The Healing Process

I have gone from really sick to well. I thought I would share a little bit about this process in the hopes that maybe it encourages anyone who is feeling really sick! There are ways to feel better. It takes time and attention. You can do it.

I’ve “recovered” from being quite sick one and a half times. The first time was pre-motherhood and I was figuring out endometriosis which comes with a whole host of sister-issues like leaky gut, migraines, and thyroid drama. The second time is currently ongoing. Motherhood burnout is what led me to a new round of “recovery” mindset. But, this time, I have a lot less time and a lot less energy, so it has looked pretty different. 

The book/program (it’s both, I’ll have to get some clarity around what to call it) I am working on is supposed to help address this paradox: How do you pick yourself up off the ground when you have absolutely nothing to give?

For now, instead of attempting to answer that from a theoretical standpoint, I’ll tell you what I have done in the past and am doing now.

Let’s start with the past. I was 28, a teacher. 

  1. I had to figure out I was sick

If you’re someone with extreme symptoms that limit your functionality OR someone who has never had your functionality limited by physical symptoms, this might sound crazy. But, there is a large group of people who are in pain of some kind, doing their darndest to get by, go to work, and take care of their families… and the only way to do this is with an extremely high level of dissociation.

Dissociation of mind and body is a useful tool, a painkiller. When symptoms do start to get the attention of someone with excellent dissociative skills, it is because they are REALLY bad. They are SCREAMING at you because a firm talking-to was not getting the job done. 

The first step to decreasing the burden of this pain is to allow your brain to talk to your body and vice versa. It SUUUUCKS. And then, after a while, it doesn’t suck as much…

I was lucky enough to have people observe me and tell me I was sick. A particularly startling remark from my roommate once was, “You know, I feel good after I eat. It’s supposed to give you energy, not make you feel like you have to pass out.” She also gently handed me a resource, a women’s health book, which held my hand through the un-dissociating period. This is part of why I love recommending books to people. They can gently, at the pace that is right for you, make you feel validated, angry, and hopeful all at once. Check out my bookshop if you think you might like a little nudge toward some reading that could change your health story by asking you to let your brain and body check in with each other…

2. I prioritized emotional processing above all else

So, remember the dissociation? When you come out of a lifetime of serious dissociation, the things you realize are TOUGH. If you can turn your mind off to menstrual cramps for 3 days straight to deliver engaging and interactive lessons to a room full of teenagers (or whatever your version of being “on” looks like), you can turn your mind off to personal wrongs made against you, your own wisdom and grief about the state of the world, and even pleasure. We are capable of our own numbing, and it goes both ways: pain and pleasure. 

I wanted to have these feelings and make space for these processes. One of my most uncomfortable endo symptoms is lack of pooping (constipation, but I prefer getting to say poop). It’s not a coincidence that people who can’t process emotions also struggle to process food. For some, that gets fiery (diarrhea), for some, it is numb stagnation (constipation). 

I re-invented my mornings to be 100% dedicated to emotional processing (and pooping). I woke up with two whole hours before I had to leave the house, made some lemon water, and sat in a cozy chair with my cat, a heating pad, sometimes a candle (before candles got canceled), and a notebook. My journaling was almost exclusively initiated with the prompt “I’m letting go of…”

[Side note: My absolute favorite resource that I created for the book/plan I am working on is six weeks of journal prompts that specifically walk you through the release of emotions tied to the function of our most critical organs.]

3. I imagined a timeline 

I looked at this healing process as a season. I knew it was not forever, so I could dig in DEEP without having to commit to forever lifestyle changes. I did it in the winter, so that there was a cocoon type of mentality, and as spring approached, sure enough, I started to get a little antsy and ready to “butterfly.” I did have a little bit of fear of leaving the cocoon. It was soooooo nice in there. But I was ready to try out this new body that I trusted.

The program I am working on is six weeks long. I think this is the sweet spot of leaning in, but not getting overwhelmed or stuck in the safety of a healing bubble, which can really become an identity.

