Transforming Your Gut In 2 Weeks

Welcome back to Part 2 of our 14-day gut health transformation series!

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, check it out—it lays the groundwork for everything we’re doing here.

We're passionate about gut health because the modern world isn’t kind to your gut. Processed foods, hidden toxins, and high stress can throw your microbiome off balance, leaving you sluggish, foggy, and inflamed.

A gut reset gives your body a break. Bala’s science-backed approach clears out irritants, giving your gut the space it needs to heal, rebuild, and thrive. The result? Better digestion, sharper focus, and a steady surge of energy you can actually feel.

In this post, we’ll break down the four steps of the Bala reset: Begin, Activate, Learn, and Adjust—giving you a clear path to better digestion, stronger immunity, and lasting vitality.

Let’s jump in.

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EVERY RESET BEGINS WITH BALA

The four steps of a Bala reset: Begin. Activate. Learn. Adjust. 

The Begin step starts with an in-depth assessment, where participants share their health history, symptoms, and goals to receive a personalized 20+ page report on our recommendations.

The Activate step involves familiarizing yourself with your personalized program, setting a clear motivation and goal (your why), planning meals, preparing the home environment, and connecting with a coach for guidance.

The Learn step involves following a 14-day reset and we guide you on what to eat, how to track your diet and various mindfulness practices to optimize gut health. During the reset, you’ll likely discover some unknown food sensitivities.

The Adjust step follows the 14-day reset and it involves systematically reintroducing foods to identify triggers and maintain long-term gut health improvements. It is where you cement sustainable positive habits, such as better meal timing and food choices, to support long-term wellness.

LET'S BEGIN: THE FIRST STEP IN A BALA RESET STARTS WITH SHARING

Kick off your gut health reset by sharing information about your health, recent experiences, and symptoms through our proprietary online assessment.

This proprietary assessment allows our gut health coaches to gain a clear understanding of your background, lifestyle, symptoms, and health goals. The assessment is about 70 questions in total and usually takes about 10 minutes to complete. 

As you work through the assessment, you’ll find questions that ask you about the frequency and intensity of your symptoms. This lets us match the intervention (or dietary protocol) to the size of your problem and your specific symptoms. For example, the intervention for frequent but not severe bloating looks quite different than what we suggest for bloating that is both frequent and severe. We want to make sure to offer insights that are truly personalized to your needs because not everyone can (and should) do a complete elimination diet.

Once you’ve finished your assessment and we’ve received your responses, you’ll then receive a 20+ page PDF report with your results, health insights, and the details of your customized plan. 

Set Yourself Up for Assessment Success: 

Before taking our assessment, we recommend spending some time monitoring and recording your symptoms and health experiences. The more you know about your health, the more thoroughly you can fill out the assessment. And the more you’re able to share, the better we can support you in your health goals. 

Some questions to guide your exploration are: 

• What are your current health goals?
• What unpleasant health symptoms are you experiencing? 
• Are there any symptoms you may be normalizing that could be suggestive of an issue?
• Consider your status with these common symptoms:
  • Lightheadedness
  • Dry skin
  • Joint pain or arthritis
  • Brain fog
  • Energy levels/fatigue 

TIME TO ACTIVATE: THE SECOND STEP IS ALL ABOUT PREPARATION

Once you receive your customized program, we encourage you to take some time to ponder, prep, and prepare. We like to call this the activation step. That often includes setting up your home for success, connecting with a Bala coach, reflecting internally on your goals and putting the start date of your reset on the calendar. We’ve found that taking the time to properly prepare is often a determining factor in our client’s success.  

Clarify Your Why

Why you’re doing a gut reset might be clear for you. That said, take a moment at the top of this process to name (and perhaps write down somewhere visible) what you’re hoping to get out of this 14-day journey.  

Here are some questions to guide your reflection: 

• If you’re suffering from symptoms, what might a symptom-free day look and feel like?
• If you’re exploring a gut reset to perform better or for more proactive reasons, what are your goals or desired state?  
• What are some outcomes that will signal the reset is worth it for you?
• What would signal a successful reset? 

Putting your north star or big why somewhere visible during your reset will keep you grounded in the real, tangible outcomes. If you’re having a challenging moment, return to your why to keep you motivated and focused. (This is true for many parts of your life!) 

If this section generates any questions or doubts, write those down too! Sharing these reflections during your kickoff call with your Bala coach will only further fortify your process. 

