Lactose Fiasco

Silly me....I got complacent. So far on my low FODMAP journey I have been trying REALLY hard not to eat anything high FODMAP. I eat the approved fruits, I have been garlic/onion free and I've been using almond milk since I started the Whole30, which if fine with me because I am not really a milk person. One morning however, my laziness got the best of me and I made a HUGE mistake. I ran out of almond milk and decided to eat a big bowl of cereal using my bf's 2% milk. I honestly didn't think this was going to be a big deal, I drank milk with my coffee every day before I started the Whole30 and I never thought about it twice. I am definitely thinking about it now though. A few hours after I had my breakfast I started to feel crappy (literally). My stomach swelled up, preggo style and the gas pains were unbearable. Lucky for me I was stuck in a movie theatre...NOT. I waited and waited for the pain and bloat to go away but alas they did not, I went to sleep miserable and prayed the pain would be gone in the morning. Now to be perfectly fair, I can't completely blame this on the milk. The cereal I am eating is gluten free, but there are some ingredients that I'm not 100% about, so it could have been a combo of the two. To be on the safe side I immediately went and bought some almond milk...just in case. My stomach feels a little better since then but still not "normal". I am trying to figure out what my triggers are....I am still getting the (couple hours after I wake up bloating and gas pains) even though I've been only eating low FODMAP. I even made a low FODMAP 4th of July treat for myself since I wasn't sure what everyone else was going to be eating...it was AWESOME!
It was technically Greek pasta salad, but I substituted the garlic for garlic infused oil, I used GF pasta, and all FODMAP friendly veggies.

It was delicious!!! I really liked the combo of stuff in it, I didn't really load it up on feta like I would have in the past, because a lot of the different lists I've seen are conflicting on feta. I still have been feeling bloaty and gassy lately I'm not sure if it's because of the food I'm eating or well...that time of month. Either way I am going on vacation soon so I don't know how well I'll be able to follow the low FODMAP diet. I will try while I'm abroad, but as soon as I come back I'm doing it hardcore! I am sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!! Anyways, I have also been trying to explore my options when I eat out. My family all decided to go to an MLS Dynamo Soccer Game, and I knew I had to eat before hand because I HATE eating after 9pm.

I ended up getting a salad from subway (exciting I know). I had spinach, tomato, cheddar, turkey, black olives, cucumbers, EVOO and vinegar, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. The salad was good and I thought it was low FODMAP but I still felt a little sickly after eating it....maybe the vinegar?

I ate super early the day before and then felt kind gross after so I didn't snack or eat anything after that salad. The next morning I was STARVING. I ended up having coffee (I have been using Truvia Baking blends, tastes way better and seems to be low FODMAP), some oatmeal with chocolate chips mixed in, and two pieces of toast with almond butter and maple syrup. I was a fatty, but it was so good!

All in all I think I've done a good job of eating right. I am still experiencing stomach issues, so I'm a little annoyed, but I have to keep trying!



July 4th! God Bless America! FODMAP livin (kind of)!

Started off this beautiful 4th of July with an 8:30am hero WOD "Murph". For those of you who don't know what a hero WOD is, it means it's in honor of a fallen soldier, it is always hard and makes you respect the fact that you are alive and working out in the first place. "Murph" is a 1 mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 air squats and then another 1 mile run...can you say hell? I am pretty proud of my bf for completing all of "Murph" (he was a little bitter about doing it in the first place, but now he feels like a badass...boys). We broke it up into rounds and both finished it within the 45 minute time limit (44:05 for me, 44:40 for the bf). I plan on spending the rest of the day by the pool, tanning, eating, drinking (FODMAP friendly of course) and being with family and friends.

For the past few days I've tried to stay as low FODMAP as possible. I even went out to happy hour and picked out a drink that was as close to being low FODMAP as possible, a pomegranate cosmo. There was probably a lot of sugar in it but it's better than drinking straight vodka.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't exactly feel great that day, I had also gone to a noodle house earlier that day and gotten gluten free noodles with ginger chicken, which I thought was perfectly safe...but that mixed with a couple of drinks, was no bueno for my poor stomach. I don't know if it was something in the noodle soup or maybe just drinking in general (I haven't had a drink in a month, thanks Whole30) but yeah rumbly in my tumbly. It was a fun time regardless, I'm just a little frustrated that I have been trying so hard to eat/drink low FODMAP for the last few days now, and there's not been a significant change in how my stomach feels. I have been trying to stay away from anything high FODMAP that is on any of the various lists of what I can and can't eat, but I will admit as soon as I heard I could have chocolate I kind of went over board. I bought chocolate covered almonds, semi sweet chocolate chips, and a dark chocolate baking bar. I may or may not grab about 5 chocolate covered almonds every time I walk by the drawer (which is probably about 3 times a day) but whatever, I refuse to believe chocolate is what is making my stomach hurt. I plan on starting the elimination diet hard core when I get back from my vacation (I'm going to Costa Rica babbaayyy). I will continue to try and eat as low FODMAP as possible for now, with some exceptions like today when I will be celebrating my awesome country. I really want this to work and I plan on being very strict with it, but while we're on holiday and with a vacation coming up, it's just to hard to stay 100% compliant right now. 

