Are you experiencing any health niggles, which are holding you back from feeling your best?
Acne, ADHD, weight gain, weight loss, mood-swings, inability to cope with even the most trivial of stressful situations, anxiety, depression, achy joints and muscles, fatigue, brain fog, insomnia, IBS, bloated/gassy after meals/all the time, migraines, asthma, allergies, rashes, hair-loss, lack of libido…
I would be bold enough to guess that ALL of us are living with at least one of these symptoms. Most of us just try to ignore them because we’ve tried everything and nothing helps, or we mask the problem with medication like painkillers, synthetic hormones, potions and lotions etc which we all know means the problem is still lingering. Worse still, we don’t even notice these symptoms anymore because they’ve become normal to us!
Think of these symptoms like those annoying warning lights on your car… just a nuisance until the bloody thing breaks down & you realise you should’ve paid attention and fixed the problem. Plus, these warning lights are not only getting in the way of us living life to the full but it may mean that we’re only a few road trips away from a total write-off.
The good news is that you have far more control over your physical and emotional health than you think. “Not me Charly, it’s in my genes” I hear you cry but in recent years we have learned that Epigenetics means that your genes are not your fate. You can actually turn on your good genes and turn off your bad genes with just a few simple lifestyle changes.
If you do nothing else, start by taking care of your gut. Hippocrates was on to something when he taught us that “all health starts in the gut” - to stick to the theme, we need to stop putting petrol in a diesel engine.
Nutrition is vitally important but in the same breath, you can eat all the kale in the world and work out every day but if you hate your job, don’t get enough sleep/sex/probiotics/prebiotic foods/water/love/fun (not in any particular order) and are frequently exposing your body to toxic chemicals, then your gut will be sure to let you know it’s unhappy and does so in the form of the seemingly normal and harmless ailments I mentioned.
The way I manage this is by pretending that my gut Microbiome (the colonies of good bacteria that live inside us all and keep us healthy) is a pet that lives inside me and I have to make sure I take care of her each day.
If you’re struggling with this one - think of your pet. My Golden Retriever Molly was my baby and I looked after her better than I looked after myself. I didn’t feed her junk food, ply her with tequila shots on the weekend, smother her in toxic anti-wrinkle creams every night, give her antibiotics when she was under the weather, never let her run around in the fresh air, antibacterial gel her paws or poke her every time she tried to sleep. You get the idea.
These symptoms often seem fairly harmless until they are not. Think of them as the trailer to a new Netflix series called ‘Chronic Disease’ with episodes which include 1) Cancer 2) Type 2 Diabetes 3) Alzheimer’s 4) Heart Disease 5) Crohn’s Disease… you get the picture!
Tip: Introduce one or more of theses ‘happy gut’ habits each day for 7 days:
Consume a spoonful of a fermented food such as sauerkraut, kimchi or live yoghurt.
Drink a large mug of warm water with 1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt and fresh lemon first thing each morning.
Get an extra 30 minutes sleep every night.
Order/cook one extra portion of fibrous veggies like leafy greens, cabbage, spinach…
Take 4 deep breaths for the count of 4, hold for 7 counts and blow out for 8.
Avoid gluten (but try not to replace with processed ‘gluten-free’ foods)
Write down 3 things you are most grateful for in your life as it is right now.
All lifestyle diseases & symptoms are preventable & reversible - please read that twice - if only we’d look after our bodies half as well as we look after our pets and our cars.
Please email me with a little information on your physical and/or emotional health concern at charly@wellnesswithawhy.com, if you’d like to organise a complimentary health consultation with me.
Wellness wishes from your ‘Microbiome-mad’ friend,
Charly with a WHY x
Look after your microbial friends and they will look after you.