Brian (1s):
Coming up on the GET, LEAN Eat Clean Podcast.
Melissa (3s):
The gut test is gonna show us the baddies. I call them the baddies, the bad gut bacteria that are overgrown. It'll also show us some of the good guys that are most likely overgrown when we're in a state of gut dysbiosis, But. it tells us a lot of other really interesting things. It tells us, for instance, if we're reacting to gluten, right? All my clients will say, oh, I don't have a problem with gluten. 'cause nobody wants to give up their pizza and their red and their bagels. But when we get the test back and there's a, a component of the test called the Anti Glyadin iga, and it's measuring the reactivity in your body and it's off the chart, it's causing inflammation that can't be argued with. I can look at how you're digesting. you know, a lot of times constipation is because our stomach acid just isn't strong enough.
Melissa (47s):
People have had acid reflux. They've gone to the doctor, they've gone on PPI medications, which lowers their stomach acid, which means their food is not breaking down correctly at the very beginning of digestion. They're winding up constipated. It'll tell me is that one of the root causes.
Brian (1m 3s):
This week I interviewed gut health expert and founder of Gut Reset, 1, 2 3, Melissa Pecky In, her forties Melissa battled persistent health issues, consulting 12 doctors before uncovering Lyme Disease is the culprit. We discussed how to reset your gut, along with Melissa's eight root causes for constipation, the Importance of gut testing, Chemicals to avoid the problems with our tap water, and much, much more. Really enjoyed my interview with Melissa. I know you with two. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. Alright, Welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn and I have Melissa Ian, welcome to the show.
Melissa (1m 42s):
Hey, Brian, I'm so happy to be here today. Thanks for having me.
Brian (1m 45s):
Could, well, maybe not my first, but one of my first poop experts Is that, is that a good title?
Melissa (1m 52s):
Sure, yes, I'll take it. And if I had known that this would be my path 10 years ago, if you told me I would be talking on national podcasts about poop, I would've said absolutely not. But here I am. Well, it's just so important. It, it needs to be talked about.
Brian (2m 7s):
Yeah. It's like I feel like some people don't want to talk about that stuff. Right. Most
Melissa (2m 11s):
People don't wanna talk about that. In fact, when I sit down with a client and I start to talk about it, I get very short one word answers with a look, you know, with a look of shame. And it shouldn't be something we stop talking about once we're potty trained, we should be having conversations with our providers, with our children, with our elderly parents, with our peers.
Brian (2m 34s):
Yeah. Well, maybe we can get into like, what changes throughout, you know, like, you know, you're, you're a child, right? You're probably pooping every, I don't know how many times children poop. Probably after, after every meal, right? Yeah. Right. And, and then we, as we get older, it's, we're lucky. Some people are lucky to do it once a day. That's
Melissa (2m 53s):
What we strive for every morning. A good poop every morning is the way to go. But I have plenty of clients that poop once a week and it's normal for them. And that's the other thing, when providers talk to clients or patients and we say, how do you poop? And people say, fine. And you say Every day. And they look at you. No. And you say how often? They're like once a week. It's been like that forever. It's not okay. There's a, we can talk about it, but there's a lot of downline effects that happen when you are not moving your bowels regularly. And by regularly, I mean at least once a day.
Brian (3m 26s):
Okay. Yeah. And, what made you get into this aspect of health? I know you said you were an acupuncture starting out back when. So I
Melissa (3m 34s):
Started studying acupuncture back in the nineties and Chinese medicine, which is really the root cause medicine, you know, it's the way it's always been in Chinese medicine. And so I was trained really well, really early and wound up myself contracting Lyme disease. But I went undiagnosed for five years and was told that I was maybe clinically depressed, that I needed to get more sleep. I was a mom of two kids, of course. I was tired. I had symptoms ranging from numbness to a lot of GI problems, to plenty of orthopedic complaints that would come and go almost as if I was faking it one day. It would be my neck. I wouldn't be able to turn my head three weeks later.
Melissa (4m 15s):
It was my sacrum. I couldn't bend over if there was no rhyme or reason. And then after being treated, after finally being diagnosed and treated in a western medicine setting with a ton of antibiotics, because I learned that not only did I have Lyme disease, but I had other infections. If anyone's listening out there, Lyme disease rarely travels by itself. It's carried by a tick most often. And I picked up three other bacterial infections along the way. Babesia, Bartonella, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, all requiring different antibiotics in different treatment. And I obliterated my gut health
Brian (4m 53s):
Trying to heal with the, with the antibiotics. Yeah. Did right. Did did it, did it help get rid of the Lyme disease or it,
Melissa (5m 0s):
It, by then I had had it for five years. Right. I had, I was having, I had chronic bacterial infections and to this day we're not sure in the Lyme community if you can completely eradicate this bacteria. I continue to test positive today, but I am symptom free. But I did a number on my gut and I, it was almost as bad as the symptoms of Lyme disease, the isolation, right. That I felt when I couldn't go out to eat with my friends. Because I would look at the menu and know that every single thing on the menu was gonna make my stomach upset. Right. I was eating just a handful of different foods. I, you know, was pooping so irregularly that I couldn't do the things that I love to do.
