Sugar Free is Everywhere- First Day

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It was kind of freaky when I opened my Google Reader this evening and lots of people have been blogging about low sugar/sugar free eating!

Here are links to some of the blog posts I read:

HEAB on low sugar eating- Heather is my favourite low sugar bloggers, her recipes are so simple, yet so delcious and unique!

Making Food and Other Stuff on a no sugar week every month- I think this is a great idea and once this month is over I think a month a week of absolutely no sugar (maybe just fresh/frozen berries and banana but no dried fruit) and then low sugar the rest of the time would be a good way to go.

Ashley's March Detoxish- not specifically low sugar but cutting down on it for a while.

Before I started on my sugar free month, I had dessert last night after food shopping; a mini apple and berry pie with plain yogurt. Not very sugary, but there was some sugar in the fruit and the pastry.

My first day went well- I took my breakfast of no sugar muesli, banana, berries and unsweetened soya milk into work and waited until I was properly hungry to eat it.

Later on I had another banana and for lunch I had some delicious rainbow coleslaw (red cabbage, white cabbage, carrots, red pepper, homemade tofu mayo, mustard and hot sauce):

Coleslaw with mixed leaves, a little chopped up Quorn and blue goat cheese.

Later on I had a 0% Greek yogurt (Fage) with one of these bars chopped in:

They're made with apricots, sultanas, apple juice concentrate, sunflower oil and oats...and nothing else.

For dinner I had a Quorn escalope with more coleslaw and a taste of Eamonn's pasta.

While I did eat quite a bit of fruit today, for the first day I think I haven't done too bad. Most of the sugar in my diet is consumed after dinner when I'm looking for some comfort. I thought heat would be a good sub for heat, and I took some inspiration from HEAB and made oat bran with cocoa and a spoonful of natural peanut butter melted in.

Delish! I couldn't really taste the cocoa powder much, but the pb made it a very satisfying evening snack. A bit of TMI, I am a bit constipated at the moment (work is really stressful!) so having oat bran in the evenings should hopefully help a bit with that too.

I have been finding when work gets really stressful I get pain in my left upper abdomen that feels like the same pain as I had in the early stages of my pancreatitis bout last year. For that reason, I skipped my aquajogging workout today and got into my pyjamas when I got home, and didn't do any cooking tonight (hence the breaded Quorn and already made coleslaw). I will post tomorrow about it, and I won't run unless the pain is completely gone.

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Bring on the Bland

I seem to be feeling a bit better. I didn't mention it in the last two posts, but I actually think the upset might have been my pancreas acting up as I had a lot of upper abdo pain from monday to wed, as well as nausea and NO appetite, but it was only thursday and friday that saw any untimely expulsions. I reckoned a bug would have got to work a bit quicker and with the more unpleasant symptoms first rather than last. That said, I had one of my enzyme levels tested on wednesday and it was normal (most bouts of pancreatits show elevated amylase but not always with chronic pancreatitis, or other metabolic things going on). Anyway, I'm just glad I'm better and would rather not think about the fact that pancreas problems might not be 'so last year'. Let's hope that's the end of it.
I'm going easy on my guts though, lots of blandness and even less fibre than normal. Read: white rice, white toast, (white) probiotic yogurt (very good after diarrhoea, esp for IBSers). All very pale, and actually, interesting. I'm becoming an expert at showing off bland's best features.

Check this out:



Rice pud, Rachel's Organic Coconut Greek yogurt (delicious, even for a mediocre coconut person), Sainsbury's organic soft set raspberry jam.

Speaking of yummy yogurt, I picked up Yeo Valley Organic's current limited edition one: apple flapjack yogurt. I figured since soft, bland, proteiny and good bacteria-laden are the name of the game, I may as well enjoy it:) (although this one will wait for a bit and I'll stick to the plain stuff for now).

Source

I hope you're all having a nice weekend. It's very wet and windy in Belfast, so aside from shopping and a little washing, I haven't done a lot today. I'm off to see The King's Speech at our local independent cinema, and might pop into the pool tomorrow when it's nice and quiet in the morning, more for a gentle splash around than any actual swimming.

