Stomach Issues? It may be more than your diet...
A different solution that may surprise you
It was the middle of Febuary; my buddy, fellow coach, and sports philosopher Jordan Goldstein reached out to me about a 1-1 client he was working with.
They have made great progress in the past couple of months, working towards and advancing his personal goals but had recently stalled. For no other reason other than this client, S.G., was suffering from extreme symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Any progress he’d make, stalled whenever he had a flare-up.
As you can imagine it was discouraging for S.G.
Bloating, extreme cramps, abnormal stools, and frequent bowel movements had him worried about where the nearest bathroom was. His doctors just wanted to prescribe him steroids and tell him “This is just something you’re going to have to manage.”
A road S.G. did not want to travel down for long…
Understanding this, Jordan asked for a professional opinion to help clear this roadblock.
On our first call together, we chatted about his experiences. Seeing and understanding where this main issue may be stemming from.
After hearing what’s been going on; we learned that some of these issues started rearing their head around 18 months ago.
“What was happening in life around that time?” I asked.
For the sake of privacy and anonymity of S.G., we’ll keep the explanation short….
He was experiencing turmoil within the company he was a part of. Turmoil most people fear the most.
“So you’d say there’s been a lot of underlying stress and anxiety you’ve been experiencing in the time you started having these issues”?
“That’s an understatement, Dylan. Yes, every day.”
“Okay, I understand. What are you doing to help alleviate the stress for yourself”?
“…”
“Gotcha, this is where we move the needle but first let’s see what you're consuming.”
The next step was to chat about his daily eating habits. And much to my surprise, they were pretty good by normal standards.
He wasn’t eating out much, not eating junk. Mostly healthy choices all around.
We chatted about some things like minimizing fiber content for a little bit by making changes such as brown rice to white rice. Keeping veggie intake low. Fasting. Implementing bone broth and colostrum. Very normal gut health protocols.
Now that we have an understanding of his diet, with no major changes needed, we started to address his stress and anxiety.
Addressing the issues of daily stress and anxiety wasn’t a tremendous task as some may believe.
The tasks are simple, and keeping daily implementation of it is the hard part.
We encouraged him to do basic stress reduction techniques:
Starting the day a little earlier while in silence and stillness for ~10 minutes
Practicing deep breaths throughout the day, especially when overwhelmed
Simply fill up your lungs by inhaling through the nose
Emptying the lungs very slowly via exhalation through the mouth
Prompting a daily Journal Practices
Checking in with himself
Expanding on the moments of high stress and anxiety; how and what caused it
Creating space from distractions that may be prevalent in his life
Implementing 2-5 minute breaks between life transitions (Home to work, Work to home, etc)
Redefine what he saw/felt as success for him
Spending time moving his body, preferably in nature
Why does alleviating stress and anxiety help our stomach issues?
To put it at the most basic level without digging too deep, our brains are connected to our stomach via the Vagus Nerve. It is one of the few cranial nerves we have and there is direct communication between the two organs. What we eat affects our mind, and what we think affects our belly.
S.G. took this to heart and put in the work here.
He found himself trying to rush the outcome, causing an experience of more stress in his life. When we discussed the aspect of zooming out and seeing this is to change his life experience and not the immediate experience, he started reaping the benefits of these practices.
Taking it day by day, one day at a time. Doing what he knows matters the most to move the needle in the right direction.
He’s eating more foods and understands if and when a flare-up might happen again he knows how to get back to a normal and healthy state.
Check out his check-in text from this past Monday:
If you find yourself in a similar state as S.G. did, reach out, and let’s strategize your way back to a healthy and normal life.
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Awesome! So glad you came on to help us