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“A personalized weight loss plan for my body,” is a common request I get from women who are wanting to reduce bloat and weight.

Now that I’ve released the full 21-day meal plan inside the Quick Gut Detox course, I thought it would be helpful to tell you why you are absolutely correct!

You don’t need to research the best ways to achieve your desired weight. And you don’t need to follow the conventional wisdom: eat less, move more.

But you do need to understand what will be right for you for the best results.

And that’s what I want to take you through today.

Reduce Bloat + Shed Unwanted Weight

You will reduce bloating and shed the unwanted weight when you stop doing these top 4 things:

1. Keeping inflammatory foods in your diet. It’s not just enough to say, “don’t keep inflammatory foods in your diet and haphazardly remove as many food groups as possible. Instead, you must understand what those foods are (for you on a personal level).
2. Eating 24/7 and never letting your body get into rest-and-digest mode.
3. Keeping your body in constant stressed out mode. 
4. Focusing all your time and energy on cardio.

And I understand that mainstream diet culture is telling you otherwise.

They are saying ‘What you eat doesn’t matter – food choices are meaningless; calories-in vs calories-out.” 

And, “Just snack all day” so you’re eating less.

Plus, “If you want to lose weight then do this, and this, but not this – eat these, at this time, for this reason, but be careful that it’s not these, at this time, and for that reason.”

And of course, “More physical activity if you want to hit your weight loss goals. Go for the long run, and spend as much time as you can devoted to fitness goals so that​ the weight comes off.”

PLEASE BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU >>>>> THESE WON’T WORK IN THE LONG TERM.

If what you’re looking for is long-lasting weight loss, then you must​ focus on overall health, honing in on YOUR body’s needs.

Personalized Weight Loss Plan for My Body

Click HERE to save this article on a personalized weight loss plan for my body for later.

Okay, so now that you understand some of the fundamentals, let’s work backwards and figure this out for you.

The intention of this post is not to focus on all 4 as described above. 

Instead, it’s simply to address the first one: inflammatory foods, food intake, and a custom meal plan for hitting your goals while achieving a healthier lifestyle.

Here are 5 steps I want to take you through:

1. Find your baseline
2. Reset your body
3. Have a starting place for healthy meals plan
4. Journal to identify your own, unique needs
5. Tinker as necessary

Find Your Baseline

If you don’t know where you’re currently at how will you know where and how you’re going to get where you desire to be?

This first step includes understanding your own, personal metabolic health.

I have a massive article all about metabolic health HERE that I strongly encourage you to check out.

What is metabolism and metabolic flexibility?

Metabolism is life.

It’s what keeps you alive and fuels you through your day.

It’s the process by which your body turns fats and carbohydrates into energy.

And here’s the kicker — your metabolism is as unique as you are.

A healthy metabolism is flexible, switching between fuel sources based on availability and energy needs.

This is called “metabolic flexibility.”

Metabolic flexibility plays a major role in how you feel in your body. It determines where you are on the metabolic health spectrum: the more metabolically flexible you are, the more energized you’ll feel.

It’ll be easier for you to manage your weight and body composition, your mood will improve, and you’ll be free from the endless loop of new health trends.

Mitochondria

What makes one person more metabolically flexible than another?

Meet your mitochondria:

• The powerhouses in your cells that burn fats and carbs to produce energy.
• The efficiency of your mitochondria determines how flexible and healthy your metabolism is.

The great news:

You can impact your mitochondrial efficiency through four key lifestyle pillars: nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management. (Notice: these are things I touched on in the beginning of this article.)

The tricky part:

Your metabolism is unique, so your response to lifestyle changes will be unique, too. 

This can be frustrating when you put in a ton of effort but still struggle to reach your goals.

The key is finding what works for YOU.

And you can find what works for YOU plus find your baseline through the Lumen device.

The Lumen Device

Think of the Lumen device as your metabolic health coach.

Lumen helps you become an expert on your own body by revealing how your lifestyle affects your metabolism.

