Day 30- so it's been a month now!

I've been finding different recipes and ideas on places like,Pinterest and Instagram, as I'm incredibly bored with what I'm eating at the moment.

I had an uncomfortable evening last night, slept ok, but woke with a very hardened lumpy belly like I used to every morning pre FODMAP, so it was quite obviously those awful chips.

I have chips at home, but they are oven chips that we cook in the air fryer, or we make our own. There is hardly any fat on either versions and they taste lovely done in the air fryer. 

So today so far...

Breakfast:

porridge l/f milk

Literally a mouthful of oineapple juice to swallow my meds with.

Mid Morning:

Redbush tea

Banana

I'll be back later to log the rest :)

Day 28-29 -oops, forgot again:-/

Ok, so. Genuinely have no idea what I ate on day 28, so best to just brush over that :-/

I do know I had low fat chipolatas, mashed potatoe, green beans and carrots for dinner, but don't remember the rest, breakfast would have been the same, but lunch is a mystery.

Day 29 goes like this....

Breakfast:

Porridge, with 3 fresh strawberries,

Redbush tea

Mid Morning:

redbush tea

Lunch:

Two slices of browns seeded bread a banana

Redbush tea

Mid afternoon:

Redbush tea

I was out with my kids straight from school and we didn't get back till late, so dinner was an appalling choice.

Dinner:

Chip shop chips. -over cooked and very greasy, my system was not impressed :-/ 

Evening:

Redbush tea and tummy ache :(

Day 25-27 -I've been slacking with the blog, but not the diet.

Yes, I've been a naughty girl again and not filled out the blog for a few days :-/ Oops.

I just sat down to catch up on it, and I can't remember what on earth I've eaten.

I know one after I had a portion of McD fries and didn't feel well that afternoon, yet I've had them once before whilst doing this and was fine.

Another day I thought I'd try the choc again....and was fine, whereas before I was in a bit of a pickle.

I think this is what I find so frustrating, the not knowing. If it was a case of knowing to avoid X,Y and Z, then I simply wouldn't eat them of course. 

I was hoping once starting this I could see if there was a build up over either the day, or days, that led to the episode and that would explain why. But there really seems no sense in it, as apart from those two naughty things, my diet has been incredibly no and and FODMAP friendly the past few days.

I have to say I'm finding it quite tedious at the moment, so am hopefully to find some knew recipes to try, as I'm bored, bored, bored. Though my youngest and I made sushi yesterday, which I adore and could happily eat everyday, so that was nice :)

I've been looking around on Instagram and have come across some quite motivating FODMAP followers, so I'm hoping that may inspire me to be a tad more adventurous. Most of them seem to be in Australia though and obviously they are way ahead of us with it all. I hope one day thr FODMAP friendly food logo finds itself across here too, that would be fab! 

So today's diary...

Breakfast:

porridge, l/f milk

Redbush tea

Mid Morning:

redbush Tea

Lunch:

g/f bread, ham, salad, hula hoops,

L/f yogurt

Redbush tea

G/f muffin (shop bought)

Mid afternoon:

Redbush tea

Dinner:

G/f pizza base, chopped tomatoes, ham & pineapple chunks.

Fruit salad (taking into account the weight of the pineapple chunks too, so as not to exceed the 80g).

Redbush Tea.

Kids are back at school tomorrow, so I need to motivate myself to eat during the day, as I'm a sod for not doing so. I'm determined to carry on as I am though, as I know it makes the digestive system happier.

Fingers crossed....

Day 24- Back on track

After yesterday's eating next to nothing till the evening, I'm feeling a lot better today, thank goodness :)

Breakfast:

Porridge, redbush tea

Mid morning:

Nothing

Lunch:

Brown g/f bread, ham and cheese , carrot sticks

Lactose free yogurt

Redbush tea

Mid afternoon:

Redbush tea, oat biscuit x 2

Dinner:

Brown rice, tuna, carrots and green beans

Water

Evening:

Redbush x2 2 oats biscuits

Day 23- Urghh.

So, if you read yesterday's post, you'll know I had chocolate as a treat. I then had some fruit later that seemed to be past it's best and during the evening had quite strong pains.

The pains did die down throughout the evening and I just felt mildly sore, but in the early hours of this morning I woke to awful stabbing pains down the left hand side of my abdomen, nothing I did would bring any relief from the pain, so laid there drifting in and out of sleep for hours.

When I got up properly this morning, my entire left hand side of my body aches, I think I have been laid so still, and so tense due to the pain that my muscles now ache, something that used to happen a lot. The pains in the stomach were still there, but not as strong and sharp.

After a while I decided to brave some food...

Breakfast:

Porridge, lactose fee milk

About an hour later I had my redbush tea and pills.

My tummy still doesn't feel right,but it's the after pains that I tended to get the day after a bad attack that I seem to be getting today.

Mid morning: 

Nothing

Lunch:

Nothing

Mid afternoon:

Banana, redbush tea

Dinner:

Homemade fish pie and veg

Squash

Evening:

Rebush x loads :) 

2 oat biscuits

Day 22 - chocolate :-0

Today has been a shopping frenzy so far. My eldest is going camping soon and needs to be suitably kitted out, so we've been going from me big camping shop to another.

