Creating Your TTC Blueprint
It can be exciting when you decide to TTC – but it can also be really overwhelming. This is especially true if you realize that you're going to have to improve your fertility before you conceive. There's so much advice out there. Where do you start?
Deciding to TTC
The most obvious place to start is the best: decide you're ready to try for a baby! Our TTC Checklists can help you cover the basics of considering finances, medical care, etc. Checklists are a good place to start because you just check boxes. Simple.
Evaluate Your Health
Take an honest look at your health next. Do you feel good? Do you need to lose weight? Do you need to gain weight? It's harder to conceive if you're either overweight or underweight. Plan to be at a healthy weight for conception… and if you're small this may mean a little more “padding” than you're used to.
Science definitively shows that it's harder to get pregnant when you weigh too little, and your pregnancy is automatically higher risk.
Also evaluate any pre-existing conditions you have and figure out how you can overcome or manage those during a pregnancy.
Evaluate Your Diet
I've promised over and over to give it to you straight – and this is one place it needs to get straightened out!
Your body needs a lot of nutrition to grow a healthy baby, and that starts at conception. If you're not eating the right foods, you won't conceive.
Are you eating a low-fat diet? That's not the way to lose weight or get healthy for conception. Your baby's brain needs fat (good fat) and actually, your body needs fat just so you can get pregnant.
Science acknowledges this – they say “eat full-fat dairy to get pregnant”… unfortunately they tell you to switch back to low-fat when you're pregnant. That makes no sense — if you're not able to get pregnant without it, how will you grow a healthy baby! There's a lot of misinformation about nutrition.
You don't need to eat a low-fat diet loaded with grains. That diet pads the pockets of the agricultural industry. It doesn't get you pregnant or grow a healthy baby. Read more about the right kind of diet for getting pregnant. Then focus on plenty of protein, healthy fats, and vegetables to get your body really healthy.
Track Your Cycle
If you've got a good diet going you're already way, way more fertile than you were a few weeks ago! But you still need to have baby-making sex at the right time in your cycle.
Tracking your fertility signs can help you get pregnant faster because you know exactly when to make your TTC attempt. Good diet will make signs like cervical mucus much easier to spot, too (you'll have a lot more egg-white fertile mucus).
You can use fertility tools to help track, too. Ovulation predictor kits or a fertility monitor are great tools and can help you feel more confident. I've personally used both to get pregnant with our babies 🙂
Get to TTC'ing!
You've covered the basics on the checklists (like evaluating your finances), evaluated your health and planned for preexisting conditions, straighted out your diet, and you're tracking your cycle.
Congrats, you're ready to make a baby!! These are the basic steps you need to follow to create your personal TTC plan. If you feel like you still need more, explore the site. Sometimes extra vitamins, minerals, herbal supplements, etc. may help. But start with the basics, then dive into those things if you need them.
(NOTE: Want the Top Easy Steps to Boosting Your Fertility? Use these 5 simple, evidence-based steps to get pregnant and carry your healthy baby to term. Get them here.)
Photo by Will Scullin