Food Freedom and Fertility Podcast

Sophia and Lily jump right in and talk about their inner nerds and how easy it is to fall “down the rabbit hole” when digging in to juicy nutrition research.   First order of business is Folate vs. Folic acid. What’s the difference and what’s the big deal? Well first off, folic acid is synthetic folate. If you’re a nerd like us, you may know that folate comes in many forms in food. Folic acid never comes in food and it can actually block 40-60% of the population from using folic acid! Not only that, it can block you from absorbing the good stuff from your food. NOT ONLY THAT, but the gene mutation that makes this happen is called MTHFR. That stands for methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase… but let it be known it can be a real MTHF**R when it comes to absorbing nutrients.    So… why is folic acid added into food anyway? Short answer… it’s cheap. Food manufacturers and supplement companies don’t want to cough up the dough for the good stuff. Of course, you can avoid it all by simply avoiding refined grains and cereals! Done and done.    Sophia and Lily then debunk crazy nutrition myths in regards to pregnancy and conception nutrition.    Myth #1 - Eat fortified cereal for a healthy baby   Truth #1 - You can’t find the same amount of nutrients in refined grains as you can in whole, let alone in comparison to other whole foods. The #1 indicator of poor nutrient intake is high intake of refined grains. Eating a lot of bread, crackers, and pasta means you’re eating less fish, eggs, berries, and greens. Not to mention the impact that refined foods have on your blood sugar.    Myth #2 - Cereal is a breakfast food   Truth #2 - grains in cereal are primarily carbohydrates. Mixing cereal with milk or yogurt only increases the carb load. Mix in some fruit beyond that and you’re looking at one sitting that consists of ½ the carbs you need for the whole DAY! Physiologically, everyone who eats a meal like this will see a massive blood sugar spike. Research shows that when you start your day with a carb rich breakfast, you will eat more food and have stronger hunger signals for the whole day! Eating a fat and protein rich breakfast does the opposite, even if the fat/protein breakfast has more calories than that of a carb rich breakfast.    Mental health issues can also be abated by eating a protein and fat rich breakfast. It primes your brain to be happier and more balanced all day long! Whereas a carb rich breakfast is greatly associated with higher anxiety and deeper depression all day long. High carb breakfasts also include fruit smoothies! There are fewer things on planet earth that will spike your blood sugar more quickly than liquid fruit on an empty stomach.    If you want to have smoothies on an empty stomach, it needs to have 20+ grams of protein and 10+ grams of fiber while containing less than 20g of carbohydrates. And honestly, a smoothie with that profile doesn’t usually taste that good. Sorry to say but this includes that fancy bag of protein powder from your best friend’s MLM affiliation. Protein powders that taste sweet but are low in carbs contain artificial sweeteners. None of which are tested on fetuses or pregnant women. Though we do know that these sweeteners cause birth defects in mice so… let’s just say no to them for humans too.    Myth #3 - Eating only plants is best   Truth #3 - Listen, we understand all the arguments for and against consumption of animal products. We respect people’s choices. We never argue against people’s ethical and religious objections. However, there are significant nutrient gaps that strict vegan and vegetarianism can create. If you don’t eat animals, nutrients aren’t available in adequate quantities and concentrations to support fertility, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. These nutrients are choline, glycine, vitamin K2, iron, zinc, omega 3, and B12. Even if you eat these nutrients in a veggie-based way, you won’t be able to absorb them. The same goes for vitamin A. Even if you eat lots of beta-carotene, you can end up with deficient vitamin A without eating animals.   Supplements can help, but even great supplements don’t always have the right ratios, forms, and amounts of these nutrients to nourish the baby and the mother well. It’s not the same thing to take algae-based DHA, versus getting it from animal foods. We are just scratching the surface as far as what women need while TTC and pregnant.    Look, there’s a difference between knowing what’s best and choosing to eat plants-only because of your own preferences and eating plants only because you believe a lie that eating animals is bad for you. Nutritionally, it’s just not true that plants alone are best. However, we meet women wherever they are at, without judgement, and help them do what’s best for their lives as a whole.    Listen up though. When we say “plant based”, we are talking about the challenges of a vegan and vegetarian diet in pregnancy. We are not talking about NOT eating plants. We highly recommend that women eat lots and lots of plants! In fact, we recommend that you make your diet MOSTLY plants! We just know, from research, that eating animals and animal products in addition to plenty of plants is the best way to feed your body for fertility and pregnancy. Even though some people have seemingly been ok through a plants-only pregnancy; it’s just not best.    But here’s some good news for ethical vegans! Bivalve shellfish like oysters, clams, and mussels have no central nervous system and therefore do not feel pain. Plus, they are generally very sustainably grown and harvested. Many vegans decide to eat these foods while TTC or pregnant to boost their nutrition.   