Spring is a time of cleansing, rebirth, and regeneration. As the days grow warmer and longer, the snow melts away, the rivers flow faster, and the animals come out of hibernation. Gentle rains soak the land, bright green grass and yellow flowers pop up everywhere, more fruits and veggies begin to come into season, and mating season begins for many animals. It’s a very active and fertile time of year.

Just as the plants, animals, and environment are affected by the change in season, so are we. At the beginning of spring we often feel the lingering effects of winter as one has typically built up of a good deal of mucus over the last few months. Just as the snow melts and is flushed away in the river, it’s important that we flush out our excess mucus which is why spring is an excellent time to cleanse the body.

As spring progresses we see an increase of the qualities of spring (moisture, heaviness, oiliness, smoothness, stability, density, nourishment, and grounding) in ourselves.

If these qualities become too dominant they can lead to imbalances/symptoms such as excess mucus, congestion, clogged ears or sinuses, sluggishness, allergies, brain fog, colds, coughs, slowed digestion and a tendency towards indigestion and fullness, slowed metabolism, slowed lymphatic flow, and difficulty losing excess fat.

While this is pretty typical of spring, it should be noted that the qualities of the seasons vary based on where you live so make adjustments to these recommendations as it’s relevant to you and your environment.

It should also be noted that not all of us are affected equally by the same seasons. This often has to do with what imbalances we are prone to and currently dealing with, and in Ayurveda this is linked with your dosha (if you are the kapha dosha you will likely feel the effects of spring more).

So What Are Some Things You Can Do To Restore/Maintain Balance?

The main overarching goal here is to balance the qualities of spring by bringing more of the opposite qualities into our daily lives. Those qualities are: lightness, sharpness, dryness, and heat. We can do this by doing the following things:

1) Be More Active

While fall and winter are more restful slow seasons, spring is a good time to pick up the pace! Get up early, go out on hikes with friends, push yourself a bit more in your workouts, go on walks, and just be more active in general!

This will help to balance the sometime sluggish feeling of early spring. It will also help keep things moving (digestive wise, metabolically, and detox wise). All 3 of these can often need a little help in the spring time too, so be sure to stay active!

2) Detox

Like I mentioned before, coming out of winter one typically has built up a lot of mucus in the body due to the heavy cold wet nature of that time of year. Therefore spring is a great time to cleanse your body of built up mucus and toxins.

Doing things like dry brushing, the neti pot, tongue scrapping, enemas, taking epsom salt baths, using a sauna, using castor oil packs, and taking herbal cleansing supplements are all great ways to cleanse your body during this time! For more information on how to do a cleanse, check out my In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body.

I should also mention that if you’ve been wanting to lose some fat, this is the perfect time of year to do so. Fat loss goes well with the cleansing/shedding nature of spring and doing a cleanse is an excellent and healthy way to lose a few pounds.

3) Spring Cleaning

Similar to how we cleanse our bodies, cleansing our environment can be another beneficial spring practice. It’s really a time of year to let go of the old to make way for the new so go through your belongings, get rid of the stuff you no longer want, and tidy up a bit. You may be surprised how much your external environment affects your mind. A tidy neat space often leads to much more focused work and a calm mind, while a messy home often leads to a scattered and unfocused mind.

4) Embrace Spontaneity

In the fall it’s best to ground yourself with a routine to counteract the light airiness and scatteredness of fall. However the opposite is true for spring. While a routine is still incredibly beneficial, embracing a little more spontaneity this time of year helps to offset the grounded sluggishness of spring.

5) Extra Digestive Support

In the winter our energy/heat is focused in our core and gut (similar to how many plants transfer their energy to their roots), however as the weather warms up in spring our energy/heat returns to be spread more evenly throughout our body (similar to how plants divert energy out of the roots to grow new stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits).

When our energy/heat is focused in our core and gut, our digestive fire is very strong, but when it spreads out in spring our digestion tends to weaken a bit. Therefore it’s good to give your digestion a little extra attention in the spring time (especially if you’re prone to digestive issues)!

To support your digestion focus on eating warm lighter foods (like those listed below), prioritize animal based foods and don’t overdo the plants, drink ginger lemon tea (made with fresh ginger and lemons), eat relaxed and mindfully, exercise regularly, and make sure you’re having daily bowel movements. For more info on digestive support, check out this article.

6) Eat A Light Seasonal Diet

Spring is a great time to enjoy the lighter foods that naturally come into season. Things like leafy greens, asparagus, artichokes, citrus, and of course plenty of nose to tail animal foods! In spring, it’s best to prioritize the flavors bitter, spicy, and astringent as these help to cut the heaviness and moisture of spring.

Below are some common examples of spring foods and if you want to check out some of my favorite spring recipes click here!

Also note that these food lists are based on what’s seasonal in California where I live. However, what’s in season where you live may look a little different. It’s best to go by what’s in season for you because that will best balance your body in relation to your climate. Remember the seasons look a little different everywhere as well.

Ideal Spring Foods:

Animal Products:

Fruits:

Vegetables:

Herbs And Spices:

Other Foods:

Works Cited

1. O’Brien, Doug (PA and Ayurvedic Practitioner). Personal interview. 17 March 2022.

2. “Spring Guide Stay Inspired and Revitalized This Spring with Ayurveda.” Banyan Botanicals. Accessed 17 March 2022. https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/ayurvedic-living/living-ayurveda/seasonal-guides/spring-guide/

3. Seasonal Food Guide. Accessed 17 January 2022. https://www.seasonalfoodguide.org/

4. “Signs & Symptoms of Kapha Imbalance.” Banyan Botanicals. 16 October 2012. https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/blog-the-banyan-insight/details/signs-symptoms-of-kapha-imbalance/

6. Flowers, Amanda. “21 Best Spring Herbs To Grow In Your Garden.” Garden Season. 15 May 2020. https://gardenseason.com/spring-herbs/

7. “The Ultimate Ayurvedic Seasonal Guide For Spring.” The Ayurveda Experience. 13 March 2018. https://theayurvedaexperience.com/blogs/tae/the-ultimate-ayurvedic-seasonal-guide-for-spring

If you seem to have a harder time digesting meat or feel that it’s not working quite right for your body, then this article is for you!

First of all it’s important to realize that meat is not the problem! Rather this is merely a symptom of poor digestion, inadequate stomach acid, leaky gut, or a reaction to something in the meat.

As I’ve talked about many times, humans need meat to thrive! There are many nutrients that we either can’t get or can’t get enough of from plants. Also eating too many plants can be very hard on our gut due to their plant toxins, while meat is much easier on our digestion. Humans are omnivores and have been eating meat for 100s of 1,000s of years. Meat is not the problem!

So let’s look at some things that could be:

1) Poor Digestion:

Digestion begins before we even take our first bite. The smell and sight of food increase saliva production, causes your stomach to pour out starter acid, and your pancreas gears up to release enzymes. Once you taste your food, signals are sent to further down your GI tract to let your body know what enzymes will be needed to digest the foods you’re eating. In the case of protein that means, protease, hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and trypsin.

I mention these details to emphasize the importance of eating relaxed and mindfully for proper digestion! When you are in a stressed state or eat to quickly your body rushes through these first steps and often doesn’t prepare for digestion properly.

2) Inadequate Stomach Acid:

To piggy back off the last reason, adequate stomach acid is also crucial for the release of protein digesting enzymes. Without adequate stomach acid, undigested proteins may enter the small intestine and cause undesired symptoms like gas and bloating.

