Latest / The Cyclical Doula Podcast: Fertility Awareness, Charting Cycles, and Reproductive Health Education / Nourishing Fertility: Insights with Jillian Beck-Rogers
Transcript
- Jillian Beck-Rogers: being underfueled is significant. And I know that's really tough for a lot of people who have maybe had experiences with dieting in the past. And so we have it in our heads of like eating less calories is like the answer. like fat makes you fat or whatever. And we have these this mentality of cutting back and that can definitely affect your menstrual cycle and it deprioritizes conception. Emmamma: Welcome to the Cyclical Doula podcast. I'm Emma, a certified fertility awareness educator, miscarriage doula and the founder of Emmamma LLC. This space is for women who want to understand their bodies deeply, not just memorize information, but actually feel confident in interpreting their cycles. Here we talk about ovulation, hormones, cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and all that's messy in between emotional layers that come with being a woman. We talk about trying to conceive, avoiding pregnancy without hormones. postpartum transitions, pregnancy loss, perimenopause, and everything in between. Because body literacy isn't just about charting. It's about the autonomy. It's about informed consent. It's about not outsourcing your reproductive decisions to guesswork or fear. Each week, you'll hear conversations with women's health professionals, ⁓ birth workers, ⁓ educators, and researchers along with solo episodes where I teach practical skills you can apply to your own cycle right away. if you have ever felt like you should have learned this information sooner, if you have ever felt disconnected from your cycle, If you want to raise the next generation without shame around their bodies, you are in the right place. So grab your tea, open up your notes app, and let's build a cycle confidence together. emmamma: Welcome back to the Cyclical Doula podcast. Today I'm so excited to have Jillian with me. She is a fertility nutrition and wellness coach helping women who have been trying to get pregnant support their fertility with the right nutrition and lifestyle habits so they can get back some control and increase their chances of a healthy pregnancy. She combines practical food-first tools, emotional support, and science-backed habits that change strategies inside all of her one-on-one programs. Her own trying to conceive journey and the gaps that she's seen in fertility care, like women given the bare minimum advice to take a prenatal and eat healthy, led her to become a certified prenatal nutrition expert and build the kind of fertility and nutrition support that women actually need. When Jillian's not working with clients, you can find her out and about in Los Angeles, probably rocking a crop top at her local climbing gym or hanging out with her husband, an adorable Kavapo Lulu. So thanks so much for being here. I'm so excited to have you on. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be a guest. emmamma: Yeah. before we dive into it, I have to ask, have you always been a like a climber? In your your Or is this like a Jillian Beck-Rogers: No one's ever asked me that first. I could just go on and on now. Like, yes, ask me about climbing. I've been climbing for about ten years. So emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: yeah, I love climbing. So yes. So not for forever. I was emmamma: That's so cool. That's what a fun like Jillian Beck-Rogers: I didn't grow up like super athletic. So I think it was like shocking, especially to my husband, who thought he was gonna take me once with his coworkers who invited us emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and I would never go ever again. And now we still go emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: three times a week for the last decade. So emmamma: That's so cool. I love it. I feel like that's not the type of exercise that the majority of people do and so it's always fun. I have a couple of friends from elementary school, high school that are big climbers and so it's funny. Jillian Beck-Rogers: I yeah, whenever us climbers find each other we get so excited and we're like, my god, you climb too 'cause yeah, it's it's emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: a very tight community, but not everybody feels, you know, inclined to to do it. So emmamma: Yeah. Totally. Well, th thanks for sharing that random tidbit. I would love to hear a little bit more just about who you are as a human being, anything else you wanna share. and then we can dive into what your journey looked like to become wh what you're doing now. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, so I mean, I have been health coaching since twenty twenty two and I started supporting clients with a variety of health goals. mostly around emotional eating, low energy, weight management, stress, things like that. The typical health coach, you know, problems emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: that you're helping people with. but I noticed a lot of the clients that were coming to me, they were focusing on their health in order to have a baby. So whether they were emmamma: Mm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: trying for the first time naturally. Or they were preparing for IVF or they were trying again after a loss. I just really felt connected to these women. I really just loved the intent behind why they were, you know, getting healthier and changing their habits and all these things. And I just really wanted to kind of focus in on this stage of like preconception to postpartum. So I emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: got trained as a certified perineatal nutrition expert. And then throughout this process, I was also going through my own journey of trying to conceive, and things were not going the way that I had hoped. So I unwillingly got, you know, a first-hand look at what that really feels like, and you know, can have a lot of empathy for it as well. And so throughout my own experiences of being diagnosed with unexplained infertility and gaps that I was seeing in the nutrition space, I just really became passionate about focusing. solely on like fertility nutrition. And so emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: it just became really clear to me also like throughout my training, just you know, how important it is for women to get this nutrition support during this phase of their life. Not just for this phase, but for all of the stages that are to come. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: And, you know, they were getting a lot of, you know, advice where it's just like, just take a prenatal or eat healthy. And it's like, what does that even mean? And like that doesn't emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: It just barely scratches the surface. So I just you know took my experience of coaching with clients and what I knew really worked well with them and this research back nutrition guidance and just really wanted to help women have something that was somewhat in their control on this journey that just often feels like it's happening to them. And I think it's important for me to just have the work that I'm doing inside of coaching. It's giving them the opportunity to be an active participant in their fertility journey when they may not feel like there's much that they can do. And this gives them something tangible that they can do to help improve their odds and there's long-term benefits for it. So that's kind of how I I got here to just talking about fertility nutrition all of the time. So emmamma: I love that. That's so good. I think like I I I say this to almost everybody. I think when you like have a personal experience and when you keep seeing clients that come up with the like same thing over and over again, you're like, okay, like this is my niche and like this Jillian Beck-Rogers: It's a sign. emmamma: game may help us focus in on this. And I know, I love that. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. It and it takes a while sometimes to get there too, 'cause it's like emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: it it took me a while to make it to this specific place and I think that was for a reason, you know? So so emmamma: I I feel like we can have this conversation go in so many different ways. So feel free to like make it go in a direction that you want to. But I I think based on like the work that I do around menstrual cycles, that there's Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm. emmamma: so much misinformation or just like not information out there about how our cycles work in a whole. And I think similarly we kind of have this idea of same kind of thing with nutrition. Like a lot of people are like, Yeah, we're supposed to eat healthy, but like what does that actually mean? And what does that like look Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: like for me as an individual versus just the average person? which I don't even know if that's like even a thing, if everybody's look like looks the same. but with that, do you think that when like when you approach working with clients, what's your biggest like number one step of how to approach this new like focusing on nutrition and fertility. Cause I'm sure it's so specific to the individual, but how do you how do you start this process? Jillian Beck-Rogers: That's a good question. Yeah. I mean, so my whole process, I actually start not even talking about food. We actually start with like clearing clutter and creating space. I was just creating a post about this the other day. So it feels timely. But yeah, I think before we start like, eat all these things, do this, do that. It's like we need to kind of step back, like gather a little bit of data and then like clear some space too for all of the things that are coming. Otherwise, if I, you know, if we create all these action steps and I'm helping you add all these things in and like let's do meal prep and like ride out the gate and you're like, I don't even have space for this in my calendar. So learning kind of how to like prioritize, like really looking at your priorities. Like we take the whole first session to like go into their goals and all that stuff, really understanding their why, like really like locking in what is important about this and like what's gonna help you get through the tough times when you're trying to make these changes. And then also just, you know, where can we, you know, or are where are we people pleasing? Where can we, you know, maybe start saying no a little bit more, honoring our yes and our no. and then well I'm trying to think of the word delegate. This is something I was just talking about with a client too, where it's like especially I think as women, maybe I'm biased because I'm a woman and I feel this way, but but We tend to take a lot of things on. We're like, it's just easier if I do it. And before you know it, it's like we're just doing too many things and we can't imagine fitting in one more thing. And so, yeah, taking some time to kind of clear some space. What can you delegate? Put off, you know, ask somebody for help and support. That's kind of the first place that we start. And then we kind of start with after that, we establish like food foundations and where we can start implementing some of these key Food changes. but underneath all of that is awareness. So that's another place to kind of start with is building awareness, which I think ties in also with, you know, just noticing your cycle. There's no way to track emmamma: yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: all of this stuff and know what the hell is going on or what needs to change until you start building some awareness. So emmamma: Yeah, and I I think that's like one of those things that we're s like you said, like we're so quick to just like take on everything and like just be doing so many things back to back that sometimes as a like generalization, we're not very good at like just sitting in our bodies and like figuring out how things are feeling as a whole, Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm. emmamma: i in regards to emotions and regards to like how our gut's feeling with food how how our menstrual cycles are working, like all of those different aspects of things. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm. emmamma: and having that awareness can really just I help, I think help like lead us down a path of of support. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. And I think that's what's helpful in coaching. It's like it gives you an hour to slow down and like you're kind of forced to start building that awareness 'cause like, you know, I'm asking you questions and we're like looking in at things and so sometimes it can be uncomfortable to sit and notice your feelings or just notice these things and slowing down like on our own 'cause it's sometimes it's uncomfortable. And so having somebody emmamma: Uh-huh. Jillian Beck-Rogers: to kind of like guide you through that I think is helpful. So emmamma: Absolutely. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: For sure. I think that's why there are so many coaches out there that do amazing things, for sure. what when you're helping women, have you noticed the nutritional influences that you're helping make these changes towards affect people's cycles and how they're changing? Maybe sometimes I know that I've seen like if people are like not eating as a whole, like their menstrual cycle, like that's the first thing. Reproductive system is the first thing to go out the window. But what Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. emmamma: what have you seen? Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. I mean, I think this is a good thing to notice, like different signs I think that you can kind of pick up on, especially emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: with like irregular cycles. I mean, you mentioned a big one, which is just like you're not eating enough. so being underfueled is significant. And I know that's really tough for a lot of people who have maybe had experiences with dieting in the past. And so we have it in our heads of like eating less calories is like the answer. like fat makes you fat or whatever. And we have these this mentality of cutting back and that can definitely affect your menstrual cycle and it deprioritizes conception. So if your body is underfueled, your body thinks it's gotta go into what's the word? Just like you know, storage mode or whatever. It's got a it's got other bigger fish to fry than trying to create another life. With what it's got. So it's not going to be prioritizing conception and you know your cycle. And so being underfueled, are you eating enough calories? Is something to pay attention to. irregular cycles could also possibly be a sign of PMOS, formally called, you know, PCOS. And your hormones are really in need of extra support here. And balancing your blood sugar is like the number one thing to focus on. If you are in general just having your regular periods, I think. but yeah, it could be a sign of like inflammation, needing to balance your blood sugar. So are you eating breakfast? I know that's a big one. A lot of people love to do their fasting, or are like I'm just not hungry in the morning, or I just I had my coffee and then maybe I ate something later. All of those things could be impacting. and it's something to kind of pay attention to. So yeah, those are a couple of things. emmamma: I love that. I think yeah, I think as we we like you said, like we're so quick to underfuel our body and like count calories and things like that. And I that's because I'm not a nutrition specialist, like I don't give nutrition advice to my clients, but Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: I do ask them, like, do you eat breakfast? Like if you're not eating breakfast, like that's probably a good place to start. Like that's not Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, emmamma: That's not nutrition advice. Jillian Beck-Rogers: I agree. emmamma: That's just like good practical. Like, let's start with that. Cause if that changes your cycle, then Jillian Beck-Rogers: And a lot of it is practical. Yeah. emmamma: like there you go. That was an easy fix. Like you just are now spending a little bit more on groceries because you're eating breakfast. But Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. But some people like it seems so simple. Like I think that's part of what it is. It seems so simple that, like, how could it possibly make that much difference? Or like, yeah, I've heard that before. But it is shocking. No, maybe not shocking, but like it is surprising how so many women are not eating breakfast or you know, they're having coffee and calling that breakfast. So un unless you ask somebody. It may not be emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: the thing that they're thinking of. So I I love that you at least take the time to ask because sometimes that's all it takes is to be like, huh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that. and it's like, it can actually make a really, really big difference. it messes with your hormones when you are fasting or skipping breakfast. And that is obviously not what we want for our cycle to be regularly regular. So yeah, it's a simple, good place to start. I approve that advice. emmamma: Yeah. That's great. I Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: so I wonder you mentioned like when you're talking about undereating and then therefore like that we're probably in a if people are trying to take like a calorie deficit, I'm sure it's specific on the individual, but like what what is like the average or like what's a goal for most people of like how much food or calories or protein or like what is How much are sp people supposed to be eating? Or is it so dependent Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, that's a emmamma: on the individual? Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, that's a really good question. I know a lot of people will have very specific exact macros for you. I emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: don't actually operate that way. I think that counting can become very stressful very quickly and can get very overwhelming. And then that starts to get into the territory where it's kind of working against you because you're stressed about that. And so emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: The way that I actually work with clients is just having them take pictures of all of their food because it shows me their portions that they're eating. I can see if there's protein, fat, fiber in their meals, and what is missing. And so I do it more visually. So emmamma: Okay. Jillian Beck-Rogers: instead of like worrying about a specific calorie count, it's also about tuning into your hunger and your fullness cues, which is something that we work on. So again, building more of that body awareness. because how many calories you need is probably, you know, different than how many I need and vice versa. And so noticing your hunger cues to kind of gauge portion sizes and knowing when you're full, and then knowing what to fill your plate with. So I typically say like half of your plate should be like fiber, so fruits, veggies, legumes. If you have like a quarter of your plate or a handful of good quality protein, and then like a quarter of your plate is unre or say refined carbs, complex carbs. Not we don't want a quarter of our plate to be refined carbs. That's what we're avoiding. a quarter of our plate is complex carbs and then we have some healthy fat mixed in there as well. So kind of like seeing like if that's what your plate can look like and then gauging your hunger and fullness cues to kind of figure out the portion sizes, I think is a good place to start. Does that answer your question? emmamma: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's great. Cause no, Jillian Beck-Rogers: I feel like I went on a tangent there, but yeah. emmamma: but I think that that's helpful because I think especially the people who are in this season of trying to conceive and like have the people that you're mostly working with that are probably stressed with the fact that they're hoping to get pregnant and aren't in the time that they're wanting to, adding the idea of counting calories or like being super specific about the food that they're eating to the Down to the nitty gritties of what what nutrients is in there and having to read labels really specific might like that might not be helpful. That might be more detrimental. So I love the idea of being able to just like take pictures and get feedback from that and being Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: able to look at that in a way that's more beneficial because I think that that's whenever somebody's in this a tougher season, like you never want to add more things to their their plate. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. Yeah. It's like we need the data. Yeah. Exactly. It's emmamma: Literally figured out Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: like we need the data, but it's like, how can we do it in a way that feels a little bit easier and it doesn't feel too stressful? emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: but in general, I would say like not always, but I think most people should probably be eating more than they are, which might be emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: surprising to hear. but it matters what you're eating. So if you're just eating a ton of calories that are coming from a lot of Processed foods, quick things like takeout on the go, stuff where you're not even quite sure what all is in your food. That's very different from eating a diet where you are prioritizing a lot of like whole fruits and vegetables, or you're like you're making a lot of stuff. So you know the ingredients that are going into it and you're prioritizing again the protein, fat, and fiber. Once you prioritize that on your plate, having dessert and some sugar on the side, like that will just naturally start to fall to the ways wayside. emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and so yeah, I think that's also why like calorie counting isn't necessarily the full picture because obviously like eating a bunch of cookies and, you know, it's not the same as having like a really nutrient dense meal, obviously. And so, yeah. Visually I think it's a little bit emmamma: For sure. That's awesome. Jillian Beck-Rogers: help more helpful. emmamma: Yeah, that's good. I love that. I would love for you to share a little bit more about I know you have a couple different programs and like one on ones that you're working with people, but I one of them's more about like just fertility in general, I think. what is that? look like do you have like an example of how clients walk through that situation with you and working with you? Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, so two different programs. There's like a three-month fueling your fertility. So this is like a three-month food-first approach to a healthy pregnancy. So I design it to help optimize like your nutrition and lifestyle habits, to help lower inflammation, support your egg quality, your hormones, your energy, and Also, we dive a lot deeper into like self-sabotage and emotional eating, which I know is more important for some clients than others, to really help create like long-lasting habits that are just beyond this one season. I know for me, like a lot of like what I love about fertility nutrition is like the importance around it, but it also is like a catalyst for a lot of people to start caring a little bit more about what they're eating and their health. But emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: what you do now matters for so much far beyond this season. emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and so for this one, yeah, it's a three-month program. We meet every other week and we kind of start off with, like I said, clearing the clutter. And then we talk about food foundations, we talk about how to eat. So it's not just what you're eating, it's also how you're eating and how your body is handling stress, and that affects your metabolism and your. Digestion and all these other things. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: we go into, like I said, like emotional eating and your relationship with food, addressing self-sabotage, which is a lot of the part where people make changes and then they don't stick. It's because we're not addressing the self-sabotage, which is a totally normal part of the process. yeah, and just find ways to like really integrate this into your life long term. so that's kind of what we're doing with fueling your fertility. And then I have an a shorter program called the IVF Prep Nutrition Intensive. So I put this program together mainly because I was getting questions about, you know, I don't have time for a three-month program. I have an egg retrieval coming up in a month. Like, what can you do to help me with that? And so, so I created this like fast track program to really give women the information that is most important for lowering inflammation and improving their egg quality, like up front in like emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: a deep dive session. And then coaching how to like integrate some of these things actually into their lifestyle. Because I'm not just gonna dump a bunch of information on clients and just be like, good luck. Cause that's not that is not coaching at all. emmamma: And and have fun. Jillian Beck-Rogers: So yeah, really helping them as they prepare for like an egg retrieval or an embryo transfer is the focus of emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: that. And so focusing on the things that are gonna help them in whatever stage they are in that process. and we also do a fertility toxin audit. So I have them go through all the different places that excess toxins could be hiding in their environment, their food, their skincare products, like all of these different categories. And I kind of do an audit of where they can, you know, s make some swaps and things. so yeah, that's kind of like an overview and just the overall goal though is really helping them integrate these habits into their lifestyle. Cause again, you can go and get information from a million different places now, but what you do with that information makes all the difference. So if it's just, you know, sitting on your kitchen table in a a packet of pamphlets, then that's not very helpful. So exact exactly. emmamma: No, it will stay there and then wind up in the recycling or the trash. yeah. That's so good. Emmamma: hey, I'm just popping in real quick to say Make sure you're subscribed to the Cyclical Doula podcast on whichever platform you're listening to. ⁓ And don't miss upcoming conversations. If this episode is resonating with you, please share it with a friend, rate it and write a review. This is how this movement grows, not through algorithms, but through women talking to women. All right, let's jump back into it. emmamma: so I'm I'm curious when obviously like there's that like quick prep of just like people trying to do the best that they can with the time that they have. But if you had unlimited time and to like work with somebody and really like help support them, is there a specific time frame before somebody's actually trying to conceive that's beneficial to like start really looking deep in their habits and like focusing on nutrition. I'm sure some people are like Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: coming to you already trying to conceive. So maybe that's not their goal, but it yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, I get that question a lot, especially when it's somebody who's in the middle of like an IBF cycle and they wanna know, like, emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: is this really gonna like help? Or like how much time do I really need to prepare? I feel like the answer that most often comes up that's easier to quantify is like three months at least. And emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: the main reason for that is like within three months is When you can make the biggest impact to your eggs. So, like you have inherent egg quality that you're just kind of born with and it's gonna go down the older that you get. But emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: there's a lot of things in our environment, the toxins, like spikes in our blood sugar, if our blood sugar balance is off, if there's other things that are happening in our body that are causing inflammation that can also damage eggs. And so whatever you can do in this three-month window. Nutrition is one of the big things that you can do. There's also things with like movement and acupuncture and all these other things that can also emmamma: Right. Jillian Beck-Rogers: help. And so giving yourself at least a three-month window to help improve egg quality and reduce inflammation as much as possible is ideal. that being said, I mean, even if you can give yourself at least a month, you know, I think there's some studies that have shown that, some damage to egg quality, like they can still be changed even within the last month. I think it was like I'm trying to think, I don't have the data directly in front of me. It was something with like hereditary or genetic abnormalities, I think it is. So like whatever you can do in the amount of time that you have, I think it is still worth doing. emmamma: For sure. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and then when it comes to like an embryo, so that's for if you're trying to get pregnant naturally or maybe you're doing an egg retrieval, because egg quality is the most important. And then emmamma: Right. Jillian Beck-Rogers: If you're focusing, if you're doing IBF and you're doing an embryo transfer, the big flo focus is on like supporting progesterone, reducing inflammation so that you have like a healthy environment for the embryo to stick, implant, and you know, have a healthy baby. And so emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: lowering inflammation is all the stuff that we're doing in this time. But they've shown in studies that even like inflammatory markers can go down in as little as a few weeks. So even if you can do emmamma: That's awesome. Jillian Beck-Rogers: some improvements with your nutrition to lower inflammation in a few weeks before, the more the better, but like it still counts. So emmamma: Awesome, that's so good. I you mentioned progesterone support. What what does that look like as like a general whole? Obviously again, like I know it comes down to the individual sometimes, but how can people Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. emmamma: support their progesterone whether they're in a season of like a transfer or just maybe naturally cycling and noticing that that's something they want to support? Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, so for those that don't know, like you know, progesterone supports implantation. It's needed to sustain a pregnancy. So if you do have a short luteal phase, if it's less than ten days, that might signal that your progesterone is low. It might, it could be other things too, but that is one possible signal. And so ways that you can support progesterone is supporting egg health again. So Eating a lot of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich foods. things like berries, ginger, bell peppers, broccoli, salmon, walnuts, kale, olive oil, all your fruits and veggies, and things emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: with omegas. and then balancing your blood sugar, which we've talked about. Eating enough calories, eating breakfast, also things that we've talked about, that supports progesterone. But the big thing with progesterone is eating enough fat. So again, like changing if we have any sort of negative mindset around fat, which if you do, that is totally normal and understandable. So it's just about reframing fat as being really nourishing in this time. and so not eating enough fat again can suppress ovulation. We don't want that. And so, Focusing also on like cholesterol. So types of fat. We want all all healthy fats, but also we need cholesterol. Like this is what our hormones like are made up of is cholesterol, omega-3 fats. So things like even animal fat, butter, ghee, coconut products, eggs, dairy. I always suggest to clients like if you can just have like a couple of eggs every morning for breakfast, that is just amazing. Eggs have so many good nutrients in them that we need. So if you're open to eggs, do that. and then omega-3 emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: fats. So it reduces inflammation, inoxidative stress. So we love our our salmon, our walnuts, all of our fatty fish, things like that. So yeah, really just focusing. If there's one thing you want to take away from that, it's like embrace eating fat and a variety of healthy fats and that they are very nourishing for you. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's so good. I think like we had talked about earlier, I think we're so quick to like make assumptions that like just eating more food isn't gonna work or like that like we have these associations that like fat is bad, but all these fats that Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm. emmamma: naturally come in food like can be really beneficial to our body to support it well. because the like societal pressure of not eating fats is not associated with the concept of eating all of these naturally occurring things in fish and nuts and things like that. So Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. Yeah. emmamma: I think that's a helpful reminder for everybody to focus Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. emmamma: on. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. I like I always tell everybody, like, we should all be eating more nuts and seeds, I feel like. Unless you have an allergy, then obviously don't take that advice. But then like don't listen to that. But yeah, emmamma: Yeah. Then obviously that's a horrible idea. Jillian Beck-Rogers: fatty fish, nuts and seeds, olive oil, but also like full fat dairy. obviously if you have like an intolerance to dairy, that's a different situation. But if you can, like emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: I'm a big fan of cottage cheese. I love me some cottage cheese. Greek yogurt and like embrace buying the full fat version. I mean I grew up, I would buy the low fat or non fat of everything because I I thought that's what you were supposed to do. And emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: usually they can substitute that fat for like more sugar or but you really do need those healthy fats. So just kind of embracing like making those swaps when you're at the grocery store is an easy place to start. emmamma: Mm-hmm. That's so good. Yeah, I feel like that's it. It's easy in concept and if you're like able to follow through with it and have somebody like you who's like there to like coach you through all of those things for sure. you okay, you've mentioned a couple of times about balancing blood sugar. How does one like know how to do that or like if their blood sugar isn't being balanced well? Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, I mean, signs of that could be like if you have really irregular periods or if you get a lot of really strong sugar cravings, like headaches, like there's a lot of signs of low grade like inflammation that we can have in emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: our bodies that maybe we also think is just normal, but it's not necessarily normal. It's just something that we are used to or it's just bed normalized. emmamma: Uh-huh. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and so kind of noticing if you're having any inflammation, but Easy ways to start balancing your blood sugar is like having breakfast first thing in the morning, emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: kind of giving your body that nutrient, nutrient dense breakfast. And then just it's really about like looking at your plate. So that's why like I take photos with clients, you know, and we're trying to get as close to this power plate as I call it. And it doesn't have to be perfect, but it's just like an easy thing that I think for people to start doing is just can I check off when I'm eating sitting down, eat a meal or I'm putting a snack together? Can I check off protein? Can I check off a healthy fat? And can I check off fiber? If you can check off all three of those things, we're not going into details about like, you know, the ratios and all of that, but if you can check those three three things off of your plate, that is like a well-balanced meal. so kind of starting with that, and then also looking at the things that tend to spike our blood sugar. So refined carbs, the white breads. The white rice, unfortunately. I'm married to a half Filipino. So like the battle of the white rice, like I got him to do half emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: brown and half white. That was our compromise, because I understand it's like a cultural thing too. And some of these emmamma: Yeah, for sure. Jillian Beck-Rogers: things we don't want to totally get rid of. And you don't have to totally get rid of them. It's just also again getting curious and noticing and building awareness how much, how often am I reaching for sugar or sweets emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and what am I eating them with? how often am I reaching for like white bread, white rice, pasta, things like that? And how can I maybe add in more fiber to it, some more protein to it, some healthy fat with it, or swapping it out for ideally a more nutrient dense, whole grain kind of a version. 