Melissa (5m 41s):
I was an outside hiker. I loved to hike and that, you know, I was exhausted from Lyme disease, but I also was so unsure of when I was gonna need to use the bathroom that a four hour trip into nature wasn't happening for me. So it really was, you know, life altering in a very isolating way. And what I realized as I got into treating and working with more, more and more people with tick-borne disease and undiagnosed environmental illness, it's sort of the, the people that that come to me, the one thing that they had in common is they're all constipated. So if gut health is off and you are not pooping and you are trying to do any sort of detox or any sort of killing of anything, and you're not able to get that out regularly out of your body because that becomes toxic as bacteria die or they release chemicals, very, very toxic.
Melissa (6m 32s):
It's why a lot of Lyme patients wind up sicker called a Herxheimer reaction when there's just too much toxic fallout. And so that's the work that I'm doing now while I still continue to work to help people find healing from chronic undiagnosed illness. The one thing everyone has in common is this constipation. It's a big problem.
Brian (6m 52s):
I know some people when they travel too, they get constipated. What would you say the reason behind that is? It's just different.
Melissa (6m 58s):
It's a lot of reasons. you know. Well there's, I've identified eight root causes of constipation. And I did this work because when I went to the doctor myself and asked, okay, why is this happening? Why am I constipated? I went to just a gastroenterologist who did an endoscopy, which is the throat down the tube, a colonoscopy, which is a tube up the butt. And I was under 40 at the time. And then even I did something called a capsule biopsy where you swallow a camera and it takes pictures as it goes through your entire digestive system. And was told that I was fine. I had a ton of stomach pain and a ton of constipation. And when I asked why, but why am I constipated?
Melissa (7m 39s):
The doctor said, I don't know, just eat some fiber and drink more water and take MiraLax and you'll be fine. And I said, fine. That's not, doesn't sound like that's gonna fix my problem. And he sort of looked at me quizzically like I don't, I, he was, you know, didn't really understand what I was after the fixing of the problem. This was a solution But. it definitely wasn't healing. And so there are eight root causes, there are eight reasons, unless somebody has had operations and has adhesions and there's physical blockages, which is a reason for constipation. I'm talking about people who, you know, maybe at one time had normal bowel movements, And, now all of a sudden they're constipated.
Melissa (8m 19s):
I've identified eight root causes which range from definitely fiber and water. Right. If we're not getting fiber and water gonna be constipated, but to things like toxic mold exposure really shuts down the bowels parasitic activity. If you have a high level of parasites, you're gonna have problems pooping. If you've got a fatty liver and your liver's not working correctly, it's another reason. And a lot of these work together. So there's really rarely just one root cause. But if you go to the doctor and he says, drink more water and eat more fiber, and you're not doing that already. And that's the root cause of why you're constipated. Okay, it's fixed. Awesome. But for most people it's not that easy.
Melissa (8m 60s):
Especially when it's been chronic.
Brian (9m 2s):
And you came out with the gut reset, right?
Melissa (9m 5s):
Gut reset. 1, 2, 3 is a program I developed mostly because people in a chronic constipation situation are very isolated. It's very ill illness is very isolating. And so when you can heal with others and you have a community and you're working together, you know, learning new things and setting new goals and creating new healthy habits, it's much easier when we have accountability partners. So the, the program is a 12 week program. At the very beginning, we're all doing gut testing. That's really important. If we've tried, if you're listening out there and you're like, I've tried everything. I've done the water, I've done the fiber, my liver's fine, we, you'll, I go through in my masterclass next month, all eight root causes.
Melissa (9m 50s):
So people can really help to self-identify. And you say, I've done all that. Everything's fine. It's time to gut test. Yeah. Stop guessing. The gut test is gonna show us the baddies. I call them the baddies, the bad gut bacteria that are overgrown. It'll also show us some of the good guys that are most likely overgrown when we're in a state of gut dysbiosis, But. it tells us a lot of other really interesting things. It tells us, for instance, if we're reacting to gluten, right? All my clients will say, oh, I don't have a problem with gluten. 'cause nobody wants to give up their pizza and their red and their bagels. But when we get the test back and there's a, a component of the test called the anti-gliadin iga and it's measuring the reactivity in your body and it's off the charts, it's causing inflammation that can't be argued with.
