Fertility: Mind Over Matter

FIRST, SOME QUICK THOUGHTS
If you need more motivation to get off the coffee, even decaf, water-processed, organic coffee, here’s one (click here). This comment reminds us that there are hundreds of chemicals in coffee, and many are just not good for us.

Also, Julia Indichova, author of Inconceivable and founder of Fertile Heart™, has started a blog. It provides a nice introduction to the kind of work she does in helping women with fertility issues. Check it out!  Her first entry fits well with the theme for today’s blog, about the mind, and our beliefs and attitudes.

BRING YOUR MIND INTO THE PICTURE
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating. Nutrition is extremely important for fertility. Your body is the foundation upon which new life can be built, and that foundation needs to be strong. But in helping you conceive, diet doesn’t work alone. You must also work to bring mind and emotions into balance too.

Dr. Angela Wu, acupuncturist and author of Fertility Wisdom, gave me a book on my last visit with her. (I did not get pregnant with her, but very healthy and balanced.) It’s called The Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton. Now I admit that I have not finished reading it, but it’s premise is fascinating. From the book jacket:

“[The research] shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts.” 

Wow! This has astounding implications. It basically means we can change our bodies by retraining our thinking! Incredible! But to me it’s another underscore on the message that our thoughts and our feelings count. Big time.

When we’re dealing with fertility issues, however, it’s very difficult to turn our thoughts around and feel the glory of sunshine or anything else.  Consider what this Harvard study found (from Conquering Infertility by Alice Domar, Ph.D.): Women who want a child and are told they can’t have one react with the same level of depression and stress as those who are told they have cancer or AIDS.

The sense of loss is that profound. What can help? Here are some tools to try:

• Yoga and meditation help by forcing your mind into the now, grounding you in your body and/or your breath. These also help you relax and free your mind of clutter. Here’s one resource for fertility CD’s.

• Visualizations that deal with your frustration, anger, worry, stress, or those that help you see, feel and experience the positive end result you want (a healed uterus, a baby) can be extremely powerful tools. My favorite visualizations come from Julia Indichova (Imagery CD).

• Cognitively restructure your thoughts. This means as soon as you hear a negative thought show up, such as “I’ll never get pregnant,” stop to question where the thought comes from, if it’s logical or true, and then create a new “truth” thought for yourself, such as: “It is possible to get pregnant.” For more info, see the wonderful book mentioned earlier, Conquering Infertility, by Alice Domar, Ph.D.

• Attend support groups. They are not for everyone, but research shows they make a huge difference for some. Sharing with others, seeing that you’re not alone, being able to talk with others who “get” it is very helpful. Call RESOLVE for more info. Or search the web to chat online.
  
  Personally, I did not attend support groups because I felt I needed to shield myself from any negative thoughts that might arise. I only wanted to hear success stories to reinforce my belief that pregnancy was possible for me.

• Check your attitude and beliefs. As you know, I was told I had a 2% chance of getting pregnant. I heard it, but chose to believe in possibility instead. I then went out and did all I could to encourage a healthy, viable conception. I just found it unacceptable that I could not have a baby. This attitude and belief pushed me through yoga, meditation, diet and more until my baby indeed appeared.

• Finally: Nurture yourself!! Remember to take breaks on this long, grueling journey. Let yourself cry, get angry, and fully feel what you feel. Release it all, nurture yourself and then, when you’re ready, focus back in on bringing home the baby you know is yours.

Photo by http://lisucr.com/category/business

Diet for Fibroids, Endometriosis and PCOS

FIRST SOME NEWS
I wanted to share some exciting news about our upcoming book: The Fertile Kitchen™ Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Optimizing Your Fertility. At last we have an official release date from the publisher: November 18, 2009, which means you can have the book in hand right after.

We also have secured a location for the book’s launch party: It will be held in mid-January, 2010, at the prestigious Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco. More on a date, time and other details to come. In the meantime, if you live in Northern California (or the Bay Area) and would like to attend, please send me an email so that I can include you on our invite. There will be food and beverages, and we’ll be signing our books and answering questions. It is likely that Philip E. Chenette, M.D., who wrote the beautiful Foreword to our book, will also be there. Come out and meet us!

In our book, you’ll find the details of the well-researched fertility diet that helped my husband and I succeed in bringing home our baby (against the odds!), and the flavorful, easy-to-make recipes that made following the diet so much easier—plus lots of other tips. To learn more, please visit our book here on Amazon.

EATING TO HELP FIBROIDS, ENDOMETRIOSIS AND PCOS
I wanted to talk a little this week about particular fertility conditions and diet.

FYI: Even if you’re on a fertility diet, it’s always a good idea to check in with a reproductive endocrinologist (fertility doctor). Knowing your particular medical diagnosis or circumstances gives you greater power in making treatment options for yourself.

