Hello all,

I've seen folks posing the dilemma of the first part of the stool--or, the bulk head, as I call it--being hard. I don't have this problem much anymore, and I wanted to offer my experience.

The hard-packed first part of a stool develops from a 'pile-up' of feces, I believe. That is, the stuff coming out first has been in your gut a while and is getting packed down from the pressure from above. The longer it stays in the gut, the more it dehydrates and hardens. The solution is to achieve a faster motility of your feces.
You can test motility by adding non-digestible things in your diet (corn, flax seeds, I've been told blackened sesame seeds, beets--which just come out died red) and seeing when they come out. If you eat breakfast with corn, and corn comes out the next day, you know where breakfast is.
I was specifically interested in testing my dinner and last snack motility because if it DOESN'T come out the following morning (I only poop in the morning), that means it is hanging out about 30 hours inside there.

I have found that I will naturally expel all previous days food as long as I don't eat after 8pm (I eat at 6:00, about, with a small snack before 8pm) and eat fibrous, fast-moving stuff (as well as do a few extra things). That puts breakfast at 24hrs till defecation, dinner/evening snack at 12hrs.

Here are the few extra things:
I poop twice every day, in the morning. Once before breakfast, once immediately after. I induce the poops by taking ginger tea the previous night (which speeds motility) and a few swigs of prune juice at bed time. This ensures that I go shortly after waking. For breakfast, I have a tablespoon of pre-soaked chia seeds (lots of soluble fiber) with oats, flax seeds, and peanut butter--also 17g miralax and 400mg magnesium oxide. I drink about a liter of water at minimum with the meal, and the stomach distention generally triggers the need to poop. If not, I drink a cup of coffee and then out it comes.

Coffee gets a bad rap with anal fissures, and I understand why, but it's a matter of priorities. Which is more important to you--making sure you ensure good bowel motility or dehydrating your stool mildly? Coffee does not dehydrate my stool too much as long as I keep the motility fast. If I don't poop twice in one day, I know I should anticipate problems the next. Getting it out in the morning makes it so I don't have to think or worry about it the rest of the day...and coffee is certainly a healthier alternative to stimulant laxatives. If you are a coffee lover, don't use this as an excuse to indulge. Just know your body and use it medicinally.

In any case, no more hard caps! With an exception here and there...

oh yeah, and I also do 3 sets of 20 'jumps' at some point after breakfast and then dinner. Gotta keep that metabolism moving. Other exercise is great--the jumps are just convenient and get the blood pumping.

First of all, excellent call. You are completely correct about motility and "storage time" being the source of the first bit of stool being a bit dry. The only comment I'd add is that motility is not constant, i.e. your dinner may come out in your morning's dump one day, and maybe not the next day. For me, I actually push breakfast back to about 6-8 hours after my morning dump, so that it should only have to sit in my butt for 16-18 hours before the next morning's dump. Unfortunately, depending what you eat, your activity level, sleep habits etc., there are really no constants with BMs, in my experience anyway. Good call though, and definitely something to pay attention to- Also, I've read a ton comments from people with this exact problem, so I'd say it's totally natural and to be expected, to some extent.