For those who may not have read the lead in post to this one, I met with a nutritionist for the first time ahead of my egg freezing procedure to make myself as healthy as possible in order to have the best chance at retrieving the best quality eggs. Overall, I think I eat fairly healthy–I aim to have something fresh like a salad or fruit everyday and only drink soda as a splurge. My meeting with her ended up being really eye opening, and I still take what she advised into practice. I do think her guidelines are applicable whether or not you’re trying to freeze your eggs or get pregnant, so hopefully you all get something out of this post either way!

Before our meeting she had me keep a 3 day food journal, which we were going to go over in our consultation. One of the entries might have looked something like the below. She said to be as specific as possible, there may be small things we eat/add to our meals that we don’t even realize.

• Breakfast: Coffee with almond milk, medium bowl of yogurt with blueberries (sometimes with honey), Trader Joe’s Shortbread Chocolate Cookies 2x
• Lunch: Trader Joe’s Harvest Chicken Salad, Fruit – orange or apple, Le Croix or Spindrift
• Afternoon snack: few pieces of chocolate
• Dinner: Cheese and Salami, Popcorn, Glass of wine

Dinner is abysmal, I know, I might include any leftovers with dinner, but all in all not too bad right? I was upfront and admitted to loving my coffee with sweets in the morning and my glass of wine at night. She basically said out of those two, the drinking was the most problematic as there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and fertility.  

My main takeaways from our consultation:

1. Eat more protein! 
   1. We are supposed to be eating 20g of protein EACH MEAL! How many eggs and chicken salads can a girl eat?! But she helped make this less intimidating with a few tips such as adding protein alternatives like collagen powder to coffee or tea, and chia seeds to yogurt and cereal, and eating 2 eggs everyday (it doesn’t mess with your cholesterol as previously thought). This also helps justify my love of carne asada street tacos 🙂
      1. Pasture raised eggs are recommended as they are higher in nutrients, for example the Vitamin D is 4-6x higher due to increased sun exposure. If you can afford it, splurge on good quality eggs

2. Incorporate fermented foods
   1. These are probiotic foods that support good gut bacteria and gut health, which impacts hormone health. Balanced hormones are important for a healthy pregnancy and baby. Good sources are kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, plain yogurt, miso. If you’re like me, taking vitamins, or even drinking a probiotic drink after meals or as a snack feels like a chore. I’ve had to shift my mindset and find ways to incorporate it into what I’m already doing. Out of all the above, kimchi has actually been the easiest to eat on a more regular basis. I’ll add a few pieces to my eggs and avocado over rice in the morning, or I layer it on ramen or frozen Korean noodles from Trader Joe’s. I don’t feel like I have to go out of my way to order these “specialty foods” at restaurants or plan my home meals around it anymore

Many of the other recommendations she outlined were pretty straight forward. For example, eating dark leafy greens and colorful vegetables, whole grains, legumes and berries, and avoiding refined carbohydrates such as white bread and pasta, and processed food. Of all her suggestions I found the inclusion of grass fed and organ meats to be the most challenging. It’s expensive and where does one find organ meat? I do splurge on wild caught salmon from Trader Joe’s now though, and also recently made my own chicken broth with the leftover bones and meat from a whole young chicken from Sprouts. The more whole you can buy your meat and produce the better since it means it went through less processing. I also make sure that I have a rotation of broccoli, brussel sprouts and spinach. 

She included a list of recipes, with many I still use now. The favorites include:

1. Egg and Kale Frittata, which I turned into Egg Muffins/Egg Bites
   • Beat up some eggs, add chopped veggies like kale, spinach, red pepper into a muffin tin, or you can make it as a quiche and cut up for breakfast throughout the week. You can include almond milk to beef up the eggs
2. Pesto Shrimp Pasta
   • I was intimidated to make shrimp that wasn’t already part of a pre-packaged meal, but it’s actually really easy, whether you buy it raw or cooked and frozen. It also offers another source of protein, thank goodness. The recipe is so simple, brown rice fettuccine pasta with pesto sauce and shrimp, salt to taste. I’ll add grated Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes as a garnish
3. Pan Fried Zucchini 
   • So simple, cooked in coconut oil…I hadn’t thought to just eat Zucchini by itself. Very delicious 
4. One Pan Salmon and Veggies
   • I usually roast my salmon separately, so love the simplicity of putting everything together. Add yellow bell peppers, red onions and cherry tomatoes, add olive oil, salt, and pepper to season

Lastly if you are trying to get pregnant or to help manage infertility she recommends eliminating gluten, processed dairy products, caffeine, energy drinks and alcohol. Alcohol can raise estrogen levels as much as 10%, and skipping coffee helps with anxiety, overall mood, sleep and conception. I still love to drink, but am resolving to cut down to mostly red wine. It’s good for you right, with the polyphenols? Oh the things we tell ourselves 😀. Coffee is super hard for me, but I have been incorporating Matcha more given the antioxidant health benefits and lower caffeine. 

I will leave you with her fertility boosting smoothie which I’ve been making often for breakfast. It’s tasty and not too sweet and apparently super good for you! I find that frozen berries are easiest. Trader Joe’s also sells a bag of Power to the Greens that includes the veggies listed below.

Fertility Fruit Smooth

• 1 cup of frozen or fresh berries
• 1 large handful dark leafy greens (kale, chard, spinach)
• 1⁄2 avocado
• 1 tbs hemp seeds
• 1 tbs chia seeds
• 1⁄2 lemon, peeled
• 1 -1 1/2 cups of nut milk or coconut water

Blend until creamy and enjoy!

Cheers!