Bloating? Cravings? Headaches? Fatigue? Skin Trouble? 

How’s your gut health? 

Keeping our gut healthy is so vital to our overall health and well being. Our gut contains trillions of live & active bacteria. 

Think of it like a garden, if you feed it and treat it well you’ll reap the benefits, but if you neglect it and don’t feed it well, it can become overgrown and filled with weeds. 

Food sensitivities, gas, bloating, fatigue, and high cravings can be a sign that your helpful good bacteria is low in your gut, and bad bacteria may be high. 

I know I talk a lot about creating a calorie deficit for weight loss, but it’s so important, we ALSO prioritize the quality of our foods to create that deficit and this is one of the main reasons why. We want to keep our body healthy and make the weight loss sustainable. When your body feels good and is functioning as it should, it will be a whole lot easier to sustain your progress. 

So how do you create a healthy gut? Consider adding in a variety of the following so that you can ‘crowd out’ the not so great choices that will keep your bad bacteria thriving. 

Foods to Add:  

• Fermented Dairy – Greek Yogurt – Kefir
• Fermented Foods – Tempeh – Kraut – Miso (be sure they aren’t heat treated or pasteurized)
• Fruits: some great ones are cherries, grapes, berries, apples, citrus, and bananas
• Vegetables: some great ones are onions, mushrooms, asparagus, leeks, jicama, plantains
• Nuts and Legumes like lentils, almonds, cashews, and pistachios
• Whole grains: some great ones are oats, quinoa, and wild rice
• Teas: licorice root, fennel, slippery elm, marshmallow root, matcha
• Herbs & Spices: some great ones are parsley, thyme, celery, peppermint, cloves, and turmeric, ginger
• Cacao
• Coconut
• Seeds: Some great ones are flax, hemp, pumpkin, and chia

Something to keep in mind too is DIVERSITY – the more variety you get in your diet, the more likely you are to fit the needs of all your bacteria. 

Foods to Limit:  

• Try to limit your use of artificial sweeteners like sucralose, acesulfame potassium, aspartame. This doesn’t mean you have to give them up completely but if you’re having sugar free EVERYTHING it might be a good idea to find some healthier swaps
• Processed and Refined foods. Between the preservatives, salt, sugar, etc.. these aren’t great for our health AND they feed the bad bacteria in your gut
• Alcohol
• Red meat. You don’t need to cut it out completely, but just be mindful of how often you’re consuming it
• Soy: most soy products are heavily processed and genetically modified. Try to limit processed soy as much as possible. This tends to sneak into things like protein powders & bars, plant based meat replacements and so much more 
• Inflammatory vegetable oils like canola, safflower, soybean, cottonseed, and sunflower oils.

Do you tend to struggle with things like bloating, acne, fatigue, cravings? 

P.S. I’ve 4 week gut protocol coming for you in early 2022 complete with low impact workouts. 

Is that something that would interest you?