TLDR:
If you’re still bloated, refluxy, or constipated — even after trying probiotics, diets, or fiber powders — it’s not your fault. Most gut protocols skip the order of healing. Here’s what actually works:
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- Calm the Chaos: Regulate your nervous system first. When your nervous system is in survival mode, your gut gets the message: now’s not the time to digest and heal.
- Rebuild Digestion: Support stomach acid and enzyme function — not suppress it.
- Restore Minerals: They power gut function, stress response, and energy.
- Clear Gut Imbalances: Use testing to target infections or overgrowths, not guesswork.
- Rebuild Resilience: Eat more plants, support gut lining, and stop fearing food.
This is how I’d heal, with real data, not random guesswork. Ready to stop trial-and-error? Watch my free Restored Gut Method training.
You’ve done the fiber powders, the probiotics, the elimination diets… and still, your stomach feels off every single day.
If I were struggling with bloating, reflux, or constipation right now, even after trying it all — here’s exactly what I’d do.
Because here’s what I see every single day (and what I used to do myself before I understood how root cause healing really works):
Most people start with the same, well-intentioned steps: cutting out foods, trying different probiotics, drinking more water, or loading up on fiber powders —only to feel just as bloated, uncomfortable, and frustrated weeks later.
You probably know the cycle:
🥴 The constant bloating that makes you dread meals or unbutton your pants halfway through dinner.
🔥 The reflux that creeps up the moment you lie down
💩 The constipation that keeps you feeling sluggish, puffy, and stuck — wondering when you’ll finally go.
You start second-guessing every bite of food, Googling late at night, wondering if you’ll ever feel “normal” again.
Can you relate? If this sounds familiar to you, here is where I’d start:
I would never start by guessing. I’d start by getting data.
Before trying another random supplement or elimination diet, I’d run functional testing — specifically a GI-MAP stool test and a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA).
These two tests together give you a clear picture of:
🦠 What’s overgrown, undergrown or inflamed in your gut
💧 How your digestion and immune system are functioning
⚡️ Whether stress or mineral depletion is keeping your body stuck
Testing first allows you to stop the endless cycle of trial and error and finally create a plan that matches your body’s data.
Once you have that clarity, then you can actually heal — because you know where to start.
Step One: Calm the Chaos
If I were bloated, refluxy, and constipated, I wouldn’t start with a supplement protocol or “killing off bad bacteria.”
I’d start by calming my body down — because digestion doesn’t happen in chaos.
When your nervous system is in survival mode, your gut gets the message: now’s not the time to digest and heal.
That means food sits heavy, stomach acid and motility shuts down.
Here’s how I’d shift that 👇
🌿 Create Safety in the Body
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- Eat consistently. Skipping meals or long fasting windows can increase stress and slow down digestion. I’d aim for balanced meals every 3–4 hours to keep my body well nourished, my blood sugar balanced and support gut motility.
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- Slow down and chew thoroughly. Digestion starts in the mouth! 20–30 chews per bite tells your body food is coming and to release digestive juices.
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- Breathe before meals. Three slow belly breaths before eating can shift you out of fight-or-flight and into rest-and-digest mode.
🧘♀️ Regulate Stress Daily
Even gentle nervous system work makes a massive difference. A 10-minute walk after meals, breathwork, journaling, or simply taking a few minutes to pause between back-to-back meetings teaches your body that it’s safe again.
Step Two: Rebuild Stomach Acid + Digestion
If you have symptoms like reflux, gas and bloating after meals or you feel like food just sits in your stomach (especially high protein foods), these are all signs your stomach acid needs more support.
Most people with reflux don’t have too much acid — they have too little.
When stomach acid is low, food sits in the stomach too long, ferments, and pushes pressure upward.
That’s what causes reflux, bloating, burping, and that uncomfortable “food just sits there” feeling.
Common Signs of Low Stomach Acid
⚡️ Bloating or fullness after small meals
⚡️ Belching or reflux shortly after eating
⚡️ Feeling like food “sits” in your stomach for hours – especially protein
⚡️ Constipation or undigested food in your stool
How I’d Support Digestion Naturally
💧 Eat without distractions. No scrolling, no multitasking — your brain and gut need to sync for digestion to start.
🌿 Use digestive bitters before meals to gently stimulate stomach acid and bile flow.
🍋 Try lemon water or diluted apple cider vinegar as a gentle way to boost stomach acidity.
Once digestion is strong again, reflux fades, bloating decreases, and meals actually energize you instead of leaving you heavy and tired.