4. Supplements

As a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner I am supposed to be “food first” for nutrition. But, making the transition to nutritious cooking is a PROCESS and I did not have time to wait for my own kitchen learning curve. I leaned heavily on supplements for nutrients that would heal leaky gut (cell junctions and mucosal lining in the gut), replenish nutrient stores (endo and stress steal a lot of nutrients), and make sure that my detox pathways were clear (aka make sure I was pooping).  

If you are struggling, the placebo effect of supplements can do wonders. I recommend this as a crutch when you’re feeling poorly, and then trying to decrease the need for supplements as you begin to recover (and learn to get nutrients from the kitchen). 

5. Boundaries

I quit my job. Being a person who withstands a lot of physical pain means you are usually a person who is willing to withstand a fair amount of other kinds of pain… My job was not “painful” exactly. In fact, it was great in most ways. There was just too much of it, and I regularly had boundaries crossed by the expectations of my community. The boundaries could have been simply limitations of my body, not unreasonable behaviors from others, but, they were boundaries nonetheless. You get to have limits. 

I’m not condoning “quitting your job” as a healing measure (although, lol, I think we can mostly agree that if it were possible, it would be the most impactful thing??). But, I do think that learning my boundaries and APPLYING them was a huge propulsion forward in my overall wellness - a vote of confidence in my own value and believing my own experience.  

6. Food

In some ways, food was the biggest change. I stopped eating a lot of familiar foods, and I started eating some new ones, all in an effort to tame inflammation. But, I also often think back to how changing my diet was more just a tool for enforcing boundaries, declaring how I needed to eat to feel well, and for caring for myself through the act of cooking. 

When we take cooking out of our day-to-day as I had (takeout, restaurants, cafeterias), we also lose the act of self-care and attention. We don’t get to check in on that basic level and say, “What do I need and how can I get that for myself?” When the answer is quick, like, “I need a burger, I’ll get takeout,” we don’t get to go through the motions of lovingly preparing it for ourselves. There is an element of confidence that comes from being able to meet your own needs.

If you’re really burned out right now you might be thinking “Oh my god, f*ck off.” And, that’s fair. It’s not always easy. But if the reframe of “getting to provide for myself” is useful- take it. It was for me at that time.

[Side note: I did not include interactions with medical professionals in this list, but I was in constant conversation with my Dr. and would expect that to be a part of any healing process]

How is recovery looking the second time around?

In present time, as a stay-at-home-but-also-tryna-hustle-and-not-lose-my-shit mom, the strategies above don’t seem so relevant. Well, they’re relevant, as in, they’re what I WISH I could do…but they’re not accessible. My new version of healing is centralized around the concept of reducing my own mental load. 

You will not be surprised to hear that someone who once responded to poorly processed emotions with a lack of pooping similarly responds to the mental overload of motherhood with a lack of pooping. It’s about “metabolizing,” right? Metabolization of emotions, information, stressors, stimulants… 

What this phase of recovery has brought me to is: 

  1. Make a plan with as many elements from my previous recovery as I can reasonably manage.

  2. Let the written down plan “carry the mental load”

  3. Do the plan

There is lots of humility in this version. Three days of routine and I’m on top of the world, two days of toddler illness or canceled childcare, and “I’ll never feel well again.” The ups and downs are a bit more extreme. 

The other major difference? It’s not just a season. It’s a tool. I now have a plan that I can start up when I have a flare. It’s a lifelong commitment to getting out of flares efficiently so that I can feel good most of the time. 

I can’t wait to share more about how this plan has worked/is working/will work in the future for me. And, can’t wait to get it into a shareable format for you.

Please reach out if there’s anything you’d like to know more about from the topics above. Always happy to commiserate, cheer you on, chat, consult, or share more of my own experience.

How exactly does one "get healthy"...?

What if you told someone you wanted to learn a language, asked them what to do, and they said, “You just need to speak it and read it and write it.”

