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By Heide Kennedy, Arizona Farm Bureau Communications Intern

We’ve all heard the phrase “Slow and steady wins the race!” While this is true in so many areas of life, it turns out that it is especially true regarding how we make changes to our diet and exercise habits. Quick, intense, and abrupt changes to what we eat or how much we exercise can result in bloating, gas, and bowel movement changes. Registered dietician Erin Judge says that the reason that making changes quickly causes these unpleasant symptoms is because by making these changes, you are putting stress on your body, which disrupts your body’s ability to convert food into energy. There are three specific things that we should change about our diets and exercise slowly to avoid any unpleasant effects.

The first has to do with how fast we change the foods that we include in our diets. Judge says that our gut microbiome is much like a muscle in that it needs to be slowly trained to digest more fiber-rich foods. Often when people decide to eat healthier, that means that they begin to add more vegetables to their diets, which are very high in fiber. Too much fiber all at once can cause gas, bloating, and bowel movement changes, so it is best to introduce it slowly.

Another dietary habit that is best introduced slowly is the frequency of when we eat. Judge says that it is best to eat three solid meals per day, as this allows your body that digestion period in-between meals to fully digest the previous meal and prepare for the next one to come.

Finally, the intensity of exercise has a lot to do with how well you digest food. When you amp up the intensity of your workouts suddenly, you’re asking a lot of yourself and your muscles, which places your whole body under a lot of stress. Judge says that while we don’t often connect the two, exercise and digestion do affect each other, so gradually increasing the intensity of a workout lessens the severity of that stress that you place on your body.

While it might be tempting to make drastic changes to our diets and exercise routines for the sake of seeing results faster, it isn’t always the best choice. Don’t be afraid to take it slow and make those positive changes one step at a time!

For more health-related articles, check out the Fill Your Plate blog!