Bad Bellies in the New Year

I hope everyone has had a good holiday and New Year! :)

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but this year I thought I’d make an exception.

In 2015, I continued to slowly gain weight, and by November I discovered that I was now the heaviest I have ever been. I am not in danger, but I do not feel good about myself, and don’t feel healthy either. Therefore, I have decided that my New Year’s resolution for 2016 is to prioritise my health!

There are three parts to this resolution: more exercise, more cooking for myself, and more focus on understanding my belly.

EXERCISE

I have already started working on this part of my resolution. In November, I realised that while it was good for improving my fitness in the long term, swimming twice a week was not intensive enough to help me lose weight. I was very conscious of not pushing my body too hard, as this can put extra stress on the body as previously discussed, so I decided to add walking to my weekly routine.

I first started with a gentle 10 minute walk to and from my local public swimming pool on my swimming days, and after a few weeks, added a 30min walk on Monday evenings. After I was comfortable with this, I started trying to jog some parts of my walking route. At this point, I am now going for a walk/jog twice a week on top of swimming twice a week, and have already lost 3kg!

To help me with this, I have also invested in some good quality running shoes and comfortable clothing, and borrowed my partner’s old GPS watch (see photo below). My partner has been running regularly for a couple of years, and he has been very helpful and encouraging in this, which has really helped with my confidence and motivation! ♡

COOKING FOR MYSELF

As I have mentioned previously, I am not the best cook. I can cook basic things, but have no instinct or creativity for it, and often no energy either. However, last year I started living with my sister who is a very good cook, and she has helped motivate me to try cooking new things and experiment with making things that are more suitable for my belly. :) I have decided to put much more effort into learning how to cook more for myself this year, which will hopefully help me to both improve my health and decrease my symptoms.

I am also looking forward to trying out the below cookbook, which was a Christmas gift from my family. Sourdough bread (particularly when made with spelt flour) has been confirmed by Monash University to be better for those with fructose malabsorption and IBS in general, as the long fermentation process seems to use the FODMAPs in the flour, thus making it easier to digest.

UNDERSTANDING MY BELLY

I have also realised that while I now have a much better understanding of UC and fructose malabsorption, I still have a lot to learn about my belly and its trigger foods. Therefore, I have resolved to put more effort into testing my tolerance levels for different foods, and working on my diet in general.

The first step in this was creating a new food table card (see photo below), which has a more up to date list of good and bad foods based on fructose and fructan levels (using the Monash University Low FODMAP Diet and FODMAP Friendly apps as guides), and it is now colour coded – including putting the best and worst foods in bold, based on what I currently understand about my trigger foods. I have also given copies of this card to my family and others close to me, to help them better understand my situation with food, and work as a guide if they are cooking for me.

My Belly and Swimming

The usual rule is to wait one hour after eating before going swimming, right? Well, it appears that this rule doesn't apply when you have a sensitive and unstable stomach like mine.

About a year ago, I decided to start swimming a couple times a week. Because my local swimming pool is open late in the evenings on weekdays, I planned to go to the pool after work. At first, I tried going for a swim immediately after finishing work, but because I was often tired and hungry, I found that I didn't have the energy for swimming. Instead, I tried having dinner after getting home, then after waiting for an hour, going over to the pool for my swim. However, I quickly discovered that I would have trouble with my stomach while swimming, sometimes after only two or three laps. There have even been a few times when I have had hiccups while swimming, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, makes swimming very difficult! I have also quite often had problems with reflux, which would steadily get worse as I continued swimming.

After lots of trial and error, I worked out that my stomach needed closer to three hours' wait after eating - three times as long as the usual wait time needed for most people. I have also discovered that if I do start to have trouble with my stomach while swimming, it helps if I switch to swimming backstroke - I think this is because it takes the pressure off my stomach.

Have you had similar experiences while swimming? Please comment below.

RESEARCH ON EXERCISE WITH IBS AND IBD

We all know that in general, exercising is a good idea, and studies have found that this is consistent for those with IBS and IBD. In a 2011 study conducted at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, 43% of the 102 participants with IBS experienced a significant level of improvement in their symptoms after increased levels of exercise. The researchers concluded that this was because the exercise helped to aid digestion, and to relieve stress, thereby stabilizing the body’s hormonal systems. A more recent study conducted in Poland earlier this year looked at the effects of exercise for those with IBD, and had similar results. As well as relieving stress and improving overall health, researchers found that symptoms improved because the exercise helped to boost the immune system.

However, exercise can also be quite difficult for those with IBS and IBD. For example, this article published in the Telegraph discussed how British Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave has had to pull out of races due to problems with his Ulcerative Colitis. From personal experience, I can attest that when I am having a flare up with my UC or a stomach ache after eating, exercising is the last thing that I want to do! Some suggest that people with IBS or IBD may have a limit to how much exercise their body can endure.

Please comment below if you have any tips to share for exercising with IBS and/or IBD.