Feeling bloated is a day ruiner, for sure. It’s even worse when you carry that feeling around constantly. When you’re feeling puffy, heavy, and generally lousy all day it can really take a negative toll on your mood. Conversations with family, friends, and coworkers become short and uneasy, while your rockstar performance falls well below your own personal average….it’s enough to drive you nuts, really.
While bloating is definitely a familiar culprit when you’re on your period, it can be doubly frustrating to deal with feeling like an overstretched balloon when you’re not expecting it. Your clothes don’t fit right, your belly hurts, and even though you’re hungry, you won’t eat for fear of making the discomfort even worse!
Well, there’s good news my water and gas encumbered friends! There are a lot of things you could be doing to help eliminate all that bloat without waiting and hoping your system “resets” itself. Even better news, they are tips that are easily incorporated into your day and won’t burden you with time-crunching your other tasks. Here are 35 ways to get rid of that bloated feeling so you can get back to beautiful, bouncy you.
Hydration is key to everything, including your colon. While it may seem counterintuitive to battle bloat by taking on more water, keeping yourself hydrated will actually help get things moving in your body again and reduce that bloated feeling in the process. To get the best results, drink 2 glasses of water at least 30 minutes before you eat your next meal. This will help to boost your metabolism and keep everything flowing
through your body nicely, as opposed to hanging around in the belly region.
2. Stretch That Belly While You’re Still In Bed
Believe it or not, your bed can help with your bloating too. Your bed is the perfect place to perform a simple belly stretch that can start both you and your fickle tummy off on the right foot. While you’re still in bed, lay flat on your back and bring both knees up toward your stomach and rest in that position for several minutes. Once a few moments have passed, gently and
slowly relax your stomach by rotating your tucked legs from side to side. The gentle rocking motion will help ease your belly and keep you from bloating.
3. Cool It With The Cold Cuts
While cold cuts of meat are delicious and super convenient for lunches and appetizers, they wreak havoc on your stomach. Here’s the rub; all that tasty goodness that you’re used to in hot dogs, bologna, and processed lunch meats mostly come from high amounts of sodium and triglycerides (the bad fats). Both of these are powerhouses in fueling all that bloating you’re trying to get rid of. You can still have a delectable lunch, just opt for fresh carved turkey or chicken instead of the prepackaged stuff.
4. Pay Attention To Your Fiber Intake
There are two types of fiber,
soluble and insoluble, and your body needs both. Just like with most things in life, however, moderation is key. Soluble fiber absorbs water and slows down your digestion, which is generally a good thing. On the other hand, if you are already feeling bloated, slowing your digestion with a fiber that will absorb water and refuse to break down until it hits your large intestine will only worsen the bloat in your body. So eat
some fiber (the suggested 25 grams/day), but try not to overdo it.
5. Eat Broccoli In Moderation
We all know that broccoli is a rockstar when it comes to packing in the nutrients. Unfortunately, though, it’s also known to make people a bit gassy. Breaking wind is good for what ails you, but if your belly is already hurting and feeling overly full, a buildup of gas isn’t going to help anyone. You still want the benefits of this phenomenal veggie, but to make things easier on yourself and your gut, cut your portions back to about half the normal amount. Then you can have your broccoli and eat it too!
If you’re going to eat rice when you’re feeling bloated, swap out the white rice for brown. Both types of the staple grain can contribute to bloating, but for different reasons. Brown rice contains that soluble fiber we mentioned previously, and as such it will slow your digestion and absorb water. This can be a good thing when compared to white rice, though, because you will feel full faster and stay satisfied longer, whereas with white rice there are next to zero nutrients, and the starches can cause a serious spike in your insulin level and will later be stored as fat.
Many of the common medications we take today (especially painkillers and antibiotics) are known to have a negative effect on your stomach. This is because a lot of medicines change the balance of microbes in your digestive system, causing you to become gassy. If that weren’t enough of a problem, these drugs can also slow down your metabolism, leaving you in that puffed out and miserable state. If you think this could be the cause behind your constant sensations of bloating, ask your doctor if you can change the meds you’re on to get you back on track.
