The Zen of Taking A Good Poop.

Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield here. And as has been our M.O. a few times on the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast, we are going to talk about bowel movements today. And rather than me sitting here all by myself talking to you about poo, I've got an expert on the call. His name is Troy Casey and Troy is from certified health nut.com, that's his website. He lives down in Santa Monica, California and he has a pretty cool story for for much of his life he was really involved in kind of the fast lane of drugs and alcohol and was actually a model, a male model during that time back in the 90s. And eventually he moved to LA. He sobered up and he healed himself by immersing himself in things like comedy and meditation and the healing arts. And he's gone on and done things like immerse himself in indigenous cultures and interacted with master teachers around the world and really kind of become a self taught expert in a lot of the fields that kind of kind of fly outside the radar of modern medicine or our typical western medical approaches like sacred plants and primordial wisdom and higher states of consciousness and restoring our natural movement patterns. Just lots of really cool things. So Troy is going to be a wealth of knowledge for us today. And Troy, thanks for coming on the call.

Great. Thanks so much, Ben. I'm always happy to share good information with as many people as I possibly can and so thanks so much.

Yeah, you're kind of a hard guy to introduce because you've done so much, man.

I love the introduction though, that you came up with. He's immersed himself in stuff like comedy.

Well, that's what you say on the bio on your website. So there you go. So actually though, before we start talking about poop, because that's just kind of a weird way to jump right into things, tell me a little bit more about your story and how you came to be where you are right now in terms of health and what it is you're doing now. Like how it is you're spending your days. If you're consulting with people or writing or just continuing to explore or. Tell me a little bit more about Troy Casey.

Okay, Great. Yes. About 23 years ago, I was sitting in Milan, I was a Versace model and I would bloat, I would eat stuff and I would just bloat. And my agents, the agents in that industry are ruthless and so they're like, oh, you're fat and you're not going to work. I'm sitting in Milan I ship myself over there. I'm looking to make a career. So I started educating myself and researching everything I could get my hands on to look and feel my best. I was economically motivated to do so. Usually being economically motivated is a great motivator. I devoured all of the information that I could get. I went to the English bookstore and started buying books. There was farmers markets in Italy and so I started buying fresh fruits and vegetables because let's face it, I was an American. And I realized very quick, studying this information on health and nutrition, that Captain Crunch and Pop Tarts isn't real food. Go figure, right? And that's what I grew up on, like anyone else. And so Fast forward about 20 years later, I realized that I was gluten intolerant. And I didn't even get that sorted out until recently. And it's funny, we're talking about poop, but a lot of my studies and further studies really revolved around my own constipation. I was traveling extensively as a model and some of the same cultural issues that we deal with, not wanting to take a poop in a public restroom and. Or you're feeling rushed all the time and you're stressed. And so I had my own constipation issues. And so I started studying internal purification, really how to get the bowels moving, how to clean out the old impacted stuff. And then I had a very successful part of my career and I started living like a rock star. And I was using a lot of drugs and alcohol and I was partying extensively and I sobered up. And when I sobered up, I realized I had to deal with all my mental and emotional demons, my shadow self. And that's how I got into meditation and working with indigenous cultures and shamanic healing. And I continue to study that today. Most recently, I took a lot of my stuff to YouTube. So I had 20 some odd years of career in front of the camera. When I moved to la, I started acting and started doing a lot of TV commercials. I worked on Discovery and so I went to the Amazon and I had a vision for my on camera career. I was doing a lot of stand up comedy at the time, my comedy career and my natural medicine background. And so the idea popped in my head in the middle of the Amazon for the certified health nut. It was a vision that I had. And when I came out of the jungle, YouTube was a reality. So this was 2006 and so I started posting my materials up there and it was a small community. Early on, Sean Croxton was There and Paul Check was there. And so I started watching Paul's stuff and I was really intrigued with his information. And, and two years ago I clicked onto one of his blog links and I read his blog. And by this time I'd been working in the Amazon for about four or five years, working to save the rainforest through the use of sustainably harvesting the herbs, the plants down there, instead of clear cutting it for oil, lumber and agribusiness. You harvest leaf, root, bark and it grows back and it empowers the Indians to stay on their ancestral lands and watch the rainforest. And so I was very passionate about that. I was very passionate about turning people on to our symbiotic relationship with Mother Earth, with nature, and how nature interfaces with our own human biochemistry. When I read Paul Cech's blog, I think it was March 21st or 22nd, 2011. It's a great blog, you can look it up. He talks about our own responsibility for the earth. I ended up in tears and I was like, look man, this guy's a master. And I got to meet him. He's a master and he's a brother. And so I got to meet him. And so I went through all his prerequisites, HLC and some of his course design programs. In the meantime, I put him in a movie. One of my friends is a producer and he filmed the Cure Is yous. And I said, you know, you got to put Paul in that movie. And I went down and filmed the pickups on it and did an interview myself with Paul on the raw milk fiasco with the FBI that busted our food co op down here in Venice, California. He gave me a great interview and I made it into an awesome video. And he loved my work in video production and just my message and how I really brought it through. He likes people that are motivated in action and really sharing this information. He asked me to film at the Czech conference and interview all the people that were there and we became friends. Later on that year I took his course HLC 2, which is Holistic Lifestyle Coaching 2. And I didn't really initially get into it to become a Czech trained professional. However, what it did for me was compartmentalize, synthesize and distill all the information I'd studied for a very long time. And it made it into practical applications to where I can actually help people, just plugging them into Paul's systems and also help myself because Paul's a master and his application is excellent. His training is all about becoming healthy and strong mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually yourself first. And that's a natural attractor for attracting clients. So I'm trained with Paul now. I took his HLC3 as well. And so I consult, I consult companies, I consult individuals, I put up information on YouTube, I do lectures, I do retreats, I lecture all over the world. I do podcasts for other people because I have two young children. My tech hasn't been as advanced as the Sean Croxton's. And it looks like you, Ben, have got some really good Internet marketing down. And so in the meantime, I continue to shoot videos, I continue to take people down to the rainforest to drink ayahuasca, to work with plant medicine, and I shoot a lot of my adventures and my information, and I offer a lot of that to people free on YouTube. I also work with the Amazon Herb Company, which is the largest importer of rainforest botanicals in the world. So I have a product line, an herbal line that I work with, and that's how some of my business is monetized. So consulting, coaching, and working with the Amazon Herb Company are my main fortes right now. And that kind of brings you up to date.