Melissa (10m 38s):
I can look at how you're digesting, you know, a lot of times constipation is because our stomach acid just isn't strong enough. People have had acid reflux. They've gone to the doctor, they've gone on PPI medications, which lowers their stomach acid, which means their food is not breaking down correctly at the very beginning of digestion. They're winding up constipated. It'll tell me, is that one of the root causes? Right. What? So there's so much we learn and then once we learn, we know how, what to do next. But if you, if you're operating in the dark without the testing, it's, it's difficult. It's a lot of guesswork.
Brian (11m 10s):
Yeah. And gut health testing has come a long way probably from, if you can tell, for the last probably 10, 20 years, what tests are you utilizing? I know there's a quite a few out there.
Melissa (11m 20s):
Yes. I use a test called the GI Map. Okay. There are a few out there. There are some that give you a lot more information. And, you know, the truth is gut is gut testing is this next new frontier in medicine. Everybody is trying to figure it out because we're learning really interesting things. Like if we compare the gut microbiome, and when I say microbiome, I mean the stuff that's living in your gut, that's your microbiome. And you have, for instance, heart disease and I compare your microbiome to a hundred other people with microbiome with heart disease. There's a lot of similarities in those microbiomes. And the question is, by shifting the microbiome, can we shift out of that heart disease pattern? We already see something called fecal transplants.
Melissa (12m 2s):
Right. Very successful in people who've had a bacterial infection called C diff. Right? C difficile is a bacteria that gets into the intestines and a lot of people wind up having part of their intestines removed. Yeah. So it it, the test, I mean the test will tell us that too. The test, the testing is really where it's at. And then once you've got the test, you build your protocol. You go, I've got a little bit of this and a little bit of this. And then you know how to heal it. Also, the cool thing about the test that I really like is that so many people are into taking probiotics, which I'm like, yes, we all need good gut bacteria. But if we are taking number one, the same probiotic month after month after month, you are growing in your garden In, her gut, a garden of just tulips.
Melissa (12m 44s):
A monocrop And. what we really need is a, a huge garden of wild flowers. And that happens by taking in different kinds of probiotics. Probiotics from food, from things like kimchi and kombucha and yogurt and then different strains. If you look at the back of your probiotic bottle, it'll tell you exactly which strains you are taking. You take the test, it shows you which strains you're missing. Those are the ones you take. Right. And then, and then we nurture those because we have to remember that as we're growing this garden in our gut, we, we need to have good soil to plant those seeds into, first off, right? Do we have healthy, good gut lining? And second of all, are we feeding them?
Melissa (13m 25s):
'cause you put all those good gut bacteria in there and then you have a really low fiber, low polyphenol polyphenols are the chemicals that are in those dark leafy green, you know, vibrant red parrot, orange colored vegetables. And that's what is feeding that, that gut and So, we need to take that all into account.
Brian (13m 45s):
What would you say some of the big culprits are that have sort of caused this evolution of just like dysbiosis in the gut? you know, you mentioned antibiotics. What else would you say would be causing it?
Melissa (13m 55s):
Yeah, antibiotics is huge And, and there are studies out there that says three to six months it takes to put good bi good probiotics back in. Once you've had one round 10 days of antibiotics, you've wiped out all the good guys. But that's a big one. Alcohol not great. Artificial sweeteners pretty bad for your gut. And glyphosate, glyphosate is the chemical that's sprayed on our grains in this country. It's why it's not sprayed in Europe. It's why you can eat bread in Europe or pasta in Europe and feel fine and then come back here and try to do the same thing. And your gut's all outta whack. It's the glyphosate, it's not the gluten. So that, there's a great book, if anyone's listening and interested.
Melissa (14m 35s):
Stephanie Seff is a doctor out of MIT. She's amazing. She wrote a book called, I think it's called Toxic Legacy.
Brian (14m 42s):
I've listened to her. I yeah, I'm familiar.
Melissa (14m 45s):
Yeah. So I mean, if she says all the time, if you knew how bad this chemical was, you would be doing everything in your power to avoid it. Yet, you know, you go to the grocery store and it's just spread products and gluten and not, it's not just gluten, it's wheat product. Oh, it's oats. And any of our grains, they're also sprayed with glyphosate unless they're organic.
Brian (15m 5s):
Even fruits and vegetables too. Not as much fruits
Melissa (15m 9s):
And vegetables. Yeah, because it's, it's a desiccant and it's a, it's a drying chemical. They spray it on grains because it helps them to have a better harvest. So that's, the majority is coming from our grains.
