Ep 19: IBD A and A Giveaway Part I

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Today, in Part I of this two-part podcast series, I’m answering your biggest and boldest Crohn’s and colitis questions to help you navigate the healing minefield that we’re forced to wade through while trying to achieve IBD remission.

Not knowing what to do to help your IBD can leave you paralyzed in indecision, unable to move toward health, and it’s time you finally got the answers you need to move forward with confidence.

And, because I love free stuff, I’m doing it all with a giveaway attached.

In this episode, we’re tackling two of the toughest, but juiciest questions when it comes to healing your IBD.

We’re talking about:

• The top 5 supplement companies you can trust for their quality, efficacy, and transparency of what’s in them
• The 6 “great starting place” supplements to consider when you are starting supplements to help your Crohn’s or colitis
• How to decide if biologic medications for IBD are the best approach for you
• The benefit of seeking out a functional or integrative doctor to help you decide your best “root cause” path to healing

And so much more!

After the episode, you’ll be ready to take a giant leap forward toward achieving your IBD healing goals with knowledge, confidence and the power of a mom who’s ready to takes this IBD and put it where it belongs… in remission for good!

Episode at a Glance:

• [04:15] Our free and fabulous IBD mom tribe is the Gut Love Community and you can join us there for the 411 on all things IBD related

• [08:18] The reason why you want to skip gut supplements that say “total gut repair”

• [12:24] The national chain drugstores that recently came under fire for selling supplements without the products mentioned on the label.

• [13:35] 3 steps to take to make sure you are getting the highest quality in your supplements

• [15:09] My top 5 supplement companies you can trust for their quality, efficacy, and transparency of what’s in them

• [17:20] The 6 “great starting place” supplements to consider when you are starting supplements to help your Crohn’s or colitis

• [28:42] How to decide if biologic medications for IBD are the best approach for you

• [34:50] The benefit of seeking out a functional or integrative doctor to help you decide your best “root cause” path to healing

• [39:45] The best way to take your IBD healing journey to the next level.

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Mentioned in This Episode:

The Gut Love Community

The Cheeky Podcast Episode 15

Additional Resources from the Episode:

Wellbee’s

Integrative Therapeutics Supplements

Kirkman Labs Supplements

Pure Encapsulations Supplements

Klaire Labs Supplements

Buyer’s Guide to Best High Quality Supplements

Does Vitamin D deficiency increase the severity of Covid-19?

VSL#3 Probiotic-Mixture Induces Remission in Patients with Active Ulcerative Colitis

New York Attorney Genera Targets Supplements at Major Retailers

Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

Episode Transcript:

[Music]

INTRO: You are listening to The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD, a safe space for moms with Crohn’s and colitis, connect, explore powerful tools for healing and transform our lives to thrive in motherhood and in life. I’m your host, Karyn Haley, IBD health coach, integrative wellness enthusiast, and mom to three outstanding kids. After having Crohn’s disease for 30 years and working as a health advocate exclusively with IBD clients for the last 10 years, I know it’s time to bring the types of candid conversations I have with my clients out into the open. It’s our time to go on an IBD healing journey and do it like only a mom can. Let’s do this.

[music]

[00:51] Hey there mom friend, Karyn here. So happy to be with you again today and can I just tell you I can’t wait for our episode today? Anytime I get to connect with you on a personal level, it lights me up and that’s exactly what we’re doing today.

I recently put out an ask to our Gut Love Community- that’s our free and fabulous IBD mom tribe for mom’s dealing with Crohn’s and colitis. So, I asked GLC, “What are your most pressing concerns and challenges when it comes to IBD?” I also attached a special gift to my ask saying that every question answered on the air would get a gift card to my favorite digestive wellness website: Wellbee’s. If you’re eating for gut health, you’ve got to check out Wellbee’s. They’ve got ready made gut healthy goodies, condiments, personal products. I love that website. I’ll link to Wellbee’s in the show notes so you can check them out for yourself.

Anyway, this IBD Q and A brought in so many insightful, big, bold questions that I ended up spreading out into a 2 parter. Like I said, these were big questions and deserved detailed answers to help you on your healing journey. I’d be doing these topics and you a disservice if I gave you a glean of a response and didn’t answer them fully. And I wish I could get to all your Q’s on the air. But please know that if you don’t hear your question answered between today and next week’s episode, you will get an email from me with a personal response. I’ve been working through those diligently so you may already have heard back from me.

And just to give you a little peek behind the scenes at how all this whole IBD Q and A worked, I took all the questions you sent me, put them in a hat (yep, literally a red felt fedora I have back from my days dancing on the stage) and randomly picked the questions to give everyone a fair chance. And the 4 questions I’m answering between today and next week are the random questions I picked from that red hat.

Lastly, I want to mention that to protect everyone’s privacy, I won’t be giving any names associated with the questions, but I will be in touch with your Wellbee’s gift card if your question is answered on the podcast. I have to say, your questions were so good, I’m seriously dishing here. They were so juicy that there’s loads of good takeaways coming your way. If you don’t have a pen and paper or a google doc, you’ll want to get something ready. I know these A’s to your Q’s are going to be helpful for you mama because when we’ve got IBD, these are questions we all have.

IS OUR IBD COMMUNITY FOR YOU?

And if you’re thinking, wait a minute, I didn’t get a question in. How come I didn’t hear about that? Well, that’s because you’re not part of the GLC yet, but you can join us too! It’s the best place to be to get show updates, gut healing recipes, and how-to’s that I only share with the community, plus special bonuses like giveaways, like the Wellbee’s one I doing today, and others from awesome gut healing resources. If all of that sounds good to you, join us in the GLC today. I’ll leave a link for you in the show notes.

So without further ado… I’m can’t wait… let’s get to it!

Question #1

[04:58] What supplements work best for IBD?

Talk about a massive question. Oh so many! There’s a lot that can be done with supplements to help IBD inflammation, gut dysbiosis, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, leaky gut, bloating, gas, heartburn, immune function… and the list goes on and on.  Supplements can be a great addition to your IBD healing plan, but with so many options out there, knowing what to take can feel like a harder task than climbing Mount Everest. Let’s change that for you today. What if you had the 411 on gut healing supplements and had clarity on what is worth your hard-earned cash and what’s not worth a second glance? You’d be interested, right?

Let’s dive in then and clear up all the supplement confusion for you once and for all. First, I’ve gotta say a couple important things about supplements in general. We’ll start with the general and move into the specific.

WHEN IT COMES TO SUPPLEMENTS, GETTING OFF THEM SHOULD BE YOUR GOAL.

OK, so it’s important to know that the end goal with supplements isn’t the supplements doing their job. It’s using the supplements to work through the medical or symptom challenges you’re having and then getting off them when healing has occurred. Because, really, the best place to get our vitamin and mineral needs met is through REAL food sources. Now, this is often a challenge for IBDer’s because we struggle to digest and absorb the nutrients in our food due to increased levels of inflammation, decreased immune function, and gut bacteria imbalances.  So, although ideally getting your nutrient needs met through food is the best option, often times IBDer’s do require extended periods of time (and in all honesty sometimes lifetime) supplement support in certain areas, even when in remission because those supplements are helping that remission last.

Hopefully the way I’m saying that makes sense to you. Getting nutrients and helping your gut to be healthy is best through real whole food sources, but those with Crohn’s and colitis often need more support and supplements can make that happen. Cool so far?

SUPPLEMENTS TAKE THEIR TIME.

Alright, now when talking about supplements, it’s also important to point out that most supplements don’t work like medicine. They usually take longer to see the desired effect. When you decide to try out a supplement to help your IBD symptoms, it’s important to stick it out for a bit to see if it works. I see some mama clients try a supplement once or twice, and when they don’t see any positive results right away, they want to give up. Most supplements need a couple weeks to a few months to really make a determination if their working so give it some time before judging how it’s working

SKIP GUT SUPPLEMENTS THAT CLAIM “TOTAL GUT REPAIR”

And along these same lines, I also see a lot of gut and digestive supplement companies, especially, making multi-prong supplements with multi-prong benefits. On the surface this might seem like a great idea. The whole kill two birds with one stone analogy (I don’t know how that saying came to be—I’m not a fan cause it seems kinda violent and what do you have against the poor birds, but I say it here because it helps you get the idea of what I mean). Let me also give you an example of how this might play out in real supplement world: Let’s say a high-quality supplement company makes a product called gut repair (I’m just making that name up. I’m not calling anyone out specifically) and that gut repair product contains compounds like l-glutamine, N-acetyl glucosamine, slippery elm, aloe vera, probiotics, licorice root, zinc, Boswellia… Even if you aren’t familiar with half of the individual supplements I just listed, you get the idea. It’s a multi-prong approach to gut healing. Lots of supplements in one pill.

It’s like you’re in charge of an army and you’re deciding between sending one warrior into battle vs saying, heck, 100 warriors, I might as well send the whole lot into battle—and of course, remember, that battle is all happening inside your gut. In an ideal scenario, you might say, in war, isn’t 100 warriors better than one? But in an IBD world, this isn’t always the case. More warriors isn’t always better. Our digestive system is so sensitive and so damaged, that this multi-prong gut repair approach is just too intense for our body to handle all at once. We may react so violently that it’s just not worth putting all your gut warriors in one little pill.

So, I say all this to say this about supplements. I usually recommend IBDer’s take supplements, one compound at a time. Just l-glutamine. Just the probiotic. Just zinc. It doesn’t mean you can’t take them all on the same day. It just means you may have a strong negative reaction if you take them all in one capsule.

IT’S OK TO START AT THE BEGINNING, OR MAYBE EVEN EARLIER THAN THAT.

And with IBDer’s having such hypersensitivity, I also recommend building up your supplement dose rather than starting with the full recommended dose on the bottle. So, if you’re starting a probiotic, for example, start with the smallest dose possible, see how you react to that, then bump that up a bit, and continue bumping up the dose every few days until you’re at your desired amount. I remember my client, Ginger, was so sensitive to probiotics, that she started just touching her tongue to the probiotic powder she was taking. It was so worth the effort for her in the end, but she is a perfect example of backing it waaayyy up and moving forward slowly.

You may not be as sensitive as Ginger, but we do have gut sensitive guts. We need to treat our intestines with tender loving care. I know you’ve heard me say it before. My clients hear it all the time. It’s the IBD tortoise who wins the race, not the fast-moving hare. When it comes to supplements, be that one slow moving tortoise warrior. Your results will be much longer lasting in the end.

One last super important note I’ve got to mention with supplements is that we have to go into it knowing that all supplement companies are not created equal.

