The Science of Your Gut: 3 Easy Steps to Reduce Bloating, Improve Digestion, and Feel Better Today

I am so fricking bloated right now, I'm uncomfortable. On Monday, I put the red pants on, they felt great. On Tuesday, they felt great. Wednesday, they felt great. On Thursday, they felt great. Friday, not so great, everybody (laughs) . I mean, this poor button is hanging on by a thread. I was just about to google, "How do you get rid of a bloat? Five-day reset." And I thought, "Mel, what are you doing? Why don't you call Dr. Amy Shaw?"

The biggest tip when you're feeling bloated or distended is...

(Music)

Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. Today, you and I are going to talk about something that we have all experienced. Maybe you're experiencing it at this very moment. What is the topic? We're talking about bloating. And there's a particular reason why I wanted to talk about bloating today, and the reason is simple. I am so fricking bloated right now, I'm uncomfortable. See, here's what happened. The last couple weeks, I have been, um, on the road for work, and I've been going from one city to the next city, and I've been giving speeches and having business meetings, and it's been really great. And I want to tell you a little secret. This is like a travel secret, little travel tip, that when I travel for work, I always just travel with a carry-on. And you may be asking yourself, "Well, Mel, if you have been traveling for two weeks, how the heck can you go to multiple cities with a carry-on?" Well, the secret is simple. I wear the same outfit (laughs) to every speech and every business meeting. I swear to God, I travel with a uniform. And if you ever look at any of the stories on Instagram, you will notice, wow, Mel always has on the same pair of red pants and the black shirt whenever she's giving her speech. It's true. I have this stretchy pair of red pants that I love that are made out of polyester, and I have this great black Oxford shirt that is also made out of polyester, and I wear it on stage, and I wear it to business meetings, and it looks fantastic. And the other thing that's fantastic about polyester is that when you get to a hotel room, if you hang a polyester pair of pants up in a shower, and you run a shower, within about 15 minutes, the steam of a shower in a hotel room cleans it like a dry cleaner. Absolutely fabulous. So here I am, I'm on the road, and I've got my red polyester pants. And on Monday, I put the red pants on. They felt great. On Tuesday, I'm in Nashville to give a speech, put the red polyester pant, they felt great. Wednesday, put the red polyester pants on in Chicago, they felt great. On Thursday, I put the red polyester pants on in Orlando for a speech. They felt great. Friday, when I put the red polyester pants on, not so great, everybody (laughs) . I mean, I couldn't button them. And when I looked down, I realized... I have the pants here. You can see them if you look at YouTube. This poor button is hanging on by a thread for dear life. Like, I'm talking, it has a singular thread, because the tension on the waistband on this poor little button over the course of the last week has basically acted like a saw, slowly sawing apart the, the, the, the, the, you know, threads that were attaching the button to the pants. That button was the hardest working person in my company for the last five days. And I don't know what happened, because I take care of myself when I'm on the road. It's not like I'm downing Jim Beam or I'm, like, out late. I get a great night's sleep. I travel with friends. We're having a lot of fun. I love what I'm doing. But I kid you not, I will show you photos of me on that Friday. I look like I'm in the second trimester of a pregnancy. I have a food baby that looks like a basketball right in my stomach. And here's the thing. I know that I didn't gain weight. I mean, because you can't gain seven to 10 pounds in five days. But somehow, I gained the equivalent of that in bloating. And so I finally got home here, and I'm like, "I have to figure out what to do, because I am either going to be belching for two weeks or farting this out. And neither one is a great option, and I feel terrible, and I don't want to wear sweatpants for the next, I don't know, four weeks while I'm waiting for the bloating to go down." And so I was just about to google, "How do you get rid of a bloat? Five-day reset?" And I thought, "Mel, what are you doing? Why don't you call Dr. Amy Shaw?" I mean, Dr. Amy Shaw, as you probably know, if you're a listener to the Mel Robbins podcast, she's been on this twice before. She is a double board-certified medical doctor in the field of allergies, immunology, and internal medicine. She graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University's world-renowned School of Nutrition. She went on to receive her doctorate with distinction. She's trained at Harvard, at Columbia, and she is on the front line of nutritional and medical science. She's been on this show before. She's incredible. And her bestselling book, I'm So F***ing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave and What To Do About It, it is the manual on trying to balance your hormones and understand the science of nutrition so that you can curb your cravings. And I'm like, "What are you doing? Why are you going to google when you can get Dr. Shaw on and Dr. Shaw can explain h- what is bloating, why does it happen, and more importantly, what is the protocol?" Like, what could you do in, let's say, five days? Is there a five-day reset that you and I could follow so that whenever you feel bloated......because of what you ate or because of stress, or because of whatever the heck is going on, you know what to do. And so that's what we're doing today. And I also know that this conversation, we're planning on releasing it right during the holidays, and so you're gonna be in the thick of it. You're gonna be in the thick of all those amazing meals, and the stress of the holidays, and the drinking, and the travel, and the this and the that. And so wherever it is that you're coming to this conversation, we got a seat at the table for you. And you can have your pants buttoned or not. You can have on your red pants with your food baby. You can have on your soft pants, with your sweatpants on. Everybody is welcome here, because every single one of us at some point in our lives feels bloated. And for me, it's today. And what we're gonna do today is we're gonna hear from the amazing Dr. Amy Shah. What are we gonna do about this? So please help me welcome Dr. Amy Shah back to the Mel Robbins podcast.