Breakfast:

Porridge ....drumroll please...AND two strawberries cut up in thr porridge! Check me living life on the edge ;)

Redbush tea

Mid Morning:

Nothing

Lunch:

Phillidelphia and salad sandwich, veg sticks (carrot & pepper)

Lactose free yogurt

CHOCOLATE!! Omg that tasted soooo good! 

Tesco have all their Easter eggs reduced and I could resist bringing one home! I remember my fodmap leaflets said I could have malteasers, so I bought a Malteser egg and I've just had a little bar of malteaser choc. Wow.  I want to eat the whole thing now, but shall restrain myself.

I really hope my tummy doesn't hate me for this....pleeeease tum be good! 

Redbush tea

Mid afternoon:

4 left over chunks of kiwi, it tasted stronger than normal, so am now wondering if I should have eaten it. Hope it wasn't going off.

Dinner:

Gammon, roast potatoes, green beans, carrots.

Pineapple and orange squash

Shortly after I ate the fruit I started to get a very noisey tum, about half hour after I'd had dinner, I started with pains, strong pains. Now was it the chocolate, was it the fruit, was it a mix, was it the raisin biscuits last night?...arrghhh, so complicated to pinpoint :(

Day 21- Easter Day.

Happy Easter. The day of chocolate surrounding me -arghh! 

I didn't sleep very well last night and am feeling the urge to snack to keep me awake. I'm trying my best not to, which to be honest isn't very difficult, as there's nothing great here for me to snack on really.

Breakfast:

Porridge, l/f milk

Redbush Tea

Mid morning:

Nothing

Lunch:

Phillidelphia cheese, cucumber, lettuce & salad cream sandwich, brown seeded bread.

Hula hoops

Carrot sticks

Redbush Tea

Mid afternoon:

Banana

It's now nearly 5pm, I'm really quite hungry and the Easter eggs keep calling me :-/ No dammit, be quiet Easter eggs, leave me alone! :( 

Dinner:

Chicken, mashed potatoe, green beans and carrots.

Orange and pineapple squash

Evening:

Nairns oat and raisin biscuits

Redbush tea x2

Day 20 - looks promising.

Today I have really fancy some chocolate. I think it's all this talk of Easter eggs everyone seems to be doing :( Although I know I can have small amounts of chocolate, I'm a all or nothing type of person, so can't guarantee that I'll stop at a little, so am avoiding altogether really :-/

Breakfast:

Porridge l/f milk, redbush tea

Mid Mornng:

Nothing

To ease my sweet cravings, I treated myself to a scrummy lunch :)

Lunch:

Peanut butter & Jam sandwich :) 

Hula hoops

Carrot sticks

80g fresh fruit salad (kiwi, melon, strawberry.

Mid afternoon:

Banana

Dinner:

G/f pizza base, topped with chopped tomatoes, tuna and cheddar. 

Oven chips

Lactose free yogurt.

Redbush tea

I wasn't sure what the tuna would be like, but it was what I didn't use for yesterday's dinner, so thought is give it a try, it was very nice :)

Evenig:

Redbush tea x3

I have felt like my insides have been really settled at the moment, I'm hoping this is the start of the new me :-D

Day 19 - Good Friday

Today has been a suitably chilled out day and not a lot of anything has been done which has been nice :) 

I've felt incredibly lethargic today, so it's a good job we've had a lazy day really.  The sun decided to join us again, it disappeared yesterday, so it was lovely to sit and relax in the warm conservatory for the day :) 

The guinea pigs got to play outside for a while too, which is always nice to see. One of our guinea pigs has obviously been reading about photo bombing... :-0

Breakfast:
Porridge l/f milk
Redbudsh tea

Mid morning:
2 slices of g/f bread

This random snack was because Lee had been to Tesco and bought me a couple of different loaves to try, so I was doing a taste test. The Tesco Free From seeded brown bread won hands down against the same kind of Warburtons, which was a typical gritty yuk g/f bread. The Tesco own was lovely.

Lunch:
Phillidelphia and cucumber sandwich
Carrot sticks
Hula hoops (Tesco own have no gluten...yay!)

Lactose free strawberry yogurt.

I have been incredibly lethargic this afternoon and it makes my whole body feel like lead, particularly my limbs, I'm trying to see if that seems to be food related, but so far I've not found any obvious links. Though I have been gluten free in the past and when I reintroduced gluten I felt like I'd been run over with a steam roller each time.

Dinner:
Brown rice, carrots, orange pepper, green beans, tuna

Lactose free raspberry yogurt. Mannnnn I lurrrve those yogurts! :-D
Redbudsh tea.

I feel quite stuffed after dinner, I've hard to undo my jeans, I'm not bloated though and in no pain, I just feel like I've eaten an enormous meal, which I haven't, the portion was small, infact smaller than I thought, as I didn't do much rice at all, (everyone else was having something different to me). I think I must just be eating small amounts in general and now when I eat a bigger meal it makes me feel uncomfy, as this happened last night too.

It's now 7.25pm....I'm wondering if I can make it to 8 before nodding off Zzzzzz

Day 18- Easter Egg Hunting

Today my eldest son had an opticians appointment at midday, so I knew this would mean lunch on the go, then he was signing up to the teen gym at our local leisure centre and I was going with him to sort the paperwork etc.
I still can't get I to the mindset of, it will be ok, my digestive system will not cause me havoc, so still tend to err on the side of caution if out for sometime and eat as little as possible, as doing anything or going anywhere with agonising stomach pains is no fun.