[12:24] When purchasing supplements, don’t bother with most drugstore varieties. There are problems with them including added fillers and ingredients that will upset your gut and since supplements are not regulated by the FDA, you may not even be getting the dose you think you’re getting.  In New York state, the attorney general recently brought a case against several national retailers GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart, saying that four out of five product on their shelves did not contain the herbs that were mentioned in their product. That’s 80% of the supplements on their shelves. Huge numbers! Even Amazon has come under fire for their supplement distribution with complaints of counterfeit or expired products.

While this may get you thinking, there’s no supplement company I can trust, hold up on that thought because there are quality supplement companies out there. Ones you really can trust. When purchasing supplements, be on the lookout for companies that complete random batch testing to ensure you are getting the amount of supplement that is listed on the label. Also, think about purchasing your supplements from pharmaceutical grade companies with 3^rd party testing of their product. Look for labels like USP or NSF just to name a couple of the 3^rd party authenticators or call the company and ask if they include third party testing in their manufacturing process. And while we can’t get FDA approval on supplements, we can get supplements made with the FDA’s good manufacturing practices. This means that you can trust the safety and efficacy of their product.

I know buying quality supplements can be a minefield. To help you even more with what to look for to ensure you get quality supplements, I’ll link to a great article I found with more information on choosing the highest quality supplements in the show notes, but before we get to the individual supplements that I see working to help quiet your IBD symptoms, I also want to leave you with some of my favorite supplement brands. Brands that meet the standards I just mentioned. Brands I trust and have had good results with, both for myself and for my clients.

5 SUPPLEMENT COMPANIES YOU CAN TRUST

Here’s 5 supplement companies I recommend over and over for their quality, efficacy, and their transparency in what’s in them:

Integrative Therapeutics

Klaire Labs

Thorne Research

Kirkman Labs (especially for SCDer’s or GAPS moms)

Pure Encapsulations

I’ll link to all of these supplement brands in the show notes. There’s lots of goodies in the show notes today so definitely go there to get even more info on all the great topics we’re covering today thanks to your fantastic questions!

THE BEST 6 “FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE” SUPPLEMENTS FOR CROHN’S AND COLITIS

And now, on to the main info: my IBD supplement recommendations. This was a tough one for me. There’s just so many good ones and they all help different symptoms. Remember that there is no one supplement regime for everyone and I’m not saying these supps should be your exact regime. It’s best for you to tailor your supplement plan to your individual needs. And of course, it probably goes without saying that I’m not recommending these supplements to you personally. You’ve got to talk with your provider about that. But when I think about gut healing supplements, there’s 6 I see as a great starting place to help IBD moms, more than any other ones, so those are the ones I’m share with you today.

[17:20] So here’s my 6 “great starting place” supplements for your consideration.

#1 Digestive Enzymes- this supplement, that helps break down fat, protein and carbohydrates to make your food easier to digest and absorb, is great because it works on one of the most common IBD ailments I see—bloating, gas, and diarrhea that often comes after eating because of the inflammation in our digestive tract. And unlike most supplements, if enzymes are going to work, they usually work right away. It’s not unusual for me to hear from a client that enzymes were game changing. If you feel horrible after every meal, and I know firsthand and you know just how debilitating that can be because it keeps you from living your life and being the mom you know you deserve to be, you can imagine just how much digestive enzymes can positively affect your life. One caveat here, beware of digestive enzymes if you have gastritis, but if you get the OK from your provider for these, I love this supplement as a first line supplement to help you feel better fast.

#2 Probiotics- practically everyone with active IBD and even those in remission can use a probiotic. Now, probiotic dosing for active Crohn’s and colitis is usually higher than anything you would buy from a traditional probiotic manufacturer. Specifically, for UC, there has been a study showing a probiotic called VSL3 has been able to induce remission. I’ll link to the study in the show notes. Personally, I don’t think of probiotics as the end all be all remission inducer. I think of them as more of a spoke in your wheel of wellness to be used with other supplements to help you feel better. If you’re a regular to The Cheeky Podcast, you know all about your Wheel of Wellness (it’s basically your healing toolbelt and the more diverse your toolbelt, the better), but the way most studies work for IBD is by answering the question, “Did this bring about remission?” If it took a combo of supplements or if it reduced symptoms, we don’t usually hear about those results, so unfortunately most of the evidence we have about VSL is by patient report. Hopefully more studies will be conducted soon.

Another probiotic with almost the same ingredients and the same high probiotic potency is called Visbiome. Seriously, it’s so similar that it used to be the old VSL—long story. But the bottom line about probiotics for IBD in general though is that this is just a massive topic because there’s many different types of probiotics from the lactobacillus/bifidobacterial strains, to the spore strain, to the saccharomyces boulardii strain… and they all deserve much more time to discuss. We’ll save that for another episode, but for now, know that probiotics are worth looking into for first line of IBD defense. I see many of my clients having success with lacto/bidido multistrain probiotics like VSL and Visbiome, and these specific probiotics have been found to be helpful for IBDer’s like us.

#3 Let’s talk about another first line of defense supplement, Vitamin D. Now vitamin D is the “it” vitamin of moment and usually I like to rebel from the popular “in” supplement, but this vitamin deserves its hype. Vitamin D, which actually works more like a hormone in our body, is heavily linked with inflammation levels. D is a big player vitamin for everything from colds, to covid (there’s been some really interesting research on that), to cancer. It seems that everyone, IBD or not, needs adequate levels of vitamin D, but IBDer’s especially need to make sure their levels are being checked on a regular basis. A recent study regarding the link between vitamin D and IBD shows that sufficient levels of vitamin D have the potential to prevent the onset of IBD and at the same time, control the progression of the disease once you have it. I highly recommend you get your D level checked regularly and if it’s low, talk to your doc about the best supplementation for you. If you’re looking for a vitamin D supplement, you’ll see D in a couple different forms. D3, along with added K2 has the best research behind it. The K2 works along with the D to keep calcium in our bones and that’s very important for us ladies as we age. I’m also partial to liquid supplements as they are easier to absorb for those of us with IBD and there’s lots of liquid options available. Bottom line, get that D level checked with the 25-hydroxy vitamin D test. Ask your doc to add it to your bloodwork, every time you get labs done.

Good stuff. Let’s move on to your first line of defense for IBD supplement #4.

#4 Cod Liver Oil- this a nutrient dense oil with the healthy components of vitamin A, vitamin D, and omega 3s. The benefits of omega 3’s have been well documented for inflammatory diseases, including IBD. Fish oil, which I’m sure you’re familiar with is also a good option, but I prefer CLO because it gives you all the omega 3 benefits with the higher in vitamin D levels as well. And this is definitely a supplement where the quality brand matters. Many brands contain synthetic versions of vit A and D which may not be absorbed. Stick with high quality CLO with brands like Nordic Naturals or Green Pastures and you’ll be fine.

One last quick note about Vit D/K and CLO. These are fat soluble, so they are best absorbed when taken with food.

#6 Last supplement worth mentioning as a first line of defense for IBD is Curcumin. I’m just going to touch on this supplement briefly because I just talked all about its uses and benefits as an IBD healing gem back in episode 15. If you want to know more about curcumin, why it works, how to take it, etc… go check out that episode. I’ll link to it in the show notes. Actually, this episode and episode 15 are great companion episodes if you’re trying to put together your IBD wheel of wellness. 

Just know though that curcumin is the active compound in turmeric—that’s the root that looks a lot like ginger, but is bright orange on the inside and in spice form, it’s the orange powder that’s often used in delicious Indian dishes. In my house, we cook with turmeric all the time. It gives any dish a rich, earthy flavor. I always use it when I’m using coconut milk in a dish. The two go great together.

In supplement form, I’m talking about curcumin at much higher doses than what you cook with. It’s a wonderful anti-inflammatory compound and you can find out more about it in episode 15.

So there you have it, 6 first line of defense supplements worth looking a look for IBDer’s. It might seem like a spent time talking about each one of these, but trust me, there’s lots to know before trying these. And there’s many, many more options available to you, depending on your IBD needs. This is just a starting place. If you’re feeling confused or need further clarification on supplements, reach out. I’m always happy to chat. hello@karynhaley.com is the best way to reach me.

Moving on to question #2 in our IBD Q and A

THE LOWDOWN ON BIOLOGICS FOR IBD.

[28:42] Would you recommend people use biologics?

OK my dear, this question makes me step back a bit. And truth be told, when I read this question, I wanted to put it back in my red fedora. I almost did. As a health coach, I don’t make medical judgements since I’m not a doctor. But I know this question is weighing on you. It’s weighing on most of the mamas who come into my practice. It’s a big one. And since this is such an important question and because it’s so confusing and consuming because when it comes to IBD, biologics seem like the most heard about push coming from gastroenterologists. It’s their gold standard. So, because I know how much this is weighing on your mind, here’s what I want to offer regarding biologics.

DON’T LISTEN TO THE DOCTOR’S WHO TELL YOU THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO TREAT YOUR IBD.

First, when it comes to biologics or, any other Crohn’s or colitis medications, remember there is no one path to follow. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that. If there was a one size fits all treatment plan for IBD, everyone would be doing it, wouldn’t we all? Hell, yes! And when I say there is no one size fits all treatment, I mean any treatment you hear about, from the all-knowing woo woo guru to the straight western a medical provider. There’s options when it comes to healing IBD and hopefully you have access to a provider who will enlighten you on those options, not push one option down your throat. It’s interesting because the bad news about Crohn’s and colitis is that there is no cure, but the good news is that even though there is no cure, there are multiple ways to achieve long lasting remission. And of course, for you dear listener, biologics could be the way forward for you.

The other thing I want to say about biologics is that I see way too many IBD mamas saying that once they started biologics, they no longer had to do anything else for their gut health. To this, I say, go proceeded by a no for a no go mom friend! Biologics may help your gut struggles, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up on time-tested natural remedies that can help as well.

Personally, and this is just me, I always prefer natural options first. Healthy food tailored to your needs, supplements that promote good gut health like the ones we just talked about, lifestyle factors that always affect IBD like stress, sleep, and anxiety, plus mindset factors like resiliency, gratitude and a positive outlook as opposed to a fixed mindset that bends at perfectionism, fear, and a focus on the negative.  And when it comes to that mindset piece, if you’re saying, I can’t help my mind Karyn, I’m just a not a positive person. Too many bad things have happened to me. I dare you to spend 30 minutes with me in session. You’ll see for yourself that anyone can learn these mindset skills. It’s just a matter of putting your focus on the emotions that move the needle in a positive direction.

