Eating healthy/exercising and help and advice.

[baz962]

Thought I would start this after reading on other threads about how the general population should probably eat less and better if possible and exercise more. However as someone who has a huge sweet tooth and love of fast food , I had over recent years tried to eat more healthy and get some fruit and veg in. Two years ago I started having some bowel problems and had loads of tests etc and all were negative and so was left with only ibs as a possibility. Something I noticed though was whenever I was on holiday and eating no healthy food such as veg and salad i would feel better. Fast forward and I bought an excellent book by a doctor based at i think addenbrookes and as it happened i read it on the plane , flying to the US. To bring it to a basic level , some veg and certain fibres can cause pain and suffering and other symptoms in the bowel and while on this holiday and eating pure American junk e.g pancakes for breakfast I had no symptoms. To get my fibre I use flaxseed because it doesn't ferment in the bowel , but I'm worried slightly about heart health and longevity. How would you think i can eat healthy without veg etc.

 

[Acey]

Simple,give up all the things you enjoy and devour all the stuff you don't like ,works for me

 

[jfollows]

For me, and I’m no poster child, eat food that your grandparents would also recognise as food, in moderation rather than in excess.
Oh, and one of my grandmothers was a terrible cook, my mother was rightly convinced that she was going to inadvertently kill us, so don’t get obsessed by it.

 

[baz962]

Simple,give up all the things you enjoy and devour all the stuff you don't like ,works for me

Thing is I like veg and salad etc. It's the veg etc that irritates my bowels and the stuff I love doesn't but isn't healthy.

 

[Acey]

That's really odd,goes against everything my dietician is so fond of telling me ( with a masochistic gleam in her eyes ) I guess it all comes down to a Question of Balance (Moody Blues )

 

[hexagon789]

Thing is I like veg and salad etc. It's the veg etc that irritates my bowels and the stuff I love doesn't but isn't healthy.

Maybe a FODMAPs sensitivity?

(That would be high fibre and high acidity vegetables, can often cause issues being processed in the body in some people compared to low fibre junk food.)

 

[Gloster]

I have IBS (nothing to do with Intermediate Block Signals which is what I always associate the initials with) and there is no doubt that eating more fruit and vegetables has made both this and the resulting wind worse. However, it can help in making me feel less sludge-like than otherwise. All you can do is try to find the best balance between the two ends of the scale: filling up with bread might help.

 

[styles]

Thing is I like veg and salad etc. It's the veg etc that irritates my bowels and the stuff I love doesn't but isn't healthy.

Have you spoken to any clinicians about this?

Eating vegetables and lean protein is basically the best way to feel full, according to satiety research (i.e. research into 'feeling full for longer'). If you're unable to get much veg in your diet because of some reason, that could well make a big difference.

Other than that, I'm a firm believer in the idea that people who have tried and failed to lose weight need talking therapy, which focuses on REBT/CBT. This was my case - I was obese class III a few years ago, now obese class I, and on my way to being 'only' overweight. Bear in mind that I've always had a decent level of physical activity - for years I've gone on 2-3 day hiking trips, cycled 125mi charity bike rides, spent my free time running around after cub scouts on camp wide games, cycled to work, etc. I needed to understand the reasons I was eating more before I could address the behaviour. Simple example - when I grew up, it was a single parent household, my mum worked 3 jobs to feed us, and we weren't allowed to leave the table until we'd finished our plate. This has baked into me a mentality of I must always empty my plate else it's wasted food. But in reality, this isn't true most of the time - if I'm full, I should stop eating, and not force myself to eat more. Yes we should of course encourage that extra mouthful of veg if a child hasn't touched their veg, and we shouldn't give ice cream and chocolate puddings if they barely touch their tea, but that's a bit different. I hadn't ever thought about this until a discussion with a therapist (who I wasn't even seeing because of my weight) My partner I know will often eat treats quite quickly because when she was younger, if you left sweets or chocolate hanging around the house for too long, somebody else would eat them.

The other big thing for me was making gradual changes, rather than drastically changing my diet overnight.

Fundamentally people know what they need to do to lose weight - eat fruit/veg, lean meats, avoid processed foods, and do some exercise. Everything else is tinkering around the edges frankly.

Yet many (most?) people who want to lose weight do try quite hard, but ultimately don't succeed, suggesting it's not merely a question of what should I eat, but why do I eat what I currently eat and don't eat what I don't eat.

Your case may well be a bit different in that if your body really does react badly to vegetable fibre, you might need support from a qualified dietician (note: not a nutritionist, who are not necessarily qualified).

 

[baz962]

Have you spoken to any clinicians about this?

Eating vegetables and lean protein is basically the best way to feel full, according to satiety research (i.e. research into 'feeling full for longer'). If you're unable to get much veg in your diet because of some reason, that could well make a big difference.

Other than that, I'm a firm believer in the idea that people who have tried and failed to lose weight need talking therapy, which focuses on REBT/CBT. This was my case - I was obese class III a few years ago, now obese class I, and on my way to being 'only' overweight. Bear in mind that I've always had a decent level of physical activity - for years I've gone on 2-3 day hiking trips, cycled 125mi charity bike rides, spent my free time running around after cub scouts on camp wide games, cycled to work, etc. I needed to understand the reasons I was eating more before I could address the behaviour. Simple example - when I grew up, it was a single parent household, my mum worked 3 jobs to feed us, and we weren't allowed to leave the table until we'd finished our plate. This has baked into me a mentality of I must always empty my plate else it's wasted food. But in reality, this isn't true most of the time - if I'm full, I should stop eating, and not force myself to eat more. Yes we should of course encourage that extra mouthful of veg if a child hasn't touched their veg, and we shouldn't give ice cream and chocolate puddings if they barely touch their tea, but that's a bit different. I hadn't ever thought about this until a discussion with a therapist (who I wasn't even seeing because of my weight) My partner I know will often eat treats quite quickly because when she was younger, if you left sweets or chocolate hanging around the house for too long, somebody else would eat them.

The other big thing for me was making gradual changes, rather than drastically changing my diet overnight.

Fundamentally people know what they need to do to lose weight - eat fruit/veg, lean meats, avoid processed foods, and do some exercise. Everything else is tinkering around the edges frankly.

Yet many (most?) people who want to lose weight do try quite hard, but ultimately don't succeed, suggesting it's not merely a question of what should I eat, but why do I eat what I currently eat and don't eat what I don't eat.

Your case may well be a bit different in that if your body really does react badly to vegetable fibre, you might need support from a qualified dietician (note: not a nutritionist, who are not necessarily qualified).

Other than a slight belly I'm not overweight. Just want to be healthy/ longevity. After seeing gastroentorologists and having tests there wasn't anything other than diverticular and I have had that for around 8 years with no symptoms. This started 2 years ago and when I had a colonoscopy the strong laxatives actually cleared my symptoms for around 5 weeks. Then I bought this book and I have stopped eating veg and also brown bread and pasta and for cereal I have rice crispies and stopped eating all bran and others like that and voila my symptoms are pretty much gone but I'm aware that might not be good for heart health etc.