Rebekah: Hey guys.
It’s Bex here and I’m back with my good friend Mike Perrine from Everyday Detox.
You asked and we are answering.
Why aren’t you pooping?
Find out all the dirty details on constipation and the best methods for pooping for your
health.
Watch the video and let us know what you think.
The first question I have for us today is, “Why can’t I poop?”
So after they have exhausted all of the things that they have Googled, why are they still
not pooping?
What are some constipation cures and methods for better pooping?
I have something so exciting to share that I’m going to bring out.
Mike: Do you want to start with that?
Rebekah: I want to.
Can my trusty cameraman please bring in the product I am so excited about?
First I want to talk about quickly how the universe really does conspire to make your
dreams come true.
So if you speak something, even privately, things get done.
Mike: Oh, I know what this is.
I know what this.
Rebekah: So I texted you.
I’m so excited.
Oh, thank you.
I texted you the words “Squatty Potty”.
It was just a text, right?
Mike: Yeah.
Why did you text me that?
Rebekah: I don’t know.
Mike: It wasn’t in relation to this?
Rebekah: It wasn’t.
Well no, it was about the Squatty Potty.
Mike: Oh, OK.
I thought you just made it up.
Rebekah: No.
Mike: OK.
Rebekah: So I texted Squatty Potty to you and not even 72 hours later, I get followed
by Squatty Potty on Instagram.
Like, they didn’t see our private text.
I hope they didn’t.
Mike: No, I …
Rebekah: And it was so cool because Squatty Potty is something that I fantasized about
for a long time about owning.
I had been using a nursing stool and then her stepstool for her to wash her hands and
brush her teeth.
When I use the bathroom and Squatty Potty is actually invented or created, this beautiful
– this is their new model.
They have like a different white model that’s a little bit more bathroom-looking.
This is designer Squatty Potty.
So they followed me and I was like, oh my gosh, I was just talking about this with my
friend Everyday Detox.
OK.
Before anyone gets mad at me, this is how it works.
When you have a lot of followers on the internet and you say like a product, they send it to
you for free.
So full disclosure, this came for free because I asked them for it.
So Squatty Potty sent us two Squatty Pottys.
I’m so excited and I’m really excited.
I’m like really jacked up over this.
Mike: Yeah.
Rebekah: And I thought it was a perfect opportunity to talk more about proper pooping methods,
proper pooping technique in addition to the dietary things that we have to do to make
sure that our system is running well.
So let’s rip on it.
Mike: You’re the only person I’m going to do this for.
Rebekah: Oh, come on.
You love talking about poop.
Mike: I do not.
People have asked me over the years all the time.
Could you write a blog about poop and the size and the shape and the smell?
I’m like nope, I’m not going to do that.
Rebekah: OK, we don’t have to do like the whole size, shape, smell.
There’s an app for that actually.
Mike: You know why I did –
Rebekah: Called the Poop App.
Mike: I’ve worked in detox.
Primarily it has to do with elimination and it has to do with – I’ve been a colonic
therapist for 12 years and I did an interview for somebody a long time ago, like a – do
you remember when like the teleseminars were a big thing?
I did like a recorded telephone …
Rebekah: No, they’re still huge.
Mike: They’re still doing that?
Rebekah: Telesummits are huge.
Mike: Well, I did one of those for somebody and she put – when she created the blog
post, there was a picture of a roll of toilet paper.
That was the first image that came up when you Googled my name and I was like, “No
more poop stuff.
I’m not going to be the poop guru.”
But somehow I am the poop guru.
Rebekah: It’s like your job …
Mike: There’s a lot more to the work.
Rebekah: There’s a lot.
But something that we – OK, listen.
If we really want to talk to the masses, we have to identify with them on a base level.
OK?
And something that we do every single day that is so important to our health and such
an indicator of good health is poop!
Mike: It is.
Rebekah: We should be doing it ever day.
Mike: That’s why I became a colonic therapist, because I was working with doing nutritional
work and working as a chef and that was important.
But it was Gill Jacobs who taught me that health has more to do with elimination than
it does what you’re actually putting in.
Rebekah: OK, so let’s talk about it.
Mike: We’re going to talk about it.
Rebekah: Let’s not be so high on our horses.
Mike: OK.
So what are we talking about here?
We’re talking about …
Rebekah: OK.
This is the problem with these questions that we get because people – we really don’t
know what you’re doing in your day every day.
We don’t know your diet.
We don’t know your habits.
So it’s hard to say why you can’t poop specifically.
But the easiest way to go poop every day – and then I want to get into this.
I really want to talk about it.
Well, not this specifically, but more like why we’re not pooping well.
So what can we do with that?
Mike: See, there are so many different variables.
Number one is hydration.
OK?
So you have to be hydrated because the first place your body is going to pull water out
to bring it into the organs, if you’re dehydrated, is going to be whatever is remaining in your
intestines.
So it’s going to pull things out and then things are going to start to get hard.
Even if you’re eating raw foods and salads and stuff, you can get constipated.
OK?
If you’re dehydrated.
Rebekah: So quickly on hydration, what do you think about the formula of taking half
of the number of pounds?
So I’m 150 pounds and then I take 75.
So I would be drinking 75 ounces a day.
What do you think about that formula?
Mike: It’s kind of cool because we like guidelines but really, it depends.
I always tell people.
I’m like, “Well, are you athletic?
Do you run in Miami or do you run in Vermont?”
How much are you sweating?
How much are you moving?
What are your demands for water?
What else are you eating?
Because if someone is just eating – OK, let’s take like people who do like an 80-10-10
kind of thing, right?
They do all this fruit and stuff like that.
They’re probably going to need less water.
They still need water but they’re going to need so much less water than a coffee drinker,
meat and potatoes person, cereal eater, or someone that’s eating foods that suck water
out of the body to begin with.
Rebekah: OK.
Mike: I drink very little water on a day where – the first half of my day is just like
raw juices and fruit.
I mean I don’t need to drink tons and tons of water.
Rebekah: Right.
Mike: When I used to eat like Egg McMuffins and stuff like that, like oh god, I would
be like guzzling water by noon because I would be all dehydrated.
Rebekah: And if you were eating Egg McMuffins, that could be a problem with your poop.
Mike: Yeah.
So that’s the other part.
So it’s hydration and then of course it’s what kind of food you’re eating.
So we need high fiber food, then we need raw fiber food too.
Rebekah: OK.
Mike: So …
Rebekah: Raw fiber food, not Fiber One bars.
Mike: Yeah.
Rebekah: We can say that here.
Mike: Here’s the interesting thing too though.
I mean Cheerios makes people go to the bathroom and it lowers cholesterol because the – it
has a lot of fiber that will absorb excess cholesterol of the body.
So that stuff works.
I mean you could take powdered fibers, but I don’t think that it’s as good.
I just think it gets bulky and stuff like that.
There’s a whole other holistic thing that happens with food.
Rebekah: OK.
Mike: So eating apples.
Some of the greatest foods that the – the broom salads and the broom smoothies are phenomenal.
So the broom salads are basically – you don’t have to follow a formula for this.
Rebekah: And broom meaning it’s sweeping things out of your system.
Mike: It’s sweeping things out of the system, yeah.
Grated carrots, cabbage.
Rebekah: Yes.
Mike: Grated carrots, cabbage, celery, fennel, radishes, things like that.
They really help to sweep things out where like sprouts and baby lettuces are all nutritious
and great and baby spinach is fantastic.
But it’s not as powerful of an absorbent as a broom is, those other foods.
Rebekah: So you’re going to give me – not right now in this video.
But you’re going to give me a recipe for your broom juice and I am –
Mike: Smoothies, yeah.
Rebekah: Oh, broom smoothie.
Even better.
Mike: Yes.
Rebekah: Because then I’m actually going to make it.
I think I’ve done it before.
I think that’s how you got me started on pineapple.
Don’t give it to me now.
I’m going to make a broom smoothie graphic for everyone.
You can just click on the link below and it’s going to go to Pinterest.
You can share that on Pinterest.
Mike: For the podcast listeners, I’m going to give it right now.
Rebekah: No, you’re not.
Mike: Why?
Pineapple, apple, celery and fennel.
