Happy New Year!!
From Fertility Friday: Wishing you the very best as we embark on a brand new decade! I hope you were able to relax and enjoy the holidays!
With that said, the holidays are a time for family, relaxation, and food!
Most of us tend to indulge more over the holidays — myself included — and that makes January the perfect time to reset our sleep schedules, meal plans, and daily habits to ensure we have a great year of charting ahead of us!
It’s important to have a time of celebration each year, so if you’re giving yourself a hard time for enjoying holiday bakes, drinks, or other foods you typically don’t have as much … don’t!
Hopefully you savored each bite and fully enjoyed every moment.
Now let’s talk about what we can do to get back on track!
The two main aspects of successfully charting your cycles are:
1) Actually checking for cervical mucus and/or taking your temperature (every day), and
2) Either writing your observations down, or entering them into your favorite charting app (every day).
This is something you can do while you’re in the throws of crazy holiday mode, as well as each day to help you stay on track!
Here are a few strategies that will help you stay consistent with charting when your normal routine is disrupted by the holiday season or otherwise:
1) Firmly Establish the habit of checking for cervical mucus every day
If you’re new to charting, one of the biggest challenges is getting into the habit of checking your fertile signs each day! If you’re just starting out you’ll want to commit to checking your mucus every day for at least one full cycle. Just make yourself do it. If you continue to do something for at least 30 consecutive days you’ll form a new habit that you won’t have to think about anymore!
Since I’ve been charting for nearly 2 decades, checking for mucus is as routine as brushing my teeth … now … but it didn’t start out that way.
When you go to the bathroom check for mucus both before and after you go, and then make a mental note. Once you do this for long enough it will become a way of life. Pretty soon you won’t be able to go to the bathroom without noticing. Start by committing to one full week of checking and go from there!
2) Rely on cervical mucus when your temperatures are questionable
For those nights when my sleep is disrupted or my temperatures are questionable (for whatever reason) I always have a back up — cervical mucus!
This ties into the first point. When your temperatures are questionable due to the realities of travel, time zone changes, and all the things that come up on vacations (or life in general), have your cervical mucus observations to fall back on! That way you’ll still be able to interpret your charts in spite of any temperature related challenges! Practice identifying when your fertile window begins and ends (when you start seeing mucus and when it dries up), and that will help you on those days where your temps are questionable (or non-existent).
3) Establish the habit of recording your fertile signs before you go to sleep at night.
Whether you chart on paper or use charting apps, intentionally place your charts (or your phone) in a location that will signal you to record your observations at the end of each day. Whether its your night stand, your bathroom counter, your purse, or a recurring calendar notification — create a daily cue that will remind you to enter your observations.
After years of using different charting apps, I’ve officially switched back to paper charts. If you love paper charting as much as I do, you’ll love my Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Workbook! (Click here for details)
Make it the last thing you do before you put down your phone for the night or set an alarm to go off at the same time every night to remind you.
However you do it, you’ll be much more consistent if you find a way to make it into a habit — something you do every single night before you go to sleep.
So there you have it! The top 3 strategies I use to stay consistent with charting while I’m holiday mode.
Now I want to hear from you! How did you manage to stay on top of charting over the holidays? Let us know in our private Facebook Group.
Have a great weekend!
And as always, happy charting! 🙂
xox
Lisa
PS. Tune into this week’s podcast for a brand new on-air session with my client Kallie! We talk all about what it’s like using fertility awareness to avoid pregnancy after coming off the pill. Click here to tune in now!
PPS. I have 2 spots opening up in January for my Get Pregnant Naturally/Natural Birth Control 4-month one-on-one coaching programs! Click here for details.
PPPS. Registration is open for Fertility Awareness Mastery! There’s still one spot available for the evening time slot (8:30PM ET); and we’ve opened up a second class Tuesdays at 12:30PM ET. Click here to register now!