Breakfast:
Porridge l/f milk, redbudsh tea

It occurred to me mid morning, that I don't bloat after breakfast now, even though it only used to be a little, each morning after breakfast, my stomach would no longer be flat...not that it's been 'flat' for years, but just as flat as it goes these days, but after breakfast I would have a podged belly shape again. 
It's no longer happening and the only change I've made to my breakfast is the lactose free milk. So something to keep an eye on for sure.

Mid Morning:
Nothing

Lunch:
3 slices of gluten free bread (teeny tiny load, hence the 3 slices!) butter
Redbudsh tea

We then had several hours to kill, so did a couple of Easter egg hunts in town. Alas not to eat, just to enter a competition, it was a. Good way to pass some time.

Mid afternoon:
Redbush tea
Boiled water.

Dinner:
Gluten free chicken burger, chips, peas and sweetcorn. (2tsb of a mix of them)
80g kiwi, strawberry, melon mix

Overall my tum has felt pretty good today, bit stuffed after dinner but morning more than that.

Day 17- Busy, busy, bumblebees...

I've had a good nights sleep and my head feels quite alert today which is great, my body is yet to catch up though.

I've a feeling these posts during the Easter Hols are going to be short and sweet, as I just don't seem to be finding the time to write them throughout the day as today has been very busy.

So this is todays...

Breakfast:
Porridge l/f milk
Redbush Tea.

Mid Morning:
Banana
Redbush Tea

Lunch:
Philidelphia cheese, cucumber and salad cream brown g/f bread sandwich.
Raw carrot
Plain crisps.
L/f strawberry yogurt
Redbush Tea

Mid Afternoon:
Redbush tea x 2

Dinner:
Chipolatoes, mashed potato (l/f milk)
Less than 2 tbs of mixed peas & sweetcorn, green beans.
Orange & Pineapple squash

80g fruit salad - kiwi, strawberry & melon.

Evening:
Redbush Tea x2

Day 16 -haven't written in ages!

Ok, may aswell get the excuses out of the way first...

I had awful period pain and felt generally yuk and totally forgot about the blog, then we went away for the weekend and again, though it intended to keep writing...forgot. It also doesn't help that it's Easter holidays and not only are the kids off school, but the hubby is off for a week, so I keep forgetting. It's been my eldest sons and my husbands birthdays this weekend too, no birthday cake for me though :( -boooo.

So today is Tuesday of week three. I've felt a bit dispondant with everything as my tum as still been upset :(  No agonising pains with it though, so that's a bonus.  I rung my dietician, who is always great and I feel somewhat more reassured that there's still hope for me not to be one if the 30% that it doesn't work for.  There most definitely is an overall improvement though, as I was aware of my digestive system from top to bottom...if you'll pardon the pun, every moment of every day, I don't always feel that now and I am less bloated and can even keep my jeans done u all day -whoo hoo, go me! 

So far I've only had breakfast today, but I'll write it down now before I forget ...again ;) thought let's be honest, there no surprises as to what I've had.

Breakfast: 
Porridge, l/f milk, redbudsh tea.

Mid Morning:
Redbudsh tea x2

So another morning gone already,  all seems happy on the digestive front, let's hope it stays that way :)

Lunch:

Warburtons brown sandwich thins, Philadelphia, cucumber, salad cream. Plain crisps, carrot sticks.

80g of fresh fruit salad. -kiwi, strawberry and melon.

Redbudsh tea.

I'm now off out for a while, so fingers crossed all stays calm :) 

Well, all was calm, seems today has been a good day :)

Dinner:

New potatoes, grated cheese, 2 small cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, salad Cream.

Redbudsh tea.

Crystallised ginger cookie.

Day Ten-Drugged and delusional.

Today has been pretty grim, not food related though, just dreadful period pains so today has been a bit of a medicated blur. 

Breakfast:

Porridge l/f milk, redbudsh 

Mid Morning:

Nothing

Lunch:

Brown roll, but felt too sick due to the meds to eat it.

Redbudsh tea

Dinner:

Brown roll toasted with cheese on.

Several bucketfuls (not literally) of rebush tea throughout the day.

Day Nine- Snack Shopping!

I know that in an ideal world that I probably shouldn't be even contemplating naughty snacks.  People say things like, 'if you're craving something sweet, have a piece of fruit'. 
Quite clearly these people have never had raging hormones that make you want to devour all things bad in under an hour.

I have decided that I'm not going to deprive myself of these things, as basically I will become unbearable and I suffer with my pmt bad enough as it is, yes, I know in the long run cutting it out would probably make me crave it less, but this is real life and I need cake! 

So today I had to go and buy the guinea pigs more food, I should add here, I'm not sooo desperate that I've turned to eating guinea pig food. -bleurgh. But on the way back I thought I'd nip and see if I could get some green beans. Can't say I'm a fan of green beans, but I've been looking back at my diet and apart from salad, I don't seem to be eating many veg since peas and sweetcorn are off the menu.

