Building a Strong Foundation: The Path to Lasting Relief

Finding Lasting Relief in Your Gut Health Journey

Katie Lovitt, a registered dietitian, discusses the importance of addressing gut health and IBS symptoms through holistic healing. In this episode of The Nourished and Thriving Show, Katie emphasizes the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit in achieving lasting relief from chronic digestive problems. She shares insights from her own journey, the significance of building a strong foundation through effort and sacrifice, and the dangers of seeking quick fixes. Katie also integrates her Christian faith, offering a perspective on how faith and community play a role in overcoming health challenges. The episode includes a motivational segment about not giving up, seeking help, and the value of investing in one's health for lasting results.

00:00 Unlocking Your Purpose Through Gut Health
00:14 Welcome to The Nourished and Thriving Show
00:54 The Heart of Gut Health: Beyond the Physical
01:51 Finding Lasting Relief: A Journey of Persistence
06:01 The Power of Community and Faith in Healing
08:16 Building a Strong Foundation for Lasting Health
18:38 The Journey to Empowerment and Purpose

BRAND NEW Mini-Course: https://nourishthrivewellness.com/mini-course/

Find Katie:
Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @the_healthygut_dietitian
Facebook

BRAND NEW Mini-Course: https://nourishthrivewellness.com/mini-course/

Find Katie:
Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @the_healthygut_dietitian
Facebook

