Crazy Hungry

I used to get sort of crazy hungry. That doesn't happen anymore. It was like the food was controlling me. Stress or fatigue always meant reaching for sugary foods and refined carbohydrates. Then whatever I purchased I would compulsively eat until it was gone and I felt worse and worse. Interestingly the worse I felt the more I wanted to eat that junk.

Now I don't get psycho with hunger anymore. If I wait too long to eat I still get attracted to carbs. I have a few strategies that keep me on track
1) I absolutely do not eat sugar or grains, so if I wait too long to eat and get overly hungry I won't go
    really crazy with my choices.
2) I plan and bring snacks with me, snacks with fat that fill me up
3) I have a game plan for fast food places, things I can eat without getting off track. If I run out of
    snacks, I am hungry and far from home I have a plan.
4) I eat things that taste sweet, but are not sugar or artificially sweet. Stevia is my friend. Just
    bringing Sobe with me can make all the difference.

Be good to yourself and have a game plan!

Suspect Foods

When you cannot keep it simple or be your own chef, there are a number of things to watch for on the label... or just plain avoid in a restaurant.  
Note-- I do note touch most of the things on this list, but if you are still indulging be afraid, very afraid...

Suspect Foods  
ale, baking powder, barbeque sauce, beer, breads, broth, casseroles, cereals, chocolates, chocolate bars, coffees (flavored), cookies, crackers, condiments, deli meats, drinks (flavored), gravies, grilled fish, grilled meats, hamburger patties (unless stated 100% beef), hot dogs, ketchup, lager, licorice, meatballs, potato chips and french fries, ice cream, imitation bacon bits, imitation seafood, marinades, meats, medications (check with your pharmacist-- even for topical medications), pastas, processed meats, processed foods, sauces, sausages, seasoning blends (herbs, spicing, and other agents), salad dressings, sauces, sausages, seasonings, seasoning packets (generally have thickening agents with hidden grains), spice mixes, stews, stir fries, soups, soup bases, soy products, soy sauce, syrups, taco seasoning, teas (flavored), Worcestershire Sauce.

Straight Up Sugar

Sugars are hiding everywhere... lurking in all those crazy processed foods that we love so much. (Beware... be very ware ;)
 

Sugars:
agave, agave nectar, barley malt,blackstrap molasses, blue agave,brown rice syrup, cane sugar, cane syrup, corn syrup, dastatic malt, dextrose (sweetener made from plant starch generally corn, rice, tapioca or wheat), diastase, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit concentrate, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate (apple, pear, grape), dextrose, galactose, glucose, glucose syrup, golden syrup, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), lactose, malt, maltodextrin (sweetener, filler and binder from rice, corn, tapioca or potato starch), maltose, molasses, panocha, rice syrup, simple syrup, sorghum syrup, sucrose (half glucose and half fructose), syrup, treacle.

Sneaky Sneaky Grains

Watch out!! Hidden grains are everywhere, especially in processed foods. Single source foods are of course the most safe (you know, a zucchini, spinach, an egg). Here are ingredients that are of concern.

Grains, Grain Ingredients or Likely Grain Ingredients:
artificial colors, artificial flavors, baking powder, barley -flakes/flour/pearl, binders, blue cheese, bread, breading, bread stuffing, brewer's yeast, brown rice, bulgur, bulgar wheat, cereal fillers/protein/starch, cheese -grated (if anti-caking agent used), citric acid, coatings, colorings, colors, corn, corn starch, dextrins, dinkel, durum (it is wheat), dispersing agents, emulsifiers, excipients (in prescription medications), farro/faro (type of wheat AKA spelt or dinkel), flavorings, flours (barley, corn, oats, rice, rye, sorghum, tapioca, wheat), food starch, graham flour, grated cheese ((if anti-caking agent used), grain alcohol (ale, beer, bourbon, grain vodka rye, scotch), hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP), hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), hydrolyzed wheat protein, kamut (type of wheat), malt, malt extract, malt flavoring (barley malt, malt vinegar), malt syrup, malt vinegar, malted milk, matzo, matzo meal, modified food starch (from wheat), modified wheat starch, maltodextrin, natural flavors, rice, thickening agents (dextrin, corn starch, modified food starch, etc.), mono-glycerices, di-glycerides (made using a wheat starch carrier), natural flavorings, oatmeal, oat bran, oat flour, oats, oils (wheat germ oil and others with gluten additives), preservatives, rye bread, rye flour, seitan (vegetarian protein made from wheat gluten), semolina, spelt (type of wheat AKA dinkel, faro, farro), semolina, spelt (type of wheat AKA dinkel, faro, farro), sorghum, soy sauce, spices (if anti-caking agent used), starch (modified food starch, edible starch), textured vegetable protein (TVP), triticale, vegetable gum, vegetable protein or starch, vinegars (white, or malt), vital wheat gluten, vitamin e oil, wheat bran, wheat flour, wheat germ, wheat starch.

