Creating a Healthy Lifestyle for You and Your Future Family
Do you live an ideal healthy lifestyle that you would want to see your future child or grandchild follow someday? Are you making the lifestyle choices today that you want to be making when you have a child?
When couples first start to see a doctor about their plans to have a child, health and lifestyle is often something that’s discussed. Recreational drug use, overuse of alcohol, smoking, and other lifestyle factors can seriously impact a couples’ chances of getting pregnant or bringing a healthy child into the world. Being overweight, underweight, or inactive can also affect your fertility. In addition, there are many genetic factors that impact fertility and this means that even perfectly healthy couples, living the ideal lifestyle, will often need medical help to reach their goals of parenthood. However, since there are more than a few of us who could improve in a few areas, let’s discuss what prospective parents can do to prepare for pregnancy and create a healthier lifestyle that will complement their fertility treatment.
Why Make Lifestyle Changes Now?
Prospective parents can make changes to their health habits at any time of life, but one of the simplest times to make changes and put down the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle is during the time you are planning a pregnancy, or while you are trying to get pregnant with your child. Most parents find that it is much easier to make major health and lifestyle changes prior to the baby’s arrival than after, when they will be making many other adjustments in their lifestyle already. Remember, each little change you make today to create a healthy lifestyle for you and your future family will help make you a healthier and happier person once parenthood arrives. This is true whether you are single and wishing you had the perfect partner to build a family with, whether you are wishing you’d started a family earlier, or whether you’ve just gotten married for the first time.
Set Health Related Goals
Take a good hard look at your lifestyle and think about if there are any changes you could make that would lead to a healthier lifestyle overall or a greater sense of well-being. You can talk over these concerns with your doctor. Your doctor can help you determine which factors are most important to work on at this time. Set a few goals and work towards them every day. Setting health goals and checking them off every day gives you something tangible you can do with your life while you’re waiting for your future child.
Add More Activity to Your Day
There are many would be parents who have sacrificed in many ways to make their career successful. They will have no problem providing for a child financially and emotionally, but getting the child into their arms is sometimes a struggle. If you are planning on becoming a parent, begin today to safeguard your health in the next years so that you can be healthy for your future child. One of the simplest ways to create a healthy lifestyle for you and your future family is to be more active. Walk to the park. Take the stairs. Sign up for an exercise class. Plan vacations that involve walking or other exercise.
Seize the Day and Begin with Something
There is so much health advice buzzing around that it can feel overwhelming to know where to start. Is weight the most important, or should I start with exercising? Which one of these is impacting my fertility the most? It can be confusing to know what really matters most and what you should spend your time on. Is it more important to get an hour of exercise every day or would it be better to spend half an hour cooking a healthy meal after work and then spend just half an hour exercising? Maybe you’re worrying that those long board meetings in the office are going to affect your health. What can you do to get healthier? Having the advice of a trusted doctor can help guide you through the many voices that are telling you what is most important in your health.
Remember, the easiest and most efficient time for future parents to make changes in their lifestyles is before the baby has arrived. Generally speaking, healthier parents make healthier babies. This is true with your lifestyle as well as with your genetics. One of the great things about working with Santa Monica Fertility Clinic is our holistic approach to infertility services. Every day, we get calls from anxious would-be parents from all over the world, hoping for assistance in meeting their goals of parenthood. Click here to schedule a consultation and begin your journey to parenthood.
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