Myth #4 - Artificial sweeteners are better for you and they help prevent gestational diabetes by keeping sugars low   Truth #4 First off, this is the dumpster fire equivalent of nutritional advice. YOu might expect that eating something that provides no calories or sugar would be superior to something that does contain sugar and calories. However, it turns out our bodies aren’t so easily tricked. When it comes to artificial sweeteners, you actually can still raise your blood sugar in a similar way to as if you were eating/drinking sugar! This is due in part to how our bodies react to strong sweet tastes, and also due to the fact that these sweeteners greatly affect the bacteria in our digestive systems.    Sucralose, or Splenda, is one of the worst offenders on our gut bacteria. Sucralose also really affects thyroid function! Eww! Thyroid function is also really vital to healthy fertility before you get pregnant, and vital to your baby’s brain development after you’ve gotten pregnant.    There are also studies linking consumption of artificial sweeteners in pregnancy to childhood obesity! Women who consumed artificial sweeteners on a daily basis had bigger babies, and their children were almost twice as likely to develop obesity during childhood.    These sweeteners prime your taste buds and brain to crave more and more sweetness, which makes you in turn want to eat more sugar! We are fans of laying off the sweet flavors and letting your taste buds adjust back to nature.   Myth #5 Low carb diets are dangerous in pregnancy - 56:00   Gestational diabetes means carbohydrate INTOLERANCE in pregnancy. That means carbohydrate intake needs to be adjusted according to what your body can tolerate. With that said, we don’t have a lot of data on SUPER low diets during pregnancy (less than 40g of carbs per day), but Lily does recommend swapping higher carb foods for more nutrient-dense foods that has a higher nutrient-to-carb ratio. Unlike most health professionals, Lily is not afraid of ketosis or ketones in pregnancy. In fact, in all mammals, pregnant bodies use fatty acids and ketones MORE READILY than carbohydrates as fuel. Though this is a different conversation than we are having here, it's worth noting that eating low carb is certainly not something to be afraid of.    As dietitians when we put the MOST nutrient dense foods into a woman’s diet we find that she is eating at minimum 70-90g of carbohydrates per day. If you try to pull a daily diet lower than that, you start to cut out healthy foods to get to that point. Plus, we have to use our bodies and brains when planning diets for pregnant women. Meaning, in the beginning of pregnancy women usually have food aversions, taste changes, and appetite variations. It’s really hard to be low carb at the beginning of a pregnancy!   As far as fertility goes, the same rules apply. Limiting your intake of high carbohydrate foods and swapping them out for more nutrient dense foods boosts your ability to make healthy hormones. Swapping out leaner proteins (chicken breast) for the fattier and more nutrient-dense cuts (chicken thighs) can get your body ready to house a healthy baby. However, going through heroics to force down your carb and protein intake in order to induce ketosis has not been shown in research to help fertility or pregnancy. These kinds of diets are not supported by research and they’re largely not sustainable.    Let’s also keep in mind that what a lot of people call “low carb” or even “keto” is simply limiting refined carbohydrates and sugar while focusing on veggies and protein. We are all for diet changes like that! True low carb diets (less than 50g per day) or true ketogenic diets are very different from what your neighbor is describing as she eats a lettuce-wrapped burger with a side of sweet potato. 

Welcome back, listeners! Today we are having a chat with Lily Nichols, a kick-butt registered dietitian nutritionist who wrote Real Food For Gestational Diabetes and Real Food For Pregnancy. Here we learn about Lily’s work and research, her history as a dietitian, and get a nice sample of the wisdom and expertise she has to bring to women who are trying to get pregnant.    This episode starts off with Lily sharing with us her experience with the prenatal dietary guidelines. To sum it up: she’s not impressed with mainstream guidelines. Now she writes about how to actually feed yourself well while trying to conceive or pregnant, in spite of the messed up guidelines. If you don’t know what these guidelines are, Sophia clues you in. Basically RDA and other guidelines, like the ones you find on the back of a food container, are based on what is the minimum amount someone must consume to prevent a major deficiency. The research is done on adult men, and there is no consideration taken for women or people of other races or ages. Boo!   Lily promotes using REAL food to meet your nutrition requirements. She defines real food as unprocessed food made with simple ingredients, as close to nature as possible. Specifically, not processed in a way that removes nutrients. This means not stripping grains of their fiber to make them “refined. Not skimming the fat off of dairy, and not removing the skin or fat from poultry. You get more nutrition when you eat all the parts.   A lot of food in the American diet is not really “food”. Artificial sweeteners, thickeners, stabilizers, preservatives, etc. are made by food scientists to be “safe” to eat, though it’s not necessarily healthy. When we define REAL food, we are talking about what builds your body up with good nutrients, versus how much of a chemical or additive you can consume before it starts doing major harm. We also want to emphasize whole foods vs. isolating specific nutrients in a lab, and then trying to separate them from the rest of the food.   