Dealing with years of digestive pain, I definitely found tricks and tips of how to soothe an upset tummy. And while I am no longer in constant pain now, I find that when I want to feel adventurous or test out a food on my digestive tract, these tricks still come in handy.

So when you first feel a twinge of pain, ate too much, ate something you know your sensitive to but just couldn't resist (it happens!) here are some tricks you can try to bring your tummy back into balance.

1. Digestive Enzymes- I don't always suggest digestive enzymes as I have seen a lot of individuals dealing with digestive troubles begin to rely on them and get hooked on them. This leads the body to think that it doesn't have to work so hard producing digestive enzymes so getting off of them can be difficult if you're eating multiple at every meal. But, this handy supplement can support a troubled digestive tract for a short amount of time or an evening. When you find you have eaten a large amount of food or something just isn't sitting quite right, digestive enzymes can be an aid to boost your digestive power to break something down in your stomach that is having a hard time digesting.

2. Apple cider vinegar- ACV really just is a cure all for so many ailments. I have read so many articles recently on just how wonderful ACV truly is for our body. Often times, acid reflux or difficulties digesting a high protein meal can actually mean that you need more acid in your stomach to break down your food (not less, throw out those Tums!). Putting a 1 tsp-tbsp. of ACV diluted in a glass of water and sipping it before or after a meal can add some acid power to your stomach to help break down a meal and diminish any pain. You can even add a few drops of liquid stevia to it to make a refreshing drink. Yum!

3. Ginger- Ginger tea, ginger root, ginger capsules, ginger syrup. There are many ways to get your ginger in. Ginger stimulates the digestive system to produce more enzymes to facilitate digestion. It also helps stimulate more bile production, which can aid in making any digestive pain go away by increasing your ability to break down your food. When I travel abroad I take ginger capsules with me and they work fairly quickly in helping with a digestive woe. You can also make sure you have some ginger tea with you or if you're home break out some ginger root and start chewing. I would just suggest to stay away from ginger chews with the added sugar; the sugar takes away from the benefits of the ginger.

4. Deep breathing- Much of the time digestive pains can be due to trapped gas from possibly eating too fast. When I was going through the worst of my digestive troubles, you could often find me face down, lying on the carpet breathing into my belly. Deep belly breathing can begin to relax the muscles of your stomach switching your whole body into a relaxation response, which is what is needed to turn on digestion. When you're going through any kind of digestive upset, try to remember to breath through it. The added thoughts of "Ow, this hurts, I wish this would go away, why is this happening" causes the body to tighten even more which can in turn worsen the pain. Try lying on the ground, placing your hands on your belly, and just focusing on watching the rise and fall of your belly and feeling the support of the floor beneath you. This too shall pass.

5.  Activated Charcoal- Speaking of trapped gas....activated charcoal will be your little miracle worker. It will bind and absorb to any chemicals or gas or whatever it is that is upsetting your stomach thus diminishing the stress being put on your digestive tract and decreasing pain. Just make sure that if you're taking any medications to take this away from your medications as it will decrease the efficiency of your medications being absorbed as well. Its powerful stuff!

Just remember to add in some extra self love when you're going through any digestive pain. Loving yourself up through the process of learning what does and does not work for your body will help you to move forward from any digestive and eating experience with so much compassion and patience for your unique journey living in a body.

I would love to hear from you! What have you found has worked to help you when you're having a digestive upset?

This was my very first episode of Gut Guru. 

In this episode I talk about cravings and how they are meant to be heard, they are meant to be listened to, and they typically have a message for you.

How do you typically approach your cravings?  What do you find yourself craving on a regular basis?

Happy Day after July 4th!  You might have gone to a big BBQ yesterday, ate a lot of food, and now today feel perhaps sluggish, tired, bloated, and gassy.  Additionally, often times after a large meal there is a judgmental voice that pops up.  "Why did you do that?"  "You are such a failure for eating that much." "I have to restrict what I eat today to make up for yesterday." "I have to go to the gym today and work this all off." 

Do any of these sound familiar to you?  This list goes on in terms of what that voice can say, but it is a voice that is loud, mean, and not looking after your health and well being.

So here are a couple of steps you can take after eating a big meal:

1.  Focus on Emotional Nourishment

Being with friends and family nourishes us in a similar and different way than food.  We can get filled up by the experience of being around loved ones.  Chatting, catching up, funny stories, playing games, effect the way we digest our food.  When you are being emotionally nourished by the situation your body is in a relaxation response and your digestive tract can handle any input of food easier.  So as those voices pop up, redirect your thoughts toward how you were nourished by the situation.  Often big meals are eaten in the company of others.  Instead of focusing on how much you ate, reflect on how the people, the situation, the environment was ultimately very fulfilling.

2.  Be gentle with yourself

Think of the negative, harsh, internal voice that arises after a large meal as your inner child.  The more you ignore the fact they are whining, the louder they get.  Listen to what your inner child is saying, rub their back, and tell them everything is going to be alright.  The voices may still be there but you can acknowledge them and choose not to do anything about them.  This can be an opportunity to delve deeper into what the voices are really trying to say.  Is eating a large meal mean you deserve less love?  Is feeling overly full mean that people won't like you anymore?  Be super gentle with yourself after a large meal and think about what you can emotionally nourish yourself with throughout the day that doesn't have to do with restriction or self punishment.  Take a bath, take a walk, listen to some music, call a friend, do something that nourishes your soul.  It is all about coming back to self love.

3.  Eat something fermented/take your probiotics

I of course had to add this in!  After a big meal, there might have been a lot of sweets, sugar, or carbs that were consumed.  By eating some kimchee, sauerkraut, taking a probiotic, drinking some Kevita, you will be flooding your gut with beneficial bacteria which will go to work to make sure those foods are not sitting in your stomach and fermenting.  Getting in the good bacteria after a big meal will help keep your mood up and aid your belly in digesting all the yummy food you just ate.  Additionally if you take your probiotic with a glass of water with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in it you will increase your stomach acid to also help break down the large meal.

And just remember every time we eat is an opportunity to learn more about ourselves.  Every meal is a chance to explore our relationship with food and others.  There is no judgment here.  Be curious like a child and explore the situation with fascination and inquiry.

I will be honest.  I don't eat sugar.  Ever.  I don't eat processed sugar, brown sugar, agave, honey, or maple syrup.  I rarely eat fruit and I will occasionally dabble with coconut sugar and stevia, but that is about it.  And this is what works for me and may not work for you.  Let me back up first and give some back story.

I loved sugar as a kid.  I loved cakes, cookies, gummies, candy, sugary cereals, chocolate.  If it had sugar in it, I wanted it.  Now as we have learned in the present day that sugar is as addictive or maybe even more addictive than cocaine, I understand why I wanted the stuff so badly.  Eating all that sugary food as a kid though destroyed my microbiome in my stomach. 

Bad bacteria and yeast feed and thrive off of sugars.  So the more sugar you eat, the greater the possibility of feeding those bad bacteria and the less room there will be for good bacteria to thrive.  And seeing as how 95% of our serotonin or happy neurotransmitter are made in the gut there is a pretty good possibility that your ability to feel happy can be compromised by eating sugar and highly processed carbs. 

Once I learned this and slowly stopped eating sugar (which was a very slow process over many years) I just never turned back.  So when I hear other people say to me, "but don't you feel deprived" or "what about everything in moderation," I think why would I eat something that is so addictive to my body and that makes me feel awful in my system? 

Sometimes there are some foods that we just need to stay away from.  If you feel emotional, unstable, ungrounded, lacking clarity, mental fog after eating a particular food ask yourself what is it about this experience of eating this food that feels addictive?  Is there some part of you that is so used to your physical and emotional reactions after eating a particular food that you have become complacent that this is just the way life is. 

1.  With those foods you have to decide for yourself, is "in moderation" worth it if it makes you feel a certain way that blocks your ability to be your most vibrant self. (And I want to make sure I state that for you it may be worth it!!  I do not believe in deprivation, but please understand I do not feel deprived not eating sugar when there are other foods and things in my life that bring so much sweetness.  Whatever you decide, honor that decision that you are making the best choice for your health and well being.)

