Burgers, Buns, and Beers - the classic American summer weekend meal.

But these classics can leave you with gut rot and feeling like you need a nap during your Monday conference calls. 

Here’s 3 quick tips to ditch the bloat & energize yourself -> 

Tip 1

The obvious: Hydrate with lots of water

Take it one step further: To jumpstart your digestive system and help flush out the toxins make my Gut Revive AM concoction.

• 16 ounces of room temperature or warm water 
• Juice of 1⁄2 lemon or lime
• 1 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• Dash of cayenne pepper
• Dash of unrefined sea salt

Tip 2

The obvious: Eat clean

Foods high in antioxidants like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, dark chocolate, pecans, kale, and spinach are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants scavenge free radicals from the body cells and prevent or reduce the damage caused by oxidation. (1) AKA - antioxidants help sweep up the toxins.

Take it one step further: Take a glutathione...

Do you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up because you finally fell asleep?!

As a stressed out Super WoMOM, it’s difficult to shut down the brain. All you want to do is sleep, but your body refuses to get into the Zen Zone. You toss and turn, annoy the hell out of your spouse, or sometimes rack 3,000 steps while under the covers!

Most of us rely on over-the-counter melatonin to catch our Zzzz’s, so much that our society is immune to its effectiveness.

Melatonin is a hormone in your body that is responsible for regulating your sleep cycles and helping your sleep wake cycle. Your pineal gland and gut are responsible for producing that melatonin. The gut contains at least 400 times more melatonin than the pineal gland. (1) When I see low melatonin levels on a client’s stress hormone panel test it’s an immediate clue about their gut health as deficiency in melatonin have been linked to increase permeability of the gut.  

Fun fact: You...

I’ve been reviewing a lot of blood panel reports from client’s who would explain their lifestyle status as HIGH STRESS.

I get it! As a working mom, we love the challenge of trying to “do it all” but sometimes ignore the chronic cascade stress curve you're riding on. When you operate at 100 mph, 24/7 without proper care in diet, rest, exercise, stress management, and supplements the body will start to breakdown from cortisol dominance.

I’m finding a common denominated among stressed-out mamas, correlations to low stomach acid.

Stomach acid is a key component in the digestive process. When the stomach cannot produce enough acid, key minerals and proteins can’t be absorbed into this body. This leads to vitamin and mineral deficiency. So you may be eating all the right foods but without proper digestion and absorption you may be feeling blah and suffering with chronic symptoms due to nutrient deficiency.

Stomach acid is also responsible for killing...

How do you know when it’s time to focus on gut health?

Plain and simple: a SYMPTOM

A chronic symptom or symptoms is a key indicator it’s time to focus on improving your gut health. For example, low melatonin levels are a window into poor gut health as the gut contains at least 400 times more melatonin than the pineal gland. (1) If you’re having trouble staying asleep or if you feel tired after sleeping several hours this could be an indication your melatonin levels are imbalanced and a good sign you need to focus on gut health. 

3 Quick Tips to Improve Your Gut Health TODAY:

1) Listen to your gut.

Sometimes our mind gives us bad advice (like staying with that old boyfriend for too long, ha!) The gut and brain are connected through the vagus nerve and they communicate when there is distress. Tune in to your body's discomfort signals. Your gut will tell you when it’s unhappy.  Awareness is your ally!

2) Record what you eat in a journal...

Do you find yourself eating at your computer a few times a week? Ok, maybe everyday.

I get it, the working parent duties cause you to eat while multitasking. Even if that means taking a bite, rushing to do an action item, taking another bite, etc. Which only leaves you with a cold stale meal or no meal at all.

Here’s the deal, that stomach pain or bloating may be coming from the simple task of NOT chewing your food. 

Digestion begins in the mouth. As you chew your food, digestive enzymes found in saliva start to break down your food preparing it for absorption. Chewing your food thoroughly helps to achieve maximum absorption of all your vitamins and minerals. (1)

HOW TO CHEW PROPERLY

Chew each mouthful of food at least 30 times, until the food becomes liquid. (WHAT!)

• Chewing breaks down food and makes it easier on the stomach and small intestine
• Saliva assists in the digestion of carbohydrates
• Saliva also makes food more alkaline, reducing bloating and gas

But how is...

10 Fastest Ways to Lose Weight

Why does weight loss feel like a last-minute meeting scheduled on a Friday afternoon? Both promote cranky people, and both take time away from drinking wine.

Losing weight can seem like a daunting task. There’s fear in giving up foods you love and fear in doing something different. Instead of approaching weight loss as a go-no-go situation, try following these simple tips to jumpstart your weight loss by increasing your metabolism first.  

1. Balance your gut health: Having poor gut health usually means sugar cravings because the bad bacteria LOVE sugar! Gut dysbiosis creates an inflammatory system and slows down the metabolism. Add a probiotic like MegaSporeBiotic it will help balance your gut bacteria, produce antioxidants, and rev the metabolism to help burn calories at a faster rate. Use TAKE20 at checkout.
2. Eat fermented foods: Eating fermented foods makes essential nutrients more easily available for the body to use, allowing you to...

Have you ever caught yourself diving into a bag of cookies or chips (or both) for no apparent reason?  Or maybe you went postal on your kids even though they just looked at you funny???

You can officially blame the crazy on your HORMONES!

Hormones affect every tissue and organ in the body. They impact everything from gut function, muscle growth and recovery, bone health, brain function, and play a significant role in managing weight. If hormones are unbalanced the body may have a difficult time living up to the lofty weight-loss goals you have in place. 

Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones most involved in weight loss and appetite control. Ghrelin is responsible for signaling hunger and leptin is responsible for the feeling of satiety. Keeping these hormones in harmony is important for weight-loss efforts. 

So what’s the secret to managing and balancing your weight loss hormones without costly treatments or medication? BIOHACK

How to Biohack Your Hormones

Here...

The holiday spirit came early this year as we’re all desperate to find holiday cheer in 2020. Winter + Covid brings days filled with Netflix & Chill, sweatpants, and warmth found in the most indulgent of foods. Grocery aisles fill up with holiday favorites and social media ads entice you to buy one get one free peppermint bark & snowflake cheetos (who comes up with this stuff?)

Caution goes out the window and we deal with the holiday bloat and raging headaches because it’s “normal” and everyone is doing it! 

You know what everyone one else is doing… complaining about the notorious burden come New Year’s day: the Holiday “15.”

That’s right, the weight gain and feeling BLAH.  

Here’s the thing, I’m not talking about deprivation during the holidays. Instead, I want to give you approachable ideas to help you enjoy the sweetness in life without counting calories and  inevitable gut...

The holiday season is upon us!  Bring on the gut rot and belly bloat!

I know, “This year will be different.” 

But, it doesn’t matter who I speak to, come January 1st you’re in need of a good full body reset. 

In the next few weeks I plan to deliver my favorite holiday tips, tricks and hacks to having a holiday season that’s not filled with multiple trips to the bathroom, pockets full of tylenol & Tums, or wearing out your favorite pair of stretchy pants. 

My favorite tip may sound unrealistic but it’s still my favorite tip….

#1. The 90/10 Rule: 90% of the year, spend 90% of your time, consuming 90% “good for you fuel.” Yes, that means spending 90% of your day eating foods and consuming messages which lift you up and not wear you down. Why??? So come the holidays you don’t have to worry about depriving yourself or going on a “diet” before and after. Just worry about enjoying yourself!!

A...

We use to park our cars and walk into the office, grocery store, or Target (oh how I miss the $300 benders). Now we barely walk from the home office chair to the car! Necessities & shoe splurges are delivered, food is curbside or on doorstep, and the office - well, the corporate office is basically extinct. 

So this just leaves a sedentary society to become MORE SEDENTARY - ugh! 

I get it though, you’re busier than ever and your job title grew from working mom to - Teacher, Doctor, Referee, and IT rep.

You’re exhausted and fitting in time to exercise isn’t on your 87 item “to-do” list. But movement is key to surviving the “Year of Brain Pain.” Movement causes your blood to bring oxygen to our organs, to build muscle and to strengthen the heart and lungs. Researchers are also finding exercise improves the healthy microbes in the gut and helps to carry toxins out of the body - with all those wine bottles and Claw cans...