'cause the again the w the refined carbs and the sugar are gonna spike our blood sugar. And we want it to try to be as balanced as possible rather than being like this. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: So so yeah, that's a couple of places to kind of start with balancing your emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: blood sugar. emmamma: That's good. I think that's and I think that's helpful because I think there's so much cool technology out there now too of like having a continuous monitor and like all these things that you can buy just even if you Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. emmamma: don't have like s quote specific medical reason too. But I think that it's helpful to just think about the fact that you can like make some of these lifestyle changes with sometimes better with some support. like from from somebody like you. but that like it doesn't need to be a whole big thing. And sometimes when we just come Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah. emmamma: back to our like awareness and our like changing of habits can be really beneficial. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, and like I think that's you bring up a good point. Like there are a lot of tools out there that we can use, some that I'm sure I'm not even like aware of. And you could totally do that. I th I think of it kinda like my Apple Watch. So it's like we have all these ways to track everything. Every little thing that we do and gather so much data, which is amazing. It can be so helpful and it is needed at times. And then there can become a point where it's like too much and we obsess over every little thing to the point where it's really not helpful anymore. And so I think it emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: just depends like what is your goal and what would actually be helpful for you. And for some people that could be really helpful to monitor things a little bit closer and have more numbers. And for some people I think it could be so overwhelming and it's it's a higher barrier to get just get started. So you kinda just have to decide like what is your goal and like what's best for you. So emmamma: Sure. What else when you like thought about coming on here and talking about like what else do you want to share about nutrition and fertility? I know that's so open ended, but Jillian Beck-Rogers: Gosh, I don't know. I mean, I mean, I think just the fact I and talking about like your cycles too, I think even if your goal isn't to get pregnant, because I hear this from women too. It's like, why should I care if I'm not trying to get pregnant? And I think emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: similar maybe maybe you see this with like track sec cycle tracking. I even feel like I noticed this with myself. I never tracked my cycle. long enough and I this is also why I love the work that you do because you get started with girls like younger to build this awareness emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: and this education, which I feel like is so needed. And I feel like when I started trying to get pregnant, I was like, I gotta I gotta start paying attention to this stuff. And so emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: it was such a crash course in learning some of these things. And I feel like with food maybe it's a little bit similar where it doesn't seem important until it is important. And it's like, my emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: God, I have so much to learn and I'm behind. And I think it's like the earlier that you can just start making little changes, even if you're not even sure if you want to have a baby, if you're still on the fence, like all of these things are still gonna be so good for your health overall and is like, you know, a sign of vitality. So the things that we're talking about still apply, even if you're like, I don't know if I want to have a baby. It's like still try. Still try to do these these things, these nutrition things. emmamma: Dad. You can still you can still have a really good life and like feel great. Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Exactly. Yeah. I think a lot of I mean, a lot of the stuff that I everything that I'm doing with clients is really focused around like lowering inflammation because most of us have emmamma: Yes. Jillian Beck-Rogers: so much inflammation and pretty much any health issue, including, you know, struggles with weight, it comes down to most of the time like some sort of inflammatory issue that's going on in your body. And so emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: these things would still help with a multitude of things and make you feel better. emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. And I think you bring up a really good point too of like I always my my sibling two of my siblings are in college. and we were recently talking about like you nobody really prepares you for the fact that like when you become an adult, like you have to make your food constantly and especially for those who like are parents too, like you then have to feed more people mm like every single day th at least three times a day, if not way more. And like that Like that in itself is like such a a mind shift of versus those people who had the privilege of being in a home where like mm that was prepared for them, right? Like there wasn't a thing that Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm. emmamma: they were thinking about. And I think therefore, similar to the way that you just mentioned, like how girls learning about cycle tracking can be beneficial to like how they just live through life with their reproductive systems. I think we can have these conversations with our kids and then like obviously. now with people who are adults who need these conversations about like this is how you eat to fuel your body well and to be in optimal Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm. emmamma: health, of just like less inflammation and getting the nutrients that your body needs to function properly and all of those things. and having that mind shift is can be incredible, but also just like it's just like something we don't think about until like we need to. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Right. 'Cause I it's not something you're really ever taught unless you have a parent who is like skilled in that and has a good relationship with food and they pass those habits on, which I know is like another emmamma: Mm-hmm. Jillian Beck-Rogers: reason a lot of women want to, you know, have a healthier relationship with food. Like they want to break the cycle 'cause they saw how they grew up with food and it was just not the healthiest. And so they wanna set a better example for their kids. 'Cause otherwise, like how do you learn these things? You're not learning it really in school. I mean We learned like a stupid food pyramid, which wasn't even really accurate. Like I think they like flipped it upside down. Exactly. Yeah. emmamma: Yeah. No. I think that's where a lot of problems come from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: So it's like the earlier you can kind of kind of have that education in a sense and pass it on to your kids, like it will have like lifelong impacts and it makes it easier too. If you learn these things now, how to f like feed yourself, how to cook, and like just get into these regular habits. If and when you do have some kids later that you have to now cook for, like you'll have the habit down, whereas you didn't have to like emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: learn it overnight. And you're like, Why am I cooking for like three or four people now? Like this is too much. Start now. So yeah. emmamma: Yeah, right, right. Absolutely. Yeah, that's good. that's great advice. I love it. awesome. What else do you want the people who are listening to just walk away with today? Jillian Beck-Rogers: I think just knowing that like you don't have to eat perfectly. I know like we could talk I talk all day long about like, we should eat this, we should eat that, or I don't know. It can be very overwhelming. It it can really go into like a perfectionist territory. And I know because like I I am definitely a like a recovering perfectionist and you wanna tick every single box. And it's not about getting it perfect. It's just like what one thing can I do better today to help balance my blood sugar and support my body so that I am not, you know, starving and malnourished and worse off. just like what are the baby steps that you can do? And if if you're having, you know, a hard time like emotional struggles with food, which I know emmamma: Yeah. Jillian Beck-Rogers: like some people have more of a history with that. Like I have had clients where they've really struggled with like emotional eating and have like, you know, eating chocolate bars hiding in the car and just like really digging deeper with that and having someone that you trust to kind of figure out like where does that come from? Like what kind of habits, you know, can I start to shift to tr you know, do this a different way and like nourish myself in a different way that doesn't just require, comforting myself with food, just really starting to address that too, and having compassion for yourself. Cause I know that that can be tricky too, especially when it's talk we're talking about, you know, fertility, nutrition, and preparing for a baby. There can be a lot of guilt with food. And I think that's also challenging. So just have compassion for yourself and, you know, give yourself a break and just do do what you can. So emmamma: Yeah. that I think that's so good. And I think like as you kinda had mentioned earlier, like even some small changes can make a big impact. So like doing some of it because that's like all you can do right now is still gonna help in some ways. And you can continue to add more. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, it can't hurt. emmamma: Yeah, right, right. and and have that be beneficial overall. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. emmamma: Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks so much. I know we talked a about a lot of different things and I'm sure we could keep talking for hours and hours on end, but where can people connect with you and learn more about your work? Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, so I am mostly on in terms of social media, Instagram. I'm at Jillian Beck Rogers underscore health. I would say that I try to post in there every week, but I haven't been as consistent. But I'm definitely on there, so come say hi. tell me that you, you know, found me here on the podcast. I also have a free lowering inflammation for fertility checklist if you want like a place to start or you just want to check something out. you can find that also on my Instagram profile. and yeah, just come say hi on Instagram. emmamma: Sounds good. Awesome. I'll put that the link to your Instagram and the the link to the guide in there for too for people to in the show notes that they can find you. thanks so much for being here. I appreciate your Jillian Beck-Rogers: Mm-hmm. Yeah. emmamma: time and all your expertise and just having this conversation. Jillian Beck-Rogers: Yeah, I love having this chat with you. Again, I could it could go on forever. So But yeah, thank you for having me. emmamma: Absolutely. Emmamma: Thanks so much for being here today on the cyclical doula podcast. If this episode resonated with you, the most powerful thing that you can do is to share it, send it to a friend, text it to your sister, forward it to that group chat. This is how conversations about our bodies start changing, quietly, organically, woman to woman. If you are listening and thinking, okay, I want help applying this to my cycle, I offer free cycle clarity calls. It's a relaxed conversation over Zoom where we talk through your goals, your charting practices, and what kind of support that would actually make sense for you. You can book one at emmamma.com / free. And if you haven't already, make sure you're following or subscribe to the Cyclical Doula - podcast so that you don't miss future episodes. And if you feel called to leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps more women find this work. So thank you. You deserve to understand your body. You deserve to feel confident in your reproductive choices. And you don't have to figure it out alone. I'll see you next week. Thanks for being here.