Portion Size and Time Between "Meals" HELP!!!
#194400 - 07/11/05 08:37 PM
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I've been able to pretty "easily" adjust what I eat.
But the tricker part seems to be "HOW" I eat.
My work schedule is always all over the place (12-8 am; 8am-4 pm; 4 pm to 12am.)
Can anyone give me any solid advice on portion size or if that is not possible, caloric intake at one "meal". Any good "rules" of thumb on portion size? Any solid advice on portion size is helpful. I'm IBS-D.
Plus how should I space my meals? How much time between each?
As an aside...
-- is apple juice okay?
-- are 'baked beans' okay?
if some are okay and some are not, any specific brand to stay away from?
Plus if you have an "attack", how long does it usually take for you body to stablize again?
Plus I'm having to travel 2000+ miles coming at the end of August, from Spokane, WA to Buffalo, NY for a Wedding. I'm traveling from a drier climate to a much more humid climate as well.
I have Heather's Cookbook and plan to get "IBS: The First Year" soon. But any help on these questions would be great.....especially on portion size and time between meals.
help help help help help please please please please please.    
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Hmmm...that's a tricky one as it depends so much on you. I find for meals that I need to stop eating as soon as I feel at all full. But then I have snacks that are from 20 calories upwards. You don't really want to get an empty tum so try not to eat more than a few hours apart.
Apple juice is difficult as it's very high in fructose and is quite acidic. I'm okay with a splash in a glass of water after SF but that's about it. Cranberry juice is supposed to be safer.
Baked beans will cause gas and possibly other symptoms. I've given up trying to eat them.
Recovery times vary per person and dependent on how severe the attack is.
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Quote:
Can anyone give me any solid advice on portion size or if that is not possible, caloric intake at one "meal". Any good "rules" of thumb on portion size? Any solid advice on portion size is helpful. I'm IBS-D.
Plus how should I space my meals? How much time between each?
I'm IBS-D, also. I eat the usual 3 meals- lunch is sandwich-sized; dinner is meat/starch/veggie; breakfast tends to be 2 or 3 small snacks (applesauce, half a bagel) with some time (15 minutes) in between. I snack in between. I don't really do the snacks by time, just by hunger. When I start (emphasize "start") to get hungry, I eat something, even if it's just a handful of pretzels. If I were going to do it by time, I would probably eat something small every couple of hours - SF first, don't forget to get some protein at some point.
As an aside...
-- is apple juice okay?
-- are 'baked beans' okay?
if some are okay and some are not, any specific brand to stay away from?
I don't drink any juices. Baked beans are something I took a long time to try and still have very infrequently. When I do, I eat Bush' Vegetarian.
Plus if you have an "attack", how long does it usually take for you body to stablize again? I figure 72 hours, but that's a maximum - the longer I'm on Heather's diet, the less time it takes.
Plus I'm having to travel 2000+ miles coming at the end of August, from Spokane, WA to Buffalo, NY for a Wedding. I'm traveling from a drier climate to a much more humid climate as well.
All I can offer here are the usual suspects:
- carry your own food for the trip
- take Immodium
- if you need something stronger, see your doctor now so you can try it beforehand (I take Donnatol for big trips, although I've yet to do one as big as yours by plane)
- try to make some arrangements to eat on program while you're in Buffalo if possible (I know it's difficult, but let's face it - if you had diabetes, you and everyone around you would make darn sure there was food available for you).
You can do a Search on Equalactin - I still haven't gotten around to trying it, but it's a super-duper SFS that some people find helps them if they're eating suspect food. As far as I can tell, the humidity does not bother my IBS, so perhaps you'll be lucky in that regard, also.
HTH. Enjoy your trip.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Hi littlethree
You're work schedule is *exactly* like mine! I work those same shifts. Where do you work? (I work at a newspaper.) Mostly I work 4-12 but occassionally (like tonight and tomorrow) I get the midnight shift and sometimes the day shift... the worst is when they overlap! Like Wednesday night I work at midnight and then Thursday I work at 4. My stomach *does not* like a random schedule like that... so I'm much happier when my weeks are more steady at 4-12.
Anyway, as to HOW to eat, I'm totally with you on that. (I'm IBS-D too.) Cutting out triggers and eating lots of SF was easy for me. If I get an attack now, it comes from eating too much, or waiting too long to eat... etc. I've found that I do best on very small meals very often: for me, that means I try to force myself to eat every 2 hours. My meals are usually only about 200-250 calories each. It's easier to eat small meals at work, too. Everyone differs a little I think on how small or how often they need their meals to be though. For me, the smaller the better.
Linz and Sand seem to have answered your other questions well. Hope that helps! 
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Thanks for all of your comments. All of them are useful.
I work here as a Meteorologist, weather forecasting and such, retrograde. And the weather never stops, so people have to be there 24-7.
So the randomness of my schedule makes it hard to be on a good food schedule. I think maybe the biggest problem for me is that I am so involved in what I'm doing and perhaps I put off eating even a snack ...most of the time inadvertently...and when I do get time to eat, I am hungry, so my eyes are probably bigger than my stomach can handle.
I guess perhaps I need to make sure I try to get a on stricter (but still flexible, due to the variability of my work) eating schedule, with smaller and more consistent meals.
As for those other things I mentioned... When it comes to beverages, it usually is like 1 part juice and 4 parts water (and it usually is Cranberry Juice, but sometimes Apple Juice).
I usually have the baked beans as a "topping" for a half a baked potato or a spoonful of pasta (usually a tubed or shell variety of noodle)
I guess overall, i just have to see what works for me and continue to learn how to eat again.
Again...thanks for the input.
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One suggestion
#195187 - 07/13/05 11:32 AM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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Years ago, when I needed to be on a strict schedule for meds, my aunt gave me a little inexpensive timer watch. You could try that - set it for 2 hours to remind yourself to stop and eat. (Although, if you're like me, you'll just turn it off and keep doing what you're doing!)
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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