To improve stomach acid try drinking a little apple cider vinegar in water before meals; avoiding water and other non-acidic beverages around meal time; getting plenty of zinc, magnesium, and sodium; ditching the antacids; and eating mindfully and relaxed.

3) Leaky Gut:

If proteins are not being fully digested and you have leaky gut, then protein particles can seep into your bloodstream, be identified as a foreign object, and cause an immune reaction. If this happens too often, your body may develop a food sensitivity to some of the meats you eat. If this is the case it’s really important to work on healing and sealing your gut!

4) Reaction To Something In The Meat

All meat is not created equal! And if your meat is coming from grain and soy fed animals that receive hormones and antibiotics and live in poor conditions, you may be reacting to the grains and soy, the pesticides those foods were sprayed with, the hormones, or the antibiotics.

Ammonia is also often added to a filler ingredient in ground beef known as pink slime and preservatives, nitrates, and chemicals are often added to processed meats all of these additives can cause undesired symptoms.

So make sure you’re getting high quality animal products and if you’re having trouble tolerating meat, try working on digestive health, stomach acid production, and healing any intestinal permeability!

* If you want more info on exactly how to overcome your gut and digestive issues step by step (whether that’s bloating and gas, constipation, diarrhea, digestive cramps and pain, food intolerance/sensitivities, low appetite, skin issues, hormonal issues, or other symptoms) then click here to book a free discovery call with me! Helping people heal their gut and optimize their health is something I’m very passionate about since my own 10 year struggle with chronic constipation and IBS is what got me into the health and nutrition realm in the first place. I was able to fully overcame my gut issues and I’ve helped dozens of other too as well so I know you can too!

As the days grow colder and the morning dew turns to frost, winter is upon us. Plants and animals alike withdraw to prepare for a cold harsh winter. Many plants go dormant transferring energy to their roots, while several animals choose to hibernate.

The days are darker and shorter, the air is dry and chilly, and depending on where you live, a blanket of white snow may cover your home.

Just as the plants, animals, and environment are affected by the change in season, so are we. In the winter we often see an increase of the qualities of winter (cool, dry, light, rough, hard, clear, mobile) in ourselves.

If these qualities become too dominant they can lead to imbalances/symptoms such as constipation, cracking or stiff joints and bones, anxiety, dry skin and scalp, fatigue, and weight gain.

As winter progress we typically experience a thickening of mucus membranes (in the sinuses, lungs, and intestines) to protect our body from the dry qualities of this time. As winter comes to an end we’ve often build up a good deal of mucus which we will then shed in the spring.

Similar to how plants transfer energy to their roots in the winter, we transfer energy/heat to our core and gut. This in turn strengthens our digestive fire and appetite. Our digestion remains strong accompanied by a strong appetite for the majority of winter making hearty foods like fatty slow cooked meats, stews, and root veggies a great choice. However, in late winter our digestion begins to weaken and our appetite decreases as spring draws near. During this time we want to keep our foods warm and cooked and transition from hearty root veggies to lighter veggies like artichokes and sautéed greens.

While this is pretty typical of winter, it should be noted that the qualities of the seasons vary based on where you live so make adjustments to these recommendations as it’s relevant to you and your environment.

It should also be noted that not all of us are affected equally by the same seasons. This often has to do with what imbalances we are prone to and currently dealing with, and in Ayurveda this is linked with your dosha (if you are the vata dosha you will likely feel the effects of the beginning of winter more and if you are the kalpha dosha you will likely feel the effects of the later part of winter more).

So What Are Some Things You Can Do To Restore/Maintain Balance?

The main overarching goal here is to balance the qualities of winter by bringing more of the opposite qualities into our daily lives. Those qualities are: warmth, moisture/oiliness, heaviness, smoothness, softness, density, and stability. We can do this by doing the following things:

1) Sleep And Rest More

During the winter the days are shorter. It stays dark for longer in the morning and gets dark earlier in the evening therefore we often find ourselves wanting to go to bed a little earlier and sleep in a littler later than normal.

This is because our circadian rhythm is tied with the sun and therefore we often benefit from a little more sleep and rest in the winter compared to the summer. This can be as simple as going to bed 30 minutes earlier or waking up 30 minutes later. As always, not everyone is the same so listen to your body and find something that works right for you.

2) Spend Time Outside

While spending time outside seems to come naturally in the warmer months, it can take more of an effort to get outside in the winter time. I encourage you to get outside, move your body, and try to get some sunlight when you can. All of these will help to offset the depressing aspects of winter and keep your spirits up, as well as aid your health and prevent illness!

Besides nature is gorgeous in the winter time. Some of the most beautiful hikes I’ve gone on were in the winter. Whether it’s in the snowy mountains, at the beach, or in a forest; the dampness of winter combined with the tendency to be overcast really highlights the beauty, colors, and smells of everything around you!

3) Take Warm Baths Or Showers, Or Spend Time In A Sauna Or Steam Room

All of these will help support your natural detox pathways such as the lymphatic system and drainage through the pores of the skin. This will in turn reduce chances of illness and help prevent too much mucus build up. They are also very warming and relaxing practices which help to contrast the cold of winter.

4) Get Or Give Yourself An Oil Massage

Oiling your body can help lock the moisture into your skin and prevent dryness. If you add in a massage, you get extra relaxing benefits too! Be sure to use a very high quality oil, no vegetable oils! Remember, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin! I like to use a homemade salve made of extra virgin coconut and extra virgin olive oil, but plain extra virgin coconut oil is great too!

If you really want to work on some tight tissue, you can try using a gua sha in your massage too!

5) Reflect Inward

Just as the plants and animals withdraw and refocus their energy inward so should we! Now is an especially good time to carve out some alone time in a quite place. Use this time to reflect on your current habits, the past year, what’s going well, what you want to change, and how you plan to move forward with the new year.

We often spend a lot of time focused on the external, but refocusing our attention inward from time to time can teach us a lot and is a very grounding practice!

6) Eat Nourishing Seasonal Foods

Winter is a time to really nourish your body with warm hearty foods. Stews, soups, slow cooked fatty meats, roasted root veggies, bone broth, meatloaf, oxtail, and corned beef are all excellent winter dishes. Tastes to focus on are sweat, sour, and salty for their building and moisturizing properties.

As winter progresses, it’s beneficial to add more pungent, bitter, and astringent flavors as well as shift to lighter meals to counteract the heaviness and wetness of the fast approaching spring time.

In many places winter is a cold and harsh month where snow prevents the growth of most (if not all) fruits, veggies, and other plants. Therefore our ancestors who lived in these snowy climates ate a more meat heavy diet in the winter time. If you find yourself craving more meat and fat in the winter time (especially if you live in a cold snowy place) that is quite normal and in line with the seasons.

However, in other places closer to the equator plenty of plants still grow so people who live there have traditionally consumed both meat and plants year round. The point being that food that grows/is available near you helps to balance the affects of the current season in your environment. So the best practice for eating to balance the affects of the season is to eat what’s available in your local community (that is what can actually grow there, not what’s shipped in from 100s of miles away)!

Below are some common examples of winter foods and if you want to check out some of my favorite winter recipes click here!

