CHEWING ! I'm sure you all know this already... But in the first few months of my fissure experience (actually for most of the entire year), I had a huge problem with making my BMs soft. Anytime I had soft BMs they would be painless, but it was nearly impossible for me to get them. I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong - I had a healthy diet, tried cutting out dairy, had fibre and fruit. Then I realized, I was eating nuts and maybe other hard things. So I stopped eating hard things and that did help a lot...
But I noticed in the past maybe 2 months or so, I've finally mastered the art of having soft poo WITHOUT a stool softener. This has been a huge hurdle for me to jump over, I'm just so overjoyed. I'm finally getting to know my body and my pooping system, it feels soo great. I've realized that you can still eat all the nuts you want, infact, you can even eat chips and salsa once in a while - but the most important thing to remember is to chew chew chew , chew 30 times, chew 40 times, just chew until it's a soft mush and nothing more!
Don't put 10 nuts into your mouth at a time, of course... Eat slowly and chew chew chew! This has really helped me have soft poo and I'm still able to eat things that I need to or want to eat. I've also been confused lately because pizza doesn't constipate me anymore. I have no idea why? Milk still does so I neve rdrink it (unless I'm having loose BMs on my period!) - but in the past few months, I actually am able to go to the bathroom more instantly when I have pizza! It's interesting..
But I am happy because I have been able to eat granola and pecans again, I've just realized that I need to do it slowly, one at a time, and chew several times. Has anyone else found this? I'm completely shocked that I barely need to take Miralax anymore... I used to be so dependent on it! So so relieved and happy .. I still do have a fissure or two and am working on that (need to try harder to keep up with the aloe vera and soaking schedule). But I'm happy about the soft BMs !!
Hope everyone else is doing great. Take care

Hey Sunshine,
I have been doing the chewing thing too. I don't eat any nuts but I have had granola. My problem is in the beginning, My BM is formed and it hurts when it first starts then it is very soft after. I guess I will try some prune juice at night and more fruit later in the day. I am glad you are doing well. I don't have much dairy at all just some yogurt. I drink soy milk and it is just as good. I take Colace still but only 50mg so we will see what happens over the rest of this month. My CRS said I am 90% healed but its that last little 10% still giving me some pain ugghhh. Of course the period will be coming soon and you and I know what a joy that is!! Take Care. Happy New Year!!
Patty
:snn:

Thanks for the suggestion. I read somewhere you should chew a bite 7 times? I think it makes sense to get it into smaller pieces plus the digestion process begins in the mouth!

Thanks for posting, Sunshine. That is great that has enabled you to have more of the foods you want!

Hey Lecia & Patty :) Hope you guys have had an awesome holiday season & fun new year celebration (I'm heading out in 5 minutes, it's 7:30 pm here! Still a few hours left til 08 here hehe.
Patty, it's so shocking because I used to have that problem so so much before. I was always posting on the forum about how my BMs were initially hard and painful and then soft afterwards. I have no idea how I got over that completely. Sometimes they would still be that way even after stool softener. I remember stressing so much here because I couldn't find any proper stool softener and Lecia was sweet enough to send me some Miralax - that's how desperate I was to get some relief. But now I haven't even been using any stool softener and rarely have problems with those initially painful/hard BMs.
It's strange because I'm eating the same stuff and am not even drinking as much water as before, sometimes I don 't have as much fruit either. And I've cut all those high fibre breads and everything - I just try to eat as much natural fibre as I can and everything is still staying soft... So I'm thinking it must be the chewing that I'm doing.. I used to eat loads of pecans etc. daily before and maybe I didn't chew them properly (which could explain that initially hard feeling), but if I eat them now and chew properly, it works out totally fine... I'm still sort of amazed that I haven't used Miralax in so long... Now I only need to use it if I had some dairy and am a bit plugged up.
Speachless!
Happy New Year everyone!

Chewing just makes sense!

Lecia, I think I was taught to chew each bite up to twenty times before swallowing! A person would probably lose weight because they'd be worn out before they could clean their plate!

Yeah, I think you are right Kim!