Reclaiming the Joyous Afternoon Poop

When I last checked in here I was fresh off of the highs of an amazing birth experience. Today I write with the awareness that I need to make some changes in order to feel great in my body all day, everyday, and hopefully for many many more days to come.

When I last checked in here I was fresh off of the highs of an amazing birth experience. Today I write with the awareness that I need to make some changes in order to feel great in my body all day, everyday, and hopefully for many many more days to come.

After waking up I have a little coffee and breakfast them make my way to the bathroom for a routine, easy, complete poop that leaves me feeling fabulous. As the day goes on, however, I feel more bloated, gassy and have an uncomfortable pelvic heaviness.

Now, there are many potential causes for these symptoms all which sound very scary and hopeless when googled. Suffice it to say, the back tissue of my vaginal wall got a bit of a stretch when birthing my sweet baby girl and I surmise that an afternoon poop (in addition to my like clockwork morning one) can only be helpful in this scenario.

To this end I have decided to retrain my ability to poop after lunch. Most of us are born with a gastrocolic reflex (as I am reminded of 3x / day by my 3 year old) which stimulates our bowels to move about 10-30 minutes after eating. For whatever reason, be it shame, convenience, or busy schedules many of us begin to ignore this super amazing reflex. Since we stop listening the reflex gets dampened and less effective.

My mission starting today is to reclaim my afternoon poop. Come along with me on my journey as I share what I am doing to help me reach my goal. Want to start working on improving your bowel health or bathroom habits? Give me a call to see if treatment with me at New Seasons Physical Therapy and Wellness is right for you. I have had extensive training in ways to help if you poop too often, too little or if you have to strain to poop, There is nothing I am embarrassed by and almost nothing that I have not heard before. Everybody poops!

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I did not have time to make a salad for lunch so I thought about skipping out on veggies. Instead, I put some homegrown chard and some store bought strawberries in a container and chewed on these to round out my mid day meal. I could have blended these into a smoothie but there is science to show that the gastrocolic reflex is stronger when we actually chew rather than drink our food.

After eating I took a 3 minute walk (all I had time for) then sat on the porcelain for im guessing about 2 minutes. I had a good toot but no poop. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow.