5 Simple ways to improve digestion (without changing your diet or popping more pills)

And welcome to this very special video. I've been meaning to put this together for quite some time, and I figured the best time is now. So if you're joining me, it's because you want to learn five really simple ways that you can improve your digestive health, whether it's acute or chronic. And you want to do it without taking more supplements and without radically changing your diet. You know, working with so many patients over the years and countless groups and being on so many podcasts and learning from some of the best people in the world, I realized that it's probably not going to be another diet or another supplement or another lab test that's going to fix your most chronic and persistent digestive issues unless you do these things first. So I'm not here to tell you that you shouldn't change your diet. I'm not here to tell you that supplements aren't beneficial. And I'm certainly not here to tell you that lab testing isn't important. But what I am here to tell you is that there's five things that you should all be doing first, whether you have a digestive issue or not, that can help you correct this problem. And, you know, this is the culmination of reading so many books, working with countless patients, and realizing that there's so many foundational things that people don't do that are absolutely necessary for them to improve their digestive health. And, of course, digestion is important because of the global implications of a healthy digestive system. Healthy digestion helps us feel good, helps our mental health. That helps our brain, it helps our joints, it helps our skin be nice and healthy. It helps take nutrients out of our food and put them into our body. It helps break down our proteins into amino acids so we can have the building blocks for bone and muscle and hair and skin and all the tissues that we have. So digestion is a pretty magical process. It literally turns our food into building blocks, so our body can reassemble these building blocks and turn them into you. Right? So it is a pretty fascinating process and certainly one of the most important places to start when it comes to health. So I'm going to share with you five really simple things. Now, here's the thing. When I share simple stuff, sometimes people get, you know, they. They think that it's too simple. However, what I've learned over the years, and studying da Vinci and Steve Jobs, they echo this sentiment as well, is that greatest sign of sophistication is simplicity. So your body is so sophisticated, if we allow it to be and if we create the right conditions for it to thrive. So this is why it's important for us to take a special interest in our body first. First, if we're going to help ourselves heal, instead of investing that money elsewhere, let's invest ourselves in ourselves and learn the global benefits. Now, the other beauty of this is that you'll be able to benefit from this almost immediately. Literally before lunch here today, or before your next meal and over the next few days and for the course of your lifetime. And you'll be able to teach it to other people. So you'd be able to kind of break this generational trauma of poor digestion that so many people have. And really, when you come to see us, if you work with us, if you work with any functional medicine practitioner, they're going to tell you that it literally all starts in the gut. However, there's certain things that you have to do consciously in order to improve your gut health. So if you know someone who's struggling with digestive issues or somebody who wants to improve their digestive health, you just as a proactive measure, then these five steps are going to be super helpful. Feel free to tag them in, and if you have any questions that come up as I'm presenting, feel free to type them into the comments. I'm going to try to, as I said, keep things super, super simple. So the first, you know, framework that I want to share is to choose. So you want to choose in multiple dimensions. So you want to choose how you feel about the food that you're eating. So you and I could eat the exact same meal, but if I view it as punishment eating a salad versus somebody else who views it with gratitude and joy, then how we assimilate that food is going to be radically different. So we want to choose how we feel about our foods. We also want to choose foods that are in alignment with who we want to become. So whenever people ask me, what do you eat? I say, I eat whatever I want. However, what I want to eat is based on who I want to become. Because your food represents your future. It represents who you're going to become. Literally, it's going to incorporate itself into your cells, into the structures in your body, and it's going to hang around a lot more than the 24 hours that it takes to remove the waste from your food. Right? What we poop out is waste. What we keep in us becomes us, becomes our neurotransmitters. So it influences how we think and how we feel. It becomes our hair. It becomes. It becomes Our skin, it becomes our bones, it becomes the very fabric of our cells. So you want to choose foods based on how you want to nurture these tissues and emotions and feelings and productivity that you're trying to accomplish. You also want to make sure you're choosing the right time to eat. What I used to do when I was much younger, and maybe not as wise, is I used to eat really late at night because I. I try to cram in as much activity in the day as possible. And then it would be nighttime, and then it would be time for me to eat. And you want to try to eat at least two hours before your bedtime, ideally three hours before bedtime, if possible. So without even changing your diet, Choosing the right time is very important. Our digestive function is actually most active at midday. Midday is when the sun is in the highest position. So that's a great time to have a meal. If you were going to only eat one meal a day, uh, that would be a great time to eat it. Or your biggest