The Fertile Kitchen™ diet, which is all organic and basically no sugar, wheat, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, trans fats, processed foods – to list a few features – benefits your health in general and optimizes your fertility regardless of fertility diagnosis. Even if you have blocked tubes and can thereby only get pregnant via IVF, such a diet will still give your body the best chance for success.  As long as you can produce eggs or carry them, nutrition will make a difference! With this in mind, here are some particular dietary recommendations for the following conditions:

Fibroids –
It is relevant to note that fibroid growth is stimulated by estrogen. Dr. Christine Northrup has some great information on holistically treating fibroids on her website, which I recommend you check out. Here is an excerpt related to diet:

“Since the uterus is estrogen–sensitive, any dietary or alternative approach that counteracts estrogen dominance often works for fibroids. …Eating a diet high in protein and healthy fats and low in high-glycemic carbohydrates such as sugar and starch can help. "White" foods like sugar and starch increase insulin, which changes the way estrogen is metabolized, creating compounds that are more likely to cause cellular inflammation and fibroid symptoms, including enhanced growth of existing fibroids.”

Endometriosis –

Again, here is an excerpt from Dr. Northrup’s wonderful website:

“Anything that improves immune system functioning and increases the flow of energy in the body is apt to help [with endometriosis]. ...A whole foods, eicosanoid–balancing diet high in fiber that avoids trans fats can provide dramatic relief from symptoms of endometriosis. Many women have had remarkable pain relief from simply stopping consumption of dairy foods, eggs and red meats. Also avoid caffeine. Be sure to eat one to two servings daily of cruciferous vegetables, such as kale, collard greens, mustard greens, broccoli, cabbage, and turnips (or take a supplement containing Indole-3-Carbinol, the active ingredient in these vegetables). Additionally, a diet rich in phytohormones, such as those found in soy foods, helps endometriosis by blocking estrogen receptors from excess stimulation.

PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome) –
This is basically a metabolic disorder, or, as this website put it: “a condition in which the ovaries secrete abnormally high amounts of androgens (male hormones) that often cause problems with ovulation.”

A balanced diet is important. You also want to avoid foods that cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels, and esp. doing so on a regular basis, which can lead to insulin resistance. The foods to avoid are processed sugar and refined carbs. An excerpt from OBGYN.net:

“High intakes of carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates (i.e., sweets, white bread, white rice, etc.) will quickly turn to sugar and cause elevated levels of insulin. Since high levels of insulin can cause a multitude of problems for women with PCOS, a better diet would be a low glycemic index diet. This is a diet that includes foods or combinations of foods that do not cause a rapid rise in blood sugar.”

So eat carbohydrates in combination with protein or healthy fats as opposed to by themselves.

(photo by http://nutrition.myjoyonline.com/carbohydrates-and-vision-loss-2)

Eating Whole Foods and Whole Grains

One of my readers was told to eat more whole foods and wanted to know, what are those, exactly? Thought that would be a good topic to explore because on a fertility diet, eating whole foods (as opposed to the over-processed variety) is a very good thing. An article on the Willy Street Co-op’s website, I thought, had a good definition: whole foods are those that are “as close as possible to their natural state. These are foods that have had little to no processing and retain their original nutrients, fiber and flavor.” The article includes examples: fresh apples instead of apple juice, brown rice instead of white. It also includes baked goods made with whole grain flour and natural sweeteners (such as honey) rather than baked goods made with refined flour (in which the grains have been stripped of their nutritious outer parts) and processed sugar, which we know is bad for us.

On the other end of the spectrum – what are NOT whole foods? Basically the processed variety, and especially the over-processed. This article (click here) lists great examples of what are NOT whole foods by listing whole foods along with their processed “equivalents,” including: boneless, skinless chicken (instead of chicken nuggets), fresh fish (instead of fish sticks), potatoes (instead of potato chips), whole grain bread, such as rye bread (instead of white bread), whole grain oatmeal (instead of almost any breakfast cereal).

Whole grains, by the way, are those which contain all of their parts: the outer shell (the bran), inner portion (endosperm) and the kernel (the germ). They include oatmeal, brown rice, whole-grain barley, wild rice, buckwheat, Kamut® and others. Whole grains can also be used as an ingredient in food, such as flour, cereal or crackers.

Whole grains provide more fiber and essential nutrients than refined grains, which are often stripped of their outer shell.

So why is eating more whole foods so good for you and your fertility? Because of what you’re getting and what you’re not getting when you eat them.