This is kind of what it can feel like you’re feeling burned out with headaches, bad digestion, fatigue, poor immunity, and achy joints and want to “get healthy” but the advice is essentially, “Make healthy lifestyle choices.” 

Right... but… HOW?!?!

In my former career, I was a Spanish teacher. Every Spanish course (ex. Levels 1, 2, 3) has objectives for the end of the year. Let’s say the objective is: be able to introduce yourself with basic biographical information and pleasantries.

Ok, so as the teacher, I’m going to look at that goal, and reverse engineer (backward plan) the course. I’ll start broadly, by first breaking it down into units. My students will need adjectives to describe themselves, some verbs, and some pleasantries. I decide how many days to dedicate to each of these units. Then I’ll go a little deeper. For each unit, they’ll need some practice listening, some practice speaking, and some practice writing. I decide which days I’ll dedicate to each of those types of activities. Then I’ll break it down some MORE. I’ll decide what the actual activities are going to be.

As a new teacher, I would pretty much just wing the activity part. I had a general idea of where we were going, and I had blocked out the units, but I would walk into school each morning needing to pull something together to practice the skills we were working on. This was extremely stressful…

So, once I had a few years under my belt, I decided to sit down before the school year had even started and map out the entire year, all the way down to the actual activities we would do each day.

What. A. Gamechanger.

Walking into school in the morning knowing that the decision of what we were going to do had been thoughtfully made in advance, and that everything I had planned was part of a grander scheme working toward the objective was SO RELAXING. Some days, it felt like I didn’t even have a job. I just got to stroll in, be present with my students, and exercise during my free periods. 

I knew as we moved through the year, that everything we did in the classroom was intentional, working toward our objective, and ( this is key) that we had enough time allotted to do it. 

I also had progress checks with my students (assessments) that allowed me to modify the pace and quantity of certain activities on a day-to-day level as we moved along toward our larger goal. Everyone was really progressing with adjectives, but verbs weren’t going so hot? Great. I could make a slight shift, but always had my grounding to know where I was relative to the larger goal. 

Ok, so what does this have to do with health?

“Getting healthy” is about as complex of a goal as learning a language. This means in order to reach that huge amoeba of a goal, you need to break it down and backward plan!

Consider this:

Big Goal: Learn Spanish. 

Current Objective: Be able to introduce myself with basic biographical info and pleasantries

Things I’ll need: Verbs and adjectives, pleasantries. 

How I’ll get the things I need: Speaking practice, Writing practice, etc. etc.

How I’ll know how it’s going: periodic assessments


With these figured out, I can sit down, look at a calendar, and start to write down the exact speaking activities I want to do on certain days, making sure that I then allot time for the writing activities. I’m assessing priority, and balancing all the skills we need to work on.

Ok, so….. Let’s look at healing from burnout.

Goal: Get healthy

Current Objectives: Reduce inflammation (perhaps in order to reduce joint pain, improve digestion, minimize headaches) 

Things I’ll need: Daily movement, increase in fatty acids, stress reduction

How I’ll get the things I need: yoga and walks, fish oil, meditation and therapy

How I’ll know how it’s going: Symptom tracking

Now…I look at the calendar. How many times can I realistically do yoga or go for a walk? Great. Schedule it. I need to take fish oil daily. Set a reminder. I want to try to meditate for 10 minutes a day and do therapy every two weeks. Schedule it. 

You would never expect to be able to reach a complex goal like learning a language, or any new skill that is so broad, without a plan. The same is true for improving your health. You’re asking your whole brain and body to rewire. It IS learning a new, incredibly broad skill. So, you need a curriculum!

The ability to put the mental load onto a physical piece of paper and leave it there is incredibly liberating and actually, crucial. Just as it was immensely relaxing and stress relieving for me to plan out my year in advance as a teacher, planning out a path to health goes much more smoothly when you release the daily “What am I supposed to be doing?” question and “I know I should make time for X” shame.