I have to say though, because of all my research on Whole30 and FODMAP I think I've been making way better food choices. For example instead of stuffing my face with cookies, ice cream, and candy for dessert, I I will have a banana, some almond butter, a few chocolate covered almonds and some cinnamon, and it's still awesome! 

I did have a very good low FODMAP breakfast this morning, even though all I wanted was something sweet and high in calories. Had some veggie casserole with some cheddar cheese and an avocado, also 2 cups of coffee and a handful of chocolate covered almonds to reward myself for "Murph". I also had a slice of Udi's' GF bread with some almond butter and a smidgen of maple syrup before the workout so I didn't pass out.

Happy 4th everyone!! Hopefully I will start seeing some improvements soon, stay tuned! =)

Whole30 Recap/FODMAP Day 1 (sort of)

Today was kind of disappointing. First of all I woke up looking/feeling 5 months preggo bloated. Whatever, I thought to myself, at least I get to FINALLY have a bowl of cereal! I'm not gonna lie I can literally eat cereal for every meal, I love it. I had decided that I was starting the FODMAP elimination diet right after the Whole30 so of course I got the gluten free kind. I poured a small bowl and dug in...it was delicious. As I was about to pour some more I noticed the word "inulin" on the ingredient list....this is an absolute NO NO in the FODMAP world, it's like the worst of the worst offender. Freakin perfect. So sad day for me, I told the bf he could have the awesomely sweet and vanilla-y cereal since I could not. I ate another small bowl of another kind of cereal I bought (Cocoa rice crispies) only after I checked all the ingredients and cross referenced them in my "IBS Free at Last" book. They were ok, not as good as the high FODMAP cereal though of course. I also had my first cup of sweetened coffee in 30 days. The thing is I am not really diggin this stevia stuff, it made my coffee taste weird almost too sweet and bitter at the same time. I have some Truvia baking blend that I think I'm going to use instead.

Since I had such a disaster of a breakfast, I decided my lunch better be damn good. At this point my stomach was already starting its daily brewing of the pain/bloaty/gurgliness so I opted for something not so flavorful. I had a sandwich with Udi's gluten free whit bread, cheddar cheese and turkey. I also had a bag of sweet potato chips, and grapes. I packed a cappuccino lara bar for dessert. I had taken my coffee to go so I drank that as an in between breakfast and lunch snack. Still not diggin the stevia. 

As I got home and was getting ready for crossfit, I started getting this really anxious/nervous feeling. I knew that I had to weigh myself and I was NOT looking forward to it. Looks like I should have just skipped this step of the process because I did not lose one single pound and man was I bummed. I know that I said I wasn't doing this to lose weight but damn, I had seen/heard of people losing up to 10lbs on this damn diet and yet I didn't budge on the scale. Maybe it was the larger portions, the added fats, anyways it was a debbie downer. I angrily got through our WOD today (death by wall balls), mad at myself and life the whole time. I know I shouldn't be upset, I learned a lot of good things from this diet and there were definitely some pros. I got home and of course emotionally ate my dinner, meaning instead of having one serving of my veggie casserole, with a slice of cheddar melted on top and a mini avocado...I had two. I also ate about 10 chocolate covered almonds...these I cannot say that I regret because they are melt in your mouth good and completely low FODMAP so the food Gods can SUCK IT! I am definitely in a slump right now. Kind of irritated about how this thing turned out. 

