>> Hunter Hoover: It just. It just really gets the fart factory fired up. You know what I'm saying? It's like, fire up the fart factory. It's steak Thursday. Welcome back to Privy. Privy is a podcast about bathrooms recorded from my home bathroom. I'm your host, Hunter Hoover, and I love bathrooms. Welcome back, everyone. Um, thank you all for being here, and Happy New Year. If you're listening to this, this is the first episode of 2025. We did
it. We made it to another one. Uh, and I gotta say, full disclosure, this. This episode was recorded just a bit before the new year. But I gotta say it at the top of this. There's a lot going on. This has been a strange setup. So, um, normally when I set up for recording in my home bathroom. Here we are, we're back in home bathroom. It's usually pretty straightforward. Throw the table up, throw the computer on, get things set up, do my hair and nails. You got to get stuff looking just
right for everybody out there. But today I'm in the process of setting up the computer, setting up the mics, getting everything square, and the urge hits me. The urge to purge. And that doesn't happen. Happen very often. And it's always awkward because then drop. You drop duff hang beef, and you're just staring at, like, a full computer and microphone and table set up right in front of you. And it's always a strange and surreal thing when. When you're staring down your podcast
recording setup mid beef. But such is. Such is the way of things. But it's bitter C. You know, and it's. It's kind of a strange start to the year because, number one, um, I got a new bath mat. So full, uh, disclosure. I've been complaining as, you know, listener, you'you'll. The acute ear will know that for the last some time, I've been going on and on about how the bathmat is a crucial part of the bathroom experience, specifically between
November and February. That said, I have been without bath mat for going on two or three weeks. And I survived. I was strong. Um, I powered through. You know, I'm not looking for. I'm not looking for accolades or medals. I just want recognition. But my wife has purchased me, like, the most deluxe bath mat that I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Uh, and it's deluxe because it's like memory foam. So it's like, extra thick. Uh, which, you know, the pea splatter
is something that. That we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'm sure, there's. I'm sure that as you launder it, those things can sort themselves out. But I'm pretty psyched about this bathmat. I'm not going to lie. It. It is a great new addition. It's a great way. New year, new me, new bath mat. Just don't pee on it. But then first, first, um, I mean, I mid. I mid dumperoo and I'm out of toilet paper. My wife forgot
to replace the toilet paper. And so it's one of those things where it's like, it's just, it was just a strange bathroom experience. Lots of mixed emotions, you know, staring down the pod, staring down an empty toilet paper tube. There she blows. That's. I replaced the roll. But also happy about the fresh bath mat. So a lot, lot going on, um, by way of, uh, bathroom experiences today. As I noted, this is the first episode of the new year. And anyime that we ring in the new year, everybody
is making resolutions. It's resolution season. People is like, it's new Year. We got to set goals and try to come up with ways that we can better our lives and commit to this for doing it for a full year. Um, and I'm here to tell you that if you wait till the new year to make these changes, you won't make them.
But we've covered resolutions in the past and in that conversation we discussed, like, the role of fitness and how sometimes, you know, it can cause the diarrhea to really just seep down your leg. Uh, and you can go seek out that episode. If you go back one full calendar year, you can find, uh, I believe it's called runner's diarrhea. But I'm not. I cannot remember. And maybe now, you know, five days in, at the point of this episode'released're five days into
the new year. Maybe now is a good time for you to be rethinking and thinking about your resolutions. It's not too late. You're five days late, but you're not too late. Maybe you want to make some resolutions this year. And I got to tell you, every year I tell myself that I'm going to read, I'm going to read more books, I'm going to be more conscientious and in set aside time to be able to read.
And I usually start out pretty good, keep up on the reading, and then I get like three days in and things just fall apart. And I think for me, I think I need to be setting either a daily or a weekly reading goal of like, this is how much I want to read in uh, a week's time. So that way I have this more tangible goal to aim towards as, as I look towards doing
more reading and keeping me on track. But people make all sorts of resolutions this time year and it's a good time also to think back on the resolutions that we've made in the past. How do we do? How did last week's or, uh, last year's resolutions go? Did they last a week? Do we need to course correct your resolutions this year to help you be successful based off of what you learned from last year?
