Finding the Right Fertility Diet When You're Struggling With Infertility
ME: No tomatoes, please.
Waiter: What, you don't like tomatoes?
ME: No. I love tomatoes, but I'm intolerant to them.
Waiter: That's not a thing. Tomatoes are healthy, you can't be intolerant.
ME: Well, you tell that to the eight years of infertility I dealt with, my guts & my 💩 and my poor husband who spent 14 years wondering what the hell was leaking from my bottom 😷
This is a real conversation I've had in my head every time someone questions me about not eating tomatoes.
One thing you might find out when you're trying to figure out what foods work & don't work for you is the social unacceptance of not eating certain foods. So much so, that even when you know something isn't good for you, you eat it anyway to avoid snide remarks or invasive questions.
I feel for you. I know exactly how this feels.
It might take you a while to be comfortable & determined enough not to give a flying f*uck what people think about your diet choices & why you're making those decisions. But when you do the empowerment that you'll feel is overwhelming.
The fact is that you can have an allergy or be intolerant to anything & everything. Just because it's deemed healthy, doesn't mean that it can't cause you issues. There are two ways to figure out what foods work for you & what foods don't: Testing & Elimination.
Both have pros & cons.
Elimination:
🦩It's free ✅
🦩Doing an elimination can be very time-consuming & frustrating. Especially if you have already cut out the top 5 and aren't seeing the results you want: getting & staying pregnant❌
Testing:
🦩It's not free ❌
🦩There is no perfect 100% accurate test ❌
🦩It can show an allergy or intolerance that you just would have never thought of ✅
🦩It can save you time & money ✅
My top tip is to get the support you need sooner rather than later! There's two ways Finding Fertility support you:
🦩 Join the Fertility Formula to discover your perfect fertility diet through elimination and get the right support and guidance you need!! You can now access the MRT Leap 170 by joining!!
🦩If you want one to one support and guidance check out the One to One Coaching Package
If I would have done a food sensitivity test when I first started to see my health coach, I would have saved myself years & about $25,000 in IVF fees. It took me almost a year of doing a paleo diet, a failed IVF & one much more expensive immune test to realise that I needed to go deeper & cut out "health foods" like tomatoes & paprika. 🤦🏽♀️
On the other hand. If I had the support and guidance of a health coach like myself, who has the knowledge & experience, I might have been able to just go Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) from the start. I use the word might, because AIP is a very restrictive diet & it takes a lot of commitment & will to stick with it. I don't know if I would have been able to fully commit at that point in time.
Remember diet changes don't happen overnight. You will see small (amazing) results within a few weeks, but depending on how deep your root cause is it might take 3 months to over a year to reach your ultimate goal of getting and staying pregnant.
CASE STUDY:
Above 👆🏽 & below👇🏽 are the results of a Food Sensitive Test (FST) taken by a client, in January, who refused to give up corn and coffee (among other things). Not only was she dealing with infertility, but she was having a hand full of normal health issues like; gut, sleep, skin & joint issues.
She already knew from eliminating dairy & gluten that she was much better off of these two foods. When the results came in that she was highly reactive to cows milk & mildly to wheat, I must say I was a little surprised.
She wasn't consuming dairy or wheat (or at least she told me she wasn't) & when you take an FST, you should be eating all foods for them to should a reaction. This is one of the reasons why FST aren't always 100%
When the test results came back, she was heartbroken. Corn showed up as highly reactive - 100% off the table. And that's ALL THINGS CORN! Which a lot of us overuse when we first go "gluten-free."
The other three big kickers for her was coffee, tune & the beloved avocado, which all should up with mildly reactive.
NOW. When you are healing, you MUST get off everything that can cause you inflammation - even if it's mildly. These mildlys ad up!
Especially for this client who was having a daily coffee & eating tuna almost every day. It doesn't have to be this way forever. The healthier your gut is, the more likely you'll be able to reintroduce your favourite foods.
I'm happy to report that she is well and truly on her way to creating her dream family. She has eliminated all of her reactive foods (along with alcohol) and within two weeks she's seen improvements with her guts, sleep and joints.
If you're thinking about running an at-home food sensitivity test, I wouldn't recommend it. Most of them are only look at one potential pathway of food sensitivities, known as IgG antibodies.
If you only look at this one pathway, then you might not get the full picture. Additionally, IgG antibodies may increase as a normal result of eating certain foods.
So, a positive result on an IgG food sensitivity test may simply indicate that you have recently eaten that food – not that you necessarily have a negative reaction to it!
🦩 My Top Food Sensitivity test:: MRT Leap 170 - Oxford BioMedical Technologies [Sample Test] :: $335 plus blood draw + shipping + $75 processing fee USA only not available in NY & Jersey [$150 for those in Cananda] :: paid directly to the lab. Kit will be sent directly to your house & a professional blood draw will be needed.
If you're interested in doing a food-sensitive test, I run the MRT LEAP 170 with my clients. Access to functional testing can be ordered when you work with me 1:1 in the One to One Coaching Package & now within the on-demand group coaching program Fertility Formula
You can do A LOT on your own, but sometimes you need a little help. A little guidance to get you on the right track. A lot of accountability. Whatever the reason is, I've got your back!
Discover more about the guidance & accountability you need and deserve:
Fertility Formula
One to One Coaching Package
Have a beautiful week & remember to reach out with any questions about your journey - I'm here for you - [email protected] or book in today for your 60 Minute Discovery Consultation
Let's Do This Together
💚
Monica
Connect with Monica over on:
Anything written or said about health and diet are my opinions, that I have formed over the years, through trial and error, study, reading, listening and observing. What worked for me, may not work for you. I am not a doctor, nutritionist or dietician and all medical advice should be gotten from a qualified professional. Product recommendations are based on what I used during my infertility journey or wish I had.
