by Christine Pyne | Feb 22, 2016 | Self Care
Do you feel like your food is just sitting in your stomach for hours after you eat? Or is the opposite happening, and you are running to the bathroom before you have even finished your meal? You are not alone, and there are things you can do improve the situation.
Here are ten steps to take now to get things moving properly through your gut:
- Food Combining – When foods are combined properly, they do not sit in your stomach and rot. That rotting food feeds the bad bacteria and yeast that everyone has residing in their digestive tract. To combine food, you eat protein with vegetables or grains with vegetables, never proteins & grains together. Also, fruits should be eaten alone on an empty stomach.
- Fermented Foods – These are naturally fermented foods such as kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, etc., that, when eaten, will feed the good bacteria in your gut and balance your inner ecology.
- Enzymes and Probiotics – I suggest that everyone take digestive enzymes and probiotics to help with the digestion of their food and build up their immunity.
- Water – We all know we need to drink plenty of water. A little known Ayurvedic trick is to drink a glass of water 15 minutes before your meal. This will get your digestive juices flowing and your food will get digested better.
- 80/20 – This rule is to eat until you are 80% full. That leaves 20% of the room left in your stomach for your digestion to work. No one likes that uncomfortable full feeling and your tummy will thank you if you stop just before you are full.
- Eat Loads of Fiber – Your body needs fiber to carry out toxins, excess hormones, and junk. Eating lots of water-soluble fiber, found in veggies, will ensure that you get plenty of fiber. Just don’t forget step #4! Drink lots of water, too, so that you don’t end up with bulky stool.
- Short Fasting Period – Don’t worry, I am not suggesting that you don’t eat for a day. What I am suggesting is that you take some time between meals. Give your system about 3 or 4 hours to let the food get assimilated. When your gut is constantly bombarded by food all day long, it gets confused and doesn’t work properly. Give it some time to work on that last meal before you head to the kitchen for a snack.
- Cut Sugar and White Carbohydrates – These foods will feed the bad guys in your gut. Avoid them for less gas and bloating – and you don’t want the insulin spike that comes with them either.
- Gluten – A large percentage of Americans are gluten intolerant and do not know it. Try going without and see if your digestion works any better.
- Bone Broth – The #1 most soothing and healing drink that you could ever ingest. Homemade bone broth contains all of the nutrients you need to heal your gut if it is leaky and also provides the minerals you need for strong bones. It’s a win-win, must-consume food!
If you incorporate some or all of the tips, you will ease in to better digestion and the tummy troubles will disappear. 
Christine Pyne
Your Personal Health Coach
by Christine Pyne | Feb 16, 2016 | Self Care
I suffered from constipation most of my life, not knowing I was constipated. It all came to a head after the birth of my second child. I was MISERABLE! I tried everything imaginable. I even resorted to chronic laxative abuse for many years, but eventually I knew I needed to do something. I took prescription medications and yes they temporarily helped but only for a short while and then caused other problems and side effects. It was a vicious cycle. I honestly didn’t know what to do, only that what I was doing wasn’t working.
Thankfully, I have been educated on HOW to build daily bowel movements into my daily routine. Now, it’s just part of my morning, and if I DON’T have one in the morning, my body just feels “off”!
Here are three simple tips that I learned:
WATER, WATER, WATER
Did you know that up to 75% of Americans are dehydrated? The problem is much more prevalent than most of us realize. Water is needed to help the food pass through the small and large intestine, along with the colon and rectum, as it can take up to 24 hours for food to pass from the mouth to the anus. In the intestine alone, one gallon of fluids is absorbed daily to help with digestion. In the colon alone, 5 to 10 pounds of fecal matter can be stored because of dehydration caused by lack of water.
EXERCISE
Moving your body every day is key to daily bowel movements. What is the best kind of exercise to do? The one you will get done on a daily basis! You don’t have to do a ‘killer’ workout every day for it to be considered exercise; just get up and MOVE. Outside is ideal, but just get it done! Getting 20 to 30 minutes of continuous movement will help move your bowels. Exercise is even more important during long periods of sitting, such as commutes, trips, sedentary desk jobs, and screen time. Write it into your daily schedule and your daily bowel movement will follow closely behind!
