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3 things that trash your gut (and what you can do about it)
Hello friends!
I’m sitting on my hotel patio in sunny California this morning getting ready to attend the Mindshare Collaborate summit! I had some down time before everything gets rolling and wanted to share a few things that get our tummies into trouble and of course….what the heck we can do about it!
Almost all of my personal clients have SOME sort of gut distress whether it be bloating, constipation, stomach pain or acid reflux. Below are just a few things to consider when experiencing some of these problems!
Stress
YES STRESS!!! I put this point first because of ALL the things we want to address, stress is the one that we most want to overlook. We are busy, we live in a world where we want to go go go, drink all the coffee, and accomplish all the things….but stress is really the underlying problem that contributes to the development of disease, but also our seeming inability to heal once we experience symptoms….
Poor food choices
Well, obviously, you knew that I couldn’t mention tummy troubles without mentioning food. I promote #YOUtrition which means there is no one right diet that works for everyone HOWEVER there is ONE food I get hard core with my clients on and insists that they eliminate 100% and that is wheat/gluten.
The overarching principles that work for everyone are:
Avoid gluten like it’s the plague (it’s soaked in glyphosate which kills your beneficial gut bugs and gluten is inflammatory)
Avoid processed foods as much as possible and when needing something quick, choose foods that technically could be made at home if you had the time or inclination ( always read labels to determine this!)
Limit sugar intake. This might be the hardest right?! 3 things you could incorporate right away that make a big difference:
Stop drinking soda ( and don’t switch to diet)
Stop drinking latte’s and drink black coffee (I like Foursigmatic) or cold brew with a splash of vanilla almond or coconut milk
don’t have sugar in your house. Ever. ( This way if you are going out to eat and want a gf dessert you don’t stress about the sugar - it’s treat! But you also don’t have a bag full of white sugar at home just waiting to be used.
Overuse of Antibiotics, NSAIDS and pharmaceuticals
There is a time and place for all of these, but they are grossly overused in a culture where we seek a quick fix and a pill for every ill instead of putting the time and extra effort in to live a healthy lifestyle, get to the underlying problems causing the symptoms we want to relieve, and prioritize nutritional density like our lives depend on it (which they do by the way) :)
So what can you do about it?
Well, LIMITING your stress, ditching gluten sugar, and processed foods, and being mindful anytime you need to use prescription or over the counter symptoms reliever.
If your’e reading this then chances are you’ve been exposed to gluten, sugar, stress and prescriptions so I want to dig a little deeper into a few more things you can incorporate right away
Probiotics
I encourage everyone to use a quality spore based probiotic like Megaspore! Thats my favorite, and if you would like a recommendation, just shoot me your email and I’m happy to set yup an account for you! After stress, and, well, LIFE, it’s important to make sure we are refueling our guts with the good guys.
I also encourage you to begin incorporating probiotic rich foods like kimchi and sauerkraut on a regular basis! YUM. I love some good sauerkraut next to my meat and veggies!
Soothe and Repair
Beyond feeding our guts the good stuff, we want to make sure that the damaged caused from all our past bad habits (hello Mountain Dew and Oreos!) are healed - a great supplements like GI Repair from Innate response is filled with soothing herbs like marshmallow root, aloe, slipper elm, and include L-Glutamine which helps the cells in your gut lining repair themselves!
Bring in the JOY
Stress relief is about so much more than just becoming ZEN and getting into yoga, meditation and mindfulness. It’s a bout BALANCE which means you also need to create a life you live and include things that make you joyful and happy. Laugh more - spend time with friends, watch silly movies, take a hike and connect to nature, and walk barefoot outside!
What tips have you found helpful? I’d love to hear below! Share this post with a friend you think might find this useful!
When "normal" simply isn't....
How many of you have ever been to the doctor only to be told "The tests say nothing is wrong with you." or, "It's all in your head" or, "there's nothing I can do for you....it sounds like you need an anti-depressant?"
More than likely if you have struggled with extreme fatigue, hormone issues, anxiety, inflammation, headaches, joint pain, or any number of other chronic but not life threatening (well immediately anyway) illnesses you are probably frustrated by similar responses from your physician. You've probably tried several doctors, taken lots of blood tests, and are sick of hearing the tests are "normal". Maybe you have even begun to believe there is nothing you can do to feel better!
