Welcome to the Brilliant Fertility Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Katie Rose, and this podcast to help illuminate the path of head of video. With expert interviews, clinical pearls, and real client success stories, my intention is to bring you helpfully possible on this journey and to give you tools and resources to navigate the ups and downs on the road of the video. If you find this podcast helpful, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And on the favorite box, if you have a minute, can you leave us a five-star video? And let us know what did you learn? What did you come away with? Did you leave with that spark of help? This helps more people like you find the podcast. My mission is to support as many humans as possible on their path to become parents. And by you sharing and subscribing, you're part of that mission too. And I'm so grateful for you for being here. If you are trying to get pregnant in 2026, and don't worry, I know when you get a list of things not to do, you're like, okay, cool, but what do I do? And we will dive into those. Before we get going, I just want to thank all of you for being here with us as we enter this new year. It's crazy to think that 2026 is upon us. And I hope that you were able to look at this as a fresh start, a new chapter. That's the thing I actually like about the changing over of the calendar is almost this feeling like, okay, whatever happened last year energetically, I am putting behind me. And theoretically, we can do that every day, right? We can use every day we wake up as an opportunity to rewrite a story, create a new chapter, put something behind us that we don't want to carry any longer. And yet, most of us humans aren't very adept at doing that on a daily basis. We can absolutely be practicing, and I encourage all of us to be doing so. And we're human. So as we have this like momentum of the new year and the energy behind it, and everyone celebrating it, or at least having kind of a breath of relief of like, all right, can we just be done with whatever the hell 2025 was? Because that was a messy one for a lot of us. And we can take a deep breath and look at how to start with some more clarity, hope, fresh ways of doing things. And in this episode, I want to address some things that you are likely going to be noticing already in your social media feeds, and um, how to really get the most out of this new year energy in a way that doesn't have to feel like this frantic reinvention of your entire being, right? I think last year I did an episode on like this this whole idea of like new year, new you. It's like, no, no, no, we don't, we don't need that. We don't need a brand new you. Now, there absolutely are ways that we may want to be showing up to life differently and doing some things differently and have some hopes and dreams that we are working towards. And there are ways of doing this that don't have to ultimately result in burnout or like you know, that frantic energy that often comes with New Year's resolutions that we statistically know that most people won't stick with by the time March comes around. So, some of what I am doing differently. Um, well, first of all, I am here in my cozy office that we finally have furnished. I if you were following me and you remember a few months ago, I had bought a couch for the office and it arrived and we unboxed it. And holy hell, it smelled so toxic and it reminded me that we have to do more episodes on how to avoid toxins. But it was so bad. I mean, my brain hurt, my lungs hurt, I had to get it out of the space. ASAP, I ended up having a migraine for two days after that exposure. Uh, we left it, you know, outside on a porch for a month, and it still was stinky as far as I could tell. Like it's kind of chemically smell. So did a ton of research, which I am kicking myself for not having done better in the first place. Did a ton of research on non-toxic furniture, ended up getting a couch from a company called Sabai. I highly recommend it. It took a while for it to get here, but it's here. It's so comfy. So I was just like, I am, I'm gonna do work from my really comfy couch that I waited months for and researched my butt off for. So I am I'm just embracing the things that I can do that are really comfortable and cozy and not letting anyone judge me for that. And then other things that we're doing differently. Um, probably gonna have some changes to the podcast come in to simplify and streamline and get it out to more people. So if you've been one of our longer-term listeners, thank you. If you're new here, I'm so happy to have you. And it would be so appreciated if you would pause and share this episode with anyone you think would benefit. Uh, we would love to get this episode into more ears, into more uh conversations that couples are having about their fertility and really, you know, becoming more conscious of the things that we can do to prepare ourselves for healthy pregnancy and parenthood. But let's dive in. So I have three things not to do if you are trying to get pregnant in 2026. Number one, don't do some crazy fertility detox that you saw on TikTok. Okay. Like there, there's so much that I see coming through, especially in the new year, around detoxes, like detox teas, detox packages, um, ranging from a$20 tea to a$400 kit that looks like it comes with a bunch of supplements that are touted to support detoxification and improve your fertility. And I would just be so very careful, but probably not do them at all because the reality is we don't have good