And if you’re able to try these nontoxic options with no side effects methods first (food, lifestyle, and mindset), go for it. Because if they work, you won’t need medications like biologics. But if you try all that and it doesn’t work for either your symptoms or your lifestyle, it’s not a failure to reach for the biologics. Don’t be afraid of medicine mama. Sometimes we need it and it’s not your fault. It’s nothing you did wrong.

Just remember, medicine doesn’t have to be an exclusive approach. Take the best of the medicine and marry that with the best of the natural approach and create an inclusive party to make your gut happy.

Sometimes, medicine is needed just to get us over the hump of a nasty flare up and sometimes we need it more long term. It doesn’t mean the meds give you free will to think that what you eat, what you feel, and how you live your life doesn’t matter. Natural remedies like the ones I just mentioned will always help your medicine to work better. And maybe overtime, you’ll be like me and find you need the medicines less and less and that the more natural approach works for you, more and more. Only your body will know the right path for you. So give your body the time it needs to figure out what works best.

One final thought on biologics and other IBD meds, if you’re thinking about biologics, it’s time to have an honest conversation with your doctor. And I highly recommend, if you have this option where you live, you make that doctor a functional or integrative practitioner that can really help you look at your options from all angles. These types of doctors specialize in the best of the western and the eastern approach to gut heath. They look for the root cause of your IBD symptoms instead of looking for cover ups or in the moment pain relievers. It may take them more time to figure out what makes your IBD tick, but once they do, hallelujah, long term remission in the safest and best way possible for you my friend.

The most important thing I can say about biologics is that all the input you get from your doctor or doctors is just that—input. Not fact, not must do or else. Input. Opinion. Always do your own research, then trust in your decision and go for a deep dive with the best decision for you at the time. No decision is forever. You’ll always be tweaking and that’s OK and to be expected on your IBD journey. After my 30 plus years with IBD, I’m always tweaking and pivoting. It keeps me on my toes. Just remember, you are always in charge of your IBD. You’ve got the strength, the knowledge, and the power, with guidance, to make your own decisions.

Whoo, awesome, insightful, big, bold questions! And we’re going to leave the IBD Q and A there for today. Let’s do a quick recap from what we talked about today.

THE DO IT LIKE A MOM RECAP.

When it comes to supplements:

• Real food is best for your nutrients, but if that’s not enough supplements can help
• Be careful with multi-prong supplements, if they bother you, stick with one compound supps
• Be picky about the quality of your supplements, with drugstore brands, you’re most likely throwing your money down the toilet
• Give your supplements time to get into your system before judging whether they are working or not, keeping a log of symptoms is a great way to track your progress
• Start at low doses with supplements, increase the amount based on your reaction to it
• There’s many supplements for gut health on the market. You don’t need to start with them all. Start by looking into the ones we talked about today, the first line of defense supps and know that there’s others available to you if these don’t help
• I’m here if you want to continue the supplement conversation hello@karynhaley.com

When it comes to biologics:

• Definitely a conversation to have with your doctor, they have the knowledge when it comes to these types of medications
• Biologics and any medication for that matter isn’t a pass for you to do whatever you want with your body. Help your medications work better by also using food, lifestyle and mindset factors to help heal your body
• Just because you’re taking medications now, doesn’t mean you’ll be taking them forever, listen to your body, have a conversation with your doctor and make the best decision for you at the time, there’s always room for pivots and tweaks
• You are in charge. Advice and input from trusted professionals is great, but it’s just input. In the end, the decisions about your body and your IBD care are yours. You have the power. Make your power work for you.

And that’s a wrap on this IBD Q and A session. Remember, there’s 2 more A’s to your Q’s coming next week. Remember, if you want to join our mom focused, mom centered free and fabulous IBD community, there’s a link for the Gut Love Community (the GLC) in the show notes. Can’t wait to meet you there! Until next Wednesday, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD healing journey.

Chat soon!

[39:45] Thank you so much for joining me today and for listening to today’s episode. When it comes to IBD, I know there’s a lot of resources out there, and I’m truly honored that you chose the Cheeky Podcast to get your IBD information today. If you found this information helpful, please give us a rating and review. It helps other moms find the podcast and see what we’re doing over here to help IBD moms everywhere. And if you feel called feel a call to do it, share this podcast with an IBD mom who you know could really use an uplifting message today, ’cause that’s what we’re all about over here at the Cheeky Podcast.

One last thing, if you’re still with me, and if you are, you’re definitely my kind of gal. We have to get to know each other better. If you’re tired of living on the hamster wheel of IBD with all the ups and downs between flares and remission, if you’re struggling to get control of your abdominal pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea and other troubling IBD symptoms, go to my website. It’s karynhaley.com, and my mom had to be just a little bit different, she spelled my name with the Y. So it’s K-A-R-Y-N H-A-L-E-Y.com and schedule your very own free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble-shooting session with me where we discuss the challenges you’ve been having, we set goals to help you move forward, and we talk about how we can work together to help you get your life back. It’s a power packed 30 minutes. You don’t have to live in IBD status quo. There’s so much that can be done to transform your life so you can thrive in motherhood and thrive with IBD. I’ve seen my clients walk this path and it gives me so much joy to take that journey with them.

My entire coaching practice is run online, so you never have to leave your house and you never have to get out of your jammy or yoga pants for us to work together. You know I’m wearing them to. If you’re ready to take your first amazing step towards healing, I’m ready to chat with you. Schedule your free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble shooting sesh today at karynhaley.com. Click on the work with me tab and I’ll see you soon. It’s important to note that the information in this podcast and in this episode is for general information purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The statements made in the Cheeky Podcast for moms with IBD, either by me or my guests, is not intended to diagnose, treat, to cure, or prevent any disease. Before implementing any new treatment protocols, do yourself a favor and consult your physician first.

Thank you so much for listening, for being here, for saving this space for us to spend some time together. Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This podcast, video, and blog post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Ep 18: What Death Taught Me About IBD

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When your time on this earth comes to an end, where do you want your IBD to be? Will it be a life of continued strife and struggle with this illness or will it be many, many years of quiet, calm, and health? This episode helps us figure out the most useful mindset hacks we need to say we did everything humanly possible to take control of our IBD now, when it matters the most.

In this episode, I’m reflecting on the 3 things the death of my mom taught me about living your best life with IBD.

We’re talking about:

• The power of living well now
• Creating a “family” of supporters
• The roll of willpower, fight, and determination in an IBD treatment strategy

And so much more!

After the episode, you’ll have the mindset tools you need to help you spend the next 20, 30, 40, 50 plus years living the life you deserve. One that doesn’t have you chained to the pain of IBD in your life.

Episode at a Glance:

• [03:15] What living well has the power to look like in the face of adverse challenges like Crohn’s and colitis.

• [07:45] When your bloodline doesn’t give you a family that supports you, you can still create a family of supporters around you.

• [10:05] Finding a supportive possie that has your back and what that can do for your health

• [10:50] The roll of willpower, fight and determination in keeping IBD at bay.

• [14:36] The best way to take your IBD healing journey to the next level.

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Mentioned in This Episode:

If this video is speaking directly to you, why not take that relationship to the next level. The Gut Love Community is the place to be for moms with IBD. We’re waiting to welcome you!

Want to get to the root cause of your IBD and start your healing journey today?

Schedule your FREE 1 on 1 troubleshooting consultation with me.

Episode Transcript:

[Music]

INTRO: You are listening to The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD, a safe space for moms with Crohn’s and colitis, connect, explore powerful tools for healing and transform our lives to thrive in motherhood and in life. I’m your host, Karyn Haley, IBD health coach, integrative wellness enthusiast, and mom to three outstanding kids. After having Crohn’s disease for 30 years and working as a health advocate exclusively with IBD clients for the last 10 years, I know it’s time to bring the types of candid conversations I have with my clients out into the open. It’s our time to go on an IBD healing journey and do it like only a mom can. Let’s do this.

[music]

[00:51] Hey there dear one and welcome to another episode of The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD. Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you and how much I enjoy spending this time with you each week? How cool is it that we get to connect with each other every Wednesday over our shared journey of healing our Crohn’s and colitis? I don’t know about you, but I think that’s rare and awesome. Thanks for joining me on the journey mama.

Today is going to be a shorter than normal podcast. It’s been a roller coaster of a week for me and honestly, I’m just hanging on by a thread at this point. I told my husband the other day that I was afraid that if he blew on me, I think I’d fall over and wouldn’t be able to get up again. But at the same time, I’ve got these thoughts on my brain. They’ve been running over and over in my mind since my mom died last week and I have to share them with you because I think it’s helping me and I really they it’s going to help you on your IBD healing journey too.

Over the last few months, I watched as my mom’s battle with liver cancer winded down after the most valiant fight I’ve ever witnessed and during this time, these words and thoughts about what dying taught me about Crohn’s and colitis kept going through my mind. They would wake me up in the middle of the night and they would stay with me as I moved through my day.

Over and over… and I thought to myself, I’ve got to share this with you.

I really think these epiphanies I had during the process of my mom dying are going to serve you too, so today, I want to tell you what death taught me about healing IBD.

There’s 3 things:

[03:15] #1: Now is the time to live well.

Emphasis on NOW and WELL.

IS YOUR IBD PREVENTING YOU FROM LIVING WELL, RIGHT NOW?

You’ve got an incurable, chronic illness and that sucks. It brings your mood down, it slows you down from the things you need to do, it might even keep you from saying “yes” to activities you know you would enjoy. Today, you might be 25, or 47, or 63 years old. And I used to hate it when people my parent’s age would tell me, your life will pass you by in the blink of an eye. But it’s just so freakin’ true. In my mind, I’m perpetually 27 years old and I’m newly married, and the world is before me waiting to be conquered.

I swear, all I did was blink and now I have a 19-year-old son. How the hell did that happen? When you blink, just like I did, and many years have gone by, did you struggle with IBD that entire time? Can you imagine 20 more years of what you’re going through right now? On your death bed, will you say I did all that I could to live well now and could you say, I slayed that IBD monster?

5 years ago, when my mom was diagnosed with the dreaded C word, her doctor gave her 3-6 months to live. My mom told me that whether she had 3 months or 10 years, she was going to make sure that whatever time she had, she was going to live it to the fullest. Just like we go to gastroenterologist visits and take supplements or meds or change our diet to help our IBD, my mom did all of those types of things too. We can still do all of these essentials AND keep living our best life.