Back in blogland

On the top of the 8th highest mountain in Ireland, Mount Brandon. Covered in mist for all but about 50 days of the year.

I got back from Dingle yesterday evening. After unpacking, I read through all the posts from the blogs I follow (well most, I think I had 148 unread). I found lots of great gluten free things to try (especially HEAB's cornbread and gluten free experiments).

I did some walking, but not huge distances, and despite bringing my swim suit and trainers, I neither ran nor swam, I wasn't well enough. I ate lots of bread and wheat-based cereals. The most prominent symptom was a lot of sharp upper abdominal pain but in the centre rather than to the left as with the pancreatitis. It got worse and worse as the day went on and most nights I couldn't sleep, but it eased off by morning and then started up after eating. The good news is I am getting a heap of blood tests on monday, I was supposed to have an MRCP scan when I was away but will get in rescheduled soon, and my dad has asked a gastroenterologist friend to see me. So while the pain is really depressing, I am trying to stay positive because hopefully I will get some relief soon.

I am so sick and tired of eating wheat, and I ate very little fresh vegetables when away, that I am craving big heaps of greenery and berries. After monday morning, I am going gluten free for a week to give myself a rest, and plan on trying out lots of the new recipes I've bookmarked. I'll also drink plenty of water, take probiotic tablets, eat no refined sugar or sugary fruits (just apples and berries) and plenty of beans, seeds and vegetables. I am going up to my allotment soon to have a look at my kabocha and buttercup squash, I think it'll be ready for picking, and maybe the fennel and carrots will be ready too. I have lots homegrown cooking apples to get through, so I imagine I'll be making plenty of comforting apple and squash recipes over the next while. I think I might cut down my coffee drinking a bit as the gut pain could be inflammation, and coffee could be irritating it. I'll just stick to redbush and peppermint.

Some more pictures from the holiday

The Gluten Challenge

For a while now, I have suspected I have some issue with digesting gluten. Having eliminated dairy, I can see pretty clearly that my only trigger for major IBS upsets are foods like bread, pasta (oh you're the worst!) and biscuits. When I don't eat them, I have no IBS at all. Little did I know, when I decided to drop these bellystabbing pseudo-friends that I would have to welcome them back again in order to find out if I have coeliac disease.

I went to see my doctor on 3rd september to see about getting the test done, deciding to leave it until early October as I knew I would be off work for a week before and I would be finished my triathlon training. As it turns out, I had been suffering from pancreatitis from early August which got bad enough to land me in hospital last week. Still not in great shape, I'm going to be off work for 2 weeks, and then on holiday for a week after that. Even though I'm recovering from illness, I reckon I ought to do this gluten challenge now, as I have three weeks to curl up in misery if that's what it does to me (I would put a fair amount of money on it). The doctors all thought my pancreatits had nothing to do with any food intolerances/allergies/coeliac disease, so really there's no medical advice telling me not to do this. I suppose I should be glad I haven't been avoiding gluten for longer (really only from mid August) and for a while in June, although I lapsed in July (and got unwell again). If I do get very sick, my dad is a friend of the consultant who treated me in hospital, so I can get help pretty quickly.

Wish me luck, as I attempt to consume lots of tasty but evil bread and hope that three weeks is sufficient for the blood tests, whatever the result is. I may as well eat all my favourite gluteny things...

First full day at home

Yesterday (monday) was my first full day back at home. I got up around 8:30 and managed to make myself some breakfast. I had soothing oats on the brain. I always go to oats when I need TLC.
I cooked some old fashioned oats in half water, half soya milk. Normally I would just use water but I was trying to sneak plenty of energy into my bowl. I added a chopped apple, raisins, vanilla and cinnamon. Despite all those lovely things, the bubbling pan didn't smell nice to me.



I knew I had to eat so I mixed a little soya yogurt and a bit more vanilla in and a little demerara (turbinado) sugar on top.



