Lauren Schramm is busy. As a trainer, Pilates instructor, and ice-bath and breathwork coach, Schramm’s days are packed with clients and appointments from dawn to dusk. She travels frequently for work to teach classes, shoot marketing campaigns, and she admits that digestion and regularity aren’t normally top of mind. Thanks to her career in the wellness industry, Schramm understands the importance of gut health—and that’s why she committed to follow a three-week course of taking Solgar probiotics to improve her digestive health. Schramm didn’t expect such surprising results, but at the end of the program, her life and body felt completely different. Here she explains what Solgar Women’s Complete Probiotics did for her.
I Became More Regular
I have always had a wonky stomach, and as a kid I would go to the bathroom like once a week. As an adult, I never really went to the bathroom first thing in the morning. But I have friends who are outspoken in this department, and they insisted that in order to be healthy, I had to go as soon as I got up. When you think about it, it makes sense that you should get rid of all the waste you have in your body from the previous day, and not carry it around with you. Taking a probiotic every day helped my body shift into that morning gear, and now I regularly hit the bathroom shortly after waking up. I also was surprised that I felt lighter, more confident, and even less groggy all day.
I Focused On Daily Self-Care
I am not a regimented person when it comes to dietary supplementation, but I liked the idea of taking a probiotic as a way to show up for myself. The act of taking one pill in the morning set an intention for the entire day to eat better, and to think about what else I could do to improve my digestion. Could I eat a better lunch? Drink more water? Drink less coffee? It set in motion a routine of self-care that extended for the rest of the day.
I Ate Better
Taking this product helped me eat more consciously, to think about food as fuel, and to consider what I could eat to make me feel my best and give me the most energy and nutrients possible. On the whole, I was able to fall into a good balance of eating healthy and nutritionally fulfilling meals and snacks, and helped me further optimize my digestion.
Travel Felt Less Jarring
I travel frequently for work, and in fact, I just returned from Portland, Oregon. It was a long flight both ways and there was a big time change, and while I was there, I was on an out-of-context schedule with big lunches and late dinners. Having a probiotic helped with digestive regularity, of course, but it also helped balance my mental state: It was grounding to be able to maintain that routine while I was away from home.
My Cycle Was More Tolerable
Many women have digestive issues, such as constipation and cramping, as a result of their menstrual cycle—myself included. I noticed that taking a probiotic made my period more mild and less painful. Perhaps this is because Solgar Women’s Complete contains a strain of bacteria that can help balance vaginal pH, or perhaps it was simply because I was falling into a routine of healthy eating and focusing on my gut health. Either way, I had an easier time around that time of the month.
I Had More Energy
When I am stressed, I tend to drink a lot of coffee, which typically throws off my digestion. But while I was taking probiotics, I found that I had a steady amount of energy all day long; it feels a lot different than frenetic coffee energy. I believe that the body’s ability to properly digest food and effectively break it down allows it to absorb and assimilate more of the nutrients from the meals I eat. This, in turn, gives me all-day energy without caffeine. As a result, I was able to cut back on my coffee intake because I never felt like I needed a boost, and drinking less coffee also helped calm my digestion.
I Was Supporting My Bone Health
I am in my 30s, and while I am not overly concerned with bone density at this time, I train a lot of women for whom this is critical. This particular product contains a strain of bacteria that has been shown to improve bone density in women. For me, taking the probiotic checked a box for the future, sort of like a preemptive strike toward better health and stronger bones as I get older.