My mom continued playing bridge. After her diagnosis, she moved to a new community to be closer to me. There was no bridge group there, so she started one. She learned how to play mahjong, she sat on the community council, she headed up the hospitality committee, she sang with the community choir, she did water aerobics, she played poker with her friends every Wednesday night.

During the last 5 years, I kept asking her if she was doing too much. Heck, her schedule was more packed than mine!

She kept living.

She made a choice to suck all the marrow out of life and she did just that.

Even though we have a chronic illness, maybe even because we have a chronic illness, we must find ways to live… now. For you, it might be a book club or a new course about a topic you’ve wanted to learn about, it could be prioritizing date night with your partner, or learning to cook gourmet cuisine, or in a Covid world, finding time to binge watch Bridgerton or Schitt’s Creek.

IF IT BRINGS YOU JOY IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME.

I know on my mom’s death bed, she wasn’t saying, “Gosh, I wish I would have lived.” Don’t let IBD be the reason you don’t live.

[07:45] #2 The second thing I learn about IBD while in the midst of the death of my mom is that family is at the root of lasting healing. Physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental healing.

And that family word means “family” however that looks for you. Family is not always the blood we are born into. Family is the people we choose, the people we are there for, the people who are there for us in times of anxiety, stress, depression, pain, vulnerability… the people who tell us to take action when we are stuck in fear. The people who don’t take our crap and tell us we are out of line. The people who we cry in front of without fear they will hold it against us.

For some, that support is found in their bloodline. For others, it’s found piece by piece. For my mom, it was the latter. She had a very rocky childhood, born legally blind in one eye, enduring countless eye surgeries to try and fix the defect before she was even 2 years old. She endured physical abuse and became a mother to her brother at a very young age. It wasn’t until I witnessed the outpouring of support that came my mom’s way during her last few months that I realized, over the years, from her college days to her nursing career, to her days with young children, to her retirement years in Florida to her last years living in a senior community with my dad—all the while, my mom was collecting a possie of support—a family of sorts— people whose back she had and people who had her back.

Do you have a family like this?

If you found it in your birth family, that’s awesome and something to be treasured. But if you didn’t, don’t wait any longer to find your tribe. And never underestimate the power they can have in your life to help you heal your IBD.

Support is HUGE.

Being able to talk to someone about the difficulties of IBD and celebrate the triumphs too… that’s HUGE. We can have all the medicine or natural remedies in the world, but if we don’t have gal pals to cry and laugh with, the health isn’t as meaningful, and the pain is twice as deep.

AND THERE’S ONE MORE THING DEATH TAUGHT ME ABOUT IBD.

[10:50] And that’s that emotions like willpower, fight, attitude, and a belief in your healing plan do make all the different in the world.

When my mom was given 3-6 months to live, she told me it’s not my time to die. Even though the odds with liver cancer are pretty grim and she was diagnosed with end stage cancer, she just knew 3-6 months was not going to contain her fight.

In the beginning, I thought, “Oh bless her heart. Isn’t that courageous.” As we went on one last trip, celebrated one last birthday, enjoyed one last moment… those moments just kept coming and coming. One year turned into another, and another, and another… and 5 ½ years later.

It wasn’t until the end that I realized… the treatments she was getting were helping, but it was her sheer willpower, her sheer determination to live, to fight, that kept her going all this time. Her doctors were dumbfounded by her, they even created a research study behind what was keeping her going so long, they marveled at her positive outlook on life.

Through bearing witness to this strength, I realized that when it comes to IBD, a belief that you can heal is just as important as what method you choose to heal. Emotions like a positive attitude and finding gratitude in the smallest of moments makes a massive difference for your health.

Your willpower and belief in the healing journey you take can move IBD sized mountains. It doesn’t mean you won’t falter along the way—and of course, when you do, you can always go back to the second thing I learned. Family and support is everything—but even when you falter, keep going, don’t stop, keep the belief in your journey strong. It will get you through the dark days of this illness.

[13:20] So, that’s what death taught me about IBD. It taught me that now is the time to live well. It taught me that family is everything, and it taught me that willpower is just as much a treatment as medicine or natural remedies.

Do you have these beliefs in place? Is there one or two you’re still working on? Well, if my mom’s death has taught me anything it’s that there’s no time like the present. What are you waiting for dear one? Remember, you’ll blink, and 20 years will have gone by. How will you look back on those years? With regret or with pride?

WHAT WILL THE NEXT 20 YEARS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

Let’s make the next 20 years a healthy 20 years, no matter what age you are right now. Years you’ll look back on knowing you did everything in your power to keep IBD in the shadows.

I know that’s what I’m going to do. Work in progress, here I come.

Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey.

Thank you so much for joining me today and for listening to today’s episode. When it comes to IBD, I know there’s a lot of resources out there, and I’m truly honored that you chose the Cheeky Podcast to get your IBD information today. If you found this information helpful, please give us a rating and review. It helps other moms find the podcast and see what we’re doing over here to help IBD moms everywhere. And if you feel called feel a call to do it, share this podcast with an IBD mom who you know could really use an uplifting message today, ’cause that’s what we’re all about over here at the Cheeky Podcast.

[14:36] One last thing, if you’re still with me, and if you are, you’re definitely my kind of gal. We have to get to know each other better. If you’re tired of living on the hamster wheel of IBD with all the ups and downs between flares and remission, if you’re struggling to get control of your abdominal pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea and other troubling IBD symptoms, go to my website. It’s karynhaley.com, and my mom had to be just a little bit different, she spelled my name with the Y. So it’s K-A-R-Y-N H-A-L-E-Y.com and schedule your very own free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble-shooting session with me where we discuss the challenges you’ve been having, we set goals to help you move forward, and we talk about how we can work together to help you get your life back. It’s a power packed 30 minutes. You don’t have to live in IBD status quo. There’s so much that can be done to transform your life so you can thrive in motherhood and thrive with IBD. I’ve seen my clients walk this path and it gives me so much joy to take that journey with them.

My entire coaching practice is run online, so you never have to leave your house and you never have to get out of your jammy or yoga pants for us to work together. You know I’m wearing them to. If you’re ready to take your first amazing step towards healing, I’m ready to chat with you. Schedule your free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble shooting sesh today at karynhaley.com. Click on the work with me tab and I’ll see you soon. It’s important to note that the information in this podcast and in this episode is for general information purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The statements made in the Cheeky Podcast for moms with IBD, either by me or my guests, is not intended to diagnose, treat, to cure, or prevent any disease. Before implementing any new treatment protocols, do yourself a favor and consult your physician first.

Thank you so much for listening, for being here, for saving this space for us to spend some time together. Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey.

Ep 17: No More Resolutions: The Real 3-Step Solution to Put Crohn’s and Colitis in its Place in 2021

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If you’re ready to make lasting, impactful change when it comes to your Inflammatory Bowel Disease in 2021, this is the episode for you. Today we’re dishing on why it’s time to ditch that New Year’s Resolution (before it fails you) and swap it out with my simple 3-Step Solution to finally get a handle on the real action steps that can put Crohn’s and colitis on the back burner for good.

In this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into what it actually takes to make lasting positive changes to bust your IBD challenges wide open and finally find peace and health in the new year (trust me, it isn’t what you think)…

We’re talking about:

• The reason why New Year’s Resolutions always fail
• Why creating a goal of “I want to feel better” will sabotage you every time
• My 3 Step-Solution to finally map out a gut healing plan that actually works

And so much more!

After the episode, you’ll be saying goodbye to any New Year’s Resolutions you reluctantly made regarding your Crohn’s or colitis and hello to a real step-by-step plan that actually works when gut healing is your goal.

Episode at a Glance:

• [04:49] The reason why your New Year’s Resolution will fail you every time.

• [07:16] There’s actually 365 January 1^st’s in the year and how waiting until you’re ready for change is much better for your IBD health.

• [10:30] The three non-negotiables that you must adopt to accomplish your IBD goals.

• [14:30] Why the statement, “I want to feel better” is a goal that actually keeps you stuck in quicksand, unable to move towards healing.

• [15:55] A real life client case study to help you narrow down, plan, and implement your own health goals.

• [24:24] The best ideas to track your gut health progress that work with your mom life.

• [27:51] How to make simple tweaks to help your IBD dreams come true.

• [34:37] The best way to embrace your baby step goals when you “Do it Like a Mom.”

Rate, Review and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Our free and fabulous tribe for IBD Mamas:

The Gut Love Community for Moms

Book your FREE 30-Minute IBD Troubleshooting Session with me HERE.

Episode Transcript:

[Music]

INTRO: You are listening to The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD, a safe space for moms with Crohn’s and colitis, connect, explore powerful tools for healing and transform our lives to thrive in motherhood and in life. I’m your host, Karyn Haley, IBD health coach, integrative wellness enthusiast, and mom to three outstanding kids. After having Crohn’s disease for 30 years and working as a health advocate exclusively with IBD clients for the last 10 years, I know it’s time to bring the types of candid conversations I have with my clients out into the open. It’s our time to go on an IBD healing journey and do it like only a mom can. Let’s do this.

[music]

[00:51] Hey there dear one, we’re back!!! Feels good to be back with you in a new year. And to 2020 all I have to say is… so long, farewell, don’t let the door hit you in the uh-hmm on the way out… If you’re in the Gut Love Community, our free tribe for moms with IBD, you already know that December was a very difficult month for me with my mom and best friend being put on hospice. I took time off last month to be 100% with her during this time and it was the best decision for me. I talk about my mom a lot here on the podcast and I feel like you know her so just a quick update that she’s still hanging in there, ever the fighter that I’ve know her to be my whole life. I wouldn’t expect any less from the tough as nails lady she it. I so appreciate all your kind shout outs and emails throughout last month. Your support has gotten me through some really difficult days.

But since I’m a woman and we’re known for our complex emotional range, I’m also finding myself feeling so blessed and thrilled to be back with you again. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover in 2021—taking a huge bite out of this crap illness we’ve been saddled with—and I don’t know about you, but I feel like 2021 is your year to crumble the walls of the cruelty on this illness and demolish it once and for all.

Can I get an Amen? 

Let’s start this year right by ditching any New Year’s resolutions that are probably already letting you down. As we all know, that’s the thing about resolutions, on Jan 1 we feel like even though we know that historically resolutions fail for everyone, we’re going to be the special one, the one who succeeds above all the odds, above a Vegas sized deck of cards that’s stacked in the dealer’s favor.

What if I told you that you don’t have to hold up that resolution anymore? What if I told you, you can go ahead and let go of it today? What if I told you that it would actually serve you better to drop that resolution like a hot potato right now?

Go ahead, do it. I dare you! Picture yourself dropping that damn potato. Awesome. You go girl.

