Living with IBS

If you know what IBS is you will know what I mean when I say it sucks.  If you don't it stands for Irritable Bowl Syndrome and sufferers experience all kinds of symptoms including but not limited to stomach cramps.  I have suffered from IBS all my life and for most of my life I had no idea what caused it with no help coming from multiple specialists I have seen over the years.  One of the reasons we started looking at different ways of eating was to try to control the bouts that I experienced.  When a bout comes on it can double me over with the intensity of the cramp.  The journey to my lifestyle diet today started with the goal of reducing and eliminating my IBS symptoms.  Starting with a specific carbohydrate diet my journey lead me step by step on an elimination path that today is the primal life style diet I follow.  As a result I lost weight, gained increased flexibility and got my IBS symptoms under control in away I had not been able to do for over 20 years.  When you think about it, it stands to reason what we put in our bodies affects our bodies but it is strange how for so many years I did not make that connection.  Choosing the short term pleasure of food that was quite literally poisoning me over the choice to improve my symptoms.  Even when I could rationalize that it must be the food affecting me, the effort to make changes was still to much effort.  The mind is so powerful that in the midst of an episode I could promise myself I would do anything to not have the experience but once the bout ended I could kid myself that it was not the food I liked to eat.  After all life is not living if we can't and enjoy the things we like, ever caught yourself saying that? I have.  Even now with all the information I have gathered and the knowledge gained, the desire to take the easy route still exists and whilst I have introduced replacement foods to provide the pleasure I used to gain from other foods I still make mistakes.  This Sunday whilst out late I thought it would be good to have an Indian Takeout, one of the pleasure I really used to enjoy.  The problem with eating out is we just don't know what is included in the food.  The funny thing about having something you thought you liked once you have made significant changes to your diet is that it turns out they are not as nice as they used to be.  That was certainly the case on Sunday.  Well 24 hours later that optimism ran out with the first bout of IBS I have had for almost a year.  This week has been a bit of trial and I sense the universe teaching me a lesson in both humility and stupidity,  I should have known better but it is good to be reminded that the choices I am making are the right ones.  As much as IBS can be a burden it is also a blessing as unlike those that do not suffer it reminds me when I am eating things that are not good for my body.  If you suffer, listen to your body and your mind and join me in taking action to a bout free lifestyle.

There might be more lessons to come but I have learnt to forgive myself for the mistakes and look for strength and knowledge to not make them in the first place.  It is important as you take a journey such as mine to forgive yourself as falling off the path is part of gaining understanding and making better choices.

With the injuries of the last few years behind me the next challenge I see in the future is applying the primal diet in a full training program with the goal of bicycle and paddle board racing next year.  For now I am working on stabilizing the IBS.