Baby Steps

1st shop trying to eat healthy

I feel like a bit of a fool. I’m willing eating stuff I know will make me feel like crap!

So my suggested diagnosis with IBS has had me living in limbo for the last couple of weeks. As mentioned my GP has suggested that I look at the FODMAP diet. I had a few reservations so went back to speak with my GP and we agreed to hold of from starting it until I got my blood work done and have seen a specialist. So now I know what I shouldn’t be eating but should hold off from starting the diet that could make me feel like a person again ( glutton for punishment)

So I’ve decided to start eating healthy balanced meals and where I can cut out high FODMAP foods. As I’m not 100% committed I still drink milk but minimally, and it’s hard to avoid garlic and onions because it’s in almost EVERYTHING  when you start looking at the ingredients. Last week was the start of the healthy eating and I’ve been using Tesco’s recipe’s and meal planner. They do have gluten and wheat free dishes which helped but still needed a little tweaking. I’ve started getting alternatives from the free from range, which is very limited in my opinion and as always over priced due to  a lack of an alleged demand and took the opportunity to finally make my own pizza.

Baked Sweet potato, spinach, steak mince, and halloumi

My meals for the week have been quite varied from gluten free toad in the hole (sausages great, wheat free flour not so much), home made pizza with chorizo and spinach, and my favourite baked sweet potato, steak mince, spinach and halloumi (nom nom nom will definitely do this one again). I’ve also started having breakfast although I’m struggling with this as I usually skip breakfast and start at brunch. Milk is a staple breakfast ingredient but I have recently purchased A2 milk so I’m hoping it helps when I get round to opening it. I’m a little sceptical but will give it ago.

If I’m honest it’s been quite fun! I’m 25 and starting to realise that I wont look and feel young forever, so I really should start looking after myself. I’m slim so have been ignorantly living under the illusion that I can eat, drink, and smoke and not care when the truth is I Cant!   I can no longer talk on the phone and dodge dawdling tourists without getting out of breath and don’t even mention taking stairs over a lift. I’m even doing a bit of at home yoga (via youtube of course) focusing on moves around digestions and calmness. I’m even considering going to an actual class so I can actually learn technique and not have a dog assume that I’m joining them on the floor for a nap.

It’s only been a week so I haven’t really noticed much change and like I said onions are in almost everything so I’m still eating high FODMAPS from time to time. My stomach has been a little calmer and the bloating seems to have subsided for the time being. Yoga is great just before bed and after a hot shower I’m now sleeping like a baby rather than waking up with a stomach ache at 2am.

I’m also considering a name change so but am yet to commit. I’m not even on the FODMAP diet so it seems a bit odd for the blog to named after it.

Watch this space!

Triece x

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Most people who think they have a food allergy or intolerance are just paranoid….Really?

 

A little impromptu post I’m on a roll after my 1st ever blog (if you haven’t read it please check it out here).  So I was doing my obligatory daily mail scan after getting through my work e-mail for the the day when I came across an article titled ‘Most people who think they have a food allergy or intolerance are just paranoid’ written by Dr Ranj Singh who is a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in addition to being a popular media medical professions. On first reading it I felt as if thought he was calling me a hypochondriac ( a name I have become very sensitive to) but he wasn’t and I have to say I agree with what he has said. 

People always seem to be dieting. With the increase of celebrities lifestyle in the media, online self diagnoses, and the constant tales of our increasing waistlines the word diet has become a dirty word (in my opinion) . People are constantly looking to better themselves and improve they way they look which usual starts with their physical image but instead of going to the GP/dietician/personal trainer  for advice people look at how a desirable celeb did it. Now this is wrong for so many reason but what I have found most people desires are usually of someone with a different body type. I would love to have Beyonce curves (on a slightly smaller scale) but have the body of Victoria Beckham and without surgery there isn’t much I can do to change that.

