Weight Loss Starts in The Gut — THIS is How!

4 Reasons Why January is the Best Month to Cleanse

1. The Covid Twenty

The last two years have brought in a new wave of sedentary lifestyles for many people. With the joy of working from home also comes the ease of eating whatever you want, whenever you want, and moving less than you probably did pre-pandemic. Most people gain about 5 to 10 pounds over the holidays alone — throw in the increase in sedentary lifestyles, and you’re most likely at a total of twenty pounds for the year. And while I do feel it’s important to enjoy the holidays fully and give yourself some leeway to eat foods you love, it’s equally important to recover properly as soon as the New Year hits so that you’re not packing on an extra twenty pounds year after year. Luckily, a cleanse is the perfect way to shed those year-end pounds, starting by resetting your gut health, which is often struggling for many after holiday meals and stress, especially after another pandemic year.

2. The Post-Holiday Let-Down

Let me ask you a question: Are you feeling down in the dumps lately? If you are, you’re not alone. This time of year can be hard on mental health. The excitement of the holidays are behind us and many of us are staring down the long, cold, sunlight-deprived winter months to come. To top it off, this year the omicron variant swept through the country just as the holidays were kicking into full gear, interfering with many travel plans and family get-togethers. It’s a sure-fire recipe for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), anxiety, and depression. SAD is a type of depression that occurs during the darker winter season, for many due to lack of sunlight and a drop in vitamin D levels, otherwise known as the “winter blues.”

Anxiety and depression have been connected to alterations in gut bacteria and poor diet choices, like too much sugar and alcohol consumption . The root cause of your symptoms may not solely be Seasonal Affective Disorder; it might actually be Diet Affective Disorder — in which the diet affects how you feel mentally and emotionally. If there’s one unexpected benefit of cleansing that my patients report over and over and over again, it’s that they feel lighter, happier, and calmer. The most important takeaway here is that a cleanse can be the perfect way to reboot your “blah” or down mood and turn that frown upside down, so you can focus on what’s important in your life.

3. Fueling New Year’s Goals

Many of us start January off with lofty goals for how we’re going to transform our lives, health, and bodies. Well, all these require one thing — and that’s energy. Energy in body language means ATP — your body’s energy currency. If you want more energy, you need to make more ATP. And In order to make more ATP, you need healthy mitochondria. In order to have healthy, robust mitochondria, your body needs to be free of any toxic burden. That’s where a cleanse comes in.

And, let’s face it… Without the proper body energy to pursue your dreams, you won’t get even halfway there. A cleanse is a great way to boost your energy, because it rids your body of the gut irritants and toxins that rob your body of vitality and short-circuit the tiny energy factories inside each and every one of your cells — the mitochondria. When you cleanse, you remove the barriers to optimum function and fuel your body properly so you can accomplish everything you set out to do and more. (By the way, it’s not too late to set new year’s goals worth keeping !)

Plus, when you have more energy, you’ll feel more motivated to hit the gym, make it to that exercise class, or simply get outdoors for a run. Having abundant energy is the greatest motivator for taking good care of yourself, both physically and mentally.

4. “The Cornerstone Effect”

The cornerstone is the inaugural stone that sets the foundation for any important structure. The cornerstone is the first stone laid down in a building, and since all the other stones will be set in relation to this stone, it determines how the building will be constructed. In essence, it provides the direction for building such a structure, and it is “the single most important part to any construction project that is to withstand the test of time.” That is why cornerstones are memorialized with a plaque. In the same way, the cornerstone of your health is your gut , and thus, fortifying your gut is what I call “The Cornerstone Effect” .

By strengthening your gut, you are laying down the cornerstone upon which to build a solid foundation for your health and wellness. That is why it is so important to focus on gut health when doing any cleansing program. By starting with the gut, you can not only beat the bloat and put an end to an “irritated stomach”, but you can also balance your hormones, boost energy, improve mental clarity, uplift your mood, reduce allergies and asthma, resolve many skin rashes, and even reverse or slow down the progress of chronic disease, which is tied to inflammation. Working on your gut reduces the very inflammation that leads to weight gain for many and is the number one hidden obstacle to weight loss that most people miss.