The Unsexy Foundations are the Roadmap to Optimal Health

We often hear from clients “I am eating a clean diet, but I am still struggling with constipation or skin breakouts or low energy”…or fill in the symptoms.

What do you do when you are eating all the right things but not feeling the benefits…well in our minds we go back to the foundations!

Yes, not the sexiest of answers but often it is where some very powerful and effective solutions exist. Then if our clients need more support, we have the tools to explore deeper and can do so with confidence that our deeper protocols are going to be built upon a sturdy foundation. Because our ultimate goal for all of our clients is for them to heal with us and stay healed through their own embodiment of our teachings, practices and their own intuition.  

So we wanted to dedicate this article to the power of the fundamentals, because if you bypass the fundamentals we aren’t going to be able to fully achieve healing in the gut or body. 

So where do you START!?

1: Deep Nourishment

We need to practice deep nourishment, meaning we need to ensure we are eating enough calories and macronutrients (protein, healthy fat, carbohydrates) everyday. If we are not eating enough, it becomes a stressor on the body. If this is a chronic practice it then becomes a chronic stressor that steals from our bodies vitality and can impact our energy, hormones, digestion, sleep, libido and much more. When our body does not receive enough fuel, it responds by trying to adapt to protect us which means we are simply surviving versus thriving in our health. We can’t expect our bodies to function optimally when we don't have enough of the basic nutrients that it needs to run properly. 

Unintentionally undereating can contribute to symptoms like:

• Constipation

• Fatigue

• Headaches 

• Anxiety

• Shifts in mood

• Disrupted sleep

• Acne

• Blood sugar disruptions

Eating enough is a key foundation we help to support so many of our clients identify and remedy. For many of our clients, undereating may be unconscious and done without intention because of busy lives, lack of hunger signals, metabolic adaptations and chronic gut symptoms that make it hard to intuitively connect with hunger and satiety hormones. Once we start to optimally nourish the body, so many of our clients find their healing really starts to feel more easeful and they feel more deeply connected to their bodies. This is why this is foundation number one in our books and in our work with our clients. 

2. Healing Mindset

Your mindset is EVERYTHING! There is often such a major focus on the big goals or the destination, which are exciting and valid - that we sometimes miss the small wins that show us our healing is heading in the right direction and might just need a little more patience, consistency and grace. It is easy to get sidetracked and compare ourselves to others' progress or the highlight reels we get to see of others on social media, especially when we so desperately want to feel better in our bodies. But the truth is that the healing journey - is just that - a journey. When we build strong foundations and guidance for our healing journey we can expect there will be some highs and lows like any good journey, but eventually we will get to our big goal destination especially if we pay attention to the little signs and guide posts along the way. 

Mindset can feel challenging and we may not know where to start. Allow yourself to pause and write down the deeper reasons WHY we want to make these health changes:

• How would being in a healed version of my body impact me and my life?

• Am I allowing myself to celebrate the small wins? 

• How am I speaking about my body and to my body? Is there opportunity to treat my body more like a best friend than an enemy?

• What is one positive mindset practice I can invite into my day to help support my healing mindset?

• I.e. Gratitude lists, journaling, time with people or animals who make your feel joyful, therapy, time in nature, etc

• Any practice that helps you to have perspective on your healing goals and welcome in more joy!

We can start to make these changes each day by taking baby steps!

This is a practice that can feel more challenging some days. If we commit to strengthening our mindset each day, this process will become easier. Being able to grow and honor our mindset will help us in our everyday life not just on our healing journey.

3. Optimize Sleep

Sleep is when our body and digestive system rest, detoxify and rebuild. It is incredibly important to our healing journey and overall wellness. Sleep is fundamental for healing the gut lining, supporting the lymphatic system, repairing immune system and tissue healing as well as optimizing metabolic health and much more.

We recognize that many of our clients come to us having trouble with sleep and often the same foundational practices we guide our clients in to heal their bodies as a whole also create deeper, more restful sleep. Sleep is often a foundation that gets deprioritized when life gets busy. And yes there are seasons to sleep, certainly new and young parents do the best they can but even recognizing that naps are nourishing and quality of sleep holds tremendous weight even if length of sleep isn’t always in the cards. Our work is always to take into account the uniqueness of the client we are working with and help guide practices that make sense for the whole person including their season of life. 

Many of the foundational practices we work on around sleep include: 

• Strengthen Circadian Rhythm

• Balance blood sugar

• Creating a morning and nighttime routine

• Deep nourishment

• Addressing the deeper root cause of symptoms

• Customized supplement protocol when needed

Sleep not only helps us to feel rested but it also plays a major role in our overall health. We often find that some of the underlying root causes we are working to eliminate are actually disrupting our sleep. When we are able to identify and treat the root cause of symptoms, a more restful sleep usually follows. 

4. Daily Bowel Movements

Daily bowel movements are a foundation here at Above Health because they are quite literally how we take out the trash each day. It is part of the detoxification system and is how we package waste from the body and remove it. Not having a complete daily bowel movement can impact our digestion, hormones, skin contributing to acne or breakouts, fatigue and much more. 

When working with clients, one of the first things we support is having at least one bowel movement each day as this is a key piece of setting up for better healing in the body. Then we get to work on WHY the constipation symptom is present in the first place. 

Root causes of constipation can include:

• Undereating

• Stress and adrenal issues

• Nervous system support

• Dehydration and lack of minerals

• Congested drainage pathways

• Gut microbial imbalances or infection

One of the first steps we take when working with clients, is focusing on having 1-2 complete bowel movements EACH DAY to ensure their bodies can optimally detox. THEN we focus on doing the deeper work to heal the root cause of their symptoms. 

SUPPLEMENT GUIDE TO GUT HEALING

Check out our FREE downloadable Supplement Guide to Gut Healing for ways to troubleshoot the most common GI symptoms like loose stools and constipation. While these products are not a long term root cause solution, they can provide you with some more immediate relief! 

LINK TO GUIDE CLICK BELOW!