My stomach was cramping and churning.

I was racking my brain – “What did I eat that I shouldn’t have??”

I just wanted to know what I had eaten wrong so I could NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN!

But no matter how carefully I logged my food journal, no matter how many questions I asked – even when I gave up eating out altogether and prepared 100% of my own food – I was still having symptoms.

Does this happen to you too?

Here’s Why You’re Still Having Symptoms

Let me save you the hours of over analyzing every bite you put in your mouth…

It’s not the food.

I wanna be clear here – of course your diet is important. But if you’re eating “right” for you and you’re still having symptoms…

It’s not the food… it’s stress.

I didn’t get “glutened.” I was stressed out – about my job, my bills, my parents, my relationship, my health, my kids, the tires on my car, etc.

And that stress presented itself as real, horrible, stuck-in-the-bathroom symptoms.

Stress has thousands of effects on the body – and if you’re already prone to digestion issues (like us) – you’re more than likely feeling that stress in your gut.

Bloating, cramping, diarrhea, constipation, gas, heartburn… it’s all related to stress!

How Stress Affects Gut Health

We all know anecdotally how acute stress can impact gut health:

• If you’re nervous before a big test or first date you get “butterflies in your stomach.”
• The stress of a break up or the death of a loved one can make you lose (or increase) your appetite.
• And the night before you start a new job? It’s pretty common to get diarrhea…

But the way chronic stress affects the gut is less widely understood.

Chronic stress is the toll leaving a modern life places on us – it’s everything from work to your commute to watching the nightly news. Even the MOST privileged people in the world live with chronic stress.

(And if you’re just regular people the stress toll can be even bigger.)

What does this constant stress do to your body?

This 2014 study demonstrated that stress had a “marked impact on intestinal sensitivity, motility, secretion and permeability, and the underlying mechanism has a close correlation with mucosal immune activation, alterations in central nervous system, peripheral neurons and gastrointestinal microbiota.”

What does that mean? Basically that exposure to stress causes an increase in things like leaky gut and IBS.

The scientists who completed this study came to this conclusion: “IBS is a stress-sensitive disorder, therefore, the treatment of IBS should focus on managing stress and stress-induced responses.”

Why I Didn’t Feel Relieved (At First)

When I finally realized that the symptoms that just wouldn’t “clear up” or the unexpected “flares” weren’t being caused by what I was eating, I was pretty upset.

My diet, I knew how to control. Stress – that felt like it was totally out of my hands.

But that actually isn’t true.

No, I can’t just get rid of my kids, or quit paying my bills, or stop missing my parents.

We can’t get rid of stress. But here’s what I’ve learned: we can learn how to manage stress and work through it.

There are actually a lot of ways to ”manage stress” – and finding what works for you is just as individual as diet.

That’s why, even if you’ve tried lots of other stress management therapies or techniques, I want you to keep reading.

(Even if you’ve tried exercise, therapy, taking bubble baths, meditation, yoga, counseling, and you feel like nothing makes a difference.)

I felt that way too – until I found something that has totally changed my stress management – and frankly, my entire life.

How I Learned To Deal With Stress

I started tapping.

Tapping, most commonly known as EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a type of energy work that combines eastern medicine and modern psychology.

It works by combining the ancient practices of acupressure with Western psychological techniques. It is extremely effective with both physical issues (digestive problems, back pain, headaches, etc) and emotional issues.

It’s also what has allowed me to “conquer” stress and get to the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been.

But what’s really amazing is that unlike traditional acupressure or psychotherapy… you can learn to do tapping on your own, at home, really quickly.

It’s completely safe, easy, and free.

You don’t need weekly appointments or to shell out a lot of time, energy, or money. In fact, you can learn the basics of the technique in as quick as a few minutes – and start practicing immediately.

How Does Tapping Work?

There’s nothing “magical” about tapping (even though it can feel that way).

EFT (tapping) was first developed about 20 years ago by clinical psychologists like Dr. David Feinstein and Dr. Dawson Church.

They found that by combining some of the psychological processes they used with tapping on meridian points in the body – the same point acupuncturists press on – their clients were having more pronounced results than with either method alone.

Doctors and clients alike have been having anecdotal (AKA personal) results with tapping for the last 20 years – but until fairly recently there wasn’t research that could explain WHY tapping worked so well.

But 2 new powerful studies have demonstrated how tapping works (and it isn’t “woo-woo” or mystical.)

The first study was conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and focused on what tapping does to the body, physically. It found that by stimulating meridian points on the body – such as by tapping them – activity in a part of the brain called the amygdala was reduced.

The amygdala is like the body’s alarm system – it is responsible for controlling the stress response that includes an increase in the “stress hormone” cortisol. The stress response is what causes physical symptoms of stress, including those digestive symptoms I was talking about earlier. If activity in the amygdala is reduced, the stress response and symptoms caused by it are reduced (or even eliminated) too.

The second study looked at how tapping or EFT impacted cortisol levels in the body. Volunteers received an hour of EFT and had their cortisol levels measured before and after.

The results were kind of crazy (in a good way). The average reduction in cortisol of those who received EFT for just one hour was 24%.

Some people had as much as a 50% reduction in cortisol levels in just one hour.

(And they compared these results to people who got an hour of traditional talk therapy and a group of people who received no treatment – neither had any significant reduction in cortisol levels.)

These 2 studies are now opening doors for even more research into how and why tapping works. (It’s not just placebo effect!)

Who Can Benefit From Tapping?

I want to make something clear – there is no magic cure-all for anything in life.

Tapping can’t replace eating a gut-healthy diet, exercising, mindfulness, life-saving medications, or even traditional therapy.

But what I do know is that tapping is something that everyone can add to their “health toolkit.”

What I’ve seen tapping help with:

• Chronic, daily stress
• PTSD
• Emotional trauma
• Clearing limiting beliefs
• Overcoming autoimmune disease
• Relationship issues
• Anxiety and depression
• ADD/ADHD
• Chronic pain (even from old injuries)
• Chronic diseases like fibromyalgia
• Willpower and motivation
• Food issues like binging and cravings
• Weight management
• Digestion issues
• And many others…

Like I said before, tapping is easy to learn and it’s free. There’s no reason not to at least try it. You might feel a little silly at first – but the results speak for themselves.

(And did I mention kids can practice tapping, too? It is used in schools all over the world.)

Want To Learn More About Tapping?

I practice tapping regularly, but I won’t pretend I’m an expert (or should be the one teaching you how to do it).

If you want to learn from a pro, watch this video.

I actually learned about tapping a few years ago during one of the first Tapping World Summits.

And now it’s time for the 10th Tapping World Summit (and you can watch for free online).

At the TWS, you can learn exactly HOW to tap from the developers of EFT and other experts in the practice.

If you’re serious about living your best life and managing stress for good, there is no better way to learn about EFT than at the Tapping World Summit.

Watch a quick video explaining the basics of tapping and register for the FREE 10th annual Tapping World Summit here.

Tapping has been a transformative tool for me – I hope you’ll at least take the time to learn more about it and see if it can support you, as well.

– Jordan

P.S. Have you tried tapping? Leave a comment and tell us about your experiences with EFT.

The post How Tapping Transformed My Health appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

With all the great discounts and holiday cheer, Black Friday can be an exciting time of year.

But for some, it may be stressful and downright scary.

With that in mind, we decided to move the Black Friday sale up earlier for you.

Click here to see all the crazy prices: https://healthygut.com/special/black-friday/

Happy Holidays From Team SCD Lifestyle!!!

This is our favorite time of year, because we get to help you and your loved ones get healthy….. with the lowest prices of the year.

No matter where you’re at in your health, we’ve got something for everyone. And if you’re already well on your way to feeling great, consider giving the gift of health to those who are still struggling.

https://healthygut.com/special/black-friday/

Limited Time Black Friday Special – Ridiculous Pricing

(NOTE: Special pricing expires Wednesday, 11/23 at 11:59pm Pacific)

If it’s time to follow the blueprint in our “Creating Your Custom Diet” eBook (never before discounted in the last 6 years…)

Or get your hands on the Done-For-You grain-free meal plans…

Or… start watching the digestive troubleshooting videos… the ones that show you exactly what do about each symptom you’re experiencing for more relief.

You can get them with our early Black Friday discounts here ->

https://healthygut.com/special/black-friday/

The Holidays are a special time of the year and we want nothing more than for you to enjoy them symptom-free, with a happy tummy and gleam in your eye.

We want the friends and family you see to be asking you “What’s so different about you this year?!?”

And if you’re not there yet, we know these tools will help you get there by 2017.

This Early Black Friday Sale Includes:

The Custom Diet Blueprint – Take the guesswork out of your diet with this step-by-step blueprint to creating the custom diet that’s going to work for you… helping you create a ‘food safe zone’ that stops your symptoms in its tracks.

24 Weeks of Meal Plans – These meal plans are for people who are FRUSTRATED… who are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired… who have tried a real food diet but it’s not getting the job done… or they keep falling off the wagon.

The “Troubleshoot Your Digestion” Program – It’s like getting help from us one-on-one based on your #1 digestive complaint… this course has over 9 hours of video, audio, and transcripts to tune into the subtle clues your body is already giving to know exactly what to eat and what to AVOID. You’ll also get the top 6 supplements almost everyone should consider to heal faster.

Get your copies here -> https://healthygut.com/special/black-friday/

The sale ends Wednesday night (11/23) at 11:59pm Pacific Time Zone.

Don’t miss out on the only big sale we do each year… especially the new Super Bundle we’ve put together for you.

And in case you didn’t know we are so grateful to able to serve you.

Thank you for that opportunity.

Eat Well. Be Well. Love Well.

– Steve, Jordan and the SCD Lifestyle Team

P.S. – These discounted prices are available till Wed, Nov 23rd @11:59pm Pacific. We’d love to have you join us this holiday season to celebrate a symptom-free life (because you deserve it)! Here’s the link:

https://healthygut.com/special/black-friday/

The post Black Friday Fun Is Happening Early… appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Do you feel confused because there is just so much conflicting hormone information out there?

Are you struggling with sugar cravings, low energy, and feeling that you’re rushing all the time?

If so, our friend Sara is about to change your life…

You may have already heard of our good friend, Harvard-educated doc, and bestselling author Dr. Sara Gottfried MD.

Dr. Sara is an expert who understands that hormonal imbalances are behind your belly fat and low energy.

We used to think, like Dr. Sara did when she started medical school more than two decades ago, that fatigue and low energy was something in your “head.”

Turns out the truth is hormonal: your hormones dictate what your body does with food.

To Burn Fat and Get Your Energy Levels Up, You Need to Reset Your Hormones

Do You Know…

• Women with the greatest hormonal upheaval (at perimenopause) report the highest rates of food addiction
• Fructose can cause bloating, gas and constipation (60% of adults don’t process fructose well)
• Alcohol raises your cortisol level and makes you more stressed, not less (it also raises your breast cancer risk, even at low doses)

If you can’t seem to get your energy up, no matter what you try to do, your hormones could be to blame. The good news is Sara understands this at a DEEP level.

She gets it.

She’s been there personally and witnessed the state of frustration from lack of results despite tremendous effort, and helped more than 25,000 patients find effective solutions.

In fact, her 25 years of medical work and extensive research led her to work with 7 key hormones that, when they’re out of balance, can make losing weight and getting your energy back close to impossible!

She’s a good friend and we trust her knowledge, or we wouldn’t be sharing it with our community. We’re ruthless about who we share you with.

If you missed Dr. Sara’s FREE Webinar “Reconnect Cell to Soul: 3 Tools to Reset Your Hormones,” on Tuesday, September 22, then you’ll want to dive into the Hormone Reset Detox program with her and her amazing team of nutritionists & coaches!

Fix Your Hormones with Dr. Sara Through 3 Life-Elevating Phases…

1.) GET READY: Clearly understand why pounds creep onto your middle, patience goes missing and your once productive and efficient brain fogs over! It’s not your fault, it’s your hormones.

Get the WHY and the HOW to fix it, step by step, with Dr. Sara’s support and implementation strategies you need to make it do-able in real life.

2.) RESET: Empowered with this knowledge, you’ll implement change together! Day by day, meal by meal, step by step, you’ll make small changes so you experience the visible power of hormones and more importantly, your power to bring them into balance with your daily choices in food, mindset and activity.

3.) REENTRY: Demystify the connection between food and hormones, not by following some dogmatic protocol, but by gauging feedback from your unique body! You are beautifully different and your body is happy to give you signals that guide you to health. During reentry, you listen and get the feedback you need to have the body and life you love!

By the way, Dr. Sara is known for getting amazing results without giving up your life. (Read: NO starving yourself and NO nasty side effects.)

She has spent decades researching and testing what works – and what doesn’t work – when it comes to detoxing and weight loss. And she has 3 new tools that will double your results.

It’s time to finally implement strategies in your life that will help you get back home in your body. This program will give you a simple, yet highly effective plan to get you back home in your body.

Here’s the link to take advantage of the Hormone Reset Detox program (50% off until Sunday, September 27th at midnight).

In good health,

– Jordan

The post For Women (Help with Your Hormones) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

I woke up and stared at my phone.

It was Steve’s birthday. What do you say to your best friend on his birthday? Tell him how important he is to you? Send him something funny? Simply tell him Happy Birthday?

No, none of that was worthy of him. Instead, I texted him a life-changing quote that I read every year on my birthday – a quote that’s so deep… so intense… that just contemplating it for a single day is never enough.

It’s from David Deida, and it goes like this: “What do I need to do or become before I die, so I can die full, complete, and happy?”

I pushed send… and deep thoughts started filling my head about what I’m doing in life and why I’m here.

A few minutes later, I got an email from Brad Howard. The subject line said, “If today were the last day of my life…”

Inside was the Steve Jobs speech – the one he gave 1 year after being diagnosed with Cancer.

“For the past 33 years, I’ve woken up, looked in the mirror and asked myself…

If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?

And whenever the answer has been, no, for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life…

Because almost everything…

– All external expectations…

– All pride…

– All fear of embarrassment or failure…

These things just fall away in the face of death…

Leaving only what is TRULY important…

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose…

You are already naked…

So there is no reason not to follow your heart.”

– Steve Jobs

There Is No Reason NOT to Follow Your Heart

This quote from David Deida and the Steve Jobs speech, there’s a reason they came into my life 5 minutes apart today.

It’s a reminder that one day, each of us will die.

And in the grand scheme of things, NOTHING really matters when you compare it to dying. Fear, pride, success, money, vacations…

None of it matters.

But when things get stressful and life gets hard, fear consumes us.

Thoughts creep in like, “I’m not good enough. This is never going to get better. I can’t do this any more.”

This is the time we need to stay focused on the big picture and remember that the good and the bad things in life don’t really matter…

And that life is too short NOT to follow your heart.

It was only 7 years ago that I was dangerously underweight with Celiac Disease and having diarrhea 10-15 times a day. The doctors had given up on me and I lost hope.

I thought I WAS going to die… so much so that I wrote my will on a piece of notebook paper one night.

That was rock bottom for me.

But I made a promise to myself I’d figure it out. And I did, with the help of great practitioners.

It was then that I followed my heart… and Steve and I built SCD Lifestyle.

A few years later, we quit our jobs.

Days like today remind me that if I hadn’t figured out my chronic illness through the help of great practitioners… I literally might not be around to write this today. I wouldn’t have started this website that’s helped SO many people…

And I wouldn’t be here, following my heart.

That’s why I’m writing you today. Because if you’re anything like me, your heart is telling you to help people with their health.

Deep in your heart, you want the hundreds of millions of sick people to get better… just like we do.

And Steve and I want to help you.  

Here’s the thing: we could’ve continued helping hundreds of people 1-on-1… but instead, we can create a much bigger ripple effect together that reaches 6 Million people.

Where do we get that number?

If we help 10,000 practitioners and health coaches build and grow their online health businesses, and they go out and use the same blueprint we did and impact 600 clients’ lives, that’s 6 Million people.

Each person matters, you matter.

Now It’s Your Turn…

What’s your heart telling you?

Do you want to build and grow an online health business?

Do you want to save hundreds, if not thousands of people’s lives, and get paid well to do it?

And more importantly: What’s your reason why? Why do you want to do it?

Earlier this year, we asked the same question to over 10,000 practitioners and health coaches in this community. We gave away free scholarships to our Practitioner Liberation Project to the 3 most powerful “reasons why.”

Their passionate “reason why” blew us away…

Like Jyl McLean – The survivor (and amazing Mother) who healed her gut and now wants to help others do the same!

She went from laying on the bathroom floor struggling with IBD, worried about losing her pregnancy, to a happy and healthy pregnancy #3 in complete remission. The fact that she decided to begin a career change with ITN is wonderful and we’re really proud of a Mom balancing all of her duties and taking on a new career to help people.

Like so many of us, he’s struggling to support his family as a single Dad (and keep growing his practice). His undying devotion to building his skills over the years, despite his own health issues, to keep helping others is incredible.

As an RN and Mom, we’re sure she’s seen her fair share of how the modern medical system hurts unwitting mothers to be. She’s ready to become a force in the world and change the course of this issue…

So, what’s your why?

My son and daughter and the 6 Million people’s lives I want to impact by helping you is my WHY…

Your mission is our mission. You are why I get up in the morning.

And now it’s your turn…

You have the power to create massive change in the world… you have a unique ability that no one else has but you.

Everything you need to create your ‘why’ is already inside you.

Everything you need is already there – the Drive, the Passion, the Determination – it all comes from the reason ‘Why.’

And we would like to help you.

That’s why we’re doing a presentation about “How to Start an Online Health Business (like ours).”

If your WHY is all about creating massive change in this world and you’re already licensed in the health field… this is for you.

If you’re not happy, you’re not helping thousands of people, and not making the money you’d like to… growing an online health business like ours could change EVERYTHING.

It could be the leap of faith to get from where you are right now to following your heart.

This is the ESSENTIAL business training we wish we had (before making 6 years of mistakes).

–> To get started creating an online health business (like ours), click here to register

Registration is free and only takes 30 seconds. Even if you can’t attend live, you MUST be registered to get the recording sent to you.

So, let me ask you one final question:

If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you’re about to do today?

Let the answer to that question guide you. Let your heart guide you…

That’s the best advice I’ve got to share with you at this point in my life. It’s served me well… and I know it can do the same for you.

The bottom line: There are so many people out there that need you. And whether or not you decide to join us for the online health business presentation, know that you mean the world to us. Know how much we care about you.

And know that no matter what, we’re going to continue to support you through our blog and continuing free content…

I hope that you never give up following your heart, creating your “why,” and saving lives…

Like a few of our friends from the first class of students graduating from the Practitioner Liberation Project:

“I just wanted to take this opportunity to say how incredibly grateful I am to be a part of your programs and mentorships. You both have opened your hearts in such a huge way to help new coaches like me to get started and I cannot thank you enough. I have so much admiration and respect for you both, and I am continually blown away at how much you have accomplished in such a short period of time. I just wanted you to know that in eight short weeks you have truly changed my life. Your guidance has helped me define my online business, brand and niche, create a business road map, and you provided invaluable business building tools and advice to achieve true greatness and success in this industry. I continue to have large goals, a crystal clear mission and a laser focus as I follow in your footsteps. I am inspired to help thousands, just as you have over the past six years. Every week, I was overwhelmed by your generosity, commitment and kindness. I look forward to continuing this journey with you both. Thank you again for all you do. I am honored to be a part of your dream.” – Kimberly

“I am very thankful that I took the step of being committed to this course, and being a part of this community. Jordan, I read before on one of your blogs how you lost your mom, and I just want to say she would be so absolutely proud of you and your mission, and your success. Steve, both of you are so sensible and down to earth, and at times I find myself replaying what you have said so matter of factly, and it has helped. To both of you, you are both very smart, motivated and hardworking guys, and you should be proud. I am very convinced that this course is the missing link for me, because for 14 years I have been in this small town, wearing the invisible lab coat, 16 years since residency, and 21 years since medical school. I now look at my “day job” from a new perspective of getting inside their heads, getting to their fears, their wants and “everything is a test.” Much of your advice applies to many aspects of running a business or a practice successfully. You hit the nail on the head with this one, and I want to say “congrats.” Many thanks. I will have to buy another course from you, because I have enjoyed hearing from you so much. Blessings to you both.” – Michelle

It’s an honor to serve you. Together, let’s change the world.

-Jordan

The post Embracing Death: The Key Mindset to Building a Successful Online Health Business appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

I’ve written some nasty, awful, and downright mean blog posts…

And deleted them the next day. You’ll never read them.

They came from a place of hurt and pain.

They weren’t going to serve anyone when written from that place. But I haven’t lost the ideas that I want so desperately to share. I just needed to process some of the hurt, pain, and anger, to get to the point where I feel like I can actually share with you what I really want without out all the ego and emotions.

I’m very sad about the current state of medicine. I feel the sadness of the physicians, nurses, nutritionists, and everyone else involved.

And I’ve been the receiver of their sadness transmitted in awful bedside manners, curt explanations, dodging my questions, no regard for my long-term health, downright bad recommendations, never telling me about the side effects, and there was that time I got yelled at.

I’ve received this pain and gotten very angry about it.

And if that’s what had to happen for me to be able to write this message right back to all the people in the health industry… I’d gladly do it all over again.  

The Sad State Of Modern Medicine Goes Deeper Than You or Me

It’s everywhere, the health profession is dying the death of a thousand cuts and being brought to it’s knees. And it seems like no one is even paying attention.

• America ranks dead LAST vs other countries in the world in healthcare (1, 2)
• However, America spends more than all the other countries on healthcare
• America could have a 90,000 – 200,000 doctor shortage by 2025 (3, 4)

Why?

I’m not completely sure… but I hope people start waking up to the reality. Have you ever researched what being a doctor would be like? Sure, many of them still make a great living. But it’s not as glamorous as we might think anymore:

• 9 out of 10 doctors would discourage you from entering the profession (5)
• Average student loan debt for physicians is $158,000 – $300,000 (6, 7)
• Doctors have the 2nd highest suicide rate (8)

For many general practitioners (not specialists or surgeons), they’re seeing a dip in income and it’s not likely to recover. Why? Paperwork and red tape.

Obamacare, Insurance, and Pharmaceutical companies have stolen the control from the one place it needs to be – between the healer and the sick person.

They’ve confused science and art and medicine. Medicine is the combination of art and science. It’s not science only… which is why our “scientific” healthcare system is ranked 41 in the world.

Medicine cannot be ruled ONLY by numbers, formulas, and double-blind studies.

Our current experiment proves this model is only very expensive Sick-Care.

These facts better scare you. If not for you, then for your children.

These facts show a very destructive trend that our society will be forced to correct at some point. I hope we choose to do it instead of having it forced on us.

A Day In the Life Of Today’s Medical Practitioner

Have you ever tried to walk a day in a general practitioner’s life in the modern medical system?

Showing up to work, you know you have a fully-packed day. Every minute is scheduled from the moment you walk into your office or hospital. Your staff is stressed and the paperwork from yesterday still isn’t done.

You’ll be lucky to have a lunch break today.

Patients arrive in pain, sick and upset.

Most expect you to save them in the 15 minutes allotted to each time slot.

They don’t want to pay anymore money than what their insurance company covers and the company says 15 minutes is what you get.

As fast as possible, you try to defuse the strong emotions that surround health pain, you quickly scan their health history, listen to symptoms, and do some physical checks. And now you have 3-5 minutes left.

The patient is staring back at you waiting for a miracle. Your gut tells you you need more time, you need to tell them all kinds of things…

But the insurance industry and malpractice insurance dictates what your next move is… so you push those thoughts deep inside and lock them away.

Instead, you write a prescription or ask them to get further testing. And tell them to come back in a week.

And then you quickly skirt their questions because you know you are already behind for your next patient appointment. You have to go, to be fair to the people in the room next door.

So you walk out, knowing the look on their eyes is saying “wait, but can’t I get more advice?”

Later, after all the patients are gone, you have a mountain of paperwork to do just to cover your @ss so you don’t lose your license or get sued… not to mention you have to do it to get paid.

So you do some, then pack the rest up and take it home – exhausted.

Just another day in the office.

Can you get a sense for why health practitioners of all types are upset, too? Why they are leaving the modern medicine game?

Why Would You Work in The Medical Field?

Simply because you are called to… because it eats you up to not be in it.

There’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from giving your gifts. And if you’re like me and believe that not giving these gifts will cause bad consequences, then it becomes an absolute need to do it.

Not to mention, the joy you feel when a person you’re helping achieves the goals they want or gets rid of the pain that’s tormenting them.

The reason to work in the medical field is because you have the desire, the calling and love to do it. But that can all be crushed by the current system. The lack of ability to do what you need to do, to get rewarded for it, and to be respected can easily crush dreams, hopes and desires.

In my head, it shouldn’t be an “either or” situation.

Who’s to Blame?

In the medical system, most of the conversation is about the poor sick people – about our skyrocketing rates of PREVENTABLE disease like obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and autoimmune disease. And of course, those of us in the know are mostly focused on what THEY are doing wrong and why they are to blame.

But even more of the conversation is about the health professionals and how they are doing it wrong.

Do they deserve some of it? Hell yes they do! Many of them gave away their responsibility into a system that encourages complacency and stopped taking responsibility for the results they are getting with their patients.

They stopped learning new skills and tools that are needed to help their patients. Not to mention, their demeanor got cold, moody and arrogant. And all of that’s pathetic.

But that’s not the full story… and the practitioners above are not representative of all…

In fact, there’s a much more interesting untold story about the 100,000s (maybe more?) of health practitioners who are caught in the middle… the ones with the big hearts and the desire to serve, but are handcuffed and unrewarded…

The ones who are doing their very best day in and day out. And I believe this to be the MAJORITY of the practitioners.

I see most health professionals as the ones who are ALSO getting the raw end of the deal.

Health professionals in the modern medical system can’t spend the time they want, give the advice they want or care like they want to.

They are caught in systems that force them to behave in certain ways or else they’ll kicked out… or even jailed.

It only makes sense that we have a looming doctor shortage in this country.  It only makes sense that patients are upset.

However, it’s time to stop blaming the other side in each of these cases. Both sides contain loving and caring people trying to do their best.

There’s Another Way…

I believe the solution to the problem is going to come from those of us caught with the raw end of the deal – us patients and health practitioners who are ready for a change.

We both carry responsibility in the problem and different actions are the only way to even begin to change it. Here’s my proposal:

For Patients:

1. Take responsibility for your health, your problems, and diseases. They can’t actually be fixed without your 100% commitment to owning the state of health you are currently in. Don’t ask to be saved… don’t think you will be saved. No one can save you but yourself.
2. Don’t buy into the insurance model game anymore. Sure, it’s now illegal to not have it and it’s still a really good idea for all the outrageous medical bills that can happen in life, especially in horrific accidents and life-threatening situations. BUT start saving your money and plan to invest it outside of this game. For instance, reallocate 10% of your income to great food, great supplements, non-insurance covered help like functional medicine practitioners, holistic nutritionists, acupuncture, chiropractic, life coaching, and anything else your body might need and your intuition tells you to try. Like it or not, the insurance game is sick-care only right now, and if you want to actually get better you’re likely to have to pay out of pocket. And mostly because of what I’ve outlined in this post, the best people who can help you… they’ve left the system because they can’t help you like they need to and they aren’t compensated for doing it.
3. When you’re participating in the modern medical system, be the best you can be. Understand that you’re not the only one upset and understand the rules better so you can get the care you want. Make it easy for the people to serve you by being friendly, kind, having notes ready, and being the most informed patient they’ve seen this year.

For Health Practitioners:

1. Take responsibility for the level of care and results your patients have been getting. If you know in your heart it’s been sub-par, then own that and begin to carve out 30 mins or more a day to get up to speed on what is working for your patient population. Maybe it’s reading a book about diet, maybe it’s taking some functional medicine classes, maybe it’s reaching out to a college to find out what they’re doing that works. All that matters is that you make this a priority and take small actions until it changes.
2. Understand that you have a choice to play the insurance model game. No matter what you say about why you have to, I can provide a counterpoint or case study of someone else who didn’t choose it. So if you want to choose it, you can create more time for patients, you can hire better staff, you can choose any number of other business models that allow patients to pay you out of pocket for the great service you want to provide. You can give your gifts and have a lower-stress life and get paid well to do it. And your patients will be better served as well. If you’re still in the insurance game, begin researching other options that are growing around the country.
3. If you already decided not to play the insurance game fully, DON’T fail at business. It’s risky to be inside the insurance model and it’s risky to be outside of it. The risks are different. Inside the model, your emotions, energy, and spirit are likely to get eaten up. And you’ll likely keep taking forced pay cuts over the next couple years. Outside of the system, you must get ongoing business skills. If you don’t, you will fail. And that’s a massive loss to those of us who need you. Your patients need you and you deserve a rewarding life for the work you do. How do you get business help? Well, one way is to join us for one of our upcoming free webinars, where we’ll teach you how we succeeded in both helping people and creating a great business.

The reality is this modern medical system is like the Titanic. Even if we see icebergs, it’s too big to turn fast enough and avoid them.

So, it’s up to those of us in the system to take control as much as we can.

There’s anger, sadness and shame on both sides of the fence. If the patients and practitioners can get on the same side and choose to help each other or only invest their time and money into those who respect each other… change may come faster than anyone expects.

This is what I’m up to in this world…

Creating world-class resources to empower the patients of the world – to challenge them to take back responsibility and learn everything they can about their bodies and how to be a healthy human…

And creating world-class resources to empower health practitioners and everyone in the health field – to challenge them to have the best healing skills possible and give them the best marketing, business and community I know how.

If you’re a health practitioner, I really want you to join us for one of our upcoming webinars. It will change your life… in ways so good you can’t even imagine (more to come on that).

And if you’re a patient, don’t give up… begin taking action on the 3 steps above.

Whew, this has been a long time coming and I know not everyone agrees with me… so let’s talk about it in the comments below? I’d like to hear what you like or don’t like about these ideas. It’s very important to our work.

-Steve

The post The Sad State of American Medicine: Why Patients and Practitioners Are Suffering (and how we can fix it) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

I never thought our little SCD Lifestyle blog would allow me to quit my job…

But one day, in our 4th year doing this, I quit my engineering job. I walked away. I took the leap.

People have asked me what it was like. Did I throw a party? Fly to a beach somewhere? Pop champagne?

No. In fact, the truth is: it was scary!

That day we really went for it, my heart was racing. I felt hot. I felt dizzy.

What was I thinking? What if we fail? Could this really put food on the table for my kids?

Instead of celebrating, I immediately started working my @ss off…

It didn’t hit me until later, but that decision was a pivotal milestone in our growth from a little blog to a 7-figure online health business with a growing team of 8 employees…

And part of a bigger mission of helping millions of people.

Many of you have asked for more “behind the scenes” details about how we were able to turn our passion for health into a full-time career over the last 6 years.

