Written by: Dr. Amy Beckley, PhD, Founder and Inventor of the Proov test — the first and only FDA-cleared test to confirm successful ovulation at home.
Coach Kela has been in the health and wellness industry for over 20 years with a diverse background in fitness training, wellness educator, author, speaker, and entrepreneur at heart. Kela’s coaching techniques are tailored toward women struggling with hormone imbalance and infertility as well as women struggling to lose weight. She is able to work with women before conception, during pregnancy and postpartum as weight loss becomes the goal.
She solves the hormone puzzle so you can get pregnant faster!
Katie is 37 years old and has been TTC for four years.
“I’ve had a very rough road with pregnancy and conception over the last four yeats and we now have two sweet boys in heaven. When we decided to start trying again, I thought it would be easy since I know my body pretty well now, but for some reason, I wasn’t showing signs of ovulation. I came across your Hormone Puzzle method and started implementing these easy to follow steps. The next month I was pregnant! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to incorporate these steps into my daily routine, thank you Coach Kela.
Getting emails like this one is why I started my practice. I struggled with infertility like so many women I know and I couldn’t bare the thought of one more woman struggling without the support and hand-holding of a loving coach. That is why I created The Hormone Puzzle Method.
The more I saw clients, the more I realized our hormones are a huge puzzle and if one piece is out of balance, then our bodies won’t work properly and it makes it harder for them to do the things that they were designed to do, like get pregnant or be free of diseases.
If you have been trying to get pregnant for more than 6 months and haven’t been successful, then a piece of your hormone puzzle is probably out of balance.
If you are like me, and the thousands of other women who have struggled with getting pregnant, you want something that will work, that is easy and that you can do in your own life.
Follow these 6 steps to put your body into the optimal state for conception and become one step closer to having the family you so desire.
P-Proper Nutrition
Eating for fertility is the number one thing you can do to make sure your hormones are optimized and your body is working the way it should and in unison. Proper nutrition doesn’t mean just eating “healthy” because what does that even mean? Eating kale and broccoli all day, everyday? No, proper nutrition means eating intentionally for pregnancy. Some of my main suggestions for fertility boosting foods are:
- Fat - avocado, salmon, walnuts, and almonds
- Fiber - chia seeds, hemp seeds, chick peas, black beans
- Protein - organic chicken, organic eggs, adzuki beans, mackerel fish
- Fermented Foods - pickles, sauerkraut, kombucha, miso
U-Understanding Supplements:
I always start with whole foods first but sometimes there are holes in the diet and lifestyle that need to be addressed with supplements and understanding where you have holes. Once we know what vitamins you are missing then we can figure out which supplements are right for you. We usually can do this by looking at the symptoms you are having. Some of my favorite supplements for fertility are:
- Royal Jelly
- Pre and probiotic
- Fish Oil
- CoQ10
- Inositol powder
- Maca root powder
Z - Zapping Stress:
Stress is probably one of the most detrimental things to fertility besides poor nutrition. When the body is under stress whether it is perceived (your boss is yelling at you) or actual (you are being chased by a lion), it’s all stress to the body. When we are stressed, our bodies go into fight or flight just to survive. When the body is in this state, the cortisol goes up and all other systems shut down. This means that the hormones needed to make a baby are not present, so conception will not occur.
So how do you zap your stress in this overstressed world? You make a conscious decision to manage stress the best you can. Here are a few tips I use with my clients to help them do just that.
- Look at your schedule. Is there anything that doesn’t serve you? Try to eliminate it (just until you get pregnant and have a healthy baby).
- Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time and try to eat your meals around the same time every day. Your body flows in a natural rhythm and when that rhythm is off it puts stress in and on your body.
- Focus on self-care. What is one thing you can do for yourself today? Do it. I don’t mean do the laundry or taking care of your home. I mean, what is one thing you can do today that is 100% just for YOU?
Z - Zzzzzzz’s:
Sleep! Making sure you are getting adequate sleep is just as important as what you eat and your lifestyle. During sleep, the body is recovering, repairing and rebuilding. You must give your body the sleep it needs so it is able to do all these things and function properly. Without proper sleep, your body goes into survival mode and will not produce the hormones necessary to create a healthy baby.
A few tips for amazing sleep-
- Make sure your bedroom is dark and cool
- Remove all electronics
- Practice a power down hour before bed to unwind and get your mind ready for sleep
- Stop eating an hour before bed to give your food time to digest before you lay down.
L - Love and Encouragement
Getting pregnant is about more than the physical things you will be doing. Our bodies thrive on love and positive reinforcement. Many times when a client comes to me, they know what to do but they aren’t doing it because they are so frustrated with the entire situation that they are frozen and aren’t moving forward towards their goal of getting pregnant. When they work with me as their coach, they’re getting love, encouragement, hand holding, support, and more. Someone to navigate these tough times with them and let them know that it will be okay and they will have the baby they so desire.
E- Exercise
Exercise is so important when TTC as it helps with weight management, controlling stress and just makes us feel amazing. However, the wrong exercise when trying to conceive can be detrimental to your results. Some forms of exercise are seen as stress to the body. Going back to what we learned earlier, stress is the opposite of what we want when trying to conceive. So what type of exercise is best? Here are my top suggestions- you want to do gentle, restorative movements such as:
- Yoga
- Stretching
- Tai-chi
- Deep breathing
- Beginner meditation
As you can see, the Hormone Puzzle puts all the necessary pieces back together so your body is working in unison. When your body is working correctly, it is able to do these things we want it to do, such as make a healthy baby. Take these pieces and implement them into your daily life in a way that is fun and easy.
If you feel stuck or just need some help putting lal these pieces together and you want to learn more about each piece and how it all works in creating the healthy baby you desire, grab a copy of my book, The Hormone Puzzle-Solving Infertility. This book has changed so many women’s lives, I can't wait for it to change yours too!
To get your copy visit www.hormonepuzzle.com/hpbook to order your own copy today!
How can Proov help?
You can make all of these changes, but how do you know if they are working? With Proov, it’s easy to track your progress. Proov is the first at home progesterone test that allows for progesterone tracking in just 5 minutes. Progesterone is the hormone released after ovulation and tracking levels can help a woman understand if she had a healthy ovulation. If levels indicated ovulation was suboptimal, she now has powerful information about what to do next.
Many times, lifestyle changes can be the key to balancing hormones and helping boost progesterone levels to support healthy ovulation. Double-checking levels with Proov can help you track progress or to figure out if talking with a doctor may be a good next step.