It was quite nice! But of course eating stimulated my pancreas and I got sore again. It settled a little but I had gotten really tired, so I went back to bed, and ending up falling asleep for 2 hours! I woke up after 1pm, feeling hungry, so I started making soup I had got ingredients for. It took quite a while, so I had some oatcakes and hummus to keep me going. Three little oatcakes deep I felt full, but I had a bowl of soup when it was ready.



Rice, lentil, pea and tomato soup. It was flavoured with onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme, basil and a little paprika and lots of black pepper.

After lunch I read for a while, then about 4pm I had a little Alpro caramel pudding, then walked over the road to my GP to leave in the letter the hospital gave me. I was exhausted when I came back, so I went back to bed for yet another 2 hour sleep.

Dinner was quick, 2 big bowls of the soup for my boyfriend, then packet mix falafel by Hale & Hearty (all natural ingredients) and grated carrot dressed with rice vinegar and lemon juice.


Awful photo, sorry!



Image source

Later on in the evening, there was an unpictured bowl of nectarine, frozen raspberries and plain soya yogurt.
I watched an hour and a half documentary of all the best bits of Blue Planet, perfect calming pre-bedtime TV.

I slept pretty well, woke up about 6 with some pain, took some tablets and got up at 8:30. Breakfast today was my favourite out-of-the-box gluten free cereal- plain, puffed brown rice from Rude Health. I had it with a nectarine, plain soy yogurt, and a squirt of chocolate syrup to stimulate my jaded tastebuds.



The puffed rice is so different from those awful Kellogg's Rice Krispies and their copycats- for a start the rice isn't hollow, it's much chewier and more substantial, but it's nowhere near dense. Perfect!




Image source

Happily, my pancreas didn't get too agitated after that. I've swapped my cup of coffee for peppermint tea until I'm feeling better. Caffeine stimulates the pancreas although in itself doesn't cause or worsen pancreatitis (it may even help prevent it), but when you have an active case, it's best avoided.

Today is much nicer weatherwise than yesterday- it bucketed and blew a gale pretty much all day. It's much brighter today although still windy. If I am not too tired I might go for a little walk around the park later.

Making a stab at recovery

I got home today after spending the last few days in hospital. The on and off abdominal pain I've been having, which I thought was indigestion or something turned out to be pancreatitis. I went to A&E early on thursday morning because the pain was unbearable. The doc gave me a proton pump inhibitor and left me to stew until the blood results came back. My amylase level was through the roof so finally they gave me some morphine and fluids, and got me admitted. I went to a different hospital to the one I had gone to A&E.
The first few days were mostly spent dozing through lack of sleep and strong pain meds. Co-codamol made me sick so once that stopped and I was switched to something less punchy I picked up. I spent most of the rest of the time reading. Hospital food is thin pickings for me but I had pretty minimal appetite, even when the nausea stopped. I mostly had tiny helpings of boiled vegetables, banana, apple, grapefruit segments, a little white rice, baked beans once, and some smuggled in oat and dried fruit bars. On saturday afternoon, I went down to the canteen to sit with my boyfriend while he got dinner. They had Dove's Farm gluten free double choc cookies, which were pretty chalky.



My appetite is still poor, and although the pain is much, much reduced. Still, I am pretty pooped, every little thing is making me tired. So don't expect any inventive cooking, and certainly not any training, any time soon. I'll still try and keep the blog updated with my recovery process, as long as it's blogworthy.

This was my first meal at home:


Brown rice, chickpeas, tomatoes, olives, nooch and a little hummus.

That's all for now! Off to rest up on the sofa:)

(Hopefully) temporary cease of transmission

I haven't been blogging because I've been in hospital since thursday morning. The on and off 'acidy' stomach i was complaining of has turned out to be pancreatitis. So far it doesnt appear to be gallstones and i don't drink much alcohol so the suspiscion is it's some virus. I'll update whenever I eventually get out of here. Needless to say my triathlon won't be happening, but more on that when I'm back home.