What you’re getting with whole foods is a lot more of the essential vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber, for example, than you would with non-whole foods. What you’re NOT getting is a lot of the ugly, unhealthy ingredients you often get in packaged or processed foods, such as sugar, hydrogenated oil (trans fat, very bad for you!), high fructose corn syrup (more sugar), mono sodium glutamate (MSG), flavors, preservatives, fillers and artificial sweeteners, to name a few.  Many of these ingredients impact fertility negatively. Sugar can mess with your hormones, for example.

So eat more whole foods! And cut out the processed stuff.

You can read more about processed foods vs. whole foods in this article.
For more on the nutritional value of eating whole foods, check out this website.
For examples of whole food meals, check out this website.
(photo by http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/)

Fertility Eating On the Road

Just back from two weeks of a heavenly and much needed vacation visiting friends and family in Europe, I am slammed hard with jet lag and may need to keep this entry short. Speaking of traveling, it can be especially rough trying to stick to a fertility diet (or any diet, for that matter) away from home. You may not have access to a kitchen, and depending on where you go, you may not be able to find your usual healthy foods or know where to go to get them. A few tips are in order for this:

• Do the best you can with what you got. If you go out to a restaurant, try to make it one that serves salads or vegetables. Even if these items are not organic, you'll still get the nutritional value, and they're a whole lot healthier than eating pizza, sandwiches or cream- (and wheat-) laden pasta. Plus, you can eat as much of it as you want.
• Don't order meat dishes unless you know the meat is organic; you can't risk the growth hormones they might contain.Same goes for dairy. Skip it.
• Seafood is great! Order smaller fish and nothing raw, though, and don't eat it every day (due to mercury levels).
• It can be hard to find non-wheat breads or crackers in some places. Again, do the best you can. If you must eat wheat, at least make sure the bread and cracker products are minimally processed and don't have forbidden ingredients, like trans fat. (Do your best to read the label.)
• If you can find a grocery store, see if you can't get your hands on some good, portable fruits, like apples, and also some carrot or celery sticks and rice cakes or minimally processed crackers to snack on. If you also have access to a kitchen, see what you can do with what you got.
• Some countries have their own form of "organic." In Switzerland, for example, food labeled "bio" counts more or less as organic. Ask the grocer about whether they carry pesticide- and chemical-free foods, and what they're called.
  
• It's best to give you and your body at least two or three months to adjust to a strict fertility diet before traveling to foreign locales. Once you've built that "base," your body is better equipped to "absorb" your being less strict for a short period of time. Also, you will have built some healthy eating habits that will carry over.
  
• Which leads to an important point: it's the overall healthy effect of the fertility diet that's important. So don't worry if you're not able to be as strict for a short period of time (say a week or two). As long as you've been following the diet for a while and you make the healthiest choices you can in your circumstances, your body will be in good shape. You might be feeling the need to take a little vacation from the usual, regimented diet anyway, and if it helps you keep going, that's a good thing.
• Of course, you can also make it easier on yourself by choosing to travel someplace (or eat out someplace) where healthy foods are more available.
  

So go forth, enjoy your vacation, try not to worry, let it all go. You never know what might happen, once your guard is down and you let yourself truly relax. As it turns out, our son was conceived on vacation, four months into our fertility diet. Vacations are good!

Try the Eat Well guide to help locate healthy, sustainable, organic food in the U.S.

Fertility Recipe: Chicken with Bell Peppers and Mushrooms

I'm posting earlier than usual this week, because I'm heading to southern Italy and decided not to bring my laptop with me. Thought it better to eat fabulous seafood and enjoy.

Speaking of food... It's been a while since I posted a fertility recipe, so I thought I would do so now. This easy, colorful and tasty dish provides a light, fresh meal appropriate for any occasion. Serve with rice. Serves 2.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (about 1 lb)
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lb of mushrooms
3 bell peppers of mixed color, such as red and yellow
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dry basil or 5 or 6 leaves of fresh basil, chopped

Recipe:
1.    Cut chicken breast into strips about a 1/2-inch thick by about 2-inches long.
2.    Remove top of bell peppers and seeds from the center.
3.    Cut bell peppers into strips about a 1/4-inch thick by 1-inch long.
4.    Cut onion into thin strips.
5.    Cut mushrooms into 4 pieces.
6.    Put olive oil in a non-stick sauce pan and heat on high for 1 minute.
7.    Add onion and chicken, and sprinkle paprika and pepper on top.
8.    Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
9.    Lower heat to medium-high.
10.    Add bell peppers, then stir and cook for 5 minutes.
11.    Add mushrooms and basil, stir, and if desired, adjust seasoning to taste.
12.    Cook for another 2 minutes and serve.

The Power of Surrender

I want to talk a little about surrender because it’s so powerful, and yet, can be so difficult to achieve.  This is what I mean by surrender: you do all you can to encourage conception of a baby—you do yoga, stick to a fertility diet, get plenty of rest, and keep stress away. You do all this, and then you let go. You surrender.

