Episode 12: Create a morning routine to improve your digestion

Did you know that the way you start your day can impact your digestion for the rest of the day?

In this episode, you’ll learn about the key pieces to a morning routine that supports optimal digestion, so you can feel your best all day long.

You can check out the podcast on iTunes here, Spotify here, and on YouTube here! Below is a full transcript of the episode if you prefer to read through it or want notes.

Don’t forget to connect to others in The GUT Community, a Facebook group for those with IBS and digestive disorders to support one another and dive deeper into each episode together.

Welcome back to The Gut Show! This episode is a little bit special, because if you're watching on YouTube, then you can see that I am not in my typical spot at my desk. The reason why is that the topic of today's episode is creating a morning routine to improve digestion. So I wanted to bring you to where most of my personal morning routine actually happens so that as we talk through it, I can show you a little bit of what that could look like. So when we're thinking about a morning routine, when we're thinking about routines in general, the important thing to take away is that my personal morning routine is going to look different than yours. I think with the rise of social media, and even the world of influencers and coaches and everyone who wants to talk on these topics of routines, we have our own opinions, we also have our own preferences. So we're going to focus on morning routine today, but a lot of the pieces that we're going to talk about, you can implement these into any part of your day that seems to make sense for you. So you could be looking at this from an evening routine standpoint, a midday routine standpoint, it doesn't have to look exactly like mine, or look exactly like we're talking about in order for you to get a benefit. So if you work a night shift, or maybe you just have never been a morning person or the mornings are spent with your children, whatever it might be, know that this doesn't have to look one single way, instead, the goal is to take little bits of the conversation and then figure out how you can apply it best for yourself where you are right now.

So the reason why we like to think about morning routines specific to digestion, is that whenever you're sleeping, the smooth muscles in your body, those involuntary muscles, right, that are kind of attached to the organs, which includes your entire GI tract, they turn off while we sleep. And the point of that is that we don't want to be you know, peeing, pooping all of those different things while we're sleeping. So it gives your body that space and time to wind down, kind of shut off a little bit and get the amount of sleep that you need. During the day, you likely wouldn't be able to go eight to 10 hours without peeing or pooping, but at night, you do have that ability because your body shuts down.

When you wake up the smooth muscles, especially of the colon, the large intestine, begin to contract more rapidly. So they wake up, they contract a little bit more. And that can usually lead to a morning bowel movement. So whenever we're thinking about symptoms, especially with those with digestive disorders, if we're looking at a constipation side, so if you struggle more with constipation, the morning is one of the best times to try to combat constipation, because that's when your body's already waking up. That's when all those muscles are ready to turn on and get moving to give you a bowel movement. When we're looking at diarrhea predominant for those of you who have faster motility and the guts moving just a little bit too fast, then the morning may actually be when symptoms are the worst. So as we start to think about having a great morning poop, we'll kind of start talking about it almost from that constipation side first. But those of you who deal with more symptoms in the morning and have too many bowel movements in the morning, or more pain and cramping, we're going to dive deeper into what that will look like and what to consider. So stay with me!

So what’s really cool is because your body is waking up with you in the morning is that you can actually train your body to have a bowel movement around the same time each day. You're most likely going to find success in that training by utilizing the morning time because your body's already set up to work and it's ready for that action that you were trying to train it to do. The more that you create this routine and establish that kind of training time, the more that your body is going to anticipate that and actually catch up and do that for you more involuntarily. So when we're looking at habits, we know that you do something so many times and it becomes a habit where it takes less thought and it's more of the action that you go for and that you do. The same is going to be true for those functions of our bodies, and the way that our mental health and our gut health and all of those things are connected, and how we digest throughout the day, we treat it like habits. The more that we actually implement some of these practices, the more consistent we are with them, the more intentional that we are with them, then the more that they're going to happen without a lot of thought. So the morning routine is a way to be able to train the body to have a great bowel movement and support the body's bowel movement and support a healthy digestive system throughout the rest of the day, as well as create those habits that are going to take less thought in the future and support you whenever things are routine, as well as when things are not routine.

