It’s the first week of January 2021, you have successfully eaten two cob loaves, Christmas pudding with brandy custard, you took up every opportunity where seconds were offered and you garnished midnight New Years with a celebratory cocktail as the cherry on top. You have made it past the week between Christmas and New Years'' where time is a mere social construct and come to the realization that you haven’t taken a poop in days and the shock sinks in… What have I done?
How do you Measure the Chaos?
How does one measure at what point their guts went gross and they haven’t had a solid stool or a stool at all, like they usually do? In what way is it possible to reorganize this self-inflicted chaos that has our large intestine giving us the glare in disgust?
Start with the Bristol Stool Chart - an ATP personal favourite starting point is to anchor progress to a place in time of where you are and, where you want to be. Where being a 3 or 4 is better than a 7… trust us!
We spoke on the Bristol stool chart and its history in great detail in an earlier blog piece eloquently titled “Get to know your Poop over the 10 days” Referring to our Gutright 10-Day Challenge. Click through on that one to learn more; as for today, we are here to chat about where you are at right now post-celebrations and shenanigans.
Note where you are at right now, why?
Because let's be honest, you’re here out of intrigue. A sneaking suspicion you are not where you could be by pooping standards that is, too many chandys, too much cheese in that bottomless pit of potato bake, etc. You don’t want to google why you haven’t pooped in three days… Google knows too much! So, you inconspicuously check this blog out because, you know, asking for a friend!
What causes ‘outside the ideal’ poops? Lots of things:
- Alcohol.
- Low fibre intake.
- Too much fibre.
- Low water intake.
- Deficiencies.
- Allergies/Intolerances.
- Internal inflammation.
- Microbial imbalance.
You can relate to at least one of these over the Christmas and new year’s break, surely? Could have had more water over the break, not eating as much of your usual fibrous foods and greens the way you normally do in the daily routine, when your stools were optimal. You’re bloated and gassy and you have gone a bit off the rails with the Favourites Assorted chocolate box, now you’re not only bloated, but those pesky pimples on the chin have made an encore appearance after all your hard work cleaning up your gut last year.
Getting back on track!
Fear not fellow friend, we have all been there! We suggest starting with the easy stuff, the ones you know you were doing before that were working and perhaps got left behind over the break…
- Keep your water intake healthy, around that 2L mark.
- Electrolyte top-up – we needn’t tell you that those little elements are likely depleted.
- Get your fibre back in and in variety, insoluble and soluble.
- Look after your micros as well as your macros – All of those essential vitamins and minerals.
- Ditch the cocktails and binging escapades.
- Get your daily scoop of Gutright back into your schedule.
- Leave out the foods that leave you feeling less than favorable – those heavy feeling foods, the highly refined sugars that give you the crash, you know the ones that make you want to take a daytime nap at 1 pm!
Take-Home Message?
It’s good to celebrate and be jolly over the silly season, try not to let your gut stay silly for the other 358 days of the year though. The essentials make a world of difference and are relatively inexpensive to implement even after the Christmas shopping has left your wallet fluttering with moths. Remember, you’re aiming for a number 4 at best, 3 as a good stock standard!
