Remember this our plan to heal our gut. Consult your doctor before beginning any program. Adjust to your own body and needs. We have done our own research and have come to these steps to help us in our journey to heal our stomach issues. Please do your own research before starting anything new. We are not really sure how long we plan to do this program. And over time we might be changing things depending on how our bodies are doing. We plan to share just about everything as we heal, so we apologize now if some things are TMI. We want to be honest as we are using our blog as our journal.
We wanted to say thanks again to everyone for the continued support of this journey of ours. We are sooooo happy to see so many of you getting inspiration from us to starting evaluating your own food choices and health issues and taking the steps to start healing yourself. That is great! Just remember to stay true to who you are and love yourself along the way!
Just a friendly reminder to always believe in yourself! Because we do! You can do whatever you set your mind to.
Michelle: Thursday morning before my crazy day started I did my 5 minute plank workout. Followed by some push-ups. No matter how little space or time I have…I do my best to move the body in some way. And planks are my favorite.
Lori: Thursday workout I did the Tone it Up Love your Legs routine. One of their newest toning workouts. I was so happy it was legs. As I realized that I really love working my legs but seem to neglect them. After this workout I was pumped and motivated to focus on my legs more.
Michelle’s day 14 of healing recap:
After workout I took my morning probiotic, fish oil pill, and l-glutamine and had some gelatin.
Since traveling I have to be creative in how I get my gelatin in. Yesterday I mixed in some coconut oil into my gelatin mix. Gelatin really does not have a flavor. It is just a new texture thing that Lori and I are getting used to. I am looking forward to when I get home next week to make some recipes with it.
Since I wake-up well before anyone else does in my group I knew heading down to breakfast was going to be awhile, so I snacked on a grapefruit.
I did some computer work as I waited for the rest of my group to wake-up to head downstairs for breakfast. I ordered 2 whole eggs with bacon that came with a side of fruit and of course black coffee. Love runny egg yolks.
I headed back to the room and did more work before set-up day at the Disney expo started.
Before leaving to go set-up the booth I snacked on a banana. I knew my traveling days would be fruit heavy and I am ok with that. Plus I really love bananas.
It was a long day of setting up the booth but the booth turned out great! All ready to sell some shirts these next two days! Looking forward to seeing all the runners.
Late afternoon I got a little hungry so snacked on another banana.
My dinner was a lovely 5 star dining kind of meal 😉 haha I enjoyed carrots, celery, canned salmon, and lots of guacamole.
Michelle Day 14 recap –
Bathroom: success!!!!! I had 3 bowel movements! stools were about stool 3 and 4
Energy: felt great
Gas: no major complaints
Skin: My skin is a little dry which I think due to lack of fat in diet and from traveling.
Water intake – 8 cups
Overall my day 14 was a great day. I enjoyed my eats and I enjoyed have great success in the bathroom. So happy everyone is liking this poop talk. Also I think the calm magnesium that I am taking is starting to help!
Lori’s day 14 of healing recap:
I took my morning probiotic, 1/2 tsp cod liver oil/butter blend, and l-glutamine and gelatin.
First meal of the day was same as always – 2 whole eggs, about 4oz sweet potatoes, dark leafy green and added in broccoli/carrot slaw that I tossed with cinnamon and turmeric and topped with 1 tbsp coconut oil.
After I enjoyed my egg sweet potato meal it was time for coffee 🙂
Next I snacked on a banana while I prepped my juice.
Fresh juice was about 16oz. Juice was made from 1 beet, 4 carrots, fresh ginger, half cucumber, 4 romaine leaves, fresh parsley and 5 stalks of kale. Juice requirements: drink in a fancy glass or drink with a glass straw.
I made more veggie pulp crackers and snacked on some done ones as I was doing it.
Snacks in the afternoon were some carrots and a bowl of steamed brussel sprouts and the other half of my grass-fed burger topped with coconut oil. I tried having protein at this snack since yesterday my snack was carb based, just seeing the difference in how I feel with either more carbs or more protein. So far both days I felt pretty much the same. I did feel a little bit more ‘full’ with the protein based snack. I plan to continue to do little self experiments like this (to me that is the best way to learn).
Dinner was sautéed spinach topped with sauerkraut, steamed zucchini and cauliflower, half avocado, and baked cod topped with mustard. Dinner plate was topped off with 1 tbsp coconut oil.
Dessert I enjoyed my carob coconut flour based thin mints (recipe in our cookbook). I enjoyed two thin mints.
Lori: Day 14 recap –
Bathroom: yes! stool was between stool 3 and 4
Energy: good
Gas: no extra bloating
Skin: about the same, getting one new pimple on side of chin
Water intake – 10 cups (does not include juice)
Overall day 14 was a good day. Just like Michelle I have been pleased with my bowel movements these past few days.
2 week thoughts:
It has been 14 days! Crazy! Where did the time go?
First off we are both extremely happy with ourselves in terms of sticking with avoiding all the things we mentioned in our plan to heal gut.
