How to Poop on Vacation
6 Tips for Naturally Reducing Constipation While Traveling
We’ve all been there, you’ve been planning for this vacation, having a wonderful time living your best life and then all of a sudden, you’re 3 days into your dream trip and you still haven’t pooped! Like, what the heck? You know you had planned to go on vacation, but hadn’t planned for your bowels to take the time off too! So what’s the deal?!
Here’s the thing, bowel movements are dependent on a LOT of factors! Gut microbiome, dietary intake, fluid consumption, stress levels, activity levels, all sorts of things. When we go on vacation, and sometimes even when we are getting ready to go on vacation, what your body is used to within this environment changes, and not usually for the better.
To really understand this, we need to understand how bowel movements work.
Parasympathetic vs Sympathetic Nervous System with Respect to Bowels
You may have heard of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). This is commonly called your “fight or flight” response. In the most simple terms, this is the part of your nervous system that helps you in times of crisis. Historically, it was believed that it helped you either fight to protect yourself or flee the situation. We now know that there are “freeze” and “fawn” components of the SNS. A great example of freeze would be when an opossum is playing dead. With fawn, we see this a lot when people are in abusive relationships and are acting overly nice or caring for someone in order to avoid being criticized or punished.
The opposing side of this is your Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), which is also referred to as your “rest and digest” system. This is the system that lets your body know that everything is all good and chill and that there is no crisis occurring.
These systems act in beautiful concert with each other, like a DJ on an extensive soundboard, turning dials up and down as needed to curate a specific experience. They do not act as light switches, being turned on or off. They are not meant to work in an “all or nothing” environment.
At the end of the day, our body is still quite primitive and a lot of how it works is based on primitive reflexes and nerve signaling and having bowel movements is a primarily PNS response.
Think about it like this, thousands of years ago, the threats humans faced were natural disasters, lack of food, disease, animal attacks, things like that. When an event like that would occur, our SNS would ramp up and kick our butt into gear to do something that would keep us alive.
For example, if we were being chased by a bear, our SNS would tell us to “run away from the bear!” It would not say “now seems like a super great time to pop a squat and poop.” That is something our PNS might say.
In today’s environment, stressors look very different. Sure, natural disasters, disease, animal attacks and lack of food still exist but they don’t seem to be the primary stressors anymore. Now, the stressors we experience are pending deadlines for work, mortgages and bills, parenting, spouses, in-laws, traffic, politics, etc.
The big difference between stressors now vs stressors thousands of years ago is that those were primarily transient. They would occur and then they would go away. If a bear was chasing you, you either got away from it or you were eaten, but it wasn’t chasing you for years. If a natural disaster occurred, it happened and then it stopped.
Todays’ stressors don’t tend to go away with the passage of time, especially if we are not doing anything to manage our response to how we interact with the world around us. So if we are stuck in a stressful environment, what might this do to our bowels? Well, it sure isn’t going to tell you to stop running from the bear and poop in a hole.
Natural Tips For Getting Those Bowels Moving
There are some super easy things you can do in your life that can help your bowel keep moving, even when we are bombarded with stressors on a daily basis!
Fluid Intake
The simplest thing to do if you have access to clean water is to drink it! A general rule of thumb is to drink ½ your body weight in ounces of fluid per day with 70% of that fluid being water. For example, if you weigh 180# then you’ll want 90oz of fluid per day with roughly 60oz of that being water.
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding then you may want to increase this but in speaking with my lactation consultant friends who love research, there does not appear to be anything in the research that supports a specific amount of fluid increase that should be observed.
Fiber Intake
The general consensus is that 25-35 grams of fiber per day is optimal, with people born into female physiologies benefitting from the higher end of that number. What I recommend for my patients is to first track how much fiber they are actually getting in over the course of a week. What I’m looking for is consistency first. If you’re anywhere between 10-30g fiber/day then first consider attaining a consistent amount daily. Once the daily amount is within 5 grams day to day, then an increase may be advised. Generally increasing by 5 grams per day for a full week prior to considering increasing again is an easy amount and if you’re having any discomfort then either stay at the same amount until your body feels good with it, or decrease to the last level of fiber intake for a little longer before increasing.
Activity level
30 minutes of cardiovascular activity per day can do wonders for the bowels! Activity can act as a colon stimulant and the cool thing is that you can take activity anywhere on vacation! Cardiovascular activity does not have to mean grinding it out on the elliptical, killing yourself on the Pelaton or gritting your way through a trail run. This just means doing something that increases your heart rate above the level of what it is at rest for 30 consecutive minutes. This could be going for a walk at lunch, cleaning the house, and walking your kids to the park. Some people do notice that more intense activity has a stronger effect on their bowels but this is not true for everyone.
Warm beverages
Ah, coffee, the natural colon stimulant. Many people are coffee drinkers and this can absolutely be helpful for stimulating the bowels, both through the effects of caffeine, as well as the warmth of the beverage. If you’re not a coffee drinker, starting your day with any warm beverage can be really helpful. If you like tea then that can be an option. Or, if you’re like me and coffee and caffeine are both a “no” for you, warm water with lemon and honey is a great choice!
Magnesium supplementation
Magnesium is another over-the-counter option that can have a colon stimulating effect for people. There are different types of magnesium and they will have different effects on different peoples bodies. In my experience, I have noticed that magnesium citrate can be pretty strong for people. For some people it can act like a colon cleanse! For others, they don’t really notice a difference. Magnesium oxide is probably my favorite option because it seems like a middle ground supplement. MagO7 is a great brand (not an ad, no kickbacks for me, just like the product). Magnesium glycinate is another great option and tends to be a little gentler for people. Whatever you do, read the package instructions for how the magnesium is to be used. Many give dosages for a bowel cleanse which can be high and with the purpose of cleaning you out but are not sustainable day to day. With supplementation for constipation on a daily basis, start low and gradually increase week to week as needed. Remember to also confirm with your doctor regarding magnesium supplementation, as there are some health conditions or medication interactions where this would be contraindicated.
What If I Already Do All Of These Things And I’m Still Constipated?
The above options are some of your best, quickest and easiest options but there are many more things you can do to help with constipation management. Number 1 would be examining how you are moving through your life. Are you feeling stressed, overwhelmed, anxious? If so, chances are your body is hanging out is SNS far too much and signaling to your colon that it is not safe to poop. Working with a mental health professional can help you understand your stressors and approach them with better management so that you can shift away from SNS and move more into PNS. There are also great techniques taught in physical therapy to help you reconnect to your body and have a better understanding of the physical impact your stressor have on your body.
Another option to consider is following up with a medical provider. There are GI dysfunctions out there, like SIBO and IBS, where you may need medication support, at least in the short term. And I can hear it right now “But I have ______ disease and medication is the only thing that will work for me.” Trust me, if you can work on managing your stress, it will absolutely make a difference in your bowel flares when combined with medication support and lifestyle changes.
How Can I Put This Together To Stop Vacation Constipation?
The most important thing is getting your bowels in order during your normal, daily life. It’s important to remember that bowels are slow learners and can take up to 3 months of a single change to see if it's beneficial, so make your changes slowly and give them time to see if they work.
Then, understand that planning, packing, traveling and being away from home are all stressors to your nervous system. Spend time calming your nervous system throughout the process. If you work with a mental health professional, draw on those techniques you’ve been given to help keep your nervous system in more balance and not in SNS dominance.
Next, plan for the changes in the environment. What you are eating and when you are eating make a difference. If you’re staying somewhere where you’re able to make your own meals, try to do that as you would in your own home. If not, try to get in whole foods vs packaged meals to try to keep that fiber content at the level it would be on a typical day.
Also, HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE! I hear more often than not that on vacation, alcohol increases and water decreases. That will have a significant effect on the bowels due to dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic. What that means is that it causes your body to expel more water. If you’re used to drinking a certain amount of water and then on vacation, you’re drinking more alcohol and not picking up your water intake as well, this can cause your body to get rid of what little water you’re taking in, causing your stool to get hard and dry and making constipation worse.
If you find magnesium works for you, some people benefit from increasing their magnesium dosage slightly in the few days prior to travel as a preventative measure and then will either keep that slight increase throughout the trip or reduce to their normal level.
Lastly, get moving! Vacation looks really different for everyone and if you’re someone who is enjoying a super relaxing, chill time with a good book, try to find ways to get your body moving. Maybe go for a walk in the morning before it gets too hot or walk to the restaurant instead of driving. Play in the water with the kids instead of sitting on the edge of the pool. On the beach, help them dig the hole instead of supervising. It doesn’t have to be intense. You don’t have to get up at 5am for a morning beach run before the rest of the house wakes up (unless you actually like that sort of thing 🥴), just try to get some movement in.
Final thoughts:
Your bowel movements are dictated by a lot of things, including how you manage your mental and emotional stressors, diet, activity level, fluid intake (both volume and type), and gut microbiome (which is also heavily influenced by your hormones).
Top 6 Tips for Naturally Managing Constipation During Travel:
Do whatever you can to get your body into a more PNS state (use techniques from a mental health professional, meditate, listen to calming music, go for a walk, etc).
Drink 50% of your body weight in ounces of fluid with 70% of that being water. Increase this if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or sweat a lot due to activity or weather.
Consume 25-35 grams of fiber daily or at least try to be relatively consistent with your daily fiber intake (within 5 grams day to day)
Start the day with a warm beverage
Get in 30 min of consecutive cardiovascular activity
Supplement with magnesium
Please remember that these tips work for most people but there are those who have medical conditions or medication contraindications where these tips might not help and may even be detrimental. For example, if you’re someone with heart or kidney disease, magnesium supplements may be off the table for you. It’s always best to confirm with your medical provider whether or not these tips could help you. This information is not a substitution for medical management of constipation.
If you try these tips and you feel like you need more support in helping manage your constipation, reach out to a pelvic health specialist who specializes in this, like a pelvic PT or pelvic OT, it can be life changing!
