NO! It wasn’t the…

…Yoga (although that’s real nice and my teacher gave me the best-student attendance award),

…Squatting in “the more natural poop position” ’til my legs and feet fell asleep and I fell over backwards,

…Relaxing magnesium baths with lavender essential oils while my three-year old stood by begging to take a bath with mommy,

…Raw fruits and vegetables or yummy prunes that made my midsection look like a nice, big, round balloon ready to float away or the illustration for the song, “The Old Gray Mare [She Ain’t What She Used To Be 20 Long Years Ago]”

…Daily Miralax that had me forcefully squeezing out about 20 soft, squishy 1 inch sized poops a day, leaving me unable to walk due to painful, itchy, bulging, billowing hemorrhoids

…Oatmeal and shredded wheat fasts

…Water ’til my pee ran clearer than water itself

…Exercise (How many miles of cardiovascular count?  4, 6, 12?)

Things are getting better and better!  First thing in the morning and in the early evening, I am having unusual sensations that have never happened so frequently in my life!  Bowel movements!  Each morning that I wake up and have that urge, I want to come post it on this blog or go wake up my husband and tell him it’s all working!  But the mornings that are urgeless, I get a little blue and grasping.  What’d I do wrong?  What’d I eat?  What was it?  Will it come back?  Will I poop today?  Has the magnesium stopped working?  Is it like anything else I’ve tried in the past–and it will stop working for me completely?

I can’t say.  But since starting GAPS diet in June and landing on the SCD with GAPS diet flourishes, and a few drops back to GAPS introduction here and there as needed–things are slowly improving.  Not perfect.  Not linearly.  In spurts with progression and regression–but overall in slow progression.  Things have been great for the last 2-3 weeks, although I got my kids’ gastroenteritis bug last week, which set me back.  Whenever I get a gastroenteritis, it takes a lot of cranking to get things moving again.  But this time, once I got them moving, things seem to be picking up speed.  Twice in a day.  That’s nearly a miracle for me.  I am nervous to say that the diet is working.  Because what if it stops?  Then I have to eat my words.  But, at that point, after being on this diet, anything will taste yummy!  Ha!

So if you have severe, “worse-than-other-people-constipation”, don’t give up.  I am just past month four on GAPS/SCD, and I can say that I am improved.  Not quite cured yet.  But moving in the right direction longer than I ever have been before.  For the last 6 months, I repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly was on Google, GAPS Diet Yahoo Support Group, PecanBread, SCDLifestyle, and many alternative medicine sites.  Now, I’ve chosen a plan, and I’m trying to stick to it awhile.  And overall, the benefits are so positive, with some hang-ups in the road.

Current plan:

1.  Continue SCD/GAPS Diet:  I have really hammered out some of my sensitivities over the last four months.  So valuable.  (No dairy, low nuts, low egg whites–or baked a really long time).  I’m still phasing in things to see how they affect me.  I’m currently very heavy on meats and vegetables.

2.  Magnesium:  I am now using magnesium malate at 4 grams daily.  When I run out of that, I have some Natural Calm to use up.

3.  Betaine HCL:  Doesn’t seem to matter which brand I use.  I take 2-3 with each meal.

4.  Digestive enzymes:  Using GI Pro Health.  Guess it’s working fine.  Will be interested to phase out if my bowel movements continue.  Along with the betaine HCL.

5.  Fish Oil:  Using GI Pro Health.  One teaspoonful a day unless I just can’t stomach it.  I think I take it about 5 times a week.

6.  Fermented Cod Liver Oil:  Nearly one teaspoonful a day unless I just can’t stomach it.  Also taken about 4-5 times per week.

7.  Continue high fat diet:  I try to get a lot of animal fats, but I don’t fret about it too much.  If I’m not eating  animal fat that day, I dump on the olive oil on what I am eating.

8.  I was tanking up on probiotics (lactobacillus).  But after that gastroenteritis, I’ve had severe bloating.  I don’t know if it’s SIBO, FODMAPs, or Candida.  So I’ve switched to lactofermented vegetables instead of probiotics until I get that bloating down.

Well, so long for now!  Got to go get my sleep!

For further constipation posts, please click on the GI Tracts Defying Gravity page.