Over the next few days, we’re going to pull back the curtain and share details about how we got to where we are today… and teach you how to do it too.

The Math of a 7-Figure Online Health Business

The moment our business crossed into the 7-figures wasn’t really a big deal, and believe me: this isn’t some thinly veiled humble brag…

To be honest: the real moment I’ll always remember, the moment I’ll treasure forever, was the night we made our first sale online 6 years ago.

It was for $27.

The email notification came through from our shopping cart, “You’ve made a sale.”

I was screeching like a Brazilian monkey. I called Steve. We celebrated. I cried a little. The excitement pulsed through my body for days.

It was one of the biggest moments of my life – right up there with my kids being born.

Why?

Because that was the moment I saw the power of helping people all over the world. That was the moment I realized creating a successful online health business that helps hundreds of thousands of people came down to one simple thing:

Math.

It was something I learned from one of our mentors Ramit: If you want a business that makes a Million Dollars, it’s all about simple math. How many people can you add value to in the world? How many lives can you change?

The more value you create, the more lives you change, the more money your business will generate.

It really is simple math.

For example, you can do it a few ways:

• $50 information product X 20,000 sales helping people = $1,000,000
• $200 hourly rate X 5,000 hours helping people = $1,000,000

Or a combination of both:

• $50 information product X 10,000 sales helping people = $500,000
• $200 hourly rate X 2,500 hours helping people = $500,000

I get it, this is overly simplistic. But hey, it’s just to make a point: it really is all about the math. You may not have thought about it. It might’ve seemed like something that was unattainable. But the more change you create in the world, the more people you help, the more money your business will generate.

That’s how we did it.

And you can, too.

The Straight Truth on How to Help More People

Over the years, we’ve realized 3 key factors that helped us become successful. These are the three main points we share with people that email us about starting their own health business.

These are things no one has probably told you.

We’ll call them “Straight Truths About Business.”

In fact, these are the three points that motivated us to create our “Practitioner Liberation Project” earlier this year.

We’re going to dive into these more over the next week, but here’s a taste of what it takes to start a successful online health business.

1) To Be Successful, Help People Like You

Have you heard of our “Time Machine Rule”?

It says this: we only create and build things we wish we could go back and give ourselves when we were sick…

That’s why we started SCD Lifestyle and wrote our first eBook: we were giving ourselves the important health info we wish we would have had. Then it continued on for every article, podcast, video, and product we’ve ever made.

The straight truth: you must be passionate about the person you help, or you won’t make it.

In the last 6 years, we’ve written over 500 articles, created over 100 hours of products, and worked 60-80 hours a week.

That takes drive. It takes passion.

And without it, we would have given up in the first year.

We’ve found that if you can find a group of people that are like you in some way, the passion to continue to help them over and over again will be stronger.

Steve and I both had terrible digestive problems. It was embarrassing. It was scary. It was life-threatening. We both hated being stuck in jobs that didn’t create a better world.

And that’s why those are the people we help. And that’s also why we’ve been able to keep doing it all these years.

Think about your “hero’s journey” and what you’ve been through in your life.

When you think about starting an online health business, how could you help people just like you? How could you go back in time and help yourself years ago?

It’s not a requirement… there are exceptions to every rule, but it goes a LONG way to making sure you’re successful.

2) Successful People Never. Give. Up.

The last few years, we’ve had the honor of becoming friends with more and more successful people in the health industry. People with 7 and 8-figure businesses. I found something very very interesting:

These people aren’t smarter than the average person. They don’t come from some special pedigree where they learned business from childhood. They didn’t get some special marketing or business degree…

They just did something most people aren’t willing to do. They never gave up.

That’s it. They hit adversity. They hit walls. They hit moments when they wanted to give up. But through it all, they believed in their mission and never stopped.

The straight truth: It’s not easy.

It might be simple math, but it’s definitely not easy.

That’s what separates successful people from those that fail. The people that failed are the ones that just plain gave up.

Look at our growth over the last 6 years:

Things were tough in the beginning. In our first full year in business, we only did $7,000 in sales (and in fact, lost $10,000). We didn’t pay ourselves a single dime until after year 3! What if we had given up then? What if we quit because it sucked to lose that much money? Or work another full-time job and not get paid for it?

We never would have reached the success that hit in 2014.

And I can honestly tell you: there were hundreds of days where I was ready to quit – when I thought I didn’t have it in me to keep going. But the next morning I reached down and found the will to push through deep down inside me.

I knew it was about something bigger than me. It was about the millions of sick people.

And the same goes for you.

Your mission in this world is important. And if you can stay connected to it, you’ll have what it takes to never give up.

3) Successful People Learn From Mentors

When you’re building a successful online health business… you will get stuck! We call it “hitting the wall.”

It can sneak up in the very beginning, when you’re just imagining starting a business that turns your passion for health into a career. You might just get stuck thinking about what the first step is, it’s actually very common.

On the other hand, it can hit you like a freight train even if you’ve already got a business. You might be stuck trying to figure out how to transition from a physical practice to an online business.

It actually doesn’t matter where you are now because…

The straight truth is: you will hit a wall. And another wall. And another…

Everyone hits walls. We hit walls almost every month. They used to hurt A LOT more when we were just starting out.

We all want to be successful, we want to have a business that makes more money, helps more people, and live a lifestyle we’ve always dreamed of…

But when you’re standing looking up at the wall it seems daunting and not surpassable. Those are the times when the fear creeps up.

“What was I thinking? Why am I doing this? I’m not good enough. I don’t deserve it. I’m not smart enough or talented enough.”  

And it’s easy to give into those fears and quit… to give up… to fail.

To be honest: most people that try to start a health business do fail.

It can come from so many places:

• Lack of marketing skills
• Lack of business knowledge
• Lack of technology skills
• Lack of legal knowledge
• Lack of application of knowledge
• Lack of ability to push through the fear
• Lack of time to figure out what actually works
• Lack of community to help through the tough times
• And finally, a lack of accountability to your chosen path when tests come your way

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In fact, one of the most powerful ways we’ve been able to get unstuck, explode our business, and help millions of people was one simple thing:

Mentors.

Mentors and their wisdom.

Without it, we wouldn’t be where we are today. In fact, we’ve always found and hired mentors that have done what we want to do. We learn from them. We ask for help when we get stuck. And we never try to do it alone.

Learning from people that have done what you want to do is critical. It’s one of the most important “truths” to starting an online health business. One that you can take action on today…

TO DO TODAY – Let Us Help with Your Health Business…

If you’ve been working on a health business for months, or even years, or just starting to think about it – we want to help you make sure you’re successful.

We want to help you learn from the mistakes we made (and how we’d do things different now).

BONUS: Free Webinar – How to Start a Successful Online Health Business (like ours)

If you’re already licensed in the health field, but you’re not happy, you’re not helping thousands of people, and not making the money you’d like to… growing an online health business like ours could change EVERYTHING.

This is the ESSENTIAL business training we wish we had (before making 6 years of mistakes).

We’re giving an updated presentation specifically on how we built a $367,027 per year online health coaching business… and how you can too. If you’re already trained and ready to work with people all over the world, this presentation is for you:

–> To get started creating an online health business (like ours), click here to register

You MUST register for one of our two presentations to get the information. Registration is free and only takes 30 seconds.

Looking forward to seeing you at one of the webinars.

-Jordan

P.S. – Why are we doing this?

Because our jobs are like food, they’re either adding to sickness or adding to health. Whether you’re ready to switch careers or begin making the impact you want in the world, we want to support you. There’s so many sick people searching for answers and we know so many talented practitioners who are struggling. This problem needs to be solved and it dawned on us that we could help other people start the same unusual health consulting program we did (and do it even better than us).

And if we could help 500 practitioners build and grow their online health consulting practice this year, and they each helped 600 clients just like we did, that’s 300,000+ people who get helped by our work.

Hope to see you on one of the webinars!

The post The Straight Truth About Building an Online Health Business appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Over the years, we’ve been called some pretty interesting nicknames…

“The SCD Guys.”

“The Digestive Dudes.”

“The Leaky Gut Guys.”

And just plain old “Jordan and Steve…”

And hey, as long as we were helping people live happier and healthier lives you could call us whatever you’d like

But in all seriousness, 6 years ago, the name “SCD Lifestyle” meant so much to us. It was all about choosing to adopt a new lifestyle of health, one that was based on the principles of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Since then, our mission has exploded into something even greater!

Now, it’s SO MUCH MORE than just two guys with a blog.

This is a community we’re all a part of – a truly special community of health engineers fixing their gut health.

And we’re determined to help each and every one of the millions of people suffering from stomach problems in the world right now…

That’s why it meant so much to us last year when you helped us pick out a name…

You chose “The Healthy Gut Project” as the winner – and we LOVE it!

What “The Healthy Gut Project” Means to Us

It’s about everyone, not just SCD’ers, not just Paleo, not just diarrhea, and not just leaky gut. It’s about digestive health in general…

And more importantly, it’s a project.

A project means we can’t do it alone. It’s a group effort – a community of people coming together. That’s a very big deal to us.

The Healthy Gut Project is going to be BIG. Our dreams are going to blow you away… which is exciting (and a bit overwhelming).

With SCD Lifestyle, things were simpler, we wanted to spread the message of the diet, make it easier to actually do it, and speed up the results people were getting. And that’s not going away (so don’t worry).

The Healthy Gut Project is going to be FUN, inspirational, inclusive, and blaze the trail for anyone who’s ready for a healthier gut – whatever that means to them.

The bottom line: The Healthy Gut Project is a community of health engineers re-engineering their gut health for a long, happy life.

And now we need your help one more time… it’s time to choose the logo for this project.

Please Help Us Choose a Logo!

You’re part of this just as much as we are, and we wouldn’t want it any other way than to ask for your help in choosing the logo for this new project.

It’s a tough choice… and we’ve got some AMAZING designs ready for you to look at. The Healthy Gut Project logo needs to have the feel of a community, with an engineering twist.

And we want to hear from you!

Click here to choose your favorite logo design (and win free supplements)

That’s right… we’ve got over $1,000 of free supplements to give away.

All you have to do is choose your favorite logo here and we’ll randomly select winners to gift bottles of our favorite gut health supplements.

Just click the link below and rank your favorite logo by 11:59pm Pacific on SUNDAY 5/17 and you’ll be entered to win.

http://99designs.com/logo-design/vote-d1vjdl

Thank you so much for being a part of this… without you, it would just be two guys with a blog… and together we’ve turned this into something very special that’s saving lives every single day.

Know we’re so grateful for you.

– Jordan

P.S. – Just click the link below to choose your favorite Healthy Gut Project logo and we will enter you into the free supplement giveaway as a thank you for participating: http://99designs.com/logo-design/vote-d1vjdl

P.P.S. – Don’t worry… SCD Lifestyle isn’t going anywhere, but this new project we’re planning to build is a much bigger and all-encompassing site (coming soon).

The post If You Were a Gut Project, What Would You Look Like? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

A friend of mine lost 80 pounds. Everyone whispered behind his back about how proud they were of him.

It was sad…

Because no one was telling him how much of an inspiration he was, how good he was looking and how he was forcing our friends to examine their health.

He never heard his impact on us.

And it dawned on me that most of us never truthfully hear the impact we have on the people around us.

We are Batman, Superwoman, Heroes…

You are a hero. I am a hero. Jordan is a hero.

Our costumes resemble our everyday clothes, our gadgets are mostly supplements, and our capes are the positive energy vibes that our health struggles reverberate through the world.

Do you believe me? Is it hard to believe that YOU – yes – you are a hero?

I couldn’t really accept it for many years, so I get it if you’re denying it, if you’re shaking your head or even getting mad at me.

But keep reading. Because that energy is an indication that I’m on to something. Soon, I hope you’ll see that you’ve unknowingly started to become an unsung hero.

But, I’m Not 100% Healthy, I’m No Hero!

Of course you’re not.

SPOILER ALERT: There’s no such thing as 100% healthy, so stop waiting for it. It’s not coming. It’s impossible. Why? Because we are dynamic humans – we will always be changing.

The 100% health thing is an implied idea of finality, of completion, of steadiness. And it’s fake.

Till we die, we’ll always be a work in progress…

Just as all superheroes are. Remember the comics, the movies and the books – superheros are NOT perfect.

Superheros are NOT always right. Superheros learn new tricks and skills when they need to. Superheros Fail. And they always get back up and keep trying to save the day…

Which is why we love them.

And this is who you are. You are a work in progress, you fail, you learn, you save the day sometimes, but most of all… You NEVER stop trying what you believe in.

And that, my friend, is what a hero is made of.

See, you may not know this but every superhero movie or comic follows almost the same plot. It’s called the Hero’s Journey. And believe it or not, your life – your fight for health – it’s a true life Hero’s Journey and it’s powered by some intense energy.

The Energy Coursing Through Your Veins

There’s a hero energy coursing through your veins. It’s a mixture of courageousness, determination, loving, caring and righteousness.

If even ever so faintly, I know you’ve felt it.

It’s part of who you are. And it’s part of every hero. It’s almost like our DNA.

Do you know what it’s like to be around you?

To watch you fight, struggle, to go against the grain, to get what you want? To make progress when the “respected normal members of society” said it wasn’t possible? To invent new ways, to heal yourself? To invest every last ounce of energy, money, time and life into this health journey?

It’s freaking inspiring!

Yes, it’s also scary, it’s tough to watch and experience sometimes. But I’ll be damned if someone doesn’t tell you how inspiring you are. If you look for it, you’ll find it.

Your kids, your spouses, your friends, your co-workers, your parents… skeptical at first, frustratingly negative at times, are ALL being affected. They are forced to feel this hero’s energy. Because that’s who you are. And that’s what you are doing in this life by overcoming your health challenges.

The question I have for you now that you are aware of this energy… where are you going to direct it?

The Choice of Directing Your Energy

This energy can be directed in two principle directions: internally and externally. And neither is right or wrong.

There are some of us who just naturally stay more internal. The determination, the courage, the success and failures – all that energy is re-circulated inside of us and keeps fueling the hero’s journey.

It’s a very powerful technique to circulate the energy, to keep it to yourself, in order to make you the healthiest, best and most productive person possible.

It helps you be an all star mom, a rock star at work and a great addition to your social scene. In general, you keep the journey to yourself but people are still dramatically affected. And you know this, because when you are alone with them, they begin to ask you questions to try and open you up about it.

They are curious, they feel your powerful energy, they see the outward changes and they can’t help but wonder.

And that’s when you begin to share some of the energy externally.

The rest of us, we are more externally focused from the start. We can’t help but talk to our friends and family about what we are doing, about the “crazy” experiments we are trying, and the latest theory we are researching.

We circulate our energies externally by sending them out in the world and then getting energy back when those closest to us are drawn into the hero’s story we are creating.

Personally, I’m just naturally more externally focused, which is why I’m writing this article. It’s why I started this company, because I just can’t keep my mouth shut. I need to share my hero’s journey energy with the world. I have a deep desire to inspire you, to provide you with insights, to challenge you and hear about your story.

How to Get More of This Energy & Enjoy Your Journey More

I believe there’s a way for you, the hero, to get more of this energy – to enjoy your journey even more. And it starts with figuring out if you are more internally or externally focused.

If you are internally focused, a place for you to start is to observe this energy flow, to begin honoring it and recirculating it with a vengeance. Feel great about the fact that you are on your path and then allow it to manifest in the work you do, the smile you wear and the conversations you have.

When you feel grounded and powerful, the way in which you show up in the world will dramatically change. Remember you are special, you are a hero on a journey and if your health isn’t where you want it yet… that’s all part of the amazing story you are creating.

If you are naturally externally focused with your energy, then it’s time to own this. And if you’re like me you’ve likely done it in ways that have been painful already – like getting up on soap boxes, trying to help loved ones who didn’t really ask for it and giving unsolicited health gifts.

I want to invite you to a new way to express this hero’s energy. Give it to people who are ready and willing to learn from you. Give it from a place of strength and create an external environment that supports this energy giving.

There are millions, if not a billion, sick people who need help. And most of them are months or years behind you. You may not have picture-perfect health, but you have knowledge and skills from your journey that these people need. We can’t help all of these people, just a fraction, and that’s why it’s so important that we get people like you who have the natural ability to help us change the world.

In other words, I believe you, the externally energy-focused person, are primed to make a career change. When you do that, energy that doesn’t seem to be coming back to you will start pouring in with such fierceness that it will make you tear up on a regular basis.

I’d suggest you check out this functional nutrition course, by my good friend Andrea. She’s the founder of Holistic Nutrition Lab (one of the best nutrition schools in the world because you learn how to actually solve issues with food). Then, when you feel even more confident in your health skills, empowered with your hero’s journey and some business skills… life for you will be RADICALLY different in just 12 months’ time.

I can’t wait to hear about it. Because I can tell you that until I was able to have a job that aligned with my journey, that allowed me to give my energy, I felt unfulfilled, suffocated and like I just didn’t fit in.

It’s not an easy choice, but for a hero like you, it’s all part of the journey.

I honor you, you fill me up with energy, you are an inspiration. You, my friend, are a hero!

– Steve

The post Why You Are A Health Hero & What To Do With This Energy appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

I awoke to the waves lapping the stones below our balcony. The sun was blindingly hot at 9:00 am, but a cool breeze allowed me to sip my Kona coffee on the lani.

Later, I played tennis with Jordan and hopped in the pool to cool down.

Then it was work time. We wrote emails, blog posts, handled customer service issues and had a meeting with our business consultant. After 4 hours, it was time to have a glass of wine, make an amazing dinner and relax as the sun set over the Ocean.

That’s how I spent my birthday last year, in Kona, Hawaii. It was pretty amazing, but it wasn’t always like this…

I’m not trying to brag. Actually, I’m trying to be as transparent as possible with the hopes that you’ll understand something very important – more on that in a bit.

Fat, Angry and Enslaved

In 2008, I was a supervisor of 55 UAW employees at one of the newest car manufacturing plants in the world. I was 23 and I hated my job — and most of my life.

The only part I enjoyed was escaping my life to binge drink at the bars when I didn’t have to get up at 4:30 am and go to work. I would be at work by 5:30 am and worked 10-14 hours every day. Never knowing when my day would end made it almost impossible to have hobbies, go on dates and make it to the gym.

Once, in the middle of summer, I worked 28 days straight. I had no choice.

They owned me. I left there every day, tired and angry. In fact, I spent most of my time bitching and being angry about my job.

I was also 40 pounds heavier, having awful bloating, farting, acid reflux, acne, depression, asthma and alternating constipation and diarrhea. But the anger I had inside me was much stronger than all these physical issues.

At 23, I was often told how lucky I was to have such a great job and minimal health issues… especially in such a down economy. They said I should be grateful – secretly I wanted to punch them!

They had no idea, how sad, angry, frustrated and depressed I was.

This was my life before I moved to Chicago as a high-end consultant and realized how sick I was.

Now: My Job Inspires, I’m Grateful, and It Was Worth It

I’m glad I worked that job, it was all worth it. Now, I wake up liberated, I open my blinds and look at the flatirons here in Boulder. I do some yoga or exercise, sip my coffee and journal on my deck in front of the mountains.

The nature inspires me. I wake up most days when my body says so. I spend 15 minutes in my steam shower. And then I start my work day sometime around 8:30 am.

I go to my trainer in the middle of the day, I do team meetings as I hike trails in the foothills and I take time to golf, hunt, ski, watch movies or do whatever I please.

No one sets my hours, no one tells me that I can’t take vacation and I can do this job from anywhere in the world.

But the best part is… my job fulfills me, inspires me and I enjoy it. What a novel idea in today’s world right?

And guess what? My health has never been better, my relationships have never been better, my stress is lower and I have a lot more fun. The best way I can put it for you is I feel liberated.

I have a job that actually increases my health, wealth and quality of my relationships. And after having 3 careers prior to this, that most people think are very good, I’d like to say that only about 5% of my co-workers in each place actually enjoyed those jobs.

If you resonate with what I’m saying, I want more for you.

The #1 Thing Making You Sicker…

You’ve probably heard us talk about “fixing the root cause” of your chronic illness – things like Adrenal Fatigue, Gut Infections, and Liver Toxicity, just to name a few.

But after working with people 1-on-1 for years, I can tell you that those are some of the easiest root causes to fix. Why? Because there’s known tests, custom diets and protocols to correct them…

But these didn’t always work. In some people, there was another root cause that prevented any healing.

It was the root cause I couldn’t “Out Smart” in most people. Meaning, no matter what we did with their diet, supplements, and lifestyle changes… they were still sick.

And worse yet, it was a root cause I couldn’t do anything about. I literally couldn’t help them with it.

The #1 root cause making people sick is THEIR JOB.

Most people spend more time at their job than anything else in their lives including sleeping. Add up the hours, tell me it’s different. For 99% of society it’s the truth.

We all get 24 hours a day. Oprah, Lebron James, Richard Branson –  they get the same amount of time you and I get.

And time is our most precious resource. If the majority of it is spent in a toxic environment, doing toxic movement (sitting), with unhappy people, how can we expect to be happy and healthy?

That’s a trap you can’t escape. It’s your habitat. In America, it’s normal. It’s the slow, unhealthy and unfulfilled death. Your environment matters as much as your diet.

In Japan, they take it to the next level and just die on the job.

It’s called karoshi.

In Japan, they have a national hotline for karoshi. It’s a very serious problem.

Do you understand the gravity of what I’m saying… people die at their desk in Japan and China each week. And the majority of people with Jobs in America are unhappy, frustrated, unfulfilled, angry and sad.

This is part of our health crisis! (A huge factor that no one is talking about.)

Can You Imagine a Different Life?

The day I was finally able to quit my job was the day I REALLY cemented all the changes in my health. Until that day, I was constantly fighting setbacks and collapses. I had to be beyond diligent with my health. It was exhausting.

I want to share a very simple thing you can do today, that completely transformed my life, and will hopefully free you from your toxic environment and exhausting struggle.

It started with an exercise 5 years ago. I imagined my ideal day – one that I wasn’t even sure was possible. I wanted to have a deck and a view of the mountains. I wanted a rain shower – a big one. I wanted to enjoy my day, be able to work my own hours, make a great living. I wanted to be able to travel and to pay off my credit card debts.

But most importantly, I wanted desperately to feel good about what I did, to help people with their health.

Today, I have 2 decks… 5 mountain peaks to look at. I have a rain shower that doubles as a steam room! I didn’t even know how amazing those were back then.

Sometimes I work from ski resorts, sometimes I work from Hawaii, sometimes I work from my parents place in Michigan… but mostly I work in my amazing apartment in downtown Boulder.

And lastly, I get to do something that makes me feel good – something that makes this world a better place.

My point is… I imagined it, I dreamed about it… and I created it.

And you can too!

Part of transforming your health is having a life that feeds you – a life that makes you enjoy being alive. And I’ve got a simple exercise that could literally transform your life (and your health) in the next 6 months.

It’s not a test or a supplement. It’s not a special food to eat either.

It’s actually just one very simple question. And if you take the time to sit down and answer it in detail, it could create the same impact in your life that it had on mine.

It’s Called: “The Ideal Day Exercise”

Here it is…

If there were no limitations or consequences, what would your ideal average day look like?

In other words, what would your ideal average day look like if there weren’t any geographic, health, relationship, financial limitations and you could do it over and over and not get sick of it?

To answer that, you need to break it down in detail, so answer these…

• Where would you live?
• What would your house look like?
• What time would you wake up?
• What would you do in the morning?
• What would you have for breakfast?
• Where would you spend the 1st half of the day?
• What would you eat for lunch?
• What would your friends be like?
• What would you do for personal fulfillment?
• What life purpose would you strive towards?
• What would your business be?
• What time would you start work?
• What would you actually do at work?
• What are your clients like?
• What are your relationships like?
• What would you have for dinner?
• What would you do at night?
• What would your thoughts be as you feel asleep?

The more detailed and specific you get, the more likely it is you’ll create the outcome you desire. And it’s important to remember this is a day you could repeat for the rest of your life, so no crazy unsustainable activities. Trust me, you won’t want it to be all about fun and messing around. That’s not very fulfilling and pretty draining on your health after a few days.

This isn’t some fantasy.

When you take the time to really create a day you want, it can and does come true. This is how I left my engineering job, moved to Boulder, increased my income and have been able to help people who are sick and struggling like I used to be.

And more importantly – this is part of how I completely transformed my health!

6 Months From Now – What Will Your Life Be Like?

Did you love your day today? How close was it to your ideal average day?

When you go to bed tonight, will you be worrying about your income, how much you don’t like your job or your health?

If so, please take the time to answer, in detail, the questions above. The first step to change is imagining what it would be like. Then, it’s time to start taking actions to get that new life.

Here’s 3 Steps to Do Today:

Step 1: Today, take the time to sit down and do the ideal day exercise in detail. You don’t need to show anyone or post them below. But if you do share how it made you feel, you’ll be taking a baby step towards them.

Step 2: I want you to think about the #1 thing you need to do to begin shifting things closer to this day. It might be changing your diet or hiring a functional medicine practitioner. It might be the realization you need to switch jobs or that you need some business help.

Step 3: Think of one action step you can do in the next week towards this #1 thing that needs to shift. For instance, 12 months before I moved to Boulder, I realized I needed to move. I couldn’t afford it and I couldn’t leave my day job yet. I had no idea how those issues would be solved, but I made a list of all the possible places I might move – I researched them for hours each day. I started narrowing it down after a while. Then, as things got closer and closer, I started visiting them. And then finally choose Boulder and moved.

It’s 3 easy steps – choose what you want, narrow to 1 issue in the way and then take at least one step towards something new with that issue.

If it’s a health issue, buy that book, research the next big treatment switch or hire that person that you’ve been thinking about.

If it’s your job, start brainstorming about what new job would fulfill you and help your health. And if you want to start an online health business, we can mentor you.

Online Health Business Mentorship From Guys Who’ve Done It

Whether you’re a nutritionist, MD, health coach, fertility specialist, fitness professional, or other type of practitioner with a passion for health who wants to help people…

It’s time to create your dream life of service and success.

There’s never been a better time for you to take your personal health journey, licenses and/or certifications and begin to serve the world – in a big way!

We rarely talk about the business of health, but we also know that when we first started it really helped us to see how other people did it and learned how to follow them. It helped us believe it was possible and showed us the steps forward when even getting the first sale seemed impossible.

There’s plenty of sick people to help, so why AREN’T you dealing with the problem of “too many clients” instead of not enough?

If you’re ready for something radically different from a couple of engineers who built a super-successful health consulting practice…

Then you’ll like the “Practitioner Liberation Project.”

The project is our solution to consistently get you clients and get paid well for your health consulting practice. It’s where we show you the step-by-step health consulting blueprint, so you can replicate exactly what we’ve done…

But we don’t stop there, we show you how to create products so you can begin to make passive income and stop trading all your time for money!

We show you how to do it in your own special way. It’s not for the get-rich-quick people, but you will learn how to make money quickly doing what you love. It’s for those who want to build a lasting business to give their gifts to the world on a much bigger scale.

You don’t need to be like us (actually, that’s a sure way to FAIL). You need to be more of YOU, which means getting crystal clear on who you help, how you help them and how the business of health works.

If you’re ready to create your ideal day with a thriving health business, we would be honored to show you everything we’ve created… and help you build your own business.

Click here to get more information about the Practitioner Liberation Project, during our free, live webinar on Tuesday, June 9th @ 9pm EST: 

http://practitionerliberationproject.com/webinar/plp-live/

Leave with this… your dream will come true if you follow the formula in this article. I believe in you. You don’t need to completely believe it yet – just follow the formula.

-Steve

(Hat tip to Frank Kern for teaching me this ideal day exercise.)

The post Important Lessons From a Day in the Life of Steve: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

We’re looking for a Customer Happiness Engineer to help us support our growing community.

This is a paid contract position you can do from home and would require between 30-40 hours a week.

We’re looking for someone who:

1. Understands our community. Maybe you, or someone you know, has dealt with health challenges. You have empathy for the sick and a passion for helping others.
2. Has sweet writing skills! You probably have a background or some experience with writing. Copywriting experience is a definite bonus. This role will primarily be communicating with people through the written word, so this is an important one…
3. Follows us or has a good understanding of real food diets such as SCD, Paleo, GAPS, Weston A Price, Autoimmune Paleo, etc. giving you the ability to help address customer’s inquiries on more complex issues. Any formal education in this area would be a plus.
4. Has the ability to manage time and workload efficiently, strong organizational skills, and the ability to prioritize and modify priorities accordingly. This role allows you the flexibility to work from home, but you’ll need to be able to manage yourself well.
5. Has excellent communication skills and the ability to address customer’s needs and concerns in an empathic and impactful way. You have patience, and the ability to intently listen. Experience in online customer support is not necessary, but would be a bonus.
6. Has the ability to confirm and identify business and customer needs, challenges, and opportunities in order to develop viable solutions.
7. Is available to work 30-40 hours a week.
8. Lives in the United States.
9. Is “tech savvy” with things like Office, Google Docs, Dropbox, Facebook Groups, email, etc.
10. Is extremely dependable… not the “This usually doesn’t happen, but it happened again” type.
11. Doesn’t take things personally, have feelings hurt easily or get offended. Stays objective and likes to always use logic to make decisions – like an engineer

If you’re the type of person who likes working alone and does not like communicating and interacting with others, then this probably is NOT right for you.

On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who is passionate about communicating with and supporting a large community of people on a healing journey, then this might be perfect for you!

As a Customer Happiness Engineer, you’ll be working 1-on-1 with customers over multiple communication channels; including email, phone, live chat, and ticketing systems. You will be responsible for gathering, organizing and reporting customer-related data and needs to our team. There will be a large writing component to this position, so excellent writing skills are a must.

We anticipate hundreds of applicants, and we’re looking for the best. If you feel this is you and are willing to take a writing test as part of the application process, please apply using the link below.

No questions or exceptions please.

To apply, click below and respond to the questions by SUN 3/8:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y7YZ6TF

We will be reviewing applications after the 3/8 deadline and if you’re selected for an interview, you will be contacted shortly after that.

– Jordan

P.S. – We’d love to have you join our team if it’s a good fit. Please apply for the Customer Happiness Engineer position by 3/8 here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y7YZ6TF

The post We’re Hiring a Virtual Customer Happiness Engineer appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Are you a woman having hormone issues? Or do you know a woman having them?

The way you could tell would be things like…

• Low energy, sleeping a lot, never feeling rested
• Hot flashes, low sex-drive, skin issues
• Frumpy, a spare tire, and yo-yo eating problems

These are just a few VERY common symptoms of hormone imbalances for women. Here’s the problem with trying to help each of you reading this: the symptoms above don’t indicate which hormones are out of balance.

And that makes it hard to provide recommendations that apply to masses.

My good friend, Dr. Sara Gottfried (harvard trained MD turned functional medicine doc) is really good at breaking down this topic and putting together easy to use protocols that apply to most everyone. And it just so happens she’s got a new book coming out about this!

