First off, I want to remind you that it’s important to have a daily (or near daily) bowel movement for adequate toxin elimination! Our feces are made up of toxins, undigested food (mostly fiber), and old cells and tissues that our body no longer needs.

If feces sit in your colon for too long, the toxins will start to be reabsorbed into your body. The bowels are also the final stretch for the majority of toxin elimination so when backed up, all toxin elimination is stalled. In this case, you may breakout as your body desperately attempts to dispose of toxins through the skin.

So it’s important to make sure that you’re regularly having full eliminations. For the majority of people that means at least 1 bowel movement a day.

So how can you make that happen if you’re not currently?

1) Keep Your Fiber Intake Low!

If you thought the answer was to eat more fiber, think again! Fiber adds bulk to your stools. Why would adding more bulk help, when your body is struggling to eliminate what you already have? Does adding more cars to a traffic jam help get things moving on the road faster?

I can tell you from experience as an ex-vegan/vegetarian (who ate a very high fiber diet for 10+ years!) that it doesn’t work! For the vast majority of that time I was severely constipated and it wasn’t until I decreased my fiber intake that I actually had regular bowel movements again!

And I’m not alone, many others have had similar experiences. For example one study of 63 people with idiopathic constipation (constipation with an unknown cause) looked at the effects of 6 months of no, low, and high fiber diets on bowel movement frequency. (1)

The 41 participants who completely stopped fiber intake had their bowel frequency increased from 1 motion in 3.75 days to 1 everyday. The 16 participants who reduced their dietary fiber intake, had their bowel frequency increased from 1 motion per 4.19 days to 1 per 1.9 days. The 6 participants who remained on a high fiber diet had no change in the frequency of bowel movement with 1 motion per 6.83 days. (1)

There was also a correlation between lower fiber intake and lower incidences of symptoms associated with constipation as seen in the table below. (1)

Overall, I recommend keeping your fiber intake on the lower end and experimenting to find the right amount for you. You may choose to completely eliminate fiber, however that’s often not necessary and I should note that there are some benefits to including some fiber in your diet which you can find out about here.

2) Have A Routine

Try to go around the same time every morning. Pick a time when you can relax (so not 10 minutes before you have to rush off to work!) and sit on the toilet around that time every morning for 10-15 mins, regardless of if you have to go or not. Feel free to read or go one your phone during this time as it often makes it easier to relax. Eventually, it will start to become a habit and you can listen to your body over the clock.

3) Sit In A Squat-Like Position

Sit in a squat like position where your knees are above your hips and your legs are wide. This may sound strange, but it helps align your intestines properly and makes it easier to go. Think about how you’d go out in nature after all.

4) De-Stress

When you’re in a stressed state (sympathetic state) blood flow is not going to your digestive system. Think about it, a stressed state is designed to alert you of a threat, that’s why it’s called the fight or flight mode. When there’s a threat eating, digesting, and bowel movements simply aren’t a priority! Therefore, it can be very difficult to go regularly, if you are chronically stressed. If this is the case for you, I recommend finding ways to de-stress like reading in the sun, taking a walk, soaking in a tub or hot spring, simplifying your life, etc.

5) Focus On Overall Gut Health

Eliminations are just one part of the whole digestive system. By focusing on optimizing every part of your digestion system, regular eliminations will follow. For this I recommend:

• Eating slow + chewing your food thoroughly
• Avoiding gut harming foods like processed foods; alcohol; gluten; vegetable oils; and not properly prepared grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds
• Leaving at least 3 hours between meals
• Exercising and moving regularly
• Drinking bone broth
• Drinking your water separate from meals
• Listening to your bodies hunger and full cues (Don’t overeat!)
• Avoiding environmental toxins

For more information on optimizing your digestive health, check out my 9 Tips For A Healthy Strong Digestion Article!

6) Stay Hydrated

Hydration is important because water softens stools and acts as a lubricant in the colon. As you can imagine it becomes very difficult and uncomfortable to pass stools when you’re dehydrated. For proper hydration, make sure you’re getting enough electrolytes too.

