Apps To Make Your Gut-Healing Journey Easier
There are a few apps that I would highly recommend to you on your wellness/holistic/gut-healing journey! Some are ones I’ve used in the past and/or at specific stages of my journey (I’ll specify), and there some I’ve either just started using or have continued to use. For the sake of this being a short-and-sweet read (since others have not been so short, guilty!!!), let’s dive right in.
As you enter the foods you eat for the day into this app, you’re able to see where the foods rank fermentation-wise (via the point system allocated), as well as how all the foods you’ve eaten throughout the day add up. You’re going to want to stay within in a specific number range to avoid aggressive bloating (it will tell you what that number is)! I did find this app to be helpful, however, I felt like I became more focused on that number and eating foods that kept me within the limit (white rice, wine) rather than heaps of vegetables (which would sometimes put me over). I love veggies!!
Created by Monash University, a school that leads the research on FODMAPS. You can see where certain foods fall fructose-wise on a scale of red (avoid/limit), orange (may lead to undesirable symptoms, eat only a small serving), yellow (eat in moderation, but do not overeat), green (always okay/ can be eaten without limitations). Grey highlights mean they may aggravate histamine intolerances. When you click on a specific food, you can see how much fructose, sorbitol, sucrose, lactose, and gluten it contains. Say eggs are a lower fodmap, but you’re allergic to eggs… you can add a filter to ensure it comes up red when you reference that food group so you know to avoid it. To elaborate, my sensitivities are set to turn all gluten, eggs, and dairy foods red even if they aren’t high fructose. Of course, avoid foods that you know you have sensitivities to. You can also add your own personal notes and ratings to each food option as you discover your unique sensitivities or reactions to them.
This is great if 1. You’re just starting to become familiar with FODMAPS and 2. If you want to play around with certain foods to pin down if you’re sensitive to certain food properties (histamine intolerance, fructose intolerance, etc.) and 3. For when you can’t remember where a food falls on the scale while you’re out-and-about. The app also includes a section where you can learn more about each of these intolerances!
I’m a huge advocate for eating organic, local, and seasonal. Going organic ensures you don’t have nasty, gut-messing-up pesticides lurking on the foods you’re eating, while local and seasonal ensure nutrient density and freshness. Eating a food closest to the time it picked offers the most nutrients, so naturally local is a great choice. This app tells you what is available to you in your area by the season. It’s perfect for making sure you’re eating the best-of-the-best food and getting the most out of it. It’s super easy to use… simply put your location in, and a list will populate underneath with what fruits and veggies to opt for!
I find that people are one of two extremes with this, either loving or hating it when it comes to counting macros. Some people think it’s too excessive to track your food, and I get it. I also shake my head strongly at the people who count macros in order to eat bagel bites, mac and cheese, chips, and ice cream as their day-to-day meals. You can count macros in this way and, thanks to calories in calories out, you can lose weight, but it’s a totally unhealthy way to go through life. Counting macros or not, your diet should be filled with fresh, nutrient-rich foods and very, very limited processed ones for optimal health. Processed foods FUCK up your gut. (That’s the most necessary F bomb because honestly, they really do wreak havoc on your system.)
Anyways, I’ve used this app, deleted it, used it, deleted, and now I’m back to using it! Macros give me peace of mind. That’s just the type of person I am. I have weight loss goals that I’d like to hit (in a healthy way), and they keep on track to do that. Eventually, I can see myself going back off it to eat more “intuitively,” but right now I’m really enjoying it.
Just a note if you’re setting up macros, I personally plan to lose this weight at a slow pace so I’m not depriving myself. This is much more sustainable (I’ve tried the extreme before), so I suggest the same for you to keep cortisol levels down (you want to avoid high cortisol levels to avoid immune system damage/ more dysbiosis.) Also, for women, keeping carbs high is important for hormone balance, and I’d only recommend minimizing them for a short time while fighting parasites/ candida, which I’ve also done.
I used IIFYM to calculate my macros, and I was shocked (and super stoked) about how high the carb grams were… the highest of the macros! WOOOO, carbs! Anyways, I’m feeling great both physically and mentally. So for right now, I’m loving this app.
An important thing for a woman is to understand her cycle. After discovering that my progesterone was so low and my body was mimicking estrogen dominance as a reaction to the imbalanced ration, I wanted to learn more about my period. You can track your period in this app (obviously helpful if you have an irregular on thanks to all this gut shiz like me), along with your mood, energy levels, cravings, temperature, and beyond for each day. As you input more info, Clue learns more about you and your cycle and can offer predictions throughout the ones to come. I bought a basal thermometer to keep track of my body temperature, as how your temperature shifts throughout your cycle can be very telling of your hormones!
What apps help you? Let me know!
