Day 19

Today I didn't introduce any foods.  But I did get bloated around 3pm and stayed that way until about 10pm.  I think it might be a delayed reaction to the milk.  I don't feel that I'm getting good concrete evidence as to what is bothering me and that bothers me!  But one thing that is positive- my mood is much better.  I thought work went well and I had a positive attitude.  I've even laughed more lately! Which is great!  Definitely worth continuing to stick to it and see what else happens.  Tomorrow I was supposed to go out for Italian with a friend but we are now doing sushi since that is much more FODMAP friendly.  I'm going to try to stick to it...but may take a breather on Easter :) We'll see.... Have a great night!

Day 18- Milk

I got home from work late!  I drank about 12 ounces of milk at 6:38pm.  At about 6:49pm I thought I felt weird...maybe just paranoia?
Anyways, I'll take it out tomorrow.  Because I'm not drinking ounces of milk. bleh.
I made some tacos tonight.  Using this recipe. They were yummy!

Days 16 and 17

Yesterday I tried 3 cloves of garlic and not much of anything happened.  Just kind of burping.  Don't know what that means?  I think it means I'll need to try it again to see if I react.  But today I moved on to milk.  I drank about 6 ounces.  My stomach made some definite gurgly noises and got bloated, but not as bad as what has happened when I ate apples.  There wasn't pain, just discomfort.  So tomorrow I'll try it again, only with 12 ounces. I'm not a big milk drinker.  This was probably the first time since high school that I've drank a glass of plain white milk.  I don't plan on permanently adding it to my diet, but I eat a lot of other foods that have lactose- sour cream, cottage cheese, ice cream to name a few. Mmmmmm....ice cream :)

Days 12, 13, 14, 15.... and possible reaction to GARLIC!

Nothing exciting happened the last few days of the elimination portion- hence the lack of blogging.  Yesterday was my first challenge day.  There's a lot of information on the web, but not much about how to challenge FODMAPs back into your diet.  I searched and searched and ended up with a plan which combines a few different methods I read about.  I will challenge one food from each group to start with.  There was a site that recommended the following challenges:
Fructose- Mango- 1/2 mango
Lactose-Milk- 1/2-1 cup
Fructans- Garlic- 1 clove
Galactans- Chickpeas- 1/2 cup
Mannitol- Mushrooms- 1/2 cup
Sorbitol- Apricots- 2-4 dried apricots

My plan is to challenge the food for 3 days.  On day 1 I will eat the amount listed above, day 2 I will eat double, day 3 triple (unless I have a strong reaction on one of those days).  Then I will remove that food from my diet again, if necessary be completely FODMAP free for a couple of days before reintroducing the next food.  I will not mix the sugar groups above or keep a food in my diet while reintroducing another food. Some of the information I've read talks about not reacting to 2 different types of sugar on their own, but if a person eats them combined they get sick.  Ideally I will record times I eat, everything eaten, quantity of food eaten, and any times of digestive issues along with specifics on pain.

Yesterday I reintroduced garlic.  I made some potatoes and seasoned them with 1 clove of garlic. I only ate about half of the potatoes so I probably didn't get the full effect, but I had no reaction.  Today I took some Panda puffs to work and Pamela's Lemon shortbread cookie (yum!).  When I got home I made some food.  I used the marinara I had made that was fodmaps free and added 2 cloves of garlic to a serving.  I cooked up some chicken and topped it with the sauce and some mozzarella.  I also ate the leftover potatoes.  I ate at about 4:45pm and at aboug 5:50pm I felt a pain in my stomach.  Not the worst I've had it, but it was noticeable since my stomach had been feeling so good the past couple of weeks.  I'm not entirely convinced, although I probably should be.  But I think I will try the garlic again tomorrow and triple it and see if there is a reaction.  I really didn't think I was going to react to fructans.  Trying not to be sad about it.

Day 11 -Sunshine!

Today I was on the road for work a lot.  I was so grateful I had gone and picked up some convenience foods! No new recipes tried.  I did enjoy a day of sunshine and it's 6:10pm and still sunny! Love it!  No GI symptoms. Love that too!

Day 10

Today I hit my calorie goal!  A big part of this was because I threw Paleo out the window for the day.  I bought some prepackaged foods-some fodmap friendly cookies and some potato chips.

I had 2 hamburgers and some pineapple for lunch.

For supper I made a meatza- it's a pizza with meat for the crust.  I didn't try to put any toppings on it so I was pretty much left with a meat crust, marinara sauce and some mozzarella cheese. (I also added cheese in today!)  It was good.  Something different.  The marinara sauce is really yummy.  Next time I'll probably reduce the sugar and balsamic vinegar (maybe by 1/2 or a little less-at least to start with).  The recipe I used for the marinara sauce can be found here.

No GI issues to report.

Day 9

Bad preparation meant no food today until I got home from work around 5:30pm.  I made some bacon and eggs and a hamburger. Protein packed.  Tried to make it calorie dense, but still under goal for the day. Nothing much else to report.