Did you know that today is World Digestive Health Day? The day is celebrated May 29th of each year.

Digestive disease is typically dealt with in silence. Women in particular are silenced. I know because I used to be one.

Instead of focusing on the world digestive problem today, I thought I’d spin it in a positive, fun and hopefully helpful way.

Funny – and helpful: 8 Ways to Eat Beans and Not Get Gas

1. Soak your beans overnight before cooking and eating
2. Cook your beans with vegetables
3. Make refried beans with fats; cook them a few times before consuming
4. Eat small, fresh beans
5. Cook your beans with bay leaf
6. Eat beans in small amounts
7. Avoid eating beans in the same meal as fruit
8. Cook your beans thoroughly

 
I have practiced these for most of my bum-tum life. I learned even more about them at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. You should know, though, that even if you were to follow all of those “rules,” you might still not be able to digest beans. They are a tough one for anyone with digestive disorder. I rarely can handle them. It’s a tragedy, really. Just listen to your body.

I have compiled all my “digestive-specific” posts since launching a gutsy girl for you in one place today. I hope you find something beneficial!

• Digestion & Women: The Stinkin’ Truth
• The New Normal
• Epsom Salt is Magical
• Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes
• Solution: Cleaning Out the Gut Part I
• Solution: Cleaning Out the Gut Part II
• The Elimination Diet
• Watermelon. Digestion. And Bananas.
• 6 Things I Do When Gluten Attacks

Lastly, and this is just purely for fun – for a laugh or a mantra today….

Love your guts,
SKH

After the first 2 weeks of my new workouts, stopping all drugs and medication and cleaning up my diet as my intolerant body needs, I weighed myself.

Surprise….+4 on the scale.

In an instant I remembered why I had given it up before.

I began to second guess all that I was doing. I wondered why I would work so hard just to see the scale’s number increase?

Of course I know that muscle weighs more than fat. Of course I totally get all of it. And yet somehow, I felt defeated.

A week later (last Sunday), I put jeans on to go to church. (Yes, I barely ever wear jeans. I’m always in workout clothes. And yes, my church rocks – we aren’t stiff and buttoned up.) Each pant leg I put on made my legs cringe just a little – Saturdays are typically a leg day, so my legs were sore. They reminded me of how hard I’ve been working. And then just like that – my jeans slid right on. The same jeans that haven’t fit for a few months. They hug my glutes, which is perfectly okay. They are big in my waist. They look great.

In that moment I remembered that I am killing it, and I don’t need the damn scale to tell me otherwise.

Bye, Bye Scale

Bye, bye scale.

Now go enjoy the weekend. I know I will – legs day today and dinner tonight with friends!

Love your guts,
SKH

The Good

I feel fantastic. I am working out a ton. And by a ton of course I mean many 2x’s/day. Also by a ton of course I mean that I feel like a human garbage disposal constantly. My food intake increases accordingly to my workouts, but green veggies and protein have become my new BFF’s.

I am getting more endurance, likely more than I even had as a running junkie.

I feel stronger. Each lifting session I’m adding more weight (or more reps, depending on the exercise) and am surprising myself with what I can do.

The Frustrating

I have been taking “progress” pictures for about a month now. I can see change already. I mean, not huge change or anything, but when I compared last week to my “prior,” I noticed my back muscles look a little stronger – a little more defined.

So today I thought, “I’m going to try a pull-up.” 

Keep in mind:

#1 – It was 6am.

#2 – We don’t have the fancy pull-up machine at our gym…we only have a bar, the bar where true pull-up dreams are made.

I put a band around the bar, placed one knee in and did a pull-up.

Just kidding.

I barely made one. I was horrified. Horrified!

The Focus

I have so many things I’m working on at the gym currently.

My favorite is kickboxing.

My second favorite are abs, and this is an odd twist of thinking for me since I used to hate working abs.

My least favorite? Back. Chest. Pull-ups (which, yes, includes the back – but so much more).

I cringe when I have to work those, but if we don’t focus on strengthening the weaknesses we’re still left with nothing changes if nothing changes.

Now more than ever I am determined to master the pull-up, so that I can eventually crank out pull-up after pull-up. I have a pull-up bar at my house, and after my embarrassment this morning, it’s time to put it up again this weekend!

I think month 2 is going to be even better than month 1! All of this made possible because I’m truly gutsy

Question: Least favorite body part to work? Most favorite?

Love your guts,
SKH

Some people I’m graduating with already have their post-graduation business plans all set. I am certainly not one of them.

I dance to my own beat.

I originally started making a whole slew of services and offerings I wanted to provide. I mean, you do remember what I believe, right?

I am fairly certain that given a Cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world. – Curly Girl Designs

But then I realized that my life is already like a bull coming out of the bullpen – daily.

I don’t need to help people with a menu of a million magical things. The truth is that right now, in this moment I believe there is one thing I can provide that will help 99.9% of the people who wanted to work with me in the first place.