Click here, for a free copy of her new book (you do have to pay shipping and handling).

Who doesn’t want a super-cheap, up-to-date guide to women’s hormones? Trust me, there are enough action steps and cool tricks about supplements in this book for anyone with the issues above that you won’t want to miss out.

Regardless, what I want you to take away from this today are the 7 hormones that you need to be concerned with and 2 important takeaways about Carbohydrates and Berberine.

Hormones You Should Be Concerned About

Here’s just a sample list of the hormones you need to know about and be concerned about as a woman who’s having any health issues:

• Estrogen
• Insulin
• Leptin
• Cortisol
• Thyroid hormones (T3, T4)
• Growth hormone
• Testosterone

Us men, luckily, have less complex hormone systems. We need to worry about these same 7 as well, but the ability to change them and understand why they’re out of balance is much easier.

That being said, research on women-specific hormone patterns has really exploded (finally!) in the last few years. It’s much easier now to understand the interplay between these hormones and the symptoms that are bothering you.

Now in general, optimizing for one of these hormones isn’t going to cut it, because of the feedback loops in the body. Everything is tied to everything, meaning if you think that PCOS is just a testosterone problem or just an insulin issue… well you’re wrong. All the hormones impact each other.

So, if you are doing certain things to increase or decrease one, the others will be changing, too.

Dr. Gottfried understands that but doesn’t come right out in her book and say it. But then again, her new book isn’t aimed at someone like you who’s a rock star researcher and reader.

The book is geared a bit more towards mainstream. HOWEVER, I learned several really cool tips and tricks and I KNOW that you will learn a lot from it, too.

Why? Because Sara has had 1000’s of women patients and that kind of experience builds an amazing tool set of being able to describe hormones in a scientific but understandable way AND learn lots of really cool “hacks” to optimize them without a ton of testing.

My Thoughts On Her New Book (2 IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS)

I love 90% of it. There’s some amazing analogies I’m going to borrow (steal) from her to help explain hormones and how they work. There’s at least 4 GREAT supplement tips for different women’s hormone issues I saw (like what to do about hot flashes).

Plus, the 21-day reset that she steps you through would be a great value-added test for anyone this year – Men or Women.

I love all the checklists and quizzes in each chapter and the advice about well-being, moods and social circles. These 3 areas are so important for health, but almost all of us are lacking.

I do have a few small points I disagree with her on. At over 250 pages that ALWAYS happens, but I wanted to share for those who are smart enough to get the book and read it.

1.) At the end of the book, after you re-test all the foods you cut out to create a custom diet (which I love), she recommends eating less than 49 grams of carbohydrate a day. I think this is way too low and would recommend at the end, as you add in more carbohydrate foods, that you test up to even 200g of carbs a day and see where you feel the best (only from real food though!). Most women will likely end up between 100 and 150g, but it’s super-wise to always be testing and tweaking so you feel your best. This is based on our experience working with lots of women.

2.) On page 230, she recommends Berberine for it’s anti-inflammatory effects and it’s ability to lower blood sugar (it’s better than the drug Metformin). I love that she’s getting the word out about Berberine. It’s a powerful supplement, BUT I believe it’s too premature to be recommending it without warning people that, in my opinion, it’s DANGEROUS to use beyond 8 weeks straight. Why? Well, we used it in our consulting practice to Kill pathogens and re-boot gut bacteria. This is why I believe it actually helps with blood sugar so much. But after 6-8 weeks the gut flora will have been sufficiently altered and I believe you’ll be artificially shifting the flora after this point and significantly increasing the likelihood of creating Berberine-resistant bacteria. NOT GOOD!  Is there any research to back this up? Not yet, however there is research that shows that the gut bacteria will develop resistance to even herbal killing agents like antibiotics. So to summarize, you might try Berberine for 6-8 weeks. STOP after that and take 6-8 weeks off. Do Not Under Any Circumstance Take It For Months or Years Without Stopping.

As I mentioned, I disagree with every book on my bookshelf. Why? ‘Cause I’m me, and I have my own opinions and ways I see the world, which I see as being natural and healthy. And I wanted you to know about those 2 issues above because I think they are important.

Here’s the Deal… 

Get a free copy of her book here. Then, crack it open and start skimming – you WILL find simple, NEW, and interesting ideas about helping your health that we’ve never covered and I’ve actually not seen anywhere else.

This book is a wonderful introduction to women’s hormones and a great 21-day body reset for anyone who’s looking to get help with her hormones.

I hope you check it out.

-Steve

P.S. – She is giving away 11,000 free books, when they are gone they are gone. She had to pay the publisher to give these away (full retail price!!!). That’s how this thing works; the authors typically get screwed because the publishers just care about money. Anyways, you get the ability to pay just S&H which is a no-brainer. Get your copy while they last here.

The post 7 Hormones Every Woman Should Understand appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Are you wearing an invisible lab coat?

If you’re a health practitioner (or on your way to becoming one), take a second to look down at your outfit right now…  what do you see? Well, you won’t see an invisible lab coat… but you might notice that you’re not as successful as you want to be.

If you’re not overwhelmed with clients beating down your door for help right now, that’s a problem.

Here’s the thing: There are more chronically sick people now than ever; the United States CDC reports that about HALF of adults (117 Million people) have at least 1 chronic disease.

If you include things like IBS, PMS and all the other unrecognized medical conditions by the CDC, the number is likely higher.

There’s plenty of sick people to help, so why aren’t you dealing with the problem of “too many clients” instead of not enough?

Simply put, you’re wearing an invisible lab coat that most health practitioners are “born with” when they start helping people…

Why The Invisible Lab Coat?

Here’s the problem: all these sick people across the world are seeking help from experts like you and they’re not getting it…

Why aren’t these people getting the help they need?

It’s simple…

All those sick people in the world, the one’s actively looking for help…

The ones who desperately need you…

They can’t find you.

They’re searching for you…

They know they need your help…

But they can’t find you.

In fact, we surveyed 4,000 health coaches and practitioners and they shared that same problem with their current practice…

Everyone said their #1 frustration was “Getting Clients and Marketing.”

We affectionately call it wearing the “Invisible Lab Coat”…

Why call it an invisible lab coat? Because lab coats are the universal sign for health practitioners and it makes you invisible to clients until you break out of the standard ideas about marketing and business that most practitioners weren’t taught when they learned about health.

Even though many talented practitioners have a website… or even a physical practice… or even if they’re just starting out…

They can’t get reliable clients. Their marketing isn’t working…

It’s like they’re invisible to all the people that need their help and it feels horrible.

But it’s not your fault, when you enter the health profession you put this invisible lab coat on without even knowing it. You’re basically “born” into the profession with it on. Completely Invisible to the people that need you – the people that are looking for you. But now it’s time to take that coat off!

The good news: after growing our own successful online health consulting practice, and helping two of our own practitioners do the same thing, we’ve figured out how to remove this invisible lab coat…

And if you want to remove yours and start getting clients consistently with simple marketing strategies we’ve learned over the years, make sure you join us for our webinar on Tuesday, June 9th. Click here to register to attend.

Just a quick note: The content on the webinar is going to be radically different than anything you’ve heard before, and in order to prepare you for that we’re going to dive deep into 5 common health marketing myths that keep that “invisible lab coat” on and make it ever harder to get clients.

Myth 1: “It’s bad to charge money to help sick people”

This one just plain needs to be blown up in smoke. And I feel like I’m extremely qualified to do so…

See, back when I was having diarrhea 10-15X a day, I was desperate for someone to help me. And during that time, I fired 3 of my local doctors and looked to the internet for a saving grace.

When I found a few Functional Practitioners who “got it” and I thought they could help me, I was ecstatic to pay them $250-$350 per hour to help me.

Honestly, I would have paid anything… (AKA whatever room was left on my CC).

The $30,000+ I’ve spent on my health over the last 7 years was the best investment I’ve ever made…

Now I get to watch my kids grow up happy and healthy. Without that investment, who knows?

Look, if you have the skills to help sick people, there’s a TON of them out there just like me desperately seeking your help and happy to pay you well for it.

Anyone who tells you otherwise, doesn’t know the first thing about being sick – and actually getting better. See, there’s 2 types of sick people: those who want to get better and those who “think” they want to get better. Most of us sick people start out as #2 and then we have to grow up and take responsibility to actually get better.

Responsibility means doing whatever it takes, and in this world it usually takes money.

I know I was personally willing to do anything to find someone that could ACTUALLY help with my issues.

Why?

Because I was tired of working with clueless Doctors that didn’t know what was wrong with me.

Not only that, but I wanted accountability and someone with a plan… and someone who had my back. Think of it like hiring a personal trainer.

Until you’re willing to let go of any guilt over getting paid well to help people with their health, you’ll keep attracting mostly clients who “think” they want to get better. Once you get rid of this, you’ll make room for the clients who know that money is part of getting help, it’s an energy trade and it’s accountability to get better.

Myth 2: “If you build it, they will come”

A lot of business trainings teach you how to set up a blog, get people’s email addresses, and write a 7-step free report to give away…

And after you do all this work… you’re left with “If you build it, they will come.”

I can tell you this is also a myth.

If you just set up a blog, it’s no different than hanging a sign outside an office building with an empty parking lot. How will anyone see it? How will they find you?

The internet is really no different.

Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely NEED to have a website that can get people’s email addresses…

But what you really need is a MARKETING PIPELINE to get people over to that blog.

Think of it like hanging your sign on a busy street instead of an empty parking lot, except this strangely perfect street is full of sick people walking by that’ve been searching for someone like you to help them FOREVER.

What is this marketing pipeline?

Well, there’s many. Some are better than others, but the main pipelines we’ve mastered are: Google Organic Search Traffic, Facebook Ads, Affiliate Partnerships, Email Marketing, and more.

Even if you just picked one to work on, like Facebook Ads, you’d be 10X more likely to become successful than someone that just “hung their sign” on the internet and hoped the traffic would come.

Remember, getting traffic is just as important as your website.

Myth 3: “If it’s glittery and shiny, it will convert”

Yes, design matters. Steve Jobs taught us that. Many people are going to read this exact sentence on one of his beautifully designed works of art.

But what’s interesting is this: it also doesn’t really matter when it comes to marketing and getting clients. See, what your potential clients are looking for is someone they can trust, someone that has the information and skills that can help them get healthy…

Not someone with a beautiful website.

And if your content and your marketing give them value and help them out, they’ll begin to form a trust bond with you that goes WAY beyond anything your website design could create.

Of course, this wouldn’t be fun for me to write without showing a few examples where design doesn’t matter.

Take for example this article, which shares an interesting split test for an ad from a video game…

One ad was super fancy (glittery) and one was drawn in 5 mins on good ole Microsoft Paint. Guess which one won?

Then there’s this sales page for a book called “Stop Your Divorce.” I can’t remember all the specifics, but I believe this sales page was coded back in 1998 (it sure looks that way). Not only that, but it’s STILL generating a ton of sales year after year, completely unchanged.

Why does it still crush it 17 years later?

Because it’s some of the best copywriting I’ve ever seen… it talks specifically to someone going through a divorce in a way that no design can ever connect with them.

And if you think your website design is terrible, never forget what SCD Lifestyle looked like back in 2009…

Just remember, design is important to some extent, but design isn’t going to make or break whether or not you get clients. What will, however, is your marketing and how you communicate with them… how you build trust… how you connect. That’s where the real focus should be.

Myth 4: “You MUST have FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ to make money online”

I personally LOVE this one.

It’s one of the first things we were told to go do after we built a website; we have to make sure we have all of our social media profiles set up and linked and mastered and dominated and profitable and huge and awesome and amazing.

But what if you didn’t ACTUALLY need any of it?

Don’t get me wrong, social media can be a great place to find clients who are searching for your help. We spend $1,000s each month on Facebook Ads.

But you don’t need that to get started. And you ESPECIALLY don’t need ALL of them. The best strategy that works for most people starting out in the health space is to just pick one and do it right. I’d highly recommend Facebook as the first tool of choice, but that’s totally up to you.

Just remember, you’ll never master all the social media tools. It’s too overwhelming to do all of them well. The reason being, each platform needs a different type of content, communication and dedication. Almost everyone who has a large following on all platforms has a team of people dedicated to each one.

The most important thing is to pick one and get really good at it. Narrow your focus. But you definitely don’t need them all.

And we’ll actually show you how to get started on FB during the webinar on Tuesday, June 9th.

Myth 5: “You have to be a health celebrity to become successful online”

Is your dream to become a NYT Best Selling Author? What about to be featured on Dr. Oz or The Doctors?

If so, that’s great, we wish you the best of luck.

BUT if that’s not your dream, please know that you don’t have to become a health celebrity just to be successful online and help people. For that matter, you don’t even need to be on TV. And you DEFINITELY don’t need all those fancy stickers on your blog that say “Featured On.”

See, many health experts out there use these types of things to create the celebrity feel. But you know what that sounds like to a sick person?

“Look at me, look how great I am, look at all this cool stuff I get to do.”

And potential clients are left wondering…

How does this help with my condition?

It doesn’t.

That’s why you don’t have to be a health celebrity to become successful and help people. You only need to build that trust. And it surely doesn’t come from being a NYT Best Selling Author or all the TV shows you’ve been on.

Look at me and Steve, we’ve never been on TV (pretty sure they don’t let bald guys on there).

We’ve also never had a NYT Best Selling book either.

But we have been able to help over 147,000 people in 153 different countries. How cool is that? That’s truly the only important thing to share…

And if busting these myths has supported you, the content on June 9th’s webinar is going to be just as radically different than anything you’ve heard before…

How We Built a $367,027 Per Year PART-TIME Health Consulting Practice

If you’ve heard any of the myths in today’s article before…

And you’re ready for something radically different from a couple of engineers who built a super successful health consulting practice…

Then you’ll like the “Practitioner Liberation Project.”

The project is our solution to help you consistently get leads and get paid well for your health consulting practice. It’s where we show you the step-by-step health consulting blueprint so you can replicate exactly what we’ve done…

Except in your own special way: giving your gifts to the world on a much bigger scale.

You don’t need to be like us (actually, that’s a sure way to FAIL). You need to be more of YOU, which means getting crystal clear on who you help, how you help them and how the business of health works.

Here’s how this is going to work: we are going to show you more of our consulting blueprint on Tuesday, June 9th’s online presentation for FREE.

Sign Up Here (Tuesday, June 9th @ 9pm EST)

Here’s Just Some of the Things You’ll Learn During the Presentation:

• NEW: The 3-Step “Help Them First” Method For Consistently Getting Happy Paying Clients
• The “Consultation Close” Script That Turns Complete Strangers into Paying Clients (That You Can Use in Your Practice Immediately After the Webinar)
• The 3 Marketing Pipelines We Used to Build Our Practice Consistently, Month After Month
• How to Turn Your Health Passion into a 7-Figure Online Business (and How Consulting Makes it Possible)
• The Two Major Blocks Holding Back Most Practitioners and How to Breakthrough

And we’ll have some other amazing ideas that we hope you start doing right away after the presentation.

Grab Your Seat By Signing Up Here

-Jordan

P.S. – Why are we doing this?

Because there’s so many sick people like we used to be and we know so many talented practitioners who are struggling. This problem needs to be solved and it dawned on us that we could help other people start the same unusual health consulting program we did (and do it even better than us).

And if we could help 500 practitioners build and grow their online health consulting practice this year, and they each helped 600 clients just like we did, that’s 300,000+ people who get helped by our work.

Hope to see you on the webinar!

The post The Invisible Lab Coat: 5 Myths About Marketing appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Have you ever asked an engineer for directions? It can be an excruciatingly painful experience. Many times, you’ll end up confused… staring at a napkin with a map of the whole city.

Instead, today I promise we’ll follow what’s called “The Law of Parsimony” (which basically states: the simplest answer is usually the best answer).

So, while engineers are famous for over-thinking things (we do it all the time), today it’s all about proven, old-school, simple ideas that will change your life (and the world) if followed.

It’s time to create your dream life of service and success.

There’s never been a better time for you to take your personal health journey, licenses and/or certifications and begin to serve the world – in a big way!

We rarely talk about the business of health, but we also know that when we first started it really helped us to see how other people did it and learned how to follow them. It helped us believe it was possible and showed us the steps forward when even getting the first sale seemed impossible.

Today, let us show you why…

1. If you’ve got a license, certification or are working towards one, do you think you could get someone on the phone and give them free value for 15 minutes? I think you can and should.
2. Do you think you could turn the same 15-minute conversation into 30 paying clients per month? Once you get the fundamentals and some practice, this is much easier than it seems.
3. Do you think you could be making over $20,000 a month consulting with people, helping them restore their health and doing it from home? To get to this point is actually simple: follow in the steps of people who’ve done it.

In case you didn’t know, in January 2013 we launched our first public consulting program. That first month we brought in $21,490, we saw 30 new clients, and we still had our engineering day jobs, so we only worked part-time (an average of 7.9 hours per week – total together, not each).

As you can see from the graph above, we not only kept up those numbers but almost always made more than that, helped more people, and continued working the same amount of hours.

How would seeing 30 clients and making $20,000 a month change your life?  

And knowing that you’re helping that many people and have a whole lot of money in the bank?

Would you like to have a job you love and make this kind of money? Maybe that’s too much. What if you helped out people part-time and made $4,000 a month? How would that change your life and how you feel? I think that most of us, when we first start, would love to know we are helping people and make $20,000 our entire first year in business (Jordan and I lost thousands of dollars our first year).

But let’s get present. The fact is, you can have all this and likely more in your first year once you have a proven consulting model and you understand how to work the levers of client attraction.

We want to show you exactly how we did it and help you change the world and create the life you want. (This presentation on Tuesday, June 9th will.)

Whether you’re suddenly realizing you’re unhappy in your current job and want to turn your health passion into a career…

Or you’ve seen a few consulting clients, but can’t seem to get them to regularly beat down a path to your practice…

Or you’re ready to scale up to a FULL-TIME health consulting practice making well over $40,000 a month and helping the sick around the world in a big way.

We are going to show you the blueprint to make this happen. From part-time to full-time, in-person to online, MD to health coach, the blueprint works remarkably well for everyone.

Someone’s Going To Do It, 3 Reasons Why It Should Be You…

1) There’s more sick people than ever who need help. Each day, more and more people are firing their doctors and turning to other sources of help because they demand better results. And some of these sources don’t help these people. But, you have ways to actually help them and it’s important you find each other.

The CDC of America reports that, as of 2012, roughly HALF of the adults in this country (117 Million people) had at least one chronic disease! This drops my heart to the floor. That’s so many sick people, and we’re only talking about one country. What about the rest of the world?

This is why we’re urging those of you with real skills and desire to step up and start finding these people, serving them, helping them, and saving their lives.

2) There’s more money (and access to it) than ever before on planet earth. Never before in human history have we had such an abundance of money and a medium like the internet to connect people living anywhere on the globe.

And guess where a huge chunk of that money is changing hands?

As of 2014, the consulting market was a $431 billion Global, and $180.0 billion in the US, industry.

More dissatisfied sick people than ever PLUS more money and access than ever EQUALS the biggest OPPORTUNITY ever in the health consulting market.

And if you have the skills to help, but aren’t fully booked and happy with your consulting business, then we have a MAJOR problem to fix.

3) For the first time ever, there’s going to be a proven model you can follow. That’s what The Practitioner Liberation Program is all about; it’s about showing you how you can repeatedly gain new clients who are happy to work with you.

And if you’re not already, we are going to show you exactly where you might have a hole in your plan that if patched could stop the leak of clients not signing up.

With this new info, the time is now to become a highly paid healer. And the fun news is that while you might think you only want to help people one-on-one, if there’s even a slight idea buried in the back of your head that you’d like to create products that people buy while you sleep, then consulting is the perfect first step.

Because, to build a successful online business you need 3 pillars.

So, You Want an Online Business? (Here’s Something You Probably Haven’t Heard Before)

In the spirit of “behind the scenes,” let me share a little secret that many business teachers don’t want you to know…

A 7-figure online business is hard work. It’s blood, sweat, and tears. It’s late nights and long weekends. It’s not all “work from your laptop on the beach while the money rolls in.” And it takes time.

Jordan and I spent years working 90 hours a week, with a wild idea we were going to help people all over the world heal their guts. Sometimes we stayed up all night. Sometimes we skipped meals. Sometimes even our bank accounts had a negative balance…

But creating an online business isn’t a mystical unicorn.

In fact, there’s a PROVEN model that most of us who’ve done it have followed:

STEP 1: Build a Successful Consulting Practice

STEP 2: Create Amazing Products to Sell (and do it well)

STEP 3: Create Live Events and Serve Up a Great Experience

This 3-Pillar System is OLD SCHOOL and so it’s boring to talk about. It’s not sexy for a marketing guru to sell you, which is why many of the courses we’ve invested in over the years try to dress it up to seem different. They are trying to reinvent something to sell the “online business dream.”

This is a massive disservice. Remember the “Law of Parsimony?”

The simplest solution almost always wins. And this 3-pillar model still works like a charm.

I really wish we would have learned it a long time ago. Quitting our engineering jobs could have happened so much sooner!

It takes hard work and dedication, but here’s the fascinating part. To do it the fastest, the first step is always to build an amazing and successful consulting practice.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but let me explain.

Using Consulting to Shortcut All the Pain

What you might not realize is that working one-on-one with people, whether they are clients or patients, is the perfect place to build a rock-solid foundation of skills.

Here’s Why the 3-Pillar System Starts with Consulting:

1. It gives you immediate and direct feedback to hone your craft and get even more skilled at helping people with their health
2. You get to climb inside your clients’ minds. After seeing your first 100 clients, you’ll understand their wants, fears, frustrations, dreams, and the roadmap to getting them healthy (you’ll get to the point where you know them better than most of their loved ones)
3. It gives you the initial income to do what you love and avoid the dreaded split focus of working an unfulfilling, energy-zapping day job while you try to create an online business

We tried to do it all the other ways; we built many products and did live events before we really understood consulting. And we were broke, working 2 jobs and wondering how we could ever make an impact on the world.

Here’s the bottom line: If you start with a successful health consulting practice and it’s your dream to someday transition to selling products while you sleep you can do that.

The idea that if you build it they will come is a complete MYTH!

The TRUTH is your clients are out there right now, sick and searching for help… millions of them (they just can’t find you).

You not only have to build it, but you have to market it correctly. And marketing it correctly starts with truly understanding what they want – consulting gives you that.

It’s not sexy, but it’s proven and effective.

The Sexy Truth About Going Old-School

Here’s the deal: when we first started, we made lots of mistakes. We weren’t anywhere near the level of confidence we are now. Our goal is to make sure you don’t make these same costly mistakes.

We weren’t sure that following this idea would work either. There’s just not a lot of people who are talking about it. And that makes it kind of lonely and scary.

So, let’s remove those fears.

When you begin to build out the client-attraction methods we did, people will be waiting in a LONG line to come work with you. We didn’t believe it, so we didn’t stop them even when we had a 2-week waiting list. Then, suddenly we had a 3-month waiting list!

When you begin to use the principle of “help them first,” you can forever get rid of the “getting clients problem.”

As you can see, we repeated our 2013 success and revenues were continuing to grow in 2014. We show you this not to brag but to prove that this works and to begin the process of showing you how the model works.

Whether you have 10 hours a week or 40 hours a week, you can help people you care about and make a great income doing it.

If You’re Curious, We Want You to Take Away 3 Things:

1. The time is now (someone else is going to if you don’t). There’s never been a time in history with more sick people, technology that allows services to be traded and more information about HOW to actually do it. Consulting is a massive market that is a perfect way to launch into your dream life.
2. Use Old-School Parsimony Principles. Technology, Sparkles and New Ideas aren’t always better. In fact, many times they just complicate things. Sure there’s new ideas and ways of building successful businesses, but that doesn’t invalidate the older ones – the ones that have been time-tested. Remember this: use models from people who’ve worked them first before teaching them.
3. An online business has fundamentals that can’t be avoided. These are things like getting very clear on what kind of value you’re bringing to the table, honing your craft to repeatedly get results with people, understanding your market better than their loved ones, a clear understanding of business systems. And ALL of these will be learned if you set up a successful consulting practice. I wanted to skip steps to shortcut the process, but every step skipped causes a major breakdown later because you didn’t learn the lessons of that step. Consulting is a way to get paid to do what you love and become an expert in the fundamentals of online business.

I hope that this helps. We are looking forward to helping you improve the quality of people’s lives. So, here’s what we are doing…

FREE Online Presentation: “The Simple Strategy That Helped Us Build a $367,027 per Year PART-TIME Health Coaching Practice (and Turned It into a Massive 7-Figure Business)”

The “Practitioner Liberation Project” is our solution to all of this. It’s where we show you the step-by-step health consulting blueprint so you can replicate exactly what we’ve done…

Except in your own special way: giving your gifts to the world on a much bigger scale.

You don’t need to be Jordan and Steve (actually, that’s a sure way to FAIL). You need to be more of you, which means getting crystal clear on who you help, how you help them and how the business of health works.

Here’s how this is going to work: we are going to give you the full model on the upcoming online presentation on Tuesday, June 9th for FREE.

Sign Up Here (Tuesday, June 9th @ 9pm EST)

Here’s Just Some of the Things You’ll Learn During the Presentation:

• NEW: The 3-Step “Help Them First” Method For Consistently Getting Happy Paying Clients
• The “Consultation Close” Script That Turns Complete Strangers into Paying Clients (That You Can Use in Your Practice Immediately After the Webinar)
• The 3 Marketing Pipelines We Used to Build Our Practice Consistently, Month After Month
• How to Turn Your Health Passion into a 7-Figure Online Business (and How Consulting Makes it Possible)
• The Two Major Blocks Holding Back Most Practitioners and How to Breakthrough

And we’ll have some other amazing ideas that we hope you start doing right away after the presentation.

Grab Your Seat By Signing Up Here

Until then, I want you to remember that you matter. Watch this video.

-Steve

P.S. – Why are we doing this?

Because there’s so many sick people like we used to be and we know so many talented practitioners who are struggling. This problem needs to be solved and it dawned on us that we could help other people start the same unusual health consulting program we did (and do it even better than us).

And if we could help 500 practitioners build and grow their online health consulting practice this year, and they each helped 600 clients just like we did, that’s 300,000+ people who get helped by our work.

Hope to see you on the webinar!

The post How We Engineered a Successful Health Consulting Practice appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Many of you have asked for more “behind the scenes” details about how we were able to turn our passion for health into a full-time career over the last 6 years.

This week, we’re going to pull back the curtain and share details about how we got to where we are today… starting with one of the pivotal decisions that allowed us to FINALLY quit our jobs.

It was January 2013… and two broke kids from Michigan decided to start an unusual health consulting experiment.

The days leading up to this moment were nerve-racking. They were scared, tired, and weren’t sure if it was the right thing to do, I’m curious what you would have done?

Here are the facts:

• Their blog and online business was a full-time commitment, but wasn’t making enough money to pay the bills. They were working day jobs as engineers, still broke, and drowning in debt.
• Their talented and experienced business coach told them it was a STUPID idea to start a health consulting practice and they were sure to fail.
• They didn’t have any formal medical licenses or credentials… and while they had taken specialized health training courses, they figured no one would listen.
• But… they got emails every day asking them to work 1-on-1 with sick people who they felt they could help.
• However, they were already exhausted, working two full-time jobs and concerned that the consulting practice would be job number 3, overworking them and making them sick again.

The options were simple:

1. Keep struggling to build an online product based business, even though they hadn’t made any real money in the first 3 years
2. Shut down the blog, stop helping people, and resign to their 9-5 day jobs as engineers, where they were often unable to affect change and were just another number.
3. Launch an unusual health consulting experiment. What’s unusual about it? They weren’t doctors. They weren’t New York Times best-selling authors. They were just two “health engineers” who beat their chronic illness and wanted to help others do the same and they knew, in their hearts, people needed them.

Based on the facts, what would you have done?

Lucky for us, we chose option 3. But there’s something you didn’t know…

Before we took the leap, we needed to hear 6 words.

6 Words That Changed Our Lives FOREVER

I had a whole word document filled with the options that would change our future – it took me weeks to do all the research.

We could become an MD or DO (in 6-10 years).

We could become ND’s (in 4-5 years).

We could become functional nutritionists (in 12-36 months).

The decision was causing me so much stress, my acid reflux came back. I thought for sure we needed one of those licenses to be taken seriously, to really give our gifts and help people.

Then, we had an important conversation that changed our lives.

We were talking with a well-known health practitioner and mentor of ours. After rapidly explaining all our “facts,” our desires, our current “license” options (from above), this person paused and changed our lives forever.

“So, you’re telling me you have possibly 100’s of people asking you to help them right now and you’re thinking about waiting years before you help them? Why not just do it now?”

Those 6 words changed our lives…

Why. Not. Just. Do. It. Now?

We knew we could help them, they were asking for help, but we are thinking about abandoning them because we were scared.

All we needed was some permission. And we got it that day.

The $21,500 Unusual Experiment Launches

On January 21st, 2013, we hit “Publish” on this blog post...

What if they laughed at us? What if no one signed up? What if we worked even harder and went even further into debt?

But none of that came true.

Instead, the following happened:

30 ecstatic clients booked appointments with us, generating $21,500 in revenue in the first 30 days. By the end of month three, we had 67 clients and hired some amazing staff to help us run things. Then…

FINALLY, 7 months into this unusual experiment, we QUIT our day jobs!

As you can see from the chart above, our first year of consulting replaced our engineering jobs income.

Not only that, but we were helping people create healthier lives each and every week – lives that we wouldn’t have been able to impact if we didn’t take the crazy leap with this thing…

Here’s some of the results our private clients sent in:

“Jordan has a rare combination of knowledge and sensitivity that I have only found in a few other healthcare providers. I felt listened to, supported, and I finally found someone who has more knowledge about digestive related issues than I do! I have so much more peace of mind knowing that there is someone like you (both) working on issues pertaining to digestive health that doctors just don’t pay attention to. I feel so much better mentally, and as a result, physically, because of the work that you both do. The emotional support that you provide is so important, and has definitely made a huge difference in my life and the way I feel, and has enabled me to relax into the process of healing.” ~Catherine

“I have been searching for years for someone that could actually help me because I have so much going on. I used to have chronic constipation and pain. I am going every day now with no pain, gas or bloating. The HCL and Digestive Enzymes made a huge difference in pain and gas levels. Almost nothing now. Magnesium supplement for constipation has worked wonders for regularity. It is so refreshing to talk to someone who understands because they have been through it but that can also direct one towards healing. I appreciate the ability of both Steve and Jordan to speak candidly regarding awkward and private health circumstances. Although I have had some wonderful practitioners, most of the time it is not that way. You approach an uncomfortable topic with humor and grace. Thank you for that and keep up the good work! You truly are pioneers.” ~Lorena

“I suffered for a long, long time with no answers from anywhere until I did the 1-on-1 with Jordan. I used to be nauseous 24/7 and now I have no nausea. I used to barely be able to get out of bed and be completely exhausted and weak all day. Now, I can get out of bed and my energy is much better. I am beginning to feel stronger and have gotten my period back!! I have done all the recommendations and they have helped me tremendously. The adrenal protocol gave me my period and energy back. The GI protocol is also helping my energy and insomnia. Their recommendations about eating protein and fat every 2 hours ended my nausea. The SCD diet fixed my loose stools. They are really smart and got me the tests that gave me real answers FINALLY and their protocols actually WORK! I think you guys are amazing and I feel unbelievably blessed to have found you. You listen and understand better than any practitioner I have met and your knowledge is stunning. You also are incredibly responsive and I cannot thank you enough for this. The biggest thing for me is now knowing I will get better because I have answers and a road map.” ~Claudia

I can’t express to you just how deeply satisfying it was to finally do something we loved, where people enjoyed working with us! We could finally make a living and make a positive impact on the world full-time!

