Fifteen years ago we were told we would never have children and IVF probably wouldn’t work. Just like Brian & Dani McFadden. It was like a bomb of sadness, fear and shock explodes in your heart. It started my quest to find the best fertility support.
We knew we had a choice to either take the news as it was and accept defeat or dial-up our faith and dial down our fear and as small as 3% chance, we would believe for our miracle. I’ll never forget my Mum & Dad all those years ago saying ‘well Sim you only need one good swimmer & your hubby is a one in a million so God won’t bring you this far not to get your miracle!’.
So the journey and research began. We did all the lifestyle changes to support fertility that we’ve suggested to Brian & Dani and many couples since. We agreed if it didn’t work, we would adopt so we had nothing to lose. Like Dani commented on our Instagram LIVE: shift your health into optimum with your partner, embrace the journey together, and you have nothing to lose.
One year after we started trying, we fell pregnant with our son Harry, our first miracle baby! When I was still breastfeeding, we fell pregnant with Isabella, and two years later, Amelia came along! Three miracle babies in five years! Rainbow baby and rainbow babies!
So what did we do? What is the formula for fertility support that we have coached others, like Brian & Dani, over the years?
The key is to look at our health holistically, from the Rejuv 7 Pillars of Wellness. I’ve seen the importance of optimising your nutrition for any health challenge. There’s nutrition to support all the 11 systems to function is optimum. The body does a great job at healing itself of almost anything when it is right, and function is supported. Kind of like a car, you need to service the engine and use good clean fuel.
[ DOWNLOAD Dr Simone’s Fertility Guide that she created to help couples like Dani & Brian McFadden ]
These are my top tips on balancing your 7 Pillars of Wellness for optimum health and fertility support.
Nutrition
I love this pillar for we all need to eat, and it’s something anyone can start right away. I always tend to see high inflammation with any client struggling with infertility and any disease for that matter.
So I always propose reducing inflammatory foods. We are all identically different as the saying goes. Instead of getting into expensive testing for the client, I eliminate the most inflammatory foods just during the fertility phase and then once pregnant, we reintroduce some foods.
I advise eating pesca vegan for some react poorly to dairy so to be on the safe side I swap dairy milk for plant milk and yoghurts to be vegan too since they are all fortified with calcium these days anyway.
I also encourage eliminating gluten, red meat, sugar and trans fats like margarine as this always brings the inflammation markers down, which seems to have a positive effect on fertility. Once again, clinical observation after 23 years of practice, I have not done a clinical trial. Therefore clients will eat fish, organic eggs, nuts, lentils, plant milk and yoghurt as their primary protein course. Of course, if the couple gets invited and has some organic red meat here, and there it is not an issue, I’m just talking about what clients do most of the time.
For complex carbohydrates, I suggest rice, oats & potatoes. For simple carbohydrates, I recommend root vegetables, quinoa, millet, fruits, salads and vegetables. If the couples have obesity issues, which can affect fertility, I swap the complex carbs for simple carbs to bring their BMI levels down.
I suggest lots of good fats balance hormones and blood sugar levels such as avocado, olives, nuts, seeds, olive oil, coconuts oil and nut oils avoiding all trans fats from margarine and cooking oils.
It is essential to maintain a healthy balance as it is crucial to enjoying this journey of fertility support:
- drink at least 2L water per day
- one coffee a day
- a little red wine each week
- a free meal once a week
Have fun, go on date nights (or create a home picnic with a few candles) and relax during this season. As it is vital when I come to discuss mindfulness & stress later on.
To see what an average day of balanced nutrition could look like, see Dani’s blog, which she wrote at the beginning of their journey with me. Another great resource is a book by a colleague of mine, a mutual friend of my business partner Elle Macpherson, called the Inflammation Spectrum by Dr Will Cole. His book will give you good robust science behind why inflammation is critical for optimum health.
Sleep
Low quality or limited amount of sleep regularly is linked to poor immune function. It can reduce the body’s ability to heal overnight, leading to excessive stress which is a real enemy of fertility and optimum health.
If you have a short season over a few weeks of reduced sleep due to work and life demands, then that will not be a problem, if you have a healthy immune system.
However, low quality and a limited amount of sleep over months and years is something you need to address proactively to support this wellness pillar. Suppose you sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems get out of balance. In that case, the body always feels like it is under attack and continued fight or flight can affect your endocrine & reproductive systems.
