Bowel Movements

What a topic to talk about, right?

Having regular and frequent bowel movements is really important.  Not only do you want to take in good foods that are filled with lots of nutrients that your body needs, you want to be able to discard toxic and things your body does not need -- waste.  Imagine if you never took out the garbage in your home?  How gross would that be?  Similarly our bodies need to regularly discard things it does not need.

When I learned how to do a food journal in Weight Watchers (in my early 30s), one of the things I tracked was fiber.  It was appalling to learn that on a normal basis that I didn't get enough fiber as my daily intake was under 10 g per day.  Since that time, I've looked for ways to easily add more fiber in foods to my diet.

I've read in numerous places (can't site where right now) and heard that for about every meal you eat, a really healthy excretory system should have just as many bowel movements as you do eating times.  Wow!!  That just blew me away.  I thought having 1 BM a day was sufficient. 

As I increased my fiber intake with foods by choosing different foods higher in fiber, I  noticed that gradually I had more than 1 BM a day.  Typically I'll be in the 3-4 BMs/day.  It's not quite the 4-5 BMs I ought to with eating 4-5x/day, but it's getting there.

You'll notice many of my food choices will include higher fiber items or that I may add psyllium husk or ground flaxseed to certain foods.  These are just very easy ways to increase fiber in your diet.  Note that you should gradually increase and not do this all at once otherwise you'll end up feeling bad, bloated, and really painfully gassy.  Many things I read said people should have at least 25 g of fiber for a healthy excretory system, but I like to be in the range of the 40+ g/day.  This ensures I'm getting my 3-4 BMs/day.

When I don't get my 3-4 BMs/day, this is a good indication I haven't been consuming enough fiber rich foods and I just up that the next day.  My system is used to getting a lot of fiber, so cycling up/down 10 g fiber is not an issue.  However, if I wanted to up to 70 g, I'd need to do that gradually from about 55 g.  What is gradual?  Every person is different but guessing 2-3 g extra a day isn't too bad.  You just really have to check with your own body and see what's it telling you.

Also, healthy BMs are supposed to look sort of like sausages and be brownish, not black or red or green with tapered ends.  If anyone else has something different or if I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me.  Just going off the top of my head here.