When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? Have you ever come across the idea of a Total Gut-Brain Reset? Guess, you never did.
Anyway, I wanted to be the news anchor on the Today Show, or at the very least, an investigative news reporter. I never set out for a career in functional medicine, much less talk about things like periods, pimples, and poo for a living.
Well…life has a funny way of coming full circle.
In fact, if you were a fly on the wall at Whole Foods market on a Friday night, you’re guaranteed to see my inner investigative reporter coming to life—small talking with Joe in front of me, asking him if he’s regular.
…And I am not talking about a regular Friday night customer if you catch my drift…Because TOTALLY judging the pint of ice cream, bag of chips and frozen cheese pizza in his cart, that answer does not look promising. I go deep.
Total Gut-Brain Reset: The Beginnings
No, but in all seriousness, as a professional “health detective” for over a decade, I’ve worked with over 3000 clients and been obsessed with understanding:
(a.) Why we get sick — root causes, and
(b.) What do we do about it?
Especially in a culture where 93% of people are deemed “metabolically unhealthy”, 2/3 are overweight, and there are more than 100 different autoimmune diseases—with the incidence of diagnoses outpacing cancer and heart disease combined! All this despite…
- 1 out of 2 people on some version of a “healthy eating” diet at any given time;
- Gyms on every corner; personal trainers at our fingertips;
- Entire grocery aisles devoted to gluten free everything;
- And Dr. Google—which alone, receives more than 1 billion health-related questions every day. That’s about 70,000 searches per minute.
We definitely don’t have a willpower or lack of knowledge problem. A total gut-brain reset is very helpful.
And, why is it that we all still know a 90 year old Uncle Joe who smokes cigars, eats Spam and cheese sandwiches, drinks orange soda, and sits in a “lazy boy” every single day…yet seemingly lives symptom free, no care in the world?
Whereas a young and “fit” 30-something is doing all the things— eating low carb, working out daily, taking boatloads of supplements— gets diagnosed with over 13 incurable conditions?
The Root Cause
Health challenges do not come out of .
What I’ve discovered is that symptoms are often metaphors — signposts—of something deeper going on under the hood. Our body and brain’s way of trying to tell us: “Knock! Knock! Something is up! I am stressed!”
Like Bacon Intolerance Becky. Names have been changed for patient confidentiality.
Becky developed a bacon intolerance–a food she had eaten for years with zero problems…what gives?!
Well, when we did the work to figure out what triggers were going on in her life around the time she developed her bacon intolerance, she realized that she had been cooking bacon at the same exact time when she found out her husband had been cheating on her! Boom! Her body locked her issues into her tissues.
Or consider my 12 week stress fracture.
I really liked a guy, but it wasn’t going to work out.
And the exact same week that he came back into my life after months of not seeing him, I developed a stress fracture on my right foot…and it would not heal—It lingered for 12 weeks—stress fractures should typically heal within 6 to 8. And you know I was “doing all the things.” It wouldn’t heal until…I let him go:
I said: “OK, I am moving on. Moving…forward.” I deleted his number from my phone. Literally, that day: my stress fracture was gone.
The Big Idea: Dis-ease in our lives often shows up as disease in the body. The body keeps the score. Symptoms are metaphors.
The cool thing? When we figure out what our body is trying to say, we can begin to reverse it.
Enter: The Total Gut-Brain Reset — a free, simple, diet-free, prescription-free, and Dr. Internet-free formula to Solve Your Mystery Symptoms in 3 Easy Steps; a simple formula to figure out WHY YOU FEEL THIS WAY—and what to do about it.
Before I give it away though, I want to share a back story—because every innovative solution has a back story. Mine begins back at 4th grade recess.
4TH GRADE
I was 10-years-old—with a pink scrunchie in my frizzy hair that my mom made you wear. All I wanted to do was fit in.
The popular girls invited me to join their gossip circle, where the topic of weight came up.
The Queen Bee said, “Oh my gosh you guys, I weighed myself and I am 69 pounds! I am soooo fat!”—immediately looking to each of us.
“What do you weigh?!” And, one by one, we had to go around the circle and report to our drill sergeant.
At a healthy 80 pounds, I was by no means a fat kid, but when the circle got to me, I gulped and lied. “I don’t know.” Thinking: I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
After school, I went home and stood in the pantry… Turning over my favorite Dorito’s snack pack, I began learning a whole new language—fat grams and calories.
At age 10, my life path just took a sharp turn…
Little did I realize I’d spend the next 25 years, on a roller coaster of extreme diets, living inside of hospitals and treatment centers, and chasing a wide variety of solutions…all in search of feeling good in my own skin—with ZERO resolve…
YMCA
Everything came to a head the morning that I stepped on the scale only to see a number I hadn’t seen since I was 10 years old. Only this time I was 23. And for the first time, it scared me. My body was shutting down from years of stress.
On my way to the gym that morning, I prayed, “God help me make a change today! Help me recover!”
To say the least, I didn’t make it to my workout.
When I got to that gym, not one, but 9 strangers—9 fellow gym goers, who I now call my 9 “Gym Angels”— stepped in, spoke up, said they wanted to help.
Within 48 hours, I found myself flat on my back in the hospital with a heart rate in the near 20’s’ and doctors saying I may not make it. And amidst the chaos, for the first time, something inside me clicked:
The answer isn’t out there, it’s in here [point to gut]—addressing the root cause.
Those 9 strangers—my 9 Gym Angels—helped me resolve all those years of GUT HATE—showing me nothing but pure gut love.
And, in that moment, the spell was broken, and I made up my mind—I decided, no matter what: I am healed. I will recover. Life is going to be different on the other side…
That one decision changed EVERYTHING.
Fast forward to today and not only is anorexia a story of the past, but so are the 13 other “incurable illnesses” I was diagnosed with in the aftermath from all that stress; and entire experience inspired me to dig deeper—to figure out how this whole gut-brain thing works, so that one day, I could help others too.
GUT BRAIN
This isn’t woo-woo. It is science, gut-brain science— that is actually because the gut and brain are directly connected—like a telephone wire.
When the brain perceives mental, emotional or physical stress, it triggers the release of inflammatory cytokines down the gut-brain axis to the trillions of microbes and 500 million neurons in your belly, your second brain—which are connected to every single system and responsible for 95% of all signals throughout the entire body. In fact, for every one signal sent from the brain—your, 9 more fire back from the gut.
Stress? Ka pow! Symptoms!
Basically: The more stress you perceive, the more likely your total health—not just your digestion— is impacted overall—your immunity, your hormones, your anxiety, your energy, your metabolism and beyond.
For example: gut bacteria determine your weight and how you hold onto fat or muscle. When study subjects receive implanted gut bacteria from an overweight twin— microbes from a high cortisol, sedentary, processed-food based lifestyle, the test subjects gain weight; whereas when the subjects receive bacteria from a lean twin, they lose weight. No change in diet and exercise at all themselves.
Hippocrates once said that “all disease begins in the gut.” I say: All wellness begins in the second brain—your gut. Health is an inside job.
In my study of the “psychic roots of disease,” I stumbled upon the work of Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, an allopathic German medical doctor, who discovered the power of the gut-brain connection in healing from physical illness, based on his own recovery experience from cancer.
Dr. Hamer developed cancer shortly after his son was killed in a tragic accident and died in his arms—a significant emotional stressor.
It was during his treatment, and subsequent recovery, that he began to question the “root causes” that preceded not only his disease, but the diseases of his patients…realizing that for the majority, a significant emotional stressor or unexpected conflict had occurred prior to getting sick.
Even more, using CT brain scans, Dr. Hamer discovered found that the gut-brain connection is mapped for over 1000 different symptoms based on specific stressors, that show up as concentric rings—inflammation— in the brain regions correlated with the specific affected cells, tissues and organs affected.
