Eating Better for IVF | Amateur Nester

I’m 32 years old, but I eat like I’m 5.

Actually, I know several 5 year-olds who eat better than I do.

I’ve improved in the last few years, gradually learning to like new and exotic foods like mushrooms, hard-boiled eggs, and spinach. Let’s just say I’ve been keeping the vitamin industry in business for a long time.

I really want to be as healthy as I can be for my upcoming IVF cycle, so I created a 90-Day Challenge for myself. I started on New Year’s Day and I’m aiming to do it until the completion of my IVF cycle in March. My husband is trying to lose a little weight and he has his own food goals. We actually wrote out contracts, signed them, and hung them up for accountability. If I mess up, I have to give my husband an hour-long pedicure (yuck). If he messes up, he has to do the dishes for 3 days in a row.

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Here are my 4 food goals to complete each day:

Eat one serving of leafy greens or a cruciferous veggie
Drink a serving of V8 juice
Reduce my gluten intake
Eat an apple

These food goals may seem simple to some people, but it’s actually a big step for me. So far I’ve been accomplish the first three items every day except for yesterday. My plan was to make a spinach smoothie after dinner in order to get my leafy greens, but I had some heartburn and just couldn’t stomach eating anything else.

I’m also restricting myself from the following:

Limit myself to one cup of caffeinated tea (I can have an many cups of decaf green as I want) before egg retrieval
No caffeine at all after egg retrieval
No crackers, cookies, chips, or fries

The hardest one has been reducing my gluten intake and not eating crackers or chips. I LOVE potato chips- especially Reduced Fat Ruffles. YUM. I’ve been known to eat a whole bag in one sitting.

My mom got me a brand new bag of Ruffles for Christmas and I was thrilled. We left town on Christmas Day so I didn’t have time to eat it before New Year’s and it’s been sitting unopened in my pantry. Beckoning me. Calling me. I open the pantry and stare longingly at it. I contemplate eating the bag and then buying a second one to replace it in the pantry so my husband won’t know. “Hello, my name is Lisa and I’m a Ruffles addict.”