I’m so grateful for the experiment, but sadly it didn’t last.

So, Why Would Two Guys, Finally Living The Dream, Give it All Up?

The experiment was more successful than we could have ever imagined. And in the glow of leaving our day jobs, finally beginning to help the way we wanted to, we woke up one day and realized it was destroying us.

We blinked, and suddenly we had a 3-month waiting list, and clients had to wait months to get in to see us. And established clients were angry and upset at not being able to get helped. I was apologizing to almost every client I saw and it was zapping my energy.

We were straining against the demands of growing an online business and a highly successful consulting practice at the same time. At first, we tried to work harder and longer, but quickly realized it wasn’t working.

Completely exhausted and getting sick all over again, Jordan and I had a heart-to-heart conversation about it.

How could this have happened? Our dream was crumbling before our eyes.

That day, we decided we had to do the right thing – the hard thing… for us and for our clients.

So, in February 2014, we closed our practice to new clients with this blog post.

We shut the whole thing down and started “The Unusual Health Consulting Experiment #2.”

Early on, we realized that we had the power to build something huge and game-changing. We could begin to build a place where sick people felt comforted, listened to, and taken care of. It would be a place they could get the highest quality help needed to change their health.

Now was that time and we needed to hire some experts to help all these clients.

The Unusual Experiment #2: The NEXT Level Health Clinic (That Was Going to Change the World)

We realized very soon in Experiment #1 that there was a limit in our ability to help people 1-on-1. We all only get 24 hours a day, yet there are millions of people like us that need help from skilled practitioners.

It started with one email. Would any practitioners want to work with us?

It was a wild guess on our part – a question we had never even asked before.

But holy cow… OVER 70 people responded. YES!!!

That night, as we read what these people had to say we were sure our plan could work. We were going to start small with 2 consulting practitioners, and then, slowly but surely, branch out to at least 100, with a requirement that we had at least one Functional Medicine Practitioner in every state.

Instead of personally working with 600 clients, we could create the company that served tens of thousands of people each year! We were going to create the place where sick people got the best help available and practitioners were going to be free to focus on just helping people.

The math was simple: if we brought in 5 Licensed Functional Medicine Practitioners and they helped 600 clients a year for the next two years, that’s 6,000 lives we can change, a 10X increase in the amount of people helped.

This needed to happen!

Oh man, I was high on life, especially when we hired Stephanie and Brie. Hiring these talented and amazing practitioners kicked off Unusual Experiment #2 on a high note.

Soon, it was actually working. People were getting helped and Brie and Stephanie loved the arrangement. But then we got some devastatingly bad news…

After $20,000 in Legal Bills, Our Dream Was Dead

Hours and hours of phone calls with different legal experts made me sad, sick to my stomach and angry. The way our world works was just not as easy as we had hoped.

Regardless of how we tried to make it work within the current laws, everything culminated in a phone call late last summer when Jordan yelled at me…

“I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!!!” And with that he touched a place deep inside and we both knew our dream was dead.

I let out a defeated heavy sigh. I was on the verge of puking and crying. This experiment meant so MUCH to us. It was our biggest and boldest dream, and one of which we hoped would last beyond our lifetimes… and it was gone.

Since then, we’ve both felt horrible and frankly lost.

Why?

Because there’s still so many people that need help… and so many practitioners out there who can help. But the two aren’t finding one another. They’re not connecting, so people are staying sick and practitioners are going broke – giving up.

Then, after several months of contemplation we came up with an exciting new idea… let’s get transparent and show everyone what happens inside our company and see if we can change the world!

Unusual Experiment #3 is Born: The Practitioner Liberation Project

This is what this week is all about: the death of two unusual experiments and the birth of a new one.

But we’ve had the same mission all along…

What if we could help 500 practitioners build and grow their online health consulting practice this year? What if they each helped 600 clients just like we did?

That’s over 300,000 people struggling with chronic illness whose lives will forever be changed.

Now that’s a reason to get out of bed in the morning!

We want to change at least 300,000 lives this year that we don’t directly help 1-on-1. And it dawned on us that we could help other people start the same unusual health consulting program we did (and do it even better this time around).

So, all this week we’re going to bring you “behind the scenes” details of how we built this unusual health consulting experiment… and how you can do the same thing. We’re going to show you how we turned our health struggle into a highly successful consulting and online business over the last 6 years.

If you’re interested in turning your passion for health into a career like we did, this week is all about you. You can transform people’s health and you can make a great living doing it. And no… you don’t have to do public speaking or be on TV.

I’m excited to join forces with you and many others to change the lives of at least 300,000 people.

So join us on our FREE online presentation, Tuesday, June 9th, we are going to show you the full model for building a successful online consulting practice.

Register Here (Tuesday, June 9th @ 9pm EST)

Here’s Just Some of the Things You’ll Learn During the Presentation:

• NEW: The 3-Step “Help Them First” Method For Consistently Getting Happy Paying Clients
• The “Consultation Close” Script That Turns Complete Strangers into Paying Clients (That You Can Use in Your Practice Immediately After the Webinar)
• The 3 Marketing Pipelines We Used to Build Our Practice Consistently, Month After Month
• How to Turn Your Health Passion into a 7-Figure Online Business (and How Consulting Makes it Possible)
• The Two Major Blocks Holding Back Most Practitioners and How to Breakthrough

And we’ll have some other amazing ideas that we hope you start doing right away after the presentation.

Grab Your Seat By Signing Up Here

Stay tuned this week, we’re going to be telling you all about the Practitioner Liberation Project and how you can turn your health enthusiasm into the life of your dreams.

-Steve

The post How Two Kids From Michigan Started an Unusual Health Consulting Experiment appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

My heart was pounding… I was so excited. And then in one glance at the screen, it was all gone.

I was pissed.

There’s nothing more frustrating than showing up to a class and realizing that you already knew everything.

Unless you show up and the content being taught isn’t even what you signed up for (not cool).

This has happened to me way too many times…

Which is why I need to talk to you today. See, it’s January. It’s a new year. It’s a fresh start. It’s the year of taking action… and it’s Thursday. (I know, who cares about Thursday but I happen to like them.)

Jordan and I have been discussing our goals, dreams and plans for 2015. And it would be silly if we didn’t ask you specifically what we could help you with.

Please take 3 minutes to let us know here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q33G2GT

But WHY?

“Why would I take time to do this for you?”

It’s the first question I’d ask myself when I get an email like this. And the answer is this: because there’s a chance we can help you with something right now.

And maybe, you’d like to get that help for free.

If that’s the case, Jordan and I are planning to do some free trainings this year and we need to know what you need help with. I hate wasting my time and the last thing I want to do is spend time creating something that doesn’t help you.

So, if you want some free training, take a few minutes and let us know what you need support with: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q33G2GT

And by the way… It’s halfway through January… are you still sticking to your New Year’s Resolution? Tell me in the comments below. I’ll be here to interact on and off.

In case you’re wondering, I created a motto for 2015 instead of a resolution. It’s…

Warrior Up, Hippie Down.

Talk soon,

-Steve

The post Community Creation in 2015 appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

It’s the New Year! And I’m puking every time I open my inbox. Why? Because of all the emails I’m getting about how easy it is to supposedly get a “new me.” After 7 years of working to get better health, wealth and relationships I hate when people do this.

It might be simple to create a new you, but it’s hardly ever easy.

See, to create a new you, you must by definition change your behaviors. And that’s a struggle for most of us. While I can’t take away the work, I can show you how to reliably and repeatedly change your behavior this year.

This article reveals the process by which I’ve changed every part of my health.

Learning Isn’t What Society Says It Is

Most of us have been duped about learning. Let me explain…

As little as 4 years ago, I thought I was “learning” every time I read something new. But my life was still a mess. I wasn’t achieving any of my goals – but I was sure reading about them.

The new information I was gathering, reading and exploring wasn’t helping me because I wasn’t taking any new actions in my life. I used to love to tell anyone who would listen about theories and ideas I was reading about. I spoke like I understood. I had enthusiasm as if I’d done it or tried it.

But that was not the case.

And my life reflected that. I was still having the same major problems I thought I had the answer to.

And it was mostly because of the rabbits.

The Rabbit Chasing Cycle

Back when it was really bad for me, I wanted anything but the pain I had. But for some reason I wasn’t very good at getting rid of it.

I actually used to be stuck in what I call “The Cycle of Chasing Rabbits.”

It goes like this… I’d be all full of pain and the pain would drive me to search for new answers. I’d then come across some new information I’d never heard before – maybe a new doctor, new research paper or book. I’d dive in, reading, consuming, trying to understand it from every perspective.

And then I’d get excited, thinking about all the new possibilities. And then as I read more and more I’d get drained. And then do nothing.

I’d end up taking zero new actions in the end. And in a week I’d find a new rabbit!

For example… I read Jon Kabat Zinn’s book on meditation in 2010. I loved it and meditation was going to be my new big thing. I read more and more – became convinced that it could help many people, so I wrote and talked about it and meditated a total of 10 times that year.

My stress was still super high; my trust in life was low. I knew meditation would help with this but my behaviors stayed the same, so I kept searching for ways to reduce stress and started chasing new rabbits.

It wasn’t until my Vipassana meditation retreat in 2014, in which I took MASSIVE action (over 120 hours of meditation in 10 days), that I really understood it. I do it weekly now, some times a few days in a row. I’ve now escaped the rabbit cycle into implementing…

Which brings us to the paradox of our free knowledge world. We have more access to information than ever but people are sicker and sadder than ever.

Knowing What to Do Is Only Half the Battle

There’s a big reason why Americans are so sick. And it’s not because there’s some undiscovered treatment, drug or Holy Grail. It’s because taking action is becoming harder and harder in our lives of distraction. Distraction is the enemy.

It’s really that simple. New information plus new actions equals change. And change is what you want if you’re struggling with poor health and daily digestive pains.

Learning is behavior change. But to change behavior you have to avoid the distractions.

Let’s do a quick example.

There are 3 simple rules for building health. I bet you know (most adults and kids do) and yet it’s highly unlikely that you do them every day. In fact, I don’t even do them every day.

1. Eat more vegetables
2. Play or move every day
3. Get 8 hours of sleep

These are mind-blowiningly simple (not necessarily easy). And yet even I don’t manage to get them done 7 days a week.

The reason is distraction.

We Are More Distracted Than Ever

And because of that less and less new action is being taken, which is why Jordan and I have decided to make 2015 the year of taking action for ourselves, our company and for our community.

If we don’t start taking back our focused attention from things like…

• TV Shows
• Sports Programs
• Smart Phones
• Tablets
• Computers
• Social Media
• The News
• Movies
• Video Games

These things consume our attention and willpower to a degree never seen in human history. If we are doing these actions on a regular basis how could we ever begin to think we could actually concentrate enough to take new actions on a daily basis, especially when that new action initially is painful, boring or isn’t pleasurable?

It just won’t happen.

Funny thing is… once you actually LEARN new habits they become pleasurable and fun. And soon two months later the old thingy becomes painful.

It’s powerful and I want you to experience it many times this year.

It’s now becoming more painful for me to not meditate than it is to do it. I have enough experiences to know that my days just work better when I do it. And so if I don’t do it, my brain reminds me all day long.

The Right Information + Dedicated Action = Desired Change

So, there are actually 2 keys.

1) Finding the right information that applies to you

2) Then, figuring out how to take dedicated new actions

Here’s the rub: Your brain doesn’t want you to. That’s why it’s so hard.

Neuroplasticity was a great breakthrough but what it teaches us about current patterns of behaviors is almost as important as the knowledge that we can change our brains.

The way we currently do things is the preferred way – the easy way. And if you are going to change you’ll need to break through this…

Which is why in 2015 we are going to be focusing on continuing to bring you great information about health, but also helping you to take massive action. And in the meantime, we plan to share more about psychology, distractions, neuroplasticity, willpower, goal achievement and using engineering principles to get stuff done!

For Those with Diarrhea… We Start with You

If you haven’t heard, our first live training of 2015 will be the Diarrhea Live Call. This call is for you if you want to know how to end diarrhea and avoid it in the future.

As always, the right information is always changing, whether it be tests, supplements, best practices or research. We are committed to keeping you up to date for a minimum investment on your part.

I hope you’ll sign up here -> Diarrhea Live Call Details Here

What Do You Really Want in 2015?

And what are you willing to give up to get what you want? Because those are the questions I’d like you to focus on. Resolutions are destined to fail. Challenges run out at the end of 30 days.

So, what are you going to be doing then? Distracting yourself or making changes?

That’s why we’re not writing to you about a new challenge or resolution. Instead we are excited about helping you create the lasting change and tackle the big goals on your list this year. We’ve got your back all year long.

I believe you can do just about anything in 2015 using the formula above and I’m pumped up to help those who are ready!

Let’s start the action off right now. If you read this far, put in a comment below about what you want to change in 2015. Maybe you want to stop cheating on your diet, maybe you want to finally handle your diarrhea, maybe you want more energy or to turn off your autoimmune disease. Let me know below.

Cheers!

-Steve

P.S. – If you need even more inspiration to take action in 2015, check out Jordan’s recent videos about “Planting the Seeds of Health Success” and “Using Your Pain as Motivation.”

The post 2015: The Year of Taking Action appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

That’s a picture of my two dogs, Brea and Gracie. They’re both around 9 years old in this picture. When it was taken, you could tell they felt their age. Brea limped around with bad arthritis in her hips and Gracie had mini seizures a few times a week. It was tough watching my babies get old…

Back then, I thought I did the best I could to care for them – plenty of exercise and play, and of course I always fed them the best food I could find.

But I’m embarrassed to tell you this… it wasn’t until I met Rob Hendrickson from FullBucket that I ever thought about giving my dogs probiotics. I know, it’s crazy right?! All the research I’ve read over the years about probiotics and how important they are for HUMANS… yet I never once thought about giving them to my dogs.

I know from my own research that the health of humans is directly related to health of your gut. I’ve been taking probiotics and other supplements and optimizing my health through my diet since Brea and Gracie were puppies. Eating a customized diet for my body and using the right supplements has totally changed my health for the better.

And now that I’ve looked into it more, it turns out dogs’ health is pretty much just like us humans. In fact, recent research has revealed that 70 – 80% of all canine disease starts somewhere in the GI tract and veterinarians are also dealing with pets that have GI disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, chronic constipation, diarrhea, stress gut, complications from high-protein feeds, and many more gut related issues.

(I know, I’m still not sure why it took me so long to connect the dots on this…)

Fortunately, I met Rob and he gave me some samples of FullBucket’s Dog Probiotic. I was amazed at how much it helped the pain in Brea’s hips and reduced Gracie’s seizures…

Since then, I’ve used FullBucket’s Daily Dog Powder probiotic with my own dogs and recommended it to everyone I know who has pets.

I’m dedicated to sharing the products I use and love with our community, but with this one I was hesitant… I mean, how many people have dogs?

(It turns out 70-80 million people have dogs in the U.S. alone.)

And if you’re a cat person?

It turns out cats can benefit from probiotics, as well.

FullBucket’s Daily Dog and Daily Cat powder each contains 3 important supplements:

• Probiotics (to ward off pathogens)
• Prebiotics (to feed the healthy flora in your pet’s gut)
• Digestive enzymes (to help them break down and digest their food more completely)

Together, these 3 components translate into real-life results like:

• Fewer bouts of diarrhea and constipation
• Pets that smell better (without constant bathing)
• Decreased likelihood of sickness and infection
• Shiny coats and breath that doesn’t stink
• Less bloating and dog farts
• Improved digestion leading to smaller stools (less scooping!)

One jar of their Daily Dog or Daily Cat powder contains a 30-day supply for your pet dog and, from what I’ve seen with Brea and Gracie, it can really help their gut health similarly to how it helps your own.

If you love your pet as much as I love mine and want them to live a long and healthy life, I encourage you to try out FullBucket’s Daily Powders with your own cat or dog for at least a month.

More than anything, I’m happy to share this with you in case you were like me and didn’t think about how important probiotics could be for the health of your pets.

Not only that, but I really believe in Rob’s company. FullBucket has an awesome “crusade,” where for every FullBucket product you buy, they give one to an animal in need.

If you’d like to find out more about the FullBucket Pet Probiotics, click here.

What do you do to keep your pet healthy? I’m always looking for tips from the community – please share in the comments!

– Jordan

P.S. – Rob sent us this testimonial video over the weekend and I just had to share it with you, it’s adorable!

The post Should Your Dog Take Probiotics Too? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Diarrhea can be scary…

I’ll never forget the day in 2007… I was having diarrhea for the 13th time and frantically Googling “diarrhea” and “how to stop diarrhea.”

Panic ripped through my chest when I read the search results: “Diarrhea kills 2,195 children every day—more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.”

WHAT!?? Diarrhea could actually kill me?  

I couldn’t ignore this anymore… it was happening every day now… and the doctor’s orders weren’t helping. Everything I was trying didn’t work and deep down I knew I couldn’t live on Imodium AD for the rest of my life.

I was wasting away from malnourishment and low energy but the worst was I literally felt chained to the toilet. I couldn’t venture more than 15 feet from the bathroom… for fear of having an accident. Not to mention, I was in trouble for missing so much work, and I was saying “no” to every social event my friends and family invited me to.

Diarrhea Can Completely Control Your Life

If you’re anything like me, you know that every time you get that funny feeling in your gut… that sinking, rumbling feeling, you know it’s going to be a miserable day.

Diarrhea disrupts just about everything in your life. Your body is in pain and the energy tank is on empty.

Despite your desire to stop the diarrhea, the only options you typically hear from Modern Medicine are powerful drugs, tests and surgery. So, you feel like a cornered animal… Afraid, Frustrated and Angry. That’s when you start trying all kinds of alternative medicine ideas… except that most of those won’t end up working for you either.

How do I know? Because for years I literally had diarrhea 10-15 times a day. I tried almost everything you’ve ever heard of… modern medicine and alternative medicine combined. It wasn’t until I was at my wit’s end, thinking like an engineer, I started listening to my body and I began looking at the problem completely different.

So, What Stops Chronic Diarrhea?

Since I stopped my diarrhea, it’s become a passion of mine to help you stop yours, to answer these questions and more, to re-create what worked for me with 1,000’s of others.

So, what’s really going on in your body?

Whether you’ve been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)… or you’re going through a flare-up of Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis… chronic diarrhea is still chronic diarrhea. Even if you’ve been struggling with an infection like Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) or Celiac disease… there’s something that connects each of these diagnoses.

We’ve seen it all over the years… people with diarrhea come to us for help because they have nowhere else to turn. Like that night when I was sitting on the toilet, they’re desperate to stop their diarrhea and nothing seems to be working.

The most important step is to start thinking like an engineer and look at your body like an engineer would… it’s what we call becoming your own “health engineer.”  

Look at your diarrhea as a clue from your body that something needs to change. It’s trying to tell you something… in fact, it’s screaming at you. And to start listening, we must start with the most common “Diarrhea Triggers” that are making your chronic diarrhea worse.

I know it sounds simple… but this is what worked for me and we’ve been showing people these steps for years.

It has everything to do with TURNING OFF the “Diarrhea Triggers” in your life. Some people have 3 triggers… others have 10. But the key to Stopping Your Diarrhea is to find out which triggers are a root cause of your chronic diarrhea and turn them off!

The best analogy I use to explain it is this: Think of each diarrhea trigger like a bathtub faucet. Every diarrhea trigger in your life is simultaneously pouring water in your bathtub… and once the water overflows onto the floor, you’re dealing with chronic diarrhea.

The Solution to “Stop Your Diarrhea” Has Two Steps:

1. You need to TURN OFF these diarrhea triggers in your life
2. You need to drain the water from your bathtub

These two steps might seem simple, but these are the same strategies we’ve been using on 1,000’s of people over the last 5 years… and they just plain work. It’s not sexy… it’s not a ‘magic pill’… but it can stop your diarrhea (many times forever) if you give it an honest try.

Just because it seems simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. It still takes work. But if you’re ready to stop your diarrhea and become your own “health engineer” – we’re here to help.

We started testing these strategies years ago as part of our 7-day “Diarrhea Flare Support” program and now we’ve refined them, re-tested them, and made them even better. This is all new information that goes beyond flare support and we’re excited to share it with you.

That’s Why We’re Hosting This ‘Stop Your Diarrhea’ Live Event with Step-By-Step Information On:

• Short-term strategies to stop your diarrhea ASAP (tested on 1,000s of people)
• What to eat (and not eat) to stop your diarrhea – including meal plans
• Why diets like SCD and GAPS aren’t enough for most people
• Why ‘take more fiber’ is the worst thing you can do…
• The four core ‘diarrhea stopping’ supplements (that actually work)
• Why Imodium AD won’t work forever…
• How Diarrhea turns into IBD (and even worse if you don’t get this right)
• The long-term strategies to TURNING OFF your top 3 diarrhea triggers
• The most common food mistakes during diarrhea (almost everyone makes this mistake)
• Why sleep, a heating pad, and tea just aren’t enough
• How diarrhea is tied to these 3 common root causes
• Why you continue to have diarrhea even though you’ve been ‘avoiding stress’
• The Exercise Mistake: Why this always makes diarrhea worse
• The most common ‘hormone trigger’ that keeps causing your diarrhea
• The importance of adding new foods at the right (and wrong) time
• Why your diarrhea is related to your skin problems, low energy, and depression/anxiety
• And Much More…

There’s Been MANY Changes to What You Need to Know About Stopping Diarrhea. We’ve Got You Covered!

On January 22, 2015, we’re hosting a live call where you will be able to walk away with the exact next steps to Stop Diarrhea. This doesn’t replace a 1-on-1 relationship with your practitioner, it’s meant to give you the blueprint to use along with them. But it does include the strategies we’ve been testing on 1,000’s of people over the last 5 years…

The ‘Stop Your Diarrhea’ LIVE EVENT DETAILS:

Date: January 22, 2015 3:00-5:30 pm Eastern

How: Live Call With Step-By-Step Handouts

Includes: Attendance to live call PLUS audio recording and transcript provided following the event

LIVE EVENT PRICING: The first 500 ‘early bird’ tickets are discounted to $37. Once those are sold out, we’ll upgrade our live event software for more space and additional ticket prices will increase to $57.

Click here to purchase your ticket now:

http://diarrheahelp.scdlifestyle.com

Can’t wait to see you there!

-Jordan

P.S. – Once the first 500 tickets are sold out, the price will increase for additional tickets. Click here to get your ‘early bird’ ticket pricing now.

UPDATE: This live event has ended, but you can access the recording and transcript of the live event right now: http://diarrheahelp.scdlifestyle.com

The post The 2015 ‘Stop Your Diarrhea’ Live Event appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Big news!

Our good friend and mentor, Chris Kresser, is releasing his NY Times best selling book, The Personal Paleo Code, in paperback with a brand new name, The Paleo Cure.

To celebrate, he has agreed to give the first 100 of you a free pre-order copy! Use this coupon code: PALEOJORDANSTEVE

These 100 books are for our community only… and I’m grateful he chose us as part of a small group of people to do this for you.

Chris has been one of our mentors over the last few years and I’d highly recommend you check out his book. He’s packed years of clinical experience and thousands of patients’ worth of troubleshooting into a $20 book. The specific vitamin and micro-nutrient supplement guidelines alone are worth picking up a copy…

He sent us review copies and of course, and it blew my mind. Mostly because I’m a nerd and I’m fascinated by the sheer volume of research he consumed to put this together. But I also like how ‘actionable’ it is. It’s not just a stuffy journal of facts, but it breaks up overcoming chronic health issues into 3 steps (reset your diet, rebuild your life, and revive your health).

Here’s 15 Quotes From Chris’s Book You Need to Hear:

1. After agriculture was adopted, the average height of humans decreased by about five inches, and life expectancy decreased by seven years. (22)
2. Traditional hunter-gatherer cultures ate as many as 126 different varieties of plants; today, 80% of the global population lives on only 4 staple plants: wheat, rice, corn and potatoes. (31)
3. Fat is the preferred fuel for your body, and should constitute 40-70% of your calories. (55)
4. Fat improves absorption of important nutrients. For example, adding an avocado to a green salad increases the absorption of beta-carotene by 18-fold. (67-68)
5. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity may occur in as many as 1 in 10 people. (84)
6. Our ancestors consumed a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids of between 1:1 and 2:1. Today we tend to range from 10:1 to 20:1, or as high as 30:1! (110)
7. Even modest consumption of EPA and DHA (200-500 mg/d) reduces deaths from heart disease by 35% — an effect much greater than statin drugs. (111)
8. Not all fiber is created equal. While soluble fibers in fruits and vegetables protects against disease, insoluble fiber in whole-grains may increase mortality. (121-122)
9. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) affects between 10 and 15% of the population and is the second leading cause of missed work days, behind only the common cold. (162)
10. Approximately 70-80% of the body’s immune cells are in the gut. (163)
11. The gut contains over 100 trillion microorganisms from 1,000 different species, with 10 times more microbes than there are human cells, and 100 times more genes than exist in the human genome. (163)
12. Two separate studies published in the last five years have shown that a single course of antibiotics may cause irreversible, permanent changes to the gut microbiota. (176)
13. Adults who sit for more than 6 hours a day had up to a 40 percent greater risk of death over the next 15 years than those who sat for less than 3 hours a day regardless of whether they exercised. (208)
14. A large body of evidence suggests the majority of people need between 7-9 hours of sleep each night, yet 35% of adults sleep fewer than 6 hours per night, up from just 2% fifty years ago. (227)
15. Chronic stress contributes to diabetes and weight gain, increases inflammatory markers, triggers and exacerbates allergies and asthma, impairs cognitive function and mental health, and triggers or worsens autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis and Crohn’s Disease. (245)

Grab the Free Copies… But Don’t Worry if You’re Late to the Party

Everyone else gets free, instant access to his brand new “Better Than Paleo“ cookbook – three weeks of amazing paleo-friendly recipes our ancestors only *wish* they had.

This is not your average e-book. These are 100% original recipes, freshly created by a French-trained, Paleo-expert chef. The only thing that bursts more than the flavor are the amazing pictures of each dish. And you don’t have to be a gourmet chef to make these tasty dishes.

Oh, and once you get the first freebie, you’ll also unlock another special offer on the next page – just in time for the holidays! Be sure to take a look.

We’re honored to support Chris… someone who’s taught us so much.  It’s pretty special that he gifted our community with these 100 free copies, too!

– Jordan

The post 100 Free Copies of Chris Kresser’s Book? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Why are we so passionate about Leaky Gut Awareness?

The bottom line is this: fixing the gut will impact just about every other area of your body.

There are millions of people in the world struggling right now with things like low energy, depression, infertility, or even heart disease who have no idea how much their gut health influences these conditions.

I’m not arguing that the gut is the root cause of all things… but what I do know is that it plays a huge role in how all the systems in your body function. Show me someone with a broken gut and I will show you someone with multiple health complaints other than their GI symptoms.

That’s why fixing your gut is the first step to overcoming chronic illness.

And in today’s videos, we’re going to dive into fixing the gut and how that impacts various other systems in your body, like your immune system, fertility, and thyroid function.

Lesson 13: Fixing This Will Stop Chronic Infections in Their Tracks

Did you know one of the main reasons chronic infections like Lyme Disease and Epstein Barr just won’t go away is your gut health? This interview clip with Dr. Sunjya Schweig, one of the leading experts on Chronic Infections, goes in depth about the specific steps he uses to treat the gut and eliminate chronic infections.

Get the rest of the interview with Dr. Schweig here.

Lesson 14: This Little Bug Can Trigger Hashimoto’s and Destroy Your Thyroid

What if your Hashimoto’s or Thyroid Condition was triggered by a nasty infection? And what if treating that infection changed the way your Thyroid functioned forever? This clip is from an interview I did with Dr. Izabella Wentz, an author and leading expert on the root causes behind Thyroid Disease. In it, she blows my mind with some specific triggers for thyroid disease, including a well-known infection, and how to treat it to improve your thyroid conditions.

Find out more about the gut-thyroid connection in the full interview with Dr. Wentz here.

Lesson 15: How to Fix Your Gut For a Healthy Pregnancy

Did you know having a healthy gut is the most critical step in having a healthy baby? If you’ve ever struggled with infertility, or you want to have a healthy pregnancy soon, then you’ll want to listen to this. It’s a clip from a recent interview with Christa Orecchio, a Clinical Nutritionist, Holistic Health Counselor, and fertility expert, and she’s going to dive into the gut-fertility connection and some simple steps to improving your gut health for a healthy pregnancy.

Get the rest of this powerful interview with Christa here.

Today’s Action Step

Gratitude changes everything.

When I’m mad, gratitude helps me get calm again. When I’m sad, gratitude helps me get happy again. When I’m ready to give up, gratitude helps me keep going for another day.

During my healing journey, gratitude was a huge factor that helped me get to where I am today.

Today’s exercise is all about gratitude.

What’s one area of your body other than your gut that improved after you started improving your gut health? Leave a comment and let us know. For me, I was blown away to see how much my skin improved when I started healing my gut. I was always struggling with acne and it magically disappeared when I started focusing on my gut.

I’ve heard just about everything over the years… from sex drive to headaches… but I’d love to hear from you. Look forward to seeing you in the comments.

-Jordan

The post Does All Disease Begin in the Gut? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

One of the most powerful lessons I ever learned as an engineer was that everything is a system.

We called it “Systems Thinking.”

It’s the idea that everything in a system is connected and every system has inputs and outputs.

Let’s take our bodies; there are many inputs… things like food, environmental toxins, water, stress, supplements, joy, happiness, love, etc.

There are even outputs, like how we feel, our poop, our skin, etc.

At a high level, our body is a very complex system. And like any system, we can change the inputs to get a desired change in the outputs.

What blew me away years ago was this: changing the inputs that influence the gut (things like food, stress, supplements, etc.) creates the most powerful change in the outputs (how we feel, symptoms, poop, etc.).