Olive oil has a plethora of amazing health benefits. Among them are the
oleic acid and
beta-sitosterol. Both work to block the absorption of cholesterol in your blood, and boost the absorption of
phytonutrients, helping your body to shed weight and operate at a top-notch performance. Avocados are also found to have high amounts of these components, so if you don’t have one, opt for the other. A couple tablespoons of this superfood are all you need to take advantage of their many health benefits.
9. Nourish Your Belly With Oatmeal
Oatmeal is the perfect choice for a relief-from-bloat-seeking breakfast. Full of soluble fiber, it’ll help get you to your target goal of 25 grams, while keeping your belly satiated throughout the morning. It’s also quick to make, so you won’t have to carve out any extra time from your already packed out day. Just make sure to avoid the instant flavored brands of oatmeal, as they are loaded with sugars and can make the bloating worse.
A healthy salad is your one-stop shop for a nutrient-dense meal. Packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, leafy greens like spinach, kale, swiss chard, and romaine can give you everything you need to beat your bloat. As an added bonus, they are crazy low in calories and help the body flush out excess water, making them perfect for just about any diet.
11. Snacks Are A Good Thing
Rather, snacks
can be a good thing, depending on what you’re snacking on. Chips and candies aren’t going to fill you up and will just leave you feeling inflamed, but a vitamin and fiber-rich snack of nuts, berries, and yogurt will work wonders for that dreaded bloated feeling. In addition to fiber, the berries are packed with antioxidants and the nuts also contain oleic acids that help with absorption of nutrients, and the yogurt restores your gut’s health with probiotics and good bacteria. So go ahead, get your snack on!
12. When The Midnight Munchies Hit, Avoid The Carbs
It’s all too easy to wake up in the middle of the night with munchies on the brain and reach for that leftover pasta. If you can’t keep yourself from a midnight fridge raid, do yourself a favor and reach for something less starchy. The problem with pastas and other starch laden foods is that they are full of carbs and lack any real nutrients. So, when you load up on them, it slows digestion and increases inflammation, making the next morning pretty rough on the gut.
Cantaloupe is more than just delightfully sweet and low in calories; it’s also loaded with potassium. This makes it a superfood when it comes to feeling bloated because potassium is literally a mover and a shaker when it comes to body-balance. The minerals help the kidneys to expel any overage of sodium, and it also works to provide a balanced distribution of fluids throughout the entire body. Plus it helps keep you hydrated, so what’s not to love?!
14. Put A Slice Of Lemon In Your H2O
Ironically enough, when your body is hanging onto too much water, you can
use water to fix the problem, provided there’s a lemon involved. Lemon acts as a diuretic (makes ya wanna pee), and when it is combined with warm water, it will help move your digestion along too. This will not only help you get yourself unbloated but, if drunk on a regular basis, it will also help promote weight loss through improved digestion.
15. Save The Brews For A Different Date
This trick might make you a little sad, but if you’ve been suffering from that bloated feeling then you’ll understand that it is SO worth giving it up for a few days. Not just beer, but alcohol consumption in general, will only dehydrate you. Not only does this slow your digestion way down (and increase the feelings of discomfort), but it also causes your body to retain as much water as possible as you deplete your stores. So, while it may hurt the party animal in you, steer clear for the you that has to wake up and go to work all week.
16. Use Dairy As A Treat, Not A Staple
While dairy is generally considered to be rich in both calcium and protein, and therefore a good food to have in your diet, more and more people are becoming lactose intolerant. Lactose is the sugar that’s found in dairy foods, and intolerance occurs when your body fails to produce the proper enzymes to break the lactose down, leading to gas and serious bloating, if not other more…er, “pressing” issues. A good way to find out if you have an intolerance to dairy is to quit eating it when you’re bloated. If the problem goes away, you might wanna have a visit with the Doc to see if dairy is the trigger for your discomfort.
17. Don’t Fill Your Plate
Often times we eat so fast that we don’t give our bodies time to realize that they’re full. A great way to combat this major factor of overeating is to limit the amount of food on your plate. Instead of packing out every centimeter of dish space, try only filling it 3/4’s full. By only putting this amount on your plate, you won’t be tempted to keep eating after you’re full, and you can always grab seconds if a small chunk of time passes after finishing and you’re still hungry.
Just like lemons, cucumbers help rid your body of that extra water it’s been hanging onto. They have zero calories, and if you eat the skin, they contain vitamins, too. Get the best of many worlds by combining cucumbers with olive oil, vinegar, and pepper and letting them sit for a few hours in the fridge. Not into marinated cukes? That’s ok, you can also throw a slice in your water, like with the lemon, to achieve the same effect while you hydrate.
If you’re going to eat bread, go for the whole grain variety. Although these breads are still jam-packed with sugars (scoring 20 points
higher on the glycemic index than a Snickers bar), at least the whole grains provide plenty of fiber to help push it through your system while keeping you full. White bread offers none of these benefits and all the negatives, such as sugar spikes, hunger, and inflammation.
Chewing gum seems harmless enough, right?
Wrong. Most chewing gum contains a fair amount of sugar and artificial sweeteners, which do your body no favors. Aside from all that nutritional drama, though, you are also swallowing
a lot of air when you chew gum. Because you are
swallowing the air rather than inhaling it, it gets trapped in your gut and leads to painful puffiness that could easily be avoided with a healthy snack instead.
21. Rinse Your Canned Goods
When cooking with canned goods, most people will dump the whole can, juice and all, into their meal. This is because it packs so much flavor which, in this case, is another word for salt. Unless you buy the no-sodium variety, chances are you are consuming vast amounts of salt in those canned veggies. Try opting for fresh or frozen. It will taste equally delicious, if not way better, and it will save you from the extra water-weight and bellyaching.
22. Opt For Steaming Your Food
Don’t get us wrong! Fried foods are soooo yummy. The downside is that what makes them so appetizing are all those fats that constitute the “fried” part of their name. Fats are hard on the digestive system, and take much more time to break down than the veggies themselves. As a result, your stomach gets puffed out and uncomfortable while your body works overtime to break those bad fats down.
23. Spice Things Up With Pepper
If your food is tasting bland, it can seem like second nature to reach for the salt. In the name of love for your guts, though, try grabbing the pepper instead. The spice will kick your food up a few notches
without making your body hold onto the extra water. As a plus, pepper is a natural stimulant and will help boost your circulation, allowing your intestines to break your food down even faster.
Sauces are God’s gift of flavor, no doubt. Unfortunately, it takes a toll on your tummy, too. Rather than adding in unnecessary fats to your diet, try packing all the flavor into the meat with herbs and spices. Your flavor profile will skyrocket, and most seasonings are packing at least
some health benefits, as an added bonus. “Let food be thy medicine”, and all that.
25. Center Your Gut With Yoga
One of the most beneficial things you can do for your body is to exercise daily. This is no less true if you’re feeling bloated. The gentle stretching, flexing, and twisting will soothe your tummy muscles and help reduce the inflammation causing your puffiness. There are literally
hundreds of poses to choose from, but the
cobra and
triangle poses are some of the most popular for this effect.
26. Sip On Some Peppermint Tea
Peppermint is really one of nature’s greatest miracle drugs. One of the things it is best known for, perhaps, is soothing your digestive system by acting as a muscle relaxant in the gut. This allows contractions or cramps to slow to a stop, ease gas, and get rid of that nasty bloated feeling. Simply steep 1 tsp. of dried, or 1 tablespoon of fresh peppermint in 6 oz. of hot water and sip until it’s gone. Then, just relax as belly troubles slowly slip away.
