Small Habits, Happy Gut: 5 Tiny Tweaks that Can Help Transform Your Digestion

May 5, 2025.

Morning Sunshine – Boost that Serotonin

Morning light helps regulate our circadian rhythm – the body’s internal clock that helps synchronize our energy, sleep and hormone cycles. Exposure to morning light supports serotonin production.

Serotonin acts as both a neurotransmitter and hormone. It’s role is to balance sleep, mood and appetite as a neurotransmitter; but as a hormone, it acts to regulate digestion. 

Strut Your Stuff! Get Those Steps in.

Any daily movement is good, but aiming to get around 7,000 – 10,000 steps in daily can be a game changer. Physical activity of any kind helps encourage peristalsis – the muscular contractions of our intestines.

Walking has been proven to aid in improving regular bowel movements by reducing symptoms such as bloating or constipation. Interestingly enough, walking has also been associated with reductions in inflammation and improvements in the microbiome diversity – how amazing!

Tip! When is the best time to get your steps in? (Click to view)

Ideally, it’s great to get your steps in after consuming meals – especially if they’re larger in size. This can help stimulate more blood flow and break down the food you have just eaten. Ultimately, walking after meals can help reduce bloating, allow you to pass gas, and have better breakdown of your food.

Mindful Eating

Eating slowly and without any distractions can offer so much support to your digestion. I am sure this sounds so simple and it won’t be that effective, but in some people, mindful eating can be all the difference.

When we force ourselves to become more conscious of our food and practice mindful eating, we are helping support our parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system, in short, helps the body rest, relax and recover.

Even more interesting, mindful eating has been found to encourage enzyme secretion which may help decrease bloating.

How can I practice mindful eating? (Click to view)

• Try observing the colours on your plate
• Take your time analyzing the different flavours you taste
• Be mindful of the texture of your food
• Chew your food slowly and stay away from eating in a rush
• Eat foods in areas that are relaxing and comfortable for you

Make a Colourful Plate – Aim for the Rainbow

It’s important to try and get as many different fruits and vegetables in your meals throughout the day. Why is this so? Eating a variety of both fruits and vegetables offers a wide range of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants – all of which play a crucial role in maintaining good gut health.

Aiming to include at least 2-3 different coloured fruits or vegetables to your plate can help provide a broad nutrient spectrum that can help support regular bowel functioning. This may mean having more regular bowel movements as well as reducing bloating and discomfort.

Tip! (Click to view)

Try adding one to two new coloured fruits or vegetables to your meals each day – if this is too much, try one to two each week. Try to build your meals around the rainbow – try to get orange, red, yellow, green, blue/purple, and white/tan produce into your meals each day.

Our Parents Were Onto Something – A Bedtime Routine is Important

Turns out those late nights watching Netflix shows like Bridgerton (guilty) are not the best for our gut – who knew? Certainly not Penelope Featherington. Irregular sleep patterns tend to disrupt our gut in many different ways; why? Because our gut has its own circadian rhythm. Staying up late reading those page-turning novels (I blame you, Sarah J. Maas) and Netflix shows are having a much bigger impact on our gut then we’d like to admit.

The gut microbiome is a very sensitive ecosystem and having an inconsistent sleep schedule is an excellent way to brew a bad storm. When we have a well-balanced circadian rhythm, our gut health thrives. We have better digestion, modulated gut motility, an intestinal barrier with high integrity and a healthier gut microbiome that’s less prone to inflammation and bacterial imbalances.

Having an inconsistent bedtime only makes this worse, as you could imagine. So, if you’re looking for a simple way to support your gut—start by setting a regular bedtime, because a rested gut is a happy gut.

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Threads