Removing mental burden is one of the central ideas behind the program I designed. It’s a backward planned “curriculum” for getting out of burnout, inflammation, or poor immune function (those are all kinda the same). I created a tool for you to use to set goals and backward plan your way to health, down to the necessary daily care tasks.

Now. I need a name for this book/program. Any ideas?!? SEO experts are especially encouraged to submit suggestions ;)

Morality Crisis, Social Media, and...a Book!?

Hello Community,

I took a loooong break from putting info out into the world related to Nutritional Therapy. I wanted to share a little bit about why, and what I’ve been working on.

TL;DR  I had a morality and identity crisis about my services, but I’m back, and I created something I am excited about.

Why the crisis? Well, I’m glad you asked. Allow me to expand:

FIRST: I became a mom… I have a new and undeniable understanding of just how dumb wellness culture is for people whose basic needs are not supported by our larger societal structures. So, while I do still believe in the magic of healing, nutritious food (like, really, I do), I’ve spent most of the past few years wishing we could all just have some affordable goddamn childcare and a healthcare system that doesn’t put us (I know this is not just me) into rage blackouts on a regular basis.

My work in Nutritional Therapy inherently focuses on individual behaviors and habits to support well-being. But, external stressors (lookin’ at you capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy) that are out of our control tend to be the leading factors in our stress, particularly for women and people of color.

It’s extremely burdensome on the individual to make it seem that in ADDITION to weathering the stressors placed on them by external dysfunction or disenfranchisement, they are ALSO responsible for fixing it within their own self. The “do more” narrative of wellness is exhausting. And, like many of you, I suspect, I became exhausted by it and needed a break, and just to be, well… kind of “unwell.”

Reading: Racism Impacts Black Women's Health More than Genetics or Lifestyle

SECOND: I can’t stand Instagram. I crave a good late-night-meme-sesh as much as the next person, but, my tendency towards self-hatred for how I’m spending my time, and anxiety about the general effects of social media on our ability to tolerate each other usually override that pleasure. So, having a business that relied on Instagram got weird. 

There’s also the misinformation conundrum on social media. Who’s vetting what? Who’s reposting who? It just feels tricky to participate in.

Reading: Prevalence of Health Misinformation on Social Media

THIRD: I’m sad about the “everyone trying to sell you something” culture we live in. When my child was 6-months old I paid to be a part of a mom’s circle. The premise was basically that there were a group of us moms and we….gathered…That experience left me so saddened and grossed out by the new normal of monetizating BASIC community interaction. What was “provided” was basically a gathering space and conversation topics. Oof. 

And yet, the services I offer DO need to make me money. I guess I needed some time to grieve this reality. I’m not here to say “I have figured out a way to do this differently!” I’m just here to say it sucks and I needed a break from how much it sucks. 

Ok, so… that was the crisis…Where are we now?

I’m not going to say I am over the whole individual-burden-of-wellness thing, the need to generate income through knowledge, and the reliance on Instagram. But I HAVE come around to believe that NOT using the knowledge and tools that I have available to lessen the effects of stress (whether it is from external actors or our own doing) isn’t making anything better either. I have the tools. Let’s use them.

I also had a transformative experience with my health. Transformative might be a little too positive of a spin. I had a hard time with my health, managing a complicated body that is always bordering on autoimmune dysfunction at the same time as my pandemic postpartum experience (a whole other blog post, perhaps) and three years (and counting, send help) of breastfeeding. I felt unwell for a long, long, sustained period of time, and I had to rethink my tools. 

The transformative piece was that these challenges gave me a new angle. Instead of “what should I do to maintain my health?” I was looking at “what can I manage to do to rescue my health?” This is where a lot of my clients are when they come to me. 

I ended up designing a Nutritional Therapy plan for myself, but, it wasn’t just any plan. Because I was starting in a place of very low energy, not a lot of time or resources to throw at the issue, and a toddler to chase around, I wanted to take ALL of the labor out of figuring out what to do every day to feel good. Reducing “mental load” is, well, a huge part of the mental load of early motherhood (eye roll). I wanted to wake up every day and have clear cut, pre-planned steps that I could take to start to feel better.

