8 Ways to Keep Your New Year's Resolution for Better Gut Health

A new year is quickly approaching. Time to make a New Year’s Resolution for 2023! After the year we just had, many people pick achieving optimal wellness as a New Year’s Resolution. With interests in probiotic supplements growing, many of these New Year’s Resolutions are centering around the gut microbiome. Unfortunately, many people don’t see their New Year’s Resolutions through. So, here are 8 ways to keep your 2023 New Year’s Resolution for Gut Health! 

Why Make a New Year's Resolution for Gut Health?  

Making a 2023 New Year’s Resolution for gut health is the ultimate way to crush your overall health goals. Improving your gut microbiome with good bacteria can have such a beneficial impact on your day-to-day life. 

A New Year’s Resolution for gut health may support:

• Mood
• Digestive Tract
• Weight Maintenance
• Immune System
• Sleep Cycle
• Skin Health 

Whether you want to run a marathon, bench 250, or lose 100 pounds, you need to put your best foot forward. You need your mind, body, and immunity to push through the rough patches. All of these factors are influenced by your gut health. 

In turn, you won’t be bogged down as you focus on the things that really matter. We’re talking about diet and exercise! Instead of worrying about all of the aforementioned issues that plague your life, you can pay attention to the tasks at hand. Here are 8 ways to stick with your New Year’s Resolution for gut health. 

How to Keep New Year's Resolution for Gut Health 

Unfortunately, just 8% of people meet their New Year’s Resolution goals [1]. Don’t let that bog you down! 8% is much better odds than 1%, yet we all try to become rich every day! While we can’t give you tips on making your financial portfolio grow, we have some ideas on how to keep your New Year’s Resolution for gut health. Here’s how!

1. Write Them Down

If you’re going to make any goal, New Year’s Resolution or not, get in the habit of writing it down. Jotting down your New Year’s Resolution for better digestive health makes you 42% more likely to achieve this benchmark [2]. 

The average person has upwards of 60,000 thoughts per day [3]. A New Year’s Resolution for gut health might as well be the 60,001 thought. Putting this idea down on paper makes it a tangible item. 

You now have a tangible item to attach to your thoughts. With this physical reminder, your New Year’s Resolution for gut health can actually become actionable. 

When you write down a New Year’s Resolution for gut health and look at it, you create a muscle and visual memory. Your hippocampus takes in this info and stores it into your cortex for future recall. 

Also, every day you see this goal and realize you are making gains, it will set off endorphins. A physical reminder in this written statement can invoke introspection that makes you feel better about yourself. 

Seeing these lifestyle changes come to fruition can help your confidence, perhaps easing some symptoms associated with anxiety or depression. 

With written reminders, sticking to your New Year’s Resolution will be more likely. That’s because your brain will remind you more often. It’ll poke you with a hypothetical stick, so you meet your goals.

2. Be Specific 

Another benefit of writing down your New Year’s Resolutions is that this exercise opens up the floodgate to more writing.

A New Year’s Resolution for gut health is excellent and all, but what does it even mean? What is gut health?

Gut health is a unique journey for everyone. We all need to accomplish different things to achieve this destination, which has no end. 

For some, a New Year’s Resolution for gut health may include cutting back on sweets and adding in more vegetables. While others need to cut down on stress and amp up physical activity. 

Figure out the main obstacles you perceive having in your quest to accomplish your New Year’s Resolution for gut health. These are the demons you must battle the next 365 days. 

3. Consult Your Doctor

Even the healthiest person can succumb to unforeseen illnesses. It is important to get a physical every few years to check in with your physical wellbeing. You need a health professional to give you a look-see to make sure everything is on the up and up. 

If it’s been a long time since you had a physical, then consider this your reminder. When you talk to your doctor, discuss how often you should come back. 

A wellness exam might not be necessary every year [4]. For some, especially elderly people, having an annual exam is an excellent form of preventative care.

It can also help you pinpoint any additional obstacles that might trigger a potential New Year’s Resolution for gut health failure. You need to learn to have an open conversation with your healthcare provider. 

