05: [Mini Dose] Small Steps to Avoid Holiday Bloat with Jackie

[00:00:00] I like to think of bloating it as a beautiful message that your body’s giving you, that it needs some support. It’s like, Hey, can someone give me some help here? And what we sometimes do is ignore that, ignore that symptom, or we grumble about it. We complain about it when it’s actually a really beautiful thing.

So let’s ask ourselves what data can we collect to understand what it, what may be going on for you?

Hi there. Welcome to the field better now, podcast. I’m your host, Jackie Balca. And if you’ve arrived here, no, there is something in here to spark yourself to create a bit of future in your health, in your current. In your relationships, both yourself. And for those around you, just one small action step at a time with so much love and gratitude to be your guide.

Let’s get [00:01:00] started.

Jackie back. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. We are so excited here at the global feel better Institute. This is our first ever episode of a feel better shorty, which is a, just a quick, short and sharp might be five minutes. Might be 10 minutes. That you have asked us to answer. So the first ever salty question comes from Amy.

Lisa, Amy asks, what are some small steps you can take to avoid holiday bloat? What a great question. And one that I’m sure most of us have asked ourselves sometime before. You know, some bloating is completely normal, but a lot of bloating is most definitely common, but not normal. So let’s break that down.

So the philosophy of the global feel better Institute is really simple. And one that we don’t think is talked about enough. So I look at things [00:02:00] as a really simple system. If you imagined a triangle, the first part of that triangle is, are your beliefs, your perspective on things, your attitude towards things.

And so let’s talk about that with bloating. So what is your attitude? Are you a person that feels like all food bloats you, or that you feel like the minute you step out to somebody’s house to dinner or to a restaurant that that food is going to cause you bloating or discomfort in some way? So this is what I call a really low vibe place to hang out and recognizing that and an awareness of.

Is wonderful because it’s a first step to taking causative change. So how about we consider what you would like instead instead of gloating, instead of discomfort, instead of pain, and let’s look at how your attitude and your perspective could change your belief system could change it around that. So a good place to start would be to practice some, uh, affirmations or statements.

And I wrote some down in preparation. So I [00:03:00] digest foods beautifully, or my body knows exactly what to do to digest foods. I celebrate my appetite. I can’t even read my writing. I trust myself and I respect myself enough to choose foods that truly nourish me. So can you see how the vibration, the feeling of these words are really positive and productive?

You say you, your self up, they’re going to set your digestion up really well to go and celebrate with your beautiful friends and family in holiday periods and reduce the risk of potential bloat or significant bloat. So that’s the first thing I want you to explore. What could possibly be going on around your belief system in regards to bloating?

Is it, are they. Thoughts and feelings that are serving you or are they thoughts and feelings that may lo no longer be serving you? So I’ll let you respond to that and I’m, yeah. I’d love to know what you think. Okay. The [00:04:00] second point is it’s more a functional medicine, a deep investigation. Uh, physiologically and biochemically about what might be going on to create the bloating in the first place.

So this is about, you know, bloating is, I like to think of bloating as a beautiful message that your body’s giving you, that it needs some support. It’s like, Hey, can someone give me some help here? And what we sometimes do is ignore either ignore that symptom or we grumble about it. We complain about it when it’s actually a really beautiful thing.

So. Ask ourselves, what data can we collect to understand what it, what may be going on for you? So the first thing is diet the digestive process itself. So the body cannot, or the body is really compromised, has compromised suggestion when we are. In a stress state and stress state for, um, some people might be not getting enough sleep.

It might be stressed from the gut microbiome being out of balance. It might be stress from [00:05:00] a potential conflict with a friend or a colleague. So we’ve all got, might be stressed from environmental toxins. We’ve all got stresses going on in our life. But when the body has too much stress, the ability to break down food is compromised.

So we need to ask ourselves how well is our body actually. Creating digesting, making digestive juices to break down our food. So if you’re in a stressed state, your digestion is pretty much shut down because all of the blood is gone to your extremities because it thinks that you need help sort of running away from that tiger.

So how can we move the body from being in a stress state, to a relaxed state? And when you’re in a relaxed state, you are much better. Uh, quit to be able to digest your food and therefore reduces the risk of bloating. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is what is the state of your gut health itself?

