5 Body Positive Mantras You Need Now (And How to Use Them!)

When working alongside women who struggle with emotional eating, I am able to witness their renewed commitment to themselves as they create a healthy mindset. They work hard for months and months to change old, self-defeating behaviors with new, self-care focused behaviors. They challenge themselves to shift their perspective around food and emotions in order to develop a deeper connection to themselves through awareness. This is tremendously powerful work! After all of this positive and healthy change, there is a lingering challenge that seems to plague most women (and most likely men). This lingering challenge is how they feel about their body---it is never good enough.

Why is it that we struggle to be content with our bodies? Why can’t we appreciate all of the amazing things our bodies can do? As women, we spend time complaining about our various body parts and feel that some distorted perception of “perfection” would somehow create happiness. Thoughts such as, if I had this-- or-- if I didn't have that, then I could be happy with my body-- seem to plague our minds. There are all of these conditions we place on our ability to be satisfied with our bodies. However, this is simply not true!

Happiness originates from aligning with what is true right NOW. Happiness is not a place to get to later, not before when things may have been different, but an experience of accepting what you have right NOW. Being body positive means being grateful for and content with your body as it is right NOW.

So how do we work to heal this long-standing negative perception of our bodies? How do we shift from disdain and disgust to appreciation, acceptance and gratitude for the body we have right NOW? With practice! So, what do we practice? We practice appreciation, acceptance and gratitude for our bodies in the here and the NOW.

So, you may be wondering what exactly is a mantra and what does it have to do with healing a negative body image? The word mantra means instrument of the mind. A mantra is a powerful tool used to center yourself in order to create a single pointed focus of the mind. When you first begin the practice of using a body positive mantra, your mind will try to argue with the mantra, to disregard it. Your mind will say things like, that’s wrong-- or-- that’s a lie. Your mind will inevitably wander to other random thoughts. This is why we have to practice!

When your mind wanders, try not to get caught into the story and roller coaster of your thoughts. Judging thoughts will be there and are a result of mental conditioning that has been created over the many years you have been struggling with a negative body image. All of the negative stories you have been telling yourself, negative stories you have been hearing from media influences and other people have become deeply engrained.

Remind yourself that this is a challenging process to shift from a negative body image to a more grounded, grateful and positive body image. It will become more comfortable with time and consistent practice. Again, each time your mind wanders, return your focus to your mantra. So, if your mind wanders 100 times, return to your mantra 101 times!

Try this challenge: for the next month, use one or more of the following body positive, self-love mantras. Spend 5 minutes repeating the mantra silently within your mind. After 5 minutes, spend 5-10 minutes journaling to reflect on your experience and how you feel. This time for reflection and journaling is a helpful because with practice, you will begin to notice a positive shift internally. Mantras are a powerful source of transformation that will be evident and reflected back to you through your reflective journaling process. So now, here they are!

5 Body Positive Mantras

1.    In this moment, I accept my body unconditionally.

2.    I am grateful for my body and all that it can do.

3.    I am just right, just as I am.

4.    I am beautiful, inside and out.

5.    I love myself, wholly and completely.

When you embark on this body positive, self-love mantra adventure, you will begin to heal your relationship with your body and in turn with yourself. You will grow in your self-confidence and find a deeper level of appreciation, acceptance, and gratitude for your body as well as for yourself. Most importantly, you will feel this growth from within, the only place that really matters.

One of the best ways to maintain your focus is to reach out and encourage others to practice with you! Who can you inspire to heal their relationship with their body? I’d love to hear how your month-long body positive mantra adventure goes for you, so please, keep in touch!

5 Simple Steps to Integrate More Movement Into Your Day (Without Stepping Foot Into A Gym!)

Are you looking to get more movement and exercise in your life and yet you have no idea how to incorporate it into your super jam packed schedule? Do you think that exercise has to be done at the gym and has to be crazy intense to gain any benefit? The truth is, moving your body in some way every day is a consistent marker for greater health throughout your lifespan. It does not have to be fancy, time consuming, painful or boring! With all of the modern conveniences like elevators, escalators, or working from home, we have less daily activity and movement naturally integrated into the day.

As a Wholistic Food Therapist, many people I work with share their frustration of not having the time to go to the gym or exercise. When they feel defeated by putting it off and putting it off, that only increases their stress levels. One way to get in more movement and exercise is to integrate physical activity throughout the day rather than worrying about making it to the gym.

