Come forward EatBetterers and unite - it's the second happy healthy eating thread!

[fuzzpig]

Here's the previous thread where it all began!

EatBetterers are trying to improve the diets of ourselves and our families. No weighing, restricting, calorie counting etc - just finding joy in nourishing ourselves by making positive changes one step at a time. All welcome! :)

Hi Fuzz Very glad I found the thread again. Just reading it has made me feel motivated. So many great ideas. Think I'll have a quick re-read with a pen and notebook later. Jot down the recipes and ideas.

You're all doing amazingly well.

Sleep How are you finding using the Nutribullet? I'm very tempted, the only thing stopping me is the price. Half that and I'd order one now. Is it easy to clean? Can you put things like yogurt and seeds in there or do you add those later? Think I need to look up a few reviews.

I'm proud of my stir fry :o I normally just do the meat/veg/rice/noodles or whatever and only recently started daring to use stuff like ginger and soy sauce. Well this time I jazzed it up further by marinating (not for long mind, will be more organised next time!) the chicken in lime juice, honey and soy sauce. Really nice.

Coumarin-hello again I know someone who had fertility problems and did the 'you are what you eat' diet and got pregnant and now has 2 children. I can't see how good nutrition can't help tbh, it's got to help surely? Good luck with it all x

I've just had Chinese it was lovely had eggs for breakfast and some ratatouille for lunch. Not hugely bad and stuck to 3 meals at least...

Welcome Morien! And welcome back Coumarin , we missed you!

The nutribullet is great so far, you throw all your ingredients into the cup, screw on the lid (blades are on underside of lid), turn it over and click it into the base of the blender, whizz, remove, take off lid. Drink or pour from cup, wash cup and lid/blade. Super easy to use and clean. I'd give it a go, so much more convenient than a big juicer. Worst case I reckon you'd do ok ebaying it!

Dame Thank you You never know do you? Can't harm. We have male fertility issues. DH cut out sugar and started on heaps of anti oxidants, next time we went he'd improved heaps so there's definitely chance it'll help me too. Not that I ate unhealthy but taking a more active approach this time. Something positive to focus on.

Sleep Um...I ^might* have popped out after my last post and bought one. So excited to get started. Just been and stocked up on things to use.

Your stirfry sounds gorgeous Fuzz

Coumarin - actually my sister's dh was told by a fertility specialist about the importance of cutting back coffee and a whole heap of other things when they were trying so nutrition must be important - this was in America though. Over there they also combine acupuncture with IVF as the results increase when used together. It's just standard to do both together which I thought was interesting. This is in California. As you say it can't hurt and will make you both feel fab and healthy. Again, best of luck x

I'm a big smoothie fan - went through a juicing phase but it was a faff and I prefer smoothies anyway..I have a bog standard kitchenaid blender which I adore and has a crush ice thing which means you can put frozen fruit straight in

Actually I'm about to go make a concoction out of coconut milk, soaked dates, banana, coffee and chocolate chips. This morning I had Acai berries, banana, spinach and pineapple. Can't get enough of it!!

INteresting you stipulate California, Dame, that's where I live and the constant focus on health and good nutrition is definately helped by the plethora of amazing fruit and veg we get all year round

Great Coumarin...take the advice in the book about building up on the raw veg combos, I didn't and definitely suffered for it the first day

Americas with your interest in nutrition you may have heard of my tutor, Marc David? As I understand it he's pretty well known in the US?

Yum...nice smoothies Americas!

oh god I don't profess to know anything to be honest - I'm just trying to rehaul my whole attitude to food

Hello, have had a busy few days. Out this afternoon, so made sandwiches to take out with me. Made such a difference. I wasn't tempted to buy chocolate. No crash either.

Breakfast was toast (white though) with cashew nut butter. Take out was chicken on wholemeal.

I've also planned my meals till Tuesday, and shopped accordingly. I was surprised at how much faster I shopped and how empty my trolley looked!

Nothing bog standard about a Kitchenaid blender Americas I love KA stuff.

