One of the things I love about blogger, runner, baker and cake decorator extraordinaire, Char from My Life’s a Marathon is that she doesn’t shy away from the big issues.
While many gloss over those subjects which make others uncomfortable, Char dives in with gusto and regularly reports on the complexities and nuances of bodily functions and the challenge they pose to exercisers.
I know that I too delve into the less-discussed subjects of periods and pimples, but I’ve rarely touched on habits-du-toilette. (NB. Possibly a made-up phrase!)
But now’s the time.
As a youngster I cringed when my great-aunt would discuss her bowel movements with my parents and it seemed the sort of topic that only the aged or infirm willingly pondered in any detail.
It wasn’t until I lived in Africa and suffered from 3-4 bouts of salmonella poisoning that I too joined the ‘bowel-movement-over-sharers’. Indeed the first time I became sick (just a week or two after arriving) I soon discovered that nothing is sacred as I was forced to discuss toilet bowl contents with complete strangers. In a country where giardia, malaria and many other diseases were common – people were well-versed with all-things-bodily-movementish.
So… now that I’ve provided sufficient warning… I’m about to dive in. In a manner of speaking.
I discovered some time ago that walks-for-exercise made me – ahem – want to go to the loo (in one way or the other. And I suspect you know what I mean!).
This is not necessarily a bad thing – indeed it’s great for most people.
However… in addition, I tend to regularly suffer from diarrhoea (despite my GF diet). It plagues me for no apparent reason and particularly in the morning. In the past I’ve blamed diet coke, although the problem doesn’t always ease when I take DC breaks. (My doctor has mentioned FODMAP issues and a low FODMAP diet!)
So – long story short (?!) – I continually hear that exercising first thing (before food) is beneficial for a myriad of reasons. (Not least, in my case, that I get it done-and-dusted and don’t have the time to talk myself out of it later!). However, although I’ve been thinking I’d like to do early morning walks, the worry of ‘needing to go to the loo with some urgency’ while out and about has been putting me off. The combination of the effects-of-walking and my usual morning toilet issues stress me.
I’ve had a few near misses in the past and on a number of occasions pondered whether running the last 100m will help or make matters worse!
My favourite local walk is the oft-photographed pier and – thankfully – there’s a public toilet on site. Indeed, my (occasional) evening walking buddy often has to stop for me (and hold my phone and keys!) mid-walk.
So I do know there is help nearby if I need it. But… it still stresses me – the risk involved; and I tend to use it as an excuse to NOT walk in the morning, and I really don’t need to find ANOTHER excuse not to exercise.
It’s not something I have to worry about at other times – just the combination of mornings and exercise, it seems.
Today, I was in my mother’s hometown as she had an early medical appointment, so I got up and had some diet coke and *ahem* went through my usual morning ablutions before driving her to the doctor and going for a short walk while waiting. I stayed within a few blocks of the surgery as I knew it had public toilets attached. And… there were no problems (oh, except my ankles, shins and knees hurt within the first 5mins of my 25min walk!).
So… I’m thinking that if I get up and take a few minutes to have a diet coke or hot water and lemon etc (well, probably diet coke in all honesty!) do what I ‘need to do’ and THEN go for a walk it might be okay. Surely that means I’m still exercising first-thing and burning more fat (or whatever) / doing good things for my metabolism. And I’m hoping today’s effort (and lack of problems) has given me the confidence to get back into morning walks and lessened the fear of, well… you know….
Shock, horror! Just finished pre-brekkie walk!
— Diet Schmiet (@Schmiet) September 4, 2013
Anyone else *ahem* plagued by such worries?
Any suggestions?
September 5, 2013
Nicely done, Deb. 😉
I always scope out the public toilets wherever I am, but mostly due to the amount of water I habitually drink, which requires frequent bladder-emptying. I even have a toilet-finder phone app. I know… O_o
Re the FODMAPs thing – diarrhoea is most commonly caused by lactose intolerance. The other FODMAPs tend to create the opposite problem, although not in every case. Perhaps you could go lactose-free for a few weeks and then reintroduce it to see what happens? Lactose free milk and cream are readily available and most cheeses and some yoghurts are OK too, so its not all that difficult (no ice cream is a bit of a bugger though). Worth a shot? If that turns out to be the cause of your issues, it’s an easy solution.
September 5, 2013
My GP told me I was lactose intolerant at the time of my coeliac diagnosis. I’d understood it could be a temporary thing at that time but she said it’d been picked up before (not sure on what test etc) cos she told me as an after thought. I was grappling with the coeliac thing at the time so didn’t have the headspace to worry about something else. Plus… I don’t have a lot of milk products. I’d never been a fan. I will eat cheese or yoghurt on rare occasions, but use sour cream in cooking as well as light evaporated milk and ‘some’ milk – particularly for my winter-time hot chocolates!