Sounds like you're a real slacker. Seriously though, this ayahuasca thing intrigues me. And actually we were just talking before we started recording. It was something I had looked into a long time ago and I didn't put two and two together. But you were a guy that I had emailed a while ago and I was looking into what this ayahuasca beverage was all about and how something like that could be used. And so I find that intriguing. And perhaps at some point we'll have to get you back on the podcast to talk about that, or people can go over to certifiedhealthnut.com and see some more of your resources on stuff like that. But today, as I promised, folks, we'll go ahead and talk a little bit about poop. And I think your story is interesting, Troy, because I myself, with extensive travel, going to things like Ironman triathlons around the globe, and also speaking at and attending conferences, I find that things tend to get gummed up when I'm personally traveling. And I've certainly tried out a lot of different things for constipation, have always felt like maybe things aren't working quite as smoothly as they should down there and certainly went through my own struggles growing up on a typical western diet and drinking milk all my life, even though I was lactose intolerant, needing gluten most of my life, even though that kind of kind of gums up the works as well. And I know that a lot of people listening in right now may struggle with some of those same issues. So let's start here. Let's start about the actual. Well, I guess we'll just dive right into the nitty gritty here. And I want to ask you, what is the best way to take a poop?

Okay. Well, that, I guess, is a little multifaceted. I would say. What comes to my mind right off the bat is make sure that you're hydrated, because that's going to help lubricate the fecal matter through the colon. And the colon has a natural ability to actually extract water from the intestines. So if you are not hydrated properly, it is going to extract that water from the intestines, and it is going to be harder to move that material outside of your body, outside of your colon, get rid of that waste. So I would say, number one, make sure that you're hydrated.