Design Your Menu

Once you know your why, review our menu suggestions and see which meals most excite you. 

We encourage you to envision and plan out what a tasty rotation of meals could look like for the next 2 weeks. We suggest choosing 2-3 options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and sticking with those meals when eating at home. 

By all means, aim for more if you have the time and interest but we’ve found that 2-3 core meals for every time of day is enough to keep you satisfied and excited to eat without losing too much time in meal prep or overly complex shopping.

Follow your intuition when it comes to building your meal plan and grocery list. The more excited and satisfied you are, the quicker the two weeks of your reset will sail by. 

And, remember, Bala coaches are always available with ideas if you ever get stumped!

Prepare Your Home

After you make your meal plan, it’s time to get down to the brass tacks of your home. 

Your gut reset ultimately boils down to eating a variety of foods that are good for you and trying to limit the consumption of foods that don’t serve your gut health or health goals. This likely means doing a bit of pantry reorg to set yourself up for success. 

Go Shopping

• Some people love it, some people loathe it. If you’re in the latter, give yourself the time or treat yourself to something special to make shopping for your reset an enjoyable experience. As much as you can, we encourage you to think of this whole process as a gift to yourself. 

Pantry Management 

• The other part of preparing your home for the reset is limiting your access to the foods you might have in your home that you really should try to avoid. For some people, no action might be required. Simply knowing what not to eat it is enough. (That said, that’s not true for most of us!)
• For others, tucking all your “take a break” foods in a certain high shelf or hard-to-reach cupboard (and perhaps putting a “NO” sticky on them, or taping them closed) can prove a powerful physical disruption to stop you from diving into an item you’re taking a break from.
• Other clients have found it easiest to rid your home of these “avoid foods” entirely! If you’d like to do that, we encourage you to donate or rehome your food to another family or individual who might use it.
• You know yourself best. Whatever steps seem best to ensure most successfully following your plan, we encourage you to take them. Future you will thank you. 

Connect with Your Coach 

Our favorite step in the activation process is connecting with new clients at the start of their journey. 

Once you sign up for Bala, you’ll be prompted to set a time to connect with your coach. This is a great time to share your Personal Why, talk about any concerns or doubts you have and ask any questions about the reset. If you’re feeling nervous, this is also a great time to voice any concerns and problem-solve with your coach. 

The aim of this call is to set you up for success and for you to leave the call together feeling excited, prepared, and invigorated to start. 

What that call looks like and covers is very much up to you.  

Some Bala members prefer to get very tactical about their first 14 days and discuss meal planning and our preferred brands. Other members like to spend more time discussing our protocols and suggestions. Whichever may be the case for you, our coaches are flexible and informed to handle any question you throw their way. 

Set Your Start Date

The last step to activate your Bala reset is setting your start date! We encourage you to pick a two-week period across which you feel you’ll be able to accommodate your recommendations, both at home and doing the normal social things you have planned for those two weeks.

We’ve found that clients have the most success if they pick a period during which they’re not traveling and generally feel like they have the bandwidth to devote a little more time to their food prep and health. 

Because building new habits takes time, focus, and energy, we’ve found that the clients who’ve most succeeded with Bala have picked a period in which the Bala reset felt like an exciting endeavor rather than a stressor or an obligation. If you’re feeling overwhelmed even thinking about the period you’ve picked, just change it! Trust your intuition to schedule yourself for success. 

It’s Okay to Wait

Fun Fact: Researchers have found that anticipating an upcoming trip or vacation makes the vacation more enjoyable. Think of your reset like a break - don’t rush it. Embark when you’re ready. 

Based on member experiences, we suggest you try to avoid doing your reset during: 

• A wedding weekend
• An indulgence trip with friends
• Intense travel
• A busy work period with already stressful deadlines 
• Holidays or intense family management times 

It's not that you can't be successful with a reset during those times. Simply put, it makes the reset harder than it needs to be. 

Trust yourself. Pick 14 days in which this feels exciting, and then hold that time to commit to your health and energy.

That might mean scheduling around or blocking off that period from other commitments. As always, the first step to success is committing to your gut reset. 

TIME TO LEARN: THE THIRD STEP IS ALL ABOUT ACTION AND FEEDBACK

Now that you’ve stated your why, prepared your home, and made a plan - it’s time to dive in! Here’s the moment to embark on your 14-day journey to learn about your body, your health, and how your unique microbiome responds to food and repairs itself during this reset. 