2.  Next step is to ask yourself is there an alternative you can have in this moment?  For example, if I really need something that tastes sweet I will go toward berries, cooking something with stevia, baking some vegetable that has a sweet flavor like acorn squash or spaghetti squash or sweet potatoes.  Get creative!  If your thing is chips, would making some kale chips satisfy?  If your thing is a cheeseburger, could you make a burger at home and wrap it in a romaine lettuce leaf.  Or if your thing is sugar, could you make your own chocolate with raw cacao powder and stevia and freeze it in the freezer.  (more recipes to come soon on my blog ;)

3.  Last, ask yourself what would happen if you never had that food.  What emotions come up?  This is a lot of information about how that food is possibly nourishing you on an emotional level but not a physical one. 

At this point you don't necessarily have to give up that food altogether but you now have more awareness to make conscious decisions.  And that is really what this is all about.  Instead of asking yourself what would feel good in my system right at this very moment, you could ask how do I want to feel in an hour, two hours, the rest of the day, how do I want to feel tomorrow?  Your choices today effect your future self.  The choice is up to you and just remember there is no wrong choice.  Every action just gives us information to make informed decisions.

This lesson was a hard one to learn and I find a difficult one to remember.  More and more articles these days are preaching what is "healthy" and what are the "healthy" ways to exercise and what are the best times to eat "healthy."  Most of these articles are based off of what is healthy for the physical body.  Yet, the physical body is more complicated than we can ever fully comprehend.  Yes, due to science we have a wonderful grasp and understanding of the human body but I'd like to believe there is quite a bit of magic the human body holds that we truly have no knowledge or awareness of quite yet.  So how can we truly define what is healthy for us?

With Halloween approaching tomorrow (or rather one hour from now), I want to offer a different way to get through this holiday.  First of all, we all affect each other whether we are aware of it or not.  Cravings for sugar and chocolate at this time of year are not just yours but they are everyone's.  You may be feeling the craving for that 3 musketeers from the person in front of you who is feeling it from the person in front of them waiting in line to check out.  We are not islands.  A "sugar" issue is not yours, it is also our culture's.  I digress.  So, with Halloween being tomorrow, which has somehow been misconstrued to be the holiday of slutty outfits and candy, I want to offer that eating that piece of candy that you are desiring may actually be you eating healthy.

When we deny ourselves the basic pleasure of eating, there is a natural stress response in the body.  Cortisol (the stress hormone) goes up and we crave that piece of candy even more to try and bring ourselves back into balance.  Let's say we breath through the craving and it goes away.  Woohoo!  And then a couple days later Halloween is over and you have all this extra candy and the craving comes back even stronger.  I say in the first or second moment you are allowed to have that candy!!  Even if all the articles out there toot how dangerous and awful all this candy is, well so is the stress that is wreaking havoc on your system just by trying to stay away from it all. 

Now, if you do finally give yourself permission to eat that piece of candy, really truly allow yourself to have it.  No judgment, no voice in your head saying what you have to do later to make up for it, no getting on the ground and doing pushups to try and burn it off.  Sit down with your piece of candy, take one bite at a time, roll it around in your mouth, taste it, feel the textures, ask yourself what it is about this moment you are enjoying so much.  Sure, it may not be the "healthiest" thing for your body, but you are nourishing some piece of you.  Any time you are eating, no matter what it is, you're nourishing your emotional body or your physical body or maybe even some ethereal part of your body we don't even know about.  The moment you are giving yourself to allow yourself to receive is nourishing.  Plain and simple.  So this Halloween, if you feel up to it (unless eating that one piece of sugar sends you down a scary path of not being able to stop then you can totally forgo this experiment) try something different and just allow yourself to enjoy one piece of candy.  One piece, pick it out like you would when you were a kid and you got to pick something out of a basket of small plastic toys, treasure that moment, and fully experience what it is like to give yourself love in the form of food.