S. and I have had long conversations recently about children, trying to conceive, etc. and have decided to fill up our natural & wholesome guns to the brim and start firing away. Starting July 1st (we'd do it sooner, but unfortunately we have the wedding of a lifetime and a few major work commitments) we will be following a diet said to increase fertility.
Here's our do's and don'ts:
DO:
* Exercise and maintain ideal weight! While this sounds silly to add because it has that "duh" factor, it's something that S. and I struggle with.
* Eat natural foods consisting of fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, poultry, dairy, and lean red meats.
* Drink plenty of water per day.
* Make sure to add in the following vitamins and supplements:
- Zinc: Foods such as oysters, liver, lean red meat, nuts and grains.
- Selenium: Foods such as eggs, brewers yeast, brazil nuts, seafoods and garlic.
- Vitamin C: Foods such as any citrus.
- L-carnitin: Foods such as lean meat, and dairy products.
- Ginseng
- Saw Palmetto
- Ginkgo
- Nutmeg, to name a few.
DON'T:
* Consume any alcohol. S. and I are going dry. It'll be hard for me considering I LOVE my night cap to de-stress, but we're in this together.
* Drink coffee - completely. It's all or nothing for us and we will only be consuming some Japanese and Chinese teas. Caffeine has been shown to decrease sperm counts.
* Smoke the tabaccy. I'm okay with this one, however S. loves a cigar once and a while. Time to put them to rest for a bit.
* Eat crap food that has any refined carbs, additives, or saturated fats. Purity is key here.
Sounds easy enough...I'll post weekly updates when we get started - hopefully people watching/reading will be enough to keep us accountable.
I've been trying to "eat clean" for about a year now. Originally I was trying to do all organic, but when I discovered how expensive and inconvenient that was I changed my goals. Anyway, my little tidbits of advice:
ReplyDelete1. Become an ingredient junkie - Read the labels of EVERYTHING you buy and eat. If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. This means butter instead of margarine, half-and-half instead of creamer (although you said no coffee, so that might not matter), and sugar instead of Splenda. It can be a difficult transition, but it's worth it.
2. Eat local - The best way to ensure you are getting the freshest, healthiest produce is to buy local. I don't know about the area you live in, but during the summer we have a farmer's market in our town. It's small, but we're able to buy a lot of produce basics (tomatoes, strawberries, salad greens, green beans, etc) from local growers. Your food will not only be fresher, but you'll also be supporting the local economy.
3. Consider baking your own bread - I don't know if you've looked at the ingredients list of store bread lately, but it's down right gross. Bread should contain flour, water, yeast, and salt. Any other ingredient is an additive that needs to be avoided. Baking your own bread sounds really daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Buy a copy of "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and it will change your life. I haven't bought bread from the store all year. If you look on my blog, I wrote a post about my first bread-baking experience with pictures.
Good luck!
Actually, we do all of those. I haven't bought store baked bread in almost a year - same with pasta. We have only made our own pasta for the past 2 years. It is AMAZING. And we're lucky as where we live we have year-round farmer's markets with amazing produce.
ReplyDeleteLove the tips! Keep em coming!