26 Jun Healthy gut habits to free you from overwhelm.

Do you have trouble creating healthy gut habits that stick!

How do you eat healthy all the time?

How do you stay motivated?

Why do you do the things you do? Have you ever wondered…

The answer is simple… But before we go there let me ask you another question.

Do you go to bed without brushing your teeth? I’m secretly hoping the answer is yes to that, because it’s something you should do without question or thinking about.

Why are we talking about tooth brushing?

Because its a healthy habit.

Good and bad habits are so deeply ingrained into you routine, your life, your personality that you don’t need to second guess them, they just happen like clockwork. Unfortunately some set you up for failure and some set you up for success.

I have always had an issue with the word “will power” it’s soooo cheesy and to be honest your body is smarter than you think. It plays tricks on you and most of the time willpower just won’t cut it. When you are trying to break a bad habit it seems impossible and the same goes for creating new healthy habits, it’s so easy to fall back into your old habits or forget the new ones you have attempted to put in place.

CREATING HEALTHY HABITS:

1. You need to be really clear about why you want to implement a healthy habit. 
2. Set a goal with a time frame (say 2 or 3 weeks time).
3. Be crystal clear about how and why you want to make some changes. Maybe you hit rock bottom or maybe you have a health concern you need to address.
4. Remind yourself of the reward or “light at the end of the tunnel” daily. Remind yourself everyday why your are trying to create these healthy habits.
5. Set reminders on your phone or post-it notes around the house where you need them, its so easy to fall into old habits. Set yourself up for success not failure.
6. Reward yourself. After your goal ‘time frame’ is up, tell a friend and go celebrate.
7. Keep it up!

Setting and having healthy habits are what will separate you from week willpower to lifelong changes with a positive outcome. Personally I set non negotiable’s, but these are just a more dramatic way for explaining healthy habits. The language you use can be really powerful too. Using a term like non negotiable might be the “trick” you need to kick a bad habit or make a good one stick. For example not eating gluten is a non negotiable for me. Which takes me from “oh i don’t really eat gluten” to “I DON’T eat gluten”. As I said the language you use can be very powerful. Think about how you can re-word some phrases in your head… after all these are the things on repeat and sometimes the reason you slip back into old habits.

When it comes to improving your health in any way it’s good to set a few habits to ensure you stay on track. Health is not something you achieve without a little effort… it has to be worked at every day in every way.

Small changes compound and can make a huge difference in a week, a month or a year. For example one of the things that made a HUGE change to my gut health was cutting out gluten.

I used to eat it occasionally but now i make a conscious effort to pick GF options on menus because “I DON’T eat gluten”. It is everywhere and while I’m ok with a little, a lot can set off my skin rashes again so for me personally it’s like a bucket that’s filling up drip by drip until it overflows, I know my limits. 

When setting healthy habits there are going to be road blocks and you have to be smarter than your body… preempt your failure. Set yourself up to win and not fail. Set reminders on your phone, in your diary, popups on your computer. Anything that will help you succeed at making your new healthy habit stick and become a part of your life.

Creating some healthy gut habits could include a better food choices, eating in a more stress free environment (to ensure proper digestion), drinking a morning digestive tonic like lemon and ACV drink, kicking the sugar and replacing with stevia. Fermenting sauerkraut 1st weekend of every month (that’s one of mine :). You know what you need to improve… don’t let excuses get in the way… create healthy habits!

So what habits are you going to put in place to not only improve your gut health but to help you maintain a healthy gut…  Tell me in the comments below what healthy gut habits you are going to implement and why it’s important to you.