Ever wonder what morning routine that cleanses your gut?
Most people don’t, I heard Jim Kwik say this morning, that he takes probiotics in the morning to facilitate gut health.
According to him, our gut is our “second brain” and it got me wondering…What other morning routine activities are best for digestion and keeping your gut healthy?
This morning routine definitely cleanses your gut:
- Wake up with a relaxing alarm.
- Avoid processed junk food for breakfast.
- Take a morning probiotic, or substitute that probiotic for your favorite fermented food (high quality yogurt) if you’re so inclined.
- Find a way to include food stuffs that are optimal for gut health like almonds (for the polyphenols) , apple cider vinegar, turmeric, psyllium husk and leafy greens (green smoothie).
- Do some breathing exercises to limit your stress levels each morning – and make sure you get enough rest to ensure your gut can rid itself of the toxins you accumulated the day before.
Before we get started I want to address supplements. The best probiotics for gut health (other than the ones discussed in this post) are:
- Masszymes – contains all enzymes needed for optimal digestion
- Pm03 – eliminates bad bacteria, eats excess sugar and protects your gut from inflammation/viruses.
Why is gut health so important?
You mean besides the obvious (& awful) symptoms you might be experiencing right now because of your unhealthy and toxic gut area?
- Constipation or diarrhea
- Intense Bloat
- Joint pain
- Random or recently developed allergies
- Uncharacteristic mood swings
- General Fatigue
- Various types of depression
- Headaches and migraines
But also…
Our gut is called our second brain, or our enteric nervous system – our gut is literally filled with neural tissues and neurotransmitters that send signals to our brains and the rest of our bodies!
Did you know that? I didn’t until today and it’s fascinating personally.
The neurotransmitters measure all the way from our esophagus to our ass (uh oh) and because they’re constantly sending signals to our brain (transmitting neurally) we can literally feel the state and condition of our gut.
So when our gut is shitty, we feel shitty. Make sense?
Right now I’m thinking about that show Dirtiest Jobs where the guy travels around and helps people with their incredibly awful occupations.
One of those people was a sewer management specialist – which means he cleaned out people’s septic tanks, where everything we flush down the toilet goes.
Believe it or not, there are people who’s guts look like those nasty-crap filled tanks, and it’s better if we’re not one of them – because if our tank (gut) is nasty, were going to feel nasty, and when we feel nasty, life is nasty.
Not to mention we open ourselves up to a whole host of health problems!
Michael Gershon at Columbia University Medical Center says that “A big part of our emotions is probably influenced by the nerves in our gut…”
In other words, when our gut is all jacked up and nasty, we suffer from a host of uncomfortable physical ailments, and can even experience depression and anxiety.
What gets in the way of a healthy gut?
So what happens to our guts that make them so upset with us?
Well – you might not like it, but I doubt you’ll be surprised!
- Lack of sleep: make sure you’re experiencing undisturbed, peaceful sleep, and sleep at the same time each day so your circadian rhythm isn’t thrown off!
- Killing healthy bacteria in our gut – like antibiotics for no reason
- Eat the right foods: fermented foods like sauerkraut, kombucha, and foods rich in polyphenols like almonds, dark chocolate, berries, beans and vegetables are great
- Not enough fiber to keep our gut bacteria healthy!
- Lack of exercise
Activities that cleanse your gut
Regular Exercise: exercise produces a fatty acid in your gut that is good for the bacteria who live there. When the bacteria in your gut are happy, your gut is happy in general.
Mindfulness and breathing Exercises: Mindfulness exercises and controlled breathing have been proven to reduce stress and improve overall mode.
Get some ayurveda in you: people who follow the ayurvedic tradition are obsessed with making sure what they eat, and how they behave optimises their bodies for health and longevity.
According to ayurvedic advice – mix some warm water with lemon and honey each morning and you will cleanse your digestive tract, jumpstart your metabolism and feel more energy. It’s a nice alternative to the gallon of coffee we drink 🙂
#1 Morning Routine that Actually Cleanses your Gut!
After doing all this research, I’ve decided that it’s probably wise for both of us to take a few pieces of advice from everyone – doctor, scientist and yogi, because they all seem to know a little bit about how to keep our guts safe and sound!
Best Morning Routine for Digestion (cleanses your gut)
- Your morning routine starts the night before – turn off your phone, get adequate sleep and wake up with a peaceful sounding alarm.
- Have your honey, warm water, lemon juice mixture already prepared. If you have probiotic supplements, take them.
- Do some short, harmless breathing. If you wake up in a frenzy, and mad elephant yourself through your house trying to get ready, you’re only shooting yourself in the foot. 5 minutes should be good. Chill out.
- Make yourself a green smoothie for breakfast. Include turmeric for spice, leafy greens, psyllium husk, and some berries to sweeten it up!
- Can you exercise in the morning? Even a short walk will be good for you.
- Pack some yogurt for work if you can shake it!
Doctor’s recommended routine that actually cleanses your Gut!
Actually, most doctors I’ve run into on the web simply recommend more probiotic filled food.
Medicine seems to feel that increase the strength of the ecosystem in your gut is the best way to increase overall gut health.
Foods that are high in probiotics are:
- Yogurt
- Kefir
- Saurkraut
- Miso
- Kimchi
Just for your information, the Harvard Medical Website says the best source of healthy probiotics is yogurt.
Yogurt is simple to eat, but don’t get the sweetened sugary yogurt…I mean honestly, do you trust that crap?
Get some plain white yogurt with no added sugar.
That’s the good stuff.
Make a dressing out of it or something. That’s what I do. Or you can just mix it into other food, make smoothies with it, or just eat it plain.
Final thoughts on Morning Gut Health
The fact that our gut has such a great effect on our lives – our physical and emotional health – is astounding.
It’s important to understand that the health of your gut is dependent upon the health of the microbes in your gut.
Those microbes live in that environment, and if you pollute that environment with the activities mentioned in this post, you destroy their ability to thrive, just like trash in our streets and polluted water limits our ability to be healthy!
You can either take a purely medical/scientific approach, the Ayurvedic approach, or a mix of both – which honestly cannot hurt because they’re not in disagreement with one another.
Good luck!