Blend those up.
There’s an actual little recipe I have for it.
Rebekah: OK.
Mike: I throw some dates in there and some water and stuff like that, but those vegetables
in particular are great at sweeping things through the body.
Rebekah: OK.
Mike: Yeah, I like that a lot.
OK.
So of course it has to do with the quality of what you’re eating.
Now, there are other components to this.
One is structural and that’s where the Squatty Potty thing comes in.
We’re actually designed to squat.
We’re not designed to sit on a toilet.
When you sit on the toilet, the very bottom in the base of the colon – my fingers are
so purple.
The base of the colon, it’s almost – it kind of gets a little bit constricted and
it closes shut.
It’s so much harder to go to the bathroom.
Most people don’t know anything else.
Rebekah: Right.
Mike: OK?
That’s what all this reading a book in the toilet thing is about and sitting there for
a long time and all these – when you watch like old Monty Python movies and stuff, they
always have some guy like going, “Uh, uh, uh,” like making all this noise in the bathroom.
That’s all a result of eating foods that are constipating and sitting on a toilet.
When you squat, stuff drops out of your body and you’re out of there.
Rebekah: Right.
Mike: You’re not spending any time in the bathroom.
You’re not even going to be able to read an Instagram post and you’re getting out
of the bathroom.
Rebekah: That’s where I meditate, Mike.
Mike: In the bath …
Rebekah: Sometimes.
Mike: But that’s actually squatting.
These benches here, what they do is they help to bring your knees a little closer to your
chest.
Rebekah: So – OK.
So in a lot of Asian countries, they’re still squatting.
They will just have a hole on the floor.
Mike: Yes.
Rebekah: Yeah.
Mike: They make nice toilets on the floor and they have little footpads and you actually
squat there.
They have it right.
That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.
Rebekah: But here for people who do not sit – OK.
Can we talk?
We can get a little intimate here?
Mike: You want to talk …
Rebekah: OK.
So you actually – you do something funny, which I don’t even want you using the bathroom
in my house.
Mike: The way you describe it is funny.
I squat on the toilet.
Rebekah: You stand on the toilet.
Mike: I don’t stand on your toilet.
I’m not standing up.
Just like …
Rebekah: Your feet are on the toilet seat.
Mike: Yes.
Rebekah: Yes.
So you’re actually climbing up on the toilet like a monkey and squatting into the hole.
So for people who do not want to do that, risk life and limb and fall over and crack
their head because they’re balancing atop a slick surface, they could sit on the toilet
and use the Squatty Potty and that will raise the knees up and get you in better alignment
for elimination.
Mike: Right.
Yeah, some people can’t squat on there.
But I have to tell you …
Rebekah: People should not squat on there.
Mike: They should – you know what they had – OK, this is what they have in like …
Rebekah: It’s so weird.
Mike: In some of like the homes in India where they have like foreigners that visit and stuff
like that.
They have a toilet and they have like wings on the side in their footpads.
So you could actually squat or you can sit if you’re like – if you’re more Western
and you don’t want to do that.
Rebekah: This is America.
Mike: Yeah.
Well, we should be squatting here.
Rebekah: We should be squatting.
No.
When I would have a colonic at your place, then I would go and I would actually stand
on the toilet there, to finish out the colonic process.
It’s fine.
It’s not terribly weird.
I would be willing to do it but I don’t think that most of the people watching this
video on the BexLife channel – not your podcast.
Mike: Right.
Rebekah: Will be OK with that.
Mike: Podcast listeners should be squatting.
I’m talking about some advanced stuff.
Rebekah: So podcast listeners, squat.
BexLife people, you can use the Squatty Potty or any kind of stool that raises your legs
up.
Mike: Yeah.
If you actually made it to this podcast and you’re listening to the podcast, it means
you’re better than that.
It means that you’re doing some next level shitting and you need to …
Rebekah: You’re such a terrible person.
Mike: And she needs to be squatting.
It has been – for like the past 20 years of squatting, like what it has done to my
hips and everything, it’s amazing.
Rebekah: Yeah.
Mike: It’s really good.
I stand when I come here.
I just stand up and I just drop it in.