Changing the Inputs That Affect Your Gut Can Completely Rebuild Your Body

Nothing proved this to me more than when I changed my diet and the years of diarrhea stopped in just 7 days. 7 days after I changed my inputs, the outputs dramatically changed. Pretty amazing little system our body is, isn’t it?

So… with Leaky Gut Awareness Week heading towards a close, it’s time we started talking about how many critical parts of your body the gut is connected to.

Today’s clips are all about the gut-skin connection, the gut-hormone connection, and the gut-fertility connection and what we can do to change the symptoms that are driving us crazy.

Lesson 10: How Gut Inflammation Triggers Depression

What if inflammation in your gut could actually travel to your brain and cause depression? If you’ve struggled with depression and anxiety you’re going to want to join me for this interview with Dr. Emily Deans, where we go deep into the Inflammatory Cytokine model of depression and why a fire in your gut triggers a fire in your brain.

Get the rest of the interview with Dr. Emily Deans here.

Lesson 11: Why Leaky Gut Is Probably Causing All Your Skin Problems

What if your skin problems were actually a HUGE RED FLAG from your body that something was terribly wrong in your gut? What if it’s actually like your body screaming at you to help your gut. If you’re anything like I was and struggle with skin problems like acne and rosacea, you won’t want to miss this clip from an interview with one of our friends and mentors, Chris Kresser, L.Ac.

Chris goes into the specifics about the gut-skin connection and how leaky gut can actually make your skin break out with acne and other chronic skin conditions… let’s listen in.

Find out more about the gut-skin connection in the full interview with Chris here.

Lesson 12: The Gut-Hormone Connection Stealing Your Energy

Did you know there’s a direct correlation between how burned out your adrenals are and how damaged your gut lining is? This clip is from a recent interview I did with one of my mentors, Dr. Dan Kalish, one of the world’s best Functional Medicine Practitioners, where he shares the direct relationship between our gut and our hormones. If you’ve ever struggled with low energy, chronic fatigue, and hormone problems like PMS or low testosterone, you won’t want to miss this. Let’s listen in.

Get the rest of this powerful interview with Dr. Kalish here.

Today’s Action Step

Sometimes the most powerful way to keep moving forward is to look back and remember how far we’ve come. I had to do that just about every day during my healing journey.

There were so many times I wanted to give up or quit because I didn’t think I could make it anymore… but then I would remember how far I had come and that would be enough to get through another day.

Today’s exercise is all about how far you’ve come.

Think about one input you changed that completely improved your outputs (symptoms). This could be your diet or a supplement you took… or an infection you killed.

Then, leave a comment below and share that input with this community. It might just be the one input someone else needs to read today in order to get to the next level of health.

I’ll see you in the comments.

-Jordan

The post How to Overcome Skin Problems, Depression, and Low Energy appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

What if your immune system has your best interests at heart at all times? How might that change the view of autoimmune diseases?

I believe it’s true that your immune system is doing the best job it can, even in times of disease.

I believe our bodies have an innate knowledge that depending on the inputs we feed into our system it will produce certain outcomes. And from this perspective I think autoimmune disease begins to make perfect sense.

When the incoming variables of food, water, air, stresses, thoughts, movement and chemicals begin to fall into the negative for too long, negative consequences begin. And in some of us (who knows maybe one day we’ll know it’s all of us) autoimmune disease is the outcome of these inputs getting too far away from optimal.

Could We All Be a Little Autoimmune?

It’s an interesting point of view to take a look at. And I think today’s videos might shed a bigger light on how this might be proven at some point in the future.

The amazing thing about the immune system is that when we change the inputs to more positive the outputs do change. Unfortunately, the commonly held modern medicine belief is that in autoimmune diseases that system is inherently broken and now we must suppress it.

Of course the 1000’s of stories and reports of this not being true sure seem to point to a new way forward with autoimmune issues, which is one of the big points of this week’s content.

Lesson 7:  How a Leaky Gut Jump-Starts Autoimmunity and Massive Inflammation

There’s a lot of information about how leaky gut syndrome begins the cascade to autoimmune disease. But there’s a real lack of information describing how this happens in detail. If leaky gut is the first big issue in the dominoes of disease to fall, then a firm understanding of how the process happens is a must for anyone trying to avoid or overcome autoimmune diseases.

Lesson 8: What Food Sensitivities Are Telling You about Infertility Problems

Food sensitivities are one of the most misunderstood health issues in today’s world. Doctors of modern and alternative medicine just don’t seem to get the way in which they develop. Luckily, Dr. Tom O’Bryan breaks it down in this video using a simple-to-understand analogy for all of us and then ties it back to fertility issues.

Lesson 9: The Exact Process of How Autoimmune Disease Starts

Have you ever wondered at which point autoimmune disease begins? What steps must go wrong before it’s diagnosable? I often think about this, as it goes back to my points above that we may all be a little autoimmune… then some of us get full-blown autoimmune disease. Sarah Ballantyne goes deep into explaining the whole process and what is malfunctioning in the immune system.

Today’s Action Step

“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” ~Elie Wiesel

I know you have to be at least a LITTLE like me, or maybe you’re a lot like me. I’m referring to my desire to share impactful information with my loved ones.

Sometimes, truth be told, I get diarrhea of the mouth with information. I stand on soap boxes and share my thoughts even when I’m not asked. It’s led to some awkward family conversations over the years no doubt about that ;). Luckily, my conversational skills have improved since those early days.

Here’s the deal, there’s a respectful and thoughtful way to share health information with those who need it and may not have directly asked you for help yet. And with the holidays approaching today’s a great chance to work this muscle.

Instead of preaching, invading space or arguing we can reach out to those in our lives with a short, heartfelt message and an article.

For example, try something like this:

“Hey Mom, I remembered you mentioned that health issue a few months ago. I love you and I’ve thought about that conversation often since then. I saw this today and I think it’s a great, short introduction that might help you. If you’re interested check it out here ->”

…Vs. an example NOT likely to work:

“Hey Mom, I noticed that you’re tired all the time. I’m worried about you. When you’re tired like this, it means you have some hormone issues happening and we need to get those fixed. I want you to grow old with health and be around. Please read this and let’s talk about it ->”

Can you see the difference? One is very “ME” and “YOU’RE WRONG” focused. The other is caring and not blaming. So, I want you to give it a shot today!

Today’s exercise is to share, in a format much like I showed you above, one of the 9 lessons we’ve shared with at least 2 people close to you. Then, report back in the comments what happened. Did they respond? Did they blow you off? Either way, let’s chat about it below.

-Steve

The post Learn Exactly How Autoimmune Disease Develops appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

In the automotive industry, it’s pretty standard to steal the best ideas and practices from other companies who are doing it better than you.

They don’t sue anyone. It’s more about learning from each other. They just call it adopting the “Best Practices.”

For instance, by the end of the 1990’s Toyota had the best quality on the market. Everyone wanted to know how their vehicles lasted so long and looked so good.

Consultants were hired, books were written, and the rest of the industry started adopting some of the very same processes that Toyota was following to bring their quality standards up.

This is exactly what a health engineer does… they go out and find the people who are getting results and learn their “Best Practices.”

Start Learning from Those Who Get Amazing Results

Unfortunately, medicine and science don’t work like the automotive industry.

There is little transparency, so figuring out who is actually getting results is tough.

This is where we come in. We’ve vetted many of the chronic health experts out there and made it our mission to go out and learn from their “Best Practices.”

We pushed them and they responded by providing some of the very best ideas, insights and explanations we’ve ever heard.

This is the beginning of creating the best practices for leaky gut, autoimmunity, and chronic health issues.

In today’s lessons, the themes of hormones, brain and disease are told in many different ways. It’s highly likely that you’ll have a major breakthrough in some of your “Best Practices.”

I can’t wait to hear about it…

Lesson 4 – How Stress Drives Cortisol (and Creates Leaky Gut)

Cortisol is critical to health. Unfortunately, many so-called experts are on the “I hate cortisol bandwagon” these days. If they took the time to understand it better they’d realize that low cortisol might be EVEN WORSE than high cortisol. It’s time someone set the record straight about cortisol and leaky gut.

Lesson 5 – The Sure Fire Way to Create More Chronic Disease

The fastest way to lose our quality of life is by picking up chronic diseases. While it appears to be a mystery to many doctors and lay people, it shouldn’t be. Dr. Tom O’Bryan talks about what to do if you want to create disease and therefore what not to do if you’re like me and want to avoid it and reverse it.

Lesson 6 – Are You Gaining Weight Because Your Metabolism Is Broken?

There’s a lot of information out there about having a “broken metabolism” and what causes weight gain. Dan Pardi goes deep into the science about the gut-brain connection, metabolism, and something he calls “The Black Swan Effect of Weight Gain.”

Once and for all, we handle this question about metabolism.

What to Do Today…

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” ~Phil Collins

Here’s the deal. Until you try to explain something to someone else by teaching the idea, it’s typically not well understood.

There’s just something about trying to get another human to understand what you do. It requires a certain level of thinking and repeating that really helps you get it. It’s one of the main reasons I love writing. And it’s what is going to help you today.

Day 2 Action Step: Take the most exciting insight you learned today and go and teach it to someone else. Then, leave a comment telling all of us what you realized about the insight through teaching someone else.

The act of reporting back will allow you to continue to learn the idea… and your insight will help someone else who’s reading this.

Don’t just listen, act. Don’t just act, teach.

Talk to you in the comments below.

-Steve

The post Cortisol Issues Trigger Leaky Gut (and Cause Brain Problems) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

By 2020, the United States Center for Disease Control is estimating that there will be 157 MILLION Americans living with chronic diseases.

As far as I can tell from the data, that number doesn’t even include those of us with digestive problems and autoimmune diseases!

If the physical suffering wasn’t enough, people with chronic diseases will spend $1.58 TRILLION dollars each year on healthcare.

But we think there’s hope.

It’s our opinion that most of these diseases start in the gut before rippling out to other areas of the body. It’s an old idea, written and spoken by some of the most amazing minds in medicine. Like Hippocrates, who wrote “All Disease Begins in the Gut” thousands of years ago….

Which is why we’re taking a stand…

A stand for Leaky Gut Syndrome, Autoimmune Disease, and other chronic health conditions. They are too often overlooked, misunderstood, and dismissed.

And yet they’re one of the biggest killers in our world… hands down.

They destroy lives, finances, and relationships.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Welcome to Leaky Gut Awareness Week!

This week we’re proud to bring you the best content on Leaky Gut Syndrome, Autoimmunity, and chronic health problems.

We’re going to share 15 lessons you can use to re-engineer your health and that of those around you (15 lessons we wish we could get in a time machine and share with ourselves years ago when we were sick).

Think of it like the greatest hits from 2014 – the top lessons we’ve taken the time to curate for you from some of the best experts on these issues.

These 15 lessons are clips from our entire “Solving Leaky Gut Masterclass Interviews.”

Customers of our Solving Leaky Gut program have already seen some of this, but now they get 6 free bonus masterclass interviews just for being part of the community (if you own this product, login to check out the 5 new hours of interviews).

If you’re not a part of our Solving Leaky Gut Community yet, at any point in time you can grab the full 14 hours of Masterclass Interviews here.

What’s the motivation?

We want you to change the conversation at your holiday dinner table. We want to arm you with the ideas, knowledge, and facts to fix your health and begin spreading it to those you love.

So, let’s get to learning and remember action is just as important as knowledge, so don’t skip the daily action steps this week.

Obesity, heart attacks and cancer are all at the top of the list of things most of us never want to experience. And yet they continue to rise in numbers each year.

But we can change this. Watch the videos and do the exercise below.

Lesson 1: Lipopolysaccharide Toxins, Leaky Gut and How to Make Sure You Have a Heart Attack

Heart attacks are very scary and a huge part of our growing chronic health issue.  Would you be surprised to learn that leaky gut syndrome and heart attacks are linked?  Well it’s true. You’ll learn a lot more all about LPS or Lipopolysaccharide toxins that cause big issues if they get into your body.

Lesson 2: How Estrogen Gets Recirculated And Increases Breast Cancer Risk

Dr. Sara Gottfried drops some serious bombs in this segment about how gut health, pooping, and estrogen dominance are all related. She also goes deep into how breast cancer risk goes up if you have these few critical gut issues.

Lesson 3: How Inflammation Leads to Obesity (and the Vicious Appetite Cycle it Feeds)

It’s becoming common knowledge that we want to avoid inflammation, but do you truly understand what it is? If not, this lesson will blow your mind. This lesson is very important for anyone struggling with being overweight.

I used to be 60 pounds heavier than I am now and I hated it. In this video, Dan Pardi describes how inflammation leads to weight gain.

What To Do Today…

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin

Learning is as much about action as it is information. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’ll remember what you heard in the videos today. Science tells us it’s pretty likely that you’ll forget most of it in the next 48 hours…

Unless you do something that cements it into your head.

That’s how you get involved, like Benjamin Franklin said.

Day 1 Action Step: leave a comment below sharing your biggest takeaway from the three videos you watched today. Write it down and post it for everyone in your own words.

If you don’t want to do this entirely for your gain, know that by doing this publicly you’ll be helping everyone else in the community understand and remember as they read your responses.

BONUS POINTS: send this blog post to the one person in your life that needs this information the most (but don’t tell them you commented on it).

Thank you so much for learning with us today. I would have given anything to have this information back when I was sick and I’m so grateful to share it with you now. I’ll talk to you in the comments below.

See ya tomorrow!

-Steve

The post These Chronic Health Trends Will Blow Your Mind (But There’s Hope) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

We hope by now you’ve watched the groundbreaking new film, Origins, featuring 24 of the brightest minds in human and environmental health who revealed the real reason we’re struggling with chronic illness – and how we can reclaim the health and vitality that once came to us naturally.

(HINT: gut health is FINALLY featured as the critical step.)

If you missed it, you have until Saturday, November 22^nd to watch it for free.

Access the Full-Length Origins Film at Absolutely No Charge Here.

If you’re anything like me…

Hopefully you’ve been sending this to your family and friends. I’m so grateful that gut health is finally making it into the mainstream, so now I can send the people I care about to something like this instead of talking till I’m blue in the face at holiday parties

My friend, Pedram Shojai, OMD, is the guy who made this movie and convened these world-class experts after he ran a large medical practice where he treated the same lifestyle-induced ailments again and again.

Four years and nearly $1 million later, he and the foremost authorities in human and environmental health bring you this vital message to inspire and empower you to take back your health.

What I love about Pedram is he didn’t just want to make a movie… he wanted to make sure everyone who watched the movie had specific actions steps to improve their health.

In fact, all the experts featured in the film (and even more!) have made hands-on, how-to videos to make it SIMPLE for you to make small but significant changes that will liberate you and your family from this health trap AND have an immediate and dramatic effect on the vitality of our planet.

I’m one of the experts as well, sharing my thoughts and action steps about Leaky Gut.

This collection of videos that make up the Origins Summit will be available starting Sunday, November 23^rd – at absolutely no cost. And you can be among the first to access them.

Fast-Track Your Way to Better Health, Energy and Vitality by Registering Here.

Some of my favorite actionable talks help to:

• Clear the toxins from your body and home – to protect yourself and your family from harmful off-gassing, poisons and other unhealthy additives in our furniture, food, personal care products, cleaners and more.
• Feel better, think more clearly and have a whole lot more energy – without the use of drugs, chemicals or artificial stimulants.
• Become a savvy, conscious consumer – with easy shopping strategies to put you back in control of your wellbeing (and your wallet!)
• Thrive in our modern, technology-driven world – without sacrificing your health or the health of our planet.

There’s been a TON of Summits lately and frankly I’m pretty burned out on them myself… but I was happy to contribute to the Origins Summit because it was something fresh… a full-length feature film that comes with simple-to-execute tips on everything from greening up your home to urban gardening to hormone balancing to beating food allergies from the world’s leading authorities in human and environmental health.

Get All The Details About the Origins Summit and Register Here at No Charge.

The 5-day, Online Origins Summit starts (for FREE) on Sunday, November 23^rd.

Please share this with loved ones that you think might benefit from understanding what a HUGE role the gut plays in their overall health. They may not listen to you or me, but they may listen to this full-length feature film and the Summit with 30 experts sharing simple tips they can use to rescue their health.

– Jordan

P.S. Here’s what the experts are saying about this:

“The Origins Summit reveals what the food industry and chemical companies don’t want you to know – that it’s not too hard, expensive or inconvenient to eat and live in ways that support your long-term health and the long-term health of our planet. Those are lies.”

—Mark Hyman, M.D.,

Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, 8-time NY Times Bestselling Author and Chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine

“So many people are either unaware of the mounting damage to our health from the destruction of the environment or feel guilty that they aren’t doing better. Origins shines a much-needed spotlight on the root cause of our health crisis and, most importantly, empowers us with simple ways we can make a real difference. Bravo!”

—Sara Gottfried, M.D.,

Harvard-Trained Physician and NY Times Bestselling Author of The Hormone Cure

Remember: The Origins Summit Starts Sunday, November 23^rd. Register Now So You Don’t Miss A Thing.

The post 30 Experts Share Small Changes to Rescue Your Health appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Big news! A new full-length feature film is talking about gut health in a way I’ve never seen before. I was lucky enough to watch an early screening a few weeks ago and it totally blew me away!

And now, you can watch a free screening for the next 10 days. Click here to check it out.

Think about you and the five people you care about most…

What scares me the most about this planet right now is how many human beings are sick.

And there’s a good chance most of them are struggling with more than 1 serious health issue.

And if you’re reading this right now, it’s likely that you’re a part of our community because of a gut health issue in your own life.

If you’re dealing with chronic illness like Steve and I did, you’ve got to hear the simplest and most profound explanation, offered by some of the brightest minds in human and environmental health, for why our guts are completely destroyed – and how we can reclaim the health and vitality that once came to us naturally.

It’s going to be revealed in the global premiere of the brand new, groundbreaking movie Origins.

When I watched it I was blown away . . . and now you can watch it too. Get immediate access here at no charge.

And what’s better? You can watch it from the comfort of your own home instead of paying through the nose at the movie theatre!

This movie is a vitally important reminder that we humans were once pretty bad-ass organisms. And it’s only been over the last few generations that that’s all changed.

In our modern world, we don’t move enough, we don’t know how to take care of ourselves, and we’ve become disconnected from what makes us thrive on all cylinders as the super-animals we once were.

We’re getting sicker, weaker and more infertile. We’re spending billions on health care to stay healthy, and it’s not working.

It’s a trend my friend, Dr. Pedram Shojai, OMD, recognized was reaching epidemic proportions while he was running a large medical practice and treating the same ailments again and again.

And it’s what drove him to spend the last 4 years and nearly $1M to convene these amazing minds and shine a much-needed spotlight on the often unseen, underlying forces that are putting your health and wellbeing at risk.

Movie screenings start today, Thursday, November 13th, featuring some of the world’s foremost health experts who will show you how to:

• Take back your power to determine the quality of your own life – by discovering how you’re being scammed out of your health and by whom.
• Safeguard yourself and your family against preventable illness – with little-known, research-based health and wellness tips anyone can use.
• Make immediate and drastic improvements to your world and the world around you – with simple, daily adjustments to the way you eat, shop and live.

Discover the real reasons our gut health is getting worse and worse with each generation – and how to reclaim the health and vitality that once came to us naturally.

You’ll be empowered, inspired and so glad you did.

Click here to watch it for free

(And share this with loved ones that you think might benefit from understanding what a HUGE role the gut plays in their overall health. They may not listen to you or me, but they may listen to this full-length feature film.)

– Jordan

P.S. – This powerful, groundbreaking movie premiers on Thursday, November 13th and runs for 10 days at no charge – only for those who register here.

Mark your calendar and be sure to share this invitation with the people you care about most!

The post What’s Really Undermining Your Family’s Gut Health? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Thank you so much to the 2,988 people who recently helped us name our baby… the new gut project we’ve got in the works! We sent out FREE supplements and tests to random participants and those who suggested our new website name…

Because this is something that’s very important to us.

See, the name of a website matters… and at the same time it doesn’t.

Look at SCD Lifestyle. It took us over 6 weeks to figure it out back in 2009. And now many participants of our community aren’t even doing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

What matters, I believe, is the message… the quality and the results that a website delivers. And if the name of that website is not built on those factors, it can be overcome.

The Results of Our Survey (Naming Our Baby)

It’s Official… We are super excited to announce that the name of our new project is…

The Healthy Gut Project

It was a closer race in the end than we expected, but the one we had our hearts set on won in the end.

Thank you for all your help with the selection of the name!! This community is the soul of why we get up each morning… and we wouldn’t have it any other way than to have you naming our new baby…

Now, it’s time for us to get to work on the branding, logo and website design. But we’re actually very excited to do the work because it’s going to be bigger than anything we’ve done before.

Larger than SCD Lifestyle — Larger than Solving Leaky Gut.

Many of the Details are Becoming Clear

We want more specific experts teaching all of us about gut health. These would be people whose lives are devoted to this topic in both deep research and clinical application. And we’ll help them reach those with gut issues. If you have recommendations already, please let us know…

We will create more inspirational resources to help fuel and guide your journey. Because we know that knowing what to do and actually doing it is the battle…

The steps are typically simpler than we want to believe, but the execution and the healing journey is the tough part. This is an area that we are super excited to spend more time on.

We’ll continue to dive deeper into the mental hurdles and challenges of being sick, recovering and staying well.

This will become an even bigger community than it is now. It will be all-inclusive as long as you follow some simple respectful rules. Any diet is welcome, any condition is welcome – we want to be the place for those with digestive issues.

We are feverishly working on new, better and more comprehensive ebooks, videos and articles to help you with all of your digestive issues.

What The Healthy Gut Project Means to Us

It’s about everyone, not just SCD’ers, not just diarrhea or leaky gut. It’s about digestive health in general…

And more importantly, it’s a project.

A project means that we can’t do it alone. It’s a group effort – a community of people coming together. That’s a very big deal to us.

We’re finding that the more we learn about gut health the more we realize we don’t know. But we are getting better at understanding what our unique abilities are and they’re not always in teaching the science of nutrition, understanding of biology or breaking down the latest study.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop those things. It’s just that we are ready for some serious help in those areas and others.

The Healthy Gut Project is going to be BIG. Our dreams and goals are going to blow you away… which is super exciting and a bit overwhelming.

With SCD Lifestyle, things were simpler, we wanted to spread the message of the diet, make it easier to actually do it, and speed up the results people were getting.  And that’s not going away (so don’t worry).

With Solving Leaky Gut, it’s a bit more complicated. We want to be beacons, spreading the word that this is a very serious issue that is affecting MILLIONS of people. We wanted to create the best resource to get people healing and help save them $1,000s of dollars. We’ve done a decent job so far this year… but more work is needed. That’s not going away either.

The Healthy Gut Project is going to be FUN, Inspirational, Inclusive, and Blaze The Trail for anyone who’s ready for a healthier gut. Whatever that means to them.

Thank You for Your Support

I wrote a post last Thanksgiving that talked about how grateful we are for all of our readers and about how we spent weeks and months (that led to years) not really sure that we’d make it…

Not sure if we were helping anyone…

Not sure if we could do it.

We were told we weren’t writers, we weren’t business people, we couldn’t make a living helping people, we weren’t educated enough, and we weren’t healthy enough.

They were ALL WRONG…

Because of you…

Because of this incredible community.

Your continuing support is the reason we are still here – still proving the haters wrong – still growing and about to blow the doors wide open!

You’re the reason we continue to do what we do… and for that, we’re so grateful.

-Steve

The post We Are Changing the World Together (One Gut at a Time) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

When I was a kid, I ate dirt.

Now that I’m an adult, I wish I had eaten more.

Sounds weird till you read the science and think about how humans used to live.

In honor of that, we wanted to put together some simple tips for those with kids or who are thinking about having kids one day. One of the saddest statistics I’ve heard in the last few years is that today’s generation of kids are likely to be the first to DIE sooner than their parents.

Good thing it’s just a prediction and we have plenty of time to change it.

Here’s three simple steps to get your kids’ gut health stronger:

1. Put the Bristol Stool Chart on the Fridge (and bathroom)
2. Have an Abundance of Fermented Foods on Hand
3. Let the Kids Play in the Dirt Outside (and don’t worry)

Simple and effective is what parents want and these tips deliver. Will you try them?

Let’s Make Poop Fun and Normal Again

Our poop is “speaking to us” and giving us clues. If we pay close attention and track the quality of our poop, these clues can serve as signs of great or poor gut health.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if your kids knew this from a young age and had the tools to track their own health? Well, it’s as simple as a shift in the conversation in your household.

The easiest way to tell if your poop is helping lead you in the right direction, is to look in the toilet and use the Bristol Stool Chart. Hang it in the bathroom. Get the kids interested.

Print off our fun infographic about it.

Poop is currently more taboo than sex. And it’s sad. We all do it and it’s valuable info for detection of health issues. Let’s make it normal and fun again to poop.

Kids Love Fermented Foods if You Do

You know kids will love and develop a passion for what yours are. That’s the beauty and curse of being a parent.

The idea that kids don’t like fermented foods is a total myth. Show me a kid who “hates” all fermented foods and I’ll show you a household that doesn’t value them, have them around often or whose role models don’t eat them often.

Sure there are exceptions. This is a long game play, especially depending on the age of the children. It’s sometimes a 5 year plan. But that shouldn’t deter you because I hope you’re planning to eat them every day anyways.

If you’re not sure where to start, fermented foods like SCD yogurt, kimchee, kefir, and sauerkraut are where we’d urge you to put most of your focus in the long-run. In this video, Jordan explains the importance of including fermented foods in your diet.

Hopefully you understand by now that daily ingestion of probiotics from food or supplements is a great way to keep inflammation low, the immune system well-trained and gut lining healthy.

Not every kid is going to love fermented foods, but trust them. Kids have been shown in studies to eat what they need and not what they don’t for growth and development. Make the kitchen an exploration of fermented foods, make them at home, mess it up and use it to teach the whole time.

Their health and yours will keep getting better.

Dirt, it Does a Body Good

What kid doesn’t love to play in the sand box? Kids love to express their creative sides and they seem to love to get dirty. Unfortunately, western society’s view on this activity has changed to bad. (There are all kinds of bad bugs, dirty things and we should clean the kids as soon as possible.)

Not only could this send a mixed message to the kids, but more and more science is coming out showing just how healthy getting dirty is. In fact, our addiction to cleanliness could actually be causing our sickness.

See, soil contains millions of species of beneficial microbes, especially in the upper section of soil directly affected by roots. This is referred to as the rhizosphere. It’s generally well accepted that the next big medical breakthroughs will come from studying the gut microflora.  And this idea had to come from somewhere, soil scientists have been fervishly studying the rhizosphere for decades. It has become increasingly clear that plant health is directly affected by the microbial health of the soil and ultimately this leads to increased health on up the food chain.

Surprise, surprise plants need a diverse healthy bacterial community just as much as humans. And this interaction between soil and humans is very important.

There is evidence in the research that shows direct human contact with soil is beneficial to our health. It helps build and modulate the immune system, decrease stress, and more. [1] Specific studies in regards to asthma development support this claim. [2] [3] They show that the most beneficial exposure comes at an early age from “farm” bacteria or, gram-negative bacteria and lactobacilli. [2] Exposure to soil bacteria helps to expose the immune system to various pathogens at low levels that actually work to improve the immune system. This exposure helps create a plethora of diverse T cells help “…to ensure optimal balance of immunogenicity and tolerance.” [3]

This basically means that your body is better equipped to kick off the immune response when a foreign invader enters and maintain distinction between self and nonself.

Plus, some side benefits of getting out and playing in the dirt (or even gardening) are increased sunlight exposure, light exercise through moving the body, and having fun and socializing (increased oxytocin). And, to take it back to those asthma studies, some dirt and aerobic exercise are a good combination for facilitating immune development. So, next time you’re looking for something to do, get outside and roll around in the dirt a little and bring the kids.

And for their sake, let them be kids.

Looking for More Health Tips for Kids and Families?

It starts at home, with families and their kids. Jordan and I are so proud of all you amazing parents. The drive and desire you have for your children’s well being is nothing short of astounding.

A friend of ours, Katie, has a big household and is on a mission to support more families into wellness. And she recently told us about a blog post she put together full of tips for living a healthier lifestyle.

Among other things, she covers tips on how to:

• Get your family to eat real foods (without complaint)
• Eat nutrient dense foods affordably on a tight budget
• Improve sleep quality and manage stress
• Clean without toxins and make your own beauty products
• And much more!

Read all of Katie’s 10 suggestions here, so you can make even more of an impact on the future of your family’s health.

Perhaps You’re a Woman – A Mom – Looking For Specific Health Tips

If you’re a woman who’s been:

• Struggling to lose weight
• Has low energy
• Has high stress
• And wondering if your hormones are wacky?

If so, I’d like to urge you to register for one more free upcoming summit. Don’t worry they are spaced out so you won’t be overwhelmed. Learn about your family first, then women’s health and fitness next.

Register for Free Here

Neely Quinn, a Certified Integrative Clinical Nutrition Therapist and author of The Complete Idiots Guide To Eating Paleo, is hosting the (For Women Only) Weight Loss Solution Online Event.

We had a pretty epic hour-long HD video chat that you’re not going to want to miss.

Register for free here. No fad diets, gimmicks, skipping meals or starving involved. Women have specific hormonal, physical and emotional needs and this event provides a safe and educational place to address them.

These are jam-packed health summits full of health tips that will be sure to help you take action in any area you’re looking to make health improvements.

Remember, knowledge is power but only action brings results. So, keep learning and keep doing!

– Steve

The post 3 Ways to Improve Gut Health for Families (Especially Kids and Moms) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

If you want to skip ahead, we hosted a 2.5-hour event on constipation and strategies to beat it once and for all, so you can safely begin pooping again.

If you can’t poop… pretty much all you can think about is pooping. It’s really annoying. I’ve been there.

If you’re reliant on enemas, laxatives, or coffee to poop, I’m here to tell you that’s not normal and it’s not healthy.

You are constipated.

If you have to push, strain, and fight for every bowel movement, that’s a big red flag something is wrong.

You are constipated.

If your poops are hard, small, or painful when they come out…

You are constipated.

And if it hasn’t already gotten worse, it’s probably going to. How bad? Here’s my personal experience.

Hemorrhoids are Certainly Not Sexy (and Definitely Painful)

How do I know? I’ve battled with them. I used to be VERY constipated.

Then, I’d have diarrhea for a day. Then, more constipation. It made me feel off, full, and lethargic, so I’d sit on the toilet and push and push and try to force it out.

Then, one day I went to flush and the toilet bowl was completely blood red.

My heart fluttered and started racing. I was 16. I was embarrassed and confused.

I had an anal fissure.

I was too scared and ashamed to tell anyone or get it checked out.

If only I had known that I was constipated.

If only someone had told me what a proper poop was, about the Bristol Stool chart, and the idea that you shouldn’t spend 15, 20, 40 minutes on the toilet.