Ideal Winter Foods:

Animal Products:

Fruits:

Vegetables:

Other Foods:

Works Cited

1. O’Donnell, Kate. “The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook.” Colorado: Shambhala Publishing. 2015. Print

2. Seasonal Food Guide. Accessed 5 January 2022. https://www.seasonalfoodguide.org/

3. O’Brien, Doug (PA and Ayurvedic Practitioner). Personal interview. 5 January 2022.

4. Mischke, Melody. “Winter Guide Insulate Your Well-Being with Ayurveda This Winter.” Accessed 6 January 2022. https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/ayurvedic-living/living-ayurveda/seasonal-guides/winter-guide/

Liver is the king of organ meats and nature’s multivitamin! By this I mean it’s the richest in nutrients. In fact it’s the most nutrient dense food I know of and that’s exactly why it’s been prized by our primal ancestors for thousands of years.

Nutrients are crucial for the function and health of every system in our body, therefore the high nutrient content of liver means that it helps support many tissues and functions in our body!

Liver is an especially great fertility food! Many traditional cultures, studied by Dr. Weston A Price, had a special diet for men and women to follow before they conceived a child. Liver played a big role in this diet for many of these cultures. (1)

It’s now known that the nutrients in liver help increase the quality of sperm and eggs, aid in fetal development, promote a healthy pregnancy, and lead to healthier children. Consuming liver helps women to build up their nutrient stores preconception to ensure they have enough to nourish both their baby and themself during the nutrient demanding process of pregnancy. Note that 10% of a mother’s nutrient stores go to building her baby during pregnancy therefore eating nutrient dense foods preconception, during pregnancy, and after is extremely important!

A few notable nutrients from liver that promote a healthy pregnancy are vitamin A, vitamin B12, folate, and choline.

Vitamin A:

According to Lily Nichols author of Real Food For Pregnancy, In a Dutch study of over 1,700 women, those who ate liver almost always consumed adequate vitamin A, while an astonishing 70% of women who avoided liver failed to meet the RDA.” (3)

“Vitamin A helps regulate gene expression and fetal growth with specific roles in the development of the heart, eyes, ears, limbs, and immune system. Lack of vitamin A can lead to serious malformations, including improperly formed craniofacial structures, limbs and internal organs.” (3)

Several animal studies of pigs, rats, cattle, sheep, frogs, and dogs have shown pregnant animals deficient in vitamin A to give birth to dead, eyeball-less, deaf, clubbed foot, cleft palated, or otherwise deformed babies. (1, 4, 5, 6) This implies that vitamin A plays a crucial role in proper fetal development.

Vitamin A also helps support female fertility by regulating cycles and ovulation, aiding egg health maintenance and maturation, supporting progesterone production, supporting egg implantation, and placental development and maintenance. (7) Vitamin A is also crucial for male fertility, as it’s important for the production of both testosterone and sperm. (7)

Vitamin B12:

Vitamin B12 is required for methylation, a process which is involved in gene expression, cell differentiation, and organ formation. It also helps to prevent neural tube defect and miscarriage. (3, 8) Vitamin B12 also helps support both men and women’s fertility. In women it supports healthy ovulation, regulates irregular menstrual cycles, and supports successful implantation. (8) In men it supports sperm count, supports sperm motility, and prevents testicular damage. (8)

Folate:

Folate is well known for preventing birth defects like neural tube defect, but it’s also important for progesterone production, ovarian health, and DNA production. (9) It’s especially important to get folate from food sources (like liver, black eyed peas, asparagus, or avocado) instead of supplementing with folic acid because 40-60% of people are unable to convert folic acid to folate due to the MTHFR gene. (3, 10)

Choline:

Choline is best known for its importance in aiding fetal brain development and preventing neural tube defect. (4, 11, 12) In fact babies of women with low choline intake are at 4X risk for neural tube defects. (11) Choline is also important for placental function, formation of cholinergic neurons and synapses, memory and learning functions of the developing child, methylation, myelin sheath formation, and nerve function. (3, 11, 12) The best sources of choline are liver and eggs.

How To Incorporate Liver Into Your Diet:

• Make liver pâte and have 1-4 tbsp a day (Click here for my recipe)
• Incorporate liver into meals (One of my favorites recipes for this is sautéed liver with steamed broccolini, roasted carrots and onions, and pesto)
• Mix liver in with ground beef in recipes
• Take desiccated liver supplements (this is basically just dried liver ground into powder) (I suggest Ancestral Supplements or Heart And Soil)
• Eat liver crisps like those from Carnivore Crisps or Carnivore Aurelius

* While eating liver is an amazing thing you can do to increase fertility, prep for conception, and support your baby while pregnant, there’s a lot more that goes into properly preparing your body for a healthy pregnancy. So if you want to have an easy time conceiving, an easier pregnancy with minimal symptoms, a quicker recovery postpartum, and have the healthiest child possible, then click here to watch my YouTube Video on 8 Ways To Prepare Your Body For Conception, Pregnancy, And To Have Healthy Children!

Works Cited

1. Price, Weston. “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” California: Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation. 2014. Print.

2. Nutrition Data Self. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://nutritiondata.self.com/

3. Nichols, Lily. “Real Food For Pregnancy.” 2018. Print.

4. Mellanby, E. Vitamin A deficency and deafness. Biochem. J. In press.

5. Wald G. (1935). Vitamin A in Eye Tissues. The Journal of general physiology, 18(6),
905–915. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.18.6.905

6. Mason, Karl E. (1935). Foetal death, prolonged gestation, and difficult parturition in
the rat as a result of vitamin A‐deficiency. American Journal of Anatomy, 57(2),
303–349. https://doi.org/10.1002/aja.1000570204

7. De La Cruz, Lauren. “Vitamin A Is Essential For Fertility.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/irregular-menses-irregular-periods-irregular-periods-treatment-irregular-periods-and-pregnancy-miscarriage-symptoms-miscarriage-causes

8. De La Cruz, Lauren. “Vitamin B12 & Fertility.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/vitamin-b12-deficiency-vitamin-b12-healthline-vitamin-b12-benefits-vitamin-b12-foods-vitamin-b12-deficiency-symptoms-vitamin-b12-supplements-vitamin-b12-levels

9. De La Cruz, Lauren. “5 Sources of Folate.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/where-to-get-folate-sources-of-folate-sources-of-folic-acid

10. De La Cruz, Lauren. “40-60% of the Population May Not Be Able to Properly Convert Folic Acid.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/mthfr-gene-mutation-symptoms-supplements-test

11. De La Cruz, Lauren. “4 Sources of Choline.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 19 December 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/neural-tube-defects-how-to-prevent-them-with-food

12. Sanders, L.M. Zeisel, S.H. (2006). Choline: Dietary Requirements and Role in Brain Development. Retrieved from: https://europepmc.org/article/med/18716669.

Our gut breaks down food; absorbs nutrients; keeps pathogens out; helps detox our body of waste (like dead tissues and toxins); and plays an important role in brain, hormonal, and immune health. Needless to say, it’s extremely important!

When our gut is functioning optimally we hardly even notice it. However when issues arise, we quickly notice the uncomfortable symptoms or in severe cases a whole cascade of many complex symptoms.

Symptoms like:

• Intestinal Cramps or Pain
• Bloating
• Acid Reflux
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Nausea
• Smelly Farts
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Nutrient Deficiencies
• Unwanted Weight Loss or Gain
• Stress and Anxiety
• Yeast and Parasite Infections
• Ulcers
• Acne
• Food Sensitivities
• Low Libido
• Poor Fertility
• Brain Fog
• Weak Immune System (Get Sick Easily)
• Depression
• Chronic Conditions Like Autoimmune Diseases, IBS, IBD, SIBO, etc.
• And More!

