Getting Healthy for IVF
Hi Everyone!
So I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to get as healthy as I can for my upcoming IVF procedure (FET in July). As many of you know, I've just recently come off being pregnant for three months, and after that I have just felt like my body was incredibly depleted (especially because I had such bad morning sickness and ate like crap for most of that time...well, it wasn't like I was eating Oreos 24/7, but bread and cheese and bean burritos were just about all I wanted. And popsicles. I had a huge aversion to vegetables, but my mom made me lots of vegetable soups, which I could stomach, so maybe I didn't do too bad).
The other thing is I gained about 15 pounds with my last round of IVF and the pregnancy. I've lost a little of it, but not nearly as much as I would like...would like to get back to as close to my normal weight as possible before starting all this up again, but that is secondary to getting my body healthy and strong.
I've been reading a book called The Fertile Female, which I'm not sure whether or not to recommend. I tried reading it about six months ago and couldn't get into it. Picked it up again after my miscarriage and am doing better with it, but still haven't finished it. But there is one piece of advice in there that I really like and have been thinking about a lot. The author says that there's no one-size-fits-all prescription for getting your body in the best place possible for a baby; rather, if you listen to your body and what feels right to you, you'll know what to do.
My big thing in trying to figure out what's important for me to incorporate and what's not has been time. I wish I didn't have a job and other obligations and could make getting healthy a full-time job...go see all sorts of alternative healing practitioners, go to yoga and hike every day, meditate, visualize, cook orgainc meals from scratch breakfast, lunch and dinner, etc. But working full time and with all the traveling I'm going to be doing, that's just not realistic. I only have so many hours a day I can devote to this, you know?
That said, here's what I'm making a priority:
Diet
- My big goal is to replenish my body, and key to that is eating as healthily as possible. Vegetables and fruits and meats, as much of it organic as possible. Eggs. When I do grains I'm trying to do whole grains.
- NO sugar, NO white flour, as few processed foods (eg foods that come in a box) as possible (well, I am allowing myself one small dessert once a week. That mini Blizzard I had last night was YUMMY)
- No caffeine (mostly because it's really painful for me to withdraw from it, so I figured since I was off it from being pregnant, I may as well stay off)
- A vegetable bag a day. They used to sell these at one of the delis down the street from my old office in San Francisco; now I make my own. Essentially what it is is when I go to the store I buy a ton of extra fruits and veggies, wash them all, and divide them evenly into 7 bags for the week. So in a given bag I may have an apple, a carrot or two, a handful of sugar snap peas, a handful of tomatoes, a few radishes, a pepper (which I cut up the day of), a piece of celery. The bags are different every week. I just snack on the vegetables raw. That way I know I'm getting enough of them
- Wheat grass shots. Supposed to be extremely nutritious and there's a little shop that makes them just a few minutes away. I figure they can't hurt
- A little bit of wine. I don't drink a lot, but a glass of wine with dinner is such a nice little luxury. I've been on the fence over whether to cut out alcohol completely...and I will do so as soon as my actual cycle starts, no question, but for now I've decided that the treat and relaxation benefits of a glass of wine win out
Exercise
- Bikram (hot) yoga is my major thing at the moment. I essentially did nothing but short easy walks the whole time I was pregnant, and it's so good to get my body feeling strong and flexible again. I'm trying to go 6 days a week, although I'm going to have to be flexible with the traveling we're doing and just do my best
- The other thing I'd love to do every day is hike...I think the cardio is so good for me (and will certainly help me lose the weight I'm trying to lose), and being out in the fresh air and sunshine I think is great for me as well. But I don't have time to hike AND do yoga every day, so my goal is two hikes a week (and good long ones when I go...1-2 hours each)
Other
- I think massage is so healthy and relaxing for me, and have been trying to go once every other week
- There's a chiropractor that my yoga teacher recommended that I'd love to get to go see...
- I've been trying to meditate, even for just a few minutes every morning, but I'm so terrible about it. Need to keep trying...
- Generally trying to get enough sleep, spend time with friends and family, and relax and have fun and be happy. When I got pregnant this winter was shortly after an extended vacation, and I have the suspicion that being relaxed from that helped (and am trying to duplicate that feeling with some trips this summer). Also, I went to an acupuncturist last summer who told me the reason I wasn't getting pregnant is that I wasn't happy enough, and while I was really bothered by that assessment, it's still on my mind, and it doesn't hurt to try my best to be happy. I'm feeling a lot better (happier) than I was last summer overall, anyway, so maybe this summer's my time...
Would love to hear what others are doing (or skipping) along these lines...
XO
{Image credit: James Cridland.}