To clarify, we are NOT anti food science here on the FFF podcast! We know scientists have been involved in our food supply for centuries, and that a lot of the work they have done has been amazing! We are about food FREEDOM and fertility, meaning not limiting every food or only eating certain things. We just promote a natural diet of real food. There are very few foods that are 100% of the time a bad idea to eat, and according to Lily that list is limited to: refined carbohydrates and sugars and trans fats. That’s pretty much it!   So, what is it about all this “real food” stuff makes it helpful for women who are TTC? Lily says that all the ways that the primary factor is that increasing the provision of micronutrients in the diet. These nutrients play a strong role in hormone balance, detoxification, egg quality, regulating cycles, and more! Food is powerful, and getting yourself in a healthier place with better nutrient stores can help your body get ready for a pregnancy.    Sophia shares her experience at Bastyr University with helping the school adopt an omnivorous menu, and Lily shares how Bastyr School of Midwifery now uses her books as a part of their curriculum! How cool is that? In fact, both of Lily’s books are now available as book studies for dietitians worldwide to get their continuing education units!    Lily shares a bit of the praise and criticism she has received about her books. Pro tip: anyone giving anything a 1-star review on Amazon is generally someone who did not even read/use the product they’re reviewing. Good to know! It’s no mystery that on this show we are fans of informed consent. Traditional nutrition guidelines are built around the average consumer being too stupid/distracted/disconnected to make good choices. Information is deliberately withheld to keep from confusing people or making things “overly complex”.  I am sure this applies to some people, but we believe our audience (that means YOU!) is interested in learning, growing, and making their own choices. Lily details in her books what research shows is BEST when preparing for a baby, but it’s not hard and fast rules. When you’re empowered with knowledge, you can make whatever choices work best for you, your lifestyle, and your personal beliefs and preferences.    Lily reveals some tidbits she wishes she could have added into her books. One major one is a study on vitamin D. Women who have serum vitamin D levels over 40 have a significantly reduced rate or preterm birth! Boom! On this show, we are big fans of vitamin D, as both Caitlin and Sophia recommend their patients have vitamin D levels in the 50’s and 60’s. If you have pale skin, you can get vitamin D from the sun more easily! If your skin is dark, you’re going to have a harder time making it on your own without a supplement. Finally some good news for you folks who burn easily.   A major thank you to Lily Nichols, and thank you for listening!

Today we learn about progesterone, pregnanediol and the home-test kit Proov with Dr. Amy Beckley. Amy shares her story about trying to conceive, confronting the medical community, and developing a test that puts power back in women’s hands. Amy does medical research and is a PharmD, so she was no dummy when it came to what was going on in her own body. Unfortunately, the doctors she began working with did not see things the same way.   After a miscarriage and IVF, Amy found a doctor that was willing to work alongside her on her journey. She began using progesterone supplement medications including Prometrium and Crinone. She had her progesterone tested on day 21 of her cycle, knowing full well that not all women ALWAYS ovulate on time.    **PSA** NOT EVERY WOMAN OVULATES ON DAY 14 EVERY MONTH** This means that a day 21 progesterone doesn’t always reflect your body’s real progesterone potential.    Ovulation is more than just releasing an egg. Yes, it does include the releasing of an egg, but healthy ovulation also supports and prepares the body for pregnancy. Progesterone is an important part of that. It is possible to ovulate, and then have something called “luteal phase defect” where your corpus luteum DOES make enough progesterone… just not for long enough. This can make it to where the embryo does not implant properly due to a drop off in progesterone too early. This is what Amy experienced when she was in the midst of her fertility struggles. Hence the progesterone medications we mentioned earlier in the episode.    This is why Amy and her team invented Proov! Proov is a home-based urine test that measures  progesterone metabolite in your urine. Amy recommends using her test by checking your “implantation window”. That’s the period of time about 7-10 days AFTER you ovulate to see if you are still making enough progesterone to support a pregnancy. Amy recommends measuring progestoerone with the PROOV strips during the implantation window for several cycles in a row to get some real data as to how your body is functioning.    Amy’s PROOV test is the ONLY test that works this way! This test is not designed to replace doctors, but instead to allow women to have better guided questions for her doc, and to get her in sooner when there is a problem. Insert: PROOV urine test. Ta-da!   A positive PROOV test means your body made enough progesterone to support a normal pregnancy. It doesn’t ONLY check whether or not you ovulated, but whether or not you sufficiently ovulated. If you’re not making enough progesterone at the right times, it’s not a sufficient ovulation to sustain a pregnancy. Until the embryo implants and the placenta begins making progesterone of its own, the pregnancy depends on the progesterone made by the mother’s corpus luteum for survival. Amy’s pregnancies were ending because her corpus luteum didn’t make progesterone for long enough.    Diet has a HUGE impact on progesterone production, but not everyone has time or capacity to make diet changes while trying to manage these fertility struggles. It can take up to a year to get your body back to hormonal balance! Some women just don’t have that kind of time. Some women prefer to use progesterone medications while beginning diet and lifestyle changes.   