I have probably missed a few things, be vigilant!

Lunch Time?

 For lunch I typically have a big salad with lots of lettuce and a few starchy vegetable combined with a small portion of animal protein, like boiled eggs, a piece of fish (insert protein here).

 On some days I have vegetable soup made with a combination of starchy and non-starchy vegetables. I don't use the strong vegetables that I used to use for soup as I cannot tolerate them-- (onions, parsnips, etc.). I make soup from carrots, celery, a potato, then whatever non-starchy veggies I have on hand. For seasoning I use onion powder, a bay leaf, salt, pepper, and the secret ingredient a dash of Tobasco sauce or better Chipotle Tobasco. No, I am not one of those people who love Tobasco on everything... but in small doses it has a great way of giving soup just the right flavor, without going bananas with the salt.

Another option is cooked non-starchy vegetables with an animal protein. Pick the things you like.

I make this my biggest meal of the day.

Breakfast Ideas

I start the day with berries and water. If the berries are sour I sprinkle with stevia powder or use a miracle berry tablet.

When I started out I used to then wait about a half hour or so and then on a typical day have eggs cooked in butter and also spinach with a few pieces of red bell pepper cooked in olive oil and seasoned with a little garlic powder, onion powder and salt.

On work days I packed up the eggs over the spinach in a thermal container and ate at work. Typically I ate half when I got there and the other half at mid morning. I call this first breakfast and second breakfast (you know like the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings).

Later I started building tolerance to homemade kefir. Now I still start with the berries, but then I have a cup of kefir and after that sprouted almonds and/or sprouted sunflower seeds.

At mid-morning I have another cup of kefir and then more almonds and/or sunflower seeds.

For a while I was having homemade vegetable soup and/or salad at breakfast.

Another idea would be bacon or gluten free sausage or just classic bacon and eggs... combined with some kind of sautéed non-starchy vegetable.

But... what CAN I eat?

Say you've figured out FODMAPs you cannot tolerate and you know what to avoid for Body Ecology. You might ask, what can I actually eat. It really helps to make a list of foods that are allowed by category.

Since one key is to eat lots of non-starchy vegetables start with a list of those and line through anything you know you can't tolerate from your FODMAPs elimation diet.

Non-starchy vegetables (have just about any time)
asparagus, bamboo shoots, beet greens, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, burdock root, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chives, collard greens, cucumber, daikon, dandelion greens, endive, escarole, garlic, green beans, jicama, kale, kohirabi, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, okra, onion, parsley, red radishes, red bell pepper, scallions, shallots, spinach, sprouts (except mung bean), swiss chard, turnips, turnip greens.    Please note that I cannot eat all of the vegetables on this list, I include them in case others can tolerate them.

Oils (stick with unrefined oils) (have just about any time)
Sunflower, flax, pumpkin seed, olive, butter, ghee, cultured butter, walnut oil, coconut oil.

Sweetners (anytime)
 Lakanto (monk fruit) or Stevia

Grain-like Seeds (have only with non-starchy vegetables)
Amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, millet

Starchy Vegetables
acorn squash, butternut squash, lima beans, corn (fresh), water chestnuts, artichokes,  red skin potatoes.

Protein Fats
sprouted almonds, sprouted seeds, avocado

Acid Fruits
lemons, limes, cranberriers (unsweetened), black current juice (unsweetened)

Fruits for first in morning (have these by themselves first thing in morning
berries, pomegranite seeds, cranberry juice (unsweetened), black current juice (unsweetened).

Animal Proteins (only with non-starchy vegetables)
Eggs, meats, fish

 So now you have lists, so go forth and mix and match. I find it helpful to bring such lists to the grocery store and to restaurants. I used to keep a picture on my phone. Now it's all just second nature.

IDK Why

People are always asking why I don't eat this or that. Why no tomatoes... why red peppers and not green peppers... why no apples or pears... why not combine starchy foods with animal proteins. I do not always have the answers to such questions at my finger-tips. I read a lot about nutrition and ways to manage IBS. If something makes sense to me, I try it and it works... that's good enough for me.

I retain what I need to do more than why I am doing it. If you need to prove it to yourself read the books. My two bibles are IBS Free at Last and the Body Ecology Diet.

Believe It!

It's tough to get motivated to start a new diet. I worked toward motivating myself to lose weight for seven or eight years (I'm not kidding). It wasn't until I started believing that it could really happen that I got ready to move forward. Getting my IBS under more control with low FODMAPs really helped me see that changing my diet could change my body.

I decided to find an old picture of myself and put it in a place where I would see it frequently to get me started. I think this could work using a picture of someone you would like to look like one day. In my case I have pictures of how I used to look that showed how I wanted to look again.

I chose a picture from when I was 18. I knew I wouldn't look 18 again, but figured my body could look similar... after all it was MY body.

So I posted this picture onto the screen saver on my smart phone. Every single time I pushed my phone on I was confronted with this picture-- that's a lot of motivation!

