Gut Health And Intermittent Fasting!

For me, 2019 has been about a focus on gut health. The research is overwhelming, your gut and the trillions of bacteria that make it up are absolutely key to good physical and mental health.

I was brought up on a Standard American Diet (SAD), which meant that I hated salads. "Give me real food, not rabbit food," was my motto. And although I improved my diet over the years, I still never really understood the value of salads or fiber, and thus I skimped. For a while I tried juicing, because my understanding of it was that the concentrated nutrients were what you needed, and the fiber is just a throw away.

As I've written about many times though, I have learned how important gut health is, and that fiber is a key nutrient for my gut bacteria.

I've experimented with different sources of fiber, and I've tried many different salads and veges that were new to me. I've embraced fermented foods, such as kimchi and sour kraut - the ones with live bacteria.

The result...

I'm sleeping better. I feel better. And I am considerable happier and less stressed. How much of this can I attribute to my improved gut health? I don't know, but my gut is telling me that it has had a significant impact.

Now, just to be clear, I have not gone vegan or vegetarian by a long shot, but I eat much more natural fiber every day.

I've done something else too. I've changed my eating patterns (this was not easy to do), so that I now follow a 16:8 diet, which is not a diet, but rather it's a "meal timing plan". This means that I eat within an 8 hour window of time (from noon til 8pm) every day and then I don't eat anything for the rest of the day. No snacking at all. And I know this sounds like torture, but in fact, I LOVE IT! I feel REALLY good eating this way.

Here are two videos to watch if you want to learn more. The first video is a deeper look at gut health. The second video is about intermittent fasting. Both are very important!