Some of my favorite links:
Mike (my husband)
It's Sunday. Laze around and goof off day.I have noticed that since I started adding a fiber supplement to my daily intake of food products, my bowel movements have been very regular. This works for me. It also helps that I learned to 'soak' the psyllium for about forty minutes before ingesting it. Less gas that way.
Actually, it should soak for twenty to forty minutes and should be stirred a couple of times during that period or it will gel and become an undrinkable quivering mass. If stirred, it still becomes very gel-like, but less obnoxious. It's worth drinking for the effects on one's system.Here's my daily routine of late:
Up early (5 - 6 am)
Brush teeth, drink a glass of spring water
Boil water in kettle and squeeze 1/2 lemon into BIG cup (18 oz!)
Pour in water, makes warm lemon drink = good for revving up my system
Drink as much as it takes to move bowels, and go!
Sometimes I will drink another glass of water. Depends on how quickly bowels move
Take my daily acidophilous supplement (the Bifidus type)
Eat an apple - Braeburns are my favorite this time of day
Prep my fiber supplement
Shower, stretch, dress, drink fiber, go to work (University, or home office)I make sure to eat mostly fresh organic fruits and veggies for my meals and snacks, and include figs (5-10 black mission type) in my daily diet. The figs are high in important stuff like fiber (1.8 g per fig), as well as minerals like magnesium which is good for helping to regulate digestion (and for utilizing calcium too!).
I try to exercise every day, and have a variety of stuff I like to do. That includes running (~ 4 times/week), walking (2 times/day), hiking (whenever!), yoga (~4-5 times/week), cycling (it's been awhile, my tires are flat...), home projects like refinishing furniture and washing windows (windows = tough workout!). I used to lift weights alot, but have slacked off lately. I think it's a seasonal thing for me. Here in the desert, I like to spend as much time outdoors as possible, except when the weather is inclement, such as in summer heat. So my weight lifting usually is confined to hot season, June to October, when I workout inside.
Other important IBS management tools include reducing stressors in my life and striving for personal peace and harmony. My husband helps with these in a big way. He is great to talk to, and is very loving, caring, and attentive. He is supportive and non-judgemental, so if I change my mind about something, it's OK with him. I try to be all of those things to him as well (I hope I succeed, but if not he will let me know in a gentle way, and I will adjust my attitude at that time).
Since reading up on the IBS literature, I have come to realize that most of us are born sensitive, and that IBSers probably have had compounding environmental factors during childhood that increase gut reaction to life's stresses. Thus the pattern starts early, and for many of us the gut reactions start early as well (although some, like myself, never learned about the syndrome itself until adulthood). I think the environmental factors are not solely family/parental impacts, but in these modern times also consist of pollutants, toxins and the like.
For example, only in recent years has it come to light that many of our cleansers and other conveniences of modern life, like plastic storage containers, impact our systems through air, water and ingestion.Later.
posted by LST 12/10/2000 10:16:25 AM