The Connection between Gut Health & Results?

The Gut Health & Results Connection

Does Gut Health affects your Results?
Short answer is YES!!
Many people struggle with reaching their health goals & they don’t address an underlying reason why they aren’t. losing weight, not gaining strength, have cravings etc…

The Microbiome, located in our large intestine/colon, is known as the “Second Brain” and is the home of billions of organisms and bacteria.
Did you know? We have more bacteria in our gut microbiome than we do DNA cells!

The “Gut Microbiome” is considered our “second brain” because it affects:
Hormone & Neurotransmitter production
Mood Regulation
Digestion, Breakdown & Absorption of Nutrients
Influences our cravings, hunger & fullness levels

How does this affect your fitness results?
No matter what your fitness or physique goal is, your HORMONES play a huge role!

Our stress levels, food choices, chemical exposure are among the few things that can disrupt our gut microbiome.

An unhappy gut = unhappy hormones & elevated inflammation. Inflammation & Unhappy hormones = lack of progress & results (plus, you just won’t FEEL or FUNCTION well either!)

When your gut and body are stressed & inflamed, it halts fat burning, muscle growth or recovery & can hinder performance, increase mood swings (this means PMS ladies!) and leave you frustrated, because you’re doing all the right things, but your BODY internally is not healthy.

So when you want changes on the EXTERIOR, you must focus on improving your INTERNAL health. A healthy gut means a better, fitter more happier you!

Improved Gut Health can bring:
Increased Energy
Improved workouts
Decrease in digestive issues
Improved fat-loss progress
Better recovery & muscle growth

So how do we nurture our gut health?! We build a healthy Microbiome with:

FIRST: Reducing inflammation within the gut, that are caused by infections, overgrowth of bad bacteria, but also triggers like stress, poor food and environmental toxins
THEN: Using a comprehensive plan to nurture good gut balance

5 Ways to Improve your Digestion and Gut Health

There are MANY things to consider with gut health (definitely should be comprehensive and personalized!)

But here are 5 places to start:

1. Use a Functional Medicine approach: look to see your individual root causes and issues to why you’re having issues to begin with
2. Remove Trigger foods: top ones include gluten, dairy, artificial ingredients, sugars & vegetable oils. These can lead to gut imbalances and wreck the lining of the gut wall!
3. Drink water: Aim for at least of your bodyweight in ounces per day.
4. Eat fiber: get yours from real food sources like vegetables, flax & chia, berries, lentils & beans. Fiber provide prebiotics (nourishment for our gut) help move digestion along, provide satiety and more.
5. Mindful Eating: this includes slowing down, chewing your food, deep breathing & being in a relaxed state (before & during) eating. This puts us in the parasympathetic state of the nervous system, crucial to allow us to digest our food!

*Not mentioned but can also be helpful are personalized supplements, like probiotics, digestive enzymes or bitters*

If you want to learn more about Gut Health, go ahead and check out this:

Leaky Gut Symptoms & Triggers