There’s a specific bodily function that’s overlooked by so many people looking to lose weight. Even doctors and other health care professionals underestimate its significance. The amazing thing is, when you optimize this natural bodily function, everything else falls into alignment: your fat melts away, you experience long-lasting energy, and your skin glows.
Most health advice for weight loss (and lots of other health concerns) you’d come across when Googling focuses on treating the symptoms. You would see things like:
“Bad skin? Use this new miracle wrinkle- and acne-erasing cream!”
“Dry, lifeless hair? We have just the shampoo for you!”
“Love handles? Take these magic pills and watch your fat disappear!”
These are not long-term solutions to health problems. Sure they might work for a little while, but in most cases where you go after treating the symptoms, you end up right back at where you started soon after, or triggering side effect problems at the same time.
For example: Proactiv. It’s designed to treat “any teen or adult who struggles with acne-prone skin, mild to moderate acne, adult acne and/or hormonal breakouts.” (from their website) But at the same time, the side effects they might experience are burning, dryness, itching, peeling, redness, throat tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, low blood pressure, fainting, hives, and swelling of eyes, face and lips. Yikes!
To really see improvements in our health, from weight loss to making other health concerns disappear, we need to go to the root of the cause. The best first step in this right direction is to improve one of the most important functions of the body: digestion.
Poor digestion is the root cause of SO many health problems! If your digestion is slow, impaired, or full of sludge from toxins – your body is going to show it in all kinds of ways. Most people do have a digestive system that is out of balance, and that imbalance is sabotaging things like weight loss efforts.
Here are some warning signs that your digestion may be impaired. How many apply to you?
- You feel sluggish throughout the day
- Your energy levels don’t reach the peaks they once did
- You get “brain fog” on a regular basis
- You feel bloated and gassy for no apparent reason
- You’re congested
- Your get frequent skin breakouts
- You get frequent headaches
- You tire easily while exercising
- You have trouble losing weight
There are lots of ways to work toward improving your digestive system, but one of the biggest ways is to focus on the missing link to optimal health: Friendly bacteria living in your gut.
Proper digestions relies on bacteria. Good, beneficial bacteria that live in your gut.
That may be surprising to you. Normally we think of bacteria as a bad thing because yes, there are many harmful bacteria out there. But there are trillions of beneficial bacteria living in your gut right now that aid in digestion.
They are your little workers that “grease the wheels” on your digestion by breaking down food and moving things along in an efficient manner. Consider them your friends in your fight against a poor diet and a toxic environment. Take care of your beneficial bacteria and they’ll take care of you.
Beware of your exposure to things that kill off our good bacteria and create harsh conditions in our gut, which impair our digestion:
- Antibiotics
- Additives
- Preservatives
- Toxins
- Pesticides
- Medications
- Acid-forming foods
- Stress
- Less than ideal water
It’s no wonder so many people suffer from digestive imbalance!
Follow these 3 steps to bring your healthy bacteria back into balance:
Step 1: Eat a diet of real, whole foods
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- This is the foundation of a healthy gut and digestive system. Avoid dairy, refined sugars, trans fats, and processed food. These items promote pathogenic bacteria and disturb the balance of your body’s healthy bacteria. Eat organic when possible to reduce exposure to good bacteria killing antibiotics and pesticides.
Step 2: Keep your colon clean
You need to “move things along” in there. Get plenty of fiber and eat plenty of healthy fats (like avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut oil). A smoothie is a great way to get servings of organic fruits and veggies for fiber, and you can add healthy fats to them too. When you blend your foods, it’s a lot easier for your body to digest them.
Step 3: Replenish your body’s good bacteria
As you’ve seen, our diet and lifestyle remove so many beneficial bacteria, but we can replenish it. Plus it’s easy to do. Eating foods rich in probiotics and active enzymes (like kefir, sauerkraut, yogurt, miso soup, kombucha, and kimchi). If you’re not big into fermented foods, take a probiotic in pill form. It’s good to mix up the brand you use to get different strands in your gut. Lately I have been taking a Metagenics brand, and BioKult brand.
When you reintroduce these microorganisms into your gut it’s like flipping the switch on fat loss! When you improve your digestive health, you’re guaranteed to see and feel the numerous all-around health benefits.