So one day, I was feeling fairly well (read: ovulating) and my excitement about resuscitating myself resulted in the creation of an incredibly comprehensive plan. I felt a little bit like this guy (below) for a day, but by the end of it, I had a roadmap for the next six weeks of my life all the way down to grocery lists, exercise classes, supplement reminders, journal prompts…it was ALL in there. I felt so safe and protected, once I had this in place.

Gone were the mornings of waking up with a mountain of “shoulds” and no way to discern which would make an impact. Instead, I had six weeks of self care tasks that I knew would build momentum as I moved through time, helping me to feel better in an observable, measurable way. 

THEN…As I was tweaking this plan for myself, I started to realize what a valuable tool it would be for my clients. THEN, as I was preparing tweaking it for clients, I started to realize I had written……a book.

So, let’s do this! I’m here to invite you to come along with me for the ups and downs, and we’ll see together if I can get this plan-turned-into-a-book out for you and yours to use. Let’s un-mental-burden this wellness shit, eh? Please follow along, like, subscribe, do all the social media things (lol). All encouragement needed and accepted. And, please let me know if YOU are someone who struggles with the mental load of wellness and what would help you!

Thoughts on "Easy" Meal Ideas...


I follow @biglittlefeelings, and they shared this the other day.

 At face value, it made me smile and feel like a part of a group exhale, the way it can feel when we (millennials) all gang up on the expectations of generations before us or unrealistic standards portrayed in the media. It’s undeniably annoying when people on social media try to make their lives look easy-breezy, but what they’re doing is actually super labor intensive and so they end up making the rest of us feel lazy and less than.


But, under the surface, this collective exhale has a little bit more going on, for me…. It’s not just someone quirky showing their “real” selves, exposing their laziness by admitting chopping an onion feels like too much (I am also very much over the social media persona of being super REAL because it’s SO UNIQUE to show that you have FLAWS even though you’re a PERSON) (lol Instagram is terrible) (this should be its own blog) (oh wait I have it written already)… It’s a representation of where we are, collectively, with our understanding of what we eat and how we nourish ourselves.


Having to view the act of eating or feeding ourselves as the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of keeping it together is just…so… Capitalist. Our collective pace of life has made it such that our very basic needs and pleasures have been reduced to afterthoughts and major burdens. Ouch. 


Then, there is this meme floating around…



This feels pretty true to me AND is a really useful reality for food companies who want to capitalize on our exhaustion and sell us convenience. In other words, conditions are just right for people to make money off of helping us to “save time” by de-prioritizing eating… feeding ourselves … nourishing ourselves…ourselves... our HUMANITY. To eat is to be human and should be, in my humble Nutritional Therapy Practitioner opinion, the center of our days. An “easy” or “lazy” meal isn’t where it’s at, it’s just an appealing thing to sell to an exhausted, burned out professional. 



These things all feel true to me:


  • We’ve gotta have jobs/make money somehow to buy food.

  • Every single function of our body depends on what we put in it (food, hydration, supplements, contaminants etc.).

  • Between gathering food (shopping), preparing food, eating and other wellness tasks, it takes/would take almost all day every day to nourish ourselves “appropriately” (I use this word to mean: in line with the needs of our bodies as human bodies and as individuals).

  • It’s an unrealistic expectation that we could nourish ourselves appropriately and make money within the system that most of us need to work within.


So… Shit. What to do?


Part of what I hope to normalize through my work is that nourishing ourselves with proper food intake takes significant time and effort. And, that chopping an onion SHOULD feel like a really, really, really accessible kitchen task. It’s collective burnout and detachment from pleasure that make it seem otherwise.


