As a female you know all about bloating.  It’s that gassy feeling you get when your jeans won’t button right and you wriggle in discomfort for a few days or more.  If you have been wondering if there is something you can do about this problem, there is!  While this post is not meant to be all inclusive, it will provide you with some of the top exercise and nutritional strategies you can use to reduce bloating.

What You Eat/Drink

What you put into you body can directly result in bloating.  It’s easy to identify certain foods that may affect you in this way, but many of the common triggers are cream (think heavy cream, like ice-cream or coffee creamer), raw vegetables, cabbage, beans – and surprisingly bagels and pretzels.  If you suffer discomfort, it is best to avoid these foods, or at least to prepare them in cooked form. 

Other causes are not getting enough protein, too much salt, and sodas.  It may also be a result of food allergies, or intolerance (such as lactose intolerance), or can be caused by too much alcohol consumption.  If you frequently experience bloating you may want to keep a journal of your diet and try to identify foods that trigger it.  Even if you don’t have any specific triggers, simply overeating can cause that bloated feeling.

Chew Your Food

Since gas is caused from swallowing air, a simple way to prevent gas is to chew your food thoroughly.  This is because the more your food gets broken down, the less air you are likely to swallow.  Another side benefit to this is that when you chew your food thoroughly you’re going to allow yourself to get full at a healthier pace, and you might even lose some weight when you learn to savor your meals. 

How To Relieve Gas

Since these foods are good for you, with the exception of the ice cream, you  can still eat them, but to neutralize the bloating, take a gas reducer, like Beano, which will neutralize the gas.  It’s recommended that you take this right before you eat, thus you get the health benefits of the healthy foods while lowering your bloat factor.  Gas X or Phazyme (made with simothcone) are also good options for helping you keep up the good-for-you foods while relieving gas bubbles.

Exercise

Perhaps the best way to relieve gas is the simplest.  Just put on your running shoes and go for a brisk walk or run.  This helps to dispel gas, and other light exercises may help with decreasing the bloated gassy feeling.  This is good for food induced bloating, or that feeling right before your menstrual cycle.  

Simple yoga stretches can help as well to encourage bowel activity.  Some of the easiest ones to try at home are to sit on an armless chair and twist your torso around while exhaling.  You can also lie one floor flat on your back and bring your knees to your chest alternately and hug them for about twenty to thirty seconds.  Any kind of regular exercise will improve your bowel function and should help with bloating so you don’t have to save exercise as a remedy – use it as a preventative.

Water

If you think too much water bloats you, reverse your mindset right now.  If you don’t have enough water, your body will actually retain it more.  It also keeps sodium in your body, which will cause you to feel bloated.  Drink more water (the recommended 8-10 glasses a day) and give yourself a few days to flush out the old stuff in your body.  This will work, and it’s good for you.

So, if you are feeling bloated, maybe that’s your body’s signal telling you that you need to incorporate some healthy activities into your life.  Nearly all of these remedies are cheap and or free, and you will experience beneficial side effects, such as weight loss and the increased mental stimulation that comes from a healthy diet and a little bit of exercise.