I can't say that this Whole30 experience has been all bad. I did find a new love for; coconut manna, almond butter, sweet potatoes, cooking, cashews, eggs, turnips...and the list goes on. I also realized that a lot of the "healthy" stuff I had been eating before was really all crap. I like the fact that I cook with way more veggies now than I ever did, I also learned that I was hard core enough to drink my coffee without sugar (it's the little things). Unfortunately I did most of the Whole30 without following the IBS protocol so it didn't really help my stomach at all, in fact it probably got a little worse. However, because I was doing the Whole30 and doing all this research on health and food, I discovered the FODMAP elimination diet, something I probably never would have even heard about if it weren't in "It Starts With Food". Sure I didn't lose weight and my stomach still feels as if my food baby Humberto is doing flips and kicking at my insides, but now I have a plan on how to fix it. I have done the research and I am willing to give it a try. Hopefully I have some better luck with the FODMAP elimination diet. I will try to document this as much as possible, because based on what I've seen there's not a whole lot of first person experience out there. Wish me luck! And hey at least I can have sugar, alcohol, and chocolate...what more does a girl need. 

Day 30 (YEAH BABY!)

BAM!!! Made it to my last day!!! WHOOOOOP! Started off this glorious morning with a fried egg, a piece of turkey, some bananas and grapes, and a cup of coffee. The morning was pretty lazy, I basically spent most my time pinteresting low FODMAP and Whole30 recipes, trying to see how I could incorporate the two. I made an awesome casserole thingy, which was supposed to be in a crock pot but I decided I didn't want to wait that long so I just baked it in the oven. I started off with a recipe from OMGpaleo but I added a bunch of stuff and ended up just creating my own recipe. It was 1lb of ground turkey, I seasoned this with some salt, pepper, paprika, curry powder (just a little), and some spring onions (only the green part). Then I shredded 1 whole sweet potato, half a turnip, two little zucchini squash, half a zucchini and some spinach, threw that all in a big bowl, threw in 10 whisked eggs, and threw in some seasoning. I browned the meat and mixed it together with my veggie/egg mix. I preheat the oven to 350, and put my concoction in a 9X13 Pyrex glass pan and set in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until it was browning on top. It tuned out beautiful and smelled delicious. I also drank another cup of coffee while I was cooking, so I wasn't tempted to pick on the casserole.



I put the veggie casserole in the fridge to eat for the following week. It was Sunday/grill/family/early dinner day at the Baez house so we packed some compliant food and headed over. The bf and his family are all hunters so we had some good venison steaks to grill up, mine was seasoned with salt and pepper only. I also made some guac (as compliant as possible) and used carrots to dip. It was a good dinner, didn't eat too much because I wanted to run later in the evening, and since I digest slower than molasses I couldn't have a full stomach before running.

After my run (4.3 brutal miles), I was exhausted, hot, and craving something sweet. I hadn't eaten enough during dinner so I was pretty hungry, I needed some sustenance. I cut up a cold banana, mixed in some almond butter and coconut manna, and microwaved it for about 20 seconds. That gooey, sweet mess of a dessert was so good! Probably not the healthiest thing I've could have eaten but everyone else was eating ice cream, soo yeah I did well.

Tomorrow I start the FODMAP elimination diet. I am still not 100% sure about this thing but it's worth a shot. Stay tuned for a Whole30 wrap up post. WOOHOO I DID IT!



Day 29

I had a good breakfast this morning. It was pretty big because I knew I would be busy during the day and probably wouldn't eat another meal until dinner...by busy I mean laying out by the pool, catching up on my shows, and groceries. I had a fried egg with a piece of turkey on top, and a banana with some coconut mana drizzled over it. SO GOOD! I'm a little disappointed because I am running out of coconut mana and I don't want to wait for it to be ordered online, gotta find out where I can buy it.

After laying out for a while I went a did some sorely needed groceries. I grabbed a couple of small sausage patties to hold me over until dinner. I ended up just going to Kroger instead of Whole Foods, because A). I live less than a mile from Krogers and I was being lazy and B). Since I am starting the FODMAP elimination diet and am almost done with the Whole30, I don't really need to get fancy schmancy expensive organic produce. I will probably still get grass fed meats and some other small stuff from Whole Foods but there is organic produce at most grocery stores that is wayyy cheaper. I bought a lot of low FODMAP items in preparation for the following week and also some Whole30 approved items to finish out the weekend. By time I got home and unloaded everything I was starving. I made a big beautiful green salad with spinach, leftover ginger meatballs, tomatoes (from our very own plant) cucumbers, olives, and some EVOO and vinegar. It looked awesome. Unfortunately right after I snapped a picture of it my curious little fur baby jumped up and knocked half the salad out of my bowl. I seriously almost cried. I ate the remainder of the salad, but was of course still hungry. 

