It all starts and ends in the gut; it doesn’t matter if you are counting your calories or your macros, training once a week or twice a day, spending money on supplements you don’t need; unless your gut function is optimized, you are just spinning your wheels.
It’s not normal to have gas, bloating or digestive upset on a daily basis. I bet that nearly every one of you who are reading this would have one or more of the following on a regular basis:
Gas
Bloating
Constipation
Diarrhea
Stomach cramping
Recurring flu and colds
Skin conditions
Fatigue
Nausea
Vomiting
Depressive thoughts
Why should you care about your gut?
You are not what you eat; you are what you assimilate.
You can be eating and drinking the ‘perfect diet’, but if you don’t break down the food properly, you don’t get all of the nutrients.
If you are eating foods that cause an irritation in your gut then you will be inflamed – think of when you roll your ankle and it swells up, that’s inflammation – inflammation leads to fat storage, so if your goal is weight loss while you’re inflamed, good luck to you!
What can you do from here?
You have to remove whatever it is that is inflaming you – if your sink is overflowing do you stop the water from running of remove the plug?
Write down a list of symptoms you have on a weekly basis – you want to form a pattern or a trend that you can track or monitor
Keep a food diary and make notes of how these items make you feel
Avoid the common offenders – gluten, wheat and dairy (this won’t be the same for everyone, but it’s a good start)
Try to heal your gut – aloe Vera and glutamine work well
Once the item or items have been identified you have to remove them – avoid them for 3-6 months, reintroduce one at a time and whichever ones flare up your symptoms are the ones you will more than likely have to avoid for good.