Some of the main problems that cause these symptoms are:

1. Gut Dysbiosis
2. Leaky Gut
3. Lack of Sufficient Stomach Acid

To restore balance to your gut, it’s important to identify if any of these are causing your gut issues and to then address them accordingly. I will dig into the specifics of these 3 causes and how to address them below.

1) Gut Dysbiosis:

Gut dysbiosis is when the balance between good bacteria and pathogenic bacteria in your gut is disturbed and you get an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria and often yeasts and fungi.

This overgrowth is made possible by inadequate levels of good bacteria which can be caused by many things, including:

• Stress
• Antibiotic Use
• Tobacco Use + Alcohol Consumption (More info on how alcohol negatively affects your gut and overall health here)
• Consuming Processed Foods + Food Additives
• Sleep Problems + Circadian Disruptions (You can find tips to optimize your sleep in this article)
• Environmental Toxins
• Nutrient Deficiencies
• Lack of Physical Activity
• Not Enough Time Outside
• Too Much Sanitation

Dysbiosis is one of the underlining causes for many gut disorders and therefore addressing this is a very important part of treatment for many people. First you want to focus on removing pathogenic bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Taking herbs like golden seal, oregano, berberine, grapefruit seed extract, and uva ursi for 3 weeks is a great way to do this.

After this there will be a gap in the bacteria population. It’s very important that you get the next steps right to ensure that gap is filled with good bacteria and not pathogenic ones. For this you want to remove and address any triggers for dysbiosis (like those listed above), eat a clean nutrient rich diet (that means lots of nose to tail animal foods), and you want to get plenty of prebiotics (foods that feed good bacteria) and probiotics (foods that contain good bacteria).

For prebiotics look to garlic, dandelion greens, asparagus, leeks, cacao, bananas, oats, barley, legumes, apple, and artichoke. Make sure to soak the oats, barley, and legumes in water with a dash of apple cider vinegar overnight before cooking. This will help reduce the anti-nutrients content.

For probiotics look to fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, fermented veggies, yogurt, kefir, fermented pickles, and apple cider vinegar that contains the mother.

You may also wish to take a good quality probiotic supplement, however this is optional. If you choose to do so, I’d recommend one that contains Lactobacillus Rhamnosis and Bifidobacteria, needs to be refrigerated, and contains billions of cfus (colony forming units)/live cultures.

2) Leaky Gut:

Leaky gut (aka intestinal permeability) is when gaps form between the epithelial cells that line your intestines allowing unwanted things (like not fully digested food particles, toxins, pathogens, parasites, etc.) to easily slip through the gaps into your blood stream.

Once inside, these things are categorized as foreign by your body and trigger an immune response, which is inflammatory by nature. If the gaps between the cells lining the gut are not tightened and sealed, unwanted things will continue to slip through and cause immune reactions.

Overtime this can lead to chronic inflammation, food sensitivities, autoimmune diseases, decreased immunity, and other health problems.

So what can make your gut leaky?

Plant toxins, stress, and pathogenic bacteria are some of the main causes. Let’s start with plant toxins. Gluten increases a protein called zonulin which loosens the junctions between intestinal cells (and the cells that make up the blood brain barrier).

Lectins (another plant toxin) bind to the cells lining your gut wall and puncture holes in between the cells. On top of this the protein structure of lectins is very similar to several body tissues including the thyroid, myelin sheath (coating of nerves), synovial tissue (connective tissue), and more. If lectins are regularly slipping through a leaky gut into the blood stream, over time your body begins to mistakingly identify your own tissues as lectins and attacks them, thus causing an autoimmune disease.

In general too much improperly prepared plant foods like raw veggies, raw nuts and seeds, seed oils, and non-soaked grains and legumes are damaging to the gut because they’re high in lectins and other anti-nutrients.

Too much fiber, especially insoluble fibers like cellulose, may also harm the gut lining by scraping it and leaving it vulnerable to further damage. Stress is communicated from your brain to gut via the vagus nerve and stress has been shown to increase intestinal permeability as well. Excess pathogenic bacteria, like in the case of gut dysbiosis, also increases zonulin and therefore can cause leaky gut.

So what can you do to heal and seal the gut lining?

• Cut out gluten, grains, and legumes!
• Do an elimination diet (remove any other foods which cause problems for 3 months, then slowly reintroduce them 1 at a time every 2 weeks. Keep a food journal to track your symptoms as you reintroduce foods)  
• Detox
• Drink bone broth daily
• Get plenty of nutrients (especially zinc, retinol vitamin A, vitamin D, magnesium, and glutamine)
• Get plenty of sleep
• Take some helpful herbs/supplements such as aloe vera, ginger, chamomile, cramp bark, globe artichoke, and astralgus.

3) Lack of Sufficient Stomach Acid:

Contrary to popular belief, inadequate stomach acid (not too much) can cause acid reflux and poor digestion. After we chew and swallow our food, it travels to the stomach where it’s churned, broken down, and digested. Stomach acid is crucial for the release of digestive enzymes and the proper breakdown of food during this process.

Additionally, the contents of our stomach must be acidic enough to trigger the opening of the pyloric sphincter and allow the partially digested food (known as chyme) to travel into the small intestine.

When stomach acid is too low, the pyloric sphincter has trouble opening and consequently some stomach acid can travel backwards through the lower esophageal sphincter into the esophagus causing acid reflux. Additionally, without adequate stomach acid food, especially protein, often doesn’t get broken down enough before traveling to the small intestine and can therefore cause undesired symptoms like gas and bloating.

To improve stomach acid:

• Drink water with apple cider vinegar before and with meals (Click here for the recipe)
• Avoid drinking plain water and other non-acidic beverages around meal time
• Ditch the antacids!
• Get plenty of zinc, magnesium, and sodium
• Eat mindfully and relaxed

* If you want more info on exactly how to overcome your gut and digestive issues step by step (whether that’s bloating and gas, constipation, diarrhea, digestive cramps and pain, food intolerance/sensitivities, low appetite, skin issues, hormonal issues, or other symptoms) then click here to book a free discovery call with me! Helping people heal their gut and optimize their health is something I’m very passionate about since my own 10 year struggle with chronic constipation and IBS is what got me into the health and nutrition realm in the first place. I was able to fully overcame my gut issues and I’ve helped dozens of other too as well so I know you can too!

“Your 20s is the prime of your athletic career, once you hit 30 it’s all bad knees, injuries, and downhill from there!”

At least that’s what the mainstream would have you believe. While this does happen often, It’s completely avoidable! Of course our bodies become less efficient at repairing themselves as we age, but they should not be falling apart beyond repair in our 30s!

I believe so many athletes are out in their 30s because mainstream sports nutrition does not prioritize micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)! Therefore many athletes go into nutrient debt borrowing the nutrients they need for vital functions (like heart contractions and nerve signaling) from their bones, joints, and other tissues; weakening these parts over time.

When studying nutrition in college, I took a handful of sports nutrition classes and was so appalled by some of the sports nutrition advise I learned in these classes. Things like:

• Eat high glycemic carbs before and after your workout things like cereal, refined grains, white bread, etc.
• Eat about 6 times a day
• Drink sugar gels and Gatorade during long workouts
• Get only about 20% Calories from fat
• Get 50-60% Calories from carbs (this can get up to 650 grams for some)

There is so much wrong with this approach! It’s so focused on continuously supplying the body with sugar, like sugar was some kind of performance enhancing drug. (Well I guess it kinda is, but the health consequences are not worth it!)

