[nelie]

Ok I really don't like mentioning such a subject and I wasn't sure whether I should try support or here. I'm not a vegetarian but I've cut out a lot of meat from my diet and I may cut it out entirely soon.

I've majorly changed my diet in the last couple weeks. I'm down to eating 1-2 oz of meat per day most days and no meat on other days. I'm also not really eating any dairy products except whey protein powder 1-2 times per day. I am also limiting my grains a little but not too much. I'm eating lots of legumes, veggies and 1-2 fruits per day.

Before my change in diet, I was very regular, every morning. My morning shake has psyllium husk powder in it and I get plenty of other fiber throughout the day. I also drink plenty of water. My problem is that since I changed my diet, output is once every 2-3 days and not very much at all. I had always read that a more vegetarian diet would have the opposite effect. Is this normal? Is my body trying to adjust?

[junebug41]

I had these problems as well. Even though you have been at this lifestyle for a while, the amount of legumes/fruits/veggies coupled with the lack of animal products can be troublesome in that department. The thing that I changed that was the easiest to incorperate was pretty simple: bran cereal. For some reason, cold cereal a few times a week did the trick- with light vanilla soymilk, of course. I found that I was getting plenty of fiber, it was just a matter of finding the right form to fix the problem.

[Ari]

How much water is "plenty?" The 8 8oz glasses of water rule doesn't necessarily cut it if you have an extremely high fiber diet, are active, overweight, on certain medications or a number of other things. Like you I'm "almost vegetarian" and I get so much fiber in my diet that I can not be regular unless I drink nearly 3 liters of water a day. If I am exercising and sweating I need to drink even more!

Also make sure that you're drinking a lot of water with your fiber and not just in between meals. Not only will this help you feel fuller, it will help make sure that your bowel can't remove all of the water from the fiber (causing constipation, hard stools etc)

A change in diet will almost always change your bowel habits, and most doctors will say that an increase in fiber always has to be accompanied with an increase in water. Also they recommend the change (to increase fiber) to be gradual, not cold turkey, because the bowel needs time to adjust to the higher intake.

Generally if there is not enough water with the fiber, it will get "stuck" in the system and be harder to pass. In other words it's constipation. The bowel works to remove water from the fiber, so if your system is really efficient at removing water from your bowel then you need to drink a lot more water to compensate.

The amount of water you need depends on what your body is telling you. If this were me I would be taking it as a sign that I'm not getting enough water, but that's just my personal experience.

Unfortunately I know way too much about bowel issues because I have had irritable bowel with constipation all my life. The knowledge I have is based on advice from almost every doctor I've seen.

[shananigans]

First of all, I applaud your efforts in reducing you animal product intake. I really think it’s one of the most positive things anyone can do for their own health, the health of the planet, and of course for the animals.

I can’t say I’ve had much of a problem with this myself, but I would think that like anything else maybe your body just needs time to adjust, and trying out different things to see what helps couldn’t hurt. Everyone’s body is so different it’s hard to say what might work for an individual. I definitely agree that more water could help. If you haven’t tried the Kashi GoLean cereal (not GoLean Crunch, too much sugar and high in calories) you might want to give it a try, it has 10 grams of fiber/cup. Plus 13 grams of protein as a bonus. I also find the more raw vegetables I can get down in a day the better, I usually have one big green salad every day.

Certain kinds of exercise can also help. I think I remember you mentioning that you’ve done yoga before? There are yoga exercises that are supposed to help keep your digestive track active and healthy (also others that are good for your immune function, nervous system, etc. quite interesting IMO). Here’s a couple related articles on that:

http://www.womenfitness.net/digestionyoga.htm

http://www.wikihealth.com/Yoga_poses_for_indigestion

Good luck, hope that helps!

[nelie]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone I do drink about 12 ozs of water when I drink fiber and I generally get 100 ozs or more of water every day. This morning, I drank 24 ozs of water with my fiber just to make sure I had enough.

I haven't done yoga in a while but I should probably try to incorporate it back in.

I do enjoy my quasi vegetarianism. Last night, I had planned on eating a small portion of chicken but I said forget it.