3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Gut Health

By Ozzy Balkanli, February 7, 2018

***New Year, New Me!****

Isn’t that how it goes? We all put ourselves on such a high pedestal when the new year strolls in, but why? We are all human and we make mistakes. I think the best way to have a great year is to not put yourself on a high pedestal and on unattainable goals.

Small wins and small fights will get you to your goals, I promise. When you don’t listen to what the diet industry is telling you to eat, and instead eat what your body is telling you to eat, miracles happen. That is; you start to eat because you love your body and not because you want to punish it. I certainly do not want you to do that. I want you to cherish your beautiful body that was brought into this life in order to live out your best life!

This year I will be focusing more on health and I figured what great way to start then to start with your detoxifying your gut! Gut health is the cause of many, many things. If you can keep your gut healthy, then you can truly feel healthier and happier.* I want you to let go of your expectations, and I want you to take baby steps. If you are more advanced in your health, then I want you to still cherish your small wins everyday and step out of your comfort zone.

So essentially, regardless if you are a beginner or very knowledgeable in the health category, you will both be practicing the same thing – which is small wins and a minor habit change.

As clichéd as the “New Year, New Me” saying is, something about the new year really does feel refreshing. You can really let go of what you didn’t like from the past year, and work on improving yourself for the new year. As I always say, if you are not growing then you are dying. I know, that sounds intense, but it’s true. I’ve seen it happen. When you don’t grow your mind and body, your body reacts negatively (as you would imagine). So, let’s become healthier and happier together – one small win at a time!

Why is gut health important:

In the simplest terms, if you want to have more energy, better skin, feel good, and allow you to shed some weight, then you have to take care of your gut!

These are in no means ways to get “skinny”! This is purely for health as in everything to do with diet should always be about your well being and overall health.

You want to keep yourself healthy and strong to experience life as long as you can, and it’s best to start healthy habits early on. But you’re also never late to change bad habits, so let’s first kick the bad stuff out of our gut to have it function properly in order to absorb the good stuff.

Interesting facts:

Did you know we have more bacteria cells than human cells? Some doctors joke that we are more bacteria then human species.

Serotonin in the body is produced mainly in the gut!!! You know, the feel good stuff that you need to feel happy. 

This is the part where if you want to feel good, you should first try taking care of your gut health. Nothing else you do will work, if you don’t take the gut in order to have more energy.

What happens in our inside excretes into what happens externally. Maintaining the bad bacteria against the good bacteria is a good way to fix all of this.

I know we all have busy lifestyles and doing anything extraordinary for our health is usually out of the question these days. So I wanted to show you these 3 different ways you can improve your gut health without much effort!

3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Gut Health:

1. Lemon/Ginger/Turmeric Shot

As many of you may already know from this old blog post, where I went in depth about  the benefits about lemon, ginger and turmeric, then you already know I like to take these in the mornings. This allows my body to flush out all the toxins while taking in all the benefits of ginger, turmeric, and lemons. It’s a quick and easy way to help your digestion and your gut while improving your health, skin and many, many other functions. It’s quick, easy and I find that if you have a juicer, it makes things even easier, but a blender will work as well.

2. Lemon + Apple Cider Tea

For days that I do not want to take an intense shot, I will have a “tea” version of something that will allow me to detox naturally and improve my gut health. To do this, I pour half or a whole lemon, a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a little bit of honey in luke warm water.  You want to make sure the water is not too hot as this will kill some of the enzymes in the lemon. This tea gives me a boost of energy while cleaning out my gut, helps my digestion, and clears my skin. I really notice the energy right away. If you are trying to consume less coffee, give this a try! The apple cider vinegar has so many benefits which some are actually supported by science, but in its simplest explanation, it stimulates digestion hence why some crazy diets tells you to incorporate this magic item. I’ve been having this every morning lately since its the winter time and it feels nice to have something warm and I really notice the energy and my skin improving – definitely give this a try! If you don’t like apple cider vinegar, you can always just put lemon and some mint.

3. Chia Seeds

Thus far, if none of those options sounded good to you then I would suggest trying chia seeds. This is fairly the quickest way to help your gut. It’s also not as intense as the two other options above. It does have a weird texture, so if you are not into that then you may not like this option. For this one, all you have to do is mix a tablespoon of chia seeds with some water and wait until it becomes a gel like form. Once it is at that consistency, it is ready to consume. You can have this first thing in the morning. The gel like consistency of the chia seeds will allow it to grab (kind of like glue) all of the bad stuff in your body and excrete it easily. If that doesn’t sound good to you, you can always try to incorporate chia seeds in your diet in a more delicious way, like chia seeds pudding!

Why Is Gut Healthy Important?

Gut health is crucial for anyone who is suffering with any of these symptoms:

• Bloating
• Constipation/diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Headaches
• Acne
• Mood swings

Some things to keep in mind:

The first place you should always start your journey to good gut health is with what you are eating. If you work together with the list above and have a good diet, then your gut health will be healed in no time.

Some foods to consider to eat are more greens that are cooked. Perhaps try eliminating dairy out of your diet for about 30 days to see how your gut reacts to it and see if it makes you feel better. You can also try this with gluten, if that seems to be your problem.

Some foods that are great for anti-bacterial properties are grape seed oil, ginger, garlic, fermented vegetables such as saurkraut and oregano oil. Of course, do not take all of these all at once and aim to try one at a time and see what works for you.

Once we have gotten rid of the bad bacteria, we have to bring in the good bacteria. You can do this by taking probiotics everyday. The brand that I love is Garden Of Life brand, which is the one I use. For men, I would suggest this one.

Like I said below, it’s not all that complicated to help your gut everyday. Try one of those and see what works for you! And I hope this allows you to research further about your gut health and to give it a try to keep it healthy.

Until next time,

Ozzy

*These statements have not been administered by the Food and Drug Administration. These foods are not meant to cure, diagnose, treat any diseases.

Disclaimer: No content in this website is intended, or should be constructed, as medical advice. Consumers should consult with their physicians for individual medication needs. This website talks about Dietary Supplements, which are not drugs. They are not intended to treat, cure, diagnose any diseases.  For full disclosure, please read this.

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln