Digestive Vibrance Secrets: Food Combining, Gut Love & Intuitive Living

Okay, cool. Hello everybody. So I am here with Jodie Louise, and I met Jodie here in Bali through different women's health groups that I'm a part of. And I was really impressed by her expertise around digestive health. And, um, she helped to guide me through something personally. So I wanted to bring her in here and share some of her tips and her strategies around digestive health. And so Jodie Louise is a— she supports goddesses in their digestive health, and I really love that. And she's really coming from more of a holistic perspective. As many of you know, I'm really moving away personally, and in what I'm advocating to all of you around moving away from restrictive eating and just wanted to give you guys some tools to tune into yourself intuitively and really honor your own inner signals. So I will pass it off to Jodi. We already discussed some things that we wanted to talk with you about, and I am really excited and I think it is going to be really helpful and things that you can really put into action. Easily and immediately. So thank you so much for being here, Jodie, and taking the time to talk with my community and sharing what has been working with the clients that you've been working with. And I know this is your passion and you're always getting new knowledge and testing things out.

Yeah, thank you for having me. So I love talking about digestion and I love connecting with other women and just sharing what I've learned on my journey, which went from being in extreme discomfort with my belly— I looked like I was pregnant— and to now have a flat stomach and feel confident in my body and to just feel free. Because the biggest thing that I find when my clients come to me is that they feel so overwhelmed.

Mm-hmm.

They, they don't know what to eat. They're told different things from different health practitioners, and they just got to the point that they just give Give up because they don't know, and they've tried all these restrictive diets, and they're not getting anywhere. And some of them are gaining more weight; it's getting worse. And the biggest thing that I find that comes up, and the greatest healer for most digestive issues, is actually relaxing, not being so restrictive, and just not worrying about why we're doing this. And this is this, and da da da da. And I need to know the science of what's. Going on in the colon, it's like the body's really simple. If you're stressed and worried, then the digestive system stops working. It just shuts down. So it's really simple. Just coming down to just okay, like relaxing. But we live in such a stressful world that it makes it hard. And you know, the medical system is designed to put fear into us, so we buy the supplements and we buy the health products. They're constantly finding out our pains and struggles. Do you have gas and bloating? And do you have this? And da da da. And you're like, yes, I'll take your thing. I'll do anything to get rid of the gas and bloating in this pregnant belly that I have. And I tried all the supplements, all the different things, and I think it made me worse. I really, I really do.

And so what was like the turning point for you and what like specifically did you do and what you now recommend to your clients to reduce bloating and to get just more of a comfortable feeling in your belly and your digestive system?

Yeah, so I tried all of the diets under the sun, and then all of a sudden, like, I'd feel like I was really, really good, and then something stressful would happen, and then I'd be back to where I started again. And it was at that point that I started to realize there's more, and I started to do emotional work and all of that. And I definitely noticed when I started to combine and have a full holistic approach that I started to get results. But, you know, the number one part was letting go of control. Letting go of that restriction, that's a huge part of having a more balanced diet and not being so restrictive. I did everything. I mean, I've done 30-day juice cleanses, I was raw vegan for a year, I've been fruitarian, paleo, keto, you name it, I've tried it all. And that's the biggest lesson I learned, to not be so restrictive.

So when you, um, when you started to give up the restrictions, I'm, I'm guessing this felt scary. Was it something that you felt, um, results right away, or did it take you some time?

It definitely took me time because I mean, even now, to this very moment, I'm seeing marketing messages. I'm seeing things pop up. People are telling me things— you shouldn't eat this, you shouldn't eat that, you have to have this, and if you don't have this— that even sometimes I think maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe.

Maybe I don't know what I'm doing. And that's because that's how the media and everything wants us to feel. And it's about coming back to myself and listening to my own body. So this is, this has been the turning point for me, is being like, actually, I'm not listening to any of you. I don't care what you say to me. My body says no. When I eat that, I don't feel good. When I do that, it doesn't feel good. And getting to the point of being so clear that I know my body and what it needs.

Mm-hmm.

No one knows. No one knows. And I even say that with my clients, I say, When I'm with you, anything I share with you, if you get a contraction in your system, if you feel, that's your body telling you it's a no. So I encourage you to just take what resonates. Anything I say to you that feels expansive and you're like, yes, that feels good, do that. And sometimes it takes time. Yes.

Like I was sharing with you before the call that like I had this donut craving that would not go away. And it did feel expansive and it actually, like, I felt really good eating it.

Yes, exactly. And it is a lot of mindset. If we're eating something and we're like, I shouldn't be eating this, this is bad for me, you're telling your body, you know, everything is energy. And you might have heard of people that like program their water where they write messages on their water and intentions because it actually informs the water molecules. And there's been studies done on this. And it's no different on the foods that we're eating. If we set an intention before we eat it and tell our body what to do with that— I always say when I eat something bad, which bad is a word I'm removing from my dictionary, but I say that to help you see where I'm going with this, right? I, I say, okay, I want you to go into my body, give me joy, and, and help me enjoy this. And right now I'm I've been having a bad day and I really deserve to nourish my body. And anything that my body doesn't need, please let go of it with grace and ease.

Mmm.

And that's like my little mantra when I eat something. And then I make noises, I'm like, mmm. And I tell my body it's safe, it's okay, you're gonna be okay. But if I'm eating it and I'm like, this is bad, I'm gonna get gas and I'm gonna be on the toilet all night, what do you think is gonna happen?

Right. Well, see, and that's so interesting. And I was talking to— I went and had dinner last night. It was a heavy dinner, right? And I was like, I'm not ascribing to these definitions anymore that something's heavy or something is fattening or whatever. And I said, I have observed that when I eat something, it actually doesn't even matter how, quote, fattening it is. But let's say it is fattening and I eat it with guilt.

Yeah.

I will notice that it will stay on my body. If I eat it and I have no guilt, the same food, it won't. I am like, I was telling her, I don't know how this works. But I've just noticed that when I eat something with guilt, it will like stay on my body more.

Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's fascinating. And it's like this is the idea of labeling. All of these things have been given names and labels, and it's like okay, sugar is bad, and this is that, and da da da da. How do we really know what's good and bad for us? We've been told because. We have an idea. I mean, you might think bananas are good for you, I might think they're bad for me. You could eat bananas and, and you could be like, oh, I'm fine on bananas. Or, and because I think they're bad for me, I'll be sitting like there in a ball curled up cramping.

Mm-hmm.

All because our mind has made up an identification with these foods, good or bad. And that's where it's coming back. We're speaking about this a little bit before, is coming back to the body and listening When I eat this food, do I feel good? No, don't eat it. Yes, eat it. You know, it can change from day to day, different times of the month. Sometimes I feel like eating certain foods and other times I'm like, oh, I just don't want to have that at all.

Right. Yeah. And you could even be in the process of eating something that you thought was good and find if you're tuning into yourself that it's not really feeling good and it would be a good idea to stop. You know, you learned some new information that it wasn't actually something that was feeling good in your body.

Yes.

Right? When you're in tune. So in terms of like the bloating and the— let's say, I know so many of us struggle with bloating at some point throughout the month or throughout a day or whatever. What are a couple simple strategies that you could share for reducing bloating?

Yeah, so I'd suggest slowing down and in all ways possible, from sitting on the toilet longer. Women sit on the toilet so much less than men. Men will sit there reading a book, they'll be checking their phone, they'll just sit there. But women are so busy, probably because they're mums or they have more responsibility, just because our minds actually think a lot more than men. We are— Designed to have a different mind because we are, you know, generally looking after kids and needing to be aware that where are they, what are they doing, things like that. So taking time to sit on the toilet, taking time to eat, mindfully eating, not scoffing it down because that creates gas, breathing, taking it slow, putting the hands on the stomach and just giving it permission to relax. Usually it's because it's contraction and And it's like tense. And another really big game changer is actually paying attention to your face. If you're clenching your teeth like this, your stomach actually mirrors your face. So, you know, if you see someone in a cafe and you can tell that they're like red in the face and clenching, you know that they're probably constipated.

Really interesting. So if you relax your face— now, are you talking about like throughout the day or while you're actually eating?

All the time, you know, just feeling. And so sometimes I'll notice I'm getting tense. I'm like, ah, I'm just like making noises. I make a lot of noises, which some people think I'm odd, but I do it when I eat. I'm like, hmm, it really relaxes everything. Do you even feel it around the whole stomach region when you take a breath? Like, ah, I always think that relax your pelvic floor and Uh-huh. Constantly contracting. Like, most people's, like, butthole is constantly so tense. And we're all a little bit different, but it's about relaxing that, that region. And not— and that actually, it actually comes from control, comes from when we are learned, when we learn to be toilet trained. And depending on how that experience was, impact that. So we will have different levels of Trauma and holding. But we're taught to hold, you know, we can't— it's not appropriate to just do a poo on the floor. So we've learned to control that.

Right.

Some people, you know, depending on their upbringing, maybe would hold for long, long periods of time. I mean, I met a woman here in Bali that goes to the toilet every 25 days, you know, like this is a real thing. And that had been happening since she was young. So she basically didn't know it was wrong. No one ever told her you're meant to actually go to the toilet 2 to 3 times a day. You should do a bowel movement. So, wow, that probably comes from some level of trauma where her body's just holding on so tight. So that relaxation piece is more important than anything that you're, that you're eating.

Interesting.

But from an eating perspective, I find, you know, it is not necessarily what you're eating, but how. So food combining is a game changer. If you're bloated in your belly, it could be because there's fermentation happening.

Mm-hmm.

For example, you're having a big heavy lunch and then you eat a piece of fruit after that. What's going to happen is they digest at different rates. So the big heavy meal could be, you know, there's a label again, heavy, 3 hours, and then you eat this piece of fruit that digests in half an hour. So what's going to happen is it's literally going to sit on top and start to ferment. So starting to understand food combining and how to eat your food can actually be less restrictive. It's just like, oh, like when I eat my fruit afterwards, I feel sick. So a lot of people say I eat fruit and I get bloated. So it's like, you're probably not necessarily getting bloated from the fruit. It's how you're eating the fruit and when.

Right, right.

Timing, like I usually say, eat fruits in the morning and as soon as you eat other foods, don't have fruits again. That's my suggestion with fruits.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I like, you know, what you're talking about because, um, it's, we have to, uh, be fluid and flexible in terms of how we take in information and how we apply it. Right. Like everything that you're sharing is really in the spirit, from the way I see it, in the spirit of experimentation. Like, here's a suggestion: if you're bloating and you're eating fruit after meals, maybe experiment with how does it feel in your body if you have fruits, you know, separated from the other foods that you're eating. Experiment with it. Like, you're the ultimate authority on your body. See how that feels for you.

Totally, yeah. And I, I wrote a book on food combining, and I was struggling so much when I was writing it because I was— I did a chart like these foods shouldn't go with this group, and it's like science says this. Science, which science is constantly being proven wrong, and science is always there to prove what it needs to prove. So I always try and put little reminders like this is just a guide.

Mm-hmm.

Some people may be able to eat this If you're getting severe digestive issues, this is a good thing to consider. But right, all different, you know. I know people that can eat watermelon after a heavy meal, you know, and they're fine, right? For me, it's a no-no. And is that because I know that that's wrong? Maybe, you know.

For whatever reason, it's just not working for you right now.

Exactly. So, you know, it is a guide. And I do believe, you know, I have had moments in my life where I've noticed that I'm like, well, I can eat whatever I want because, you know, I've got power over my body, I'm so connected. And there is an element of the physical body that we also need to consider, that it is a real physical body, and we do have a gut microbiome, and there are also parasites that tell us what they want to eat. So there has to be some discernment. Of learning and experimenting. Like, what is me? What is the sugar craving from the parasites? You know, what is my mind telling me I should be eating? Like, I need to have this, this amount of greens every day, you know? Like, what is true?

Right. Yeah. What is true for you? And like, something I've been contemplating a lot lately is that like life and how you live your life, I think, is about Ands, not ors.

Yes.

These are all ands. It's not like, you know, pull in this piece of information, see if it works for you. It's not an or thing. Take in this piece, hey, run that through your system, see if that works for you, take it as information. You know, like, I, I think astrology has some useful things to say. Is it my whole world? No, it's a piece of information. You know what I mean? Like Use it to your— in your discretion, as you said. So just to recap, with the bloating, it sounds like the most important thing is your being in a state of calm and relaxation around food and as much as possible throughout the day, but definitely like when you're actually eating to try to be in a calm state. Is that right?

100%. Yeah. If you're eating in a stressed state or while you're really busy, The body won't even digest the food. You know, sitting at your desk at work eating— I mean, how many times have you eaten something, been eating, and then you look down like, oh, it's finished, when normally if you had sat there present, you would have felt full? But because you're not feeling full because you're not actually— you're trying to do too much. That can be a huge one.

So calming down is going to make a huge difference, and then also experimenting with food combining And seeing if applying some of those principles might be helpful in reducing your bloating as well, and just running it through the filter of your body and how that feels, basically, right?

Yeah.

So talk a little bit about eating in a feminine way and tuning into your inner season— inner seasons. I think it's such an interesting concept.

Yeah, so unlike men, women have a very different hormonal cycle. And whether you're menstruating or not, women are going through different hormonal changes at different phases of their life and throughout day to day.

Mm-hmm.

And so we have— we're flowing with all the different seasons. I mean, we're— women are so dynamic and we're constantly shifting and changing. And all of the research for that reason is done on men. So all the studies, it's too expensive to do them on women because you need to be like, okay, is she ovulating? Is she here?

