The 5 Rules Drew Barrymore Followed To Lose Weight & Heal Her Gut

With that in mind, here are five key principles I created in Drew's program to help her, yes, slim down and look great, but, more importantly, heal her gut and feel amazing too.

If we don't have balanced guts, it means our digestion is compromised, and we tend to "hold" more, making weight loss much harder. I realized this years ago when I went out backpacking and learning for three years around the world, got out of the limitations of the Western mentality, and finally understood the connection of wholeness, including between my constipation, digestion issues, and bloating and my inability to drop weight. Gut health has been trendy recently, but I've actually been talking about this connection since my first book! You can nourish your gut by reducing refined sugars, cutting out difficult-to-digest foods, like dairy and gluten, meditating and/or bringing in mindfulness practices to help you handle stress (this is as important as what you eat, in my opinion, as everything affects everything else), and taking probiotics.

Weight loss/balance is a long-term lifestyle that is really created with balancing emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being as well. If we are stressed and "holding on" in our mind, manifesting as anxiety, insomnia, chronic resentments, and constantly beating ourselves up and feeling guilty, then I believe that translates to a more arduous time of our bodies letting go of weight. Every single part of our life flows and connects to all the other parts.

Our bodies need natural foods to function at their best, and let weight balance and stay at a balanced level, and this includes increasing natural satiety (feeling calm around food in general versus stressed out about it!) and digestion. This smoothie is key in that it gives you fiber, a ton of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more. You can make it by combining 7 cups chopped spinach (about a medium bunch), 6 cups chopped romaine lettuce (about 1 small head), 2 cups cold filtered water, 1½ cups chopped celery (about 2 medium stalks), 1 medium apple, cored and coarsely chopped, 1 medium pear, cored and coarsely chopped, 1 medium banana, peeled and cut in thirds, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice and some parsley and cilantro (optional), and blending until smooth. This serves 4, so share with a friend or save some for later!

Across the board, I find that most people's bodies open up more and release when then they shift from dairy to plant-based milks, cheeses, yogurts, and so on. In my practice, I've found dairy to be very mucus-forming and congestive, so if your goal is to slim down and lose weight, it is not a very helpful food in that regard, as we are trying to create more of a natural flow in your body.

Drew, along with most all of my clients, take a magnesium oxide supplement at night. It is an oxygen cleanse product, which is non-laxative and non-habit-forming, which is super helpful in this regard as well.