Rebekah: The act of squatting …
Mike: You are …
Rebekah: Interesting side – oh, we have a dinosaur visiting us.
Come on in.
Squatting is actually the best exercise, better than Kegels for women to do, to help with
incontinence or to prevent incontinence and strengthen the pelvic floor.
That’s so interesting because the number one and two causes of women going into nursing
homes are incontinence and not being able to get up and down, like get up and down from
bed or get up and down from a seat, and squatting helps with that.
So squatting is something that you should do as an exercise every single day.
You could start by doing it while you go to the bathroom.
Mike: You are right on that.
Now, this thing is great though.
This is good and this is a good start.
This is good for people that can’t squat for whatever reason.
So this is cool.
This is one of the better ones that I’ve actually seen.
It looks cool.
Rebekah: It’s pretty.
Mike: It looks good.
Yeah, it looks like something from like a child’s kindergarten room.
You know how they have these little wooden tables and chairs?
Rebekah: Yes, it does.
It does.
Mike: So this is very cool.
I’ve seen some horrible-looking ones.
Rebekah: And it has a happy face.
Mike: Yeah.
Rebekah: We like that.
It’s a good crew though.
I’m not getting paid to say any of this.
I just got a Squatty Potty.
Mike: I didn’t get any Squatty Potty.
Rebekah: They sent us two Squatty Pottys.
One was for you.
Mike: Oh, one was for me?
Rebekah: Yeah, you could bring it home on the subway.
Mike: Oh, what do I need that for?
I’m going to squat.
Rebekah: Because you stand on the toilet.
That’s OK.
I can use an extra.
I have a bunch of bathrooms.
I’m really excited about the Squatty Potty because the people were so cool to work with
and that’s always like an extra factor that I consider when I’m promoting something,
especially if it’s – if they’re not paying me frankly.
So they were nice.
I like them.
It was a fun crew.
They have a good sense of humor over there at the Squatty Potty headquarters.
Mike: Another thing on the squatting thing is that this is one of the things to get people
to go to the bathroom.
So the reason I even got introduced to colonic work is because I was in a relationship with
someone that was having a hard time with constipation.
Surprise, a woman with constipation problems.
Rebekah: Yeah.
Mike: So she was having a hard time.
She started going for colonics and one of the things that – and Gill.
Gill Jacobs was her colonic therapist and that’s where I met him.
He – one of his recommendations is he was like, “Squat on the toilet every day even
if you don’t have to go.”
You want to go in the morning.
Hang out there.
Read a book.
Do whatever and over 15, 20 minutes, eventually her body would – it would kick in and it
would go, oh, it’s time – because everything was in place and then she would start going
to the bathroom.
She did that every day and then things started to kick in.
Plus she did a lot of colonic work and diet changes and stuff like that.
But sitting and squatting is a great way to start signaling your body to go to the bathroom.
Rebekah: So it’s about hydration.
Number one, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
Number two, eat foods that are – that lend themselves to proper elimination, high fiber
foods, raw fiber foods and then number three, do not eat foods that are going to stop up
the work, so meat, dairy …
Mike: Fiberless foods, highly processed starches, things that are just like cement in the intestines.
Rebekah: Right.
And then number four, technique, squat.
Mike: That’s it.
Rebekah: Squat or pretend squat.
Mike: Now the other little side of that is there are emotional factors that get involved.
I’ve known people that can only go to the bathroom on the colonic table and their bowels
are working perfectly because once we stimulate it with the water, everything works.
But for some reason, when they’re out in the world, they’re having a hard time and
sometimes it’s like an emotional thing that people have to work through.
Rebekah: Also environmental factors.
Like say you’re dating someone and you are out with them or in their apartment.
You may or may not be able to poop because of – yeah, because they’re around.
Mike: Makes sense.
Nobody poops in the relationship …
Rebekah: No, give it at least six months.
Mike: They just fart in the stairwell all the way home and they leave the apartment.
Rebekah: My older sister just celebrated her 27th wedding anniversary and she has never
pooped when her husband was home.
Mike: Wow.
Rebekah: Yeah.
Mike: Is she OK?
Rebekah: They’re still together.
Twenty-seven years!