Are you one of those who have a great metabolism, can digest almost whatever you stuff your mouth with and could mostly boast of a flat tummy? I am jealous of you! Well, I am the one who usually gets up in the morning with a heaviness in my tummy. Sometimes when I am super hungry and shove whatever I find in front of me in my mouth, my tummy feels extremely bloated, tight and not nice, to say the least! You know what, you have to point out your culprit. In my case, it’s mostly dairy-related and I could almost instantly feel bloated if I ever add milk into my coffee. My dietician suggested that it's not just the food you eat, it is basically your lifestyle.
So that brings us to your next round of discussion on what should we try to do to get a light and bloat-free tummy.
1. Pinpoint the culprit
Just like I tried and nailed the dairy products as the main agent behind my bloated tummy, do you think you would be able to arrive at this? If you could pin the culprit down, the battle is half won. What I do is I make a conscious effort, not to consume anything dairy-related past lunchtime. Trust me, coupled with other efforts, figuring out the trigger helps a lot.
2. Get Physical
Bloating and gassiness find its relation with irregular bowel movements as well. Physical exertion, rigorous workouts help to get the required bowel movements. This is the basic that you could do to your body, and the rest is all about maintaining it by making necessary lifestyle changes.
3. All about those BM’s
So, these are all inter-related, increased physical activities leading to bowel movements which in turn would help in easing bloating. Constipation is a clear no no for people with bloating issues, got it!
4. Namaste the bloat away
Yoga is very ‘in thing’ now! There are specific yoga poses that could really help you. Apanasana or the knees presses against the chest pose is known for offering relief from gassiness and tummy tightness. Downward-Facing Dog Pose or the Adho Mukha Svanasana helps to get relief from a gassy tummy as well. Plow Pose or Halasana also helps in gas and bloating relief. Try it, it works! There are lots of other yoga poses you can try, want details, touch here.
5. Fill up on fiber!
How about adding more fiber to your diet? Quinoa, grains, light-colored lentils. Potassium too helps with bloating, so consider incorporating bananas, oranges, berries, cucumbers in the diet. Also, adding probiotics would be a good idea too, you could easily find that in yogurts, it’s time to mend the imbalance in the gut, guys! Again, another anti-bloater would be asparagus, it actually pushes out the extra water out of your body, leaving you feeling much lighter. Before I forget, I wanted to quickly add here how important fennel seeds, caraway seeds, and ginger are for digestion. Why do you think many restaurants have kept these sugar-coated colorful fennel seeds on your way out? To help you digest whatever food you just pushed down to your tummy.
6. Chowing down all at once
It's so so common with me. I come home from work famished and tend to eat whatever food I could lay my hands on. And gosh, I become like, I need to open my jeans button to survive! I get badly bloated, full to the brink and cannot eat for a long time. The solution here, eat small portions and at regular intervals.
7. Sugar is the devil
Hey, those soda cans are not helping anyways, ok. Ditch those because they are hampering your digestion. Sometimes our body cannot breakdown these complex amounts of sugar leading to the tightness in our belly. I will say, good riddance!
8. Bite and write!
I have been using the My Fitness App for quite some time now but trust me there are hundreds out there, which will help you note down what you had today. The day you feel a bit off, check back, what unusual did you eat today. You could use the Foodility Simple Food Tracker or the See How You Eat App.