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 somethings are TMI. We want to be honest as we are using our blog as our journal.
We have been getting questions a lot lately (and in our plan to heal the gut we forgot to mention brands of supplements) about what brands of probiotics and digestive enzymes we like. Therefore, we decided to incorporate our favorite brands into a blog posts so everyone can see our favorite brands in one spot. One thing about taking a probiotic and digestive enzymes we like to rotate the brands to get variety. Just something we like to do, you don’t have to.
Here are the brands of probiotics and digestive enzymes that we like and use.
We aren’t really sure if there really is ‘the ultimate probiotic or digestive enzyme’ out there, but here are brands we tend to buy.
Favorite probiotics:
HMF Forte probiotic (our favorite)
Others we have used in past:
Favorite Digestive Enzyme:
Pure Encapsulations – Digestive Enzymes Ultra
Others we have used:
Garden of Life RAW Enzymes women
Hopefully this list of supplements helps you with any digestive issues or help with overall good health. As we have noticed when we take them our digestive systems are happy.
Michelle: Friday morning I got ready for the day and did my 5 minute plank and some push-ups again, like yesterday.
Lori: Friday morning I did our 12 minute plank-cardio workout and ended the burn with doing some tri-cep push-ups.
Michelle’s day 15 of healing recap:
After my plank I took my morning probiotic, fish oil pill and l-glutamine and had some gelatin.
Again I mixed in some coconut oil into my gelatin. Slowly getting used to it
wearing raw threads tink shirt and black running skirt (loving the running skirts never thought I would say that but I do)
Finished getting ready and it was time for some breakfast and coffee!
mmm black coffee–yes please
Yesterday morning I requested to have just bananas, as I do not do well with strawberries and don’t really like melons.
My big sister gave me some of her sausage to help keep me full, which this breakfast did just that! I was full for hours. And of course had more coffee.
It was finally time for the Tinkerbell Disney Half Marathon expo to start. Raw Threads booth looking great 🙂
Enjoyed a banana and grapefruit during the day as snacks.
The expo ended at 7pm, it was a good steady first day. The staff headed back to the rooms and I enjoyed my dinner in my room.
I took my pre-dinner pills and more gelatin and coconut oil . Dinner was a whole avocado, 2 sardines, 1/2 can salmon and celery.
Also enjoyed dipping some carrots into my avocado sardine mix. So good!
Michelle Day 15 recap –
Bathroom: no success
Energy: good
Gas: no complaints
Skin: Legs had a really bad itch attack, so lots of red marks on the legs from me itching. Very embarrassing.
Water intake – 8 cups (lost count so might have been only 7 cups)
Overall my day 15 was decent. No major improvements and no major complaints. It was a good day.
Lori’s day 15 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 my 2 whole eggs with 2 large handfuls of chopped kale, and 4oz roasted butternut squash all sauteed on the skillet with turmeric and cinnamon. Topped the plate off with my 1 tbsp coconut oil.
After that I made myself some black coffee while I started work.
Next was grapefruit green juice. Juice made about 16oz; 1 grapefruit, fresh ginger, fresh parsley, 2 huge stalks of swiss chard, 4 carrots and half cucumber. Just what I was craving.
Little bit later I snacked on 1/2 cup frozen raspberries and 1 banana topped with ginger and cardamom.
Late afternoon as I was starting to prep for dinner I sipped on 2 cups of peppermint tea and snacked on veggie pulp crackers that I made yesterday (unpictured).
I took my pre-dinner pills: 1/2 tsp cod liver oil, l-glutamine, quercetin, licorice, digestive enzyme. Now dinner might not look that great, but promise it was sooooo good.
Dinner: left over cauliflower, spinach and zucchini, along with nori sardine avocado wraps.. The nori wraps were filled with sardines, half can salmon, mustard, half avocado and sauerkraut with black sea salt all rolled up in untoasted nori wrap. I am still learning how to roll nori wraps, starting to realize it does not work so well with a soft filling. But even though it may not look perfectly rolled it still tasted delicious.
Also enjoyed 2 glass of white wine.
For dessert I enjoyed one coco-thin mint (recipe in our cookbook).
I took the night off from putting magnesium oil on my legs. Forgot to clean back.
Lori’s Day 15 recap:
Bathroom: bowel movement in the morning, stool was like a 3
Energy: good!
Gas: no
Skin: got the pimple on chin still along with a new one on left side of forehead and right side of nose.
Water intake – 9 cups water (does not include juice)
Overall my day 15 was very good. No major complaints besides the new pimples on face. Funny just when I was happy about my face these pimples come. I am still keeping my head up and moving forward.
Twins Question: What is your favorite brand of probiotic and/or digestive enzyme? Do you take them? If not, why? If you do, do you notice benefits from taking them?
til next time,
xoxo
purelytwins
And again we’d like to thank everyone who has purchased our e-cookbook. As you may know it is available as a PDF, on Kindle and print. It means so much to us to have your love and support of our first cookbook. Please let us know if you make anything as we would love any testimonials and pictures 🙂 THANKS!
