Nothing tastes as good as pregnant feels

I started a super crunchy, super holistic "diet" on Sunday. In theory, it's meant to help with fertility. The idea behind it is that a woman's eggs are fragile and, thus, highly affected by their environment. If toxins can create unhealthy eggs, there's a school of thought that says the opposite should hold true -- the cleansing of toxins can help promote more healthy eggs.

It's not science, and I'm pretty sure my RE would smile politely (in a total "bless your heart" sort of way) and then explain to me how ridiculous it is, but I don't care. The bottom line is, it can't HURT and that's kind of all I'm shooting for at this point.

So phase 1 was cleaning up my actual diet. I went grocery shopping and for the first time, like...um...ever?, I didn't buy a single pre-made or highly shelf stable food item (except for quinoa which I'll get in to in a minute). It was the most expensive grocery trip in the history of grocery trips but I came home with tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, free range antibiotic free chicken, Greek yogurt, organic eggs, and basically just a whole lot of whole foods.

One tenant I came across over and over in my research was that protein is HUGELY important to egg growth and quality. I scoured my diet to find that, outside of the typical "dinner meat" and my obsession with Greek yogurt, I was actually pretty lacking in the protein department. Cue the entrance of quinoa. I actually introduced this gluten free staple to our rotation when my husband started The Paleo Diet last year, but didn't think too much of it other than "oh yay! a replacement for rice!" Turns out, quinoa is high in protein. WIN. So I've essentially replaced all rice and pasta products with Quinoa. Doesn't work every single time (Carbonara Quinoa? no dice ladies and gents), but it's a pretty stellar competitor.

I needed to get more antioxidants in my life. Research is split on this since commonly consumed products like green tea that are high in antioxidants, also contain some caffeine or tannins that maybe aren't favorable for this. Some experts say too much is counterproductive to TTC, others say that, in the right proportions and from the right sources, it's a good thing. So I'm munching on red bell peppers, eating pomegranate everything and pretty much ODing on blueberries. And that's just to name a few of the items I'm currently keeping on hand.

I also switched back to full fat, organic dairy. Going along with the whole food mentality, full fat is the way to go. I'm not trying to lose weight from this, so I'm totally ok with full fat cheeses and yogurt. Milk is another story. I cannot do whole milk. No, ew, I can't. So 1% is good enough for what I need it for and then I use whole in cooking and baking (yum).

A few basics for my day:
Eat MUFAs (mono unsaturated fatty acids) and dark greens, in some form, everyday. So I eat avocado or nuts, plus spinach at every meal. Breakfast is about to get really interesting when omelets lose their luster.

Drink more water than you think is humanly possible. Yes. And then subsequently spend the rest of the day peeing it out.

Make every meal fiber heavy. This *feels* difficult since I'm not eating sugars and extraneous grains because so many fiber enriched items can be carb heavy. The one plus side to this? Fiber cancels out carbohydrate, in an almost equal proportion (favoring carbs...of course...little bitches). I don't feel it's an even trade when there are tons of other options for fiber, but it's something.

There's also a vitamin regimen that could warrant a whole new post, so I'll save that for another day.

And now for the "DO NOT" list....
I've given up refined sugars as best I can. I refuse to stress myself out further by investigating every ingredient of every.single.thing I eat. The things I prepare don't have refined sugar in them and I steer clear of menu items that *seem* to be sugar laden. I've successfully replaced white sugar with Truvia, real maple syrup and agave nectar in the past and I think I can do it again.

No more alcohol. Well. Yeah. This one is going to be a really relaxed rule because let's face it? I need my wine. End of story.

No more caffeine. It huuuurt to do that Sunday, Monday and today but I'm still alive.

So that's the gist of the diet. And since an egg's life cycle is about 90 days to maturation, I had to start immediately for even the hope of a positive effect. I know pomegranate won't save a baby, and I know giving up sugar won't promise a pregnancy that sticks, but I have to do every single thing humanly possible to HELP. That's all I can do.