Next I made a catch phrase for myself that I used like a mantra. It seems rather silly when I say it out loud or type it, but never-the-less, I said to myself (often), "I want to be a tiny little mother".  You know... those tiny little old ladies that are so cute people say "Awwww, I want to be like her someday", whenever she leaves the room.

When I look back on this time, this is the only difference between my success this time and my many failures or temporary successes of the past. I imagined, I visualized, I believed.

My Body Hates Sugar

One thing I learned from following a low FODMAPS diet last year --My body HATES sugar in pretty much any form. Many who do the FODMAPs  elimination diet find they can add some of the FODMAPs categories back into their diet. Not me, I failed every challenge. I am okay with that fact. Once I accepted that sugar just isn't for me it all got easier.

So... I've changed

It's been a year since I've blogged... a very busy year. In the past 9 months I've lost over 50 pounds with help from a combination of low FODMAPs and the Body Ecology Diet. I did not set out to lose, I wanted to feel better and lower my blood pressure a little as it was going in the wrong direction. After tweaking my diet one more time the weight started coming off and rather easily.




Lisa in Spring 2012

Lisa in July 2014

What a differnce a year makes, 2013

 

It's just so fun in 2014

My daughter sent me pictures of myself from a couple of years ago and I recognized that my appearance has actually changed. Today I will share.

Day to day I feel better and yet feel like I look pretty much the same. New clothing is a big perk, and I've had to get a new wardrobe 3 times this year. Not to mention healthy blood pressure and a healing gut.

I think I will start blogging tips again. First one... if you've already done an elimination diet with IBS Free at Last and are ready to try more, look into the Body Ecology Diet. There's a website; though I enjoy the book the most.  I keep it on my smart phone with the Kindle App.

 

My sister once told a crowd at a gathering, "Lisa is food intolerant." It's not far from the truth. I spent years attempting to find the key to resolving my IBS symptoms. I gave up dairy nearly 30 years ago and gluten about six years ago. That really helped, but then thankfully I stumbled across a reference to the FODMAPs research in April of 2011. That's when my life changed. I never thought I could feel so good. I never dared to dream.

To Cheat or Not to Cheat

... that is the question.

I've seen a few friends and family members go through the elimination diet. Some don't really find out what they can and can not eat. If you do the elimination diet half way it doesn't really tell you anything. By reducing FODMAP content in your diet you may learn that there is something to it... but you won't know what you eat safely, what you can't and where you can fudge in the future without feeling lousy.

I had a co-worker who bought the book and said she was seriously on it, then three days later she was eating pizza for lunch. She said, "I'm still doing the diet, I'm only eating one piece." A couple days later it was, "Just half a bagel with a little cream cheese." That doesn't cut it!!

The thing that really helped me was carrying around two lists. One list with everything I could eat and another of everything I couldn't. I found it helpful to break them out by food category (fruits, vegetables, grains, etc.) When you try an elimination diet I suggest that you are very careful.... it may just change your life for the better.

Going Out to Eat

Keeping things simple when going out seems to be the safest option. Think of sticking to foods that are whole. Look for a restaurant that has gluten free and vegan menus and try not to get too complicated. Even when following a vegetarian diet it seemed to work better if I looked for gluten free and vegan items and then asked them to leave out veggies with FODMAPs. For example I might ask for gluten free pasta primavera and ask them to leave out the onions and green peppers.

If you look at the restaurant section of this blog I've included restaurants I know or have heard of that have gluten free and/or vegan menus. It seems to be a good place to start.

Breakfast
Going to breakfast seems easier to me than any other meal.
- If vegetarian you can get an omelette with swiss cheese, tomatoes, spinach, red peppers, etc. and have it served with home fries. No toast of course and make sure they don't use milk to make the omelette.
- If vegan home fries, sliced (grilled) tomatoes, grits and oatmeal are good options. One place I go serves the oatmeal with blueberries on top, perfect!

Lunch/Dinner Options:
- Pasta primavera as outlined above.
- Gluten free vegan pizza with toppings such as red peppers, olives, butternut squash
- Salad with oil and vinegar or with oil and lemon, lately I've been eating salad with just lemon or vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Be sure they use all low FODMAP vegetables in the salad.
-Plain white or brown rice with "safe" vegetables
-French Fries

-Gluten free vegan vegetable fried rice

Explaining FODMAPs diet to your friends

I've had a series of complicated diets for many years. No dairy, gluten free, vegegarian, vegan/plant based; which can all be explained. FODMAPs is a little more challenging since no one has ever heard of it.

Now I say, "I am intolerant to carbohydrates that ferment in the gut." Or, "I used to have a lot of trouble with my stomach, until I found out that I have trouble with certain carbohydrates that ferment in the gut."

Some people ask for more information and some people just nod and move on. I've learned that many many people have stomach trouble. I've referred a lot of people to the IBS Free at Last Book. I'm hoping I can one day go into a restaurant and ask for a low FODMAP menu.