Okay fellow moms, this one is not a glamorous topic, but one that you need to understand if you want to be healthy. You need to be pooping EVERY SINGLE DAY. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Most women think of their poop as “what’s leftover” from the food that they ate. In reality, poop is not just the leftover fiber from your food, but contains toxins, things like pesticides, drugs, chemicals, plastic, heavy metals, damaged cholesterol, and excess estrogen. Yes, all of that is contained in your poop! We are living in a toxic world, and your liver worked really hard to get those toxins ready for removal. When you leave those toxins in your colon, bad things begin to happen.
Think of poop as the “trash” from your body. If you don’t take the trash out from your kitchen it’s going to get awfully smelly and messy in your kitchen. Right? Well the same holds true for the trash in your body. The longer the trash sits in your colon, the more damage it can cause.
Harmful bacteria flourish as your poop continues to ferment in your colon. Excess toxins continue to irritate and potentially poison your gut lining, and eventually your colon begins to reabsorb the trash. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK.
So if you are not pooping every single day, you need to get things moving down there and I’ve got a few tips for you to get things moving along:
✔️ Take magnesium.
Most of us are deficient in magnesium simply because of the way that we eat and the fact that the magnesium content in many plant foods has plummeted due to over-farming of the same soil. Magnesium Citrate is my go-to for pooping problems: 300 to 400 mg (increasing until you get loose poop and then back down to the previous dose) each evening before bed and you will not only poop well, but you’ll sleep better too. If you are adverse to pills, then you may try making Natural Calm tea, which is a powder that fully dissolves in hot water.
✔️ Eat plenty of healthy fats.
Despite common myths otherwise, fat is not bad for you (this concept is covered in depth in my BURN FAT| LOSE WEIGHT| FEEL GREAT Program). Think about fats this way: the best lubrication for pipes is grease, not water; the same is true for your GI pipes. Fat helps to move your poop along. Enjoy foods such as olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, wild salmon, walnuts, almond, pumpkin seeds, and eggs daily.
✔️ Take a daily probiotic supplement.
Our guts are full of good bugs and bad bugs, and proper balance is important. Sometimes your gut gets sluggish due to poor digestion or inflammation in your intestines. Beneficial bacteria helps to calm inflammation and move things along and a good multi-strain probiotic can be really helpful for the body. Quick tip: If you are already constipated, make sure the probiotic has a significant percentage of Bifidobacterium. If the variety you choose is mostly Lactobacillus, this will likely make constipation even worse. 🙁
✔️ Eat plant foods.
There are so many benefits to eating WHOLE, REAL plants especially fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. That said, increasing fiber too quickly when you are already constipated will likely make constipation worse, so make sure that things are moving along well before you amp up your plant intake. Then, you can work on slowly increasing fiber for better long-term gut health and motility.
✔️ Drink plenty of water.
We are dehydrated! Most of us need to be drinking half our body weight in water (in ounces). Water not only primes are digestive system, but water is what allows soluble fiber to work its magic. Think of trying to use a dried out sponge without water: not very effective. So drink plenty of water between meals, and just small sips of water with meals. Too much water with meals and you may dilute your stomach acid, making it less effective at breaking down food.
Now, one thing to note that I have seen in many of my clients: Having a sluggish thyroid (sometimes referred to as hypothyroidism) can be a big contributor to constipation. Most women with underactive thyroids suffer not only from constipation, but tend to feel very cold, tired, suffer from wonky periods, may have hair loss, may feel brain fog, as well as a number of other symptoms. That’s because your thyroid is responsible for your metabolism, and when it is underactive, every system in your body will run very slowly, including your digestive tract. So, if your constipation does not improve with the tips included you may want to investigate further to see if a sluggish thyroid or something else is at play.