Did you do it? Good, now that we’ve taken care of that, the real work, the work that’s actually going to move the needle can begin. Today on the podcast, we’re diving into the myth of the New Year’s resolution and what is so much more beneficial to do instead. We’ll start our conversation with why New Year’s Resolutions always fail you (yep, that’s right, they fail you, not the other way around), then we’ll move into what would be a much better use of your time if your ready to make big and lasting IBD strides in 2021, and finally I’ll set you up with my 3-Step Solution to put IBD in its place in 2021.

Let’s do it!

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION FAILURE

[04:49] First, let’s dive into the psychology of the resolution and why they are destined to fail you. There’s so much weight put on resolutions, isn’t there. It’s this big process full of pomp and circumstance. People all around you asking, “What’s your New Year’s Resolution?” Man, that’s a lot of pressure. Not only do you have the pressure to pick the best thing to change about yourself, but then you have to live up to the change 24/7, and if you don’t, it’s because you didn’t have enough willpower. Resolutions are all about setting yourself up for a failure due to everyone’s high expectations. They needlessly create a platform with a long way to fall, so when we don’t accomplish our goal, we feel like a failure and or course we never want to repeat that again.

If we think about the psychology of how human mind and how the brain actually operates, we realize that resolutions are not actually in line with how our brain functions. The human brain is much more designed for baby step, incremental change, and big, bold, New Year’s Resolutions never allow for baby steps or failure. It’s all about December 31^st—no exercise, bump on the log watching Netflix all day in your pajamas to Jan 1^st—I’ll work out 7 days a week, 30 minutes minimum and I’ll stop binge watch so much streaming content—and get out of those pj’s!!! No plan, no step by step, but I sure do have the willpower! Actually, we don’t. Humans don’t. We are wired that way.

Here’s my “instead of a resolution” proposal for you to mull over.

[07:16] If, when January 1^st rolls around every year, and you feel like you HAVE to instead of WANT to make a change, it’s not your time. Don’t push it. Just think of there being 365 January 1^st’s in the year. And each one of those days is just as good as the next. And in all honesty, who would blame you for not feeling it in the New Year’s Resolution department coming out of the 2020 we’ve had. It’s hard enough to get out of our pajamas every day. Who can think about long term goal anyway?

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO INSTEAD?

So now that we’ve absolutely ditched the New Year’s Resolution and we know why we’re doing it, the question becomes what should we do instead? Instead of making big bold declarations about what you’ll change, I want you to spend your time daydreaming. Yep, allow yourself to just daydream in whatever form that takes for you. It could be journaling about your hopes and dreams, and of course you can use the method I’m describing for anything you want to change, but for this podcast, we’re focusing on Crohn’s and colitis, of course! So, in your daydreaming about your gut health, some questions you might want to ponder might include: What are you hopeful will happen with your IBD? What are you most scared of? What’s giving you the most trouble right now? Or it might be that every time a thought pops into your head about a supplement you’ve heard of or a food or a diet you want to know more about, you just put it in the notes section of your phone. Daydreaming could also take the form of a conversation with your spouse, or your best friend, or your mom—whoever you confide in about the realities of your illness. In this conversation, you get real about what’s working and what’s not and where you are hoping to make lasting change. Remember though, this part is just about dreaming, not doing.

See how lose this can be? It’s about appreciating the things that are going well in the world of your IBD and dreaming about the positive changes you want to make on an ongoing basis so when the time is right you, you have everything you need to get started. And doing all of this in a way that works for your life.

KEEP IT LOSE, BUT STICK WITH THESE NON-NEGOTIABLES

[10:30] There’s no timetable here. No pressure to come up with the best solution or resolution. Just a belief in 3 non-negotiables– #1: The change or changes you want to make are about the journey, not the destination. And if you’re uncertain or annoyed with this statement, stay tuned, I promise, I’ll convince you that that attitude will actually get you more results. #2: Trust the process. Don’t push this to happen, like a January 1^st resolution might do to you. No pressure. The goals you want to set for yourself or the changes you’re thinking of making, they will come to light when you’re ready for change. And lastly #3: Accept failure and missteps. This is harder than it sounds for most IBD mamas I know. Failure and missteps are part of the journey towards positive change. Just know that you will take detours and not all will pan out in the moment, even with the best intensions. But when we stick with our non-negotiables and stay true to our personal journey, we know we are on the right path.

OK, now that we have our non-negotiables straight, it’s time to decide how all that daydreaming will work best for you. Are you already a journal gal? Do you have a hubby with an ear that bends easily? Are you attached to your phone all the time, making notes about everything? As we move on the actual 3-step solution to make 2021 the year you get control over your Crohn’s and colitis, let the gears start turning. Are they turning for you? Great, now put that thought in the back of your mind to marinate, while I fill you in on your 3-Step Solution.

Remember I mentioned earlier when we were talking about the psychology of resolutions and making change that our human brains don’t work the way New Year’s tells us to do it? That our brains aren’t designed superhuman massive all at once changes, but more for baby step solutions? Well, the beauty of those baby step solutions is that they can lead to monster results when done properly and my 3-Step Solution to put IBD in its place in 2021 is all you need to turn targeted baby steps into huge leaps that positively impact your health this year.

Time for the awesome sauce mama. Let’s dive into the best, most actional part to make change you’ll stick with and be invested in to help your IBD heal. Got a pen and paper? Good cause you’re going to love this 3-Step mindset hack.

YOUR’RE GOING TO LOVE HOW SIMPLE THIS PLAN IS

Step # 1: Get crystal clear on the right baby step to take.

[14:01] This step all goes back to your daydreaming about what’s working and what you want to change about your gut health. You know, when I ask moms I work with, “What are your goals with regard to your Crohn’s or colitis?”– The thing I hear from most moms is “I want to feel better” Although this is a true statement for all of us IBD moms, it doesn’t really get you anywhere. Because this statement alone is absolutely all encompassing and overwhelming—FEEL better could mean a lot–physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally—maybe even all of the above. And tackling all of these desires all at once is an insanely daunting task, isn’t it? There’s just so much to fix before you get to “feeling better”.

Instead of spinning your wheels and failing at tackling “I want to feel better”, I challenge you to go further by asking, “What would that look like to you?” What would feeling better actually look like for you? And once you figure out exactly what that means to you, I want you to embrace digging deep into the baby steps for what would make that happen change happen.

A CASE STUDY YOU CAN USE TO CREATE YOUR OWN HEALING PLAN

[15:55] I don’t want to move on from step #1 until I really show you what it looks like because skipping this step will keep everything from working when it comes to healing your IBD. Let me really paint the picture of what this would look like for you with a client story- Mikaela, not her real name to protect her privacy, was a 32-year-old who came to work with me after being diagnosed with Crohn’s. When I asked her what her goals were for healing her IBD she told me “I want to feel better.” But when we took that thought a bit further with, “What does feel better look like for you?”, Mikaela decided it meant achieving health in 3 areas– #1 she wanted to stop feeling so bloated, gassy, and crampy in her belly after she ate, #2 she wanted to stop being so tired all the time, and #3 she wanted to put an end to the back and forth between diarrhea and constipation she kept experiencing. All good ideas. Each much more specific than “I want to feel better” right?

Now, while these are all fantastic health goals, they are quite mammoth when you think of tackling them all at once. Instead of stopping here and potentially going nowhere trying to accomplish all of these goals at once (talk about overwhelm and the possibility of inaction), Michaela and I spent time talking about each of these difficulties and sus’d out which challenge to focus on first– the one that was giving her the most trouble right now. For many moms, the answer is all of the above and if that’s the case, I encourage you to always pick the baby step that’s the low hanging fruit—the one easiest to fix.

Mikaela, she decided for her, the worst challenge at the moment was #1. She was sick and tired of feeling awful every time she ate—it was leading to her skipping meals, a very limited diet, and weight loss. She wanted to address that first. To be really clear here, know that the other problems bothered her too, but knowing that we’d get to those too, and that we’d have a much bigger shot at tackling them successfully if we took them at one baby bite at a time, she went with it, she wasn’t so overwhelmed ,and  she felt more hopeful for success in diving in to this one issue.

Mikaela and I spoke about some of the things that can be helpful when IBDer’s have bloating, gas, and a cramping feeling after meals—remember my role as coach isn’t to prescribe, I leave that to the doctor, but instead I offer suggestions on well researched things I see working right now in the realm of Crohn’s and colitis.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT BLOATING, GAS, AND CRAMPING AFTER YOU EAT

In the case of bloating, gas and cramping after meals, there are several things I’ve seen work in research studies as well as with actual IBDer’s . Things like taking digestive enzymes (which are a supplement that helps break down the fat, protein, and carbohydrates in your food so you digest and absorb more nutrients) AND with your food digesting better, you then have less bloating, gas, and cramping after meals.

Other things that can work for this common IBD challenge are sipping peppermint tea after meals to relax the digestive system as it digests, making dietary changes to stay away from food sensitivities or common allergens in our foods that can cause bloating and gas after eating. Also being very conscious about not just what you eat, but HOW you eat. Chewing your food 30-40 times in your mouth before you swallow. I promise, it doesn’t take as long as it sounds, but it can big a huge factor in proper digestion. Digestion and food breakdown begins in the mouth and you can help your inflamed gut digest and absorb nutrients better by breaking them down where you have more control—with your teeth. Further broken down food particles means less gas and bloating after meals. Also in the HOW to eat realm, eating at the table with others in community with conversation and not in the car or at your desk or watching TV can be helpful. Enjoying the company of others while you eat even if it’s on zoom can help reduce gas and bloating after meals as well.

With all these ideas in mind, it was time for Mikaela to narrow down her goal into even smaller baby steps. I mentioned a lot of ideas and there’s no need to try them all for you or for Mikaela. Pick the ones that call to you first and don’t overthink it. Mikaela chose digestive enzymes and staying away from gluten and dairy. She was ready for the immediate relief enzymes can provide and she also felt strongly that foods with gluten and dairy had a negative impact on her as well, so she started there.

For you, this baby step might look completely different, even if you have the same symptoms as Mikaela. Her choice might seem too small or too big for you. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 10 years coaching, it’s that everyone with IBD is truly different and what helps one mama heal is completely different than another mama- even ones with similar symptoms.

And while we’re talking about digestive enzymes, I want to mention that this supplement is not for everyone so I’m not necessarily recommending them for you—especially if you have gastritis (an inflammation of the stomach lining)—but for Mikaela this was the right first step.

Step #1, check. And if you’re following along on your journey too, you’ve already completed the most difficult of the 3 steps. You’ve whittled down, and refined, and choose a baby step, knowing you’ll come back for the rest due time. You’ve set yourself up for success!

[24:24] In Step # 2, we embrace your choice, get started on the journey, and keep track of your progress. We don’t need to do this for very long because we’ve chose the baby step approach and when we do this, patterns and changes will start to emerge quickly. In step #2, we look for patterns for about 1-3 weeks depending on the change. For the change Mikaela was making, 1 week was enough as enzymes tend to work right away if they’re going to work. The removal of dairy and gluten took a little longer for her to track, closer to the 3-week mark.

For you to successfully complete step #2, it’s important to know how to track your progress. What does that mean, exactly? Well, it’s actually really simple. Once we get started with our baby step, we track our progress in whatever way works for us in our mom life. We can journal- free hand—in a notebook for this specific purpose. I personally love this type of tracking because I’m a sucker for a cute journal. But you could also tap into the power of your phone, in the notes section, or in a notes app like Evernote, or you can get saucy and leave yourself a video selfie to tract how the change is going.

My job as a coach is being a partner with my clients to help them stay top of this tracking and to help them see patterns in the results. With Mikaela, I helped by checking her journal weekly and pointing out patterns I saw like the enzymes working well in general, but especially on days when she ate with her family as opposed to on the go when she was cooking dinner standing in the kitchen and also noticing that on mornings when she took time for her morning routine of a 10 minute deep breathing and grounding session, she had less bloating and gas after meals. This was a massive ah-a for Mikaela to see that what she ate was just as important as HOW she ate.

The bottom line in this step is to track your baby step and look for the patterns to decide how that step is working for you.

IS IT WORKING? IF NOT, IT’S TIME FOR SOME TWEAKS.

[27:51] Step #1 and 2, check. Time for Step 3—The Tweaks.

No matter what baby step you decide to make, there’s always going to be tweaks involved, after a short period of time and over the long haul too. For Mikaela in the short term, she ended up realizing that how she ate actually mattered as much as what she ate. Mikaela is a new mom and as we know, life is stressful in the early days of motherhood. When Mikaela stopped eating at the kitchen counter for her meals and instead ate when her baby ate, it was a huge shift for her. Also, and this is a fantastic part of this, overtime Mikaela was able to get off the enzymes long term when she learned more about how her body reacts with the food she was eating. Removing gluten and dairy from her diet had massive results. And when this change became more long term, she realized she didn’t even need to take the enzymes anymore.

So there you have it, you’re Simple 3-Step Solution complete. No more resolutions, no more drastic steps you don’t stick with. A simple baby step process you can use for any change you want to make but especially for changes that impact your IBD in a positive way.

LET’S REVIEW YOUR 3 STEPS

Step #1: Break down your daydreams into smaller baby steps and once you do that, break those steps down into baby step actions you can start right away.

Step #2: Find a way to track what you’re doing. A way that works for you. Journaling, short video clips, using a notes app… whatever works for you. You can’t know for sure how your change is going if you don’t track at. What patterns are emerging here? What do you notice working and what’s not working?

Step #3: Time for tweaks. Keep the good and ditch the rest. Trial and error is your best friend and tweaking allows you do just that. Embrace the journey instead of the end result and you will be rewarded with lasting progress that sticks.

After the first round of 3-Steps in complete, now, it’s time to move on to your next goal with the same method, and interestingly, when you pick the most pressing concern first, you might notice that other challenges you used to have, have, poof, vanished as well. For Michaela, goal #3 disappeared while she was working on goal #1. She didn’t have the back-and-forth diarrhea one day constipation the next poop problems anymore. Her stool firmed up and she had less frequent poops too. With that taken care of, we were able to move on to her goal # 2: The fatigue she was still feeling.

EMBRACE THE JOURNEY FOR YOUR BIGGEST HEALTH CHANGES

Through it all, and I think the reason why Michaela was so successful, is that she made these 3 steps all about the journey, not the end result. When she embraced the day to day, the journey, no matter what, she was able to learn about how her body worked along the way—the good, the bad, the ugly.

If there’s one thing that’s been the most beneficial for me in the 12 years since I made a conscious choice to choose food, lifestyle and mindset for my IBD before reaching for medicine to help my Crohn’s, it’s that I’ve learned all about how my body works. I know exactly what foods bother me. It used to be a guessing game for me. And I know that how food affects me isn’t always the same day to day. It depends on the amount of sleep I get and how stressful a period I’m in in my life. I know that I just function better throughout the day if I start with my morning meditation and yoga. I know that I have to be strict with my kids and my hubs to not use my pans or utensils, and no double dipping in the peanut butter for their pb and j sandwiches. Just that little bit of leftover crumbs in the nut butter can give me diarrhea.

These are just a few of the things I’ve learned about how my body works in the last 12 years of embracing the journey instead of the destination. I listened when my body spoke to me, I took notes and went back to look for patterns. I embraced the power of cumulative baby steps instead of big resolutions, but most importantly, I made the process about the journey and not the end result. I still have missteps and bad days with my IBD. But now, I know what to do about it and it’s all because I know my body so damn well, because I relaxed, embraced my inner tortoise, and let it flow. You can do this too. You can be the tortoise and let big results slowly flow your way.

Don’t listen to the snake oil salesman who tells you they have the “cure” for IBD. Trust me, they don’t. It takes time to really get a handle on your IBD, embrace the many ups and downs, but when you commit to the journey, the results will be even better than the promise of a quick fix.

Are you thinking about your biggest struggles and how this 3-Step Solution might work for you? I know that the regular IBD mom might listen to this episode and say, huh, interesting and move on. But not you, not you, because you are not going to let this information lie here.

[34:37] You’re going to do it like a mom.

No matter if you’re listening to this episode when it airs in January or you’re listening another month of the year, don’t leave this episode without planting the seed in your head. Remember that thought of “I want to feel better.” What does “feeling better” look like for you? Let’s concretely define it together, right now. Is it less trips to the bathroom, no more blood in the toilet, or are you like Michaela, enduring bloating, gas and cramping after every meal? There’s bound to be more than one issue you’re experiencing too. With IBD, there always is. Remember, when Michaela thought about her challenges, she had 3 main challenges she wanted to tackle.

Do you have your thoughts in your head on what feeling better means to you specifically? Good, you are off to an amazing start. And I commend you because you can’t believe how hard that is for most mamas. And if you’re still thinking on it, that’s ok too. Just don’t let the thought go completely. Keep it in the back of your mind as you take care of the kids today. Sometimes we need to consciously move thoughts to our unconscious mind for a little while and let them marinate. You never know when an answer will pop into your head. For me, the place where thoughts seem to solidify is in the shower, but for you it might be in the middle of the night or while doing the dishes. Trust in the knowledge that when the time is right, the answer will come to the surface. Once it does, you’ll be ready for it with your 3-Step Solution.

So, if nothing else today, promise me something. No more New Year’s Resolutions that are destined to bring you failure. No more big leaps into the unknown and thinking there’s something wrong with you when you don’t succeed.

Baby steps my love.

Baby steps turn into giant leaps and giant leaps turn into success stories.  You’ve got this and I’m here for you as a mentor and a friend whenever you need me. hello@karynhaley.com

Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD healing journey.  And there’s that journey word again. It’s all about the journey.

Be well!

Thank you so much for joining me today and for listening to today’s episode. When it comes to IBD, I know there’s a lot of resources out there, and I’m truly honored that you chose the Cheeky Podcast to get your IBD information today. If you found this information helpful, please give us a rating and review. It helps other moms find the podcast and see what we’re doing over here to help IBD moms everywhere. And if you feel called feel a call to do it, share this podcast with an IBD mom who you know could really use an uplifting message today, ’cause that’s what we’re all about over here at the Cheeky Podcast.

[38:48] One last thing, if you’re still with me, and if you are, you’re definitely my kind of gal. We have to get to know each other better. If you’re tired of living on the hamster wheel of IBD with all the ups and downs between flares and remission, if you’re struggling to get control of your abdominal pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea and other troubling IBD symptoms, go to my website. It’s karynhaley.com, and my mom had to be just a little bit different, she spelled my name with the Y. So it’s K-A-R-Y-N H-A-L-E-Y.com and schedule your very own free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble-shooting session with me where we discuss the challenges you’ve been having, we set goals to help you move forward, and we talk about how we can work together to help you get your life back. It’s a power packed 30 minutes. You don’t have to live in IBD status quo. There’s so much that can be done to transform your life so you can thrive in motherhood and thrive with IBD. I’ve seen my clients walk this path and it gives me so much joy to take that journey with them.

My entire coaching practice is run online, so you never have to leave your house and you never have to get out of your jammy or yoga pants for us to work together. You know I’m wearing them to. If you’re ready to take your first amazing step towards healing, I’m ready to chat with you. Schedule your free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble shooting sesh today at karynhaley.com. Click on the work with me tab and I’ll see you soon. It’s important to note that the information in this podcast and in this episode is for general information purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The statements made in the Cheeky Podcast for moms with IBD, either by me or my guests, is not intended to diagnose, treat, to cure, or prevent any disease. Before implementing any new treatment protocols, do yourself a favor and consult your physician first.

Thank you so much for listening, for being here, for saving this space for us to spend some time together. Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey.

Ep 16: 5 Myths About IBD Debunked

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Myths. Urban legends. We all know them. Don’t walk under a ladder or you’ll have 7 years of bad luck! Don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mother’s back! My kids love to tease me with that one. Usually we laugh at myths like this, but when it comes to Crohn’s and colitis these myths are anything but funny. They control how we treat our disease, keep us stuck when we’re trying to heal, and make us feel incompetent when it comes to knowing what’s best for our own bodies. 

Come with me on a journey in this episode as we bust these destructive myths once and for all…

We’re talking about:

• The reason why IBD and mixed messages go hand in hand
• The natural approach vs medicine (what’s better?)
• The worst foods to eat during a flare-up
• The latest research on what causes IBD

And so much more!

After the episode, you’ll be empowered to tackle your IBD from your own perspective, rather than relying on destructive myths that try to tell you what’s best for you. 

Episode at a Glance:

• [01:28] The reason why we get so many mixed messages about Crohn’s and colitis.

• [04:02] Which way of treating your IBD is better? The natural approach or the medicine approach?

• [08:27] How the “food has nothing to do with your illness” myth got started.

• [12:05] The extra problem we suffer through when we have an invisible, taboo illness.