I always want to work with clients to make food as accessible as possible given the parameters of our modern work-life balance. But I also want to empower my clients (with the privilege to do so) to consider how they can push back against the job market when they’re asked to compromise so much time and energy that they really can’t attend to this essential need. I also hope to deconstruct the comments around “not liking to cook” or being “bad” at cooking. Food is pleasure. If you like pleasure, you like to cook. It is our perceived time poverty that fools us into neglecting this pleasure and skill, and opting for other more immediately rewarding activities in our precious “free” time.


So. Ok. What’s the compromise? We need to nourish ourselves, but dealing with the expectation of doing that “well” while maintaining a job in the current climate is overwhelming and unrealistic and making us feel like failures.


For me, the compromise is…….. ………Meal prep. 


What? Were you expecting a less millennial influencer-y answer? I mean... It makes sense as the “answer” to our generation’s lifestyle. We are burned out, but we are starting to recognize the importance of living in accordance with our design. It’s a logical middle ground between living in your kitchen 24/7 and eating out 3 meals a day. 


ALL OF THIS TO SAY: I have a trick to share with you, if you’re in need of “easy” meal prep ideas (*eye roll* for the irony of this post that’s mad about capitalism and the need for easy meal prep ideas being a post to share an easy meal prep idea). 


THE BIG IDEA: I like to prep a protein and veggies that can be turned into any cuisine throughout the week. I find that onions, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers tend to fit with most spice combos. 


This week I grated some zucchini, carrots and CHOPPED AN ONION, then cooked it up with some ground beef and put it in the fridge. The first time I used it, I was craving a teriyaki sauce, so I made some rice, stirred up my sauce, and piled on some kimchi. The next time I used it, I was craving spaghetti! So, I baked a spaghetti squash, cracked open a jar of spaghetti sauce, and boom, spaghetti… The third time I was in the mood for some curry… you see where this is going? 


Chopping vegetables does seem to be one of the number one barriers for people who are feeling lazy about kitchen tasks, so by doing this I made it so that I only had to chop veggies once, but could enjoy them in my meals all week long. This week I did it with beef, but I’ve been known to do the same thing with tofu, ground turkey or lamb, or chicken. You do you!!!


***As a side note, our brains control our central nervous system and therefore our digestion. The communication between these systems takes a little bit of time to get through. When you cook, your brain has plenty of time to signal to your body that you are about to accept food, calling for the appropriate enzymes to come to action. When, alternatively, you stick something in the microwave for a few minutes while scrolling through your phone, your brain doesn’t signal to your body to prepare for eating, and digestion is negatively impacted! ***


What is Nutrient Density?

In trendy nutrition conversations, folks are always considering their “macros” meaning the macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Each person requires a certain balance of these for optimal function, so they ARE worth considering, but overly focusing on macronutrients leaves out a hugely important element of fueling ourselves: micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). 


When we select a protein for lunch, let’s say, and choose a chicken breast to top our salad, one 4 oz serving will provide about 31g of protein. If we were to choose sardines, we would be getting around 27g of protein. However, the difference in micronutrient content is astounding. Let’s look at calcium, for example. A 4oz serving of chicken contains 14.7mg of calcium while the same quantity of sardines contains 433.2mg!!! And, don’t even get me started on organ meats. Similarly, there are fruits and vegetables that are micronutrient superstars and, bite per bite going up against, let’s say, a banana, offer much more.


So, when I promote “nutrient dense” eating, the idea is to select foods that fuel you in all the ways (think mini cellular functions, bone health, hormone balancing) rather than the surface ways that macros address (bursts of energy, slow burn energy, muscle). 


Deficiency in key micronutrients such as magnesium, Vitamin D, B vitamins and even Vitamin C is considered to be widespread enough to be “epidemic” in the United States. Sometimes, it is about issues like soil quality, what our meat sources themselves are being fed, chemicals leaching nutrients, but it is also largely about which foods we fill up on. Filling up on a not-so-nutrient-dense food (sorry, cupcakes, I’m going to use you as an example, but we all know and understand that cupcakes are delicious and serve a purpose, even if they aren’t nutritional superstars), like cupcakes, means less hunger and room for a nutrient dense food that will satisfy our daily needs. And, by daily needs, I mean like.. On a cellular level. Strictly physically speaking, cupcakes do not offer much that is necessary for our function. So, the more often we eat something like a cupcake rather than something like sardines, the more our micronutrient deficiency may grow. Now. To many people’s taste, sardines are gross and cupcakes are good. So what do we do about that? 