evidence for these. Now I know that they are going to probably have you know testimonials on their websites, on their sales pages. And maybe some people anecdotally have had some results with it, but I'm super, super cautious about detoxification because a lot of the herbs, supplements, amino acids, etc., we don't have evidence for. We don't have standardized research showing that these actually improve fertility outcomes. And they can do damage, they can actually cause stress to the kidneys, they can cause toxicity. And it's really alarming given that supplements aren't a regulated entity. So anyone can say anything about supplements. Anyone can basically put any mishmash of herbs and vitamins and minerals together and say, hey, you could use this. But aside from that, like it's it's kind of a kind of a no man's land. It's kind of dangerous territory. So on the occasions that I use detoxification, which I'm wary of even using that word, because our liver is supporting our detoxification 24 hours a day, our kidneys are filtering 24 hours a day. So I'm really not a big fan of even talking about doing detoxes, except for the purpose right now of like warning you against them and being really cautious and using your discernment. So, what do we do instead? If if you're getting to that point where you're like, I would just love to do something like this 21-day thing that would actually give me a result. And this is where we have to have some realistic expectations about what any lifestyle change, including the addition of supplements or herbs or changes in diet, can do, and also being a little bit more moderate in how we approach them. So, in general, moving towards a more plant-centered diet that does include lots of fresh vegetables and fruits and nuts and seeds and beans and whole grains, and a little bit of full-fat dairy, and a little bit of seafood, and a little bit of good quality meat, and some eggs, and some healthy fats from you know your oils like olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil, and good quality butter, like a generally moderate, nutrient-dense diet is going to get you so much further in the long run over say a three to 12 month period of time than a 21-day detox is gonna do. And sure, sometimes you would see an improvement because during those detoxes, you're often changing your diet pretty dramatically, right? You're eliminating all of these inflammatory foods and processed foods and sugar and um saturated fats and alcohol, and that can absolutely have an impact. And it can also be quite restrictive and crazy making. So I am much more in the camp of focusing on what to include from a dietary standpoint than what to avoid. And this is just after having lived the experience of it and also being in this world of like this is my 13th year of practice as a naturopathic doctor, 10 plus years uh specializing in fertility and counseling thousands of people on lifestyle change and seeing what actually works for people in the long run. So, yes, like in the very short term, maybe we see some result of you know decreased bloating, decreased inflammation, skin changes, but the longer term changes are really where we're going to see the improvements for fertility because it takes months to have an impact on those follicles and the eggs that are housed within those follicles that are kind of waiting in the background of the ovary to begin their maturation process. It takes months to really see change in them. So I want to be realistic about that and have you be very cautious and discerning about things you see online, and you're gonna see a lot of them in January. Every year, people are gonna start posting ads for these detoxes, and well, some of them are so ick, it just drives me absolutely crazy. All right, number two. If you were to be the type of person who likes to make a New Year's resolution, you're like, all right, we just had this, you know, crazy month of holiday travel and eating holiday foods and more sweets and more alcohol. And like, I'm just I'm gonna do everything better. And you make this checklist of all the things that you're gonna do from now on to improve your fertility for 2026. And you've got, you know, I'm gonna wake up and meditate, and I'm gonna go to the gym, and I'm gonna eat my five vegetables a day, and I'm gonna go to bed by 9 p.m. And the list goes on, and you, you know, by the end of the day, you probably end up with 20 things that you could be doing. And then you get to a point where you realize, like, oh, this doesn't feel sustainable. It's feeling a bit pressured, a bit robotic. And you start to wonder, especially if you get another month without a positive pregnancy test, is this even doing anything? Is this even worthwhile? Like, what's wrong with me? And it kind of feeds the cycle. So instead of creating some huge checklist of things that you have to do every day to optimize your fertility, and you know, you're really going balls to the wall with, like, slow down and find out what your body actually needs. And that can include having a workup with someone who can really help identify on a physical level are there specific nutrients that you should be getting more of? Are there patterns within your cycle that can be addressed differently? Are there subconscious patterns that might be feeding into why your habits have been the way they have been? If, you know, for example, you find it just impossible to get to bed at a reasonable hour. And you've been telling yourself for months, oh, I have to start getting to bed earlier. I just need