Small Habits That Are Sabotaging Your Gut Health (And What to Do Instead)
You’re eating clean. You’ve got a cabinet full of supplements. Maybe you even tried a juice cleanse for a while.
But your gut still feels off. Your energy is low. Your mood swings are real.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and you’re not doing anything wrong.
You’re just missing a critical piece:
Your nervous system can’t heal when your small habits throughout the day keep your body in survival mode.
Why do habits that seem so small—like scrolling on your phone at night or eating lunch while glued to your inbox—matter so much?
These daily patterns add up, keeping your nervous system in a state of low-grade stress. And when stress builds, it directly affects digestion through the gut-brain connection, known as the Gut-Brain Axis.
At the center of this is the vagus nerve, a key communication pathway between your brain and digestive system.
When your nervous system is constantly on high alert, vagal tone—your body’s ability to activate “rest and digest” mode—drops. This can lead to slower gut motility, increased inflammation, and poor nutrient absorption, even if your diet is on point.
You could be doing everything “right” – shopping organic, cooking homemade meals, eating a balanced plate – but if you can’t absorb the nutrients in your food, you won’t reap the benefits.
Supplements are a healing tool but they can’t override survival mode.
It’s common to look to supplements as the solution, and while they may be an important supportive tool, supplements alone can’t solve everything.
You can take every gut supplement, adaptogen, and hormone support...
But if you're living on 6 hours of sleep, skipping meals, and rushing through the day without taking a moment to pause and slow down, your body simply isn’t in a state to heal.
That’s not failure—it’s physiology. It’s like trying to fill a glass with water that’s got a crack in the bottom.
Poor sleep and chronic stress can elevate cortisol, reduce digestive enzyme output, and increase intestinal permeability (AKA leaky gut). Research has shown that stress directly impacts gut physiology by altering how quickly (or slowly) food moves through the digestive system, making the gut more sensitive, affecting secretion of stomach acid and digestive juices, increasing permeability, reducing blood flow to your gut lining, and disrupting the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut (Konturek et al., 2011).
The consequence? It’s harder to absorb nutrients, increases inflammation and GI symptoms, and leaves your body constantly stressed and depleted.
Sound familiar?
We see these types of habits all the time with clients:
Eating in the car between to-dos
Surviving on caffeine and snacks
Staying up late and procrastinating bedtime just to get a moment of peace
Looking at your phone first thing upon waking, jumping straight into texts and emails
Rushing out the door without taking time for morning movement or mindfulness
Taking all the right supplements but still feeling bloated or anxious
These patterns aren’t just “bad habits.”
They keep your body locked in survival mode, where digestion slows down, hormones are dysregulated, and healing stalls.
Your nervous system plays a huge role in gut health, immune function, and hormone regulation—and if this is off, progress will feel impossible.
The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your life to get your body out of survival mode. These small, strategic shifts help regulate your nervous system, reducing inflammation, and supporting better digestion—without requiring more effort and stress.
5 Small Shifts That Support Big Change
1. Get Morning Sunlight
Getting natural morning sunlight is one of the simplest ways to boost your energy, improve sleep, and support hormone balance.
Morning light helps regulate your circadian rhythm, which plays a key role in digestion, cortisol regulation, and overall hormone health. One study found that just five days of bright morning light exposure helped participants fall asleep faster, sleep more soundly, and feel less groggy in the morning (He et al., 2023).
Goal: Try this simple shift in your morning routine
Spend 5–15 minutes outside within an hour of waking.
Bonus: Take a short walk to combine movement with light exposure!
2. Move After Meals
A short walk after eating can help improve blood sugar regulation and digestion by supporting insulin sensitivity and stimulating gut motility.
Why does this work? By promoting more stable blood sugar levels, you reduce the chance of a mid-morning or mid-afternoon energy crash. One study even found that a 10–15 minute walk after eating reduced bloating more effectively than dimethicone—a medication that helps move food through the digestive tract (Hosseini-Asl et al., 2021).
Goal: Build this into your daily rhythm
Go for a short walk (10–15 minutes) after meals.
Or try gentle movement like 10–20 minutes of yoga or stretching.
3. Spend Time With People You Love
Connection is an absolute necessity—it’s medicine for our bodies.
Spending time with people you feel safe with not only builds emotional support, but also boosts the release of oxytocin—the ‘love hormone.’ Oxytocin is released through physical touch (like hugs, cuddling, or massage), and even through movement like exercise. This hormone plays a key role in calming your nervous system by lowering cortisol levels.
