The Summer I Stopped Recognizing My Body - And the 21 Days That Helped Me Find It Again
On HRT, bloating, the weight nobody told me about, and why you are allowed to change your mind
I have never shared this publicly before.
There were several moments over the past ten months where I almost did and then closed the document, told myself it was too personal, too messy, too not-yet-resolved to put into the world.
But I have been sitting with this long enough now. And I know too many women who are carrying versions of the same story in silence.
So here it is.
THE SUMMER MY BODY BECAME A STRANGER
In the summer of 2025, I went on HRT.
I want to be clear before I say anything else: I am not here to tell you that HRT is wrong, dangerous or something you should avoid. It is a legitimate tool. It changes lives. For many women it is the single most impactful decision they make in midlife and they never look back.
I am one of the women who looked back.
I went on it for two very specific reasons: hot flashes that were disrupting my days, and night waking that had been slowly eroding my quality of life for months. My doctor and I talked it through. I made an informed choice. I started the protocol.
And then very quickly, my body changed in ways I was not prepared for.
The bloating came first. Not the mild, end-of-day bloating I had occasionally experienced before. The kind where you wake up already puffy. Where nothing fits the way it did the day before. Where you catch a glimpse of yourself and genuinely do not recognize the silhouette looking back.
Then the breast changes. My boobs looked the way it did when I was nursing our 3 babies (25, 22 and 21 years ago), full and heavy and tender in a way that felt borrowed from another season of my life entirely, not this one.
I changed the dosage with my Dr.’s advice. The bloating shifted but did not resolve. I changed it again. Different. Still not right.
Four months in, I made the decision to step away.
Not because HRT failed me, I want to be precise about that. But because on this particular protocol, at this particular time, in this particular body, I felt profoundly outside of myself. Like I was living inside a version of my body that I did not have the key to. And after decades of working with women’s health, after building an entire philosophy around listening to the signals your body sends, I had to honour the signal I was receiving.
The signal was saying: this is not right for you right now.
THE RECONNECTION
That was ten months ago.
What has followed has been one of the most humbling, honest and ultimately profound experiences of my life in my own body.
I have been learning, or perhaps re-learning, how to listen. How to work with the systems I had been inadvertently overriding. How to support my lymphatic system, my nervous system, my liver and my gut not with dramatic interventions but with daily, consistent, gentle practices that compound over time.
To date, I have released about half of the weight I gained during those four months. Not through restriction. Not through punishment. Through understanding, through giving my body what it actually needed rather than fighting the symptoms it was generating.
And the bloating? It has shifted in ways I could not have anticipated. Not because I found a perfect solution. But because I finally stopped looking for a perfect solution and started paying genuine, sustained attention to the whole picture.
That experience, that four-month detour and now ten-month return, is the truest reason the Belly Bloat Challenge exists in the form it does today. Because I lived it. Not theoretically. Not as a practitioner observing it in a client. In my own body, in my own bathroom mirror, in my own very humbling 3am moments.
THE THING I MOST WANT YOU TO TAKE FROM MY STORY
You are a sample size of one.
In research its called N=1, a study where the subject and the researcher are the same person. And it is the most important framework I can offer you when it comes to your health, because the wellness world is absolutely saturated with one-size prescriptions for fundamentally individual bodies.
What works for one woman does not necessarily work for another. Not with HRT. Not with diet. Not with exercise. Not with any protocol, supplement or strategy that someone, even a very well-intentioned someone, hands you as the answer.
Your hot flashes are not identical to your best friend’s hot flashes. Your gut microbiome is unlike any other gut microbiome on the planet. Your history, your stress load, your toxic exposure, your hormonal pattern, your sleep, your relationship with food, all of it is yours, specifically and entirely.
This is not a reason to feel overwhelmed. It is actually a profound relief, once you sit with it. Because it means the answer is not somewhere outside of you, waiting to be found in the right programme or the right doctor’s office.
The answer is in the relationship you build with your own body. In the attention you pay. In the curiosity you bring to the signals it sends. In the willingness to keep listening even when, especially when, what you hear is this is not right for me.
I changed my mind about HRT after four months. That was not a failure. That was me listening.
You are allowed to change your mind too.
THE CONVERSATION WE NEED TO HAVE ABOUT BLOATING
Let me say something I want you to actually hear, not just read:
Your bloating is not a personal failure.
It is not because you lack discipline. It is not because your body is broken. It is not because you are doing wellness wrong. And it is absolutely not something you simply have to accept as the inevitable reality of being a woman in midlife.
Bloating is a signal. A communication. A message from a body that is doing its absolute best in a world that was never designed with its wellbeing in mind.
The problem is not your body. The problem is that nobody has ever sat down and shown you the whole picture.
WHAT WE GET TOLD, AND WHAT WE DO NOT
When women come to their doctors with bloating, they typically receive one of a handful of responses. Cut out gluten. Try cutting out dairy. Take a probiotic. Drink more water. Maybe it is IBS. Maybe it is just hormones. Come back in three months.
And so women do what women do. They try it all. They cut out the gluten. They eliminate the dairy. They buy the probiotic. They download the low-FODMAP app and spend three weeks eating the most restricted, joyless version of their diet while simultaneously running their lives, managing their families and trying to hold everything together.
Some of it helps. A little. Sometimes. For a while.
But for most women, the bloating comes back. Or it never fully goes away. And they are left with the quiet, demoralizing conclusion that this is simply how their body is now.
What they are almost never told is this: food and hormones are two pieces of a much larger puzzle.
THE PIECES NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT
Here is what years of working with women’s bodies, and one very instructive year inside my own, has taught me about bloating. It is almost never one thing. It is a combination of factors, some obvious, some surprising, some that the mainstream wellness conversation has barely begun to address.
The lymphatic system.
Most women have never been taught about their lymphatic system and yet it is one of the most important systems in the body for understanding bloating, puffiness and water retention. The lymphatic system has no pump, so it relies entirely on movement, breathing and manual stimulation to keep fluid flowing. When lymph stagnates, and in modern, sedentary, stressed-out life it stagnates constantly, the result is the heavy, waterlogged bloating that no amount of food restriction is going to touch. This was one of the first things I addressed in my own recovery. Not with anything dramatic. With minutes of daily abdominal massage and morning and evening attention to the 7 areas of the body where there are concentrated lymph nodes. The difference was not immediate but it was undeniable.
The nervous system.
The gut and the brain are connected by the vagus nerve, the primary channel of the rest-and-digest system. When you are in chronic stress, blood is redirected away from the digestive system, enzyme production drops, gut motility slows and the microbiome shifts toward a more inflammatory profile. No probiotic on the market can compensate for a nervous system that never gets to rest.
The toxic load.
Every single day, your body is navigating a toxic load that previous generations never faced at this scale. The PFAS chemicals in non-stick cookware directly associated with gut permeability. The artificial fragrances in cleaning products that interfere with the hormones regulating your digestion. The chlorine and fluoride in tap water altering your microbiome with every glass. The plastics in food packaging mimicking oestrogen and triggering inflammatory cascades in the gut lining. This is peer-reviewed biochemistry. And it is the piece that explains why some of the most health-conscious women I know are still dealing with chronic bloating.
The breath.
You breathe twenty thousand times a day. And if you are like most chronically stressed, chronically busy women, most of those breaths are shallow, chest-only and doing almost nothing for your digestion. Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, supports gut motility and drives lymphatic drainage. It is the most underused, most accessible, completely free gut health tool available to every single woman.
Ancient wisdom.
Traditional Chinese Medicine has been understanding and treating bloating for over three thousand years. The acupressure points, the warming foods, the spleen-supporting practices, these are not woo. They are a sophisticated, time-tested system that modern science is increasingly validating. They have become some of my most consistent daily practices over the past ten months.
WHAT 1,000 WOMEN DISCOVERED LAST SUMMER
Last year I ran the Belly Bloat Challenge for the first time in August, right in the middle of my own reconnection journey, which felt both terrifying and entirely right. Over 1,000 women joined. And what came back from those 21 days was something I was not entirely prepared for.
Not because the results were dramatic. Because they were so human.
“For much too long I have not been listening to my body. This challenge is making me more aware.” — Cheryl M.
