As you will have been able to understand from the first four articles, we really leave no stone unturned in our quest to help you to change your body shape. For the last part of our series we’re discussing digestion.
Covering all of these areas, ultimately means that your diet moving forward can be sustainable. You can learn how to cook very healthy meals, live the life you want, socialise and still stay in shape.
Now for some people we address their food quality and the exercise components, and they still struggle to lose body fat (you might have found this for yourself). In many cases if they were on their own, they would usually try to add in more training or lower their calories. This unfortunately won’t work, especially where the digestive system is concerned.
You see, the digestive system is pretty complex, and its job is to digest, break down, and then absorb the food that you eat in to your blood stream. At this point it is de- livered around your body to support all of your systems (such as the heart, kidneys, brain and liver). If your body isn’t able to break down your food ef ciently, many of your systems begin to function at a slower rate. You will feel sluggish, it will impact your mood, it will impact your sleep, your blood sugar levels (causing you to eat poor food), and you’ll also struggle to add muscle tissue (key for achieving maximal fat loss).
The problem for so many people, is that they have very little understanding of digestive health. Therefore, they wouldn’t even think to look into it.
So, to identify any potential digestive system issues, please ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you suffer from bloating when you eat a meal?
- Do you suffer from gas?
- Do you regularly have loose stools?
- Do you suffer from constipation?
- Do you feel fatigued after eating a meal?
- Are there any key foods that cause you severe discomfort when you eat them?
If you answered yes to at least three of the questions above, the chances are you suffer from digestive issues. Now the true way to find out what’s going on, is to carry out a comprehensive stool analysis (lab test). You can speak to your Doctor about these if you suspect you do have a serious problem.
However, in many cases, you will see relief from many issues by adding in some very basic supplements.
Here are some of our top tips.
- Purchase a broad-based digestive enzyme from your local health shop. You would add one digestive enzyme to each main meal. By adding a broad-based enzyme, you will be adding enzymes that you might be lacking.
- Add 5 grams of glutamine to your water 3 times per day. You will be able to buy this from your local health shop. Glutamine has been shown to protect and repair the gut lining. It is often damaged if you are showing signs of food intolerances.
- Add in a good quality pro biotic supplement before bed. Aim to get between 10 and 20 billion live bacteria. Stress, poor digestive health, anti-biotic use and poor-quality food, can cause your levels of good bacteria to drop. Adding in a good quality pro biotic will top up your levels and support your immune system health too.
- Have a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar twice per day. This supports the pro- duction of stomach acid, which will help with the breakdown of your food.
- Remove any food groups that cause you any level of irritation. The usual suspects are nuts, eggs, gluten and dairy
Over the years we have seen so many areas of health improve, simply by addressing digestion. Sleep quality, mood, memory, recovery from exercise and skin health to name just a few.
The ultimate key to getting lean and losing weight, is to focus on getting your body in the very best of health. The worse your internal and cellular health, the slower your body will respond to anything you throw at it.
We really hope you found this mini-series useful. If you missed any of the other articles please click here or if you want any help or advice please complete the contact form below or click here to get started and we would be happy to help!