A new year often gets people in the mood to make changes in their lives to improve their health, reduce stress, and find better balance in their lives. The new year provides hope and a fresh start to reaching these goals. Common new year’s resolutions like “eating better”, “exercising more”, and “losing weight”, may not only help a person improve their overall health, but also their fertility.
For anyone who is looking to improve their fertile health this year, here are some healthy lifestyle changes that might help:
- Eat a healthy diet with fruits (especially blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries) and vegetables.
- Increase antioxidants. Consider taking a vitamin C supplement and consuming foods with antioxidants (berries, grean tea, etc).
- Avoid trans fats and consume more unsaturated vegetable oils. Trans fats are found in fried foods and baked goods (cookies and cakes). Leave these things behind and choose healthy fats from foods like fish and avocados instead.
- Get more protein from vegetables. Instead of choosing a serving of steak, consider a serving of lentils instead.
- Avoid highly processed foods. Eating lots of refined foods, such as white bread and pasta, can cause weight gain and increase your risk of ovulatory infertility.
- Take a multivitamin or prenatal vitamin. Find one that has at least 400 mcg of folic acid in it.
- Drink plenty of water and avoid beverages high in sugar (soda).
- Get to a “fertility zone” weight, meaning a body mass index of 20 – 24. Weighing too much or too little can both adversely affect fertility.
- Be active. If you don’t exercise regularly, starting could help your fertility.
- Limit alcohol intake and don’t smoke. Smoking has been shown to lower pregnancy rates and increase miscarriage rates.
With the start of a new year, this is the perfect time to make some healthy lifestyle changes. These things will improve your overall health and your fertility. For more information on how lifestyle changes can affect fertility, visit your Lifestyle and Fertility page.