And on almost every list of common New Year's resolution, there lives something about reading more, something about saving money, about the reading mores me. I must confess, there's also something about, about exercise and, and I did not just start my year off by, by saving a lot of money. Dang old Mickey Mouse knows how to suck money out of a guy. You know what I'm saying? Disney prices are kind of absurd. More
on that next episode. But good lord, they know how to, they know how to get your money. That's, that's for Dankure. Also, if they had a Disney level like, like to the, to the extent of an amusement park that Disney had, if they had that, but it was Pokemon, my dude, I be, I'd be like full blown fore alarm Pokemon extravaganza lining up to get into that. I want to wait in line for like 40 minutes to glad hand Pikachu be totally worth it. The Dragonite coaster. I'm practically creating this theme
park. But yeah, we got to get that going. But some resolutions. Back to the resolutions Hunter. Some resolutions we make, uh, are centered around life projects or things that you want to accomplish. These are things that are ambitious things that you've been wanting to get done or to see these projects through and haven't, haven't done and set aside for me. It's to fix my fence. Dang wind. Blew it over, saved it with a classic pillar wedge it in their system. It's up,
but it needs some attention. I'm gonna need to get that fixed. But there's still, there's all sorts. And the one we looked at last year was exercise. Those gym memberships again, they spike this time of year. And we discussed some of the bathroom dangers that exist inside the exercise world related to our bowels and how they react to mostly, uh, an increase in the
amount of exercise that we're doing. But this year we need to hone in on another popular resolution and how that resolution interacts with our bowels and as a result our bathrooming. This week we're looking at dieting and weight loss. Gotta kick this new year in just a k cha Orange vanilla. It's just it. If you like many this, this new year are looking to revamp your
diet as a resolution. There are no shortage of options in the dieting space and the diets in the world that one can partake in in order to try to go about these New Year's resolutions. Some popular diets include, uh, that people take up during the resolution season and beyond are, uh, Paleo, which if you don't know Paleo pretty much is, it's like high, high protein,
high fiber, low calorie. And the wholetick behind paleo is like if paleontology, it's like, let's go back to eating what we ate during dinosaur times. Well, here's the thing. We don't live in dinosaur times. We have dinosaur chicken nuggets, which are great, but we don't live in dinosaur times. So I get what you're saying. But also, pizza is really tasty. You know what our ancient ancestors didn't have? Doritos,
McDonald's. And I have a feeling the lower calories had a lot to do with the whole, like working was to earn or kill the food you were going to eat because food was a lot less readily available. I have a feeling that the amount of work that you exceed or put forth into the world to obtain the food that you're going to eat is drastically going to out outweigh the calorie intake of that food. But that's just me. I don't know. Uh, another modern popular diet is vegan.
Now if you haven't heard, vegans don't eat anything that comes from animals, byproducts or otherwise. And there's in my brain, there's two types of vegans. There's two classes of vegan, conscientious and intentional vegans who are vegan and want to understand it and don't want it to make it an ethical thing against your existence every time you eat something. And these vegans are totally fine. These are actually like, it's
cool, their cooking is good, some of the food is good. Big fan of those who choose this diet that they find appealing to them. But then there's this other type of vegan, the type that I like to call Portland vegan. And these are the folks that get triggered because you are wearing shoes made with adhesive derived from an animal byproduct. If you're Portland vegan, good for you. I don't care like and uh, sorry, but your, your dietary choices are not my concern. Yeah, don't be
Portland vegan. Be cool vegan. But some benefits include reduced inflammation, joint strength and stability, weight loss, so that's good. Another popular diet, one that in many ways is representative of its kind, wherein it stands in for many others that are similar as the Atkins diet. Now the Atkins is probably one of the most popular of a type of diet called low carb diets. These diets focus on eating as much protein as you can. You just pack on the chicken. Chicken proteins while avoiding
most, if not all carbs. Atkins and another low carb. No carb diets purport as lowering someone's appetite to a portion wherein they choose not to eat as often. Others have taken to an extreme form of Atkins which doesn't focus as heavily on plants and other fruits and nuts and looks at only eating meat. This, the carnivore diet is like Paleo on steroids. It's the opposite of vegan only consuming meat and animal products.