Brian (15m 21s):
Okay. Yeah. And so what would be, you know, in your gut reset what's, you know, past the gut testing? Obviously it's tough to decide like what route to go, but there's gotta be some good principles that people can take maybe to just create an environment for, you know, the, the gut to thrive in.
Melissa (15m 38s):
Yeah, I mean, you know, if people out there are listening and they're looking to better their gut health and they're not, you know, in a position to do gut testing, et cetera, you can avoid those things that I mentioned. we can avoid glyphosate, we can avoid artificial sweeteners. we can think about feeding our guts. Polyphenols very like fiber rich foods. In fact, if people go to Start Pooping Better dot com, I wrote an ebook about how to Start Pooping Better. If you don't know where to turn start here. There's a recipe for my good poop vegetable soup. And I love the recipe because it can be made anywhere. If you're living in a food desert and you only have canned stock and vegetables or frozen, great if you live on a farm and you can harvest everything yourself and use bone broth, which is really gut healing.
Melissa (16m 23s):
Awesome. You wanna add protein, it's a great recipe. But the point is it's going to feed those gut bugs that you're trying so hard to grow.
Brian (16m 32s):
And, what are your thoughts around, I mean I've had, I dunno if you know Jay Feldman, I've had some individuals on the podcast talk about endotoxin load as as becoming, you know, one of the big killers or at least issues when it comes to, you know, overall health. Any thoughts on that? Like you talk about, I talk sometimes, you know, sometimes people will get into these really restrictive diets, you know, do fasting or get into carnivore and it actually helps for the time being because you know, they have all this endotoxin load and they, they, they have trouble digesting these, you know, fruits and vegetables that maybe other people could digest. Mainly vegetables probably.
Brian (17m 13s):
I
Melissa (17m 13s):
Dunno if that's so much endotoxins as it is just not having the right bacteria in your gut that are helping you to do those, you know, carry out all the digestive processes that combined with maybe not enough pancreatic enzyme or not enough digestive juice. Right. Maybe they need some HCL or some digestive enzymes. But you know, we're seeing more and more toxic load. If you take a look at what's in your tap water, have you ever gone to ewg.org/tapwater? Environmental Working group is a amazing website if you are listening to this. They are the watchdogs for our health. They are looking at all kinds of things. Beauty products and home care products. And our tap water ewg.org/tap water, you put in your zip code.
Melissa (17m 57s):
If you live in a very big area and you have more than one water company, it will bring up the water companies. You choose your water company and you see the report, it's terrifying. It contains radioactive elements. Mine, mine contains PFOA and PFAS, which are forever chemicals. Nobody should be drinking that. And a Brita filter is not cutting it.
Brian (18m 19s):
Yeah. I just, actually, I'm just publishing an interview with doc, this Dr. Paul Savage. He's out of Chicago actually. And he does plasma exchange to help people get rid of the toxic load. It, you know, it's not for everybody, but they test and they see how high, you know, they might be in glyphosate and other toxins and then you do sort of this plasma exchange over like a six month period. Definitely pretty expensive, costly. But some people might, might need it. Not everyone. And, and anyways, I was just thinking
Melissa (18m 50s):
Gen, I think there's gentler ways and I think really understanding where your toxins are coming from and stopping them from coming in, right, is the very first step.
Brian (19m 1s):
Is there a water, certain water filtration system that you like?
Melissa (19m 5s):
I have, I'll tell you what I have on my house. I have a whole house system. Okay. That's just a filter system and it, you know, takes out the fluoride and the microplastics, et cetera. But for drinking, I run all my water through a distiller. So I have a, a distiller in my basement that has an eight gallon holding tank and it runs water to one spigot and to one ice maker. And that's what we use for drinking and cooking and the dogs. And it's crazy because it's already coming into that distiller through the first system. Right? So it's going through that whole first system into the distiller. And when we clean out that distiller bucket, 'cause you have to clean it out because what happens is it's creating a steam vapor and collecting the steam vapor and that's what you are drinking.
Melissa (19m 50s):
But all of the solids fall to the bottom of this container. And it's like shale. It is gross. And I think that's what I mean. That's what I would be drinking. That's what I was drinking before I had the distiller. When I thought the system that I had was adequate. It's just not our, we need to drink too much water these days, right? We need a really half of our body weight and ounces of pure clean water so that our kidneys can do their job and our bodies can operate. And if your water is toxic,
Brian (20m 21s):
So ewg.org, which I've been to before slash water, is that what it is? Slash
Melissa (20m 26s):
Tap water
Brian (20m 26s):
Slash tap water. And then you'll sort of see so how your, like your county or your city rates as far as their water,
Melissa (20m 34s):
It'll show you all the contaminants and it'll say like legally allowed and then recommended. The EWG has recommended limits and it like, it blows through the recommended limits in a lot of places. For a lot of people. It depends on where you live. Yeah. But you should definitely check your water and if you have a, well, you need to get your well water tested because if you live anywhere near a farm or a golf course or an airport anywhere with toxic runoff, you're drinking that. Yeah. It's not Okay.
Brian (20m 59s):
I, I like to ask this question to a lot of my guests. What's one thing you've changed your mind about in the last 10 years?
Melissa (21m 5s):
I think the importance of a multivitamin, I think I really used to think that everyone should be taking a multivitamin because we need the protection. It's a blanket protection. And truthfully, I think that most people, not most people, I think people who are taking supplements, right? The people who are actually actively pursuing health and looking for ways are probably getting enough vitamins. But what they're not getting is minerals. And that is a huge problem. We are super under mineralized and we know, we know magnesium alone is re is responsible for 300 enzymatic processes in the body. And everybody I've ever tested is like low in magnesium. I take magnesium daily.
Melissa (21m 46s):
I was tested in March and I was low in magnesium and I had taken it the night before and I was like, and my doctor said, that's how fast you're using it.
Brian (21m 54s):
Mineral testing. Are you doing that as well? Is is that like a hair you, hair mineral test?
Melissa (21m 58s):
You can do hair mineral, hair mineral analysis. It's not my, I put everybody on minerals. All of my clients are on minerals and it's amazing. Some people's energy level triples when they're finally, it's not gonna happen overnight. You need to build those back up into your system, taking them continuously. But the first two, three months of working with someone working we're remineralizing their body. It it's a game changer. Yeah. Is it's a game changer.
Brian (22m 24s):
Is that mainly because just the soil depletion and that's happened over the last
Melissa (22m 28s):
Soil station and diet and stress? Yeah. Right. And terrible water and terrible air. Our bodies are under attack. We are, we are constantly working to detox. And for anyone out there who says, you know, detox is a scam, our bodies were built to detox, please, I invite you to come take a total tox burden test with me and take a look at actually what's inside. Because it's pretty horrifying. I don't think you need to do plasma exchange, but I think that everyone should be focused pretty regularly on some detox practices.
Brian (22m 60s):
What was the test that you mentioned that you just said? That
Melissa (23m 2s):
It's, it's a really great lab called Vibrant Wellness. And they have a total, total total tox burden test, which looks at tons of different chemicals. It looks at a little bit of mold. It's a great place to start for people who have been told by their doctor that everything's normal, you're fine. Right? We listen, listen sir, like we've done every test we can. And really, maybe you just need to get a little more rest. Maybe you need to eat a little bit better. Maybe, you know, need a little more little, need, a little less stress. If you know something's wrong, you need to start looking for a different practitioner, a different way of looking at the body. Whether that's eastern or Western or homeopathic or Ayurvedic.
Melissa (23m 46s):
There's so many different ways to heal. But if you are not getting the answers that you need, right, you need to look somewhere else, you can't keep going back to the same system 'cause you're gonna get the same answers. So I always tell people it's finding the right practitioner and having the right test. And that's where the magic happens. Yeah.
Brian (24m 2s):
So
Melissa (24m 2s):
You're, you know, if you're suffering, if you're suffering with brain fog and you can't get outta bed and your stomach's a mess and you have random joint pains, like you can't live like that, you know, and I'm sure people have spent tons of money and time going to doctors getting tests like time to time to test differently, time to look at the body differently, look at it as a system, try to figure out what's going on overall, right?
Brian (24m 25s):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's, it's like you sort of gotta, nowadays, I mean you have these general practitioners that are trained a certain way to, you know, treat things with a lot of pharmaceuticals and there's a time and a place probably for that. But like, I think it, it's important to have like a, someone that's more on the natural side and a wellness advocate like yourself or even myself. I went through, I just went through FDNI dunno if you're familiar for FDN. Okay. Yeah. So that gi thank you GI map was a big one. I was curious of the what gut tests you used. So
Melissa (24m 55s):
I like that one. I mean, I run gut zoomers and things like that, but some of it's just so much information and again, you know, it's a really exciting field. We're learning more and more and more. But right now, if you give me a bunch of information and I don't know what to do with it, it's just clouding the picture, right? Like if you have a high level of some bacteria that there's not much research on, that's not helping me. Gi map every line is actionable.
