You Finally Booked That Dream Trip… But Your Gut Has You Terrified

You finally booked that bucket-list trip you’ve been talking about for years. Or maybe you’re in the planning phase, seriously considering it.

But instead of feeling excited…you’re terrified.

Not because of the flights or the planning — but because you know your gut. The urgency that comes out of nowhere. The bloating. The pain. The diarrhea has you running to the bathroom multiple times before you can even leave the house in the morning.

At home, you’ve learned to manage it. You know where every bathroom is. You can control what you eat. You can stay close to home on bad days.

But on a trip? You’re out of your routine. Out of your safe zone. And that’s scary.

If that sounds familiar, this article is going to explain the three reasons people get stuck in this cycle — and what you can actually do to fix it.

Here is a video we made, otherwise there is a written version underneath.

Problem 1: You’re Stuck On Elimination Diets

First, let’s talk about the diet changes you may have already tried.

Maybe you’ve done low FODMAP. Maybe you’ve cut out gluten, dairy, fiber, or everything under the sun.

And here’s what happens:

For the first time in years, you feel a bit more in control. No bloating. No cramping. Fewer unpredictable toilet trips. So you think: “Great! This is better. My gut is healing.”

But here’s the problem: symptom-free doesn’t mean healed. It just means you removed the triggers.

And when you stay restricted for months or years, something dangerous happens: You’re starving the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Think of your gut microbiome like a forest ecosystem. When you remove all the FODMAPs, all the fiber-rich foods, you’re removing the food sources for good bacteria. They die off. Your gut diversity tanks. That ecosystem becomes unbalanced.

And now, when you try to reintroduce those foods? You can’t tolerate them anymore — not because you’re allergic, but because you’ve lost the bacteria that help in the digestive process.

For so many people, they end up making their gut MORE sensitive, not less.

The Psychological Toll

Plus, there’s the psychological toll:

• You’re thinking about what you can’t eat all the time
• You avoid restaurants, travel, and social events
• Your world gets smaller and smaller

Instead of achieving food freedom — which is what you want — you’ve actually made a food prison for yourself.

So elimination diets do help short-term, but they’re not a long-term solution.

What Should You Do?

You need a strategic reintroduction plan. Not just randomly adding foods back and hoping for the best, but systematically expanding your diet to rebuild your gut’s tolerance safely.

Because the goal isn’t to stay restricted forever, it’s to rebuild microbiome diversity so your gut can handle variety again. It’s a crucial step that a lot of people overlook by the time they get there because they’re just fed up and tired.

Summary: Elimination diets provide short-term symptom relief but can starve beneficial gut bacteria when followed long-term, making your gut more sensitive rather than less. A strategic reintroduction plan is essential to rebuild microbiome diversity and restore your gut’s ability to tolerate a variety of foods without creating a restrictive food prison.

Problem 2: You’re Treating Symptoms, Not Root Causes

The second issue we come across is that most people never identify the actual root cause of their gut symptoms.

Your doctor probably said, “It’s just IBS,” and sent you home. But IBS isn’t a diagnosis — it’s a label for “we don’t know what’s wrong” because they didn’t find or suspect anything physically wrong in your digestive tract.

But of course, the symptoms are real. You and I both know that something’s not right.

Here’s What’s Often ACTUALLY Happening:

1. SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)

You’ve got bacteria growing in the wrong place — your small intestine — where they shouldn’t be in high quantities. They ferment food and create gas, bloating, and diarrhea. Most doctors don’t test for it.

In fact, research shows 1 in 3 people with IBS actually have SIBO (1).

2. IMO (Intestinal Methanogen Overgrowth)

Similar to SIBO but produces methane gas. This slows gut motility and causes constipation and bloating.

3. Dysbiosis (Microbiome Imbalance)

What we find with clients after doing comprehensive stool profiling is that it’s not uncommon to have:

• Bacterial imbalances
• Parasites
• Elevated inflammatory markers
• Enzyme deficiencies
• Increased intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut)

The Only Way to Know

The only way to know what’s actually going on is through proper testing:

• SIBO breath testing (measures hydrogen and methane gases)
• Comprehensive stool analysis (looks at bacteria, parasites, inflammation)
• Blood panels for nutritional deficiencies

Think of it like this: you don’t just want to treat a fever without finding out what the infection is. You need to know what you’re treating before you can fix it properly.

