5 ways you can improve your digestion TODAY!
Your digestion can get better!
This article is Part 4 of the digestion series:
It’s easy to read about how digestion works. But knowing the mechanism for your discomfort is only half of the equation.
You need at-home strategies that will improve your digestive system right away!
Forewarning, these are SUPER SIMPLE strategies. And they are effective!
Don’t skip this because it seems too simple to make a difference.
Don’t pass this up because you’ve been searching for answers for so long that you’re convinced this couldn’t work.
It’s the small, deliberate steps that make the biggest difference.
I promise you, if you do these 5 things every day, you will see a difference.
Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning
Sit down to eat and take 3 deep breaths.
Sip digestive bitters or apple cider vinegar a few minutes before eating
Chew until your food is liquid
Take time to poop!
These are the 5 foundational steps to proper digestion. When I’m working with a client on healing their digestion I always have them start here. So many chronic symptoms resolve with these simple steps. Symptoms often appear in layers. Implementing simple strategies such as these will pull away the first, superficial layer. This allows us to see deeper, to the root cause.
The body has incredible power to heal itself when given the right nutrients! It’s waiting for you to take the first step!
Lets go through each of these one by one. The steps are simple, but the affect they have on your body are immense!
1. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning
Your body needs a lot of water to function. Fluids are lost every day through using the bathroom, sweating, and even breathing! You naturally become dehydrated throughout the night while you sleep. Your digestive system is especially dependent on water. Having a big glass of water in the morning prepares the small and large intestine for your first meal of the day!
2. Sit down to eat and take 3 deep breaths.
In part 2 of this series we talked about how your brain is the first key player in the digestive process. Your brain is like the sentry in a watch tower. As soon as you see, smell, or even THINK about food, your brain is on the megaphone to the rest of your body! At least… that’s how it’s supposed to work. The signals to start producing stomach acid don’t get sent out ff your body has a hard time switching over to the “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system. The trick here is that you have to actually rest to digest! Sitting down and taking three deep breaths tells your body it's safe to relax.
3. Sip digestive bitters or apple cider vinegar a few minutes before eating
Drinking apple cider vinegar in water can improve the breakdown of your food while your body is learning how to access the parasympathetic nervous system. All you need is about 1 teaspoon in 8 ounces. This is not a solution to the problem. It’s a tool to get your body digesting more effectively while you work on the real problem. Often times, the real problem is being too dang stressed all the time (raising my hand here)! Apple cider vinegar also contains enzymes like the ones produced by your pancreas. It also nourish beneficial bacteria, while preventing overgrowth of bad bacteria!
4. Chew until your food is liquid
Did you know that your stomach cannot make up for poorly chewed food? It’s true! There are no grinders inside your stomach. Yes, your stomach churns but it cannot grind. The churning mixes the food with stomach acid and enzymes to break it down chemically. But before that can happen, the food has to be chewed up into tiny pieces. Your teeth are the only part of your body with the ability to do this. It will feel weird at first, but chew your food until it’s liquid. The rest of your body will thank you!
5. Take time to poop!
I have never meet a person who suffered from having too much time on their hands. We are all so busy juggling family, work, passions, a social life, even the dang laundry! This is especially important if you tend to be an A type personality, always on the go, and more on the constipated side. Sometimes, you just need to give yourself a few minutes of piece and quiet on the toilet! Not 15 seconds. A few minutes. This is not a glamorous recommendation, but hey, you’ve been wanting to find time to meditate anyway, right? 😉