Exercise has many known health benefits including improved sleep, improved mood, lower risk for most illnesses, improved cognitive functioning, greater energy throughout the day and balanced blood sugar levels. Most people that integrate movement in some form consistently feel more confident and have a more positive body image. These are all elements that most people desire in their lives. If these benefits all sound great, but you are still overwhelmed by where to begin, start integrating these 5 simple steps to get more active today!

1.    Start the day with marching in place or jumping jacks for one to five minutes and twenty squats. You can do these while waiting for the water in your shower to get warm, brushing your teeth or waiting for your coffee to brew! This movement will get your blood pumping, build strength and create energy.

2.    Every time you have the option, always take the stairs. The first few times you might huff and puff, but over time you will increase your lung capacity and strengthen your muscles and bones. 

3.    Use the technology you have at your fingertips! Set a reminder on your phone each hour to stand up, stretch and find a reason to get in some extra steps. 

4.    Take a walk during your lunch break. Even if it’s just a quick five to ten minute brisk walk, five minutes is always better than zero!

5.    What song gets you moving like nothing else, you hear it and you just have to dance? Find that track. Play that track. Dance and find pleasure in movement!

It’s best to begin slowly, try to integrate just one step at a time. Once you feel as though you are being consistent with one step, move on and add in the next. Before you know it, you will be searching for other clever and simple ways to create more movement in your day. Typically, the more you move, the better you feel. As you use these five steps to integrate more movement, you will notice the mental, physical and emotional benefits. Go ahead, get moving today!

Surviving SIBO Part 2: The Treatment Phase

Now that you know the background of my experience with SIBO from my post Surviving SIBO Part 1- I wanted to follow-up with how it’s going. If you didn’t read part 1, no need to go back to it, I’ll just give you a quick reminder of how it came to be that I got SIBO: rough diet, over-prescribed antibiotics, leaky gut, stress, anxiety... While how it happened was important to for me to know and understand, but what treating my SIBO led to is the most important part of my path to healing. Uncovering SIBO led me to greater self-awareness, significantly improved health, more sympathy, and more humility (~I actually don’t know it all~ and a plant-based diet is not for everyone~). So, once I knew I indeed had SIBO, I started researching how to treat it. That is where I got really-really-really confused.

If you haven’t already noticed, there is a lot of contradictory information out there when it comes to treating SIBO. There are varied dietary protocol approaches, herbal antimicrobials versus traditional antibiotics, and not to mention the timing of when to add, use, or implement it all. Since it seemed that being on antibiotics for the majority of my adolescence was a main factor of how I got SIBO, it did not seem reasonable to me that antibiotics would be the best solution for me.

After a ton of research that included reading articles, books, blogs, websites, listening to podcasts, getting some random advice, as well as some very well-informed advice, I decided to go with a specific dietary approach combined with herbal antimicrobials. There are differing options in the SIBO treatment community: some say to not change your diet while taking the herbal treatment so the bacteria stay active and alive long enough to get destroyed by the antimicrobials. Other experts say to starve the bacteria by following the dietary protocols along with antimicrobials. Starving them seemed like the quicker route to getting the job done, so I chose this combination in an effort to get this over with as soon as possible!

After several weeks of planning, prepping, and maybe over-obsessing, I began a regime of the herbal antimicrobials Berberine and Neem Plus. I immediately implemented a low-FODMAP’s nutritional protocol. FODMAP’s are: Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. The concept of low-FODMAP is that you don’t eat anything that is fermentable in the digestive tract. This will starve the bacteria that have migrated to the small intestine- hence the name SIBO- (hint: they are not supposed to be there)! If the bacteria don’t have the delicious fermentable compounds in the high-FODMAP’s foods to feed on, they can’t survive in your gut any longer! You can google it for more specific information, but basically on a low-FODMAP approach you can’t eat much—of anything—at all. I mean you can eat all the low-FODMAP’s foods you want, but overall it is limiting (and honestly, a little bit sad).

I downloaded the SIBO Food Guide app that is based on Dr. Allison Siebecker’s work. She has helped many people heal SIBO, and it seemed like a reliable and useful tool. The app has a handy list of all foods in every category: veggies, fruits, grains, proteins, fats… with a Red dot for: ILLEGAL-OFF-LIMITS-DO-NOT-EAT foods. A Yellow dot for: eat only LIMITED amounts, for example- asparagus: 1 spear is legal- (I mean seriously, I’m going to have just one spear of asparagus?) An Orange dot for: you are PUSHING IT, example- asparagus: 4 spears are legal, (again, seriously?) A Green dot for: EAT ALL YOU WANT!: meats, oils, some leafy greens, some veggies, and some fruits, but basically, not m(any) carbs allowed.

