If I Had to Start My Gut Health Journey Over, I Would Do This

I spent a long time doing the right things in the wrong order.

I was eating clean. I was reading research. I was spending money on supplements and testing and elimination protocols. And I still felt tired, inflamed, foggy, and like my body was working against me instead of with me.

What I did not understand then, that I understand clearly now, is that gut health is not a destination you reach by adding the right things. It is a foundation you build by consistently doing a small number of things that actually matter, and removing the habits that quietly undermine everything else.

If I had to go back to the beginning, this is exactly where I would start.

If there is one thing I would tell myself on day one, it is this: start fermenting before you spend a single dollar on a probiotic supplement.

Not because supplements are never useful. But because no capsule on the market can replicate the diversity of live bacteria, organic acids, enzymes, and bioactive compounds that come from a jar of real fermented food. Sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, kefir, ginger bug soda. Each one introduces different bacterial strains through a completely different mechanism than a pill, and the research on variety is clear. A 2021 study in Cell found that a high-variety fermented food diet significantly increased microbiome diversity and reduced 19 inflammatory proteins, outperforming a high-fiber diet alone in improving immune markers.¹

I would start with one thing. One tablespoon of sauerkraut on eggs in the morning. Just that, every day, for two weeks. Then add something else. Then another.

The consistency is the strategy. Not the quantity.

I would not buy 10 different fermented foods at once and overwhelm my system. I would start with one, build the habit, and expand from there. The microbiome responds to consistency over time. It does not respond to a one-week experiment.

This one changed something I could actually feel within days. And it is probably the most misunderstood movement habit in the wellness space.

We have been sold the idea that walking means 10,000 steps. A step counter, a daily goal, a number to hit. And while total movement matters, the research now points to something much more specific and much more powerful: when you walk matters as much as how much you walk.

A 2025 study published in Scientific Reports found that just 10 minutes of walking immediately after eating reduced peak blood sugar levels by 9.6%, from 181.9 mg/dL down to 164.3 mg/dL. A 2023 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine examining multiple trials found an average reduction of 19 to 25 mg/dL in peak glucose compared to sitting after a meal, describing this as a large effect size that has been replicated consistently across independent studies.² ³

What is happening physiologically is simple. When you walk after eating, your leg muscles begin using the glucose circulating in your blood from that meal. Your body has somewhere to put it. Instead of a spike that stresses your pancreas, triggers insulin, and eventually crashes your energy, the glucose gets absorbed steadily and efficiently.

A 10-minute walk after lunch. A 10-minute walk after dinner. Even 5 minutes. Even a few thousand steps that you might not count toward any daily goal. That is the version of walking that moves the needle.

I am not trying to hit a number. I am trying to eat and then move, every time I can.

This is the piece I wish someone had told me earlier.

Cortisol is not just a stress hormone. It is one of the most powerful disruptors of gut health that most people completely ignore when they are focused on food and supplements.

Research shows that psychological stress can raise cortisol, and elevated cortisol may weaken the gut lining by disrupting the tight junctions that help keep that barrier strong. When that barrier becomes more permeable, unwanted compounds can pass through more easily, which can trigger inflammation throughout the body.⁴

And the relationship goes both ways. A 2024 Cell Metabolism study found that gut microbes help regulate the body’s stress-response system, also known as the HPA axis. When the microbiome is disrupted, cortisol rhythms can become disrupted too.⁵ So stress can affect the gut, and the gut can affect how your body responds to stress.

Managing cortisol is not about eliminating stress. It is about not unnecessarily triggering it when you can help it.

A few things I do that have made a real difference:

I do not have coffee on an empty stomach. Cortisol levels naturally peak in the morning between 7 and 8am and continue rising for 30 to 45 minutes after waking.⁶ Adding caffeine on top of that cortisol spike amplifies it. Over time, chronically elevated cortisol suppresses beneficial bacteria, increases intestinal permeability, and creates the exact gut environment you are trying to heal. I eat something small first. Even just a handful of nuts, a few bites of banana, a spoonful of nut butter. Then coffee.

I try to eat something small before morning workouts too. Training fasted spikes cortisol because your body reads exercise on an empty stomach as a stress event. It is not always possible and I do not stress about it when it is not, but when I can, I have something light beforehand.

These are the things I grab when I am training in the morning and do not want a full meal but need something in my system.

A small banana with a tablespoon of almond butter. Fast carbs from the banana for immediate energy, fat and protein from the almond butter to slow the release and buffer the cortisol response.

A handful of raw nuts (almonds, cashews, or walnuts). Takes 10 seconds. Enough fat and protein to buffer cortisol without sitting heavy in your stomach.

Two to three Medjool dates. Quick natural sugar, easy to digest, no prep involved.

A few rice crackers with hummus. Carbs plus protein plus a little fat. Functional and fast.

Half an avocado with a pinch of sea salt. Healthy fat, potassium, zero prep.

A small bowl of overnight fermented oats with a drizzle of honey. If you have them prepped, this is one of the most gut-supportive pre-workout options. The fermentation makes the oats easier to digest, the honey gives you fast energy, and the resistant starch feeds gut bacteria even as you train.

None of these are complicated. That is the point.

If I had to start over, I would not spend the first six months focused on which probiotics to take. I would focus on whether I was feeding the bacteria I already had.

Probiotics introduce new bacteria. Prebiotics feed the ones that already live in your gut. And what most people do not realize is that a gut depleted of diverse beneficial bacteria does not need more new residents. It needs food for the ones already there to multiply.

I would aim for 30 grams of fiber every day, from diverse sources. Not just one type of fiber from the same foods every day, but variety. Chia seeds one morning, lentils at lunch, artichoke hearts at dinner, an apple as a snack. Different plants feed different bacterial species. The more diverse your plant intake, the more diverse your microbiome becomes.