meal of the day should ideally be when the sun is in its highest position. That's why we call it the solar plexus. So choosing the right time, choosing when to eat, choosing the amount to eat and also when not to eat is also really important. We also want to choose how we feel about or how we gonna, how we're gonna feel after we eat our meal. So how are you gonna feel food physically after you eat? How are you going to feel spiritually after you have that meal? How are you going to feel emotionally about yourself after you have your meal? These are things that we want to take into consideration. So don't just look at the food for its momentary, you know, gratification that it's going to provide. Consider how you're going to feel after you have that meal so that you can future pace yourself. So these are some simple things that you can do. You can choose how you want to, you know, feel about your food, choose the right times to eat, and then choose how you want to feel after you eat. This is a really simple way to look at food. Another thing that you want to do is you want to chew your food. So I find this over and over again, so many people are consistently and chronically changing their diet following the next best thing that's out there. And while, you know, of course eating healthy is important, it's only going to matter if you actually chew your food. Because if you're eating a lot of plants and at least 80 to 90% of your diet should be Plant based. You have to realize that plants actually have a wall around each and every cell. It's made out of a substance called cellulose. And cellulose is indigestible by the human digestive tract. We actually don't make enzymes to digest through that cell wall. So, in fact, what we have to do in order to get the nutrients out of plants sp specifically, we have to make sure we're literally chewing that food and breaking open those cell walls so that we can extract the nutrition that's locked up inside of them. This is why if you swallow a kernel of corn, you're going to see it, you know, within 24 hours in your poop. Or I challenge you to swallow a salad without chewing it, you're going to see a salad in the toilet bowl the next day. Because you literally do not have the capability as a human being to digest through that cellular wall and extract the nutrition from it. So you have to chew your food how many times? Well, it depends on what you're eating, but there's no such thing as over chewing. There's certainly a thing as under chewing. So you want to try to get your food, you want to turn it into a fine paste, almost the consistency of what a smoothie would be, because that's what happens when the cell walls are completely broken open. When you chew your food, you actually taste it. And that gives your brain an opportunity, using your taste buds to process what types of nutrients and macronutrients are coming. So is it fat, protein, carbohydrates? And this tells our stomach and our pancreas and our gallbladder and our liver how much enzymatic preparation it needs to have in order to digest that meal fully. So tasting your food is very important. This is why artificial flavoring is so disruptive to our health, because our tongue is kind of tricked into thinking that something is coming when it actually never shows up in the digestive system. So, you know, making sure you're chewing your food will also slow down the process. You'll have better satiation, better assimilation of your nutrients, which means that you and I could eat the same meal. If you're chewing your meal really, really well, then guess what? You're going to extract more nutrition out of that same meal. If I'm not chewing my meal and I'm eating really quick and rushed and distracted and not present, then guess what? I'm not going to get as much nutrition out of that meal. And those nutrients are going to, you know, be lost in the process. So chew your food Remember this. Chew your food. Your stomach doesn't have teeth. You want to think of digestion like a car wash. So you would never go into a car wash. If any one of those steps was broken, your car wouldn't be clean and it wouldn't turn out the way you want it to. So digestion is the same way. The only conscious step, there's two conscious steps. We have to choose the foods and the timing and stuff. As I just mentioned, the second conscious step is you have to chew. And when you do that, the rest of the process kind of takes care of itself. Your stomach is depending on your food being adequately chewed. All right, step number three, the next thing that you want to do is you want to make sure you are chilled out. You want to be in a state of what we call rest and digest. You want to be in a parasympathetic state. When we're in a parasympathetic state versus a stressed out state, we actually send more blood flow to our digestive system under conditions and periods of stress, whether it's acute or even chronic, we actually send about 80% less blood flow to our digestive organs, which means that they're not going to be able to adequately perform their function. So a few things that you can do in order to get yourself into a more relaxed state. One is you want to sit. You always want to eat while you're seated. You never want to eat while you're standing because your body is not going into that state of knowing that, hey, food is coming. And when you're walking around and eating, you're sending blood to your legs, which normally and ideally you want to be sending to your gut so it can carry out this function. The next thing that you want to do is perhaps take a few deep breaths. I like to play some soft music. I like to just get into a relaxed state. You can have a light conversation with your family before you enjoy your meal. You can say a prayer, which we'll talk about next, and just really get into an intentional state of you being, you know, in a state to eat. So getting parasympathetic is very, very powerful. You can do something called box breathing. Box breathing is where you inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, hold