coffeetime (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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lifting_heavy_things2014-02-23 12:41 pm
coffeetime) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2014-02-23 12:41 pm
dietary downer
No matter how great the rest of my body feels when I'm eating fewer carbs and more protein and vegetables, my guts HATE it. My IBS has gotten so much worse in the past two years. I'm now on yet another medication to try to control it, but the thing that helps the most is just not eating anything with fiber, especially vegetable fiber. Low-fiber vegetables include cucumbers and zucchini. (Before anyone asks, yes, I've been tested for celiac disease and I've been thoroughly examined inside for IBD, and I don't have those things.)
I was sort of limping by and still eating other things that I really love, like kale (well cooked), carrots, a few bites of sweet potato (any more than that and I'd pay), green beans, spinach, gai lan, bell peppers...all the good stuff. But then I came down with norovirus and couldn't eat much of anything for a couple of days, and it went on and on for most of a week during which I survived on toast and frozen french fries (anything I could keep down/in, really). I saw my doctor near the end of this period, for the purpose of discussing new meds and getting the prescription, and he said that if I'm unable to tolerate the meds I could "consider the Atkins diet." ACK. I think this will actually not work for me, because Atkins allows all kinds of stuff that my gut won't tolerate, such as broccoli and garlic. Later I talked with a sympathetic co-worker who has similar IBS and she let me know some of her diet survival skills, which include eating no vegetables except lettuce, spinach and carrots, extremely small amounts of fat, and lots of white refined carbs, because even brown rice or a slice of wheat toast gives her hellacious pain. Is this my next step? My husband, a biologist, points out that I'll "get cancer" eating like this.
I just want to have a nice chopped salad and a big piece of fish; is it so much to ask? Apparently it is, because a meal like that means 24+ hours of cramps, pain, gas that stays in my clothes for up to an hour, and numerous runs to the bathroom. Imodium slows but does not stop it. This makes a lot of activities hard, such as working my office job (my poor co-workers, OMG) and going to the gym (hard to deadlift if you've got the runs). So ever since I got sick, even though I'm not in bed anymore, I've continued eating like an invalid: toast, pretzels, rice, baked potatoes (no skin), cheese and yogurt. I tried eating an egg and ended up with nausea for an hour. I made a burger one night and was up half the night dealing with the side effects. So, essentially sick-people food. Eating like this, I have almost no pain, and no other symptoms.
The thing that bugs me the most: how am I going to maintain a healthy weight and muscle mass as I get older (I'm 48 now) and get stronger, if I have to live on white carbs and cheese? I have seen several dietitians in the past few years, all of whom have answered, "Gosh, I don't know."
I was sort of limping by and still eating other things that I really love, like kale (well cooked), carrots, a few bites of sweet potato (any more than that and I'd pay), green beans, spinach, gai lan, bell peppers...all the good stuff. But then I came down with norovirus and couldn't eat much of anything for a couple of days, and it went on and on for most of a week during which I survived on toast and frozen french fries (anything I could keep down/in, really). I saw my doctor near the end of this period, for the purpose of discussing new meds and getting the prescription, and he said that if I'm unable to tolerate the meds I could "consider the Atkins diet." ACK. I think this will actually not work for me, because Atkins allows all kinds of stuff that my gut won't tolerate, such as broccoli and garlic. Later I talked with a sympathetic co-worker who has similar IBS and she let me know some of her diet survival skills, which include eating no vegetables except lettuce, spinach and carrots, extremely small amounts of fat, and lots of white refined carbs, because even brown rice or a slice of wheat toast gives her hellacious pain. Is this my next step? My husband, a biologist, points out that I'll "get cancer" eating like this.
I just want to have a nice chopped salad and a big piece of fish; is it so much to ask? Apparently it is, because a meal like that means 24+ hours of cramps, pain, gas that stays in my clothes for up to an hour, and numerous runs to the bathroom. Imodium slows but does not stop it. This makes a lot of activities hard, such as working my office job (my poor co-workers, OMG) and going to the gym (hard to deadlift if you've got the runs). So ever since I got sick, even though I'm not in bed anymore, I've continued eating like an invalid: toast, pretzels, rice, baked potatoes (no skin), cheese and yogurt. I tried eating an egg and ended up with nausea for an hour. I made a burger one night and was up half the night dealing with the side effects. So, essentially sick-people food. Eating like this, I have almost no pain, and no other symptoms.
The thing that bugs me the most: how am I going to maintain a healthy weight and muscle mass as I get older (I'm 48 now) and get stronger, if I have to live on white carbs and cheese? I have seen several dietitians in the past few years, all of whom have answered, "Gosh, I don't know."
no subject
Gluten-free as part of a recommended low-FODMAP diet all last summer, about 8 weeks. No improvement.
I do like yogurt and I can tolerate about 4 ounces a day as long as I'm not eating cheese that day. Too much dairy is ouchy!
I'm hoping I am just recovering and things will get better soon! I felt totally dreadful all day...
no subject
Aaargh, how frustrating. Worth doing, I guess, as something to rule out, but how frustrating nevertheless.
I'm hoping I am just recovering and things will get better soon!
Fingers crossed!
Belated thought:
the thing that helps the most is just not eating anything with fiber, especially vegetable fiber.
What about getting one of those juicers that people don't like because they extract so much of the fibre? *g* I'm wondering if you might be able to tolerate some vegetables juiced, and get some of the micronutrients that way.
Green tea and various herbal teas might also be good sources of anti-oxidants, if you can tolerate them.
no subject
no subject
Yes, it must be. I have something which is probably interstitial cystitis (no official diagnosis because that requires a biopsy, which my doctor and I agreed not to go for since it's mostly controlled by diet), so I am not unfamiliar with the "ooh, let's see if this will cause a horrible reaction" game. Not to mention the "guess which of the things I ate was the one which sent me to the bathroom at 15-minute intervals all through the night" game.
It might be an option to stick with the "invalid diet" for a few weeks more --"almost no pain, and no other symptoms" is not a small deal, and it gives your digestive tract more time to heal, and you some time when you're not having to think about this stuff. Then you could start adding in other things again, beginning with things you could tolerate before.
It may not be nutritionally optimal, obviously (without supplementing protein and vitamins, at least), but a couple of weeks of it isn't long enough for major deficiencies to set in.
Hopefully it's a temporary blip caused by the virus, and you can at least get back to enjoying some of the things you could manage before.
no subject
Yes...and maybe it's an opportunity to get more precise about what really makes me the sickest. I was just eating-things-anyway and living with some pretty nasty symptoms for many months before virus, but the doctor did point out that this was not much of an improvement. He still thinks medication is going to help.
no subject
Good point. You can treat it as an elimination diet.