Now, when you say hydrated, you know, it seems like a lot of people are aware these days that they need to stay hydrated. Troy, you know, like bringing algine water bottles to work or drinking some extra water on the plane when they're traveling and things like that. Let's talk about water, electrolytes, minerals, things. I mean, do you just drink any old water? Does the amount matter? And if you're drinking water and staying hydrated and still constipated, I mean, what. What should you be looking at in terms of ways that you might be going wrong with your actual water intake?

Yes, good question. Let me get to a couple of points right off the bat. Definitely you want to be drinking the purest water you possibly can. Artesian spring is the best. Straight from the spring. And then you work your way backwards. Some of the top companies out there are Evian, Vital, Volvic, and so also a good filtration system in your house because the chlorine kills bacteria. So guess what? It's going to kill your good bacteria in your gut, too. So tap water is a big no, no. The quality is definitely very important. Also, a good marker is half your body weight in ounces of water a day. And if you're exercising, then you definitely want to do more. And it's not all about just chugging a gallon in one sitting because that can also weaken the body. So you want to be drinking water throughout the day, the best source that you can. And also I Recommend Drinking about 16 ounces of water before you eat to make sure that you have enough hydration while you're there, and a good pinch of sea salt or some type of mineral solution, some algae, to make sure that the water actually absorbs into your body. These are all good little techniques for hydration. Once you're hydrated, then I think the next best way to take a poop is I like to climb right up on the toilet bowl. I know that there's a squatty potty out there, and I just learned this from being in the Amazon. Man, I love just going out in the jungle and just.

That's so funny, because when I'm traveling and I don't have my squatty potties that I have in all my bathrooms here in my house, I've started doing the same thing, literally, like climbing right up onto the toilet bowl to where when you're in a stall at the airport, people can't even tell you're in there because they can't see your feet.

Yeah, you gotta watch that, especially if there's nobody in there. I mean, I like a little peace and quiet when I'm in the. When I'm in the stalls as well. And so I try and find the most empty bathroom. Sometimes I climb right up there. And sometimes if you hear somebody coming in, I gotta make some kind of noise to let them know because I'm climbing up on top of the bowl.

Exactly. That's interesting. I'm glad somebody else is doing that. Okay, so why is it that climbing up on the bowl versus just sitting down on the bowl, like most people do, is helpful when it comes to constipation or having a good poop?

So this is the natural way that we have pooped from back from Paleolithic man. We squatted down and we took a poop. Also, there wasn't chairs to make us sedentary. I think there's some scientific research, and Sean Croxton covered this in his poop 2.0 video. But if you just sit at a regular toilet, I think it turns off the ileocecal valve or something like that, and it actually starts. It atrophies the muscles that are down there for release in your colon, something to that effect. And so squatting is our natural propensity to release fecal matter from our colon. And so that's the way they do it in nature, in the Amazon, in most indigenous cultures. My wife's Korean. I know all the Asian cultures. When they're in the street just hanging out with their friends, they squat down. Also. Doing that squat is a good stretch. And it's a good preparation to make sure that you can climb up on a toilet bowl or if you prefer, get that squatty potty thing. It's going to cost you a little bit of money. Or like Sean Croxton did, he got the box. And you can just put the box because this is also going to put pressure on your colonial and it's going to open the valve and so that you will have a good release. And so did that answer your question?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So basically you're unkinking, so to speak.

Yeah, you're preparing it for just a clean, A clean release, a clean dump, a straight shot right into the toilet bowl. And so.

I've certainly noticed a huge difference when doing that. And it's kind of strange. You actually tend to. I remember the first time that I started using that technique, you basically poo a lot more volume, it seems, than what you do when you're sitting down on the toilet. It's almost like your body purges a lot of that waste much more efficiently and smoothly. So I go to the bathroom once a day now in the morning when I get up, and that's it. And for the next 24 hours, I don't think about going to the bathroom or pooping anymore. Yes, interesting. Okay, so we've got hydration, we've got the position that you actually poop in. Anything else that you wanted to mention in terms of optimizing poop before we talk about what to do if you're actually like constipated?