Birth control pills are different from natural progesterone. We recommend using natural, micronized progesterone that is bio-identical. These are words you can use with your doctor when discussing what medications to consider. Use an oral or intervaginal medication and NOT a skin cream. Using a skin cream takes up to 10 days to work, too long for women trying to get pregnant! The creams are good for menopause, but not good for women who are of reproductive age.    So, what else does progesterone do besides support a healthy pregnancy? Should women who are not currently TTC or women who have completed their families care about progesterone? Amy gives us a resounding YES! In fact, PMS symptoms are often experienced because of what Amy describes as a “progesterone crash”. Meaning, the progesterone your body makes drops off way too quickly before your period starts. This is often what causes headaches, acne, and bloating pre-period.    Depression and anxiety are linked to low progesterone. Low energy can be linked to low progesterone too. Perimenopausal symptoms are often a result of low progesterone.    Caitlin and Sophia both have nice rants about birth control pills. Enjoy that.    So, what are some food solutions to progesterone malfunctions?? I’m so glad you asked.   Seed cycling. We did a whole episode on this! Give it a listen Inflammation in your body - for Amy it was dairy. She needed to lay off the dairy and it caused her many issues. Maybe go through a guided elimination diet to see what is mucking up your system Zinc - a building block for hormones B6 - another important nutrient for hormone production Healthy Fats - hormones are made of FAT! If you don’t eat enough fat you won’t be able to build hormones.   Here are some of Amy’s herbal recommendations: Vitex - also known as chaste tree berry. She recommends women take it all cycle long to support a strong LH surge before ovulation and enough progesterone post-ovulation DIM - diindolymethane. This especially helps women who have low progesterone due to high estrogen. WARNING! This can make your symptoms worse if that’s not your specific problem.   DIM is made from cruciferous veggies like cabbage and brussels sprouts. Caitlin and Sophia recommend that you add more of these kinds of veggies into your diet for many reasons.    Remember, taking the wrong thing can make symptoms worse. Not to mention waste your time and money. There are a lot of fertility supplements out there, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s important to work with a professional when dealing with these substances!   Now let’s talk about progesterone and STRESS, aka Cortisol! We believe that the menstrual cycle is the 5th vital sign. It’s the last in line of vital functions, so your body steals things from your menstrual cycle in order to keep the other vital organs functioning. Reducing your stress by having a better mindset about stress and conception helps your body cope. Stop “trying to relax”, it’s a paradox! Instead, start to see stress in a positive light and a valuable part of your journey.    PROOV test is also working to educate consumers about progesterone. In our world, there is nothing better than helping people achieve a healthy pregnancy with a happy baby. The success stories really warm our hearts. If you have a success story, we want to hear it! Seeing those positive pregnancy tests is so worth it!   PROOV test also lets you pinpoint ovulation. If you have any questions, you can use their contact list on the test to reach out and ask a professional, or you can use their private facebook group. Really the only way to know when you ovulate is to test. If you REALLY don’t know, you can start with PROOV strips on day 18 and keep testing and testing and testing until you get a positive. Amy also recommends you get some regular ol’ ovulation test strips that measure LH surges and use those. They’re cheaper. However, some women with PCOS often do not ever test positive on LH ovulation strip. For those women, Amy recommends you go with checking your cervical mucus. Start testing about 7-10 days after you’ve had that rich, egg-whitey, slippary mucus to see if ovulation in fact DID occur after all.    I mean, even if you don’t have PCOS, knowing your body and having sex when you have the fertile mucus, versus just waiting for the LH surge. Sometimes you just get tired of having sex on command and peeing on all these strips! Cervical mucus is your best friend when indicating ovulation. The strips are just meant to supplement your knowledge of your own body.   The PROOV test is designed to be used like a pregnancy or ovulation test. However, PROOV is different because a positive test has only one line, while the negative has two lines. This is the opposite of pregnancy and ovulation test strips. It sets it apart! Amy recommends you test your first morning urine, just like a pregnancy test. Progesterone is fat soluble, so you make it in the day and metabolize it at night. This means that your urine test in the morning will give the most accurate result. If don’t get 3-4 positive test days in a row, it’s time to bring these results to a professional and talk about treatment options.   You can buy these strips on Amazon, of course, but you can also buy it through the PROOV website. Amy is smart, if you didn’t know that by now. She works with Amazon so you can read real, honest reviews! How cool is that??   If you want to buy through the site, use discount code PROOVIT for a 10% discount! You can also sign up for the newsletter to learn all kinds of cool stuff about progesterone! Even if you order through Amazon, you still want to get on this newsletter chain!    Thanks for listening!  

