Appetizer

Try this for a few weeks until you are comfortable with each step.

NOTE: This phase is not intended to help achieve any type of goals other than start living healthier. If you’re looking for rapid weight loss or muscle gain promises, you won’t find it here. What we can promise is that you’ll feel better knowing you’re making some positive change in your life. If you find yourself discouraged, it’s ok, come back to this phase and review your goals. We recommend reading our goal planning post.

1. Start Fasting now.

Fasting may sound daunting, but it’s surprisingly simple and beneficial. Fasting promotes brain repair, immune system support, and weight loss. It’s a cost-effective and time-saving practice that allows your body to enter ketosis, burning fat for energy. See our blog post Why You Should Fast

• The digestion process takes considerable energy and resources. Your immune system is on high alert while you digest, ready to attack anything that crosses the gut wall. Eating every few hours throughout the day leaves your body in a constant state of stress.
  
  
• Do you think you must eat every few hours or you’ll starve? Believe it or not you are not actually hungry.* That hungry feeling in your stomach is just your gut biome controlling you. If you eat a high sugar diet, then your gut is full of bacteria that crave sugar. These bacteria cannot go more than a few hours without more sugar, so they start telling your body to eat. If you can fast for 4-6 hrs, these bacteria start to die off, and that hungry feeling will go away.
  
  
  • Pro tip – if you want to get additional benefit from your fast, you can start a day or two early by carb fasting. Prioritize eating fats and proteins, but limit carbs to little or none. Then when you start your fast, you’ll already be past the carb hunger pains and your body will already be in ketosis.
    
    
• Begin with a minimum fasting time of 12 hours, gradually extending it to 18 hours for optimal results. Remember to stop eating at least 4 hours before you go to bed. It’s okay to start slow and adjust as needed. Fasting 18 hours daily gives your body few hours in ketosis to burn optimal fat reserves for weight loss. If you are in a position where losing weight could be harmful, consider sticking with the 12 hour and ensuring your calorie intake is high enough to maintain your weight (see my story).
  

2. Just Say No

Another step that saves you money: choose one or a few items from the “No” list and simply stop purchasing them. Pick 3-5 foods that you ate because you thought they were healthy but you really don’t like them. Personally, I never cared for rice, bread, or potatoes so eliminating these foods was easy.

• Gundry’s advice underscores the importance of what you exclude from your diet. Simply consuming an organic apple doesn’t negate the negative effects of indulging in mac and cheese or breaded chicken tenders. Opting for grilled chicken and a sweet potato, even if they’re not organic, far outweighs the benefits of a supposed “magic” organic apple. There’s no miracle superfood that can undo the impacts of years of unhealthy eating habits. However, it’s never too late to make positive changes. By eliminating foods you know are detrimental to your health, you’ll find it’s much more cost-effective than you might think.
  
  
• Cut out all soda and juice. Seriously, just stop. Sodas are mostly high fructose corn syrup and very few juices are as healthy as they claim. If you are not aware of this already, then just trust that the brand you are buying is most likely sugar water.
  
  According to testing conducted by Darin Olien, most major juice brands contain less than 1% juice. Even if it was really juice, according to Dr Gundry, fructose is highly inflammatory and toxic to our kidneys. These high fructose products are a recipe for being hooked on pharmaceuticals in your early thirties. What about vitamins? The vitamins in most juices are cheap synthetic ones added after the natural occurring vitamins were destroyed during the bottling processes.
  
  
• Organic does not mean always mean a food is healthy. How do you not laugh when you see “Organic Gummy Worms” or “Organic lollipops” at the grocery checkout line.
  
  

3. Shop differently

• Before you buy any more food products, check out our article the Informed Consumer
  
  
• Pick one (or a few) foods on the yes list, and just buy it next time you are at the store. I bought an artichoke and attempted to cook it and eat it. I learned this is pretty difficult and I just buy the hearts in jar now.
  
  
• Easy items for this are ghee butter, coconut yogurt, extra virgin olive oil.
  
  
• Explore local farmers’ markets or organic grocery stores for fresh, seasonal produce.
  
  
• Learn about the dirty dozen in our blog post. These are the 12 foods that are the most important to buy organic vs foods with thicker skins like Avocado, Mango, Pineapple are not as likely to have pesticides seep into them.
  

4. Plan Ahead

• Try one new recipe every other week, we recommend starting with recipes from Dr Gundry before branching out on the internet, just until you get used to some of the ingredients if you’re not already.
  
  
  • A Gut Healthy Living favorite is the Lemon Kale chicken soup from Gundry’s cookbook.
    
    
  • Check out all our favorite recipes here.
    
    

• Find even more recipes in our resources section.
  

5. Move More

• Your daily goal should be to move as much as possible. Walking and going up steps are key activities built into the lifestyle in every blue zone. The goal is to move for hours pers day. Yes, hours. Movement does not have to be strenuous.
  
  
• Attempt more intense exercise 2-3 times per week. This is vague on purpose as everyone is different, yoga, running, swimming, a longer than usual walk. It does not matter what. The goal is to induce additional stress from your normal activity to strengthen your body and challenge yourself.

Soup or Salad

Time to get more serious and commit. That is why we created this site. Let us start restocking the kitchen.

1. Clean up your Pantry

• If you can afford to, give away what you do not want that isn’t on the “Yes” list. Like those old, canned foods, boxes of kraft mac and cheese, and vegetable oil. Ooh or that spray butter, yikes… what were they thinking with that. Throw that one out.
  
  
• If the budget is tight, I’m sure there are still a few things around that you can do without, just throw them out or give them away to people you do not like. Bag of sugar, candies, box of brownie mix, snacks, etc.
  
  
• Every time you go grocery shopping (if you are on a budget then as they run out) start replacing things like spices and oils with quality, organic versions.
  
  
  • Garlic Powder, Himalayan or Sea Salt, Paprika, Black Pepper. At $5 or more per spice, this can get expensive, take your time here. Buy them as you need them for recipes.
    
    
  • Pick up some MCT Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, and Avocado Oil/Coconut Oil.
    
    
  • Make sure you replace Soy sauce with Coconut Aminos.
    
    
  • Check out our Olive oil reference page for more details here to find premium EVOO oil near you.
    
    
• If you choose to eat meat (we do), buy the best quality you can afford. Shop around, local butchers might have more affordable options. you. Check out the meat references page.

2. Get Tested

Your test results are in! Did you get your blood work done yet? If not, it should become the next priority before you find foods that are “good” for you and delicious, that your body has an intolerance to or does not align with your personal health plan. For instance, if your cholesterol is too low (rare but can happen) some of these foods may not help whereas olive oil is good for raising HDL (cite Dr. Bredesen’s book). If you are hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) than not having sugar may be harmful. If you have a broccoli intolerance (see Gundry’s book) So just make sure you know where you are before you make too many investments.

• Get a Blood Glucose meter that also measures ketones. KetoMojo is a great resource for learning when and how to test this.

Entre

Turning into a lifestyle, not just a diet. Make your health your top priority. If you wait for tomorrow, there will not be a tomorrow. Eating right, exercising daily, and finding quality medical professionals is imperative.

1. Self Assess 

• Ensure you have cleaned out all the “no” foods and ingredients from your kitchen.
  
  
• Check out our Gut Healthy Living Checklist. It has all the combined research across all our resources.
  
  

2. Continue Learning

• If you have not already, purchase and read Dr Gundry’s latest book. He is learning new things every year and working hard to keep everyone up to date.
  
  
• Subscribe to Dr Gundry’s and Dr Eric Berg’s YouTube channels.
  
  
• Try to understand the role each food plays in your digestive system and metabolism. From Polyphenols, fats, sugars, prebiotics, probiotics, and post biotics. You can learn how to eat based on the activities you want to do that day or how to improve your mood, focus, energy or feelings immediately. For more information, read our post Eating with a purpose.
  
  

3. Meal Planning

• Over the next few weeks, one at a time, find or create 10-15 recipes that you and your family enjoy. Never again will you have to eat hamburger helper or kraft mac and cheese. This meal planning is much easier when you have a list of go-to recipes your family enjoys eating. Hint: this works even if your recipes don’t adhere to any diets.
  
  
• Continue trying new foods on the yes list every time you shop.
  
  
  • Include probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and kombucha to promote a healthy balance of gut bacteria.
    
    
  • Consume prebiotic foods such as garlic, onions, asparagus, and green bananas to nourish beneficial gut microbes.
    
    
  • Incorporate fiber-rich foods like artichokes and cabbage to support digestion and regulate bowel movements.
    
    
  • Emphasize foods high in polyphenols, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids for their anti-inflammatory properties and positive effects on gut health.