Good Gut Health Moves in One Direction- Forward

Unless you’re a race car driver trying to block the car behind you, driving with a heightened focus on the windshield and what lies ahead is almost always better than looking in the rearview mirror.

Take it from the engineers who design the cars. The windshield is massive and the rearview mirror is slightly larger than most cell phones. That is the first indication that forward should be our focus.

I have a confession though.

I have a terrible phobia about getting “whiplash” while I’m being rear-ended in a car accident.

This means I do occasionally drive in my rearview mirror, causing my wife to slam on her imaginary brake pedal on the passenger floorboard, as I rapidly bear down on the stopped car in front of me.

I might be guilty of glancing at the rearview mirror a bit longer than most.

“A quick look back is ALL it takes to see what’s behind you, then get your eyes forward again!” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times from my copilot.

The same rule applies to gut health.

Let me quickly show you a rearview mirror of my own, 30 years in three photos from my gut health art gallery:

I can recall by decade what the state of my gut was in 3 words, abused, destroyed, and rebuilt.

When I was in my 20’s, I kept a high level of fitness but I also put my body and gut through quite a bit of abuse. I got my money’s worth for sure.

My 30’s brought more life, a faster pace, an expanding family, and in my case, quite a few extra pounds. I settled into a much more sedentary lifestyle with an injured back. Maybe you can relate, but hopefully not.

In my 40’s when life kept coming at me fast, things got more expensive, and the cumulative results of neglecting my health and gut started to manifest. I often tell people that this was the beginning of the end for me.

My gut was destroyed.

At 50, I woke up from a bad dream and the gut rebuild started.

It continues to this day.

I take an occasional glance in this photographic rearview mirror to remember where I’ve been, but my focus remains in front of me.

Your gut microbiome touches virtually every part of your physical and mental health. The trillions of microbes play a game of survival of the fittest and they rely on us for some help.

They need food to survive and thrive and what we eat depends on who wins the game.

There will be setbacks but every setback is an opportunity to start over.

Your gut is always changing. In the article Our Bodies Replace Billions of Cells Every Day, Mark Fischetti and Jen Christiansen write that of the 330 billion cells turning over daily, 12% are gut cells.

As long as we keep moving forward in the fight for gut health, our next meal can have a huge impact on our success.

So whether you’re starting today or have been working on your gut for a while now, when it comes to your microbial metropolis, the most important meal is your next meal.

Forward.

We’ll return for another “F” word. My favorite “F” word.

Fiber.

I’ll share a couple of studies that will shine a light on fiber, much brighter than just a remedy for constipation.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff