I'm getting better

Hi, I'm here to ramble a bit. I notice that the tone of many posts on this forum tend to sound like a sea of raw fruit, raw veggie, very harsh & forced cleansing, etc. I know from time to time, someone asks "how can I cleanse myself gently" or "I'm breastfeeding - how can I cleanse my bowels."

I've been struggling to get my bowels regular and to cleanse. Every time I tried a different method, though, it wouldn't work, or would only work for a short while, or wasn't something I wanted to try for very long anyway! I can't tell you how many products and methods I tried, thinking if I just got the "stuck" stuff out, my cleaned-up diet would take care of the rest. Well, it never seemed to work that way, or maybe I was just perpetually clogged up, who knows.

By following ayurvedic principles and taking a few things from an herbalist, I'm getting regular and feeling much more calm overall. I was always trying to take things into my own hands, and I never realized that maybe the broccoli and the raw salad lunch were actually inhibiting my digestion. If you read some people's information, you'd think that cooked food is the devil. In my case, it's helping me tremendously. Right now, for lunch, I'm eating a home-cooked warm stew of quinoa, mung beans, green beans, carrots, okra, purslane, ghee, and spices. A warm, liquidy mid-day meal has done wonders for me. I was making progress just with food, but now I am also taking an herbal tincture (no clear laxative effects from it, and I was told the herbs in it aren't meant to be laxative) and a 1/4 tsp triphala daily (which can help with BMs). I drink fennel, cumin, and coriander seed tea. My digestion has become more active, more regular, and more comfortable. My belly is much flatter (though I was fairly thin to begin with). And I'm staying away from foods that I intuitively didn't like, backed up by Ayurvedic principles. I do eat raw fruits occasionally. I'm avoiding raw veggies for now.

I've been doing these things for about a month and a half, but I'm not perfect. The other day, I had an ice cold water, and boy did it feel wrong, even though it gets over 100 deg F here!

I think I saw a post recently, maybe on this forum but definitely on Curezone, with someone sharing what sounded like my experience in eating following ayurvedic type guidelines. I was lucky enough to find free guidance from an herbalist's student.

Just hoping this continues. Raw veggies may not be the answer for everyone, or at least not at all times in life. Life-long constipation seems fixable to me. I should keep my mouth shut until I am totally off the herbs, but I do suspect I can keep healing my digestion with foods & spices. Plus, I enjoy my food even more now.