I got the green beans and a few other veg, then had a little look at the 'free from' section. Same usual stuff, so bought some hideously priced g/f digestives and some g/f biscuit breaks, which are wrapped packs of 4 biscuits, so I thought they might be good to take out in my bag as emergency munchies If I'm out. They do have raisins in them,  but I'm assuming that's ok as you can have a small amount anyway and these will be very scarce I imagine. 

I then nipped to a local shop as one of the lads that work in there kindly text me the other week with a photo of a shelf full of a new range of g/f goodies. I felt awful saying....I'm also now lactose free amongst other things. So I popped him to see him today and see what they had that could be suitable. Most of the things were mixes to make cookies, or bread etc, which I can do myself anyway. But then I saw their own brand, custard creams, bourbons and Oreos. Nom, nom, nom.

With baited breath I turned over the box to read the ingredients and whoo hoo milk free too! 
So I treated myself to a box of Oreo type biscuits. I'm pleased to report that they are divine!
They are made by 'love more' and called 'O choco'.....here they are! It was awful putting these back in the box after taking a photo! 

So, today's food so far... 
Breakfast:
Porridge WITH A BANANA..whoo hoo, check me living wildly! ;) sprinkled with linseed, l/f milk and a mug of r/b tea.

Mid Morning:
No surprises for guessing, r/b tea and an 'o'choco'. I also had 4 small chunks of melon. My husband bought a little tub of melon chunks for me the other day, some of them were watermelon chunks, so I left those, but I'm now wondering as they've been sat mixed and juices of them will have mixed, whether I should have had the other melon at all? I'll have to check on that one.

Now to finish my cuppa and get some boring housework done (yawn).

Lunch:

Really wasn't hungry, but after missing meals yesterday I thought I'd better get back on track. So had just a cheese roll.

Mid Afternoon:

r/b tea 'o'choco' biscuit

Dinner:

The rest of the fodmap friendly meatballs I made, I'd frozen, so I had those with rice, carrots and green beans.

Lactose free raspberry yogurt.

Tea.

Day 8 -close your eyes and don't read this...

Well, I'm almost too embarrassed to actually write what I've eaten today. Let me explain... There's a reason...honest... :-/

I got up this morning, did the usual see the kids off to school, cleaned out the guinea pigs, passed out....oh no, wait a minute, that bit doesn't usually happen. Well, it sometimes does actually, but not on a daily basis. 

I  feeling very odd and realising what was about to happen, I grabbed the wall and delicately slid down it, rather than falling back like a tree who's been chopped down, I've done that before and it hurts!! 

So after I got up, I don't think I fully blacked out, though I don't particularly remember fully what happened, so perhaps I did, but I was sat up, of sorts, can you still be conscious sat up? Anyway, if I did, it would have only been for seconds. I felt a bit woozy, so got up and thought sod it, clambered up the stairs and sat in bed for a while.

I'd already had my breakfast, so it's not like I had an empty tummy, but as I say, it's not the first time and I doubt it'll be the last.

After I felt better I had a shower and got dressed, but my day was all out of synch by then, it felt like first thing in the morning to me and I came down and was pottering around doing stuff, then later realised I was really quite hungry and it was nearly 1, I just wanted to finish doing what I was doing, so carried on...next thing I looked, it was 2.35. Oops. 

So...and here's where I hang my head in shame, I needed a quick fix, which came in the form of a plain bag of crisps and rice cakes....and a cuppa of course.

It's now 4.30pm and I'm contemplating what to cook us for dinner. I'm aware however of a feeling in my tum. Not a pain, not even hurting, just slightly uncomfy. I'm now not sure if this is because I left such a stupid gap between meals, because I ate rubbish or because the rice cakes are covered in 'apple flavouring'. The dietician is aware of this as I queried it, but it's one of the very last ingredients and just says apple flavouring, so it could be apples, or it could be some other sort of flavouring, so he said to give it a go. Today was probably a bad time to try them in hindsight. 

So my appalling diet today is...

Breakfast:

Porridge l/f milk, redbudsh tea.

Mid morning:

Nothing

Lunch:

Nothing...again :-/

Mid afternoon: 

Plain crisps and apple flavoured rice cakes.

Redbudsh tea.

It has to be said that this is not a completely strange day for me, until I've started doing this plan and blogging it, my eating habits were very hit n miss. I was very hit and miss if I ate or not as after a while, as I'm sure anyone else with ibs would agree, after a while you get fed up of eating and feeling awful, so I just didn't really bother. -pathetic, I know, but this is why I'm keeping the blog, to almost force me into eating properly.

...I'm now heading off to rustle up dinner...whilst still hanging my head in shame :-(

Dinner:

New potatoes, lettuce, carrot sticks, sardine in tomato sauce (a tiny bit of sardine, as I decided it was minging!)  cucumber.

Lactose free strawberry yogurt.

Redbudsh tea.

Evening:

g/f chocolate wafer

Redbudsh tea x2

Day Seven -The hot waterbottle is out again :-/

I had a restless night, filled with a horrible dragging sensation in my tum. No 'pain' not like an average IBS attack, just a general urgghhhhh feeling. 'Urggghhhhhh' being a proper medical term obviously :)

So when morning finally arrived, I got up made everyone brekkie in bed, climbed back I of bed with my trusty old friend the hot waterbottle. I don't know where I'd be without the hot waterbottle, it's like a warm magical hug that even if it can't ease the pain, it somehow makes me feel a little better.