4. Food Journal

Take an inventory of the foods you eat and the digestive health issues you feel afterward. You and your doctor might make a fascinating deduction about your health. 

For instance, healthy foods like legumes and beans might be causing your constipation or diarrhea. Perhaps you’re not getting all the nutrients from your foods? Maybe you’re allergic to dairy? 

Figure out what foods are triggering discomfort. Notice how you feel mentally and physically when you eat them. These realizations can bring a lot of relief to your body! 

5. Find an Exercise You Enjoy 

Yeah, you’re not going to get out of exercising. This activity is essential for all aspects of your health, especially the gut. Let’s face it. Is your gut really going to get healthy if it’s smothered in fat tissue? Most likely not. 

Most new gym memberships take place between January and March. You have those who start off the year ready to go, while others mull the resolution over in their heads for the first couple of months. 

No matter what their journey to the gym is, there is $1.8 billion worth of unused gym memberships in this world. That’s a lot of wasted money on an activity that you may not enjoy. Then, find an exercise routine that works for you.

Try:

• Yoga
• Pilates
• Boxing
• CrossFit
• Hiking in Nature
• Running
• Krav Maga or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 

You also don’t need to spend money to get a workout on. There are high-quality workouts all over YouTube. Buy a yoga mat and do a 20-minute Vinyasa Flow. Get some resistance bands and try a Pilates class on. Buy nothing and follow along with a cardio video. The options are endless. It’s the excuses that run out. 

6. Meditate

Thinking about your goals can actually help you manifest them. Turn your New Year’s Resolution for gut health into a mantra and meditate. You’ll be shocked at the results.

Lowers Stress 

For one, meditation lowers stress levels. Stress is one of the primary causes of long-term inflammation. Chronic inflammation is when things really go downhill. 

One analysis explained, 

When you suffer from chronic inflammation, then your gut barrier becomes compromised. As a result, you run the risk of developing GI conditions such as Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Improves Focus

To achieve a goal, such as a New Year’s Resolution for gut health, you need discipline. For discipline, you must focus on the task at hand. One study found that even brief meditation can boost the focus for meditation novices [6]

All you need to do is sit down as straight as possible. The goal is to align the head, heart, and pelvis. Take deep breaths and envision the gut health you desire. Try five minutes at first. Attempt to work your way up to 20; however, the sky is the limit!

If you can’t meditate on your own, there are many meditation videos online. Someone can guide you through meditations to help you clear your mind, improve your mind, or meet your goals. Just browse the thousands of videos and see what speaks to you.

For those who still can’t get into meditation, try yoga. Yoga is like meditation, but with movement. You merge your breath with movement. So, you stop thinking about daily stresses and get your body into shape. All of these little benefits will help you meet your New Year’s Resolution for gut health.

7. Look Up Gut Healthy Recipes 

You’re going to have to eat. Unfortunately, many of the dietary decisions you made up until now most likely weren’t the best for gut health. So, you need to shift your choices to align with a healthy gut diet plan. 

Acknowledge the Bad 

First, acknowledge the foods that are ruining your goals. There are many usual suspects out there. You want to cut down on the sweets, preservatives, and artificial flavorings. 

Also, cut down on excessive animal fats. There are health benefits to red meat and cheese, but there’s also such a thing as overdoing it. 

If you are in the department that prefers beef over chicken, be sure you are eating the highest quality meat. You want to consume grass-fed animals that aren’t farmed with hormones or feed grown with pesticides. 

Consume Lean Proteins 

Protein might be the most essential part of the healthy gut diet plan. They are rich in amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. We need amino acids for thousands of functions, including repairing our gut lining. 

Lean protein options include:

• Chicken
• Salmon
• Turkey
• Eggs
• Soy
• Seeds
• Nuts

These proteins have more omega-3 fatty acids than omega-6s. You can get a majority of omega-6 fatty acids from animal fats. So, try incorporating more of the foods above to help bring balance to your gut biome. 

