Fertile Ground

with
Holly Lo

This is an unedited transcript.

Welcome back to the momdaze podcast. I’m your host, Holly Lo. And I want to start by saying thank you for allowing me that space, I needed to just take a few weeks off to breathe, and really refocus on this topic that we’re heading into, because I feel like it needs a fresh attention that I wasn’t able to give it before. So we’re back at it. I’m excited to be recording with you again. And I am looking forward to some of the guests that we have coming up and some of the discussions we’re going to have. Let’s dive into it. Today. I’m heading through more conversations about fertility. And today I want to discuss how do we set ourselves up for healthy, whole, you know, the best start possible to your fertility journey. Now this could be at any age and stage, if you’ve gone back and listen to our previous podcast episodes, talking about just reproductive health and periods and the conversation that really needs to shift with our younger girls and our teens. This is what we’re leading into. We’re leading into good, solid information, not so much the past down generational stuff that has been handed to women. We’re talking about factual, helpful information that will set you up for success whenever you’re ready to start a family if that’s your choice to do. So, having said that, when it comes to your fertility, health, and I’m speaking specifically to women’s female reproductive organs, men, it’s a it’s a similar story, but a different story, right? We can’t lump it all in together. But there are some basic, like I said, groundwork pieces that we can add in. And the reason I called this episode, fertile ground is because of that, it’s the it’s the essence of what can we do. So let’s get right into it, we’re going to talk about some very simple tip for a groundwork, a fertile ground, basic starting point for treating your body in a way in an in a mindful way that keeps your fertility in in in the forefront. I guess in mind, as I’m trying to say, the things that I found very, I don’t know, it kept coming up when I was looking for ways to bump up my my fertility and just make that my body and my health stronger. One thing that kept coming up that I found confusing at first was something called Seed cycling. And I don’t know if you’ve heard this seed cycling, at first, at first glance, I thought what on earth like what are you what are you talking about seed, what seeds. And the bottom line for seats cycling is you kind of have to know your cycle. So before we even get into any of that, if you haven’t gone back and listen to some of our conversation, you’ll want to do that. But you’ll want to know your cycle. You’ll want to know what is my luteal phase, long as it when’s the follicular phase. So how long is that? Have I done any tracking now you can do it very casually. We’ve got some great apps you can work with. I use one called ovia. There’s lots of them out there that you can buy actual like ovulation strips to match with it. Don’t spend a fortune on ovulation tests. You’re using them daily. So grab something simple that are just a little strips, you’re going to follow it through every month and you don’t want to test for they’re doing this you can add in something called Seed cycling. And this is simply done in a two set part to your cycle. Okay, so day one being the first day of your period, and you’re gonna go from day one to 14 is going approximately again, you’ll know day cycle 29 whatever you’ll be able to figure out where you’re

approximately day one to day 14 All you’re doing is a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds which Talking raw, preferably unsalted on roasted, just raw pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds. I like the ground flaxseed and I keep it in the fridge, those are important things to keep in mind, then you’re going to add that in once a day. That’s it, you can throw it on a solid, you can put it in your cereal, whatever you want, I just toss it in my mouth and eat it. Because I actually really liked pumpkin seeds and flax seed. So once a day, it’s that simple, then once you get to ovulation, and if you’re testing, you’ll know where that is. If you’re not, it’s around D 15. Okay, 14 1516, somewhere in there, you’re gonna switch those seeds, and you’re gonna do a tablespoon of sunflower seed, again, we’re doing raw, not treated, try to find something that is clean, sunflower seed and sesame seed. Yes. And it’s actually really simple. Like I said, again, I throw it on my salads, but I make sure I’m getting at least a tablespoon of it into me not like stuck to my bowl. So that is seed cycling, it’s as simple as that. The theory behind it, and I can attest to it being effective. I’ve done it, it works. The theory behind that though, is the way it affects our hormones. In those times of our cycle. These seeds are very, very potent, but very gentle on your body. And they’re good for you either way. So they’re a great option to in anytime, right? You’d be starting this as a teenager, I’ve already taught my my daughter how to do this, and she’s 10. So she doesn’t have a cycle, right. But I’ve taught her just to throw some seeds onto her salad or into her cereal. So it doesn’t become a weird thing later to say, hey, this, this would be a great time for the next two weeks to throw these onto your food, teach our girls this, if we can teach our kids then, then we’re only setting us up for now, that’s just one little piece. And I’m not I’m not a nutritionist by any means there’s lots of things you’ll find diet wise. I mean, dietary, the things you’re eating, you’re going to want to make sure your folic acid is good, lots of dark leafy greens in your days, and you’re eating good amount of fruits and veggies, you’re not eating a bunch of processed. So if you’re conscientious already about what’s going into your body, then you’re already halfway there. If you’re not, and some of the things that are going into your body needs to be cleaned up, then a simple step is this process, don’t eat it. Someone not in a chip factory, try to avoid it right. And again 80% of the time you’re all in and you’ve got all the good stuff can have what you feel like having, it doesn’t have to be restrictive. It doesn’t have to be any of those things, you take it how you you honor your body and how you work best. Some of us