I thought it was normal to read a whole magazine in the bathroom.

And when I hadn’t pooped in days and it started getting uncomfortable, I wish someone had told me NOT to push, NOT to strain and NOT to force it out.

I Wish Someone Told Me Constipation Was a Massive Warning Sign

I could have saved 8 years of my health completely falling apart.

I hated my acne, farting, lack of energy, and exercise induced asthma. And it was all related to this constipation.

I know because it’s all gone now.

Most people think constipation is annoying because it makes you…

• Look fatter than you are
• Feel full and yucky
• And waste hours on the toilet

Little do they know that it dramatically raises your chances of serious medical conditions like…

• Anal Fissures
• Hemorrhoids
• And Megacolon

The worst part?

It’s typically a symptom of much larger problems happening in the body. The reality is that the gut is directly tied to the rest of the body. If you’re constipated to any degree, I can almost guarantee that you have other health complaints.

Your body isn’t working properly.

And while you might not be too concerned with the constipation, you should be.

If you figure out the root cause, it will typically unlock healing in all the other complaints you are having.

Introducing: The 2.5 Hour Getting Rid of Constipation Event

Constipation can be really tricky. And more than a few practitioners that I hoped would help me failed. Why? Because constipation typically requires short-term AND long-term strategies.

Not only that, but so many people we’ve worked with find short-term relief from things like coffee enemas… but they don’t realize how dependence can make things worse in the long-term.

That’s why focusing on short-term and long-term strategies together, along with healing the root causes of constipation, are the most important steps. And I want to share them with you.

On This 2.5-Hour Constipation Event, You’ll Learn:

• Why enemas are a really bad idea… unless it’s an emergency
• How most laxatives become addictive
• Short-term strategies for pooping ASAP (that are safe)
• Short-term pooping strategies that have been tested on 1000’s of people
• The Vitamin C flush… and how to use it
• 4-steps to a proper poop (so you can track your health going forward)
• The long-term strategies that can free you from constipation
• How constipation is tied to SIBO
• Other GI infections that can directly or indirectly cause constipation
• Why your hormones are so important for fixing constipation
• How food can cause constipation (and sometimes relieve it)
• The truth about Prunes for constipation
• The dangerous constipation-toxicity cycle in the body
• How Constipation is related to skin problems, low energy, and depression/anxiety
• Why taking fiber for constipation might put you in the emergency room
• AND MORE! ALL NEW CONTENT!

If you couldn’t attend live, we’ve recorded the call and transcribed it for you, so you’ll have the info you need to take action as soon as possible.

Grab access to the Constipation event materials today: http://constipationhelp.scdlifestyle.com

– Jordan

The post Step-by-Step Constipation Strategies appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

This is a paid position you can do from home and would probably start out as a 10-or-so hour per week role, with room for growth as this project grows.

We’re Looking For Someone Who:

1. Knows our community, is familiar with our work, and wants to help further it.
2. Is highly creative, artistic, and serious about branding and design. You probably have done graphic design for years and you like to help turn a big vision into something that customers rave about.
3. “Gets” that design isn’t all about beauty, but also about function and consumption. Is always thinking about how design enhances learning and enjoyment of products.
4. Enjoys working alone most of the time. The work you’ll be doing is typically alone. If you’re the type of person who likes to chit-chat with people and interact with friends a lot, this probably isn’t right for you.
5. Has the flexibility to work at least 1-2 hours a day – but can also put in longer days for big project deadlines.
6. Has experience creatively expressing the ‘feel’ of a larger brand through all mediums (website, logos, PDF, images, products, etc.).
7. Is extremely dependable… not the “This usually doesn’t happen, but it happened again” type.
8. Doesn’t take things personally, have feelings hurt easily or get offended by design feedback. Stays objective and likes to go with the flow of the design revision process as things evolve. Such is the life during revisions…
9. Is the type of person who can take creative control and drive the project forward with their own ideas, not just following directions.

If you’re the type of person who likes “organizer” work, where you’re following the design steps of someone that came before you… and just continuing on with the same brand… then this probably is NOT right for you.

This is more of what we would call “creative” work, and will require you to have a bigger vision and execute the “feel” of an entirely new brand throughout all mediums.

We believe design is extremely important in the teaching process, the consumption process and the enjoyment process of learning and you should too.

So, if you’re the type of person who loves creative things, using design to communicate a larger vision, and loves to start from scratch and brand something new, then this might be perfect for you!

As our graphic designer, you’ll be working on the ‘feel’ of the brand throughout all mediums, such as logo design, website layout, branding images, new product design, PDF layout, etc. We’re hoping this graphic designer role will be a long-term relationship with us going forward.

To apply, click below and respond to the questions by WED 9/24:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5YK9B2R

No questions or exceptions please.

-Jordan

The post We’re Hiring a Graphic Designer (to Help Us With Our Baby) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

In fact, gluten-free diets make me so ANGRY! (Watch this video to see me get fired up.)

That’s why I was excited to be a part of the Women’s Gluten-Free Health Summit alongside our friend Jennifer Fugo.

She invited 23 of the most well-respected experts in the fields of gluten sensitivity, autoimmunity, mental health, cooking and motivation to get answers to your burning questions. No topic is off limits…

What I like about her is she demanded the speakers forget the “doctor speak” and science jargon that might make your head spin. All of the conversations are framed around making sure anyone understands them as well as the major ramifications of living gluten-free that you might not hear about very often.

You can click here to register and watch my full talk for free, but because I’m so passionate about this topic I wanted to share some of the highlights from the content I shared with Jennifer.

These are some of the most important points I wish I would have known years ago when I was told a “Gluten-Free Diet is all I needed to eat to get healthy.”

I’m Gluten-Free! Why Am I Still Sick!?

It’s a good question. If the gluten-free diet is not working for you; if you’re still having energy problems; if you’re still having hormonal issues; if you’re still having skin issues, depression, anxiety, digestive problems; if you’re still struggling with these things even though you’re eating gluten-free, you may need to look closer at your gut.

There are really three steps to solving this leaky gut epidemic. Number one is remove the leaky gut triggers like: GMO’s, NSAIDs and chronic antibiotic use to name a few. Number two is to rebuild your gut with real food, supplements and lifestyle changes. Number three is to go after those root causes that could be making your gut leaky in the first place.

If you’re talking about what kind of a diet is going to help your leaky gut, it doesn’t really have a name. It’s not Weston A. Price, it’s not GAPS, it’s not the SCD, it’s not gluten-free, it’s not paleo. It’s the Jordan diet. It’s the Steve Diet. It’s the YOU diet. It’s really going to be customized for you and what you can tolerate and what you’re reacting to right now. One of the most important things is to rebuild your gut eating a diet that works for you. That may be why just going “gluten-free” isn’t enough.

Your Gut is a Brainy Mamma

They say that the gut is the mother of the body because it feeds everything from our brain to our skin – the same way that a mother feeds a child. It’s also called the second brain because of how similar the brain and the gut are. 95% of your body’s serotonin (a brain chemical we commonly think about) is actually housed in the gut, not the brain. It’s also called the first line of defense because 70% to 80% of the body’s immune cells are in the gut.

These immune cells live just on the other side of the intestinal barrier. If the quality of your gut tissue is compromised – say it’s leaking – then you’re exposing your immune system to things it shouldn’t necessarily come in contact with.

Your Immune System Is an Army That You Don’t Want to Piss Off

The gut-immune connection is strong. When foreign particles leak into your body, your immune system will mount a full defense attack against those things. Remember, the inside of your gut is actually the outside of your body. Your gut lining protects the rest of you from bad things you may ingest and keeps stuff where it should be – like food proteins. So, let’s say you’ve been eating dairy and start to find you can’t tolerate it; it may be that you have the intolerance because your gut is letting those particles leak to places where they shouldn’t be. So, it’s not so much that you have a dairy intolerance as it is you have a leaky gut. And if you have leaky gut it means stuff is getting into your body where it shouldn’t be. When this happens the body mounts a response to it. It gets mad!

Now, leaky gut manifests its symptoms in various ways. Often it’s associated with IBS or Crohn’s, but 30% of people with leaky gut do not have GI symptoms. That’s an important thing to know: If GI symptoms are not your main issue that doesn’t mean you don’t have leaky gut. It’s a tricky problem. The way symptoms show up really depends on where the bad stuff leaks into your body and how your immune system responds to it. Everyone is unique in this respect. Toxins can wreak havoc anywhere and may make the immune system angry. Everybody is a little bit different and everybody’s experience is different.

I Am NOT STRESSED!!!

When we talk about chronic stress, we often hear things like ‘emotional stress’ – a crappy job or a difficult situation in your marriage or the loss of a loved one, the frustrations we go through with being parents and the things that our kids bring to the table. We talk a lot about those stressors, but physical stress is just as powerful.

Stress can very easily cause leaky gut on its own, but what most people don’t realize is that overtraining physically is an incredible stressor on the body. A lot of people stress their body into leaky gut through marathons, Ironman racing/training, training for crossfit competitions and P90X. So, if you’re still sick and you’re doing crossfit, P90X, and those types of things, you’ve got to stop. You’ve got to remove that trigger right now, and you can make that change right away. What’s the point to pushing yourself if you’re going right over the edge into a bottomless pit?

So, How Can You Find Out What’s Making YOU Sick?

Oftentimes, practitioners will order food allergy, or food intolerance tests. You’ll get a comprehensive panel showing all the foods you “react” to. It sounds great – just get some blood or saliva taken and find out all the foods you need to avoid to heal and feel better! But oftentimes people just come away with a whole list of foods they eat every day – foods they love. What gives?

IgG tests tell you your exposure to foods, not necessarily your allergies or intolerances to foods. IgG is an immunoglobulin (an antibody), which is part of the immune system. If you have IgGs that react with certain food substances it means you’ve come in contact with that substance. It doesn’t necessarily tell us how the substance is affecting your body. Some reasearch is even saying these IgG tests may mark for food tolerance not intolerance. Others are pointing out that food allergy tests aren’t backed up by actual research. So, if you’ve had one of these tests done and have eliminated chicken, eggs, salmon, garlic, red onion, broccoli, spinach, and who knows what else – it may not be necessary.

My Full Women’s Gluten-Free Health Summit Talk FREE

If you want to catch my full talk for FREE as part of the Women’s Gluten Free Health Summit, you can register here:

–>> Click here to register and watch my full talk for free <<–

It’s called Could Leaky Gut Be The Reason You’re Still Sick? and I explain some of the most common triggers (beyond gluten) that you can remove right away to begin healing your gut and start feeling better.

I’ll also be joined by 23 health experts on health, autoimmunity, gluten sensitivity and cooking… plus, they’ll show you how to actually understand and integrate it into your busy life!

Hope to see you there

– Jordan

P.S. – My Women’s Gluten Free Health Summit talk about removing triggers that could be damaging your gut is free and I hope you get a chance to watch it before the Summit is over. You can register to watch all of the presentations here.

The post 5 Hot Topics From My “Women’s Gluten-Free Health Summit” Presentation appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

When I opened the link, I literally spit coffee all over my keyboard.

Almost 1,000 people had applied for our Virtual Office Manager position. Are you serious!?

It took weeks to get through all those applications!

The most common response?

“I found you guys when I was sick and now I’m getting healthy. I’m SOOO passionate about nutrition, I want to help people with their health and I would love to do that as part of your company.”

But what really tugged at my heart strings was the amount of people that said they were still sick. In fact, many already KNEW the reason WHY they were still sick.

This hidden reason didn’t surprise me… I’ve seen it over and over through the years. But what did surprise me is how many people were finally ready to do something about it…

The #1 Problem Making People Sick

You’ve probably heard us talk about “getting at the root cause” of your chronic illness – things like Adrenal Fatigue, Gut Infections, and Liver Toxicity, just to name a few.

But after working with people 1-on-1 for years, I can tell you that those are some of the easiest root causes to fix. Why? Because you can follow a custom diet and supplement protocols to correct them…

But there was a hidden root cause that seemed impossible to fix.

It was the root cause I couldn’t “Out Smart” in most people. Meaning, no matter what we did with their diet, supplements, and lifestyle changes… they were still sick.

And worse yet, it was the root cause I couldn’t do anything about. I literally couldn’t help them with it.

The #1 root cause making people sick is THEIR JOB.

I can’t tell you how many people I talked to, who were in tears, because the one thing making them sick was all they had to support their family. They couldn’t bring themselves to quit. They couldn’t bring themselves to change careers. They couldn’t get rid of the #1 root cause keeping them sick.

They were so unhappy with their jobs, there was no passion. It was stressing them out. And money was always tight.

And there was nothing I could say or do to change that. But the worst part was that I totally understood.

My Old Job Almost Killed Me Too

Years ago I was a maintenance engineer at one of the top 3 Automotive Companies in the U.S. I worked in a dark and dingy factory all hours of the day. I’d get moved to the midnight shift for a while, then I’d get bumped to the afternoon shift. Then, just as my body adjusted, I’d get put back to the day shift.

I was in debt. As a family, we were struggling to make ends meet. And I was trapped in this job for what I thought would be the rest of my life.

Every time I walked through those factory gates, I felt a dark cloud of stress come over me. It made me sick to my stomach every single day

I was responsible for keeping the manufacturing line up and running. And when it broke down, the company lost something like $10,000 a minute. So, my crew of electricians, pipefitters, and other skilled trades would jump in with the clock ticking (and our hearts racing).

My health was falling apart.

One night on 3rd shift (midnight shift) I was stuck in a bathroom stall having explosive diarrhea again.

It wasn’t the first time this happened.  But this one seemed never-ending.  Sweat was pouring down my face. Suddenly, my walkie-talkie started beeping, “Jordan – where are you!!!! The line is down, it’s been down for 5 minutes already. You have 2 minutes to get here and help your crew or this goes in the report to the Plant Manager.”

As you can guess, I never made it to that breakdown.

My job was killing me… and yet my health problems were about to get me fired.

It was a vicious cycle.

Most of us know that spending 8-10 hours each day doing stressful jobs we hate can be harmful to our health.

Here’s what science says about stress and what it does to us… (thanks to Chris Kresser for these citations)

• It raises your blood sugar
• It makes you hungry and crave sugar
• It reduces your ability to burn fat
• It suppresses your HPA-axis, which causes hormonal imbalances
• It makes your cells less sensitive to insulin
• It increases your belly fat and makes your liver fatty
• It increases the rate at which you store fat
• And it raises the level of fatty acids and triglycerides in your blood

All of this in exchange for a weekly paycheck?

I felt trapped. I was depressed. I didn’t think my life was going to get any better. I was trading my health for money, and struggling to get better.

But the Day I Quit My Job, Everything Changed

One day, enough was enough and I quit right there on the spot. I walked out of that car factory feeling 1,000 pounds lighter. I walked out of there with my life back in my hands.

That one decision, even though it was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made, was the catalyst to getting healthy for me.

I worked other jobs after that, but a few years later I was finally able to say that “SCD Lifestyle was my career.”

Instead of working myself into the ground (or closer to the grave) 8-10 hours a day, now my job is to help people with their health.

Every day I wake up, take my kids to school, and help people change their lives. I help people change family histories. I have passion in my life again. I love what I do. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like work.

And coincidentally as I’m writing this I’ve never been as healthy as I am right now.

I’ve been through hell with my chronic illness, but now I’m better. And because of what I went through, I can help other people going through that same hell.

My illness was not in vain. I was able to use a negative experience and turn it into something that changed people’s lives.

And you can too.

You have a gift to share with the world.

You’re passionate about nutrition; it helped save your life. And now you want to help other people do the same thing you did.

But first you have to stop doing what you hate, and start doing what makes you feel ALIVE.

I’m not saying you need to walk into work tomorrow morning and quit your job… that’s not necessarily a good idea, especially if you have family depending on you.  But what you can do is start learning how to create something on the side…

How to Turn Your Passion Into a Career

So many people need help with their health. Just look at a typical day of questions on our Facebook wall:

The pain you’ve experienced from health challenges is something you can now turn into a passion for helping others – the passion that burns inside you to transform lives.

Since we posted that job opening, we’ve received tons of emails from people who say they are super passionate about nutrition and want to turn their passion into a career.

But they have no idea where to start!

They love learning and sharing but they have no idea how to make it a career.

That’s why I’m excited to share some news with you: Our good friend Cynthia Pasquella put together an amazing web seminar about how you can make this happen.

It’s called: “How to Turn Your Passion for Health and Nutrition into Some Significant Extra Money on the Side or Even a Meaningful New Career”

–>Click here and register to attend FREE 

It’s completely complementary and here’s what she’s going to cover:

• Why the next 3 years are CRUCIAL if you are looking to build a nutrition business
• Three simple ways to make your weekly salary (or more!) by working just ONE day a week in your nutrition coaching business!
• How to charge $100 or more an hour as a Transformational Nutrition Coach
• Why nutrition coaching is a multi-million dollar industry and the 5 tools YOU MUST have to take advantage of this (hint: very few people do)
• What to look for in a nutrition certification program (and more importantly, what to avoid at all costs)

Every day, I see people who are unhappy, unfulfilled, and going through the motions of their own lives.

That doesn’t have to be you!

YOU can have a life that lights you up and a career that helps change people’s lives!

It IS possible! And we’re excited to know someone like Cynthia who can help you create that in your life.

Click HERE to join our friend Cynthia for her webinar.

See you there!

– Jordan

P.S. – If this webinar would’ve been available years ago, I would have signed up in a heartbeat.  It took us years and years of writing at SCD Lifestyle before we actually turned it into a career, and I’m convinced Cynthia’s work could have helped us start much sooner. Click here to register for her FREE webinar.

The post So You’re Passionate About Nutrition (How to Turn it Into a Career) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Making no profit, we lost $14,876 and I cried.

I hated my day job and SCD Lifestyle was still losing money. I was sick and tired of working 80-100 hours a week.

And Jordan and I were scrapping a software company we’d been working on for a year. $14,876 wasted. Months of hard work evaporated in smoke.

At this point, we were 2 years into SCD Lifestyle and wondering if we should even continue – wondering if the dream was possible. Could we make money helping people? Or were we going to rot in our cubicles?

Exhausted and sad would have been the understatement of the year.

We thought it might be time to QUIT…

Luckily, we had a business coach who believed in us and all of you to cheer us on.

If not for this support, we wouldn’t have pushed through The Dip (Seth Godin). And none of this would have been possible without you…

Including the trip to Hawaii we took this year, which was our first actual vacation in 5 years.

There I was with two great friends talking about what we were grateful for in the past year. I said:

• Paying off my $23,000 in credit card debt
• Finally quitting my “smart” cubicle job, before 29, so I could actually LIVE
• Getting healthier than I knew was even possible and being able to teach others how to do the same

Sitting on the deck looking out at the ocean, it was very much a “we’ve made it” moment. We actually built something that helps thousands of people, that supports our families and allows us to begin to pay down some debt.

And it’s a very nice feeling.

But, my reality wasn’t always like it is now.

I Used to Believe…

It was wrong for me to make money helping sick people.

It wasn’t actually possible to “change the world.”

And that I’d always be working some kind of job that was Blah.

Blah jobs suck. They literally sucked the life out of me.

And I used to believe I didn’t have enough “know how” to actually help people.

These beliefs held me back for years. And other people stayed sicker because of it.

People Needed Me to Step Up (and they need you too)

I wrote this above my desk and looked at it every day during 2012…

“People Need You To Step Up.”

The truth is we are leading the way. We are ahead of our time and we don’t settle for just so-so health.

The world needs people to be a shining example of what is possible. The amount of sick people who need help is higher than ever.

• 66% of America is Overweight
• 120 Million Worldwide with Depression
• 64 Million Plus Americans with Digestive issues

These people need someone to help guide them. Now is the best time to step up.

Are You Ready to Step Up?

I’m sure at some time you might have wondered if you were ready to help others. Well, have you ever…

• Talked late into the night with loved ones about health?
• Bought books, food or supplements hoping to improve someone’s health?
• Walked up to a stranger in the grocery store and told them they will die if they eat that?

Haha, okay maybe not the last one. But to be honest with you all it takes is a deep desire, a true caring for others, and the willingness to learn and build up new skills.

If I Had to Start Over… Here’s What I’d Do

Starting over wouldn’t actually be all that bad. Jordan and I actually did an exercise in Hawaii where we imagined it; we made it real. What if the unthinkable happened? What would we do? How would we handle it? It was an amazing exercise that the Stoic philosophers used to practice.

I’m so grateful for what we’ve built. But if we lost it, I’d be more than okay.

See, there’s so many more training courses, books and resources available today than when we started 5 years ago.

With more people than ever offering training on the internet, there’s actually NEVER been a better time to start than now.

Here’s the formula I’d follow:

1. Read the top 3 mindset and business books
2. Take the best health and business training program I could (and get licensed)
3. Start helping people immediately based on what I was learning

Those steps are simple and yet very profound. Most will never do them. If you take action, make mistakes and keep hustling, you’ll join the ranks with us – those who travel when we want, eat when we want, and sleep and relax when we want.

And get paid to help people.

3 Books That Will Change Your Life

For way less than $30 dollars you can get lessons that cost Millions of dollars and lives.

If I had to start over I would read from these 3 books every week:

• Man’s Search For Meaning
• Think and Grow Rich
• Choose Yourself

If you want to help others, the first rule is you must help yourself.

Man’s Search for Meaning is a book that, for me, shows the impossible is possible. Whatever is going on in my life – no matter the pain, it’s nothing compared to what others have gone through.

It’s the ultimate no excuse book.

Think and Grow Rich is the original self help entrepreneurship book. The lessons in this book are the foundation of almost all of the business books on the market today. Start with the classic; read it and re-read it, for it is timeless.

And finally, in case you didn’t figure it out yet, there’s no such thing as job security. It’s up to you to create it. In James Altucher’s words, you have to choose yourself. And if you follow the habit formula he outlines in his book, Choose Yourself, you’ll do just that.

The Skills You Need to Help People (all in one place)

A few years ago, Jordan and I spent months analyzing time spent, rate of return and quality of education for holistic nutrition programs, various doctor programs and health coaching schools.

In the end, we skipped them all; none of them would cover everything we wanted – a good education, ability to get licensed and some business training. There simply wasn’t anything out there.

Then, Cynthia Pasquella created the Institute of Transformational Nutrition…

Which does all 3. Talk about a transformation.

If I was starting over, I would sign up for the institute right away.

Actually, Jordan and I are so passionate about it that we joined the faculty to help teach and guide it.

By the end of it, you’ll have the knowledge to really help people and be able to sit for a licensed exam. You’ll know how to create a website, begin getting clients and create a profitable consulting program. Surprisingly, a lot of your ability to make this career change will hinge on your mindset. I’d suggest you listen to this presentation to get started.

Don’t Wait, Start Today!

Here’s the deal. Acquiring skills, knowledge and experience costs resources.

And you shouldn’t wait to start helping people until you’ve “figured it all out.”

You have the love, passion and skills to begin helping right now.

You could volunteer at a gym, health clinic or even a farmers market. You can begin to go to meetings and talk to people. After all, these people could possibly be the ones who’ll be hiring you in a few months when you’re doing the ITN program.

So many people think this is harder and scarier than it is.

To help people is just that. It’s a habit and a muscle. Don’t wait to flex it.

TO DO TODAY!

This is the blueprint that I’d use if I was starting over. It’s also the blueprint I’d invite you to follow.

The truth is we need you. There are so many people who need support, nutritional information, and in desperate need of someone to help guide them through a transformation.

If you’ve ever felt the fire inside of you to help people, then take these 2 steps…

1. Start by ordering the books above
2. Click here to sign up for Cynthia’s free webinar: How to Turn Your Passion for Health and Nutrition into a New Career

Cynthia, as you heard in our last podcast, is brilliant and the presentation she put together will be worth your time. She’s planning to talk about why the next 3 years are CRUCIAL if you’re looking to build a nutrition business, three simple ways to make your weekly salary (or more!) by working just ONE day a week in your nutrition coaching business, and the 5 tools YOU MUST have to make this career switch work.

Will you join us? Will you step up?

There’s millions of people who need our help.

Jordan and I sure hope so. We need an army of leaders and we want you.

Join Cynthia’s free presentation here.

– Steve

The post Are You Interested in Helping People and Getting Paid? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

I wasted HOW MUCH money getting healthy?

This question bothered me for months, mostly when I thought about my bills.

So I started reviewing my credit cards and looking at receipts from the last 5 years. Turns out I’ve invested well over $30,000 in my health since 2009.

But how much of it was a waste? That number is a little more tricky…

Only $2,000 of that amount is doctor co-pays, drug prescriptions or other acute trauma (ER) expenses.

I invested $28,000 of it out-of-pocket for an enormously large amount of supplements, tests, books, health coaches, functional medicine practitioners, doctors, and other alternative therapies.

Notice I said invested, not spent.  

Because as I reviewed all the money I invested over the years, I realized each and every dollar of that $30,000 was the best investment I’ve ever made. I said screw the stock market, 401Ks, savings accounts and instead chose myself.

That being said, if I had to do it over, I could definitely save A LOT of that money by avoiding common mistakes!

And the number one place I messed up is not knowing the difference between an average, good and great practitioner.

Today, I’m going to share what I learned about the difference between a good practitioner and an average practitioner, and hopefully, from all the mistakes I made, save you a few years, a lot of frustration and many thousands of dollars.

What Makes a Good Practitioner?

Good practitioners are definitely out there. But they are typically so focused on being good practitioners that they don’t usually devote a lot of time to understanding how to market, which makes it hard for you to find them.

A good practitioner can begin to change your health from the first appointment. They’ve seen people like you and they have ideas about tests, supplements and diets that will apply to your specific health history. So, when searching, what are the characteristics of a good practitioner that you should be looking for?

• Certifications beyond their original degree / license
• Knowledge of how food affects our health
• They use lab tests and know how to read them
• They’re focused on finding root causes
• They like to focus on one area first: like hormones, gut infections, diet, etc.
• Take time to listen and explain

All of these qualities are so important and typically lacking in the modern medicine insurance setting. Whether insurance companies won’t let them or their business model won’t allow it, the chances of finding a good practitioner who accepts insurance is shrinking every day.

Which is why MOST good practitioners don’t accept insurance and are also hard to find. But when you do find one they can and do save lives. If it wasn’t for a few good practitioners in the beginning, Jordan and I would still be sick.

My first good practitioner noticed the thrush in my mouth, took note of my sugar cravings and ordered a stool test that cost me $250 dollars but showed I had Candida. After 3 months on Nystatin I felt so much better. The problem was a year later I still felt only slightly better (nowhere near where I now do).

But GREAT Practitioners Are on a Whole Different Level

Your first interaction with a good practitioner will feel like a breath of fresh air. Good practitioners can definitely help you.

But GREAT practitioners can save your life.

When you meet with a great practitioner you’ll be blasted to a new world of excitement regarding your health. They not only listen but they get you and understand your problems. Great practitioners are even more rare than the good ones. But the nuances that make them great aren’t always easy to spot until it’s too late.

Great practitioners understand all the diets: SCD, GAPS, Paleo, FODMAPS, Vegan, etc. They understand how and when each of these diets tend to produce results, which gives them next level ability to break all the rules of each and guide you to your custom diet when things are unclear.

They have a system in place in which they can predictably get amazing results with people, but at the same time they aren’t afraid to go out on a limb. They’ll break the mold and try something brand new and different if you’ve already been trying many of the things they might normally do.

A great practitioner understands when they are in over their head with a certain case and knows how to ask for help. They will tell you they don’t know the answer and that they have a highly skilled network of people to ask for help. Ultimately, they’ll tell you to move on if they aren’t getting results. In other words, they understand that medicine is just as much an Art as it is Science.

Great practitioners use consistent and reliable labs to get third-party data to track progress, validate ideas and find root causes. All labs are inherently flawed and they know this. They’re aware that there is a story inside the numbers and have seen enough of the same types of labs to see patterns that good practitioners will never understand. They insist on testing and retesting after trying a treatment.

Possibly the biggest difference between great and good practitioners is that the great ones understand that there are often multiple root causes of your problems. They understand that the body is a system and there are parts that should be focused on first like addressing any limiting factors. And as they find and help you fix certain ones, they won’t stop until the job is done. They lead you towards consistent progress even if it is smaller than you’d like.

Some of these great practitioners also get the business and marketing part which leads to books, great websites, interviews and training programs. Unfortunately, it’s very RARE for a great practitioner to accept insurance because they have no need to be a part of this medicine model.

A great practitioner will help you make quantum leaps in your health and know how to guide youto the highest level of health you desire.

Where “Good” Practitioners Go Wrong…

I had several good practitioners that I’m eternally grateful for. One of them basically saved my life by beginning to turn this all around.

He found my first gut infection and begun to teach me about them. After 6 months of working with him I was so much better than before, it was remarkable. But then we got stuck and my fatigue and skin problems weren’t really improving. He ran lots of tests and labs on my thyroid and we tried all kinds of protocols. But nothing really seemed to work. And to make it worse he never seemed to run the same labs twice. So, it meant we didn’t have the best data, which is a crucial error made by many good practitioners.

He was really great with thyroid only problems. But I had adrenal, thyroid and brain problems (the full HPA axis). And so we focused on thyroid for about a year and got nowhere. At the time, I didn’t know about the HPA Axis. It was only after I hired a few great practitioners that all the pieces were put together regarding my hormones.

It turned out that my thyroid was just obeying signals from the rest of my body. These practitioners figured out that I was in stage 3 adrenal fatigue, that I had low serotonin and dopamine levels. Not only that but I was low in magnesium, b12 and zinc. And get this: as I healed more infections began to show up in my digestive tract.

These great practitioners knew to look for these patterns, had protocols they adapted to fit me and were also on watch for new infections.

So, Where do You Start?

Well, there are lots of things to take into consideration when searching for a practitioner including cost, locality and availability. In the beginning of my road back to health, I wasn’t used to spending large amounts of money on co-pays, supplements and tests. And so it was painful, especially at first, for me to begin to change how much I invested in my health.

Over time, I began to realize how important it was to fixing my body and it became easier for me to budget for non-insurance based practitioners, out-of-pocket labs, and $200/month in supplement bills.

Also, having a local practitioner is really important… but the problem is great practitioners aren’t in every town. So sometimes you’ll need to balance a few practitioners at the same time. All the great practitioners I worked with were virtual, meaning I worked with them over the phone while they helped me… and it was the one thing that saved my life.

Lastly, availability can be a big issue. Sometimes the wait can be 6 months (or longer) to see these types of practitioners. For some people it isn’t worth waiting that long and they need to see someone ASAP. So, try to balance this part of the equation as well.

The #1 place I could have saved some of that $30,000 would be investing in Great practitioners instead of Good practitioners for years. Not only that, but it would have helped me get healthier years before I actually did.

So, if there’s anything I can do to help this community it would be to save you some time and money and help you start working with GREAT practitioners who “get it” and can help you right now.

