Playtime is Rewarding

Maybe you think you don't like to play with your children.

Maybe you think it's boring, or you don't remember how, or you just can't get into the flow of it. Maybe you try, but are easily distracted by your phone, your dog, the lint in your bellybutton.

I get that, I really do. Sometimes playing with your children is the l a s t thing you want to do. Sometimes you are TRYING to play with your children but they keep yelling at you in a language you don't understand because you are breaking rules they never explained to you.
 

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Kombucha for Fertility and Pregnancy

Several weeks ago, my friend handed me a large tupperware container filled halfway with a strongly vinager-scented liquid and a floating jellyfish-like culture. It was my first kombucha mother or SCOBY, an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. Sounds tasty, right?

This particular SCOBY was one that I had tasted the product of before. During a holiday party, my friend handed a glass of the freshly harvested kombucha to me. I took a whiff of it, and, trying to keep a neutral face, said that I would happily share it with my boyfriend. He took a whiff of it, and poured it into the large mug of hot tea he was holding, hoping to make it palatable. Unfortunately, it mostly just increased the quantity that we had to drink and compliment.

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COQ10, What is It, and How Can It Help?

Coenzyme Q10, AKA CoQ10, ubiquinone, or active compound ubiquinol) is a naturally-occurring antioxidant found in the body.  More commonly known as a dietary supplement, it is naturally present in the body’s cells and plays a vital role in the process by which cells generate energy.  It is particularly helpful in protecting skeletal muscles and organs that require greater amount of energy to perform effectively, i.e. the heart, liver and kidneys.  CoQ10 protects cells from oxidative stress, (which can occur as a result of unhealthy diet, stress, environmental factors, lack of exercise, social isolation, etc), thus helping to maintain cell integrity. 

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Safe Menstrual Care Resources

Having your period seems like a natural time to exercise heightened self-care, making sure you have ample time for sleep and to decompress, maybe even treating yourself to a special snack you’ve been craving. Since a big part of menstrual care is accommodating bleeding in one of the most permeable and delicate areas of the body, it’s important to consider the quality of the feminine care products you are using.

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TTC: Timing To Conceive

It’s a question that I get asked on a weekly basis - “What days should we be trying on?” A recent study from Yale University researchers found that about 60 percent of women thought that they were most fertile in the two days after ovulation. Unfortunately, those women were wrong. So, as it turns out, there’s also a lot of misinformation about when women are at their fertile peak.

Women are most fertile during a 6 day window that ends the day after ovulation. Outside that relatively short window, your chances of falling pregnant are generally lower than 5%.

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Does Kale Affect Thyroid Function? What You Should Know...


For the past 5 or so years, I’ve seen the garnish I avoided like the plague on the plates of chicken tenders I ordered at restaurants as a child gaining immense popularity. It seems like nowadays you can’t browse a menu or get out of Whole Foods without encountering at least some form of kale. In the health food industry, kale is everywhere! You’ll find it in green smoothies, juices, salads, and any number of recipes in a modern cookbook. It’s arguably currently the nation’s most popular vegetable and has definitely won me over since the days I was ignoring it on my plate at Red Lobster. But recently, I’ve seen a darker trend growing in kale—and I’m not talking about leaf color.

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Making More Milk

Essentially, what needs to happen is that you commit to four or five days of working on this. Clear your schedule, hide your to-do list, and take a little breastfeeding vacation. Take your baby, a snack, a bottle of water, and some toys and books into your bed and stay there, all day if possible. Do pretty much nothing but eat, drink, rest, and nurse. If your baby doesn’t sleep well, get someone else to take care of the baby so that you can conk out for a few hours (beg or pay someone if you have to!).

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