Constipation

Sorry for the rather blunt title.

In fact, this post is going to be rather blunt. Definitely feel free to excuse yourself now, if you don't want to hear a candid discussion of my bowel movements (I don't blame you!).

I need to figure out a way to get my bowel movements back on track. A while ago, I was going Number Two (well, I figured I might as well throw in a euphemism) every single morning before work. Like clockwork. And that felt really right for my body.

But now I'm much more inconsistent, and I'm thinking it's because I changed my breakfast routine. I used to eat Organic 4 Grain Plus Flax Hot Cereal with chopped apples, raw pumpkin seeds, and dried cherries and cranberries. Just the hot cereal alone provided 36 percent of my daily recommended servings of fiber.

But because I was trying to cram more protein into every meal (and because I was getting sick of eating the same thing every morning) I switched to plain yogurt blended with frozen fruit into a smoothie. And now I'm irregular (even though I eat four prunes a day). Hmm....

After some googling, here are the next steps I came up with:

• Go back to my hot cereal breakfast and try to add more protein into my snacks throughout the day (like a hard-boiled egg, for example)
• Beef up on my fruit intake (breakfast, snacks, lunch, and after-dinner snack)--focusing on fiber-rich fruit like pears, apricots, strawberries, apples, dried prunes or dates, peaches, or pineapple
  
• Eat more cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage
• Drink plenty of water!
  

Through my few minutes of research, I learned that "fiber" makes us more regular by roughing up the cells that line our intestines. As the body tries to repair the damage, it secretes more mucous, which provides the lubrication necessary to keep us regular. Sounds awful, but the experts agree it's good for us. I also read this interesting article about the ideal color, shape, size, and frequency of our poop.

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