18 comments
Do u gals use a lot of sea salt? Some sources say it helps heal adrenals and produce hcl… Whereas others say salt is pretty dangerous to use and that we get enough from our food. Thoughts!
Lstly, do u keep track of ur macronutrients and cals? How has this changed from ur previous diets?
we eat sea salt a few times a week, we do not worry about having too much as we do not feel we have that much to worry about it. we feel getting good quality sea salt is good to add to the diet.
I currently take gol qzyme ultra… Doesn’t seem to help. Digest gold wasn’t helpful either. Have u tried any Now brand products? Do u take hcl?
I’ve tried a lot of probies too… None were that great. I’m going to try gutpro, which is supposed to be scientifically formulated to help those with severe gut issues, sorta like vsl3, but without the fillers. Also, I’ve heard good things about inner eco.. It is a high dose coconut water kefir probiotics. One tbls has over 100bill cfus! It’s at wfm
How much sauerkraut do u do a day and do u make ur own? I’ve tried to do so, but I get too scared to try it bc of the mold that grows lol. Rejuvenation foods has some good raw stuff, but it’s pricey.
No we have never tried NOW product and we tried taking HCL a few years ago but did not do it long as we were unsure if it was helping. We probably have 1-2 tbsp sauerkraut a day, we might increase it but right now our bodies like just that little bit. We used to make our own, we have videos and posts on how we make typically make our sauerkraut. lately we have been buying Bubbies from the store, we need to get back into making more.
so glad you ladies are enjoying sardines 🙂 just an FYI: make sure your eating ones packed in water and not oil. olive oil isn’t regulated in the US and could possibly be mixed with other oils like canola, etc. that really goes for anything packed in “olive oil”. aren’t they great with nori?! and i hope your moods are getting better/stabilizing with all the fermented cod liver oil intake- i absolutely noticed a huge difference after taking it religiously! love that stuff
thanks for the tip girl! yes delicious with nori 🙂
yes we love our cod liver oil/butter blend, love
i love garden of life products and i too take the primal defense. why do you eat gelatin? 🙂
Looks like theres been some improvement for the both of you. It’s so funny that you are having sushi for dinner because I’ve been rolling my own sushi for the past week haha
I love nori rolls. I rice my cauliflower to use it as “rice.”
Make bone broth and add gelatin to that, so good!! And, you get a double dose of gelatin. Have you girls looked into eliminating fruit? Sugar (fruit) is sugar and can cause insulin resistance that can further lead to acne issues. Fructose malabsorption is another issue that could be causing digestive problems. If someone has SIBO, fruit is going to be a big issue! Just a thought!
thanks Kate for all the ideas, we hope to make some bone broth here soon. And yes we are aware of the fruit and insulin resistance, we are looking more into that as well to see if that helps. Thanks 🙂
I have been taking Natural Factors Ultimate Women’s Formula Probiotics for 6 months now and I swear by it. At first I started with the suggested pill with every meal and now I am down to one a-day. It is great and I would highly suggest looking into them as a future probiotic option. Also, I recently started using a 100% pure Himalayan salt bar (looks like a soap bar) on my face, shoulders, back and hands for acne and hands for a form of eczema. It seems to be helping and does not dry out my skin. A pure/natural antibacterial with lots of good minerals. Just a thought! Keep up the journey. You ladies are purely beautiful!
Kristin thank you so much for sharing, that salt bar sounds amazing, we will definitely check it out! THANKS
Hi Girls,
I don’t comment much (maybe twice before?) anyways consider making your own water kefir and start out with 8 ounces daily. Back acne is often associated with hormonal imbalances and dairy. Try applying a cotton ball with a few drops of tea tree oil (antiseptic) and apply to the back or acne area after washing before bed.
Also if possible try lightly body brushing with a natural bristle body brush to stimulate the skin and eliminate toxins/clogged pores- just spray your body brush with some white vinegar/water solution or a hydrogen peroxide water solution between uses. – Chelsea
thanks for sharing, I do not have dairy so guess it is still hormonal problems, I feel I am doing just about everything to help from all my research and readings, but I know the body can take awhile to heal. I have started to dry skin brush my back these past 2 days so hoping that helps. thanks again 🙂
I actually have a question to you guys out there: does anybody have a comment re: possible side effects about Digestive Enzymes (Brand Name: Swiss Natural)? Would appreciate a response. Thanks a lot.
I.U.
Issac-I too have had trouble with enzymes causing bloating and gas which I don’t understand. I tried Digest Gold and Rainbow Light both produced these symptoms. I am trying Flora Udos Enzymes now and have had the same reaction but I am hoping it will disappear if I stick with it.
I have had great success with Flora Udos probiotics after trying everything under the sun! Luv these posts they are so helpful!