So let's dive deeper into some of the different pieces of your routine that are important and can be helpful! So the first one would be forms of pelvic floor stretch and release. This is especially important for those who are dealing with constipation predominant, or if you know that you've had a history of pelvic floor dysfunction or something like that, that can be helpful to know here. Those who have diarrhea predominant, this is also very important, it just might look a little different, especially if you're in the middle of a flare and your symptoms are more severe. Your pelvic floor muscles, so those are the base of the core, and they're involved in that release of stool. So it's really important that those muscles are able to contract, but also stretch and release appropriately to have a successful bowel movement.

Many Americans aren't actually connected to their pelvic floor well to be able to push and also pass stool effectively and healthfully. So it's important to know that a pelvic floor physical therapist is going to be the gold standard here if you need help tailoring the pelvic floor stretch the pelvic floor strengthening that you do for yourself as well as your own posture on the toilet. When we're looking at morning routine, there are some things that we can do to try to, you know, get the pelvic floor on, so kind of getting those muscles ready, but also helping them relax, so that when we do sit down on the toilet to have a good bowel movement that you're able to relax more fully. This is also going to be helpful because many times during the day, especially women, men can as well, may hold tension in the pelvic floor when you're stressed. You can see now crossing my legs, that's an example of how I might be tightening my pelvic floor with my legs being crossed, and that can lead to over like over tightening, which could actually lead to weaker muscles and less relaxation. So starting my day with some pelvic floor stretching and release will help me then be able to have a good bowel movement and help prevent against that stress that I might be holding throughout the rest of the day.

So for a pelvic floor release and stretch, some of the things I love are doing a child's pose where your hands are in front of you, on your shins and your seat is back towards your feet, and then taking a few deep diaphragmatic breaths in that position. A down dog is also really great, if you are familiar with postures in yoga, that's what I'm referring to here. You can also do even just lunges, so doing a lunge, whether it be low on the floor, or a standing lunge, that can be helpful, anything that's going to stretch the pelvic floor. And if you're not familiar with your pelvic floor, be sure to go read our blog. If you want to go read that and kind of understand those muscles a little bit more.

So after we do some pelvic floor stretching release, breath work/meditation and movement are two big key components of a morning routine. They can be done in tandem, they can also be done separately. So I'm going to talk about these but there's no real value to the order here, know that you can put these together or you could switch them up, it doesn't matter really which one comes first.

So with breath work and meditation, our major goal is to calm the body, so start the body from a place of rest and digest, and that's going to help with when the body's turning on. We're also keeping things kind of calm and steady, and we're supporting the digest mode of our body so that that movement that's happening is going to be productive. So those with constipation predominant, we're going to get more production, so more digest mode, which is what we want. For those with diarrhea predominant, this actually will help prevent kind of that stress that your body might be feeling which can actually make the symptoms less severe and prevent as much diarrhea, cramping and pain. So the breath and meditation side of things directly impacts the bowel movements themselves, which is great, and then there's also this other benefit, which is for mental health. So whenever we're doing breath work, we're actually again, getting our body into that rest and digest mode, which helps combat stress in the moment, but also throughout the rest of the day. So it's going to help prevent that increase in cortisol during the rest of your day, it's also going to create a state of mindfulness, where you're connected to yourself, so you're able to know what your body needs, what's going on, what thoughts you may have, which is going to help you with making your choices and decisions throughout the remainder of the day, which could lead to more self care, and then fewer symptoms, as well as less stress.

So breath work and meditation are so important, and what I love most about this piece is that there's a core that we all want to take away, but the way that we apply that core can look extremely different. So you might do your breathwork and meditation as part of your movement practice, especially like mind body exercises, like we have, you know, yoga, pilates, some of those different practices, this might be part of your spiritual practice, which could go back into yoga and the traditional forms of yoga, it might be other spiritual practices that you have that meditation can be a part of that. It may also be a guided meditation from an app that you're using, or a program that you're a part of, so there's a lot of different ways that you can do this.

