My IBS gives me loads of pain. It usually starts off as low back pain and then I get cramps and feel like there's a burning belt wrapped round my hipbones... and then, just before I have to make a dash for the bathroom, I feel like someone is kicking me in the left side and twisting my insides. I also get hot and nauseous, then I get chills and break out in a cold sweat, shake a lot and feel very nauseous. Right now, I'm not having a full-on attack, but I feel like my insides are on fire.
I'm fortunate that my period has been arriving on Friday evenings lately, so at least I'm not dealing with the worst of this stuff while I'm at work. It's happening on weekends. So, I'm thankful for that. I always carry Imodium in my purse just in case, though, and I take one preventatively if I have an important meeting.
The Eating for IBS diet was great while I was sticking to it. It made me feel much better. I had tried some other IBS diets and they just made me feel worse. They were telling me to eat bran and loads of raw veggies and those things just made me sicker and had me spending all my time in the loo.
The Eating for IBS diet focuses on eating small amounts of food throughout the day so that your GI tract is never empty. The idea is that starving and then suddenly dumping food into your system throws everything out of whack. It also suggests eating lots of soluble fibre, and never eating insoluble fibre on an empty stomach. When you start off, you eats lots of sourdough or high quality home-made white bread, soft fruits, hard cheeses, brown rice, and cooked veggies. Later on, you can add things like raw vegetables and whole grains, but you always have to have one of the safe foods first as a cushion. So, while I was on it in the early stages, a typical day of eating was sort of like this:
Breakfast:
Mango banana soy milk smoothie with soluble fibre supplement
Snack:
cheddar cheese and rice cakes
Lunch:
tuna sandwich on sourdough bread
papaya
Snack:
yogourt
Dinner:
roasted sweet potato salad with grilled chicken breast and green beans
soy chocolate pudding (yummy!!!)
Snack:
sourdough toast with apricot preserves
I was eating way more than I was used to, was never hungry and I also lost 25 pounds in the first 3 months. I had gained quite a bit of weight right before I started it because I had quit smoking. (This was years ago, I started smoking again. Ugh.)
Anyway, the food was really good and the plan was easy to follow and best of all, I felt a whole lot better. I need to start following that plan again.
There's a website about it if you're interested in more info. I found the book (included the plan and recipes) at the library.
Here's the website:
http://www.helpforibs.com/diet/
P.S. Two things I forgot to mention about when I was on the Eating for IBS plan -- I drank lots of water and took acidophilus everyday.