This focus on sugar and protein, means little attention is given to adequate fat and micronutrient consumption. The “if it fits your macros” kind of approach. However, micronutrients are crucial for every system in our body. When we don’t get enough, these systems have trouble functioning properly and repairing themselves.

For example, if you’re continuously deficient in collagen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin K2, vitamin D3, or other bone and joint building nutrients, your bones and joints will weaken with time. Then you get injured, because of the weakness in your bones and joints, and you have a very difficult time recovering due to the lack of nutrients necessary to rebuild and repair them.

So what can you do?

Follow a more ancestral sports nutrition model:

• Get plenty of high quality protein (about 1g protein per lb body weight) and micronutrients from nose to tail animal foods (that means muscle meat, organs, bone broth, eggs, and any other part you’d like).
• Train your body to burn fat for fuel in addition to carbs by cutting out vegetable oils, increasing your healthy fat intake, and waiting at least 3 hours between meals.
• Eat healthier carbs like fruit, honey, root veggies, dairy, and soaked and cooked white rice. Always pair with protein to slow blood sugar spike.
• Drink bone broth or eat bone marrow to support your bone and joint health.
• Prioritize nutrient rich whole foods to ensure adequate micro-nutrient consumption.
• Focus on long term health in addition to optimizing your sports performance.

* If you want help maximizing your athletic performance; gaining muscle, strength, and size; setting, tracking, and adjusting macros; or cutting fat; then click here to book a free discovery call with me! I’ve been an athlete for most of life and have studied sports nutrition in order to optimize my own performance and body composition. I’ve also helped multiple clients to improve their sports performance and body composition through a sensible nutrition plan and I’d love to help you too!

Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies, accounting for 25-35% of all our protein. (1, 2, 3) It’s found in connective tissues like joints, ligaments, and tendons; as well as bones, skin, and tough frequently used muscles. When collagen is cooked it’s often referred to as gelatin. Glycine is the most prominent amino acid in collagen. (1, 2, 3)

Since collagen and glycine make up such a large portion of our bodies, it’s extremely beneficial to regularly consume foods high in collagen and glycine like bone broth, shank, oxtail, slow cooked tough cuts of meats, skin-on and bone-in poultry, pork rinds, and bone marrow. Like heals like after all!

Now a days, many people do not get adequate collagen and glycine because the majority of meat consumption is lean tender muscle meats like steaks and boneless skinless chicken breasts, not the collagen rich cuts I listed above!

This greatly contrasts to what our ancestors did. Our ancestors ate the whole animal because they couldn’t afford to waste any part and it was a sign of respect to the animal to use every part. Eating this way is commonly known as nose to tail eating and in my opinion it’s the best way to balance and optimize your nutrient intake!

To get the most out of nose to tail eating, it’s important we try to match our proportions of each animal part we eat to the proportions of the animal itself. Remember that collagen makes up 25-35% of the protein in our bodies. Well for some animals it can get as high as 50%. (2) Therefore it’s good to aim to get about 1/4 to 1/2 of your protein from collagen rich sources. You will better understand the reasoning for this after learning about the functions and benefits of collagen and glycine, which I discuss below.

Benefits Of Collagen and Glycine:

1) They’re Anti-Inflammatory

When it comes to balancing amino acids, you often hear about complete proteins that contain all the amino acids (these are almost always animal foods) and incomplete proteins that don’t contain all the amino acids (these are almost always plant foods).

While complete proteins are much better than incomplete proteins when it comes to balancing our amino acid intake (which is very important for synthesizing new proteins and for preventing muscle wasting), eating the complete animal will balance your amino acids even better!

This balance helps properly nourish all your tissues as well as prevent inflammation. Collagen has a unique amino acid profile, containing the high amounts of the anti-inflammatory amino acids alanine, hydroxyproline, proline, glutamic acid, and especially glycine. (1, 2) It also lacks the amino acids cysteinre, methionine, and histidine, all of which can become pro-inflammatory in excess. (1, 3) On top of that excess methionine reduces glycine stores. (3)

If you only eat lean muscle meats and don’t include collagen rich cuts, you may have problems with inflammation.

2) They Improve Gut And Digestive Health

Collagen helps the digestive system in many ways. Firstly, it attracts more digestive juices, enzymes, and bile to the food and increases stomach acid production. (1, 4) All of these improve the breakdown of the food and therefore lead to greater nutrient absorption. Higher stomach acid also prevents acid reflux. Collagen consumption is also believed to protect against stomach ulcers. (1, 4)

Collagen also plays a key role in maintaining the integrity and tightness of the gut lining. Collagen is comprised of several amino acids (such as glycine and glutamine) that help build the gut lining. (4) This makes collagen rich foods particularly helpful for resealing and repairing the gut lining in cases like leaky gut and IBD. (1, 4)

Lastly, collagen absorbs and retains water and therefore increases fluid in the intestines. This helps to encourage regular bowel movements. (4)

3) They’re Important For Pregnancy

The amino acid glycine is considered conditionally essentially. Meaning that your body can make a decent amount of it, but not quite enough to thrive especially in situations when the demand increases like in pregnancy or stressful times. (2, 3)

During pregnancy, glycine is critical for the synthesis of fetal DNA and collagen; cardiovascular development; bone health; and growth of the baby’s skeleton, teeth, internal organs, skin, hair, and nails. (3)

It’s also necessary to support a woman’s own stretching skin, growing uterus, placenta, and to help her circulatory system adapt to the demands of pregnancy. In fact by the end of pregnancy, a woman’s uterus contains 800% more collagen than it did pre-pregnancy. (3) Getting plenty of dietary collagen and glycine is therefore crucial to best support the health of your growing baby as well as yourself!

4) They’re Important For Joint And Bone Health

There is a principle in ancestral nutrition called “like heals like.” It means that whatever part of the animal you eat is good for the same part of you. This makes sense since animal parts like bones and joints for example, contain the same nutrients you need to support your bone and joint health. In this case collagen, minerals, glucosamines, and glycosaminoglycans.

Collagen is the main structural protein of all connective tissue. It provides structure, strength, and stability to our joints, tendons, ligaments, and bones. (1, 2) Therefore eating collagen rich foods (like broth made from joints and bones) improves your joint and bone health! The anti-inflammatory amino acid profile of collagen also makes it helpful for decreasing joint inflammation and arthritis. (1)

5) Other Benefits

Collagen and glycine have also been shown to:

• improve sleep
• increase insulin sensitivity
• help stabilize blood glucose levels
• improve memory
• improve wound healing
• improve liver detoxification
• improve the health of your skin, hair, and nails
• help with diabetes
• increase heme synthesis (which allows the blood to carry more oxygen)
• protect against oxidative stress
• synthesize creatine which helps supply energy to the heart and muscle cells

(1, 3)

Some Of My Favorite Collagen Rich Recipes Are:

• Bone Broth
• Bone Marrow
• Tom Kha Gai Soup
• Chuck Roast

Feel free to experiment with others as well. Oxtail, shank, bone-in skin-on poultry, and slow cooked tough cuts of meat are all great ways to get more collagen in. You can also use good quality collagen or gelatin supplements if you wish. Anyways I hope this article helped you learn the importance of collagen and gave you some helpful ideas on how to get more collagen into your diet!

Work Cited

1) Deering, Kate. “How To Heal Your Metabolism.” 2015: Print.