Because there is one thing I know for sure – the process of finding a great practitioner can be stressful, disappointing and confusing, which is why we’re committed to making it easier for you.

We’ve already built relationships and found great practitioners for you who can help with everything I laid out in the article and have availability to work with you right now (while it lasts).

If you’re still searching, check them out here. I highly recommend you choose a skilled functional practitioner from that page and you’ll likely save yourself a lot of time and money in the long run (compared to the road I took).

– Steve

The post The Difference Between Good and Great Practitioners (It Saved My Life) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

After all they work FOR us. So why did it feel so wrong?

In everything but my health, if someone doesn’t do a good job, I have no problem firing them…

Like if I hired someone to mow the lawn and they killed my grass… FIRED.

Or if I hired someone to change my oil and the engine blew up… FIRED.

Or if I hired someone to do my taxes and I ended up in trouble with the IRS… FIRED.

But firing a Doctor is something I never thought I had to do. Until they just shrugged their shoulders and wrote another prescription that didn’t work.

The 2nd and 3rd time I fired a Doctor, things went a little easier, but it sure was depressing. I honestly didn’t think there was anyone out there who could figure out was wrong with me.

Finding a Skilled Practitioner Was One of the Hardest Things I’ve Ever Done in My Life

Not only was I sick, but working with terrible practitioners literally stole every ounce of my hope.

After years of this, I FINALLY found a truly Skilled Functional Practitioner that put a lot of the pieces together for me and did some amazing work on my body. For the first time, I had hope I could get healthy…

That’s why Steve and I created SCD Lifestyle 5 years ago; to give you hope…

The hope we didn’t have when we were sick…  

The hope that you can get better and that others like you are getting better… the community to know you’re not alone.

You may have heard of our Time Machine Rule: At SCD Lifestyle, everything we do starts with our core question: “If we could go back in time and help ourselves 7 years ago, what would we do? What did we need? How could we get better faster?”

It’s from that place that we wrote our book and created our meal plans. It’s also why we even studied Functional Medicine ourselves, so we could learn even more about how to help you get better.

On hand one, we feel like we’ve succeeded in following our time machine rule in some ways…

For example, the eBook and meal plans are exactly what I dreamed existed 7 years ago and they’ve helped tens of thousands of people around the world.

On the other hand, it drives me insane to always be recommending people to “find a skilled practitioner.” In just about every podcast, article, or live event, we recommend people “find a skilled practitioner” and to order a #401H Stool Test from BioHealth or other really critical Functional Medicine tools…

It’s like someone who gives financial advice saying, “good luck, I recommend you dig holes in your backyard until you find a rare gemstone that makes you rich!”

So again, we’re asking the core question: “If we could go back in time and help ourselves 7 years ago, what would we do?”

For a while we attempted to answer that question by helping people 1-on-1 in our health consulting practice and that was such a rewarding experience, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t what I would have wanted 7 years ago.

Officially, As You Read This Our Health Consulting Practice is Now Closed Forever

Why did we do this? What’s going on?

While we’re beyond grateful we did it, it’s now time to move on. We can’t work one-on-one and change the millions of lives we want to. There’s just not enough time.

And to be honest the health consulting program was unacceptable for us.

The world needs Skilled Functional Practitioners who:

• Understand digestive issues
• Know functional medicine
• Can troubleshoot diet and supplements
• Keep researching
• Keep innovating
• And who keep guiding those of us who are struggling with chronic illness.

What I really wanted 7 years ago was for someone I trusted to say, “Hey, I know how hard and frustrating it can be to find someone that can help, so I’ve gone out and done that for you. Here’s a Skilled Functional Practitioners you can book an appointment with right now that I trust.”

And that’s exactly what Steve and I have built for you today…

Announcing: A Trusted Place to Find Skilled Functional Practitioners

This new resource is called our “Recommended Practitioners Page.”

Here’s what we know after helping people over the last 7 years:

Skilled Functional Practitioners seem impossible to find.

And when you do find them word spreads fast, and they get so booked up that their waiting list is months out. These types of people are just flat out RARE!

I’m talking about people who are skilled in Functional Medicine with years of experience… but also have overcome chronic illness themselves. Even better… people who have trained with Dr. Kalish, the functional medicine institute and will never stop learning the latest and greatest ways to help people.

So we’ve gone out and built relationships with those people for you.

These are practitioners who have been sick and know what it’s like. They also appreciate our approach to diet and as well as trained with our friend Dr. Kalish, who’s one of the best Functional Medicine Practitioners we know… and his protocols have been working for over 8,000 patients in the last 20 years.

These are practitioners who can help you get the testing and protocols you need, but also support you in the diet, supplement, and lifestyle changes that your body is asking you for.

The first two trusted resources are ready to work with you right now…

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Julie Sands Donaldson, CMTA

Dr. Steve Hyjek, DC

Dr. Steve is a Functional Medicine Practitioner, Licensed Doctor of Chiropractic, and Director of The Functional Medicine Center, a clinic where he and his team utilize cutting edge solutions to provide real results. As a pioneer in the field of modern healthcare, Dr. Steve is actively sought out by clients who crave custom care and full recovery. He’s been trained by the best, including Dr. Dan Kalish, The Institute for Functional Medicine, Dr. Datis Kharrazian, and many others.

Dr. Steve’s obsessive drive to create a systems approach to healthcare by identifying and correcting the root causes is something we love about him. Over the years, he’s honed a unique skill in helping his patients regain total body wellness. He’s narrowed his focus to women struggling with autoimmune disease, especially Hashimoto’s disease. If you’re exhausted and have increasing symptoms like digestive problems, brain fog, weight gain, and chronic pain, Dr. Steve’s ready to bring his life’s work to your case.

Marcus Ettinger, DC

Marcus is a southern California Licensed Doctor of Chiropractic with 29 years of experience. Since struggling with chronic migraine headaches as a child, he’s been obsessed with natural and Functional Medicine solutions like diet, exercise, supplements, sleep, gratitude, and positive thinking that serve to handle the underlying problem rather than just treat symptoms.

Marcus is passionate about gut health, serving those “tough cases” with unresolved GI issues, even after seeing multiple doctors and having completed multiple protocols. Especially those that suspect chronic infections like H. pylori, klebsiella, pseudomonas and biofilm are contributing to their conditions. If you’re struggling with Abdominal Pain, Gastritis, Diarrhea, Bloating, or Chronic Gut Infections, Dr. Ettinger is ready to coach you on your healing journey.

Brie Wieselman, L.Ac

Brie is a Functional Medicine practitioner and acupuncturist, who’s been studying and practicing Functional Medicine for 15 years. She’s trained with some of the best including training with Dr. Dan Kalish, Dr Datis Kharrazian, The Institute for Functional Medicine, and many others.

Brie’s own struggles with PCOS, multiple digestive parasites, Candida Overgrowth, and Hypothyroidism have driven her to seek the root causes of chronic illness. Over the years, she’s honed a unique skill of solving tough chronic illness puzzles in her clinic. If you want help with digestive problems like gas, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation, or you’re struggling with female hormone challenges (like PMS, painful or missing periods, PCOS, Fibroids or endometriosis), Brie’s excited to start unraveling your case.

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What to do Next:

1) If you’re currently a private client, please be patient as the consulting practice continues to change over the next few weeks… check your email for the latest updates from us.

2) If you’d like to start working with a trusted, skilled functional practitioner right now, Brie and Stephanie are waiting and excited to help you get at the root cause of your issues… but please hurry, this announcement is now public and I’m not sure how long their appointments will last.

–> Click here to book an appointment with one of these trusted practitioners

Please know that you are the fuel that keeps us going. You are the inspiration. Hearing your stories of transformation and empowerment is what fills us up. Thank you for being a part of this awesome community.

In good health,

– Jordan and Steve

NOTE: Choosing a health-care professional is a personal decision. Our introduction of these practitioners should not be construed as an express or implied endorsement of them and you should approach your selection of a practitioner with care. We, of course, are not and cannot be responsible for your experience with these independent practitioners, their advice, treatment or approach.

The post Finally… A Trusted Place to Find Skilled Functional Practitioners appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

If you want to skip ahead, we hosted a 2.5-hour event on the gut-hormone connection and why hormones are THE MOST critical step toward healing your gut. Grab access here.

In the past, we’ve shared a sample of this material to a small group of people and got such incredible feedback we decided to make it into a full class.

Here are a few insights from the people that attended the sample material:

“I enjoyed hearing the actual cortisol number crunches, since I had the results of my tests in front of me… now knowing why I am so tired all the time. Just the progression of hormonal exhaustion & how it can creep up on us was so interesting.”

“The role of cortisol in relieving inflammation; the possibility that my constant hot flashes (every 40 minutes or so, for the last 20+ years) could be related to my gut health.”

“I finally learned how Jordan gained weight!! Both my husband and I were on SCD and ended up really, really skinny. I more fully grasped how hormones and gut issues are linked. I also found it interesting that you use sublingual drops for treatment, which makes a lot of sense for people who cannot digest well.”

“The adrenal connection to the cortisol levels in the body and how it affects the body. Also the antibiotic affects, because I went thru a year of battling a severe sinus infection and suffering with U. C. at the same time.”

Back when I was sick, I was massively fatigued, scary skinny and stuck eating only 8 foods. If only I had known that my hormones were the reason I was stuck, life could have been so different.

It’s so frustrating to be doing so many things right and not really get better.

If you’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office treating symptoms as much as I was… but never getting to the root cause, you know how frustrating it is.

Or if you’ve been doing everything you can with your diet, but you’re still struggling with low energy, digestive problems, and inflammation… you know how frustrating it is. I was there too.

Regular doctors don’t like to hear this, but trying to fix stomach problems by focusing only on the digestive system won’t get you very far.

This Isn’t Just About the Stomach Problems

The stomach problems might cause the sharpest pain, but let’s be honest… everyone who has stomach problems also has other nagging issues. Things like:

• Low energy
• Chronic inflammation
• Blood sugar swings
• Low libido
• PMS problems
• Depression or Anxiety
• Chronic infections
• Skin issues

The amazing thing is that these are huge red flags for hormone problems and directly related to the GI tract. These symptoms don’t seem connected to your gut health… but they are. And if you are going to get to the root cause of the GI issues once and for all your hormones need to get fixed too.

The best part is… you can work on them at the same time.

In a perfect world, you’d already be working with a knowledgeable and capable practitioner who would be creating the energy and health you want. But the reality is that right now these people are mostly hidden and/or too busy.

That’s unacceptable for us.

We Want to Share Everything We Can on The Gut-Hormone Call — Material You Can Use Today, Things Like:

• Is Adrenal Fatigue real? And How to prove it to your doctor with tests
• What NOT TO DO when you have adrenal fatigue (most miss this one)
• Signs and symptoms of a slow thyroid
• The key differences between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism and what happens if you combine them with a leaky gut (hint: autoimmunity)
• The specific thyroid tests to get from your doctor
• Why gut problems, adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues all work together to destroy energy (and what to do about it)
• Steve’s battle and shocking discovery about sub-clinical hypothyroidism
• Jordan’s struggle to overcome the adrenal fatigue that kept him scary skinny and exhausted

If you couldn’t attend live, we recorded the call and transcribed it for you, so you’ll have the info you need to take action as soon as possible.

Grab access to the Gut-Hormone presentation today: http://energyhelp.scdlifestyle.com/

– Jordan

The post Powerful Event: “The Gut-Hormone Connection” appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

We’re looking for a Virtual Office Manager to help us manage the day-to-day details of the practitioners we work with.  We currently have a wonderful team member in this role who has been promoted to a new position with us.

This is a paid contract position that you can do from home and would start at around 10 hours per week, with room for growth as we grow

We’re looking for someone who:

1. Is highly organized, detail-oriented, and serious about organization and processes. You probably have done event planning or bookkeeping because you’re good at logistics and details, and you like to write lists and work from a checklist at all times.
2. Enjoys working alone most of the time. The work you’ll be doing is typically alone. If you’re the type of person who likes to chit-chat with people and interact with friends a lot, this probably isn’t right for you.
3. Has the flexibility to work atleast 1-2 hours each day of the week (excluding Saturday and Sunday) – preferably split between the morning and late afternoon/evening.
4. Is “tech savvy” with things like Office, Google Docs, scheduling, email, ordering things online, etc.
5. Is extremely dependable… not the “This usually doesn’t happen, but it happened again” type.
6. Doesn’t take things personally, have feelings hurt easily or get offended. Stays objective and likes to always use logic to make decisions.  Like an engineer

If you’re the type of person who likes “creative” work, where you work with and interact with a lot of people… and deal with a lot of different types of complex challenges… then this probably is NOT right for you. This is more of what we would call “organizer” work, and will require you to keep checklists and work through specific processes.

On the other hand… if you’re the type of person who loves organizing things, operating efficiently and uses checklists, and basically becomes better and better at running through a pre-planned process, then this might be perfect for you!

As the Virtual Office Manager, you’ll be ordering tests, ordering supplements, collecting new client documentation, processing orders, filing test results, etc. This role does not specifically require much interaction with our clients or customers, but it may be required from time to time.

No questions or exceptions please.

To apply, click below and respond to the questions by WED 7/16:

–> https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q5TBCGS

We will be reviewing applications after the 7/16 deadline and if you’re selected for an interview, you will be contacted shortly after that.

– Jordan

P.S. – We’d love to have you join our team if it’s a good fit.  Please apply for the Virtual Office Manager position by 7/16 here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q5TBCGS

The post We’re Hiring Another Virtual Office Manager appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Leaky Gut Takeover Week 1 is almost up.  Last night, we had a blast with over 3,800 people on the webinar!

If you missed out don’t worry we are going to do another one this coming Tuesday, May 13th at 6:00pm Pacific / 9:00pm Eastern.  You have to click here and register to attend (or receive a link for the recording).

Last night we did 1 hour of live Q&A.  Next time we just might go longer because so many people attended.

The Best New Leaky Gut Articles

The most advanced guide to leaky gut is (and how it actually works at a cellular level) can now be found at our new Solvingleakygut.com site.

Years ago, Robb Wolf was already telling people that leaky gut was an issue. Now with some clever searching you can find that intestinal permeability is tied to almost every chronic disease.  Check out this viral post that Jordan did called “How to Keep Your Poop Where it Belongs.”

If you read both of those posts, maybe twice, you’ll know as much or more than most doctors on how leaky gut happens.

Learn About Leaky Gut Through Audio

If reading isn’t your thing, I get it.  I like talking a whole lot more than writing, which is why I jumped at the chance to do some recent interviews about gut health.

I was on Dr. Lo Radio earlier this week and we covered lots of things including:

• Could a leaky gut actually make you absorb more nutrients?
• What are the pluses and minuses of intestinal permeability testing?
• And what diets are best for healing a leaky gut?

You can listen to the recording here.

I also did a short podcast with my buddy Jonathon Bailor about poop and digestive bloating.  Of course we talked a bit about leaky gut as well.  Listen here.

Dr. Michael Ruscio, who I interviewed for a leaky gut master class on GI infections, invited me on Jimmy Moore’s LLVLC show.  We went super deep on resistant starch, GI infections and he gave some awesome advice to those struggling with gastroparesis.  Listen to the show here.

We’v got a couple more podcasts lined up for the next few weeks.  Do you listen to any shows you’d like to hear us on?

Like Pictures? Check Out This Secret Illness…

No, that’s not a zombie at the top; it’s what really sick people look like.  And it’s easily what can happen when your hormones are depleted by leaky gut.  See, we’re trying to get the message out to the mainstream.

What do you think of our new infographic?  View it here: http://solvingleakygut.com/secret-illness-epidemic/

It’s been an intense week for us and we really hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have.

Stay tuned, because we’ve got some more awesome stuff headed your way next week!

– Steve

The post Leaky Gut Takeover: Week 1 Recap appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

It’s a Stick Up! – Leaky Gut is taking over SCD Lifestyle for the next 2 weeks… and we’re so excited!

It’s all new free material to help you and your loved ones learn about leaky gut, who has it, how to fix it, what it does to your body… and more.

It Starts With The Leaky Gut Quiz

The main star of the show this week is the new leaky gut quiz…

It takes about 3 minutes and once you’re done, you’ll get a custom analysis of your top leaky gut risk factors, as well as a 60-minute interview with one of the world’s leading experts on your #1 problem.

Imagine being able to spend an hour asking one of the top experts in the world about your biggest health complaint… experts like Chris Kresser, Dr. Kalish, and Dr. Tom O’Bryan on topics like acne, hormones, depression, healing the gut, autoimmunity, and more.

All completely free to you – well you can.

Go here and take the 3 minute quiz.

What’s About to Happen…

Over the next 2 weeks, Jordan and I are on a mission to spread the word about leaky gut.  But not just talk about it…

Our goal for you: By the end of the next 2 weeks, you’ll know more about leaky gut than 99% of the Doctors in the world!

Don’t think it’s possible?  Well, think again.  If you’re willing to go through the next few weeks together with us, you’ll know everything you need to know about leaky gut… and what to do about it.

It starts with the free leaky gut quiz you can take right now.

What’s coming next?

After the quiz, you’ll get more articles, free live presentations, and of course – the public release of our new Solving Leaky Gut program for those who need a customized step-by-step approach to healing their leaky gut.

Can’t wait to see how this changes your life.

– Steve

PS – The leaky gut quiz is free and gives you a custom analysis of your risk factors.  Plus, you’ll get an expert interview based on your #1 health complaint.  Click here to take the quiz now.

The post Announcing: The Month of Fixing Leaky Gut appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

It’s Time to Party!!

We’re about to reach another exciting milestone and it’s time to celebrate.  Yup, we’re having a party and guess what?! You’re all invited!

Last spring, we hit the 20,000 Facebook Likes mark, which took over 3 years but we were blown away with sheer joy.  Now, we’re about to reach 50,000 and we couldn’t be more grateful!

Our growth in the last year has been amazing, some of the time we could barely even keep up with it.  We’ve hired more staff to support us, developed amazing new products and been busy building a dream chronic illness consulting practice.

Whether you’re brand new or have been with us since day one, we’re so thankful that you have chosen to join us and help us foster this amazing community.

We Want to Give You a Gift

To celebrate, we would like to give 50 of you a $50 gift certificate towards any of our informational products. *

How to get your gift you ask?

Head over to our Facebook Page and Like it if you already haven’t…

1. In Facebook, share a pic of your favorite Real Food meal or recipe
2. In your Facebook post, Tag us by typing “@SCDLifestyle” (don’t include quotes)
3. Also, add “#SCDLifestyle50K” (don’t include quotes)
4. Send an Email with Subject: “50K FB Party” to support@scdlifestyle.com
5. Inside the email paste the link to your post
6. We’ll send the first 50 people who do this a $50 gift*

There’s one stipulation…

Of course, there’s always a catch right.  Please help us to keep growing this wonderful community!  All we ask is, if you haven’t liked us yet or we haven’t quite reached 50K, then please Like us here or tell your friends and family about us.  Who knows, you might even be the one that gets us to 50K.  In the meantime, get your picture ready to post.

30K Likes in Just Over a Year!?  Holy Crap! (pun intended)

Getting 30K Likes in this short period of time is another huge reminder that what we’re doing really matters to a lot of people.  We’ve been really busy lately constantly working to bring you the most innovative, thought-provoking and relevant content out there and we wouldn’t be able to do it without all of our community… you.

In the last 3 months we haven’t been as active as usual on Facebook but it’s going to change.  Many of our large projects are wrapping up in the next few weeks and after a short break we’ll be back it.

Thank you, all of you, so much for liking and following us… it keeps us going and drives us to do what we do each and every single day!

Now, let’s go celebrate with some Real Food!

In good health,

Jordan and Steve (and Rockstar Staff)

* Some exclusions apply.  Only the first 50 to complete the task above will get one.  It’s a full $50 dollars free to use (see gift certificate for additional red tape details).

The post 50,000 Facebook Likes Party! Let’s Celebrate With Real Food! appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Nature does it to me every time…

No matter how much crap is going on in my life, or how sick I am, nature always heals.

This picture is the view from Green Mountain Peak near Boulder, Colorado.

Within minutes of reaching the top, Nature did it again.  My body instantly went quiet and I could breathe deep.  I felt grounded.  I felt peace.  I felt… healed.  What a gift!

It’s not something I can put into words, but if you’ve experienced it you know what Nature can do, anytime, anywhere.

That’s why I’m here visiting Steve in Boulder this week.

1) To spend time in Nature relaxing and healing (we nearly fell apart finishing our new leaky gut project).

And

2) To re-focus on new ways to support you.

Here’s The Biggest Thing on Our Minds This Week

We’re still sorting through 60+ applications to hand-pick two new Licensed Functional Medicine Practitioners to join our consulting practice… meanwhile the new client waiting list has grown to almost 300 people.

This is unacceptable for us…

When we shut down our consulting practice earlier this year, we shared why we do what we do.  Everything you see at SCD Lifestyle is what we would have wanted 7 years ago when we were sick and it’s unacceptable for us that people are asking for help and can’t get it right now.  The new practitioners will be joining our practice very soon and we’ll notify the waiting list ASAP, but that doesn’t help you right now.

Until we get this all straightened out, we’d like to host a new 2.5 hour live call to support you with exactly what you’re stuck on right now.  It’s what we would have wanted 7 years ago.

We want this call to answer your #1 burning question.  What’s the one thing that could create a breakthrough in your health?

Do you need Gut Infection Protocols that actually work?  Do you need help with adrenal supplements?  Advice on how to blend SCD and Low FODMAP?

What’s the first thing you’d ask for help with during a 1-on-1 call?

TO DO TODAY:

Please take 2 minutes to tell us here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T3KW39R

We’ll use your responses and create a new 2.5-hour live call to support you.

Then stay close to your email next week for the call invitation and details.  It will most likely contain specific protocols and action steps we cover 1-on-1 with people (and certainly be priced less than $50).

You are the fuel that keeps us going.  Thank you for being part of this community.  We’re so grateful to support you.

– Jordan

P.S. – We’re creating a new 2.5-hour live teleclass for you, please tell us what you need help with here (only takes 2 mins): https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T3KW39R

The post The Healing Power of Nature appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Today I didn’t have a panic attack after my morning coffee.  My heart isn’t racing.  There’s no longer an elephant sitting on my chest.  And that weird feeling like I was going to die is gone.

For the first time in months, I can finally breathe free again.

After 5 months of researching Leaky Gut, studying textbooks, interviewing doctors, shooting 9 hours of video, and writing over 100,000 words…

Our massive new project called “Solving Leaky Gut” is done!

And now it’s time to celebrate!

At 8:00 pm EST tonight (3/3), Jordan and I are doing a free live webinar with our friend Leanne called Healing Leaky Gut and we’re going to share some of the best new leaky gut tips we learned while creating this program.

Most of all we’re going to laugh, breathe, and smile tonight.  Hope you can join us for some fun!

Click to Sign Up For the Leaky Gut Webinar Tonight

This Project Almost Killed Us (because we let it)

For the past 2 months I felt like I was Atlas, putting the world and it’s health on my shoulders.  Balancing it as best I could but slumping under the weight.

I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t digest anything and I had 2 panic attacks in the same day.

We were in the middle of a really big mistake.  One that I want to honestly share with you in hopes that you won’t make the same mistake we did.

If you’ve seen us in the last 2 months you know we haven’t been living in integrity with our message.  During this time, our personal health has taken a major downturn.

Last week, my brain, stomach and nervous system were actually throwing me in bed.  I had heartburn all week.  No amount of diet tweaks worked.  I started taking Betaine HCL and digestive enzymes again, hoping I wouldn’t have to lie awake with burning in my throat all week.  They didn’t help.

When I meet people they often ask us how we’re able to do all the things we do at SCD Lifestyle.  Well, in the past 2-3 months I’ll be honest: we’ve done it in a very unhealthy way.

I stopped meditating and working out in the morning.  Instead I’d just wake up and start working all day long.  I stopped cooking as much and started eating lots of nuts, dark chocolate and Chipotle.  I stopped laughing and unplugging.  Instead I thought about this project day and night.  It’s all I talked about.

I started drinking coffee, lots of coffee, sunup till sundown.

There were some days in the last few months I literally thought I was going to die.  I know it sounds weird unless you’ve had that experience.

But the funny thing is: we chose to do this to ourselves.  Sure, there’s a reason… an excuse actually.

There is a reason for every action.  Otherwise we wouldn’t choose it.

Flushing 5 years of health down the toilet

When we wrote our book in 2009, we decided to make part of the tagline be “Health is a Choice.”  It was an easy choice for us.  I don’t think we fully understood just how hard it can be to choose it, though.

In the last 2 months, we flushed 5 years of choosing health away.

The formula was pretty simple and it goes like this: eat like crap, don’t sleep, do something super stressful, work all the time, and don’t have fun.  It’s a proven way to quickly reverse your health in 60-days or less.

We stopped choosing health each day.

But why? Why would we stop choosing health?

It’s a slippery slope.  It started with some massive commitments, and then some due dates.  One long weekend when we secretly rebuilt our website because it was hacked.  Then a long workweek, no sleep, and then pretty soon we looked up and it had been two months of this pattern.

It seemed like an exciting and bold idea; help 20,000 people overcome leaky gut with our new product.  Next thing I knew I was hoisting the world up on my shoulders.  At first it was fun and exciting.  But then the problems of making a project this size happen started popping up.  And instead of asking for more help or pushing back deadlines we chose to keep trying to hold the world up by ourselves.

Then, the regular things I was supposed to do stopped getting done.  And the weight of the world dropped me to my knees.  Finally, 2 weeks ago it started to feel like the world was standing on my chest.

In the moment, it seemed like it was okay to let our health slip.  After all we were going to help so many people.  It was just going to be a short sacrifice for us, one that we could handle to help so many.  But, the reality is we were sacrificing our short-term and long-term health.

What You Could Learn From This…

Honestly, we are both embarrassed.  We’re embarrassed and unhappy with what we’ve done to our health.  We’re embarrassed that we’ve had to abuse coffee and food as we’ve tried to keep working and going when our bodies were screaming to get some rest.

We’re embarrassed that we haven’t delivered on some promises.  We feel like we’ve let many of you down by not being available.

It’s been a heck of a start to the year.  One day, we’re making a massive difference in the world, the next we’re not so sure if we should check into a hospital.

The one thing I hope you can gain from our mistake is that your health must come first.  As the airlines say…

“Put the Oxygen Mask On Yourself First, Before Helping Others.”

It’s such a simple concept.  But, most people swear they’d help a child next to them first.  Which is not choosing health.

Choosing health first is a commitment to love and honor yourself.  You’re worthy of both just by being alive and reading this.  Begin to believe if you don’t.

For awhile, I thought it was selfish.  I thought it was selfish to breathe, read, workout, play for a couple hours a day with such a big project and so many people counting on me.  The reality is quite the opposite.

It’s selfish to say YES when the real answer needs to be, “NO I can’t do anymore right now.  No, I can’t help right now or do anymore work today.”

A couple days of not choosing health and you’ll blink and end up with bad health.

You’ll be in need of all the love, attention and resources of those around you without an ability to give back to them.  The equal exchange we all desperately want to provide to make sure we aren’t selfish becomes impossible when we don’t choose health.  We’re so grateful for those people who pour into us when we need it.

Jordan and I got a really good reminder of this.  We ended up needing lots of people pouring into our lives without an ability to do anything but say thank you.

Choose you and your health first every day.  Otherwise, the time will come when you can’t pour energy and resources into the people and things you love.

Without your health secured, you won’t be able to help the child next to you.

So Let’s Celebrate Health Tonight and Talk About Leaky Gut

It feels so much easier to breathe today.  It feels scary to send this to you, but it’s part of the process; it’s part of working through it.  Doing it.  Here’s a sneak peak of the NEW Solving Leaky Gut Product…

Tonight, if you want the scoop on healing leaky gut and the new product, you should attend the free webinar.  You’ll probably hear us laugh like kids again.

The product and the webinar are the culmination of 5 months of our work, an entire leaky gut research team, and some incredible Doctors that mentored us.  The Solving Leaky Gut program is filled with innovations, like the 60-question interactive leaky gut quiz and how hormones and detoxification play a role.

We are super proud.

We are breathing easier.  My gut is happy and quiet again.  And I feel my body responding to my choosing of health again.

I no longer feel like Atlas or like I’m swimming upstream.

It feels more like I’m laying on the bank of the river of life just breathing and happy to rest.

It’s going to be a fun week.

-Steve

P.S. – A Special Thanks To…

There are a lot of people who’ve worked night and day for the last week to help us get the “Solving Leaky Gut” Program done on time.  And there are many others who stepped in and supported us as we were falling apart.  We owe a massive thanks to the following people.  Katy, Elise, Keith, Mike, Bobby, Rachel, Brent, Carrie, Jason, Ian, Dr. Tom O’ Bryan, Karen, Michelle, Christine, Shannon, Amanda, Lori, Rae, Baris, Cavin, Tiffany, Dr. Allison Siebecker, Leanne Ely, Sally, Jayson, Debbie, Gary, Katherine, Ashley, Allana, Nick, Janelle and others I’ve forgotten (sorry brain is half dead).

We can’t thank you enough for helping us through this time period.  Without you, this new project would have never happened.

We’re so grateful for your help and support.

The post Choosing Sickness with so Much Left to Give appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

She can get DOWN on the dance floor! (Seriously, AH-MAZING!)

But in all seriousness, she’s becoming a great friend.  So when she asked us to come do a FREE webinar together about healing leaky gut we jumped at the chance.

It’s going to be this Monday night (3/3) at 5pm PST/8pm EST.

Why did she ask about leaky gut specifically?

Because if you had a leaky gut, wouldn’t you want to know?

I’m here to tell you, if you’re tired, sick, overweight or depressed, you’re certainly not alone.

When I started researching leaky gut last year, I was absolutely SHOCKED by some of the data I found…

65% of Americans are overweight.

The second most common complaint from patients to their doctors is fatigue.

The leading cause of disability in America is depression.

64 million Americans suffer from digestive problems. 64 MILLION!

Autoimmune disorders are affecting as many as 23.5 million (75% of which are women) Americans while causing disability and even death.

And IBS is the second leading cause of missed work days, behind only the common cold.

But what shocked me the most wasn’t these statistics…

What shocked me was the utter LACK of information about these conditions and how they’re related to the gut.

Because if you suffer from one or more of those conditions, while they might not seem connected to your gut, they are.

The research is getting clearer about that everyday.

As Hippocrates said a long time ago, “all disease begins in the gut.”

And he later followed that up with: “Bad digestion is the root of all evil.”

(Smart guy).

That’s why we’re doing this webinar about leaky gut.  To begin to unravel all of the problems a leaky gut can cause and how to begin to heal.

Join us Monday at 8PM EST for the How to Heal a Leaky Gut Webinar

We’re going to cover:

• The “Big 5 Health Epidemic” and how it all comes back to your gut
• How to tell if you have a leaky gut AND what you can do about it
• The role leaky gut plays in the entire body
• Our step-by-step approach to reversing leaky gut
• 3 common leaky gut triggers and how to remove them

Look forward to seeing you there.