Yeah.

What phase of her life is she in? You know, is she in menopause? Is she here? Like, to do a study on women would be so complex, and the female cycle has not really been studied much at all. And it's definitely going to be leading the way over the next 10 to 20 years. I know that there'll be a lot more happening. I mean, probably even sooner, it's already starting to happen. And this was the turning point for me in my journey. I realized I was doing all of these diets in a masculine way.

Hmm.

Not getting results. So for a woman that is menstruating, if she does a detox in the second phase of her cycle, so after ovulation, before her period, because the body needs nourishment The body's actually going to retain and store fat if you're, if you're fasting. So it's, it's the reason I love knowing this knowledge is that even more we need to intuitively eat. We need to listen to the body. Like, if you're waking up and you're hungry, eat. If you're waking up and you're not hungry, don't eat.

Mm-hmm.

You know, don't— just listen to the body. And sometimes of the month you might want to eat more and other times less. Sometimes you might want to eat more cooked food. More raw food, and listening to that because that actually is proven science to help you understand why that is. And so a woman that is getting her period, the beginning half of her cycle, her digestion is actually stronger, so she can digest raw foods. But she's not as hungry because her metabolism is lower. All built in. So that's a really good time to do a juice cleanse. For me, as much as I know this knowledge, I learned it. And then I threw it all away. Who knows what's happening month to month? I might not ovulate that month. So it's more about like learning to see my body. So to know if I'm ovulating, I'm more likely going to check my body temperature or to know what my mucus is doing at that phase of the cycle. Knowing and listening to my body, being like, oh, I'm feeling a bit soft and right now I need nourishment. I need foods that are going to be really grounding and just Feeling how my body feels and what it wants. And I encourage this for every woman, no matter where she's at in her cycle. Like, what do you need? Mm-hmm. Right.

Yeah, I love that because it's really, um, it's making me think that, you know, as women, what— no matter where we're at in our lives, what age, whether we're having a menstrual cycle or whether we're not, Our bodies are designed to give birth, even if we never had children. I don't have children. I don't plan on having children, but our bodies are designed to have children, and that informs so much, right, around like our bodies asking us to eat or not, because our, you know, our equipment is designed to create and sustain life, and so much is guided by that, right?

Yes, and that's why we are so intuitive, because, you know, a baby comes into this earth, we need to intuitively know what to give it. It can't communicate, and, and we can feel what we need to eat, what we need to give. We just, we just know. We used to be able to walk into a rainforest or a jungle and literally by our senses alone know what herbs to take based on smell, touch, and just I need to take that. My body needs that now. And we'd literally eat something, and if we didn't feel good, we wouldn't eat it again. That's how we learned and discovered. But now there's so much fear. If I go walking in my backyard now, there's so many wild things growing that I know I can eat, but most people would think they're weeds and just step on them.

Right.

And we've lost that connection to nature and ourselves and the cycles that we're in.

Right.

And it's all about, you know, eating locally as well, eating what's in season, eating what's around you, as opposed to, no, I have to have blueberries, but they're imported, coming from a different—

Right.

Which, for you to have a strong immune system, it's important to eat what's local. But we're just so caught up in all the shoulds, and I should have done that and this and eaten that, and we're just so disconnected. And Right.

And disconnected from, like, just hearing you talk is so inspirational because we have forgotten that we have this incredible, powerful wisdom in us. And if there's not a baby there that we need to be in tune to, we can turn that same wisdom and power inward.

Yes.

Intuiting ourselves.

Yeah. Yeah.

And what we need, like, we're the baby. What, you know, what, what can we tap into within our own wisdom?

Yes.

And we're not. And we've been, like you were saying, like, you know, most of your life you were eating in this masculine way. And, and all of, pretty much all of the media messages are around eating in a masculine way that's very rigid and defined and Not tapping into our unique cycles, whether we have one presently or not. Because even if we don't have a menstrual cycle, we're still going through different rhythms, right?

Yeah. I mean, our bodies create life. It's amazing. I actually got to witness a birth a couple of weeks ago, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. And just to witness the feminine body shift shift and change and just seeing how we create that life. And it made me appreciate my body so much more, that, that creative energy. Every month I'm shifting and changing. At certain times of the month, my mind is working better for creating and making decisions. Other times my verbal skills are stronger. Other times I'm more intuitive. I'm constantly shifting and changing.

Mm-hmm.