Now I naturally have a slim build and am of Caribbean decent so I feel a little cheated. I expected to have more fat in the places that count but I lucked out so the idea of dieting has always been offensive. I sickened by the constant suggestions that both men and woman should be dieting. You can’t go anywhere with out this being enforced I recently had to speak with a manager in Tesco store due to  only being a able to buy low fat yoghurt because that’s what was on the shelf. I admit at the time I did think it was a bit petty but considering people often seem to show a great amount of concern about my slimness/petiteness/skinniness and always think as they are concerned about my health they can comment but If I were to make comment it’s fat shaming. We live in a society that constantly reinvents what beautiful is and are brainwashed into thinking that if they (people in the public eye) diet in a certain way we can too.

Getting back to the article by Dr Singh. More and more people seem to claiming some sort of aliment. Food has become conceptual. It is no longer an product of substance but a FAD. We all know that to correctly loose or gain weight you need to eat healthy balanced meals and exercise. Their isn’t an quick solution.

I haven’t yet started the FODMAP diet, as mentioned I wont be starting January (I’ll be seeing the specialist then and explain more in my next post) but I have gone and spoken to my GP about the diet as I had concerns. I hear many people loose weight, something I can’t afford to do, I already have a low immune system so want to be sure that I wont need to take any additional vitamins or supplements ( I’m already taking Vitamin D to balance out a deficiency). Not to toot my own horn but I think people need really think about the diets they put themselves on and consult their dieticians more often. This is going to be a lot to commit to and I’m sure the reality is worse then what I’m imagining (goodbye take-out Friday) but I’m slowly coming to terms with it and making the transition from anything and everything to low FODMAP foods. 

Any who thanks for reading, I know it was a little rantish! 

What’s wrong with me?

Hi,

Welcome to my first post. I know I’ve taken a while to get this out and for that I apologise, it’s wasn’t a case of not finding the time but more what do I want to share with you. Each time I began to write I found myself trying to explain my journey so far but struggled with how much information I wanted to share. I’m sure most of you know our symptoms aren’t something you go into too much detail about unless your amongst close friends and family and even then it’s questionable. I’m hoping with each post it gets easier and easier and I’ll open up.

So let me try and explain a little bit about me and why I decided to write a blog…

For the past four years my life has been hellish, I’ve learned to live in constant pain and/or discomfort ( I have 2 dogs, 2 snakes and bills to pay no sick days for me =( ). The symptoms have varied and I’m not sure how it is for you but internal pain is just so confusing. The pain/discomfort is almost always indescribable, I just know that something is wrong and my insides don’t feel right (when you know, you know).  This has been one of my biggest issues when visiting the GP trying to explain my symptoms. For example indigestion, I only realised that this was one of my symptoms about a year ago after endless complaining on my part about feeling uncomfortable whilst trying to go to sleep when my boyfriend turned to me with a dead stare and says ‘ It sounds like indigestion’ then rolled back over to try and sleep but how do you know. So I did what we all do and googled it and I have to say it checked out, I had indigestion.

This illness has been as much about self awareness as it has been about being diagnosed. I’ve gone back and forth with symptoms for years and found that I have had to self diagnose myself in order to get them digging. I’m no doctor so it’s been tuff and have seen all types of specialist that have seen me and given me the OK (How’s this for a title: Doctor Colonel World – Liver Specialist, I loved seeing him for the title alone). It is now being suggested that I have IBS and should look at the FODMAP diet which brings me here. Having looked into IBS and other related illness I think that what I’m eating is having a major impact on how I’m feeling (I’m suddenly having flashbacks of being in severe pain usually after eating a large meal). Which explained my weight loss and lack of appetite towards food in addition to feeling uncomfortable, tired, nauseas on a constant basis.

I’m currently waiting for an appointment for a Gastroenterology lower GI (Pretty sure that’s a fancy way of saying colonoscopy) and mentally preparing to commit to doing the FODMAP diet in January. Here I will tell of my journey hoping it makes someone else’s struggles a little easier.

My boyfriend was a chef and most of his friends still are. My free time was spent eating out and consuming cocktails realising what I’m about to take on hasn’t quite hit me yet so you be aware of the occasional rant!