LOTS OF FRESH FRUITS AND VEGGIES
Changing your diet to incorporate 50% to 75% fresh fruits and veggies will radically change your daily elimination habits, as they add fiber to your diet. When planning meals, plan your veggies and fruits first, and then add the carbs and protein. For instance, at lunch, fill your plate with a beautiful, BIG salad as the “mattress” for the rest of your meal. Experiment with a new veggie or fruit frequently. Eat seasonally and experience the most nutrition for your body. Look for local farmers’ markets to buy the fresh and local produce. And, of course, organic is best if it is an option.
Incorporate these three tips into your daily routine and your body will be a well-oiled machine in no time! Oh yes, and speaking of oil, one more tip: 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil right off the spoon will lube your system like a well-tuned motor! You will be feeling lighter, more energetic, and less bloated in no time at all!
You don’t have to live with constipation and it is not normal to be chronically unable to move your bowels. Sometimes is does take more than these three steps; however, this is the start. If you need more help, jump on over to my webpage, fill out a health history and request a complementary 50-minute strategy session with me to get you “moving.”
Chris Pyne
Your Personal Health Coach
by Christine Pyne | Feb 8, 2016 | Self Care
I’d like us to focus on stress, cortisol and sleep this week. Stay tuned for more on how the stress response affects your health and ways in which you can take control so you don’t suffer the ill effects on your brain and body. Here’s a quick video lesson on “How Chronic Stress Affects Your Brain.” (more…)
by Christine Pyne | Feb 8, 2016 | Self Care
The “fight or flight” syndrome – you’ve heard of it, right? Accompanied with the image of the saber-toothed tiger dashing after a hunter, getting ready to attack. You often get into this situation, don’t you? In modern times, we’re not literally in that frantic position, but our bodies are often reacting as if we were fighting for our lives. Our adrenal glands, located on top of each kidney, are forced to work overtime in an effort to deal with stress from all sources: injury, disease, work, family, finances, environment, etc.
It’s hard to imagine these small endocrine glands, essentially the size of a walnut, responsible for the manufacture and secretion of vital hormones such as cortisol, estrogen and testosterone. The cortisol production is crucial for the body to combat stress. Whereas thousands of years ago the stress was a finite amount of time – you either outran the predator or survived or you were eaten – nowadays, stress seems to be a state of being for so many people.
Although not getting along with a boss or missing a bill payment are not life-threatening like the saber-toothed tiger, our bodies react to the stressors in a similar fashion. The body starts to feel unsettled. More and more cortisol is produced because the body believes it needs massive amounts of energy to run for its life. This happens over and over again throughout the day: getting the kids ready for school and getting yourself ready for work, traffic, spilling coffee on your new suit, your assistant calls in sick and you’ve got to send out 20 packages today, the babysitter is late picking up the kids from school and taking them to soccer practice, your late afternoon meeting runs over and you leave the office late so family dinner becomes you eating leftovers alone. And all this is going to happen again tomorrow!
Here’s the problem: chronic stress can overload the adrenal glands to the point of exhaustion. For some, the fatigue will become overwhelming and the adrenals will no longer function properly to provide the energy and resources the body needs on a day-to-day basis. When someone is exhausted, a natural suggestion is to get more sleep. That’s not always easy with adrenal problems because insomnia is a common symptom. There are, however, steps you can take to prepare yourself for sleep, which is certainly one of the best ways to refresh and rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit.
For better sleep and to heal your adrenal glands:
- Go to bed at the same time every night between 10-10:30pm.
- Avoid stimulants such as caffeine and sugar in late afternoon/evening, typically after 2 PM is a good rule of thumb (or remove them completely from your diet to avoid any roller coaster-like blood sugar surges).
- Keep a gratitude journal near your bedside. Every night, list five things for which you are grateful. Remind yourself that even though you may feel fatigued, there are wonderful aspects of your life and many reasons to heal.
Need some help getting your life back into check? It isn’t always about food, but lifestyle as well.
Christine Pyne
Your Personal Health and Wellness Coach
by Christine Pyne | Feb 2, 2016 | Self Care
Talking from experience, I cannot tell you how many diets, and how much money I have spent on pills and programs to lose weight, just to gain it right back on afterward. Time and time again, I was promised this ‘new me’, only to be let down shortly after the diet or program was over. Every time I gained more than I had lost, it left me self-conscious, disappointed, and feeling like a failure. The truth of the matter is: DIETS DON’T WORK!
