Realistic ways of how to actually fit it in your life!
We type in Google or ask Chat GPT ‘How to heal your gut health’ and we see the same information come up all the time. By now, I’m sure many of you may be familiar with the foods we should be eating or the lifestyle changes we have to make, but the question we struggled with the most is, how? How do I actually make the change, or fit things in to my already very busy life. I know many of us mums struggle with having any time to ourselves daily.
Over the years, I have watched many YouTube videos to try to find answers. It was exhausting living with my gut health issues. It affected my everyday life in many different ways- my energy levels, disturbed sleep, everyday bloating and gas. I have been living such a busy life, working and looking after my family, I just kept ignoring the poor health my gut was in. I had fallen into a trap of bad, daily habits and that had to change. I want you to know, it is possible to build new habits to improve our gut health, because if we don’t have our health, do we really have anything?
Our lifestyle patterns and the way we live are mainly down to our mind set and our choices. My journey to healing my gut has helped me learn so much about how powerful our mind is and that we can train our brain to achieving our desired goals/outcomes.
Below are 5 habits that will improve your gut health. So let’s get started today!
5 simple gut health tips (and how to make them happen!)
1. Sleep
Having a good night sleep allows the body to repair itself. It helps the gut maintain good bacteria and keeps the immune system strong.
How to:
Best way to tackle this is set yourself a bed time and aim for that time. When we don’t have a goal, we have nothing to work towards. Make sleep a priority now, because when we don’t get enough sleep our body doesn’t have enough time to rejuvenate properly, which increases stress levels, this then impacts the gut. When you get in bed, put that phone down (put it out of arms reach) and grab a book and read instead.
2. Hydration
Water helps to aid digestion, reduces constipation and reduces bloating. Not only that, but drinking also helps keep the skin hydrated.
How to:
A good way to start is as soon as you wake up, have a glass of water before you do anything. Get a 1 litre water bottle and tell yourself, you have to drink 2 of those a day. Take it to work to make sure you are staying hydrated all day.
3. Cutting down on sugar
Sugar causes inflammation that leads to digestive issues, promoting growth of harmful bacteria and destroying the good ones we have in the gut. Sugar is also bad for your teeth, skin and so much more.
How to:
Start with cutting down on refined sugars, and be careful not to consume too much natural sugars (even though they are healthier), as too much natural sugars can cause harm to your gut too (remember, everything in moderation!). The best way to combat this is- don’t buy any of the biscuits, cakes, and chocolates you like. For me, not having them in the cupboard has helped so much! If you don’t see it, you won’t eat it. Every now and then is ok. I’m not saying, never have it and that you should cut it out of your life (now we all know that is not realistic at all) but keep it just for those odd occasions. We are trying to help the gut here and sugar is really, not helping. Instead, eat dates to help with sweet craving (only have 2 though!) or a piece of fruit. Herbal tea is great too. Honestly, after a while of not eating so much refined sugars, you really do crave it less.
4. Movement
After a meal, walking really helps to aid with digestion. It helps to move gas along the digestive tract, moving things along more quickly which reduces discomfort. This is a ritual in many parts of the world- like Italy, Germany and Japan.
How to:
If you live in a cold, wet country like the UK- you probably won’t really want to pop out. Instead, you can walk around the house for about 5 mins, do some stretching or play with the kids. I actually noticed that when I go on holidays, I am hardly ever bloated and that is because we pretty much walk and explore after meal times.
5. Stress
Now, hear me out mums. I know this is the hardest one to work on because come on, how could we avoid stress when we are working, have kids to look after, endless chores and trying to keep healthy! The list of things we do is endless. However, stress has a huge impact on our gut health so we must work on this one!
How to:
Try do a 5-10min yoga YouTube video (one of my favs, as you have something to follow and so many options to fit your ability and time constraints, so no excuse). You don’t need a lot of time, even just 5 mins on your own practising deep breathing- really helps too (lowers your cortisol levels). Make time just for yourself daily- take yourself away from everyone, just you. Start with just 10 mins a day, which we all definitely do have spare and before you know it, you would have built up a habit of making time for yourself.
You really don’t need a big budget to heal/improve your gut health, these basic but very important 5 tips play a huge part in maintaining your gut health.