I did have the hot waterbottle yesterday evening, the uncomfy feeling was in the same place as this morning, but this morning it felt worse. My pains  are always below my belly button either bang smack in the middle or to one side, but this was just up under my rib cage on the right hand side. The top part of my intestine I imagine. 

When the pain had eased it stayed away for the rest of the day -hooray. I hope it's in no hurry to return.

So what have I had today....

Breakfast: Porridge, l/f milk with a sprinkling of linseed. Redbudsh tea.

I had another drink, but of hot water as I find sometimes that hot drinks help with This 'urghhhh' feeling.

Mid Morning: redbudsh tea.

Lunch:

Brown g/f roll, phillidelphia cheese and salad.

Carrot sticks, 6 grapes....and crisps -yay, ooo they tasted niiice. My eldest son Jack saw some crisps and read the ingredients saying, do you know you can have these? -who am I to say no ;) 

Lactose free strawberry yogurt.

R/b tea.

Mid Afternoon:

Blueberry muffin, r/b tea x2

Dinner:

Well our planned roast dinner ended up not happening as my eldest son went to the cinema with friends and rung to ask if he could have a McD with his friends, so we said ok and we had potato salad instead. Well, the hubby and my youngest did. I decided to be brave and try the quinoa again.

Wow, I think that we should make salad cream the leader of the world. One dollop of salad cream completely changed the taste of the snails eggs...oops, I mean quinoa. 

I actually enjoyed it. 

Once again it didn't look appealing, but it tasted good and that's what matters. 

It was quinoa, grated carrot, cucumber, 2 cherry tomatoes, chopped ham, lettuce...and salad cream -yay!

Redbudsh tea...of course.

I'm pretty sure there have been several other mugs of tea today too as I find it very soothing.

This evening I've had the munchies and actually craved crunchy nut cornflakes...but no honey allowed and we don't have any anyway. 

Butttt, I remembered about the g/f choc wafers. So I snaffled one of those, washed down with another cuppa.

After a very disappointing start to the day, I'm pleased to say it's ended with me feeling ok, so onwards and upwards for tomorrow :) 

Day Six -It's the weekend :)

Hello :)

So the weekend is here. My husband is back from working away all week and this has given me the dilemma of having to fit my food in with everyone else. 
The boys and I often eat alone during the week as my husband is often home very late, or indeed away, so that's not been an issue, but when the hubby doesn't eat lots if things, it makes it somewhat trickier and I really don't want to have to start making a million and one meals on the nights he is home to eat with us.

During the weekend, I think it should be ok. Our weekend food is pretty much the same each weekend. Sandwich for lunch on Saturday and home pizza and chips Saturday evening. I'm not quite sure when Saturday morphed into pizza night, but it somehow did and has now stuck :) we don't have a takeaway pizza, just one to cook in the oven and some oven chips. I'm not the worlds biggest fan of oven chips, but last year we bought an actifry, which is something that 'fried with hot air', you don't add anything to the oven chips, no oil etc and if you are making your own chips from scratch it just takes a teaspoon of oil. The oven chips transform from somewhat dry cardboard type things, into amazingly yummy chips, it's an airfry miracle! It also makes amazing roast potatoes, again just a teaspoon of oil, none of this swimming in lard in the oven -bleurgh. 

I do think fat is a major issue with my system. It's not often Id fry anything at all, as 9times out of 10i know I'll be doubled up in pain. I was a little unsure if I might have this issue with the meatballs, as you fry them to brown them. Infact you were supposed to just fry them full stop, but I just browned them off in the pan, took them out, sat them on kitchen roll to soak any excess oil, then put them in a ovenproof dish, covered it with foil and cooked them for about 15mins. It was a much longer way of doing it, but more gut friendly for me I think.

So it's about 1pm now and Iive just finished lunch, so thought I'm come write this whilst it's fresh in my memory....and tummy :)

Breakfast:  porridge with l/f milk and redbudsh tea -no suprise there 'ey?!

Mid morning: redbudsh tea. I reeeeeeally wanted a blueberry muffin, but was good and didn't. :(

Lunch:  Ham and salad sandwich, fruit salad and blueberry muffin (yay)
Redbudsh tea...of course :)

Now, when having a sarnie at the weekend, we tend to have a satsuma, grapes, cherry tomato maybe too with it, but I was very aware that I wanted some more of that scrummy fruit salad, so didn't have any with mine. My plate looked a tad lonely compared to the others, it made me realise I do eat more fruit than is given myself credit for. When the dietician asked about a typical days diet, my mind went blank and I couldn't really think of anything I eat, but I did say I know I don't eat enough fruit or veg.  

The sandwich itself was filling. The bread is lovely, it's Tesco own Free From brand. It's a brown seeded loaf. I've not had that before (I was gluten free for a year or so a while back) I was pleasantly suprised, it doesn't have that gritty texture that g/f bread often does, it was a decent sized loaf and it actually doesn't fall apart when you pick up your sandwich for a bite -and of course, most importantly, it tastes nice.

I weighed out some fruit salad, kiwi, strawberry and one lonely chunk of melon. I'm allowed 80g, but knew I was having the blueberry muffin, so took that into account too, so aimed for 50g, but ended up with 57g. There's no way there would be nearly 20g of blueberries in the muffin, so I'm sure I'm still well within my limit.