Leanne let us know seats will be limited, so please register sooner than later.

– Jordan

PS: When you register for this webinar, we’re going to send you a free handout that you’ll need to bring to the webinar on Monday.  It’s our 30 Day Leaky Gut Rebuild Diet.

The post FREE WEBINAR MONDAY: How to Heal a Leaky Gut appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

It was 2007.  My Doctor looked up from my chart and lowered his voice… “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you.  Don’t eat gluten.  There’s nothing else you can do when you have this autoimmune disease.  You’re going to be sick.”

Fired.

The next Doctor?

Fired.

The next Doctor?

He was the first to admit, “I don’t know what to do, let’s keep doing tests and see what shows up.”

But eventually… he was fired too.

That’s when I got desperate and started consulting with Functional and Integrative practitioners over the phone.  I was so fed up that I was willing to pay practitioners hundreds of dollars an hour to talk to me on the phone, because I believed there must be someone out there that ‘gets it’.  I was skeptical the entire time… but it worked.  These people didn’t shrug their shoulders at me.  They didn’t tell me there was nothing they could do.  They actually helped me get better.  They understood my chronic illness.

They got reliable tests done.  They killed parasites.  They fixed my hormones.  They tweaked my diet.

And for the first time, I had hope I could get healthy…

That’s why Steve and I created SCD Lifestyle 5 years ago; to give you hope.  The hope we didn’t have when we were sick.  The hope that you can get better and that others like you are getting better.  You’re not alone.  There is something you can do about it.

At SCD Lifestyle, everything we do starts with our core question: “If we could go back in time and help ourselves 7 years ago, what would we do? What did we need?  How could we get better faster?”

It’s from that place that we wrote our book and created our meal plans.  It’s also why we completed the Functional Medicine Mentorship with Dr. Kalish so we could understand this more deeply.

At this point, I feel we’ve succeeded in answering our core question in some ways and failed in others.

For example: I remember when we were sick, sometimes the life-changing practitioners we were working with got so overbooked there was a 3-month waiting list.  I’ll never forget Steve and I complaining about how frustrating it was not being able to book an appointment with the people we needed most.

It was something we hated… and something we never wanted for our private clients.

But here we are.  It’s been such a gift to help over 400 private 1-on-1 clients in the last 16 months.  To see people’s lives completely change.  To see the impact it has on their families.  To see people with hope again.

But right now we’re booked up solid and our returning clients have to wait 3-months to get an appointment.

On the one hand it’s a gift and something we’re grateful for.  On the other hand, it’s completely unacceptable because it’s that same frustrating situation we were in years ago as clients.

So again, we’re asking the core question: “If we could go back in time and help ourselves 7 years ago, what would we do?”

The answer is simple…

We’re closing our consulting practice (for right now)

The decision was difficult, but it’s the right one to make for our current clients.

We’re closing our consulting practice to so the ability to serve our current clients is acceptable for us. 

But there’s another, more important part to the core question.  Yes, the right thing to do at this point is to close our practice right now.  But a big reason we got healthy is we finally found people who could help us.  If those practitioners had closed their practice back then… we might still be sick, who knows?

This is also unacceptable for us.

There’s a limit to our ability to help people 1-on-1.  Both in the time we have available, and also because we’re not Doctor’s, so there’s only so much we can do in a consulting role.  Yet, there’s so many more people like us that need help from skilled practitioners.  For example: if we brought in 5 Licensed Functional Medicine Practitioners who share our beliefs and they help 400 clients a year for the next two years, that’s 4,000 lives we can change.

That’s why we’re on a mission to hire Licensed Functional Medicine Practitioners ASAP 

We’re going to bring in the best Licensed Functional Medicine Practitioners as quickly as we can find them.  Our goal is to find people that were trained by Dr. Kalish and know our work to create the best experience possible for our community.  It’s what we would have wanted 7 years ago.  With these new hand-picked practitioners on-board, we’ll be able to open the doors again to serve you with the best licensed practitioners out there.

The sooner we can find the BEST practitioners out there and bring them on-board, the sooner we can open the doors again.

What to do next:

1) If you’re currently a private client with us, please be patient as the returning appointment wait time improves over the coming weeks.

2) If you’d like to become a new client, please know we’re bringing in the best practitioners we can as quickly as possible and at that time, we will re-open the doors so you can book a case review with them.  Please sign up for the waiting list to be notified as soon as they’re accepting new clients:

–> New Client Waiting List Sign Up

Please know that you are the fuel that keeps us going.  You are the inspiration.  Hearing your stories of transformation and empowerment is what fills us up.  Thank you for being a part of this awesome community.

In good health,

– Jordan

The post The Time I Fired My Doctor (And Important Private Consulting Changes) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

1) The Ancestral Food Summit – 13 Experts on Health and Fitness

Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to be one of the 13 leaders of the Paleo and Ancestral Movements invited to be part of the Ancestral Food Summit and cover the latest trends in this community.  Not only was it an honor to be involved in a project with some of my mentors like Chris Kresser and Robb Wolf, but half the profits go directly to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

Each of us was interviewed on camera for about an hour and in the end, there was over 11.5 hours of video!

Here’s 10 tips I shared during my 55-min interview on improving digestion:

1. If you’re someone who gets HUGE relief from Prednisone and struggles to taper off of it, that’s a red flag that you have adrenal fatigue and your natural cortisol output is very low.
2. The biggest mistake people make when having a Fecal Transplant is choosing a poor donor… and good donors are incredibly hard to find.
3. The $12 Billion Dollar gluten-free fad is making a lot of people with Celiac Disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity even sicker because most of it is still “healthy” junk-food
4. If you’ve never looked at the Bristol Stool Chart, use it as a guide to see where your poop stacks up.
5. Fat malabsorption is the most common problem we see when people switch to a Paleo/SCD/GAPS diet and don’t see results right away.
6. The second most common problem we see is low stomach acid, resulting in terrible digestion of meat.
7. The key factor in using Functional Medicine is getting reliable test results to make informed treatment decisions… get the right lab tests from the right lab companies.
8. Most people that I’ve worked with struggling with severe gas and bloating, even after changing their diet, haven’t been tested for SIBO.
9. Probiotics aren’t there to “replace” missing good bacteria in your gut… the biggest way they help you is by improving your immune system.
10. 60-70% of our private 1-on-1 clients are testing positive for one or more bacterial or parasite infections.

I’m grateful to support this project and personally purchased it myself to support the cause and devour the other presentations.  Here’s some of the other topics I liked:

• What most people are doing wrong when they exercise
• Fat soluble vitamins and bioavailability of various sources
• Everything about Vitamin K2
• Vaccinations
• The most important and most dangerous supplements
• Mercury in fish, fish oil, iodine, magnesium, and selenium supplementation
• Misconceptions about cholesterol
• Advantages and disadvantages of ketosis

The summit is still being offered a discount price until 1/1/14.

Here’s the link to get the details: Ancestral Food Summit

2) Chris Kresser’s New Book – “Your Personal Paleo Code” 

I’m really excited about our friend Chris Kresser’s new book, “Your Personal Paleo Code”  If you listen to the Revolution Health Radio show we host with Chris, I’m sure you’ve already heard us talking about it over the last year.  It’s finally being released on 12/31/13 and it’s awesome.

He sent us review copies and of course, it blew my mind.  Mostly because I’m a nerd and I’m fascinated by the sheer volume of research he consumed to put this together.  But I also like how ‘actionable’ it is.  It’s not just a stuffy journal of facts, but it breaks up overcoming chronic health issues into 3 steps (reset your diet, rebuild your life, and revive your health).

Here’s 15 Quotes From Chris’s Book You Need to Hear:

1. After agriculture was adopted, the average height of of humans decreased by about five inches, and life expectancy decreased by seven years. (22)
2. Traditional hunter-gatherer cultures ate as many as 126 different varieties of plants; today, 80% of the global population lives on only 4 staple plans: wheat, rice, corn and potatoes. (31)
3. Fat is the preferred fuel for your body, and should constitute 40-70% of your calories. (55)
4. Fat improves absorption of important nutrients.  For example, adding an avocado to a green salad increases the absorption of beta-carotene by 18-fold. (67-68)
5. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity may occur in as many as 1 in 10 people. (84)
6. Our ancestors consumed a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids of between 1:1 and 2:1.  Today we tend to range from 10:1 to 20:1, or as high as 30:1! (110)
7. Even modest consumption of EPA and DHA (200-500 mg/d) reduces deaths from heart disease by 35% — an effect much greater than statin drugs. (111)
8. Not all fiber is created equal.  While soluble fibers in fruits and vegetables protects against disease, insoluble fiber in whole-grains may increase mortality. (121-122)
9. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) affects between 10 and 15% of the population and is the second leading cause of missed work days, behind only the common cold. (162)
10. Approximately 70-80% of the body’s immune cells are in the gut. (163)
11. The gut contains over 100 trillion microorganisms from 1,000 different species, with 10 times more microbes that there are human cells, and 100 times more genes than exist in the human genome. (163)
12. Two separate studies published in the last five years have shown that a single course of antibiotics may cause irreversible, permanent changes to the gut micro biota. (176)
13. Adults who sit for more than 6 hours a day had up to a 40 percent greater risk of death over the next 15 years than those who sat for less than 3 hours a day regardless of whether they exercised. (208)
14. A large body of evidence suggests the majority of people need between 7-9 hours of sleep each night.  Yet 35% of adults sleep fewer than 6 hours per night, up from just 2% fifty years ago. (227)
15. Chronic stress contributes to diabetes and weight gain, increases inflammatory markers, triggers and exacerbates allergies and asthma, impairs cognitive function and mental health, and triggers or worsens autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s Disease. (245)

Chris has been one of our mentors over the last few years and I’d highly recommend you check out his new book.  He’s packed years of clinical experience and thousands of patients worth of troubleshooting into a $20 book.  The specific vitamin and micro-nutrient supplement guidelines alone are worth picking up a copy .

“Your Personal Paleo Code” will be released on 12/31, but you can still get some really cool bonuses if you order by 12/30.

Here’s the link to order Chris’s new book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1dOpOEc

Here’s the link to get more information on the book bonuses: http://personalpaleocode.com/bundles/

As we close out 2013, I’m so grateful to be a part of this community.  Thank you for being who you are and for working so hard to take control of your health.  I can’t wait to see how your health will transform in 2014.

In good health,

– Jordan

The post Two New Projects to Improve Your Poop appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

The short story here is: there’s a new book I recommend for 2014, The Calorie Myth, by Jonathan Bailor.

I learned many awesome nuggets from it, with even better research to back it up, and actually laughed a few times. If your name starts with Doctor, Grandma or anything in-between, this book will help you better understand food and health.

In some cases, authors spend 10-plus years writing a book. They pour 10, 20, or even 30 years of personal experience, research and knowledge into pieces of paper hoping that it will help you and they ask for a small return on their hard earned knowledge, but we have a secret.

An Author’s Secret: We Write for Selfish Reasons

The best books are written from an author to themselves. They’re written for selfish reasons. They’re written because there is a burning inner truth they wish they would have found earlier in life. They understand they will get to serve the world through their expressions. Not every book leaves a reader with this feeling, but Jonathan’s sure does.

In The Calorie Myth, Jonathan Bailor is slinging arrows into the heart of the biggest industries in the US, the government, and anyone else who uses marketing and research to spread nutrition myths causing our society to get fatter and sicker.

It will be released on January 1, 2014, and if you buy early you’ll get a bunch of extras. Here are some excerpts from the book to wet your palate.

1970s: Calories Matter! 2013: Calories Don’t Matter! Me Confused!

This calorie thing is confusing. With scientists, doctors, and fitness experts lining up on either side of a valley, trying to mimic a civil war blood bath. The “calories matter” crowd has been taking shots for over 30 years and the “calories don’t matter” group has been firing with much improved research.

Meanwhile, many of us feel like we’re standing in the middle flying the white flag and begging someone to tell us the truth.

Here’s the truth: It’s more complex than this black and white idea of calories. Here’s a great nugget from The Calorie Myth that highlights this.

“The first of the three Calorie Myths at the heart of our fat-loss and
health struggles is that calorie counting is required to avoid obesity and
disease.

Calorie Myth #1: Weight Loss = Calories In – Calories Out

In June 2011, Barry Popkin and Kiyah Duffey, doctors at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, made a startling discovery. They
discovered that the number of calories consumed per person per day
increased by a jaw-dropping 570 calories between 1977 and 2006. At
first glance, it appeared that they definitively demonstrated what many
assumed to be the cause of our obesity, diabetes, and heart disease
epidemics: we are eating too much.

However, a second glance at their data reveals an even more startling
discovery. If the average person is consuming 570 more calories
than necessary per day and if the calorie-counting math we hear about
daily is accurate, then the average person should have gained 476
pounds since 2006.

Is it possible that instead of asking, “Why are we getting fatter?” we
should be asking, “Why don’t all of us weigh six hundred plus pounds?”
What could possibly explain the huge disconnect between the quantity
of calories we’re eating and the quantity of fat we’re gaining?

Here are three possible explanations:

1. We’re eating less.
2. We’re exercising more.
3. The Calorie Math doesn’t add up.

Let’s start with the first possible explanation: Did we avoid gaining
476 pounds because we cut calories dramatically after 2006? Obesity
and lifestyle-related disease rates have continued their upward climb, so
this doesn’t seem likely. And if we look at the preceding few decades,
this explanation just isn’t possible.

Since the late 1970s, we have gradually worked our way up to eating
an additional 570 calories per person per day. But let’s estimate that
over those few decades, we each ate a more modest 300 additional
calories per day. According to traditional calorie math, the average
American should have gained 907 pounds of fat between 1977 and
2006.* It seems that we continue to consume more calories, but whatever
prevented those excess calories from causing everyone to gain 907
pounds between 1977 and 2006 also prevented each of us from gaining
476 pounds between 2006 and 2014.

Let’s look at the second possible explanation: Did we avoid a 476-
pound weight gain because our level of physical activity increased
dramatically from 2006 to 2014? This theory holds up only if the average
person jogged for over an hour and a half every day for the past
eight years. That’s enough jogging to cross the entire United States
eleven times.

That didn’t happen.

This possibility also suffers from the same challenge as the first.
The exercise explanation doesn’t solve the question of how we avoided
the previous 907-pound weight gain because, as we’ve all heard, we’ve
experienced a drop in physical activity that is actually believed to be a
major cause of the obesity epidemic.

That leaves us with the third possible explanation—that we’re
better off thinking about weight in terms of biology, not math. We’ve
gained only a tiny fraction of those 476 pounds because our body
doesn’t work like a calculator.”

Does this clear anything up for you? It should at least clear up the idea that calories eaten are the sole source of gaining fat. And it should begin to allow you to ask better questions in the area of calories in = calories out.

Why Don’t All of Us Weigh 600+ Pounds!?!

The quality of your answers is determined by your questions. And the line above from Jonathan is a great example of flipping a problem on its head with a better question.

There are several questions that followers of this blog are likely to be curious about…

• What is a body-fat set point? And how can I get my body to have a lower one?
• What is a sensible exercise program for those of us who aren’t athletes?
• How do high quality foods affect my hormones?

And then you’ll likely have those in your near vicinity asking things like…

• So, if I don’t notice anything when I stop eating grains I can keep doing it?
• I only eat the healthy sweeteners, which ones do you think I should eat?
• Why am I not losing weight even though I’m eating less?

The Calorie Myth addresses all of these and more using science when necessary and plenty of stories, statistics and charts to break everything down so a kid or grandma can easily understand.

Fast Action Bonuses to Claim Before January 1, 2014

Here’s the deal: I love Jonathan’s message and he’s a friend and I’m trying to help him get on the NYT Best Seller list. So I’m letting you know about the big release today. He’s trying to get you to buy the book before January 1st so that he has a better chance of getting on the Best Seller list.

So he’s giving away:

• A Meal Plan
• A Shopping Guide
• And a Serving Size Guide

All free for those who buy before January 1, 2014.

Pick up a copy or two.

And if you don’t end up investing in Jonathan’s book hopefully this post has helped you at least clear up one question. Do calories in equal calories out?

– Steve

The post The Calorie Myth: The Book You’ll Read and Pass on to Family in 2014 appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

“SCD doesn’t work for me”…

or

“I’ve been doing everything you’ve said and this isn’t working, I’m going to quit.  This diet isn’t for me.

Well, this shook us up… mostly because they’re right.

There isn’t a “one diet fits all” solution.  Any diet with a name on it probably won’t work for you right out of the box.  That’s what this website is all about.

Because each person has a custom diet that works for them.  It’s not SCD/Paleo/GAPS/Primal/WAPF… instead it’s called “The Jordan Diet” or “The Steve Diet” or “The Judy Diet” or “The Diane Diet.”

You get what I mean.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Each person has a custom supplement protocol that works for them too.  We talk a lot about Digestive Enzymes and Betaine HCl, but there’s so much more to cover when it comes to what supplements you might need.

The bottom line is: There’s a custom diet and supplement protocol that WILL work for you.  The key is testing and tweaking and sticking with it until you figure it out.  Some people get there quick and easy… but for most of us it’s a frustrating, hair-pulling, rocky journey.

The trick is to listen to the subtle clues your body is already giving you and knowing what to do with that information…

And because we were so shook up by all these comments recently…

We created a Special Early Black Friday Package to solve this problem… and discounted it 84%!!

(Really, go look here)

We’ve put together this special early Black Friday package to ease your mind. To give you the meal plans, supplements, and troubleshooting tips you need to get symptom-free this holiday season.

Because you deserve to LOVE the holidays and enjoy your friends and family. And that’s what this is all about right? Getting healthy isn’t all that matters… it’s what you do with your time when you feel good like, focusing on others is so much more fun!

This package contains everything you need to unlock the custom diet and supplement protocol that will work for you this holiday season.  It will help you create the “Me Diet.”

Here’s the Special Early Black Friday Package we put together for you… (and then knocked off $500)

1 Ticket to a Private 3-hour LIVE Troubleshooting Call With Us ($169 value)

This will be a LIVE call just for you.  No one else will be invited except those that take advantage of this Black Friday special.  We’re going to spend 3-hours on the phone doing a presentation about how you use all these troubleshooting products together to get the fastest results.  We’ll even take Q&A until we drop.  No matter what, your questions WILL get answered.  The most important thing we can do for you this holiday season is identify the one tweak, test or thing that is holding you back.

This call alone might be the one thing that completely changes your symptoms (it’s easily worth the price of the whole package)… and yes it will be recorded if you can’t attend live.  The official date and time of the call will be announced after the holiday so we can make sure it’s a good time for most people to attend.

BONUS 1) Grain-Free, Starch-Free SCD meal plans ($87 value)

These 24-week meal plans are built for people to get digestive relief as fast as possible and then grow with you as your diet expands. There’s a “tough case” plan that is Nut-Free, Egg-Free, Legume-Free, & Dairy-Free.  But there is also a full SCD plan.  These are here to help you know exactly what to eat, how much to eat and when to get some relief… the first step in creating your custom diet.

BONUS 2) Digestive Troubleshooting Package ($147 value)

Over 9 hours of video, audio, and transcripts for those sick and tired of banging their head against the wall trying to feel better. Learn how to tune into the subtle clues your body is already giving to know exactly what to eat and what to AVOID (Hint: there’s 10 common patterns we’ve identified). You’ll also discover the top 6 foundational supplements almost everyone should consider to heal faster.  This content will help you test and tweak your way to the custom diet that works for you.

BONUS 3) Essential Supplements for Inflammation and Leaky Gut ($97 value)

We’ll show you what supplements matter for specific conditions, how to supplement, and more!  These 4 in-depth videos and 1-hour Q&A session include the latest strategies we’re using with our 1-on-1 private clients.  Think of these like the advanced supplements that build upon the foundational supplements from the Troubleshooting course.  Not everyone needs them, but if you do you’ll see dramatic changes.

BONUS 4) Avoiding Holiday Diet Doom ($97 value)

The last thing we want is for you is to start making some improvements with the tools you’ll get in this package, and then run SMACK into the brick wall of holiday diet doom!  These 4 in-depth videos and 1-hour Q&A session cover the Psychology of Eating Healthy and Still Having Fun with Friends and Family during the holidays.  Trust us, it’s a dangerous time.  Get educated on the common traps and how to deal with them.

HUGE discount on this early Black Friday package (Yes, 84% OFF)! 

This offer expires WED 11/27 at 11:59pm ET.

Even if you already own part of the bonuses in this package, the private 3-hour call alone is worth your investment. Plus, you’ll get access to all the bonus material right away.

We’re so grateful to support you this holiday season.

– Jordan and Steve

P.S. – If you’re not feeling better… and you haven’t found the custom diet and supplement protocol that’s going to bring you relief, we created this package specifically to help you do that.

This limited time early Black Friday Special expires WED 11/27 at 11:59pm EST: https://healthygut.com/special-black-friday-package/

The post Don’t Miss This Early Black Friday Special! appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Dr. Tom O’Bryan’s work changed my life in 2011.

I was deeply researching Celiac Disease and gluten-related disorders when I ordered his 7-hour DVD series for practitioners on “Identifying and Conquering Gluten Sensitivity Inside and Outside the Gut.”

Much of that material shaped how I got better…

Not only that, but it shaped much of the Celiac Disease series I wrote that continues to save people’s lives every single day.

In honor of Dr. Tom’s free gluten summit going on right now, I wanted to share the top 3 earth-shattering facts I learned from his work that forever changed the course of this blog.

The Gluten-Free Diet Isn’t Enough

There’s no denying the fact that people with Celiac Disease or Gluten Sensitivity should avoid all gluten. Most Doctors tell them they’ll be fine if they follow a strict gluten-free diet. But how effective is the gluten-free diet for the people that need it most?

New research suggests that the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal from Celiac disease despite following a gluten-free diet. (1)

In one study of 241 Celiac patients – small intestine mucosal recovery 2 years after following a gluten-free diet was 34% and 5 years later was only 66%. (2)

The authors stated:

“Mucosal recovery was absent in a substantial portion of adults with CD after treatment with a GFD.”

Another study in 2009, published in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, of 465 Celiac patients after 16 months on a gluten-free diet found that:

“Complete normalization of duodenal lesions is exceptionally rare in adult coeliac patients despite adherence to GFD” (3)

So in other words, many of these people followed a gluten-free diet for years and it didn’t fix their gut.

Low Vitamin D Makes Leaky Gut Worse

Research is beginning to show that vitamin D deficiency leads to a comprised mucosal barrier.  

The research states, “Therefore, vitamin D deficiency may compromise the mucosal barrier, leading to increased susceptibility to mucosal damage and increased risk of IBD.” (4)

What does vitamin D have to do with leaky gut?

The tight junctions in your small intestine contain an adhesion junction around them to help regulate what gets in and what stays out. Dr. Tom describes it like a “rubber band” wrapped around the tight junctions that can get too stretched out and lose its elasticity (ability to snap back in place).

Vitamin D plays a critical role in the elasticity of those rubber bands and how well they keep the tight junctions operating normally. (5)

So if you’re deficient in vitamin D, the elastic band holding your tight junctions together doesn’t work properly… allowing foreign material to leak into your body and promoting inflammation.

Celiac Disease Starts With Leaky Gut (and Can Be Reversed)

Researcher Alessio Fasano, M.D., has been on the forefront of recent autoimmune and Celiac Disease research. In 2011, he published a paper titled “Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases” introducing a new theory that suggests prevention and reversal of autoimmune disease is possible.

He presents the idea that three pre-existing conditions must all exist together in order for autoimmune diseases to develop. (6) They are:

1. A genetic predisposition to autoimmunity (In the case of Celiac Disease that’s the HLA DQ2/DQ8 genes)
2. An exposure to the environmental trigger (in Celiac Disease – that’s gluten)
3. Increased Intestinal Permeability (Leaky Gut)

Fasano’s theory is part of the new evolution of research implicating leaky gut as the key element to autoimmune disease. Applying Fasano’s “Leaky Gut” theory of autoimmunity to Celiac Disease boils down to this…

People with the genetics for Celiac Disease that have a leaky gut and eat gluten will develop autoimmunity and subsequent intestinal damage. The increased intestinal permeability allows the environmental trigger (gluten) to become exposed to the body and trigger the genetic predisposition.

Combined with what we learned in my other article on this topic, it might look something like this:

Fasano’s new theory suggests that autoimmunity can be stopped and even reversed by removing the environmental/genetic trigger interaction and fixing leaky gut. This is groundbreaking in that it’s the first theory to present a pathway for autoimmune reversal…

But when I say autoimmune reversal, I don’t mean, “someone with Celiac Disease can eat gluten again.” To me, autoimmune reversal means that the tissues in the body go back to the way they were before the autoimmune process “turned on” in the first place, and normal health is restored.

So for Celiacs, that means the gut tissue heals, intestinal permeability is restored, and the finger-like villi become fully functioning again.

The Bottom Line: Dr. Tom’s Gluten Summit Could Change Your Life

I’m forever grateful for the path Dr. Tom’s DVD started me on years ago and now, I’m learning even more from his Gluten Summit.

Dr. Tom gathered 29 of the world’s experts and opinion leaders on the topics of gluten-related disorders, nutrition and healthy living for a series of online interviews taking place for FREE from November 11-17, 2013.

During the gluten summit, you’ll see presentations on:

• How Sensitivity to Gluten Can Impact Your Heart and Cardiovascular System
• Why Creating the Healthiest Intestinal Environment Possible Can Arrest Your Vulnerability to the #3 Cause of Getting Sick and Dying
• The Surprising Ways Gluten Sensitivity Can Affect a Child’s Health
• How Gluten Can Affect the Brain, and How to Optimize Brain Function
• And more…

You can register for free here and start watching live presentations the rest of this week:

–> Register for the Gluten Summit here (free)

Or if you’re like me and plan to watch these more than once, you can purchase the entire summit here.

Look forward to seeing you at the summit!

– Jordan

Note: we earn a small commission if you use the links in this article to purchase the products we mentioned. We only recommend products we would use or that we have used. Your purchase helps support this site and ongoing research.

The post What Dr. Tom O’Bryan Taught Me About Gluten-Related Disorders appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

We’re looking for a Virtual Office Manager to help us manage the day-to-day details of our consulting practice.  We currently have a wonderful team member in this role who will be moving on to bigger and better things in 2014.

This is a paid contract position that you can do from home and would start at around 10 hours per week, with room for growth as we grow

We’re looking for someone who:

1. Is highly organized, detail-oriented, and serious about organization and processes. You probably have done event planning or bookkeeping because you’re good at logistics and details, and you like to write lists and work from a checklist at all times.
2. Enjoys working alone most of the time. The work you’ll be doing is typically alone. If you’re the type of person who likes to chit-chat with people and interact with friends a lot, this probably isn’t right for you.
3. Has the flexibility to work atleast 1-2 hours each day of the week (excluding Saturday and Sunday) – preferably split between the morning and late afternoon/evening.
4. Is “tech savvy” with things like Office, Google Docs, scheduling, email, ordering things online, etc.
5. Is extremely dependable… not the “This usually doesn’t happen, but it happened again” type.
6. Doesn’t take things personally, have feelings hurt easily or get offended. Stays objective and likes to always use logic to make decisions.  Like an engineer

If you’re the type of person who likes “creative” work, where you work with and interact with a lot of people… and deal with a lot of different types of complex challenges… then this probably is NOT right for you. This is more of what we would call “organizer” work, and will require you to keep checklists and work through specific processes.

On the other hand… if you’re the type of person who loves organizing things, operating efficiently and uses checklists, and basically becomes better and better at running through a pre-planned process, then this might be perfect for you!

As the Virtual Office Manager, you’ll be ordering tests, ordering supplements, collecting new client documentation, processing orders, filing test results, etc. This role does not specifically require much interaction with our clients or customers.

No questions or exceptions please.

To apply, click below and respond to the questions by WED 11/6:

–> https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZM6VWY

We will be reviewing applications after the 11/6 deadline and if you’re selected for an interview, you will be contacted shortly after that.

– Jordan

P.S. – We’d love to have you join our team if it’s a good fit.  Please apply for the Virtual Office Manager position by 11/6 here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZM6VWY

The post We’re Hiring a Virtual Office Manager appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

If you want to skip ahead, we did an info-packed presentation on the gut-hormone connection and why hormones are THE MOST critical step toward healing your gut. Check it out here.

The first time around, we gave this gut-hormone presentation to small group of people and got such incredible feedback we decided to give the same presentation on a much larger scale.

Here are a few insights from the people that attended:

“I enjoyed hearing the actual cortisol number crunches, since I had the results of my tests in front of me…now knowing why I am so tired all the time. Just the progression of hormonal exhaustion & how it can creep up on us was so interesting.”

“The role of cortisol in relieving inflammation; the possibility that my constant hot flashes (every 40 minutes or so, for the last 20+ years) could be related to my gut health.”

“I finally learned how Jordon gained weight!! Both my husband and I were on SCD and ended up really, really skinny. I more fully grasped how hormones and gut issues are linked. I also found it interesting that you use subligual drops for treatment, which makes a lot of sense for people who cannot digest well.”

“The adrenal connection to the cortisol levels in the body and how it affects the body. Also the antibiotic affects, because I went thru a year of battling a severe sinus infection and suffering with U. C. at the same time.”

If I could go back in time to when I was sick, fixing my hormones would be the first thing I’d do toward healing my gut. It was SO frustrating to get stuck and not know why.

If you’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office treating symptoms as much as I was… but never getting to the root cause, you know how frustrating it is.

Or if you’ve been doing everything you can with your diet, but you’re still struggling with low energy, digestive problems, and inflammation… you know how frustrating it is.

Most practitioners don’t like to hear this, but trying to fix stomach problems by focusing only on the digestive system won’t get you very far.

This Isn’t Just About the Stomach Problems

The stomach problems might cause the sharpest pain, but let’s be honest… everyone who has stomach problems also has other nagging issues. Things like:

• Low energy
• Chronic inflammation
• Low libido
• PMS problems
• Depression or Anxiety
• Chronic infections
• Skin issues

The amazing thing is that these are huge red flags for hormone problems and directly related to the GI tract. These symptoms don’t seem connected to your gut health… but they are. And if you are going to get to the root cause of the GI issues once and for all your hormones need to get fixed too.

The best part is… you can work on them at the same time.

We Want to Share Everything We Can on The Gut-Hormone Connection — material you can use today

That’s why we did a presentation specifically on: “The Gut-Hormone Connection.”

Click here to learn more: http://energyhelp.scdlifestyle.com/

NOTE: We took LIVE Q&A at the end

– Jordan

P.S. – UPDATE: This call was recorded. You can access the recorded call and the transcript right now here –> http://energyhelp.scdlifestyle.com/

The post New Live Presentation: “The Gut-Hormone Connection” appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.