The big core component that we want to make sure that we implement when we're looking at breath work and meditation is the diaphragmatic breath. So your diaphragm is going to be kind of at the base of your rib cage, sort of, and those are the muscles at the base of your lungs that expand the lungs and then contract them. So it's helping fill the lungs with air and push the air out. Your diaphragm is involved in much more than just that, it's also going to be involved in your digestive process itself. So we want to make sure we're connecting and getting a deep diaphragmatic breath, which is a deep, deep breath. I don't know another word besides that, well rounded breath, not a shallow breath that isn't going to give you that relaxation benefit. So one way that you can do this is you can take your hands and kind of wrap them around the base of your rib cage, they're probably not going to touch, mine don’t, it's okay. You want to kind of push them around the rib cage. As you inhale, first, think about your belly button. So inhale, and then think about your belly button extending forward, and now think about your fingers coming apart, and then your hands expanding away from each other. So in every single direction of your abdominal cavity, or wall you're expanding, so you inhale. And now take that breath all the way down to your pelvic floor, the base of your core, feel that release. And then as you exhale, release from the pelvic floor, bring your fingers and your hands back towards one another, and then bring your bellybutton in.

So that's one way that you can think about it. And you want to make sure that with that diaphragmatic breath, that you're not only getting the depth there, you're not only getting that expansion, you're also taking your time and going slowly to be able to fully expand and hold that expansion for a moment. So one way that we can do this is through box breathing, which is an inhale for four, an exhale for four and a hold for four. That's one technique I really love, but if you join maybe a breathwork program or do any types of guided meditations are part of other practices, then you may learn some other techniques that seem to fit well with you.

And then going back to kind of our pelvic floor physical therapists, a lot of pelvic floor physical therapists or visceral specialists might be able to help you connect to the diaphragm. If that diaphragmatic breath seems very far connected and you don't feel it in your body, and you don't think that you're quite connecting, the pelvic floor physical therapist also specializes maybe in visceral manipulation, might be able to help you do that because there could be some barriers in place in terms of abdominal strength and mind body connection.

So the other side of this is going to be the meditation side. With meditation, that is where your creativity is going to come into play. So that's where you could do anything. For me personally, I do just a quiet moment through my breath work and then journaling. And so I take my journal and what I do is I just write like, what's on my mind, what's going on, how can I get the things that are inside out? And then how can I reflect over those things that are going on inside of me so that I can then serve my body well the rest of the day. As I'm doing my breath work, I'm also checking for sensations and feelings that I may have, like, do I feel anxious, am I feeling heaviness, is my gut a little bit more sensitive today, like what all is going on in my body right now and my mind right now, in my heart, my emotions right now. And then how can I create space through my meditation to really reflect on that and then make decisions from that place.

Meditation for me also looks like reading scripture and meditating on that, it could be some form of spirituality, it could also be just quiet and creating that space of nothing, where you clear your brain and a lot of guided meditations will lead you there. So know that the meditation piece, that's where you're going to get a lot of that mental health benefit, as well as the mindfulness connection, which can then trickle into the rest of your day by creating more mindfulness with your meals, your movement, your bowel movements, the stress you're holding during the day, all of those different parts. So don't neglect the meditation part and be creative to find what works best for you!

So the other piece that we talked about before is movement. So I don't say exercise for a reason, because this might look like what you consider to be quote unquote, exercise, this also just may be movement that flows into your entire day. So when we're looking at movement, there's a few different pieces here that can be beneficial as part of a morning routine, or the beginning of your day routine. The first thing especially for those with constipation, predominant IBS, your gut is waking up, your body's waking up, movement is going to help you wake up even more. So whenever you're moving your body, you've got more blood flow going on, your muscles are all working. And that's actually going to help stimulate more movement for the GI tract. Now, whenever you're in the middle of exercise, especially high intensity exercise, the smooth muscles are going to slow down again, because we want to conserve that energy, as well as not poop or pee while we're trying to exercise, so we want to stick to lower intensity exercise as much as possible or have mixtures of high intensity and low intensity.