In this episode we compare and contrast the 3 top of the market ovulation/tracking wearables! The 3 we review today are TempDrop, Ava Bracelet, and Ovusense. Spoiler: Ava is Sophia’s favorite and she’s an affiliate so you can get a $20 discount by mentioning the name Sophia Pavia at checkout, or by clicking this link:     But before you decide, let’s talk about TempDrop.   TempDrop:  Measures temperature only. However, it measures the nuances of your temperature over time so it does more than a regular drug-store thermometer. It accounts for things like sleeping in a room with AC or a fan, sleeping under a heavy blanket, etc. Measures your lowest temperature while you’re sleeping, so no need to set alarms and temp at the same time everyday That makes it a good option for shift workers, nursing moms, and women with irregular periods (hello PCOS and HA!). Lets you use other apps, not just their own proprietary app, so you don’t have to abandon whatever other app you’ve been using if you have a lot of data there. Gives you lifelong access to your data, even if you stopped using the device Take 14 days to begin to show trends, but give it up to 60 days before relying on it as a means of TTC or TTA No charging! Battery does need to be replaced every 6-9 months. Worn on upper arm near armpit Pricing Basic: 1-time fee of $160, NO returns but does include 12 month warranty Confidence: $199 includes 1 year returns and 24 month warranty Freedom: 1 year returns 36 month warranty, extra battery, and care plan Ava:   Measures 5 parameters of fertility Basal Body Temperature & temperature nuances Resting Heart Rate Sleep duration & quality Heart Rate Variability Breathing Rate NOT water resistant, and a replacement isn’t free (learn THAT the hard way) Family and fertility positive, not marketed for women who are TTA or on hormonal BC (but Sophia used it to avoid pregnancy for a while anyway) Learns your cycles, one by one. Accumulates data over time and gets more accurate the more you use it Takes 2 full cycles before fully effective Synchs to it’s own app, where you can also store other cycle info (spotting, CM, cervical position, etc) It’s a bracelet you wear around your wrist at bedtime and synch via bluetooth in the morning Has a super nifty built-in vibrating alarm, to wake you up but nobody else Untested for PCOS - but Sophia loves it for PCOS anyway Shows all the parameters of fertility, so I can see more than temperature for my clients Stress and sleep are key for PCOS fertility success, and being able to track resting heart rate, breathing rate, sleep quality, and heart rate variability is SO HELPFUL in seeing ways to support PCOS outside of blood sugar control and nutrition Annoyingly, the app logs out randomly and makes you log back in. Who remembers passwords these days anyway? Has a great referral program and also a very helpful blog! Pricing: Basic: $279 includes bracelet itself and access to blog + community Plus: $299 refund if you’re not preg in 1 year and free ebook Premium: $359 refund if you’re not preg in 6 months and ebook   Ovusense: You sleep with it IN YOUR VAG! Yes, you read/heard me right. Shove it in, ladies! Tracks temperature only, like TempDrop Predicts the DAY of ovulation, not just a “fertile window” Does this by predicting progesterone levels Tracks even if your cycles are irregular or if you have anovulatory cycles (PCOS, HA, etc.) You have to use their app, and you have to pay for that access every month Pricing $129 for 2 months of device + online synching system $299 for 12 months $499 for “pro” and 12 months of device + synching program Month-to-month is $35/month This pricing model can be challenging if it takes you more than a year to conceive, or if you want to use it for multiple pregnancies. Plus… you wear it in your vag. If you’re a night pooper, this would NOT be right for you.   Overall, the Ava Bracelet is Sophia’s fave, but each one really depends on the user and her preferences! Each one works differently, and from what we can tell each one works well. Sophia is just a data nerd so she loves Ava.   Choose for yourself! Happy wearing (or shoving)!  

How to cook a spaghetti squash, and here is a link to the buffalo spaghetti squash recipe. We love celebrating with all of our listeners and patients! Our favorite moments are when we get pics of hard-won positive pregnancy tests and/or pics of newborns!  Send us your success pics at hello@foodfreedomferitility.com or tag us on instagram @foodfreedomfertility and we will do a happy dance for you.  Seeds can bind up the leftover bits of old, used hormones and help your body keep new, fresh hormones in circulation.    Organic, raw seeds.   Link: Life Planner; girl, get organized!   Link: Phases of the moon   Link: Caitlin's white bean hummus dip   The day you start menstruating is day 1 of your cycle. This is the first day of the follicular phase. The follicular phase continues on until the day you ovulate. Once ovulation occurs it is called the luteal phase. The luteal phase continues until the first day of bleeding, and then the whole cycle starts again!   Most women do not have 28 day cycles. Let ovulation and bleeding be your guides of when to switch from one seed combo to the next.    If you have low progesterone, heavy periods, painful periods, endometriosis, menstrual migraines, or hormonal acne; Seed cycling may help!   Phase 1: Follicular phase Day 1 of your cycle until ovulation (or when the moon is FULL) Flax seed and pumpkin seeds, 1 tbsp of each freshly ground and mixed into yogurt, oatmeal, or on a smoothie.   Phase2: Luteal Phase Day 1 of bleeding (or when the moon GONE) Sunflower and Sesame seeds, 1tbsp of each freshly ground and put on salads, top your warm bowl of soup, or mixed into hummus.

