Fertility Diet 101

My husband and I have tried for a baby twice in our marriage. Both times it took us over a year of trying to get to our overall goal, a baby. Although it did not always go smoothly, we got extremely lucky.

Each time we decided to try for our girls we took steps to make our bodies as healthy as possible. That begins with a fertility diet.

When you are trying to get pregnant you know the basics:

Quit smoking
Back off the drinking
Start working out
Reduce stress
Hydrate
and of course, Eat Healthy!

This can be much easier said than done. However, I was beyond motivated to get our kids.

Knowing it would be a struggle for us, I have stage 4 endometriosis, I decided to take the motto “It only seems impossible until it’s done” – Nelson Mandela. The biggest hurdle for me was going to be reducing stress. The biggest hurdle for my husband was going to be eating healthy. He is in general, a very healthy person but quick was the name of the game when it came to food. We were both working, busy, and stressed. There was rarely time to pay attention to what we were putting into our bodies.

To start, I took a more active role in our eating. Started cooking again and I am so glad I did. I found my love for it again, it reduced my stress. I like to feel in control. When you are trying for a baby you can either feel like you are totally out of control or you can give yourself a sense of control. I chose the latter. I took to Pinterest and books and researched the crap out of getting pregnant. What to eat, exercises that could help, what signs my body would give, which supplements I could take, etc. You name it I researched and studied it. By the time we were about 6 months in I could have written a dissertation on the subject.

I was also keeping a journal. Not just for posterity. While trying for the first I figured I should record for the second, but also for friends and family. So I am going to share my knowledge with you! Remember I am not a doctor, this is a compliation of the knowledge I obtained from my doctors and other sources like books and online.

Here are my best recommendations for a great fertility diet.

Water, water, water!! – you need to hydrate. At first, you will feel like you are floating around but you have to get all of those nasty toxins out of your body. The best way to do this is flush. You can infuse water with things like green tea, mint, and lemon to help it along. DRINK!
Limit Citrus – You want to make your body as sperm friendly as possible. You want a high alkaline diet. Limit the acid in your diet. Two of the largest offenders? Citrus and Tomatoes. Try and limit those as much as possible.
Green is Best – This goes back to the alkaline levels. Green veggies are best. They tend to be very low in acid. Green veggies also tend to hold a lot of good for your vitamins. The darker the better.
Iron – Keep your iron levels up. This can be through beans, lean proteins, even supplements but iron is good.

Here is a list of just some of the foods that are best when TTC.

Eggs
Avocados
Yams or Sweet Potatoes
Black Beans
Wild Salmon
Fresh Berries – Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries
Brown Rice
Broccoli
Almonds (specifically but all nuts)
Walnuts
Pumpkin Seeds
Lentils
Figs
Oysters
Whole Grains

These are foods that are either liquids or less commonly known

Olive Oil
Whole Milk
Green Tea
Honey
Flax Seeds
Maca – Supposedly the best!
Coconut Cream

All of these foods are pretty easy to come by. The fresher the better, but eating them is what is important. They all hold different, important nutrients your body needs in order to get geared up for supporting a pregnancy.

Here is a great pinnable image to save all this amazing info in one spot!