As with all things nutritional, just seek balance. Eat a cupcake when you want one, and learn about nutrient dense superstars to incorporate into other meals:


Eggs

Liver

Sardines 

Salmon

Berries

Hemp seeds


Should I Do a Juice Cleanse? Optimizing Digestion for Detoxification

I’m feeling really constipated and bloated. I feel like I just need to clear everything out of there and start fresh. Do you know any good cleanses?


When you are feeling over-full, bloated, and weighed down, it is easy to be tempted by solutions that offer fast relief and bring a promise of better functionality. Sometimes a “cleanse” sounds like just the thing to get you cleared up and feeling lighter. We love the idea that we can clean our inside environment, just like we can clean our homes or our refrigerator, and get that fresh start, clean slate feeling! The idea of using a cleanse to detoxify our body is deeply satisfying in theory...


Unfortunately, cleaning out our insides is a little more nuanced than emptying out the refrigerator and giving it a wipe down. Our internal detoxification system is complex, and (like a refrigerator, perhaps) sometimes does get overloaded with food and messy. But! If we use a cleanse or stimulants to release toxins within our system without first rehabbing the exit channels, we may be making an even bigger mess of things. It would be kind of like trying to wipe down the shelves of an overfull refrigerator without being able to remove the contents. Chaos! 


Toxins need to have a clear path to leave your body, which means your digestive system needs to be in good condition. Often, when we feel that weighed down feeling that may lead us towards the idea of a “cleanse” it is a sign that our system is struggling somewhere. Perhaps we simply need to add some additional water and fiber to our diets, but there could also be some internal healing of mucosal membranes or rebalancing of the microbiome that need to take place. Without first assessing these needs, and clearing an exit path, a cleanse has the potential to release toxins into an already stressed environment, doing more harm than good and putting you back in the same situation a few weeks later. 


So, you’re saying I can’t just take care of this once and for all and feel better next week?


Unlike clearing out the refrigerator, it’s hard to go from feeling weighed down and bloated to your absolute best in one afternoon. But, the great news is, if you address your digestive system as a whole and making sure toxins have an easy way out, you’re looking at long-term relief and a system that knows how to naturally detoxify every single day!


How does my body do that?


Your liver, lymphatic system, lungs, blood and kidneys and skin are working hard every day to help remove waste and toxins from your body. Eventually, these toxins find their way out through feces, urine, sweat, and even your breath. The best thing you can do, to get to your cleanest, lightest feeling self, is support these organs in doing what they do best day in and day out. Instead of thinking of it as a cleanse, think of it as a tune-up; optimizing the functionality of a well-designed system


Ok, then. What do I do to get this natural detoxification system optimized?


Digestive symptoms such as constipation, bloating, diarrhea, and gas can have different causes for different people. You may end up having a nutrient deficiency, food intolerances that are slowing down your system, dehydration, too much stress, or any number of other causes. Figuring out what is going on in your particular body will help you to support your body in the most efficient way possible. But, as you learn about these causes, there are a few things that are generally beneficial for your detoxification pathways:


Move your body: Movement helps signal to your cells to clear out waste, and can be a little “kick” for the digestive system to get moving.

Regularize your circadian rhythm: Sleep is when detoxification occurs, so maximizing your sleep health is key. You’ll want to wake up with the sun, get plenty of vitamin D, stay away from bright lights at night, and try to keep regular hours for meals, bowel movements, exercise and sleep.

Drink plenty of water: Your system needs fluid to carry waste, so make sure there is plenty going in!