For example, patients with testicular cancer—like himself—developed the cancer after experiencing a significant territorial loss conflict—like his son, a loved one or divorce.
Whereas patients with gut issues had previously experienced an “indigestible” conflict—something that was difficult to swallow, digest, or break down, figuratively….like Constipated Katy.
Katy was constipated. All the time. Despite drinking tons of water, taking laxatives and eating fiber, she was stuck.
Ironically, she also felt stuck in her life. Katy was a college student, stuck living in cold Chicago, studying finance for her dad, while her dream was to be a fashion designer. Katy felt stuck…until she finally took the leap and did what she’d always wanted: Moved to New York. and finished her last semester, interning in SOHO.
Her constipation went away.
Patients with skin issues—often had suffered from an attack conflict: like Breakout Bill.
Bill, a busy attorney, developed a skin rash and acne, seemingly out of nowhere—despite eating a gluten-free diet and using non-toxic skincare products. When we did the “work”, we realized Bill’s skin condition began after an intense lawsuit with an ex-business partner who stole money from him.
Bill felt attacked. His skin, acting as armor, reacted defensively—just like teenagers— notorious acne sufferers; their self worth under the attack of popular mean girls and courtyard bullies. “I would go back to middle school”—Said NO ONE ever.
And patients with weight issues had experienced to an overwhelming, “beached whale conflict” like Yo-Yo Dieting Yolanda.
Yolanda — a 55 year old Hollywood hairdresser—couldn’t lose those last 20 pounds for the life of her.
Paleo, fasting, vegan, keto, carnivore…Nothing helped until…she stopped the diet hopping and quit her high-demand job behind the scenes of the latest Batman movie, where she said she felt like a fish out of water—a beached whale. Magically, she stopped retaining water and body fat—the pounds fell off, and her bloating and sugar cravings went away!
Symptoms are metaphors of something deeper going on under the hood.
The interesting thing about how stress works in the body is that
the brain cannot distinguish the difference in running from a bear versus running on a treadmill at 10 mph while thinking “I’m not good enough, versus running on 4 hours of sleep, 3 cups of coffee, and adrenaline from a never-ending to-do list.
The body sees all sources of stress the same—sending the same inflammatory chemicals up and down the gut-brain axis. A total gut-brain reset is significant here.
The Total Gut-Brain Reset Formula
Which brings me to how to “fix” this— The Total Gut-Brain Reset formula.
I am big in the power of 3’s and this one is super simple:
- Tune into your gut – Be / See It
- Take care of your gut- Do / Feel It
- Trust your gut- Have / Know It
#1. TUNE INTO YOUR GUT
First up: Tune into your gut. All about awareness— tune in to understand where you are today—the metaphor your body is trying to communicate to you— and gain vision for what you want instead.
Do a quick health audit right now. Consider a symptom you either currently or previously have had. What is the metaphor your body is trying to tell to you? Remember, the gut-brain connection is mapped for over 1000 different symptoms, all based on how we perceive stress. A total gut-brain reset is a good thing to consider.
For example: your bloating may be related to eating one too many Brussels sprouts, or if is has been going on for awhile, no matter what you eat, consider what indigestible stressors were happening in your life prior to the initial onset of your symptoms—like working in a job you hated, or juggling life as a single mom of three.
Fatigue may be related to running on 4 hours of sleep, or if your fatigue persists, no matter how much you sleep, consider what—if anything else—is draining you in your life right now—work, a relationship, a big decision.
Spoiler alert: sometimes, awareness of the underlying stress alone is all your body needs to begin healing! It works sort of like standing in the shallow end of the ocean.
Think about it, when you’re standing in the ocean, with your back to the waves. what happens when that wave strikes? You fall forward! You’re unable to see it or brace yourself for it—sort of like being unaware or unable to see the root causes.
