Gut Healing Stage 2
During the first stage of my Gut Healing I did a 2 day bone broth fast. You can check out my post on what I did and how I felt.
The second stage of my Gut Healing consisted of 8 weeks of specific nutrition, supplementation and lifestyle changes. Here are the changes I made and how I felt during the process.
Elimination Diet: An elimination diet is when you remove common food allergies from you diet for a period of time and than reintroduce them one at a time to see how your body reacts to them. Food allergies and intolerances cause inflammation in the digestive system and this doesn’t allow the gut to heal. I had an intolerance to dairy, grains, legumes, gluten and eggs. For the first 2 weeks I removed all allergens and ate moderate-high grass-fed and pasture raised protein, high healthy fats with lots and lots of non-starchy vegetables. After 2 weeks I introduced eggs and was very happy to be able to eat eggs again. I can eat small amounts of grains and legumes but I choose to only eat them around once a week now. I can not eat gluten and dairy still. I still follow this same nutrition now because I feel great when I eat this way.
Circadian Rhythm: Our bodies have a circadian rhythm or internal clock and this clock tells us when to be awake, when to eat, when to exercise and when to sleep. Our natural rhythm is to wake with the sun, breakfast at 7-8am, lunch at 12-1pm, dinner at 6pm, sleep when the sun goes down. In today’s society our circadian rhythm is all messed up due to improper sun exposure and too much exposure to blue lights from electronics at the wrong times. During the gut healing I woke up each morning between 6-7am, went and stared at the morning sun to tell my body its time to be awake, I ate on schedule, I exercised in the late afternoon around 4-5pm, put my blue blocker glasses on when the sun went down and was in bed around 8-9 pm. Setting our circadian rhythm to where it naturally should be allows our body to function optimally and facilitate healing.
Sun exposure: The sun is like our natural energy charger. When we are exposed to full spectrum sun light at the right times without sunglasses, glasses, contacts or sun block. The morning red orange light tells our bodies to be awake, the afternoon sun gives us full spectrum UVA and UVB blue light and tells our bodies its afternoon and we need energy to do physical activity. When the sun goes down we used to go to bed at this time but with modern times we are exposing ourselves to artificial blue lights which tells our brains its midday and time to be awake. After dinner we would go for a walk and get evening sun light and than put on blue blocker glasses.
Exercise: Proper exercise and timing is vital to a healthy body and gut. Before 12pm is when you should do light movements like walking, stretching and yoga, during the afternoon around 4-5pm is when you do heavier workouts like resistance training. I made sure after each meal I went for at least a 10 min walk than in the afternoon I would do my resistance training. Resistance training helps build and maintain muscle mass, flush your lymphatic system, and aid in digestion.
Mental Health: Our mental state have a huge impact on our health. We can eat all the broccoli in the world but if we have a negative mindset and poor relationships and think things like “I will never get better” than you will never get better. . During this time I started a meditation practice in the morning before getting out of bed to start my day with positivity and gratitude, I stayed away from negative social media and encouraged myself in my healing process.
Supplementation: During this part of the process its best to use certain supplements to aid in the healing and detoxification process. I used specific supplements from my doctor to aid in parasite removal, my bodies ph, and gut healing and cultivating a diverse microbiome. Yes you can do this without but you need to eat a lot of certain foods and the process takes a lot longer. These specific supplements made the healing process so much better and faster.
When I started this journey I was tired of feeling shitty and tired and I just wanted to have energy, eat without experiencing pain and fix my hormones. Healing my gut was a major step forward in my health, my lifestyle and my journey towards getting pregnant. When my clients ask about my process and if it was worth doing I always say “It was the best thing I ever did for myself.”
Thank you for following my journey. Please leave a comment and share with your friends and family.