Transcript

0:00

And you're going to be able to ultimately live out your purpose that God has created for you so much better and amplified because of the lessons that you learn. In this gut healing journey. Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Nourished and Thriving Show. I'm your host, Katie Lovitt. I'm a registered dietitian on a mission to help you increase your impact and legacy on the world while healing your gut and reducing your IBS symptoms. I'm so grateful to have you here. Each week I'll inspire you to live vibrantly and provide valuable resources and information that empowers you to take bold action towards your health goals. Before we dive in, make sure you follow or subscribe to my show wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. Ready? Let's go! Hey guys. Welcome back. I am so excited to talk with you guys about something that has just been kind of simmering on my heart. Simmering makes it sound like a mad. I'm not mad at all, but it's just been like, I don't know, like slowly rusting. And growing. So summary, maybe up to a boil. But I'm not, not like Oh, gosh, I feel like that's not a good analogy. It's growing like a field of wild flowers. How about that? On my heart to share with you guys. And I'm really excited because I think it's going to touch on a different point in a different perspective than what maybe some of y'all thought about. And as always, it applies to more than gut health. I always say we're humans, we're body minds and spirits. We are systems of systems everything's interconnected. So. Anything that I can teach you guys that yes. Helps your gut health and overall health, but also helps you just be a happier, more free, peaceful, joyful person. Is great. So it's this concept of lasting relief. Now I talk a lot about lasting relief. From got some DMS and I actually just launched a brand new mini course on my website. So make sure you guys go check that out. I will drop the link here in the show notes on this episode. Go check that out all about like giving, finding lasting relief from chronic chronic digestive symptoms. And I know that that's what some of you guys want just so badly, you know, a lot of you guys have tried so many different things you've been to. GI doc after GI doc, you've tried alternative therapies, integrative therapies, elimination, diets, supplements, saying, forget it. And just eating, you know, cheeseburgers all day. And it just is really frustrating wherever you feel like you're doing all the things and not seeing any fruit from any of your efforts. And so I get it. And maybe you are a person who has seen results on something and you felt better, but then it plateaued and you stopped feeling better and maybe you got worse again. And then what you had tried in the past. No longer worked. That is really frustrating. Right? And then you don't know where to go from there. And I just wanted to take into why this might be happening to you. And what to do about it. So I talked to you guys all day, every day, over on Instagram. If you're not on my Instagram, make sure you go find me over there. Again, I'll meet to my Instagram handle in the show notes. You definitely want to be over there. Come say hi. But we talk about it there. I talk to people about this every day. Lasting relief. What does that really mean? I'm always talking to somebody to stay and for her lasting relief means. No longer fearing food, because she's gotten to a place where she has been told by doctors to follow so many different elimination diets. That seemed to work in the network and it's totally unpredictable as to when her symptoms common, when they go. She's starting to kind of be afraid of food, right? She's like taking a bite and it's like, eh, I don't know if this is gonna make me feel worse. It's actually easier to just avoid food at this point. She's gotten to the place where. She really, isn't going to restaurants with her family very much because they feel bad because they all go and she doesn't want to eat. Because she's scared of what might happen. And her family doesn't want to go to a restaurant and sit there and eat while they watch her. Watching them eat right. She's missing their sporting events because she's afraid of her symptoms, flaring and there not being a bathroom nearby. She wants to take them abroad to go learn more about her culture and can't because she's afraid that she won't be able to enjoy herself while she's there. And this is her wife, you know, and it's really frustrating, but she was so inspiring having this conversation because I asked her this question, I said, So, you know, you've been dealing with this for a few years now. You've tried all of these different things. What would it look like, you know, in a year or five years from now, if you don't get this handled, if you're not able to make progress on this. And she looked at me and she thought about it for a minute. And she was like, well, honestly, I believe it will get better. I have faith that it will get better. And I'm going to keep showing up for myself. I'm going to keep seeking answers. I mean, I keep trying, I'm not going to just give up. You know, and rest with this. And it will get better. And I love that so much. I love her persistence and her tenacity. And, you know, her openness to try different things, you know to try a different approach that maybe she hadn't tried before to get different results. And so I just want to share that to inspire you guys and help you feel. Maybe not as alone, if you're feeling a little bit alone in this, because I know gut issues can be very isolating. And I'm going to share something that, you know, it may be for you. It may not be for you, but it just came to me and I'm going to say it. Anytime I think about isolation, anytime I think about people being pulled apart or not coming together in something. I think about why that might happen. And who benefits from that happening? And I talk a little bit about my Christian faith here. But it, you guys may or may not have the same beliefs as me, but for those of you who are Christians, I just really encourage you to think through. If you are being isolated from loved ones from family and friends and coworkers, because of these gut health situations. And your symptoms who's benefiting from that. It's Satan y'all. He wants to pull us apart from each other and isolate each other from each other. God wants to bring people together in love and support and community. And so I just want to really encourage you. Don't let your symptoms don't let your gut issues or health issues. Cause you to become isolated from other people, reach out for help. If. Other people don't know what you're dealing with. If you feel like you're alone and you're carrying this burden for yourself. That was not really the direction I had planned on going in this, but I just, all of a sudden had this overwhelming sense of needing to share that. And so I did. So if that was meant for you please let me know. I'd love to hear if that was helpful for you. So we're going to keep going into kind of what I had planned. No. I know. But I hope that that was helpful and inspiring for you guys. Don't become isolated, you know, don't, don't do that. That's not what God wants. And we're, you know, it's hard for women to ask for help. It's hard for us to, you know, the good old American, you know, self-made person. That's not wholly y'all. So reach out for some help. And if you're needing some actual, like professional help to help walk through this, because you don't know what else to do, go back and listen to my last. An episode of this because I go through three critical things you need to think through whenever you work working through hiring somebody to help you with chronic digestive issues. Super, super helpful information. So just one episode before this one, go back and listen to that. So going back to this concept of lasting Roby from what does that even mean? You know, for a lot of people. I see going back to that idea of you try something, it works for a little bit, it stops working and then you feel like you're back at square one and you have to start completely over. To me, lasting relief is something where your symptoms become gradually less and less over time. And you feel more and more. At the helm of your body, if you will, and knowing what your body really needs for support. And if you do have a symptom flare, you know what you need to do, right? Like, you know, kind of what you've allowed to come out of balance in your life. Maybe it's stress. Maybe you haven't been prioritizing sleep. Maybe you've been rushing through your meals and not chewing. Well you know, maybe, you know, A lot of emotional stress, like I mentioned, where you're just really letting that get the best of you. You understand what has come out of balance? And you also understand what you can do in the short term to get some symptom relief right away. So that you're not just waiting for things to resolve or anything like that on their own, but you can get on top of those symptoms and it's almost without thoughts. And I know that sounds really crazy right now because you're probably thinking about your symptoms a lot. But I hear that a lot from people where they're like, This felt like stressful and overwhelming whenever I like going through it on my own. But now that I have a plan and I'm really clear on what my body responds to and what it doesn't respond to, you. It's so easy to just take care of myself. I know, like I have the guidebook now. But really to get there, it doesn't just happen overnight. Y'all you have to have a strong foundation on caring for yourself in health and lifestyle and mental wellness. You have to have a strong foundation. And you have to lay those stones down in that foundation, brick by brick stone by stone, one at a time. And it takes true work and effort to get there. And some of some people are aware of that and are willing to put in that work and effort. Some people really just are looking for the easy button still. And if that's you I really would encourage you to dig a little bit deeper and give it some thought around your expectations and what you're really hoping will happen and wanting to happen. And if it's really realistic and serving you in the best way. Because truly all, anything worth having. Whether it's your health or financial success or you know, career success or, you know, a wonderful family. Any of those like pie in the sky end results that are really worthy goals. They are worth paying for sacrificing, for and working for. Okay. If it is a truly worthy goal, it is worth the effort put into attain it. And it's through that process of sacrifice and working and all of that. That you become the person who's able to maintain that goal. Otherwise, you're never going to have lasting relief. It's just like, if somebody wins the lottery, right. You hear all the time, these stories of somebody one, you know, Tens of millions of dollars in the lottery. I don't know how much people win, but a lot of money. Right. And within a, you know, a couple of years they're completely broke again. Well, it's because they got this windfall of money and they didn't have the investment strategies, the money management, the budgeting muscles. Any of that to really be able to take care of that money and grow it and invest it and give it, and all of those things that need to be done. They didn't know how to do that because they didn't have to work for the money. It was just handed to them. Same thing with like a, you know oh gosh, what am I trying to say? Inheriting? Sorry. I'm trying to say two different words at the same time. Same thing, same thing with inheriting money. You hear. You know about how mom or dad or grandpa or grandma, you know, built this huge empire, this business, all of a sudden, and then within a couple of generations everything's gone. And I think that that can happen for a couple of reasons. I think people can get really comfortable and rest on their laurels and not change and grow and adapt, which is what we always have to do. If we want to stay successful. Just look at blockbuster, right? By also, you know, those people who inherited that money. If they weren't really taught. You know, to work hard for it and how to manage it and all of that. They're really not set up to be able to maintain it. The same thing. It comes with your health. Y'all. If somebody say a doctor, say a GI doctor, Gives you a prescription and instead of making things worse, Or giving you bad side effects. It truly gets rid of your symptoms, like miracle medication, right? The problem with that is, is if that is all you're doing is taking this miracle medication. We're following a miracle elimination diet that seems to fix all of your problems. Your problems are going to come back. And they're going to be worse, and then it's going to require even more effort to truly set things right. Because things have really just been building and building and building while the medication or elimination diet kind of quieted the symptoms for you without fixing the actual problem. And so you're not going to get lasting relief and that feels really frustrating because you don't realize that's happening. In the moment you're thinking. That your problems are gone, but really your symptoms are just being quieted. And so by really working and doing the digging and their research to really understand what it is that. Makes your body thrive and do well. And what really just tears you down. Is so worth it, it's building that strong foundation. Y'all I had to do it with my gut health. Right. Some of you guys know my gut health story, if you don't go sign up for that free training that I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, because I do share a lot more about it. In that free training. If you're curious, just want to hear kind of what I've been through. I've had to do with my business too. I didn't go to business school. I am a registered dietician. I have a bachelor of science, nutrition, science. I have a whole bunch of continuing ed and nutrition because I'm a complete science geek. I didn't learn anything about businesses in school. I did well, I did do a business project. It was like a group project. And one of the girls in my groups, boyfriend, who they're now married. W was getting his MBA and he like helped us with it a lot. But even then it was like so theoretical. It was building out like a business plan. Right. Which I have no idea ever built an actual business plan for my business right now. And I've been in business for. Seven years now, six, seven years. Because you don't really need that. That's for my getting alone and all of that, but you don't really need to do. So the actual, like mechanics of creating and building and growing and maintaining a business and providing excellent customer care and the platforms and the marketing and. All of that. I didn't want to learn it. And I fought it for a long time. I just wanted that really sparkly, shiny, perfect private practice. With the best clients who I loved serving and you know, got them great results and, oh, you know, making a financial difference for my family. I just wanted the interest Holt. I didn't want to have to lay that strong foundation. And I've had to over the last five plus years. Really digging into the mechanics of marketing and advertising and you know, business stuff. And now, yeah, I do have all of those things and I'm able to see. Scale and continue to grow and continue to better myself. Because I've gone through all of that to really get to this place now. So whenever that happens, because you fully understand the inner workings of your health. You're able to weather any storm that comes along, maybe a little, you'll get a setback, but you're going to be able to put things back together a lot more quickly. Then, if somebody was fixing it for you. Right. So if you've done the work and I'm not saying don't hire help, like that goes against what I've said multiple times, right? If you were at a place where you've tried the basic things. And you're not getting better and you're really suffering. Hire somebody as a guide, I've hired business coaches. I talked about that in my last episode is fall where you know, I've had to hire some help to teach me the things that I didn't know how to do, because what that does is it accelerates your progress. It doesn't do the work for you. And I tell people that all the time hiring me, joining my program, got rehab. It's not like a magic button. That's going to fix your problems for you and do all the work for you. No, no, no. The work is just beginning, right? It's so exciting and it's fun. And I get to do it with you, and we're going to walk this path together and hold hands the whole way. And you're going to get even better results even faster because you have all of my expertise to build from, but it's ultimately. You still having to do the work? And that's not for everybody and that's okay. Not everybody is meant to work with me and if that's not what you're wanting, then my program is not for you. And so that's okay though, but whenever you're really willing to pay, to make a sacrifice to really work for your gut health, I know you don't want to, I didn't want to back whenever I was building my business. Right. Like I said, I didn't want to do it. I just wanted the interest. But I am such a more compassionate. Empathetic. Stronger determined. Persistence. Balanced person because I've had to go through those things and learn all of those skillsets. And you, aren't going to go through themes and learn so much more about yourself. And, you know, wife and how you operate and how you interact with others. And you're going to be able to ultimately live out your purpose that God has created for you so much better and amplified because of the lessons that you learn. In this gut healing journey. So I hope that this was inspiring for you. I hope that it makes you feel good about maybe some of the harder times that you might be going through right now. Keep playing those stones down, keep at it. Don't give up, have faith that five years from now, one year from now, things will be better for you. And they absolutely will be if I can be of any service or support to you while you're going through this, reach out to me on Instagram, I'd love to chat and we'll talk soon. Thank you so much for listening to the entire episode. I hope you are feeling inspired and empowered to take bold action towards your health goals. If you enjoy what you heard, don't forget to follow my show so you never miss a new episode. And it would mean the world to me, if you left me a review, so others know what to expect from my show. Last, get in touch. Let me know what bold action you're taking. Let me know how you're inspired. Follow me on Instagram@the_healthygut_dietitian. I've put a link in my show notes for you, so you can simply click and follow. Come say hi, I respond to all my messages and I can't wait to get in touch.