Why is it important to poop? Your body takes all the things your cells consider waste or toxic, all the stuff it does not want anymore, and moves it to your large intestine (colon) for elimination. Ideally each of us should be having 2-3 easy bowel movements a day. That means no straining to get it out! If the wastes and toxins sit in your colon for too long, you start to reabsorb them through the lining of your colon! YIKES, that means all the garbage your body wanted taken out is suddenly moving through your colon and into your blood vessels, making you literally feel like crap!
Here are some suggestions to help move things along and get you to feeling great when it comes to your eliminations:
- First and foremost, make sure your spine is aligned. The nerves coming from your low back supply your digestive organs and colon. Getting good Chiropractic care can help free the flow to your nervous system, and all the parts of your body that those nerves affect!!
- Make the time to sit on the pot in the morning and after you eat. There is a reflex that is triggered when you eat that stimulates your bowel to clear. If you can slow down and start to pay attention to this reflex and listen to that feeling your body is giving you, it will be easy to poop. Your body will realize that Hey! this is important and worth taking a few minutes for.
- Have a good magazine or book by the potty, it will help you relax to sit and read for a moment.
- Deep breaths and a soft jaw will help everything move easier. Many of us clamp our jaws and this action makes it harder to relax and let go. So breathe deeply and allow yourself to relax.
- Use a footrest to lift your knees above your pelvis. This is a more natural position to poop in –think about squatting in the woods– and can really help. You may have seen the hilarious commercial from the folks at Squatty Potty last week – here’s a link to their website where you can get their foot rest and learn more.
- Drink 1/2 your body weight in water in ounces a day. So if you weigh 150 pounds, drink 75 ounces— that is how much water your body needs each day just to run well. A major cause of constipation is dehydration, so this can be a super-easy fix!
- Add more whole food fiber to your food plan. Add in a few more vegetables to your meals to get more fiber. Handfuls of chopped up chard can be added to many dishes cooked or fresh without changing the taste. Carrots and peppers are great snacks, use zucchini and cucumber rounds as crackers, apples have malic acid and pectin-both of which are great for your intestines!
- Try a Chia seed drink. I love this in the afternoon: 3 tablespoons of Chia seed, 1 scoop of greens drink (greens first berry is Yummy!) in 16 ounces of water. Let it sit for 10 minutes then enjoy it. Filling, satisfying, and gets things moving!
When you have a good poop, take a second and just appreciate your body for working so well. Feed back to yourself that this is what you want!