Waist-Hip Ratio

Another day behind and I feel like I have been running around all day! I have been busy at work and after work. I have lots of studying to do as well and a big assignment that I will have start doing in the evenings.

This evening I went to the gym to meet a personal trainer who is going to make me my own gym program that I'm going to follow for the next 4 - 6 weeks. He also made me do a fitness test and we measured my waist-hip ratio. Test went okay, I had to do 500 metre rowing as fast I can. It took me 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

My ratio measurements were perfect! I was in the excellent category with my 0.74 result.

Interesting facts about the ratio,

A Waist-Hip Ratio of 0.7 for women and 0.9 for men has been shown to correlate strongly with general health and fertility. Women within the 0.7 range have optimal levels of estrogen and are less susceptible to major diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and ovarian cancers. Women with high WHR (0.80 or higher) have significantly lower pregnancy rates than women with lower WHRs (0.70–0.79), independent of their BMIs. 

Source

You can calculate yours from this link Waist-Hip Ratio calculator

DYI stomach acid test and fitness planning

Today has been really hectic day at work and I didn't even had time to prepare my green smoothie this morning. I was rushing out of the bed and out of the door as quickly as I could. When I got to work I had some fruits and gluten free porridge for breakfast with one cup of black tea.

I learnt last weekend that it is better to eat fruits first to empty stomach, fruits spend only about 30 minutes in the tummy and then they come out, when for example Christmas dinner can spend there about 6 hours. Otherwise if you eat your fruits last the will be just "queueing" to get in the tummy and digestive system can not work properly. Try if you don't believe and your digestive system thanks you :)

Another one that I was going to test soon is to see how acid my stomach is with this home test, I just need to get baking soda from the shop.

DYI Sodium Bicarbonate Stomach Acid Test
Do this test when you have an empty stomach.
Mix 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in an 8-ounce glass of water (that's baking soda-sodium bicarbonate, not baking powder)
Drink it, noting the time on your watch or a clock.
Measure how much time passes before you burp.
If you haven't burped in five minutes, you can stop timing.
A person with a normal level of stomach acid will burp within two minutes.
If you haven't burped after five minutes have passed, you are seriously low in stomach acid.

I have changed a little bit how I exercise. I used to do many classes per week but in time it gets very boring. Last night I went to body pump class. I only have couple of weeks left of my membership and I going to do classes until the end of January.

Tomorrow I have my fitness test and I am making training plan with personal trainer. I am trying to go the gym couple of times per week, in the mornings probably and then go for a run once a week. I also really love hot yoga and its effects so I need to go to hot yoga once a week at least. Even though it is quite expensive but its worth every penny. I always feel so relaxed and happy after I have done some yoga, especially hot yoga.

I would like to have more muscles in my body and get fitter. I am not overweight at all but I would like to my body be lean and something that is nice to look at from the mirror.

I have to keep in mind that too much exercise and losing too much weight can lower fertility so I have to do it slowly and not to be too hard on my self.

Something like this, please! 




For dinner tonight I am going to make salmon in the oven with mashed sweet potato, my favourite!

Fertility foods

I have been reading many pages of how to boost fertility naturally and about the foods that are suppose to be so called "fertility foods" Here is few of them I found from one of the web pages,

Linseeds -  they contain phyto oestregens which help balance oestrogen levels in our body.  Nowadays because of xenoestrogens in plastics and pesticides the oestrogen levels in our food and water are much higher plus years of taking contraceptive pills our oestrogen levels can be out of balance making it harder to conceive.  Try adding a dessert spoon full of ground linseeds to your breakfast or lunch each day.

Pumpkin seeds - Zinc is an essential nutrient in fertility for both men and women.  A deficiency can effect chromosomes and reduce fertility.  It improves the sperm health and count.  Zinc is also found in seafood such as prawns.

Salmon - Essential fats or EFAs are essential for hormonal balance and sperm health.  EFAs are also found in nuts, seeds and other oily fish.  Ensure you have these in your diet everyday.  You may know them as Omega 6 and Omega 3 fats.

Red Peppers - Antioxidants found in most red, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables provide a protective action on toxins in our body called free radicals that can damage cells and cause infertility and birth defects.  They are also found in avocados and brazil nuts.

Brown rice - Fibre is not just important for preventing constipation but is also important in balancing hormones.  Fibre found in grains and vegetables helps reduce excess oestrogen levels in the body by pulling them out with your stools and preventing them being reabsorbed into the body.

Of course there is many other ones too and many ways to increase fertility natural way. I guess the basic principle is to avoid anything unhealthy and try to eat organic food. It is really interesting to learn more about this and I will try to make more of these types of posts in the future.

There is also many good books about this topic, one of them I just purchased on kindle is Naturally knocked up by Donielle Baker. On her weg pages she shares free downloads and recipes and for subscribers for example a fertility food list and a sugar detox challenge book. I have to definitely read that!

Today I have been drinking my green smoothies maybe too much. This morning I had one with   ,spinach, grapefruit, mixed berries, maca, banana. After Body Pump class, for dinner I had one with green salad, spinach, orange, cranberries, apple and half a banana. The other half of the banana went on the top of my peanut butter on gluten free toast that I also had for my dinner :)

Morning drink with green tea and lemon. 

Dinner drink with pb toast and banana on the top. The colour of my drink is not very appetising but it tasted ok.

