I have been working in the health and fitness industry for close to 2 decades, traveling the world educating and inspiring thousands of men and women on nutrition, exercise, and emotional health.
After turning 40 a few years back, I pretty much gave up on the idea of having children. I honestly thought it wasn’t meant to be. After receiving my Chek Holistic Lifestyle Coaching Certification, I learned ways to nourish my body even better than I had in the past, not only to look great but to feel great, too.
About 7 months after changing my nutrition from nourishing my body with the right foods I took my first pregnancy test ever at age 41, it was positive. Later that year our son was born.
No doctor had ever told me that I needed to change the way I was eating to get pregnant. Did you know that according to Ramiel Nagel’s research, the right nutrition alone can increase* fertility by 80%?
During my pregnancy, I was looking for prenatal information along with childbirth planning and breastfeeding. Most of what I found available to the masses was outdated misinformation or not much information at all.
After giving birth to Grayson on August 18, 2014, I created The Healthy Mom Handbook; a holistic guide to preconception, pregnancy, and post-pregnancy on nutrition, exercise, birth planning, and breastfeeding.
Bareball Parental
Many women think they can eat whatever they want when they are pregnant since they are getting bigger anyway, they of course can. However, to be as healthy as possible prior to, during and after pregnancy, it’s best to stay focused on eating organic real, unadulterated nourishing foods during all stages for mom and baby’s health.
According to Ramiel Nagel, eating the right foods can decrease* your chances of miscarriage by 1600% and birth defects by 700%. When the uterus is fed properly, it functions properly in both labor and delivery.
My goal in creating The Healthy Mom Handbook was to teach women how to eat healthy but most importantly how to nourish their body to grow a healthy human, have a healthier pregnancy, an uncomplicated childbirth, and an easier post-pregnancy recovery.
I was surprised that no doctor or midwife I had worked with had discussed the importance of nutrition with me or what foods specifically are needed during this time. Doctors and midwives play an important role in pregnancy and childbirth.
However, it really is up to each of us to be responsible for our own health and our baby’s health, especially when it comes to nutrition. That’s why my handbook has an extensive grocery list, along with ingredients/chemicals to avoid and why, and a recipe book for the entire family.
Many women gravitate towards cardio, no exercise at all or exercise that is too strenuous during and after pregnancy. According to the British Journal of Sports and Medicine, women who exercised for 55 minutes, three days a week, were 34% less likely to require an emergency cesarean.
Moving your body is important during pregnancy, however, the right type of exercise is essential for a healthy pregnancy, an uncomplicated childbirth, and an easier post-pregnancy recovery.
Strength Training
That’s why I include trimester specific Pilates and strength training workouts in both the pregnancy and post-pregnancy exercise guides that focus on training the entire body for childbirth, especially, the pelvic floor.
The pelvic diaphragm supports the pelvic organs, maintains continence and is an important facilitator of birth. Pilates exercises provide the space and flexibility needed to effectively use the pelvic floor muscles for birth.
Things like poor posture, incorrect exercises or form and multiple pregnancies can cause diastasis-recti (which is the splitting of the abdominal wall). Building and maintaining the strength of your TvA (Transverse Abdominis, deep abdominal muscles) aid in pushing phase during labor.
So it’s essential that pelvic floor exercises performed correctly, are a part of a weekly program prior to, leading up to birth and following once cleared for exercise to prevent or lessen the severity of diastasic-recti and incontinence.
Even though I have been working in the health and fitness industry for close to 20 years now, that does not mean I was always healthy. Actually, it was quite the opposite. I was born sick with an upper respiratory infection, sick my first three weeks of life.
I later had a fever at 3 months of age. I was not breastfeeding and started getting sick frequently in my early teenage years.
I had Asthma, allergies, chronic fatigue, horrible PMS, acne, re-occurring sinus infections, IBS, cervical dysplasia, ruptured ovarian cysts, athlete’s foot, dandruff and the list goes on. Yuck, right? Or maybe some of you can relate? No medicine I was taking ever cured me of these conditions.
My father was a conventional doctor, my mother a nurse. I keep getting sicker and sicker on drugs never finding relief. My dad died in 1996 and my mother in 2012. Both took excellent care of others, especially my brother and I but not of themselves.
However, neither one of them taught me how to truly be healthy with the right nutrition. After 30+ years of experiencing a lot of pain and suffering on prescription medicines, allergy shots, over-the-counter drugs and weekly doctor visits, I finally figured out how to be healthy from the inside out from my own personal experiences and education and with the guidance of my integrative, holistic doctor.
In 2006, I put my health in my hands and turned it around for the better with real food, supplements, and other lifestyle changes. After 7 months of being 100% compliant with eating real foods and taking supplements, I was able to get off all medicines and finally got relief.
Hand Exercise
No more Asthma or carrying inhalers, no more allergies or allergy shots, no more athlete’s foot, no more dandruff, no more ruptured ovarian cysts, no more chronic fatigue, my Pap smears have been normal, and 11 years later, I am still prescription free. My health at age 44 is way better than at age 24!
Furthermore, our son Grayson was born healthy and is thriving at age 3; he has never had a fever, an infection or colic. All the changes I implemented truly did help with conception, having an uncomplicated childbirth, a healthy baby and an easier post-pregnancy recovery.
It is never too late to start moving your body or cooking and putting your health in your hands, especially if trying to conceive or while pregnant. The gym alone did not change my health or help me to get pregnant, the foods and positive thoughts I was putting in my body daily did.
There is no quick fix to achieving better health or a better physique. Quite frankly, it’s hard being healthy when we live in such an unhealthy toxic world! Taking baby steps is better than not making any changes at all, even if you begin by cooking one meal a day or exercising once a week.
In sharing my holistic approach with you, hopefully, you will walk away inspired and motivated to start your own journey to seeing and feeling better results!
Smile Behind Hardwork
My first book, “What Lies Behind The Smile”, discusses my health history and may more. Most of the clients I work with experience a lot of what I have in the past, so it’s easier for me to relate to their pain and suffering and guide them on the journey.
Each of us is just as unique on the inside as we are the outside. With that said, everyone’s ideal diet and exercise program is discovered through, study, observation, trial and error, and intuition. Enjoy the ride!
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