Other diets seek to cut out a certain type of food or food compound or something found in it in order to help regulate digestion and give you some added health benefits. Sometimes people do this to help with allergies or intolerances. Some things that are often cut out in modern times include lactose, glucose, sugar, just to name a few. I could do these. Like sugar would be hard. Like that's a lifestyle, complete lifestyle. Reh haul. I feel like I could give up gluten
pretty easy. There's so many gluten free options now that like it's fine. There's countless diets and countless fad diets that we could talk about. There's no shortage of them. And, and another up and coming one seems to be intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is pretty much in short. You eat in a small window of time and so you give yourself this specific amount of time wherein you eat and then you don't eat
for the rest of the day. Usually you limit your eating window to like 6 to 10 hours of your day, depending on how rigorous your're intermittent fast fasting is. I gotta admit, I've tried intermittent fasting. Uh, I actually enjoyed it a lot. But something that I found when I did intermittent fasting was that I ate more food than I normally would during my window because I knew I wouldn't be able to just eat when I wanted.
It was like in the back of my brain. I Was like, oh, man, I got toa have one last snack before 8:00. So that way I, uh, it holds me over longer until the day tomorrow where I break my fast. Probably not how that's supposed to work, but that's how I did it. Thing is, everyone has those who diet. The people who take on a diet or choose to change what they eat, whether during, uh, a New Year's resolution or not, everyone has a different
goal in it. And I think there's this stigma around dieting that it's only for losing weight. And while sometimes that's a huge benefit, sometimes people take on a diet in order to just be healthier. They're eaten better, um, they're feeling better. Or in the case of Portland vegans, to try to impress the people around them. Like, we get it, you're on your 12th juice cleanse this month and at some point it's less impressive than you want it to
be. Like the fact, the fact that you're downing 16 ounces of juice, just like spicy juice on the regular and that, that just cleans your clock and you just. Shazz Royale, uh, it's less impressive than you want it to be. Like, I can make myself poop pretty easy. The dragonfuit, let me tell you'it'll get the job done. Did it, did just
fine. But whatever the reason that you choose to take on it, if you choose to diet this New Year's and you want to take that on in the New year and whatever benefits you find in it, one thing is certain, and one thing is consistently found across these, is that our diets and the way we eat are going to have an impact on our time. In the bathroom, before continuing and talking about our diet'effects um, in the bathroom, there's going to be this idea of a healthy poop or a healthy bowel movement.
And it's usually defined as a medium, brown, long, smooth and soft turd. Now, I would like to note most of those adjectives related to that turd are verifiable via eyecon, eye contact to the, to the turd. But I would argue smooth and soft. Those are texture things. And while I get what they mean is like, oh, it's smooth, it comes out smooth, it's soft, it's not hard, it's not like her plunkin mermaid kiss in your, um, bumole. Like, smooth and soft to me are touch senses.
And I don't like that idea related to my turd. Classic Mr. Hanky Turds, though. And by that standard, it should Be noted that, uh, uh, all those adjectives considered, I am technically quote unquote unhealthy. And to that I say, that's like your opinion, dude. But they also note that people poop a variety of times. How many times and how often. And the frequency of someone's poop varies to a great degree. Some people poop as many as three times a day, some poop three times a
week. I've had a number of questions. The first is what about four to five times a day? Like are we still okay with that as an amount? Because I will assure you I'm clocking in at least four to five times a day on the regular. And then my second question to this is three times a week. If I went an entire day without taking a dump, I don't know what I'd do. I think I'd probably put a note into my doctor saying hey, I didn't poop today. Do you think I'm good? Like
it's a wild thought to me. The idea of not pooping every day is just, it's baffling to me. I've read stories online about people saying that like they only poop once a week or once every other week. That ain't right. Like I'm sorry. And when you do, when you do, like when you do produce that bee, that log has got to be mondo stank. Like that dude's been percolating in you for, for a week. It's gott be mondo stanko.
All this to say all these different diets can take and have an affected toll on our poos. M some ways that these diets can affect our poo. It's noted that gluten free diets can cause you to be constipated. Especially when you're a gluten free approach is primarily through high processed non gluten foods. Rather, if you focus on rices and other non gluten natural alternatives and substitutes, you can probably get the
fibrous situation you need. It's funny because gluten is kind of sticky in nature, but it seems that gluten helps break up your turds. As it comes to pooping, there are some benefits noted related to intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting, it seems, helps the healthy bacteria in your tummies thrive. You got bacteria in your tummy and that tummy when you intermittent fast during that time of resting, the
bacteria are able to reproduce. They don't have to be busting down the big thirurdies and they're able to Catch back up now while you still need to be mindful of what you eat. It is stated that the heavier you are, the less healthy bacteria you have in your tummy. As a result, intermittent fasting can be a good way to begin a weight loss approach or kick start digestion. Many people who fast do not note huge changes in their pooping, but some note they
poop less. Which if you think about it makes a lot of sense. Like if you go from eating like three cheesy bees a day to eating less than three cheesy bees today, you're going to produce like three cheesy cheesy bees. Amount of less poop in your, in your interactions. So that's that in the low carb, high protein situation, diets such as keto and Atkins, there's a noticeable effect on your bowels. Namely, people report that these low carb, high fat diets plug your slam up.
I feel like one of these is also gonna make you fart a bunch like anytime. If I eat a lot of beef jerky or if I eat like a good amount of red meat, it just, it just really gets the fart factory fired up. You know what I'm saying? It's like fire up the fart factory. It's, it's steak Thursday. They call me steak and shake because keto and others are low in fiber, high in animal fats. Your tummy doesn't really process those things as quickly as they process like big fiber.
Think about it like being like sticking a railroad tie in a wood chipper. That joker is going to take a little more to get through than those unprocessed tree limbs. It's noted one of the diets that helps the tummy shaz ctch the most is the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is very fruit and veggie forward and the meat that is found in this diet is gained primarily through seafood, although there is some um, allowances for lamb and sheep. The Mediterranean diet helps
the food. Like it's very veggie, focus on whole grains, legumes, and it really helps the food slide right through the system faster than the sweet, sweet olive oil coated veggies and fish you'll be eating. Like Mediterranean has that stuff fully oiled up as it flies through you. Paleo, it is noted, can go either way depending on what your diet was like before you started
paleo. Pretty much paleo does get you to a healthy poop, but it may take a bit longer to get there depending on where you are beginning. Like if your diet is abysmal to begin, Paleo is going to be a bumpy start. Finally, the bathroom effects from vegans have mixed reviews. As would noted, there's a variety of vegans and another type of vegan is called a fad vegan. Now, not fat vegan
fad vegan. Fat vegans are kind of like Portland vegans, but fat vegans are the ones that are just buying stuff because it says vegan. They're vegan not because they want you to be, but because they really like the way that it sounds at parties. Fad vegans are the ones that are eating essentially junk food, but they're eating it under the banner of vegan. They're flying the vegan flag, but they're not living the vegan lifestyle.
Remember kids, Airheads, Sweet chili, Doritos, Famous Amos peanut butter cookies, Original Fritos Lays, Classic Sierra Le and Marie Callendar frozen pies, Nutter Butters, Oreos, Ritz Crackers, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish and unfrosted Pop Tarts are, are all vegan. And, uh, this is a reminder to you when you see vegan on a package. Vegan doesn't mean healthy. Now, people who I do believe that people that take vegans seriously and prepare food and are cooking vegan tend
to be healthier. But just because you're vegan doesn't mean you are because, uh, like due could be slinging back pouch after pouch of Sour Patch Kids. And I would argue, yeah, you're vegan, but like, you're also diabetic. So here we are. Vegan doesn't always mean healthy. And who the flip, who in the flip wants to eat unfrosted pop tarts? Like, unpopular opinion. But if you were a point in your life, and it could be medical, it could, you know, I understand these things
happen. But if you have arrived at a point in your life where you are staring down, making the choice, you know what? I think I'm going to go for unfrosted. Just don't eat Pop Tarts. Like, I've solved your, I've solved your dilemma for you. Like, don't just don't do Pop Tarts if you can't have them frosted. That's where I'm at. That's what I'm trying to say. But if you're eating this variety of vegan, you're probablynna be finding yourself pretty plugged up anyway.
Your body's trying to process a sugar bomb. But if you're doing the healthy version of vegan cooking and preparing vegan food, as we noted, there's some tangible fiber forward benefits promoting a healthy poop from that. Whatever the reason that you take up dieting this, this season or if you don't, that's fine. If your resolution this year is around your diet, keep in mind that if you overdo the fiber, you may need to pack a spare pair of pants.
If you hear all this and the diet that you were considering, or maybe you've already started by the time you listen to this episode and you hear that it constipates you or it mixes things up and really sling stuff out the bee faster than you can say Jackrabbit Slim. Go listen to our other episode on laxatives. You might need some. Um, but in short, all of these diets affect our poop based on the materials that they put in our body and as a result into our
poops. Those which traditionally increase fiber, those that are leaned more towards plants and fruits and, and, and grains, um, are going to produce more frequent pooping and possibly less solid. Those which focus on increasing fats and oils, meats and the likes, dairy, cheese, all of these, they're going toa produce more hard to pass, maybe stinkier poops, but they're going to be a little more substantial. So keep that in mind. These things also don't take into account
intolerances. Um, and maybe food intolerances is a story for another day. But in short, food intolerances are caused by your body not being able to process a, ah, certain compound appropriately or appropriately digest a certain type of food. And pretty much the typical path forward for an intolerance is to like just quit eating those foods. In some cases intolerances occur from allergies. Um, but sometimes it's just like the body isn't producing the
enzyme to break down the certain type of food. This happens all the time. Um, there's things you can do to increase a digestive enzyme help break things down. You can actually get like enzymes as vitamins and just like take them to help increase those digestive enzymes. In short, junk food makes for rough poopies. You may experience some gastro, gastro distress when you see switch from eating like uh, Oscar the Grouch to eating like a
champion in the new year. Like it takes time for your gut and your bacteria and your digestive system to adjust to that and that's okay. As we bring to the close of this episode, if we learned anything from Aaron Luckman last year when, when he was on the show, he shared a little bit of his health routine and now, uh, he was hitting the smoothies hard. He was saying how it just makes him
real gassy. And if you decide to essentially blend your fibers, that G is going toa fly through you quicker than reheated burrito on chilly Wednesday. Like there's not a chance because all that fiber is still passing. But your body's not doing any work on it. It's just literally slinging it right through you. So keep that in mind. But that'll bring us to the end of another episode of Privy. Good luck on your resolutions. Happy New Year, everyone.
This new year, I would encourage you to go check out our website, privy-cast.com do with all sorts of fun stuff going on there. You can listen to past episodes, new episodes. We have a shop. It's a sticker shop. Go check it out if you want. Um, you can follow us on social media. Privycast, you can follow me. I'm @al@7. And if you're bold, you can follow Randy Bowls at Randy Bowls. Leave us a rating, a review. The five star options are preferred. You can rate us on Apple
podcasts and Spotify podcasts. And we will donate a dollar to the Wounded warriors and Living Water International for every review left as a reminder to keep pooping in the free world. That free world was not always free. And as we pursue cleaner water for all, not everyone has cleaner water and we want cleaner water for everyone. Thank you to KE Kevin and Poddington for the use of your music. You can find their things in the link down below. Uh, this will bring us to the end of another
episode of Privy. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for bringinging in another new year with us here on the Pod. We look forward to what 2025 has in store. Get hyped. Follow along. It's going to be good. Thank you all for listening. Keep hoping in the free world. Own your stank. And now, as always, don't forget to flush.