I had to make a ton of changes. I used to have apples every single day. Well guess what, they are ILLEGAL-OFF-LIMITS. I had avocados every day, they are mostly illegal. I ate sweet potatoes a good bit: ILLEGAL-OFF-LIMITS. I ate a good bit of quinoa and rice: ILLEGAL-OFF-LIMITS. Onions and garlic: ILLEGAL-OFF-LIMITS, this made it super difficult to eat out or cook anything that had the robust flavors I enjoy. (You can use garlic infused oil, which was a life saver for me!) I consulted some cookbooks and websites and seemed to manage, but a lot of the joy of eating was zapped (no carbs allowed).

This is one of the hardest elements of surviving the healing path: finding pleasure in eating. Not just because I couldn’t have carbs, avocados, and apples, but also because I felt miserable. In Sylvie McCracken’s ebook about SIBO, she recommends a different specific gut healing approach: The Elemental Diet. When I first read about it, it seemed insane. After a week on the Berberine and Neem Plus I was seriously considering the Elemental Diet! (Hint: you don’t actually eat on an Elemental Diet.) No Food. You just get the nutrients you need through an expensive or difficult to make concoction- which is the most important part of doing that particular healing protocol. But no food. Sounded miserable and a little crazy. Didn’t happen for me, it was enticing because I felt so terrible, but it really seems overall dangerous and unhealthy. But, I digress…

The Berberine made me feel horrible, way worse than the day to day SIBO symptoms I had been experiencing. You feel worse before you feel better. The bacteria die-off side effects are dreadful. (At times, the Elemental Diet really seemed like a really enticing option? Wait, no, it’s terrible). Pretty much everything I ate made me feel sick, and yet at the same time I was having the craziest cravings! I would drive past a fast food place and think, cheesy fries, THOSE WOULD BE AMAZING!!! I NEED TO EAT THEM RIGHT NOW!!! The bacteria were desperate. They wanted carbs. They wanted sugar. They wanted pizza. They wanted cookies. They wanted everything and anything I could not eat in order to heal. They really did not want to go away. Now remember, I had been working on healing my leaky gut for a year and half before the SIBO diagnosis, I had not eaten pizza, cookies, cheesy fries, bread, or much added sugar in over a year! Those bacteria just wanted carbs, dairy, and sugar and they were trying super hard to convince me that I should eat pizza, eat cookies, eat fries! It really was the bacteria talking, I didn’t feel well enough to be genuinely craving these foods.

The cravings were seriously off the charts and my stomach and digestion were mis-er-able. I started taking Activated Charcoal to help with the die-off symptoms, and detox the nasty little bugs and their toxic die-off waste (called Herxheimer reaction.) The Activated Charcoal seemed to help, but I still felt pretty bad. When treating SIBO it’s considered to be counterintuitive to take probiotics, as adding in any bacteria, even the good stuff, is supposedly not useful. I had been taking and eating probiotics as a part of my lifestyle for some time. Not having them seemed to be impacting me, so it was recommended that I take a “SIBO-safe” probiotic called Sibiotica as well as S. boulardii. Integrating these did seem to provide some relief for my sad, mad stomach, and digestion. I took digestive enzymes with every meal, and took apple cider vinegar shots at night.

After about 15-days on the herbal antimicrobials I started taking Interfase Plus, a biofilm disruptor. The gross bacteria create little biofilms in your gut where they can “hunker down.” They seriously DO NOT want to be destroyed, and they are resourceful little buggers (gross). The Interfase Plus helped clear out the biofilm, and while I think it was effective, it was also unpleasant. After the herbal antimicrobials were finally over, I began taking MotilPro, which is basically super ginger, with some other helpful elements to aid with gut motility. One of the main causes/effects of SIBO is poor motility of food through the digestive tract. The longer it takes to digest, the more likely bacteria will start to feed on it. Yuck.

Another oh-so-delightful symptom of SIBO is that your small intestine (which is super important for assimilating the nutrients in your food) becomes terribly inflamed, and you don’t properly absorb nutrients. This left me deficient in some vitamins and minerals. Over time, if not treated, this will cause other health problems that often get misdiagnosed. The inflammation was definitely where my skin troubles, including the rosacea, were coming from, and most likely my hormone imbalances, low energy, and anxiety as well. I started supplementing the vitamins, and I also took L-Glutamine in powder form to help repair my gut. The money I once spent on wine, tasty chocolate, and going out to eat I now spent on freaking supplements!