The Elimination Diet

Background

About 5 years ago I walked into an Allergy Specialist’s Office. This was the beginning of all my testing. The allergist did probably 100 prick tests. Nothing. Nope. Not even mildly allergic to one thing. So she told me that because I was having so many digestive and “other” issues, that she highly recommended I go on an Elimination Diet to find out which foods I was intolerant to. She gave me a sheet which looked something like this:

She then said, “Read the instructions (the sheet she gave me had “instructions”). Avoid one food group for a few days. Then, add that food back in, note your symptoms and move on to the next until you have done trial-and-error on all. This will tell you which foods don’t agree with your stomach, creating the intolerance.”

I went home. I followed her instructions. Nothing changed. My stomach got worse, but yet somehow I got better throughout the years.

How?

TRUE Elimination Diet.

The difference?

I taught myself how to do it. I studied, learned and did all the due diligence that was required. The due diligence that clearly is not done from professionals.

I swear by the Elimination Diet. It changed my life. It will change your life if you are sitting there find yourself unsure of what foods are causing your stomach problems. Those stomach problems could be (but are not limited to):

• IBS
• Colitis
• Crohn’s
• Celiac (obviously if you have Celiac you already know you can’t have gluten, but many times people with Celiac have many other intolerances as well)
• General stomach distress

Because I don’t want anyone freaked out by the word “Diet,” you must know that the Elimination Diet is not really a diet at all. When I think “diet,” I think lifestyle – a healthy lifestyle. The Elimination Diet is simply just a procedure and method we go through to arrive on our healthy lifestyle.

The Elimination Diet with me will include complete hand holding: grocery lists, specific instructions, full email access, phone calls/Skype/Google+ (if desired), menus and anything else you might need to be successful.

The full service will be added here soon.

In the meantime, please contact me if you would like more information or if you have questions and/or are interested in working with me.

Know someone who would benefit from this? Share this link with them –> http://bit.ly/agugted or click one of the icons below to share with your friends and family – or heck, the whole Universe:

Love your guts,
SKH

I was hooked immediately. The first time we used it we simply just used bananas. We topped it with some Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup. No judging….it was Christmas:) Besides, how can anyone deny themselves a little Hershey’s from time-to-time? (p.s. Speaking of Hershey’s and way off topic, the Hershey’s “it” girl is one of my BFF’s – give her a shout out – @ahhnalin!)

Alright, back to business.

My mother is the greatest, but of course you already knew that from this. Among many other things, she had my very own Yonanas shipped to me for my birthday.

I think this came to me at the perfect time in my life. Since I’m nearly nil sugar, nil carbs and in a deep, dark place with no watermelon, bananas have saved me. I’m sure you’ve read: Watermelon. Digestion. And Bananas. If not, have a quick read!

One night awhile back I figured I might as well get creative with adding some protein to my Yonanas dessert.

Scratch that, this wasn’t about creativity. It was about chocolate and peanut butter, while still remaining low sugar and manageable for my digestive system.

Enter a new gluten-free recipe!

Yonanas Protein Chunky Monkey

Ingredients

• very ripe bananas (frozen to be placed in the Yonanas)
• 1 scoop Rainbow Light Protein Energizer
• 1 tsp natural peanut butter
• 1 tsp unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

Making Yonanas

Protein Chunky Monkey Ingredients

Mixture

Protein Chunky Monkey

Frustration at its finest.

Instead of staying frustrated with a lid on emotions, remember this….

You say I can’t. I’ll show you I will.

And then act upon it immediately.

Something similar happened to me recently. I couldn’t have cared less. I pulled out my trusted thoughts that….

Good things don’t come to those who wait. Good things come to those who have passion, work hard and never wait around for anything.

I continue to be the SUPREME motivation in my life. My drive with everything in life comes from a place deep within.

My parents and family in general have never really understood where it came from. Hell, I’m not even sure I know where it came from.

But one thing I know FOR SURE is that we can depend on a lot of people for a lot of different things during many times throughout our lives. What sets us apart from others, though, is certainly NOT that dependence. It is independence; the drive, motivation and determination to THINK and ACT for ourselves. It is the doing that creates change.

Other’s words never dominate our actions.

Ready?

Love your guts,
SKH

Flying does nothing for my stomach.

The lack of food options while I’m out of my comfort zone equally does nothing for my digestive system.

And man, I sure did miss my gym. I did, however, knock out an intense 20 minute HIIT running session on Wednesday at 6am. Yeah for hotel treadmills! And yesterday when I had a full day back in California? Gym session times 2.

But this time, traveling for work was much harder on me for reasons not yet mentioned.

I’d love to tell you a pretty story, with bright lights and a flashy work-travel experience. Unfortunately life – both personal and professional – does not always shine like that.

I cannot give the details about where I was, who we went to see or anything else. But I learned in three days life lessons that only this work trip could have provided.

