My bowel movements have been strange lately.?

I am a 24 your old male, I have a bulging L4-L5 disc. For about the past week and a half I have been having strange bowel movements, I feel like I have to go and only get small peices, about as big around as a quarter and 1-2 inches long. These are also alot softer then I am used to but not diarrhea. This alternates with ribbon shaped stools. I took a stool softener and I got a great amount of loose stools but that was not my goal. I am used to big hard stools. Before this started happening I had been eating alot of pretzels (about 3-4 bags in a week) I am not overweight, I was just trying to quit smoking (never succeeded) and I was also eating quite a bit of bagels with cream cheese (about 4-5 in the same week as that pretzel week, this was right before I started having these issues) So last night I decided to eat a salad with an apple at about midnight, and this morning I had a decent bowel movement (amount/diameter) Almost normal diameter that is a about close to 2 inches. Then today I ate Raisin Bran with 2 eggs and toast, and for dinner I had whole grain pasta with sauce, but tonight I felt a movement coming and got 2 small pieces again about 1 1/4 inch and 2 inches long and I also have abdominal cramping along with alot of movement sounds coming from my stomach. Am I all out of balance or what could be going on here.