I decided that I deserved a dessert after my unfortunate salad incident. I cut up half a nanner, mixed it with some grapes, threw in a cut up cappuccino lara bar, and smothered it with coconut mana. This is probably super caloric and technically not compliant since it is a dessert, but I DON'T CARE! It was the bomb.com. I  savored every last bite of it. I also grabbed a handful of nuts as a dessert chaser. 

The picture does not give my dessert it's due justice. This was my best creation! I will most likely be eating this in the future while people are NOMing on fattening brownies and cake, and I am perfectly OK with that. Overall I didn't do a very good job of limiting fruits and snacks, my stomach did pay for it but man was it worth it. I think I need to ease back on the coconut since it is a moderate FODMAP and you shouldn't really be eating too much of it anyways, oh well! ONE MORE DAY! 

Day 28

For breakfast I had the last veggie cake and half a banana. I am definitely going to make the veggie cakes again, although slightly modified. They are savory and full of good vegetables (low FODMAP). Work was pretty slow, the 4th of July holiday is coming up so the office was a little too ready for the weekend, not very productive. I took a late lunch with the bf at Chipotle. I was hungry by time we got there so I asked them to load up on the carnitas and guac, it was of course delicious! I know for a fact that there's onions and probably garlic in the carnitas and guac, and the pico too. No bueno for Sabrina's stomach =/.

My stomach was bloaty and painful most of the day after that but it wore off around the time I got home. I still can't lift or do any fast motions because my back is still all messed up, so we did a mile run and the "card WOD". It was pretty brutal, not fun running in 100 degree weather. We went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. I checked the menu prior and knew they had compliant things to eat. I had grilled salmon and a plain baked sweet potato. I was wayyy too full after that meal. I don't know if its because I ate too fast or maybe ate something high FODMAP? My stomach didn't do well for the remainder of the night, which is a bummer. I am kind of excited to start the real FODMAP elimination diet, only 2 more days!

Day 27

Back was killing me this morning!!! I painfully had a breakfast of a couple of veggie pancakes, and some coffee, plus 3 ibuprofen (not sure if these are allowed but dude I was hurting). Work was great today, made a deal and went to lunch with the ladies. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of planning involved in our lunch and we ended up going to a Noodle House =/. Their lunches smelled SO good, but I settled for a salad. In the description, it was a pretty basic salad, lettuce, tomato, grilled chicken, cucumber, and that was it. I asked them not to put any dressing on it and instead they brought me some rice vinegar (not sure if that's compliant, it tasted kind of sweet) and some limes. However when I got my salad, they had garnished it with these crispy thing twirly cracker kind of things!! I was so irritated, they had not mentioned that those were on the salad, otherwise I would have asked them to not include them. It was a pain trying to get them all out, they were small and broke very easily. I managed to get about 90% of them out, but I knew I was eating a couple when I would get a random crunch in my bite. SAD DAY. I am definitely not counting this as a cheat because its amazing that I lasted this long anyways, and also totally not my fault they decided to make my salad look prettier.

Anyways, my back was pretty much torturing me all day, I couldn't make any sudden movements or barely walk without a stabbing pain in my tail bone =(. I definitely took today as a rest day, crossfit and running were out of the question. Instead, the bf and I watched the final episode of Game of Thrones ( we are officially caught up and disappointed that we have to wait now) and took the fur baby for a nice long walk. We also stopped by Kroger because I was craving something sweet, a celebration for my deals this week at work. I picked up some organic bananas, and a couple of cappuccino lara bars. For dinner, I ate the remainder of the leftovers. I had two venison sausage patties, a couple of small tuna cakes, and a veggie pancake. It was a pretty small dinner, but I was saving room for dessert!

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited about making my sweet little concoction. I loaded an episode of Pretty Little Liars (yes, it's ridiculous, don't judge me), and got to work cutting up half a banana, melting some coconut mana, and crumbling up a cappucino lara bar. It was heavenly! The richness of the coconut went perfect with the bitterness of the lara bar and texture of the banana, it was like banana pudding plus coffee flavoring! I probably shouldn't have been eating something so caloric but I honestly didn't feel overly full or bloated so I enjoyed my creation. I am kind of worried that when I finally weigh myself on Day 30, I will have gained weight =/. Oh well, then it's on to the FODMAP elimination and I'm sure I will be eating smaller meals than I usually do. 3 days left!!!