Gut Driven by Ellen Postolowski
What's It About?
A health and wellness guide focused on gut health, with a three-week program to help eliminate inflammatory foods and start to create new awareness of what is and isn’t good for your mind, body and spirit.What are your symptoms? Bloating? Sugar cravings? Migraines? Skin problems? Extra weight? Mood swings? Poor sleep? Should I go on? And how long have you been suffering? Weeks? Months? Years??? Then you need to read Gut-Driven by Ellen Postolowski.
As a trained chef, with a focus on nutritional food, and training as an integrative health coach, she fully embraces whole-body well-being by way of gut health. She stresses the importance of self-care that goes beyond the basics of food, water and exercise … and includes so much more about what can help to make you healthy and happy.
Addresses Core Problems and Provides Long-Term Solutions
Right from the get-go, Postolowski says, “You might have tried fad diets, ingested supplements, or gone keto. Trends like these may help in the short term, but they miss the mark … they don’t address the core problem that is going on, and they don’t give you the know-how to design a lifelong eating regimen that supports your physical and mental well-being.” This book is designed to jump-start your health from the gut up! “When your gut is healthy, your hormones are balanced, your brain functions improve, and your immune response is prepared to defend your body against illness.” Sounds like a great plan to me!
From the start, Postolowski gets right to the heart of the problem. It was like she was talking directly to me, and me alone. She offers a ton of really great information as well as concrete solutions, and this book is a step-by-step guide to help you.
Program that is Forgiving and Easy To Stick To
Postolowski’s program is called Reset 90/10, which is a three-week program to help eliminate inflammatory foods and start to create new awareness of what is and isn’t good for your mind, body and spirit. Anyone can do anything for 21 days, right? But what’s great is that the 90/10 means that the program is flexible and forgiving. The idea is that if you do something perfectly 90% of the time, it leaves room for not being “perfect” 10% of the time.
This is the kind of program that you can actually stick with and helps lead to making “real and consistent progress.” And the program allows you the chance to “release old habits, establish new ones, and build a better whole-health foundation.”
At the end of the 21-day reset period, you then move onto the Maintenance phase, during which you reintroduce eliminated foods one by one allowing you to recognize any potential sensitivities or intolerances, all leading you to your own new healthy foundation for gut-health. The focus is on small steps.
There is also room for flexibility and allowing food, as well as life, to be fun. That’s often my biggest problem with strict food programs or diets … what do you do if it’s the holidays, your birthday, or you have a wedding to attend? You don’t want to throw all your hard work out the window, but this program allows you that 10% of flexibility.
Step by Step Guide with Delicious Recipes
Powstolowki walks you through all the steps of each phase of the program. And the book includes the most delicious sounding recipes for both the Reset and Maintenance phases. I was drooling when I was reading them (I think I spotted a few droplets on the pages!). Remember, she’s a chef!
Just a few options include roasted sweet potato fried rice, buckwheat pancakes, butternut squash, fennel and pear soup, and green goddess vinaigrette for the Reset Phase, and Mexican rice bowls, quesadillas, cauliflower pizza, vegetable stew, and chocolate chip cherry and coconut bars for the Maintenance phase. Yum! There are even sample menu suggestions to help get you through the 3-week Reset phase of the program. They are very easy to follow.
At the end of the book, Powstolowski reminds us that, while we all strive to be our best, this journey is really about finding a reasonable balance. Getting caught up in the idea of perfection will only hinder our progress. I love that thought. Life is always a balance and it’s good to remember that. Here’s to living your best life!
About Ellen Postolowski:
Ellen Postolowski has spent most of her career assisting clients with the changes needed to succeed in establishing a healthier lifestyle. Her work as a health-minded chef, and her complementary integrative nutrition training, honed her focus on educating and coaching people to make choices that support their health both on and off the plate. Postolowski’s back-to-basics approach of balance, awareness, and education focuses on client individuality in order to help them look, feel and live their best lives possible.
She holds a culinary degree from the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado, and is a certified health coach with multiple certifications in gut and hormonal health. Postolowski lives with her family in Allendale, New Jersey, where she continues to change the lives and habits of many people looking for positive shifts and balance. Follow her on Instagram and TikTok and check out her website for news and contact information.