It's incredible. And that's all just to create life. And using— we can use that creative energy, as you said, on other things. And that, that our bodies, no matter where we are at in our life, we're always going to have that. Even when we do stop menstruating, we still have that creative force. And the cycles— I've spoken to many women that have gotten to that point. We still—

Hmm.

They still feel that energy. It's different, but they still have that potency of— and they become even more intuitive. As well.

Right. So what are some of the practices that like you do for, um, eating in this feminine way, for heightening your awareness, tapping in? Like, what are some tips you can give for, for eating in a feminine way and heightening your awareness in your body and what you're feeling?

Yeah. What, what I love to do is to keep a food diary. And notice your cravings. Like, what am I craving? And to not— before even doing the research of understanding what to eat at the different cycles, like, you're starting to track. Like, what do I feel like eating here? Okay, I felt like eating less on this day. I felt like doing a one-day juice cleanse here. I needed to eat so much. I was craving sugar and that, and tracking it. And then I've got it. I've got a chart, and there's many charts online that you can look at that suggest what to eat at the different phases and why. And then correlating and being like, wow, I was so in tune there. And it really creates a sense of empowerment and reading the chart. And then the mind is telling you what to eat. I prefer to go that approach, which allows women to connect intuitively. And then, oh, I knew that. I knew I was meant to eat sweet potato before my period. I was feeling it. Yeah, I know my body. I can trust my body because The big desire for most people is to trust their body so they don't have to rely on doctors and health practitioners and coaches. If they just know, they wake up and they know what to eat, they don't have to have someone tell them. Right. I used to be so dependent on having a coach and needing that, and it's, it's not what I want to see in the world. Yeah.

And it's all about like the journey. Especially after all these messages that we're literally bombarded with all the time because these are billion-dollar industries. Like the journey back to trusting, to self-trust.

Yes.

To self-trust, to self-dominion. Really us being like the authority on ourself.

Totally. Yeah. It's reclaiming our superpowers because we create We are powerful. And there's so much more in there. Like, our intuition is so powerful that if we just turn that back online, wow, you know?

Wow. Right. If we just turn that back on. Um, so I, I, I know we're gonna wrap it up soon, but, um, in terms of the eating, was there anything more you wanted to add in terms of like intuitive eating or Mindful eating or anything that you've— you feel is important to, to add to that?

Yeah, I don't think so, because I think it's mostly around listening and connecting to the body and getting out of the mind is really the first step. And, you know, just, you'll know if it's not good for you, you'll feel it. If you take time to be aware, just, just taking time.

I think, I think you're sharing this whole piece about relaxing is, is huge.

Yes.

I think if just, um, everyone, myself included, I'm gonna start practicing this and playing around with it. And I think it's good to approach things from a, from an energy of play and experimentation instead of like, you know, again, adding more tension to your life. Let me play around with these ideas and see how do they feel for me, but like, okay, before I sit down to eat my next meal, I'm not going to do anything else. I'm going to take some breaths first. I'm going to just tune into myself and I'm going to relax and I'm going to make little sounds if I'm enjoying it or whatever. And be in that energy and see what happens.

Totally. Yeah. It's like, am I actually hungry or am I just eating because I think I should eat because it's 12 o'clock? You know, tuning in and asking yourself. And preparing the body, like, I'm going to feed you now, food is coming. And the body's like, oh, okay. I mean, I love dancing. I know that's a big part of what you do. And to me, one of the reasons I love that is because it allows me to relax my stomach. And it's about— it's good to have strength in the stomach, but also knowing how to relax and eat fully is important. I mean, I spent most of my life walking around trying to have a flat stomach.

As we all did, holding our stomach in, pulling in our stomach.

So for me, that's a big thing. Sometimes before I eat, I'll even do a little shake or I'll put one song on and dance, which lifts my spirits, gets me feeling good and relaxing the stomach.

Ooh, I love that. I love that. I should do a little 5-minute pre-meal belly dance routine.

Yes, please. I'd love that.

That would be awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing all this great info. I've had some insights and I'm looking forward to practicing it. And if anybody has any questions, well, I'm gonna post this in the group and you can ask your questions and I will forward them to Jodi and we'll get them answered for you if you have anything specific you wanted to follow up with. Thanks again. And I also— is there anything in particular that you want to share about, about you, your website? Or any resources, or I can also put it in the Facebook group as well.

Yeah, I'd be happy to gift my food combining book.

Oh, that would be awesome.

On my website, and happy to gift that because it, it touches on— it's got a beautiful chart, and I think it could be really useful for people that are having extreme bloating as something they can, they can review.

That would be perfect. So I'll get that info from you and I'll put it in the post.

Great. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Jodie.

Thank you. Bye-bye.