Becky's Top 10 Picks to Start Improving Your Digestion

Every day for the last two years has started with Equi.life Daily Nutritional Support for me. The powder is vegan, IBS-friendly, and gluten-free and also acts as your daily multivitamin. It's an adequate protein source with a great amount of fiber as well.

IBS-friendly protein powders are almost impossible to find, so this powder is especially helpful for starting out your day with a well-rounded breakfast of fruit, peanut butter, and protein. 

The founder, Dr. Stephen Cabral, started Equi.life after battling his own autoimmune diseases and runs a wildly successful naturopathic clinic and podcast in Boston. I look up to him tremendously. This is by far my all-star product.

40 million people suffer from IBS, and a low-FODMAP diet is clinically proven to be the most effective way to reduce IBS symptoms. FODY Foods is an incredible brand that has developed a host of food products that are low-fodmap and add flavor back into cooking. 

Garlic and onion are two of the biggest IBS offenders, so this is a great alternative for cooking with. This garlic and shallot infused olive oil create so much vibrancy in your food and the infusion leaves the spice taste but has none of the short-chain carbohydrates that cause IBS symptoms. 

What are two of the biggest offenders to good old constipation? Lack of fiber and lack of water! The two are a perfect pair and must go together every day, yet only 5% of women meet their daily fiber intake! 

And with fiber, we must drink at least two liters of water to bind the fiber and move waste throughout our body to be properly eliminated. It's no wonder that everyone is so constipated! 

If you have trouble remembering to drink water, this is the water bottle for you. The timestamps provide a helpful reminder to keep drinking water and reinforce when you've done a good job with meeting your water consumption. It's a win-win feeling either way.

Even if you enjoy eating meat and fish, this nutrition book is still a great book to pick up. It promotes delicious and tasty ways to add more vegetables and fiber into your diet, which is good for your overall health. Will's recipes are quite delicious and really do have an impact on improving digestion. 

The book is half science from a top gastroenterologist and half recipes—about 4 weeks' worth to help you overhaul your diet. 

At the end of the day, a large portion of digestive success comes back to creating whole food meals in your kitchen from scratch and avoiding packaged food, processed food, and eating out at too many restaurants.

Kate Scarlata RDN is the leading expert in IBS research. Not only is her blog a wealth of information, but she co-wrote an incredible cookbook with a chef focusing on the low-fodmap diet. 

The book details how the low-FODMAP diet needs to be performed, includes helpful resources to help you succeed on the diet, and has dozens of delicious recipes to make IBS cooking fun and enjoyable. 

Although she's no longer seeing clients, I encourage you to check out her site and catch any webinars when she is speaking as she is truly a wealth of knowledge.

This was the first self-help book I read as a 15-year-old trying to make sense of the world while I was going through dark times and suffering from chronic illness. Not only have over 30 million copies of the book been sold, but 15 years later, it's still a book I think about often on how much of an impact it had on my life. 

When managing a chronic illness or a diagnosis, your mental and emotional outlook on your situation is by far the number one predictor of success. It's unfortunately not something you can teach clients, though doing your best to provide them with tools like this book that can help them refresh their mindset. 

It's crucial to be ready for change when adopting nutritional science and new behavior skills. Cooking your own meals can be looked at as a pain or as a new form of pleasure. Your illness can be viewed as a setback or as a new opportunity. Outlook in progression and treatment is everything.

Cooking is the foundation for treating chronic digestive imbalances and IBS. These issues are lifelong and not cured by a supplement or other quick-fix gimmicks. So why not get the chicest cutting board you can find, to make coking that little bit more exciting? 

If all of your cookware looks like a drag, you probably won't be very excited to cook. And trust me, you'll be spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen. Get excited! Find special pieces, knives, and bowls. A luxurious cutting block really sets the mood and the right one looks beautiful when displayed on the countertop.

A crockpot is a kitchen gadget that, once your start, you absolutely won't be able to live without. Plus, with everyone running busy lives nowadays, this tool helps you enhance the flavors of any dish plus cut back on cooking time, allowing you to use your time elsewhere.

Although I use my crockpot about three times a week, you can adjust your usage to your preferences. Chicken thighs, wings, chuck, or brisket are great in crockpots. 

Around lunchtime, you can put your ingredients in, which only takes around 10 minutes; around 7 pm, you'll find a luxurious dinner ready and waiting for you. It even kind of feels like you cheated the system.

A high powered, self-cleaning blender is a wonderful tool to have in the kitchen that can help you create highly nutritional, easy smoothies in the morning. Just mix Equi.life's Nutritional Support powder, fresh fruits, peanut butter, chia seeds, and nut milk in a Vitamix to make a healthy and tasty shake.

The Vitamix can also make awesome soups, pureés, homemade ice cream, sauces, and other blended goods. And just about anything can be thrown into the Vitamix as the blade is so powerful and the equipment, highly durable. The Vitamix opens up a world of possibilities to your cooking.

Did you know that sitting at a certain angle helps with going to the bathroom? The current way we sit when using the bathroom puts a lot of pressure on the puborectalis muscle in your pelvic floor, which makes it more difficult for us to use the bathroom. That's why having one of these is important.

Individuals with IBS also have a larger tendency to have pelvic floor dyssynergia where our puborectalis muscle is too tense and does not allow us to use the bathroom properly. The squatty potty can help relieve some of that pressure.