Erica Hoke shares three ways her infertility struggle shaped her life for the better: it pushed her toward major health and dietary changes, made her pay attention to genetics and supplements, and let her pass healthier habits to her children.
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Hello everyone! Well, I didn't make it at 8 o'clock, but it's not 9 o'clock, so there's that. So practice makes perfect, right? I hope to be coming to you live every day, Monday through Friday, closer to 8 AM than this, but we had a little, um, kid chaos, kid rodeo in our house this morning. And it's our anniversary also, it's our 15th wedding anniversary. So my husband and I were doing some reflecting this morning about where we will be in the next 15 years and also, gosh, I got a little tickle on my nose here, excuse me. And also, you know, just kind of taking stock, right? So this morning I'm gonna be talking to you about the top 3 reasons that we really believe that going through the infertility process— oh goodness, okay— is, um, has helped us and why it's going to help you for the rest of your life. So if you're liking my content and you're watching this somewhere other than YouTube, go to YouTube, search my first and last name. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and that bell so you go get notified when I go live. So the top 3 reasons that going through infertility helped us for the rest of our lives. So this is no small thing. We had to make major lifestyle changes. I especially, but also it trickled down to my husband, um, had to go through major lifestyle changes in the way that we ate, that we treated our bodies, learning about supplements and things like that. So all of that as older parents has helped us tremendously keep up with our kids. Frequently we'll see people out at amusement parks or the ball field that are literally young enough that they could be our kids struggling, meaning we could be grandparents to the kids that we have now because that's just the reality of how old we are, um, struggling to keep up with their kids. And we're like, dude, you don't even know, like, we're twice your age. And if we didn't do the things that we did to maintain our own personal health, we would not be able to keep up with the schedule that we keep for our kids. So it's really, um, it's really part of the blessing. And I was talking to a friend the other day And I'm going to have to read this quote to you, but we were just talking about, you know, a lot of times, whether it's an autoimmune disorder, whether it's infertility, whether just trials of any kind, right, that we go through, the things in our life that we feel burdened by and maybe even a little persecuted by are meant for us. All of our experiences are meant for us. God is not against us. God is for us. And so if you see your journey as persecution, you might just miss out on the full goodness of God, the blessing of what is, what is happening to you. And, you know, I realize that, that, that is a 20/20 perspective, and when you're going through it, it's really hard to sit in that, but I encourage you to do just that. Okay, so the second thing that is a big reason that infertility helps you— going through infertility and healing from infertility helps you for the rest of your life— is it really got us to dig into our genetics and got us to take a hard look at our genetics and, um, what we could do, what we had in control. Most disease— and you can Google this, don't take my word for it— but most disease is not a genetic predetermination. It is lifestyle and diet choices, like 80%. And so knowing your genetics though, and knowing what you're predisposed for also helps you make better choices, right? So you don't have to be, you don't have to go down that path if you know that if you can just reduce your sugar intake, that you will be healthier. If you can just, and reduce your inflammation, if you can take certain supplements because you have certain gene mutations that it's going to help you in the long run. So that is one of the ways that it has helped us a lot, and that ties into the third thing. So you guys, like, I'm able to help my kids so much better with their health and give them so much better of a foundation for their health by going through my infertility journey. Again, um, the diet changes that I made to get pregnant and to carry my babies have transitioned into us eating healthy as a family. We don't do any, we don't do any dyes, we don't do any corn syrup, we don't do any genetically modified food. And, and I'm not saying this as like, I'm perfect and look at me. I'm just saying we do our best and we struggle and we sacrifice to make eating clean a priority and teaching our kids to eat clean a priority. And so you're helping get pregnant, you're helping your body get pregnant, but you're also helping your baby from the very beginning and learning how to help your family, um, live a healthier lifestyle. Because if those things didn't matter, then people would not be getting pregnant after after they make those dramatic lifestyle changes. I have a couple stories in my Infertility Success book coming up, my collaboration, um, about women who, very similar to me, made, made the choice not to go through IVF. We couldn't do IVF, but they made the choice not to go through IVF, and they were able to, with diet and lifestyle change, clean their body and their reproductive system up enough to go ahead and get pregnant. So these are all, you know, lifelong things, lifelong gifts that have come from the infertility struggle. Keeping up with your kids, learning your genetics, and helping your family and your children live a healthier life from the very beginning. So that's it for me this morning. If you have questions, drop them in the comments, and I will see you tomorrow morning. Health and blessings to you. Bye-bye.
