Tropical Fertility Smoothie: Kickoff the Two-Week-Wait

I’ve blogged about this before: Rumor has it pineapple aids in implantation because of the heavy concentration of bromelain within the core of the fruit. It’s said that bromelain makes your uterus more sticky and receptive to a fertilized embryo – that it increases cervical mucus, which can in turn promote implantation. There isn’t a ton of evidence to support this, but a lot of ladies in the infertility community swear it helped them, so it can’t hurt to try, right? After all, pineapple is good for you and is so delicious when fresh. The hard part is making yourself consume the core. Ick.

Late last year when I was going through infertility treatment, I was attempting to eat pineapple core from 1-5 DPO and it was horrible. You’re supposed to take one whole, fresh pineapple and cut it into five sections so you can consume it during the five days after ovulation – the meat AND the core. However, the core is so stringy and tough, I wanted to vomit just trying to shove it down. And I LOVE pineapple… but the core was just, ugh. No thank you. Some ladies don’t have any trouble with this, but I really struggled… big time.

So I decided to try something new, and while it’s said that you should try to consume only warm things after ovulation to keep your uterus warm, it’s 90 degrees in the south right now. I do coffee in the morning, but I am not about to eat warm pineapple. No thank you. I figured the only way to convince myself that I can eat pineapple core is to freeze it and put it in smoothies. It’s warm enough outside for my uterus, I don’t think a cold smoothie is hurting my chances any more than anything else. That said, here is the smoothie recipe. This is a single-serve recipe that I whip up in my new Ninja!

Ingredients

1/5 of a fresh peeled pineapple, meat and core (frozen), cut into small chunks

1/2 banana, peeled and sliced (frozen)

3/4 cup vanilla almond milk (or other milk of choice), plus extra as needed

1 T coconut oil

2 T shredded unsweetened coconut

1 small handful of baby spinach

Blend it up, add some extra ice if it’s not cold enough for your liking, and enjoy! The point of this fertility smoothie is to encourage your body to be receptive to implantation, so it’s best to enjoy this every day during the five days after ovulating. What a tasty way to kickoff the two-week-wait!

A few notes…

-When I first made this and prepared my pineapple, each section was just cut in half. BAD IDEA. It was so hard to blend up, ya’ll. This is what I recommend: when you slice the pineapple into five portions, cut up each portion into small chunks, especially the core. Store each cut-up section into a separate small ziplock baggie so it’s easy to grab and blend. This would also be a good time to add the sliced banana into the same baggie. Starter smoothie packs. 😉

-I use banana because one contains 25% of your daily value of vitamin B6, which apparently also increases cervical mucus to aid in implantation. B6 is tied with increasing fertility. Like pineapple, the increased chance of implantation is not 100% proven, but it can’t hurt to pair these together, right? (read more here) Plus, it’s a natural sweetener. I buy an entire bunch of bananas dedicated to smoothies, then go ahead and peel them all, break into smaller chunks and freeze.

-I personally use almond milk because it has some protein in it and doesn’t mess with hormones the way soy milk does. Plus, I’m personally sensitive to dairy so I limit it to cheese and yogurt, not milk. This would probably be really good with coconut water as well, I would just modify your other measurements to accommodate how watery it is.

-I add coconut oil because it promotes hormone balancing and supports adequate fat stores for pregnancy. This was something new to me in my research to create a smoothie recipe for hopeful implantation (read more here).

-The unsweetened coconut is optional, but I really like the texture added to the smoothie. I don’t really add it for any other specific reason.

-Baby spinach is highly recommended in any fertility diet! It’s loaded with iron, which is good for the blood, and as we all know, we need good, happy blood pumping to the uterus for implantation.

-Because I struggled so much with the frozen core due to my own absent mindedness, I blended the pineapple and almond milk first before adding anything else. I also found I’d end up needing extra almond milk because this would blend too thick. Play with the measurements, starting small and work your way up to the smoothie consistency you prefer.

That’s it, friends! I really enjoy this smoothie and I hope you do, too. Please let me know if you try it and if you have any suggestions for modifications. There are so many options out there, this is just one way to sneak in that pesky pineapple core. 😉