Try Fermented Foods

Fermented foods are rich in probiotic bacteria. When you consume foods rich in probiotics, they come with a load of benefits. For one, probiotics secrete short-chain fatty acids. These are essential for the rejuvenation of cells in your stomach.

 Also, probiotics help keep pathogenic bacteria at bay. That way, your immune system doesn’t work overtime. In turn, you will also have less inflammation destroying your gut lining.

Some of the best fermented foods include:

• Kombucha
• Kefir
• Yogurt
• Kimchi
• Kraut
• Tempeh

Don’t eat fermented foods with Candida overgrowth. Candida may feast on the sugars the probiotic bacteria are consuming, as well. Since Candida grows so fast, they may overtake the beneficial microbes in your fermented foods.

Eat Prebiotics

We talked a little about bacteria in fermented foods eating. The ones in your gut need to, as well. If you are going to have a New Year’s Resolution for gut health, you need to help the microbes grow. To do this, you must eat prebiotics.

Prebiotics are dietary fibers that are body doesn’t break down. Instead, the beneficial stomach bacteria in our microbiome do. In turn, they release short-chain fatty acids into our system.

Some of the best prebiotics for probiotics include:

• Artichokes
• Onions
• Garlic
• Greens
• Sweet Potatoes
• Ombre Rise Prebiotic Powder

Sounds like a lot of changes to implement? Well, there are some ways to make finding gut health recipes easier. It’s called your Microbiome Report, courtesy of Ombre. 

8. Get Your Gut Tested with Ombre

A New Year’s Resolution for gut health doesn’t happen overnight. You need to work at it. Just like some people need a trainer in the gym, you may need a guide in the gut health realm. Let us be that guide by getting a microbiome test with Ombre. Here’s how.

Microbiome Testing 

The first step to meet your New Year’s Resolution for gut health is to test your microbiome. You need to find out which stomach bacteria you have, and which intestinal flora you require. We’ll send you everything you to test your gut at-home. 

Just send us a sample from your toilet paper, and we will analyze your microbial DNA. From there, we create an in-depth analysis of your gut biome and actionable plan. 

Targeted Probiotics Supplements

We throw the one-size-fits-all approach to probiotics out the window. Based on your gut test results and lifestyle survey, we recommend a proprietary probiotic blend. Our supplements include bacteria that your gut might be lacking and beneficial microbes that help fight off pathogens.  

Personalized Food Recommendations

Remember those recipes you were supposed to look up? We have a complete database for you. Our recipe book is bursting with delicious entrees that will leave you (and your bacteria) full. Meet your wellness goals by making a New Year’s Resolution for gut health. Get your gut tested with Ombre.  

Resources 

[1] Diamond, Dan. “Just 8% of People Achieve Their New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s How They Do It.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2 Jan. 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2013/01/01/just-8-of-people-achieve-their-new-years-resolutions-heres-how-they-did-it/#51283d54596b. 

[2] Economy, Peter. “This Is the Way You Need to Write Down Your Goals for Faster Success.” Inc.com, Inc., 28 Feb. 2018, www.inc.com/peter-economy/this-is-way-you-need-to-write-down-your-goals-for-faster-success.html. 

[3] Verma, Prakhar. “Destroy Negativity From Your Mind With This Simple Exercise.” Mission.org, Medium, 27 Nov. 2017, medium.com/the-mission/a-practical-hack-to-combat-negative-thoughts-in-2-minutes-or-less-cc3d1bddb3af. 

[4] Heid, Markham. “Is an Annual Physical Exam Really Necessary?” Time, Time, 10 Jan. 2018, time.com/5095920/annual-physical-exam/. 

[5] Liu, Y. Z., Wang, Y. X., & Jiang, C. L. (2017). Inflammation: The Common Pathway of Stress-Related Diseases. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 11, 316. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00316 

[6] Norris, C. J., Creem, D., Hendler, R., & Kober, H. (2018). Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Attention in Novices: Evidence From ERPs and Moderation by Neuroticism. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 315. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00315