• [17:29] The worst foods you can eat in a flare (and what you should be eating instead)

• [28:45] The three-legged stool approach to how you got Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the first place

• [32:25] A few more honorable mention myths worth, well, mentioning

• [37:00] The best way to take your IBD healing journey to the next level.

Rate, Review and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Your FREE Stress Management Toolbelt

Episode #10: How to Find a Doctor You’ll Rave About

Book your FREE 30-Minute IBD Troubleshooting Session with me HERE.

Links for More Information:

Does the gut microbiome play a role in autoimmune disease?

Influence of diet on the gut microbiome and implications for human health

Institute of Functional Medicine bio for Alessio Fasano, MD

Psychological stress in IBD: new insights into pathogenic and therapeutic applications

Episode Transcript:

[Music]

INTRO: You are listening to The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD, a safe space for moms with Crohn’s and colitis, connect, explore powerful tools for healing and transform our lives to thrive in motherhood and in life. I’m your host, Karyn Haley, IBD health coach, integrative wellness enthusiast, and mom to three outstanding kids. After having Crohn’s disease for 30 years and working as a health advocate exclusively with IBD clients for the last 10 years, I know it’s time to bring the types of candid conversations I have with my clients out into the open. It’s our time to go on an IBD healing journey and do it like only a mom can. Let’s do this.

[music]

Hey there mama, it’s Karyn here with you. I’m hoping you are having a day filled with loads of gut love, and if you’re not, I’m here with a positive and hopefully enlightening message today that you can take with you to help you on your IBD journey.

When it comes to Crohn’s and colitis, I just can’t believe how much misinformation there is out there, which makes it so challenging for us, the patient, to get reliable, accurate details about our illness. I think one of the reasons we get so many mixed messages about how best to address our symptoms is because there is no cookie cutter one size fits all approach to treating our illness. I’ve personally seen different woman with seemingly the same symptoms respond in completely opposite ways. And at first, it seems like a head scratcher. How can that be?

Not knowing what advice to take and what to throw away creates a daunting task with the weight of a statement like “when I went to school, we had to walk 20 miles to and from, in freezing cold blizzard-like conditions, uphill both ways.” I’m sure you’ve heard a statement like that from an elderly relative before. But since I try to be a glass is half full kind of gal, I prefer to look at the challenge of knowing what message is true and honest for you as a choose your own adventure novel, where instead of someone else being in charge of what you do and how you do it, you’re in charge of every IBD decision and you’re responsible for how the journey turns out. Sure, there might be some missteps along the way, but at least with a choose your own IBD adventure, you can go back and have a do over with a completely different experience.

Today, in the spirit of those choose your own adventure novels your kids are probably into (and if not yet, they will be), this episode can serve as a reminder that just like our kids who control the narrative in those books, when we have IBD, we have the power and we are in control or our IBD destiny. Today, I’m sharing 5 common, and not too talked about pitfalls, I see moms with IBD making. Fortunately, these pitfalls or myths as I call them, are just like a choose your own adventure book. When you’ve experienced a not so happy ending on one path because you were led to believe a myth, it’s not the end of the line for you. Instead, it’s just an opportunity for you to go back and try again. Only this time, you’re armed with more information and with you at the helm of your IBD decisions, your journey is bound to have a happier ending.

Let’s dive in with IBD Myth # 1.

WHAT’S BETTER, THE NATURAL CAMP OR THE MEDICINE CAMP?

When it comes to treating IBD, you have to be either in the medical camp or the natural camp. There’s no in between.

This myth, honestly, drives me crazy. People love to pigeonhole you into one camp or the other. And each camp is so judgey of the other. The natural camp thinks medicine is the work of the devil and MD’s will lead us to cancer causing medications and western medicine will never help us. And the medication camp believes that people who prefer natural remedies are just tree hugging, granola loving hippies who don’t have a clue about what it takes to actually feel better.

Now, if I’m being 100% honest with you, I fall more into the natural camp. I’ll always pick a non-toxic approach that gets to the root cause of IBD before I choose symptom management for my illness. But sometimes IBDer’s (me included) need doctors and medication, and hospitals, and surgeries. I’m so grateful those options are available for us. Lord knows doctors have saved my life a time or two on my 30-year Crohn’s journey.

The myth busting approach to managing your IBD that I’m advocating for you with this myth is a way of thinking that excludes the idea of only medicine or only natural, and instead incorporates what I call your Wheel of Wellness. I’ve talked about your Wheel of Wellness before on a previous episode, but it’s about never relying on just one thing to help you, but remembering that healing takes a village, a plethora of wellness tools to help you heal. These are the kinds of wellness tools that include having a really solid and honest relationship with your gastroenterologist, using meds when you need them, getting labs and procedures when they are warranted, BUT also knowing the value at the same time of healing foods, restorative exercise like yoga or walking in nature, meditation, acupuncture, sleep hygiene, supplements, stress relief, and therapy. This way of helping your IBD gives you the best wheel of wellness and it’s personalized just for you. And when you put in the time to build an amazing wheel of wellness, one that’s built just for you, it will be at your disposal whenever and wherever you need it.

This approach to healing is what’s termed integrative medicine—it uses the best methods to heal from the western and eastern perspectives. When you choose an integrative approach to manage your IBD, you embrace health and everything it takes to make health happen for your body as a whole.

Ignore the nay sayers who tell you your integrative approach is wrong. Just because it’s wrong for them doesn’t mean it’s wrong for you. Remember, Crohn’s and colitis are not diseases with a road map, where there’s only one way to get to your destination or the end of a linear book. They are about taking a detour, taking the road less traveled, taking a different way to get to your destination, a different way than anyone else… When it comes to IBD, make your own integrative road map and make health about the amazing journey you’ll take to get there.

DOES WHAT I EAT MATTER?

Myth # 2

It doesn’t matter what I eat. Food has nothing to do with Crohn’s or colitis.

Now, I’m never one to contradict a doctor, after all, they went to medical school, but I’ve got to say, how is it possible that an illness that affects our whole digestive tract, how is it possible that the food you eat doesn’t impact your gut? Now does that make any sense to you?

It’s just common sense.

The thing though is, it’s not the doctor’s fault here. The food you eat impacting your IBD is just not something that they are trained in. Doctors are trained in disease management, not nutrition. I’ve heard that medical school training only involves a very quick blip in nutrition, like 3 hours… I pray that’s not true, but whatever the number of hours, it’s small,  so it’s no wonder that nutrition and the food you eat is rarely brought up in a visit with your IBD doctor beyond saying something like, “don’t eat the things that bother you” or “eat bland.”

Thankfully, I’m seeing ideas about the effects of IBD and the food we eat shift, if ever so slightly, and that’s thanks to research that’s become mainstream in the last few years regarding our microbiome—the community of bacteria that lives inside and outside our body. This microbiome research is what all of us with IBD need to make sure we’re paying close attention to because it’s likely to be the key to finally making large leaps in putting IBD behind us for good. I love perusing IBD/microbiome research because it’s so promising and exciting. I think it’s going to lead to some tremendous breakthroughs in how Crohn’s and colitis are treated and eventually eradicated in the next several years.

This microbiome research brings attention to how the bacteria in our gut can be positively and negatively impacted by the food we eat. By adding in foods rich in beneficial bacteria and taking away foods that promote bacterial dysbiosis (that bacterial imbalance), we can see how our IBD can improve and how we can thrive.

If there’s one thing that doctors love, it’s empirical evidence produced by research. So stay tuned on the “food has nothing to do with your illness” front because as IBD and the microbiome continues to be studied and research studies are published, you’re going to see a shift happen here when you ask the question to your doctor—”does what I eat matter?”

I’ll link one of my favorite microbiome studies in the show notes about how IBD and the microbiome interact, in case you’re curious on the latest advances in that front.

THE RISK OF HAVING AN INVISIBLE AND TABOO DISEASE

Myth # 3

If it isn’t visible, it isn’t so bad.

Of course, this myth is referring to IBD being an invisible illness because what’s going on on the outside of our body’s isn’t what’s going on beneath the surface. This is a different kind of myth because it’s not one we believe in, but it’s one believed by those around us. And what I think makes this one even worse for us with IBD (and why I feel like it has to debunked) is that opposed to other invisible illnesses, our disease isn’t only invisible, it’s taboo too. The taboo part has a lot to do with a subject that affects us greatly, but no one wants to talk about—and that’s poop.

So having an invisible illness is bad enough. It forces us to have to constantly remind our friends and loved ones that even though we look like we’re OK, often times we aren’t. And often times as moms, we move in the opposite direction. We try our hardest to ignore the pain, ignore all the bathroom trips, ignore our other symptoms because we don’t have time for it and we don’t want to burden others. We constantly get people saying things to us like, “huh, you don’t look sick?” I don’t even know how to respond to that. Plus, because talking about poop is a taboo topic, we never get recognition for how challenging this illness is for us.

Let me let you in on a little poorly kept secret… everyone poops. Some have more poops than others, but everyone poops. Your partner, your kids, your boss, your neighbor, even the hot celebrity you swoon over poops… everyone poops!

When it comes to those who perpetuate the myth that our illness isn’t as bad as other chronic illnesses because it’s invisible and it doesn’t show up outside our bodies and we don’t have a right to talk about it because some of the symptoms have to do with the P word, I say that’s their problem.

We don’t have to buy into the myth that we are less than or not worthy because we have a digestive illness. All the IBD moms I know are amazingly strong, resilient, smart as hell, gutsy as all get out, and capitol B, Beautiful. So no more hiding in the shadows mama because someone else is uncomfortable with you. It took me way too many years to realize for myself and I’m hoping you never go through the shame and embarrassment of our invisible and taboo illness.

Hold your head high my love, you are a warrior and a goddess!

I CAN’T EAT FRUITS AND VEGGIES BECAUSE THEY GO RIGHT THROUGH ME… OR CAN YOU?

Myth # 4

I can’t eat fruits and vegetables because they go right through me.

First of all, I know that fruits and veggies can be challenging for IBD’ers. I’ve experienced those challenges myself, especially in a flare. It’s not unusual for me to hear from a client that the food that went in looks much the same when it ends up in the toilet. Undigested carrots, pieces of lettuce, and skins of tomatoes, blueberries or peas are common foods I hear about going straight through without digesting So, it’s only natural to think you can’t eat any fruit of veggies at all.