Well, optimization, definitely. Let's see. So clean nutrition, organic food. At this point in time in human history, most of the farm and the chemical surface runoff from the commercial farm and is contaminating water. There's so much toxicity out there, you can't afford to purchase more toxicity and shove it into your pie hole because it's going to affect your digestion, which is ultimately your colon as part of your digestion. And it's a great way to see how your digestion is working is to observe what is coming out. So eating organic food at this point in time in human history, nutrient dense foods that have the ability to get into the body, the body organism and the cells themselves ultimately are only doing two things. That is taking in nutrition. I've got somebody hammering up the ceiling.

I know you warned me about that before you started recording. So hopefully, folks, if you're listening in, Troy is not getting angry and pounding on his desk. Someone is. He's not that passionate about poop. Troy is there actually, though, any you talk about eating healthy and stuff like that. And this is where I just want to call you out and ask you, is there actual evidence for that? Like that, say me eating an organic apple versus a non organic apple is going to affect my constipation or how smooth stuff moves in my large intestine?

Well, there's been a lot of research on the nutritional density and actually what's called the negative redox potential and the biophotonic light, the energy that's coming from the food. It's just not something that is very commercial because as you know, the agribusinesses, the big agribusiness companies are intertwined with the chemical companies and the oil companies and the drug companies. And so these multinational conglomerates own the media. And so this information doesn't come out. However, if you go onto the British Soil Organization, I do believe Google something like that, the British Soil Organization, they have done a lot of research on the benefits and the nutritional content of organic food versus commercially grown pesticide rodenticide and herbicide laden food. And so Paul Check also has a book called under the Veil of Deception. You can order it on checkinstitute.com that goes through everything I just said in the last couple of sentences. Lord Balfour also, I do believe, did a lot of study on organic food and nutrition. And then of course, you can read the whole body of research from Rudolf Steiner, who was a master in his own right in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He was the father of organic farming and biodynamic farming. Hold on one second while I tell these guys to shut the hell up.

All right, I'll have to decide whether or not I'm going to edit this out for you folks. Well, while Troy is talking to the folks who are up there can hear him shouting. Quick thing I wanted to run you by because I don't want you to get scared off when Troy is talking about stuff like biophotonic energy. And I was hoping actually that he would mention that when I asked him this about organic foods. Because what happens is that you actually can measure the amount of what's called biophotonic energy that food puts off. And organic crops tend to actually put off more biophotonic energy than non organic crops. And organic crops grown in the wild will emit even more biophotons than organic food that is cultivated. And all this stuff tends to fly under the radar. Be sure that you check out, you know, hit rewind if you want to or go to the show notes for the this episode@BenGreenfieldFitness.com but it turns out that the actual energy of your food is extremely important when it comes to adequate absorption and the way that your body actually breaks it down and moves it smoothly through the digestive tract. So I'm glad Troy brought that up. Troy, are you back with us?

Yes, I am.

All right, cool. I was just kind of explaining to people the idea behind biophotons because we actually haven't talked about that too much on the podcast before. But I wanted to make sure we didn't totally brush over that and scare people away thinking it was just woo woo stuff.

Yes, that's cutting edge research right now.

Yeah, it is. I actually wrote a big book about it on my Kindle like two weeks ago. So let's talk about constipation and actual things that you would recommend that go above and beyond hydration and the way the biomechanics of your pooping and eating good, healthy, organic, preferably wild food sources. Once you've tried all that stuff out, or maybe you're traveling and you don't have access to some stuff, what are some supplements or some specific food sources that you found to help if you are constipated or movements? I know that there are some yoga movements and things like that out there that can help with stuff like this.

The best relief I have found from ultimately, if you're locked up, you want to get it moving. You do not want autotoxification going on. You don't want that waste getting back into your bloodstream.

Could you back up? Why is that a problem? What happens?

