Occasionally, when one begins to lose weight via diet and exercise, one encounters the body’s protest in the form of constipation. This can have a negative impact on achieving your weight loss goals, if you’re unable to get things, “moving,” again.Here are the Top 10 things that you might consider to return the pipes to their healthy function:
1. Get moving to get moving. If you’re not getting your 10,000-steps-a-day, get a pedometer, and start logging those daily step amounts. The average person already gets 3,000-5,000-steps-a-day; increasing the number of steps you take can be the best steps toward proper digestion and treatment of constipation.
2. Chew food. Chewing food sufficiently, i.e., 32 times, prior to swallowing, in a sense predigests the food, or makes it easier to digest, leading to less congestion (blockage).
3. Avoid processed, refined, fried or canned foods, as they promote constipation and have fewer nutrients than are found in their natural state.
4. Bran supplementation. Bran comes from the indigestible husk of grains, like, wheat, corn, rice and oat. Consider whole wheat bread, bran cereal(s) and/or a bran supplement to your daily diet can help your regularity in a natural way.
5. Eat more fruit. Fruit, like, prunes, apples, raisins, figs and raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, oranges, pears and avocados, not only aid in treating constipation but are also loaded with vitamins and nutrients.
6. Eat more vegetables. Carrots, cabbage, cucumber, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, parsnips, okra, brussel sprouts and spinach will all aid in increasing digestion and remedying your constipation.
7. Put more fiber in your diet by eating nuts and beans, especially, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, lima beans, lentils, almonds, walnuts, soy nuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. Avoid salted varieties and pay particular attention to amounts eaten to control fat intake.
8. Consider taking a natural laxative. This is not recommended as a long-term solution, but in the short-term might be just what you need to get the system engaged.
9. Drink more water (works in conjunction w/laxatives). At least 8 – 8 oz. glasses of clean (nothing added) water/day. Avoid drinking preparations that contain caffeine or alcohol.
10. Contact your doctor. May be an underlying serious problem that needs to be addressed.