Your January Gut Reset Guide
A fresh start for your digestion, hormones, energy, and overall vitality.
January is my favourite month to talk about gut health. After the holiday season—with its indulgences, rich foods, irregular sleep, and stress—your body is often asking for a reset. And a gut reset is not about deprivation or harsh cleansing. It’s about gently bringing your body back into homeostasis, where digestion works smoothly, energy returns, and inflammation calms down.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after years of naturopathic practice, it’s this:
A healthy gut is the foundation of a healthy life.
When digestion is compromised, no supplement, diet, or lifestyle tweak will work the way it should. Everything begins here.
Why Your Gut Needs a Reset
Your digestive system is incredibly complex. It breaks down food, absorbs nutrients, forms your immune cells, communicates with your brain, and helps regulate your hormones. Yet we take it for granted — expecting it to function perfectly while we overload it with stressors like:
- Processed foods
- Sugar and refined flour
- Alcohol
- Dairy
- Late-night eating
- Inconsistent sleep
- Constant snacking
- Emotional stress
When your gut becomes overloaded, it struggles to digest efficiently. This often leads to acidosis, inflammation, bloating, cravings, sluggishness, skin issues, mood swings, and hormonal imbalance.
A gut reset gives your digestion the space it needs to rest and repair, allowing your body to redirect energy toward cleansing, healing, and balancing.
Step 1: Remove the Foods That Cause Inflammation
A reset only works if irritants are removed. For the next 10–14 days, clear these from your home:
- Refined sugars
- Packaged/processed foods
- All dairy
- Pork
- Refined flour (pasta, cereals, crackers, baked goods)
- Inorganic snacks
- Junk food of any kind
- Sports drinks and sodas
- Any carbonated “bubbles”
Removing these gives your digestive tract a chance to calm down, heal, and strengthen.
Step 2: Follow the Core Food-Combining Rules
These simple rules can dramatically improve digestion, eliminate bloating, and reduce fermentation in the gut:
- Always eat fruit alone (smoothies are the exception).
- Never combine protein and starch.
- Protein must always be paired with cooked and raw vegetables.
- Starches (quinoa, wild rice, sweet potatoes) should be eaten with vegetables—not protein.
- Never drink water while you eat (it dilutes digestive enzymes).
You’ll be amazed by how much smoother digestion feels with just these changes.
Step 3: Embrace the Power of Fasting
One of the most transformative tools for gut health is fasting.
When we fast, we give the body an opportunity to cleanse, something it cannot properly do while it’s busy digesting. Digestion requires a remarkable amount of energy—far more than most people realize. The body must break down food, neutralize acids, produce enzymes, absorb nutrients, transport waste, and eliminate toxins.
Fasting gives your body a break.
In that break, something beautiful happens:
- Inflammation decreases
- The liver catches up on detoxification
- The gut lining begins to repair
- Hormones reset
- Mental clarity sharpens
- And you feel lighter—physically and emotionally
Every time I fast, I experience this shift. I feel more present, more clear, and more connected to my intuition and memories. It’s as if a fog lifts.
A simple schedule:
Aim for a 13-hour nightly fast, starting from the time you finish dinner.
This alone can dramatically shift your metabolism and digestion.
Step 4: Reset Your Lifestyle to Support Circadian Health
Gut health is intertwined with your daily rhythm. Supporting your circadian clock will make your reset far more powerful:
- Finish eating by 7:00 pm.
- Avoid screens, news, and excess stimulation after dinner.
- Choose calm, grounding evening activities: reading, walking, meditation, music.
- Keep your bedroom dark, cool, and free of phones or Wi-Fi.
- Aim to be in bed by 10:30 pm so the liver can properly detoxify overnight.
Small changes like these work wonders for digestion and hormones.
Step 5: Why This Reset Works
This reset works because it restores your body to its natural state—one of balance, clarity, and ease. By simplifying food, reducing digestive load, and supporting detox pathways, your body can:
- Reduce inflammation
- Improve hormonal balance
- Boost metabolic function
- Enhance bowel regularity
- Increase energy and clarity
- Improve sleep
- Reduce cravings
- Support natural, healthy weight loss
- Clear the skin
- Strengthen immunity
This is not a temporary diet.
This is a return to alignment—a way of eating and living that supports you long after January.
Stay Well
Frances
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