Because that's toxicity, that's waste that needs to go out of your body. It's designed to go out of your body and it's going back into your body and going up into. It's going into your bloodstream. And so that can make you extremely sick and toxic. Ultimately you want it getting out of your body. And as much as possible, you've got to remember that anything that sits in the garbage can for X amount of days begins to putrefy and build microbes and from there parasites and all sorts of other gunk. Once that overloads your system, then you can get very sick. And so. And you're seeing that today with people. We've got a lot of constipation in our society. A lot of it has to do with stress and hydration and processed foods and all these things. And you're seeing a lot of people that are sick, their colon's impacted. So I believe and everyone in holistic health has different philosophies. You know, Paul checks big on getting people on organic food and to sleep to bed at a certain time. But hey, if you got a client that's not pooping, I recommend getting them some herbs to get their colon moving. It's very important to get the waste out, is my personal opinion. And so I have become an expert on what herbs ultimately work and how to get the peristalsis function moving. And there's ultimately some products that I like that are very solid. Dr. Schultz was one of my major mentors in wild herbs, and he's. He's out of Marina del Rey, California, and you can find him online. He has a formula, intestinal formula number one, which is Drano. It will get you moving no matter what. It has cayenne pepper in it, garlic, senna, cascara sagrada.

Now, is that harsh on the digestive tract at all? Because I know that's some of the concern. For example, we had an article, a guest article, posted a few weeks ago by a doctor. It was talking about high fiber supplements for constipation and how they tend to, in the long run, irritate the digestive tract or cause bulking in what's called an impacted colon, where you get all this bulk, just like building up in the colon. Does this fall into the category of being like a high fiber supplement or is it more like an herbal?

This particular one is an herbal. And so there's two trains of thought on it. Yes. And everyone's got their studies and opinions. And I agree that everyone has applications at certain points. That's why I like to pay attention to my innate intelligence and see what I need in the present moment today. And I rotate all my herbs as well, and different colon cleanses or liver flushes or kidney flushes or intermittent fasting or my extensive meat eating. I rotate everything to keep my body fresh and alive. And I try not to stay rigid on my thought patterns around diet or even any herbs that I'm using. I agree that if people are using fibrous material and it's not coming out of their waist, out of their colon, then it can get impacted and start causing other problems and it can irritate the gut over time. And that's why I do recommend rotating everything, including your herbs. Everyone's different. What I'm talking about, The Drano from Dr. Schultz, the intestinal formula number one, can be very irritating and too intense for people. For me, it works like a charm. It works very, very good for years, I used Cascara Sagrada for that, and I did become used to that, and it didn't work as well. However, because of my travel schedule and because of the way I felt not pooping, it was better for me. I determined for myself to poop no matter what, and so I used the tools that I had at the time. Since then, I have many more tools. And metabolic typing is another tool that worked really well for me to keep my digestive tract moving without herbs. But that doesn't always work. Sometimes I'm traveling, sometimes I'm stressed. Sometimes the kids need more attention than I have time to take a poop and take the time to relax, to climb up on top of the bowl. So every day is different. However, in my tool bag, in my repertoire, I have a whole host of methodologies that I use for myself and for my clients. For people that want a little bit more of a gentle cleanse, we have one in the company that I work with, the Fiberzon plus, which has rhubarb in it, which stimulates peristalsis function, but it's very mild. It's much more mild than the Dr. Schultz. Then there's also bulking agents that you can use, the flaxseeds and the psyllium husk. And some people don't like psyllium husk. We have to try what works for us. Another good thing that I like to use to clean my colon out and to get toxicity out is the clay. And Native Americans use clay, and a lot of animals use clay. And so this.

What do you do? Just chew on it, or is it like in a capsule form?

You can get it in capsule form. I'm sponsored by Real Salt and Redmond Clay. It's a mine out of Utah. It's a great company. I do recommend their salt, and I recommend their clay. And their clay is a montmorillonite clay. It's a very fine bentonite. I take a tablespoon or so and put that in a quart of water, and I drink that, and it tastes like a little bit of a malty chocolate, multi chalky kind of milkshake. It's like a water milkshake, and it resonates with me. I really like it. It loads you up with good minerals, and it has that negative redux potential as well. Free radicals are positively charged, and negative redux potential just knocks that out.

