Improving Our Diet in 5 Easy Steps
Food nourishes our bodies. What foods we choose have a major impact on our health, immune system, hormones, and fertility. Let me tell you about how I am changing my family's diet, in easy, simple, no stress steps that you can follow also.
Before you begin, you need to have a clear reason as to why you want to take this journey. For my family, it is to improve our health and increase my fertility, so that we can hopefully add baby number 2.
For your family that may be completely different. Whatever the reason is, remember it. It will make this journey easier.
If you are looking for someone to tell you to cut out fats, carbs, or sugars then you have come to the wrong place.
Can you lose weight that way? Absolutely!
Is it a healthy lifestyle to maintain? Probably not.
Many different foods grow on this planet naturally. They each have their own benefits and drawbacks to them, but that does not mean you should eliminate an entire food group.
Instead, I want to focus on eliminating the unnatural chemical additives that come in our processed foods. I want to focus on the ingredients we are putting into our bodies.
When is the last time you looked at an ingredient list on pancake syrup? Yesterday, I looked at the ingredient list on our syrup and it not only started with corn syrup as the primary ingredient, but it also included anchovies in the ingredient list.
French toast with corn syrup and anchovies anyone?
No, thanks!
Again, with boxed Mac N Cheese, have you checked that ingredient list?
I probably couldn’t tell you what half of those ingredients are. Could they be chemical preservatives to make the food shelf-stable? Absolutely.
Do I want to put chemical preservatives into my body or my families bodies? Not at all.
Now, I am not saying I am just going to go into my tiny RV pantry and throw out all of the processed foods with a mile-long ingredient list. That would be a waste of food and a waste of money, and I am not into wasting.
What I am saying, is that I am going to make a conscious decision to choose better next time.
How do I go about choosing better?
First, I decide what I need.
For this example, we will say I am shopping for bread and eggs.
Second, I ask myself, can I make it?
Bread- Yes, I can.
Eggs- No, I can’t.
If I can make it, I find a recipe, watch some tutorials on how to do it, and then create an ingredient list.
If I can’t make it, I will continue to step 3.
Third, I go to the grocery store and look at all the options and the prices.
Fourth, I decide what options fit within my budget.
Fifth, I read the ingredients list of those options.
I choose which product to buy based on the ingredient list if it has one. I look for the ingredients that I can pronounce and that I know what they are. For example, milk, cream, salt, wheat flour, eggs, etc.
If there is no ingredient list, such as with eggs, I read the packages. I prefer my eggs to be pasture-raised & organic.
Can I always afford those kinds of eggs?
No!
If I can only afford regular eggs or cage free eggs, I go with the cage free option. Next week, if I can afford to get cage free or free range, then I get those, then I get free range.
Here is a great article to help you determine if the labels free-range or cage free really make a difference.
You may find that you have to make trade offs sometimes, and that is ok! You do the best you can, with what you have. This is not a race where you get sent back to the starting line if you can’t get all organic one week.
Don’t beat yourself up over it.
Just find what you can afford and get the best option.
I know my fellow RVers are thinking, there is no way you have the room for all of these individual ingredients in a RV.
But, I do and you probably do, too.
Do you know how many things I can make from flour, sugar, salt, eggs, and yeast?
Sandwich bread. Dinner Rolls. Bread Sticks. Garlic bread.
Pancakes. Waffles.
Pasta.
How much room do the ingredients take up compared to how much room each of these items will take up?
When you think of it that way, you can see how “from scratch” cooking is actually perfect for the RV lifestyle.
Does what I eat really impact my fertility?
Absolutely!
My infertility diagnosis came secondary to a Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) diagnosis.
PCOS is caused by an imbalance of hormones, specifically LH and Insulin.
To manage symptoms of PCOS, you have to first manage your hormones. My Gynecologist and Reproductive Endocrinologist attempted to do this by putting me on Metformin, twice a day, for years.
Metformin is a pill that helps treat Type 2 Diabetes.
I was not diagnosed with diabetes, but I was labeled Insulin Resistant because of the excess amount of Insulin in my body.
Insulin is the hormone that is produced in response to the glucose we absorb from our food and drinks. Insulin helps lower the glucose in our blood by converting it to energy, storing it in muscle cells, and storing it in fat cells.
So by adjusting what I eat to a more natural wholesome diet, I will help to lower my glucose levels, which in turn helps lower insulin levels.
Think of it as a domino effect.
Eating better > lowers glucose > lowers insulin > which aids in balancing hormones > which increases fertility.
However, like with any good domino effect, there are multiple branches that go hand in hand to achieve the desired results.
How our body absorbs the nutrients from our food is also vital to improving fertility and having a healthy pregnancy. So many women are deficient in nutrients from an improper diet, that many doctors instruct anyone trying to conceive to begin taking a prenatal vitamin immediately.
