7 changes Kate made to reverse her infertility

I don’t normally run guest posts on this blog. But this topic is very close to my heart and my mate Kate Callaghan and I have been talking about this issue together for a while. She recently emailed to share she’d become pregnant only 15 months after being told she was infertile and kids were a pipe dream. I’ve watched her systematically shift her reproductive health one change at a time, and have implemented many myself, too. I always promised that whoever proved the doctors wrong first would have to share their tale of victory on my blog, since I know many of you here reading this are in the same “barren” boat.

Kate, bravo to you and congratulations…over to you…

Kate: "15 week bump! I swear it's not just a food baby!"
Kate: “15 week bump. I swear it’s not just a food baby!”

A few years ago, I lost my period. I was diagnosed with a condition called hypothalamic amenorrhea, which basically meant that my brain had stopped communicating with my ovaries, thus halting my menstrual cycle and ovulation. Why? Because I was a stressed-out, over-exerciser and under-eater. You can read more about that here and here.

I was infertile, and I was told by many doctors that I would be unable to conceive naturally and should commence assisted reproductive technology.

The thing is, I’m pretty stubborn, and when someone tells me I can’t do something, I will go out of my way to prove them wrong. Plus, I intuitively knew that my body was capable of healing itself – it just needed a little time and TLC. Fifteen months after implementing some pretty significant changes, my husband and I conceived naturally. Here’s how I reversed my infertility:

1. I quit cardio

As a group fitness instructor who taught Body Attack, Body Step and Body Pump for a living, this was a tough one. I was doing at least one hour of cardio every day, sometimes up to three hours. I loved the endorphin hit these classes would give me,

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So, you have one can of coconut milk…make this coconut soup

I’m not sure why it’s taken me a while to do a post on coconut milk. It’s simple stuff, a few bucks a pop and a super nutritious meal base.

But I know you’ll have questions. Like…

coconutsoup1
The best coconut soup ever, via My New Roots. Recipe below

How much fructose is in coconut milk?

Not much; approximately 2-5 per cent. (Just make sure you buy unsweetened versions.) Both the milk and the cream contain fructans, made of a small chain of fructose. So if you’re on a FODMAP diet, you’d want to steer clear of more than 1/2 cup of coconut milk or cream. You can read about fructose in coconut water as well.

Is coconut milk or coconut cream best?

Both are good. It’s essentially the same thing, with more or less water. Both are made when the coconut flesh (the white part) is grated and soaked in hot water.

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“Female illness is not all in the mind” and 19 other things I’d like you to know about unreasoned e-blowouts

Last week I wrote a post that discussed my personal experience of how my anxiety affects my autoimmune disease. News Ltd asked to share (an extended version) on their site, too.

I have written about autoimmune disease – as well as my anxiety – regularly for four years. I write such posts with a lot of care, and mindfulness, and from a place of vulnerability. I’m aware of the vulnerable position others with the same disease are in, because I’m usually in that exact position when I write the posts.

Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 1.17.46 PM
via This Wild Idea

I write when I feel stuff. I write autoimmune posts when I’m in pain.

I try very hard to not engage in online nastiness nor arguments where the protagonist and/or line is one I don’t respect. I write about this often, too.

But I do feel an obligation to make things clear to readers here on this blog who’ve become confused – or are hurt and defensive – from online blowouts that implicate me.

There was one such blowout over the weekend, which I will now respond to with care and vulnerability.

1. I do not claim to know why (all) women get sick. I was accused of this over the weekend by one blogger writing on Mamamia.com. I posed the question (in my headline): Could female self-hatred be the real cause of autoimmune disease?  I then wrote about my personal experience with this phenomenon.

2. I did not speak out on all illness. My post was about autoimmune disease very specifically. I refer to my take on the theory espoused in the very clear context of Hashimotos, the disease I suffer from.

3. It’s always good to read the original post. I invite anyone inclined to opine on this subject to please read what I

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Goddamn, ask for a doggy bag!

My aim with this post is to make you feel uncomfortable. And to rally you to a cause.

Image via wisuella tumblr
Image via wisuella tumblr

For reasons I can’t comprehend, much of the planet (America aside) gets weirded out by the idea of asking a waiter for uneaten food to be put in a container to be consumed later. So much so they’ve got it into their heads that they’re illegal or unsafe.

But you know what? It ain’t any of this. It’s vanity. We think walking out of a restaurant with a little bag is a crook look. We think leaving food on our plate is a mark of sophisticated restraint. We think scraping together food for seconds is scabby.

My response? Get over it, get real and get responsible.

  • Australians toss $8 billion worth of edible food every year.
  • Food waste is a bigger pollutant than cars and industry.
  • Consumers are the biggest contributors to food waste. Because we’re vain. This is unfathomable and unforgiveable.

Worse yet, apparently less and less of us are asking for doggy bags, with Gen Y tagged as the biggest food wasters – 26 per cent say it’s too embarrassing to ever ask for a doggy bag.

Most people I know don’t even save their leftovers at home. It’s easier to scrape them into a bin than to get creative and

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Could female self-hatred be the real cause of autoimmune disease?

I’ve analyzed autoimmune disease from all different angles, and tried to treat my own such disease from just as many angles. I’ve looked into gluten, cosmetic toxins and, of course, sugar.

When I’m asked, though, “What caused your disease?” I have to be frank and say – once all angles are ironed out – everything points to… anxiety. Or as I like to put it, a profound, visceral, itchy dis-ease with myself.

