Let's Get Serious about Bloating
I have a serious problem with bloating, where I have days on end where I'm suddenly super bloated - even my face bloats. So in case you have the same problem, I'm going to let you know what I do to fix it and go over some causes of my kind of bloating.
Not drinking enough water is often the cause, and drinking more water is often the cure. Not drinking enough water causes your body to hang on to all the water it has.
<i>My Fix:</i>
The best measure of your hydration is the colour of your urine. If it's yellow, you're dehydrated. You should aim for clear or very, very pale urine, especially if you're very active or an athlete. I try to drink 2.5 Liters of water per day.
<b>2. Too Much Sodium</b>
Sodium has a diuretic effect similar to not enough water.
Eat out less, and eat whole, unprocessed foods you cooked and prepared yourself from whole, raw ingredients. This is something everyone knows, but you have to actually sit down and make a plan of how to do consciously and consistently cook from home more. It takes a commitment, but I think it's absolutely worth it. It made a huge impact in my body's ability to put on muscle and burn fat with my weight lifting routine, have more energy, sleep better and bloat less.
<b>3. Not Enough Fiber</b>
This slows down your body's ability to digest, pass food and fluid and you'll start to bloat up.
Again, eating whole, unprocessed foods. I also specifically eat foods like oats, broccoli, almonds, and quinoa, and I add chia seeds and milled flax seeds (make sure if you buy flax seeds they are milled, or ground, so your body can digest them properly) to my food like oatmeal.
-Sleep 6.5 - 8.5 hours per night! This seriously helps my bloating - it must just help my body function at its best.
-Eat bananas and drink ginger tea - again, it just helps my bloating, but I don't really know the science behind it. It works for me though!
-Exercise, move around, sweat, and do crunches - this helps break up and push along stuff staying in your stomach and intestines and just makes you feel more fresh and less yucky when you're bloated.
You're about to get your period! It's just a fact of life, I suppose. Not much to do about this except drink water and don't stress about it - it's not actual weight gain (even if the scale goes up - it's likely just excess water) - and it will pass soon.
Hope that maybe helps anybody with a similar issue. Stay healthy! :-)