However, what happens when you turn around to face those waves? You’re able to stand stronger—it’s sort of like your body says, “Thankyou! You get what I am trying to tell you!” You turn to face the waves and they don’t get you down as much! Inflammation calms down in the gut-brain axis. Magic.
Once you identify the root cause metaphor behind your symptoms, tune in to your gut and gain vision: What do you want instead? Who is healthy, thriving you? Do you need a total gut-brain reset? Your higher, feeling amazing, self? Get a clear picture.
#2. TAKE CARE OF YOUR GUT
Next up step #2: take care of your gut—inside and out. Physically and mentally. When our gut feels good, we are less susceptible to stress.
Physically, “taking care of your gut” entails the 5 “gut love” habits I teach. My patients, like eating gut-loving foods, cleansing with hydrating clean water, optimizing sleep, and breaking a sweat— 5 core habits that I teach my clients.
Mentally and emotionally, “taking care” of your gut entails how you think, feel and speak to yourself.
Limiting stories and negative thinking hold us back.
If you believe that: “Nothing helps.” “I have bad genes.” “I can’t lose weight..”— getting well is going to be an uphill battle.
Or who here has ever believed: I am scared to speak in public…I am a bad public speaker?
[raised hands]…[addressing a person in the audience]
Great! Stand up! Today, you are going to become a great public speaker!
Say it: “I am a public speaker!” [person repeats ]… Say it with gusto—“I am a CONFIDENT public speaker.” [person repeats]…one more time, you’ve got this—cheer her on [person repeats].
Amazing.
Now who here has ever believed? “I can’t make a lot of money!” Or, “money never works out for me.”
Great—you, stand up…[I give him a $20]. Amazing. You just made $20!
We are the stories we tell ourselves!
So how do you want your health story to go? Will a total gut-brain reset help? Go back to your vision in step one— the ideal thriving version of you and create a “gut love mantra”—
Pick at least 3 “power statements” that remind you of who you are becoming—
For example: “I am happy! I am strong! I am confident.”
Or, “I have tons of energy. I feel vibrant! I love my life!”
Or “I want a total gut-brain reset!”
Or, if you’re like me, the day I gained 10 pounds overnight that lasted for 4 weeks until I began to say, “I feel light, fit and free!”…
Even if you don’t fully believe it right now: believing is seeing.
You’ve probably heard of Dr. Masru Emoto’s famous “water experiment“—when researchers sent positive thoughts towards water, the molecules looked like beautiful snowflakes under a microscope, whereas the water molecules that received negative thoughts and energy appeared angry.
Now, consider this: Our bodies are 70% water. What do you think this means for you? Care to have a total gut-brain reset? Your cells are incredibly intelligent, listening to what you tell them 24/7.
Repeat your mantra several times throughout the day—declare it as if you already it. Visualize it. And the secret sauce: feel into it. Really imagine what it would feel like to have your desire—happy, confident, glowing, invigorated.
#3. Trust Your Gut
Last but not least: trust your gut—all about living in the knowing state—the end state. Celebrating that total health is yours, as if you already have it.
You don’t plant a seed, water it, and then get frustrated the next day if it’s not a beautiful sunflower yet. No, you know its coming. Just like you don’t place an order at a restaurant, then 2 minutes later, go back to the kitchen to ask the chef, “where is my food?!” No, you know, you trust, it’s coming.
Likewise, when given the right tools, your body innately wants to heal itself. This is a fact.
Break a bone, slap a cast on it, and it heals — in for most people, it heals within 6 to 8 weeks—even if a person is eating greasy cheeseburgers and French fries.
Summary
What do you think could happen to your health if you started tuning in, taking care, and trusting your gut more? Have you ever considered a total gut-brain reset?
Take your health back into your own hands! Try my Total Gut-Brain Reset formula now. Book a complimentary 15-minute Health Strategy Call today and let us help you.