Hmmmm…..
September 5, 2013
Get lactose free milk and cream. You can’t taste any difference. The big supermarkets stock Zymil brand. Most cheeses are OK, but not cream cheese or cottage cheese…cheddar, Parmesan, feta and Brie shouldn’t be a problem. And you could swap sour cream for the red or green label Jalna yoghurt. 🙂 Or get some lactase enzyme tablets from the chemist… I’ve been doing my research. 🙂
September 5, 2013
Thankfully cheese isn’t a big deal for me (bit of parmesan or mozeralla on top of pasta on rare occasions) but the sour cream is a biggie – and the light evaporated milk – as I use that when making sauces (esp my faithful peppercorn sauce!). Lactose-free cream sounds like a good option.
September 5, 2013
running does this to me and i always plan my training runs around toilets, but for acutally races dose my slef up with lomitol the evening before and morning of.- which then again gives you other issues – but a run can cure those—-been caught very short on more then 3 occasions 🙂
September 5, 2013
I haven’t done any long runs Patricia, but did a 10km walk a few years ago and I still remember that the queue for the portaloos was huge before the event and I’d had diet coke and water and didn’t think I’d last. Fortunately I sweated a lot so survived the entire thing without a loo stop!
September 5, 2013
Yep…same thing. When I cut out all sugar & lactose it really seemed to help, but not completely. I exercise before brekky 3 mornings a week & let’s just say, it’s a good thing there’s a loo at the gym. I used to do a morning training run with a friend & would have to get up over an hour earlier so I could be sure of not being caught short.
September 5, 2013
Gyms are definitely better for that reason (handy amenities). I’m starting to think my have-a-drink-and-wait-a-bit idea might be a goer!
September 6, 2013
You’d be surprised at how common the exercise-urgency issue really is. Because I just lay it all out there on the table (and behind trees) I’ve found out that I’m not alone and neither are you. Seems that there are a lot of runners and walkers who know where every toilet is on their routes. One of my favourite phone apps is Find the Loo and on runs in unknown areas it’s been a life-saver.
September 6, 2013
Oh yes, I’m surprised by the number of people who can relate to this post and the comments (here, FB and via Twitter). I was nervous about uploading it. I’d written it Wednesday and then worried about publishing it so held off…. but glad I did!
Deb
September 6, 2013
As far as we know, lactose intolerance is not dangerous to your health. If you have lactose intolerance, there may still be ways for you to comfortably enjoy dairy products. There are many dairy products which contain little to no lactose. These include heavy cream (not half-and-half), sour cream, most hard cheeses (the bacteria used to age cheeses eat all the lactose), butter, and ghee (clarified butter). Read the product label; since all of the carbohydrates in dairy products are lactose, the higher the carbohydrate gram count, the higher the lactose content. If the carbohydrate content is 0 grams, then the product is virtually lactose-free. If you wish to eat foods that contain lactose, you may want to try an over-the-counter lactase product like “Lact-Aid®”, to help you digest lactose. Lactose-reduced milks are available, as well. Consuming dairy products with meals can also help to reduce the risk of uncomfortable symptoms.
September 6, 2013
Oh… I didn’t know much of that. Thanks!
September 7, 2013
This reminds me of a ridiculous discussion I used to have with my husband. He worked on a marine corp base in the States and he said they would sometimes make the cadets march for hours on end, no breaks. They started very early in the morning. And we always wondered what happened if they had they needed an emergency bathroom break.
September 8, 2013
Eek! I know this is TMI, but several years ago I was in a job that was really busy and because of the sort of person I was I’d delay going-to-the-loo for as long as possible. I drank a lot of diet coke and water, so was sometimes quite desperate, but I’d sit there and jiggle my legs until I couldn’t stand it any more and I’d race off and try to be away from my desk for as little time as possible. However, I actually also ended up getting these horrible pains in my stomach around the same time and suspect my poor bladder was very unhappy!
September 8, 2013
I have the opposite problem. I suffer from the most uncomfortable and annoying constipation. I drink so much water and have a fairly fibre rich diet but still I very rarely go for number 2s naturally. I take benefiber every day and Ducolax several times a week. Even when I exercised regularly it didn’t help. I remember days when it was very uncomfortable to sit on the spin bike simply because I was so backed up.
I have several girlfriends who suffer the same way. We are very open about our bowel movements because it is such a joy and a relief to be able to go! When I was a drinker I had the runs all the time and had to go many times a day. I’ve probably stuffed my system up somewhere along the way.
Ah the joys of going to the toilet! Not.
Good on you for talking about this issue. We all do it after all!
V.
September 8, 2013
Thanks Vanessa and yes, I’m surprised by how many people can relate to the problem (in one way or the other!).
Deb