This featured story has been sponsored by our friends at Align. All opinions are my own.

My holistic approach to gut health.

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My Wellness Approach

I’m an unconventional woman. I haven’t always been this way but after going through over a decade of chronic health issues without getting much relief from conventional methods, I decided to take another route to transform my life, MYSELF. I spent years working with the best doctors in the country who didn’t have answers for me and who told me NOT to take probiotics while they handed me tons of prescriptions for antibiotics to try to kill off the chaos going on inside my little belly.

Little did I know, what was going on inside of me didn’t need antibiotics at all. But, it took me years to realize this. And then it took me a few more years to realize that I had to take my health into my own hands if I actually wanted to get better.

Why?

Because no one knew me as well as I knew myself. And that’s the sad truth.

Paving My Own Path

Most people say, “How did you do all of this yourself, Amie? How did you heal yourself and figure it all out? Weren’t you scared?”

No. I wasn’t scared. I had a burning fire inside of me that drove me to keep going.

I was determined and most of all, I knew there was a way outside of conventional medicine.

There is ALWAYS a way.

I wasn’t scared one bit to take my health into my own hands because when you’re in so much pain and you’re not even able to make it through your day, you will do anything, ANYTHING, to get better.

And that’s exactly what I did. I paved my own way and figured out the messy and complicated world of the gut and so much more.

What I realized is that there is so much more to our health than what most people consider to be ‘healthy’ aka working out, eating salads, cutting out or watching their fat intake, dieting and being ‘good’ by not touching foods they consider to be ‘bad’ such as carbs.

Here’s what I know based on everything I’ve been through, from healing myself and from the hundreds of clients I’ve worked with one-on-one.

That is not “health”. Not one bit. What I mentioned above is nothing but a way to burn out your adrenals, disrupt your hormonal balance, put on weight, skyrocket your cortisol, set your body off into fight/flight mode where disease and symptoms set in and leave you in a constant state of fear and anxiety. That old way doesn’t work.

And counting calories doesn’t work. It’s not healthy. There are more calories and fat in a healthy anti-inflammatory avocado than there is in a 100-calorie pack of inflammatory Oreos. Does that make the Oreos healthier?

No.

It doesn’t. Not one bit.

So, what is “health” if it’s not all of that?

What is ‘Health’?

Health, in my opinion, is about slowing your life down so that you can start to hear and listen to your intuition (your internal GPS system), enjoying the little things in life that make you smile, unscheduling yourself form being ‘glorified’ busy and non-stop hustling, allowing yourself to feel pleasure, eating fresh wholesome foods, drinking filtered water, removing toxic exposures that can build up in your body (which is why detoxification is a huge piece of my work), detoxing your body on a daily basis to support your liver, eating probiotic-rich foods and prebiotic-rich foods that nourish your gut, taking high-quality probiotics such as Align to ensure you’re fortifying your digestive system with beneficial and healthy bacteria with daily use, listening to and following what feels good to YOU and not what feels good to everyone else, saying “NO” when you really don’t want to do something, taking a deep look into your past and identifying what beliefs are holding you back from healing, and so much more.

We’ll be diving more into this health approach in my four-part series with Align Probiotics, which I take daily and recommend them to many of my clients and family members. Personally, I take Align Extra Strength which contains 5x more bacteria than Align Probiotics.

Probiotics have been an incredible asset to me on my healing journey. They were definitely a missing piece of the puzzle and daily routine for me and they’ve helped my clients tremendously. The tricky part is finding a probiotic you can trust that’s not filled with fillers and junk.

That’s why I suggest Align Probiotics. It is important when choosing a probiotic to look at the strain, which determines the health benefit and only Align contains Bifidobacterium 35624™, which helps promote and support a healthy digestive system.*

align probiotics new extra strength supplement in the box with 5x more good bacteria.

Everything is Connected

I believe health is a well-rounded approach and I believe gut health is a well-rounded approach. I do not believe they are separate. Your gut is connected to everything in your body. EVERYTHING.

