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If you’re feeling bloated because you simply can’t go, you might consider exercise, diet and adequate hydration for constipation. Taking pharmaceutical aids and cures in a bottle can help occasionally, but to conquer the problem permanently, you need to make changes in your life. Frequent use of laxatives can create a dependency on them and cause other physical problems. Making lifestyle changes is the only way to permanently change it or make it far less frequent. First, you need to identify exactly what constipation means.

How often should you go between bowel movements before you’re constipated?

There’s no specific number of bowel movements or specific number of days between them that constitutes constipation. Some people go three times a day while others go only a few times each week. However, if you’re straining on the toilet with the feeling of being bloated and only small hard pellets or nothing comes out, you’re probably constipated. It’s about how you feel, not a specific number of days.

Eating fibrous whole foods can help solve the problem.

Whole foods, like fruit and vegetables, contain fiber. Increasing the amount of whole foods you eat, especially fibrous ones, can help prevent constipation. There are two types of fiber. One adds bulk and one helps absorb fluid to keep your waste softer. There’s an estimate that approximately 77 percent of those with chronic constipation can benefit from extra fiber. Insoluble fiber, the type that adds bulk, comes from eating whole grains, bran and vegetables. Soluble fiber, the type that absorbs fluid and keeps the stool soft, comes from nuts, lentils, peas, oat bran, barley and some fruits and vegetables.

Drink more water.

Often dehydration can cause constipation. People are often mildly dehydrated and simply don’t realize it. Drinking 8-eight ounce glasses of water each day may be all you need to avoid constipation. Carbonated water may work faster if you’re in need of a quicker fix. Studies show sparkling water is more effective than plain tap water, even for those that have chronic constipation or IBS—irritable bowel syndrome.

• Exercise can help you go by working the muscles and helping the bowels move the waste through your system. Simply going for a walk may get you going again.
• A cup of caffeinated coffee can help get you going on those days when you need a little boost. The caffeine stimulates the muscles that push the waste through.
• Probiotic foods can also help relieve chronic constipation. Some studies show that people with chronic constipation have an imbalance of gut bacteria that aggravates the problem.
• Some of the best foods for constipation include rhubarb, berries, raisins, plums, grapes, apples prunes and whole grain. Avoid rice, white flour and processed foods when you’re constipated.

How many times have you started dieting, lost your weight and then gained it all back within a few weeks or months of ending your diet? How many times have you dieted and in one horrible evening, ended the diet and all the progress by stuffing your self with the diet’s forbidden foods. Diets always fail, but making lifestyle changes don’t. Making lifestyle changes means learning to eat healthier and make smarter choices when it comes to food.

Whether you’re counting calories or carbs, eating a “special, magical food” or following a guru’s recommendation, diets don’t work.

You’ll feel deprived and often hungry when you diet. There are often a plethora of do’s and don’ts that you must follow or the diet end. When it end, you not only go back to old eating habits, you also regain the weight you lost and sometimes even more. Nothing has changed. You still crave that candy bar at three in the afternoon and buy a few boxes of cookies at the grocery. It’s no wonder you regain the weight.

A change in lifestyle means eating healthier and making permanent changes.

Lifestyle changes means changing habits and making smarter choices. You’re not really making any kind of permanent change when you go on a cabbage soup and lemonade diet—or whatever kind of crash diet you chose. That’s because these were not meant to be used for longer periods. They’re not nutritionally balanced and they’re extremely boring after a short period. Learning to make smart substitutions, such as having healthy snacks available, like an apple, to offset that hunger mid afternoon so you don’t look for a candy bar. Even making small changes, like substituting brown rice for white rice also adds more nutrients with fewer calories.

Lifestyle changes mean learning to cook differently.

How you cook your food is as important as what you cook. If you’re breading and frying everything, you’ll benefit from learning how to steam, grill or bake your dishes. Changing a recipe may be in order. Consider using applesauce to substitute for sugar or oil in cakes or muffins. Filling up on vegetables with more servings per meal is also part of a healthy diet.

• Do you have to give up some of your favorite dishes? You can still eat them, just in smaller portions and not as often.
• A program of regular exercise also is part of a healthy lifestyle. It not only burns calories and builds muscle tissue, it can also help prevent serious conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
• Adequate hydration is also part of a healthy lifestyle. The body requires approximately 8-eight ounce glasses a day.
• While you might get sample meal plans at first, until you learn how to eat healthier. Once you understand a healthy way of eating, you can eat anywhere. Even if you overeat one day, you simply go back to normal eating the next.

If walking isn’t fast enough for you or completely boring, consider an alternative and start bike riding. There’s a lot of reasons to ride a bike. First, it’s great transportation. You can get quite a distance on a bike without the same amount of effort it would take running and it’s also far faster. It may even be faster than taking a car if there’s a traffic jam you can weave through and won’t have you sitting waiting for a bus, just to end up blocks from your destination.

Riding a bike is good for your health.

Bike riding is low impact, so it’s good for people with conditions like osteoarthritis, since it doesn’t put stress on the joints. There are fewer injuries than found with running or other high impact sports. Cycling can get your elimination system moving and help prevent colon cancer. It also is shown to reduce breast cancer. Cycling is also helpful in preventing heart disease and diabetes.

You’ll burn calories and fat when you cycle.

Not only will you burn loads of calories, you’ll also build muscle. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you’ll burn 24/7. That’s because muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does. While you still have to eat healthy, if you’re burning extra calories riding, you’ll lose weight. It all depends on the intensity and how fast you ride and your weight. Cycling can burn as few as 400 calories and hour to as many as 1000. Just think, if you hopped on your bike to go to the store twice a week, instead of taking a car, in less than a month you could burn off one extra pound of weight.

Save more than just the environment when you ride a bike.

You’ll not only get exercise when you ride a bike, you’ll save money, too. There’s no cost for fuel! In fact, if you live close enough to work, you might use your bike as primary transportation, saving insurance cost, fuel, car payments and maintenance. That can mean thousands of dollars yearly. Use Uber, a bus, taxi or rent a car for those rare times you need a vehicle. Don’t sell your car right away! Start with a little at a time until you feel strong enough for most daily journeys.

• Be aware that you still need some weight bearing exercise to help fight osteoporosis.
• One study showed that people who rode a bike inhaled less pollution than those riding in a car or walking. It came from results from an air pollution device attached to walkers, bikers and car drivers in the same area.
• You’ll sleep better at night. Like most types of exercise, biking provides a good night’s sleep. The sounder your sleep, the healthier your body.
• Biking can improve brain health. One study showed that circulation to the brain increased by 28 percent. Even after that the blood continued to stay increased by as much as 40% after biking was over.

Whether it’s a busy life or just plain lack of desire, it’s not always easy to make it to the gym or stick with a healthy eating program. You need to find out what your motivation to be healthy is and keep that in mind when you find your day out of control or simply are out of sorts or tired. Motivation can stem from anywhere. It may be to have the energy to accomplish all your goals or be healthy and enjoy every minute with your child or grandchild.

Why would you want to stay healthy?

That’s a question that you need to ask yourself before you start on your road to fitness. Weight loss may be your first thought, but why lose weight. Maybe it’s to look more attractive, but that’s not all. Feeling better is often a huge motivation. When you look good, you feel good and when you feel good, you look good. They’re intertwined. Focus on how you’ll feel. Focus on the energy you’ll have, especially when it’s time to go to the gym. It’s amazing that when you workout regularly, you actually have more energy than ever.

Knowing your motivation isn’t enough. You have to act on it.

Once you know your motivation, you need to make a goal. While your doctor may have told you to lose 30 pounds, you won’t be able to do it all at once. Instead, break that big goal down to smaller easier to manage goals with a time frame to achieve that goal and a way to do it. It has to be realistic. The thirty pounds could be broken down to losing two pounds a week by exercising and eating healthy. Be specific, set a time to go to the gym and lay out plans to create weekly menus for healthy eating, with a shopping list.

Even with the best motivation possible, it’s not always easy to stay on track.

Sometimes it helps to have a workout buddy to keep you on track and focused. If you have a health condition that you’re trying to overcome, make sure your buddy knows about it. Your friend can help you eat healthier, too. Enlist the help of your family, too. Whether it’s losing weight or struggling with health condition, getting help from your family or a good friend is important. Sometimes, you need to be held accountable and whether it’s a workout buddy or a family member, it can help.

• If you can, make your week’s worth of food on the weekend, so if you’re on a time restraint during the week they’re ready to heat and eat.
• Consistency is key. Even if you have to take smaller steps, do them consistently until they’re habit. Once you have that step as a habit move on to the next one to get healthier.
• Getting healthy isn’t an all or nothing proposition. If you eat too much unhealthy food one day, it’s not the end of the world. Your mission is too important. Go right back to it the next day.
• No matter what your motivation to get healthier, you need to include more than just exercise and healthy eating. You also need adequate sleep, thankfulness, laughter and hydration, just to name a few.

Several people in Irvine, CA, have asked how to increase their gains at the gym without spending more time there. I always suggest adding steps to their daily routine. It’s perfect for people who don’t have a workout plan yet and want to extend their life span by getting fitter. It’s free. You can do it anywhere and modify it based on your fitness level. The more you exercise, the further or faster you can walk. It’s easy to combine with your regular fitness program, so it’s a great supplement.

If an intense workout is too much, try walking.

You may not be ready to do push-ups or pull-ups and burpees are out of the question. Walking is a good starting point that almost everyone can do. It increases leg strength and cardio. If you pump your arms or carry weights when swinging them, build upper body strength. It’s not the best exercise to become your best self, but an excellent place to start. The Department of Health and Human Services suggests each person gets 150 to 300 minutes a week at a moderate pace or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise. If you can’t do a full 25 or 30 minutes, break it up into 5-minute sessions you do throughout the day.

Walking more can reduce the potential for certain health conditions and improve those you have.

Walking can increase your bone density or prevent bone density loss. That lowers your risk for osteoporosis. It boosts circulation and respiration, making it a heart-healthy activity. Walking improves balance and helps reduce the potential for falls. It also can improve leg strength and functional fitness. The stronger you are, the longer you’ll be able to live unassisted as you age.

Walking won’t replace a total fitness program.

Walking is a good supplement and an excellent place to start but it isn’t the ultimate fitness program. Fitness training should include endurance, flexibility, balance, and strength exercises. While walking can help in those areas, it doesn’t provide all the benefits of a complete workout. You can increase the benefits by wearing ankle weights or arm weights. You can also turn your walk into a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout by walking at a high-intensity pace for a short time, then reducing your speed to a recovery pace for an equal time and alternating.

Add swimming and aquatic exercises, bicycling, and dancing into your daily schedule when you want more, but aren’t yet gym-ready.

Increase your steps without interfering with your present schedule. Parking further from the store or your destination and walking is one. Walking to lunch or taking the stairs instead of the elevator also helps.

When you increase walking, you’ll burn more calories. That makes losing weight easier. You don’t have to start by walking far if you’re completely out of shape. Just increase it as you get fitter.

Always focus on form, no matter what exercise you do, even walking. Your posture is important. Keep your shoulders back and head up, swinging your arms naturally as you walk.