Sure, sometimes you lose the weight (at a cost to you financially, your health, and your body) for a short period of time, but diets cannot give you long-term sustainable weight or fat loss. When going through these drastic changes of dieting, your body goes into shutdown mode and your brain releases hormones telling your brain that you are starving. So when the diet is done, your body wants to replenish what it lost, plus some.
When you diet, you are consuming less food, so your metabolism slows down and you also lose muscle in the process. In no circumstance, in a healthy body, would you want to lose muscle mass! Instead we need to focus on what is being put into our bodies, and not how much of it.
There is a stigma against people who diet and then gain the weight right back, like they, the individual, are the reason they gained the weight back due to lack of will power, strength, laziness, ignorance… this puts too much power in weight being a choice or a product of not trying hard enough to be what everyone wants you to be. I read a great quote from an article in TheAtlantic.com that said, “Nutrition and fitness should be directed towards a healthy and improved lifestyle- NOT appearance (that is just a benefit).” And it’s true!
First off, clean eating is not a diet, it is a lifestyle choice. It is making the conscious decision to be happier and healthier, not only for you, but for your family. Clean eating is all about being aware of the pathway your food had to go through from growth, to your plate. It is focusing on consuming whole or real food and reducing or eliminating processed, refined, or handled food from your diet.
Focusing on raw, organic fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and good fats, the benefits go far beyond just weight loss. You gain more energy, improved body system functioning, improved cognitive abilities, better skin, better hair… the list goes on! Some general tips to remember when eating clean include:
- Limit processed foods
- Increase fruit and veggie intake (raw and organic are the best options)
- Cut down trans fats/vegetable oils; increase healthy fat consumption
- Reduce or eliminate alcohol and tobacco consumption
- Remove sugars or artificial sweeteners
- Eat lean meats from pastured, grass-fed, organic animals
- Cut out refined grains
- Hydrate – not with sugary sports drinks but with water. If you don’t like water try adding lemon or raspberries for a hint of flavor.
Now food is only one part of the weight loss equation. To lose weight and reach optimal health and wellness, you should exercise regularly, practice stress management, sleep proper amounts, hydrate, and focus on your daily nutrients. Clean eating will help you and your family feel better, long-term. And when you feel better, it shows!
Interested in joining a clean eating detox group with health coaching support?
Click here to learn more.
Christine Pyne, MSN, RN, NC-BC
Your Personal Health Coach
by Christine Pyne | Jan 25, 2016 | Self Care
Can I tell you something?
There’s something that I didn’t realize when I first started working one-on-one with people who want to make their health and wellness a priority, people who are sick of feeling less than amazing, and people who are confused about who to listen to for advice.
Here it is: Most of us already know what we need to be doing to improve our health!
There is a lot of information (and mis-information) when it comes to the foods we eat. Just look at the variety of books in the ‘diet’ or ‘health’ section of your local bookstore. But when it comes down to it, we still know the basic things we should be doing to improve our health.
In fact, when I ask my clients “What are three things you think you could be doing, to improve your health?” I get similar answers each time:
1. Be more active
2. Stop eating _______ or stop drinking ________ (or stop smoking!)
3. Eat more vegetables.
We intuitively know how to make ourselves well. But when it comes to following through? That’s where we fall apart. I know!! I have done it, too. I still do it. I might be a health coach, but I’m still human! I eat chips, I drink wine, and sometimes I don’t eat as well as I know I can.
For the next week, I’d like you to think about the obstacles that are stopping you from living your healthiest life. Think about it, journal about it, reflect on it.
What obstacles are standing in your way? Maybe you work long hours and cooking a healthy meal seems too time-consuming, or maybe you feel that the price of healthy food is too high. Perhaps you will discover that you aren’t sure if you really deserve to feel amazing.
Your job for the next week is to simply think, reflect, and journal on these obstacles. Knowing your obstacles, habits, and patterns will help you figure out how to work around them!
I would love to hear your comments below. Tell me what is stopping you! Let’s work it out together!
Big Love,
Christine Pyne
Your Personal Health Coach