Watch out, listeners! Today we are talking about digestion, intestines, poop, and gas! Yes friends, that’s right! This episode focuses on the gut. To be more specific, we are talking about healing your gut after using oral contraceptives aka “The Pill”. In reality, all forms of birth control that involve hormones can cause a whole bunch of problems in your digestive system. But, for the sake of conversation we talk a lot about “birth control”, meaning hormonal contraceptives.    Birth control increases your risk for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), other bacterial dysbiosis, and more!    Sophia shares her story about her fling with hormonal birth control alongside the diagnosis of IBS.    Women often experience yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis while using hormonal contraceptives. Your vagina isn’t the same as your gut, but both have their own delicate microbial balances. If your digestives system is out of whack, your vaginal health is often greatly impacted.    Having cyclical changes in your bowel movements is normal. During your luteal phase, your smooth muscle relaxes. This can cause more acid reflux symptoms and can cause digestion to slow… aka constipation. Then, the pendulum swings when your period comes. You feel the urge to poop and pee way more, and maybe even have diarrhea! We built this episode to help you deal with these symptoms if they’re bothering your from month to month.   Your digestive tract is lined with hormone receptors. Hormones affect the actual cells of your gut, but they also affect the kinds of healthy bacteria that grow and flourish. This can be why you experience gas and bloating when using birth control, or during different times in your cycle.  We want to teach you, practically, how to manage these symptoms with your diet. So perk up, friends! Relief is on the way!   First thing: Plants and fiber! Our bodies are made to eat a lot of plant material by means of veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, and grains. Fiber is just a simple way to say “indigestible carbohydrates”. Even though we don’t get any calories or nutrients when we eat fiber, it’s vital to keeping our gut flora happy and healthy. We focus on fiber FOODS, not fiber supplements like metamucil or fiber gummies. Our favorite high fiber foods to heal your gut are:  Veggies - these are the BEST fiber sources in all the WORLD! Stick with broccoli, leafy greens, sweet potato, artichoke hearts, avocado Fruits - peaches, pears, plums, and berries are high fiber Lentils and beans - only if you’re not prone to painful gas Quinoa - if you’re able to tolerate the carbohydrate load without spiking insulin Caitlin’s Fiber blend - mix equal parts chia seeds, flax seeds, and psyllium all mixed together! Mix a teaspoon into water before meals to really boost your fiber intake.    Healthy fats help promote the right kinds of bacteria in your digestive tract. Foods like meat from factory farmed animals, processed animal products, and seed oils (canola, cottonseed, corn, soy, hydrogenated, safflower, and vegetable oils) promote overgrowth of some unhealthy bacteria colonies. To balance that out, replace those lower-quality fats with foods like: Avocado Olive Oil Coconut Oil Grass-fed butter and dairy Meat from healthy, sustainably raised animals   Sophia then pontificates about healthy meats and where they come.    Eat a lot of fermented foods! This used to be the only way to preserve food past its fresh point. Here’s what we mean when we talk about fermented foods: Naturally pickled veggies and sauerkraut Preserve spreads made with natural fruit juices  Yogurt and kefir (fermented dairy) Natto and tempeh (fermented soy)   If you’re someone who struggles with sugar cravings, these fermented foods will help you kick cravings and get your belly in line!   Now, let's talk about what NOT to eat!   Sweetness - The ups and downs of blood sugar drastically affect your intestinal system. Here are the foods to avoid Baked goods, sweetened drinks, syrupy coffee drinks, candy, jams, jellies, condiments, and sugary treats  Artificial sweeteners - these blow you up more than anything. Sugar free flavored syrups, energy drinks, pre-workout, protein powder, and diet-anything are the worst culprits.   Probiotic Supplements: Caitlin and I usually recommend FemDophilis from Jarrow Formulas. FemEcology by Vitanica is also one of our favorites. What we DO NOT suggest is going to Costco or Sam’s Club and buying a barrel of whatever bargain brand you can find.  Here’s what else to look for: Research done on that particular brand Refrigeration  - make sure what you are buying is still alive Specifics - make sure the package tells you exactly which strains are present, and in what amounts.    Remember to be gentle on yourself as you make these changes! Also, be realistic about bowel movements. If you don’t poop everyday, something is up! Contact us and let us help you get it out.

