Today I'm interviewing my friend Ellen about why and how she prioritized her physical and mental health before she ever wanted to get pregnant.

By the time she was in her 30s she was heavily addicted to sugar and to American standards she was considered healthy, but she didn't feel healthy. She used some gut health supplements and was able to kick her sugar addiction and soda habit. While also losing weight along the way. When her gut got healthier she noticed she was a happier more positive attitude in herself.

This breakthrough in her health lead her to have a desire to become a mom. Her advise to anyone out there who also isn't sure they want to be a mom because they don't feel healthy physically or mentally: Keep it simple and start with one thing at a time, stacking on more healthy habits at a time. And if you don't feel worthy to take care of yourself, know that is a lie. You are worthy of taking care of you so that you can feel and be your best health. And if your budget is the reason you think you can't, then she encourages you to look at your budget and write it all out and see where you could scrub the budget and do some things less to make room in the budget. Because it's all about priorities and what's important to you. She's a 37 year old first time mom and it's important to her to be able to run and play and chase after her little girl.

If you really believe that God wants you to be at home with your baby and yet you need help with your health too, have faith that He will provide a way. This is the power of prayer.

Ellen saw the value in her habits that were leading down a not so great path and she decided the change had to start with her. Her one regret once she became pregnant was that she didn't continue her chiropractic care throughout her pregnancy. She said just like some people think when they start gut health supplements and start to feel better that they don't need them anymore, that's what she did with the chiropractic care. Her back had been healed but she didn't continue the care and ended up with a horrible back injury at 38 weeks pregnant.

She also thinks her labor would have been a lot better if she had continued the chiropractic care.

We talk about things that we have discovered since having kids, and how it has changed so much for how we do things. No judgment here of course, just encouragement to strip up curiosity to look at what your habits are and what you could do different. Start simple and pick one thing to start with in making changes with your family and their food to better their health. And preparing yourself for it to be trying but you can do it mama! It might suck at the beginning but if you stick with it, you'll see so many better things and a whole new life. You and your child deserve that!

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