Brian (25m 18s):
Yeah. And, and I feel like to some degree you can over test on all that. Like, you drive yourself crazy. Like sometimes getting, you know, testing's important. I agree. But like, also just sticking to the basics, you know? Street sleep, stress, you know,
Melissa (25m 32s):
Foundational medicine. Yeah. It's foundational. It's not even functional. It's foundational. If we're not sleeping, eating, pooping, moving and keeping our minds clean and making some time to rest your mind in meditation or mindfulness, right? Like, you gotta start there. Don't go seek out specialists when you're foundational. Wellness is in the shitter essentially, right? I mean, when people come in, they're like, yeah, well I, I eat the standard American diet, which is a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast with a coffee, two slices of pizza and a coke for lunch and a cheeseburger and fries and a Sprite for dinner. There's no fiber. It's all processed and you wonder why you can't poop. Right?
Melissa (26m 13s):
Good poop. Vegetable soup.
Brian (26m 14s):
What's I, I love talking routines. Melissa, what's like a typical, you know, morning and evening routine and then what, what is your, like what, what typical foods do you, do you eat
Melissa (26m 24s):
A typical morning for me, I'm a really early riser. I like to get up with the sun. So somewhere between five 15 and six o'clock I'm awake. I've got three dogs, I let them out. And I usually spend a little bit of time in the morning. I always make a coffee. I'll do a little of my social media, I'll do a little bit of gratitude journaling. And then I kind of just dig right into my day, whether it's seven or eight. And I usually try to exercise in the mornings and I need to have accountability partners for exercise. If I say I'm gonna go downstairs and use the gym, there's 99.9% chance it's not happening. But if I make a plan with a friend for a walk, if I have a Pilates class, if I'm hitting tennis balls or rocket sports with people, if I've signed up for something, I commit and I do it.
Melissa (27m 8s):
So I've learned that I'll be 54 next month and it's taken me a long time to realize that. But it's really important in my day to get movement in. And then in the evenings, I'm a really big fan of detox baths, Epsom salt, baking soda, little bit of essential oil. I have a little ozone generator. Sometimes I'll do an ozone bath and I try to start breaking it down, you know, 8, 8 30 is when I'll wash my face and take my bath and kind of ease into bed. And I love to be asleep by nine 30. As far as diet is concerned, it's a question that I don't like to answer because I think it's so important for people to do the work to figure out what makes your body feel best.
Melissa (27m 50s):
And the answer is not the same for any two people. Based on the fact that we all have incredibly different microbiomes with different needs. I eat meat, I eat dairy, I eat some gluten, I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I try to, I try to eat lower carb because I feel better if I eat something with a lot of carbs, I usually wind up sleepy and I like to keep my energy up. So high protein breakfast and then something with protein, obviously for lunch and dinner is sort of my favorite meal of the day. 'cause I have a family sort of, that's our family time and so I wanna cook healthy for them as well. But that's,
Brian (28m 27s):
Yeah. You talk about fiber, I mean, what type of, you know, fiber foods would you recommend for individuals? I know everyone's a little bit different, but what are the, some of the
Melissa (28m 37s):
Candle fiber, right? If you've, if you've got good digestion, the goal is 30 different fruits and vegetables a week and a serving as like a nectarine that counts, right? Or a whole banana that counts. But there are vegetables, you know, some people can't tolerate oxalates. So things like spinach are really hard on their bodies. I like things like onions and asparagus, which have a lot of fibers in them. And then I, I literally make that good poop vegetable soup and it's sitting in the refrigerator. And when I'm hungry, that's about, have that with a hard boiled egg and some crackers, maybe a slice of cheese for
Brian (29m 11s):
The, where, where? Where's the recipe for that? On your website?
Melissa (29m 13s):
You at Start Pooping Better dot com You gotta Start Pooping Better. And you get a whole little ebook delivered to your
Brian (29m 19s):
It, to your puffs. Oh, the good poop vegetable soup recipe you're holding back on us. I
Melissa (29m 23s):
See. Here it is. It's there for
Brian (29m 25s):
You. Okay, I'm gonna have to look at that and maybe give the, the three quick tips for better bowel movements. Maybe give a, give a little bit of a, I mean you might have talked about 'em already.
Melissa (29m 36s):
Yeah, I mean I think, you know, if you are struggling out there, I think we have to always look at food, like food and, and, and hydration first, right? If you are standard American dieting and not getting enough fiber, good food, vegetable soup can change that off for you. So like, think about what you're taking in number one. Number two is, if you are the kind of person that gets up in the morning at six o'clock and expects to be out the door at 6 28, how much time have you left yourself to poop? If you're waking, like waking and you're shot out of a cannon and your heart rate spikes and you get into that fight or flight state, there ain't no chance for that morning bowel movement.