Like, do you have anything, any compromised leak? What we call leaky gut? So is the gut lining itself compromised? Is there an imbalance in your bacteria? So we’ve all got good bacteria, [00:06:00] Bungie yeast para para. Parasites worms per dissolve all these good things. And then we’ve got battery. So think of an army and we’ve got goodies and we’ve got baddies, but we need the goodies to be strong within the baddies to be able to make sure that we’ve got a nice, healthy microbiome.

So we need to look at in your microbiome. Is, are your goodies strong enough to defend against any potential bodies? So that’s the second thing. And then the third thing is I always ask people, what foods do they do really well from and what foods do they maybe not do so well from? So there are foods that create inflammation in the body bloating inflammation.

So there’s a few major culprits that we want to look at. So gluten, soy, dairy corn legumes can cause issues with bloating, histamine type foods can also cause bloating. So your night shades tomato, a white potato eggplant, capsicum. And goji berries. And so when we’re eating foods that create inflammation in the body that can, one result of that [00:07:00] can be digestive issues.

So we always, and then there are other foods that we may not know, and sugar is another one that really creates a lot of inflammation in the gut. So we need to look at your foods in your particular case. Are there foods that are causing you. Discomfort or, and what foods are serving you and then what foods do you know?

You don’t do that well on. And I would say, well, if you know, you don’t do well offer food, then it’s a good time to take it out of your diet for a certain period of time. Whilst you do a deeper investigation about what might be really going on with. So that’s the third thing, and then we need to make a personalized plan.

So this is the part that I find a lot of people are on Dr. Google and asking like, oh my friend, what did you do? And I’m going to do what you did, even though my body’s completely different. So that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. To me. It doesn’t seem that intuitive to do something someone else is doing because it worked for them when you’ve got a completely different set of circumstances.

So we always make a personalized plan for you. So for [00:08:00] example, years ago, I was experiencing incredible bloating and it was around the holiday season. And I’ll never forget the day that I had friends over. I had a group of about five families over and we, it was hot. So we were in bay, this and swimming, and I realized I could see my reflection in the mirror, in the glass windows.

And I realized that. At least six months pregnant. And I was thinking, um, you know, I was fit and toned. And then all of a sudden I had this huge protruding belly and I was like, what is going on? I had never really noticed it. Um, and so I did a deeper investigation and what I realized was around the holidays time, I was drinking a lot of carbonated water.

So water with bubbles in it, I call it bubble water and you know, this is getting a bit, um, uh, TMI potentially. But what happens with carbonated water is that the air bubbles can actually get stuck behind the poop. And so when the air bubbles in my case was stuck behind the poop. And so it was causing myself a [00:09:00] lot of bloating and distress, so that, so the plan for me was actually pretty simple.

I removed the carbonated water from my diet, and then I was able to get all of the excess air out of my bowels and then the bloating went away. So that is a personalized plan for me. That could be. Could, and probably is completely different to a personalized plan for someone that might have significant microbiome imbalances, where they might need to really focus on feeding their good bacteria compared to someone that might be under a significant amount of stress that might need to just look at removing, um, uh, rebalancing their stress hormones and removing it and getting themselves in a really relaxed state before that.

Eight they’re foods compared to someone that might have significant food sensitivities to say gluten and dairy and some other inflammatory foods that just need to remove those foods from their diet. So all of those are completely different circumstances. So can you see the importance of having a really personalized plan [00:10:00] because.

We’re all bio-individual people. So super excited to talk about this topic. So, you know, one thing I always talk about is your appetite should be celebrated. And when we are with family and friends over the holiday period, usually, you know, we are, we’ve got banquets and lots of beautiful food everywhere.

It’s a really nice time to be enjoying yourself whilst you. Are eating these really beautiful nourishing foods. So one thing you should know is that in that environment, usually we are having fun and we’re laughing. And the more we’re in that state, the better equipped you are to digest the foods because your body’s in a really happy place.

And you ask the creating lovely digestive enzymes. So a really good tip is to actually make. Salivate before you start eating salivating is a good example of the digestive process starting. And some times when we walk into a house, we might smell a beautiful [00:11:00] smell of like bros Betties or something like that.

Or we might hear a sound like someone on opening up. Packet of something the rustle and you’ll start celebrating. So the potty is incredible. It has thousands of chemical processes that are geared towards making sure that you digest your food. So we just have to give it the chance to do that. So, yeah, just waiting a little while to smell the smells, to listen to the sounds, to have a conversation, just allowing the brain to connect with the digestive organs of the stomach.