This I know can be difficult. You are after all doing all this work. It is only fair to expect, even demand, at the end of it all a healthy baby.  Why else would you be doing all of this?

There is good reason to let go, though. (And by letting go, I do not mean giving up, but accepting what is happening in the moment.) In the end, whether we get pregnant is not up to us alone. There is an element of unknown, which can make conception both elusive and miraculous at the same time.  When you do all you can and then just surrender to the possibility of pregnancy, you let go and leave the rest up to the universe.  By doing this, you release yourself from the perpetual burden of hope, and in doing that, relieve frustration, guilt, blame, anger, and other emotions which can accompany that gnawing, ever-present, demanding expectation.

Without that burden and stress, the body opens up, like a flower, and that’s often when magic happens.  Let me give you a couple of examples, and I know you can come up with more.

A teacher at my son’s preschool had been trying for years to get pregnant.  As a last ditch effort, she chose to do weekly acupuncture treatments, but at that point she wasn’t expecting much. She was exhausted from her journey, and had reached a point of no hope. For all intents and purposes, she had given up on the baby. It took some time, but she had finally gotten herself to that place where she accepted that it would be just her husband and her and that it was OK because she had a wonderful husband and a beautiful life. She was grateful for that, and she chose to embrace it.

You know where this story is going. Two months later, she got pregnant, spontaneously, at the age of 40, and later delivered a healthy baby. Her pregnancy took her by surprise.

Her story mirrors others you often hear about: “they had just adopted their baby and then she got pregnant,” or “she had to wait another month for the IVF, which she knew would work, and she got pregnant that one month before.”

It has happened to me too.  Four months after “giving up” on the possibility of a second child and accepting that I would find another path to that child, I became pregnant.  Unfortunately, I miscarried, but nevertheless it awoke in me a reminder about possibility and believing in that. And the power of surrender.
It is too bad that many of us let go (from holding so tight) only when we are thoroughly exhausted and have finally given up.  If while we are still “in the game” if we could continue to prepare our bodies, minds and spirits for a baby, but at the same time become unattached to the outcome, let go of that demanding kind of expectation, and just assume it will happen at some point without worry, then this would help us tremendously, reducing our stress and allowing us and our bodies to relax and open up.

I believe we can accomplish surrender with practice, perhaps through daily mediation. To remind ourselves that we are doing all we can; and we are now letting go and leaving the rest up to the universe.  Then see what happens.


Difference between surrender and resignation

Roughing It: Cooking Tips for Eating In

Following a fertility diet, as you know, can be tough stuff. Eating all organic and avoiding (or eliminating) dairy, processed sugar and wheat can also mean that you eat in all the time—because it’s too hard to find the foods you need at restaurants.

This translates to a lot of cooking, which can be especially taxing if you’re not someone who normally or regularly cooks. And even if you are – cooking every day with sometimes hard to find produce or food products, with everything else that you’re going through right now? Not easy! How do you not end up cooking the same three to five dishes over and over again? So here are a few tips my husband and I--who am I kidding? My husband does all the cooking around here—some tips my husband has used to make the process a little easier.  (These might be obvious to some.)

• Plan generally what you’re going to have during the week and do the “big” shopping for everything you think you’ll need on the weekend before.
• Plan to do a second, smaller shopping trip right after work mid-week, like Wednesday, because some fresh produce items may not make it to the following weekend, or you may forget some items, or you may not be able to plan meals more than three days ahead.
• Know what you’re going to get and where to find them. Give yourself time at the start of the diet to figure out where to find the organic produce, meat, non-wheat options and so on. A local health food store or retailer of organic and natural foods is a good start.  Farmer’s Markets or local farm co-ops with delivery service can offer great, organic produce. Return to the same sources, because you’ll know where everything is.
• Although it’s best to eat your meals right after you cook them, if it’s just not feasible to cook every night, you can do a “big” cooking job on the weekend and another mid-week to cook meals for three days in advance. Refrigerate or freeze meals until you eat them. For refrigerated meals, don’t eat them more than three days old, though.
• Keep at home some staples that you’ll use in most (or all) recipes: olive oil, rice flour, salt, pepper, spices and so on.  Have pans and other equipment ready.
• Cut, slice, dice all ingredients needed for a recipe before you start, so they’re ready to use.
• Clean up as you cook, and right after cooking—or at the latest, right after eating. If you wait any longer than that, dishes won’t get done and when you see them in your sink or on the stove the next night, you won’t be motivated to cook.
• Play! Buy a variety of different vegetables and force yourself to figure out what you might cook with them—spur of the moment.  Look up recipes on the Internet, or in your favorite cookbook, and see if you can adapt them to fit your diet. This ensures you get variety, and maybe have some fun too.