Lily Nichols & Lisa Hendrickson-Jack

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Prepare Your Body for Pregnancy: Preconception Nutrition & Fertility Awareness with Lily Nichols & Lisa Hendrickson-Jack

In today's episode, I welcome back Lily Nichols and Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. This time, they're here to talk about their new book, Real Food for Fertility, and to dive into the new research around nutrition and fertility. As an important topic for this community, I am so excited for you all to learn about how to prepare your body for pregnancy with preconception nutrition and fertility awareness from two women who are experts in the field.

Lily Nichols is an RDN Certified Diabetes Educator, researcher and author with a passion for evidence-based nutrition. Lisa Hendrickson-Jack is a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner who teaches women to chart their menstrual cycles for natural birth control, conception, and monitoring overall health.

Today you’ll learn how to best prepare your body for conception, what effect birth control has on fertility, when to transition to other contraceptive options if you’re thinking of getting pregnant, what foods are most important to increase your nutrient reserve, recommendations about meal timing if you’re hoping to conceive, and so much more!

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Show Notes

 

(00:02:38) Preparing Your Body for Conception

(00:06:01) The Impact of Hormonal Birth Control on Fertility

  • Studies showing the effect of getting off of different contraceptives 
  • What birth control does to ovarian reserve parameters 
  • Advice for women post-30 to have optimal fertility 

(00:18:49) Explaining the AMH Hormone & Its Role in Conceiving 

  • What AMH means in relation to artificial reproductive technology and PCOS
  • Understanding healthy AMH levels
  • How to improve our chances at conception through egg and sperm quality

(00:24:32) Important Nutrients Needed for Conception

  • Which food groups are most important for egg quality?
  • Main contributors to oxidative stress and inflammation 
  • Confronting myths about the Mediterranean diet
  • Amino acids needed to support fertility and why variety matters 
  • The importance of increasing nutrient reserves preconception 
  • The challenge of the plant-based diet for getting proper amino acids

(00:41:07) How Meal Timing & Intermittent Fasting Impact Fertility

  • Study showing how intermittent fasting helps with PCOS 
  • Why it’s important to frontload your protein intake 
  • How fasting impacts hormones and the menstrual cycle 
  • Putting weight loss goals on pause when you’re trying to conceive

(00:52:27) Remember These Fertility Enhancing Foods

  • Tips for adding more protein into your diet
  • Kelly’s postpartum experience increasing protein intake at breakfast
  • How fish, dairy, and fermented foods support fertility
  • How long should we be bulking up our nutrient status prior to trying to conceive

* Content from this podcast is provided for information and education purposes only, and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. The use of information from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. Always speak with your healthcare professional before taking any medication, nutritional or herbal supplement.

 

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