This post is sponsored by Tropicana. All opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep this blog running.

I think it’s safe to say, that in the wellness world, 2016 has been the year of the gut. Both in the physical and spiritual sense, following, strengthening and taking care of your gut has become a huge priority, and for good reason.

I know I’m not alone in this, but 2016 definitely challenged my ability to follow my gut. I started the year with a solid plan for blog growth based on past successes. I was going to amp up what was working, keep my head down and follow the course. I hadn’t planned on having my comfort zones pushed to capacity. I hadn’t planned on burning out or losing focus on the vision of the blog. So when my plan (and life) felt like it got totally shifted, I had to rely on my good ‘ol gut to guide the way.

When I gave myself a little space, I could hear loud and clear that it was time to slow down and reconnect to not only my passion but my purpose for this space. In my gut, I knew I was never supposed to be a niche food blogger, no matter how many pageviews that could bring in.

At the end of the summer, I decided to take a break from the blog and rebrand. Rather than niche down and grow fast, I decided to open up the conversation on In it 4 the Long Run about what health and wellness can look and feel like for young women. Why health is so much more than what you eat and how you move.

I believe the magic in health and wellness is connecting the physical to the spiritual.

When it comes to strengthening your spiritual gut, I’ve found that these two tools have helped me.

2 Ways to Strengthen Your Spiritual Gut (aka your intuition)

1.) Give yourself advice, like you were your best friend

When I’m in a really tough situation and I can’t make up my mind about what I need to do, I like to give myself advice like I was talking to my best friend. How would I treat her? I’d be compassionate, but firm. I’d try to give her the best advice to solve her problem.

Sometimes when you remove yourself from the situation you can see clearer. Sure, sometimes the advice is some little tough love or just tough, but this practice has strengthened my intuition.

2.) Be confident in your ability to handle the tough stuff

I used to have a lot of situational anxiety around driving and traveling. I was always in a perpetual state of fear about what would happen if I missed my plane, if my car was getting towed, if I broke down on the side of the road. You know the kind of fear that starts from a strange noise and quickly escalates into you becoming homeless? Yeah – well the one way I could beat that, and strengthen my spiritual gut was to slowly build my confidence.

I started to realize (by exposure therapy aka living Boston during the worst snow storm ever) that i could handle “the worst.” Both my mirrors were broken off my car and I still survived. I missed multiple flights and connections and I still survived. When you learn to follow your gut the future can feel scary. Just know that you got this. You are capable of handling the tough stuff. You really are.

Your Physical Gut is Important too, like really really important

Much like a bad “gut feeling” to your spiritual wellbeing, poor gut health can be devastating to your body’s overall wellbeing. The balance of bacteria in your gut has been linked to so many aspects of overall health including your immunity, weight management, mood, digestion and more.

When it comes to taking care of your physical gut, probiotics and prebiotics help feed the good bacteria that keeps you healthy.

Tropicana’s New Line of Probiotic Juices

Luckily brands have not ignored the call for more probiotics. Launching early next year, Tropicana is coming out with a line of 100% juices with probiotics and no added sugars. They’re available in Strawberry Banana, Pineapple Mango, and Peach Passion Fruit.

Personally I love sipping on a small glass of fresh, 100% juice in the morning. The fact that Tropicana is adding probiotics to their lineup makes me so happy! In addition to sipping on a cup of Pineapple Mango Probiotics from Tropicana here are:

3 Strategies to Strengthen Your Physical Gut

1. Reduce Stress

High stress has been linked to many health risks, and the gut is no exception. It’s not exactly breaking news that too much stress is bad for you, but it still bears repeating. Everyone handles stress differently, but I find that a combination of moderate exercise (jogging, yoga, barre, walking), social actives and taking time every day to do something just “for fun,” helps slow time down and put stressful situations into perspective.

2. Eat foods high in probiotics

Fermented foods like kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi are great sources of probiotics. Now bigger brands are incorporating probiotics into everyday items like Tropicana’s new line of juices, making it even easier to get more gut healthy bacteria. Eating foods with fiber can also help the good bacteria in your gut thrive.

3. Reduce added sugar

Too much sugar can help bad bacteria to multiply. This leads to inflammation and can even cause you to have a leaky gut. Slow down bad bacteria growth by limiting added sugar. I’m not saying ditch dessert (I’m not a monster), but just be mindful of the sugar you consume throughout the day (you know, the sneaky kind that winds up in salad dressing.)

Thank god for guts. Seriously. Our bodies and souls are in good hands if we take good care of them. So while 2016 might have been the “year of the gut,” I don’t think this trend is going anywhere.

Sources: [1][2][3][4]

This post is sponsored by Tropicana. All opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep this blog running.

Tell me a time you followed your gut!

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