The gut health  plays a very important role in your health by helping control digestion and benefiting your immune system and many other aspects of health. An imbalance of unhealthy and healthy microbes in the intestines may contribute to weight gain, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and other disorders

Facts:

95% of your serotonin (the happy hormone) is manufactured in your digestive system.

80% of your immune system is manufactured in your digestive system.

The focus in this blog is on strengthening this part of your body, the gateway to your health. You’ll boost your immune system, lose weight with ease, and feel less bloated, uncover hidden food allergies, and, most of all, digest and assimilate with ease, which means looking and feeling fabulous!

1. Slow Down:

Rushing to eat in order to squeeze in an errand, meet a deadline, and get to an appointment is pointless. If you want your digestive system to heal, you need to slow down. Start the process with your eating. Stop and actually sit down when you eat. Your body needs you to be calm to actually digest. If you’re nervous, your digestive system is in “fight or flight” mode. The digestive system can’t work properly when it’s stressed. Digestion is about transforming your food into fuel.

When we get stressed, tired, or even nervous, our digestion doesn’t function properly, and certainly not optimally. It’s so important to slow down so you can have more energy, and avoid indigestion, bloating, acid reflux, and gas.

Before you eat, try and remember to take a deep breath. Be grateful for the food you’re about to eat, and also check in with your own body. Try and focus on being present in the moment and fully aware.

Don’t shove the food in your mouth as you’re running out the door or eat while standing at the counter as we’ve all done, myself included, more times than I care to remember. Be mindful.

Try this amazing exercise I learned during my time at nutrition school to develop your awareness and start to slow down.

• Sit in a relaxed, comfortable position. Breathe through your nose, and notice how the air is slightly cooler going in and slightly warmer going out.
• Place one hand over your heart and one hand over your belly.
• Feel your heart beating, and thank your heart for being there for you all day every day, pumping your blood and keeping you alive.
• Feel your belly, noticing the rise on the inhale and the fall on the exhale.
• Thank your belly for digesting all the food you eat.
• Sit silently with your eyes closed, and allow yourself to be completely present.
• When you feel ready, take a deep inhale and exhale, open your eyes, rise, and move back into your day.

AND REMEMBER: the calmer you are, the better you’ll digest your food. Ironically, slowing down means a FASTER metabolism, and that leads directly to more weight-loss.

2. Chew, Chew, Chew!

Digestion begins in your mouth. Remember when you were little and your mother would tell you slow down and chew your food so that you wouldn’t choke? That always annoyed me as a child, but she was making a great point.

When you don’t chew your food well, it sets the stage for poor digestion. Poor digestion opens the door to let in the unwanted: weight gain, acne, poor sleep, hormonal issues, adrenal fatigue, constipation, IBS, low sex drive, mood swings, and food allergies, to name a few. Serious health issues are not far behind. Most importantly, when you don’t digest properly your body can’t transform your food into energy.

3. Check out!

Yes, you heard me. Put down the phone, blackberry, and iPad. Turn off the TV, sit down, and just enjoy the activity of eating. Give yourself some quiet time so you can de-stress and digest! I know life gets busy. I’m a full time mom, business owner, wife, athlete, and health coach. I get it. I know what it’s like to be busy, constantly planning ahead for the next moment.

But living, and eating this way is causing you to be missing the present moment, and to be present is a true gift. If I don’t give myself a little “check out time”, I get tired, moody, gain weight, feel depressed, and have poor digestion.

Why? It’s so simple: when the body is stressed, it can’t digest, function properly, effectively transform food into energy, or perform all of its other jobs and metabolic processes.

Digestion is not just about digesting the food on your plate. It is also about digesting the life you live.

Start by taking just one minute out of your day to breathe and think of anything that makes you happy.

4. Get cultured!

Start adding a good quality probiotic to your daily routine. Incorporating cultured foods and drinks to your life, such as yogurt, miso, dairy or non-dairy kefir, kombucha, cultured vegetables, and other cultured foods are a great way to improve digestion and overall health. These foods have been around for centuries.

By adding these foods or another high-quality probiotic to your lifestyle, you will lose weight, assimilate your nutrients better, have clearer skin, better sleep, and decrease your body’s inflammation. The Greek meaning of probiotic is ‘for life’. So, give yourself the gift of a healthy life and get cultured.

By decreasing inflammation, you prevent disease.

By decreasing inflammation,  you lose weight.

Remember…

95% of your serotonin (the happy hormone)
is manufactured in your digestive system.

80% of your immune system is located in your digestive system.

Healthy digestion is the key to your happiness and your health!

5. Stay Hydrated!

Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water. I like to add flavor to my water so I don’t get bored. This not only makes it tasty, but also enhances digestion if you choose the right additions. My favorites are fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, cranberry concentrate, ginger slices, grapefruit, and fresh mint leaves.

You just learned how to add more energy to your life in 5 simple steps!

The Power of Food & Digestion

In order to lose weight, look fabulous, and feel amazing, we need to eat the “right foods”. Yes, you actually need to eat more to lose weight. But finding the “right” type of more is key. Your body needs food for fuel, but it also needs that food to be the right fuel for your unique body.

In my practice, I focus on helping you find the foods that either serve as fuel for the body or create inflammation in the body. When you eat inflammatory foods, you may experience bloating, acid reflux, headaches, sinus issues, weight gain, arthritis, skin problems, and disease, to name a few. I’m in the business of disease prevention and finding the right foods will help you do just that.

Here is a recipe for an alkalizing drink to drink on the morning:

Upon waking, drink a Lemon Elixir

2 cups warm or room temperature water

Juice from 1 lemon

1 Tablespoon Bragg’s raw apple cider vinegar

Pinch of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon raw honey OR a couple drops of stevia

(use stevia if you are on a yeast cleansing diet or low sugar diet)

Stimulates digestion, releases toxins from the liver, and jumpstarts your digestive enzymes

Before bed, drink a Chlorophyll Drink to alkalize

1 Tablespoon chlorophyll in 12 ounces of water

Juice from 1 lemon

In my own life, I’ve come to love anti-inflammatory foods because I want to feel good. I eat chlorophyll rich foods daily. You may be wondering what chlorophyll is and why I’ve been sneaking this amazing superfood into my children’s drinks since they were born.

Chlorophyll is an amazing cleanser, blood nourisher, detoxifier, and a superfood. Chlorophyll can actually build red blood cells, remove heavy metals from the body, eliminate bad breath, and improve digestion. In addition, it’s a prebiotic, because it creates the proper garden in your belly for good bacteria to thrive.

Chlorophyll is found in all leafy greens, but my favorites include kale, collard greens, parsley, cilantro, and spinach. I juice daily, which has been amazing for healing my own digestion and personal health problems. My clients experience drastic improvements in energy when they starting incorporation Chlorophyll rich juices and foods in their diet.

If you are ready to make some changes in your digestive life take my 8-Week Restore Your Gut Program!

In Health,

Angie