I get about 17g of fiber from what I'd call "supplement food." So in addition the other food I eat, which probably doesn't have a lot of fiber, I still get enough fiber that I "solved" my issues. I used to have all the symptoms you describe because my diet was pretty bad. I did clean up my diet by about 60%, and that had the biggest impact on making pooping not a harrowing event. But the daily, regular constant fiber additions to my diet have also helped stabilized things. I'm not even at the daily recommended amount of fiber, but I'd say I haven't been scared to poop in about 3 years. This is how you know you're getting old, when you have to start thinking strategically about pooping
So here's what I added.
Quest Protein Bars. 13g of fiber. I eat one a day. It's a processed protein bar and it's not exactly cheap. But it's got a lot of fiber, a lot of protein, and with non-sugar sweetners and a lot of different flavors, it's easily a dessert bar to my palette. Their flavor wizards know what they're doing.
Kiwi Fruit. 2.1g of fiber if you eat it without the skin, 3.5g of fiber if you do. Sounds like you're a picky eater when it comes to texture, so I dunno how you'll fair. But they're sweet, a little tangy, close in flavor to Strawberries. I get one of those a day. You gotta eat them before they go soft though or I'm sure the texture will be a problem. (I cut the ends off, slice it into quarters, the cut out the pith in the middle. I think? it's edible but I just want the actual fruit. The skin doesn't bother me at all.)
Psylllium Husks. Can buy a bottle of 500 at Walmart for like 20 bucks. 1.1g of fiber per pill. It's not a lot of fiber per pill, but you can adjust for what you did (or didn't eat) eat accordingly. They're just an easy, quick, natural way to add vegetable fiber to your diet that you don't need to eat.
I'm just a little upset at myself. The high fiber diet that my ancient ancestors thrived on is lost on me. Apparently if it isn't highly processed garbage devoid of any meaningful nutrition, my palate just refuses outright. I'd like to be healthier, but fuck if it isn't a second job on top of my already stressful and joyless life.
Two things I'd say.
1. It's about creating easy habits to follow. Even better if they're habits you can enjoy. Like taking vitamins. It's a thing that takes seconds to do but improves your life. It's something worth doing every day. Or brushing. Yeah it takes a little longer, it's tedious and makes you confront your own dental issues....but literally getting bacteria out of your mouth so it doesn't flow down into the rest of your body is worth doing every day. Rituals like that give you purpose too, that's easy to sell short despite how good it is for you mentally and physically. Little things like that help you feel like you're at least steering your life to some degree.
2. Hunger is the best flavor enhancer of all. I grew up a picky eater. Hotdogs, pizza, fried chicken or pasta. If it wasn't in one of those food groups I didn't like it. My habits improved through my teenage years a little, I at least ate more adventurously. But I didn't like fruit, or any veggies that weren't key to the things I already liked (I still kinda don't), and by my 30s I was living on a fastfood/processed diet full time because I could afford to. Blah blah blah, I got into fitness as you know....but doing all that left me hungry and when I turned to mostly single ingredient foods instead of garbage.....the food
actually tasted good. I had to literally detox my palette so it could taste real flavors again, because processed food flavors are like crack for your tongue. Doritos are literally dusted in MSG so they taste better and you eat more. You gotta get off the tongue crack first before you can appreciate real food again. And the best way I found to do that was be really hungry after doing physical activity and yeah, restricting my calories. Suddenly plain popcorn with a bit of salt on it had flavor I could appreciate again. Some roasted almonds with some sea salt. A teaspoon of honey for maximum natural sweetness. Fruit started tasting amazing. I even was able to appreciate some of the greenier flavors of vegetables. There's a bit of suffering and resilience you have to be willing to undertake to get "clean" but it's worth it. And it doesn't mean you have to stop eating things you "actually" like....you just need to eat them a lot less and treat them as exceptions rather than rules of how you eat. When I get a soda now, which I still love....I get about 2/3rds through it and it's so surpassed my sweet tolerance that I often don't want to finish it. This is from a guy who used to drink 3 to 4 Mountain Dews
a day.It's all doable but you gotta intentionally rewire your brain and I know that's not easy. I knew I had to make a change when I'd run through the list of things I felt motivated enough to drive and get, or order.....and nothing brought me satisfaction thinking about it. Everything was bleh. Now I look forward to pretty much every meal, and go find good ones if what's in front of me isn't to taste.