And unfortunately, when this happens, many IBDer’s reach for “comfort food” (and I’m saying that in quotes) in the form of mashed potatoes and mac and cheese with the belief that they are easier to digest. OK, it’s time for me to give it to you straight, with love of course. These foods are actually the worst things you can have during a flare. Complex carb rich starches like white potatoes, pasta and white bread are only going to feed the bad bacteria in your gut and make your IBD troubles worse in the long run. Don’t fall for the comfort food that makes you feel comforted for the moment. Instead, let’s bust this myth by figuring out ways to incorporate nutrient dense fruits and especially veggies into your diet, even when you are having a Crohn’s or colitis flare-up. It’s all about figuring out how make these foods easier for your body to digest and absorb.

Meaning not only in a way that your body can breakdown the particles of the food, but then, also in a way your body can absorb the nutrients to bust that flare.

Let’s take lettuce for example. During an IBD flare, raw salads are usually out because you can’t digest them, but that doesn’t mean all greens should be avoided. With greens, I highly encourage you to experiment with spinach or beet greens, completely pulverized in a smoothie. Greens are a great way to get healthy vitamin C, folate, iron, magnesium, and antioxidants and when we blend them in a high-speed blender, we create a form of veggie that our body can digest and absorb. Now, if this is too much for your sensitive gut, and I’ve seen this too in severe flares, think about adding greens to a stew or a soup that’s cooked longer than normal to help break down the fibers in the greens. This makes them easier to digest.

One of my favorite ways to get veggies, even during a flare up and struggling to digest food is with my 15-veggie soup. I start with a base of bone broth (homemade is best), and to that I add all my favorite veggies—whatever I have on hand—my 15 are usually carrots, zucchini, broccoli, asparagus, onions, peas, cauliflower, tomatoes, beans, peas, yellow squash, spinach, mushrooms, scallions, and celery—those are my go to 15. I add some salt and pepper, oregano and thyme, bring it all to a boil, and simmer the soup with the lid on the pot until the veggies are very soft… we’re talking mushy soft. You might think that’s where this soup story ends, but if you’re struggling to digest your food breaking down food into it’s simplest easiest to digest form is the goal. Now, this lovely soup goes in the blender and when it’s done, you’re left with a creamy, delicious, nutrient dense, easy to digest and absorb healthy meal your gut will love.

The bottom line here is get in your nutrients, however you can. Just because you can’t eat a salad doesn’t mean you can’t eat greens. Just because regular cooked carrots go right through you doesn’t mean you have to give up carrots all together. It’s about putting them in a form that works for the current state of your body. There’s so many ways to do this and if you’re struggling with how to get your fruit and veggies in, I want you to get in touch. I’m happy to help you with this. Maybe it deserves it’s own podcast episode because it’s a big topic. You can reach me at hello@karynhaley.com

But when you do this, when you put your nutrients in a form that your body can digest and absorb, you give your digestive system a chance to calm down and repair with foods that heal, not supposed comfort foods that hurt in the long run. Once your gut has time to rest and reset, you can then start moving back into eating the soup without pureeing it, then eating cooked veggies, moving into lightly steamed veggies and finally into raw.

Can you imagine that for yourself?

It’s a beautiful thing to see what’s possible when we give the gut the time it needs to heal, instead of immediately going to the comfort food that doesn’t really give any comfort at all.

Just a couple more quick thoughts on this myth before we move on. When it comes to fruit, you may not be able to eat an apple or blueberries raw, but how about cooking that down too? I love making a blueberry compote, which is just blueberries heated like your making jam (I like to add a little vanilla so the blueberry flavor pops, but nothing else), then I puree the blueberries into a digestible form that can then be stored in the frig as a topper for my yogurt or grain free pancakes or scones.

All the health of a blueberry without the difficulty digesting it in its raw form.

Another idea for your consideration is juicing. Juicing is another way to get nutrient dense fruits and veggies into your diet. Juicing removes the skin, seeds and fiber so it’s easier to digest. Gut healing nutrients without the harsh digestion.

Remember, the ultimate goal here is to be eating a combination of both raw and lightly cooked fruits and vegetables in their whole, natural state, but most of us with IBD can’t start there. We have to give our intestinal wall time to repair and eating fruit and veggies in a more digestible way is the best way to start.

IT’S NOT ALL IN YOUR HEAD!

Myth # 5

I have IBD because I’m a perfectionist who can’t handle stress, anxiety, and pressure.

Hell to the no. First of all, you’re an awesome mama who juggles more things in a day than anyone can imagine, and I could just leave it at that, because let’s face it, enough said. But I will say just a bit more on this topic cause I’m here, you’re here, so why not thoroughly bust this myth.

You didn’t get IBD because you can’t cope with stress, although the prevailing view in the 1950’s was just that. IBD was thought of as more of a psychiatric diagnosis. Thankfully, research has come a long way with theories about the causes of IBD. In fact, we know a lot more about the reason for autoimmune disorders, like IBD, thanks for the work of Dr. Alesseo Fasano, medical doctor, gastroenterologist, and researcher in the area of autoimmunity. Dr. Fasano describes autoimmune diseases with a 3-legged stool analogy. Can you picture a stool like this. If it lost even one of it’s legs, it wouldn’t really function anymore would it? Dr. Fasano’s research shows that for autoimmunity to occur, 3 criteria (or 3 legs of the stool) must be in place. #1- genetics: certain genes we have make us more susceptible to IBD. We’re born with this, #2- a trigger: although the exact trigger for IBD is unknown, there is some sort of trigger that causes the body to attack itself, and #3 (the third leg in the stool)- intestinal permeability: or leaky gut as it is often called where the intestines get weak and leaky and protein from food particles and bacteria are able to enter into our bloodstream. Definitely not a good thing.

This whole autoimmune process could create other autoimmune diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. For us, the 3-legged stool of autoimmunity created Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Possibly you have other autoimmune diseases as well. Once you have one, you may find that others pop into the mix. But the bottom line here is that rest assured, you didn’t get IBD because you’re a perfectionistic stress monster.

It is interesting to note though that while stress didn’t cause your illness, research does show that stress does affect our illness. It’s a subtle difference in words there, but a huge difference in meaning. So stress didn’t cause IBD, but it can most certainly make it worse.

I’m sure you’ve had stressful moments in your life, especially moments of chronic or more long-term stress where you noticed your Crohn’s or colitis suffered because of it. Covid-19 is a perfect example of a chronic stressful life event that can negatively impact your IBD. Any long-term stressor can do this.

The key to busting this type of impact, is to have stress busting tools at your fingertips, for when life stress gets tangled up in your IBD struggles. If stress is a big part of your life right now and you’re looking for ways to manage it, you can get a copy of my stress management toolbelt at karynhaley.com/stress. That’s k-a-r-y-n-h-a-l-e-y.com/stress. It’s filled with easy, mom-centered suggestions to help you manage the stress that’s most definitely in your life right now and it’s there for you when you need it.

Well mama, we’ve made it to the end of our 5 IBD myths and we’ve busted each and everyone. But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t leave you with a few honorable mentions for this myth bebunking episode so you can Do myth Busting Like the Mom I know you are.

Here’s just a few more quick hit myths that deserve a quick mention:

1. IBD only affects your intestines. Myth: IBD is an autoimmune disorder with inflammation at its core so that inflammation and immune dysfunction can show up anywhere in your body including places like your joints, skin, and eyes. It’s important to know this when other seemingly non-gut related symptoms creep up for you. You’ll want to mention those to your IBD doctor as well.
2. I’ll never find a doctor who understands me. Myth: While I will say it’s hard to find a good doctor who listens, understands, and supports your healing journey in the way you need them to, it is possible. Check out episode #10 to help you find the doctor you’ll rave about to all your friends. I’ll link to it in the show notes.
3. There’s ONE diet out there that cures IBD. Nope, this is a myth too and don’t let anyone tell you different. First of all, I’m not a fan of the word cure, and secondly, there’s actually lots more than one special diet that works to help diminish your IBD symptoms. Picking the diet that fits your own personal needs and then making it your own is what this part of healing is all about. I get really revved up about this topic of Eating for IBD and finding the best diet for you to follow. So revved up that I’m actually in the middle of creating a training all about how to find the best diet when it comes to IBD. Stay tuned for that. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready for you to check out.

Well, we’ve made it to the end of another episode of The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD. I’m so happy you joined me today. Debunking IBD myths is fun and I hope this information sparked an “ah-ha” for you today. Now, go run with it and start chipping away at the IBD in your life. You’ve got this mama. I’m just your weekly reminder that all is possible and a healthy life with IBD is in your sites if you keep rocking those baby steps.  Go for it! You’ve got this.

Remember if you’re enjoying the podcast, now’s the perfect time to leave a rating and review on itunes—a 5 star rating for good karma. Ratings and reviews help us reach more IBD moms and that’s a beautiful thing.

Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey. Chat soon!

[46:47] Thank you so much for joining me today and for listening to today’s episode. When it comes to IBD, I know there’s a lot of resources out there, and I’m truly honored that you chose the Cheeky Podcast to get your IBD information today. If you found this information helpful, please give us a rating and review. It helps other moms find the podcast and see what we’re doing over here to help IBD moms everywhere. And if you feel called feel a call to do it, share this podcast with an IBD mom who you know could really use an uplifting message today, ’cause that’s what we’re all about over here at the Cheeky Podcast.

One last thing, if you’re still with me, and if you are, you’re definitely my kind of gal. We have to get to know each other better. If you’re tired of living on the hamster wheel of IBD with all the ups and downs between flares and remission, if you’re struggling to get control of your abdominal pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea and other troubling IBD symptoms, go to my website. It’s karynhaley.com, and my mom had to be just a little bit different, she spelled my name with the Y. So it’s K-A-R-Y-N H-A-L-E-Y.com and schedule your very own free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble-shooting session with me where we discuss the challenges you’ve been having, we set goals to help you move forward, and we talk about how we can work together to help you get your life back. It’s a power packed 30 minutes. You don’t have to live in IBD status quo. There’s so much that can be done to transform your life so you can thrive in motherhood and thrive with IBD. I’ve seen my clients walk this path and it gives me so much joy to take that journey with them.

My entire coaching practice is run online, so you never have to leave your house and you never have to get out of your jammy or yoga pants for us to work together. You know I’m wearing them to. If you’re ready to take your first amazing step towards healing, I’m ready to chat with you. Schedule your free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble shooting sesh today at karynhaley.com. Click on the work with me tab and I’ll see you soon. It’s important to note that the information in this podcast and in this episode is for general information purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The statements made in the Cheeky Podcast for moms with IBD, either by me or my guests, is not intended to diagnose, treat, to cure, or prevent any disease. Before implementing any new treatment protocols, do yourself a favor and consult your physician first.

Thank you so much for listening, for being here, for saving this space for us to spend some time together. Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey.