Free 7-day guide
The 7 Day Gut Reset: A Gentle First Step for Women With Bloating and IBS.
A day-by-day plan rooted in Chinese dietary therapy, made for women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. One simple focus each day, a grocery list, and four warming recipes. No cleanses, no powders, no cutting out everything you love.
If a few of these sound familiar, this guide was written for you.
- Your jeans fit in the morning and pinch by 3 p.m.
- You wake up with a flat belly and look five months pregnant by dinner.
- You've cut out gluten, dairy, and half your grocery list, and you're still bloated.
- Your labs came back "normal," but you know something isn't right.
- You live on salads, smoothies, and iced water because that's what healthy is supposed to look like.
- You're eating the way you did at 25 and getting a very different result.
- You've started choosing your outfits around your belly.
- You've been told it's IBS, and that you'll just have to live with it.
What you get
A 7-day plan, one focus per day
Each day adds one small change, from warming up your meals to slowing down how you eat. By Day 7 you're doing all of them.
Why you bloat, explained simply
The "pot on the stove" idea at the heart of Chinese dietary therapy, and why your digestion changes in your 30s, 40s, and 50s.
The 5 ground rules
Five easy habits that run in the background all week and give your digestion room to do its job.
Your grocery list
What to focus on and what to limit for the week, by food group, so shopping takes no guesswork.
Four warming recipes
A ginger rice congee for breakfast, a chicken and vegetable soup for dinner, and two simple teas for heaviness and gas.
What to do if you're still bloated after Day 7
Why some bloating needs more than food alone, and how to find the pattern behind yours. If you have IBS, food is only one piece, and your plan should fit your type of IBS.
Most bloating advice tells you to eat more raw vegetables, drink more cold water, and add another smoothie. In Chinese medicine, that is often exactly what turns your digestion down. Cold and raw food takes more work to break down, and what doesn't get broken down builds up as the heavy, puffy feeling you're trying to get rid of.
You don't need a stricter diet. You need a warmer one.
The logic behind it
The Gut Reset is built on Chinese dietary therapy, a system with more than 2,000 years of written records, and on Bob Flaws' The Tao of Healthy Eating, a book I return to again and again in practice. Its central idea is simple enough to use at every meal. Your stomach works like a pot on a stove, and your digestion is the flame underneath it.
Everything becomes warm soup first
Before your body can use any food, it has to turn it into a warm soup close to body temperature. When the flame is strong, that happens cleanly and you feel light and energized after meals.
A low flame leaves food sitting
What doesn't get fully transformed builds up as what Chinese medicine calls dampness: a heavy, waterlogged sludge in the system. Dampness is what you feel as bloating, gas, heaviness after eating, and that sluggish, foggy feeling.
The flame naturally lowers with age
Chinese medicine has noticed for centuries that digestive strength starts to dip in the mid-30s, and shifts again through the 40s and around menopause. Add stress and years of cold smoothies and salads, and the same diet stops working.
How you eat matters as much as what you eat
Stopping at 70% full, eating your biggest meal earlier in the day, and sitting down to eat calmly all protect the flame. These are some of the oldest habits in Chinese medicine, and some of the most overlooked.
Small, warm changes add up
Nothing in the guide is extreme. Each day builds on the last, so by the end of the week you've rebuilt your routine without overhauling your life. It's a gentle, realistic place to start.
Dr. Josh Prefontaine, Dr. Ac.
I focus on IBS because I believe proper digestion is the foundation of a healthy life. Too many women are told their tests are normal and sent home to cope. I'd rather look for the pattern behind your symptoms and help you make changes that last.
Registered with the College of Acupuncturists of Alberta · Acupuncture Diploma and Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diploma, Canadian Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine · Advanced training in Chinese herbal medicine, pulse diagnosis and Balance Method acupuncture
Start your reset this week.
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This guide is general information and does not replace individual assessment. Please check with your doctor if your bloating is new, getting worse, or comes with pain, unexplained weight loss, a recent change in your bowel habits, bleeding, or feeling full after very little food. For women over 40, persistent bloating should always be checked.
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