You can’t get the whole story from peeking at your poop, but you can find out if you are digesting your food well. Acknowledging the consistency of your poop can lead to some interesting discoveries about your health and improve your performance inside and out of the gym. Here are some basic factors to consider next time you turn around and look in the toilet.
If your poop is super hard, or rock-like, this is a problem. Either you are holding your poops for too long, or you’re dehydrated and your body is trying to recover any water it can. In either case the answer is simple, take a moment to go use the restroom during the day and drink more water. Water plays a huge role in pretty much every physiological process inside your body, so you’ll be doing yourself a favor in more ways than one.
Very soft or runny poop means you aren’t absorbing your nutrients. This can stem from a number of factors from intestinal damage to rushing through meals and forgetting to chew. In any case your food is passing through you so quickly your body can’t draw out the nutrients effectively. If your goals are to perform effectively or even just to be healthy, absorbing your food should be a top priority.
If your poop is smooth and snake-like you’re doing great. Keep your eating habits up and pat your parents on the back for the good genetics you’ve inherited. A medium consistency poop that is comfortably passed 1-3 times daily is what you want.
So what to do? Chew your food thoroughly and prepare as many meals as possible yourself. Simply smelling the food during preparation will help get your digestive enzymes moving and will further break down your food after you chew it up. Also, eat more vegetables. A great rule of thumb is to eat 10 colors of food per day (shades of colors count). This is a very simplistic way to get the variety and types of foods that will have good amounts of fiber as well as lots of nutrients.
Rushing or simplifying food in the name of convenience is not healthy. Take the time to eat and your body will show it’s appreciation in the form of better energy throughout the day and comfortable digestion and elimination. And don’t be afraid to turn around and look at your own poop. Acknowledging what’s coming out of you is a great first step in recognizing the importance of what’s going into you.