7) Get Plenty Of Minerals

Minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium are key for muscle contraction and relaxation both of which are key in moving feces through the bowels. Good sources of each include:

Calcium- dairy, bone broth, bone marrow, meat cooked on the bone, eggshells (ground into powder or cooked in broth), salmon roe, prawns, sardines, anchovies, and cuttlefish

Magnesium- bone broth, mackerel, tuna, halibut, sardines, anchovies, shellfish, pear, blueberries, strawberries, parmesan, and dark chocolate

Potassium- pork, beef, lamb, salmon, bananas, dates, avocados, potatoes, kiwi, guava, sardines, halibut, trout, anchovies, beets, acorn squash, mushrooms, shellfish, and coconut water

Sodium- high quality mineral salts and seafood

8) Cleanse

Sometimes cleansing is needed to help clear away a blockage and re-set your colon. Some options for a colon cleanse include:

• Enemas or colonics (You can find how to do an enema here)
• Herbal bowel moving supplements
• Parasite cleansing (Occasionally large parasites may block part of your colon, making it difficult for stools to pass through)
• A very simple easy to digest diet of warm soups, well cooked simple foods, and lots of hydrating liquids

While cleansing can be very helpful for getting your colon back on track, it’s meant as a short term practice. Don’t depend on regular cleansing in order to have regular bowel movements and don’t take laxative supplements on a regular basis (especially ones that cause dependence like senna). For more info on cleansing, check out my article: In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body.

* If you’re struggling with constipation, I feel for you. I struggled with it for over 10 years! 2-3 hard uncomfortable bowel movements was my norm, until I finally figure out how to overcome my constipation. Now for the last 4 years 7+ healthy bowel movements a week is my norm! If you’re sick and tired of guessing what to do with little to no results, then click here to book a free discovery call with me and I’ll share with you what I teach my constipated clients to get them having 5+ bowel movements a week in 2-4 months time!

Works Cited

1. Ho, Kok-Sun et al. “Stopping or reducing dietary fiber intake reduces constipation and its associated symptoms.” World journal of gastroenterology vol. 18,33 (2012): 4593-6. doi:10.3748/wjg.v18.i33.4593

Skin problems like acne and eczema are just a symptom. To effectively treat them, you must identify and treat the root cause.

5 Common Root Causes Are:

• Toxin Build Up
• Hormonal Imbalance
• Nutrient Deficiency
• Poor Gut Health
• Stress

Root Cause #1 Toxin Build Up:

In modern society we are exposed to so many toxins on a daily bases: air pollution and smog, EMFs, pesticides and herbicides, chemicals, xenoestrogens, free radicals from oxidized oils, parasites, mycotoxins from mold, and more. These may be in the environment, our food, our water, our cleaning products, or even our facial products!

The skin is part of the excretory system, meaning it’s one of the places your body removes toxins. Your lymph, liver, kidney, and bowels typically do most of the detoxing, however when you’re exposed to a lot of toxins or other detox pathways become sluggish, your skin takes on the burden of removing toxins. This results in skin problems.

Solution:

• Limit exposure to toxins:
  • Use a quality water filter (more on this here) and shower filter
  • Buy organic food
  • Use clean beauty products or just use a wash cloth and water like I do (Also limit make up use, especially foundation, and only use clean make ups)
  • Use natural or make your own cleaners (1 part vinegar to 5 parts water in a spray bottle makes a great all purpose cleaner)
  • Avoid vegetable oils and processed foods
• Detox:
  • Make sure all detox pathways are open and working efficiently. Here are a few examples:
    • Have daily bowel movements
    • Lymphatic dry brushing (instructions here)
    • Drink detox tea (recipe here)
    • Sweat
    • Move
    • Epsom salt baths (instructions here)
    • Coffee enemas (instructions here)
  • Do a deeper cleanse
    • More info on how to detox and cleanse can be found here

Note: When detoxing, your skin may get worse before it gets better. This is because you’re flushing your body of toxins. To minimize skin issues when detoxing, go slow and open your drainage pathways in the correct order (info on drainage pathway order can be found here).

Root Cause #2 Hormonal Imbalance:

This one’s more common for women. Women are especially prone to breakouts (typically on the chin) in the week before their period. This has to do with a decrease in estrogen and progesterone at that point in the cycle. This is theorized to increase the chances of clogged pores. However balancing your hormones should at least minimize if not completely eliminate hormonal related acne.

Solution:

• Get off hormonal birth control (use natural methods like fertility awareness instead)
• Decrease stress in the form of emotional stress, over exercising, fasting, chronic dieting, keto diets, inadequate sleep, etc.
• Eat raw carrots to help detox from xenoestrogens
• Avoid xenoestrogens like soy and plastic (More info here).
• Eat a nutrient rich diet
• Balance your blood sugar by always eating carbs with protein
• Get some sunshine without sunscreen
• Eat animal reproductive organs like ovaries, uterus, and fallopian tubes (Heart And Soil Supplements and Ancestral Supplements sell these as supplements) (Side note: if you’re a guy wanting to optimize hormonal health, opt for animal testicles instead, these are also available as supplements from the companies above)
• Drink a tea made of 1 1/4 parts blackberry leaf, 1 1/4 parts borage, 1 1/4 parts nettles, 1 part whole dandelion, and 1/4 part rosemary (drink at any time during your cycle to promote balance)

Root Cause #3 Nutrient Deficiency:

Adequate fat, water, omega 3, collagen, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and zinc are necessary for skin health. Fat is needed to make sebum (an oily, waxy substance produced by your body’s sebaceous glands in your pores). Sebum cleans out your pores, preventing acne, and moisturizes your skin, preventing dry skin.