That is it. That is the whole thing. Not a before and after photo. Not a number on a scale. A woman in her body, finally paying attention. Coming from where I was in my own journey when I read that, I had to put my phone down.
“I haven’t been this excited in a long time to start something like this for my body and health. Let’s go girls!!!” — Arlene C., Day 1
And then five days later, the same woman:
“I feel less bloated, more energy and sleeping better! The biggest thing for me is that I’m enjoying this challenge, I WANT to do these things. I’ve started a program that has me taking care of my body and mind. Who doesn’t want that!” — Arlene C., Day 5
Five days. Not five weeks. Five days of showing up consistently, with curiosity instead of punishment, and a woman who had not been excited about her own health in a long time was writing in all caps about wanting to keep going. I understood exactly how she felt. Because that is what it feels like when you stop fighting your body and start working with it. There is an energy that comes with that, a wanting to keep going that no amount of discipline can manufacture.
“I am surprised how different I feel after a few days. I am having fun with this challenge and it’s sooooo doable. 15 minutes has never been used so well. Thank you.” — Elayne F.
Fifteen minutes. That is the whole protocol. That is the daily practice that changes the drainage, moves the lymph, stimulates the gut and begins to rebuild the relationship between a woman and her body. Fifteen minutes a day, consistently applied, with understanding behind it.
And then there is Jennifer.
“Probably TMI, but I’ve never pooped in the middle of the day, but I did today, pretty sure it’s from the Cooch Ball gut routine!” — Jennifer B.
I include Jennifer’s quote everywhere I talk about this challenge. Not because it is funny, but because it is proof. Undeniable, mid-afternoon proof that the body responds when you give it the right input.
“This challenge is working so well for me. Glad I’ve joined.” — Donna W.
Simple. Certain. No drama. Just a woman whose body is responding and who knows it.
These are not outliers. These are the everyday dispatches from a community of women who spent 21 days doing something most of them had never done before they got genuinely curious about their bodies instead of angry at them. I was doing the same thing alongside them. Still am.
THE 2026 BELLY BLOAT CHALLENGE: WHAT IS WAITING FOR YOU
This year the challenge runs June 9th to June 30th and it is bigger, deeper and more extraordinary than the first time. Here is what is waiting for you.
The free experience is exactly that, completely free. Twenty-one days of daily education, your Bloat Reset Guide delivered before we begin, live expert sessions with replays that you have access to until July 3, daily emails and the Sparkly Sisterhood, our private FB community of women doing this work together. Plus Therasage is our official partner this year, filling a prize vault with incredible therapeutic wellness products for registered participants to win throughout the 21 days. The more you show up, the more chances you have to win.
And then there is the VIP Red Carpet Experience.
This is for the woman who is ready to go all the way in.
THE VIP RED CARPET EXPERIENCE: EVERY DETAIL
The VIP experience exists because some women do not just want to understand their bodies better, they want to live inside that understanding permanently. They want tools, resources, accountability and continued support that extend well beyond June 30th. If that is you, here is everything included.
My book - The Sacred Woman’s Guide to Blooming Better. Your digital copy, delivered when you register. This is the foundation everything else is built on.
The Women’s D-I-Y Cooch Ball Bundle. While free participants follow the gut protocol with their hands, VIP members get the full Cooch Ball experience, the tool the entire challenge is built around, in your hands from day one. This is the protocol as it was designed to be done. Your belly will know the difference.
Daily personal video messages from me. Every single day of the challenge, you will receive a personal video message from me walking you through that day’s inspired action. My voice, my energy, in your inbox every morning.
The VIP-exclusive Beat the Bloat Workout on June 11th. Two days in, just for VIP members, we move together. This workout is designed specifically to get things moving, support your gut and leave you feeling lighter, stronger and absolutely energized.
Lifetime access to the full Belly Bloat Challenge VIP Course and all replays. Every session, every expert, every piece of content, permanently in your library. Come back to it in six months. Watch a session again when you need a reset. This is a forever resource.
The Belly Bloat Nutrition and Recipe Guide by Leah Vachani. My friend, Leah who is an amazing Menopause Coach, brings her full nutrition expertise to this beautifully practical guide, breaking down exactly which foods are quietly working against your belly and which ones will become your new best friends. Simple, delicious and evidence-backed.
The Bloating Lifestyle Checklist. A comprehensive, immediately actionable checklist that cuts through the noise and helps you audit your daily life for the hidden habits and exposures that are contributing to your bloat, often in places you would never think to look.
Three months of follow-up group coaching calls - July, August and September. This is the piece that separates the VIP experience from everything else available. After the challenge ends you do not disappear back into your life alone. Monthly group coaching calls for three months to make sure what you started in June becomes a lifestyle, not a memory.
The VIP experience is $97.
YOUR FIVE ICONS: THE EXPERTS JOINING US LIVE
Woven throughout the 21 days, five of the most extraordinary experts I have ever had the privilege of learning from join us live. I call them my Icons because that is exactly what they are.
Robby Besner of Therasage opens the challenge on June 9th, the brilliant Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Therasage is going to reveal how the toxic toolkit hiding in your everyday life is silently contributing to your bloat in ways nobody has ever told you. This session will change how you see everything.
Leah Vachani joins on June 18th to bust the 7 food myths that are keeping women bloated even when they are eating well. Leah is one of the most rigorous and honest voices in nutrition and her session is going to reframe conversations you have been having with yourself for years.
Jason Campbell (who is my personal breathwork guru) brings breathwork to the challenge on June 20th. You will experience the nervous system work that changes how the gut functions at a fundamental level. Most of us have been breathing in a way that works against our digestion our entire lives. Jason changes that in one session.
Trista Zinn joins on June 25th to introduce Hypopressives, the internal decompression technique that most women have never heard of and every woman with a pelvic floor needs to understand. Her work is unlike anything most women have ever experienced.
Dr. Marisol Teijeiro, ND (inac), aka the Queen of the Thrones herself, closes our 21 days on June 29th with castor oil as the ultimate inflammatory healer. Ancient practice, extraordinary modern practitioner, and the most perfect closing note imaginable for everything we will have built together across the month.
WHAT 21 DAYS ACTUALLY DOES
Twenty-one days is not enough time to completely resolve chronic bloating. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.
What 21 days is enough time for is something more valuable and more lasting than a quick result. It is enough time to genuinely understand your body in a way you never have before. To build a daily practice and feel the difference consistency makes. To connect with a community of women who are asking the same questions and discovering together that they are not alone. And to begin the shift from fighting your body to understanding it.
I say this as someone who spent four months last year not listening to her own body. I say this as someone who has spent the past ten months rebuilding that relationship, slowly and imperfectly and with more grace than I have ever given myself before.
Cheryl said it best, and I keep coming back to it:
“For much too long I have not been listening to my body.”
Twenty-one days is enough time to start listening. And once you start, once you genuinely hear what your body has been trying to tell you, you do not stop.
You are a sample size of one. Your body is telling you something. Whatever signal you have been dismissing, overriding or trying to manage away, it deserves to be heard.
This challenge is how we learn to hear it.
AN INVITATION: IN TWO VERSIONS
The 2026 Belly Bloat Challenge begins June 9th.
If you want to start, come as you are, for free. Twenty-one days, no cost, everything you need to begin understanding your body in a way that changes things permanently.
If you want to go all in, the VIP Red Carpet Experience is $97. Everything above, plus three months of continued support, Jana’s book, the Cooch Ball Bundle, daily video messages, a lifetime course library and the VIP-exclusive workout on June 11th.
Either way, I want you in the room.
And if this article resonated with someone you love, a woman navigating HRT decisions, a friend who has been struggling silently, a colleague who laughs off her bloating because she has given up believing it can change, please share it with her.
She is exactly who this was written for.
Jana Danielson is the founder of Bloom Better and the creator of the Cooch Ball, a pelvic floor and gut health tool used by women around the world. She works at the intersection of body-first wellness, metabolic insight, movement and sustainable daily practice. She is also, it turns out, a work in progress, just like everyone else. Find her at bloombetter.life and janadanielson.com
The Belly Bloat Challenge runs June 9–30, 2025. Free registration and VIP Red Carpet Experience available at the links above.