And this is why many people stay stuck, they’re managing symptoms with Imodium and safe foods, but never addressing what’s actually the issue.

This is why you should look at getting some proper testing. It gives you the roadmap — then you can treat the actual cause instead of just managing symptoms forever.

Summary: Most people are given an “IBS” label without identifying the actual root cause, which is often SIBO, IMO, or dysbiosis. Proper testing through breath tests and comprehensive stool analysis reveals what’s really happening so you can treat the cause rather than endlessly managing symptoms with medications and dietary restrictions.

Problem 3: Your Nervous System is Stuck in Survival Mode

This is the third piece most people miss entirely: Your gut-brain connection is dysregulated.

Have you ever noticed how when you’re stressed or anxious, it goes straight to your gut? That’s not a coincidence. That’s your vagus nerve, the direct line between your brain and your gut.

Scientists call the gut your “second brain” for a reason. Think about it:

• Why do we feel butterflies when we’re nervous?
• Why does your stomach drop when you hear bad news?
• No other part of your body reacts instantly to emotions like this

When the Vagus Nerve Becomes Hypersensitive

When your vagus nerve is working properly, it helps regulate digestion and even inflammation. Everything is calm and works as it should.

But when it becomes hypersensitive — often from years or even decades of:

• Chronic stress and anxiety
• Past gut trauma (like food poisoning or a bad flare, like diverticulitis or SIBO)
• Years of gut imbalances

Your nervous system starts to overreact to normal gut processes. It creates urgency, pain, and diarrhea…even when there’s no trigger food.

Essentially, your gut gets stuck in fight-or-flight mode or “survival mode.”

The Vicious Cycle

And this ultimately creates a vicious cycle:

1. Stress makes gut symptoms worse
2. Gut symptoms create more stress and anxiety
3. Your nervous system becomes MORE reactive
4. Which makes your gut even MORE sensitive

This is why food elimination alone doesn’t fully work for so many people.

You can remove every trigger food in the world, but if your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, you’ll still have symptoms.

And this is what makes so many people terrified to travel. Because even at home, with all your routines and safety nets, your gut is still unpredictable. And if you go out of routine and safety? It feels impossible.

What Should You Do?

You need to retrain your nervous system. This could mean vagal tone exercises to get your body out of fight-or-flight mode, or gut-directed therapy to calm that overactive gut-brain connection.

Summary: The gut-brain connection via the vagus nerve can become hypersensitive after years of stress, gut trauma, or chronic imbalances, causing your nervous system to overreact to normal digestive processes. This creates a vicious cycle where stress worsens symptoms and symptoms increase stress, which is why retraining your nervous system through vagal tone exercises or gut-directed therapy is essential for lasting relief.

If you’re just getting started, download our free Low FODMAP food list to get clarity on common food triggers

Tap the blue button below to download our “Eat This, Not That” list as well as additional resources for SIBO and IBS (it’s free!)

SEND ME THE LIST

What Should Your Next Steps Be?

1. When you’ve made diet changes to eliminate foods and identify triggers, you also need a strategic reintroduction process to rebuild tolerance
2. You want to understand if there’s an underlying issue to manage, so you need proper testing and root cause treatment
3. And for a lot of us with anxiety, you need to re-train your nervous system too

That’s really the trifecta that we found maximizes the likelihood you get on top of this and are back in control of your gut symptoms and your gut health.

Now, that’s a lot to coordinate on your own, right?

This is exactly what we do in our program, following a unique process we call the ‘4-SURE Pathway’, which is a 4-step process where we guide you every step of the way — really hold your hand through the process — so you get through it as fast and pain-free as possible.

And we help you do it all in one place, online, from the comfort of your own home. Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about following yet another diet protocol or trying another supplement.

It’s about getting your life back so you can go on those trips. You can enjoy yourself. You can eat the food and make beautiful memories with your partner, your family, and your loved ones. Because if you can’t do that, then what’s the point of anything?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or struggling to manage your gut issues alone, professional guidance can make all the difference. We’ve helped over 15,000 people successfully navigate these exact challenges and identify their specific triggers and root causes.

To learn more about our integrated approach, I invite you to apply for a nutrition assessment call with us. We’ll help you make sense of what’s really happening and map out the next steps to get you feeling better — not just temporarily managing symptoms, but addressing the root causes for long-lasting relief.