Well, that's something I wanted to ask you about, was the minerals, because a lot of people will use magnesium. I was talking with Drew Canole the juicing guy a couple of weeks ago, and he recommended this oxygenated magnesium stuff, which actually I ordered. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I've used the natural calm magnesium. I've used trace liquid minerals from the same company. Do you find that any mineral supplementation helps people? And is there any caution when it comes to that kind of stuff? Like can you get too alkaline or use too many minerals?

Well, I think when you're using stuff that's in its natural state, I mean, balance is always the key. But with something like clay, your body's not going to. It's going to use what it needs to use, and it's going to get rid of what it doesn't need to. And it's going to bind to any kind of toxic materials. Good thing about clay is it's absorbent as well as it's magnetic. And so clay is very natural. So it's going to be expelled by the body. I guess you don't have to. I guess you don't have to mainline. I wouldn't try and do a pound of it in a day or something like that. With the oxymag and the ozonated magnesium. I know that there's some products out there. Again, another great product and works like Drano for a lot of people. For me, it didn't work. That's why I fall back on the Fiberzon plus or the Dr. Schultz number ones. Those are good formulas. The reason I like to use formulas is because master herbalists study with other master herbalists and they know how to work with plants. And instead of you becoming a chemist and trying to figure it out, these guys have walked before us have done it. So my advice is go out there and try things out. As long as they are all natural, organic, wild. Make sure. Most herbal companies, you have to make sure that they don't irradiate, fumigate, or chemically alter. You want to vet the company. You want to make sure that they are legit and that they can guarantee purity, efficacy and integrity. As long as you're getting that from the companies that you're working with, I recommend you can try anything. For example, a lot of people like colonics. I don't think that the design of the human body was to have something injected into it that way.

I actually wanted to ask you about that, about whether it's worth people who really just want to reboot their system, go in and get one of these enemas or colonics or something along those lines.

I Do recommend it once in a while or if you really need it, or if you're obese and you are impacted.

Sure.

A series of colonics or coffee enemas, Definitely try it. Do your research first and definitely try it. Coffee is an irritant to the intestinal lining, so it's going to help evacuate the bowels as well as if you put coffee enema. There's a valve that goes straight up into the liver, that goes down into the colon. When that gets activated, the liver dumps as well. And so these are excellent tools. However, there's also a whole series of people, especially I live in la, and it's all about this beauty element and by any means necessary. And so they get addicted to colonics.

Interesting. Yeah. And I could see how that would be pretty.

And that starts to disrupt your. Well, yeah, it's good. I definitely recommend it. It's good to try out, get things moving. However, you don't want to upset your bacteria in your gut. You should have 85% good bacteria and 15% bad bacteria. Most people are dealing with dysbiosis, which is the opposite. Most people have about 85% bad bacteria and so you want to keep that in check. There's probiotics, the clay. That's another reason why I like the clay. Because the clay remineralizes the gut, it remineralizes the body, it allows the body to self regulate itself. These are natural tools. These are natural tools and tools that have been used for so long and used by ancient cultures. A lot of the Paleolithic mentalities that have been brought into consciousness of recent have a grand applicability because look, this is the way the human being developed over thousands and thousands of years. So we might want to pay attention to that. Especially when you look at current human genome studies. It takes 100,000 years to change the human genome 1/10 of 1%. So we might want to look at our ancestors and look at the way they, they function because industrialization of society has only happened in the last 200 years.

Now is there any way that one could know if they actually have an impacted colon? If they've got poop inside them that's been in there for a while. If they're not moving stuff through properly, is there any way that you can actually quantify or qualify something like that?