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I always say that I can spot an AI type. They have an intensity about them, a desire to impress. They’re always the ones at the front of my lectures, frantically taking notes. They have an air of ‘I’m not good enough as I am’.

A while back I watched TED talk by Dr. Habib Sadeghi, an American “healer to the stars”, in which he cites self-hatred as the real cause of chronic disease, particularly in women.

The gist goes like this…

* Illness is what happens when women, the nurturers of humanity, forget how to nurture themselves. Word!

* He draws parallels to dirt. Excessive plowing and unmindful practices by farmers ruins the grass that keeps our soil grounded and healthy. Land is then left barren, exposed, degraded and stripped of its life-giving power. Which means when

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Help me get real food into school canteens

I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the canteen guidelines for schools around Australia are a shemozzle. I’m trying to change them, nationwide, starting in NSW, to reflect the Australian Dietary Guidelines. So our kids aren’t left eating Paddlepops and Dim Sims for lunch. Jamie Parker MP, Ryan Parks MP, Dr Kieron Rooney and Rosemary Stanton are joining me in the fight.

xxx

I’d love your help. Here’s what you need to know…

The problem:

  • Current NSW government guidelines for school canteens are a complete mess. For example: Chocolate-flavoured low-fat milk has a “green” (“safe to be consumed daily”) rating, while plain, full-fat milk has an amber rating and many schools ban it.
  • The guidelines are meant to reflect the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines. Instead, they contradict them. The Guidelines put sugar in the same category as salt, alcohol and saturated fat. Yet, canteens are able to serve unlimited sugar. For example: Chocolate-flavoured Tiny Teddies (35% sugar) and Paddlepops (20% sugar) are common

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Dear Friends and Family, I’m sorry I’m e-hurting you…

I read the other day, in the New York Times, about the phenomenon of “hiding in plain e-sight”. Oh, yes, it’s such a “thing”.

Image via
Image via LinkedIn

HIPES – as I’ll call it for expediency – is the act of hiding from people’s unanswered calls, texts and emails, seemingly unavailable and presumably offline, while being visible on social media (thus, clearly online).

HIPES, of course, leads to all kinds of modern relationship ills. And hurts.

As the journo who coined HIPES put it, “Almost any action we take on social media, even tapping a screen twice to form a thumbs-up or heart, is a time-stamped signpost that we were paying attention to at least some of our smartphone communication.”

So true.

Thusly, you have the sister who gets the shits because she’s seen you like someone’s Instagram photo or issue a Tweet or even comment on her own Facebook feed all since she left you a voicemail asking you to call her back to discuss Christmas plans.

And the old-school friend (or old person) who calls and leaves long voicemails and gets offended when the other

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Holy shit I just turned 40… part 2.

I wrote recently about turning 40. And how I enjoy getting older. It got some feedback and ideas going.

Image via Favim.com
Image via Favim.com

Here’s a few more garnered from a New York Times column recently by Pamela Druckerman, an author and a contributing opinion writer. It has the same tone – that reaching “middle age” is mostly about finally arriving. I’ll add some thoughts of my own, to get a conversation going below in the comments…

If you worry less about what people think of you, you can pick up an astonishing amount of information about them. You no longer leave conversations wondering what just happened. Other people’s minds and motives are finally revealed.

Me: True. The conversation in your head as another speaks to you is not of angry defensive angst, but of marvel and objective interest.

Eight hours of continuous, unmedicated sleep is one of life’s great pleasures. Actually, scratch “unmedicated.”

Me: Yep. Whatever gets you through the night has become my mantra. Sleeping tablets are far from ideal. Far. Far. But

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My zip-lock bag trick…analysed

I’m obsessively practical with eating and cooking. A huge part of my eating plans (on both the online 8-Week Program and in my books) includes pre-cooking and freezing meals, or ingredients to turn into meals, in ziplock or sandwich baggies. My trick – which can stop barbeques – is this bit. Ready? I wash them out after use. Yep, revolutionary.

Drip-drying ziplock bags on my windows

To be fair, the bit that gets people falling off stools is the drying technique I invented, ‘cos that’s the bit we all find annoying right? This is how it goes:

With my hand slipped into the inside of the wet bag, I slap it on my kitchen window or splash-back.

It sticks, drys, and then…

Falls off when ready to store/use again. Ingenius!

OK, but the question is, does it make a damn bit of eco difference?

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Why we all need a Family Investment Bucket

Hey, have you heard me say this before? We all need to be forced to create some tech boundaries for ourselves and our families. But, as you know by now, we can’t wait for “someone” to solve this tech-driven disconnect; we have to do it ourselves. Yes, we must. This shit is making us sick and weird and annoyed with each other.

Sass and Bide's Heidi Middleton has this Family Investment Bucket xxxx
Sass and Bide’s Heidi Middleton has this Family Investment Bucket (details below)

There are things we can do. Many of them are dinky and unsophisticated. But are we that surprised that a swing to the rustic and tangible might just be the fix to our tech addictions? What do you think of these ideas?

1. Leave the phone out of your bedroom. Der. EMFs in your head. Read about this here). Get a battery alarm clock.

2. Use the “Do Not Disturb” function on your iPhone 9pm to 7am. Your phone will automatically stop all calls and alerts within the scheduled time. Every day. (You can still allow calls from “favourites” to come through, if you do want to make sure you’re contactable in an emergency.)

3. Have a Family Investment Bucket. Heidi Middleton, co-founder of Sass and Bide does. The whole family puts their

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