Hey {{first_name}},
I’m sorry! I completely missed uploading this newsletter yesterday and I am very sorry!
But for now
If I asked you to think of a place you can always go to feel completely calm, no worry at all, could you picture it?
For me it was always my house at 53.
Over the last few years I've lived in a fair few different places. Exeter for uni, then Jersey for a while after. I've actually got pretty comfortable setting up a "new home" every time. There's something I genuinely love about being somewhere new, learning the streets, making it feel like mine.
But underneath all of that there was always one constant. If things ever got really bad, and at Exeter they did, many many times, I knew I could go home to 53. No planning, no explaining, no worry at all. Just my house, my bathroom, my bed. The one place my IBS didn't stress me out as much.
If you've got IBS or any kind of stomach condition, you'll know exactly what I mean. Stress plays such a massive role in how your gut behaves, and having somewhere you can fully switch off is worth more than most people realise.
This week I've been packing up that exact house. Not moving into somewhere new either. Just packing everything into boxes and suitcases. And funnily enough, the last few days my stomach has been properly dodgy.
Nothing I've eaten has changed. The only thing that's changed is that the place I could always retreat to is now gone.
I didn't fight it or try to eat my way out of it. I just named it for what it was. Not a food problem, a "losing my anchor" problem. Once I could see it clearly, I stopped adding stress on top of stress by worrying about what I'd eaten. I let myself feel a bit unsettled because, honestly, it made complete sense that I would.
That's the bit that actually helped. Not a supplement, not a specific meal. Just recognising that my gut was reacting to something real and letting it be that, rather than turning it into a mystery to solve.
Here's what's next. For the next few weeks I'll be living out of a suitcase, moving between places with no fixed base. Then on the 16th of September I'm flying out to South East Asia, where I'll be living indefinitely.
The plan out there is to properly focus on building better IBS tools and content for you. My Instagram has been a lot of food and quick tips so far, which I know has genuinely helped a lot of you, and I'll keep doing plenty of that.
But I also want to talk more about how it actually feels to live with IBS and health issues. The eating out struggles, how to navigate them, and more of the honest stories in between.
One of the hardest parts of my worst years wasn't the symptoms, it was feeling completely alone in it. I don't want that for anyone reading this.
I'm looking forward so much to creating better content, better products and just better everything so you have all the tools you need to overcome your gut issues.
If you have any ideas of what you would find helpful or something youd like to see more of do let me know as I love chatting with you!
See you next week.
Zak