2) Sarah and Ashley Armstrong. “Collagen.” The Strong Sistas. Accessed 24 November 2021. https://www.instagram.com/p/CV8iNFmvV_U/

3) Nichols, Lily. “Real Food For Pregnancy.” 2018. Print.

4) Sarah and Ashley Armstrong. “The Beauty of Bone Broth: Gut Nurturing Nutrients.” Armstrong Sisters. Accessed 25 November 2021. https://www.armstrongsisters.com/post/the-beauty-of-bone-broth-gut-nurturing-nutrients

Over the course of my health journey I have tried many diets, learned to cook, overcame disordered eating habits, healed of IBS (a digestive/gut disorder), learned to maximize my nutrient intake, learned to eat for weight training (cutting fat, gaining muscle and tracking macros), studied ancestral nutrition, got a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science with an emphasis on Sports Nutrition, healed my metabolism, detoxed and cleansed, optimized my health, and have helped many others to improve their health as well.

My journey is what inspired me to start Heart To Kitchen and Ancestral Nutrition Coaching! Learning about health and nutrition has had such a tremendous impact on my life, as you will see in this post, that I wanted to share what I learned in effort to help others maximize their own health!

So without further ado here’s my story!

Childhood:

My health journey began in my childhood. Growing up, my parents were both pretty health conscious. We ate mostly whole foods and home cooked meals and we had a garden that we would eat from. My parents taught my brother and I to cook and garden, starting us out with simple tasks when we were young. We also spent tons of time outside and were always going on adventures!

My parents weren’t big on meat though so I didn’t have a ton when I was young. In fact, when I was in 3rd grade my dad went vegetarian and my brother and I followed. My dad was studying to become an Ayurvedic practitioner at the time, and in Ayurveda (Indian holistic medicine) eating meat is typically frowned upon. It’s thought of as wrong to “unnecessarily” take animals lives and it’s said that you take on a negative energy when consuming meat. This made sense to me at the time.

I obviously think quite differently now, but I’ll wait to get into how my mindset shifted until later in this post, and I put unnecessarily in quotes because I now believe eating animals is necessary for properly nourishing our bodies.

Anyways, my dad shared the principles of Ayurveda with us as he learned them which had a huge influence on me. Ayurveda looks at how nature, the cycles of nature, the elements, the food we eat, and our sensory intake influence our bodies and spirit. These principles greatly influenced how I saw the world and I’m grateful to my dad for teaching them to me.

One more thing to note about my childhood is that constipation, sometimes accompanied by intestinal pain, was a recurring issue for me. Other than that and some colds, ear infections, and cavities, I had pretty good health as a child.

Early High School:

In my late grade school and middle school years some unhealthy convenient snack foods like Cheez-Its, Cheerios, instant oatmeal, and more gradually seeped into my diet. I didn’t think much of it or even fully realize it.

At least not until my freshman year of high school, when a dietitian came to my dance class to do a short presentation about healthy eating. During the presentation, I had a massive realization that I ate some unhealthy processed foods and that I wasn’t as healthy as I though I was!

After that, I immediately cut out the vast majority of processed foods and began cooking my own meals. Through cooking I could better control the quality of my food and despite the steep learning curve, I quickly feel in love with it!

At this time I believed that whole plant foods were the healthiest foods so I ate lots of veggies, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. I also ate some eggs and dairy, but I limited these along with gluten, caffeine, and sugar because I thought they weren’t as good for you.

I also focused on my overall health. I started doing some other exercises in addition to my dancing, I started going to bed around 8:30 every night, I limited tv, started reading more, and of course spent a good chunk of time outside.

While these are mostly great things (I say mostly because my diet choices were not great), my mindset was awful! I was extremely obsessive about being healthy. It’s practically all I would think about, I would be very hard on myself if I wasn’t “perfect” with my diet and health, and I became very restrictive with my diet. I had what some call Orthorexia, an unhealthy obsession with being healthy!

This eventually led me to lose 15 lbs bringing my weight to 115 lbs at a height of 5′ 6,” in other words way too skinny for my health! As a result I lost my period and my digestive health suffered.

My Vegan Times:

In my sophomore year of high school, I watched a vegan documentary called “Vegucated” (It’s a cringey title I know). The main thing that stuck out to me from the movie was how poorly the animals were treated in factory farming. I already knew that factory farm animals raised for meat were treated poorly, but I didn’t know it was the same (or worse) for animals raised for dairy and eggs.

After learning of this, I felt a moral obligation to become vegan so I did. While this was my primary reason for going vegan, it also appealed to me because I believed it was a very healthy diet.

This diet change did not go well for me! My already bad digestion and obsessive tendencies got worse! In retrospect I’d say about 75% of the time I was bloated, constipated, had painful intestinal cramps, no appetite, and was obsessing over food and health. I also had terrible stinky farts, would starve myself during the day and often binge at night, I lost confidence in myself and my ability to make the right decisions, and I never had my period the entire 1 year and 10 months I was vegan!

In my junior year of high school, I stopped dancing (after 13 years of Ballet) and started weight training. My weight training helped stimulate my appetite and I began to eat more. I found adding a few snacks in helped me with this as opposed to the strict 3 meals a day I was previously following. I also found that building some muscle helped me increase my confidence. By this point my digestion was slightly better but still far from ideal, my mindset had improved, and I was less obsessive about health. Over the course of about 1 year I slowly got my weight up to 135 lbs (some of that was new lifter muscle gain, but I also gained a little more fat than I wanted).

I also often struggled with overeating. I think my body was so excited to be getting food again, that I kind of over did it. When eating later in the day, I would get to a point where I was full and knew I should stop, however I wanted more so I would keep eating for the pleasure of how good it tasted despite making myself uncomfortably full in the process. I would beat myself up over this (figuratively, not literally) and try to fix it with shear will and discipline which didn’t quite work.

Back To Vegetarian:

After not having my period for 2 years and 5 months, my step mom encouraged me to reintroduce eggs and dairy into my diet. She helped me realize that I wasn’t able to nourish my body on a vegan diet and that I was harming my health. She also reminded me that I could get my eggs and dairy from local humane farms and not support factory farming. I wouldn’t be supporting an industry that harms animals and I could still prioritize my own health.

This was all hard to hear and it really shattered my previous belief that a vegan diet was best for both animals and humans. Yet, it was the truth and it’s exactly what I needed to hear! So I decided to try reintroducing eggs and dairy.

A month after doing so, my period returned. This amazed me. I had returned to a healthy weight 6 months ago but was not able to menstruate until I started eating eggs and dairy. I assume I was deficient in cholesterol and other nutrients critical for hormone production. My digestion also improved (but it wasn’t prefect), my relationship with food improved, and my body felt more nourished. However, I would get hangry easily and had a hard time going more than 3 or 4 hours without food.

I was thrilled to have less foods off limits because it allowed me to cook a wider variety of things, plus I’ve always loved dairy! I made lasagna, pizza, pancakes, enchiladas, quiche, and so much more! I learned how to cook so many dishes and had a blast cooking during this time!

A year later, I started Heart To Kitchen and began posting recipes to my website!

Time For Some Meat:

After about 2 years of weight lifting (I was 19 and had moved away for college at this point), I began looking into nutrition to support my training. I wanted to get the most out of my time in the gym by fueling my body properly. One of the first things I learned was the importance of a good macro split so I decided to start tracking macros and perfect my macro split.