And the pancreas is a really good way to set your body up for success. If you’re like me, I eat super clean. And so when I do go out to restaurants or to other people’s houses, I actually do support myself with digestive enzymes and, um, some supplemental support because there are traces of gluten and things that I don’t normally have in our home environment.

So to give myself the best chance of success, I supplement with those digestive enzymes. We know that every year. [00:12:00] Over the ages of about 30 ish, um, that our digestive juices did start to decline. So that’s something that I do that really makes sure that I don’t experience bloating and that my stomach is nice and flat, which to me is comfortable.

And I love feeling like that. I love feeling like I am a lovely and flat rather than. Protruding swollen belly. Another thing you can do, which is a great support. Also a beautiful prebiotic is apple cider vinegar. I love apple cider vinegar. So when I get home, if I’ve been out for a meal at a restaurant where, you know, they’ve, maybe the foods had some dressings or sources or things that I don’t normally eat at home, I will have a shot.

Apple cider vinegar. And that is a really nice way to support the digestive process so that I can just move everything out of the body and I’ll wake up in the morning and it’s all been digested and I’ll poop it out. Another great support like that is aloe Vera juice. So there’s some [00:13:00] beautiful supports that you can have to ensure that you’re moving the food out of the system.

And that brings me to my final point before I let you go, which is poop. So sometimes. I feel they’re bloated when actually they’re actually, their ballot is full of poo. Now we’re supposed to poo 2, 3, 4 times really. We’re supposed to pro after our meals. So a lot of people that I see in my clinic, maybe they’re pooing once a day.

And I think that’s fantastic. Well, that’s really not enough. Or maybe they’re pooing every few days now that is absolutely not acceptable to the body. That is a backup of waste and toxins that needs to be moved out of the body. So have a good. Examination of what is going on for you in put plaid. And if you know me, you know, that I love talking about poo.

It’s a really good thing to be confident and courageous enough to examine your poop. It should be lovely and smooth and brown and look like a sausage or a snake, and it should sink to the bottom. And so you [00:14:00] can Google the Bristol stool chart. It’s a wonderful way to have a look at what does my poop look like.

And if it doesn’t look normal, So it doesn’t look like what I just described. Well, then you need to do a deeper investigation about what is causing your body to be imbalanced, because that is your body saying, hello, I’m not putting enough or hello, my poos floating instead of sinking, I need a little bit of support.

So remember we talked about the body being, giving you gifts as messages. And that’s my gold cookie. Yeah. And he’s saying, oh, take me out for a bit. We’re in a boat. That’s your body giving me beautiful messages. So don’t ignore the messages, respect yourself. You are worth it. You are lovable. You matter. So take the time to explore.

What’s really going on for you. So the three things we’ve covered, what is your attitudes? Perspective towards the situation in this case, you know, do you have any limiting beliefs or self-sabotaging beliefs around bloating? And are you a person that always floats or [00:15:00] are you a person that just is really comfortable after your meals and you, you know, you trust your body to do exactly what it needs to do.

The second point was functionally, is there something going on is my body trying to send me a message, uh, that there might be an imbalance somewhere in the digestive track. Somewhere in my hormones, compromising my digestion. And the third point was what is my personalized plan to address any imbalances or to address, to take small steps, to Amy’s question, to reduce bloating over the holiday period.

And we talked about some supports to help you do that, making sure that you’re in a relaxed state to optimize digestion so that you can celebrate those nourishing foods that you are putting in your. Beautiful body so that you can live a life worth living and feel better and better and better. I hope you enjoy this sortie on the small steps that you can take to avoid holiday bloat.

Thank you so much with [00:16:00] the Amy for your question signing. Jackie, thank you so much for listening to our, so we are so thankful you are here and we can’t do this show without you. And if you made it to the end of this episode, celebrate yourself because it means you are truly dedicated to feeling better in your health, in your career, in your relationships.

And. So proud of you, and if you want more of the feel better now, so tune in every Monday, Wednesday for new episodes and you can subscribe. So you don’t miss out on all the guidance and any special bonus episodes. You can follow me on social media at Jackie Belker. And if you want the chance to have your question answered or be on a coaching call with me live, you can sign up at field better.

institute.com/signup. Again, that’s feel better. The cheat.com/signup signing out. See you next week. Jackie [00:17:00] buh-bye

Jackie Bowker