Over many years, I have seen these two systems are the first two out of the 11 systems to suffer from excessive stress and worry and affect your fertility. As mentioned, this is what I have seen in our journey and many clients like Dani and Brian over the last 23 years, not based on a clinical trial.
So how much is enough? We are all different, but the classic 8 hours is a great start. Ultimately you need to wake up feeling refreshed, and you need to work out for you what is your optimum, but most need 6-10 hours a night to feel well. Also, serotonin to melatonin ratios more hours before midnight is the goal for as the saying goes one hour before midnight is like 2 hours after midnight so early to bed and early to rise is ideal.
I love wind-down rituals like an Epsom salt bath, essential oil and the sleep tea I formulated for Welleco, available in our online shop, to support deep restorative sleep. I’ve also composed the Rejuv Moon Milk – a free recipe you can use with your ingredients.
Mindfulness FOR Fertility Support
Lack of mindfulness was a huge issue for my husband and me 15 years ago. We were newly married. We had our small clinic on Harley Street, London, not many staff and worked all the hours doing so many roles on top of treating clients. Mindfulness was a game-changer for we had no work-life balance and I have seen this to be a massive key for fertility over the years.
As mentioned above, due to our fight or flight survival mechanism, if your body feels like it is in constant life-threatening danger, how can it possibly have enough energy to consider bringing forth another life into the world.
In 2006, we read a book called The Biology of Belief, by Dr Bruce Lipton, which changed our lives. This book is why we are now doing a Masters in Neuroscience. We have seen Dr Lipton’s principles fundamentally change peoples health over the last 15 years. Including disease and fertility.
His book reveals how every thought you have affects you at a cellular level, how genes and DNA do not control our biology. Instead, DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including energetic messages from positive and negative thoughts. This insight was a game-changer for us as we felt even more in control of our destiny to call forth our miracle. I recommend all my clients to read this book, or even better, listen to it as an audiobook. It is powerful to do this as a couple as part of your healing journey.
Consequently, I start each day with prayer, mediation, gratitude and mindfulness routines that are personal to me. I coach my clients to create a routine unique to their beliefs and lifestyle. By starting each day like this, I actively put myself into rest and healing, and I can stay in this present beautiful moment, not to stress over yesterday or tomorrow. From this place, I can feel when I lose my balance and flow during the day, especially now with homeschooling, to keep bringing myself back to this place of peace, gratitude and joy.
It’s been an ‘A-HA’ moment for all our clients and us to realise how much stress we’re reacting to every day, tearing down their health mentally and physically.
Movement
Regular movement and exercise are not only great for your heart but your hormonal balance and fertility support. Balance is the key for too little, and too much exercise can reduce your overall health due to free radical damage.
Exercise supports both the systemic (whole-body cellular response), cardiovascular health and is also brilliant to help deal with stress. Dani, having studied Sports Science at University, understands the importance of exercise, and it is so lovely to see how Dani and Brian’s love of golf and they play most days to keep fit.
Movement plays a huge part in combating obesity, and Brian lost 30 pounds last year on this program, another significant impact on both male and female fertility. I love cardio, interval training and core work such as plates and yoga for fertility.
Due to great advice from my dear friend, client and WelleCo business partner Elle Macpherson I choose movement most days and I only do things I love which are so vital. Hence, you stay with it long term. I also exercise intuitively, and I ask myself how would I like to move today, which keeps it fresh.
Body balance & Fertility Support
Our skeletal and muscular systems are pivotal to our health. Like the scaffolding of a house, they need to be built on rock and not sand to weather to life storms. Your posture and skeletal systems also have to allow enough space for your organs to work effectively, thus supporting your overall health and fertility.
Many of my clients see great results from using physiotherapy, osteopathy, acupuncture, massage and reflexology. All these therapies clear pathways to increase circulation and blood flow to deliver goodness to your cells, remove toxins, and bring about overall healing and boost fertility.
I used physiotherapy, reflexology and acupuncture on my journey with great success.
Supplementation To Support Fertility
With the world so toxic and our food having a fraction of the nutritional value of years gone by, I feel this is a vital part of all fertility journeys.
I was so frustrated with the vitamin industry becoming more and more synthetic 15 years ago. It’s why I chose to formulate my Rejuv Wellness Supplement Line. My journey of eating disorders and excessive stress and moving into our fertility journey inspired this decision.
This was surprising to Dani too. As a health-conscious, educated lady having studied science, it shocked her that she thought she was healthy, but in fact, she only scored 3/10 on her urine test in our first consult. Dani remarked she wasn’t surprised regarding Brian’s health, due to touring, eating fast food and drinking a little more alcohol.
You see Dani was doing all the classic ‘healthy’ dietary habits, low fat, limited alcohol and a good volume of fruit & veg. But Dani was still very inflamed with her markers due to high dairy, sugar, meat and coffee. Don’t get me wrong Dani was lean and could afford to eat chocolate most days but to improve her health at a cellular level to boost her fertility things had to change.
Dani and Brian both embraced the changes as per above regarding nutrition. The fundamental issue for both of them was that the 11 systems’ function was not great. Both Brian & Dani had poor absorption, candida & parasite overgrowth, low mineral levels, and Brian also had liver toxins, and he wasn’t burning fat.
I have seen this in Dirk & my journey, Dani & Brian’s and many clients that this truly is a key to optimum health and fertility. We now tend to say you are what you absorb not you are what you eat for our health is vital for the wellness on all levels.
So after our Rejuv 10 point urine test back in May 2020, I knew precisely what they needed. Both required gut and digestive support, so I gave them our Rejuv Candida Gone, Probiotic Max and Digestive Complex Powder. Both also required inflammation support, so I gave them The Super Elixir Super greens powder that I formulated for Welleco and my dear friend, client and business partner Elle Macpherson.
Since stress plays a huge role in fertility, I gave both my adaptogenic herbal blend called Adrenal Complex for this is a game-changer when it comes to fertility. For Dani, I also proposed our Rejuv Immune Restore Capsules and Antioxidant complex to boost her levels. For Brian, we recommended our Liver Support Capsules and Thermo Metabolic Support Capsules to aid detox, boost his metabolism and shift him into fat burning.
I know that list seems comprehensive, but they only needed most of these supplements for 1-2 months to balance maximum fertility support. Now, Brian only now takes our Immune Restore Capsules and our Metabolic Reset Pack. Dani is also taking our Immune Restore, Folic Acid, Antioxidant Complex, Immune support with a little whole food vitamin C and both are still taking our Welleco Super Elixir Greens.
Environment
Most don’t think about this, but your environmental toxic load plays a huge role in our fertility. With this in mind, I recommend that you reduce your toxic load by deliberately choosing:
- organic, aluminium free deodorant (salt rock is the best)
- organic hygiene products such as the Welleco Remedies range
- organic homeware
- organic clothes wash
- organic cleaning products
It would be great to do an FIR sauna 3 x week to detox out heavy metals and toxins and have a cold shower post 20-30 minute treatment to support lymphatic drainage. Ensure you use organic soap/body wash to ensure you don’t reabsorb toxins released from the sauna.
Home enemas & colonics are also a great way to detox and support digestive detox and healing.
Grounding is also vital to keep your electrical circuits in flow, walking barefoot on the grass or sand is best, but if this is not possible:
- grounding mats are great to use in your home and
- put grounding sheets on your bed (like a mattress protector) to reduce the build-up of positive ions and depress your entire body while you sleep.
- In cold months when it is too cold to get your feet on the grass working with your feet on an inexpensive grounding mat is incredible or why not swap your yoga mat for a grounding yoga mat so that you get grounded during your daily exercise routines too.
Your Fertility Support Road Map
You now have a road map to put all of your 7 Pillars of Wellness into balance, and if you are not sure where to start with your pillars, do our free Wellness Quiz which gives you a Wellness Profile and tells you your top 3 Pillars of Wellness to begin working on. I would also encourage you to do our 10 point urine test to fast track your results to work out exactly what supplements you need to shift your health into optimum. The best £45 you could ever spend.
This journey is personal, scary, and heartbreaking, but as Dani said I encourage you not to lose hope, get your head in the game, balance your pillars and shift into optimum health and wellbeing.
- [ UPDATE December 2021: Increase your chances of falling pregnant – Download my 7 practical fertility tips! ]
For advice tailored to your specific situation – book an Online Consultation with me.