Lisa is an expert in the fertility awareness method (hereby referred to as FAM) and she authored a book called “The Fifth Vital Sign”.    Lisa discovered FAM right after highschool when she struggled with her own menstrual irregularities. She quickly discovered that the pill wasn’t solving her problem, it was simply deferring it. Then she discovered FAM!    Ladies, she was also one of us who believed the lie that you can get pregnant every day of the month, and that you can get pregnant every time you have sex. That’s when she was 19, and now she’s 36! Not only that, she’s never had a pregnancy she didn’t plan. How amazing is that??   Now, I know here we are more concerned with getting pregnant than not. So next, Caitlin and Lisa go into the truth about sex timing and conception. The truth is, ovulation is subject to delay. Different things in our lives (stresses, food, illness, etc.) can delay the timing in our ovaries! This means simply counting days on the calendar won’t give you the answers you are looking for when you are TTC.    That is why Lisa and Caitlin spend time talking about Cervical Mucus, Cervical Position and tracking your Basal Body Temperature to start understanding your cycle and if you are ovulating, when, and what to pay attention to if something is wrong. You can check out Lisa and her work at:  Facebook: Facebook.com/FertilityFridays Instagram: @FertilityFriday Twitter: @FertileFriday

Link to the C4 Foundation to donate and help special operation families reconnect.   Here we talk about how to support your hormone systems as they come back online after being altered by hormonal birth control methods. Both Caitlin and Sophia took hormonal birth control pills in their early teen years in an attempt to try and treat period cramps and acne. Neither of us were ever told any of the side effects or possible nutrient deficiencies that can occur when these medications are taken.   Neither of us judge our patients for how they choose to prevent pregnancy or plan their families. We also never judge anyone who takes hormonal birth control to manage symptoms from hormone-related illnesses. However, we both believe in informed consent. Meaning, before a medication or treatment is prescribed, a medical professional needs to communicate ALL the side effects and potential complications. We also believe that patients should be given more than one option for any course of treatment.    Coming off “the pill” often requires recovery. The pill suppresses your natural fertility, sometimes for decades. Most women who take the pill stay on it for 12-16 years of their reproductive life. It takes time, extra nutrients, and extra care to get your hormones to come back on line and get your body to adjust when you come off of such a powerful drug for so many years.   What can be done about this? In this episode we discuss the specific nutrients you need while taking hormonal contraceptives and especially when discontinuing their use to begin trying for a baby.   The “recommended daily intake” or RDI, is bologna when it comes to women who are taking hormones, pregnant, or trying to get pregnant. You need more of EVERYTHING that what the “RDIs” recommend.   As we mention all these foods, we want you to start incorporating these foods more and more into your daily diet. You will notice there is a lot of repetition here too! Lots of the foods listed are great foods to base your meals off of and incorporate as much as you can to boost your nutrient intake and help your body get back on line hormonally. B vitamins: B2 - Riboflavin This is a key nutrient for keeping your energy up. Also makes your pee bright! The best foods to eat to get this vitamin are: Beef Liver Yogurt Milk Eggs Feta Cheese Salmon Lamb If you don’t want to eat a lot of animal products you can also eat Lentils Quinoa Sundried Tomatoes Mushrooms Kidney Beans Almonds B6 - Pyridoxine This helps your body make serotonin! Serotonin is a brain chemical that helps balance our mood and feel happy. It also converts to melatonin and helps us sleep. A deficiency in B6 can significantly impact your body’s serotonin production. Depression is a common symptom for women who use hormonal contraception so listen up to these food sources: Poultry Chicken Turkey Tuna Salmon Shrimp Beef liver Lentils (and most other beans) Seeds Nuts Avocado Banana Carrot Brown rice Bran B9 - Folate This is incredibly depleted in a woman who has been using hormonal birth control. Here are the best food sources of quality folate Leafy green veggies Black eyed peas Peas Lentils Garbanzo beans Broccoli Beef liver B12 - Cobolomin This effects healthy nerves and the building of new cells. The ONLY places to find high levels of B12 are Beef Fish Shellfish Poultry Milk Eggs (especially the yolk) Minerals! The few that are of the greatest concern and get especially depleted are Magnesium, Selenium, and Zinc. Each has a very important job with the immune system, muscle function, and FERTILITY!  Magnesium Dark leafy greens Nuts Seeds Yogurt Dark chocolate/cocoa powder Beans Peas Selenium Selenium is particularly important for immune and thyroid function Brazil nuts (<-- fertility powerhouse!) Fish Pasture-raised beef and poultry Liver Butter Zinc Seeds Beans Pasture-raised beef and poultry Shellfish (especially oysters!)   Vitamins! The 3 most noteworthy are Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and CoQ10. Vitamin C - note that this vitamin is heat sensitive, so you’ll get the most of it when you eat these foods raw Dark leafy greens Tomatoes Strawberries Bell Peppers Broccoli Parsley  CoQ10 This one usually needs a supplement. Though you can find it in: Organ meats (liver!) Shellfish Oysters Trace amounts in spinach Vitamin E Fat soluble vitamin! This one can harm you if you over supplement it. You can’t get too much just from food.    Thanks for listening!

