This maybe the hardest for you, yet it’s extremely beneficial to reaching your goals.

Tip #8:

Eat at consistent and regular times every day.

As you no doubt know, we’re creatures of habit.  There are rhythms and cycles all around us.  365 days in a year, 7 days in a week, 24 hours in a day and so on, whether we like it or hate it, things repeat.  The sun comes up in the morning and it goes down at night.  You’re built to take advantage of that rhythm.  Same goes for eating and digesting.

When you consistently have a meal at the same time, your digestive system will learn that’s when food is coming and it prepares itself to be ready for it.  If you have a regular schedule, you wake up at the same time every day, eat your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, train around the same time, you’ve already conditioned your system to build muscle.  This is what the champions of the past have done.  People like Don Howorth, Bill Pearl, Larry Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane and Sergio Oliva all had their routines.  If your gains are lacklustre and you have no regular routine and eating habits that are tied to specific times of the day, that’s likely why.

It will take willpower and discipline to get this going and it will likely be tough at first (for about 3 – 4 weeks until the habit is built.)  On the other hand, the great thing about it after the “growing pains” is it will become automatic to eat your meals at specific times, no matter what because you will get the signals from your stomach.  You’ll get hungry around the same time and  your digestive juices will be ready to take on whatever you chew at them.

Sit down for a few minutes and plan out the most convenient times to eat your meals, commit and follow through.  Your physique, health and digestion will thank you for it.

I’ll gladly give you suggestions and am here to support you so feel free to ask below, if you need ideas on how to go about it.

Previous: Digestion: Tip #7

Only after you’ve followed all previous steps should you even think about this tip.

Tip #7:

Supplement with digestive enzymes.

Putting the cart before the horse will teach you very little in any area of life and especially when it comes to digestive health.   Without properly preparing your stomach acid levels by drinking water before eating and chewing your food thoroughly until it’s liquid, choosing the right foods, avoiding known hard to digest foods as well as choosing to skip diluting your digestive juices with drinking during your meals, taking digestive enzymes will only give you a fraction of the benefits you can get if you were to follow all the previous tips.

Remember, it is called a supplement for a reason.  The definition of a supplement is “Something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.”

The great thing about digestive enzymes is, you will extract even more nutrients from your foods which are what your body runs on (it’s never been calories, that’s just a unit of measurement of energy usage) when you take them with your meals.

There are many great digestive enzymes out there from plant base only from a company called Innate Response, to straight hydrochloric acid from Charles Poliquin, to powdered pancreas organs from either pork and beef carried by Dr Ron.  NSP has its own digestive enzymes, Ultra Enzymes 558, which includes a large variety of enzymes to cover whatever you maybe eating.  Many bodybuilders have told me how they’ve tried a number of different digestive aids and they keep coming back to the NSP brand for the exact results they’ve been after.  I encourage you to try different digestive enzymes to find out what works best for you.  Whichever brand you choose to go with, make sure you remember the previous tips so you get the ultimate results from your food.

If you have had great results from a brand that I may have missed, please share with everyone in the comments below and I’ll add it.

Previous: Digestion: Tip #6

After a great meal, it’s a good idea to do some light movements.

Tip #6:

Increase your circulation and blood flow to all your organs with some light movement after your meals

To get the most out of your meals and digestion, you better get moving.  Some light activity, like taking out your dirty dishes to the kitchen is very helpful in getting your circulation going followed by a leisurely walk outdoors.  This does wonders for your GI tract by stimulating the muscles inside it and making your organs work more effectively.

If it’s raining outside or is too cold out, no problem!  You always have your own body weight handy and you can do some fabulous organ stimulation by doing a few (literally 3 to 6) gentle and VERY slow body weight squats.  By very slow, I mean matching your breath with your movement.  Perhaps taking as low as 7 seconds to squat down, exhaling and 7 seconds to stand up, inhaling (reversing your regular squat’s breathing sequence.  After just a few reps, you’ll notice yourself feeling warm (a sign of increased circulation.)

Tai Chi and Qi Gong movements also stimulate blood flow, you can do a few of those movements as well to speed up the uptake of the nutrients from your food.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.  The next tip will tell you the last resort of how you can improve your digestion.

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