Michelle will be done traveling next week, so we plan to make bone broths to help our healing even more.
Secondly, we are thinking of continuing to avoid those certain foods a little bit longer. We are trying to decide when to start incorporating some foods back into our diet. You can kinda look at this period of healing for us almost like an elimination diet. Though we are really enjoying our eats, somedays it is a little boring. We do miss some foods. Having our meals very simple and real food based we feel has helped.
Having a buddy who can be serious, loving, supportive, motivating and at times silly makes it all worth it. We feel so blessed to have each other to lean on and to have fun with. We are unsure of what the next few weeks will be like in terms of our eats and our healing. We will continue to document it all here on the blog. We will share any discoveries along the way.
Right now all we can say is that our bodies are making improvements. We think with the increase in l-glutamine, taking certain gut healing supplements, watching what we eat, keeping our meals fairly simple, drinking our water, exercising and staying positive all have benefited us during these past 2 weeks.
We know many of you are thinking… has it been worth it? are we getting the results we wanted?
Our answer: yes
We feel it has been worth it. We know it takes time to really heal the body and we are ready for that. Our bodies are still feeling really strong, our bowel movements are getting better (going more often than we used to) and our skin is getting there.
Twins Question: Do you have a buddy that you can be silly with? Do you like doing workouts for legs?
til next time,
xoxo
purelytwins
22 comments
This is such a positive and encouraging journey you ladies are doing together. It shows us bloggers that we can make changes if we really work for it. Honestly, you both are great role models. Keep it up 😀
Lindsay thank you so much!! This means so much to us – thank you! xoxo
Well, it seems these “poop posts” of yours are quite popular and you can count me among the many fans. I’m writing mainly to let you know that I feel your pain, as I am going through a similar healing experience myself and, while I know you are trying a lot of things with guidance from your doctors, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to share some things that have helped me. One of my most uncomfortable/embarrassing symptoms is extreme bloating (or abdominal distension). Based on the pictures you have posted, mine is waaaay worse than yours. Basically at the end of the day I look fully pregnant. This was always exacerbated by chronic mild constipation. I started to get relief from the bloating when I began taking UniFiber, a tasteless insoluble fiber supplement. Like you lovely ladies, I love my veggies and I think my body was getting way too much soluble fiber and not nearly enough insoluble. So. That helped with my bloating/gas and (bonus!) helped a lot with my constipation.
Another thing that has helped is a DVD called Yoga for Health: Gastro Intestinal/Depression hosted by Jenny Cornero. It’s a 55 minute session full of challenging (yet relaxing) poses designed to help ease stress and massage intestines and other parts of the body (like the thyroid) which control hormones. I rented it from my local library but loved it so much I bought my own copy. Jenny is a fantastic teacher.
I know you have your own strategy and I applaud you for sticking with it and for trying new things out. I know first-hand how frustrating this battle is but following along with you helps keep me positive. Also, I’ve commented on this before on your blog, but your arms are totally killer! You can really see all the hard work you’ve done to become stronger women!
Happy health,
Rachele
thank you Rachele!!! Sound like great ideas, thanks 🙂
and you are too sweet about my arms, thanks!!!
I have been following ur journey for some time and was wondering how u came up with ur healing plan and what books or resources u recommend? I feel like my shelves are stocked with books who’s theories just don’t work for my gut
I have bacterial and fungal dysbiosis, leaky gut, ibd and ibs and loads of food intolerances. I’ve tried nearly every diet and am sick of cutting out more and more foods bc its only a temporary fix but doesn’t solve the problem. I’m currently doing a raw vegan fruit based diet but can only tolerate the small category of fruits that are low in fructose and high in glucose. Every other food category is a gut boom.
Any advice? I’ve been to so many practitioners, but we all know what a waste of money and time that is lol.
We seem to struggle with the same issues (skin included) and would love to be pointed into the right direction.
I haven’t had animal pro in a while and Idk if I can digest it…. It is also a moral thing for me. But my gut it insane and Idk what to do. The consensus on how to heal the gut is so varied and it’s driving me batty
Have u read these books
Perfect Health Diet
Fast Track digestion
Whole 30
Eat to live
Sorry for the Debbie downer post. And thanks for the help
We get a lot of our information from Marks Daily Apple, Practical Paleo (is the book we read to jump start this program), theprimalparent is a good source as well as Wellness Mama, among many others but those are the ones that came to mind just now. We have not read those books you mentioned. What we believe (and this could change, but what we feel at the moment) – is that eating real food and keeping things as simple as you can is a great start. Try to eat a variety of things if possible, we try but not the greatest at it. And know you said meat is a moral thing (which is fine), but maybe if you did your raw vegan diet along with getting in cod liver oil – as we feel that really has helped us in so many ways. Also, the pills we are currently taking we feel are starting to help. Hope this helps in some way! HUGS
Thanks for the help. Why do u think a paleo type diet is helping? There is suc a dichotomy in theories regarding plant based vs paleo diets and no consensus in between. It’s so hard to know what to do.
Do u gals take hcl?
