Did you know that menstrual cycles are considered a fifth vital sign for women and fertility is an indicator of overall health?
To follow up to my last article, Taking My Own Medicine: How I Accepted and Overcame my Infertility Diagnosis, here’s how to optimize your 6 health foundations to support the best fertility outcome regardless of whether you choose a natural, Western, or dual path. Read more about this and how I worked on these foundations to get pregnant naturally when Western Medicine told me it was impossible here.
The New “Light” Diet: Artificial light is being illuminated as a root cause of weight gain. Women who slept with a TV or light on were 17% more likely to gain 11 pounds during the study. Natural morning sunlight can counteract the effects of our unnatural light environment and decrease hunger without putting the body into starvation mode (which leads to weight gain). 66% of our energy needs come from the sun, reducing the need for as much food (light density is part of why keto “works” since healthy fats have a high light density).
Vitamin D supplements don’t offer the same benefits, including lowering blood pressure and various cancer risks —and radiation is basically the sun on steroids.
Meet me at the Barre? Think you’re not an alcoholic, but have a problem with alcohol? Or maybe you’ve found that you’re just not that into drinking. You aren’t alone. An entire movement branded “Sober Curious” is gaining traction as millennials look for more ways to support mental health. Wellness and boutique exercise spaces have been crowding out bars as “the third place” for social and leisure time and now bars that don’t serve alcohol are increasing in number and “cool factor”. Investors are seeing opportunity and backing related concepts and products. The sober curious movement allows for reducing or taking a break from alcohol as opposed to swearing it off completely. Abstaining for a limited period can bring health benefits like a sense of achievement, better sleep, and weight loss.
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is:
While it’s hard to stir public passions with talk of carbon credits, the potential loss of our favorite foods is energizing the climate crisis discussion. Italian olive oil, chardonnay, and strawberries are already at risk. Chocolate and coffee aren’t far behind. Oil is a major driver of climate change with a recent report finding that just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions since 1988. What can you do? Start with your water bottle and your wallet. Use this app to fill up your reusable water bottle and ditch oil-based plastics and put oil-based companies on the chopping block of your 401k, IRA, and other investment vehicles (including via mutual funds!). Still, individual changes pale in comparison to policy. As election season approaches, do your homework on where your local and national elected officials stand on climate change and stay updated on where 2020 presidential candidates stand here.
Want to start your own sober curious experiment? Try this therapeutic mocktail from the always elegant Elana at Elana’s Pantry.
Ever find yourself eating out of anger, resentment or disappointment? Welcoming these emotions or parts of ourselves back is the key to consistency with our food and self-care.
Toko-Pa, author of Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, chatted with me on how to belong in our bodies when we are struggling with them. And how a period of exile, whether that’s from dropping out of “dieting” or Intuitive Eating, to explore the road less traveled, is necessary to remember ourselves home.
Listen to the Belonging: Missing Key to Consistency podcast
Read the transcript
Trusting Simplicity
Is learning more about nutrition and focusing on the complex rules of WW, Whole30 or Intuitive Eating allowing you to avoid doing the emotional work required for consistency? Are productivity “hacks” actually causing burn out and procrastination eating?
Join us in the Insatiable Community this July as we explore “avoid” patterns and how they make food and life much harder than they need to be.
Be well,
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