With IBS, we know specifically that the high intensity exercise, even though the muscles themselves might be conserving energy, that cortisol release, so that stress response from that high intensity exercise can contribute to worse symptoms. And that can be cramping and pain for constipation, even if you do have a good bowel movement, it could be diarrhea, cramping and pain for those with diarrhea predominant. So whichever spectrum you're on, the key is to find a movement that feels good in your body that helps wake your body up and give you the benefit you're looking for without contributing to more symptoms.

Something that's really helpful is to do some sort of alignment based exercise at this point in the day because it connects you again to your body and you're also kind of getting all the joints worked out. So the really great thing about alignment based exercise is it helps with posture and so you are setting your posture for the rest of the day, building up core strength, and then you're also working on alignment to be able to wake up the different muscles in your body that have been sleeping and resting overnight. So this is where again, yoga, pilates, barre, those types of exercises even really well coordinated and timed or coached weightlifting can be extremely helpful here.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter exactly what you do, even if it's just a walk, if it's a dance to your favorite song, a little bit of movement is going to help wake your body up and then it's also going to help with that dopamine response and those feel good hormones. So we want to feel good, and you're going to feel more energized, more awake, and also feel like your mood has been boosted with movement. This is where you want to choose the movement wisely, because if you are doing movement, maybe that is cued or led by an instructor or a brand of some sort that may not be creating positivity throughout your movement, and might be leading to some negative thoughts towards your body or yourself, then that feel good boost that you're trying to create through the movement may be thwarted, I guess or taken away from those different conversations.

So there's a lot of layers here to think about, but finding some movement and being creative and also reflecting over what's working well or not for you can be helpful. Now a lot of people say that they either do or do not enjoy working out in the morning, so that's why this isn't about working out only. If you don't love doing exercise first thing in the morning, I get it, you don't have to. It could be as simple as your pelvic floor stretches and releases, maybe you add some you know cat cows and move your spine around or some twists and you know extra stretches, a little bit of a flow there. It might be a simple walk outside or that dance to your favorite song just to wake your body up. That is beneficial, that counts, that is worth it for your morning routine.

Another piece of the morning routine that typically gets missed by many is hydration. So whenever you wake up in the morning, your body has not had water for seven to nine hours ideally, hopefully, maybe even more if you stop drinking water closer to bedtime so you don't wake up in the middle of the night to pee, so it's very important to hydrate the body first thing in the morning. We know that with IBS specifically, if you do have digestive issues, then drinking a ton of water at once, which is chugging a gallon of water might contribute to more discomfort, bloating and even pain. And so instead of chugging water, want to make sure that we drink water slowly throughout the entire morning. My favorite tip for this is getting a water bottle, filling it up right before you go to bed and setting it on your bedside table or your bathroom sink so you have it immediately.

If you don't like water being out, you could have that refrigerated, or that just be your first thing that you do is you get out of bed, go to the kitchen, grab your water, and start drinking as you sit on the toilet, as you start to get ready, as you sit down for your morning routine. As you can see here, if you're watching us on YouTube, I've got my little table where I set my water, and then whenever I start drinking my coffee, because that's part of my morning routine, it comes after I've been drinking my water, and I'm also drinking them together. So yes, I will pee a little bit more in the morning, but I know that I'm well hydrated and that hydration is not only going to help me have a successful bowel movement, it's going to set me up to be hydrated throughout the day, which is going to make me feel alive and have a lot more energy. So it's very important to be hydrated first thing.

There are some versions of this going out around the world about how it should be hot water or cold water or lemon water, apple cider vinegar water, there's no support of really any of those, it comes down to what you like and what you enjoy and what feels good in your body. So if you love to put some lemon in your water, and that makes you feel a little bit more energized, maybe you get an extra vitamin C in there, great. If you like cold water, awesome, maybe you drink it more slowly, that might feel better. And warm water does typically feel just a little bit more calming on the GI tract, so whether you're trying to have a bowel movement, or you're trying to have not too many bowel movements, warmer liquid might feel better, but that's something that you want to experiment in your own body and see what not what works for you. What really matters is that you get the water in, and we start it early, and that's part of that morning routine, so that you can be hydrated all day long.

And then the last part of the morning routine that I want to talk about is the bathroom time. So one thing that happens a lot and this happens with constipation I see the most often, but I also see this for those who have had diarrhea and the diarrhea is improving and that like urgency and you know they're running to the bathroom, as that improves, this problem starts to peak its head out. And that's waiting for the urge and the urgency to go sit on the toilet. And our bodies do communicate with some urgency sometimes, they don't always communicate with urgency, you can have a bowel movement without the urgency.

And so remember, whenever I said at the beginning that we can train our bodies to have a bowel movement around the same time each day, the key piece of that training is sitting on the toilet, regardless of the urge you have. So taking the time to go sit on the toilet, make sure your posture is good, so prop up your feet, get your knees above your hips, you know, relax your belly, lean slightly forward, shoulders back, maybe don't slump over on your phone, those are really important parts of that. But you want to go sit on the toilet, take a few of those diaphragmatic breaths, doing the pelvic floor stretches right before can be so helpful and giving your body time to recognize that oh, here we are, okay, it's time to release, now let's do our thing. And then as you are going, especially if you're struggling with not having complete bowel movements are having many bowel movements during the day, you don't want it to be like oh well time to go. You want to give yourself a little space to also sit and wait to make sure that everything has been done like it needs to. You might find success in this quickly, where you have great bowel movements, or they become more complete than they've been. It also might take time, this is a habit you're building. You may sit on the toilet every single day for a couple of weeks and not see a benefit until that third week. So remember, this is about training your body that here's when we're sitting on the toilet, this is when we're trying to go regardless of the urge.

The timeframe of this is no more than like five minutes. You don't want to sit there forever. And then you know it's a great time to practice to have that breath work. And if that's something that you want to work in but maybe you don't have time for all of it, practice it while you're sitting on the toilet. Something that I like to say especially if you've had some trauma around your symptoms, and the bathroom just isn't a fun place to be, if it's just not comfortable for you and you get a little anxious whenever you go to the bathroom, that sitting on the toilet piece is not going to feel good. So another part of it is really making sure that the bathroom itself is welcoming. So maybe you have like your favorite candle that you light or a picture that you really love that you have on the wall, or you know, something that you like to read while you're sitting there, that really inspires you, like clean the bathroom, get a new shower curtain, like whatever you need to do to make it a little bit more enjoyable so that morning routine of sitting on the toilet can be helpful.

And then outside of sitting on the toilet, especially when you're in the training process, when you do feel the urge, don't ignore it, you don't have to be so tight with your schedule, that you only sit on the toilet at that time you want to train. You also want to make sure you are responding to all urges, because when you don't respond to the urges your body gives you, they may stop giving it to you, and that can contribute to more symptoms down the road.

So that's a little bit of a wrap up of how to create a morning routine to improve digestion! There's so much more to this, right, there's more that can go into this, and that's going to be kind of individual to each and every one of it. So I want to hear what your morning routine looks like and maybe something that you found creatively that has helped you with your symptoms, your energy, whatever it may be. So you can either comment below or head over to The Gut Community on Facebook, join us there and join in the conversation to share what you took away. We also always appreciate your review if you enjoyed this episode, and then if you are new to our show, and this is the first episode you've heard, I encourage you to go listen to some more episodes and see which topic you like the most and come over to The Gut Community or find me on Instagram so that we can connect and talk more about it. Cheers to a happier, healthier morning routine and for connecting with those in our community!