Last November I wrote the following post about trusting your gut. After some interpersonal experiences recently, I’ve been reflecting back on this post and felt bringing these questions back into the mix during the end of the summer felt appropriate. You are how you feel. Read on and perhaps ask yourself–do I trust my gut?
In many of my posts, I try to describe how much the gut can actually inform how we’re feeling emotionally.
Be it the gut bacteria and the serotonin symphony they support (or cacophony when they’re in disarray), dysregulated blood sugar levels that plummet and bring on feelings of anxiety, the rush of caffeine spiking our cortisol and stress response to get us through the day (but which leaves us fried and irritable by nightfall), there’s a big interplay between the two. Your gut affects how you feel. Today I want to provide space for the other side of the coin: how you feel affects your gut.
When you have butterflies in your stomach, when your stomach drops as you hear bad news, when you need to run to the bathroom before a big presentation or going on a date with that new boo… all of those happenings within the gut are being informed by your thoughts and your perception of your environment.
It goes both ways.
I’m not here to provide answers, but I surely am here to contemplate. And I think all too often, we as humans want rules. We want our options to be cut and dry, black and white. Why wouldn’t we? It’s easier to make choices with fewer options to chose from. Decision fatigue is a real thing.
So here’s the point I really want to make today: there is no black and white when it comes to your health! We’re all just too different for that. We’re wonderfully complex, and my weird life context is vastly different than yours, or that person’s over there, or the neighbor’s… when we keep this in mind, it becomes apparent that there can be a darker side to any fad diet, be it paleo, primal, Atkin’s, the Zone, veganism, the Engine 2 diet… it puts a framework on you for you to adhere to. It makes things black and white. And while that may work in the short-term, while it may feel healthy for a week, a month, a year, if at some point that stops feeling healthy, that’s your body telling you… this framework isn’t working for me. It’s not you doing anything wrong.
Let me repeat that: you, and your body, are not bad or wrong when something stops working.
By now, you may know some of my biggies when it comes to how food support our health:
- get some good bacteria in your gut (*cough* fermented veggies *cough*)
- drink fresh water, and plenty of it (*cough* half your body weight in ounces per day *cough*)
- eat enough food to fuel your movement (*cough* what the heck is your resting metabolic rate? Eat at least that *cough*)
- don’t fear any one macronutrient (*cough* fats, carbohydrates, proteins, you need all of these *cough*)
You’ve got that down pat, what’s next?
True health isn’t going to come from eating “perfectly”. After all the interplay between the gut and mood that we’re seeing, how they affect one another, I think it’s appropriate to say… there’s gotta be some balance!
So here’s my idea, as we think about the other side of the coin today. What brings you joy? What makes your smile? What melts your heart? These are big, big parts of health. Start to get curious and starting this week, seek out what makes you laugh.
And then, go laugh. Belly laughs, guffaws, snorts, all that good stuff.
Where do you laugh? Go there. Who do you laugh around? Remember them, see them. What do you read that does the trick? Read it. What do you watch? View it.
You are taking care of yourself by doing this. That is no small feat. It’s not selfish. It’s not a waste of time. It’s your right.
Let yourself laugh.