to force myself to go like be in bed by 9 p.m. But 11 o'clock rolls around and you realize you are still awake. If we're not asking the right questions to understand what your life looks like, what your subconscious patterns might be, then you could, you know, set that alarm on your phone at 8:45 every night to tell yourself to go to bed. And it's just not going to have much impact until we understand why that pattern is playing out and what need is actually being met by you staying up until 11 p.m. So instead of creating that huge checklist, get personalized support. And that may mean that there are some days when you you do have a few things on a to-do list. And there might be some days when you're relying solely on your intuition to tell you what you need. And that I know alone is for some people like, what you want me to just rely on my intuition to tell me what I need? And that's a practice. That is a daily practice that as you slow down and you learn to communicate with your body, it becomes more apparent. So some days, you know, you might have had on the schedule, like you're gonna go for a three-mile run as soon as you wake up in the morning and you wake up and you're like, uh, I just don't feel very good. And you kind of have to parse through is this just that kind of like morning fog that as soon as I get up and start moving, I'm gonna feel so much better and I'm gonna feel so much better after I go for that run. Or is this really your body saying, hey, we would be much better off getting 45 minutes more of sleep and skipping that run? Like, how do you parse through those situations if you don't have a good relationship and communication with your body and your intuition? That is a practice that is so much of what I do with my patients, with my clients in the Brilliant Fertility program. And it is also a practice of self-trust because if you are so reliant on that daily checklist, that's a red flag for me as a practitioner of wondering if you're actually trusting yourself. Like if you're so reliant on the checklist, does it mean that you don't have that trust within yourself? That you're not able to key into what your body is asking for and trust that communication with your body. I know big question mark. Sometimes it would be lovely just to have the checklist and be like, I would love to know that if I just did these 20 things for 60 straight days, that that that would be what gets me pregnant. And I tell you guys, like I have patients who have the checklist and they have been doing them for the entire year, and they are so dedicated to it, and they're they're so frustrated because they're like, I've been doing all the right things for so long. And I feel that frustration, it is palpable. So here at the start of this new year, can you let go of the checklist? Can you learn to tune into your body? Can you find the personalized support to actually help you know what are the few things, hopefully just a handful, not a 20-long checklist, to really optimize your hormones, your well being, and your ability to really live this year while you are open to pregnancy. All right. The last one that I want to cover today, number three of my list of three things not to do. If you're trying to get pregnant this year, is to overly rely on and obsess over a cycle tracking app that isn't actually able to give you accurate data. So what do I mean by this? If you are just using one of these apps where you mark your period start date and end date in a calendar, and there's not really much more going on in that tracker, then that's only going to be accurate for about 13% of the population. And in the patient population I work with, where a lot of people are coming to me with already irregular cycles, it's those apps just cannot give you anything. Like for example, if I have someone who has a 28-day cycle, so that means their period start date would be day one. 28 days later, they have their period start again. Their app is automatically going to tell them that they're ovulating on cycle day 14. Now, not most women do not ovulate on cycle day 14. So that's going to be inaccurate for like 85 to 90% of the population. So if someone has a 28-day cycle, like does that mean they're actually ovulating on day 14 and they have a 14-day luteal phase? Or what if they're ovulating on cycle day 18 and they only have a 10-day luteal phase? That's a completely different scenario. And even more recently, I have someone who was ovulating on like cycle day 21 and had a seven, eight, nine-day luteal phase. So her cycle lengths were pretty regular in the 28 to 30 day range. But when we really keyed in on the other signs of ovulation and ovulation confirmation, it was pretty clear that her luteal phase was really short. And then we had to figure out, well, what's happening here is, you know, she's ovulating really late. So is there something happening in the follicular phase that prevents the follicle from maturing as it should? And there's obviously something happening in the luteal phase that is causing the luteal phase to be shortened. So it gives us a lot more understanding when we are using a fertility awareness method that gives us the strategies of understanding when exactly ovulation happens. So these apps that just mark your period and then predict when your next period is going to be, it's not it. It's not going to give us enough. And we can't obsess over it. You know, if it's telling you your fertile window is in this zone, and that's the all the only information we have. We really cannot rely on it. So what