Well, sure. I would definitely say in my personal observation, my personal opinion, God, if somebody's overweight, if you have a distended stomach, a lot of the distended stomach is coming from eating foods that you're intolerant of foods that have phytic acids, break down your digestive enzymes, and so you're not digesting properly. And so things are putrefying in the gut that can end up putting poisons in the gut. If you're not pooping properly, if you've got extra weight, if you've got a distended stomach. How about the way you smell? How about the way your urine and feces and your underarm smell? I mean, of course, we should definitely have a certain animalistic smell to us, and I don't recommend using deodorants and chemicals like that. However, we should have a bit of an earthy smell to us. If we smell terrible or if we smell like a fungal infection, then, yeah, you might want to look into that and start moving some of that toxicity out of your body again. That's why I like herbal medicine, because look at Paleolithic man used to hunt and gather. What would they gather? And the missus was out there gathering fruits, roots, berries, barks, greens, stuff like that. And these things naturally target the organs and help the organs detoxify. And so, especially in this world where we're dealing with a lot of environmental toxicity, I think it's imperative that we look into detoxifying the body often. Intermittent fasting is a great way for cellular detox. However, if you're looking for organ detox, you want to specifically target the organs. Especially if you live in this world or have ever been toxic, then you might want to start looking into internal purification, fasting, juicing, juice, fasting and using herbs. Herbs are as old as man. Man's use of plants, it's one of the biggest relationships on Earth. We've used plants for clothing, housings, medicines, foods. We use plants for everything. Beauty, flowers.

Yeah. And by the way, you've mentioned a lot of herbs and kind of compounds. You know, we've gone over your Amazon herb program and this Dr. Schultz, Drano and the Clay. I'll be sure that I put a lot of these resources in the show notes for folks. But, Troy, once stuff is working right, what's a normal poop actually look like normally? What should you be looking for?

Good poop, Normal poop. You're looking at, I would say, diameter. Are you looking at 2 inches or so? Healthy round poop? You're looking at light brown in color. You're looking at 6 to 12 inches. You should be passing about 12 inches of fecal matter a day for some people. That's a poop after each meal for you. And Me, it's a good poop in the morning. I'm happiest when I take that poop. In fact, that's kind of the beginning of my day and I can go out and get a great workout in. If I don't have a good poop, man, that limits my workout. I don't feel as good, I don't feel as energetic. So 12 inches, I would say a day. Light brown and thick and pretty connected.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's another thing that I noticed quite a bit when I started focusing on kind of a combination of minerals. Eating really, really alkalinic, using this squatting method of going to the bathroom was just really, really long poop. Like, you know, anywhere from one to one and a half feet in length. In many cases where it's just, you know, it comes out and comes out, comes out and then you're done. So it's pretty interesting.

S curves as Dr. Oz, I've heard him say.

Exactly.

Ben, I do want to give a couple of notes that I have written down. Some good things to do before you eat is to drink 16 ounces of water. Avoid coffee and alcohol before you eat. Limit the dehydrated foods. Avoid foods that you are intolerant to. I think we discussed that quite a bit. People should be off the four white devils if they want to be healthy. Pasteurized dairy, white table salt, which is sodium chloride. Eat as much natural salts as you want. But sodium chloride, stay away from white table sugar and white flour. Just stay away from them. Chew well. This is, you know, the digestion ultimately starts, yes, mastication, but it actually starts before it starts in your mind when you choose your meals at the store. But once you're at the table, you want to chew as well. And this is a message to myself because I live in the modern world and I'm rushed as well sometimes. And so you want to take the time to chew well. You can eat small meals and just eat more often every three to four hours or every three hours or so. And never suppress the urge to go poop. If you feel it coming on, find somewhere to poop. The other thing, also eating towards your metabolic type, finding out if you're a high oxidizer, getting good animal fats into your body, not eating grain fed animals that have mycotoxins in them. These type of things also help definitely stay away from poor quality fats.

Yeah, you know, you mentioned a lot of stuff just now and there are things that we've talked about on the show before. I know that a lot of our listeners are aware of things like eating organically. We've even done interviews on metabolic typing. We've done interviews on alkalinic diets. I think what's really important for people to know is that a lot of what you just mentioned, Troy, about healthy living, that stuff is the stuff that makes the biggest difference versus like living unhealthy and then trying to pop a heavy cleanse supplement every day to help move stuff along, which is what a lot of people do. So you're dumping gasoline on the fire on one end and trying to spray water on it on the other end and that's just a really bad and stressful way to go. Yeah.