I quickly found out that I was not getting enough protein! I was only eating roughly 50 g/day while about 140 g/day was recommended for me. At first I tried to up my protein while sticking with a vegetarian diet, but I couldn’t seem to get above 80g a day on a near 2000 Calorie diet. I started to think that maybe I couldn’t get all the nutrients I needed on a vegetarian diet.

This was the spark that lead to a lot of contemplation regarding meat consumption. For most of my life I had believed that killing animals was wrong, however I began to think that maybe it wasn’t that simple. I eventually came to the realization that eating meat is not wrong, it’s part of nature! And that whether you eat plants or animals, some things must die in order for you to live.

This got me thinking about how omnivorous and carnivorous animals don’t feel guilty for eating meat, it’s simply in their nature. Likewise humans have been eating meat for 10s of 1000s of years and are designed to eat meat, so why should I feel guilty for eating meat? I then started to crave meat and for the first time ever the butcher counter looked like the most delicious section of the grocery store! After much pondering, I decided to try meat again!

This was a pivotal moment in my life and health journey! Eating meat worked so well for my body and noticeably improved my health! My digestion significantly improved, my constipation and stinky farts became very rare, I lost a little body fat, my bloating significantly reduced, and I just felt all around fueled and strong.

I should note that the meat I ate (and still eat) is from good humane farms and is not factory farmed! While death is necessary for life, cruel treatment of animals (like in factory farms) is not! I think it’s important to show respect towards the animals who give their lives to nourish us by supporting humane farms!

Ancestral Keto:

Shortly after I turned 20, I came across ancestral nutrition. My first introduction to this way of eating was through Dr. Cate Shanahan’s book, Deep Nutrition.

In this book, Dr. Cate described the superior health of our ancestors along with their dietary practices and lifestyle. She discussed the importance of eating nose to tail (including organ meats and bone broth in our diet); properly preparing (soaking or sprouting) any grains and legumes we consume; including high quality animal fats in our diet; including fermented foods; cutting out vegetable oils; and not overdoing the carbs (especially refined and processed carbs).

This way of eating really resinated with me! I found the nutritional info, science, and traditional aspects fascinating and it all just made so much sense! So I began experimenting with an ancestral diet and doing more research into ancestral nutrition.

This lead me to come across the ketogenic way of eating as well. This seemed to align well with ancestral nutrition and I really liked the idea of being able to go longer without food without getting super hungry. I also liked the anti-inflammatory benefits especially since I had been struggling with a knee injury for several months at this time in my life. So I decided to try an ancestral keto way of eating. Meaning I cut my carbs down really low (no more than 40 or 50g a day) and I ate primarily meat, dairy, eggs, organs, bone broth, veggies, and some nuts. I also did regular intermittent fasting and only ate 3 meals a day with no snacks.

I definitely noticed some benefits from these changes. The decrease in plants (more specifically plants high in anti-nutrients and fiber) and the increase in nutrient dense animal foods really gave my gut a chance to fully heal. In this way, my diet kind of served as an elimination diet. Getting fat adapted (burning fat as my main source of energy instead of carbs) eliminated my energy crashes and hanger. For the first time in my life I could easily go several hours without eating if I wanted to.

However, there were a few drawbacks to keto, but I didn’t realize this until about 1 1/2 years later. Despite the popular belief that you shed fed easily on a keto diet, I accidently gained 20 lbs in less than 1 year which brought my weight up to 162 lbs! While some of that was likely muscle due to my weightlifting, most of it was fat. This was likely due to the stressful nature of a keto diet.

Keto diets and excessive fasting often increase cortisol and can keep your body in a stressed state (sympathetic, fight or flight, state). This has a negative impact on your hormones, thyroid, and metabolism and can therefore easily lead to weight gain.

Effortless Weight Loss:

After learning of this, I decided to add back some carbs. However I was very strategic with what carbs I added back in because I didn’t want to aggravate my gut after working so hard to heal it. Therefore I chose carbs that were lower in anti-nutrients like fruit, white rice, and root veggies. I also always paired my carbs with protein and fat in order to avoid blood sugar spikes and crashes.

Meanwhile, I became very interested in detoxing. I started learning about how many toxins we are exposed to on a regular basis and how negative of an effect they can have on your health (toxin overload is a root cause for many diseases and chronic illnesses).

I did a lot of research on how to unclog and support the detox pathways in your body in order to eliminate toxins and prevent toxin build up. Some of the things I did for detoxing were: dry brushing, sweating (laying out in the sun in the 105 degree F summer did the trick for me), coffee enemas, drinking liver detox tea, tongue scraping, and taking parasite cleansing supplements. I also got a good quality water filter (you can find info on the importance of a water filter here), cut back on plastic, and did some other things to try to reduce my toxin exposure. (For more info on detoxing, check out my In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body).

Both adding carbs and detoxing lead me to effortlessly drop 12 lbs in about 4 months bringing my weight to 148 lbs. I honestly wasn’t even trying to lose weight! I think the carbs helped me decrease stress, balance my hormones, and increase my metabolism. While I think the detoxing helped by pulling toxins out of my fat. Toxins are commonly stored in our fat and our bodies often stubbornly hold onto fat in efforts to not release lots of toxins into our bodies. However if we cleanse out the toxins, fat loss often comes naturally.

Sharing What I’ve Learned:

I have learned so much over the course of my health journey! I’m finally at a place where my gut and digestive system is fully healed, I’m well nourished, I’m at my goal body composition, my eating optimally supports my weight training, my detox pathways are open and flowing properly, my metabolism is healthy, and listening to my body’s cues makes it easy to eat the right amount.

Of course there is always more to learn and more to work on, so I will continue to strive to make my health even better. Never the less it feels good to have come this far!

After going through so much trial and error, time, and research to get where I am today, I want to help other people effectively level up their health without all the guess work by teaching them what I’ve learned. That’s why I regularly share nutrition and health info here on my website and on my Instagram. And that’s also why I started my 1 on 1 coaching program Ancestral Nutrition Coaching! You can find out more about Ancestral Nutrition Coaching here, if you’re interested!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed hearing about my health journey and I hope the info I share helps you on your health journey as well!

Much love,

Kayley

You’ve heard it before, adequate quality sleep is one of the most important things for overall health. During sleep your body repairs and regenerates itself both physically and mentally. This is crucial for:

• Workout And Injury Recovery And Prevention
• Memory
• Honing Visual And Perceptual Skills
• Replenishing Neurotransmitters And The Sodium Potassium Pump
• Brain Function
• Decreasing Cortisol And Stress
• Regulating Hunger And Satiation Hormones (And Thus Weight Maintenance)
• Immunity (White Blood Cell Activity Increases During Sleep)
• Disease Prevention
• And More!

Optimal sleep is not as simple as just getting 8 hours each night. While that’s a great place to start, your sleep needs vary based on your training, stress levels, age, and the season (we need more sleep when we train harder, are more stressed, are younger, and in the winter).

Therefore it’s important to listen to your body to make sure you are getting enough. The quality of sleep is another important factor to make sure you wake up fully rested and regenerated.

The biggest factor here is understanding and adhering to your circadian rhythm. Our circadian rhythm responds to environmental cues (like light and temperature) to regulate our hormones to make us feel either alert or sleepy.

If uninterrupted by artificial light, our circadian rhythm naturally syncs up with the cycles of the sun and moon. Waking us around sunrise and making us tired a little after sunset. Syncing with nature like this is ideal because our bodies are already designed to function this way.

