5 Things That Actually Helped My Gut After 5 Years of Trying Everything
What finally shifted when I stopped following the rules
Looking back now, it’s almost funny. Almost.
It’s still a little too soon to fully laugh about it, but writing this feels like part of that.
Because I spent five years trying to get this right.
Five years of doing what I was told.
Following the rules.
Cleaning everything up.
And still ending up in the same place thinking…
how is this still not working?
It’s absolutely wild how long it took to figure this out.
1. I stopped making doctor’s appointments
I didn’t go in planning to be done.
I just hit a wall.
Because it wasn’t just one appointment.
It was years of this.
Too many practitioners.
Monthly appointments, sometimes weekly.
Always adjusting. Always trying. Always hoping.
Same conversation.
Different appointment.
“Have you tried…?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, what about…?”
“Yes.”
Over and over.
Then she brought up low-dose naltrexone, kind of as a last option.
It’s something that can help quiet the way your brain focuses on symptoms, and it can be really supportive for things like inflammation, immune stuff, and nervous system sensitivity…
But the way it was presented to me in that moment…
it landed like the goal was to turn down the volume on what I was feeling.
Like if I just thought about it less… maybe it wouldn’t feel like such a big deal.
And I don’t even remember exactly what she said…
something about the “noise” around my symptoms going away.
But I remember how it felt.
Like I was being talked to like I was Veda from My Girl.
Like maybe I was making it bigger than it actually was.
Like my body wasn’t doing what I knew it was doing.
And honestly… that moment helped me more than she probably realized.
It showed me how much I’d been second-guessing myself,
and how ready I was to stop.
I don’t need something to quiet my body.
I need to start listening to it.
I walked out.
Stopped at the front desk, smiled, and said,
“I’ll call to reschedule.”
I already knew I wasn’t going to.
There was a moment walking to my car though,
what if something actually goes wrong?
Because those appointments feel like a safety net.
Even when they’re not helping.
But underneath that… there was something else.
I had evidence.
Years of figuring things out the hard way.
Years of handling more than I thought I could.
And something in me just knew,
I’m not as dependent on this as I think I am.
2. I used Human Design to understand how I was wired
Human Design kind of just found me.
And at the time, I definitely wasn’t thinking, this is going to fix everything.
I was just tired.
Tired of trying to follow things that didn’t feel right for me…
but doing them anyway because they were “good for me.”
Human Design gave me language for things I had felt my entire life but couldn’t explain.
How I make decisions.
How I use my energy.
Why I push through things that don’t feel right and call it discipline.
That part hit.
Because I can be disciplined.
I can follow anything.
But I was following things that didn’t actually work for me.
So I started paying attention differently.
Less what am I supposed to do
More what actually feels right for me
It took time to play with it.
To experiment.
To trust it.
But it started changing things.
3. I stopped following every food rule I was given
This one was messy.
Because some of what I was doing did help… at least for a while.
Lectin-free, for example, that actually made a difference at first.
But then it slowly turned into this really small, controlled box.
And I didn’t realize it until I did.
So I started getting brave…
(which took a hell of a lot, honestly)
And testing things.
Okay… what actually happens if I try this?
I made roasted tomato sauce one night.
Garlic.
Olive oil… something I was told I was sensitive to.
Spices. All of it.
Put it over spaghetti squash and ate it like,
we’ll see…
Because normally, I would feel it right away.
My body didn’t take long to react.
But nothing happened.
And I remember sitting there thinking,
what have I been doing this whole time?
Because it wasn’t just about tomatoes.
It was the realization that:
I had been following rules that weren’t built for my body.
4. I did the inner work before I ever touched another protocol
This one took me years to understand.
Because I really believed…
if I could just find the right protocol,
that would be the thing.
But every time I tried one, my body pushed back.
Hard.
By evening, my stomach would be rock hard.
Constipated.
Skin itching like crazy.
It felt like my whole body was already on edge.
And I just kept throwing more at it.
At some point I had to actually look at what was happening.
Not just physically, but underneath it.
Because my body was basically saying,
we are already fighting, stop adding more.
So I stopped.
And I went inward.
Subconscious work.
Journaling.
Patterns.
Using my astrology chart as a mirror, not just a forecast.
Getting honest in a way I hadn’t been before.
And this is where things got uncomfortable.
Because I had to face what I was actually carrying.
The pressure to prove myself.
Scared to be seen, but craving it at the same time.
All things that came from somewhere.
All things that made sense.
But none of them were actually mine.
And the moment that really cracked it open was realizing,
I had been building a life that looked right on the outside…
while ignoring what I actually wanted on the inside.
And my body knew that way before I did.
You can’t ask your body to fight something externally…
when it’s already holding all of that internally.
5. I stopped putting myself last
This one may sound simple.
But it wasn’t easy.
It looked like small things.
Not going to every work happy hour.
Not showing up to everything on the family calendar.
Not feeling like I had to be everywhere for everyone.
Letting work just be work.
Letting my kids be part of my life, not all of it.
And yeah… there’s guilt in that.
Especially as a mom.
But I started noticing something.
Every time I chose myself, even in a small way…
my body relaxed.
Like it had more space.
More air.
And nothing fell apart.
My kids still loved me.
My relationships were still there.
My life didn’t collapse.
If anything,
I showed up better in all of it.
I didn’t do any of this because I thought it would “fix” anything.
At the time, it felt messy.
Unclear.
Sometimes even wrong.
But looking back, this is what actually moved things.
Not another plan.
Not another list of foods.
Not trying harder to get it right.
Just…
coming back to myself.
My biggest lesson?
I don’t need to show up for everyone.
I need to show up for me.
Because when I do…
everything else starts to work with me.
xx ~ Jodi
P.S. I’d love to hear, what’s something that really shifted things for you along the way?