As I'm sat here typing, my tum is making some pretty tuneful berrrrrrrrrr noises. Yes, it's the best description I could come up with :-/ But it doesn't feel, swollen or sore. Some noise is pretty normal for anyone I'm sure....she says hopefully! 

I'm sat in the warm conservatory with my legs up on beanbags to ease my achey hip and I'm finding myself getting decidedly ready for a snoozle. I'm like a cat, filled my belly, curl up infront of the fire and sleep till the next instalment of kitty Kat is offered. Though I'm not sure I fancy kitty Kat for dinner -bleurgh.

I have some gluten free pizza bases in the freezer, so I'll make my own pizza this evening, like I used to when I was gluten free. It has been nice to just all share one pizza since being back on a 'normal' diet, but if it keeps my gut happy, then I'm all for it.

My sluggish digestive system yesterday seems to have woken up again, so that's left me feeling less dragged down kind of feeling. I've been reading this morning that many others have had the same issue when starting out.

I think I'm going to embrace the snoozle monster and have 10mins sat here, my entire body now feels like a dead weight and I have to give in Zzzzzz...

Mid Afternoon:

Redbudsh tea & a small banana

Dinner:

G/f cheese and tomato pizza, cucumber and carrot sticks.

Fruit salad plain yogurt.

As I said before, Saturday is pizza night. I had some mini g/f pizza bases, so set about making mine whilst the other was in the oven. I just put chopped tomatoes on for the base, a small chopped up yellow pepper and topped it with cheddar.

When I got the chips out of the freezer, I checked the ingredients as I had a feeling they were the extra crunchy ones, which means they are covered in flour...and sure enough they were :-( 

So I cut some cucumber and carrot 'chips' for me. *sigh*. 

I forgot how much I actually enjoy the g/f pizza bases, so was looking forward to it.

It was cooked to perfection, cheese bubbles n crisped up, looking yummy. I took it out of the oven...and *splat* and it fell top down ...luckily on my plate, but nevertheless, as I turned it over the  topping stayed on the plate, so I scooped it up and plonked it back on the pizza base...it no longer looked quite as pretty :-/ 

Thankfully, it still tasted yummy.

After the pizza I had 80g of fruit salsa, blueberries, grapes, strawberry melon & kiwi. It was mostly grapes and blueberries. I had a tablespoon of plain yogurt on it. 

This is the first time I've had 'proper' yogurt since starting this plan. Although I know a few tablespoons of yogurt is ok, I've stuck to lactose free....and I did try the soya yogurt, but it wasn't to my taste! Bleurgh. 

I'm very much fancying a blueberry muffin...no shock there....but I'm saving myself for if I still want one this evening. (That's very likely to be a yes ;) ).

Nothing to report on any upsets or anything, all seems to be ticking over just fine n dandy :) 

Day Five -My sweet tooth is on the rampage...

After my slight worry yesterday evening that things may about to kick off after some gurgles, I'm pleased to say if have nothing to report there :) 

I'm in full swing of PMT at the moment, so im craving all things sugar and fat laden, so am finding things quite tricky at the moment. :(

I've been to Tesco today to top up on some Claire friendly bits and pieces. I bought a little fruit pot, with kiwi, strawberry and melon chunks in it (not watermelon, as it's not allowed), it looked rather scrummy. Buying them in pots like that is insanely more expensive, but I think at the moment, a lot less wasteful. 

All those fruits are ok fruits, but even so, you can only have one portion of fruit at one sitting, or in this case, a fruit salad of no more than 80g. 

I weighed out the fruit and my serving was actually 90g, but I wasn't about to cut a strawberry in half, so went with it anyway. I was hoping it'd be a little more than it was as it didn't look much, but to be honest, it was just the right amount to eat.

As I said before I'm craving all things sweet at the moment, so decided to have a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. It didn't occur till after I'd finished lunch that I'm wondering if having the jam and the fruit was a bad idea? Time will tell I guess.

Today would normally be a typical day where I would end up with a really bad episode, I'm just craving anything and everything and on these days I binge. When you have a highly strung intestine at the best of times, it does not tolerate bingeing well. 

So, here's the menu so far today.

Breakfast: L/f milk porridge and a redbudsh tea.

Mid morning: Nothing, as I was at Tesco looking longingly at Danish pastries :'( 

Lunch: g/f seeded brown bread, peanut butter and s/berry jam sandwich.

80g fruit salad -well, ok, it was 90g :-/ Kiwi, strawberry and melon.

Redbudsh tea.

I'll update later. I'm now off to prepare some sushi and possibly bake some blueberry muffins. (Whilst sobbing quietly at having to leave Tesco without a Danish pastry).

Mid afternoon: redbudsh tea

Wheat & g/f Orange chocolate wafer. 

I checked the ingredients on this and it does have milk in it. But my info from the hospital says "low sugar chocolate is not suitable as it contains polyols. Chocolate is low in lactose and suitable in moderate amounts for everyone" 

Yay, whooo hooo, *insert party blower here* :-D 

Obviously I have to take heed of the keyword 'moderation'.

Dinner: Veggie sushi. Veg were carrots, red pepper and cucumber.