Yes the US is slightly ahead in the fertility treatment world Dame and you know how Californians are about their health. My DH was given a lot of nutrition advice but none for me really apart from the obvious. (No alcohol, smoking etc) I've been looking for a good acupuncturist locally. I went once years ago but plan on booking a block of sessions this time. Might have a few massages somewhere too. May as well get some benefits from it. Thank you for the luck. xx

Our Big Shop was surprisingly less than usual this week too Rummi and yet we have a full weeks meals there. The basket was so empty that DH was starting to look a bit worried.

That said I did get a bit carried away in the fruit and veg aisle as well as all the seeds and nuts I've bought. I'm up for blending everything and anything!

Coumarin my DH had fertility issues caused by a varicosele. He made many diet changes and his sperm count improved so much that when he went for the op to fix it the dr thought he'd already had the op!! I'm on my phone now but in the morning I'll let you know what he did and see if I can find out the name of the book we used! Long time ago now. I know he hardly had any alcohol or coffee, took magnesium and zinc and ate so many seeds at work his colleagues made fun of him!!

ugh I have to plan ahead - my parents are coming to stay next week for 2.5weeks which will be great but I'm kinda of used to lunches being whatever I can forage in the kitchen, planning our evening meals but it being quite fluid and not having to think about 2 extra adults who want to eat meat at least once a day.

I'm grumpy with a cold...perfect excuse to have two slices of toast with marmite as an afternoon "snack"

That'd be great Kate Thank you!

I too am struggling a bit in the holidays. Our festival season kicks off this weekend too but as long as I'm organised we eat reasonably ok- rarely get anything from food stalls.

Does anyone have a spiralizer? If so do you get much use of it? (bearing in mind I'm borderline vegan). I love the idea of courgette noodles but is there anything else.

Also just thought I'd share my daughter has a great tuck shop at school. No junk at all. Fresh fruit kebabs, cups of spicy rice, probably the worse it gets is sugar free muffins with fresh fruit filling - all 20p a go! It's a state primary - it can be done!

*worst, soz

Courmarin Just been having a bit of a google to see if it would jog my memory. Should have asked DH but he went to work before I had the chance! I'll check with him the vitamins he took later. We used the books "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" and The Gillian McKeith Book "You are what you eat". I'm afraid Ive just sent them to the charity shop so I can't check for you. We're talking 10 years ago now, so this information is probably available on the internet these days! I remember at the time Drs didn't really have much faith in the nutritional approach but I was a nutritionist at the time so we ignored them and proved them wrong! I improved my diet but not as much as him.

Heres what he did:
Stopped wearing pants! I know!
No baths
Cut alcohol and caffeine right back.
Supplements Zinc, magnesium, possibly selenium (I'll check these with him later) But I just read you can get your RDA of selenium from one brazil nut! I think selenium supps are expensive.
Ate lots of seeds and nuts.

I forget exactly how his sperm count was affected, think low overall and high proportion dead sperm? I think certain vitamins affect different aspects of sperm count (i.e. mobility, morbidity. I'm not sure these are the right terms.) But all aspects were improved. So if you know your DHs specific problem it might be worth a google. There is proper scientific research on this. I seem to remember that a sperm cycle is 30 days so this is how long it might take to see some improvement. But I think the time between his rubbish results and the great ones was 3 months. We paid for some private test in between to see if it was working as we were trying to decide whether he'd have the op for the varicocele.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Thank you for all that Kate He has a mixture of vitamins that the clinic recommended, that we get from Australia. He also wears boxers, doesn't have baths, no alcohol etc. I think it was the vitamins that did the trick though. They've got extra things in like garlic and grape seed. Apparently Australia is way ahead on fertility nutrition than Britain. Although ime that wouldn't be difficult.

I will do an Amazon search for the books.

(Just in case you ever need it again, a male cycle is about 3 months so that's how long between each test you should leave it if trying to monitor progress etc.)

Thank you again

Have you read the zita west books on fertility? I found it useful info when I was being tested for secondary infertility.

Oh yes, I have her book on my list of things to get as well as her cd and supplements. Thank you for reminding me It feels good just to do something positive rather than just turn up to be poked and prodded like a cow.

I haven't tried my Nutribullet yet. Going to give it a whirl, so to speak, in a minute. Interested if anyone has a smoothie/juicing recipe book they recommend.

I know, that's how I felt too, bit more in control.