The research on this is now consistent enough to be treated as a rule rather than a suggestion. Diverse plant fiber is the foundation. Everything else builds on top of it.

I spent years being proud of not being hungry in the morning. Skipping breakfast felt like discipline.

What I know now is that it was contributing to the very thing I was trying to fix.

When you skip breakfast, cortisol stays elevated longer into the morning because your body is still in a stress state from the overnight fast. Blood sugar stays unstable. Your gut microbiome misses its first feeding window of the day. And your circadian gut clock, which is cued by the timing of your first meal, does not get the signal it needs to synchronize with your central circadian clock.

Research shows that the timing of your first meal functions as a circadian cue for your gut.⁷ Eating within a reasonable window of waking helps synchronize your gut’s peripheral clock with your brain’s central clock, which supports better digestion, more consistent energy, and more stable hunger hormones across the whole day.

I eat within an hour of waking now. Not a huge meal. Not a complicated one. Something with protein and fiber that breaks the overnight fast and gives my gut the signal it is waiting for.

This is the one most people intellectually agree with and practically ignore.

Sleep is when your gut repairs. It is when your microbiome undergoes what researchers call rest-phase activity, where beneficial bacteria regulate inflammation, repair the gut lining, and adjust microbial composition in ways that only happen in the absence of food and in conditions of low cortisol.

Research shows that even two consecutive nights of poor sleep measurably shifts microbial diversity and reduces populations of beneficial bacterial strains.⁸ And the relationship runs both directions. A disrupted gut disrupts melatonin production, which degrades sleep quality, which further disrupts the gut. You have to address both sides to break the cycle.

What this looked like in practice for me: a consistent sleep and wake time, no food within two hours of bed, magnesium glycinate before sleep, and genuinely treating the overnight window as part of my gut health protocol rather than just rest time.

The overnight fast is doing something. The quality of your sleep shapes how well it does it.

I want to say this one plainly because it sounds small and it is not.

Making fermentation a weekly practice changed my relationship with my gut health from something I was managing to something I was building. When you make your own sauerkraut, your own fire cider, your own ginger bug soda, you are not just adding probiotics to your diet. You are developing an understanding of what is in your food and how it was made that no supplement routine can replicate.

It also means you always have something fermented in your home. Which means the daily tablespoon habit I mentioned in point one has no friction. The jar is always there. The habit sustains itself.

If I had to start over, I would start one ferment in week one. Just one. A simple jar of sauerkraut. 15 minutes, three ingredients, and a week of waiting. Then I would watch what happens to how I feel and let that be the motivation for everything that comes after.

This is the one I needed to hear the most.

For years, I thought healing meant doing everything perfectly. The perfect elimination protocol. The perfect supplement stack. The perfectly clean diet with no exceptions. And every time I slipped, which of course I did because I’m human, I felt like I had failed and needed to start all over again.

But what actually changed how I felt was not finding the perfect protocol. It was becoming consistent enough that my gut stopped being so reactive to imperfection.

Because that’s the real goal. Not a body that only feels good when everything is controlled.

A body that can handle life.

A diverse, resilient microbiome responds differently to stress, travel, a night of poor sleep, or a meal that is not perfectly “gut-friendly.” It has more flexibility. More stability. More capacity to recover.

And that reframe changed everything for me.

Share

Start fermenting. Walk after meals instead of just counting steps. Stop having coffee on an empty stomach. Eat something small before early morning workouts. Feed your existing bacteria with diverse fiber before you spend money on probiotics. Eat breakfast. Protect your sleep. Make fermentation a practice, not just a habit. And give yourself enough time to build something real.

None of this requires a supplement protocol or a complete overhaul of your life. It requires showing up to a small set of things consistently and trusting that consistency compounds.

That is the version of gut health I wish I had started with.

And if you’re reading this thinking, “Okay, but where do I actually start?” start small.

If you want to learn fermentation, I have a ton of beginner-friendly tutorials on my YouTube where I walk you through the process step by step, from sauerkraut to ginger bugs to homemade probiotic sodas.

And if you’re not sure how to build high-fiber, gut-supportive meals in a way that feels realistic, check out my meal prep recipes here on Substack. I share the exact meals I’m making, how I prep them, and how I use simple ingredients to make eating this way feel easy and doable.

You don’t have to overhaul everything overnight. Just pick one thing to practice, one ferment, one high-fiber meal, one small habit, and build from there.

¹ Wastyk HC, et al. Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status. Cell. 2021;184(16):4137-4153.

² Hashimoto K, et al. Positive impact of a 10-min walk immediately after glucose intake on postprandial glucose levels. Scientific Reports. 2025;15(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-025-07312-y.

³ Engeroff T, Groneberg DA, Wilke J. After Dinner Rest a While, After Supper Walk a Mile? A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis on the Acute Postprandial Glycemic Response to Exercise Before and After Meal Ingestion. Sports Medicine. 2023;53(4):849-869.

⁴ Exploring the complex relationship between psychosocial stress and the gut microbiome. Journal of Applied Physiology. 2024. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00652.2024.

⁵ Gut microbiota regulates stress responsivity via the circadian system. Cell Metabolism. 2024. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2024.10.003.

⁶ Bswhealth.com. Why you should never drink coffee on an empty stomach. 2024.

⁷ Jakubowicz D, et al. Interaction between early meals, clock gene mRNA expression, and gut microbiome. PMC. 2024. PMCID: PMC11594859.

⁸ Smith RP, et al. Gut microbiome diversity is associated with sleep physiology in humans. PLOS ONE. 2019;14(10):e0222394.