Hello Friends,
i know long time no see! i am so sorry for being so absent both here and on my instagram recently, and if you are interested in why, this post is going to be a pretty candid and word vomit-y version of the last year or 2 of my stomach issues and how it has felt like it has effected pretty much all areas of my life.
as most of the people who know me, and even those who dont know me well, understand that i am a massive foodie! i feel like i am always thinking up different recipes i can make, how to make them healthier, how to alter them to make it intolerance/allergy friendly, and ultimately to hopefully open my own food stall/cafe (current life goal!). at university i did study public health and health promotion, with a nutrition major, and have always been super interested in helping people make healthier food choices, educating them on different ways of cooking and baking, how to make the healthier option the easier option, and most importantly making it all taste so good that you dont feel as though you are missing out on anything by cutting out some of the unhealthier foods from your diet. ultimately i want to help make everyone around me feel better by feeding them nourishing foods, and giving them the education and tools they need to better their own lives, or expand their food knowledge and skill sets.
so in knowing all of this about me, i have always loved experimenting and compiling a lists of possible stall sale recipes for the future and because i simply love experimenting with foods, i had gotten really upset and frustrated when my stomach started to get really bloated and painful after eating. now i know bloating is a natural part of eating every now and again depending on what you eat and how much, but after going through this for 2 years now, i can tell the difference between painful unnatural bloating that leaves you unable to move and near the end of the two years was actually making me so dizzy, and your average ate too much bloat.
so it felt like every second thing i was eating was making my stomach worse. i found that peanuts and soy were 2 of my worse culprits, but then other things i couldnt pinpoint that were effecting me just as bad. because of this i found my window of food to be creative with was getting smaller and i didnt really want to go outside of that because my symptoms felt like they were getting worse. HENCE why i havent been posting recipes or been very active on here, because my stomach was just messing with my diet and effecting my mental health in turn. being a foodie not being able to experiment and eat different things, and having to put my stall recipe collection on hold really just bummed me out. not to mention always feeling uncomfortable in my own skin, because i was gaining weight and would wake up bloated and it would just worse and worse throughout the day. literally every day.
i originally thought i was intolerant to so many foods and was cutting them out left right and centre causing me to become magnesium deficient, vitamin d deficient, my naturopath also believes i may have minor adrenal fatigue, as well as the constant stomach pain and bloating to the point where my tummy couldnt extend any further. she mentioned that the adrenal fatigue may have stemmed from being wholly plant based but cutting out basically all natural sources of protein like tofu, nuts, seeds, legumes and beans because i found they would bloat me the worst, but in cutting them out my digestive fire lowered immensely and i slowly stopped producing the enzymes needed to brake down the proteins because i was eating so little of them.
so i in fact made this whole healing process worse because i now have to heal my SIBO with a stomach that cant digest things properly because it doesnt produce enough digestive enzymes. meaning the food sits longer in my gut allowing it to ferment and feed the little critters.
so taking a step back, i went and saw a naturopath because i was at the end of my tolerance and couldnt figure it out by myself anymore. and as a massively anxious introvert this was a pretty big step for me. we decided to go with an intolerance test to see if it was what was upsetting my digestion and found that i was intolerant to Casein (protein in cows milk), and mildly intolerance to banana, apple, oats, wheat and bakers yeast. but that didnt explain my symptoms, until the naturpath explained that the most likely cause was SIBO.
SIBO stands for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. meaning the bad bacteria in my small intestine far outweighs the good. and every time my stomach bloats it allows more bad bacteria to move up from my large intestine. the SIBO bacteria feed of carbohydrates, sugars, starches, grains, legumes, beans, fruits any and all types of carbs. if you want to have a good read on what it is and how to combat it, i really recommend this website, i have found it helpful.
ok so here is the fun part. and truthfully i do feel a bit better now than i did (speaking from week 10 in phase one of the diet). but wow it has been a journey.
so in order to defeat SIBO you have to starve the bacteria of their food source and then also create a harsh environment in order to kill them off, while supporting a healthy gut regime.
