IBS-D is ruining my life

[Guest]

Sounds dramatic, but that's how it feels I'm now getting too anxious to go anywhere or do anything. I've tried whole30s before, but I have found my gut isn't too happy with a lot of fat, and 2 cups of vegetables per meal (low fodmap veggies cooked well) doesn't always go down well. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions? 

[anramsey23]

Have you tried the Whole30 for autoimmune disorders? It might be easier on your stomach. My daughter has this as well, I don't know if you are doing these things but they have helped her tremendously. A good probiotic, Doterra Digestzen capsules and the essential oil, Fiber pills 4 daily, lots n lots of water.

[Carlaccini]

I have recently started playing around with low fodmap foods as I was experiencing some pretty long term gut distress.  My gut is getting to be much happier - but yeah it's hard.

 

Maybe look into - low histamine.  I have heard that when you feel your body reacts to almost everything and anything that there might be some issues with histamines.  Chriss Kresser's website is a great place to get more info on this.

 

In the end - Stress can and will exacerbate all gut issues.  That is kind of what happened with me.  My spouse had a heart attack Dec 1, 2014. (he's doing well now) Just prior to that I got news that my uncle has terminal cancer.  So to say I was overwhelmed was a bit of an understatement.  Jan 5th I did another whole 30 in order to bring my stress levels down - but I noticed that I my gut was pretty distressed most of the time.  After writing things down and how I was feeling - I was able to pinpoint some of the culprits.  Low an behold they were all high fodmap foods.  

 

So maybe start recording what you are eating, how you are feeling, sleeping, etc - it might give you some insight on where you need to take this next.

 

My best of luck to you.  Keep your chin up - you will get through this.  You have been through a lot and have proven that you are lot stronger than you think you are.

[Guest]

thankyou both for the kind words  

[praxisproject]

How are you feeling?

[Guest]

terrible, completely fallen off the bandwagon

[SueBee04]

Hi I am on day 27 of W30 and today I spent a lot of time in the bathroom. This has happened several times in the last week. I thought that this new way of eating had chronic morning diarrhea under control but it seems to be making a comeback. I was thinking that it may be the coffee in the morning causing it but it doesn't happen everyday. I like the idea of keeping track of food and symptoms to find a pattern so I will be starting a food journal. I have not been diagnosed with anything officially but I have been having problems with morning diarrhea for several months and thought I found the culprit in my Magnesium supplement, which I quit taking except for what is in my calcium supplement. I can't quite put my finger on the cause; very frustrating. In highschool and on and off through my 30s I had an eating disorder and having diarrhea was a way of life. Now I just want to be happy and healthy and I get chronic diarrhea LOL.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks and I wish you all well.

[Guest Andria]

Hi I am on day 27 of W30 and today I spent a lot of time in the bathroom. This has happened several times in the last week. I thought that this new way of eating had chronic morning diarrhea under control but it seems to be making a comeback. I was thinking that it may be the coffee in the morning causing it but it doesn't happen everyday. I like the idea of keeping track of food and symptoms to find a pattern so I will be starting a food journal. I have not been diagnosed with anything officially but I have been having problems with morning diarrhea for several months and thought I found the culprit in my Magnesium supplement, which I quit taking except for what is in my calcium supplement. I can't quite put my finger on the cause; very frustrating. In highschool and on and off through my 30s I had an eating disorder and having diarrhea was a way of life. Now I just want to be happy and healthy and I get chronic diarrhea LOL.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks and I wish you all well.

SueBee, have you tried the standard recommendations: HCl and digestive enzymes with each meal and probiotics/fermented foods at least 1x/day?

 

Also, if you want to post a couple days worth of meals we might be able to offer some tweaks that could be helpful.  For instance, too many nuts/nut butters and raw veggies can be problems for many people, especially for those with IBS symptoms.

 

Additionally, you made mention of a long history with an eating disorder and digestive issues, it may take you more than the 30 days to heal your gut.  Home made bone broth can be particularly helpful in gut healing.

[SueBee04]

Thanks for the feedback Andria. So today I had 4 eggs scrambled and that was all because it was grocery day and I was out of everything! Lunch was tilapia fillet broccoli rabe sauteed and spaghetti squash. i munched on some coconut chips in the car. I still felt very hungry because of my tiny breakfast plus I had lifted weights at the gym. I got to my sister's house and she was making lunch and I ate a hardboiled egg and some peas. For dinner I had 5 oz New York Strip Steak and half sweet potato and sauteed cauliflower with a small strawberry and watermelon salad. I made some cinnamon toasted coconut flakes for a snack while I watch a movie.

This is not quite a typical day. It was a busy day for me and I felt hungry a lot! My typical breakfast is 3 eggs with veg and meat and fat.

I will see how I do tomorrow morning. This morning was better than yesterday that is for sure. Maybe too much salad with raw veggies last week.

Thanks again. I am going to journal my food log on the journal forum. Look for patterns.

[SueBee04]

Oh and yes I want to make the bone broth. Just have to get my butt to the butcher shop!

[Guest Andria]

Logging your food is an excellent idea to help you find any patterns.

 

You might consider only eating cooked veggies until you get things straightened out.

 

 I understand the your food/meals today were atypical, but do try to limit the snack stuff - coconut chips.  If you are hungry enough to eat between meals you should be having a mini-meal of protein,veg,fat and ultimately work toward making the previous meal larger so you can go 4-5 hours until your next meal. The litmus test for hungry is that you are hungry enough to eat fish and steamed veggies.  Additionally, the purpose of the Whole30 is to change your mindset about food.  Snacking while watching a movie is not something we recommend since it perpetuates our old food habits.  To your digestive issues, coconut can be hard for people to digest, so you may want to leave out the coconut for the time being.