Melissa (30m 16s):
When I work with clients that have a hard time there, there's a meditation that I developed with a meditation teacher that really helps to relax you and take you into a parasympathetic state in the morning so that you can go empty your bowels. You do the meditation, drink a glass of water, have your bowel movement, take your shower and get on with your day. But it, you know, that requires you shifting schedules. People have a hard time waking up earlier, they just need to go to bed earlier. So that's tip number two. And then, you know, you can really take a look at probiotics and digestive enzymes. How are you processing your food? Ask yourself if you've ever been on a ton of Tums, I, you know, I used to eat Tums by the handful. If that's you, or if you have been put on a PPI by your doctor because you had acid reflux and you were on it for a while, And, now you've developed constipation, you could have killed your stomach acid.
Melissa (31m 5s):
So trying something like digestive enzymes and probiotics on your own can make a difference. You know, better to know exactly which probiotics 'cause they're not cheap. Yeah. And you're spending 50, 60 bucks on a bottle of probiotics and if they're not the ones you need, you're not gonna see a difference. That's why people will say, well, I took probiotics and it didn't help because you probably took the wrong ones. And if you're taking digestive enzymes, but what you need is beane, HCL to raise, you know, to have a little more stomach acid won't make as much of a difference either. That's why, again, it's best to test. Yeah. But you can try those things for sure.
Brian (31m 41s):
Yeah. I feel like, especially with probiotics, there's so many out there now, it's like you could throw a lot of money at it and, and not necessarily see any results.
Melissa (31m 50s):
And if, you know, and if you say to me like, I'd rather, I'm not gonna spend the money on myself to get tested. you know, it's an investment, but it's an investment in yourself, in your health. I can't think of anywhere better that anyone could ever spend their money. But if it's not something you're willing to do, then at least rotate your probiotics. Look at the back of the bottle, read the ingredients. Is it lactobacillus? Is it bifidobacteria? Get a wide range.
Brian (32m 14s):
I had, it's been a, oh gosh, over a year. I had Dr. William Davis on, I'm sure you're familiar with him. Yeah. And now he was talking about his, I think we talked about his yogurt. That his, yeah, I think I haven't made recipe, right? What's that? He
Melissa (32m 28s):
Has his own special recipe. Yeah. I've never, I don't make yogurt. No, I haven't.
Brian (32m 32s):
Okay. Did you make it? No. Haven't we have Actually he's not the only person I've had on who's has he sent me a yogurt maker. It wasn't him, someone else. And my wife makes a lot of things and we have it. I'm like, you know, yogurt, Greek yogurt's expensive. It is, it adds up. You get like quality Greek yogurt. So maybe I'll let you know, maybe we'll start making some yogurt. I think it's not so easy. And, and there's, but, but I forgot the yogurt maker. I ha I have, but I gotta look that up.
Melissa (32m 59s):
It's one of those things like once you get it, you get it. Kinda like sourdough bread, like your first couple loaves are really hard. But then once you figure out how to do it, I, all those covid things we tried.
Brian (33m 9s):
Yeah, exactly. Well this is great. What other things would you say for individuals that they could do maybe outside of food to sort of help, you know, reset their gut? Well,
Melissa (33m 19s):
Not so much in terms of resetting gut, but, you know, things you could do. If you, if you are a pooper that goes to the bathroom and you're sitting on the toilet for a half an hour and straining that needs to end immediately. That is not good practice. You're gonna wind up just hurting yourself and getting hemorrhoids. I recommend that everybody buy themselves a squatty potty. Oh, I got one a. Yeah. Squatty potty is a little piece of plastic. And if you don't wanna make the investment, you can actually take your trash can and turn it, if it's square, turn it on the side and just get your knees up so that you're sitting tall with your knees up and that your bottom's lower than the, your knees. And that way you are in the proper position to poop. It makes pooping so much easier. I recommend if you have constipation or you're straining or have hemorrhoids, it's a $20 investment for a squatty potty.
Melissa (34m 4s):
Like start there.
Brian (34m 5s):
I mean, you could literally take if you wanted like three books and put them on each side under, under each foot. Under each
Melissa (34m 10s):
Foot. Yeah. You just wanna make sure you're in the right position. And again, with these suggestions, like give it some time, like don't expect to, you know, put your feet up and like have a miraculous poop. Like, it's about being, it's about building a system that works for you. I also say to people, you know, if you're at your whole podcast is like eating, get clean. If people are eating a very low fat diet, that can also be a problem. I like to think about lubricating from the inside out. If people are having dry hard stools and there is a, a medium change, tri triglyceride oil, MCT oil that was made famous by Dave Asprey and his Bulletproof coffee. And you can do that, you can add that a little bit of MCT oil if you, even if you're ketogenic or if you are fasting in the morning, it's not gonna add any, it's not gonna break your fast.