so the food source of the bacteria is carbs, so in phase one you cut out all carbs, sugars, grains, legumes, fruits, breads, cereals, etc. there is also a list of veggies you can have an unlimited amount of, but most of them are restricted to portion sizes per meal, same goes for nuts and seeds, certain drinks and condiments. animal protein and many types of fats and oils are ok, as well as broths, herbal teas and herbs and spices. but as i mentioned above, my digestion has turned to shit so being able to eat some of these foods doesnt mean that a can actually digest them.
ok now i am at the point of my journey where i am going to lose friends and anger people and i genually apologize for that, i have been in two minds whether to share it or not but have decided to be completely honest because it goes against my nature to lie and i am hoping i am not alone in this inner conflict ive been having.
i have never labelled myself as anything other than plant based. i predominately ate vegan and i had been vegetarian for going on 5 years. but in this diet to kill off the bacteria, the only appropriate source of protein i could have was animal protein. which didnt sit well with me. i did avoid it for the first two weeks, because the thought of eating it wasnt an option for me. but since then i have had to include eggs into my diet. but moving through the diet i still wasnt seeing any improvement so i decided to add in fish a few times, but that only lasted a few meals because it just wasnt for me and when i was combining veggies and fish, the veggies ended up sitting in my gut too long while my body was trying to break down the fish, that it would just ferment and feed the bacteria. so i stopped with the fish, and had eggs as my only protein source.
(i just want to say that as soon as this SIBO diet is over i will return to not eating any animals, and because of my casein intolerance i also wont be eating any dairy.)
the SIBO diet is split into two phases, the first is to kill them off and get rid of them, the second is to slowly reintroduce certain carbs to ensure they dont come back again during this phase. each phase on the diet guideline i was given is 4-6weeks long. but as i have found out, it is all up to the individual. as i am typing this i am currently in week 10 of my phase one diet.
while on the start of this diet i was taking a probiotic, a liver tonic tablet and a tablet made from herbs to create a harsh environment for the bacteria. as i was upping the bacteria killing herb tablet you can really tell it was doing something.because as we all know things always get worse before they get better. (again here is a good web article on the die-off/healing crisis that occurs when the bacteria are dying off.) and in week three of this diet i actually felt really good, i had had a die off reaction, and wasnt experiencing any bloating pain, i was ridiculously tired, irritable and had muscle tiredness but my stomach felt better than it had in ages. i had a scheduled appointment with my naturoath and we went over where i was going from there, and how phase two would work for me, but that night after i saw her, my stomach cracked it big time. and we had worked out through what i was eating that i may have a mild candida infection in there too so i had to alter the diet slightly to accommodate the candida restrictions as well.
this went on for another 5 weeks, of a day or a few days of thinking i was feeling better then the bloating would return. i had also added in a herbal digestive to my regime to help me break down my foods but it still wasnt helping. so last week i had a scheduled appointment with my naturopath again (which originally was projected to be in the final week of my phase 2) and we have formulated a new plan to stop feeding the bacteria. being plant based i love my veggies and i was eating a veggie based meal for lunch and dinner everyday. and even though they were dinners made up of approved veggies for the diet, they were still two carb based meals in a row and i was struggling to digest them, keeping the bacteria fed.
so again this is a point where i am not overly happy with where this went but i just want to be healed and have this whole ordeal over and done with!! i have cut out my veggie based dinner for chicken and clear veggie broth. this was pretty hard for me, and to be honest i dont like it.
throughout this whole process, i have to say my emotional state has been a gigantic roller coaster, from feeling happy i feel a little better, to feeling like a failure when its not working. feeling tired beyond belief but not sleeping very well. having my stomach feel worse than it ever has, and wishing it was all just done with. thinking why is this happening to me? i legit have had no energy to even do any of the things i enjoy outside of my work. not to mention i have had to prep all of my meals at home, havent eaten out in months, and have actually compiled a gigantic list of foods i want to eat and places i want to go when this is over.
so for the most part this has been a crazy hard experience for me, and the only thing getting me through is that i will be healed afterwards to keep striving to my goals of having my own food stall, and being able to eat a more varied diet of foods.
i hope you are all having an amazing day and if you made it to the end of this massive brain dump of a post i congratulate you!!
