Stressed...

...is not a good thing for most people. It's especially crap if you have IBS. Like me. In work, we have two audit visits coming up, tomorrow and then another group all next week. I work as a medical secretary in a blood transfusion service. My boss is incredibly hard working, which means there's a lot for me to do. She's just taken up the role and so is busy whipping things into shape. As much as I prefer working for someone like that, this week has been pretty tough on my guts. This time last week I was completely bound up and looked about 5 months pregnant. Today, my problems are at the other spectrum of IBS experience. Meh. I keep telling myself things will be ok when next week is over. However, I'm pretty sure cereal flakes deserve a large share of the blame too- I just cannot digest the stuff, gluten or not. And the cramping and diarrhea, that's because I've been eating a lot more fruit this week to clear the constipation, and the stress probably made the cramping worse.

Food wise, I've been eating mostly fruit, pulses and vegetables, usually fruit for breakfast or oatmeal and amazake. I had no time for snacking mid-morning, which meant I was ravenous by lunch time, but kept it smallish anyway. I then had a snack when I got in from work and then a smaller evening meal after my run. Which I've been doing a lot of this week, there's nothing like a good workout after a busy day at work. It does wonders for chasing the stress away. However my right hip is a bit sore, so I've been thinking of switching it up a bit by going to the swimming pool. I'm not a big fan of pools, but I've been toying with the idea of doing a sprint distance triathlon and swimming would be the part I'd need to work on. However, I can't find my swimsuit and don't really think a bikini will cut it at the pool, so that's on my shopping list for the weekend. I'm spending a week in July where I'm thinking of doing this triathlon so will get plenty of cycling, hilly running and open water swimming done, and that should give me a fair idea, by the end of July, whether I'm up for this triathlon lark. In any case, switching up my workouts should help prevent getting into a rut and getting injured. In preparation for adding extra sports to my routine, I've been doing strength training in the mornings (as I've been too tired to face a run). Once I get this coming week over with, I'll do a proper post on the triathlon idea.