 

What type of peas did you have? Peas are legumes and not allowed on Whole30. Hopefully, you had sugar snap or snow peas. When the are still immature seeds in the pod they are OK to eat during your Whole30.

[SueBee04]

Thanks Andria for giving me such great feedback. I know I have to cut out snacking but I seriously blame the bad decisions later in the day on a poor breakfast. Letting my supplies get too low was a mistake and now I am stocked up and my breakfast the last two days was 2 cups sauteed swiss chard, 3 oz pork sausage, mushrooms, green onion and 2 eggs and avocado. I had a can of tuna with compliant mayo and avocado on butter lettuce and watermelon at lunch. I had steamed spinach and eggs and roasted red potato for dinner.

I just put a pork shoulder roast in the crock pot to make Kalua Pig from Nom Nom Paleo recipe. Yum, can't wait for dinner!

So I have had a better few days as far as symptoms so I think it was all the raw veggie salads I ate last week. I had a big container of greens I didn't want to go to waste so I ate more raw veggies than normal. I am still getting used to buying so much food at once.

Nor more coconut chips and normally I was eating sugar snap peas but my sister did make regular frozen peas and I didn't realize that they were not allowed. Ah well; live and learn. I don't normally eat them or any other legumes since I don't care for how they make me feel so I know I won't be going back to them at least.

[Guest Andria]

Your welcome

 

Hey, I totally hear you on snacking later in the day due to a less than ideal breakfast.  I have been there before! It's amazing how predictable it is.  As moderators we try to explain to new members how important breakfast is and they don't believe it until they try it and find that their cravings and desire to snack later in the day greatly diminishes.

 

Oh, and I can relate on the raw veggies! They are absolutely not my friend (kind of the exact opposite problem than yours), but I had a bunch of raw veggies at the beginning of spring and was craving a salad. Then boom: bad digestive symptoms.

 

Glad to hear your symptoms are improving!

[jeetay]

Wow, my system sounds like SueBee's. I just finished my Whole30 but for now am going to keep it going. I too have not been diagnosed w/ IBS or IBD but I wonder what is causing my problems (I do have fibromyalgia). For the most part I have only been eating cooked vegetables but I have been having 2-3 servings of fruit. Probably at least 4x a week I have a banana with homemade raw cashew butter in the morning but may have an apple or pear (which I'm stopping w/ the pear for now b/c I know that can help if one is constipated and since it has the opposite effects, I figure I'll cut it out for now, I just like the taste), berries, or mango if they are ripe. But I end up in the bathroom each morning at least 3 times. I started having the problems before Whole30 and have tried different probiotics but w/out success. I'm going to give a different brand that my sister has been using a try. I've looked at the list to avoid for IBS/IBS and although I would only need to cut out the fruit and nuts completely (I don't drink coffee, I do drink a lot of water and take a high quality fish oil I've taken in the past w/ good results), cutting out the High FODMAP vegetables include my 5 basic go to veggies (Yikes!).

 

It is frustrating and am open to feedback. My sister kept asking me if felt I had more energy and I have to say I haven't had any of the great results I've read about. I did decide to do this for the medical reasons as I also have chronic migraines (and after 20 years my doctor and I still don't know why) and I figured it would take a while, but to not have any change is disappointing. And I didn't even lose weight!! I'm have maintained my goal with Weight Watchers, but I was hoping to lose about 4 pounds to be at the lower end of my goal. It has been a scary process to not be weighing and measuring but I didn't do so and I guess maintaining my weight w/out measuring everything is a success for me in and of itself.

[ShannonM816]

Wow, my system sounds like SueBee's. I just finished my Whole30 but for now am going to keep it going. I too have not been diagnosed w/ IBS or IBD but I wonder what is causing my problems (I do have fibromyalgia). For the most part I have only been eating cooked vegetables but I have been having 2-3 servings of fruit. Probably at least 4x a week I have a banana with homemade raw cashew butter in the morning but may have an apple or pear (which I'm stopping w/ the pear for now b/c I know that can help if one is constipated and since it has the opposite effects, I figure I'll cut it out for now, I just like the taste), berries, or mango if they are ripe. But I end up in the bathroom each morning at least 3 times. I started having the problems before Whole30 and have tried different probiotics but w/out success. I'm going to give a different brand that my sister has been using a try. I've looked at the list to avoid for IBS/IBS and although I would only need to cut out the fruit and nuts completely (I don't drink coffee, I do drink a lot of water and take a high quality fish oil I've taken in the past w/ good results), cutting out the High FODMAP vegetables include my 5 basic go to veggies (Yikes!).

 

It is frustrating and am open to feedback. My sister kept asking me if felt I had more energy and I have to say I haven't had any of the great results I've read about. I did decide to do this for the medical reasons as I also have chronic migraines (and after 20 years my doctor and I still don't know why) and I figured it would take a while, but to not have any change is disappointing. And I didn't even lose weight!! I'm have maintained my goal with Weight Watchers, but I was hoping to lose about 4 pounds to be at the lower end of my goal. It has been a scary process to not be weighing and measuring but I didn't do so and I guess maintaining my weight w/out measuring everything is a success for me in and of itself.

 

I'm sorry you're not getting the results you hoped for, and I know that it is definitely frustrating, especially when you read about people who have such huge changes.

 

I'd really recommending posting a few days' worth of food (including approximate portion sizes based on the meal template), exercise, water intake, sleep, and anything else you think might be relevant, and we may be able to help you figure out things you could try to see if it would help.