You may have been wondering, where Chris and I are at in our journey to becoming parents. The last I spoke on this subject I was having a bad day and couldn't find the hope.
Today I have something new to share. Some may find our decision illogical or see it as a waste of time, and you have the right to your own opinion. For us it came down to two things, our health and money.
We all want what is best for us and our families and Chris and I have decided to go down a more natural route when it comes to our fertility. This isn't because we are against doctors or the medical field. We believe in vaccines and that medicine has a time and place. We also have a very strong faith filled life and believe that ultimately the choice is in God's hands. But as we floated in the dark for months and months with no direction from our doctors and no miracle conceived we decided to take action.
We met with our family chiropractor, why? Because he knows our medical history and has worked with us over the last few years. When we had a goal to drop weight before our wedding, our chiropractor showed us a meal plan and exercise routine that had me melting off the pounds. I had reached my smallest weight on this plan, and if you've read my Family posts you'll know that after the wedding I gained all that weight back (and then some) all because I was filling my body with toxic food and was on birth control.
We wanted to sit down and consult with him. During our visit the answers seemed simple, but when it comes to disciplining yourself that is where we have found the most struggle. Our recommendation was to take supplements made with clean ingredients (my prenatal had sugar in it! As well as other dead/inactive ingredients in our other vitamins), Set up a water filtration system that removes the city waters' toxins and adds back in minerals and nutrients, Cut out toxic and unclean food and caffeine from our diet, Get an adjustment once a week, Do our chiropractic exercises at home 2 times a day, And a 3 minute exercise burst once a day.
Sounds too easy, but again this is a disciplining matter. I find I follow through with my To-Do Lists when they are written down. So we are going to try this strict regimen for 6 months!
The other piece of this is money. We ran the numbers with the recommended supplements against the average cost of an IVF treatment. One cycle of IVF is 3 weeks, the average cost of just 1 cycle of IVF is anywhere between $12,000-$15,000.
If we were to purchase the daily supplements once a month for an entire year, the cost would be $3,120.
$12,000-$15,000 every 3 weeks vs $3,120 for one year... it's a no brainer.
The other reason we love our chiropractor is he is a man of faith. He is also for medicine, when there is a need for it. We loved our conversation with him, and his passion for helping others, whether for mental health, physical health or infertility help is so beautiful to witness. I would have been more skeptical had we just met him or had never tried any of his recommendations before. But because I know he cares, and have seen how well it works in my own life, I have faith that this could be the answer to our prayers.
When thoughts of saving for fertility treatments entered mine and Chris' conversations I, personally never felt fond of the idea. Getting poked and prodded was not an option for me. We have also talked about adoption, but again the money and paperwork, at least right now are not an option.
Here are a few bits of information that I found very fascinating during our visit. The part of the spine that sends signals to the reproductive organs is located in the neck portion of the spine. Both Chris and myself have subluxations in that area of our spines, it is also what causes the feelings of depression and anxiety in both of us as well. Cortisol ( a stress hormone ) blocks the reproductive hormones. Something to combat Cortisol is Serotonin ( the "happy" hormone ). When we get adjusted by our chiropractor, do our at-home chiropractic exercises and when we do our 3 minute bursts Serotonin is released and the reproductive hormones can communicate properly.
Toxic food is apart of our culture. We live in a "fast-food," society. Meals on the go, quick and easy dinners, anything that makes our already busy lives easier we buy into it. But there is no quality to this kind of food. Just like the supplements I was taking before, we are filling our body with dead and inactive ingredients. Is it any wonder we have cases in cancer, heart disease, diabetes and infertility rising in this country?
Our water too, is overly processed. For us there's things in city water that we should not be ingesting, specifically things that block our reproductive hormones. But when we strip everything from our water we lose all of the good minerals and nutrients needed. We recently watched Zac Efron's show on Netflix called "Down to Earth." In it he explores other countries and witnesses their way of life, learns about the quality of their food and environment and compares it to the USA's sad and disappointing statistics.
Water that is filled with nutrients is accessible all over France and is apart of their public water dispensaries, Green Zones in Italy have been created to keep tabs on people who live well past 100 years and have impeccable cognitive and physical functions, yet they are consuming carbs and wine. I believe we have work to do here in America. Our food needs to be non-GMO, organic and bonus if it is locally sourced! Knowing where our food comes from and how it has been treated is the first step to making this change.
Until then, yes meal planning and food will be the hardest part of this 6 month journey. It will take discipline to keep up with our exercises and saying no to eating out and not getting popcorn and soda when we go to see a movie. Yes, it will be difficult but if it puts us on the road to conceiving a child naturally, I'm all in.
Until this point we were told to lose weight and keep trying. Now we have a clear plan set in place, and the focus isn't on our weights, though losing it will be a bonus to our health. The focus is on creating a safe environment for a baby to grow and develop. It's beginning habits that we will pass down to our kids, it's taking care of ourselves so that we can take care of others and can be healthy elders some day!
I know it will be hard, but man will it be worth it!
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