Yummy in my Tummy

I'm finding it hard to readjust my brain to the thought that I'm preparing for another cycle of trying to conceive. The stress of waiting, testing, appointments and doctor's visits is overwhelming - it takes over my entire life. There are entire weeks at a time where I can't comfortably make out of town plans for fear I might need to be here for an ultrasound or an IUI. I have to cancel meetings and my patients at the last minute because we don't know until the last minute when I'll need to be at the RE's office. I have no control over much of anything except showing up on time for my appointments - appointments which I have no control over scheduling. My second thought after my BFP in April (after, "OMG, I'm going to be a mommy!") was, "Thank goodness I'm done with the IUIs." *sigh* And this time I don't have a clue when all this is going to start again, as I have no idea when AF might show up.

In an attempt to gain some semblance control, with my first three IUIs I tried all sorts of things to improve my chances, aside from just acupuncture. I'm not sure I'm ready to start back at all those things just yet, but my diet of junk food and birthday cake over the past couple of weeks has made it obvious that it's time to start working on at least one of my efforts at improving my fertility chances - my diet.

For most of the past year, I was following The Fertility Diet to the letter and being as healthy as I could be. Then I went on vacation in November, before I started trying to conceive, and never quite got back on board, though I was avoiding fast food and most junk food. I used the stress and fertility drugs as an excuse to be lazy (and it might have even been a valid one), but I was not eating as healthily as I should have been.

There's an interesting article about the fertility diet at a Canadian website for a fertility wellness center. In the article, the author points out that we already know what to eat for fertility health - it's the same things that we're supposed to be eating to decrease the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Yep, eating healthy is what you should do to improve your chances of conceiving - eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, unsaturated fats, and complex carbs, and avoiding saturated fats, trans fats and refined sugars. Chinese medicine takes that one step further, with specific recommendations based on your own symptoms, with specific foods that you should eat and foods you should avoid based on your body's energy balance, or chi. I've tried to incorporate some of the foods my acupuncturist told me I should eat, but for my own mental health I have to draw the line somewhere. Eating healthy is fairly easy, but following a super strict diet with prescribed foods is impossible, especially in the midst of the stress of trying to conceive.

I've enjoyed a couple of weeks of eating whatever I wanted - I figure I deserve it. But after all the junk food, I'm actually craving fruits and veggies! Tomorrow I'm going back to following a healthy diet. But for today, I'm living by the words of my 3 year old nephew who said, "Chocolate! Yummy in my tummy!"