No we do not take HCL but have friends who took it and had success.
There is so much different information out there – plant based, fat based, meat based etc. it is hard even for us to know what to do – to be honest. we are just at the point where we love all times of food, but also what to feel good all the time. We are not sure what is going to happen with our eats, as each day we read or learn something new (which can be overwhelming), we think we will still experiment with different foods to see what happens with our bodies (as again we feel that is the best way to learn by trying something and see what happens good or bad). We think we might experiment more with adding in a little more animal protein in but still eat plenty of veggies, and limit our fruit intake, but in a few weeks that might change haha as you can tell we are still learning as we go. Basically, we just keep an open mind about life and food, and just be more aware of how we feel when we eat certain foods, and being foodies we love all types of food. We do miss our baking, so probably always going to have that in our diet but in smaller amounts. I hope this helps in some way.
soooo happy to hear of your improvements! it does take time and it’s hard to be patient sometimes, no? i love that you have one another as support and a goofball buddy. i’m definitely missing that silly person in my life right now. as for leg workouts – love ’em! while letting my knee heal (from running), i’ve been getting into spin class (sooooo addicting) and bootcamp/trx where we do tons of squats (regular, jump squats, one leg, etc.) and various types of lunges. i love that my tush is getting firmer too – haha…isn’t it wonderful to be a lady and have strong, sexy muscles?! happy friday, michelle & lori!
yes Amanda it is wonderful to be strong and sexy with muscles 😉 we can be your silly person if you want!
Happy Friday to you too!! xo
You girls always amaze me, well done on this journey! Everything you do inspires me. After 17 days sugar free Im breaking my sugar detox today… looking forward to some chocolate again! lol. Have a great weekend xo
Do you find your digestion better not having protein powder?
tough question, as we feel our bodies liked brown rice protein, but not necessarily others. we would felt we did had decent digestion when we ate protein powder, we do feel everyone is different. some people can handle a lot and others can not. we are still trying to figure where we stand on it.
I’ve noticed a big difference in digestion since cutting out protein powders. Really, they are just expensive frankenfood:)
I’ve been really appreciating witnessing your journey. I share so much of what you struggle with. I’m especially curious about your journey towards hormone balance. I haven’t had a period since 2007….I am wishing I had a ‘twin’ to share the journey with 🙂 I try to eliminate chronic cardio but just can’t kick it and I’m sure it has something to do with my lack of cycles. I’ve been trying to incorporate more ZWOW/BR style workouts and love yours. Unfortunately a shoulder injury has prevented me from planking 🙁 so I modified your cardio workout yesterday:
30/30
Round 1:
30s TRX Chest press
30s High knees
30s TRX Rows
30s High knees
x 3
Round 2:
30s TRX Biceps curls
30s Side jump lunge
30s TRX Triceps press
30s Side jump lunge
x3
awesome Meg, workout looks great! Ya balancing hormones takes time, but reducing the intensity and duration of workouts really helped us, along with eating healthy fats and cooking our food (over eating a lot of raw foods). Thanks for the love and support!! HUGS
I’ve found that eating more cooked foods helps me too…now just to try to let go of all that useless cardio 🙂 Thanks! Do you know of any great nature/hiking trails in the Fort Myers Fl area? I’ll be there for 3 wks visiting my family in a few weeks.
No way! Fort Myers, FL is our HOMETOWN, where we were born and grew up! Unfortunately do not know many good hiking trails, Sanibel and Captiva would be good spots. 🙂
That’s hilarious! My parents live there. I have explored trails around Calahooshee state park before and hope to take my dad’s bike for a spin along Sanibel 🙂 If you ever wanna do an outdoor beach workout and are in the area drop me a line!
we do Meg! Have fun!:)
I just discovered your page when I searched for coconut flour chocolate chip cookies (which are in the oven now!) I clicked over to healing the gut because I was curious about it. I have been trying to shrink my stomach, there are muscles under there even after 3 kids!, but they still look puffy. How can I tell if it is bloat or just fat I need to get rid of? I eat a plant based diet now and am wondering if I need to make some diet changes because it is bloat but don’t even know where to start! I know I’m not constipated so that isn’t an issue.
I know one thing about showing abs is one a good diet, which sounds like you do and second is having an overall body fat %, I have heard for girls to really show their abs is around 18% body fat, have not done that much research on that but just want we read and hear from others. It might also be from a little bloating that you don’t see them. THe body can be confusing at times. I am glad you found our site and yay for coconut flour cookies, we love those!! YUM
Ladies, I’m going to have to go through all these posts. I’ve suspected for a while that I’ve needed to heal my gut, and got a pretty decent start when I was juicing, but I couldn’t juice for very long because it was a “diet” and I’ve got to keep working on eating intuitively or else my ED creeps back in (it’s stupid). I think now that I’ve found a happy place and am not having to think about everything that I eat, I could work on avoiding foods and eating more foods that would help me. I can’t do another diet, even if it is for my health and not for weight loss. It just isn’t good for my mental health.