When you breathe into the device, Lumen measures the fuel — fats, carbs, or a mix — you’re using at that moment.

By combining this data with your habits, Lumen uncovers the hidden connections between your lifestyle and your metabolism. 

Through personalized nutrition plans and lifestyle tips, you’ll be able to improve your metabolic health and focus on what makes a difference for you. 

​What Exactly Does Lumen Measure?

When you breathe into your Lumen, it reveals the fuel your mitochondria are using at that moment – fats, carbohydrates, or a combination.

When your mitochondria use carbs as fuel, they release more CO₂ into your blood, and when they burn fat, they release less CO₂. 

Your lungs are responsible for transferring CO₂ from the blood to be exhaled, and transferring inhaled O₂ into the blood. 

Lumen’s breathing technique asks you to inhale, hold your breath, and then exhale, allowing the bloodstream CO₂  to equalize with the lungs.

When you exhale, Lumen analyzes the CO₂% in your breath and determines if you are using fat or carbs for fuel based on CO₂ concentration.

(You will find more resources and information about the Lumen device and measuring your breath at the end of this article.)

Reset Your Body

Do you have to have the Lumen device in order to come up with a personalized weight loss plan for your body?

No. But again, it will help because knowing your own body’s current situation will greatly help in moving forward for specific needs.

The next step is to give your body a break and reset.

I’m NOT talking about a 3-day water fast or eating next to nothing for 3 days. 

But I am talking about a short term 3-day reset as the next and best first steps.

Three days, or 72 hours, allows most things to filter through the body.

Your microbiome has the ability to quickly recover from anything and everything thrown at it. This resilience means changes within months, weeks, or even days.

In fact, the average lifespan of a bacterium in your microbiome is 20 minutes – a very short period.

And therefore, when it comes to a detox program, even a SANE one (which is the only one I think most people should engage with), three days is the prime number to start with.

Even in three days, you will see positive effects. And on top of that it is perfectly doable!

A small commitment to get you started on your journey to feeling your best and having energy levels return.

I offer this 3-day reset absolutely FREE to help get you started. If you’re ready for this next step, you can start it today HERE.

Starting Place for Healthy Meals Plan

With so many different diets out there, it’s so hard to know what to choose – what is the best diet?

Well, this is a shameless plug for the 21-Day Quick Gut Detox program, but THIS is where I’d start (also where I DID start).

The secret to your weight loss journey when it comes to food is that you must reduce overall inflammation and ensure you’re eating a full variety of nutritious food.

Healthy weight loss requires optimizing gut health, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.

Here’s why the 21-Day Quick Gut Detox Program is your perfect starting place for the daily menu:

1. You get breakfast, lunch, dinner + 2 snack ideas daily​
2. All options are gluten and dairy free (with the exception of one recipe that uses goat cheese – you can skip it)
3. There are grocery lists that accompany all 3 weeks
4. The meal plan is filled with enough protein, healthy fats, and never dictates portion sizes
5. You have the opportunity to ask me about substitutions and swaps on any and all ingredients (one great way to really customize it for you)

Journal to identify your own, unique needs

Now that you have your full 21-day meal plan in place, the next step is to drill down and get very specific for what’s working (and not working!) for YOU.

In order to do this, you’re going to take the following into consideration:

• Food preferences: what do you like and not like that’s included in the meal plan? How can you make swaps and substitutions based on personal preference while keeping inflammation top-of-mind?
• What medical conditions are you working with? 
• Has your registered dietitian and/or other health care provider mentioned any further dietary restrictions?
• Do your daily activities require less, the same, or more than what’s in the 21-day meal plan? (BTW – in addition to the full meal plan, there are plenty of other ideas, options, and 100+ “Creations” for you to extract ideas from)
• When you eat certain foods and/or meals, what symptoms are you experiencing (if any)?

I have devised a gut healing journaling SYSTEM that helps you track all of this (and more).

If you are already inside the 21-day Quick Gut Detox Program, you have access to the journal in PDF format.