And I definitely want to clarify, I'm into herbs and moving by any means necessary. But yes, you just made a great point, Ben. If people are doing all the, all the dumb stuff and then popping a pill to rectify it, well, that's not health at all. That's not going to help you in the long run at all. And I think that's why a lot of holistic health practitioners are much more into getting people into the foundation principles of health. I agree. However, if you're not moving, let's get you moving and then let's get you sleeping, hydrating, getting the proper nutrition in as well. And ultimately, one of the major points I wanted to touch on was stress management, stress reduction. Because the stress, the mental stress, is what has a big play on our colon. Do we have enough time to actually sit down, be comfortable enough and take a good poop? Man, a good bowel movement. We got the kids, sometimes you're trying to get out the door, they take a poop, you don't got time to take a poop. So it's like finding time to do that, training our lives so that we have enough relaxation time, that we have enough time to take care of our business needs, our relationship needs, our spiritual needs, whatever that feeds us. Because ultimately if we're in our sympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system is you can just look at the lion chasing you. Basically, if the lion's chasing you, you're not getting ready to take a poop. Although you might crap your pants, but ultimately it's going to shut down digestion and the blood's going to go to the extremities and you're going to be ready to fight or flight. And that's what stress does to us. And so that doesn't make it optimal for a good 12 inch bowel movement. And so want to look at our whole lifestyle. And that's what holistic health is all about. And that's what I teach and advocate. We want to look at our whole complet lifestyle. You know, instead of just popping an herbal supplement to take a poop, we want to look at everything. And stress is a major factor of that.

Yeah, I should have mentioned, by the way, you know, as you're talking about all this, I mentioned how, you know, I've been able to overcome a lot of my constipation issues. It's interesting a lot of the techniques that we use overlap. I haven't done a lot of these herbal remedies that you've talked about today, and I haven't done the clay. But one thing that I have noticed makes a difference is every single morning I take my heart rate variability. I lie there in bed for five minutes and I've been experimenting with a bunch of different devices like the Omegawave and the Sweet Beat system. And I'm using this one now that sticks out from my iPhone called the Tinky. But basically by focusing on getting really, really good heart rate variability and de stressing every single morning for about five minutes, I notice a big difference in my bowel movement between when I do that versus when I just like pop out of bed and go straight to whatever the computer or go straight to making coffee or anything like that. So taking that those few minutes in the morning, I think to de stress, especially for like a morning bowel movement, seems to work really well, especially in combination with a lot of this stuff you've talked about today.

Oh, man, you're talking about myself, man. I mean, you're absolutely right. And I think one of the worst things is, and this is the next frontier for the certified health nut is really managing his online and digital communications because it is a major, major stress. And when I pop up in the morning and go, oh, just let me do this one Instagram picture of my juices, or let me just get online and check my Facebook before the kids are awake. Next thing you know, I'm glued to thing and it becomes another stress. And I'm not taking the time to either eat, hydrate or take a bowel movement. And so, yeah, that's another aspect of the stress management. And I just did a video today. It'll be out tonight on meditation. I spent many years doing extensive silent meditation courses and practicing a couple hours a day. And I'm recently back into a meditation practice in the morning and that has helped me. You're basically doing that monitoring your heart rate for five minutes, being quiet with yourself. And so meditation is key. And any way you can ground into self I think is.

Yeah, well, you know what, we could go on and on and on. I know we're running up against the time here and I totally did not intend for anything about running on and on and on and to be a pun. Anyways, though, I'm gonna put a link to a lot of this stuff in the show notes, Troy. And folks, if you're listening in and you have questions, just leave them as a comment and I'll try and address them. Because I know that we kind of scratched the surface on pooping, but that hopefully gave you at least some good tips to point you in the right direction. And Troy himself is a wealth of knowledge. I would encourage you to go check out his website. I'll link to it in the show notes over@certifiedhealthnut.com hopefully we can get him back on at some point to talk about some of the other really cool, cutting edge stuff he has going on. And Troy, I want to thank you for your time today and for coming on the call.

Thank you so much, Ben. I really appreciate that. And I encourage everyone out there to connect with me on Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and really just share the message. It's important for humanity. It's a great time of waking up and we're only as healthy as the environment is. And so I encourage everyone to share as much information out there with their brothers and sisters and get this planet and our species healthy again.

Fantastic. All right, great. Well, this is Ben Greenfield and Troy Casey signing up from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.