I was talking to a client about this earlier, which led to me thinking about this blog post, and then I received an e-mail from my subscription to Mark Sisson's Daily Apple regarding a similar topic - you can read his blog post here. It's cosmic!
To learn more about my journey click HERE
As I go on, I don't want you to misunderstand me, I LOVE doctors. They are skilled and educated people who save lives. Heck, a few weeks ago they saved my finger and thanks to their fast, kind, and careful work pretty soon you may not be able to tell that I caught it in a blender! They have a skill set that is very specific and that is to SAVE your life. Not necessarily to make sure you have an OPTIMAL one in the meantime.
So WHY when you are feeling so bad do your tests come back "normal"? (if they are even willing to give you tests at all. When I asked my doctor in 2015 about testing my hormones she said i didn't need to as long as i was getting my periods regularly....). Simply put if you were able to get tested and you feel like crap but your numbers were "normal" it's because clinical ranges are very broad. And again, doctors are looking for something that is life threatening. Which is FINE - that's why they are there.....
But there is a whole segment of the population that needs MORE. Like me. I knew that I needed hormone support. I knew that something was wrong. I know my body and I know myself and when I feel lethargic, unmotivated, unable to handle stress and TIRED ALL THE TIME, i knew that wasn't "normal".
Through nutrition I have already come REALLY far! I went for YEARS with painful monthly cramping to the point where I would be on the floor in total agony just WAITING for it to go away. I couldn't function and the pain was unbearable. Thankfully it happened frequently and consistently enough that I knew it WOULD go away within a few hours, but it was difficult to take in the meantime.
Subscribe to my Youtube VLOG here documenting my FDN journey to better hormones!
There was also a time I had severe stomach pains - different than the cramps but similar in the amount of pain. I would double over not understanding where they came from - was it an ulcer? What was happening? At the time I thought "well soda is super acidic maybe thats the problem?" So I gave it up for a really long time and sure enough that helped!
Eventually, through a healthier diet and lifestyle both of these issues went away completely. Unfortunately, due to all the years of BAD nutrition AND stress, I still have residual things to heal from and right now my main focus is on healing my hormones and restoring them to optimal, healthy levels. While nutrition has helped TREMENDOUSLY ( I cannot underscore that enough and will come back to it later!) there is extra support needed!
Through the process of searching, researching and learning the past few years.... I found FDN!
FDN stands for Functional Diagnostic Nutrition and when I graduate I will be an FDN-P (practitioner). So what's the difference? Yes FDN-P's still test. Test don't guess! BUT the ranges are very different. FDN test ranges are very small and based on OPTIMAL health. That way we can really see where you ARE, if it correlates to how you FEEL, how far we have to go, and what healing opportunities are available whether it be through organ detoxification, hormone support, digestive support and/or further testing!
One thing I love about the FDN approach is their DRESS for success™ approach. DRESS stands for: Diet, Rest, Exercise, Stress Reduction and Supplementation.
This approach fits into my personal view that you have to attack health issues from a whole world, whole body, whole lifestyle perspective....if you really want to see a long term change and NOT just treat the symptoms that is!
I won't be certified to test for a few more months. HOWEVER, you can always start on the Diet step TODAY! And I'm happy to help you with that. No matter where you are or what your goals are, nutrition is KEY and if you are using supplements or hormone support they simply will not be as effective if this step isn't already securely in place to support your system and help them do their job! You may even see some awesome results JUST from this step alone!
You might feel embarrassed to admit you feel tired all the time. Maybe your friends give you a hard time about it, maybe you have struggled over and over to lose weight but you just CAN'T. Or maybe you are just annoyed of hearing you're "normal" but you don't feel like that's the answer....let's chat :)
p.s. I'm going to leave this nifty picture here to get your wheels spinning about how much chaos stress in your life can cause in your physical body....AND (more importantly) the areas that you can support, detox and potentially heal through DRESS™!
p.p.s. Message me to chat about nutritional support, getting on my FDN waitlist, or simply chatting to see if working together is a good fit!
