BRAIN – HEART – GUT
Well what affects one, may affect all. There is a lot of scientific data on the connection between your brain, heart and gut. If you upset one, you risk upsetting the whole three. So to test this theory, I set myself a 10 day challenge and I can tell 
you, I am now a firm believer of how they do work together as I felt the results to back it up.
Here is what I did. For 10 days, I chose to only eat fresh food. That means no preservatives, no food colouring, no artificial flavours, no sodium, not even tomato sauce. I did not eat any processed foods or fast food whatsoever. I made everything from scratch so I knew exactly what I was eating. I have to be honest, I did still have 2 cups of coffee per day though.
Before I began, I wrote down everything that I could think of about my current state. My energy levels, my moods and emotions, how I was sleeping, my stress levels – everything. Was I feeling bloated, lethargic, and restless? Anything and everything I could think of. Then for 10 whole days, I eliminated everything that was not fresh and natural from my diet. I threw in some daily exercise and off I went.
Woah! I have to tell you though, this was more of a struggle than I first anticipated it would be. However, what’s 10 days after all? So I did stick with it and after I finished the 10 days, here is how I felt.
- More focussed
- More alert
- More energy
- More enthusiastic
- Less bloated
- Brighter eyes
- Skin looked fresher
- Felt happier and more relaxed
Hence, after only 10 days of doing this, I definitely noticed significant changes not only in my body, but also in my mind. So wow! If this is how I felt after 10 days, imagine how I would feel after another 10 days, then another 10 days and before you know it, this has become a lifestyle. Thinking of it in 10 day chucks makes it more acceptable and achievable in your mind. It is not as scary and confronting as saying that you have to do this for the next 12 months or for the rest of your life.
This is where I say it is your turn. Now I challenge YOU to do it.
To help you, this is what I did to get myself started. I sat down and made a specific plan. I planned every single meal and snack. I planned when I would shop for fresh food. I planned what I would take to work
to eat. I even planned what I would offer for my dinner party which fell within my 10 day experiment. I factored in my exercise time, my down time, my every time. At one stage when I was mapping everything out, I almost stopped as I thought, “Oh dear. I do have a very busy week coming up. Maybe this is not the right time to do this.” But then I thought “When would be the right time? Every week may be just as busy. Will I keep putting it off and off?” Then I changed my perspective and thought, “Well if I can do this when I am at my busiest time, then I can definitely handle this in the future.” This helped me to believe in myself and I always kept reinforcing in my mind that I could do this. It was only for 10 days and that it is easy peasy. A lot worse things can happen right?
So how about it? Try your 10 day challenge and let me know how it goes?
If you would like to learn more about this topic, please read this very informative article titled the Gut-Brain Connection.