• Laptops and Cell Phones. We show how disinterested we are in others when we act as though there isn’t a world outside our personal-technology spaces. In business, it’s rude. In life, it’s hurtful.
• Time is of the Essence. Everyone thinks their time is precious. It is. It is golden. In business, your time is no more precious than my time. In life, 24 hours is what we’re given.
• Respect. I don’t care who you are, how mighty your company, brand or personal brand might be. There is something about respect that is far too often overlooked. Everyone wants it; few give it right back. In business, and in life, we reap what we sow.
• Truth. Tell it like it is. Give me the truth. Hell, pull a Mark Cuban. Just tell me something. The mind is a tricky place to be when one is left tossing around, “what ifs” and “what happened’s” and “why’s.” In business, we are all professionals – adults – we can take news like the grownups we are. In life, the truth always sets us free.
• Hearts of Gold. Anne Frank said, “I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Kindness does still exist. In business, someone can be kicked down and yet a warrior still emerges….with a heart of gold. In life, we have to trust that Anne Frank was right.

This past week taught me that the world likely has too many “business” and “life” personalities and not enough business-life crossover personalities.

And that’s a hard, hard traveling work week.

Love your guts,
SKH

My most favorite side dishes are those that I create with whatever is in the house at any given moment. Here is one we tried a few weeks back.

A Simple Roasted Vegetable & Nut Side Dish

Ingredients

• red pepper
• green pepper
• onion
• brussel sprouts
• garlic cloves
• The Laughing Cow Smooth Sensations Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese Spread (Side note: If you have leftovers of this, you can use The Laughing Cow Smooth Sensations Cinnamon Cream Cheese Spread for an awesome morning or mid-morning snack!)
• raw trail mix
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Bake for 25 minutes.
3. Spread the cheese on after you bake!

Fresh Peppers

Roasted Vegetable & Nut Mix

The only problem with the food part of this is my lack of carbs given how much I’m working out currently (well, except for this week while I’m traveling a few days for work).

Cleaning out my gut and feeling better put me ahead, but being able to have more carbs would help out even more. I tried to be tricky and eat watermelon.  Of course I knew it was likely to be a no-no since it’s super high in sugar, along with grapes and pineapple. Seriously –> will the list ever stop?! My stomach was not having it, and I was huge for about a day. I cut the watermelon, stomach fine again. (This was a week ago from Sunday.)

So I turned to the trusted Mr. Banana last week! And Mr. Banana has come to my rescue! So here’s the deal with Bananas for me. They are not all created equal.

According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD and the GAPS Diet, “Fruit should be ripe as unripe fruit has too much starch. For example, bananas have to have brown spots on their skins.” And when it comes to food for the GAPS Diet, I heed her advice. I eat a level 6 or 7 banana.

And here’s another thing about Bananas:

“Bananas provide an energy boost. Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. Bananas contain more digestible carbohydrates than any other fruit. Carbohydrates replace glycogen (stored glucose), which is used as fuel for the muscles. It is important to replenish the muscle glycogen after exercising to prevent fatigue. Both the fructose and glucose in bananas are easily converted to muscle glycogen. Bananas are grouped with foods that have the highest glycemic index, meaning their carbohydrates are among the quickest to move into the system.”

I have been eating one banana after each workout to help replenish.

Do I miss my watermelon? Yes, totally, yes! I thought I would be “sneaky” on Sunday night and have some. I figured if I took an enzyme with it I would be okay. Wrong! Immediate bloat.

I’m so glad I have my bananas.

Love your guts,
SKH

I hope to be a Mother like You,

I’ve always thought.

I never had crazy “motherly” instincts until a couple years ago when I wanted to become a mother so badly.

There is a pain I feel today, on Mother’s Day. A pain that only someone who struggles with infertility can know and feel. And I wanted so badly, in an odd way, to pour my heart out on that today because I know that today makes me feel ill just a little. 2 months ago I was so certain that I’d be getting calls and texts saying, “Happy-almost-Mother’s-Day-to-you.” Visions of belly bumps danced in my head; today they are just a figment of my imagination.

But today is not the day to sulk in thinking about “losing things I never had.”

Today is to remember, honor and love on my own mother and all the rock star moms I know!

Today is about hoping to be a Mother like You.

You give more than you receive.

You always supported us 100%.

You saw the bright, when I couldn’t see beyond gray.

You always made sure I knew who God was, how He loves us and the Word He teaches.

You stood back when I didn’t want opinion.

You made sure I could always be “kept in the game,” even if it made things tight.

You treated two of us like equals.

You showed me how to support and love in marriage.

You laughed. Just to laugh.

You had concern, even when I didn’t think a situation was concern able.

You taught me not to judge. Unless of course we judged together:)

You helped me capitalize on my talents.

You were not a friend when I needed a Mother.

And yet you were always my best friend.

I hope to be a Mother like You.

I truly do.

If I am blessed with half your patience, half your kindness and half of your heart,

I know my children will thank the Lord daily for me….

Just as I have for you.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Be nostalgic and read your post from last year, too –> My Mother Doesn’t Know It, But….