It's all about the poo!

Sunday 21st February 2021

A Sunday well spent, brings a week of content.

Bless my mom, all she wants is a poo and her bum hurts lol, but as she said half hour ago, she's lucky to be loved and looked after and no one ever died cos they couldn't poo.  Morning :) now that's a lovely way to start a blog ain't it, but at least I'm not going to go into detail over the last few hours, so be thankful. 

It's so lovely to see her home and settled, she's in a happy place since coming home which is wonderful to witness, there's the poorly stuff but she's not angry like she can be sometimes which is much easier to live with.  We've managed five and half hours sleep too which is brilliant.  I do sleep with one eye open now, I knew she was awake before she did I think but I actually relaxed last night as the night before I honestly didn't, I thought she was gonna die on me!  It's a strange way to feel, after all we're all gonna die aren't we and I have come to peace with mom passing, it'll be a blessing when it's time but how I felt Friday night was fear that I'd not know what to do if she was in distress.  I've processed it now, when it happens, I'll deal, no point thinking about it beforehand. 

Well we've done poo and death, here's to a lovely Sunday!  We're sat watching The Voice at 5am and we're going to spend the day relaxing watching tv, crocheting and I'll make mom as comfortable as possible whilst we do it.

 It's all about the fibre in this house today, she's just had a couple of slices of fruit toast (2.4g fibre), Government guidelines published in July 2015 say our dietary fibre intake should increase to 30g a day, as part of a healthy balanced diet. As most adults are only eating an average of about 18g day, we need to find ways of increasing our intake.  I sprinkled some chai seeds on to the toast, they are high in fibre, mainly insoluble fibre, but about 3% of the total fibre content consists of soluble fiber.   Soluble fiber absorbs water to form a gel, which can help ot ease constipation.  Worth a shot! 

Berries are another great way to get fibre in your diet and i've just realised I have some frozen ones, I'm also going to try and get her to have beans on toast later, there's 7.4g in a small can of WW beans which are the ones I know I have in the cupboard.  

I need to get some figs and pears because she likes them, then we could get a tin of prunes and see if she'll give them a go.  Then she's drinking water which will always help! 

We all need to make sure we're getting enough fibre, there's strong evidence that eating plenty of fibre (commonly referred to as roughage) is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer.

Choosing foods with fibre also makes us feel fuller, while a diet rich in fibre can help digestion and prevent constipation.

It's important to get fibre from a variety of sources, as eating too much of one type of food may not provide you with a healthy balanced diet.  Here's how you could increase your fibre intake:

Choose a higher-fibre breakfast cereal such as plain wholewheat biscuits (like Weetabix) or plain shredded whole grain (like Shredded wheat), or porridge as oats are also a good source of fibre.

Go for wholemeal or granary breads, or higher fibre white bread, and choose wholegrains like wholewheat pasta, bulgur wheat or brown rice.

Go for potatoes with their skins on, such as a baked potato or boiled new potatoes.

Add pulses like beans, lentils or chickpeas to stews, curries and salads.

Include plenty of vegetables with meals, either as a side dish or added to sauces, stews or curries.

Have some fresh or dried fruit, or fruit canned in natural juice for dessert.

For snacks, try fresh fruit, vegetable sticks, rye crackers, oatcakes and unsalted nuts or seeds.

 

Here's what a day of meals could look like to get enough fibre in your day.

Fibre at breakfast

Two thick slices of wholemeal toasted bread (6.5g of fibre) topped with one sliced banana (1.4g) and a small glass of fruit smoothie drink (1.5g) will give you around 9.4g of fibre.

Fibre at lunch

A baked jacket potato with the skin on (2.6g) with a 200g portion of reduced-sugar and reduced-salt baked beans in tomato sauce (9.8g) followed by an apple (1.2g) will give you around 13.6g of fibre.

Fibre at dinner

Mixed vegetable tomato-based curry cooked with onion and spices (3.3g) with wholegrain rice (2.8g) followed by a lower fat fruit yoghurt (0.4g) will give you around 6.5g of fibre. Bear in mind that fruit yoghurts can sometimes be high in added sugars, so check the label and try to choose lower-sugar versions.

Fibre as a snack

A small handful of nuts can have up to 3g of fibre. Make sure you choose unsalted nuts, such as plain almonds, without added sugars.

Total: Around 32.5g of fibre

I got all that gumph from Live Well - NHS (www.nhs.uk) there's loads of good stuff there. 

Right I'm gonna get back to my crochet and finish watching the voice, whatever you do, enjoy your day. 

Mwah, luv ya

Love me x