Digesting Ombar Superfood Chocolate

How to get through an intensive digestive system study...the answer is ombar superfood chocolate!

Their chocolate uses unroasted (raw) fine quality organic Ecuadorian cocoa. The roasting process in normal chocolate destroys heat-sensitive polyphenois. It's also made of low-glycemic organic coconut sugar - wont spike blood sugar levels as unrefined nutritionally complex. Berries in the chocolate I had, acai & blueberry, have been dried at low temperatures and then powdered. They even add probiotics to some of their bars to help look after our tums!




And those probiotics and other digestive things is what I have been learning about this weekend, a quite deep review of how the human digestive system works and how big part the gut has on our immune system and other things. On the other hand the more you know, the more paranoid and suspicious you become of what you can eat and the affect of the food you put in your mouth has.

I came to a couple of conclusions and I am going to to try a gluten free diet for four weeks and see if it has any affect to me.It's crazy that humans were not designed to digest gluten. First though I need to do a little bit more study about a gluten free diet and find some recipes and start planning my lunches in advance.

I also need to make my fasting plan if I am going to do it.

And what I was also thinking of doing is to book an appointment to see a nutritional therapist. Unexplained infertility could be cured by changing my diet and taking supplements, maybe I am lacking something important that I just don't know.

On Wednesday I am going to have a fitness test and fitness plan that I can follow at the gym. My plan is to go to the gym maybe 2-3 times a week, go for run once a week and hot yoga once a week. That way I won't get bored too soon and it makes it easier to follow the plan.

After I got home from school, I went to get some gluten free bread.  For dinner I had baked beans on (gluten free) toast with salad. And a spoonful of peanut butter...

P.s I actually had two bars of chocolate, other one was cranberry & mandarin :)

Running around in London

Always when I am in London I feel like I need to run around like a headless chicken. I just can't walk slowly, not to mention stand on the escalators! I have to run on them too, up and down, take couple of running steps to catch the tube even though the next one is coming in two minutes.

This morning I was rushing to school, the College of Naturopathic Medicine, where I am studying to become a Nutritional Therapist. My course will take 3 years in total. It has been really interesting so far and I am enjoying it. This must be my first time I actually like what I am studying and also the first time I am studying something that I am interested in! What could be more interesting and useful than knowing how your body works, how to keep it healthy, how to prevent illnesses and how I can improve not only my health but also my family's health and well being.

Funny enough I have learned about stress and how it can harm you. I guess I have to take my London rush as being my daily exercise ;)

Once again I had lunch in Planet Organic. They have delicious lunches, soups, stir fry and lots of other fresh cooked food. They also have other organic products like foods and beauty things and cosmetics.

I also had some snacks and green tea with peppermint.

I loved how quite and empty Oxford Street is before the shops open and how crazy it gets in the evenings, especially now that sale is on! I didn't have time to stay shopping as I wanted to get home as soon as possible.

Back to London tomorrow! 

Could I be so lucky?

The idea of starting to write a blog occurred to me after I'd read so many healthy living blogs. There is one special blog, Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish. This blog has been such an inspiration to me, and definitely have to read Laura's post daily!

Today she has launched Get Fit, Feel Epic competition Its like she knew my fitness plan! She's giving away a FitBit Activity tracker and a set of mini scales from MoneySuperMarket! Could I be so lucky?

FitBit Activity tracker is something that I would really need and it would be super useful tracking my progress to a healthier and fitter life! Fingers crossed!

This morning I had my green smoothie with blueberries, and hmmmm it was good!

• Kale
• Blueberries
• Banana
• Greipfuit
• Almond Milk
• Water
• Stevia
• Maca Powder

For lunch I had The Food Doctor couscous & lentil wholesome pot

And for dinner I made Salmon with mashed sweet potato and broccoli. Salad on the side with cucumber, olives and lentil bean shoots!

I got couple of gift cards from Santa so I did some shopping at lunch break, I got my self this jacket and a bag from Next. I been looking for a long time for a jacket like this and finally I found one that fits  perfectly! And the bag, love it, its so big that I can finally fit everything and I can use it for my school stuff too. 

Lemon Ginger Tea and healthy shopping

This morning I started my day with a green smoothie again, using the same ingredients as I've done all week and I think is getting just a little bit boring by now, I need to make up a new mix and tomorrow morning I will blend in some berries. Frozen berries are much cheaper option than their fresh friends and they last for long time in the freezer, also they will make the smoothie icy.

I did some healthy grocery shopping today, berries, organic products, lots of fruits and nked raw bars, yummy. I bought some Lemon Ginger Tea because I feel like I have a cold coming and that tea usually helps and makes me feel better. Also got my favourite, Sweet Chai tea...

I used to have a couple of cups coffee every morning but I have been without coffee almost two months now. I decided to stop drinking it for two reason, firstly I started getting this awkward feeling when my heart was beating so fast it felt like it was coming out of my chest and that, if something felt really uncomfortable and secondly not drinking coffee is suppose to increase my fertility. I still drink black tea which has caffeine and tannin, but not as much as in coffee. Also I have started to enjoy herbal teas and especially green tea with lemon.

I really hope this cold doesn't get any worse as I have the exam coming and fitness test next week. 

Cant wait to get back to my normal exercise routine!