As I sit here sipping my full flavor, full fat, caffeinated Caramel Macchiato, I'm further convicted that my body is probably not in prime baby making condition. Sure, I realize that some 87% of women make babies just fine without ever cutting calories, or caffeine, or heck, even alcohol. Alas, that is not my lot in life. For over a year, I've been trying to live the straight and narrow. The hardest thing of course has been the break in my diet coke love affair.
However, this past month, I've been TERRIBLE! Oh my gosh! My nurse said that we should not try to get pregnant this month due to the surgery, and oh my goodness, I took that to heart! I've indulged myself in lots of diet coke! I've even had a couple of Dr. Peppers. I've had more coffee in the last four weeks than in the previous year! Add in the awful eating habits that come with multiple graduation parties PLUS the continuous take-out due to an empty fridge from the move, and well, I'm pretty sure I could eat celery alone for a month and still not have made up for it all (which I don't eat celery, unless of course it's in Thanksgiving stuffing).
So here's the thing, for some unexplainable reason, I tend to think of the start of each cycle as a clean start. If I messed up more than I wanted in the previous cycle, I feel like I've got a clean slate when the new cycle starts. Is this medically accurate? Does menstruation actually cleanse a woman of more than old uterine lining? Probably not, but that's how I feel. So the thought of NOT starting a new cycle, of marching ahead with an IUI with all of this terribleness in my body... well, lets just say its not helping my outlook on the success of IUI#4.
The truth is probably that my period does nothing, and that if I'm going to worry about the condition of body, I should worry regardless of if I end up starting a new cycle or not. So I'm appealing to all of my readers: if you have safe, healthy advice for cleansing the body, detoxing, whatever you might want to call it, leave me a comment. You don't have to be infertile... I'm not looking for the secret to miracle conception or anything (well actually, I AM looking for that, so if you know that secret, MAKE SURE you leave a comment). Or if you feel like you are a guru on all things vitamin, supplement, etc and you just love what x, y, and z do for your body, then by all means, share your knowledge.
Like you, I feel like the start of a new cycle is cleansing, who knows maybe there is a little bit of truth to it?
ReplyDeleteI don't have advice, but I know that over the past two years I've been SUPER healthy. I've given up caffeine, drank green smoothies, took a bazillion supplements, and although I felt good I never even had so much as a chemical pregnancy following two IVFs. Now, I plan to take a more moderate approach to my diet while TTC. I'm not giving up my tea and I'm not drinking green smoothies. I just can't go on living my life as if I'm pregnant because I really don't know if it will ever happen.... maybe that's just me though and in the end you have to do whatever makes you feel the happiest.
Good luck on your upcoming cycle!
I don't have much advice either! You might have gathered from my posts I'm a health freak, and more than just for infertility, but to focus only on putting stuff in my mouth that promotes health, aka no processed foods, etc. So, I guess I would say try to eat a lot of all natural things, fruits, veggies, nuts, free-range meats, etc. As far as cleansing or detoxing, I've never done one!! Hope you find the right mix of foods, etc that you can enjoy and your body will thank you for :)
ReplyDeleteI have a diet that cleanses, but I don't know of much on it that you would eat--other than chicken and fish. It calls for green tea and barrels of water also. The diet includes lots of veggies and some fruit.
ReplyDeleteI was super, super close to doing a cleanse during this month that we've decided to take off from treatments. I feel the same way you do - my body just isn't in optimal working order, and I like the idea of a fresh start. So I contacted a friend of mine who is part of this healthy living/supplement company and asked about their 30 day cleanse program. It sounded amazing. I was totally on board. But I decided to give myself a day to think about it and do some research. Thank goodness I did! My research showed that the shakes I'd be using on the cleanse would truly cleanse my body and I'd probably feel amazing. It also said that I'd lose 15 pounds or so in a month. That was the good stuff, but I also learned a ton of bad stuff. For example, the shakes are kind of addicting and you have to be on them forever or you'll gain a ton of weight in all the wrong places. Yikes! I am so glad I didn't do it. So all of this is to say, if you do a cleanse, I'd probably advise against a specific program where you use their formulas. I found this website when I was researching. May or may not be helpful to you...
ReplyDeletehttp://natural-fertility-info.com/prepare-for-conception
I was just on my favorite blog and saw this: http://www.delightedmomma.com/search?q=cleanse
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could try it?!
I wish I knew how to cleanse/detox my body! I will lurk your blog for others' comments :)
ReplyDeleteA while back I thought about doing a cleanse. I bought a juicer and organic fruit and veggies and everything. It lasted a couple hours and then I got hungry for chocolate and never looked back. In summation, I am no help here! Sorry!
ReplyDeleteI did a cleanse last month...an all herb/supplement cleanse from naturalfertilityshop.com
ReplyDeleteDid it cleanse? HECK yeah! I saw it working while I was taking the pills and tea. Did it do anything for my body? IDK yet. During the cleanse I got false + OPKs but everyone told me it was normal due to the cleanse and this month I should see some regulation. We will see if that is the case currently on my new cycle.