I want the kind of bowels you can set your watch by. I want one evacuation every 24 hours instead of the wildly varying intervals I experience now.
So, how do I turn my innards into a Swiss watch? Any kind of suggestion is welcome. Diet, whatever you can think of.
I can wind my watch by it. I eat at approximately the same time every day, and I tend to stay away from foods that…er…slow things up. Being middle-aged I notice some foods tend to throw a monkey-wrench into my perfectly timed physiology. I have it finessed down to a 30-minute window.
I, too, used to function such at wildly varying intervals, until I adopted this morning regimen:
Start your day with a bowl (two bowls is even better, but you may not be that hungry) of your favorite flavor of Frosted Mini-Wheats in milk. Wash it down with a cup of caffeinated (otherwise you’re wasting your time) coffee. The fiber from the Mini-Wheats will regulate you, and the caffeine (which is a mild diuretic) will speed up the process. You’ll probably be going right before work, instead of sitting at your cubicle stinking the place up with gas all day.
Fiber, my boy, fiber. As fetus suggested, whole grain cereal is your friend. You should try to get as much fiber into all your meals as you can. Caffeine is a bowel stimulant, as is eating, so try to go right after eating. If you are brave enough, you can try digital stimulation (google it on your own, I am not doing all your work for you).
BTW, I know this from teaching patients with a spinal cord injury to poop. What’s your excuse for wanting to go like a Swiss train?
I’m lactose intolerant and I hate coffee with a passion… but I appreciate the attempt!
Kalhoun: what are the foods that…er…slow things up?
I get plenty of fiber as it is, but I’ll increase it.
I’m not brave enough. There, I said it.
Mainly that I keep close track of my weight, which is kinda randomish now since the intervals between evacuations are so variable.
Cheese is a huge culprit, but probably not for you if you are lactose intolerant.
Ok, so skip the cereal. Anything that is high fiber will help. Brown breads, crunchy vegetables, etc. Anything with caffeiene will work–do you like coke? Tea? mountain dew?
And the pills don’t work for you? Actually, even if they do, that might make your problem worse anyway. I don’t know anything about lactose intolerance, so there you go. The cereal will do you just as much good without the milk, though.
Soda and tea also contain caffeine, as does No-Doz, although neither soda nor No-Doz are particularly good parts of a morning ritual…
There are pills for it? No-one has told me. Anyhow, I don’t have a particularly severe case. I can eat yoghurt, I can eat cheese but never do. It’s just pure milk and some other products that cause troubles.
Yes, there are pills, available at your local Rite-Aid or store similar in function to same. I have a couple friends who eat said pills all day long.
Try a pill called Lactaid.
Indeed - milk is seriously overrated.
I eat oatmeal for breakfast, which quite reliably gets the job done. Make it with a bit more water than is typical to get a sort of “thick soup” consistency. Add rasins and a little brown sugar, and your bowels will be recalled to their duty.
My mother and her sisters take those pills. My mother also drinks Lactaid milk, which has the lactose broken down already, IIRC. It tastes a bit sweet for milk, I assume because of the lactose thing. You may have to hunt around a bit for the pills or, as I don’t know if they have Lactaid where you live. Ask about them at a pharmacy, and if the milk interests you, poke around in your market. It’ll be in the same place as the regular milk. At least it is here.
Caffeine is what I recommend, since that’s what works for me. A bit too well. It also keeps me from sleeping, so I try to ingest as little caffeine as possible.
Fibre, tea or coffee (should be hot, gets things moving) lots of water, and a walk after meals should do it. Of course, you need to give yourself time to accomplish said task. Prune juice at bedtime would also help. But routine is essential. No sleeping till noon on Saturday and then eating bacon and eggs at 2. Bowel routines are meant to be just that. Routines. Otherwise its not nice to fool mother nature.
My son reliably poops around 9 am. He may go at other times of day, but always at 9 am. I didnt even try to get him regulated, but he eats around 8, so there you go. A healthy colon is a happy colon! :rolleyes:
I always get my dump in morning, after I woke up. It always happens, even if I fast the night before, or took a dump before I sleep. This is not a very good thing, if you have to rush for work in the morning, and if your morning dump takes sometime to come through.
I suggest water, lots of fibre (as suggested), and lots of fruits. And yah, when it comes, don’t try to hold on to it for too long…
Make sure you have enough time and then make it a habit.
Sit on the toilet for 10mins after every meal, that plus increasing your fibre and possibly a short course of mild laxatives to clear everything out first will do it.
The reason might be that your bowel is actually trying to tell you something, but you don’t have the time or inclination to listen, so you ignore it. This is not healthy.
Sit on the toilet and just wait to see if anything happens…after a while it’ll become a trigger and you’ll have the regular habits you want.
Look at a manual on child-rearing and see what they recommend for constipated kids…you need a similar approach. Laxatives, more fibre and fluid and a schedule.
You can skip the gold stars though.
Cheese products do it for me. Depressing, I know…how can something so good be so bad? That’s really the only one that I have a problem with. The good news is that in moderation, you can enjoy most cheeses…however, pizza will probably give you the most trouble.
I’m mildly lactose intolerant. I don’t bother with the pills – I just buy lactose-free milk. The brand name is Lactaid milk, but if you go to a big grocery store they will probably have their own store brand right there next to it, and it’s a bit cheaper. (I can take small amounts of cheese, yogurt, etc, without problems – otherwise I’d use the pills in those circumstances.)
As for helping regularity, I adopted this routine when I was pregnant: Every morning (or at least 6 days a week), I eat a large bowl of homemade oatmeal with raisins. It’s easy to make. Put about half a cup of old fasioned oats (from the big tub) in a bowl. Add several shakes of cinnamon (good for my blood pressure, so I’ve read), a small amount of brown sugar, a small box of raisins, and about a cup of milk. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Let it sit in the microwave for a few minutes more, otherwise it’s a bit too milky. Enjoy with a nice strong cup of tea.
Also, I drink lots of water through the day. A good way to keep track of how much you’re drinking is to keep refillable water bottles in the fridge. Take all your water from that, and you can make sure you’re getting enough fluids. Remember, a high fiber diet without enough water is a bad thing.
I also get other sources of fiber where I can. For example, there’s this kind of bread I’ve started buying, called “white wheat”. I hadn’t seen it before a few months ago. It’s whole wheat bread, but unlike the normal kind, which is made with red wheat, this white wheat bread looks and tastes just like white bread. Except it has a respectable 3g fiber per slice, plus loads of calcium and other things. FTR, I love whole wheat bread, but my husband only likes white (as do a lot of other people), so this is a perfect compromise for us. If you don’t care for whole wheat bread, go to a large grocery store and look for white wheat bread. The brand I’ve found is called “Nature’s Own”.
Hope this helps!
I don’t think anything about the liquid itself, including temperature, is really relevant. It might help a little, but I think the important part is the caffeine as a diuretic.
Alcohol, of course, is also a great diuretic.
I see Nimue, who drinks Lactaid, is in Maryland. I haven’t seen a carton of the stuff since I lived in Maryland, so it may be an east coast thing–but at Giant, Safeway etc. back there you can find it and the equivalent store brands pretty easily. I don’t know whether it’s actually harder to find here or I haven’t looked, honestly.
Fruit and veggies (do you really get 6 servings a day? Really? Be honest …)
(Note that bananas aren’t the best type of fruit in this regard. And dried fruit is the best because you can pack a lot of it in at once.)
Soy/rice milk for the cereal. There are lots of different brands that range from nasty to nice, so keep trying until you find one you like. Extra bonus: put the fruit ON the cereal.