A few prawn crackers....yes, I know you're not supposed to have prawn crackers with sushi, but pffft, the kids love them as a treat :)

Gluten & Lactose free blueberry muffin. Which if I do say so myself, was extremely awesome! Mmmmm.

I ate this while it was still slightly warm, which from experience often seems to upset my insides, so we'll see if it has any effect.

Overall, this has been a rather sweet packed day, so I'm hoping I've not overdone it, I have however still stayed within the rules...I think....I hope.

 I'll have to try and savoury my day up tomorrow. I still have the rest of the fruit pot saved for tomorrow though, so I'm looking forward to that.

I've overall felt a bit bleurgh today, I've had no upset, but the whole system appears to have slowed down, so it's making me feel a tad sluggish. I'm going to try adding some linseed to the porridge tomorrow, infact I meant to add it to the muffins but completely forgot. (It would have been an awesome reason for eating another...'it's to increase my fibre intake, honest!')

One thing for sure, I don't feel like I've been missing out today :)

Day Four...it's oh so quiet...

After a pretty rubbish nights sleep, the alarm cut through me like a knife this morning. I am not and never have been a morning person and at my age, I doubt it's going to start anytime soon.

I snoozed the alarm, as usual, and snuggled back under the duvet, then was woken again to the screeching of the alarm, urgh, had 10mins really passed already? It was then that it occurred to me, usually during the 10 min snooze times, (I snooze it at least 2 if not 3 times!) I am only usually half asleep, as the other half of me is laid thinking how uncomfortable and sometimes how painful my abdomen is, but I had just gone straight back into a proper sleep. 

Later as I sat drinking my tea after my bowl of porridge, I was suddenly aware of the silence....no gurgles, no, grumbling, no odd creaking noise and no feeling in general...who had stolen my insides? 

I always have a constant awareness of my intestines, it's like I can feel every movement, even though it's not always pain I feel, I can always feel and often hear it going about its day. But not today. -Seems promising! 

The book I mentioned in yesterday's post, is 'The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet -Sue Shepherd & Peter Gibson. This is what it looks like if you are interested in finding a copy. When I first picked it up, I was a tad overwhelmed by the never ending charts of foods I thought I could never eat, but you soon learn that it's not the case. It's a good book to dip into to check up on something you are unsure of and has a large selection of recipes and also several weekly diet plans to try or at least inspire you. When looking at the diet plans, you will see that you are still eating a quite wide variety of meals. When I first heard about this, I thought I was going to be drinking water and eating dust! Thankfully, that's not the case :)

So what have I had today?

Breakfast, porridge l/f milk, redbudsh tea.

Lunch: Ham, cucumber & salad cream sandwich. 

A banana 

 Redbudsh tea...of course :) 

Mid afternoon R/B tea. g/f Mrs Crimbles Bakewell slice....and about 30mins later I had another - bad Claire :(

I think the cake overload was to counteract the fact I was so insanely tired. Yessss, I know, I know a sugar rush will do nothing for long term energy, but it was tasty short lived energy. But by 2.30 I could barely stay awake, at 2.45 I gave in and laid on the settee and set the alarm for 15mins later for school run. It was only after I was rudely awaken it occurred to me that I haven't done the school run for about a year now and that Alfie wouldn't be home till about 3.30, so I could have easily had a longer snoozle. :-/

Dinner: Red & White Quinoa, bacon, orange pepper, carrots and a few peas and green beans.

Small serving of fresh pineapple.

Very small amount of diet Pepsi.

The jury is out on the quinoa so far. I've never had it before and can't say it was met with a joyus burst of happiness on my taste buds. I had bought a ready to eat pack of it to try. The pack was two servings, so I had half, but I think there was too much. I didn't finish it all, as it was becoming a bit of a battle eating it. While I had other stuff on my fork, it was ok, but it on it's own was a bit bleurgh. I will see if I can make the other half of it more palatable tomorrow. 

Here's a rather unappealling photo of it. It didn't taste 'as' bad as it looks.

I'm very hopeful that the cake monster that made me eat the two cakes hasn't set me up for tummy ache later. I do feel quite podged, not really bloated though like the feeling of just being so puffed out it hurts. I just feel like I've eaten a huge meal, as you. I guess the quinoa must be quite filling.

I've just realised what the quinoa grains look like. When the boys were small we used to have a sandpit, whilst playing in it one day we kept finding these tiny little opaque balls, turns out they were  snails eggs. Urgh, I think that's put me off even more! :-0

If by some random chance anyone is reading this and even more randomly eats quinoa, I'd love some ideas on different meals with it please.

Ooo there are lots of gurgles coming from within now, it's about 3/4 hr since we ate. It's the first time I've felt or heard the digestive system 'doing it's thang' today. Can't say it sounds very happy now though. Fingers crossed I'll have nothing else to report.

The begining...obviously.

So, the plan was to have followed this FODMAP journey from the start, but as per usual I've been slacking and I'm now on day three. - Ooops.

I'm Claire, 41 *she whispers* and I have IBS. Wow, I feel like I've just stood up at rehab and declared my addiction. I am seriously not addicted to the IBS, far from it!

I've these symptoms for at least 16years, if not more. When I originally went to the Dr about it, I was told it was IBS, given some tablets for an inflammed colon - no examination etc to confirm this - and sent on my way.