Here’s some tips to better sync your circadian rhythm with nature and optimize your sleep:

1. Avoid blue light after sunset, especially in the hour before bed! That means avoiding screens and artificial light.

2. Use night shift mode or blue light blocking glasses anytime you do use screens after sunset.

3. Get up and go to bed around the same time every day.

4. Have a dark room for sleeping (any amount of light will inhibit melatonin production).

5. Sleep in a cool room (this mimics the temperature drop at night).

6. Spend time outside in the sun without sunglasses or sunscreen, the more time the better.

7. Go outside first thing in the morning to start your circadian clock.

8. Watch the sunset (this gives off a natural surge of blue light which is an important signal for your circadian rhythm).

9. Be active during the day.

10. Avoid caffeine and stimulants after noon.

11.  Use a water filter that filters out fluoride and don’t use fluoride toothpaste (fluoride calcifies your pineal gland which is responsible for making melatonin, therefore fluoride can inhibit melatonin production). (You can find more info on fluoride here)

12. Relax and avoid stressful things before bed.

13. Make your home as safe as possible to avoid stressing at night.

14. Take short naps during the day if needed (but keep it under 45 minutes and not too late).

I recommend implementing a few of these at a time and adding more once you have those down. If your sleep is really out of wack, be patient as getting back on track may take a little time. However with time and dedication you are sure to get into a good sleep routine!

First off, I want to remind you that it’s important to have a daily (or near daily) bowel movement for adequate toxin elimination! Our feces are made up of toxins, undigested food (mostly fiber), and old cells and tissues that our body no longer needs.

If feces sit in your colon for too long, the toxins will start to be reabsorbed into your body. The bowels are also the final stretch for the majority of toxin elimination so when backed up, all toxin elimination is stalled. In this case, you may breakout as your body desperately attempts to dispose of toxins through the skin.

So it’s important to make sure that you’re regularly having full eliminations. For the majority of people that means at least 1 bowel movement a day.

So how can you make that happen if you’re not currently?

1) Keep Your Fiber Intake Low!

If you thought the answer was to eat more fiber, think again! Fiber adds bulk to your stools. Why would adding more bulk help, when your body is struggling to eliminate what you already have? Does adding more cars to a traffic jam help get things moving on the road faster?

I can tell you from experience as an ex-vegan/vegetarian (who ate a very high fiber diet for 10+ years!) that it doesn’t work! For the vast majority of that time I was severely constipated and it wasn’t until I decreased my fiber intake that I actually had regular bowel movements again!

And I’m not alone, many others have had similar experiences. For example one study of 63 people with idiopathic constipation (constipation with an unknown cause) looked at the effects of 6 months of no, low, and high fiber diets on bowel movement frequency. (1)

The 41 participants who completely stopped fiber intake had their bowel frequency increased from 1 motion in 3.75 days to 1 everyday. The 16 participants who reduced their dietary fiber intake, had their bowel frequency increased from 1 motion per 4.19 days to 1 per 1.9 days. The 6 participants who remained on a high fiber diet had no change in the frequency of bowel movement with 1 motion per 6.83 days. (1)

There was also a correlation between lower fiber intake and lower incidences of symptoms associated with constipation as seen in the table below. (1)

Overall, I recommend keeping your fiber intake on the lower end and experimenting to find the right amount for you. You may choose to completely eliminate fiber, however that’s often not necessary and I should note that there are some benefits to including some fiber in your diet which you can find out about here.

2) Have A Routine

Try to go around the same time every morning. Pick a time when you can relax (so not 10 minutes before you have to rush off to work!) and sit on the toilet around that time every morning for 10-15 mins, regardless of if you have to go or not. Feel free to read or go one your phone during this time as it often makes it easier to relax. Eventually, it will start to become a habit and you can listen to your body over the clock.

3) Sit In A Squat-Like Position

Sit in a squat like position where your knees are above your hips and your legs are wide. This may sound strange, but it helps align your intestines properly and makes it easier to go. Think about how you’d go out in nature after all.

4) De-Stress

When you’re in a stressed state (sympathetic state) blood flow is not going to your digestive system. Think about it, a stressed state is designed to alert you of a threat, that’s why it’s called the fight or flight mode. When there’s a threat eating, digesting, and bowel movements simply aren’t a priority! Therefore, it can be very difficult to go regularly, if you are chronically stressed. If this is the case for you, I recommend finding ways to de-stress like reading in the sun, taking a walk, soaking in a tub or hot spring, simplifying your life, etc.

5) Focus On Overall Gut Health

Eliminations are just one part of the whole digestive system. By focusing on optimizing every part of your digestion system, regular eliminations will follow. For this I recommend:

• Eating slow + chewing your food thoroughly
• Avoiding gut harming foods like processed foods; alcohol; gluten; vegetable oils; and not properly prepared grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds
• Leaving at least 3 hours between meals
• Exercising and moving regularly
• Drinking bone broth
• Drinking your water separate from meals
• Listening to your bodies hunger and full cues (Don’t overeat!)
• Avoiding environmental toxins

For more information on optimizing your digestive health, check out my 9 Tips For A Healthy Strong Digestion Article!

6) Stay Hydrated

Hydration is important because water softens stools and acts as a lubricant in the colon. As you can imagine it becomes very difficult and uncomfortable to pass stools when you’re dehydrated. For proper hydration, make sure you’re getting enough electrolytes too.

7) Get Plenty Of Minerals

Minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium are key for muscle contraction and relaxation both of which are key in moving feces through the bowels. Good sources of each include:

Calcium- dairy, bone broth, bone marrow, meat cooked on the bone, eggshells (ground into powder or cooked in broth), salmon roe, prawns, sardines, anchovies, and cuttlefish

Magnesium- bone broth, mackerel, tuna, halibut, sardines, anchovies, shellfish, pear, blueberries, strawberries, parmesan, and dark chocolate

Potassium- pork, beef, lamb, salmon, bananas, dates, avocados, potatoes, kiwi, guava, sardines, halibut, trout, anchovies, beets, acorn squash, mushrooms, shellfish, and coconut water

Sodium- high quality mineral salts and seafood

8) Cleanse

Sometimes cleansing is needed to help clear away a blockage and re-set your colon. Some options for a colon cleanse include:

• Enemas or colonics (You can find how to do an enema here)
• Herbal bowel moving supplements
• Parasite cleansing (Occasionally large parasites may block part of your colon, making it difficult for stools to pass through)
• A very simple easy to digest diet of warm soups, well cooked simple foods, and lots of hydrating liquids

While cleansing can be very helpful for getting your colon back on track, it’s meant as a short term practice. Don’t depend on regular cleansing in order to have regular bowel movements and don’t take laxative supplements on a regular basis (especially ones that cause dependence like senna). For more info on cleansing, check out my article: In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body.

* If you’re struggling with constipation, I feel for you. I struggled with it for over 10 years! 2-3 hard uncomfortable bowel movements was my norm, until I finally figure out how to overcome my constipation. Now for the last 4 years 7+ healthy bowel movements a week is my norm! If you’re sick and tired of guessing what to do with little to no results, then click here to book a free discovery call with me and I’ll share with you what I teach my constipated clients to get them having 5+ bowel movements a week in 2-4 months time!

Works Cited

1. Ho, Kok-Sun et al. “Stopping or reducing dietary fiber intake reduces constipation and its associated symptoms.” World journal of gastroenterology vol. 18,33 (2012): 4593-6. doi:10.3748/wjg.v18.i33.4593