I was reminded yesterday of what it means to achieve balance. A fine tuned recipe of feeling happy and feeling accomplished, like you’re moving in the right direction. If you are preparing your body for pregnancy it’s easy to feel like you need to go 100% in one direction. And that in fact, if you don’t, you might be causing yourself more harm than good. For instance, “I must cut out all sugar” or “I must stop eating meat” are two common thoughts I get from readers when they email in with questions.

I am a firm believer in achieving balance. There is no good without bad and vice versa. If you really don’t like meat, don’t eat it, but if you do, and you’re trying to get pregnant, just try to find the best possible meat for your body. One free of hormones and ideally one that comes from a local resource. If you love ice cream and you’re out for a walk and pass some delicious looking tiny ice cream shop, go in there and get one. I know for me throughout this pregnancy, that has been a really amazing mentality for me to keep. I shared how I felt about it all in the first trimester but more recently I have surprised myself with a serious coffee craving. I haven’t had a coffee in 4 years. I keep thinking about it and coming back to it. I am envisioning this delicious, creamy, cafe de creme that I drank 9 years ago when I was living in Paris. It is perfect in my head. I haven’t indulged yet but I will let you know when I do! Denying yourself things that make you smile and bring you happiness while you’re going through a million other stressful things isn’t going to benefit you.

In my opinion, when something makes you happy it sends a message to your body, and that happiness just continues to roll on through causing a myriad of goodness inside and out. If it doesn’t make you happy, the opposite is likely to occur. Stress, guilt, frustration, anger….these things all start running through your body and find all the small nooks to hide in, making it way harder to eventually get rid of them. 

For me, there was a two step process to eating for fertility. The first was getting rid of all the bad stuff that had built up – we could look at this as a type of ‘cleanse’. I eliminated as much negativity as I could – mental, emotional and physical. Physical things like birth control, alcohol, excess hormones, pesticides from foods, and xenoestrogens. The point of a cleaning out your body is kind of like cleaning out your house – you’re getting rid of anything that’s been sitting around for too long that just needs to go. You’re working to specifically clean up your reproductive systems in the most gentle way possible. 

The second part was cleaning up my eating and lifestyle. This is where the 21 day holistic living and eating journey came in. This is where the balance came in. Finding the simple foods that would nourish my body that I could carry forward into pregnancy. You want them to be simple because you don’t know how long your journey is going to last. I don’t mean that in a negative way, but if you go 100% in one direction and just eliminate and give up a zillion different things, if you need to continue that for 1, 2 or even 3 years, that can start to feel impossible. By simplifying things and making it easier to nourish yourself while you’re trying to get pregnant, you’re helping yourself in the long run – you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to make a delicious healthy baby. 

I will always remind anyone and everyone to check in and see how they feel. Do you feel balanced? Is there something that’s frustrating you? Is there something you can do more of? Less off? Anything that you feel you need to get rid of? The answer for now might be no, you might feel totally level, but chances are when we’re faced with our bodies, who can’t talk to us, who can’t tell us specifically what’s going on, some frustration is likely to occur. That’s okay. Remember that.

 You are more than okay. You are perfect just the way you are. There is nothing wrong with you. There might be an imbalance in your body but there is nothing wrong with you. You are okay. 
 

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Hot Maca Fertility Boosting Morning Milk 

• 1 1/4  cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon maca powder
• 1 teaspoon royal jelly
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup / honey 

Blend all ingredients in a blender. Transfer to a pot and slowly heat up ( do not boil ). 

*Maca is a root vegetable mainly found in Andes Mountain Rage. It is an adaptogenic herb that helps to nourish the endocrine system which includes fertility and thyroid.