During this phase I still felt rough, and my skin was looking rough. Although I was still feeling pretty bad, (the die-off symptoms last a long time) the cravings did begin to decrease. While I was no longer jonesing for pizza and cookies, I was craving tasty real food.

Oh- did I mention I was a total grump throughout this whole treatment phase? I was. It was miserable, I felt miserable, I basically whined and chose to stay miserable. When I finally got tired of whining and feeling miserable, I remembered that wait—I am a yogini and a health coach! I had some really cool tools that I had been too busy being whiny and miserable to access. I love helping others, I can think of so many ways to give people useful tools and strategies to heal, but I forgot to help myself! What is wrong with me? I started including Ayurvedic approaches to healing the gut, which supported my process of getting rid of SIBO.

I started doing self-abdominal massage of the ileocecal valve (the IC valve is located between the small and large intestines, and it should stay shut after digested food moves from the small to large intestine). Because of the inflammation and low motility associated with SIBO, the IC valve may be stuck open, which allows bacteria to migrate from the large to the small intestine, again, gross. I had fresh ginger infused in my tea every morning to help aid digestion and soothe inflammation. I started doing Kapalabhati breathing, Agni Sara exercises, and oil pulling with coconut oil every single morning. I added in additional yoga postures that aid in detoxing and toning the digestive system. These changes allowed the detoxing processes of my body to improve, which significantly began to aid in me feeling better.

After a good bit of research, I also started incorporating Intermittent Fasting (IF). With the slow motility associated with SIBO, my body did not have ample time or energy to digest after each meal. Eating the same amount of food in a shorter eating window helped to heal my gut, and improve my overall health. Although it was initially tough to figure out the right timing, and assure that I got enough caloric and nutrient density during the eating window, it helped. Staying on top of Intermittent Fast is super important, you must nourish your body with ample nutrition and give it enough calories or it won’t heal! You are not intended to skip a meal, but eat more just within your eating window. (It’s also important to note that this is not meant for a long-term dietary approach, 6-12 weeks and then back to a more normal eating window).

This integrated approach helped me turn the corner. I started feeling better, but still was not normal digestively. I was freaked out that the SIBO was not completely healing. I never want to go through the misery of treatment again, so not feeling 100% was not an option. I found an acupuncturist who had experience with healing SIBO, and her treatments and magic herbs seemed to be the final trick. After just a few acupuncture sessions I returned to having “normal” digestion. For those of you who also suffer with abnormal digestion, or IBS, you know how exciting it is to have “normal” poop! She put me on a regimen of Chinese herbs, recommended I stay away from food that are difficult to digest, and to begin adding the FODMAP’s back in one at a time.

I had been on the low FODMAP’s for just over 12 weeks, so I was super excited to start incorporating them again- but also terrified of regressing. It is important to start slowly. I added in one, then increased a little every day for 5 days. I took good notes on all of my symptoms: digestion, energy, skin, mood, and so on. I started with onions and garlic and had no problem (YAY!!). After 5 days, I added in avocado, no trouble again (SWEET!!). I continued with this pattern, and was able to add all the FODMAP’s back in with no major problems, but I had some ideas about what would be best to reduce. This process took about 2 weeks, and I’ll admit, it was super tempting to just go all the way back in after adding in the first couple with no troubles. Taking it slow really helped me to notice what foods cause what symptoms, positive or negative, to assure that my system remained happy.

This brings me to the most important phase of treatment: maintenance. I’ll be back to share how I am maintaining so far. I’ve made it over 8 months since beginning treatment, and so far, I am hopeful. Once I started feeling better I wanted to go back to how things used to be. To eat whatever, whenever. At times, I have let some things slide, but I know I can’t make that the norm. It takes a long time to heal the gut, and if you remember from Surviving SIBO Part 1: I probably started damaging my gut at a very young age. I am 42 years old. That is a long time to have a crazy gut, the damage runs super deep. Keeping my gut happy and healthy, keeps me happy and healthy. While the nutritional healing protocols, supplements, and lifestyle help keep my gut in check, maintaining stress management, and self-care practices, are also extremely vital to remaining healthy. Everything is intimately interconnected.

I will be back to let you know how I continue to maintain a healthy, happy gut-- SIBO free!!

Are you struggling with an unhappy gut, a SIBO diagnosis or treatment? If so, reach out! Community is super important and sharing your story can be healing!