we operate well with a set, you know menu or menu planning and other people like myself do not we don’t thrive on that. And we are body directs us to eat. But like I said, for that fertile ground for that baseline health, there are some really important things that need to either leave your body or be in your body. Another really important part for reproductive health. And we’re going to talk about this, even later on when we talk about labor and delivery is our digestive health. Obviously, we have to have solid gut good gut health, we have to have our body processing properly. So if it’s not processing properly, that’s going to affect how our internal organs are operating how we ovulate, the health of our eggs, it will will be affected by that everything you’re doing. You have the power to affect your reproductive health. You’ve heard me talk before about the way we can actually affect our genetics in a way, right or epi genetics are not static, here that whatever you’ve been told, it’s not static. It’s not written in stone, that this is just what you’re with, you actually have the ability to change it on an epigenetic level with what goes into your body and how you take care of your health. So don’t ever feel that you’ve been given a diagnosis or you’ve been given, you know, a future that you didn’t choose based on your health that you think is just genetic. Most of the time, it’s not. So have some hope. I want you to hear that from a hopeful standpoint that we have the power to shift some of these things, many of these things. Now, there are some again, based supplements that are really helpful to have. And if we again, just really, really easily on a daily basis, knock some of those off the list. You’ve done Another step towards taking care of that baseline health. A good solid. Now, I’m not going to get into the controversies of multivitamins, because it’s a dirty business, but a good solid, whole food based, you know, macronutrient, micro minerals, all of those things, trace minerals, clean supplement is a really simple place to start, and it is not a one a day. So even if you’re taking a lot of times, you’re encouraged to prenatal vitamin, that’s a one a day if you’re trying to conceive, that will not do it. And like I said, it’s a dirty business. Most of what you buy on the shelf is garbage. I can say that up front, because it’s exposed, it’s been shown to be true. So you really want to do a bit of work on this part and work with someone who knows what they’re doing as well. In our case, I work very specifically with our clients and with people. We use one called lifelong vitality. It’s one of my absolute favorite supplement systems. But there are others and it’s again, it’s not the one at all, you can find ones that add in fruit and veggies, if you need a little boost on that front. That’s not a multivitamin, that’s just a food supplement. Mega, I like to go for, honestly a vegan version for omegas. Because it’s really hard nowadays, to find a clean fish oil, no matter what they tell you, it’s going to be complicated. Everything is slightly contaminated or fret. So looking for a good vegan version of a of a Omega oil is really good for that as well. Now, that’s something again, that’s included on our lifelong vitality system. And that’s why I work with that, because it’s just, it’s one system, and you’re done. And then we have one that also adds in a cell system as well, that reaches on a cellular level and gives some more energy boosts that absorption, all that good stuff. Now, here’s the catch. If you’re doing all these things, and your gut is not taken care of, you’re basically flushing money down the toilet. So no matter what supplement you take, if it’s not being absorbed effectively, then you’re going to have some issues, right. So that’s why I said Your first step is to take care of your gut. First step is to make sure that your nutrient levels are going where they need to go, they’re being absorbed, they’re at the right level, you can have a naturopath, test your vitamin levels, do Dutch testing for hormone levels, and we’ll talk more about sort of thing. But this is where it’s really important that you start there, because then you’re just dumping things in, and it’s not going to have the effect that you want it to have. There’s a few other extras and again, but that’s gonna be back on the podcast. And we’ll we’ll chat more through some extra supplements that I know she’s really great at working with us and, again, other working with specialists and working with doctors and naturopaths and things like that, I use a no subtle power

back NAC supplement, I use a specialized co Q 10 form. And then we always want to make sure our D three, D two or vitamin D is absorbable. in a liquid form is always best I find because it’s done in oil base, and it does reach into our cells in a more effective way. So there’s just some basics, like make sure you’ve got them on hand kind of deal. So that you can have yourself set up for that success. If you are actively trying to get pregnant, then you can add in a natural version of folic acid sometimes, it depends on how your body absorbs it. Sometimes a synthetic version actually absorbs better than the natural version, folate versus folic acid. You can have that debate with you, you know, whoever’s looking after you. But those are your basics. That’s your groundwork. From there, you’re going to have if you run into troubles, if you run into these things aren’t going as quickly as things aren’t working as late as I thought or I am having some cycle issues. I don’t seem to be ovulating regularly, my period is not regular. If those things are coming up, that’s where you’re starting to do some investigative work. Till then you really don’t need to be doing a lot of extra testing or anything beyond that. Now, how do we know when we’re facing fertility challenges? That’s a question that many you know, people who haven’t tried yet. I hear them say, Well, I fingers crossed, I hope I can have a baby I hope that we’re able to conceive. It really shouldn’t feel that way. It shouldn’t be left to chance. If you’re doing things to actively take care of your body. There’s no good reason why it wouldn’t work. But what do you do when it doesn’t?

So let’s look at that. Let’s look at what the difference is between. I’ve never tried. And I actively know I know that there’s something going on. That’s unfortunate. Cooperating I’m dealing with PCOS, I’m dealing with endometriosis. I know it right Do their cycles, I there’s a lot of stress that I am not able to change at the moment, things like that, that has a whole other, you know, component to it. And then we have the category of there’s nothing wrong that we can find. But we’ve been trying for a year, and we have not been able to get pregnant doing everything that we’re supposed to do. So the unexplained infertility, right. And then lastly, we have secondary infertility, which is what we’ve been dealing with. So are these levels of concerns that could be there when it comes to fertility, and there also can be a host of other issues, right? It’s just one of the things that feels very big, can feel very daunting, and in some cases vague, when you don’t have a diagnosis. Answer. That’s where I really feel like, if you haven’t tried yet, and you don’t know for sure, then there’s no reason to be worried. Let’s start there, you’re good. If you’re taking all the ways, you know, we’ve discussed in our past episodes, and we’ll continue to do things just to set yourself up for success with that groundwork, then you’re good to go, you have nothing to stress about. Timing will be up to you. Do you want to consider egg health, you do want to consider age, all of those things. But you have a very think was the acceptable ages to get pregnant, we actually find between 35 to 38. Isn’t that interesting, those are very high fertility years for your egg health for quite young you can and that you can’t get pregnant when you’re in your 40s, you absolutely can’t. So that window, don’t stress if you have waited. And also, if you’re young and you started having babies, you have lots of time to make those decisions where you might want more later, right, you might want to have another baby when you’re in your 30s. And you’ve already had them when you consider some of that that range, that window is quite big compared to what we used to be told what was thought to be the optimal range. Do you have time, but you don’t have endless time, right. And that’s something that we have to pay attention to. Now another thing that I think is important to pay attention to is our egg health, right egg quality, you quantity wise you have what you have, right now like Man, where there’s just an endless supply of swimmers, women have what they have, you’re given the count of eggs you have from the time you’re conceived. And even beyond that you’re predetermined for that number. You’re not predetermined, though, for the health and the quality of those eggs. So do not ever let a doctor or specialist or anyone tell you that you’re too old, then your eggs don’t work. That can happen. But it doesn’t mean that’s the end all and beall. Okay, now again, we’re not talking about exceptional conditions, we’re talking a healthy body healthy, everything, everything else is working, everything’s good. As long as you are taking active care of some of these persons in your body and in your cycle and in your fertility and in your reproductive organs and your gut. If you’re taking active care of yourself in these ways, then your egg health will benefit from that. There are a few extra little bonuses that you can try. Now, again, I don’t recommend you just outright go and do these. I’ve worked with these three programs with specialists three, naturopath support, things like that. So I do recommend you have some guidance on these. But I’m going to throw them out there because it might be things that you’ve never thought to ask about or use. So melatonin is one that has been shown that Melatonin is a hormone right, helps with sleep helps with rest. We know that good deep rest and good restful states are very important for our fertility. And also for relieving stress and bringing our body back to homeostasis, all those good things. So part of that is getting a good sleep. But the other part is they’ve shown that the hormone involved in melatonin and the way your body produces it can also directly affect our egg quality. So one milligram, you don’t need to go crazy, or use this goal, right one milligram of melatonin, and you can do it throughout your cycle. You can do it from day one to day 14 And then not do it for the next part half of your cycle. If you don’t like using it. I use it sparingly but it’s a great option. If you overuse it though it can actually impact your ovulation. So that’s kind of important, right? Because you don’t want it to be counteracting what it is you’re trying to do. So you might be improving your egg quality but now you’re messing up your ovulation cycle. So when as needed and I like I said I do it from day one to 14 but work with someone who can help you work through that based on your hormones. Another one that I found really interesting was aspirin. And this is one that you don’t would rarely hear me use or say or recommend. However, those aspirin I believe it’s 81 milligrams I could be wrong but it’s called low dose aspirin. Reason, low dose aspirin to help for women who specifically have suffered multiple miscarriages, have trouble with placenta, staying attached, things like