Step Three: Restore Minerals
If I were still feeling bloated, constipated, or low-energy, I’d look at minerals — because they’re the spark plugs that make digestion possible.
Minerals fuel every digestive process:
⚡️ They power stomach acid production
💧 Regulate hydration and motility
🧠 Support the stress response and nervous system balance
💪 Drive enzyme activity and energy production
Most people I test are depleted — and not because they’re doing something wrong.
Modern life drains minerals faster than we can replace them: stress, caffeine, filtered water, sweating, and restrictive diets all pull from your body’s reserves.
And here’s where testing becomes a game-changer again. Using a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) helps you see which minerals are imbalanced allowing you to replete exactly what your body needs.
Here’s What I’d Do:
✅ Run an HTMA to identify mineral patterns and stress responses.
✅ Add a mineral mocktail daily: my go-to options are RAYVI and Jigsaw Adrenal Cocktail, you can also DIY it with coconut water, a pinch of sea salt and orange juice or a whole food vitamin C powder.
✅ Eat mineral-rich foods: sea salt, fermented foods, avocado, potatoes, pumpkin seeds, leafy greens, and bone broth.
✅ Balance blood sugar with protein + fat + fiber at every meal to reduce blood sugar imbalances which are a big stressor.
When minerals are restored, stomach acid production improves, digestive juices flow better, and motility regulates — without relying on laxatives or endless supplements.
Step Four: Clear the “Weeds”
Once my digestion and minerals were strong, then I’d clear what doesn’t belong in my gut microbiome.
A GI-MAP stool test, would show gut health red flags like: :
🦠 Bacterial or yeast overgrowths
🐛 Parasites
🔥 H. pylori infections
💧 Inflammation or low gut immune function
Functional testing is crucial here — because guessing which “gut protocol” you need often leads to frustration, wasted money, and flares.
Testing tells you what actually needs to be cleared.
When your foundation is solid, clearing these “weeds” becomes effective, gentle, and long-lasting. This is often the turning point where chronic bloating finally resolves and energy returns, because you’ve built the foundation first.
Step Five: Strengthen and Rebuild
Once balance is restored, the goal shifts from healing to resilience.
This is where true gut health becomes sustainable — where you can eat a wider variety of foods without fear.
How I’d Maintain It:
🌈 Eat 30+ plant foods per week to build microbiome diversity.
🥥 Prioritize balanced meals — protein, fat, and fiber to stabilize blood sugar and reduce grazing.
💪 Support gut-lining integrity and fortify healthy bacteria with testing guided supplementation.
🌿 Live in a way that’s sustainable, not restrictive. Healing should fit your life, not take it over.
🌿 The Bottom Line
If you’re still bloated, constipated, or refluxy, even after “trying it all” — it’s not because your body is broken. It’s because your gut hasn’t had the right support in the right order.
Here’s what actually creates lasting change:
✅ Calm the chaos
✅ Rebuild digestion
✅ Restore minerals
✅ Clear imbalances
✅ Strengthen for the long term
That’s what real healing looks like — not guessing, not restricting, but restoring your gut so it can do what it was designed to do.
FAQ:
Q: I’ve tried probiotics and elimination diets. Why am I still bloated?
A: Most approaches skip the foundations — things like nervous system regulation, proper stomach acid and enzyme support and mineral repletion.
Without those steps, even the “right” probiotics or removing trigger foods won’t make lasting change.
Q: What minerals support digestion the most?
A: The key players are sodium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc.
They regulate stomach acid, enzyme activity, motility, and stress resilience — all essential for a gut that actually digests and moves food efficiently.
Q: Do I have to eliminate foods to heal my gut?
A: Real healing isn’t about restriction. It’s about restoring function so your body can tolerate foods again.
Once digestion and gut balance improve, most people are able to reintroduce foods they thought they’d never eat again.
Q: What is The Restored Gut Method?
A: It’s my 4-step functional framework designed to rebuild your gut from the root:
1️⃣ Calm inflammation and regulate the nervous system
2️⃣ Mineralize to restore digestion + energy
3️⃣ Detox using data, not guesswork
4️⃣ Strengthen your microbiome and gut lining for long-term resilience
Q: How do I know which step my body needs most?
A: That’s exactly what we uncover through functional testing (GI-MAP + HTMA) inside The Premier Gut Solution.
These tests show what your gut actually needs — so you can stop guessing and start healing in the right order.
💬 Ready to finally get to the root of your bloating, constipation and reflux?
👉 Watch my free training where I walk you through my 4-step Restored Gut Method, the same process I use to help clients rebuild digestion, restore energy, and finally enjoy food again without fear or discomfort.