Melissa (34m 58s):
You can add a little MCT oil to your coffee and that can help to lubricate you from the inside out as well. Some, some vitamin C and some magnesium citrate can also help people move bowels naturally. You don't wanna, you know, any, anything that you're doing. Coffee. I mean, coffee works the natural accident in your mouth. In your mouth and up your butt. Right? I mean, coffee enemas can really help
Brian (35m 18s):
People. Oh yeah. Have you ever done that before?
Melissa (35m 21s):
I have. And a lot can be really great for people with brain fog. It's very clearing. It's actually a practice that stimulates your liver. It's less about moving your bowels and more about stimulating your liver. So if fatty liver and sluggish liver is a root cause for your constipation and you're able to help your liver health, guess what? It's gonna help over time. Yeah. And people do, people do drink coffee in the morning to move their bowels, but you know, I've heard a lot of people talk about that and say, it's actually just the act of drinking something. Because once we start drinking something, it's, you know, it starts the chain of command with digestion. Your tummy starts to rumble. It's like, okay, food's coming, evacuate, make room.
Melissa (36m 4s):
So whether that's coffee or tea or water, we can get the same effect.
Brian (36m 8s):
You know, one thing I found for myself and even for some individuals that I've talked to in the past that maybe get on a, you know, they're, they're fasting, they're doing some carnivore. They, they're not pooping as much. I I know I don't fast much anymore as you know, like I used to, I got, I wasn't eating enough probably from that and I wasn't getting enough protein in, so I started adding in some meals and adding in some, some, you know, fruits, little bit of vegetables, but mainly fruits. And, and that really helped with bowel movements. So I think people that can maybe overdo just if they're, lets say they're just eating meat. I mean, that could, that could cause cause constipation as well.
Melissa (36m 49s):
Well, about it. You're not feeding your gut bugs. So you can, I, I like a carnivore, ketogenic, intermittent fasting, purposefully cycling in and out. Yeah. Right. I don't, and especially for women, I think it can be really disastrous, especially with skipping breakfast. I'd rather have women skip dinner and you have to be really careful around your period. But I think that if you're not feeding those gut bugs and you're on a long-term sort of meat only program, right. You're gonna run into problems. Those people need to get a gut test. Yeah. Let's see what's missing And start. And, and so maybe, you know, you figure out a way to have really, on the weekends you're doing lots of fruits and vegetables and then during the week you're doing your, your keto or your carnivore.
Brian (37m 33s):
It's my assistant that just walked in. Yogurt maker Ultimate. Oh, that's the name of it.
Melissa (37m 38s):
Okay. See, she's ready. She's, she's pumped. She's
Brian (37m 41s):
Gone. Now I got her, I got her pump up. She's ready to go. She's gonna make some yogurt.
Melissa (37m 46s):
Yeah. And you can, you can, you can add all kinds of different strains to your own yogurt and really
Brian (37m 51s):
Yeah.
Melissa (37m 52s):
You know, make some pretty neat stuff.
Brian (37m 54s):
I of, I guess, yeah, the name of the yogurt make is called Ultimate.
Melissa (37m 58s):
Ultimate. Cool.
Brian (37m 58s):
Yeah. Anyways, this was great. Melissa, where's the best place for people to find you?
Melissa (38m 4s):
So my website is my name, Melissa hall kpi.com. There's all kinds of information about the work that I do. Gut reset. 1, 2, 3 is my program that launches September. It's a live cohort. Again, I think it's really important for all of us to be in it together. Right. So, we have live Zoom calls and we have Facebook group and so people can check that out there and Start, Pooping, Better. Start making some good poop, vegetable soup. Get your gut on track. Winter's coming. You're gonna be so psyched to have this soup recipe.
Brian (38m 32s):
Yeah, you gotta patent that.
Melissa (38m 34s):
Yeah, I, I'd just be happy if the world starts eating it.
Brian (38m 38s):
Okay.
Melissa (38m 38s):
You can, you can take it as your own. Put your little logo on there and send it out to your people as a little gift.
Brian (38m 44s):
There you go. Yeah. I mean, hey, build a community. Right. And also your eBooks on Start Pooping Better dot com. Love that. Got that URL.
Melissa (38m 53s):
Yeah.
Brian (38m 54s):
Must have paid big money for that one.
Melissa (38m 56s):
Sure. Everyone was clamoring for that one.
Brian (38m 58s):
Excellent, excellent. Well it was great meeting you. I appreciate you coming on and I will put Links in the show notes so people can find you and learn about your work and Yeah. If you're constipated, Melissa's the one to go to.
Melissa (39m 10s):
Right? You gotta fix it before you have bigger problems. Exactly.
Brian (39m 15s):
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
Melissa (39m 16s):
Yeah, thank you.
Brian (39m 18s):
Thanks for listening to the Get Lean Eat Clean Podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again and have a great day.
