Improving your gut health is one of the most effective ways to improve your hormones and, by extension, give yourself relief from many day-to-day disruptions. From weight gain to anxiety to joint pain to… sleep.
Yeah, sleep. 80% of serotonin is made in the gut. And serotonin regulates your sleep!
Because there are a bunch of ways to better gut health, let’s just focus on the three most important ones.
1st Way To Improve Gut Health: Cut back on inflammatory foods.
What are inflammatory foods? It’s the fake stuff. The fake stuff your body doesn’t recognize and is sensitive to.
For me, taking out these foods, was a gradual process. I didn’t do it cold turkey as many diet plans suggest. Can you see me, The Whole 30? No, I’m not that girl. I just lived my life and slowly cut back on inflammatory food.
The more I removed, the better I felt. And the better I felt, the more I was motivated to take additional triggers out of my diet.
You will need to do some testing and lots of trial and error. Trust me, there are healthy foods everyone says you should eat that are actually inflammatory for YOU.
A personal example would be quinoa. I enjoyed this “miracle grain” at least every other day until I realize it was destroying my gut!
2nd Way To Improve Gut Health: Reducing stress.
Engage every day in something that has the same impact as meditation. Something that falls into the category of pure joy that you’re doing for you. Where your brain goes elsewhere and you can’t even recall what it was you were stressed out about.
You’re not thinking about work at all! Emails can wait and notifications on your phone are taking a nap.
What does this meditation look like for you?
- Spending time every morning in prayer
- Exercising
- Painting
- Singing
- Playing piano
- Learning a new language
And exploring on social media doesn’t count!
3rd Way To Improve Gut Health: Pay attention to your macronutrients.
Nothing is going to disrupt your hormones more than having a diet which consists of inappropriate levels of macronutrients.
We were never designed to eat massive amounts of carbohydrates, for instance. Now, that doesn’t mean carbs are bad. They can be great. But the amount of options we’re consuming (e.g., sugar, alcohol, bread, etc.)… is grossly unhealthy.
If you dial your carbs back to a regulated level, that alone is going to dramatically have a positive impact on your hormones.
For my fourth bonus tip you’ll want to listen to Women’s Hormone Health on The Chalene Show! You’ll also find crucial information about women’s body fat, the differences between perimenopause and menopause, and how to go through this transitional phase while still maintaining your confidence & boosting your sex drive!
3 responses to “3 Ways To Improve Gut Health Naturally”
Does this work when you’re in menopause? I’ve done the gambit and can lose for a few weeks but then stop. I’ve done intermittent fasting, low carb recently. My functional medicine doctor has me on bio-identical hormone replacement but have not found them to be helping with weight loss.
Yes, these tips may certainly prove beneficial with women in menopause!
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