for 4 seconds. And you keep repeating that pattern. And two to three minutes of box breathing is going to get you into that state of being parasympathetic. If you need feedback, you can use something called a heart math, and that gives you instant neurofeedback. To let you know that you're getting into a state of coherence. So slow down, sit down, enjoy your meal, chew it, and watch what starts to happen. Your body starts to activate its own digestive mechanisms, so you're not so reliant on supplements in order to get the most nutrition out of that food and also to digest that meal adequately. All right, step number four is cherish. So I find that gratitude goes a long way. Gratitude is a way of life. And, and so the more grateful we can be, the more positive our outlook on life becomes. However, when it comes to food, we're so far removed from the source, right? So unless you have your own garden, you may not appreciate how much effort goes into growing food and how much love and nurturing has to take place in each and every single step. Somebody had to till the soil. Somebody had to water that seed that was planted. Somebody had to tend to the plant as it's sprouted and grew. Somebody had to continue nurturing it and caring for it. You know, if you're eating organic, somebody had to take some extra steps to make sure that the crop wasn't taken by bugs and insects and, you know, all those other threats that a plant has to face. Somebody ensured the plant got enough sunlight or the animal, if you're eating animal based products, that the animal was taken good care of. So somebody had to take care of, you know, the growth process of this food as it's capturing nutrients from the soil, as it's capturing sunlight and creating nutrients for you as well. And then somebody had to pick the food and then package it, and somebody had to then drive it over to your local store. It had then had to be shelved. Somebody had to be present for you to check out, carry it into your house, and then prepare that meal for you. So there's so many steps that we can be grateful for and so many people that we can express our gratitude towards. And of course, you know, eating a healthy meal, I mean, what should, you know, what more can be? Can we want out of life, right? Have that ability to sit down with our families, enjoy a healthy meal that's going to nourish our bodies? Of course, we all want that and we should take a moment to be grateful for that opportunity. All right, so that brings me to step number five, which is check. So we want to do a daily inspection of our stool. And so, you know, you don't have to get your hands dirty, but simply taking a quick peek, making sure there's no undigested food in your Stool, making sure your stool doesn't have a shiny or greasy appearance because that tells me you're not digesting your fats. Making sure that your stool doesn't have any blood in it. Right. That could indicate hemorrhoids or a GI bleed. If your stool is really dark black in nature, then that could indicate a higher bleed in the digestive system. If it has a coffee ground appearance, hopefully it doesn't have that, but if it does, that could indicate a cancer. So by looking at our stool, we can see if there's something going on in there. If your stool has a strong odor, that can indicate a lack of protein digestion. So it means you're not adequately digesting the proteins that you're consuming. And so that leads to putrefactive factors in your stool. But another simple test is if your gas has a strong odor, that also tells me you're not adequately digesting your food. So take a peek. Your stool should be formed, it should have a snake like appearance. You should have about 12 inches of stool passing and the frequency of your stool should be one to three times a day. That's pretty normal. Just like a baby, right? When we were born, usually after you would have a meal, you would have a bowel movement. So keep that in mind as well. And then we also want to check periodically with our functional medicine practitioner. So I recommend at least annually, even if you don't have any digestive issues, to get a functional stool assessment. A functional stool assessment is going to look for bacterial diversity. It's going to look for pathogenic overgrowth of bacteria or even worms in some cases, or parasites. We see this, it's more common than you might think. It's also going to tell us if there is occult blood in the stool, if there's an inflammatory process going on. Keep in mind that many times we could have a major digestive issue and not have any symptoms. In fact, we've all heard a horror story of somebody going in with a GI bleed. It turns out they have stage four cancer. So they didn't know because our digestive system is not meant for us to have this constant self awareness. If you could feel all the food being digested and going through you through these 20 plus feet of tubing, it'd be kind of annoying. So our digestive system is not equipped with a lot of pain receptors and sensory receptors like our skin is. So it's important for us to at least periodically get some form of testing so that we can identify if there's something funky going on. Down there. But we want to make sure we're doing these first five steps first. That's our consistent daily practice of healthy digestion. So these are some simple tips. I mean there's so much more. Each of these could be a one hour conversation each of these five tips. But I wanted to share this with you in the hopes that it helps you improve your digestive function, get more out of the food that you're eating and helps you feel healthy and vibrant and whole once again. If you have any questions, I'm always available to answer them and feel free to tag anyone or share this if you found this helpful. Many people are struggling silently and of course nobody talks about their digestion so you never know who it's going to help if you share this message far and wide. Thank you. Appreciate you have an amazing, amazing rest of your day. I will talk to you soon. Bye for now.