I’ve found that during a reset, each day feels like a familiar echo of the previous and brings its own unique and totally surprising challenges. Here are four daily Bala practices to keep you going strong: 

1. Our Daily Inspiration Email 

Each day, we’ll send you an email to check in, spark your motivation, and remind you you’re not alone. We’ll often include nutrition tips and advice to further supplement your learning across your reset journey. Our daily email is a reminder that we’ve been where you are - in the difficulties and the exciting discoveries - and that we believe in your ability and fortitude to make it through. 

2. Your Daily Intention & Food Log 

We encourage you to start each morning with a moment to ground and set your intentions for the day. This can include both personal and professional goals, as well as a reminder to yourself as to why you’re doing your gut reset and what success will look like each day.

After that, take a moment to log how you’re feeling, what you’re looking forward to, and what you’re grateful for. I’ve always found this quick 3-minute exercise is a great tool to jumpstart and set the direction for my day.

After that, we strongly encourage you to log your food choices across the day. 

According to Cornell University researchers, while people estimate that they make about 15 food and beverage decisions each day, they actually make more than 200 choices.

Logging your choices and your eating as you go will be far easier to remember. The more accurate your food log, the easier it will be to understand how what you eat and how you feel are linked. 

At the end of the day, take a moment to add any final updates to your log. Track any foods you’ve eaten, symptoms you’re experiencing, and how you’re feeling overall. Reflecting at the end of each day lets you track your progress, check in with yourself, and monitor how your reset is going. 

Studies show that reflecting at the end of the day helps improve mental clarity, understanding, and productivity. End-of-day reflectors performed 23% better than those that did not! 

Along with better performance, your end-of-day reflection and tracking allow you to really pay attention and learn about your gut health and your reset. What’s working for you? What are you enjoying eating? How do you feel? By taking the moment to be mindful, you’re getting the full value of our Bala program and unlocking powerful insights. 

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Case Study: The Power of Paying Attention (and Forgetting) 

While everyone will have different experiences and insights from their reset, we have no doubt you’ll discover connections you’d never even thought of. Here’s an experience from one of our clients:

Anna’s assessment and reported symptoms suggested she might be sensitive to histamines and FODMAPs, so we created a plan that involved limiting high FODMAPS and incorporating histamine-liberating foods. This included limiting dried fruit, which is high in both histamines and FODMAPs. 

For more information about all our different plans, check out our Protocol Series here. 

On day 6 of Anna’s reset, simply put, she forgot about dried fruit and ate a bunch. (This happens to the best of us!) The next day, she then experienced a pretty intense headache, which signaled to her that she indeed was sensitive to FODMAPs. 

While dried fruit is seemingly healthy, paying attention to what she ate and then her symptoms helped Anna discover a trigger food. 

After 14 days of her gut reset, Anna found her gut function restored and her ability to break down histamine actually improved! She now eats dried fruit (in moderation) and has also found her sensitivity to FODMAPs much decreased. 

A reset not only empowers you with knowledge about your body but helps your body heal to be able to handle foods that usually activate your symptoms. We can’t wait to hear about what you’ll discover. 

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3. Aim for 90%

Our work at Bala is grounded in our deep appreciation and respect for our humanity. Which is to say, we know that the myth of and societal obsession with perfection is actually quite stressful! (And as they say, there’s no humanity in perfection.) 

While you’re working through your reset, we want you to aim to adhere to our recommendations at 90%. That means eat your program at 90% compliance. Asking you to maintain 100% compliance for 14 days is not realistic or sustainable. 

90% adherence is our standard to build a better gut microbiome and create a system that lasts. 90%, every day, and we’ll all be better. 

By creating enough space for flexible and non-perfect choices, we believe that we’re building systems and protocols that can stay with you and support you in the long term. 

4. Stack Your Habits  

Lastly, cornerstone habits allow you to adjust, stack, and alter other habits. While you move through your 14-day reset and do your top and bottom-of-day check-ins, we encourage you to use this time to also “reset” and contemplate adjusting other habits or areas of your life. 

How might you use this gut health reset to learn about and possibly alter your: 

• Morning Routine 
• Exercise Regime
• Snacking Pattern 
• Wind-down & PM Rituals

The sky’s the limit. Take a moment at the top of the reset or across your two-week period to see how and where else you might want to add another tweak to continue to improve your health and quality of life. 

TIME TO ADJUST: UNDERSTANDING THE SIGNAL IN THE NOISE AND CREATING CHANGE

Congrats! You’ve made it through your 14-day gut health reset. We hope that you’ve let yourself be challenged, learned about what fuels and powers you, and have made some exciting discoveries about your health and diet. 

Now it’s time to synthesize your findings, connect with a Bala coach and begin your reintroduction process as you adjust to your healthy gut life. (Bonus points if you keep in a few of those stacked habits.) 

Report Your Progress 

At the end of your 14-day reset, we’ll make it easy for you to capture your thoughts on what went well during your reset. We’ll ask you about what you learned, any unanticipated benefits, or any things you struggled with. It is a simple but critical step in your transformation process.

The purpose of this is two-fold: 

• Synthesize your experience. Our quick questionnaire will help you distill your experience into informative and enlightening takeaways.
• Inform any adjustments. The further we get from day 14 of your reset, the harder it is to remember critical aspects of your reset. It is best practice to capture this data upon completing day 14 so we can memorialize it and adjust your plan accordingly to account for the findings.

Our coaches will use the data from this questionnaire to provide immediate feedback or suggested tweaks to your plan. You can also discuss these results in a debrief call with your coach. 

Debrief with a Coach

Once you’ve shared how your reset went, it’s time to reconnect with your Bala coach! On your close-out call you’ll share how your experience was, what you learned, and what your takeaways from the reset were. Your coach will then help you understand the best way to begin the reintroduction phase and which foods to bring back into your diet first. 

But What About a Reset Extension? 

Some of our clients ask us if they can extend their reset. We encourage you to discuss this with your coach to see what will fit your current state of health and health needs. 

As a general rule of thumb, we encourage clients not to extend any sort of reset for longer than 4 weeks. Resets are meant to be temporary. Restricting the diversity of your diet can allow your gut to restore its proper functioning but if done over a long period of time it makes it challenging to get your body the macro and micronutrients it needs to thrive. In addition, severely limiting what you’re eating for longer than a short reset can often have other unintended consequences for your health. 

Rocking Your Reintroduction

Now here’s the fun part - getting back to your normal and improved everyday life. 

After your 14-day reset, your body and gut should feel like a clean slate. Now you get to systematically reintroduce most of the foods you eliminated from the prior 2 weeks. Your body will be in great shape to give you very clear signals on which foods work best for you. 

With deliberate reintroduction, you’ll discover which foods are still triggering your symptoms and which previously difficult foods you can now eat, because you’ve taken the time to heal your gut. 

The Two Types of Foods

The foods you cut out during your gut reset fall into one of two categories: foods everyone should reduce and those unique to you. It is important to understand this distinction because during the reintroduction phase, we want you to adopt our universally good-for-you recommendations as part of your regular routine while systematically reintroducing the recommendations we asked you to temporarily remove.  

Bala’s universally good-for-you recommendations should be part of everyone’s daily routine. They include cutting back on processed foods and added sugars, prioritizing quality ingredients, optimizing for micronutrients, eating at least 3 hours before bed, eating more whole foods and cooking more at home.

Following this guidance helps you reduce the amount of inflammatory foods in your diet, which is critical for good gut health. As an example, eat less shelf-stable items found in the middle of the grocery store. While some of these processed foods can be a part of your routine, we end up over-indexing on many of them because they are engineered to be highly addictive while offering little nutritional value. 

As an exercise, see how we compare more nutrient-dense foods to ultra-processed ones. The richness of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients can’t be compared: 

Best yet, when you cut out processed foods, you are creating more space for more nutrient-dense foods.

In terms of the unique-to-you recommendations, these are the ones we want you to systematically reintroduce. They tend to be specific foods that fall into main food families like fruits, vegetables, and dairy. So may have avoided mozzarella during your 14-day reset but now it's time to systematically add it back in. 

We want to approach it this way because these foods are nutritionally valuable, and while it may have been beneficial to limit or remove these foods from your diet to heal or resolve a symptom, long-term we do want you to be able to benefit from the nutritional value they offer. 

How to Reintroduce 

When reintroducing new foods, we recommend you reintroduce one food, every three days. As you introduce each food, pay attention to how this new food makes you feel. You must do a single food at a time because if you add foods back simultaneously or in a period that’s shorter than 3 days, you’ll lose the clarity of the signal that food gives your body. In other words, you won't be able to tie a resulting symptom back to an individual food. 

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Case Study: Adding Back Mozzarella

You’ve completed your 14-day reset and you will start with adding back mozzarella into your diet. Here’s a comparison of doing this right versus rushing the process: 

• The effective approach: Pair mozzarella cheese with a vegetable that you’ve been eating during your reset (e.g. tomato). This isolates your body’s response to mozzarella and can tell you whether or not you should continue eating the mozz. 
• An ineffective approach: Eat a margherita pizza that’s made with mozzarella on a gluten crust, when you’ve also been avoiding and haven’t reintroduced gluten. By eating both gluten and mozz simultaneously, you won’t know which is causing any symptoms, should you experience a negative symptom.

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This reintroduction process is critical to get right and we provide support every step of the way. 

Based on how you feel, we’ll work with you to iterate your diet and make adjustments based on real-time feedback.  

New Habits

A gut reset is more than just an elimination diet—it’s an opportunity to rewire your habits and build a foundation for long-term health. When our members complete their gut reset, they notice they’ve developed new habits that support good health. It proves that transformation isn’t just possible—it’s natural when you create the right conditions.

The most common behavioral changes our member experience include:  

Eating More High-Quality Proteins

Protein is a game-changer. It stabilizes blood sugar, reduces cravings, supports muscle growth, and improves metabolic health​. Members who prioritize protein during their gut reset often realize they feel more satisfied and have fewer energy crashes. Over time, this habit naturally crowds out lower-quality, processed foods.

Less Snacking on Highly Processed Foods

Processed snacks are engineered for overconsumption, but a gut reset gives people the space to break free. By shifting to whole, nutrient-dense foods, members retrain their palate and reduce the emotional reliance on snacks. Many even find they no longer crave certain ultra-processed foods at all​.

A Repeatable Pre-Bedtime Routine

Good sleep is essential for gut health, and members who develop a solid nighttime routine report better digestion, energy, and mood. Whether it’s dimming lights, avoiding screens, or engaging in a relaxing ritual, these habits reinforce the body’s natural rhythms.

Moving More Throughout the Day

Many people start their gut reset focused on food but end up moving more—whether it’s increasing their step count, incorporating strength training, or simply standing more. Movement is one of the best ways to regulate blood sugar, improve digestion, and enhance mental clarity​. And once you experience those benefits, you won’t want to stop.

Delaying Coffee Upon Waking Up

Caffeine is a powerful tool, but drinking coffee first thing in the morning can disrupt your natural cortisol rhythm. By waiting 60-90 minutes, you allow your body to wake up naturally and avoid the mid-morning crash. This small tweak often leads to a cascade of better habits—like starting the day with hydration, incorporating morning movement, or even practicing mindfulness​.

THE BIGGER LEESON: CHANGE IS CONTAGIOUS

The beauty of these habits is that they extend beyond the gut reset. Once you see how small, deliberate shifts improve your energy, mood, and health, you become more willing to tackle other areas—whether it’s reducing environmental toxins, optimizing light exposure, or managing stress​​.

Transformation doesn’t happen overnight, but with a structured reset, you’re not just eliminating foods—you’re making space for new habits to take root. And the best part? You’ll leave the process with a blueprint for long-term success.

We can’t wait to hear what habits you choose to keep on the flip side of your 14-day gut health reset. 

SUMMARY

• Modern lifestyles disrupt the microbiome, leading to sluggishness, brain fog, and inflammation. A gut reset helps restore balance.
• The Bala Reset Framework is comprised of four steps. Begin (personalized assessment), Activate (preparing mindset & environment), Learn (14-day reset & tracking), Adjust (reintroducing foods & maintaining habits).
• The Begin step involves sharing what's going right with your health and what needs attention. Our proprietary assessment will unlock your health patterns, symptoms, and goals. Upon completion, you will receive a custom 20+ page report on our findings and recommendations.
• The Activate step involves preparing for success. This phase involves setting goals, planning meals, optimizing your home environment and connecting with a coach to ensure a smooth reset.
• The Learn step is when you start the 14-day reset. You will be changing up your diet, tracking your food and symptoms, receiving daily motivational emails, aiming for 90% adherence and stacking new habits that can deliver long-term benefits.
• The Adjust step is where you systematically reintroduce foods to identify triggers, adopt sustainable health habits, and build a personalized long-term wellness plan.