Constipation (sorry!)

couscous

Full Member
I've always suffered constipation even as a child but as I've got older it has got worse. I hoped by following SW with all the free fruit and veg allowed it would get better but it's got worse.

This is my daily food diet

Breakfast - apple, banana, grapes, melon covered with muller light

Snack - Piece of fruit or two/three quorn sausages

Lunch - Salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, radish, celery, beetroot, spring onion, cress, peppers) with either ham, eggs, tuna etc

Dinner - Meat or fish, sweet potato in its skin and begetables or salad.

In the evening i might have a sugar free jelly with peaches in or mousse (muller light mixed with jelly) and fruit.

I use my HEA as milk in tea and coffee (at work they make tea on the hour) and i use my HEB for ryvitas with cottage cheese or pogen krisprolls with cottage cheese.

I'm not a massive water drinker but i do have lots and lots of tea and a can of coke with lunch and a pint of water with my dinner.

The only thing that has ever worked regularly in the past is if i eat a few dried apricots, dates etc but they are high in syns and as a HEB you don;t get enough to make me work!

Does anyone have any suggestions as I have at least my 8 portions of fuit/veg a day (never less than 5) so I'm at a loss as what to do.

It makes me feel sluggish and bloated and I swear after being so good thats why i only lost 1.5lbs this week.

Sorry if anyone is reading this and eating!
 
I do sympathise, my daughter suffers terribly and prunes work for her, you can have a fair few for a healthy b I think. Other than that, you have no probs with diet and fluids so would have to go down the medical route as i did with my daughter. She bobs along ok for a while, then has an episode, I start giving lactulose, then if no result she has movicol which we get from the GP.
 
I know you said you drink plenty of liquid but I would up your water to at least 2 ltrs. Before I started SW I would find it very hard to go. Since SW I have upped the fruit and veg and eat scan bran (It is like a ryvita but it is 85% fibre and really cleans you out, lol. you get it from class for £1 and you can use it like a ryvita or make cakes out of it which are yum , check out the recipe section:))everyday and I've upped my water and I have no problem going. But if I have a day where I dont drink much water, even if I drink other liquid, I struggle to go again. You have to use the water to flush the fibre out. Also I have started drinking a peppermint tea after my main meals as it aids digestion. Taking a brisk walk after a meal helps move things along too. HTH:D
 
As well as the scan bran I find the fat free Activia yogurts very good for getting me going.(as they say on the pot - improves digestive transit)
Also a fresh pear eaten with the skin on just before bed might help.
 
I agree with the scan bran, or how about adding bran flakes with your breakfast as a healthy option? The scan bran can be crushed and added to foods ie yogurts if you dont like them as a crispbread type food.. Increasing your fluid intake is a must if you increase fibre, drink water or fruit teas instead of ordinary tea. x
 
Can vouch for the scan bran, too ;). Eating loads of grapes helps (me) as well. And well done on 1.5 lbs loss this week. That is really good. :)
B. xx
 
i feel your pain! I've had exactly the same problem, i used to have regular movements daily, now its every 3 days, and it gets painful!! I've decided to have bran flakes in the morning..but may try this scan bran out!
 
I have this problem too, I make sure I regularly eat scan bran (one portion of it a day), I make sure I drink 2 litres of water a day too. If I eat too many eggs in a week it bungs me up so I only have 2 or 3 a week at the most.

The other thing I found wasn't helping was when I worried about it - for some reason it made it worse so I am trying (but it is difficult) to not stress when I don't go, if I do have a day that happens now then I make sure I up my fibre & water the next day & try to relax.
 
If the apricots work for you, then why not take the portion you might normally have, separate out the HexB portion, and see what the syns are for the remainder. It's gotta be worth a few syns if it helps with your problem.

It's worth remembering that syns aren't meant to be viewed as something bad... it's just the things that, eaten to excess, will hamper your weight loss so need to be portion controlled. Apricots are good for you, so if you like them and they benefit you, then why not have them?
 
Hi hun, i'm feeling like that at the moment too, it always makes me feel sick though. You seem to be eating lots of fruit, veg and drinking plenty fluid, i would go with what the others have said and give scan bran a go x
 
Hiya cous cous,

How long have you been on the SW plan? If it's less than a month, your body might still be trying to adapt to this amount of fruit and veg.

I'd start with having some bran flakes (even a smaller portion than a HExB and use syns - not many) every day - you can mix them with yogurt to make it like a muesli/yogurt thing. Alternatively, as others have suggested, try the Activia yogurts - the fat free ones are syn-free but be careful which ones you pick up as the rest have syns!

After that, it might be worth trying scan bran - I don't like it and find bran flakes a much better alternative (and cheaper too). Then a trip to the doctors - they can give you Movicol which isn't the nicest thing, but does work (and also is syn-free!) while they try and figure out what's wrong.

I notice from your food diary above that you don't have any syns apart from the jelly. Can you use them for the apricots/dates you say you like? Also, have you tried one or two red days a week to see if that helps - lots of people complain too many green days causes bloating.

Hope that advice helps!
 
Thanks everyone for the help. I have had all the tests about 5 years ago and they have said that I have IBS so I have tried the medical route.

I've seen a few recipes for scan bran cake and have always put off buying it (my leader desribes it as a brillo pad for your insides) but maybe just eating say 2 a day might work.

You're right on the water front I do drink a lot of tea and not a lot of much else so I'm going to have a cup of herbal tea every other drink at work and make an effort to drink at least a bottle of water a day while at work.

Thanks everyone for all your help.

ps - i use the rest of my syns on vodka or martini but might eat the apricots anyway. My friend says that even though they are syns your body knows the difference between good and bad syns (ir a mars bar or apricots) so i should be fine if i went a little bit over with a few apricots.
 
Looking at your general diet plan I think you are lacking in grains - I would try having a few green days with brown rice or wholemeal pasta. personally I have found that beans do wonder for me ( normally a twice a week person with beans its once a day!) The little pots of bacteria yogs also help I find - no idea on syns for that.
 
I also have IBS, and suffer with the constipation, generally the day before Wi :D I find the fibre rich foods definitely make transistion easier ;) Scan bran is quite nice actually, I was pleasantly surprised :)
 
Thanks for the wholemeal pasta tip. I like brown rice but end up cooking the batchelors rices as they are easy and my bf likes them as well. I'm getting weighed tomorrow so their sales of scan bran will no doubt go up! Had a few herbal teas as well today so it will all help
 
I found the first 2 weeks a bit of a trial because everything slowed down, but it was soft. Oranges don't seem to work now, but rhubarb does the trick. And I use a good hot chilli, but I suppose you have to be careful with IBS.
 
You can't beat a good hot curry! I find if I am really stuck i cook up loads of frozen spinach and eat that but its a bit extreme to do that everyday so i need a slightly better solution. I'm going to have rice, kidney bean and chick poea salad and get that fibre in!
 
Scan bran is nice if you break it into small bits and soak it in Muller Light overnight (in the fridge). I had the same problems as you at first and I still do if I don't drink enough. I thought I was drinking a lot but I still needed more to get, um, going.
 
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