How I Fixed My Bloating Discomfort

Hey guys! Let's talk about one of my favorite subjects - bloating. I'm obsessed with this subject because it's been one of my longest struggles to figure out. Long story short, I went on a wellness journey to try to figure out what caused my bloating discomfort. For the record, bloating is completely normal. Pain from bloating, maybeeee not haha. The first time I spoke to a doctor about it, he said, "Well you're a skinny girl. Your stomach is going to naturally grow as you eat" which now looking back, was the most rude thing to say to a patient who had zero health education. It could've been a serious matter and he didn't even bother to listen. I felt so completely shut down, so I never asked about it again. I did get a new doctor though and my new one is my forced best friend. Anyway, when bloating started interfering with my daily life (what I wore, self consciousness over what I ate, feeling excessively full after very little food)  I knew I had to do something. So I started my research and asking questions! Through it all, I found a lot of what I was feeling perhaps had to do with intestinal issues that I 100% was not paying attention to. Gut health, listening to my body and keeping track of what didn't agree went right over my head and that was the problem. 

I truly felt like everything made me bloated and that couldn't be further from the truth. I was eating/drinking things that caused inflammation and as I added food throughout the day, I'd blow up even more. But what could it even be was forever my question. My new doctor ran blood tests on me and everything came back negative for common food allergies. After that felt like a fail, she then changed my life when she simply asked, "Do you drink coffee? Do you drink carbonated drinks?" I said yes to coffee and no to carbonated drinks, but I was wrong. When I thought of carbonated drinks, I thought soda. Gross. No thanks. But as I cracked open a bottle of kombucha, I freaked out. Kombucha is carbonated you guys lol. For five years I started my day off with coffee and had another cup at 3pm. So much acid going into my stomach that couldn't take it. Then a few years ago, I picked up drinking kombucha and literally drank it all day long on top of coffee. Two things that didn't affect someone else were affecting me. I stopped drinking both for a whole month and it was night and day. Of course I still bloated, but I wasn't as pregnant looking as I used to look and most importantly, the discomfort I felt went away significantly. CAN YOU BELIEVE! It was freakin coffee and booch!

So when I cracked the case, of course I felt like I needed to keep the momentum up, stick to intuitive eating and also supporting my gut/intestinal health. Never drinking coffee or kombucha again isn't part of my plan. I picked coffee back up, but not as much and not every day. The cool part about intuitive eating is knowing when to stop, and this is what helps balance me out when I treat myself to coffee.  I know it's too acidic for me, so when I start to feel a bit icky, I just leave it. Plus, I've found so many alternatives like Matcha and Turmeric lattes that it makes it really hard to even care about coffee. As far as kombucha, I honestly don't even miss it lol. I don't really remember the last time I had it! 

All this to say, this was my journey and everyone's is different. However, I will say, if you have stomach discomfort, do not ignore it. It could be an underlying issue that should require attention. Like I said earlier, bloating is normal and it happens to all of us! For me, it was just trying to figure out what was making me abnormally bloat and hurt. I wouldn't say my journey is over because I feel like it just actually begun. I'm super into doing right by my body and health and I'd be lying if skipping down the supplement aisle at the grocery store every other visit isn't my favorite part - eeek makes my heart skip a beat! Food is my medicine, but I sure do love finding great products to help my overall being!  In fact, I have three new tummy soothing products I absolutely love and have been huge aids to my stomach life that I will definitely write about next.  You'll have to stay tuned for it even if you don't have a bloating issue like I did lol. Your tum tum is important so make sure to check back in soon. Kk I'm done! Chat with you all later!

Xo,

Melissa Victoria