that, that isn’t take it proactively, and help with that as well. So I’m throwing that up. Again, it’s meant to be taken to specialists taken to the people you’re working with, and you can have those conversation, I do want to throw out an amazing person that I have had the opportunity to work with, I would love to get her on, we just haven’t been able to connect with our schedules. But Dr. Cleopatra is someone that I’ve worked with Dr. C, we call her and you can look her up for the pregnancy Institute, I believe it is, but I’ll put all the information you can find her in the links. She has an amazing program called the Prime Minister protocol. And I learned so much just by hopping into her prime minister protocol. And as she goes through all of these things, a lot of this is where I’ve learned this. And it’s put out as kind of like a set up setting yourself up for success when you’re planning to try or you’ve had trouble getting pregnant, or you have already faced for fertility challenges, or you don’t know, but you know, you want the best start. So she has a really fantastic program, it’s 100% worth doing. So you can look at that, again, I’ll put it links in the comments. And you can in the in our link sections, and you can check that out. But things like that there are people who have spent their lives researching, putting work into that, and that’s Dr. Z, she has actually put a ton of effort. She’s a well researched doctor, specialist in this field, and specifically works well with women over 40. So if you feel like you’ve hit that wall where it’s too late, she’s the person to talk to you and to look at. But at any age, having a protocol that you can follow and feel confident in and have God that’s what they’re about. So I highly recommend that as well. Like I said, basic groundwork for your fertility. And I think it’s really key and important that we pay attention to some of this and that we look into our options. And we you know, take from it what you feel you need, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing scenario, either. You can, you know, test on if you feel that’s necessary, or you’re you’re struggling with certain areas. But as a whole, if we take it back to the basic whole, you know, mantra of you, I’m going to take care of my body, regardless of what my fertility goals are, then you’re setting that groundwork up for success, you’re setting, setting it all up for health overall. And in the end, you’ll be better for it no matter what the outcome is. So keep that in mind. It’s it’s something that if we can change the narrative again, around it, and as we’ve talked about with past guests and other episodes about change, fertility versus fertility, the idea that we all have fertility in some form, it’s just what’s working and what isn’t. How do we work with what we’ve got? How do we, you know, create a family for whatever our scenario is? What does that look like. And at the end of the day, even if it’s, you still need to take care of you, right? Health and your well being is all you’ve got, it’s at the end of this whole process, no matter what way you bring a family together, you still need to take care of your body, your heart health, your gut health, your mental health, these things all play a role in your ability to parent. Right? So regardless of what fertility looks like for you, or what that creating a family looks like for you, and there’s lots of ways to do that. It’s that you can take an assessment of your own health and your own wellness and say, Where am I at? am I in a position to be a healthy parent? And if I’m not, what do I need to look at? What can I change? What are some maybe baby steps that we start with maybe it is just a bit of a gut cleanup, maybe it is a bit of a pantry clean out, you know, things like that. And we’ll we’ll discuss more like that as we go along. But I think it’s a really great time when we discuss fertility to look at our health overall and say, this needs tweaking or you’re right I could I could make a change with this. My periods don’t have to be heavy and painful. My I don’t have to be dealing with crazy PMS, I don’t need to have, you know, inflammation. I

don’t need to have reproductive organ disorders. I can do something about this. I actually have some control over this. So I hope that’s helpful. I hope that brings a bit of hope as well because it’s sometimes can feel very out of our control. It can feel very big and broad. And you feel that you’re at the mercy of specialists or doctors or other experts, which is great that we have them but you are still your best advocate and you are still your best healer. So keep that in mind that you have tools available to You have people surrounding you, you have experts that are available to you to ask these questions and to gain some of this knowledge. But don’t overwhelm yourself either with the array of opinions that you will. So if you’re in that same category that we’ve been in, of, you know, trying to conceive the frustrating journey, and we’re right there with you, I understand, I feel it. And I just want you to know that regardless of the outcome, your health matters, your mental health matters, your bodily health matters. So I want you to take away what you can and ask your questions reach out, and I can give you more information. I’m happy to share some of the experiences we’ve had and the things that have worked for us. But ultimately, everyone has their own unique body, and everyone needs their own health journey as well. But be encouraged because you have the ability to take care of yourself, you really do. We just have to make it that priority. We’ll talk soon I am going to be bringing back dawn for what your mama didn’t tell you. And we’ve got some great episodes coming up as we head into our talks about each trimester of pregnancy, labor and birth postpartum and all these good things surrounding making a family.

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