It's The Little Things
When we are on the fertility journey, oftentimes we are looking to find one big thing that is the cause of our problems. One big thing, that we can then focus all of our energy towards and find the solution to have a healthy baby. Sometimes this will show up like endometriosis, PCOS or low ovarian reserve. These are all major clues into our fertility being out of balance.
But more often than not, I come across clients who are “doing all of the right things” and they don’t have any glaring diagnosis and yet they are still not pregnant. This can be so frustrating and heartbreaking as you don’t really know what to do next. It is even more frustrating to then go to the ‘expert’ Doctor and hear the term that you have been diagnosed with ‘Unexplained Infertility.”
There is always an explanation, sometimes science just doesn't have all of the answers yet. But there are solutions that you can take and action steps to move you in the right direction and get you closer to having that healthy baby. This comes in the form of addressing the little things.
The little things add up to the big picture and sometimes this is where the answer lies. When a client comes to me and says they have tried all of the diets, all of the supplements and all of the alternative solutions and nothing has worked, we need to look at it from a different perspective.
Have these diets really been right for you? Have you had a specialized practitioner who knows how to focus on your unique body and not just recommend popular diets because they worked for someone else? Are the supplements you have been taking really the best quality and making a difference in your body? How do you know? Have you tried them for long enough to even make a difference? Most of the time people will try things for a month or two and then give up when they don’t see results. They think the supplements or the diet are not working because they are not pregnant. Well, unfortunately, hormones can take time to balance and time is something we normally don’t have a lot of or else we don’t want to waste it.
That is why it is important to test and not continually guess to see if these things are shifting the needle in the right direction. This also means testing repeatedly. It’s great if you have tested your hormone panel once, but your hormones can be different every single month. Your blood work that was tested over 6 months ago has most definitely changed, hopefully for the better in that amount of time. What I like to explain is that it took you many many years, really an entire lifetime to get to where you are right now, so it will take you more than a few months to get your fertility back on track, sometime much longer. Please be patient and know that all of the little changes you are making right now to your diet and lifestyle really do add up to the big picture in improving your fertility.
Focusing on these foundations which are the little things in your life, will go a long way in balancing your fertility:
Improving nightly sleep and making sure that you are well rested when you wake up in the morning
Making sure your daily bowel movements are a number #4 on the Bristol Chart as digestion is key when it comes to improving your fertility.
Your period come without any PMS symptoms, no breast tenderness, with nice bright red blood, an easy flow, little to no cramping and 2 days or less of spotting in the beginning. Your luteal phase is 11 days or longer.
Eating nutrient dense food which includes enough protein, fat and fiber for every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Noticing if you need to snack in between meals, this could be a blood sugar imbalance.
Removing toxic products from your household, beauty supplies and cleaning products
Getting in gentle daily movement
Having joy in your life and slowing down enough to really enjoy it
Reducing stress daily and calming your racing mind
Slowing down during meal times, chewing your food properly and not multitasking with your meals
Making sure you are taking the correct supplements for you and retesting when needed
Finding your support team and not pushing your emotions down or letting them explode.
All of these make up the little things that you can do on a daily basis that will add up to the big picture of health, optimal fertility and a healthy baby. Tell me, do you do all of the little things?