Stress is a vicious cycle. It releases a hormone called
cortisol, which interrupts our digestive system, leading to bloating, stomach pain, and all around discomfort. The hormone itself, as well as feeling unwell, prevents us from getting a good night’s sleep. Sadly, when we miss out on sleep, we release even more of this hormone and start the cycle all over again. In order to rid yourself of stress, you have to put your mind at ease. Meditation is one of the best ways to do this, and thankfully if you are unfamiliar with the process, there’s an
app for that.
Straws are a fantastic way to enjoy a drink without damaging your teeth or to make sure the beverage ends up in a kiddos mouth and not down their shirtfront. All of that aside, though, they really aren’t helping you if you’re bloated. Having a straw inherently leads a person to drink more of their beverage faster than they would by just drinking from the cup, and to swallow air on top of it. While that’s fine if you’re trying to catch a buzz and don’t mind the hiccups, it’s only making your bloating worse by causing you to drink more than you need, filling your already overly full belly with air and liquid. So, set the straws aside for a craft project with the kids and sip it old school.
29. Cook Your Cruceriferous Veggies
If you still want the taste and benefits of veggies like cabbage and cauliflower, without the added pain from gas and digestion, try cooking it first. Even just steaming the crunchy veggies will help break up the fiber in them. This will make it easier for your gut to get to work digesting them, so you’re not up all night with stomach pains as a result of healthy eating.
30. No Late-Night Starches
We all know that eating right before bed is a health no-no. That being said, we are all busy and don’t always have full control over our schedule. So, sometimes, the choice is to either eat right before bed or go without. If you’ve been working all day, chances are you aren’t about to skip out on a hearty meal. If you can’t avoid eating just before hitting the switch for the night, just make sure not to eat anything starchy, like potatoes. The starch makes your body hold onto water and leads to bloat, so avoid them like the plague after a certain time of night.
For women who want to prevent constipation, and bloating as a result of it, they need to hit their target goal of consuming at least 25 grams of fiber per day. The best way to get your daily fiber intake is through the diet, as it is much more readily absorbed through actual food than it is in a supplement. Thankfully, berries are full of delicious fiber so you can toss a handful on your morning meal and be well on your way to that 25 grams. They key to getting the most out of your berries is to leave the skins on, as this is where the most fiber in fruits are found.
32. Up Your Potassium Intake
Did you know that potassium-rich foods can help keep your body from retaining extra water? It’s all in the amino acids, which act as a flushing system for your bodily fluids. What’s
awesome is that potassium loaded foods happen to be delicious, simple, and readily available. In fact, you probably have several of these mineral-rich foods on your counter. They include bananas, spinach, tomatoes, and mangos.
33. Go Bonkers For Bananas
There are so many
great things about bananas, we don’t even know where to begin. Not only are they known to induce feelings of happiness by facilitating serotonin production, aid in weight loss, and cure hangovers and PMS symptoms, but they help eliminate bloating too! This is because they contain large amounts of both potassium and fiber, helping to flush the body of both liquid and solid wastes. An added bonus? You have a great excuse to drink
banana smoothies for breakfast!
Watermelon is more than just the deliciously iconic fruit of summer barbeques and get-togethers, it has health benefits, too! Watermelon is remarkably low on the
glycemic index, only containing 9 g of natural sugars per cup, low calorie, and it has the wonder-working amino acid know as
citrulline, which stimulates circulation and gives your body a serious energy boost to help you beat the afternoon slump. In addition, watermelon helps you to detox excessive sodium in your body responsible for that bloated belly.
35. Indulge In Some Salmon
We’ve all heard about the omega 3 fatty acids contained in certain types of fish, like salmon, and the wonders they can do to boost your brain health. Hence the ramped up manufacturing of fish oil supplements over the last 20 years. What is less known, though, is that these fatty acids also work overtime to reduce belly inflammation, which will help relieve you of that gross bloated feeling. If you’re looking for some inspiration on how to cook this amazing fish, check out one of these
amazing recipes.
Now that you’ve got an arsenal of anti-bloat knowledge built up, you can get back to enjoying your life without feeling like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka who ate the everlasting gobstopper. Please SHARE this with your friends and family, in case they’re feeling a bit puffy, too!
