to take away the fat which is flavor. They then replace the fat with sugar to make it taste palatable. Quality fat is needed to produce sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone.
Remember that digestion is key! Every day you are given a report card on how well your body is performing and how healthy it is. This report card shows up in your bowel movement. How did you do today, A+? The Bristol chart shows you should be at a 3 or 4 every day and having a daily bowel movement one to 3 times per day is so important. When you go to the bathroom it should be smooth and effortless with no straining or sitting on the toilet for hours. Take note of what your body is trying to tell you. Pay attention to the signs. Do you have constipation or loose stools? This is a sign that something is off in your body. When your body has to prioritize calming inflammation or fixing the digestive system it will not be prioritizing your fertility.
If your bowel movement is like your daily report card, then your period is like your monthly report card. How are you doing? Remember to take note of all the signs and symptoms that your body is giving you. Do you have breast tenderness, PMS, mood swings, brown spotting before your period or mid cycle? All of these things, even though they are common, are not normal and are your body's way of saying something is out of balance. This is when we need to look deeper at what is going on.
Last item to practice is the power of thought. When we say positive things and have positive thoughts about our body, that has a wonderful effect. The opposite is also true, when we feel guilty after having that piece of cake, our digestion can be affected. There are trillions of cells in your body and your thoughts truly matter. Your body is always listening to your thoughts so if you say negative things like I will never get pregnant, Something is wrong with me or I’m always sick...your body listens to these thoughts. You can start small and say “ I am getting healthier every day so I can have a healthy baby” or “I choose to nourish my body with this delicious food.” As we know, it's not just what you eat but HOW you eat...Remember it's about progress over perfection. We want to eat with pleasure while not letting guilt get in the way. Your food can and should be tasty and nourishing at the same time.