Urgh… best laid plans and all that… so all this week I’ve found myself curled in a ball clutching a cushion to my stomach hoping the dreadful travelling pain and cramps would go away. The doctor tells me I have IBS (short for Irritable Bowel Syndrome for those who don’t know) and, whilst this can’t be diagnosed, I am clear of the more nasty things that could be causing the pain.
I won’t go into the finer details of my bowel problems but it does cause me to panic and affects my ability to get to the gym or exercise. Suffice to say I have done no exercise this week. I’m frustrated and annoyed about this as I was so motivated to do something good to get my weight loss on track but I just couldn’t. That meant that my brain thought ‘well if you can’t exercise you may as well eat what you want and start next week’… so I did 🙁 I visited the doctor who told me that I need to try a food exclusion diet to see if I can control my symptoms by cutting out certain foods that don’t agree with me as well as prescribing a low dose of anti depressant proven to relax the bowel reducing the pain. I’m not completely happy about the latter so thought I’d try food exclusion first giving up bread, eggs, milk, cheese and fizzy drinks for a few weeks. Those who know me well will know of my severe addiction to diet coke. When I went to Ethiopia I told people I would give up diet coke for lent if I could raise £100 for charity… within the day I had over £200, that’s how much people wanted to watch me suffer. After 3 days I had the worst headaches I’ve ever experienced and that is happening again. I gave it up on Wednesday and spent all yesterday clutching my head yesterday through the pounding at my temple. On a positive note I have had no stomach pain since, it has completely gone. I decided to try a wholemeal pitta with lunch today and so far, so good. I’m now trying to convince myself that cider isn’t fizzy so I can drink some this weekend before REALLY starting the diet next week. I promise you and myself that I will, hopefully without the need for the medication 🙂
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