And guess what?

Everything is connected to EVERYTHING. Yes, everything in your body is connected. If you’re working with a doctor that tells you your symptoms are unrelated, I highly suggest you walk out of their office like a lady, say thank you, excuse yourself and find someone new who actually understands that nothing is separate inside of you. What you eat feeds your cells, what you perceive in others affects your feelings, what you see affects your thoughts, what you think affects your emotions and so on.

It is ALL connected.

All of it.

The problem is that doctors do not realize this so many of them cannot help us, which is exactly why you have to help yourself if you really want to heal.

There is no one size fits all for your health and there is no easy way out. There is no quick fix and there is no miracle cure. I wish there was but sadly, there’s not.

That’s why achieving health and healing your body is called a JOURNEY.

Because on this path of healing your body, what you find is yourself. It might not look that way right now and if you told me this while I was in the thick of my health chaos and crises, I would NOT have believed you.

You might not believe me. And that’s okay. You will soon enough.

Because it’s all about your perception and how you’re perceiving what’s happening FOR you to wake up and take a hard look at your life and how you go to where you are and how you got into this situation instead of thinking that what is happening is happening TO you.

So, think about this for a moment. Take some time to get quiet with yourself, close your eyes, put on my Relaxation Playlist and just BE with yourself.

Then, ask yourself these questions and take time to write out the answers to help you deepen your understanding of what is going on inside of you on a deeper level.

Sit with yourself and ask yourself these questions:

What are your health issues trying to teach you?

What are you resisting?

What can you lean into instead of push against?


*This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

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8 comments

  1. This is so informative it’s crazy! I have been in and out of doctors offices in the last year due to GI issues and overall health issues in general. I’ve been diagnosed with everything from apparent (stretched muscles, colds, GI disturbances, acid reflux, rib inflammation, sinus issues) which the majority of were not even true. I’ve had doctors shew me out of their offices left and right. And this article was the most informative thing i’ve read recently. I came off of anxiety medication last year in December, and have had up and down issues ever since. I feel like my body and gut have been out of whack ever since and it feels like it’s impossible to get them aligned again.

  2. Hey Amy, when do you find your stomach is empty to take Align? You can’t take it before bed because you digesting dinner. You can’t take it when you rise because you will be eating or drinking breakfast. so please give me some idea when is a good time? I totally agree with your suggestion that an empty stomach is best for absorption. I bought your clean foods cookbook and am enjoying it. Nourishing Wishes, Linda

    1. I take it before bed 2 hours after I eat. I hope that helps! Thank you for purchasing my book, Linda. I hope you are loving it. Have a beautiful day! xx

  3. Five years ago, after unintentionally losing more than 111 lb., I was put through the medical system with numerous rounds uncalled-for antibiotics, dangerous testing with toxic dyes, x-rays, CAT Scans & MRI’s, Endoscopies, & Colonoscopies. One visit to an Integrative Health Professional, who diagnosed that my problem was due to my gut biome being severely out of balance. I started taking a SINGLE combination Probiotic/Prebiotic pill. In ONE MONTH, my gut, IBS-C/D was markedly improved & completely healed in 3 months.

    Why would you recommend taking a “probiotic only” formula, like Align WITHOUT PREBIOTICS included? I’ve tried Align and within 24 hr my old symptoms are back. I eat a GF, DF, processed-food free diet. I am glad this has worked for you, but many of us need something with prebiotics (food for the probiotics, included).

    1. Elle,
      I highly suggest you read all my previous articles that talk about prebiotics. I just did an article on them last month. I don’t write about prebiotics in every single gut health article but I highly suggest you go back and read that. They are very helpful and probiotics are one piece to gut health. It’s taken me a decade to heal my gut and probiotics have been a key piece to that healing. There are many other things I’ve had to do that I’ve addressed numerous times on my website but I do not write about them in every single article because that would be repetitive. Take a look at some of the other articles and let us know if you have any questions. Much love, xx

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