do we do instead? Well, we need to use some model of fertility awareness method that works for you and your nervous system. So I'm always pretty mindful of what sort of data might cause someone to become obsessive. And you know, some people are really prone to getting caught up in that. And so we have to just have a good awareness and understanding of how you are with that information and utilizing it as a tool. And sometimes even just taking the pressure off of you needing to be the person to interpret that reduces the anxiety considerably. So even just being able to tell someone, hey, like continue to collect this data, continue to take your basal body temperature, continue to chart your cervical fluid. And at the end of the cycle, I'll be the one to look at it with you and we'll talk about what we saw. And it allows us to zoom out and get this perspective, this bird's eye view of what's happening within the cycle and where we need the support within the cycle. So there are some great tools that we have for this that you can be using. If you already have, you know, one of these more newfangled devices like an Aura ring or the circle ring or the newest um Apple Watch. All of these have the ability to track basal body temperature and sync to an app that will give you a chart of that temperature that can give you more information on when you likely ovulated. I am super wary of collecting data that could end up being shared these days. I know it sounds like very hands-made tale of me, but truly um check check the privacy settings and the data sharing on any devices that you're using, on any apps that you're using that might collect this sort of personal information. Like uh, I just it makes me cringe to think about um, you know, where that information could go, how it could be used. But we want to we want to make sure that you are able to safely and privately collect this information. And I do try to stay on top of like what brands, what apps, what companies are in alignment with privacy for women and women's rights. So um I do try to stay on top of that for brilliant fertility program members. And I need to definitely update myself for this year on like which apps are taking good care of their customers in that sense. But please, please be cautious with that. Um, sorry for that little side note rant, but it had to be said. So if you're using those, if they can give you more accurate information on ovulation. So what we see with basal body temperatures is they will stay lower in the follicular phase from the start of the period until ovulation, and then they go up after ovulation and should stay up until the start of the next period. And when we have that information alongside your cervical fluid tracking, we can usually pinpoint pretty well when ovulation happens. Now, I've got a couple blog posts that I will put in our show notes. One about four ways to predict ovulation, and the other about four ways to confirm ovulation. And that can be really helpful in this conversation too, around cycle tracking and what's most important. But then also like understanding that your fertile window is about five days long. So about four to five days before ovulation and then the 24 hours after ovulation, because of how long sperm can survive in the female reproductive tract. And if you are generally aware of that and generally aware of the changes in your cervical fluid leading up to ovulation, and you are actually having sex during that fertile window, then that alone increases your chances of conception. The tricky part, of course, is for the couples who are like, okay, yeah, we know when we're ovulating. We know that we are definitely having sex in that window, and we have every cycle for as long as we can remember. That's when we we do absolutely have to zoom out for both couple, both partners and that couple look at what might be happening physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually to support that situation. Um, but these hopefully will get you thinking a little bit differently about how to approach conception this year and not to fall for the detoxes, not to just create some arbitrary checklist that's gonna burn you out in two months or two weeks, even, and not to obsess over cycle data if it's not even accurate. And in general, if you find yourself obsessing over things like we need to talk, we need to have a conversation about what sort of support you need in order to actually have your nervous system feel safe, have your body feel safe to conceive, because obsession energy is is absolutely uh it's not gonna feel good, number one, and it it carries that vibe to it that's rather it just feels like constricted in the body. It feels getting all somatic as I as I think about when I've gone to that obsessive place. Like it just I can feel things starting to like tighten within me. It feels constricting and restrictive and unsafe. So that's why I say like if you're obsessing, come come find me. We need a chat. Because there are ways to unwind from that, it is possible. And I hope, I pray that this year is your year, and everything you've dreamed of, it you are just on the cusp of. Um, but if you need to do things differently, I'm here for you. All right, I I truly hope that you are having such a wonderful start to your year, and that this is um the beginning of something really, really beautiful. If you need additional support, then you can find my link to Book a Discovery call in the show notes. And um yeah, have a really, really wonderful start to this year. Sending so much love.