Water is necessary for hydration of skin. Omega 3s are necessary to help keep skin thick and moisturized. They also decrease inflammation. Collagen helps with skin elasticity, prevents wrinkles, and gives your skin a youthful healthy appearance.

Vitamins A, C, and E and copper are anti-oxidants meaning they decrease oxidation which improves skin health. Vitamin A also acts as a natural sunblock preventing sunburns, skin cell death, and dry, wrinkled skin. Vitamin C and copper also increase collagen production. Zinc decreases inflammation, increases overall skin health, and aids the production of new skin cells.

Solution:

• Eat foods rich in healthy fats, omega 3, collagen, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and zinc. See food sources in pictures below
• Drink adequate water
• Eat skin like chicken skin which is rich in collagen and other nutrients for skin health, remember like heals like

Root Cause #4 Poor Gut Health:

Your gut health is linked to your overall health, which includes skin health. Functional medicine practitioner, Chris Kressor says, “Through this connection, your gut microbes send signals to your skin that influence things like skin structure, inflammation, and the production of sebum … If anything in your gut is disrupted in that signaling process, your skin will feel the effects.” (1) Therefore conditions like leaky gut, candida overgrowth, SIBO, autoimmune diseases, and more can negatively affect you skin health.

Solution:

• Slow down and relax when you eat
• Chew your food thoroughly
• Drink bone broth daily
• Get plenty of nutrients (especially zinc, retinol vitamin A, vitamin D, magnesium, and glutamine)
• Include probiotic rich foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, kimichi, and other fermented foods
• Don’t over do the plants (especially raw plants, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds)
• Cut out gluten (this often makes a huge difference in both digestive health and skin health!)
• Quit alcohol
• Detox
• Get plenty of sleep
• Take some helpful herbs/supplements such as aloe vera, ginger, chamomile, cramp bark, globe artichoke, and astralgus.
• In more severe cases, consider an elimination diet (remove any other foods which cause problems for 3 months, then slowly reintroduce them 1 at a time every 2 weeks. Keep a food journal to track your symptoms as you reintroduce foods)  

Root Cause #5 Stress:

Stress can cause gut health problems and increase inflammation. It also increases cortisol which leads to an increase in sebum production, often producing too much and leading to acne. It’s also know to increase psoriasis and eczema flare-ups, seborrheic dermatiti, rosacea, and other skin conditions.

Solution:

• Create a de-stressing routine (example: reading, going on walks, taking a bath)
• Avoid over scheduling your life
• Eliminate unnecessary stressors in your life.

I hope this information helps you get to the root of any skin issues you may have and helps you to get clear glowing skin! Getting to the root of symptoms like this is one of the main things I help clients with in my program Ancestral Gut Healing.

If you’re struggling to get to the root of your skin issues, bloating, digestive issues, food intolerances, constipation, headaches, fatigue, cycle irregularities, insomnia, or other issues, I’d love to talk with you more about how you can overcome your symptoms and regain your health and vitality! If that’s something you’re interested in, click here to schedule a free 15 minute chat with me!

Works Cited

1. Kressor, Chris. “Gut Health and Skin: 5 Skin Conditions Related to Your Gut.” Chris Kressor. 2 October 2020.https://chriskresser.com/gut-health-and-skin-connection/

When preparing for pregnancy you want to make sure you are starting with healthy parents! Well nourished parents will provide a high quality egg and sperm to make the child.

Beyond this the woman’s nutrient stores are critical for the babies development. The woman needs enough of every nutrient for both herself and her baby. Deficiencies lead to malformations and health problems. For example retinol vitamin A deficiency can lead to malformed organs or poor eyesight. (1, 2, 3)

For thousands of years our ancestors had special practices around preparation for pregnancy. Sally Fallen, President of the Weston A Price Foundation, described one of these customs, “… in the Swiss Alps, the couples, before their marriage, would eat this special butter that came from the cows. When they first went to pasture in the spring, it was a nutrient-dense butter, high in Vitamins A, D, and K.” (2)

Many cultures had similar practices usually centered around eating a specific food like shark liver oil, fish eggs, egg yolks, butter, whole raw milk, liver, or other organs for at least 6 months before the couple could start trying to conceive. (1, 2, 3)

So what are some things you can do to prepare for a healthy pregnancy?

1) Eat A Nutrient Rich Diet-

Prioritize nutrient rich foods like those listed above and get plenty of high quality animal foods. Also avoid inflammatory foods and empty Calorie foods like vegetable oils, processed foods, prepackaged foods, and refined carbs.

