3 ways to improve your fertility (and actually enjoy the process of trying to conceive again)
You only have to do a quick google search on ‘how to improve your fertility’ to feel overwhelmed.
There is SOOOOO much advice out there that it can feel incredibly overwhelming. In fact, it can almost be counterproductive because you walk away from the computer feeling incredibly stressed, like you’re currently doing everything wrong and maybe a little disheartened that you’ll ever fall pregnant.
Stress is a huge issue when you’re trying to conceive and yet the more you learn about what affects your fertility, the more stressed out you feel. If you find yourself at this point, I think it’s time to take a step back.
I think if you can do just these 3 things to improve your fertility you’re doing A-okay. Remember you don’t have to be perfect, you just need to make progress.
How to improve your fertility (without getting stressed out)
Eat unprocessed nourishing foods.
Forget giving up everything you love to fall pregnant. We want to avoid stress, not add to it by thinking you have to do all the things all at once.
Especially if you’re just starting out, it can feel too overwhelming to get rid of everything you normally eat and replace it with a whole new diet. Rather than trying to make all of the changes at once, just try instead to add the good stuff in. (Eventually more good stuff will bump out the bad stuff anyway).
1. Add greens to everything.
Instead of not having your usual pasta dish, give yourself a big side of greens and a little less pasta than normal. Or make your pasta out of zucchini so you’re getting your greens in your dish. Pizza… eat a big side salad first. Sandwich … add loads of baby spinach.
2. Drink up
Buy yourself a drink bottle and set yourself some time goals of how many you need to get through by what times to get between 1.5 and 2 L of water per day. We underestimate how much our bodies need water and just how much better we feel by drinking up.
3. Switch up brekky.
For some reason the first meal of the day seems to be the easiest to make a healthy choice. Perhaps because we are an emotional clean slate at this time of day and can make good choices rather than reaching for the chocolate like we do in the afternoon because we’re stressed, tired, sad, angry, bored…etc etc.
Move regularly (but only in a way you enjoy)
When you’re trying to conceive you might be scared into thinking that you can’t exercise for fear or doing something ‘wrong’ or something that will affect your chances of falling pregnant. I know that feeling too well.
While it is true that you don’t want to do exercise that stresses the body out (yep there’s that S word again), many types of exercise are really good for your fertility.
As a guide you want to get your blood pumping and build that rosy healthy glow on your cheeks, but you don’t want to be smashing your body so hard that you feel exhausted afterwards. Yoga and walking are my personal faves. (obvs)
De-stress and focus on making yourself happy
It’s easy to get so caught up in doing ALL the right things when you’re trying to conceive that you forget that sometimes, the ‘right’ thing is just taking care of yourself and making yourself happy.
The overwhelming emotion I see in women who are struggling to conceive or who have lost a baby (and one that I myself spiralled into for far too long last year) is the stress and anxiety that it’s never going to work. It often feels like everyone around you is suddenly pregnant and all their partner had to do is sneeze on them. Yet you’ve been trying, tracking and doing all the right things for months, maybe even years.
It may be counterintuitive to stop trying quite so much but sometimes doing exactly that can be really helpful. Maybe even a little liberating. You can free yourself from the stress of it all by taking the focus off. I’m not suggesting you have to use a barrier to stop conception, but maybe taking a couple of months off the active process of trying to control conception might be really helpful.
How do you do that?
+ Allow yourself a glass of wine, or beer, or coffee (or whatever else you’ve been strictly avoiding.)
+ Stop ovulation testing and wait until your period is at least a few days late before you torture yourself with those little pink lines.
+ Stop planning life around your cycles and if and when you might be pregnant.
+ Delete your cycle / pregnancy tracker app.
+ Unfollow the Facebook pages and groups for fertility, TTC or pregnancy.
+ Schedule a fun dinner out with your friends or partner.
+ Plan a holiday or mini-break away.
+ Have sex… just for the fun of it.
Before you start launching into… but I’m already 42… but if I take time off I’ll never have my baby… but I have so much to change… how can stopping help?… time is running out… I can’t quit…
I’d like to say. Stop. Breathe.
Just start with these three steps. Just focus on keeping those stress levels down. Don’t try and do everything at once (or perfectly). Just keep adding good things and let your pile of good things grow.
Want to practice fertility yoga with me? Start by downloading my free fertility yoga guide or join us in my Online Yoga Circle.