How To Keep Your Gut Healthy & Happy

We all know how uncomfortable it feels to be bloated, getting stomach-cramps, being gassy and just feeling flat – my gut is pretty terrible, so if you’re a sufferer, too, I feel your pain!

Very often, these symptoms originate when your gut is out-of-whack and in particular when the good gut microbiome is lacking, leaving you feeling sluggish and tired.

Many spiritual teachers believe that our gut is the foundation for our human-life, and that all emotions, all decisions, all feelings and intuitions originate from this sacred space in our bodies.. This also means that if your gut is a little troubled, perhaps that’s reflecting in your life and, in particular, your relationships?

Good news is that there are steps and methods you can incorporate into your diet and life that’ll help you combat bad gut-health and help get you back on track, even during the Christmas period where heavy food (and lots of it!) is the norm rather than the exception.

Here are my top tips & tricks to good Gut Health:

1. Start your day with a shot of raw apple-cider vinegar (or dilute it with warm water if your gut is uber sensitive)

2. Add in supplements (just mix with water) like The Beauty Chef’s Glow Powder and The Super Elixir Super Greens – both contain lots of highly nutritional ingredients that will support your belly, but also your skin, hair, nails and basically the entire function of your entire body.

3. Buy a good brand of enzymes and sprinkle it on or swallow one before your meals, to help digest better. You can get all natural one’s from the health-food store, but make sure they’re of good quality.

4. Try to eat more steamed or stir-fried veggies as raw vegetables can often be very hard on our digestive system, resulting in being bloated, when all you’ve done is nurturing your body with the right foods.

5. Don’t be afraid of grains (carbs) as they contain fibre that’ll help your body pass through the food quicker. We all need fibre, and a lot of us don’t nearly get enough. Try to opt for things like buckwheat, brown or black rice and quinoa.

6. Limit gluten, dairy and animal protein as it can also take its toll on the digestive system. Animal protein is incredibly hard to break down for your body – try to eat eggs or a bit of fish if you need some protein. Swap milk for a nut-based milk instead like macadamia, coconut or almond-milk, but make sure it’s unsweetened.

7. Add in herbs to your food and tea; fennel, turmeric, ginger & slippery elm are fantastic for soothing the tummy and helping to digest the foods we eat. Drink tea’s like herbal teas, peppermint, sleep tea (from The Beauty Chef or The Super Elixir)

8. When you’re eating out make sure you choose a healthy and varied meal that contains grains, vegetables and a protein to keep your tummy healthy. THR1VE has a ‘GUT HEALTH BOWL’ all of December which makes your life easy. It even comes with a Perkii Probiotic drink to further support your gut health.

9. Eat good fats like coconut oil, avocado, hemp seed oil, hemp seeds and soaked nuts. Soaking your nuts is very important to further alkalise them so that your body can digest them easier. All you have to do is soak your nuts overnight in water (preferably filtered water), and then drain them the next day, spread them out over a tray and let them dry.

10. Drink lots of water and minimise carbonated & sugary drinks. This may sound straightforward, but it may be best to even avoid coconut-water as they’re often high in sugar. Drink filtered water to flush through, preferably with some fresh lemon-slices in there for detoxification.

11. Keep moving your body but maybe not the way you think. You don’t have to be running or do heavy-impact training, a simple yin-session or a slow yoga-flow that helps detoxify your liver & kidney by twisting, or a long walk to help your metabolism wake-up after eating are all things that we all can easily do.

These are all the things I use in my daily routines, and that I have come to love dearly, because they WORK – I hope you can draw some inspiration from my tips and tricks.

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