2) Avoid Hormone Disrupters-

Avoid hormonal birth control, plastic, silicon, foods high in phytoestrogens (like soy, flaxseeds, alcohol, wheat, raw cruciferous veggies, and licorice), receipts, most cleaning products, most beauty products, nonstick cookware, food preservatives, and food dyes. All of these interfere with hormonal balance leading to estrogen dominance and decreased fertility.

3) Manage Stress-

If you’re too stressed your body will prioritize making cortisol over making sex hormones (like testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen), it will waste nutrients, and signal to your body that it might be an unsafe time to bring a baby into the world. Consequently this will decrease your fertility and deplete your nutrient stores.

4) Detox-

Detoxing helps increase sperm and egg quality, increase fertility, and decreases the toxins you could pass to your child in the womb. Make sure to take a break from cleansing while pregnant or you could increase your child’s exposure to toxins during detoxes. For more info on detoxing, check out my In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body.

5) Make Sure You’re A Healthy Body Fat-

Both too low and too high of body fat makes it difficult to get pregnant. A body fat of around around 19-24% is ideal for most women trying to conceive. A healthy body fat is important for men as well. It impacts their hormone levels, fertility, and sperm quality. For men I recommend a body fat percentage around 7-16%.

6) Pregnancy Spacing-

Pregnancy spacing has been practiced by our ancestors for a long time. The idea is to wait a minimum of 3 years between pregnancies to allow your body to replenish your nutrient stores and properly prepare for your next child. This will ensure the health of both yourself and your children. (1, 2, 3)

7) Learn To Track Your Cycle-

Many people don’t know this, but you can only get pregnant roughly 6 days out of your menstrual cycle. Pregnancy can only take place during ovulation (when one ovary releases an egg). The egg will stay in a women’s body for around 24 hours, if it’s not fertilized it will be passed and the chance for pregnancy missed. (4)

Most sperm will not live longer than 2 days in a woman’s uterus, but some can live up to 5 days. If they’re early and survive, they’ll patiently wait for a chance to fertilize the egg. This is how we get the roughly 6 day fertile window. (4)

To learn how to track your cycle and fertility, look into the fertility awareness method. For this I highly recommend the book “Taking Charge Of Your Fertility,” by Toni Weschler. Learning this before start trying to conceive, will help increase your chances of getting pregnant sooner!

It should also be noted that the sooner you start with these the better! Even if you don’t want to have kids for a few years, starting these things now will better ensure you are healthy and able when you and your partner are ready. Also for more information on preparing for a healthy pregnancy as well as nutrition and lifestyle advice for pregnancy, I highly recommend the book “Real Food For Pregnancy,” by Lily Nichols.

Works Cited

1. Shanahan, Catherine. Deep Nutrition. New York: Flat Iron Books. 2016. Print.

2. Labrada Gore Hilda. “How To Have A Healthy Pregnancy.” The Weston A Price Foundation. 7 December 2020. https://www.westonaprice.org/podcast/how-to-have-a-healthy-pregnancy/

3. Price, Weston. “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” California: Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation. 2014. Print.

4. De La Cruz, Loren. “Do you know your fertile window?” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 13 October 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/can-you-get-pregnant-on-your-period

After posting about the dangers of fluoride and the insane amount of toxins we are exposed to on a daily bases, I got some questions about personal care products like toothpaste. After all many commercial toothpastes are filled with fluoride, chemicals, and other nasty ingredients that are best avoided.

I find the best solution here is to make your own! I’ve been making my own toothpaste for about 5 or 6 years now and I love it! It takes about 5 minutes to make and I only have to make it about twice a year.

It works great too! The coconut and neem oil are both anti-bacterial which helps prevent cavities. In fact in India they used to crush neem leaves to use as tooth paste. The baking soda provides a nice grit for scrubbing your teeth, the clay helps with the texture, and the peppermint oil makes it more refreshing.

It does have a few weird quirks though. It changes consistency based on the weather so it’s harder when cold and can be liquid when hot. This is because of the coconut oil. It can also separate a little so sometimes it’s nice to stir before using. Also I like to spit it out in some toilet paper and throw it in the trash otherwise the drain can get clogged over time, especially in the winter when the coconut oil is solid. Other than these few weird quirks, it’s really easy to make and a really nice tooth paste!

You can find most of the ingredients at a grocery store, in the homeopathic section of local grocery stores, and at herb shops. However if you’re having trouble finding any ingredients, you can order them online. Two of my favorite online herb shops are Rosemary’s Garden and Banyan Botanicals.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this toothpaste!

With love from my kitchen to yours,

Kayley

Homemade Toothpaste Recipe