Starting my TTC Journey and Fertility Diet

I felt a little nervous about making a post about this, because I’m not big on sharing personal things online, but I know that I’ve gotten some great tips and even just so much comfort from others on their TTC journey. So, I wanted to share mine with you in hopes that you might feel the same!

Stephen and I have been talking about children for quite some time now. We’ve wanted so badly to start our own little family, and it’s actually one of the reasons that we got married so much quicker than we originally planned. (If you want to know more about how our wedding went down, click here.)

With that being said, even before our wedding day, I was doing a ton of research on how to get our bodies healthy and prepared for when we started ttc (trying to conceive). I ain’t messing around when it comes to my future babies…

So, we started picking up groceries that mainly revolved around our new fertility diet. This was HARD. We were so used to just picking out all the goodies our hearts desired, but now we had to suck it up and be healthy. Ugh.

I also did a ton of research and got some opinions from mamas about good Prenatals to take. So far, every pill I take gives me a headache, so I can’t really tell you which one is the best just yet. However, I will tell you that if you plan to start yours anytime soon, I would recommend taking them at night. So far, I haven’t had any issues when I take a half pill before bed. So….there ya go.

I also take a Vitamin B12 supplement every day for now, but I will be checking with my doctor soon to find out any other potential deficiencies I might have. That is another thing I would recommend, check with your doctor if you’re lacking in any vitamins so you can start working on that as well, BEFORE you even start trying.

FOODS WE’RE AVOIDING

These are the foods that we’re going to start being mindful of avoiding from here on out!

• Bacon, deli meat
• Burgers (Goodbye weekly trips to BK)
• White Carbs (We just swapped out all our white pasta and breads for wheat last week, and I’m actually not going to complain. Wheat tastes way better!)
• Excess Dairy (We have at least 3 half gallons of chocolate milk and 1 gallon of white milk in our fridge at all times…)
• Refined Sugars (All that candy we had piled up in the pantry…)
• Caffeine (This one we don’t really have much of anyway)
• Alcohol (My wine!!!)

Now, we’re not going to be perfect with this, and I am so aware that we will probably have our little cheat days. I personally don’t feel that we need to follow this 100% of the time in order to conceive a healthy baby, but I definitely don’t want us to overindulge like we used to!

FOODS WE ARE EATING MORE OF

We are doing our best to add these foods to our diet that are said to help with fertility

• Dark Leafy Greens (Salad every day for me, spinach with our eggs for breakfast)
• Fruits and Veggies (We just did a pretty big produce run at the grocery store the other day! Lots of Cara Cara oranges, and veggies for salads)
• Healthy Grains (We switched over to whole wheat and brown rice!)
• Nuts & Seeds ( I’ve got peanuts and Sunflower Seeds for us to munch on for snackage, and we will be stocking up on walnuts and almonds soon!)
• Healthy Oils (Olive Oil in our salad with some lemon juice and seasonings is BOMB) Avocado oil is also a really good cooking oil as well.
• Chicken and Eggs ( We had chicken in almost everything anyway so we’re good on that 😀 )

*Dark Chocolate is good for men!!!

AVOIDING ALL SLEEP AIDS/PAIN MEDS

On top of eating and avoiding certain foods, we are trying our best to stay away from taking a lot of medications. We both have allergies, so it’s not uncommon for us to take some Clariten or for me to pop some Benadryl at night. Also, this season has been rough on my sinuses, so I often get headaches and use Tylenol regularly.

But, since we started talking about trying, I am doing my best to stay away from any sleep aids or pain meds. I’ve done research on any medications I have taken and although some are said to get the OK for pregnant women, there are also those that say otherwise. And I’m someone that, when it’s something important to me, I’d rather not take that risk.

AVOIDING STORE BOUGHT LOTIONS/POTENTIALLY HARMFUL CHEMICALS

So, this is something I started doing even before we talked about TTC. I’m a big researcher. Like, I research EVERYTHING before I use a new kind of product or to find out more about things I have BEEN using and what could be better to use. The last couple of years, I have been switching to more natural beauty and cleaning products. I’ve just been more conscious of what goes in and onto my body.

So, once I found out how bad most of my lotions, face and even hair products were, I started switching them out and looking for those with safer ingredients. Naturally, I decided to check out what was in things like air fresheners and candles since those can have a direct effect on the air we breathe in. And wow…

Needless to say, we barely light candles or spray air fresheners around the apartment. If we feel it necessary or on occasion if we just really want to smell a pretty candle, we will light one up, but that’s maybe once a month. Otherwise, we diffuse essential oils. Which seems a much healthier option.

Again, I’m not trying to come across as that paranoid lady that throws everything away that could even be potentially harmful. I know that most things out there can be harmful to us in some way, but these are just the things that I have been more cautious about when working on TTC because it’s just so important to me. But it’s not something I am hardcore crazy about, I just like to be aware so I don’t overexpose us to things that could affect us long term.

CONCLUSION

Basically, our TTC journey is starting off with being aware of and doing our best to get rid of any bad habits we may have and making room for those that are healthier and will ultimately make us happier too in the end.  I am not going to be getting all TMI in this post about other things we have been trying and working on, because I don’t feel that it’s necessary since we just started this not long ago, but if you have any questions or even other tips on what you’ve been doing to TTC, let me know in the comments or send me a message!

Thanks for stopping by 😀

Quick & Easy Pasta Bake Recipe

If you’re having one of those days..you know which one I mean. Where you’ve been out and about all day, or chasing your kids around, or even just having one of those lazy days with ZERO energy to put into dinner that night, but you still need to feed everyone…then this recipe is for you.

Not only will you fill some bellies, and have leftovers, but you won’t have to spend the rest of your paycheck to do it! So if you want to know how to make this delicious Mac & Cheeseburger Pasta Bake, keep reading!

 

My fiance and I have had crazy schedules lately, and with wedding planning and needing to save our money, we’ve had to get creative and figure out some cheap, quick, healthy meals to whip up. We mainly look to make our meals in bulk so we have food ready to go for a few days. If this sounds like something that would be helpful to you, we’ve got loads of recipes that I will be sharing on this blog that will hopefully help you!

Now we are no chefs, but when you’re needing to be frugal, it can definitely get your creative juices flowing when it comes to how to you will spend your money wisely. So if you’re on a budget and you’d like to a cheap (but still delicious!) recipe that you can tweak to your own taste, I think you’ll like this one.

Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 45 mins

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
Cooking Spray
1 1/2 lbs Elbow Macaroni
1 Jar of Vodka Sauce (We used Bertolli brand)
1 Can of mushrooms
2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (We use a generous amount of cheese, but you decide what works for you!)
1 Cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
3 tbs garlic powder
2 tbs basil
2 tbs parsley
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, boil macaroni.
2. In a large skillet, cook ground beef along with Parmesan cheese, and half of the total amount of all other seasonings. (You’ll be adding the rest in soon)
3. Add mushrooms, and saute until beef is cooked all the way through.
4. Once macaroni is finished boiling, drain and add the jar of vodka sauce.
5. Add beef and mushroom mix to the pot.
6. Add the rest of your seasonings and mix together. (Here you can add or subtract the amount of seasonings you would like. We like to have our meat pretty flavorful, but if you’re trying to cut back or don’t want as much of an ingredient, do what suits you!)
7. Spray the bottom of a 13x9in saucepan, add one layer of pasta (ends up being about half of the total amount).
8. Sprinkle 1 cup of Mozzarella cheese, and 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, covering the pasta layer.
9. Add the rest of pasta, creating another layer.
10. Add rest of the shredded cheese.
11. Bake at 350 degrees, for 20 minutes (or until cheese is fully melted)
12. Let sit for 5 minutes.
13. DIG IN!

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