The first generation of children born almost entirely of conscious decisions, not accidents

Two generations ago, most pregnancies simply happened. Today, they are decided.

The age, the timing, and sometimes even the month are chosen.

And that brings up a question almost no one asks: if I decide when, I am also deciding the state of my body when it all begins.

In the winter of 1944, parts of the Netherlands spent months on minimal rations.

Six decades later, researchers analyzed the DNA of people conceived during the famine and compared it with that of their same-sex siblings who were not subjected to it.

Those conceived during the famine had less methylation in a gene related to growth. Those exposed only at the end of the pregnancy did not. The paper is published here.

It is a small, observational study that measured a single marker on a single gene. It shows association, not causation, and does not prove that this marker causes disease.

But it points to something worth keeping in mind: the window around conception seems more sensitive to the environment than later stages of pregnancy.

The study only measured extreme hunger. It says nothing about weight, alcohol, tobacco, or sleep. That they leave a similar mark is a reasonable hypothesis, not a proven fact.

It also did not separate the role of the father. Even so, it takes about three months for a sperm to form: the window belongs to both.

My way of looking at it: the months prior to conception deserve the same treatment as a training block. Preparation, not improvisation.

Your 1% improvement for today.

If having children is in your plans for the coming year, write down three things in your lifestyle that you would not want active the month of conception. Start with one.

This is what I cover in the workshop: In the workshop, I work with you on those three months prior to conception as a training block: what to remove, what to sustain, and in what order.

Remember that I am now selling only ONE access to the workshop per day.

The price is set by a Dutch auction.

It goes down throughout the day.

→ See the current price of the workshop