Re-introducing foods

I haven't been posting many recipes lately and there have been two very good reasons for that.

One was the early stages of my pregnancy (I am 27 weeks now) where I was too nauseous to go near food and too tired to cook.

The second reason is that I have been re-introducing challenge foods. I have been on this diet since I started this blog (2 years?) and I tried to re-introduce FODMAPs foods in the past with very little success. However, lately, (maybe to do with my pregnancy hormones??), I have been able to do so without nasty tummy troubles. I'm still not eating everything, I am taking it easy with garlic (starting next week...), onions, cabbage, peppers and the like. I have re-introduced gluten, dairy, fruits and small portions of canned legumes.

Two years is quite a long time to be on a diet. I have to say this diet helped my IBS a lot but it didn't cure it. I was able to manage the symptoms but I did have bad days too...

I had already been trying to re-introduce some foods but the final push to do this on a bigger and faster scale was an appointment I had with a gastroenterologist a few weeks ago. After over a year waiting for an appointment (can't afford to go private) and three hours in the waiting room he told me that I still have to wait a little longer as no tests can be done while I'm pregnant. Just my luck.
Anyhow, I have my next appointment in February and I was told to eat a normal diet for at least 1 month/2 months prior to the tests. So, with the encouragement of a professional (yippee...) I am trying to leave the low FODMAP diet slowly behind.

Good luck and good health to all of you following this diet.

Elimination Diet Link

A friend of mine passed me this link before Christmas. He suffers from IBS and goes into this elimination diet from time to time. He cuts sugar and any other foods likely to cause allergies and then re-introduces them. He suffered from adult acne (like me) but since he started on these "detoxes" his skin cleared up.

I really was not in the mood to start any diet right before Christmas and I'm afraid to say that I still ain't. I think you have to be mentally prepared to embark on an elimination diet and stick to it. But
if you are this link is a very good starting point.

Dr Joe Fitzgibbon has a clinic in Dublin. I have never been to it but you can download and print the elimination diet from his website for free. It guides you through it step by step.

http://www.joefitzgibbon.ie/dp.php?c=resources

Meditate while sweeping

I found a little article on the Irish Daily Mail "Life & Soul" pullout last week.  It was called MEDITATION made easy: find serenity while sweeping. I think it's an extract from "The meditation bible" by Madonna Gauding.

I found it so simple and so worth giving it a try that I had to write it down in my blog for future reference.

TO START: Think of any past negativity  you would like to purify, or any mental debris you would like to clear.
STEP 1: Pick up your broom - this meditation is better when sweeping than when using a vacuum - and stand in the area you plan to clean.
STEP 2: Examine the area to be cleaned for dust or dirt. See this dirt (noticeable or subtle) as negativity residing in your own mind and heart.
Imagine that, as you sweep, the negativity will be sweapt away, too.
If you have been unkind to your partner, or hurt a friend, see the dirt as these past actions.
STEP 3: Start sweeping. Focus only on the dirt, the broom and the area to be cleaned. See and feel your negativity leaving your mind and heart.
Sweep away both your potential future negative acts, and your present doubts and fears.
STEP 4: End your meditation by throwing the dirt away into the bin. See your negativity go with it.

To Love Yourself

This blog has become my diary. I don't know if anybody actually reads it or if people just stumble upon it but it has become a point of reference for me. I can look up my recipes or the FODMAP list anywhere now.

Sara Stacey has a health column on the Irish Daily Mail magazine and last week she published some strategies for a calm mind. I want to keep my favourite five in my blog so I can have a look at them anytime I need a little pick me up. Here they are:

• Be loving to yourself: don't rely on others for your self-esteem, give yourself permission to get things wrong, acknowledge it and move on.

• Count your blessings before bed: think of three nice things that happened today (a sunrise, a great cup of coffee...).

• When you wake, decide that just for today you'll be as happy as you can.

 

• Never lose hope: if it seems to be slipping away, phone a supportive friend and share the problem. But don't dwell on it afterwards.

• Make things fun: wear bright colours, put on make-up, do your hair, play music during tedious chores, reward yourself with flowers or a movie.

Homemade remedy for diarrhoea

Mix the juice of 2 lemons, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate, 4 teaspoons of sugar and 1 litre of boiled water. Sip.

Cravings

I had a really hard time with cravings last week. I was very good until the weekend when I had some pork chops coated with a lemon sauce from my local butcher. They tasted delicious but was it worth the suffering afterwards? My stomach got really bloated nearly straight away and continued bloated the following day when I spent the morning in the bathroom. The bloating subsided gradually but it left me feeling tired for nearly three days.

The thing is I thought I was being good... I had being craving take-aways for a few days and this seemed like a good compromise. And yet I have been avoiding anything with coatings and sauces since I started this diet and trying to always make my own. It didn't even have any listed ingredients, what was I thinking? I wasn't I guess, I was feeling better and I didn't feel like watching my diet.

I miss dairy. A lot. I love creamy sauces, cream, yogurts and cheese. Specially cheese. It wasn't so hard when I was eating soya. There are soya substitutes for everything, I could have my creamy sauces, yogurts, custards... By the way soya is in everything! Try and find gluten free breads, cakes or dairy free treats on the supermarket shelves that don't contain soya . Even normal sliced bread has soya flour in it.

I don't want to eat soya just because as a legume is a FODMAP food and can impair digestion but because I have read so much bad press about it. Apparently soya beans are only fit for human consumption in their fermented form and their hormone-like molecules seem to have an adverse effect on children's growth (which makes me wary of giving my son bread containing soya flour but he doesn't like the texture of gluten free bread).

Anyway, I think this weekend I got a little reminder of the reasons why I'm following this diet. I feel better on it.