If you’re not, you can get a copy of the journal:

1. 1-month PDF version HERE
2. 1-month physical version HERE (hard copy, shipped to you)
3. 90-day PDF version (coming soon!)
4. 90-day physical, hard-copy + spiral bound version HERE (back in stock soon!)

Tinker as necessary

Once you have established the first 4 steps, then you can tinker with it all, as necessary. 

But this part will be so much easier because you already have the foundations in place. 

You can tinker with any of it, as necessary, depending on factors like:

• Nutritional needs
• Activity level
• Further meal planning
• Long-term goals
• Anything above and beyond you might want to incorporate for your own diet plan

These are simple steps, but they aren’t easy.

And believe me, I get that more than anyone. 

I lived through a gut-healing; bloating gone and weight normalized – for over a decade so that it doesn’t have to take you as long.

Lumen: Extra Rules of the Game

When should you be burning fat and when should you be burning carbs?

Burning fat 100% of the time is not the goal, nor is it a marker of a healthy metabolism. 

In fact, constantly being in fat-burn mode will hurt your mitochondria, preventing you from reaching your goals.

Carbs are an easy-to-use and readily available fuel source, but our body’s carb stores are limited. 

On the other hand, fat stores are unlimited, but are harder for our mitochondria to break down.

As a general rule, you want to see fat burn during:

1. Rest or fasting

Fats are burned to maintain energy during rest or periods without food.

This is why waking up in fat-burn mode after an overnight fast indicates a healthy metabolism.

2. Prolonged low-intensity activity

To conserve limited carb resources, your mitochondria prefer using fat for endurance activities, like long-distance cycling, where energy needs are consistent, without sudden spikes.

You want to see carb burn during:

1. High-performance activities

During activities like sprinting, weightlifting, or even important presentations, mitochondria use carbs for quick energy.

2. After eating

After a carb-rich meal, your mitochondria convert incoming glucose to energy.

3. Short-term energy needs

During peaks of stress or bursts of activity, like climbing stairs, mitochondria quickly break down carbs to meet urgent energy needs.

4. During illness

Carbohydrates provide quick energy. 

When you’re sick, your body needs that extra energy to support your immune response.

Lumen: Women’s Health

Lumen helps uncover the hidden connections between your lifestyle and your metabolic health, so you can focus on the changes that have the most impact for you. 

Burning fat 100% of the time is not the goal, nor is it a marker of a healthy metabolism. 

As a rule, you should burn fat during rest and fasting, and carbs during intense or sudden energy bursts.

But it’s important to keep in mind these things for women’s health in particular:

• Women’s hormonal shifts (notably during the monthly cycle and during menopause) are inextricably linked to metabolism. 
• Many of the symptoms women experience at different stages of the monthly cycle or at the onset of menopause can be traced back to the influence that hormonal changes have on metabolism. 
• This means that in many cases, we can address symptoms and improve care and quality of life for women with interventions aimed at supporting metabolism and metabolic flexibility. 

I hope this article has been highly beneficial for you. 

Remember: There is no such thing as the perfect body meal plan nor do you need to strive for a “perfect body.” But you DO desire way less bloating and a goal weight that coincide with a digestive system that’s functioning optimally. 

And once you arrive there, you’ll never look back.

If you liked this article on a personalized weight loss plan for my body, you might also enjoy:

1. Food Sensitivity Test for Weight Loss
2. Weight Loss Through Optimal Gut Health
3. Egg Breakfast Ideas for Weight Loss [+ Gluten Free Breakfast Stir Fry Recipe]

Disclosure: This is a paid, sponsored post in partnership with Lumen. All opinions started here are 100% my own. I appreciate your support, as this compensation helps with expenses to keep this website up and running, and for me to continue sharing all that I can with you. 

Additionally, if you choose to purchase after reading this full lumen review, you will save 10% by using code GUTSYGIRL at checkout when you use THIS link. But this means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own. For my full disclaimer and disclosure click HERE. Thank you for your support!

Xox,
SKH