What is Your Poo Telling You? (LOL, no for real)

You might be laughing or totally turned off by the subject line of today’s post, but I assure you- you’ll want to read this one closely.

Nothing is TMI in my line of work.

Sometimes I start talking about poop even before I’m on a first name basis with people.  It’s one of the hottest topics of conversations in ALL of my consultations and client sessions.

Maybe that sounds gross, but your poop has so much to say about what’s going on with your gut and your health.  If you don’t have kids, just ask any parent out there about how they monitor their infants health and food tolerances by what’s left in their diapers 😛

It’s often not appropriate to talk about your bathroom habits, but what you might not be talking about could be giving you the best insight as to what’s going on with your health.

In 2011, the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology reported that over $800 million dollars was spent per year on prescription laxatives. That doesn’t even count over-the-counter ones!

You shouldn’t have to pay to go poop.

It’s a born birthright.  Do you think our neanderthal ancestors had this much trouble in the bathroom department?  I don’t think so.

Never knowing when your next bowel movement will happen can leave you on edge all day- making you feel heavy, bloated and down right sick to your stomach.

And then I talk to some people who have every bathroom in the city mapped out because they never know when that sinking feeling is going to hit and they’ll have to make a run for it.

I’ve had clients who have lived with this fear and struggled for years until we started looking at what their poop is trying to say.

In this week’s video I talk more about what your poop might be trying to tell you and how to tell if your bowel movements are healthy or not.

1- Frequency. Everyone is different, but you should poop every day. Going 1-3 times a day is typically healthy and each day can be different. Poop is waste and helps to remove toxins, so you should be getting rid of it daily.  If you find yourself going only a couple times a week, you’re probably constipated. And if you’re going 5+ times a day, you’re on the diarrhea side of things. Both could be a sign of serious health risks over the long term.

2- Time.  It’s normal to decorate your bathroom with reading material but it’s not so normal for you to actually need something to read while you’re in there.  Healthy pooping should only take a matter of a few minutes.  You shouldn’t have to push or strain too much, but you also shouldn’t be running to the bathroom in fear of not being able to hold it in.  Also, typical transit time from the point of eating to elimination should be around 12 hours.  If you’re not sure what yours is, eat some red beets and wait for them to show up on the other side.

3- Presentation.  There’s even a poop scale for this.  The color, shape and smell can all be indicators of healthy poop or not.  Color that is too dark or pale, and undigested food can be a sign of unhealthy poop.  Anything that smells too fowl, has a film or mucous can also be an unhealthy indicator.  In essence, it should resemble a brown snake-like shape and not have a very offensive odor.  Check out the Bristol Stool Scale and Dr. Mercola’s charts here.

If one of these areas seems a little off to you, then it could mean there something disrupting your gut.  Gut disruptors can indicate a wide range of things – parasites, bacteria, yeast, food intolerances, stress, emotions and even toxin exposure.

Irregularities lasting for long periods of time or that go in cycles could be a HUGE sign that something is festering in there and needs to be addressed.

Want to learn more about what your poo could be telling you and your gut health?

Then my upcoming Get Your Gut In Gear Group Program is just for you!

This program will give you the opportunity to take a deep dive look at your gut health using a simple functional at-home stool test.  This test will help you identify what might be going on in your gut and the healing opportunities.  From there, you’ll work with me as your guide in a small group (5-10 people) setting over the course of 3 months to get your gut back in gear and restore balance!

Enrollment for this program is going to open next week and space is limited to 10 people.  If you want in on this, then get on the INTEREST LIST HERE to get first dibs at scoring a spot!