In one study, participants who received both oxytocin and support from a close friend during a stress test had lower cortisol levels, felt calmer, and experienced less anxiety (Heinrichs et al., 2003).
Spending time with people you care about isn’t just good for your mood—it directly impacts your stress response, hormone balance, and nervous system regulation.
Life will never be stress-free, but connection helps your body cope better, even during hard seasons.
Goal: Prioritize daily connection
Grab coffee with a friend
Hug a loved one a little longer at the end of the day
Make meals phone-free to allow more real connection
Cuddle with your pet after a stressful day
Invite a friend or family member over for a walk or lunch
4. Eat Without Multitasking
Eating mindfully—chewing slowly and enjoying your food without distractions like screens—helps shift your body into a relaxed, ‘rest and digest’ state, priming it for proper digestion.
When you're stressed—like rushing through lunch between meetings or eating in traffic—your body enters 'fight or flight' mode. This prioritizes survival functions like increased heart rate and diverts energy away from digestion. As a result, food may sit in the stomach too long (leading to bloating or heartburn) or move through too quickly (causing diarrhea).
You might be tempted to multitask during meals to save time—but your body needs calm to digest properly. Slowing down allows your body to do what it was designed to: break down food, absorb nutrients, and keep you feeling your best.
Goal: Try this at your next meal
Take 2–3 minutes beforehand for a few rounds of 4-7-8 breathing (inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7, exhale for 8).
Put your phone away and turn off the TV.
Focus solely on your meal and any company around you.
Chew each bite to applesauce consistency—about 30 chews per bite.
5. Get Rid of Blue Light at Night
Screen exposure before bed suppresses melatonin, disrupts your sleep cycle, and increases inflammation—even damaging cells at the mitochondrial level (Herrera et al., 2024).
In simple terms: blue light doesn’t just make it harder to fall asleep—it impacts your body at a cellular level, encouraging inflammation and oxidative stress. Even a quick 10-minute phone scroll before bed can signal your body to stay alert instead of winding down, contributing to chronic stress and impaired healing over time.
Goal: Create a screen-free wind-down routine
Turn off screens 2-3 hours before bed
If needed, wear blue light–blocking glasses and enable Night Shift mode on your phone
Switch from overhead lights to soft lamp lighting
Take a warm bath or shower to relax your body
Sip chamomile or lavender tea to promote calm
Need inspiration? Shop our sleep favorites here.
Your gut isn’t just affected by what you eat—it’s deeply influenced by how you live.
If your days are full of rushing, multitasking, and late nights on your phone, no amount of clean eating or supplements will fully move the needle. But the good news is: you don’t need to overhaul your entire life to start feeling better.
Simple changes like stepping outside in the morning, walking after meals, setting boundaries with screens, and prioritizing connection and calm can create powerful shifts in your nervous system—supporting digestion, reducing inflammation, and helping your body feel safe enough to heal.
That’s exactly what we help you do inside Gut Glow—our signature program designed to restore gut health by addressing both the what and the how: what’s driving your symptoms, and how to actually support your body in real life.
You don’t need another restrictive plan. You need simple, science-backed strategies that work with your body—and your schedule.
If you’re ready to feel more energized, less bloated, and more like yourself, join us inside Gut Glow.
And if you’re not sure where to start, grab our free guide: 3 Gut Health Shifts That Make the Biggest Impact—so you can stop guessing and start seeing progress.
Sources
He, M., Ru, T., Li, S., Li, Y., & Zhou, G. (2023). Shine light on sleep: Morning bright light improves nocturnal sleep and next morning alertness among college students. Journal of Sleep Research, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13724
Heinrichs, M., Baumgartner, T., Kirschbaum, C., & Ehlert, U. (2003). Social support and oxytocin interact to suppress cortisol and subjective responses to psychosocial stress. Biological Psychiatry, 54(12), 1389–1398. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3223(03)00465-7
Herrera, M. A., Caldeira da Silva, C. C., Baptista, M. S., & Kowaltowski, A. J. (2024). Mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation is stimulated by red light irradiation. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.12.612633
Hosseini-Asl, M. K., Taherifard, E., & Mousavi, M. R. (2021). The effect of a short-term physical activity after meals on gastrointestinal symptoms in individuals with functional abdominal bloating: A randomized clinical trial. Gastroenterology and Hepatology From Bed to Bench, 14(1), 59–66.
Konturek, P. C., Brzozowski, T., & Konturek, S. J. (2011). Stress and the gut: pathophysiology, clinical consequences, diagnostic approach and treatment options. Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 62(6), 591–599.