We start this episode off by talking about how pain isn’t normal. If you have painful periods, pain during sex, or pelvic pain of any kind, go find a specialist! Because girl, you’re worth it :)   The specialist I saw in San Diego works for SheFit, and she is the best. If you’ve got some issues and you’re in the San Diego area, check out www.shefitpt.com   Here Caitlin shares her struggles with PCOS, IUD’s, timed intercourse, delayed ovulation, and the joy of finally conceiving.    Caitlin was told to pee on a lot of ovulation strips. A LOT. Because most women ovulate about 14 days before the bleed. So, if your cycles are 90 days long like Caitlin’s were, you roll through a LOT of strips. Here is the pack she bought. P.S. she found out she was ovulating around day 46.   Some of the tools Caitlin used were: working with a naturopath on adrenal health, thyroid health, uterine blood flow, exercise, and of course lots of fertility friendly foods.    Part of her supplement regimen involved Adrenal Support, herbal blood sugar support, myo-inositol, liver support, CoQ10, fish oil, and a probiotic. Plus a musty concoction of chinese herbs. Wow. Even her husband was taking an antioxidant and maca to help his swimmers pick it up.    Special note: Caitlin and Sophia are not advocates of popping pills or supplements for everything. We believe in food first, always. However, even if you eat all the perfect things there are still times in life when you need some extra support. This was one of those times for Caitlin.   In addition to all the things she did to support her and her husband’s bodies, Caitlin shares a bit about protecting and supporting her and her husband’s marriage and sex life during this delicate time.    When Caitlin was first diagnosed with PCOS, she was told her fertility journey would be really challenging. She went into her conception journey ready for BIG problems, but instead she found hope and joy in the process.

Egg Quality   In this episode we talk about ovulation and ejaculation… a lot. Blush if you must, but this episode will teach you all about eating right to protect and preserve the precious eggs that can someday become healthy babies! We want to encourage and empower you to make the right choices for your life and your fertility.    Egg quality is the answer to the question: “Do the eggs you have contain the right kind of genetic material to make a happy healthy baby?”   It takes at 90-120 days to start developing an egg that ends up being ovulated. It’s true that women    What is in our control? Environmental Exposure Limiting exposure to toxic chemicals and compounds that disrupt hormone function Supporting your elimination organs (skin, liver, intestines, etc.) so your body can process the toxins you are exposed to Stress Stress inhibits fertility as a protective mechanism. The higher your stress levels are, the harder it will be to improve egg quality Stress can be emotional and psychological, but it also includes things like injury, illness, and extreme temperatures.  Combat stress with extra sleep, limiting exposure to toxic relationships, and changing our mindset regarding the challenges in life.    Hydration 10 pees with 2 C’s. The 2 C’s are Clear and Copious. Drink enough to feel the urge to pee 10 times a day, and when you go your urine is light yellow and plentiful. Water needs vary from day to day. Temperature, humidity, exercise, and diet all impact your hydration Sip water throughout the day versus chugging it all at once Aim to get the large majority of your hydration from plain water If soda is a regular part of your daily or weekly routine, give us a call and we will help you improve your weekly beverage menu Blood flow This is something that may need to be measured and visualized by your doc to see if there is something physically obstructing your ovaries from getting optimum blood flow Fertility massage is a great tool! The best time for a massage is after your period ends, but before your next anticipated ovulation Get regular exercise that gets your blood pumping Acupuncture has helped both Caitlin and Sophia with pelvic blood flow issues Sleep 8-9 hours a night is optimal for pre-conception.  Rome wasn’t built in a day! If your sleep is currently disrupted, short, or generally hard-to-come-by, look for small ways to improve your sleep quantity and quality Melatonin is a hormone that helps you sleep, as well as preserves egg quality as a powerful antioxidant Hormone Imbalances Get with a hormone specialist dietitian or other medical practitioner who can work with you on accurately testing for and treating hormone imbalances Weight Being overweight or underweight affects fertility. Work with a professional on this because losing too much weight too quickly can harm fertility as well.  Restrictive diets, cleanses, and crash diets can negatively impact fertility as well.  FOODS!! (Finally) Foods high in antioxidants Bright veggies Nuts and seeds Beans Berries and bright colored fruits Citrus fruits Eggs need FATS! Eggs and hormones are made primarily out of fat and cholesterol Where to get your healthy fats? Cold water fish (salmon, oysters, cod) 100% grass-fed beef and milk products Poultry from healthy animals that live outside Nuts and seeds (refer to the seed cycling episode) High-sulfur foods Cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli Onion, garlic, leeks, scallions Eggs (WITH yolks!) Brazil Nuts Sweet potatoes LIMIT: Caffeine Alcohol These are usually the last two we go for because they make life so much FUN! Maybe just cut back a bit, or switch to more natural forms. Think organic wine vs. jack and diet coke. Think cold brew coffee vs. sugar-free redbull.  NOTE: DHEA actually stands for dehydroepiandrosterone