If you’re living with IBS, GERD, IBD, or any other chronic gut illness, you’ve probably had days where you woke up with debilitating stomach pain, made countless trips to the bathroom, or struggled with acid reflux (maybe all three in the same day!). And worst of all, your flare-ups might feel totally random, leaving you wondering whether that delicious-looking curry will leave you doubled over in pain an hour later. 

How do you manage? Maybe you’ve tried jotting your symptoms down in your Notes app in the hopes of finding a pattern or maybe you rely on your mental list of “safe foods” on busy days. These strategies can be powerful tools for understanding and thriving with your condition, especially if you incorporate them into a routine. The hard part is making routines stick. Here at Flourish, we’re building an app to make it easier for you to take charge of your condition. Whether you’re already consistently tracking your symptoms and meals to understand your triggers or are looking to try it out, Flourish can help!

Why It’s Hard to Maintain a Routine and How You Can Build a Successful One

1. It’s hard to track your progress without personalization.

You’ve probably received advice about trying someone’s sleep, workout, meal logging, symptom tracking, etc. routine either online or in conversations with friends and family. You might have tried that 30-day juice cleanse to no avail. But was that juice cleanse made for your specific symptoms, wellness goals, and lifestyle? Probably not. 

When you build your own routine, you can measure progress based upon goals you set yourself! Writing down your objectives at the beginning will keep you focused, and personalizing them ensures that they’ll be more helpful and attainable for you and your lifestyle. 

Try asking yourself these questions to get started: 

1. What does thriving with [insert your condition] look like for me? 

2. What daily steps can I take to get there? (e.g., logging symptoms at least 5 days per week)

3. What motivates me, and how can I use that to achieve my goals?

🌱How Flourish AI can help: Our app considers your preferences, previous symptom patterns, and potential triggers to offer personalized recommendations with actionable next steps! 

2. Consistency is key, but it can feel demoralizing when you miss a day.

Life gets busy! When you’ve already got a full plate with work, school, family, or other obligations, it can be hard to squeeze in a quick lunch, let alone write down what you ate. If you forget to log a few meals or symptoms here and there, be kind to yourself and keep in mind that perfection is not the goal! 

If you’ve ever done “connect the dots” activities as a kid, you know that it’s possible to piece together the bigger picture or pattern without having all the “dots” or data points. Start every day with a fresh intention to work toward your goals, regardless of what happened yesterday.

🌱How Flourish AI can help: With the power of AI, our app is excellent at filling in the gaps and delivering helpful, personalized insights to you!

3. Your new routine is too cumbersome. 

It’s normal for a new routine to feel a little disruptive at first. It’ll take time for you to get used to waking up 30 minutes earlier for morning meditation, for example. But, there are some ways that you can make the transition smoother. If you’ve come up with three tasks you want to implement, try phasing each of them into your daily life one at a time. 

It’s also helpful to anchor your new activities with your existing routines. For example, if your goal is to record your symptoms every morning, try associating that task with one of your morning activities, like eating breakfast. You might also try setting a reminder on your phone or a physical sticky note on your fridge to reinforce this new habit. 

🌱How Flourish AI can help: By offering multiple options for inputting information (voice-to-text, image-to-text, and typing), we’re making symptom and meal tracking easy for you to incorporate into your routines!

Building an Effective Routine Requires Personalization

Tired of unpredictable days due to your chronic gut illness? Try creating a personalized routine to understand your trigger foods! Make the routine stick by setting your own goals, building it around your lifestyle, incorporating each step gradually, and being kind to yourself throughout the process. If you want to supercharge your tracking routine even more, join our waitlist!

References:

• Food-symptom diaries can generate personalized lifestyle advice for managing gastrointestinal symptoms: A pilot study

• The Importance of Creating Habits and Routine