Love Your Gut

Preface I created Love Your Gut for many reasons. One being my own journey of overcoming a digestive autoimmune diagnosis. Through my healing, I encountered many obstacles and often wondered if I’d ever feel better. I knew others felt this way. So many people have questions about their own nutrition and how to navigate conflicting dietary information or personalize a plan that works for their health. The knowledge I gained from my experience was something I knew could help others step into a better relationship with their bodies reframe their perspective. In my early thirties, I was living a life that seemed great. I was a yoga teacher; I was living internationally and traveling all over the world; and I appeared healthy and happy. From the outside, you would have seen a physically fit body and someone who was exploring health and well-being as a profession. But on the inside, things could not have been more different. I was constantly dealing with the struggles of a recent diagnosis suggestive of Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s is an inflammatory bowel disease most associated with symptoms of abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, fatigue, and malnutrition. Even after ten years of having these symptoms, I didn’t think anything was wrong with me. I didn’t focus too much on my diet, though I did buy organic foods and felt like I was making healthy choices. Exploring world cuisine was a passion point of my travel. I ate what was local and didn’t feel too concerned otherwise. But always being on the lookout for a bathroom during my travels was beginning to take a toll. I was constantly irritable and nervous about what my digestion might do, and because I was trying to hide it (or at least avoid talking about it), I often felt anxious. Due to the microbial imbalances and subsequent lack of nutrients I now know I was experiencing, plus the constant stress of an imbalanced blood sugar, most days I felt tired, my body ached, and I was frustrated. But I was more worried about “living my life” on the outside than I was about focusing on my body and what it was screaming at me back then. Luckily, in the year before this diagnosis, I attended a retreat that forever changed my perspective. I learned that taking care of myself was not about what you saw on the outside; it was actually an inside job. The retreat allowed me to see that I was not giving my body the attention it deserved. Even after working with doctors to overcome this digestive condition, food and supplements weren’t restoring my gut. So, I began investigating more. I looked at my eating habits and the emotional patterns and energy levels that worked alongside them. After years of research and experimentation, I decided to create an easy-to-follow framework that I could share with others who want to understand their own path to nourishment. Love Your Gut is that path. As a certified transformational nutrition coach and holistic chef, I have learned this material through years of study and refining. But I am not a licensed medical professional. I believe this work will be a great benefit to you. This path, however, is about you and your personalized approach. You will have your own unique starting point and outcome based on how you engage with the material. I hope you enjoy this opportunity to learn more about yourself and explore your health in new ways. What’s Wrong with Your Gut? If you’re reading this, you likely have compromised gut health. The sad fact is that almost everyone does. Our food system is harming us with processed foods, increased sugars in food and beverages, genetically modified foods, pesticides, and more. Our lifestyles are harming us with increased amounts of stress, lack of sleep, a culture that praises being busy, and the stimulate-sedate epidemic—where we use stimulants like coffee to get going and sedatives like wine or prescription medications to wind down. To top it off, we are more and more disconnected from our bodies and how they are meant to function. We have totally forgotten how incredible, magical, and complex our bodies are. It’s time to remember and to reconnect with and honor this sacred vessel of your body. “But, Brandi,” you may say, “I exercise. I eat clean. I am on top of it!” In my experience, even when you think you are doing well, you can actually be numb to your body’s true response. Many of us have lost the level of attention needed to take care of our bodies in a deep and tuned-in way that listens to the very personalized needs we have. And one of the most neglected places of all is the digestive system. For almost everyone, the greater digestive system—or what I call your gut—is a vulnerable place, not likely being tended to. The program laid out in this book will encourage you to grow your awareness of what is happening in your body and in your mind so you can restore your digestive system, replenish the health of your gut, and be aware when it shifts in the future. The hardest thing about recognizing a compromised gut is that, unless you get food poisoning or a noticeable pathogen, you’re likely taking a number of small hits every day that make things unhappy. And before you know it, you’re dealing with digestive distress, and you can’t figure out why. Or you just think that your body is doing its normal thing, and you never seek to make any change because it just is the way it is. That’s certainly how I used to be. I learned that my gut, and yours, can be happy, should be happy, and just needs a little (or a lot of) love to get there. While there may be many reasons behind what’s wrong with your gut, it’s important to know there is a way forward. That’s why this book is in your hands.