Several years later (I ditched the tablets, they were pointless) I was prescribed peppermint oil capsules and again sent on my way.

The symptoms would come and go, sometimes I'd be fairly ok and that point the problems mainly occurred when I had really, really overdone it. Infact -and I hang my head in shame- I would crave a big bar of dairy milk, so take the peppermint oil before eating the chocolate to lessen the aftermath.

These days however, I seem to just have to walk within 2 feet of a bar of chocolate and I'd be in agony.

It was suggested that I try a gluten free diet for a while, not by a Dr, but strangley enough my physio therapist. I agreed and was amazed that within just 3 days I felt a huge difference. I was overjoyed. I was on the diet for about a year or so and overtime I felt it wasn't having the same affect anymore.

I then came off the g/f diet as I was to be tested for coeliac disease, which in hindisght should have happened before I went g/f. Going back on gluten was dire, I felt so ill. It didn't affect my digestive system to start with, it seemed to hit the nervous system. I remember eating a tuna sandwich, getting a dire headache, pins and needles all over, my limbs felt like dead weights and I promptly fell asleep right where I sat and stayed asleep for over an hour. After a week or so, I was getting less headaches etc, but the digestive system started to complain....alot.

After several blood tests it came back as negative for coeliac and negative for even a gluten sensitivity, so I was back to square one.

In Novemeber and December last year I started seeing a Gastroenterologist, after 16+years, they decided it was probably best to investigate.

I had a barrage of tests, scans, bloods, radioactive tablets and cameras to look into the stomach and into the intestine...lovely. All the tests came back fine and I was finally given an official diagnosis of IBS, so I was back to square one.

I asked to see a dietician about the FODMAP diet, as I had read alot about it and the previous year I went to a talk in London on IBS and was really interested in the FODMAP information.

So this brings me uptodate.
Last week I saw the dietician and Monday I started the plan.

FODMAPs are Fermentable, Oligo-saccharides, Di-Saccharides, Mono-Saccharides and Polyols. Yep, clear as mud.

I'm not going to go into masses of details about the can eat and can't eat of the diet, as it seems never ending and you can easily find out about it online.
This blog is mainly for me to keep track of my own journey, as I have a memory like a...well, I forget what, but it's rubbish.

So, Monday. Hmm, to be honest, Monday is already a bit of a hazy blur to remember. I know the day started with porridge and a cup of redbush tea, the same as everyday, but the rest, I truely don't remember.

Tuesday started off the same, a couple of slices of g/f toast at lunch and then disaster struck. I really wanted something to nibble,so had bought some dairy free choc covered raisins, duhh, raisins are a 'limited allowance' food, or a 'caution' food. I don't know if it was the raisins, the choc, even though it was dairy free, or something else lurking in my system from the weekend, but I was doubled up in pain and my insides were knotted up like a pretzel and the outcome was it's usual gruesome self.

My son...bless him...had kindly made tea for us whilst I was 'othewise engaged' and I came down to find a g/f chicken burger and a few oven chips for me. To be honest the last thing I wanted to do was eat anything, but I did eat a little and no dire consequences.

I spent the evening with my usual 'after pains', dehydration and general lethargy and developed a hatred for raisins.

This morning I woke to a very tender tum, but nothing more than that, so hopefully I'm back on track.

From here on in, I hope to keep the posts short n sweet, I felt this one needed to be a long ramble to get me to this point.

Wednesday.
Breakfast: Porridge and Lactose free milk and a cup of redbush tea, no milk or sugar.

Lunch: G/f seeded bread, with ham, lettuce, cucumber and a little salad cream. Lactose free strawberry yogurt. Redbush tea.

Mid afternoon, I had a g/f ginger cookie....nom, nom, nom and several cups of r/b tea.

Dinner: FODMAP friendly meatballs that I had made earlier today, with a homemade tomato gravy, mashed potato, a very small amount of peas and some carrot. Followed by a couple of chunks of honeydew melon covered in a small amount of plain soya yogurt. Oh wow, Im not feeling the love for the soya yogurt - bleurgh! I won't be having that again!

I'm pleased to report the kids loved the meatballs, they seem to be turning into fussy eaters as they have got older, Jack is 15 next month and Alfie has just turned 11. But I got the thumbs up from them both. The recipie for the meatballs and sauce was from a book by Sue Shepherd who is the fountain of knowledge on all things FODMAP. The book is big and a tad overwhelming, but well worth getting.

Yes, I'm aware that this was taken before I thought...arrghhh, the veg are still in the pan!

Overall today, my stomach has been quiet, which is unusual for me and I only had a little bloating after dinner, previous to that I survived the whole day with my jeans done up, another rare occurance.

This evening I'm having palpations, but this isn't unusual for me and not connected, but apart from that all is pretty good. I've not got the hotwater bottle on my belly, which is usually with me each evening to lessen the aches and pains. Long may it continue.

Through most days I drink several cups of r/b tea or boiling water and I will probably forget to log them, but I'm a bit of a tea monster, so there are usually several mugs worth throughout the day.

I will try my hardest to keep this going for myself, to keep an eye on both foods that I'm eating and any symptoms I may have....or that have dissapeared.

Bedtime now, off to dream about cupcakes and haribo I expect. I may wake up tomorrow to find I've eaten my pillow in the night!